The K-Pg boundary layer (formerly known as the K-T layer) is a remainder of one of the most significant events in the geological and paleobiological history of the world—the mass extinction event of the dinosaurs by a large asteroid between the Cretaceous (K) and Paleogene (Pg) periods. Preserved within the Earth's strata, this boundary functions as both physical evidence and historical record, compressing a moment of planetary catastrophe into a thin layer of rock.

Enthalpy of Vaporization uses information associated with the K–Pg boundary—particularly the presence of iron and iridium—to establish a framework through which photographic imagery is organized and understood. Scientific measurements are translated into visual relationships, transforming numerical data into a compositional structure that exists somewhere between representation and index. A line of hand embroidery traces the position of the K–Pg boundary across the landscape, marking the geological horizon through a process of accumulation and labor that echoes the gradual formation of the strata itself.

The title references a thermodynamic process in which matter changes state through the application of energy. Within the context of the work, this notion of transformation serves as a metaphor for the immense forces that shaped the K–Pg boundary and for the ways in which photography itself can function as a mechanism for recording traces of events that remain otherwise inaccessible. By combining geological history, scientific systems, and photographic processes, Enthalpy of Vaporization considers how knowledge of deep time is constructed through fragments, evidence, and acts of interpretation.