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11 December 2018
Far from the science-ing crowd
This year, sadly, I’m not attending AGU’s Fall Meeting. It’s partly personal choice – I have several big projects scheduled for December and January – and partly that I don’t want to make two cross-country flights to go to a meeting and head home for the holidays (the timing doesn’t line up well). It’s also partly because in the USGS (and in the government in general), our choice of conferences to …
18 January 2012
Magma, P.I. (Or, I Go On Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour And Try To Sound Good)
So if anyone caught my tweet late last Thursday, you’ll know that I was interviewed on Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour, an internet video show on TWiT TV. Dr. Kiki (otherwise known as Dr. Kirsten Sanford) actually got in touch with me during AGU, hoping to tape a show, but electronic issues on my end of things delayed the interview until last week. Still, it was a lot of fun (and I hope I didn’t flub any of the geology too badly!)
12 May 2011
Childhood bookshelves: Geology reading for kids
Visiting my folks is always an opportunity for me to look through all my old stuff (mostly with the aim of cleaning it out of the attic so the ceilings don’t collapse). But books tend to be exempt from the cleaning sprees, and I usually come across something that I loved as a child and would still like to keep on my bookshelves. Often, these are geology- or volcano-related; since I’m taking a few days off from research, I thought I’d point out some great leisure reading titles for kids (and adults). And I don’t just mean the slimmed-down generic “Geology” or “Volcanoes” subject guides that come in series, but some unique books that I remember piquing my interest in Earth science.
2 December 2010
Book review: The Planet in a Pebble
One of my favorite ways of thinking about Earth science is to compare it to a crime investigation, particularly along the lines of Sherlock Holmes, where the investigator gathers minute detail into an encompassing explanation. That’s why I was intrigued when Oxford University Press approached me about reviewing a new book that they’re publishing, The Planet in a Pebble.
27 November 2010
Out with the old, in with the new?
This is a phrase that comes up every winter, when people start thinking about resolutions for the New Year. (Or geolutions, as the case may be.) But it popped into my head the other day as I was touring the Buffalo Museum of Science.
20 November 2010
Eruption rates at volcanoes
One of the things that I come across when I’m working on my thesis is details about how much lava is being produced at a volcano (usually in a volume flux, such as cubic meters/second). In my case, it has to do with how quickly a lava dome is growing, though this also applies to more fluid eruptions as well. But it can be hard to put these numbers into …
29 July 2010
Role and impacts of the geoblogosphere (July Accretionary Wedge)
Not that kind of impact! Courtesy NASA/Don Davis. David Bressan over at History of Geology poses the questions du mois: How can geoblogging impact society and “real geology”? Should and can we promote the “geoblogosphere”? Are blogs private “business” or public affairs? Are institutions undervaluing the possibilities given by this new method of communication? To avoid a really long post in response to all of the questions – though they’re …
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.