Susan Kieffer

Susan Elizabeth Werner Kieffer (born November 17, 1942, in Warren, Pennsylvania) is an American physical geologist and planetary scientist. Kieffer is known for her work on the fluid dynamics of volcanoes, geysers, and rivers, and for her model of the thermodynamic properties of complex minerals. She has also contributed to the scientific understanding of meteorite impacts.

Biography Kieffer received her B.S. in physics/mathematics from Allegheny College in 1964 and is an alumna of the California Institute of Technology receiving both an M.S. (1967) in geological sciences and Ph.D. (1971) in planetary sciences.Penrose Biography She received an Honorary Doctor of Science from Allegheny in 1987, and the Distinguished Alumnus Award, equivalent to an honorary Ph.D. from other institutions, from Caltech in 1982.

She is currently an Emeritus Professor of Geology in the Department of Geology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She began her teaching career as a Professor of Geology at the University of California, Los Angeles (1973) before working with the United States Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona (1979–1990). After serving as a Regents Professor of Geology at Arizona State University (1991-1993) she went on to chair the Geological Sciences Department at the University of British Columbia (1993–1995).

She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences. From 1995 to 2000 she held a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2014 She was awarded the Penrose Medal by the Geological Society of America. The American Geosciences Institute recognized Kieffer with the 2017 Marcus Milling Legendary Geoscientist Medal.

In 2013, Kieffer published a trade science book entitled The Dynamics of Disaster. The book discusses natural disasters from an underlying geological perspective.

Publications

Impact Kieffer, S.W., I. Shock Metamorphism of the Coconino Sandstone at Meteor Crater, Arizona: II. The Specific Heat of Solids of Geophysical Interest, Ph.D. Thesis, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, 1970. Kieffer, S. W., "Shock metamorphism of the Coconino Sandstone at Meteor Crater," Arizona, Journal of Geophysical Research, 76, 5449–5473, 1971. Kieffer, S.W., Introduction to the translation of Russian article by L. Firsov, "Concerning the meteoritic origin of the Puchezh-Katunki Crater," Meteoritics, 8, 223–244, 1973. Shoemaker, E. M. and Kieffer, S.W., Guidebook to the Geology of Meteor Crater, Arizona, printed by the Meteoritical Society and the U.S. Geological Survey for the 37th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society, August, 1974. Kieffer, S. W., Phakey, P.P., and Christie, J.M., "Microstructural relationships of high-pressure SiO2 phases produced by shock waves in porous quartzite," 8th International Congress of Electron Microscopy, Canberra, Australia, August 1974. Kieffer, S. W., "From regolith to rock by shock," The Moon, 13, 301–320, 1975. Gibbons, R. V., Kieffer, S. W., Schaal, R. B., and Horz, F., "Experimental calibration of shock metamorphism of basalt," Proc. of Conf. on the Origins of Mare Basalts and their Implications for Lunar Evolution, 17–19 Nov. 1975, Lunar Sci. Inst., Houston, Texas, 44–48. Schaal, R., Horz, F., Gibbons, R. V., and Kieffer, S. W., "Impact melts of well characterized lunar and terrestrial basalts," Proc. of Conf. on the Origins of Mare Basalts and their Implications for Lunar Evolution, 17–19 Nov. 1975, Lunar Science Inst., 144–148. Maupome, L., Alvarez, R., Kieffer, S. W., and Dietz, R. S., "On the terrestrial origin of the Tepexitl Crater," Mexico, Meteoritics, 10 209–214, 1975. Kieffer, S.W., Phakey, P.P., and Christie, J.M., "Shock processes in porous quartzite: transmission electron microscope observations and theory," Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 59, 41–93, 1976. Kieffer, S. W., Schaal, R., Gibbons, R., Horz, F., Milton, D.J. and Dube, A., "Shocked basalts from Lonar Impact Crater (India) and experimental analogues," Proceedings, Seventh Lunar Science Conference, 1391–1412, 1976. Kerridge, J. F. and Kieffer, S. W., "A constraint on impact theories of chondrule formation," Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 35, 35–42, 1977. Kieffer, S. W., "Impact conditions required for formation of melt by jetting in silicates," Impact and Explosion Cratering, edited by D. J. Roddy, R. O. Pepin and R. B. Merrill, Pergamon, 751–769, 1977. Croft, S. K., Kieffer, S. W., and Ahrens, T. J., "Low velocity impact craters in ice and permafrost with implications for Martian crater count ages," Journal of Geophysical Research, 84, 8023–8032, 1979. Kieffer, S. W. and Simonds, C., "The role of volatiles and lithology in the impact process," Reviews of Geophysics and Space Physics, 18, 143–181, 1980. Allen, C. C., Jercinovic, M.C., See, T., Keil, K., Kieffer, S.W.and Simonds, C.H., "Comments on the paper 'Experimental shock lithification of water-bearing rock powders'," Geophysical Research Letters, 9(9), 1013–1016, 1982. Simonds, C.H., and Kieffer, Susan W., "Impact and volcanism: A momentum scaling law for erosion," Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 98 (B8), 14, pp. 321–14, 337, 1993. Alvarez, Walter, Claeys, Philippe, and Kieffer, Susan W., "Emplacement of KT-Boundary Shocked Quartz from Chicxulub Crater," Science, v. 269, 930–935, 1995. Pope, K.O., Kieffer. S.W., and Ames, D.E., "Empirical and theoretical comparisons of the Chicxulub and Sudbury impact structures", Meteoritics and Planetary Science, 39, Nr 1, 97–116, 2004.

Multiphase flow Kieffer, S. W., "Sound speed in liquid-gas mixtures: water-air and water-steam," Journal of Geophysical Research, 82, 2895–2904, 1977. Kieffer, S. W. and Delany, J., "Isentropic decompression of fluids from crustal and mantle pressures," Journal of Geophysical Research, 84, 1611–1620, 1979. Kieffer, S.W., Brown, K.L., Simmons, S.F., and Watson, A., "Measured fluid flow in an active H2O-CO2 geothermal well as an analog to fluid flow in fractures on Mars: Preliminary report, Lunar and Planetary Science Conference," #1856, 2004, 2 pages.

Planetary volcanology Zirin, H. and Werner (Kieffer), S., "Detailed analysis of flares, magnetic fields and activity in the sunspot group of September 13–26, 1963," Solar Physics, 1, 66–100, 1967. Kieffer, S. W., "Droplet chondrules," Science, 189, 330–340, 1975. Kieffer, S. W., "From regolith to rock by shock," The Moon, 13, 301–320, 1975. Smith, B. A., Shoemaker, E.M., Kieffer, S.W., and Cook, A.F., "The role of SO2 in volcanism on Io," Nature, 280, 738, 1979. Croft, S. K., Kieffer, S. W., and Ahrens, T. J., "Low velocity impact craters in ice and permafrost with implications for Martian crater count ages," Journal of Geophysical Research, 84, 8023–8032, 1979. Kieffer, S. W., "Fluid dynamics and thermodynamics of Ionian volcanism," Chapter 18 in The Satellites of Jupiter, ed. D. Morrison, 647–723, 1982. Kieffer, S. W., "Volcanoes and atmospheres," The Planetary Report, vol. V(1), 4–6, 1985. Reprinted as Kieffer, S.W., "Volcanoes and Atmospheres: Catastrophic Influences on the Planets, Earthquakes and Volcanoes," 18 (2), 76–83, 1986. Translated into Welsh as "Y Llosgfynydd a'r Awyrgylch-Dylanwadau trychinebus ar blanedau," in Y Gwyddonydd, CCBII, 125–127, 1990. Soderblom, L.A., Becker, T.L., Brown, R.H., Cook II, A.F., Hansen, C.J., Kirk, R.L., Kieffer, S.W., Shoemaker, E.M. and Johnson, T., "Triton's geyser-like plumes: discovery and basic characterization," Science, v. 250, pp. 410–415, 1990. Kirk, R.L., Soderblom, L.A., Brown, R.H., Kieffer, Susan W., and Kargel, J.S., "Triton's eruptive plumes: discovery, characteristics, and models," in Neptune and Triton, ed. D. Cruikshank, University of Arizona Press, 949–989, 1995. Kieffer, S.W., "Numerical models of caldera-scale volcanism on Earth, Venus, and Mars," Science, (invited article), v. 269, 1385–1391, 1995. McEwen, Alfred S., Lopes-Gautier, Rosaly, Kesztheilyi, Laszlo, and Kieffer, Susan W., "Extreme Volcanism on Jupiter's Moon Io," Chapter 7 in Environmental Effects of Volcanic Eruptions: From Deep Oceans to Deep Space, edited by T. Gregg and J. Zimbelman, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Netherlands. Kieffer, S.W., Rosaly Lopes-Gautier, Alfred McEwen, William Smythe, Laszlo Keszthelyi, Robert Carlson, "Prometheus, Io's Wandering Plume," Science, 288, June 19, 2000, pp. 1204–1207. Rosaly M.C. Lopes, L.W. Kamp, S. Doute, W.D. Smythe, R.W. Carlson, A.S. McEwen, P.E. Geissler, S.W. Kieffer, F.E. Leader, A.G. Davies, E. Barbinis, R. Mehlman, M. Segura, J. Shirley, L.A. Soderblom, "Io in the Near-Infrared: NIMS results from the Galileo Fly-Bys in 1999 and 2000," J. Geop. Res., 106, no. E12, pp 33, 53–78, 2001. Battaglia, Steven M., Stewart, Michael A., Kieffer, Susan W., "Io's theothermal (sulfur) - Lithosphere cycle inferred from a sulfur solubility model of Pele's magma supply," "Icarus", 235, 123–129, 2014.

Rivers Kieffer, S.W., "The 1983 hydraulic jump in Crystal Rapids: implications for river-running and geomorphic evolution in the Grand Canyon," Journal of Geology, 93(4), 385–406, 1985. Kieffer, S.W., "Hydraulics of the Rapids of the Colorado River, Grand Canyon, Arizona," a 20-minute video, U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 86–503, 1986. Kieffer, S.W., Hydraulic map of House Rock Rapids, Grand Canyon, Arizona, U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Map 1897, part A. Map size = 42"x 58", 1988. Kieffer, S.W., Hydraulic map of Lava Falls Rapids, Grand Canyon, Arizona, U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Map 1897, part J, Map size = 42"x 58", 1988. Kieffer, S.W., Hydraulic map of Hance Rapids, Grand Canyon, Arizona, U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Map 1897, part C, Map size = 42"x 58", 1988. Kieffer, S.W., Hydraulic map of Horn Creek Rapids, Grand Canyon, Arizona, U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Map 1897, part E Map size = 42"x 58", 1988. Kieffer, S.W., Hydraulic map of Crystal Rapids, Grand Canyon, Arizona, U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Map 1897, part H Map size = 42"x 58", 1988. Kieffer, S.W., "The rapids and waves of the Colorado River, Grand Canyon, Arizona," U.S. Geological Survey Open-file Report 87–96, 106 pp., 1987. Kieffer, S.W., "Geologic Nozzles," Reviews of Geophysics, 27(1), pp. 3–38, 1989. Kieffer, S.W., Graf, Julia B., and Schmidt, John C., "Hydraulics and sediment transport of the Colorado River," pp. 48–66 in Geology of Grand Canyon, Northern Arizona (with Colorado River Guides), ed. D.P. Elston, G.H Billingsley, and R.A. Young, Field Trip Guidebook T115/T315, American Geo-physical Union Publication for the 28th International Geological Congress, Washington, D.C., 1989. Graf, Julia B., Schmidt, John C., and Kieffer, S.W., "River log of the hydraulic characteristics of the Colorado River and selected rapids," pp. 37–47, in Geology of Grand Canyon, Northern Arizona (with Colorado River Guides), ed. D.P. Elston, G.H. Billingsley, and R.A. Young, Field Trip Guidebook T115/T315, American Geophysical Union Publication for the 28th International Geological Congress, Washington, D.C., 1989. Kieffer, S.W., Hydraulic map of Deubendorff Rapids, Grand Canyon, Arizona, U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Map 1897, part I. Map size = 42" x 58", 1988. Kieffer, S.W., Hydraulic map of Bright Angel Rapids, Grand Canyon, Arizona, U.S.Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Map I-1897-D, 1988 (this map bears a 1988 date, but publication was in 1989). Kieffer, S.W., Hydraulic map of Hermit Rapids, Grand Canyon, Arizona, U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Map I-1897-G, 1988 (this map bears a 1988 date, but publication was in 1989).