Alexander Sehlke

Expertise: Geology, Volcanology
Affiliation: NASA Ames Research Center
Certification/Education:
PhD (Geological Sciences), University of Missouri – Columbia
Diplom (Geosciences), Leibniz University Hannover, Germany

FINESSE Research Objectives

• Identify different lava flow morphologies at the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, Idaho, and measure the physical properties of these rocks to define the rheology of the lavas to better understand the eruption style and lava emplacement mechanisms.
• Determine thermal properties of lavas erupted at the Craters of the Moon to quantify the required heat needed (or transferred) for crustal contamination during magma ascend in the crust that leads to different isotopic signatures in the rocks, and how easily lava flows retain or lose heat during emplacement in order to evaluate thermo-mechanical erosion potentials and longevity of lava flows.
• Generate digital elevation models (DEMs) of the various flow morphologies at the Craters of the Moon from meter to centimeter scale and determine surface roughness. Correlate thermo-physical properties of the rocks to flow morphologies in DEMs.

Biography

Volcanoes have fascinated Alexander Sehlke since his childhood. He started studying Geosciences at the Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany in 2005. In 2011, Alexander began his doctoral studies at the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Missouri – Columbia and received his Ph.D. in 2015. He studied the rheological evolution of terrestrial and planetary basalts during cooling and crystallization, experimentally. His studies on lava flow emplacement and the mechanism of the development of diverse lava surface morphologies were complemented by field investigations on both active and inactive lava flows erupted on the big island of Hawaii, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. Fieldwork included sample collection and measurements of the geometry of channelized sections within lava flows and different type of surface morphologies (e.g., pahoehoe, transitional, `a`a). Alexander has taught undergraduate students in the field and the classroom as a teaching assistant in Mineralogy and course instructor during his time at the University of Missouri.

Alexander started his NASA post-doctoral fellowship at NASA Ames in February 2016 and focuses on the lavas erupted at the Craters of the Moon, Idaho. He is particularly interested in the thermophysical properties of the rocks, and how these properties change within a lava flow that ultimately leads to different flow morphologies, and how these morphologies and rock properties appear in and can be linked to remote sense-based studies. With a combination of these investigations, Alexander aims to contribute to a safer and more successful robotic and human surface exploration on other planetary bodies in the solar system.