Christine Siddoway facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Christine Siddoway
Born	(1961-12-26)December 26, 1961
Nationality	American
Other names	Christine Helen Smith, Christine H. Smith, Christine Smith Siddoway
Alma mater	BSc Carleton College, 1984 MSc University of Arizona, 1987 PhD University of California-Santa Barbara, 1995
Awards	Fellow of the Geological Society of America Member of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society Antarctic Service Medal
Scientific career
Fields	Structural geology Tectonics
Institutions	Colorado College

Christine Siddoway is an American scientist who studies the Earth. She is famous for her work in Antarctica. Christine explores the geology (how rocks and land are formed) and tectonics (how the Earth's crust moves) of a place called the Ford Ranges. This area is in western Marie Byrd Land in Antarctica.

She also found clues about ancient ice ages. These clues show how big the West Antarctic Ice Sheet was long ago. She found these clues by studying rocks carried by icebergs into the Amundsen Sea.

Becoming a Geologist

Christine Siddoway went to Carleton College and finished her first degree in 1984. She then earned a master's degree from the University of Arizona in 1987. Later, she studied at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She received her PhD in 1995.

For her PhD, she studied a special rock formation in Antarctica. It was the only known gneiss dome in Antarctica. This dome is found in the Fosdick Mountains in Marie Byrd Land. She started her Antarctic research there as a student.

Exploring Antarctica and Beyond

Christine Siddoway has spent a lot of time doing research in Antarctica. Since 1989, she has been on 12 field trips there. Her work also includes lab studies and mapping.

Uncovering Earth's Secrets

Early in her career, she studied rocks in Marie Byrd Land. She wanted to know how deep rocks came to the surface. Her research showed that these rocks moved up quickly. This happened because of a mix of pushing and pulling forces in the Earth's crust. She helped explain how these rock domes form. Her work showed how the landmass of Marie Byrd Land became stable.

In 2009, Christine helped start the SCAR ANTscape project. This project helps scientists map Antarctica's hidden land. This map is important for understanding how the Antarctic ice sheet formed. She also helped create Antarctic GeoMap.

Funding Important Research

The National Science Foundation in the U.S. has supported Christine's work. She has received ten grants over 22 years. One recent project was called ROSETTA-Ice. This project studied the Ross Ice Shelf and the area around it. They used special airplanes and ground tools to gather information. Many women scientists were part of this project.

Research in Colorado

Besides Antarctica, Christine also studies the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. She made a surprising discovery there. She found out the age of certain sandstone rocks. These rocks were found inside older granite. This discovery helps us understand "The Great Unconformity" in Colorado. This is a huge gap in the rock record.

Current Projects

Christine Siddoway is currently working on several projects. These include:

• Studying how ice sheets interact with warm areas under the Earth.
• Researching the history of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the Amundsen Sea.
• Looking at ancient rock records from a supercontinent called Rodinia.
• Testing ideas about how the West Antarctic Ice Sheet might collapse.

Serving the Scientific Community

Christine has also helped lead important science groups. She was an editor for the Geological Society of America's magazine. She also helped organize big meetings about Antarctic Earth Sciences.

Awards and Recognition

Christine Siddoway has received many honors for her work:

• In 2009, she became a fellow of the Geological Society of America.
• She received the Antarctica Service Medal in 2003.
• In 2021, she joined Sigma Xi, a science honor society.
• She received a Fulbright Post-doctoral Research Fellowship in Italy in 1995.

Selected Works

• Cox, S.C., Smith Lyttle, B., Elkind, S., Siddoway, C., Morin, P., Capponi, G., Abu-Alam, T. and 22 others, 2023, A continent-wide detailed geological map dataset of Antarctica, Nature Scientific Data, 10, 250, .
• Tikoff, B., Siddoway, C., Sokoutis, D., and Willingshofer, E., 2022, The lithospheric folding model applied to the Bighorn uplift during the Laramide orogeny, in Craddock, J.P., et al., eds., Geological Society of America Special Paper 555, .
• Tankersley, M., Horgan, H., Siddoway, C., Caratori Tontini, F., and Tinto K., 2022, Basement topography and sediment thickness beneath Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf, Geophysical Research Letters, .
• Siddoway, C.S., 2021, Geology of West Antarctica (Chapter 3, pp. 87–131), in Geology of the Antarctic Continent; Stuttgart: Schweizerbart Science Publishers, ISBN 978-3-443-11034-5.
• Siddoway, C.S., 2020, Antarctica, in Encyclopedia of Geology, 2nd edition, Amsterdam: Academic Press, .
• Jordan, T.A., Riley, T.R. and Siddoway, C., 2020, Geology of West Antarctica, Nature Reviews Earth and Environment, https://rdcu.be/b0OL8 .
• Flowers, R. M., Macdonald, FA., Siddoway, C.S., and Havranek, R., 2020, Diachronous development of the Great Unconformity prior to Snowball Earth, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
• Siddoway, C., Palladino, G., Prosser, G., Freedman, D., and Duckworth, W. C., 2019, Basement-hosted sand injectites: Use of field examples to advance understanding of hydrocarbon reservoirs in fractured basement rocks, in Bowman, M. (ed.), Subsurface Sand Remobilization and Injection, Geol. Society of London Special Publication 493,
• Tinto, K. J., Padman, L., Siddoway, C.S., and 15 others, 2019, Ross Ice Shelf response to climate driven by the tectonic imprint on seafloor bathymetry, Nature Geoscience, 12, 441–449,
• Colleoni, F., De Santis, L., Siddoway, C.S., Bergamasco, A., Golledge, N., Lohmann, G., Passchier, S. and Siegert, M., 2018, Spatio-temporal variability of processes across Antarctic ice-bed-ocean interfaces, Nature Communications, v. 9, 2289, https://rdcu.be/ZLBl .
• Jensen, J.L,. Siddoway, C. S., Reiners, P.W., Ault, A.K., Thomson, S.N. and Steele-MacInnis, M., 2018, Single-crystal hematite (U-Th)/He dates and fluid inclusions document widespread Cryogenian sand injection in crystalline basement, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 500, 145–155,
• Siddoway, C.S., 2010 "Microplate motion" Nature Geoscience: 3(4),pp. 225–226.
• Siddoway, C. S., 2008 "Tectonics of the West Antarctic Rift System: new light on the history and dynamics of distributed intracontinental extension." Antarctica: A Keystone in a Changing World: 91–114.
• Siddoway, C.S., Baldwin, S.L., Fitzgerald, P.G., Fanning, C.M. and Luyendyk, B.P., 2004. Ross Sea mylonites and the timing of intracontinental extension within the West Antarctic rift system. Geology, 32 (1), pp. 57–60.