My E.I. Riebe
Oberassistentin / Senior Scientist
Inst. für Geochemie und Petrologie ETH Zürich
I’m a cosmochemist working at the the Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology at ETH Zurich. I am primarily interested in early Solar System processes and I spend my days thinking about things related to how/where/when organic matter that we find in some meteorites formed, how Earth acquired its volatiles, if irradiation from the early Sun left traces in meteorite components, and how strange meteorites like Almahata Sitta formed. Find out more about me and my research under the tabs at the top of the page.
Contact
Phone: +41 44 633 92 89
Email: my.riebe@erdw.ethz.ch
Address:
Inst. für Geochemie und Petrologie, NW C 83.1
Clausiusstrasse 25
8092 Zürich
Switzerland
News
April 2021 - New open access paper on noble gases in cluster chondrite clasts.
The most common types of meteorites are built out of small, often spherical objects known as chondrules. The chondrules got their spherical to semi-spherical form when they crystallized in space prior to accretion. However, some meteorites contain fragments made of chondrules that are plastically deformed and appear to have accreted when they were still hot. In this paper, we show that such cluster chondrite clasts contain similar amounts of primordial noble gases as other chondrites that have been heated to the same degree on their parent asteroids. Primordial noble gases are known to be present in fine-grained matrix surrounding the chondrules, not in the chondrules themselves. Since the cluster chondrite clasts contain low fractions of fine-grained matrix material this possibly indicates that the fine-grained matrix in cluster chondrite clasts is more primitive than in other chondrites.
Available here.
Müsing, K., Busemann, H., Huber, L., Maden, C., Riebe, M.E.I., Wieler, R. and Metzler, K. (2021), Noble gases in cluster chondrite clasts and their host breccias. Meteorit Planet Sci. https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.13644
February 2021 - Update to paper "Effects of aqueous alteration on primordial noble gases and presolar SiC in the carbonaceous chondrite Tagish Lake"
Postprint of paper on the noble gases and presolar grains in the meteorite Tagish Lake available in ETH research collection. The noble gas data is available here.
August 2020 - Ambizione fellowship
My SNSF Ambizione project "Unlocking the origin of Earth's volatiles" was funded. In this 4 year project a PhD student and I will study interplanetary dust particles and micrometeorites to evaluate if they could have contributed with volatiles to Earth.
April 2020 - New paper on heating of small dust particles during atmospheric entry
"The effects of atmospheric entry heating on organic matter in interplanetary dust particles and micrometeorites" M.E.I. Riebe, D.I. Foustoukos, C.M.O’D. Alexander, A. Steele, G.D. Cody, B.O. Mysen, L.R. Nittler, EPSL
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116266
June 2020 - Goldschmidt 2020
I organized session 01c: Origin and Processing of Volatiles and Organics in the Solar System together with Patricia Clay, Tomohiro Usui, and Aki Takigawa. We had a wonderful session with numerous abstract on interesting science. Everyone did such a good job with the online format! I presented my research on Noble Gases in an Almahata Sitta Sample Rich in C1 Like Material.
July 2019 - Two successful bachelor projects
Sandrine Ritter and Philipp Steinegger successfully finished their bachelor theses in our group. Congratulations! Both analyzed noble gases in meteorites, Philipp in angrites and Sandrine in acapulcoites.
January 2019 - PlanetS General Assembly
I attended the PlanetS General Assembly and gave a presentation on what I am planning to do during my PlanetS postdoc.
January 2019 - New job at ETH Zürich!
I moved back to ETH Zürich and am now working as a postdoc within the NCCR project PlanetS. I will use noble gases in meteorites to study various processes that occurred in the early solar system.
September 2018 - Department seminar at Lund University, Sweden
I gave the department seminar at the Department of Geology, Lund University, Sweden with the title "Clues to the formation of solar system materials from noble gases and hydrogen". It was so much fun to visit the department where I did my BSc and MSc!
September 2018 - EPSC
I gave a talk at EPSC in Berlin, presenting my work on "D/H and microstructure of irradiated organic dust analogs". The abstract is available here.
August 2018 - Goldschmidt
I attended the Goldschmidt conference in Boston and presented a poster on my work on what noble gases and presolar SiC grains in the very special meteorite Tagish Lake can tell us about aqueous alteration. The abstract is available here . Click on the poster for a high resolution pdf.
July 2018 - Invited talk at NASA Ames, CA
I visited my collaborators Scott Sandford and Michel Nuevo at NASA Ames to discuss our project on the formation of extraterrestrial organic matter and to give a talk.
March 2018 - LPSC
I presented a poster at LPSC, The Woodlands, Texas, on noble gases in a new type of Almahata Sitta sample with the title "Noble Gases and Cosmic Ray Exposure Ages of the Newly Discovered Almahata Sitta C1+Ureilite Breccia Sample". You can find the abstract here and look at the poster below.
Poster on "Noble Gases and Cosmic Ray Exposure Ages of the Newly Discovered Almahata Sitta C1+Ureilite Breccia Sample" presented at LPSC 2018. Click on the image to see a high resolution pdf.
Nov 2017 - Training at JSC and LPI
I attended the Second Hands-on Training in Handling and Manipulation of Small Extraterrestrial Samples held Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at NASA's Johnson Space Center and the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas.
The stardust collection at JSC
My Riebe making glass needles at JSC
July 2017 - MetSoc
I attended the 80th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society in Santa Fe, New Mexico and presented my research on the effects of atmospheric heating on organic matter in Interplanetary Dust Particles. The Meteoritical Society supported my travel with an award for Early Career Scientist.
May 2017 - Postdoc Spotlight
Read about why I became a scientists and what brought me to Carnegie Science in DTM's postdoc spotlight