Report for the Joint Use/Research of the Institute for Planetary Materials,
Okayama University
2022 fiscal year second term (report on a visit to the IPM in March 2023)
22/05/2023
Category: International Joint Research
Name of the research project: Weathering and Metasomatism: Earth and Mars
Principal applicant: Gray E. Bebout
Affiliated institution and department: Lehigh University, Department of Earth andEnvironmental Sciences
Collaborators: Katsura Kobayashi, Tak Kunihiro, Tsutomu Ota, Ryoji Tanaka,
Christian Potiszil, and Eizo Nakamura
Affiliated institution and department: Pheasant Memorial Laboratory, IPM
Research report:My visit to the IPM in March 2023, was to re-initiate collaborations with scientists
in the Pheasant Memorial Laboratory, after more than three years of COVID. My lastvisit to the IPM had been in December 2019, just before the onset of the pandemic.
During this 2023 visit, I conferred extensively with all collaborators in the PML anddiscussed in detail strategies for biogeochemical and microtextural study of samples ofaltered volcanic glasses and amygdule-filling zeolite and phyllosilicate phases. Of highest
priority in this study is the identification of biogeochemical and microtextural
signatures that could together constitute a compelling biosignature in Mars alteredbasaltic glasses and amygdule-filling minerals.

Based on our discussions during my visit in March 2023, it appears the continued
collaborative work will initially involve analysis of excellent samples previously obtained by
my former Ph.D. student Matthew Nikitczuk, some of which he studied when he visited thePML in recent years. Some obvious work to extend includes that on altered volcanic
glasses from Antarctica and Iceland (and several other localities), adding to what Matthew
Nikitczuk was able to accomplish while in Misasa. During the next visit (likely in January2024), we would in part work with Christian Potiszil to determine feasibility of using
instruments in the Organic chemistry lab to identify and characterize organic compounds
present in the materials, likely beginning with relatively coarse-grained amygdule-fillingminerals analyzed by Matthew Nikitczuk at Lehigh University for their N concentrations
and isotope compositions (see the references below). Another possibility will be toconduct a fieldtrip in Iceland, possibly in summer 2024, to obtain additional samples.

Based on discussions during and after my March 2023 visit, it appears that wewould use the following laboratories and instruments during a visit beginning inearly January 2024. I would plan to visit with my Lehigh University Ph.D. student
Juan Felipe Bustos Moreno, who is fully trained in my stable isotope chemistrylaboratory.

Petrographic microscopes
Scanning electron microscopes
Transmission electron microscope
Cameca 5f and 1280 SIMS
Orbitrap system (and other instruments in the Organic chemistry laboratory)
Mass spectrometers in the Stable isotope lab (O, H, and C isotope analyses)

The first sample collected by Perseverance was an altered basalt(!), as NASA recently
announced, and thus there will be added interest in developing a regimen/protocol for
analytical work on such materials. For support of the further planned laboratory work, wewould submit a later proposal for joint research (Second Term 2023), as this work would
likely be conducted in January 2024.

Relevant recent publications:

Nikitczuk, M. P., Bebout, G. E., Geiger, C. A., Ota, T., Kunihiro, T., Mustard, J. F., Halldórsson,
S. A., and Eizo Nakamura, 2022, Nitrogen incorporation in potassic and micro- andmeso-porous minerals: Potential biogeochemical records and targets for Mar
sampling, Astrobiology.
Nikitczuk, M. P., Bebout, G. E., Ota, T., Kunihiro, T., Mustard, J. F., Flemming, R. L., Tanaka,R., Halldórsson, S. A., and Nakamura, E., 2022, Nitrogenous altered volcanic glasses astargets for Mars sample return: Examples from Antarctica and Iceland, Journal ofGeophysical Research-Planets.