Terry Jean Wilson (born 1954) is an international leader in the study of present-day

tectonics Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents k ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. She has led large, international efforts, such as Polar Earth Observing Network (POLENET), to investigate the interactions between the

Earth's crust Earth's crust is Earth's thin outer shell of rock, referring to less than 1% of Earth's radius and volume. It is the top component of the lithosphere, a division of Earth's layers that includes the crust and the upper part of the mantle. The ...

and the

cryosphere ] The cryosphere (from the Ancient Greek, Greek ''kryos'', "cold", "frost" or "ice" and ''sphaira'', "globe, ball") is an all-encompassing term for those portions of Earth's surface where water is in solid form, including sea ice, lake ice, ri ...

in Antarctica.

Early life and education

Wilson received her BS from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and Ph.D. from Lamont Doherty Geological Observatory and Columbia University in 1983.

Career and impact

Wilson is based at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

, where she investigates the Earth's structural architecture, the interaction between

ice sheets In glaciology, an ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacial ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than . The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland; during the Last Glacial Period at La ...

in Antarctica and the solid Earth, and neotectonic

rift In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-grabe ...

ing. Her research integrates satellite

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring information about Earth ...

Global Positioning System The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

s, both airborne and marine

geophysical Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' som ...

data and microstructural and structural mapping of faults in

sedimentary Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic matter, organic particles at Earth#Surface, Earth's surface, followed by cementation (geology), cementation. Sedimentati ...

and

outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficial ...

rock cores.

Awards and honors

Wilson has held several high-profile leadership positions in Antarctic Science: * Vice President of th
Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
(SCAR). * USA's delegate to SCAR, serving as VP. * Chief Officer of SCARs Scientific research programme, ‘Solid Earth Response and influence on Cryosphere Evolution’ (SERCE). * Leader of the geoscience component of the first Antarctic Science Horizon Scan. * Principal Investigator of POLENET, a major Antarctic programme devoted to observing the

polar regions The polar regions, also called the frigid zones or polar zones, of Earth are the regions of the planet that surround its geographical poles (the North and South Poles), lying within the polar circles. These high latitudes are dominated by float ...

and investigating ice sheet behaviour in a changing world.

Selected works

*Wilson, T.J., 1999. Cenozoic structural segmentation of the Transantarctic Mountains rift flank in southern Victoria Land. ''Global and Planetary Change'',''23''(1), pp. 105–127. *Wilson, T.J., Grunow, A.M. and Hanson, R.E., 1997. Gondwana assembly: the view from southern Africa and East Gondwana. ''Journal of Geodynamics'',''23''(3), pp. 263–286. *Fielding, C.R., Whittaker, J., Henrys, S.A., Wilson, T.J. and Naish, T.R., 2008. Seismic facies and stratigraphy of the Cenozoic succession in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica: Implications for tectonic, climatic and glacial history. ''Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology'', ''260''(1), pp. 8–29. *Lough, A.C., Wiens, D.A., Barcheck, C.G., Anandakrishnan, S., Aster, R.C., Blankenship, D.D., Huerta, A.D., Nyblade, A., Young, D.A. and Wilson, T.J., 2013. Seismic detection of an active subglacial magmatic complex in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. ''Nature Geoscience'', ''6''(12), pp. 1031–1035. *Kennicutt, M.C., Chown, S.L., Cassano, J.J., Liggett, D., Massom, R., Peck, L.S., Rintoul, S.R., Storey, J.W.V., Vaughan, D.G., Wilson, T.J. and Sutherland, W.J., 2014. Six priorities for Antarctic science. ''Nature'',''512''(7512), pp. 23–25.

References

External links

Terry Wilson's webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Terry American geologists 1954 births Living people University of Michigan alumni Columbia University alumni American Antarctic scientists Ohio State University faculty Women Antarctic scientists American women geologists American women academics 21st-century American women scientists