Hanna Nekvasil Professor Office: ESS 234       E-mail Address: hanna.nekvasil "at" stonybrook.edu B.A. Cornell University, 1979 Ph.D. Pennsylvania State University, 1986 Postdoctoral Fellow, Arizona State University, 1985-86 Instructor, University of Arizona, 1986-87 Research Associate, Arizona State University, 1987-88 Faculty member at Stony Brook since 1988 Director of Undergraduate Studies

Professor Nekvasil's research focuses on the effects of magmas and the fluids that they produce on planetary crust evolution. Her group’s research combines analytical studies of meteorites and returned samples with experimental simulations of processes ranging from igneous fractionation, to high temperature metamorphism, and fluid/rock interactions.
Lunar studies Our recent lunar studies have focused on the mineral apatite and have shown for the first time that lunar magmas may have contained significantly more water than previously thought. Ongoing investigations involve experimental simulations of processes that can affect apatite composition such as magmatic degassing, and analytical studies of lunar meteorites and Apollo samples in order to provide new insights into the composition of the lunar interior. 
Martian studies Our martian studies use analytical investigations of martian meteorites and lander and orbiter data to develop experimental investigations focused on constraining the nature of martian magmas and the fluids that have exsolved from them, the development of igneous stratigraphy of the martian crust, and interaction of magmatic fluids with the martian crust and the formation of hydrothermal alteration assemblages.

Selected Publications 

Francis M. McCubbin1*, Andrew Steele1, Erik Hauri2, Hanna Nekvasil3, Shigeru Yamashita4, and Russell J. Hemley1 (2010) Insights into hydrous magmatism on the Moon from the mineral apatite. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science United States of America.www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1006677107

McCubbin F.M., Steele A., Nekvasil H., Fries M., Schneiders A., Rose T., Carpenter P.K., Jolliff B.L. (in press) Detection of structurally bound hydroxyl in apatite from Apollo Mare basalt 15058,128 using TOF-SIMS.American Mineralogist.

McCubbin F.M., Smirnov A., Nekvasil H., Lindsley D.H., Wang J., and Hauri E.H. (2010) Hydrous magmatism on Mars: A source of water for the surface and subsurface during the Amazonian. EPSL 292. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2010.01.028, 132–138

Nekvasil H., McCubbin F.M., Harrington A.D., Elardo S.M., and Lindsley D.H. (2009) Linking the Chassigny meteorite and the Martian surface rock Backstay: Insights into igneous crustal differentiation processes on Mars.Meteoritics and Planetary Science. 44. pp. 853-869.

McCubbin F.M., Tosca N.J., Smirnov A., Nekvasil H., Lindsley D.H., Fries M., and Steele A. (2009) Hydrothermal jarosite and hematite in a pyroxene-hosted melt inclusion in martian meteorite MIL 03346: Implications for magmatic hydrothermal fluids on Mars. Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta. 73. pp. 4907-4917 

McCubbin F.M. Nekvasil, H., Harrington A.D., Elardo S.M, and Lindsley D.H. (2008) Compositional diversity and stratification of the Martian crust: Inferences from crystallization experiments on the picrobasalt Humphrey from Gusev Crater, Mars. Journal of Geophysical Research 113, doi:10.1029/2008JE003165. 

McCubbin F.M. and Nekvasil H. (2008) Maskelynite-hosted apatite in the Chassigny meteorite: Insights into late-stage magmatic volatile evolution in Martian magmas. American Mineralogist 93: 676–684.

Nekvasil H., Filiberto J., Lindsley D.H. (2007) Alkalic parental magmas for the chassignites? Meteoritics and Planetary Science 42. 979-992.

Filiberto J., Nekvasil H., and Lindsley D.H. (2006) The Earth/Mars dichotomy in Mg/Si and Al/Si ratios: Is it real? American Mineralogist 91, 471-474.