Ashton Flinders

Ashton F. Flinders (born 1981) is an American geophysicist, volcanologist, and oceanographer. Flinders is currently a research scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory in Hilo, Hawaiʻi and leads the observatory's volcano gravity monitoring program. His interests lie at the cross section of crustal geophysics and ocean mapping, exploration and characterization, with an emphasis on the properties and structure of magma reservoirs. Flinders is a USGS Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellowship Program and Presidential Management Fellows Program alumnus.
==Education==
Flinders is a native of Los Angeles, California. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin–River Falls in 2005 with Bachelor of Science degrees in chemistry and applied physics. In 2009, he received a Master of Science in geophysics from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. In 2014, he received a second Master of Science in ocean engineering focused on ocean mapping from the University of New Hampshire's Center for Coastal & Ocean Mapping. At UNH CCOM his research advisor was Larry Mayer and Flinders' research focused on evaluation of multibeam sonar mapping data in the Arctic Ocean in support of the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf Project . In 2016, Flinders received a Doctor of Philosophy in geological oceanography from the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography, with a research emphasis on modeling the geologic properties beneath volcanoes using gravity and seismic tomography. 
==Career==
Since 2016, Flinders has worked for the U.S. Geological Survey's Volcano Science Center. Between 2016-2019, Flinders was stationed at the California Volcano Observatory in Menlo Park, California as a Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellowship Program fellow. While at the California Volcano Observatory he modeled the quantity of magma beneath the Long Valley Caldera, showing that the caldera's magma reservoir is still melt-rich and capable of supporting a supereruption comparable to the caldera-forming eruption at 767 ka. Flinders was one of a number of volcano scientists who was sent to Hawaiʻi to respond to the 2018 lower Puna eruption of Kīlauea.
In 2019, Flinders was awarded a Presidential Management Fellowship, and transferred to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Flinders oversees the observatory's volcano gravity monitoring program, including one of only two absolute quantum gravimeters on a volcano in the world. He is a subject matter expert in magmatic and volcanic geophysical processes and volcano seismicity and has been interviewed numerous times during eruptions of Kīlauea and Mauna Loa volcano. In 2022, Flinders was invited to write a perspective for Science Magazine discussing the eruption of Mauna Loa and its relationship to an ongoing deep earthquake swarm beneath the town of Pahala
Flinders is a long-time proponent in the field of ocean exploration, having sailed on more than 20 research cruises, including multiple expeditions above the Arctic Circle. Flinders was lead geologist aboard the NOAAS Okeanos Explorer for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Ocean Exploration and Research research expedition to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in 2022.
Category:1981 births
Category:American people
Category:University of Wisconsin–River Falls alumni
Category:University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni
Category:University of Rhode Island alumni
Category:Geophysicists
Category:Volcanologists
Category:Oceanographers
Category:Scientists