About Me
I am an igneous petrologist and geochemist interested in how large bodies of magma evolve both chemically and thermally in the crust. To study these topics I use a combination of petrology, trace element geochemistry, numerical modeling, and thermodynamics. I am also passionate about developing open-source software tools for the petrology and geochemistry communities.
Currently, I am a Mendenhall post-doc with the U.S. Geological Survey's Alaska Volcano Observatory working on developing models for quantifying the sources and frequency of caldera forming eruptions in the Aleutian islands.
When I am not doing science, I like to play music, shoot film photography, and enjoy whatever the in season mountain activities are at the time.
Current Research Projects
Thermal Histories of Large Silicic Magma Reservoirs
A large portion of my dissertation work, this research aims to quantify timescales of eruptible magma in large caldera forming systems (e.g., what is the long term thermochemical state of the magma). To do this I use diffusion chronometry of trace elements in plagioclase, geochemical modeling, and rhyolite MELTS. My colleagues and I have this work submitted to the Journal of Petrology, but for now read about it here!
Computed Tomography of minerals
This project uses computed microtomography (microCT) to investigate the 3D chemical zoning in igneous minerals. As different elements in a mineral's crystal structure attenuate X-rays differently, changes in chemistry within the mineral (e.g., zones 3 and 4 in the below figure) can be observed in CT data. The applications of this to the petrology community are just beginning to be explored!
Laser Ablation ICP-MS data processing
A large portion of my research utilizes laser ablation ICP-MS to measure trace element concentrations of volcanic materials such as glass and minerals to interpret the magma reservoirs from which they come. Dissatisfied with the state of data reduction software as it was either extremely expensive or too much of a black box, I decided to write my own open source tool for processing LA-ICP-MS data. Read more about it here!
Photo Journal
Some of my favorite views from my travels, both academic and otherwise.
