VolcanoSummer, v2.0 is up and running (I think)!

Hey everyone! It’s been a while since I last wrote anything here, but I had to return to my (semi) regular life as a geology graduate student at California State University – Los Angeles. However, school is now officially out for the summer, so you know what that means…VolcanoSummer, back in a whole new way. This year I’m not undertaking a single long stint of duty (capped nicely by a surprise oceanographic research trip), but rather I’ll be doing a bit of volcano-hopping as my time in grad school draws to a close.

On Monday (June 15th), I’m heading north to the volcanoes of the Cascade Range in California, Oregon, and Washington. It’s the culmination of a volcanology course I took this spring, and it should be a blast. Since I won’t have internet access while camping my way across these excellent volcanoes, I set up a VolcanoSummer Twitter account to keep the updates coming. If you want to follow my escapades directly on Twitter, the URL is twitter.com/volcanosummer.

So, what will I be doing up there? The answer is mostly just taking in the scenery and exploring some of the world’s most beautiful stratovolcanoes. Along the way I’ll be visiting Lassen Peak, Mount Shasta, Lava Beds National Monument/Medicine Lake Volcano, Crater Lake, Newberry, the Three Sisters, Mount Jefferson, Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, and of course, Mount St. Helens. Unfortunately, Mount Rainier isn’t on the agenda, but that just means I’ll have to go back! Also, I’ll be hiking up Mt. St. Helens and providing you, my excellent readers, with pictures and some awesome scientific facts about the whole ordeal. Huzzah!

Ok, so now you might be wondering what will happen after this Cascades trip concludes. Well, I have a few potential research opportunities in the works, including a return trip to Hawai`i. Regardless, I will also be working on my thesis. I know, I know. You’re thinking that thesis work could be monumentally boring to read about. Fear not! My thesis is creating a map of the rift zone of the Loihi Seamount, the undersea volcano I helped research last October. I’ll be travelling to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, Massachusetts to work on creating the map. Time permitting, I’ll also be performing geochemical analyses on some of the rocks we collected last year. I’ll be sure to finally post those pics I took on the research cruise, too!

At any rate, the updates from the Cascade trip will be brief (thanks for the 140 characters, Twitter) but pithy. I’ll throw in phone camera pics for good measure, and I’ll upload the real pictures upon my return. Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know I’m back in business stalking volcanoes around the world! Welcome back, everyone.