At Dry Falls, Washington, U.S.A.My favorite part of being a scientist is discovering new things. I get to see things that no one has seen before and try to figure out how different pieces of evidence and types of information fit together to solve puzzles about how the universe works. My interest in science started when I was very young. I loved going on walks in my neighborhood and finding cool leaves and rocks and bugs. It’s super cool that now I get to study them as my job!
One of the wrinkle ridges I have mapped, with black arrows showing the location of the ridge. The colors are different elevations, with warm colors (orange and yellow) being higher and cool colors (green) being lower.I am a structural geologist. This means I study how rocks move against each other, on the Earth and other planets. My current research project involves studying some features on Mars that were made by what is called compressive stress (rocks being pulled toward each other and pushed up to form a ridge shape). For this project I am looking at images sent back to Earth from spacecraft that orbit Mars. The data I use for my research are from cameras and other scientific instruments on spacecraft that orbit Mars. I have visual images (photographs) and topographic data (elevations of different features). I am trying to find all the ridges formed by compressive stress in a certain region near the equator of Mars called Aeolis Dorsa. When I find the features I am looking for, I measure how tall and long and wide they are to calculate how much the rocks have moved and in what direction.
My research helps us understand the different types of geologic processes that have happened on Mars in the past. Based on the many studies people have already done on Mars, we know that some of the process occurring on Mars include lots of rain causing rivers and lakes, giant volcanoes creating large lava plains, and wind storms depositing sand dunes and eroding rocks away to form ridges called yardangs. My research contributes to our knowledge of the tectonic processes that have occurred. This can help scientists decide what areas on Mars would be the best landing places for future rovers and manned missions and what kinds of scientific instruments or other equipment would be useful there.
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