Planetary Science Activities Supported by the South Dakota Space Grant Consortium
The South Dakota Space Grant Consortium has generously supported a number of Planetary Science activities at Black Hills State University during the past few years. Support from this organization has enabled BHSU students and faculty to participate in a number of different research projects, and present the results of the research at international conferences. Several students have been able to take these experiences and use them as a springboard to careers in the space sciences.
Below - Three BHSU students funded by the SD Space Grant Consortium screwing around while they should be working on the Paint Pot Crater volcanic vent in northern California. Richard Hudson (BHSU/SDSMT, left), James Hansen (BHSU, center) and Megan Burke (BHSU) all traveled to Mount Shasta and Medicine Lake volcanoes to collect data for their research projects in August of 2005.
Shawn McColley - Malin Space Science Systems- Shawn's work on planetary lava flows and his coauthored papers and presentations at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference was supported in part by the SD Space Grant Consortium, and contributed to his acceptance into one of the top planetary science department in the world at Brown University. Shawn recently finished his thesis on the Medussa Fossae formation of Mars and graduated with a M.S. in Geological Science. Shawn is now employed by Malin Space Science Systems, arguably the top planetary instrument manufacturers and research centers in the world, where his duties include targeting the Mars Orbiter Camera on the Mars Global Surveyor mission.
Above: Shawn McColley (right) and SUNY Buffalo researcher Nick Warner measuring block size distributions at Sabancaya volcano, Peru.
Richard Hudson - Richard is currently a senior Environmental Physical Science major at Black Hills State University and a Geology major at SDSMT. Richard has been working for nearly 2 years on a project investigating the fractal dimensions of lava flow margins. Through the support of the South Dakota Space Grant Consortium, Richard has received travel funds to present this research at the 2004 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas, and was recently awarded a Summer Research Fellowship to continue this research during the summer of 2005. Richard plans to attend graduate school for planetary volcanology.
Above: Richard Hudson observing a wax flow experiment at Arizona State University.
Tessa (Jones) Krueger - Tessa's research on the effects of underlying topography on lava flow development has also been supported by the South Dakota Space Grant Consortium. Tessa attended the 2004 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, and was recently accepted into the M.S. program at SUNY Buffalo where she is conducting volcanology research with Dr. Tracy Gregg. Dr. Gregg specializes in planetary and terrestrial volcanology.
Above: Tessa (Jones) Krueger observing the interior of a simulated lava flow.
Megan Burke - Megan was recently awarded South Dakota Space Grant Consortium Summer Research Fellowship to study rock size distributions on lava flows. This work has planetary applications since the study of rock sizes is an important consideration in landing site assessment for planetary rovers. Megan is analyzing how the surfaces of various lavas differ with respect to the sizes of blocks that cover the flows, and will be conducting field work this summer in Arizona, California and Oregon in addition to analyzing older data sets acquired from Sabancaya volcano (Peru) and Cima (California). This work is an offshoot of the research that will be conducted by Dr. Anderson and his students as part of his NASA Mars Fundamental Research grant.
James Hansen - James and Dr. Anderson were recently awarded a grant to travel to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to work with planetary geophysicist Dr. Sue Smrekar on the development and evolution of lava flow interiors. As a result of that trip, James applied for and was awarded a Summer Research Fellowship from the SD Space Grant Consortium to work with Dr. Smrekar at JPL during the summer of 2005. James applied plate bending theory to model the development of tumuli on active and planetary lava flows.
Planetary Publications Supported by the SD Space Grant Consortium
Anderson, S.W.,*McColley, S., Fink, J.H.., and *Hudson, R, 2005. The development of fluid instabilities and preferred pathways in lava flow interiors: insights from analog experiments and fractal analysis; GSA Memoir on Lava Flow Dynamics and Kinematics, in review. Click here for a PDF version (Adobe Acrobat) of a pre-print of this paper.
*Burke, M., Anderson, S.W., and Bulmer, M.H., 2005. Rock size distributions on lava flow surfaces: New results from a range of compositions; EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, in press.
Anderson, S.W., *McColley, S., *Hudson, R.K., *Jones, T., and Fink, J.H., 2004. Processes occurring in active lava flow interiors: Insights from analog studies; 2004 IAVCEI Conference Abstract.
*Hudson, R. and Anderson, *Jones, T. and *Marske, A., 2004. Determining the fractal dimensions of evolved lava flows using field and remotely-sensed data; 2004 IAVCEI Conference Abstract.
*Jones, T., Anderson, S.W., *Hudson, R.K., and Fink, J.H., 2004. The influence of cooling and pre-eruption topography on lava flow surface morphology and interior pathway development; 2004 IAVCEI Conference Abstract.
*Hudson, R. and Anderson, S.W., 2004. The use of fractals in terrestrial and planetary lava flow identification; State of South Student Research Symposium, #57.
*Jones, T., *Hudson, R., and Anderson, S.W., 2004. The effect of underlying topography on the development of lava flow interiors: Insights from analog experiments, State of South Student Research Symposium, #63.
*Hudson, R.H., Anderson, S.W., *McColley, S., and Fink, J.H., 2004. Fractal variation with changing line length: A potential problem for planetary lava flow identification; Lunar and Planetary Science XXXIV, Abstract #1601, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston (CD-ROM).
*Hudson, R., and Anderson, S.W., 2003. The fractal dimensions of simulated lava flows; Poster Presentation, Black Hills State University Research Symposium, April, 2003.
Anderson, S.W., *McColley, S., and Fink, J.H., 2002. The development of preferred pathways in lava flow interiors: Insights from analog experiments; EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, v. 83, Abstract V12A-1400.
Gregg T.P.K., Bulmer, M., and Anderson, S.W., *Warner, N.H., *Goudy, C.L., *McColley, S., and Turner, I., 2002. Three types of crust: Inferred emplacement rates and styles of a megablocky flow field surrounding Sabancaya volcano, Peru; EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, v. 83, Abstract V72C-05.
*denotes student author