USGS Director visits CalVO

After meeting early-career scientists and conducting a town hall on the Menlo Park Campus, Director Reilly visited the CalVO Operations room, where he received updates on CalVO's ongoing work with stakeholders in California, the observatory's role in volcanic crisis response (particularly in the 2018 Kilauea eruption), and new efforts to produce long-term hazard assessments that will support land management and emergency planning operations in the State. He also toured the Magma Dynamics Lab, and heard how samples of molten magma are created in special furnaces and pressurized vessels to simulate the physical and chemical processes that precede hazardous volcanic activity.

Director Reilly was confirmed for the USGS Director's position in April 2018. He is the 17th USGS director, and has a background in geological exploration research, space operations, and academic management. He had a 13-year career as an astronaut at NASA, where he flew 3 spaceflight missions and 5 spacewalks, and his geological research has taken him to Antarctica and the depths of the continental slope in the Gulf of Mexico.

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