Author Archives: apbroz

A few years ago, we were surfing at Cardiff-by-the-Sea over the magical reefs that lend the area incredible surfing conditions and shapely wave formation. Something out of the ordinary caught my eye – paleosols sandwiched in the beach cliff! At the south end of San Elijo State Beach, near the rivermouth – there was aContinue reading “Geology and surfing: An Eocene (50-55 Ma) tropical greenhouse climate recorded in nonmarine rocks of San Diego, CA, USA”

The Mars Science Laboratory onboard Curiosity rover has been traversing up the slopes of Mt. Sharp since landing on Mars in 2012. In late 2021, the rover entered a new region of Mt. Sharp known as the “Sulfate-bearing unit” because of the widespread orbital detections of sulfate minerals from orbit (Figure 1). The sulfate-bearing unitContinue reading “Did the Curiosity rover just encounter an ancient soil profile on Mars?”

MOMA is an instrument designed to detect organic molecules on Mars and will fly onboard the upcoming ExoMars 2022 Rosalind Franklin rover, due to land in June 2023 at the ~4 billion year old Oxia Planum region. Here, what appear to be ancient weathering profiles have been detected from orbital remote sensing, and the roverContinue reading “Introducing the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA)”

From this year’s Astrobiology Graduate Student Conference (Remote, 14-17 September 2021) Topic: Searching for biosignatures in Earth’s oldest soils

Before research lockdown due to COVID-19: Assisting with the deployment of the Mastcam-Z engineered prototype, a multispectral, high resolution 3D camera which is now flying on Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover. The prototype was designed and built by Megan Barrington and Alex Hayes, Cornell University. It was an exciting and humbling opportunity to work with membersContinue reading “(Rover) eyes on the prize”

~30 million year old leaf impression fossils of plants from the Rujada Flora from a forest roadcut through the Fisher Formation near Cottage Grove, Oregon. Specimens include leaves of sumac (Rhus varians), alder (Alnus carpinoides), tanoak ( Notholithocarpus simulans), and dawn redwood (Metasequoia occidentalis)! The Oligocene (~30 Ma) Rujada flora (42 spp.) and the nearbyContinue reading “What a shock! That plant is locked in a rock.”

A few specimens acquired in the Amadeus Basin, near Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia, and range in age from ~380 Ma – 1 Ga.

Adrian Broz, Greg Retallack, Briony Horgan, Lucas Silva, and Matt Polizzotto Sequence of ~33 million year old clay-rich fossil soils (paleosols) at the Painted Hills, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Oregon (Photo: Jamie Francis). These paleosols are similar in mineral composition (lots of hydrated clays) and  stratigraphic distribution to clay-rich areas on Mars atContinue reading “Searching for signs of life in ancient Mars soils”

This is the excerpt for a featured content post.