LEADERS

Mentors

Photograph of Tina Niemi
Tina Niemi (Project PI, mentor) is a sedimentologist and Quaternary geologist at UMKC who specializes in paleoseismology, active tectonics, and geoarchaeology. Her interests include studying active faults, earthquake recurrence in the geologic and archaeological records, paleoenvironmental reconstructions, analyses of high-resolution geophysical data, and characterization of recent hurricane and tsunami deposits. Niemi is the director of the Guatemala GeoHazards IRES and served as director of the Baja Basins REU and IRES program between 2015-2022. She will organize the field and lab logistics for participants and mentors, work with the external evaluator, and mentor students in the Paleoseismology research team.
Alison Graettinger (mentor) is a volcanologist in the Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the UMKC. She studies volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks using fieldwork, remote sensing, and large-scale experiments. Her research focuses on landforms, deposits, and micro-textures of volcanic rocks in order to reconstruct the processes that formed them. She has studied a variety of eruptive environments including Iceland, New Zealand, México, and the U.S. Alison mentors students in field and laboratory techniques in volcanology.
Jonathan Obrist-Farner (mentor), a native of Guatemala, is a sedimentologist at MS&T with
extensive geologic and geophysical field experience in Guatemala. His research focuses on
understanding the sedimentary processes controlling basin fill and evolution and deciphering the tectonic, paleoclimate, and paleoearthquake record from lake cores and other sedimentary archives. Jonathan will mentor students in the Paleoseismology research group.
Francisco (Paco) Gomez (mentor) is an expert in surficial processes in the Department of Geology at the University of Missouri (MU) who conducts applied research involving continental deformation and geotechnical problems of slope stability using field and satellite methods including LiDAR, GNSS, InSAR, and other remote sensing and numerical analyses. Paco will guide students on digital data acquisition and mentor the Surficial Processes research team.
Omar Flores Beltetón (mentor) is a geological engineer at USAC with expertise in seismology and paleoseismology. He has supervised graduate theses and has collaborated on GPS projects to measure the strain rate of faults in Guatemala. Omar will mentor the Paleoseismology research team.
Sergio Moran (mentor) is a structural geologist at CUNOR who specializes in geologic mapping, petrology, and tectonic geomorphology. Moran’s research has focused on mapping the active Polochic and Motagua faults in Guatemala. He has supervised numerous undergraduate research projects as the geology degree program at CUNOR requires each undergraduate to write a thesis and has conducted geologic research in the Guatemala City Graben. Sergio will mentor the Volcanology research team.
Carla Gordillo (mentor) is a geological mining engineer at USAC. She has researched landslide risk using GIS databases, characterized the geochemistry of Pacaya volcaniclastic sediments and other environmental problems. Carla will mentor the Surficial Processes research team.
Carlos Perez Arias (mentor) is a geological engineer at the consulting company, Ingeotecnia, in Guatemala City. This company works closely with the national highway system in Guatemala and has access to new roadcuts and drill cores along the new VAS tollway to El Salvador that is under construction and other outcrop exposures. Carlos will join the Volcanology research team.

GRADUATE STUDENTS

Trenton McEnaney is a doctoral student at MS&T where he will be studying the paleoseismic record of earthquakes from lake cores. As an undergraduate at UMKC, Trenton used archival map, photographs, and fieldnote data from the original mapping of the 1976 Guatemala earthquake rupture to georeference locations where slip was measured on the Motagua fault. He will be part of the Paleoseismology research team.

Ivana Torres Ewert is a doctoral student at UMKC working on physical volcanology using field and experimental methods. She has experience studying small-volume volcanic landforms and near-surface geophysical tools for field and experimental applications including building her own moisture sensors. Her research covers how natural hazards occur and the impacts they have on proximal populations. In 2023, Ivana joined the IRES team to support electrical resistivity tomography across faults with the paleoseismic group.

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