To post an event in the JSG Events calendar, send details (talk title, series, date, start and end time, location, contact) to the representative for the unit hosting the talk:
Bureau of Economic Geology: Valerie Siewert
Department of Geological Sciences: Lyndsey Turner
Institute for Geophysics: Nancy Hard
Dean’s Office/CIEEP/EER/Other: Submit a ticket
Watch seminar online
Speaker bio.
Title: Global Geology of Titan from Cassini
Abstract: Titan has shown itself to be one of the solar system's most intriguing objects for study, with a variety of unusual candidate materials on its surface, such as seas of liquid hydrocarbons. Titan is very geologically complex, and features found from Cassini data include large craters, cryovolcanoes, mountains, flowing channels, vast fields of dunes, and rivers, lakes and seas of methane. Titan is very Earth-like in its geology, despite the very different surface conditions and composition, and has become known as "the Earth of the outer solar system". This talk will discuss the global distribution and origin of different surface units.
Host: Cyril Grima
Title: Geomorphological indicators of stepped Holocene sea-level rise from the SE African continental shelf
Abstract: The narrow, bedrock-framed and current-swept shelf of SE Africa is host to a variety of seafloor features that give insight into the patterns of sea-level change since the last glacial maxima. The subtropical climate and antecedent geomorphology of the shelf have resulted in the widespread lithification and preservation of a multitude of coastal landforms, now located along the seafloor at depths of 60 m and 100 m. These coastal landforms comprise a number of interesting shoreline features including barrier islands and inlets, relict estuaries, segmented coastal lagoons, and large-scale aeolian dune complexes. The depth of these features matches with those described for periods of stable sea level preceding both meltwater pulse 1A and 1B and their location overlies the last glacial maximum drainage preserved in the shelf stratigraphy. This talk described their similarity to contemporary shorelines, puts their preservation into the context of transgressive processes and links their occurrence to major changes in global sea level since the LGM. Examples are also shown of features identified from similar depths on the inner shelf of SW Africa and parallels are drawn between the two.
Speaker bio: Andy Green
Host: John Goff
Informal weekly presentations by UTIG students and researchers. Bring your lunch!
Click to watch online
This week: Effect of Large-Scale Condensation on Uncertainty in Modeled Projections of Rainfall
Speaker page: Ben Stephens
Click to watch the seminar online
Speaker bio.
Host: Dr. Yuko Okumura
Title: The importance of the Indian Ocean for tropical climate change
Abstract: The Indian Ocean (IO) has long been considered a minor player in past and future climate changes in the tropics. I will present evidence challenging this view and show that this ocean can experience dramatic climatic reorganizations amplified by coupled ocean-atmosphere dynamics. This conclusion is supported by analysis of model simulations and paleoclimate proxies of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) – the most recent glacial interval ca. 21,000 years ago. The triggering mechanism, exposure of the Sunda and Sahul shelves due to lower glacial sea level, has no future analogue; but the amplifying mechanism does, and could be a fundamental feature of the IO. In addition to these permanent changes, the IO can experience much stronger year-to-year climate variations due to emergence of a mode of variability resembling the El Niño phenomenon in the Pacific. This mode has not been observed yet, but our new paleoclimate data confirms it was active during the LGM. This increases our confidence on model predictions of its future emergence, with important implications for predicting climate extremes in countries of the Indian Ocean rim. These results revise the current Pacific-centric paradigm and demonstrate that past climatic intervals are key to study out of sample behavior in the climate system.
Informal weekly presentations by UTIG students and researchers. Bring your lunch!
This week: Adventures in Alaska with the International Summer School in Glaciology
Speaker: Sophie Goliber
Click to watch online
Speaker bio - Krista Soderlund.
Host: Don Blankenship
Title: Ocean Dynamics of Outer Solar System Satellites
Abstract: Exploration of the outer solar system has shown that subsurface oceans may be relatively common in the interiors of icy satellites. The presence of liquid water makes these ocean worlds compelling astrobiological targets. However, the dynamics of these oceans also play a role in promoting habitable environments. Here, we focus on the convective ocean dynamics of Europa and Ganymede in preparation for the upcoming Europa Clipper and JUICE missions and of Enceladus and Titan given the abundance of data from the Cassini mission. We use theoretical arguments and numerical models to make predictions about ocean currents and heat transfer patterns. Our results show that oceans in the outer solar system are prone to dynamics that are not strongly constrained by the Coriolis force due to their relatively slow rotation rates. In addition, convective heat transfer is found to vary with latitude, which may have consequences for the thermophysical structure of the ice shell and be linked to surface deformation.
Speakers TBD.
Why do animals perceive certain traits as beautiful and others not? While Darwin explained why the animal world abounds in stunning beauty, he struggled to understand how. Dr. Michael Ryan, one of the world’s leading authorities on animal behavior, tells the remarkable story of how he and other scientists have taken up where Darwin left off and transformed our understanding of sexual selection. Join Dr. Ryan as he explores how beauty is defined through the brain of the beholder.
