UC Santa Barbara Earth Science Chair’s Letter: Andy Wyss IN THIS ISSUE | FALL 2016 Another eventful year has unfolded in the Department of Faculty Awards: Earth Science. John Cottle 1 Highlights include the arrival of Professor Roberta Rudnick Tanya Atwater 3 (p. 5), who joined us in January. We are also delighted to News from the Field: announce that Dr. Zach Eilon has become a member of our geophysics faculty, arriving on campus next winter. A Field Course in the High Sierra 2 To provide you, friends of the Department, a glimpse Summer Field Geology 10 of the enviable quality and accomplishments of our graduate students, we Volcano Geophysics at present profiles of two members of our current cohort (pp. 8-9). We take equal Yasur Volcano, Vanuatu 11 pride in our vibrant and burgeoning undergraduate program, the number Emeriti Spotlight: of majors having jumped more than 70% in the last few years. Professor Phil Gans provides (p. 10) a compelling summary of our capstone Summer Field James Mattinson 3 course, which was divided between east-central Nevada and Iceland this Distinguished Alumni: year. Mountains, Boots, & Backpacks, a course designed to entice beginning Ruth Harris 4 undergraduates into the Earth Science major, took place in the Mammoth Lakes Melissa Morse Reish 4 region in September, as is recounted by Professor Doug Burbank (p. 2). The department hosted Professors Bob and Suzanne Anderson (University Alumni Corner: of Colorado, Boulder) as the 2016-17 John Crowell Distinguished Lecturers. UCSB Shipmate Reunion 6 Fascinating in their own right, Bob and Suzanne’s series of talks also helped Giving & Donors: inform our faculty search in Earth Surfaces Process currently underway. Although public support is sufficient to meet the basic operating demands Your Dollars at Work 6 of our teaching mission, preserving the truly exceptional quality of our With Appreciation 7 undergraduate and graduate programs requires supplemental resources. Our Faculty News: students’ learning environment depends vitally on the philanthropic efforts of Roberta Rudnick 5 our community of supporters. As always, we are deeply Robert D. Ballard 5 indebted to your generosity. Wishing you health and contentment in the New Year. Graduate Student Spotlight: Laura Reynolds 8 Trevor Smith 9 Faculty Awards A free annual publication of: JOHN COTTLE Earth Science 1006 Webb Hall We are proud to announce that Associate Professor John UC Santa Barbara Cottle has received the Geological Society of America’s Santa Barbara, CA 93106–9630 coveted Early Career Award from its Mineralogy, Geochem- Information: (805) 893.4688 istry, Petrology, and Volcanology Division, in recognition of Giving: (805) 893.4604 his superior scholarship. www.geol.ucsb.edu John was lauded by his peers with a second major award, the Mineralogical Society of America’s Distinguished Lecturer for 2016-17. This Copyright 2016 Earth Science honor recognizes John’s eminence as a researcher, as well as his speaking skills. Photo: Rainbow Basin by Jackson Cook News from the Field A Field Course in the High Sierra (Earth 6) by Doug Burbank Developed by Doug Burbank students use relative dating into Mono Lake, and then use and Brad Hacker a decade ago, techniques on glacial moraines to data on evaporation, precipitation Mountains, Boots, and Backpacks separate them into past glaciations gradients, and lake geometry to takes sophomores into the Sierra and calculate paleo-snowlines build a water budget for the basin. to introduce them to the wonders during Pleistocene glaciations. A favorite day begins on Westgard of our natural landscape and Thereafter they survey active faults Pass with a study of the diversity of history, engage them in making and figure out displacements and Early Cambrian Archeocyatha fossils, field observations that underpin approximate slip rates. The rich culminates at 10,000 feet among the geologic discovery, and perhaps (and recent) history of Long Valley 4000-yr-old bristlecone pines, and recruit a few new majors! Held in Caldera and Mono Craters provides then uses modern climate and tree- the two weeks before Fall classes an ideal setting to explore volcanic ring records to examine correlations begin, this year 16 students spent processes, eruptive sequences, and of climate with ring widths. This 10 days based at SNARL (the Sierra the hazards they produce. Going writing-intensive course also provides Nevada Aquatic Research Lab: into deeper magmatic processes, repeated, detailed feedback on one of the UC Natural Reserves a day in Yosemite examines both effective written communication. So, that is situated near Mammoth). magma dynamics and some mapping even if these students don’t become Each day has a different focus in an quandaries: how do we draw majors, they have picked up new attempt to generate illuminating boundaries between plutons? As the skills and insights that should serve student insights on diverse geologic course wraps up, students gauge them well in the future. processes and history. Early on, the discharge of channels flowing Students from Earth 6: Mountains, Boots, and Backpacks, and Professor Doug Burbank take a break from mapping glacial moraines above Convict Lake in the Eastern Sierra. 2 Professor Emeritus Profile offered Jim a job as an Assistant Professor to fill the position about to be vacated by an anticipated STAFF SPOTLIGHT: retirement. But the retirement was PETER GREEN delayed, followed by a UC-wide hiring freeze, and then new rules on hiring procedures. After four long years “subsisting” as a researcher (lunar rocks) and lecturer in the Department, Jim finally became an Assistant Professor in 1977. Jim taught a wide range of courses including physical geology, summer field geology, JAMES mineralogy, petrology, geochronology, and radiogenic isotope tracers. He MATTINSON also served as Department Chair for a total of 8 years—3 in the early 1990s, Peter started working with and 5 in the mid-2000s Jim came to UCSB in 1973 from the computers as a kid. “My older His research focused on U-Pb Geophysical Lab in Washington D.C. brother was into computers from zircon geochronology of igneous where he was a post-doc helping the very beginning and quickly rocks from Alaska to Antarctica. develop new zircon U-Pb analytical got me hooked. I remember him He also continued his quest for techniques. Previously, he completed bringing home borrowed systems improved analytical methods. His his BA and PhD degrees at UCSB, that I could tinker with—a Zenith greatest success was the invention of with Cliff Hopson and George Tilton the size of a suitcase, a Commodore his “chemical abrasion” technique, as advisors. The path to joining the 64, an IBM PC 8086 and of course which greatly improved the precision UCSB faculty was complex, to say the awesome Macintosh II. I was and accuracy of zircon dates. Jim’s the least. With his post-doc ending, hooked.” Although Peter got his “chemical abrasion” is now the Jim wrote to his faculty advisors to B.A. in English and Comparative standard technique in virtually all ask if they would provide references. Literature, he never lost that passion U-Pb zircon labs world-wide. Instead, then Chair Dick Fisher for computers. After graduating from UCI he worked for Adaptec, based Faculty Awards out of Milpitas, CA. He ended up at UCSB where he’s been for the last 10 years. “What has been so special TANYA ATWATER about working on our campus,” Congratulations are in gy and tectonics.” Peter says, “is the people. It’s a order for Professor Emer- No less impressively, different environment than Silicon ita Tanya Atwater. This Tanya also received Valley, much more like a family. past year she received an Emmy! Yes, Tanya Earth Science is a great example of the prestigious Career received an Emmy from that and—they have a reputation. Contribution Award from the Academy of Tele- Everyone on campus knows what a the Structural Geology vision Arts & Sciences great department it is, how happy & Tectonics Division of for her work on the the people are and how well things the Geological Society documentary “Geology Emmy for Instructional work between faculty, staff and of America for “achieve- Across the American Programming,” for “On students. Believe me, that played ments that have led to Landscape.” Specifi- Camera Talent.” Is this a huge part in my coming here. I major advances in the cally, she received the a tantalizing hint of an haven’t been disappointed and hope fields of structural geolo- “2014 Los Angeles Area encore career? to be here for a very long time.” 3 DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI 2016 Every year, the department honors two of its alumni—one from industry, and one from academia— celebrating their accomplishments and providing our current students with exemplary role models. Ruth obtained her BS and MS degrees During the course of her UCSB RUTH HARRIS from MIT and Cornell University, graduate studies, Ruth learned respectively, then worked for a few many unexpected things from her years before applying to UCSB’s professors. “For example,” she writes, Department of Geological Sciences “during my Comprehensive Exam it PhD program. UCSB had been highly was discovered that I had not had any recommended to her by a former paleontology classes, so I was signed classmate and coworkers. up to take Bruce Tiffney’s course, The Ruth reports that the Department History of Life. Talk about a fantastic made a huge difference in her opportunity! I also learned that the professional path forward. At UCSB sisters of professors will help out their she learned important skills from her siblings when a field trip experiences supportive geology housemates and bad weather. This occurred during her officemates, and from many other John Crowell’s San Andreas fault field friendly and kind classmates too.