Jake Bleacher, Ph.D. Student, Research Associate

Jake's research interest is the characterization of planetary volcanic provinces using a combination of terrestrial field studies, terrain analyses, and spacecraft data analysis. His current focus is interpreting a shield volcano’s eruptive history and evolution by determining the abundance and distribution of different lava flow structures and quantifying its shape in the martian Tharsis Province for comparison with similar work for the Hawaiian shield volcanoes. His work involves mapping of NASA’s Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC), and the European Space Agency’s new High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) data, as well as conducting slope distribution and hypsometry analyses on NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography (SRTM), National Elevation Dataset (NED), and Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) data. For this research Jake received a NASA GSRP fellowship in 2003. Additional research interests involve martian impact crater morphologies and how they can be used to provide insight into interpreting a region's geologic history. Jake has been a full time graduate student at Arizona State beginning in the fall of 2000 while serving as both a teaching assistant and research associate. He previously earned a B.A. from the Department of Geosciences at Franklin and Marshall College in 2000, and served as a research associate at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center from the summer of 1999 until moving to Arizona.

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Zack Bowles, M.S. Student, Research Assistant

Zack Bowles is currently an M.S. student in Planetary Geology. His primary research interests include Planetary Volcanology, European Tectonics and volcanically oriented field excursions. Basaltic volcanism is one of the most represented styles in the Solar System and understanding this on our and other planets will answer fundamental questions of planetary formation and evolution. Zack’s Thesis project focuses on basaltic volcanism in the form of mapping the Batamote shield volcano in southern Arizona near Ajo. Mapping this 20 million year old shield volcano will aid in the understanding of how erosion affects volcanic morphologies and possibly alter detection techniques for questionable volcanic edifices on Mars using newer data sets such as the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC), Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA), and High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). He has also researched the formation of Shield Fields on Venus and their relationship to local and regional tectonics.

Zack is currently funded through the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit project detecting and quantifying aeolian features in Gusev Crater. This project has led to a side interest in the formation of desert pavement in planetary environments.

Zack received his Bachelor’s of Science in Geology with minors in Mathematics and Physics from Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi. His research there concentrated on environmental applications of Artificial Neural Networks on the Texas Coast and the possibility of flood predictions due to the onset of tropical storms.

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Shelby Cave, Ph.D Candidate

Shelby's research is focused in the area of planetary volcanology. She studies volcanic processes on Earth and compares her findings to volcanism on other planets. Her terrestrial field area is the Sentinel-Arlington Volcanic Field (SAVF) in southwestern Arizona. She is currently mapping and characterizing the SAVF using a combination of techniques including field mapping, remote sensing, geochemical assessment, and paleomagnetic analysis to determine if SAVF is a candidate for plains-style volcanism as defined by Greeley, 1982. These results will be compared to low shield volcanoes in the Eastern Snake River Plain, Idaho; small parasitic shield volcanoes on the flanks of Kilauea volcano, Hawaii; and possibly similar constructs in Iceland in order to define genetic populations of this ubiquitous volcanic landform. These results will be used to further understand small shield volcanoes on other planets, particularly on the southern flank of Pavonis Mons, Mars, in order to understand their role in the volcanic history of the Tharsis region. Shelby's research techniques include field mapping, photo-geological assessment, XRF bulk chemical analysis, geomagnetic secular variation studies, and familiarity with the Martian remote-sensing data sets, mainly High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on Mars Express, as well as the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) and Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) datasets from Mars Global Surveyor. Shelby graduated with a Masters of Science in Geological Sciences from Arizona State University (2004); and with a B.S. (with Honors and Distinction) in Geological Sciences with a minor in Marine Science from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2000).

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Thomas Doggett, M.S. Student, Research Assistant

Thomas went to Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH) majoring in Geology and History, with a concentration in the History of Science, before coming to Arizona State, earning his Masters of Science in 2005 and continuing on into the PhD program. Current research includes the global geologic map of Europa and modeling the thermal emission of cryovolcanic processes. He is a member of the science team for the Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment (ASE), demonstrating the automated detection of cryospheric change using the Hyperion visible/near-infrared hyper-spectrometer on board Earth Observing 1 (EO-1). Previous work includes regional mapping of Venus during an internship at Pomona College and mineral physics research during an internship at Carnegie Institute of Washington's Geophysical Laboratory.

Thomas' Home Page

Dr. Ronald Greeley, Regents' Professor

Ronald Greeley has been involved in lunar and planetary studies since 1967. Current research is focused on gaining an understanding of planetary surface processes and geological histories. The approach involves a combination of spacecraft data analysis, laboratory experiments, and geological field studies on Earth of features analogous to those observed on the planets.

Dr. Greeley's Home Page

Steve Kadel, Senior Research Specialist

Steve Kadel is a 1993 M.S. graduate from the Planetary Geology Group in ASU's Dept. of Geological Sciences. He has worked with the Planetary Geology Group since the spring of 1991 on various projects including lunar and Europa science from the Galileo Mission to Jupiter, and investigation of lava tubes and field evidence for lava erosion. He has been the primary compiler of the NASA/ASU Worldwide Lava Tube Database, the largest on-line searchable repository of information and maps of lava tubes in the world. He has enlisted the assistance of several groups of gifted high school students, as well as former and current PG Group staff members in this on-going effort.

Steve has also been very active in educational outreach programs, creating educational exercises for K-12 students interested in planetary science, as well as the Mission to Mars electronic field trip. This web-based study of space mission planning and geologic processes, focusing on the surface of Mars and Earth-based analogs, was released to the public via a world wide web site in the late Fall of 2000. In addition to numerous abstracts and co-authorships over the past ten years, Steve published his first lead-author paper, The Geological History of the Tyre Region of Europa, in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets.

Current projects include preparation of a follow-up manuscript on chemical evidence for lava erosion, and a synthesis of the Galileo, Clementine and Lunar Prospector results for the rock composition and geologic history of the Moon's Orientale Basin.

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Eric Kolb, Ph.D. Student

Eric Kolb's research interests are in the remote sensing and geologic mapping of Mars with a focus on the polar regions. Eric received his Bachelor of Science in Geology from Indiana University in 2001 and his Master's of Science in Geology from Arizona State University in 2003. Eric currently is an ASU Dept. of Geological Science's Ph.D. candidate. He is an affiliate of the European Space Agency's Mars Express High-Resolution Stereo Camera Team, preparing for the arrival of the Mars Express spacecraft on December 25, 2003.

Eric has recently completed a 1:3M-Scale geologic map of the south polar region of Mars poleward of 60°S. Current projects include geologic mapping of the martian polar ice caps at 1:1.5M-scale. Topical science issues to be addressed in the current mapping include: (1) Detection and interpretation of structural deformation present within the ice deposits and (2) description and interpretation of the ice deposit's erosional history.

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Lynn D.V. Neakrase, Ph.D. Student, Research Assistant

Lynn's research interests lie in Martian cryogeology, polar processes, and aeolian processes. Lynn completed his M.S. in Dec., 2001 from A.S.U. and it included mapping the southern polar layered terrain of Mars in conjunction with the landing zone of the failed Mars Polar Lander Mission, polar wind analyses based on observations of aeolian features, and classification of polar processes for the polar layered deposits of Mars.

Currently, Lynn is pursuing his Ph.D. in Martian aeolian processes with work including NASA Ames Mars General Circulation Models, boundary layer flow field analyses of the Mars Exploration Rovers, and experimental investigation of Martian dust devils (dust devil threshold wind speeds and dust fluxes) using the Arizona State University Vortex Generator in Earth-ambient and Martian-analog pressures, using the Arizona State University Planetary Aeolian facility and the Mars Surface Wind Tunnel facility at NASA Ames Research Center in California.

Lynn is also interested in Geographical Information Systems and their potential uses in planetary science. He enjoys working public events for educational outreach activities as well. He received a B.S. in Astronomy/Astrophysics (minor in mathematics) and a B.A. in Geological Sciences (minor in Slavic Languages and Literature: Russian) from Indiana University in 1997 and 1998 respectively.

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Ramses Ramirez, M.S. Student, Research Assistant

Ramses is currently a Master’s candidate in the new School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE) interested mainly in volcanological and climatological applications on other planets. Ramses is particularly interested in explosive volcanism and his thesis will focus on the remote sensing and modeling of lunar pyroclastic deposits. Although several Apollo missions have brought back lunar samples, the genesis of lunar pyroclastic deposits are still poorly understood. Clementine Ultaviolet-Visible (UV/VIS) and Near-Infrared (NIR) data sets will be utilized to shed light on outstanding questions.

In addition, Ramses is funded to analyze the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Spirit data sets to deduce wind properties from aeolian features visible on the rocks.

Ramses Ramirez graduated High Honors in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2001. In 2005, he obtained another bachelor’s in geology from the University of South Florida. Ramses has been involved in several team design competitions and has presented a paper at an AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) student conference on multi-pass orbit shaping maneuvers to geosynchronous orbit. When not thinking about other planets, Ramses likes to travel, read, play baseball, RPGs, and video games.

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Patrick Whelley, M.S. Student, Research Assistant

Patrick Whelley recently received his B.S. in Geological Sciences from Arizona State University, and has remained as there to complete his Masters work. He has been involved with Dr. Ronald Greeley and the Planetary Geology Group (PG Group) since the summer of 1999, via an education outreach program called Earthwatch. Patrick began part-time work at the PG Group in the fall of 2000, when he enrolled at ASU.

The NASA Space Grant program played an integral roll in funding Patrick's research during his undergraduate work, since he was awarded an internship in the fall of 2001. His initial research concentrated on site selection studies for NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers and camera targeting for ESA's Mars Express, under the direction of Dr. Greeley, with a focus on Aeolian features on the surface of Mars.

Patrick's current research consists of an extensive survey of MOC images investigating dust devils and the tracks they leave behind. He has been examining the relationship between the frequency of dust devil tracks to Martian geomorphology and environmental constraints to better understand dust devils, their purpose, and impact on the Martian dust budget.

He is also a collaborator on the Athena Science Team (the team operating Spirit and Opportunity currently on the surface of Mars). Patrick has contributed to the team since both rovers landed safely on Mars in January 2004.

Patrick has contributed posters to AGU, LPSC, and Geodaze (at the U of A); and has co-authored 9 peer reviewed publications related to dust devil research and work as a collaborator on the Athena Science Team. His first lead author publication has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Geophysical Research, Planets.

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Dr. David A. Williams, Faculty Research Associate

Dr. David A. Williams is currently serving as a Faculty Research Associate in the School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE) at Arizona State University. He served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at ASU in 2001-2002, in which he cotaught Physical Geology and a graduate seminar in Planetary Volcanology. David is currently performing research in volcanology and planetary geology, with a focus on planetary mapping, geochemical, and remote sensing studies. His research has included computer modeling of seismic wave propagation through planetary interiors, visible and near-infrared spectroscopy of the lunar surface, planetary geologic mapping of the satellites of Jupiter, computer modeling of the physical and geochemical evolution of lava flows in a variety of planetary environments, and petrologic study of lava samples from Mount St Helens. He was involved with NASA's Magellan Mission to Venus and was a member of the Solid-State Imaging Team of NASA's Galileo Mission to Jupiter.

Dr. Williams is currently serving as an Associate Investigator on the High Resolution Stereo Camera Team of the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission. He is also involved in education/public outreach activities including giving talks to school and civic groups and developing educational materials. David received his Bachelor of Science in Astronomy & Astrophysics (with minors in Mathematics and Geology) from Indiana University in 1989, and his Master of Science in Geology from Arizona State University in 1992. He received his Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Alabama in August 1998, where he was a three-time Graduate Council Research Fellow and received the award for Outstanding Research by a Doctoral Student from the University of Alabama Graduate School in 1998. He has also performed geologic field studies in Hawaii, the Canadian subarctic, Western Australia, and South Africa. David has been part of the faculty at ASU for over seven years, and has recently published papers in the Journal of Geophysical Research, Bulletin of Volcanology, and the planetary science journal Icarus.

Dr. Williams' Associate Page

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Veronica Ann Aliberto-Zabala, B.S. Student, Research Assistant / Educational Outreach Coordinator

Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto is currently a senior undergraduate student within the School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE) at Arizona State University. She is the Educational Outreach Coordinator for the Arizona State University NASA Space Photography Laboratory and caters to educators, students and members of the general public providing educational outreach pertaining to human and robotic space exploration. She currently is analyzing data from the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission and that of the European Space Agency's (ESA) mission, Mars Express focusing her research on data retrieved from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) in hopes of determining any Mars change detection of aeolian features on the surface of Mars. Zabala-Aliberto has presented at invited talks and gives lectures to schools and space related events. She enjoys hiking, camping, wants to learn SCUBA and aviation and loves Dirk Pitt©.

Zabala-Aliberto is very active in the space exploration sector and currently is affiliated with numerous organizations such as: The Mars Society of Phoenix (Chapter Founder, President and now, Educational Outreach Coordinator), The National Space Society of Phoenix (Chapter Founder and President), The Planetary Society (Global Volunteer, Arizona Regional Coordinator), Jet Propulsion Laboratory Solar System Ambassador (2004-present), and the Astronaut Hopefuls of Arizona (Chapter Founder and President). Zabala-Aliberto is a veteran to the Mars Desert Research Station serving on Crew 36 (Crew Geologist) and serving as Commander of the Family Living Analysis on Mars (F.L.A.M.E.) mission in June 2005 as well as commanding Crew 46 in March 2006. She is expected to command another F.L.A.M.E. crew for two-weeks in March 2007.

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Amy Zink, B.S. Student, Research Assistant

Amy is currently in the process of earning her undergraduate degree within the field of geology. She is in the early stages of her degree and therefore is not yet decided on which areas of geology she would like to pursue further, though she is interested in studying all aspects of the discipline. She is considering going on to study Oceanography with emphasis in either climate studies and/or coastal research and open ocean policy in graduate school.

Amy is working as a Research Assistant at the Planetary Geology Wind-tunnel Facility.

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