Hi, I’m Mara—your friendly hydrothermal zealot. I earned a PhD in earth and planetary science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2025. Geysers are my thing. Specific interests include the triggering mechanisms for geyser reactivation and dormancy, the controls on eruption intervals, and deploying and managing the data from monitoring systems.

I have been hooked on “geyser gazing” since my teens and have strong ties with Yellowstone’s geyser enthusiast community. Their collective knowledge often motivates and informs my research. One of my goals is to connect other geyser researchers to this community, so I volunteer for GeyserTimes, a crowdsourced database of geyser eruptions. I am passionate about meaningful collaboration between communities that interact with natural resources, the scientists that study them, and the agencies that manage them.

In my free time, I pursue cave photography, hike, dabble in geyser history projects, and find any excuse to eat at Taco Bell.

Contact

E-mail: reed.mara.h[at]gmail.com

Bluesky: @geyserite