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18 January 2019
I’m “non-essential” and furloughed. Here’s what I’m supposed to be doing for my country.
It’s been 27 days since I, my colleagues and 800,000 or so others were informed that our leaders were okay with using us as political pawns. 27 days since 380,000 of us were told we weren’t allowed work at all. 27 days since 420,000 of us were told that we had to work without pay.
27 January 2017
(Geo)science matters: Landslide research in California
Right now it’s incredibly important for scientists to hammer home why science is essential, important and needs to be practiced rigorously, transparently and without censorship. It’s clear that we can no longer limit ourselves to broader impact statements in our next grant applications. I thought I’d do my part by starting a new blog series and highlighting United States geoscientists and their work in action.
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.
22 June 2011
Archival Gold: USGS National Geologic Map Database
Time for another of these, since I haven’t done one in a while! This Archival Gold post departs a bit from the photo theme, but it’s no less useful – in fact, it was one of the most useful websites I ever encountered as an undergrad. The U. S. Geological Survey’s National Geologic Map Database contains records of, and often links to, more than 85,000 maps related to a variety of subjects: geology, hazards, earth resources, geophysics, geochemistry, geochronology, paleontology, and marine geology.
28 January 2008
Your tax dollars at work (at last, for something useful!)
My current job occasionally involves a great deal of searching for public domain images to use in publications, and one of my favorite resources is the USGS Photographic Library. It’s the online repository of a portion of the physical USGS photographic collection, which is absolutely massive. In their own words, The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Central Regional Library maintains a collection of over 400,000 photographs taken during geologic studies of …
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.