Dr Tara Jonell is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland in Brisbane. She received her BSc in Geology (with Honors) from Kent State University (2010), a MSc in Geological Sciences from New Mexico State University (2012) and a PhD in Geology and Geophysics from Louisiana State University (2017).
Tara might describe herself as an Earth detective who is on the case of climate change. Because historical observations on climate and environmental change only go back so far in time, she instead collects and uses the evidence held in the records of deep time. Tara combines field and remote measurements of topography with the geochronological and geochemical datasets yielded from sediments to unravel when, how, and why landscapes evolve. Much of her past and current research seeks to understand how ancient monsoonal systems work in tandem (or not) with the solid earth to impact global climate, temperatures, and life. On the upcoming voyage, Tara will aid in the mapping and cataloguing of the drowned topography of our eighth continent, Zealandia. Clues from enigmatic seascapes today could aid our understanding in how the weathering of landscapes altered climate change trajectories in the past.
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