Subcommittee annual report 2024

7 February 2024, Wednesday

1. Hargitai Henrik, associate professor (ELTE Faculty of Humanities and KAVÜCS): A planetary map database in Flagstaff, Arizona

   Our member Hargitai Henrik spent a study trip at the USGS in Flagstaff, Arizona, on a Fulbright scholarship. The Flagstaff research site belonged to Northern Arizona University (NAU).

13 March 2024, Wednesday

1. Kereszty Zsolt (Hungarian Meteoritical Society): The story of finding the Ribbeck meteorite (Germany) (with a presentation of rock samples)

   On their expedition they found four specimens. A talk on the analyses will be prepared next year.

17 April 2024, Wednesday

1. Gucsik Arnold (Eszterházy Károly University): The DART and Hera space missions

   The two space experiments serve to study the composition and internal structure of the asteroid, and aim to measure whether the orbit of the small asteroid changed to a detectable degree as a result of the impact into the asteroid.

23 May 2024, Thursday

1. Vincze Miklós (ELTE Faculty of Science, Department of Materials Physics): Laboratory modelling of planetary atmospheric flows

   Because of the difference in incident solar radiation, there is a temperature difference between the poles and the equator of a planet (the Earth), which would start a north–south or south–north flow system in the atmosphere. Because the Earth rotates, however, the Coriolis force “twists” the flows, and cyclones and anticyclones form. This is what the experimental set-up models.

After the talk the Subcommittee thanked its chair, Kordos László, for his work over two terms, and the 12 members present voted in the election of officers. The new chair of the Subcommittee became Polgári Márta, DSc of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, by unanimous vote. The secretary remained the same.

18 September 2024, Wednesday

1. Polgári Márta, DSc (CSFK FGI): change of chair, thoughts, plans
2. Mozgai Viktória, PhD (CSFK FGI): Complex materials analysis of the Seuso treasure

   Historical overview, metalworking technology operations, materials-testing measurements.

17 October 2024, Thursday

1. Németh Péter (DSc, HUN-REN CSFK): Complex diamond structures formed during asteroid impact

   He dissolved diamond grains out of the dark inclusions in the metallic FeNi material of the Canyon Diablo iron meteorite. In these he studied the complex twinned diamond structures with TEM and other methods. With a method that resolves atomic rows it was found that the “diamond” of the meteorite is a mosaic of cubic and hexagonal diamond domains lying next to each other in a disordered manner.

20 November 2024, Wednesday

1. Sipos Péter (PhD, CSFK FGI): Iron and carbonate precipitates in soil (the iron budget of wetlands)

   Iron and carbonate precipitates are the main players: nodules, iron crusts, coatings, films, ferromanganese nodules, calcareous precipitates. Morphology: reading environmental influences from shape (on the nodules the coating is richer in manganese inside and richer in iron outside). Compositional measurements: Hortobágy, Püspökladány. Iron precipitation is always nano-sized. Do soil organisms play a role, is there a microbial role in the formation of soil minerals? (The question of bacterial assistance.)

The talks were made available online to the members of the Subcommittee, and electronic recordings were also made of them. We plan to make these recordings accessible to others as well in time, on a dedicated platform. The delay is because published material already exists on some of the talks, but there may be talks (or parts of talks) that have not been published yet.