Research

Variations in Earth’s magnetic field recorded in rocks and sediments have the ability to provide unique information on a wide variety of earth processes, from core to crust and from deep time to the very recent past. My research combines characterizing variations in the geomagnetic field and exploiting these variations to better understand volcanic and other geologic processes, from local to planetary scales.  Complementary work seeks to clarify the origin of magnetic remanence in igneous materials with the goal of better understanding the reliability, fidelity and significance of paleomagnetic records. This work combines standard rock- and paleo-magnetic techniques with potential field observations and modeling, as well as techniques in experimental petrology. See below for examples of current and past work.

• Geomagnetic paleointensity as a tool to study mid-ocean ridge processes
• Origin of magnetite and magnetization in submarine basaltic glass
• Paleointensity and origin of magnetization in ash-flow tuffs (ignimbrites)
• Magnetic characterization of synthetic Martian crustal rocks: understanding Mars crustal evolution
• Refinement of global geomagnetic field models