Michelle Tebolt

Visiting Assistant Professor of Earth Science
Pictured: Michelle Tebolt. A person with long blonde hair and blue shirt standing outside smiling in front of a NASA logo sign.

Michelle Tebolt's PhD dissertation focused on Martian fluvial (river) processes that occurred ~3.8 billion years ago when there was liquid water on the surface to consider the question: How has water influenced the surface of Mars? Or more specifically: Where were the past liquid water reservoirs on Mars and how long did they persist?

To answer these questions, Mciehlle uses remote sensing data of the Martian surface at different scales (e.g. satellite and rover imagery) as well as field work of terrestrial analogs to study fluvial sedimentary rocks. These rocks preserve evidence of the ancient aqueous processes and can be used to interpret information about the paleoenvironment such as direction and depth of water flow. Water is considered a requirement for life, so locations beyond Earth that have or had an abundance of water are particularly compelling to study from an astrobiology perspective.

Michelle's professional highlights over the last few years include participating and publishing with the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover team, as well as obtaining her remote pilots license and leading a field excursion to capture done images of sedimentary outcrop in Utah in 2023 as the remote pilot in command.

BA, Colgate University; PhD, The University of Texas at Austin
At Vassar since 2023

Contact

Ely Hall
Box 750

Research and Academic Interests

Sedimentology/Stratigraphy
Remote Sensing
Planetary Geoscience
Mars Fluvial History

Departments and Programs

Courses

Fall 2024

  • Sedimentology

Spring 2025

  • Geomorphology, Planetary Geoscience/Mars Sedimentology

Selected Publications

Tebolt, Michelle, Kathryn Stack Morgan, Timothy A. Goudge, Libby R. W. Ives, Sanjeev Gupta, Robert Barnes, Gwénaël Caravaca. “Characterizing the Facies and Stratigraphy of the Enchanted Lake Outcrop in Jezero Crater, Mars”. (in review for JGR Planets), submitted Dec. 2023 
 
Stack, Kathryn, L. Ives, S. Gupta, M. Lamb, M. Tebolt, G. Caravaca, J. Grotzinger, P. Russell, D.Shuster, A. Williams, H.E.F. Amundsen, S. Alwmark, A. Annex, R.Barnes, J. Bell, O. Beyssac, Tanja, L. Crumpler, E. Dehouck, R. Wiens. “Sedimentology and Stratigraphy of the Shenandoah Formation, Western Fan, Jezero Crater, Mars.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. 129. Feb. 2024 https://doi.org /10.1029/2023JE008187. 
 
Tebolt, Michelle, and Timothy A. Goudge. “Global Investigation of Martian Sedimentary Fan Features: Using Stratigraphic Analysis to Study Depositional Environment”. Icarus, Sept. 2021, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2021.114718. 
 
Levy, Joseph S., Caleb I. Fassett, John W. Holt, Reid Parsons, Will Cipolli, Timothy A. Goudge, Michelle Tebolt, Lily Kuentz, Jessica Johnson, Fairuz Ishraque, Bronson Cvijanovich, and Ian Armstrong “Surface Boulder Banding Indicates Martian Debris-Covered Glaciers Formed over Multiple Glaciations.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 118, no. 4, Jan. 2021. www.pnas.orghttps://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2015971118. 
 
Tebolt, Michelle., J. Levy, T. Goudge, and N. Schorghofer, “Slope, elevation, and thermal inertia trends of martian recurring slope lineae initiation and termination points: Multiple possible processes occurring on coarse, sandy slopes.” 2020 Icarushttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2019.113536.

Grants, Fellowships, Honors, Awards

UT Austin Graduate School Continuing Fellowship (2022-2023)