"Earth and Planetary Sciences" text placed on top of a decorative photo collage of the five main UC Davis EPS research disciplines.

New Archive 2012-2013

New Archive 2012-2013

  • from Wired: "This Augmented-Reality Sandbox Turns Dirt Into a UI": Inspired by a YouTube video from a group of Czech researchers, researchers at UC Davis' W.M. Keck Center for Active Visualization in the Earth Sciences (KeckCAVES) started work on their augmented-reality sandbox in early 2012, as part of an National Science Foundation-funded program focused on water system education.

  • From LiveScience: "US Tallest Mountain's Surprising Location Explained". Researchers from Brown University and the University of California, Davis, used intricate 3D computer models to come up with the first numerical explanation for the Central Alaska Range and Mount McKinley's inland location. [ Three-dimensional numerical models of flat slab subduction and the Denali fault driving deformation in south-central Alaska ]

  • "Main mass of rare meteorite preserved for present and future scientists" - It has found a permanent home divided among the University of California, Davis; the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.; American Museum of Natural History in New York City; The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago; and Arizona State University in Tempe.

  • Associate Professor Tessa Hill has earned the prestigious National Science Foundation Early Career Development award. NSF's Faculty Early Career Development Program supports junior faculty who perform outstanding research, are excellent educators, and integrate education and research in their work.

  • From the Sacramento Bee Opinion page - Viewpoints: "Drill for energy? Yes, for more geothermal" by Peter Schiffman, William Glassley and Elise Brown. Special to The Bee

  • "3-D sandbox exhibit brings watersheds to life at Lake Tahoe" - Sandboxes have come a long way. A new interactive, augmented-reality exhibit brings watersheds to life at the University of California, Davis' Tahoe Science Center in Incline Village, Nev.

  • Howie Spero will give the 2013 Emiliani Lecture at the Fall AGU meeting. This annual lecture honors the memory of Cesare Emiliani and is organized by the Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology Focus Group and the Ocean Sciences section. It recognizes individuals who have made outstanding scientific contributions to our understanding of past oceans and climates.

  • Ken Verosub recently spent six weeks in Pavia, Italy, as an Erasmus Mundus Scholar. Ken was associated with the EU Centre of the Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori (IUSS) at the university in Pavia where he was working on new strategies to encourage governments to address the risks from natural disasters.

  • Geology graduate student Amy Williams' TEDxUCDavis talk, "Exploring the Final Frontier" is available on YouTube.

  • "Our Changing Seas: Voyage to an Earth that No One Has Seen Before" - Howie Spero's talk at Berkeley City College is available online.

  • The Mars Science Laboratory team has published its first two scientific papers: one on radiation measured on the way from Earth to Mars, the other on rounded pebbles at the landing site and the implications for flowing water. Dr. Dawn Sumner worked on the latter paper. Learn more about it at Voice of America or on Capital Public Radio.

  • 2013 Deans' Distinguished Speaker: Dawn Sumner - "NASA Curiosity Rover: Mission to Mars". Thursday, May 30, 7:00-8:30 pm, AGR Hall, Walter A. Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center. Lecture is free and open to the public. To reserve your seat, rsvp to LSevents@ucdavis.edu or (530) 754-8477 by May 24.

  • Professor Alexandra Navrotsky, Distinguished Professor of Ceramic, Earth, and Environmental Materials Chemistry, will be appointed interim dean of the Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) in the College of Letters and Science, effective July 1, 2013.

  • Geology graduate student Austin Elliot's blog, "The Trembling Earth", joins the AGU Blogosphere.

  • "Humboldt Award for work on past and future climate change". Professor Howard Spero, chair of the Department of Geology, has received a Humboldt research award from the German government.

  • Geology graduate student Amy Williams will be presenting, "What Do You Strive Toward? Exploring the Final Frontier" at TEDxUCDavis. TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is an international forum dedicated to the motto "Ideas Worth Spreading". May 18th at 1PM in the Main Theater of Wright Hall at UC Davis.

  • Louise Kellogg has been named a 2013 member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. UC Davis press release

  • The UC Davis Undergraduate Research Conference will be held on Friday and Saturday (April 26-27). A record number of geology undergraduates will be presenting.

  • Dawn Sumner is featured in two new videos released by the University of California. [ Reaching out, beyond Earth: KeckCAVES Virtual Environment ] [ The surface of Mars ]

  • UCD Geology will be hosting a screening of "Switch" on Tuesday, April 23 at 6:30 pm in 1001 Giedt Hall.

  • Eldridge Moores receives the 2013 Distinguished emeritus award from UC Davis

  • Howard Spero is the recipient of a Humboldt Research Award, 2013

  • "Aboard the Tugnacious With Dr. Doom" - from KQED Science: an interview with Jeff Mount

  • Chip Lesher formally receives the Niels Bohr Professorship at the 2013 Eliteforsk Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. "A Brain Gain of 165 M DKK"

  • From Capital Public Radio: "It's hammer time on the Red Planet" - an interview with Dawn Sumner

  • UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day - February 2, 1- 4pm. UC Davis museums and collections will be open to the public from 1-4 pm in conjunction with the Sacramento-wide museum open house day. Geology Department undergraduate and graduate students will be leading tours of the California Rock Garden. Other campus participants include the Bohart Museum, the Anthropology Department, the Arboretum, and the Wildlife & Fish Museum.

  • "Meteorite triggered scientific gold rush" - A meteorite that exploded as a fireball over California's Sierra foothills this past spring was among the fastest, rarest meteorites known to have hit the Earth. From Science magazine: Radar-Enabled Recovery of the Sutter's Mill Meteorite, a Carbonaceous Chondrite Regolith Breccia UC Davis authors include Qing-zhu Yin, Josh Wimpenny, Kenneth Verosub, Sarah Roeske, and Michael Lerche, as well as UCD Geology Alumus Gary Eppich.

  • Jeff Mount on KQED: "Are Silicon Valley Companies Prepared for a Flood?"

  • From Slate: "The Most Valuable Thing in a Coal Mine Is Not the Coal".  Isabel Montañez and other researchers have been analyzing fossil plant stomata to study the changing environment.

  • Tessa Hill on NPR's Morning Edition: "Can Shellfish Adapt to More Acidic Water?"

  • Louise Kellogg, Isabel Montañez, and Howard Spero have been elected as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science this year. They are among 702 new fellows, honored for their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

  • Chip Lesher has been elected a Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America for "significant contributions to the field of mineralogy, petrology and crystallography."

  • "An Integrated Multidisciplinary Re-Evaluation of the Geothermal System at Valles Caldera, New Mexico" by Geology Graduate students Andrew Fowler, Scott Bennett, Maya Wildgoose, and Carolyn Cantwell was determined to be one of the best of 214 presentations at the 2012 Geothermal Resource Council Annual Meeting in Reno, Nevada.

  • The Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences and the Department of Geology are pleased to welcome geologist and MacArthur Fellow David R. Montgomery. He will be the featured speaker on Tuesday, November 23rd at the UC Davis College of Letters and Science -- Dean's Distinguished Lecture.

  • Chip Lesher has been awarded a Niels Bohr Professorship from the Danish National Research Foundation.