Current Projects

1. "Evaluating the Influence of Climate and Provenance on the Geochemistry and Mineralogy of Clastic Sediments in Basaltic Terranes"

At the surface of early Mars, two conflicting climate models have been proposed, (1) a warm and wet environment, and (2) a cold and icy environment. Iceland is an ideal terrestrial analog to fit our second scenario of a cold and icy Mars climate. We plan to track the chemical and mineralogical changes that occur in basaltic fluvial deposits as they evolve during weathering, erosion, and lithification.

Collecting sediment along the Hvítá River

2. "Tracing source-to-sink variation in geochemistry and mineralogy of sediments in a terrestrial basaltic watershed"

This project involves conducting field work in Idaho, exploring the Columbia River Basalts as they migrate from their source rock to their depositional site as unconsolidated sediments. The goal is to evaluate the geochemistry and mineralogy variations that occur along this pathway within a basaltic watershed. This knowledge can than also be applied to Martian studies, where rover and orbital data has returned sedimentary analysis that may be influenced by fluvial like processes. ​

Looking Down into the Columbia River Basin

3. " In situ geochemistry and mineralogy for sample return by astronauts" 

In this study, we conduct 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 will be to test efficiency for astronauts and to develop a more scientific based sampling technique for potential future planetary missions.

On top of the Scarp looking down at the 1974  Kīlauea Flow