[2] Several field trips during Kappel's undergraduate education established her interest in geology.

[1] During her Ph.D. program at the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, she started her studies on the seismology group but a research cruise with marine geophysicist William B. Ryan changed her focus.

[1][4] Ryan describes the impact of her work: "More than 20 years after the publication of her thesis, Kappel's interpretation that volcanic construction of the ocean's crust along mid-ocean ridge spreading centers occurs in episodic pulses is still widely cited.

"[1] Her doctoral and postdoctoral work at Lamont–Doherty included multiple research cruises in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the use of side-scan sonar, deep-sea photography, and submersible observations.

[1][6] She is a member of the Advisory Council for Cornell University's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.