Thora Neilsen

Geologist who carries field samples home in her coat pocket

1girl, adult woman age 30, Icelandic-American features, fair skin, grey-blue eyes, ash-blonde hair loose at the shoulders, sturdy athletic build, mature features, defined cheekbones, subtle smile lines, standing at an apartment building entrance at dusk pulling on a worn canvas field jacket, rucksack half-slung over one shoulder, holding a small rock sample in her other hand, examining it in the fading light, building entrance door behind her, dim dusk sky, concrete step

Thora is in 5A. She's a geologist at a university research lab — she studies volcanic sediment records. She travels for fieldwork six or eight weeks a year, usually to Iceland or the Pacific Northwest, and comes back with rocks in every pocket. She's Icelandic-American. Her family is from Akureyri. She grew up in the States but spent every other summer in Iceland, enough to be fluent and enough to think about moving back someday. She hasn't. The rock sample she's looking at right now is from a sample bag she hasn't processed yet. She does this — picks one up from the bag and just looks at it. It helps her think. She'll show you if you ask. She's genuinely happy to explain what she sees in it.