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To me, Volcanism is important
to study

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because it is one of the most
common and fundamental geologic

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processes that occurs in our
solar system.

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It's a window into

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the history of our own planet,

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of the moon,

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and the other planets and moons
in our solar system.

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My name is Brent Garry, and I
am a Geologist at NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center.

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I specialize in planetary
volcanology,

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so it's my job to study the
evolution of volcanoes and lava
flows

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in our solar system -- primarily
on the Earth, the Moon, and
Mars.

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What we're trying to answer is:
How did these volcanoes evolve
over time?

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When did they erupt?

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And kind of, what went on
during the eruption process
itself?

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When we get images back

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from the moon of these long,
meandering depressions, called
Sinuous Rilles,

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that look like rivers here on
Earth -- you know, we want to
understand:

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Are these the remnants of
collapsed lava tubes?

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Did the lava carve its way into
the surface of the moon to
leave these giant channels?

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Or in the case of Mars, the
debate is whether or not

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these were carved by water, or
fluvial activity, or if they
were carved by lava flows, or
volcanic activity.

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One of the best ways to answer
these questions is by

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comparing the information and
data we get back from the Moon
and Mars to

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geologic features that we have
right here on Earth.

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One of the exciting parts of my
job is I get to travel around
the world.

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I get to go to New Mexico,
Hawaii, even Iceland to do my
research.

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I love this part of my job
because I get to I hike up
volcanoes all day,

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we're hiking around desolate,
you know, fields of lava,

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we're taking helicopter rides
over these flow fields,

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we're looking at active lava
flows that are going on,

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and even collecting samples of
these features to study.

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"Taadaa! Don't try this at home
kids."

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Our field team uses a wide
range of instruments to do our
work.

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We use things like a
Differential GPS,

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which gives us the topography
of the lava flows.

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We use a Ground-penetrating
radar,

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which allows us to see in the
subsurface of the flow field.

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And we also use a thermal
imaging camera

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which allows us to see the
differences in temperature
across an active lava flow.

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A lot of people might think
that studying geology is just
looking at boring rocks all day.

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But my job here at NASA proves
that geology is an adventure.

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It takes you around the world