Dr. Barbara A. Cohen

Research Assistant Professor

Institute of Meteoritics

MSC03 2050

1 University of New Mexico

Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001

Phone: 505-277-1642

Fax: 505-277-3577

Email: bcohen /at/ unm /dot/ edu

Ph.D. University of Arizona, Tucson, 2000

Currently on assignment under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act at Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama

Research interests: Geochemistry and geochronology of lunar rocks and meteorites. I use microbeam analysis techniques (SEM, EMP, TEM, etc.) and the Ar-39 dating system to identify impact-affected materials from the Moon and other solar system bodies. The dates of these impact events describe the ancient bombardment history of the Moon and asteroids, farther back in time than terrestrial rocks can record. I am a member of the Mars Exploration Rovers team, using the little robot geologists to explore Mars and its rock record. I am also interested in the hydrothermal evolution of meteorite parent bodies. I use experimental synthesis techniques to look at the formation of alteration minerals common in meteorites and computers to model the physics responsible for heat and fluid flow in asteroidal parent bodies.

Recent Publications

Cohen, B. A. (2006) Quantifying the amount of impact ejecta at the MER landing sites and potential paleolakes in the southern martian highlands. Geophysical Research Letters 33:L05203, doi: 10.1029/2005GL024963. Click for PDF reprint

Cohen, B. A., T.D. Swindle, and D.A. Kring (2005) Geochemistry and 40Ar-39Ar geochronology of lunar highland meteorite impact melt clasts. Meteoritics and Planetary Science 40:755-777. Click for PDF reprint

Cohen, B. A., Goodrich, C. A., and Keil, K. (2004) Feldspathic clast populations in polymict ureilites: Stalking the missing basalts from the ureilite parent body. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 68:4249-4266. Click for PDF reprint

Cohen, B. A., James, O. B., Taylor, L. A., Nazarov, M. A., and Barsukova, L. D. (2004) Lunar highland meteorite Dhofar 026 and Apollo sample 15418: Two strongly shocked, partially melted, granulitic breccias. Meteoritics and Planetary Science 39:1419–1447. Click for PDF reprint

Ciesla, F., Lauretta, D. S., Cohen, B. A., and Hood, L. A. (2003) A nebular origin for chondritic fine-grained phyllosilicates. Science 299, 549-552. Click for PDF reprint

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