Four close-up images of a longer sediment core (bottom). The light coloring indicates coarser sand that likely occurred from overwash flooding during a previous hurricane. This is one of a few cores collected in northwest Florida by the USGS and partners to help understand past hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico and northern Atlantic Ocean.
Jessica Rodysill, Ph.D.
Jessica Rodysill is a Research Geologist at the Florence Bascom Geoscience Center.
Biography
Jess Rodysill is a Research Geologist specializing in reconstruction of past environmental conditions using geophysical and geochemical properties of lacustrine sediments. The goals of this work are to improve understanding of the mechanisms that drive natural hazards at the regional and local scales, which will aid in improving preparation for hazards and disaster mitigation for vulnerable populations. Jess is the Project Chief of the Natural Drought and Flood Histories from Lacustrine Archives project, which utilizes lacustrine sedimentology to reconstruct floods, droughts, and hurricanes. She leads the USGS Holocene Synthesis working group, which integrates multi-proxy data from North American continental archives to reconstruct spatial patterns of wet, dry, warm, and cool conditions through time. This research is used to better understand the mechanisms driving natural climate variability and millennial and centennial timescales and to improve computer model forecasts. Jess is leading a pilot study in the central and eastern United States aimed at understanding the long-term, millennial-scale history of earthquakes at active fault zones to better assess the risk of future earthquakes.
Education and Research Experience
Research Geologist, USGS (Reston, VA), 2015-Present
Postdoctoral Associate, University of Minnesota, 2013-2015
Ph.D., Geological Sciences, Brown University, 2013
Sc.M., Geological Sciences, Brown University, 2010
B.S., Geology, University of Minnesota, 2008
Science and Products
Natural Drought and Flood Histories from Lacustrine Archives Project
Heavy rainfall, flooding, and drought frequently devastate North American populations and are predicted to continue posing serious threats over the next century. The nature of these phenomena at centennial and millennial timescales is not well constrained. Clarifying the spatial patterns of drought and moisture trends is fundamental for comparison with other datasets for the purposes of...
Natural Drought and Flood Histories from Lacustrine Archives
Previous work performed as part of the USGS Holocene Synthesis project illuminated complex centennial-scale patterns of drought and wetter-than-average conditions across the North American continent interior during the past two millennia, where paleorecord data coverage is sparse. In order to explain the patterns of naturally-occurring drought, floods, and storms for the past, identified by the...
Holocene Synthesis Project
The Holocene Synthesis Project integrates a variety of information about past climate variability across the North American continent for the past ~12,000 years to characterize the spatial patterns of previous climate states, advance our understanding about mechanisms that drive natural climate variability, and improve the quality of climate models that are used to predict future climate patterns...
Hurricane deposits in a sediment core
Four close-up images of a longer sediment core (bottom). The light coloring indicates coarser sand that likely occurred from overwash flooding during a previous hurricane. This is one of a few cores collected in northwest Florida by the USGS and partners to help understand past hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico and northern Atlantic Ocean.
Equipment to collect sediment cores
Equipment used by USGS scientists and partners to collect sediment cores at Basin Bayou in Florida. This is part of research by the USGS and partners to understand past hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico and northern Atlantic Ocean. Credit: Jessica Rodysill, USGS.
Equipment used by USGS scientists and partners to collect sediment cores at Basin Bayou in Florida. This is part of research by the USGS and partners to understand past hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico and northern Atlantic Ocean. Credit: Jessica Rodysill, USGS.
Science and Products
Natural Drought and Flood Histories from Lacustrine Archives Project
Heavy rainfall, flooding, and drought frequently devastate North American populations and are predicted to continue posing serious threats over the next century. The nature of these phenomena at centennial and millennial timescales is not well constrained. Clarifying the spatial patterns of drought and moisture trends is fundamental for comparison with other datasets for the purposes of...
Natural Drought and Flood Histories from Lacustrine Archives
Previous work performed as part of the USGS Holocene Synthesis project illuminated complex centennial-scale patterns of drought and wetter-than-average conditions across the North American continent interior during the past two millennia, where paleorecord data coverage is sparse. In order to explain the patterns of naturally-occurring drought, floods, and storms for the past, identified by the...
Holocene Synthesis Project
The Holocene Synthesis Project integrates a variety of information about past climate variability across the North American continent for the past ~12,000 years to characterize the spatial patterns of previous climate states, advance our understanding about mechanisms that drive natural climate variability, and improve the quality of climate models that are used to predict future climate patterns...
Hurricane deposits in a sediment core
Four close-up images of a longer sediment core (bottom). The light coloring indicates coarser sand that likely occurred from overwash flooding during a previous hurricane. This is one of a few cores collected in northwest Florida by the USGS and partners to help understand past hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico and northern Atlantic Ocean.
Four close-up images of a longer sediment core (bottom). The light coloring indicates coarser sand that likely occurred from overwash flooding during a previous hurricane. This is one of a few cores collected in northwest Florida by the USGS and partners to help understand past hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico and northern Atlantic Ocean.
Equipment to collect sediment cores
Equipment used by USGS scientists and partners to collect sediment cores at Basin Bayou in Florida. This is part of research by the USGS and partners to understand past hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico and northern Atlantic Ocean. Credit: Jessica Rodysill, USGS.
Equipment used by USGS scientists and partners to collect sediment cores at Basin Bayou in Florida. This is part of research by the USGS and partners to understand past hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico and northern Atlantic Ocean. Credit: Jessica Rodysill, USGS.