Looking north down the Niagara River, Niagara Falls, NY.
Photo by Shannon M. Burkett, 3/10/2005



© Bloom County, by Berkeley Breathed


"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us!"
--Calvin

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"Opportunity should be equal, must be equal, but achievement must remain individual."
-- Drizzt Do'Urden

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"My great concern is not whether you have failed,
but whether you are content with your failure."
--Abraham Lincoln
Brett Burkett

M.S. SUNY: University at Buffalo (Geology)
B.S. Case Western Reserve University (Geology)
Office: L-209 - now you have no excuse not to go to the library.
Phone: 972-548-6510
Email: bburkett@ccccd.edu
Professor of Geology at Collin-CPC

Biography of a Volcano-hunter

In a nutshell, I study volcanoes. Born into a home in PA in 1980, I originally fell in love with computers until I realized how much coding was involved. Destined to be only a user (I know how to turn them on, perform basic maintenance, and break them), our high school happened to be blessed with a geology/astronomy elective. The teacher inspired me to study geology in college. I graduated with a B.S. in geology from CWRU in 2002. Subsequently, I went to graduate school whereupon I studied physical volcanology. In graduate school, you really can study anything. Surprisingly, the University at Buffalo in New York is the home for studying volcanoes. Not the place you'd expect to study the hottest landforms on Earth (they have more volcanology professors than any university in Hawaii). To date I have studied/visited eight active volcanoes. Unfortunately, none of the volcanoes have erupted for me. At Collin CPC, I teach all the geology courses (Earth Science, Physical Geology, Environmental Science) as well as the labs. On a personal note, I enjoy reading (fantasy, history, science, old books) and fantasy writing as well as camping, hiking, biking, and playing Magic: the Gathering (yay, nostalgia!).

Volcanoes of My World
Links redirects to Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program for detailed descriptions.

The United States
Mammoth Mountain
Yellowstone
Ecuador
Cotopaxi
El Reventador
Tungurahua
Perú
El Misti
Hualca Hualca
Italy
Vesuvius

Current Reading

  • America: A Concise History by J. Henretta, D. Brody, and L. Dumenil
  • Water in Texas by Andrew Sansom

Current Writing

  • Shadows in Light - fan-fiction creating continuity among (and after) the original Neverwinter Nights trilogy.
  • War in a Time of Faith - original story about a faith tested by war in the United States... against orcs.

Physical volcanology is the study of "processes that control when and how volcanoes erupt" (Parfitt and Wilson, 2008). This discipline combines traditional field-based geologic mapping and stratigraphy, with remote sensing, geochemistry, petrography, and geophysics.

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