Grant: Canada Research Chairs

My research explores Earth’s surface processes, climate, and environments of the last 2.6 million years. Specifically, I aim to better understand natural climate variation in sensitive northern regions and build records of volcanic eruptions to explore how volcanoes and climate influence each other and their hazards. These interests are linked through my specialization in tephrochronology–the study of volcanic ash (aka tephra). Volcanic ash can be spread widely after an eruption and preserved across (and in) various environments and locations such as lakes, archaeological sites, peat bogs, and glaciers. Because each ash has a unique geochemical fingerprint, they can be used to directly link these different sites, each which contain their own specific set of information used to reconstruct past environments. They also help determine the age of these environmental (or archaeological) records–necessary for meaningfully interpreting their significance. Finally, we can often trace ash deposits to their source volcanoes, providing critical data for assessing hazards (e.g., eruption magnitude, frequency) and exploring volcano-climate interactions.The overarching goal for my research program is to build a comprehensive volcanic record for NW North America that informs both paleoenvironmental and volcanological studies. The two main themes of my research program are (1) building tephra frameworks to date, correlate and interpret records of past climate, and (2) improving our understanding of volcanic processes and histories through tephra deposits. This Canada Research Chair will support three specific objectives under these themes: 1. Identify tephra and other markers of past volcanic activity (e.g., sulphate) in the new Mount Logan ice core and archived High Arctic ice cores in the Canadian Ice Core Laboratory to date their environmental records and gain a new geographic perspective on high-latitude climate change and volcanism; 2. Develop detailed tephra records for SW Alaska, Mount Edgecumbe in SE Alaska, and Northern Cordilleran volcanic province in NW British Columbia for the last ~18,000 years to date and link disparate paleoclimate records, assess unresolved questions about volcanic response to continental ice sheet retreat, and develop hazard assessments for local communities; and 3. Improve our ability to directly date young (<1 Ma) tephra deposits in the sediments of unglaciated Yukon and Alaska (Beringia) to reconstruct long-term climate change.