Margo Helen Edwards is a marine geologist known for mapping of the seafloor and hydrothermal vents. She led the 1999

SCICEX SCICEX, standing for ''Scientific Ice Expeditions'', was a five-year (1995–1999) scientific research program involving a collaboration between the U.S. Navy and academic researchers from a variety of different universities. The object of study ...

and was the first women to live aboard a United States' Navy submarine while doing under-ice research.

Education and career

Edwards has an undergraduate degree in computer science and geology from Washington University in St. Louis (1985). She then received her Ph.D. from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

where she mapped the seafloor along the

East Pacific Rise The East Pacific Rise is a mid-ocean rise (termed an oceanic rise and not a mid-ocean ridge due to its higher rate of spreading that results in less elevation increase and more regular terrain), a divergent tectonic plate boundary located along ...

. She joined UH in 1991 as a senior research scientist, served as the director of Hawai'i Mapping Research Group and the director of the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...

's National Center for Island, Maritime and Extreme Environment Security (CIMES). As of 2021, she is the director of the Applied Research Laboratory. Edwards served as the chair of the

University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System The University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) is a group of academic institutions and National Laboratories organized in the United States to coordinate research vessel use for federally funded ocean research. Authority The UNOLS ...

(UNOLS)'s Arctic Icebreaker Coordinating Committee from 2004 until 2007.

Research

Edwards' research centers on the development of high resolution maps, and analysis of photographic and acoustic data. In 1988, while she was at Washington University, Edwards assembled the ETOPO5 5-minute map of land and seafloor elevations. During her graduate work she developed maps of the seafloor in the Pacific Ocean, including the seafloor at the

, where she detailed its shape and the locations of

hydrothermal vents A hydrothermal vent is a fissure on the seabed from which geothermally heated water discharges. They are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at mid-ocean ridges, ocean basins, and hotspot ...

. Edwards led the Hawai'i Mapping Research Group which developed the

HAWAII MR1 The HAWAII MR1 is a seafloor imaging system developed by the Hawaii Mapping Research Group (HMRG) in 1991. HAWAII MR1 is short for HIGP (Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology) Acoustic Wide Angle Imaging Instrument, Mapping Researcher 1. T ...

, an instrument that allows high resolution imaging of the seafloor, and was used to map the features of the

Sirena Deep The Sirena Deep, originally named the HMRG Deep, was discovered in 1997 by a team of scientists from Hawaii. Its directly measured depth of is third only to the Challenger Deep and Horizon Deep, currently the deepest known directly measured ...

, one of the deepest places in the worlds' ocean. Edwards was the first woman to live aboard a Navy nuclear submarine during under-ice operations. When Edwards received funding to look at the Arctic, women were not permitted to live aboard a submarine while it was at sea. In her 2020 book,

Rita Colwell Rita Rossi Colwell (born November 23, 1934) is an American environmental microbiologist and scientific administrator. Colwell holds degrees in bacteriology, genetics, and oceanography and studies infectious diseases. Colwell is the founder and C ...

, the former head of the United States'

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

, described her conversation with Admiral Paul Gaffney about the Navy's concerns but Colwell prevailed. In 1999, during the

project, Edwards spent thirteen days on the USS Hawkbill where she found evidence of climate change in the Arctic, including thinning sea ice, volcanoes on the seafloor, and warm water moving into the Arctic from the Atlantic Ocean. This research has also expanded the maps of the Arctic's seafloor which allows investigations into understanding of physical processes in the region. Her work in Hawaii uses time-lapse photographs of military munitions disposed at sea at the end of World War II. Edwards' research informed the discussion on the potential

destruction of chemical weapons Throughout history, chemical weapons have been used as strategic weaponry to devastate the enemy in times of war. After the mass destruction created by WWI and WWII, chemical weapons have been considered to be inhumane by most nations, and governme ...

as she noted the munitions should remain on the seafloor. Edward's group at the University of Hawaii obtained

top secret Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to know, ...

clearance for Navy Research in 2018 because of their projects on data analysis, drone research, waste disposal, renewable energy, and cybersecurity. At the same time, she opens her group to the public by running camps to train people on how to fly personal drones.

Selected publications

* * * *

Awards and honors

In 2007, Edwards received the Distinguished Public Service Award from Admiral

Thad Allen Thad William Allen (born 16 January 1949) is a former admiral of the United States Coast Guard who served as the 23rd commandant from 2006 to 2010. Allen is best known for his widely praised"Coast Guard's Chief of Staff To Assist FEMA Head Br ...

when he was the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. She was named Honolulu's scientist of the year in 2009 by the ARCS program (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Margo Columbia University alumni University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa faculty Living people Women geologists Year of birth missing (living people)