At SAO, Marvin would be part of a small group of scientists chosen by NASA to study the lunar rocks brought back by the Apollo missions. One of her most exciting discoveries, reported in a cover story in Science, was of an Apollo 15 rock containing the minerals cordierite, spinel, and forsterite, an assemblage indicative of an origin somewhere near the base of the lunar crust — one of the most deep-seated samples from the Moon.
While continuing to study lunar samples, Marvin became involved in the study of extraterrestrial materials a little closer to home. In 1969, after a Japanese team discovered several meteorites in Antarctica, the scientific community realized that, in this frozen land, meteorites sometimes were concentrated on patches of bare ice by a combination of ice and wind motions. Marvin spent the 1978-79 and 1981-82 field seasons in Antarctica, collecting meteorites, including some varieties new to science.
She chaired the NSF-NASA-SI committee that allocates research samples of Antarctic meteorites to laboratories around the world. And, in recognition of her important scientific contributions to Antarctic science, a 'nunatak,' or small mountain poking up through the ice sheet, in the Beacon Valley Quadrangle of Antarctica was named in her honor in 1992. [In addition to Nunatak Marvin, there is also an Asteroid Marvin, renamed in her honor June 27, 1991, for "contributions to research on meteorites, lunar samples, Ganymede, and the history of meteoritics."]
Over the course of her career, Marvin wrote or co-authored more than 160 research papers. In addition to her research on meteorites and lunar rocks, she participated in the geological mapping of Ganymede, Jupiter's largest satellite and returned to Antarctica in 1985 to search for evidence at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary of the impact that may have led to the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. She also became increasingly interested in the history of science, as shown by a book she wrote on continental drift and a number of recent articles on the history of ideas about meteorites and impact processes.
Marvin also did much to advance the cause of women in science. In 1974, she was appointed as the first Coordinator for the Federal Women's Program at SAO, which eventually became today's Women's Program Committee. Also in the 1970's, she served on the American Geological Institute's Committee of Women in the Geosciences for which she compiled and edited the annual Roster of Women in the Geosciences Professions. For the Journal of Geological Education, she wrote about the issue of men and women in the geosciences. During the 1980's, she encouraged young women to pursue scientific careers through Harvard's Undergraduate Tutorial Committee in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. And, she has served on a host of other committees and councils devoted to the advancement of science - not only for women, but for all.
In 1997, Marvin noted that much has improved for women in science since she began her long and fruitful career. Although most people in Harvard's Geology Department were very helpful, she remembers that women's access to Widener Library was restricted. Also, she was often told to leave the geology building by a watchman who insisted women were not allowed to be there alone at night.
Still, Marvin said she was mainly unaffected by the discrimination— with the obvious exception of the Harvard Geology Club. Even the professor who would not let her switch majors at Tufts eventually came around. "Years later, he invited me to teach at Tufts, and often told others how proud he was of me," said Marvin.
On February 12, 2018, the pioneering geologist Ursula Marvin passed away.
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