You are browsing the archive for Field Work.
17 August 2008
Shield Volcanoes
I recently returned from a really awesome trip to Hawaii, where I participated in the 2008 NASA Planetary Volcanology workshop! The idea behind the workshop is that planetary scientists who are trying to interpret orbital data of other planets should have some experience doing the same on Earth. Now that I’m back, I have a lot to tell you about volcanoes. Today we will start by talking about shield volcanoes, …
25 July 2008
Hawaii Field Work
I have a pretty cool job. I look at data coming down from spacecraft orbiting around and driving on another planet, and try to figure out what it used to be like there. To be able to interpret images of Mars, it helps to first be able to interpret images of our own planet. And that’s why I’m going to Hawaii in a couple of days! On Saturday, I head …
21 June 2008
The Great Canadian Adventure – Part 2: Gypsumville and Salt Springs
After our trip to the mine tailings, we headed to the remains of an ancient 40 km impact crater. The crater is totally invisible, but the rocks tell the story plain as day. Our first stop was just outside the town of Gypsumville. We drove through swampy, bumpy back roads into the middle of nowhere and stopped next to an unassuming patch of rock and gravel. At first it didn’t …
20 June 2008
The Great Canadian Adventure: Part 1 – The Price of Gold
After our trip to Great Sand Dunes National Park, where we compared dunes on Earth to those on Mars, we flew up north to Winnipeg, Canada. There we met up with a bunch of geologists and spent three days exploring a bunch of interesting sites in Manitoba. The first site was an old mine tailings dump from a gold mine in the area. When mining for gold, the rocks are …
