Dr. Jillian Pearse, May 2026 Snapshot
Dr. Jillian Pearse, an Assistant Professor in the Earth Science Department, and her student researchers focus on the broad area of Geophysics. Rooted in understanding the dynamics of our planet, including how mountains and basins are formed and evolve, and how volcanoes, earthquakes and landslides work, they also want to understand and look for solutions to some of the environmental challenges that we face, including ground subsidence from the extraction of water and energy resources, and changes to vegetation and soil from farming, mining, climate change and wildfires.
Students are involved at every stage of the research: they learn to operate field geophysical instruments such as a gravimeter and ground-penetrating radar; they analyze field data; process radar satellite images to measure changes in ground height; and they analyze optical satellite data to make maps showing changes in vegetation type, health, and area over time.
Dr. Pearse and her students implement a variety of techniques in their research in the field before using computer models to simulate geologic structures and dynamic processes to explain how and why our landscapes evolved the way they did, whether deformation at the surface of a volcano can be used to predict whether it will erupt, and how vegetation and soil health change in response to certain types of human activity.
Some of Dr. Pearse's work happens right here at ºÚÁÏÍø! Right now, they are completing a geophysical survey around the campus to look for a buried fault that is probably there, but which has never been mapped. We are curious to know whether it is somehow connected to the Newport-Inglewood fault - the cause of the deadly 1933 Long Beach earthquake - and whether an earthquake could occur on it. This could be useful for updating our seismic hazard maps, which is especially important in a densely populated area like Long Beach. They also study how the size, severity and frequency of wildfires are related to specific climate patterns such as El Niño events and droughts to become better at predicting when and where wildfires are likely to start.
Learn more about the Pearse Lab.
