Research
Mt. Etna, Italy
Trees are well known to reflect the changes in their environment, so how do trees behave on highly degassing volcanoes?
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Carbon dioxide and water vapor are commonly degassed volatiles in volcanic systems, and often act as precursors to volcanic activity when anomalous. However, these volatiles are difficult to monitor since it is challenging to differentiate atmospheric and volcanically sourced CO2 and H2O on a large scale. Trees use CO2 and H2O in the photosynthesis process and tree health can be assessed through aerial and satellite imagery. A normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) calculated from red and near infrared bands ranges from -1 to 1, with the more positive the value, the more healthy the tree. The NDVI signal of trees and soil CO2 flux signals were compared in time for the same area in 14 locations on the flanks of Mt. Etna, Italy. While the tree health reflected the same signal trend as soil CO2 flux for some stations, others did not. The next step is to find out why.
*Satellite view of Mt. Etna with EtnaGas stations shown as colored markers.
Denali National Park and Preserve
From May-November 2022, I served as a Scientist-in-the-Park (SIP) for Denali National Park and Preserve under the Park Geologist, Denny Capps. Our work focused on monitoring the major mass wasting events that threaten the park road and infrastructure. Around mile 45, the park road has been completely displaced by the Pretty Rocks rock glacier, cutting off the additional 45 miles left until the end of the road. Other landslides and rock glaciers throughout the park have begun to move due to increasing temperatures. The goal of my time as an SIP is to quantify how fast these mass wasting events are moving over time based on InSAR and other remote sensing and field techniques.
*Pretty Rocks rock glacier. Displaced road is darker colored rock
GPS survey on Bear Cave landslide
Drilling holes in rocks to set up GPS survey on Zena landslide
Mount St. Helens
On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted a pyroclastic density current (PDC) that decimated the forest to the north. While this eruption is well studied, determining the internal mechanics of PDCs is very difficult due to its hazardous nature. Trees left behind in this zone of destruction can act as a proxy for the dynamic pressure (similar to kinetic energy) of the PDC. The amount of energy it takes to topple a tree of a certain height, radius, and species is well known. So if a tree is toppled, we know the PDC exceeded the energy needed to topple it. If a tree is still standing, the PDC did not exceed the energy needed to topple that tree. Some trees were left standing in groups, suggesting that the PDC would detach from the ground on leeside of hills once its dynamic pressure was low enough.
*a) Standing trees among toppled trees, all stripped of branches
b) A cluster of standing trees on the leeside of a hill
*Conceptual model of the behavior of the PDC with distance from Mount St. Helens