Dawn Cardace is an Associate Professor of Geosciences at the University of Rhode Island, in Kingston, RI, USA. She studies biosphere-geosphere interactions in ultramafic rocks at multiple field locations, connecting mineralogy, geochemistry, and prospects for deep microbial life. At the Coast Range Ophiolite Microbial Observatory in northern CA, USA (CROMO), she led the installation of 8 scientific monitoring wells in shallowly emplaced ultramafic rocks, to deliver groundwater from specific depths in the shallow subsurface (Cardace et al., Scientific Drilling, 2013). In the Zambales and Palawan Ophiolites of the Philippines, several related spring/groundwater sites sourced in ultramafic and mafic lithologic units have been characterized in collaboration with Dr. Arcilla (NIGS, University of the Philippines, Diliman), and Dr. Meyer-Dombard (Univ. of Illinois, Chicago), with the intention of examining the progress of serpentinization and the impact on deep carbon cycling there. Cardace is also a member of the BIO team for the Oman Drilling Project, in collaboration with Kelemen (Columbia Univ.), Matter (Univ. of Southampton), Teagle (Univ. of Southampton), and Templeton (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder), and is slated to interrogate ultramafic samples with µFTIR spectroscopic techniques. She has served as a shore-based participant on two Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute cruises with Dr. Clague (MBARI) and Dr. Zierenberg (Univ. of California, Davis), analyzing hydrothermally altered sediments of the Juan de Fuca Ridge and Alarcon Rise, and is eager to learn more about Pescadero Basin through this SOI cruise.
Cardace earned her Bachelor’s degree at Swarthmore College in 1995, and spent the next five years caving and teaching in traditional and non-traditional settings. She hauled gear for expeditions in Mexico (such as to the hydrogen sulfide gas-rich Cueva de Villa Luz, in Tabasco, Mexico), served as a park ranger Wind Cave and Carlsbad Caverns National Parks, and taught in a bilingual secondary school in Godollo, Hungary. She took an abiding interest in water-rock interactions and biogeochemistry to graduate school, and completed her Master’s and Ph.D. in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, USA. Dawn enjoys music, science fiction, rock-hounding, and is the mother of two very clever daughters.
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