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Three Former GSA Members

Honored with Lunar Crater Names

Emily Zawacki, 2021–2022 GSA Science Communication Fellow

Previously unnamed impact craters on the south polar region of
the moon are being named to honor three former Geological Society
of America (GSA) members. These craters were discovered while
studying the south pole of the moon in advance of NASA’s Artemis
mission, which will mark the return of humans to the moon, and the
Intuitive Machines second Commercial Lunar Payload Services
mission. The craters will be named to honor geologists Dr. Anna
Jonas Stose, Dr. Ursula B. Marvin, and Dr. Paul B. Spudis.
David Kring, who leads the Center for Lunar Science and
Exploration, proposed lunar polar crater names for Stose and
Marvin because of their significant contributions to geological
science. Mark Robinson, a professor at Arizona State University,
additionally proposed a crater name for Spudis.
Stose was a pioneer in the field of geology, with significant contri-
butions to the understanding of the geology of the Appalachian
Mountains. She was born in 1881 and received her Ph.D. in 1912.
She later held positions at the American Museum of Natural History,
several state geological surveys, and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Stose was elected as a GSA Fellow in 1922. She was among the first Lunar craters. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight
women field geologists and produced a significant number of publi- Center/Arizona State University.
cations over her sixty-year–long career, with many of her discoveries
on Appalachian geology still recognized and accepted today. planets. Spudis was born in 1952 and earned his Ph.D. in geology
Marvin was a geologist specializing in meteorites and an Antarctic in 1982. He held positions at the U.S. Geological Survey serving
adventurer. She was born in 1921. She began pursuing doctoral as the principal investigator for NASA’s Planetary Geology
studies at Harvard in the early 1950s but departed graduate school Program, the Lunar and Planetary Institute, the Johns Hopkins
to prospect for ore deposits in Brazil and Angola with her husband. University Applied Physics Laboratory, and Moon Express Inc.
Marvin later returned to Harvard to work on meteorites in the He served on numerous science advisory committees, including
Harvard collection, which was then relocated to the Smithsonian the Presidential Commission on the Implementation of U.S. Space
Astrophysical Observatory. Marvin belatedly earned her Ph.D. in Exploration Policy in 2004. Spudis was a dedicated advocate for
1969 after the Harvard geology department allowed her to use her astronauts returning to the Moon, which is now being realized by
published research on meteorites in lieu of a thesis. Marvin was one NASA’s Artemis mission program. Spudis was a GSA member
of the original analysts of samples from the Apollo 11 mission, and from 1978 until his passing in 2018. He was posthumously named
she continued to work with samples returned from later missions. as a Michel T. Halbouty Distinguished Lecturer at the GSA annual
During the 1970s and 1980s, Marvin participated in Antarctic expe- meeting in 2018, with the presentation delivered by Ben Bussey.
ditions to search for meteorites, one of which recovered the first “Although these names were proposed because of the merits of
fragments of Moon materials found on Earth. She was chair of past work, we hope that they also motivate students,” said Kring.
GSA’s History of Geology Division in 1982, and she received the “It is important to understand: Apollo demonstrated that lunar
GSA History of Geology Award in 1986. exploration can influence the dreams of the nation’s children. I am
Spudis was an expert in lunar and terrestrial planetary geology. among those who were inspired. It will be wonderful if NASA’s
His work provided fundamental contributions to the understand- new Artemis lunar exploration program generates the same result
ing of impact basins and craters and volcanism on Earth and other in an increasingly diverse way.”

12 GSA TODAY | March-April 2022