Events
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JSG | BEG | UTIG | EPS |
UTIG Brown Bag: Andrew Gase, UTIG
Start:April 2, 2019 at 12:00 pm
End:
April 2, 2019 at 1:00 pm
Location:
PRC ROC Room 1.603
Contact:
Kelly Olsen, kolsen@utexas.edu
Informal weekly presentations by UTIG students and researchers. Bring your lunch!
DeFord Lecture: Christie Rowe
Start:April 4, 2019 at 4:00 pm
End:
April 4, 2019 at 5:00 pm
Location:
JGB 2.324
UTIG Seminar Series: William Moore, Hampton University
Start:April 5, 2019 at 10:30 am
End:
April 5, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Location:
PRC ROC Room 1.603
Contact:
Constantino Panagopulos, costa@ig.utexas.edu, 512-471-0160
View Event
Speaker: William Moore, Hampton University
Host: Thorsten Becker
Title: Venus: How Heat Pipes Closed the Window on Plate Tectonics
Abstract: Venus, like the smaller terrestrial bodies but unlike Earth, exhibits single-plate, rigid lid tectonics and a surface dominated by voluminous plains-forming volcanism. The absence of plate tectonics on Venus has long been a puzzle, since buoyancy forces should be quite similar to Earth. One major difference between the two planets is the surface temperature, which is 430 degrees C hotter on Venus. Venus’ surface is nearly twice as close to the melting point of rocks as Earth’s. For any terrestrial planet, the difference between the surface temperature and the solidus determines the maximum amount of heat that can be transported without melting the mantle. If the heat production exceeds this level, melt will be produced and erupt at the surface, carrying the excess heat in what is known as the heat-pipe mode of planetary heat transfer. This means that a planet with a higher surface temperature, will sustain significant volcanism at lower heat production rates, since sub-solidus convection is less efficient. As planets cool from a hot state and gradually lose heat producing elements, a planet with an elevated surface temperature takes longer to exit the heat-pipe mode from a given initial heat production rate, and this exit takes place at a lower heat production rate. Since heat-pipe volcanism suppresses lithospheric stresses (through the capping of temperatures and flattening of isotherms by the solidus), any opportunity to initiate plate tectonics therefore takes place later and at lower heat production rates and lower lithospheric stress on a planet with a higher surface temperature. If those stresses are insufficient to break the lithosphere, rigid-lid evolution results. This hypothesis explains a number of features of Venusian geology that previously have been explained by strongly non-monotonic behavior which is difficult to reconcile with evolution from a hot initial state. Instead, the extensive plains volcanism, the apparently thick lithosphere, the uniform crater distribution, and the relatively old age of elevated crust are all explained by the rapid cessation of heat pipe volcanism approximately 1 billion years ago, a delay of about 2 billion years (roughly one half life of mantle heat sources) relative to Earth. Venus’ extended childhood has therefore caused it to miss its window of opportunity to undergo plate tectonics and it is now stably trapped in the rigid lid state.
Barb Cohen, NASA Goddard
Start:April 8, 2019 at 10:00 am
End:
April 8, 2019 at 10:00 am
Location:
POB 2.402
Contact:
Elizabeth Catlos, ejcatlos@jsg.utexas.edu
View Event
Talk on In situ geochronology on Mars and the development of future instrumentation
Steve Forman, Baylor University
Start:April 9, 2019 at 9:00 am
End:
April 9, 2019 at 10:00 am
Location:
POB 2.402
Contact:
Elizabeth Catlos, ejcatlos@jsg.utexas.edu
View Event
Talk on: Luminescence dating to quantify eolian depositional process on Earth and Mars on decadal to million year-timescales
UTIG Brown Bag: Stefano Nerozzi, UTIG (PhD Talk)
Start:April 9, 2019 at 12:00 pm
End:
April 9, 2019 at 1:00 pm
Location:
PRC ROC Room 1.603
Contact:
Kelly Olsen, kolsen@utexas.edu
Informal weekly presentations by UTIG students and researchers. Bring your lunch!
This week: Stefano Nerozzi presents his PhD defense talk!
“Reconstructing the early emplacement of the north polar cap of Mars”
De Ford Lecture Series: John Doherty
Start:April 9, 2019 at 4:00 pm
End:
April 9, 2019 at 5:00 pm
Location:
JGB 2.324
Doug Ming, NASA Johnson Space Center
Start:April 11, 2019 at 10:30 am
End:
April 11, 2019 at 11:30 am
Location:
POB 2.402
Contact:
Elizabeth Catlos, ejcatlos@jsg.utexas.edu
View Event
Talk on: Sedimentary Deposits on Mars from the Eyes of Rovers and Landers
DeFord Lecture: Gabriel Bowen
Start:April 11, 2019 at 4:00 pm
End:
April 11, 2019 at 5:00 pm
Location:
JGB 2.324
UTIG Seminar Series: Amy Clement, University of Miami
Start:April 12, 2019 at 10:30 am
End:
April 12, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Location:
PRC ROC Room 1.603
Contact:
Constantino Panagopulos, costa@ig.utexas.edu, 512-471-0160
View Event
Speaker: Amy Clement, University of Miami
Host: Yuko Okumura
Title: The Causes of Atlantic Climate Variability
Abstract: Multi-decadal climate changes have significant ecological and societal impacts. Even small changes in temperature and rainfall, when they persist for decades, can affect many sectors, from water resource management to agriculture to coastal-zone planning. Multi-decadal fluctuations have long been assumed to be driven by the ocean circulation. Focusing on the Atlantic, we discuss challenges to diagnosing the drivers of climate changes at these timescales, and question this longstanding assumption.
In particular, most previous explanations identify the driver of the Atlantic multi-decadal variability (AMV) as natural changes in the ocean circulation. Applying a novel experimental design to climate models, we argue that this is not the case. Instead, we show that common diagnostic frameworks often fail to identify the main drivers, and we propose a more complete attribution of the causes of AMV, including multi-decadal changes in anthropogenic forcing. We discuss the implications of these results for predicting climate changes of the coming decades.
Hot Science - Cool Talk "Save the...Sharks!?"
Start:April 12, 2019 at 7:00 pm
End:
April 12, 2019 at 8:15 pm
Location:
Burdine Hall (BUR)
Contact:
Didey Montoya, didey@austin.utexas.edu, 5124714211
View Event
“We have been hating sharks on general principles for centuries … now it is high time that they should pay up.” This was a 1928 invitation to harvest sharks in Scientific Monthly (now Science). This mentality has been accepted by generations of fishermen and fishery managers. However, modern science shows many of the world’s shark stocks have decreased to unprecedented levels, placing ocean ecosystems in peril. Through his research and interactions with sharks, Dr. Stunz will share the history and current status of their declines, and their future along the northern Gulf of Mexico.
DeFord Lecture: Brian Arbic
Start:April 16, 2019 at 4:00 pm
End:
April 16, 2019 at 5:00 pm
Location:
JGB 2.324
UTIG Brown Bag: Doug Foster, UTIG
Start:April 17, 2019 at 12:00 pm
End:
April 17, 2019 at 1:00 pm
Location:
PRC ROC Room 1.603
Contact:
Kelly Olsen, kolsen@utexas.edu
Informal weekly presentations by UTIG students and researchers. Bring your lunch!
DeFord Lecture: Marcello Coradini
Start:April 18, 2019 at 4:00 pm
End:
April 18, 2019 at 5:00 pm
Location:
JGB 2.324
UTIG Seminar Series: Anne Becel, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Start:April 19, 2019 at 10:30 am
End:
April 19, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Location:
PRC ROC Room 1.603
Contact:
Constantino Panagopulos, costa@ig.utexas.edu, 512-471-0160
View Event
Speaker: Anne Becel, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Host: Shuoshuo Han
Title: Connections between along-strike variations in seismic structure and earthquake behavior at the Alaska Peninsula subduction zone
Abstract: Subduction zones worldwide exhibit striking variations in seismic activity and slip behavior along strike and down dip, and many factors have been invoked to explain this variability. The subduction zone off the Alaska Peninsula is characterized by marked changes in seismic behavior, earthquake rupture history and geodetic coupling over relatively small along-strike distances, making it an ideal location to examine controls on seismo- and tsunami-genesis.
Marine seismic reflection and refraction data acquired across this subduction zone with the R/V Marcus Langseth reveal substantial along-strike variations in structure and properties of the incoming oceanic lithosphere as well as differences in thickness and pore-fluid pressure within the subducting sediment layer. We propose the amount of water and sediment delivered into the subduction zone on the incoming plate are influencing seismic behavior throughout this system. Seismic data also reveal major downdip changes in seismic reflection character of the megathrust interpreted as a broadening of the deformation zone at depth and thought to represent a gradual transition from conditionally stable and stable-sliding regions. Last, seismic data show a structural architecture favorable to the generation of tsunami in one of the subduction zone segments that needs to be taken into account when considering hazards for this region.
De Ford Lecture Series: Paul Myrow
Start:April 19, 2019 at 12:00 pm
End:
April 19, 2019 at 1:00 pm
Location:
JGB4.102
UTIG Brown Bag: Mark Cloos, UT
Start:April 23, 2019 at 12:00 pm
End:
April 23, 2019 at 1:00 pm
Location:
PRC ROC Room 1.603
Contact:
Kelly Olsen, kolsen@utexas.edu
Informal weekly presentations by UTIG students and researchers. Bring your lunch!
DeFord Lecture: Freya George
Start:April 25, 2019 at 4:00 pm
End:
April 25, 2019 at 5:00 pm
Location:
JGB 2.324
UTIG Seminar Series: Jamin Greenbaum, UTIG
Start:April 26, 2019 at 10:30 am
End:
April 26, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Location:
PRC ROC Room 1.603
Contact:
Constantino Panagopulos, costa@ig.utexas.edu, 512-471-0160
View Event
Speaker: Jamin Greenbaum, UTIG
Host: Don Blankenship
Title: Vulnerabilities to ice sheet retreat along East Antarctica’s Indo-Pacific margin
Abstract: Global average sea level was 6.6 to 9.4 meters higher than it is now during the last interglacial period, to which Antarctica must have contributed between 3.6 and 6.4 meters given the estimated contributions from other sources. Much attention has been given to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) due to the rapidly retreating Thwaites and Pine Island Glaciers; however, their combined maximum sea level contribution is limited to 83 cm and the maximum possible contribution of the WAIS, assuming a complete collapse, is limited to 3.3 meters. This sea level budgeting exercise, combined with satellite observations of coastal glacier thinning on the margin of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS), motivated UTIG’s polar geophysics group to organize the International Collaborative Exploration of the Cryosphere through Airborne Profiling (ICECAP) consortium, resulting in what has become a decade-long campaign of interdisciplinary surveys that have now filled in every major data gap in the EAIS. Here I will highlight how our recent efforts in Princess Elizabeth Land (PEL) have revealed lithosphere that thinned due to Cretaceous breakup of Gondwana, resulting in a large area of the ice sheet grounded below sea level and vulnerable to climate-paced marine ice sheet instability. We show that the area of thinned lithosphere along coastal PEL is similar in extent to thin lithosphere in the conjugate area of India’s Bengal Basin –a region currently vulnerable to seawater inundation. I will conclude with an overview of ongoing efforts to characterize ice shelves and the seafloor along the Indo-Pacific margin, now the least understood area of Antarctica due to the presence of sea ice that complicates access by marine platforms.
UTIG Brown Bag: Cornelia Rasmussen, UTIG
Start:April 30, 2019 at 12:00 pm
End:
April 30, 2019 at 1:00 pm
Location:
PRC ROC Room 1.603
Contact:
Kelly Olsen, kolsen@utexas.edu
Informal weekly presentations by UTIG students and researchers. Bring your lunch!
Planetary Habitability Seminar SeriesApril, 22 2024Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PMLocation: PMA 15.216B UT Center for Planetary Systems Habitability Seminar Series. See website for speaker schedule and more details: View Events Join remotely: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/94052130734 In person: Classroom 15.216B, Physics, Math and Astronomy Bldg. UT Austin, Department of Astronomy 2515 Speedway, Stop C1400 Austin, Texas 78712-1205 |
UTIG Discussion Hour: Nicholas Montiel - PhD Talk (UTIG)April, 23 2024Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PMLocation: ROC 2.201 |
UTIG Seminar Series: Cornelia Rasmussen, UTIGApril, 26 2024Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AMLocation: PRC 196/ROC 1.603 Speaker: Cornelia Rasmussen, Research Associate, University of Texas Institute for Geophysics Host: Krista Soderlund Title: The Emerging Field Of Position-Specific Isotope Analysis: Applications in chemical forensics, exobiology, geo- and environmental sciences Abstract: Complex organics can be found all over our solar system and within each living thing on our planet, be it as part of its physiology or as a contaminant. However, different processes can lead to the formation of chemical identical molecules. This makes answering a number of scientific questions challenging. One example is distinguishing between biotic and abiotic molecules, hence hindering life detection on early Earth but especially on other planetary bodies, such as on Mars, Titan, Enceladus and on meteorites where organics have been detected. Moreover, tracing molecules as they move through the environment can be demanding, yet is essential in studying the flow of organic molecules as well as correlating pollutants with their source. Novel tools to address these challenges are currently being developed. Especially, the emerging field of position-specific isotope analysis is beginning to grant access to the unique intramolecular carbon (13C/12C) isotope fingerprint preserved in complex molecules. This fingerprint can be applied in various scientific disciplines, ranging from forensics to exobiology, geo- and environmental sciences, including geo health. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) has the potential to become a key player in this research area, as it allows the analysis of organics within complex mixtures, all without the need to fragment the molecule into single carbon units or the combustion of the molecule of interest. We have been developing several NMR tools that allow us to investigate the intramolecular carbon isotope distribution within various molecule classes and to test the central hypothesis that the position-specific carbon isotope distribution within complex organics depends on a molecule’s source and formation history. |
Planetary Habitability Seminar SeriesApril, 29 2024Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PMLocation: PMA 15.216B UT Center for Planetary Systems Habitability Seminar Series. See website for speaker schedule and more details: View Events Join remotely: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/94052130734 In person: Classroom 15.216B, Physics, Math and Astronomy Bldg. UT Austin, Department of Astronomy 2515 Speedway, Stop C1400 Austin, Texas 78712-1205 |
UTIG Discussion Hour: Kristian Chan - PhD Talk (UTIG)April, 30 2024Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PMLocation: ROC 2.201 |