Research
Six projects on volcano deformation, magma reservoirs, deep earthquakes, and eruption forecasting, each explained in plain language: the question, what I did, what we found, and why it matters.
2025
Veniaminof erupts often, yet most of its recent eruptions arrived with little or no warning. Using computer models of a magma reservoir, this study shows how a volcano can reach the breaking point while staying almost silent to monitoring instruments.
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2026
Westdahl Volcano has been slowly swelling for more than 30 years since its 1991–1992 eruption, yet it has not erupted again. This project uses 3D computer models checked against GPS and satellite data to explain why, and to ask how close it may be to erupting.
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2026
Three Alaskan volcanoes with similar settings behave very differently: Okmok's large 2008 eruption came with only brief warning, Westdahl has swelled for decades without erupting, and Veniaminof erupts often with almost no warning. This study models all three in one framework to explain why.
Read project
2026
Weather forecasts improve by continuously blending new observations into models. This project applies the same idea, an ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF), to volcanoes, updating physics-based models of Westdahl's magma reservoir with GPS and satellite radar data.
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2026
Deep long-period earthquakes here occur 10–55 km below sea level, far deeper than the shallow magma reservoirs that typically feed eruptions. Combining 34 years of earthquake records from 22 Alaskan volcanoes with geochemical data, this collaborative study links them to volatiles, mainly CO₂, escaping from magma.
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2022
Mount Early and Sheridan Bluff, at 87° S, are the southernmost volcanoes on Earth and lie more than 1,000 km from any other exposed volcano of the Cenozoic era (the last 66 million years) in Antarctica. Before my Ph.D., I used mineral chemistry and isotopes to trace where their magmas came from; the work contributed to a study led by Kurt Panter.
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