Current Research Interests

Here are some of the things I've been working on recently:

I have been working on a model of the crystallization of pegmatite dikes using phase field techniques and chemical competition for ions. The work is unpublished and has not been presented at any conferences yet, but some of the results look very positive.




We did some trace element analysis of quartz from Southern California pegmatite mines in order to see how abundance of critical elements in them, Lithium, Beryllium, and Cesium Occurrence in the San Diego County Pegmatite District



I'm interested in the role of dissipating tropical cyclones in the climate of Southern California and there effects on possibly mitigating the fall fire season.  Here is a paper based on some work I presented at the 2020 meeting of the American Meteorological Society Past and Future Rainfall from Dissipating Tropical Cyclones in Southwestern California




Past Research
 
Ph.D. Dissertation of Jim Means: GPS Precipitable Measurements used in the analysis of California and Nevada climate