Research
Interests
Dr.
Jack Holt employs airborne geophysical techniques to study
ice-covered regions of Earth and Mars. He has led five field
expeditions to Antarctica since 1998 using a multi-instrumented Twin
Otter to map the ice and features buried
beneath the ice. In early 2007 Holt was selected as a
Participating Scientist on the SHARAD
instrument team of Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter.
In Antarctica, Holt is using airborne gravity and magnetics in conjunction with
subglacial topography from radar sounding to delineate crustal boundaries
and characterize active tectonics in the Amundsen Sea Embayment of
West Antarctica. The glaciers of this basin appear to be losing more
mass as a result of climate change than any others in Antarctica.
The basin is also characterized by the highest estimated geothermal
flux in Antarctica, so the ice dynamical response to the geological
boundary conditions of this region may dictate West Antarctica's contribution
to global sea level change.
He is also using airborne geophysics in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica
to develop radar analysis techniques for similar environments on Mars.
The primary data set for this project was collected using a 60 MHz
(5-meter wavelength) radar sounder, a result of the Advanced Technology Radar Sounding (ATRS)
project at UTIG. This work contributes to the effort to find subsurface water on Mars, which is the
highest priority for NASA and ESA missions with the goal of finding
evidence for current or past life on the red planet.
Related to
these activities, Dr. Holt is pursuing the use of radar sounding for
hydrology in temperate climates. Through a Jackson School of
Geosciences Seed Grant, he is developing ground-penetrating radar
techniques for characterizing conduits, including caves, in karst
environments.
And not to
leave anything out, Holt is currently upgrading the
paleomagnetism
laboratory at the University of Texas.
Current Research Projects
Publications (refereed)
Diehl, T. M., J. W.
Holt, D. D. Blankenship, D. A. Young, T. A. Jordan, and F.
Ferraccioli, First airborne gravity results over the Thwaites Glacier
catchment, West Antarctica, Geochem., Geophys., Geosyst.,
(in press), 2008
Carter, S., D.D. Blankenship, M.E. Peters, D.A. Young, J.W. Holt,
and D.L. Morse, Radar-based subglacial lake classification in
Antarctica, Geochemistry,
Geophysics, Geosystems,
8, doi:10.1029/2006GC001408, 2007
Peters,
M.E., D.D. Blankenship, S.P. Carter, D.A. Young, S.D. Kempf and J.W.
Holt, Along-Track Focusing of Airborne Radar Sounding Data From West
Antarctica for Improving Basal Reflection Analysis and Layer Detection,
IEEE Transactions On Geoscience and Remote Sensing, in
press.
Peters, M.E., D.D. Blankenship, D.E. Smith, J.W.
Holt and S.D. Kempf, The
Distribution and Classification of Bottom Crevasses from Radar Sounding
of a Large Tabular Iceberg, IEEE Geoscience and Remote
Sensing Letters, 4 (1), p. 142-146, doi:10.1109/LGRS.2006.887057,
2007
Holt, J.W.,
T.G. Richter, S.D. Kempf, D.L. Morse, and D.D. Blankenship, Airborne
gravity over Lake Vostok and adjacent highlands, East Antarctica,
Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 7,
Q11012, doi:10.1029/2005GC001177, 2006.
Holt, J.W.,
D.D. Blankenship, D.L. Morse, D.A. Young, M.E. Peters, S.D. Kempf, T.G.
Richter, D.G. Vaughan, and H.F.J. Corr, New Boundary Conditions for the
West Antarctic Ice Sheet: Subglacial Topography of the Thwaites and
Smith Glacier Catchments. Geophysical Research Letters,
33, L09502, doi:10.1029/2005GL025561, 2006.
Holt, J.W.,
M.E. Peters, S.D. Kempf, D.L. Morse, and D.D. Blankenship, Echo Source
Discrimination in Single-Pass Airborne Radar Sounding Data from the Dry
Valleys, Antarctica: Implications for Orbital Sounding of Mars.
Journal of Geophysical Research, 111, E06S24,
doi:10.1029/2005JE002525, 2006.
Holt, J.W.,
M.E. Peters, D.L. Morse, D.D. Blankenship, L.E. Lindzey, J.L. Kavanaugh,
and K.M. Cuffey, Identifying and Characterizing Subsurface Echoes in
Airborne Radar Sounding Data From a High-Clutter Environment in Taylor
Valley, Antarctica, Eleventh International Conference on Ground
Penetrating Radar, 19-22 June, 2006, Columbus, Ohio, 5 pp.., 2006.
Vaughan, D.G.,
H.F.J. Corr, F. Ferraccioli, N. Frearson, A. O'Hare, D. Mach, J.W.
Holt, D.D. Blankenship, D.L. Morse, and D.A. Young, New boundary
conditions for the West Antarctic ice sheet: Subglacial topography
beneath Pine Island Glacier, Geophysical Research Letters,
33, L09501, doi:10.1029/2005GL025588, 2006.
Filina, I.Y, D.D.
Blankenship, L. Roy, M.K. Sen, T.G. Richter and J.W. Holt,
Acquisition and analysis of airborne gravity data over subglacial lakes
in East Antarctica, in: Futterer, D.K., D. Damaske, G. Kleinschmidt,
H. Miller, F. Tessensohn, eds., Antarctica: Contributions to Global
Earth Sciences, Springer Publishing House, Berlin Heidelberg
New York, pp. 129-134, 2006.
Studinger, M., R.E.
Bell, G.D. Karner, A.A. Tikku, J.W. Holt, D.L. Morse, T.G.
Richter, S.D. Kempf, M.E. Peters, D.D. Blankenship, Ice cover, landscape
setting, and geological framework of Lake Vostok, East Antarctica.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 205(3-4): pp. 195-210, 2003.
Richter, T.G.,
J.W. Holt, and D.D. Blankenship, Airborne Gravimetry Over The
Antarctic Ice Sheet, in Proceedings of the International Symposium on
Kinematic Systems in Geodesy, Geomatics and Navigation, Banff,
Canada, 2001.
Holt, J.W.,
E.W. Holt, and J.M. Stock, An age constraint on Gulf of California
rifting from the Boleo Copper District, Baja California Sur, Mexico,
GSA Bulletin, v. 112(4), pp. 540-549, 2000.
Holt, J.W.,
J.L. Kirschvink and F. Garnier, Geomagnetic field inclinations for the
past 400 kyr from the 1 km core of the Hawaii Scientific Drilling
Project, Journal of Geophysical Research, 101 (B5), pp.
11,655-11,663, 1996.
Holt, J.W.
and J.L. Kirschvink, The upper Olduvai reversal from Death Valley,
California: A fold test of transitional directions, Earth and
Planetary Science Letters, 133, pp. 475-491, 1995.
Quidelleur, X.,
J. Holt, and J.P. Valet, Confounding influence of magnetic fabric on
sedimentary records of a field reversal, Nature, 374, pp.
246-249, 1995.
Kwok, R., E.J.M.
Rignot, J. Way, A. Freeman and J. Holt, Polarization signatures
of frozen and thawed forests of varying environmental state, IEEE
Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 32 (2), pp. 371-381,
1994.
Jack's UTIG Publications (List)
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