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5 March 2015
On the importance of fictional role models
Last week, we learned that Leonard Nimoy died. Though it’s sad both because we’ve lost an amazing person and an icon of science fiction, it got me thinking about why I personally cared so much about the character he created.
21 December 2014
AGU Fall Meeting: Day 4
Thursday was a really exciting day. In the morning I sat in on a session about the hydrology of landslides, and especially how water storage in pore space affects landslide dynamics and discharge.
19 December 2014
AGU Fall Meeting 2014: Day 3
Wednesday was a bit of a break in terms of activities for me. I had the chance to sit down and listen to some talks about multiparameter monitoring at volcanoes (including hearing about Diana Roman’s “BENTO Box” instrument platform, which reminds me of the ‘spiders’ that the USGS uses to get seismometers out to difficult field sites).
17 December 2014
AGU Fall Meeting 2014: Day 2
Tuesday I spent most of my time in the poster hall – a full day on my feet, in fact, which I’m regretting slightly today. In the morning I was learning about fluids and mineralization in hydrothermal systems in a number of places – Iceland, Chile, mid-ocean ridges, among others – and in the afternoon I saw some presentations on eruptive dynamics, particularly at my old field area of the Santiaguito lava domes in Guatemala.
16 December 2014
AGU Fall Meeting 2014: Day 1
And we’re off! Monday was a mixed bag of service and science for me – I started off as a panelist for the first-ever workshop on Honors nominations, talking about the successful nominations I’ve seen while serving on the Science For Solutions committe
15 December 2014
Social Media Roundup: AGU Fall Meeting 2014
It’s that time of year again! Time for frantic poster-printing, rearranging your talk slides for the third or fourth (or dozenth) time, hoping your flight into SFO will actually land on time and wondering whether you’ll need to pack short sleeves, a wool coat or rain boots. (Right now, I’d recommend the rain boots.)
6 December 2014
Resurrected Post: Volcanology databases
Note: This is a post I was writing back in October of 2013, during the last government shutdown. There’s a little rambling about data availability, but it’s mostly supposed to be a list of some useful volcanology data resources!
6 November 2014
Getting sketchy (when it comes to geology)
I was inspired to think about the topic of drawing (and markerboards) by the great post by Miles Traer on using stick figure animations to explain complex science concepts. I don’t know if geoscientists are a special breed in that they often default toward drawing out their ideas and thoughts, but I’ve always found it to be an invaluable part of my research process.
24 August 2014
Culling the deskcrops
If you saw my post for the Geological Society’s “Speaking of Geoscience” blog, you’ll know that I’m in a transition period – finishing up my job as a policy fellow and getting ready to move on to a postdoctoral fellowship with the USGS in September. In the meantime, that means I’ve been spending a lot of my time packing all my possessions into increasing numbers of boxes, in between pecking away at various writing projects.
13 June 2014
Building DC: Union Station’s marble floors
Whenever I go to a hearing on the Senate side of Capitol Hill, I usually arrive via Union Station. It’s a really beautiful building and one of the few grand train stations left in the country, and I’m always impressed by the architecture there. According to the architectural history, it was designed in the Beaux-Arts Style and meant to mimic the Roman Baths of Caraculla and Diocletian. It was completed in 1907, and then restored from 1986-1988 (and it’s actually being worked on right now, too). But wait! There’s geology involved with all that history.
Jessica Ball is a volcanologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, researching volcanic hydrothermal systems and stability, and doing science communication for the California Volcano Observatory. She previously worked at the Geological Society of America's Washington DC Policy Office, learning about the intersection of Earth science and legislative affairs. Her Mendenhall postdoc and PhD focused on how water affects the stability of volcanoes, and involved both field investigations and numerical modeling applications. Her blogging covers a range of topics, from her experiences in academic geosciences to science outreach and communication to her field and lab work in volcanology.