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26 March 2010
Accretionary Wedge # 23: What are you working on?
The latest installment of the Accretionary Wedge is being hosted by Ed at Geology Happens, and here’s the question of interest: This AW is to share your latest discovery with all of us. Please let us in on your thoughts about your current work. What you are finding, what you are looking for. Any problems? Anything working out well? My current work is a bit varied for a volcanologist, I’ll …
20 February 2010
Volcanic clays
Another big part of my PhD research concerns volcanic clays. Volcanoes are a really interesting example of multiple natural cycles operating at once – not only do they create new rock, they also break it down. This could be pretty quickly – blasting lava into ash in an eruption – or slowly, through hydrothermal processes. When you get a combination of hot rocks and water, you (eventually) get alteration minerals, …
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.