Meet the Expert: Katrin Steinthorsdottir, geologist

Katrin Steinthorsdottir (she/her) is a geologist from Iceland living in Vancouver, Canada. Originally her interest in rocks came from the smooth black pebbles she collected as a kid, and later on she studied the volcanoes in Iceland and Mexico that form these black rocks. Currently she is studying another rock type called peridotite that forms deep under the earth’s crust which can turn CO2 into minerals. She is doing a PhD at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and also working alongside with Carbfix – a company that stores CO2 in rocks underground.

HERE is an article the Katrin wrote about Protecting Our Climate by Turning Co2 into Stone

Katrin’s advice on how to look for rocks

“When walking around in a nearby park, countryside, or maybe forest, you can sometimes find an ‘outcrop’ – a piece of ground (or cliff) that shows the bare rock, so not the soil or loose gravel. If you do find an outcrop this means you have found the top most crust, that is the outermost layer of the earth! How does the rock in the outcrop, or any big rock you find, look like, smell like, feel like? What colour is it, is it all the same, or are there any lines or weird shapes? Can you scratch it with a fingernail? Maybe if you look close enough (you can use a magnifying glass if you have one) you can see tiny specs or blobs that are minerals!”    Now go outside and do some rock  hunting!

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Challenge

Go rock hunting! Try to find a basaltic rock. Here are some pictures of what you’re looking for:

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