Wisconsin’s Meteorites: Visitors from Space

Thousands of meteorites strike Earth’s surface each year, but most go unnoticed because they land in the ocean or in large, uninhabited areas of land. Wisconsin has only 15 known meteorite falls or finds, ranging from the Algoma meteorite recovered in 1887 to the witnessed fall of the Mifflin meteorite in 2010. Carrie will share the geological and historical stories behind some of these notable finds, as well as provide an update on the museum’s latest acquisition: the Vienna meteorite, Wisconsin’s 15th meteorite and Dane County’s first ever.

Carrie Eaton has been the Curator of the UW Geology Museum since 2009...

The first billion years on Earth and Mars: A geologist’s perspective – Clark M. Johnson

Despite the likelihood of early habitability on both Earth and Mars, the geologic evolution of these two planets, and the rock record they preserve, is quite different. Plate tectonics on Earth played a central role in evolution of our biosphere, and yet has destroyed much of the early Earth rock record, creating great challenges for finding evidence for early life on Earth. Mars did not have Earth-style plate tectonics, but the evidence is clear that Mars was habitable very early in its history. Preservation of the early Mars geologic record is excellent, raising the possibility that it might contain evidence for the earliest life in the Solar System...