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30 March 2013
Benchmarking Time: Washington, DC
I spent yesterday in downtown Washington DC, hoping to see a few cherry blossoms (it’s a big thing here), but unfortunately it’s been a bit too cold for them lately, and the peak bloom won’t be for another few days. There are a few trees out, just not in the popular areas around the Tidal Basin. What I did find were a couple of benchmarks!
30 January 2008
Marble monuments: Not all they’re cracked up to be
The Washington Post ran an article today about the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. For quite a long time now – since the 1960s, in fact – the marble used to build the Tomb has been cracking. (You can see it fairly well in the photo to the right.) According to the Post, “The stone, now weathered and chipped, has two horizontal cracks, both of which have …
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.