Ursula Marvin
The Smithsonian geologist who studied Moon rocks and meteorites, searched the Antarctic ice for ANSMET and wrote the history of meteoritics.
Key facts
- Born
- 1921
- Died
- 2018
- Nationality
- American
- Field
- Geologist and historian of science
Ursula Bailey Marvin studied geology at Harvard at a time when few women were allowed to work in the field. She went on to a long career at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
She studied meteorites and, from 1969, the samples returned by the Apollo missions. In 1970 she and colleagues identified small fragments of anorthosite in Apollo 11 soil and argued that they came from the lunar highlands, part of the evidence for a crust formed by crystals floating in an ocean of magma.
Marvin joined ANSMET searches in Antarctica in the 1978 to 1979 and 1981 to 1982 seasons, among the first women to do field geology in the Antarctic interior. Marvin Nunatak, a rocky peak sticking up through the ice, is named after her.
She was also a leading historian of the earth and planetary sciences. She wrote a history of continental drift and many articles on the history of meteorite science, including the story of Chladni, the Ensisheim stone and the debates of the 1790s. She campaigned for opportunities for women in science, and an asteroid is named after her.