So, I think I already felt comfortable with the kinds of things you study in earth science. And when I went to college in New York City, it was a big change in scenery from my home in the woods. I was feeling kind of disconnected from my surroundings in NYC until I started studying Geology. I also really wanted to travel and be outside, so I thought, what’s the coolest thing I could study in Earth science? And I decided I wanted to study volcanoes. That’s what I do now!
What are you trying to learn?
I’m really interested in how volcanoes impact climate and impact people and the world on a larger scale. When I’m working on my PhD at home, I study the Amak volcano in Alaska. It had a huge eruption in 43 BCE, which is the year after the assassination of Julius Caesar. I’m trying to learn how that eruption caused changes to the Earth’s climate over a two-year period afterwards. It’s possible that a change to the climate that caused crops to die might have contributed to a lot of political strife and arguments in the years right afterwards that ultimately led to the fall of the Roman Republic.
What are you studying on the JOIDES Resolution?
The big mission of our expedition is to study the history of a series of underwater volcanoes near the island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea. My part of our project looks at how atmospheric gases move through underwater volcanoes. These gases are important because the play a role in regulating the Earth’s temperature and long-term climate. I’ll also be looking at how water changes the way these volcanoes erupt—both water inside the volcano and the amount of water sitting on top of the volcano.
