research

RESEARCH THEMES
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(i) Basaltic Sediments from Source-to-Sink​
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Lake Sandvatn delta from drone imagery. This is one of our sites in this research theme. Image Credit: Mike Thorpe
Chemical weathering and sediment generation in basaltic terrains can have a significant impact on  Earth’s carbon cycle and is likely a key process operating during historical transitions in Earth's crustal evolution. However, our understanding of sedimentary processes in such terrains is incomplete, largely because Earth's crust is sourced from a granodioritic provenance. As such, the overarching goal of this research is to track geochemical and mineralogical changes to basaltic sediments from their generation in the headwaters of a fluvial network to depositional sites downstream, thus investigating sedimentation from SOURCE-to-SINK. This area of my research takes me to geologically compelling and novel field sites on Earth. Some current locations our work focuses on are Iceland and the Columbia River Basalts, with current funding on a NASA SSW project taking us back to Iceland is 2022. However, this project is expanding and we seek to explore additional sites! ​

(ii) Terrestrial Analogs for Ancient Mars​

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MSL Curiosity Rover looking uphill to Mount Sharp, reflecting on a fluvial-deltaic terrain is traversed over the past 6 years. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSS
As on Earth, sediments and sedimentary rocks are generated on the surface of Mars through chemical and physical weathering, and in some cases, produced in fluvial environments (e.g., rivers and lakes). However, we generally lack a terrestrial​ reference frame for the sedimentary mass of Mars because these planets are sourced from fundamentally difference rock types, i.e., granite vs. basalt. Complicating things further is a debate over the early climate of Mars, mainly riding on the two climate endmembers: (1) a warm and wet vs. (2) a cold and icy. Thus, this work compares our previous field work in basaltic terrains on Earth to data returned from the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover, were we search for first order similarities in order to place better constraints on the paleoenvironment of Mars. ​

​(iii) Mineralogy of Mars
with the CheMin Team

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MSL Curiosity Rover taking a selfie at the Glen Etive Drill Site. ​Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSS
As a newly minted member of the CheMin team and collaborator on Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) , I get the exciting opportunity to work with data directly returned from the Curiosity rover. The CheMin instrument is an X-ray diffractometer onboard Curiosity and returns mineralogical data that we can ultimately determine phase abundances from. Working with the CheMin team has been a real treat and I have expanded my XRD skillset, particularly focusing on clay mineralogy. This is important because Curiosity is currently exploring a highly anticipated section of Mount Sharp, Gale Crater. A unit dominated by clay minerals, as identified from orbit, and informally dubbed the Glen Torridon region. As we speak, we are working on unraveling the sedimentary history of this region with a lacustrine groundwater discharge model and I am lucky to leading the manuscript for the CheMin Team. ​

CURRENT TEAMS AND FORMER RESEARCH STUDIES
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SAND-E Team with P.I. Ryan Ewing
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The SAND-E "ground scientist" working to analyze the data and get ready for uplink. Image Credit: SAND-E project

​ Semi-Autonomous Navigation for Detrital Environments
"SAND-E"
As part as a NASA funded PSTAR project, this work explore rover driving capabilities in martian analog environments. On the rover side, our SAND-E team is testing various operational scenarios to better understand the utility of rover's navigating sedimentary environments. The science mission of this project is to investigate how basaltic sediment are altered from source to sink. For this work, we explored two watersheds in Iceland, in 2019 and 2021. The SAND-E project brings together scientist and engineers from NASA JSC, Texas A&M, Purdue University, Stanford University, and Mission Control Space Services Inc. We are currently working on publications for this work, so stay tuned! 
Ambergrit Team with P.I. John Grotzinger
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Taking in the amazing scenery from our Turks and Caicos field site. Image Credit: Ted Present

​Linking Modern Microbial Mat Growth to Understanding Preservation of Biosignatures in Geological Record 
​This was a unique opportunity to head into the field for a Geobiology field course with an academically diverse group of experts, with specialities ranging from geology, to biology, to chemistry, to remote sensing, were we explored the growth of microbial mats.  We tracked along Little Ambergris Cay, an uninhabited region that is part of the Turks and Caicos Islands, ultimately searching for the preservation of mats with depth but also documenting the diversity in mats from the shoreline to the interior of Ambergris. This work was recently published in Nature communications Present et al., (2021)
Hawaii with P.I. Tim Glotch
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On top of the Scarp looking down at the 1974 Kīlauea Flow. Image Credit: Deanne Rogers
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​In situ geochemistry and mineralogy for sample return by astronaut
"Boots on the Ground"​
In this study, I was lucky to join my M.S. advisor, Dr. Deanne Rogers, and the RIS4E team in the field, as we conducted field work at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in order to evaluate the techniques of using hand held devices to identify geochemistry and mineralogy of samples in the field. The goal was to test efficiency for astronauts and to develop a more scientific based sampling techniques for future planetary missions. This project continued when I left Stony Brook and there are some great articles out there by the RIS4E team! ​