Hunter Jamison

Hunter Jamison

I'm a low temperature geochemist/isotope eco-hydrologist!

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Posts

2 Sunrises, 1 Village

13 minute read

Published:

Introduction

Ultra running is hard. What I love about this sport that simultaneously scares me too is that there is no way to run away from the pain of it. Like a law set in stone, discomfort in ultra running is a given that will find you no matter what you do, and that’s okay. It is this discomfort that makes each race, each distance, a puzzle to be solved. Some days that puzzle may be straightforward. Other times, that puzzle will bury you. My first step into the world of 100 milers presented me with a puzzle that deeply humbled me, hurt me, and gratified me. I missed both my major goals for this race, totally messed up my nutrition, and went out way too hot on legs that clearly were not up to reaching my “A” goal. Yet, for a day that I think could be marred by unaccomplished goals, it instead was defined by compassion and drive from a village of support.

Virgil Crest 50 Race Recap

33 minute read

Published:

It’s funny how you can have so many thoughts about a race but once you go to write them down, you have no clue what to say. Virgil Crest Ultras was a race I signed up for kind of last minute (about 2 to maybe 3 weeks out of race day), but had been on my radar for about 2 months. I was looking for a race to use in my build up for Rio Del Lago in November to test my overall fitness and see if I was still on track for my goals. Virgil Crest 50 fit this aim for a few reasons. One, it’s about 6 weeks out from Rio Del Lago. I felt that this gave me a good shot to push myself with ample time to recover should I blow up at the race and need more time to entirely recoup. Two, I haven’t ‘raced’ an ultra marathon or even a marathon since I started grad school. Putting myself back into a position to race before Rio felt important to shake out the cobwebs and to (hopefully) gain some confidence. Third, and somewhat related to two, I often times feel like I don’t even know what I’m doing when it comes to setting my goals and shooting for them when it comes to running. Maybe I just lack confidence, but I have no clue how hard it is to run 100 miles in 18 hours. To be honest, that goal for Rio felt fast, ambitious, but attainable (a ‘goal’ if you will lol). I don’t know if it is going to be a stretch with my fitness to run that time or if that is well within my wheelhouse. My goals for both Rio and Virgil revolve around time, but those times historically have lead to podium finishes at both of these events. That intimidates me. I don’t think of myself as a very fast runner. A quick runner, yes, but out of my element when competing with those going for podiums and wins. It is a different mentality to compete against other runners than it is to solely compete against yourself.

Winter Sampling of the Finger Lakes

2 minute read

Published:

After 3 days and a stressful snowy drive home from Conesus, I am happy to say that my lab and I successfully sampled 11 finger lakes and 16 tributaries! It was a ton of work, but we’re stoked to see what the data tells us.

projects

Finger Lakes Response to Changing Precipitation Regimes

The Northeastern United States has broadly been seeing a decrease in snowfall, with an increase in rainfall since about the 1980s. The Finger Lakes, which hold water for relatively short time periods, are uniquely positioned to show how this change in preciptiation regimes affect not just water quality, but also how sensitive Central New York is to a ever evolving hydraulic regime. My work here focuses on how we can detect these changes using chemical and physical analyses.

Coupling Groundwater Residence Times with Geochemical Tracers

Understanding controls on chemistry in streams has been a key focus of research in Critical Zone science for some time now. While a growing understanding has emerged pointing towards water-rock interactions as a primary control on stream water chemistry, both the fields of hydrology and low temperature geochemistry have different reasons as to why. Here, we are attempting to look at geochemical tracers and groundwater ages to see how well both correlate with regards to controlling observable stream chemistry

publications

Subsurface Insights from the Cornell University Borehole Observatory (CUBO): A 3km Deep Exploratory Well for Advancing Earth Source Heat Deep Direct-Use Geothermal for District Heating

Published in Proceedings of the 49th Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering, Stanford, CA, USA, 2024

Motivated by Cornell University’s aspiration to use geothermal heat to replace fossil fuels to heat campus buildings, a 3-km deep geothermal exploratory well, the Cornell University Borehole Observatory (CUBO), was drilled on the Ithaca, NY campus in the summer of 2022. CUBO extends through largely low porosity and low permeability Paleozoic sedimentary rocks…

Recommended citation: Fulton, P; Clairmont, R; Fulcher, S; Pinilla, D; Purwamaska, I; Jamison, H; Fresonke, M; Puthur, R; Torres, J; Heaton, T; et al (February 2024, https://pangea.stanford.edu/ERE/) https://pangea.stanford.edu/ERE/

Rapid response of stream dissolved phosphorus concentrations to wildfire smoke

Published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment, 2024

Wildfires can produce large plumes of smoke that are transported across vast distances, altering nutrient cycling of undisturbed watersheds exposed downwind. To date, wildfire smoke influence on stream biogeochemical signatures remains an important knowledge gap…

Recommended citation: Fernandez, N.M., Jamison, H.T. & Gold, Z. Rapid response of stream dissolved phosphorus concentrations to wildfire smoke., Commun Earth Environ 5, 562 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01732-w

talks

Traceable Climate Change and its Impact on the Finger Lakes region of New York: Early Interpretations and Potential Consequences on Long- Term Biogeochemical Cycles

Published:

Presented on how snow to rain climatic transitions are being observed with isotopes and concentration-discharge relationships. The key implication being, that as the Finger Lakes observe increased rainfall, we can expect to see their isotopic composition become more enriched overtime, and that nutrient loading into the lakes should also increase overtime.