“Craters of Fire” by French volcanologist Haroun Tazieff is the book that ignited my passion for geology. At the age of thirteen I was determined that one day I would study volcanoes, and it took an additional thirty years before that dream would become a reality on the Big Island of Hawaii. In the meantime I studied geology and paleontology at the Zagreb and Indiana Universities, with emphasis on carbonate stratigraphy and sedimentology. I went even further astray from volcanoes by working for seven years as senior geological engineer for Shell Oil Company in the San Joaquin Basin of California. Then it all changed when my future husband, Jason Saleeby, and I established IO Field Station near the Kilauea summit, Island of Hawaii, in conjunction with the geological and environmental public outreach programs of Island Outpost Inc. From IO Field Station we host and assist in the staging of field excursions for academic and public naturalist groups, and perform our own educational and research programs.

My primary research efforts are conducted through the Caltech Tectonics Observatory. Focus is on the stratigraphic relations, tectonic history, and geodynamics of the southern Sierra Nevada and adjacent San Joaquin Basin. In this position I use the expertise that I gained in the petroleum industry and analyze San Joaquin Basin subsurface data, integrating it with my surface mapping along the basin edge, and the adjacent Sierra Nevada. The findings of this research are integrated with the geomorphic, geochemical and tectonic studies by my Tectonics Observatory colleagues in order to elucidate the tectonic and geodynamic evolution of the region.

Since arriving in the U.S. in 1985 I maintained my interest in the region of my first intensive geologic mapping effort, the Adriatic Coast fold and thrust belt, Croatia. I have recently started a collaborative research project with Professor Anke Friedrich (Munich University) in installing a permanent GPS array across the fold-thrust belt on the Island of Brac.

I aspire to continue my work in the region of active tectonics of the Dalmatian coast, and to collaborate with the researchers from my alma mater, Zagreb University.

Current Employer: California Institute of Technology, 2000 – present
Research staff geologist, Tectonics Observatory, Geology and Planetary Science,
Pasadena, California

Contact information:
zorka@gps.caltech.edu

Professional Affiliation: Geological Society of America