GEOLOGY & GEOPHYSICS NEWS Yale University I Department of Geology and Geophysics Winter 2009
faculty research
Clumped Isotopes by Hagit Affek
Hagit Affek ([email protected]) joined the department in July 2007. Her research involves applications of stable isotopes to environmental questions. After a year of renovations her new laboratory is one of the few in the world that measures “clumped isotopes” as isotopic tracers. Hagit applies clumped isotopes to both paleoclimate reconstructions and the modern carbon cycle research.
Caves and air: Isotopes and climate change David Bercovici standing in one of the most recent Kline Geology Prediction of climate changes requires detailed Lab renovation projects. This new space consolidates an area from the back of the Library with a computer lab (which was itself understandings of changes in the atmosphere and formerly a hydrothermal, cold-seal pressure lab) and will become Thethe results factors of renovations—the that control auditoriumthem, plus looking an understanding toward the podium, ten office spaces for postdoctoral researchers, as well as a meeting andof the departmental response oflounge. the climate system to the changes. area (small conference room and reading area) for 3rd floor occupants. For example, the increase of atmospheric CO2 due to
combustion of fossil fuels is modified by CO2 uptake Chairman’s Letter and release by natural processes of the global carbon David Bercovici ([email protected]) cycle, such as dissolution in the oceans, uptake by the biosphere, and release by decomposition of
Dear Friends of Yale Geology & Geophysics, organic matter. Isotopic measurements of CO2 are essential in distinguishing and quantifying these As I enter my third year as Geology & Geophysics sources and sinks of CO2. Chair, I’m happy to report on continued changes and continued on page 3 growth for our fine Department. As you may recall, in 2007 we hired four new junior faculty members in the areas of geochemistry SAVE THE DATE! and geophysics. Our two geochemists, Zhengrong ALUMNI REUNION AND CONFERENCE Wang and Hagit Affek, both started their positions in 2007. This academic year our two geophysicists FRIDAY–SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6–8, 2009 arrive: Mineral physicist Kanani Lee started in July of Invitations will be mailed Early Spring 2009 2008, and seismologist Maureen Long will start in January 2009. With four new junior faculty members, Inside this Issue there will come expansion in laboratory facilities and Faculty Research ...... 3 more students and postdoctoral scholars. This fall, geologist and paleomagician David Recent Awards ...... 7 Evans ’92, who was the recipient of the David and Flint Lectures ...... 8 Lucille Packard Award in 2002, was promoted to Alumni News ...... 9 Professor, effective January 2009. David is a vital 2008 Gaylord Simpson Prize ...... 13 member of our senior faculty and he has already Involvements in Societies ...... 14 agreed to be the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Fall 2009. In Memoriam ...... 14
continued on page 2 New Postdoc Quarters ...... 16 Geology & Geophysics News Winter 2009
Letter continued from page 1 development of three new state-of-the-art isotope Unfortunately, atmospheric scientist Steve geochemistry labs, a new diamond-anvil mineral Sherwood is leaving us to become the Chair of physics lab, a new electron microprobe facility, and Atmospheric Sciences at the Climate Change new teaching labs. As seen in the photo, we are Research Center at the University of New South transforming a large part of what was the Geology Wales. Steve will assume his new duties in January Library’s space into a much needed office area for 2009 and we will sorely miss him. Steve was one of postdocs and visiting researchers. the outstanding authorities on climate change at Yale; Since 2007, our Department has been leading the he was the recipient of the Clarence Leroy Meisinger effort to build a new Yale Climate Institute, designed Award from the American Meteorological Society to integrate science and engineering with social in 2005 and was one of only two Yale contributing sciences throughout Yale on the critical problem of authors to the Nobel Prize winning IPCC report of climate change and mitigation. This has involved a 2007. Steve was also one of the first junior faculty huge effort entailing a multidepartmental workshop to arrive in the hiring initiative of 1999 to 2000, and in March of this year, which led to a major proposal we are proud of the work he did here while being that has been presented to the President and promoted up through the ranks to Professor in 2007. Provost. Negotiations over this proposal are ongoing As a consequence of Steve Sherwood’s departure, at the time of this writing, but I hope to report on the we have initiated a search in Atmospheric Physics and establishment of this institute next year. Climate Dynamics, with clearance to consider excellent Finally, we have scheduled a Yale Geology & senior targets. We hope to have good news on the Geophysics Reunion in November of 2009 so that outcome of this search in a year’s time. all our former graduate, undergraduate, and postdoc On a somewhat related note, the Department alumni can come visit old advisors and professors hosted an Ocean-Climate Symposium last April on and meet the newest faculty,students, and scholars. the interplay between ocean circulation and climate Expect invitations to arrive in the months ahead. variation. As a result of this symposium, we are It is a pleasure to report on the events and exploring a possible offer for a faculty position to one progress in our Department. I hope this Newsletter particularly talented young scientist, whose name I finds you well, and I wish you all the best for the can’t yet divulge (just to add some mystery to this coming year (and hope to see you in November of Newsletter). I hope we will be able to report good 2009!) news on this development in the next Newsletter. With the continued expansion of the Department, and through the tireless efforts of our Director of Graduate Studies, John Wettlaufer, this last year was a truly banner year with graduate student enrollments. In normal years we typically matriculate between 7 and 11 students. However, in 2008, 19 students accepted our offer of admission; in addition, with a visiting student from Germany, and a transfer student from Engineering, we have welcomed 21 new graduate students in 2008! Meanwhile, our graduating doctoral students have moved off as postdocs to prestigious positions, including a Green Scholar at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and positions at Cambridge (UK), the University of Maryland, and the University of California The Yale Sapphire. 121.9 carats and 4.5 cm Irvine, and a faculty position at Baylor University. in length, this superb Our undergraduate majors have also made specimen is on display in Peabody Museum’s great strides. Last year they formed a new Geology newly opened Hall of Club, thanks to the initiative and leadership of Abby Minerals, Earth, and Fraeman and Claire Bucholz, both of whom are Space. The specimen was found in Myanmar graduating this academic year and are destined for several hundred years great things. ago and was donated to the Museum by As with previous years, extensive renovations Benjamin Zucker ’62. continue at Kline Geology Lab, including the
2 Geology & Geophysics News Winter 2009
faculty research
Isotopes continued from page 1 measurement, clumped isotopes Minerals forming at higher can yield information that is not temperatures are less ordered Predicting the response possible to obtain in any other way. and have lower clumped isotope of the global climate system values. Because the bonds are an to atmospheric changes is not Paleoclimate reconstruction using internal property of the carbonate straightforward. No laboratory clumped isotopes mineral, they are independent of experiments can be done to The oxygen isotope compositions external parameters such as the mimic such large-scale responses. of carbonate minerals are oxygen isotope composition of the Instead, we must examine the widely used to reconstruct past water in which the carbonate was geochemical evidence of past climatic variations. But there is formed. climatic excursions in order a major disadvantage in that Thermometry by clumped to interpret the results of isotopic compositions reflect a isotopes was created by measuring natural “experiments.” Isotopic combination of variations in both synthetic carbonate minerals measurements are the major tools the temperature and the isotopic that were formed at known for such paleoclimate research. composition of the water in which temperatures. A large collection My research focuses on carbonate mineral grew (ocean of marine organisms followed developing and applying a new the same isotopic tracer, commonly called temperature “clumped isotopes,” to both carbon dependency cycle studies and paleoclimate (Fig. 1, upper reconstructions. panel). My current work What are clumped isotopes? focuses on Analysis of an isotopic composition applying determines the relative abundance clumped of a heavy, rare isotope within isotopes a group of molecules. In CO2 thermometry molecules, for example, this usually to continental refers to measuring the abundance climate of either 13C or 18O within a vast records using 12 16 majority of C O2 molecules. Hagit Affek (left) with 1st year graduate student Shikma Zaarur (shikma. carbonate cave Clumped isotopes are new [email protected]). deposits. Cave isotopic tracers, which are based water for marine records, and rain, temperatures normally reflect on a similar concept but what is soil, or lake water in continental annual mean surface temperatures, measured is the natural abundance records). Oxygen isotopes making speleothems an excellent, of molecules containing two heavy provide one measurement for an well-dated, archival material isotopes, such as 13C18O16O. A bond equation with two unknowns; an for efforts to reconstruct past between two heavy isotopes is independent estimate of either climatic conditions on land. The slightly stronger than a bond paleotemperature or paleowater combination of past temperatures between two light isotopes, so composition is therefore needed. estimated from clumped isotopes that clumped isotopes are a Thermometry using clumped with the traditional oxygen isotope measure for the slight preference isotopes provides a solution. The measurements may then elucidate of two heavy isotopes to clump abundance of 13C-18O bonds in the past rainfall patterns. together. A molecule containing carbonate mineral is a measure I have measured clumped two rare isotopes is very rare and of the internal order within the isotopes in samples from Soreq the variations in its abundance are mineral. For minerals growing at cave (Israel), which provide one of small. Measurement of clumped equilibrium the level of order is a the classical speleothem oxygen isotopes therefore requires specific function of temperature. Minerals isotope records (Fig. 1, lower instrumentation and patient and forming at lower temperatures panel). I found that, based on dedicated operators in order to are more ordered, have relatively clumped isotopes, the last glacial achieve the necessary precision. more 13C-18O bonds and therefore maximum (20 Ky) in the Eastern Despite the difficulties of higher clumped isotope values. continued on page 4
3 Geology & Geophysics News Winter 2009
faculty research
Isotopes continued from page 3 bones that encompass the Eocene- Oligocene transition (37–32 My). Mediterranean was ~6°C colder than today. However, I also found that unlike carbonates of marine origin, modern speleothems do not fit the calibration of the clumped isotope thermometer, suggesting they are not formed at equilibrium. This is important as it reveals a Fig. 2. Seasonal variations (monthly means) potential complication also in the of clumped isotope values in urban air in Pasadena, CA (Affek et al., 2007, GCA, 71, oxygen isotope interpretation of 5033–5043). These variations cannot be fully speleothem records and, of course, accounted for by local fossil fuel combustion highlights the need for a specific and reflect variations in local ecosystem activity. calibration for speleothems when using clumped isotopes. the budget. My recent work has I currently study the processes shown that clumped isotopes in that control this offset from atmospheric CO can be used as equilibrium, in order to create an 2 an additional tracer for quantifying adaptation for speleothems of the CCO fluxes. clumped isotopes thermometer. 2 This approach requires In parallel, I continue studying characterization of the isotopic the clumped isotope record of Fig. 1. Upper panel: Temperature calibration values associated with all fluxes. Soreq cave in an attempt to based on synthetic calcite grown in the laboratory under controlled temperatures. I have started using clumped reconstruct past temperatures Marine biogenic carbonates generally follow isotopes to study combustion and rainfall patterns in the Eastern the same temperature dependency trend. (Figure adapted from Eiler, 2000, EPSL, and ecosystem respiration. Mediterranean. The Eastern 262, 309-327). Typical 1SE is 0.005‰. Also required is the existence Mediterranean region, located Lower panel: Oxygen isotope composition of measurable variations in the at the edge of the desert, is in Soreq cave speleothems (black dots, part of a 185 Ky record; adapted from Matthews atmosphere. I have observed such climatically (and potentially et al., 2000, Chem. Geol., 166, 183-191). atmospheric variations in the form politically) sensitive to variations Temperatures obtained from clumped of a seasonal cycle (Fig. 2) that in rainfall patterns that are isotopes, corrected to reflect a constant disequilibrium offset (red triangles; Affek is related to CO2 exchange with predicted to result from future et al., GCA, in press. doi:10.1016/j.gca.2008. the local ecosystem, suggesting climate change. I intend to examine 06.031). that clumped isotopes can be clumped isotopes in a variety of useful for distinguishing between carbonate source materials in that Clumped isotopes in photosynthesis and respiration region. With Shikma Zaarur, a atmospheric CO2 fluxes in addition to identifying CO newly arrived graduate student, Predicting future atmospheric 2 produced in combustion. I will study clumped isotopes in CO2 concentrations requires Clumped isotopes are new a group of plants that precipitate quantitative understanding not isotopic tracers, which are proving carbonate minerals in their only of anthropogenic emission powerful in paleotemperature seeds. Such seeds are found in rates from fossil fuel combustion reconstruction using carbonate several archaeological sites in but also of the natural sources minerals. Clumped isotopes are the Levant and can be used for and sinks of CO2. The budget of also potential tracers for studying paleothermometry. atmospheric CO2 is widely studied the modern carbon cycle and Clumped isotope thermometry using the concentration, plus atmospheric CO , though this can also be applied deeper in the the carbon and oxygen isotope 2 research is still much less mature geological record. Alessandro compositions. However, the and it is too early to predict its Zanazzi, a Bateman postdoc, will number and diversity of fluxes usefulness. attempt to adapt it to carbonate prevents these measurements in apatites, focusing on fossil alone from fully constraining
4 Geology & Geophysics News Winter 2009
faculty research
RETREAT: An International Seismological Investigation of Northern Apennines
by Jeffrey Park ([email protected]) The tectonics of Italy are easy to describe but hard to explain. Italy provided many early ideas of modern earth science, but the Apennines, a substantial mountain chain, aligned roughly parallel to relative motion between Africa and Europe, remains poorly understood. To improve understanding, a team of Yale researchers is leading an international project called RETREAT, which stands for “REtreating-TRench, Extension and Accretion Tectonics.” Jeffrey Park discussing RETREAT data with 3rd year graduate student Tara Mayeau (tara. The RETREAT acronym refers [email protected]). to a hypothesized causative factor behind the Apennines University of Arizona), I organized at that time. Researchers from orogeny. Plate reconstructions an international program to other US universities examined starting 35 m.y. ago suggest investigate the subduction retreat evidence for more-recent rates of a progressive opening of the hypothesis. Armed with a grant uplift using cosmogenic nuclides in western Mediterranean Sea by from the Continental Dynamics surface rocks, cave deposits, and means of a subduction zone that Program of the National Science fluvial terraces stranded through swept backward (hence the term Foundation (NSF), field studies the uplift. These data suggest that “retreat”) from an initial location in geochronology, tectonics, exhumation rates have slowed in the south of France. Swinging and seismology are helping to to <0.5 mm/yr in the last million counterclockwise like a car illuminate the issues. Multiple years. door, pivoted near present-day techniques were used to constrain The subduction-retreat model Genoa on the Ligurian coast, the past and present rates of predicts a migrating deformation subduction zone is hypothesized surface uplift. Reiners, Brandon, with matched belts of convergence to have consumed a large swath postdoctoral associate Stuart and extension that initially raise of lithosphere during the collision Thompson, and Italian colleagues surface rocks from below sea level of the African and Eurasian plates. Massimiliano Zattin and Maria into mountain belts, after which Active volcanoes like Stromboli Laura Balestrieri measured fission- the orogeny undergoes extension and Vesuvius in the south of Italy track abundances and radiogenic and subsidence. In this model, are testaments to subduction, helium in apatite minerals found Italy’s Po River Valley and Adriatic but in the Northern Apennines of in near-surface rocks. Both helium Sea will be uplifted sometime in Tuscany, and in Emilia-Romagna, and fission tracks accumulate the future as the subduction zone the evidence of subduction is less only when rocks are sufficiently backs into the area. By contrast, clear. Marine sedimentary rocks of cool, so are less abundant in at the floor of the Tyrrhenian Sea, the orogen are no more than a few the case of rapid uplift. Rates the subduction-retreat model million years old, demonstrating of exhumation are estimated predicts the eroded remnants of recent uplift, and seismic to be 0.5 to 1.0 mm/yr near the an old orogeny, left behind as the tomography discerns a fast- Apennines crest. By comparing subduction zone migrates. wavespeed anomaly beneath the helium and fission-track data from The objectives of the orogen, consistent with subducting identical locations, we found an seismological phase of RETREAT lithosphere. So what is going on? acceleration of exhumation at were crustal and uppermost mantle With colleagues Mark Brandon roughly 3 to 4 Ma, consistent with structure. Of particular interest are and Peter Reiners (now at the the rocks emerging from the sea continued on page 6
5 Geology & Geophysics News Winter 2009
faculty research
Fig. 2. Shear-wave birefringence, averaged values for each station in the RETREAT seismographic deployment. The red-line segments are plotted in the direction of fast shear-wave polarization. The length or the red-line segment indicates the average time delay between Fig. 1. Relief map of RETREAT field, with locations of major cities, fast and slow polarizations. In the lower right corner we plot the geographical features, and the first-year deployment of seismographic birefringence pattern expected for the subduction-retreat model. stations. The yellow barbed line indicates the location of the hypothesized The reorientation of fast-axis polarization near (11°E, 44°N) suggests subduction plate boundary, along which the lithosphere beneath the a major departure from this model. Po Valley and the Adriatic Sea is thought to subduct beneath the Apennines orogen. array combined a relatively dense (~10 km spacing) linear transect across the Apennines orogen with RETREAT continued from page 5 a sparse two-dimensional network that covered a flow patterns expressed in the preferred alignment broader area. Seismic deployment began in October of olivine crystals in the mantle beneath the orogen, 2003. The last instruments left the field in September which leads to seismic anisotropy. Standard kinematic 2006. We encountered many challenges in the models of subduction make clear predictions seismological field work: priests reluctant to place a of the mantle flow, which are testable using the seismometer in their sanctuaries, digging holes and birefringence of shear waves from earthquakes. The mixing concrete for outdoor deployments in a driving best earthquakes for our study originate far from Italy, rainstorm, and the stress of deciding which restaurant for example, in Japan, New Zealand, or South America, served the best lunch in villages surrounding each far enough that shear waves must pass through Earth’s seismometer site. liquid iron core as a pressure wave, so that a single In the first year, data from the first complement of shear-wave polarization ascends near-vertically from seismic stations told us that shear-wave birefringence the core through the mantle. Olivine alignment in the in the mantle beneath the Northern Apennines did upper mantle distorts this shear polarization, so that it not fit the expected pattern. The birefringence in splits into “fast” and “slow” polarizations that broadly other parts of Italy follows a pattern consistent with align with the direction of mantle flow or mantle subduction retreat, namely, that mantle behind the extension. subducting lithosphere is extended parallel to the Together with colleagues from Rutgers, University Apennines as it tries to flow out of the way. In the of Southern California, the National Institute of Northern Apennines, it appears that this extensional Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) in Italy, and strain is deflected to a high angle relative to the the Geophysical Institute of the Czech Academy of orogen, suggesting that subduction retreat is not the Science (GFU), I installed and collected data from a primary driver of mantle flow. portable seismic array consisting of 25 sets of portable By great fortune the last seismic instruments equipment from PASSCAL (both STS-2 and CMG-40 were installed just in time for the great Sumatra- sensors), 10 sets of portable equipment from GFU Andaman earthquake of 26 December 2004. The (STS-2 sensors), and 10 permanent installations of the RETREAT seismometers recorded motions as large Italian national seismic network (Trillium sensors). The continued on page 7
6 Geology & Geophysics News Winter 2009
RETREAT continued from page 6 On the whole, the emerging picture from seismic data is not consistent with the scenario of ongoing trench as 1 cm as the long-period surface waves (T >100 s) retreat. Alternative views, such as stalled subduction propagated across the network. Because the signals and/or incipient slab detachment, pose intriguing were so large, the portable instruments could detect challenges to observations derived from surface smaller scattered waves that trailed the first surface geology that imply past uplift and convergence, and waves. Such scattered waves are typically caused by perhaps present-day convergence as well. A final anisotropy associated with mantle strain. Waveforms determination may depend on the longest duration from the Sumatra earthquake were consistent with part of the RETREAT project, a GPS network installed the geographical pattern of shear-wave birefringence, to monitor present-day surface motion. Preliminary reinforcing our hypothesis that subduction retreat data suggest weak convergence at the nominal is not the primary driver of mantle flow beneath the subduction boundary in the Apennine foothills, Northern Apennines. Subduction retreat is consistent overshadowed by extension across the Apennines with some RETREAT observations, however. A thrust crest, where a substantial normal-fault system has fault beneath the Apennine foothills was imaged in been associated with many damaging earthquakes. the shallow crust with exploration seismic techniques, It may be that subduction-retreat is largely consistent with active convergence at the place where responsible for the existence of the northern Italian lithosphere is thought to be descending into the Apennines but has not been vigorously active for the mantle. Efforts to extend this shallow fault from the past million years or more. Although the mountains upper crust to the mantle have not been successful. of the Italian peninsula have been settled by ancient Some RETREAT results have been published, civilizations and studied by researchers from the documenting uplift estimates and the extreme dawn of geology, their underlying cause is complex complexity of the upper mantle deformation field. and remains elusive.
RECENT AWARDS
Congratulations by the SEG Council. He is the 12th are in order for person so recognized during the Leo Hickey (leo. 87 years the Society has been in hickey@yale. existence. edu) who is to be the 2009 Srinath recipient of the Krishnan Raymond C. Moore (srinath. Medal, awarded krishnan@yale. by the Society edu), entering of Sedimentary graduate Geology (SEPM) student in for Excellence 2007, has in Paleontology. been awarded Nominees for the Schlanger the medal are Ocean Leo Hickey lecturing to the stratigraphy class, Fall 2008. persons who have Drilling Fellowship, awarded by a significant record of outstanding Brian Skinner the U.S. Advisory Committee for contributions in paleontology, (brian.skinner Scientific Ocean Drilling, for his especially those aspects of @yale.edu) proposal “Investigation of the paleontology that bear on a major has been global hydrological cycle during objective of this Society, which made an greenhouse-gas induced warming.” is to promote the science of Honorary The fellowship will allow Srinath stratigraphy through research in Fellow in the to continue to focus his studies paleontology and evolution, and Society of on important effects of global the use of fossils for interpretations Economic warming, such as perturbations of of paleoecology. Geologists the water cycle.
7 Geology & Geophysics News Winter 2009
RECENT AWARDS
The Geophysical Fluid planets and even stars), and Dynamics (GFD) program a beer-and-pizza evening received the Excellence in during the second week Geophysical Education Award during which the staff at the 2008 Joint Assembly proposes problems which Honors Ceremony, which help the fellows (students) was held on May 29, 2008, in choose a topic to work on as Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The a project for the remaining award honors “a sustained 8 or 9 weeks. The fellows commitment to excellence in must give a one-hour report geophysical education by a on their progress at the end team, individual, or group.” of the summer and submit a George Veronis (george. written report for inclusion in [email protected]), cofounder of George Veronis (right) accepting the Excellence in Education the volume for that summer. Award from Tim Killeen, President of AGU the GFD program, accepted the The main intent of the program award from Tim Killeen, AGU President. is to train the fellows how to learn by doing research When asked to describe the GFD program, George rather than by taking courses. That’s the most wrote: “When I worked at Woods Hole Oceanographic difficult transition for graduate students to make Institution (WHOI) during the 1950s, Willem Malkus, and we manage to get them to do this in a ten-week Henry Stommel, and I had long discussions about period. We play softball together in the local league the desirability of attracting young scientists with so that the fellows bond quickly and also realize that good backgrounds in physics and math to work on we are on their side on their research efforts as well the many problems confronting us in oceanography as on the ball field. and meteorology. WHOI had no education program We typically have 9 or 10 fellows, about the same at the time. In 1957 the launching of Sputnik shocked number of full time staff, about 20 to 30 visiting America and the US government was very receptive to (for a few days to a month) staff. None of the staff anyone proposing a reasonable program for training gets a salary but some of the visitors are paid per scientists. So in 1958 I submitted a draft of a proposal diem. None of the old boys have had even expense to NSF and gave it to our director, who had contacts money for the past two decades. We have trained at NSF. The proposal was to take graduate students 455 fellows over the last 50 years and one of our who had completed their coursework, teach them alumni is the chief honcho at whatever GFD program about the effects of stratification and rotation on fluid exists anywhere in the world. More than 80% of our motions, and get them to work on a project during alumni are in academia or in government labs doing the summer. It was accepted by NSF and that was the research. Up to 1990 we had a total of 16 female birth of the GFD summer program at WHOI. alumnae but we have averaged 3 females a year since We quickly adopted the format that still exists: then. We have 20 alumni academy members (that Two weeks of lectures by an expert on an aspect of includes FRS etc.).” fluid dynamics in the environment (which includes
Flint Lectures University Press provided the base support for the successful series. Previous Flint visitors include John The Richard Foster Flint Lectures Imbrie, Cesare Emiliani, John Kutzbach, Wallace on Paleoclimatology of the Late Broecker, Hans Oeschger, Nicholas Shackleton, Cenozoic, Climate Dynamics and G. Russell Coope, Lonnie Thompson, Jean Jouzel, the Cryosphere. Syukuro Manabe, Richard Alley, Peter deMenocal, and The Flint Lectures originated Edouard Bard, to name a few. after a landmark symposium at The Richard Foster Flint lecturer this year was Yale when Professor Flint retired. David Battisti of the University of Washington. His The royalties from the book three lectures were entitled: “Climate and Landscapes;” resulting from that conference “El Nino/Southern Oscillation: Past, Present and entitled “The Late Cenozoic Future;” and “A New Hypothesis for Dansgaard David Battisti Glacial Ages” published by Yale continued on page 9
8 Geology & Geophysics News Winter 2009
We would especially like to hear from you.
Alumni News Please send your news to [email protected].
consultant, he has discovered 160 caps. The premise was that, if million barrels of oil, and 3 trillion one could identify what desert or cubic feet of gas for clients (solo arid area(s) dust of a given age in and as a team member). an ice core had come from, one George is the recipient of 11 could constrain the atmospheric awards for his research, including circulation pathways and models a Visiting Fellowship, Wolfson thereof by which it had been College, Oxford University (1969), transported to the ice cap. Desert the SEPM Best Paper Award dust sources were identified by (Journal of Sedimentary Petrology; characterizing their particles 1972), a Senior Fulbright Research mineralogically and in terms of Fellowship in the Netherlands their variable but stable radiogenic (1989), and the Lawrence L. Sloss isotopes of strontium (Sr) and Award of the Geological Society neodymium (Nd). My first attempt of America (2000). He is the was in collaboration with my good founding chair of GSA’s Division on friend and colleague, Francis Sedimentary Geology and served Grousst (U. Bordeaux), along with on editorial boards of four journals Klein, at age 75, remains active as a petroleum some other Frogs. We determined geological consultant. including the GSA Bulletin and that the dust in the first sample Geology. we studied, Last Glacial Maximum George Devries Klein G ’60 (LGM) ice from East Antarctica, ([email protected]) started had come from Patagonia in his career at Sinclair Research in southern Argentina (Grousset et Tulsa as a research sedimentologist al., 1992). and moved to academe in 1961. Our next attempt was on He taught at the University of dust in LGM ice from central Pittsburgh, the University of Greenland, which we determined Pennsylvania, and the University had originated in the Chinese of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign and Mongolian deserts of eastern from 1973 to 1993. He then became Asia (Biscaye et al., 1997). Despite President of the NJ Marine having retired in 1999 (I got tired Sciences Consortium and NJ of working on “soft” money and State Sea Grant Director. In 1996, Pierre Biscaye (no hat, no hair) and Francis Grousset examining a small length of spending so much time writing he became a full-time consulting Greenland ice core in the Ice Core Freezer- proposals), subsequent work has petroleum geologist and moved Locker of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory focused on samples from smaller to the greater Houston area. As a (LDEO), Palisades, NY. and smaller time slices (8–10 days Pierre E. Biscaye G ’64 (biscaye@ of modern snow, Bory et al., 2003). FLINT continued from page 8 ldeo.columbia.edu) writes: “Having More recent work has been worked in different aspects in collaboration with Dennis Oeschger Events.” In these lectures of oceanic sedimentation and Kent and Luca Lanci to see what Professor Battisti intertwined sediment redistribution in my first kind of climate and paleoclimate model predictions based on the 25 years at Lamont, and seeing information could be derived interaction of the atmosphere application of some analytical from the magnetic fractions of motion and geography on major techniques to the problem of continental dusts (Lanci et al., climate patterns observed at eliciting climate and paleoclimate 2007). present and projected to the past information from the insoluble including the ice ages. This year’s REFERENCES (continental dust) particles in ice Grousset, F.E., P.E. Biscaye, M. Revel, J.-R. Petit, K. Pye, S. lectures represent the 23rd year Joussaume, and J. Jouzel. 1992. Antarctic ice core dusts at cores, I switched fields in the early 18ky B.P.: Isotopic constraints on origins and atmospheric of the series during which visits circulation: Earth and Planet Sci. Lett., 111:175–182. 1990s and started working on the Biscaye, P.E., F.E. Grousset, M.Revel, S. Van der Gaast, G.A. of prominent paleoclimatologists, problem of the provenance of Zielinski, A. Vaars, and G. Kukla, 1997, Asian provenance of glacial dust (Stage 2) in the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 climate dynamicists, and experts dust in ice cores drilled through continued on page 10 on the cryosphere have occurred. the Antarctic and Greenland ice
9 Geology & Geophysics News Winter 2009
AIcelum Researchni Newscontinued from page 9
ice core, Summit, Greenland: Jour. Geophys. Res., 102, no. c12, National Space Grant Program, or my love of the outdoors. For 26765–26781. Bory, A.J.-M., P.E. Biscaye, and F.E. Grousset, 2003, Two distinct modeled after the USDA Land the past 25 years I have been seasonal Asian source regions for mineral dust deposited in Greenland (NorthGRIP): Geophys. Res. Lett., 30, 1167–1170. Grant Program and the NOAA a resident in the United Arab Lanci, L., D.V. Kent, and P.E. Biscaye, 2007, Meteoric smoke Sea Grant Program; I also took Emirates, where in my spare time concentration in the Vostok ice core estimated from superparamagnetic relaxation and some consequences for over the direction of NASA I have been active in exploring estimates of Earth accretion rate: Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L10803, doi:10.1029/2007GL029811. EPSCoR (Experimental Program to and studying the many distinctive Stimulate Competitive Research), natural environments of the UAE modeled after NSF EPSCoR. and Oman—the deserts, the During my tenure at NASA, I took sabkha coastlines, and above all part in the Antarctic Search for the mountains, which are largely Meteorites (ANSMET) program comprised of the Oman ophiolite, and was awarded the Frank Malina the world’s largest surface Medal for Excellence in Space exposure of former mantle rock Education. In DC, my wife Patricia, (I have logged far more time than a native of the UK, began working most people “below the Moho”). for the National Space Society, as Along the way I expanded my Editor-in-Chief for their magazine attention to include the local and Ad Astra, and later as their regional flora and fauna, with a Executive Director, until we retired particular interest in biogeography in 2002. (cultivated long ago by a freshman We retired to Alpine, Texas, Patricia and Julius Dasch, with student Kellye near Big Bend National Park. I am Acuff between them. an Adjunct Professor of Geology E. Julius Dasch, Jr., G ’68 at Sul Ross State University, where ([email protected]) writes: I did my undergraduate work. Pat “After Yale I did a Fulbright and I teach “Rocket Science,” a Fellowship at the Australian distance-learning course (with National University, Canberra. I Midland College). The photograph arrived just as ANU was receiving shows us with one of our students, rocks from Apollo 11. I worked Kellye Acuff, who presented a on a variety of isotopic studies poster (Partitioning of phosphorus there, with Bill Compston, Dave and molybdenum between Earth’s Green, and others. I began a mantle and core) at the 2008 teaching position at Oregon State Lunar and Planetary Science University, Corvallis, in 1970, which Conference, Houston, Texas. We I held until I changed jobs, to spend part of each year at our NASA Headquarters in DC. At OSU retirement apartment in Bridport, I worked on marine metalliferous Dorset, UK.” Gary R. Feulner sediments from the Nazca Plate, course taught by the late Robert as well as on manganese nodules, Gary R. Feulner G ’74 (grfeulner@ MacArthur). One result is that and the strontium, lead, and shuaacapital.co) writes: “It was a I have authored the (so far) neodymium isotopic composition pleasure to receive the now not- definitive studies of the UAE’s of seawater. so-recent departmental newsletter, freshwater fish and freshwater and At OSU I taught a new course which I enjoyed very much, land snails, as well as publishing “Rocks and Stars” derived from although the field has moved on more selectively on, inter alia, Karl Turekian’s Meteorites course (along with many of those I knew) butterflies, dragonflies, mountain at Yale, which I loved. This led to an since the childhood years of plate plants, intertidal mollusks, local NRC fellowship, later a sabbatical tectonics in the early 1970s. climatic periodicity and tail- at NASA JSC, working on moon I long ago left geology in favor signaling in mountain geckoes. rocks and meteorites. Then to a of a professional career as a lawyer, Geologically, I have published a position at NASA Headquarters but I have never abandoned my popular account of the general as the first Director of the NASA interest in the natural sciences geology of the UAE as well as
10 Geology & Geophysics News Winter 2009
Alumni News
more specialized papers on Robin (Lincoln) regulatory and policy issues geomorphological oddities: several Petrusak ’79 pertaining to the petroleum mountain streams which fork in (rpetrusak@ industry, including exploration and the downstream direction (an early adv-res.com) is a production wastes, air emissions, stage of stream capture), including project manager greenhouse gas emission one whose twin channels straddle and consulting inventories, and greenhouse gas the “continental divide” between geologist for emission reduction strategies. the UAE’s two coasts. Advanced I am frequently asked Resources International in Arlington, Duane E. Mellor what role, if any, my graduate Virginia, a research and consulting ’80 (duane. school training has played in my firm providing services related [email protected]) subsequent life, given that I did to unconventional natural gas writes: “I entered not go on to a scientific career. reservoirs (coalbed methane, gas the Geology For me, the answer was always shale, low permeability (“tight”) & Geophysics easy: It played a tremendous role sandstones), enhanced oil Ph.D. program in because it cultivated the discipline recovery, and geosequestration 1973, fresh from of careful and critical investigation, of carbon dioxide. Robin provides my undergraduate years at Rice
analysis, and exposition. These are resource assessments, CO2 University. Under the direction useful in any field of intellectual storage capacity assessments, and of the late Karl Waage, I did my endeavor. Of course there were reservoir evaluations for private preliminary research and fieldwork some particulars that I associate and government clients. Current on the Upper Cretaceous Almond with Yale as well. Foremost among work for the Southeast Regional Formation of Wyoming. After those would be the tradition of Carbon Sequestration Partnership receiving my M.Phil., I realized that what is most delicately called includes reservoir evaluation and academia wasn’t the appropriate “robust intellectual debate” capacity assessment of potential path for me. Still, I couldn’t bring
(exemplified in memory byKarl Cretaceous-age CO2 storage myself to leave KGL entirely, so Turekian) and the important reservoirs and seal formations. I took a position in the Geology principle (again, applicable much Other recent consulting projects Library—and stayed 27 years. more broadly) that you can include reservoir evaluation for Clearly a creature of habit, I estimate anything if you make domestic gas shale developments fully expected to retire from my enough assumptions. and resource assessments for desk in the Library. However, in I invite any Yale geologists to international coalbed methane 2004, when a position became contact me if they are visiting or projects. available on the joint Union- passing through the UAE. This is Early in her career, Robin Management Job Search Team, I more likely than you might think, spent 10 years with Amoco couldn’t resist applying. I’d been since Dubai is a major transit Production Company in Denver, an elected officer of Local 34, hub, but be warned: For the past Colorado (now BP), as a petroleum the union of Yale clerical and decade I have been chairman of geologist and petrophysicist. technical employees, since 1985. the Dubai Natural History Group, Robin worked on a number of (I currently serve as Secretary- so I am always on the lookout for natural gas development projects Treasurer). The Job Search Team, visiting lecturers! It was a happy in the Green River, San Juan, and which was established during occasion to make the acquaintance Denver basins. She later earned the 1992 labor negotiations, is recently of Prof. Andrew Hill (Dept. an M.Sc. in environmental science comprised of two management of Anthropology) and G & G from the University of Colorado- and two union representatives. graduate student, Faisal Bibi—both Denver and worked briefly in the Its charge is “to supplement in the field at one of Faisal’s sites environmental remediation services University placement services and where Miocene elephant footprints industry before relocating to the job counseling especially as they are exposed. At a somewhat later Washington, D.C. area in 1998. relate to laid-off Staff Members.” date I journeyed the two hours to Prior to joining Advanced As an employment counselor and Abu Dhabi to hear Andrew speak Resources in 2005, Robin was a troubleshooter, I spend my days on current Yale paleontological consultant with ICF International, interviewing and assisting laid-off research. Fairfax, Virginia, on environmental clerical and technical employees
11 Geology & Geophysics News Winter 2009
Alumni News
with a goal of finding them another Michigan University). The decision position in the university. It’s the to start a family complicated some best of all worlds: a Yale job, a things, but clarified others—the supportive Team, and an office in commute, farmhouse, and one of the Union Hall. the positions would have to go. In addition, I represent Local The decision of which position 34 and its members in a broad to keep was determined by range of other Union-management institutional status and salary, and partnership activities. The work is we moved to East Lansing, where hard and the hours are long, but we gladly gave up the second the job satisfaction is through the car and the commuter lifestyle roof. to live within walking distance of I live in Madison, putting campus. Danita’s detour from my liberal politics in action by the tenure-track lasted 16 years commuting to work on Shore Line (not coincidentally corresponding East. In addition to my civil union to raising fledglings to college partner, Leighton Carlson, I share age). Regaining tenure involved the house with two dogs and a cat. a measure of serendipity (the I’m having the time of my life.” right opportunity coming along Julia with a penguin skull. at the optimal time) and much perseverance. Working in the Associate Professor in the Jackson same department presents School of Geosciences, University other challenges; we take pains of Texas, Austin. She takes up her to maintain a professional new post in January 2009. relationship at work and consider After completing her Ph.D., ourselves successful when our Julia spent two years as a postdoc students are surprised to find out at the American Museum of Natural that Drs. Brandt and Velbel are History in New York, working related. Advantages to being in with Mark Norell G ’89. Her first the same field include having a faculty appointment was in the Mike and Danita in Germany; photo by travel companion/roommate for Department of Marine, Earth, and their son. professional society meetings, Atmospheric Sciences, North Michael A. Velbel G ’84 (velbel@ coauthoring the occasional paper, Carolina State University, where msu.edu)/Danita Brandt G ’85 coteaching a few classes, and she was an Assistant Professor ([email protected]) write about having a reliable drinking buddy starting in 2004. the challenges they faced as (see photo), but probably the most Julia continues to work the a married couple in academia. important advantage is that each emergence of all kinds of living “We knew when we decided of us understands the pressures birds and the emergence of extant to get married that we would and stresses the other faces in avian diversity. She has developed face considerable challenges in the academic world (particularly a special interest in penguin finding two jobs in our respective in regard to grant-getting evolution and climate change disciplines (geochemistry and and irascible journal editors/ through the Cenozoic (penguins paleontology) within commuting reviewers). And, of course, our fossils are known back in the early distance of each other. The first shared professional path stems Paleogene, about 61 m.y. ago). 5 years of our professional lives from a common alma mater and were spent commuting between wonderful cadre of classmates Walter Joyce, G ‘04 (walter. a drafty farmhouse located about from our time at Yale.” [email protected]) will be half-way between East Lansing joining the faculty of the Institute (Michael’s position at Michigan Julia Clarke G ’02 (julia_clarke@ of Geobiology of the University of State University) and Ypsilanti ncsu.edu) reports that she has Tübingen, Germany, as an Assistant (Danita’s position at Eastern been appointed as a tenured Professor in January 2009. After
12 Geology & Geophysics News Winter 2009
Alumni News
Montana, North Dakota, and Abu Dhabi. Walter looks forward to devoting more time to the origin and evolution of turtles while in Germany but expects to remain affiliated with the Peabody Museum.
James A. Stevenson G ’04 (James. [email protected]) writes: “After completing my Ph.D., I returned home to Sydney, Australia, with my wife Gretchen. In Australia I worked as a risk James Stevenson and wife Gretchen. Walter in Slope County, North Dakota, while analyst in the energy trading team excavating a turtle site in the Hell Creek at Eraring Energy, a generation coal, along with US and European Formation. company with coal, hydro, and natural gas and power. The receiving his Ph.D. from Yale, wind generation assets. After geology and mathematics skills Walter accepted the position enjoying all the cricket, rugby, that I learned during my Ph.D., and of Collections Manager for the and meat pies that I possibly my experiences in energy trading Division of Vertebrate Paleontology could, I returned to Connecticut in Australia, were instrumental in at the Peabody Museum of Natural in early 2008. Since then I have helping me get the position. I’m History. During this time, Walter been working as a commodity currently living in Black Rock, CT, was able to continue his research trading analyst at Louis Dreyfus with Gretchen and 2 kittens, and on vertebrate evolution through Highbridge Energy in Wilton, CT, still hang out with many of the fieldwork in Utah, New Mexico, focusing on international and US friends I met in G & G at Yale.”
The Peabody Awards 2008 Gaylord Simpson Prize
The recipient of this year’s George adaptations to life in specialized Gaylord Simpson Prize is Jakob ecological niches. The machaeridians Vinther ([email protected]), a are an excellent example of the doctoral student in the Department, adaptive radiations taking place in for his paper “Machaeridians are early animal evolution. These annelid Palaeozoic armoured annelids,” co- worms (relatives of earthworms authored with Peter Van Roy and and leeches) evolved a mineralized Derek E. G. Briggs (Nature 451(10): armor, which gave them an ability to 185–188, January 10, 2008). explore niches similar to mollusks. Originally from Denmark, Vinther The machaeridians went extinct, has been interested in fossils and however, after existing in the world evolution since he was a child. His seas for more than 180 m.y. research focuses on the radiation Each year the Yale Peabody of animals at the beginning of the Museum of Natural History awards Cambrian (540 m.y. ago), specifically the George Gaylord Simpson Prize on how mollusks and annelids to a Yale University graduate student diversified to the groups we know today. By or recent doctoral candidate for a paper concerning incorporating both molecular biology and fossils from evolution and the fossil record. The prize is named the Yale Peabody Museum collections in this research, for George Gaylord Simpson (1902–1984; Yale Ph.D. he seeks to reconstruct the tempo and mode of ’26), one of the most influential paleontologists organismal evolution that took place in a rapidly of the 20th century and a major proponent of the changing biosphere and to understand their functional modern evolutionary synthesis.
13 Geology & Geophysics News Winter 2009
involvements in societies
Mary J. Kraus ’73 (Mary.Kraus@ Jean Bahr ’76 Colorado.edu) has been a professor (jmbahr@ at the University of Colorado since geology.wisc. 1983, and she is currently Chair edu) (right) of the Department of Geological is Vice- Sciences. She is a former Editor President of of the Journal of Sedimentary the Geological Research and has just completed Society of her term as President of the Society of Sedimentary America and Geology in 2007-08. Her research interests include will presumably alluvial paleosols and their geologic utility, alluvial become architecture, processes of floodplain construction, Cathy Skinner and Jean Bahr President next and continental ichnology. Mary’s current research year. Jean is seen here with Cathy Skinner in a photo focuses on paleosols that formed at the Paleocene- taken at the GSA’s awards and Presidential address Eocene Thermal Maximum and their significance ceremony at the annual meeting in Houston, Texas; for interpreting climate change at that time. That Jean had just finished chairing the ceremony. Jean is research is with fellow Yale alumni Francesca Smith Professor of Hydrogeology, University of Wisconsin, ’92 and Scott Wing ’76, G ’81. She lives in Boulder Madison. She has just completed a term as Chair of with her husband (David Uhlir, Tufts ’83) and two the Department of Geology and Geophysics. teenage daughters. Derek Briggs (derek.briggs@yale. Neil Williams G ’76 (neil.williams@ edu) completed his two-year term agso.gov.au) is currently President of as President of the Paleontological the Society of Economic Geologists Society in the Fall of 2008. (SEG). Seen here, he is speaking Derek, who is the Frederick W. to a student group at the recent Beinecke Professor of Geology and SEG meeting in South Africa. Neil is Geophysics, is the newly appointed currently the Director of Geoscience Director of Peabody Museum. Australia.
in memoriam
John Sewall Shelton G ’47 of La Ph.D. thesis on “Miocene volcanism Jolla, California, died peacefully in the northeastern part of the Los at home on July 24, 2008. Angeles Basin, California” in 1947. He graduated from Pomona He taught at Pomona until 1957 College in 1935 and after a year when he took a leave of absence of teaching geography at the to write “Geology Illustrated.” Francis Parker School, where he This famous textbook contains found himself especially excited over 200 of his own photographs by the educational possibilities taken from the air along with of taking local field trips, he companion illustrations done by his decided to pursue geology at artist brother, Hal Shelton. In 1999 Yale. In 1941 Shelton moved his “Geology Illustrated” was named family back to Claremont in order one of the 100 best science books to fill a mid-year faculty position of the 20th century by American in the Pomona College Geology Scientist. Department, and completed his continued on page 15 John Shelton
14 Geology & Geophysics News Winter 2009
in memoriam
continued from page 14 Ward Neale It was during his first years G ’52 died on at Pomona College that Shelton May 19, 2008, became a pilot and developed his after a long skills in taking aerial photographs and influential while piloting his own plane. His geological immense collection of photos career in taken from the 1940s to the 1980s Canada. After throughout the western parts war service with of North America is still in great the Royal Canadian Navy, Ward demand for usage in textbooks graduated from McGill University and for teaching at all levels of in 1949, then came to Yale for his education Ph.D. He worked with Professor John received the American Matt Walton on his thesis titled Geological Institute award for “Geology of the Bethoulat Lake “Outstanding Contribution to the area, Mistassini Territory, Quebec.” Public Understanding of Geology Returning home, Ward first for singular accomplishments in joined the Geological Survey of Karen Von Damm capturing geological processes on Canada, then Memorial University film” in 1993. In 2002 he received of Newfoundland, where he rose On August 15, 2008, Karen L. Von the National Association of to Vice-President (Academic). Damm ’77 died after a bout with Geoscience Teachers “Neil He served as President of the liver cancer. Karen worked with Miner Award” for “exceptional Canadian Geoscience Council Karl Turekian on her senior thesis contributions to the stimulation of and the Geological Association on the chronology of Mirror Lake interest in the earth sciences.” The of Canada. In 1995, the E. R. Ward sediments at Hubbard Brook. She first public exhibit of 33 of his Neale Medal was established stayed on at Yale for a year after large-format photographs, “Aerial to recognize outstanding graduation to participate in the Portraits of the American West,” is achievements in public awareness laboratory measurement of 210Pb now on display at the San Diego of earth science. Among his many in ocean water profiles of the Natural History Museum in Balboa distinctions and awards were GEOSECS (Geochemical Ocean Park, CA. membership in the Royal Society Section Studies) expeditions of John was passionate about of Canada, honorary degrees from which Yale was a part. She moved how students should be taught: the University of Calgary and on to do her Ph.D. with the late experience something first, then Memorial University; the Order of John Edmond at MIT. ask questions about how it might Canada, and the Ambrose medal She was Professor of be explained; don’t explain first from the Geological Association of Geochemistry at the University and show later. Canada. of New Hampshire. Karen was a John was also an avid tennis renowned investigator of ocean player, having played the game hydrothermal systems associated since he was a boy—he put down with spreading centers. She his racquet only after competing made numerous dives aboard the in a “90s and over” doubles submersible ALVIN and deciphered tournament in 2003, and he was the chemistry of hydrothermal nationally ranked several times in waters. both singles and doubles. She was highly regarded professionally and her many scientific collaborators and friends have expressed a feeling of great loss. Yale also will miss this distinguished alumna.
15 Geology & Geophysics News Winter 2009
The New Postdoc Quarters on the Third Floor of KGL
Photo taken from the same position as photo of David Bercovici on front cover. Space in the foreground was previously the back of the library reading room. Space in rear was previously a computer lab.
Shun Karato conferring with postdoc Justin Hustoft in the conference area. Details of a new postdoc’s cubicle.
Non-profit Org. GEOLOGY & U.S. Postage GEOPHYSICS NEWS PAID New Haven, CT Permit No. 526 Geology and Geophysics Department Yale University P.O. Box 208109 New Haven, CT 06520-8109
Return Service Requested
www.yale.edu/geology
16