Author Profile: M C Morton

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Mary Caperton Morton

Biography

Mary Caperton Morton is a freelance science and travel writer specializing in geophysics, hydrology, and mountaineering. Her book, Aerial Geology: A High Altitude Tour of North America’s Spectacular Volcanoes, Canyons, Glaciers, Lakes, Craters and Peaks, was published by Timber Press in 2017. In her 13 years as a seasonally nomadic freelancer, she has hiked in all 50 states; climbed hundreds of mountains; and written for numerous publications including Eos, Earth, Science News, The Last Word on Nothing, and her blog, Travels with the Blonde Coyote. When she’s not at the keyboard, she’s outside, exploring the Sierras from her home base in the foothills of Sequoia National Forest in California.

Publications from M. C. Morton

Hydrology, Cryosphere & Earth Surface

A springtime satellite view of the five Great Lakes shows the snowline roughly following the U.S.–Canadian border.

News 18 May 2020

Long Live the Laurentian Great Lakes

Living in Geologic Time: Billion-year-old rifting events set the stage for Earth’s greatest lakes.

Hydrology, Cryosphere & Earth Surface

Two dozen alligators gather in clusters in a swampy area of Everglades National Park

Feature 27 March 2020

Lost in the Everglades

Living in Geologic Time: An unintentional adventure in the River of Grass shows how Florida has changed dramatically over 15,000 years of human habitation.

Hydrology, Cryosphere & Earth Surface

Ears of corn wither on parched stalks

News 26 March 2020

Predicting Fast Moving Flash Droughts

A cross-disciplinary consortium of scientists works to monitor droughts that develop in as little as 2 weeks—whose frequencies are predicted to increase with climate change.

Hydrology, Cryosphere & Earth Surface

News 20 March 2020

Rastreando Los Misteriosos Manantiales Del Gran Cañón

Mejorar los modelos ayudará a proteger una fuente crucial de agua potable para ambos bordes del Parque Nacional del Gran Cañón.

Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Volcanology

Two brothers equipped with backpacks and ice axes stand on the summit of Mount Adams (3,743 meters), admiring their next objective: Mount Rainier (4,392 meters), the tallest and most challenging of the Cascade volcanoes.

Feature 27 February 2020

Climbing the Occasionally Cataclysmic Cascades

Living in Geologic Time: Every one of the Pacific Northwest’s volatile volcanoes is likely to erupt again before the range goes extinct.

Hydrology, Cryosphere & Earth Surface

A pipeline stretches across a flowing river in a small canyon.

News 24 February 2020

Tracking the Grand Canyon’s Mysterious Springs

Improved modeling will help protect a crucial drinking water source for both rims of Grand Canyon National Park.

Geology & Geophysics

Satellite image of the Strait of Juan de Fuca

News 18 February 2020

Fluid Pressure Changes Grease Cascadia’s Slow Aseismic Earthquakes

Twenty-five years’ worth of data allows scientists to suss out subtle signals deep in subduction zones.

Hydrology, Cryosphere & Earth Surface

Carved Assyrian tablet with winged figures kneeling before a tree and cuneiform script beneath

News 15 January 2020

Megadrought Helped Topple the Assyrian Empire

Paleoclimate records shed light on the ancient civilization’s meteoric rise and catastrophic collapse.

Atmospheric Sciences

Orange and red shading on map denotes higher levels of nitrogen oxide clusters around lignite power plants in Germany.

News 2 January 2020

Pinpointing Emission Sources from Space

Satellite data combined with wind models bring scientists one step closer to being able to monitor air pollution from space.

Hydrology, Cryosphere & Earth Surface

The Nile River flows through the metropolis of Cairo, Egypt.

News 27 December 2019

The Eternal Nile Is Even More Ancient Than We Thought

Deep-mantle flow helps maintain the river’s steady course.