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Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Santa Cruz Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Santa Cruz Fall 2014 2014 Field Methods Class http://eps.ucsc.edu Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Santa Cruz Chair’s Welcome Fall 2014 Dear Alumni and Friends, Overall, it’s been a pretty good year for the Earth and Plane- Table of contents tary Sciences Department. Our faculty continue to sweep up awards, we have new faces appearing, our students and alumni continue to make us proud, and new curricular efforts Chair’s Welcome 2 are emerging. Departmental 3 Our Honors list for the year includes: a Sloan Foundation News Fellowship was awarded to planetary scientist Ian Garrick- Bethell; emeritus faculty Jim Gill was named an AGU Fel- Slug science 4 low; AGU’s John Adam Fleming Medal was awarded to round-up Gary Glatzmaier; and finally, our illustrious seismic col- Slugs in the Field 5-6 league Thorne Lay collected hardware like a crazed home- repairperson, being elected to the National Academy of Sciences (that’s a biggy…), winning the Inge Lehmann Medal of the AGU, and winning the Harry Fielding Reid Medal of the Seismol- Undergrad & 7-9 ogical Society of America. Graduate Degrees and awards As part of the natural evolution of a vibrant Department, we’ve had some transitions in the last year. We were pleased to hire Xi Zhang, a Caltech Ph.D. who will arrive in the summer of Chuck Lawson: 10- 2015: he’s an expert on planetary atmospheres. Isotope geochemist Terry Blackburn, hired last Forty-one Years 11 year, finished up his post-doc at the Carnegie Institute and arrived this past summer. In the other Later direction, Gary Glatzmaier shifted to emeritus status in order to (wait for it…) spend more time with his research. And, recent graduates can congratulate staff person Jenna Scarpelli, who Sue Schwartz: 12- moved up and out of our Department, becoming the Departmental Manager of Astronomy. Loma Prieta 25 13 years on On the curricular front, Patrick Chuang and Ocean Scientist Raphe Kudela worked up a formi- dable proposal to establish a new, multi-departmental (but EPS and OS-dominated) undergradu- Interview with 14- ate degree program in Environmental Sciences---a notable lack on our campus. We’re proceed- Jerry Weber 15 ing gradually, since a few additional faculty are likely required to offer such a major well, while maintaining the quality of our existing majors and concentrations (but, stay tuned…). The Art of Field 16- Rheology 19 As many of you are aware, the campus is celebrating its 50th birthday over the next couple of years. We will have a 50th anniversary celebration of the EPS Department on Friday to Sunday Wes Myers: 20 5/8-5/10/15. It will include a mix of field trips, tours, and faculty/alum presentations (not too From UCSC to the many…). And food. And favorite beverages, some likely in keg form. More details will follow, th National Labs but do mark it on your calendar. The 50 is accompanied by our campus’ first Capital Cam- paign ($300 million goal); our Department is working on expanding our fundraising and Subduction envi- 21- alumni outreach in conjunction with this campus goal. And it’s in this arena that we would truly ronments in New 22 appreciate any support you can give to enhance and maintain the educational experiences that our students can access. Please see information on p. 34-36 describing current EPS Develop- Zealand ment priorities. Contributions are most welcome for endowments that support graduate and un- Recent research 23- dergraduate research and education activities. Two of these endowments currently have a 1:1 in groundwater 24 match opportunity, thanks to the generosity of several alumni (double your gift!). We also wel- recharge come contributions to the Earth and Planetary Sciences Fund, which provides discretionary re- sources for immediate needs, including support for alumni activities. Slug Books 25 Speaking of social events, we’ll have our annual alumni gathering at AGU for alumni/friends/ Alumni Notes 26- current folks at the Thirsty Bear. Come join us, see old friends, make new ones, have snacks 33 (the stuffed mushrooms are to die for . .). And, you can congratulate Thorne and Gary on their newly acquired AGU hardware. It’s Tuesday, December 16th, 6 – 8:30 p.m., 661 Howard Street, Development 34- San Francisco—Hope to see you there! 39 Update Quentin Williams, Chair Earth and Planetary Page 3 Sciences at UC Santa Cruz Department News Thorne Lay was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and received the Inge Lehmann medal from the American Geophysical Union and the Harry Reid medal of the Seismological Society of America. Gary Glatzmaier was awarded the John Adam Fleming medal of the AGU. Thorne Lay Jim Gill was made a Fellow of the AGU. Xi Zhang was appointed as the newest member of faculty in the EPS department. Xi is an expert in planetary clima- tology and is currently finishing a post-doc at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona. Ian Garrick-Bethell was awarded a Sloan Fellowship to Xi Zhang pursue spacecraft exploration of the Moon Patrick Fulton (researcher) won an Early Career Award Gary Glatzmaier from the Tectonics section of the AGU. Patrick Fulton Alumni Awards Sam Hansen (PhD ‘07) won a Presidential Early Career Award. Ian Garrick-Bethell Ray Wells (PhD ‘82) was awarded the Department of Interior’s Distinguished Service Award. Slug Web Corner Cruz Ortiz (BS ’11) and Christina Richardson (BS ’12) were both awarded NSF graduate re- search fellowships. Ray Wells with Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell Arrivals/Departures We are now on Facebook! Like us at Gary Glatzmaier retired - in order to devote all his energies to research. www.facebook.com/ UcscEPS Jenna Scarpelli left her current position to become Department Manager in As- tronomy. We are sad to see her leave. Earth and Planetary Page 4 Sciences at UC Santa Cruz Slug Science Round-up Ecological collapse in Egypt over 6000 years Researchers have used depictions of animals in ancient Egyptian artifacts to identify extinctions in large mam- mal populations over 6000 years. Drying climate and the growing hu- man population were responsible. Carved rows of animals cover both sides of The study was led by former grad stu- the ivory handle of a ritual knife from the dent Justin Yeakel and also involved Predynastic Period in Egypt . Prof. Paul Koch. Largest deep earthquake recorded An analysis of a deep earthquake off the coast of Kamchatka by graduate student Lingling Ye and Prof. Thorne Lay re- vealed that it was the strongest such earthquake ever recorded. How such a rapid rupture could have occurred at such great depths and pressures is currently an unsolved mystery. Tidal forces gave the Moon its shape A new analysis of the Moon’s shape suggests that it Editors: Eli was mostly generated by early tidal heating while Silver & Francis still partly molten. The study was led by Prof. Ian Nimmo Garrick-Bethell with grad student Viranga Per- era and Prof. Francis Nimmo also contributing. Dept. Earth & Planet. Sci. We hope to see you at the Thirsty Bear Brewing Company for our 14th Annual UCSC Earth & Planetary Sciences Alumni Event at Phone: 831-459- Fall AGU! 2266 Fax: 831-459-3074 When? Tuesday, December 16th, 2014 E-mails: from 6:00pm - 8:30pm [email protected] [email protected] Where? Thirsty Bear Brewing Company 661 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 94105 http://www.thirstybear.com/ Earth and Planetary Page 5 Sciences at UC Santa Cruz Slugs in the Field Danica Roth, installing fluvial seismometers at the Erdbach Falls (Switzerland). Paul Koch taking time off from being Dean to exam- ine seal carcasses in Ant- arctica. Chia-Te Chien on a Taiwan Ocean Research cruise to collect seawater and aerosol samples in the Philippine Sea. Slawek Tulaczyk (center), Susan Schwartz (right) and Dan Sampson (left) spooling 800 meters of cable for instru- ment deployment in a deep borehole on Whillans Ice Stream, Antarctica. Earth and Planetary Page 6 Sciences at UC Santa Cruz Slugs in the Field: Undergraduate Field Trips Mark your calendars for the EPS 50th Anniversary Weekend! When? Fri-Sun, May 8-10th, 2015 Where? UCSC Earth & Planetary Sci- ences Department What? A celebration, field trips, alumni lectures and more . Earth and Planetary Page 7 Sciences at UC Santa Cruz Graduate Degrees, 2013-14 Ken Mankoff, Fall 2013 (PhD) Rachel Brown Reid, Summer 2014 (PhD) “Multi-scale investigations of subglacial and sub-ice “Dietary Ecology of Coastal Coyotes (Canis la- shelf conduit hydrology” trans): Marine-Terrestrial Linkages from the Holo- cene to Present ” Lucas Beem, Fall 2013 (PhD) “Changes in the flow of the Whillans Ice Stream Nicole Russell, Summer 2014 (PhD) West Antarctica: Insights into Basal Processes” “Sea-Level Rise, El Niño, and the Future of the California Coastline ” Priya Ganguli, Fall 2013 (PhD) “Mercury Speciation and Transport at the Land-Sea Tina Dwyer Wasem, Summer 2014 (PhD) Margin” “Terrestrial Planets and Galilean Satellites: Giant Impacts, Composition, and Formation” Megan Avants, Fall 2013 (PhD) “Effects of Near-source Heterogeneity on Wave Rhiannon Bezore, Summer 2014 (MS) Fields Emanating from Explosive Sources Observed “A Comparative Study of Passive versus Dynamic at Regional and Teleseismic distances” Sea Level Rise Inundation Models for the Island of Kauai” Nadine Quintana-Krupinski, Fall 2013 (PhD) “Calibration and application of the planktic fo- raminifera B/Ca carbonate system proxy in the Pa- Graduate Awards cific Ocean” CAMPUS-WIDE OUTSTANDING TA: Jude Viranga Perera, Winter 2014 (MS) Karla Knudson “Lunar Geophysics: the
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