Events

Bureau of Economic Geology Seminar Series

Jackson School 20th Anniversary Celebration and Reunion

Come celebrate the Jackson School’s amazing journey to becoming one of the preeminent geosciences institutions in the world!

We hope you’ll join us for this special milestone as we reflect on two decades of achievements and look ahead to the future of the Jackson School. A fantastic lineup of events is planned, offering opportunities to reconnect with former students, colleagues, and friends, engage in discussions about the school’s impact, and celebrate the incredible Jackson School community.

Visit the event page to register.

DeFord Lecture | Dr. Zhe Jia

Earthquake Source Complexities: Insights on Rupture Dynamics and Hazard Mitigation by Dr. Zhe Jia, research assistant professor at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics at the Jackson School of Geosciences

Abstract: Effectively assessing and reducing earthquake risks requires understanding why earthquakes can unfold in ways that standard seismic models often fail to predict. This talk explores how fault ruptures can be more complex than our usual assumptions suggest, making earthquake magnitudes and impacts especially hard to forecast. In this talk, I highlight some representative major earthquakes in recent years to illustrate the complexity of seismic ruptures. By integrating new modeling methods with multiple geophysical data and lenses, we can quantify their detailed rupture complexities, examine the compositional and thermal conditions of their source regions, and dynamically reproduce their faulting processes to uncover underlying physics and controlling factors. These advances provide insights into Earth’s multi-scale dynamics and highlight the value of unifying views from data-driven and physics-based models. By systematically exploring rupture complexities, we take steps toward closing the gap between theoretical and observational understanding of earthquake physics, thereby improving earthquake forecasts and hazard mitigation.

Jackson School 20th Anniversary Celebration and Reunion

Come celebrate the Jackson School’s amazing journey to becoming one of the preeminent geosciences institutions in the world!

We hope you’ll join us for this special milestone as we reflect on two decades of achievements and look ahead to the future of the Jackson School. A fantastic lineup of events is planned, offering opportunities to reconnect with former students, colleagues, and friends, engage in discussions about the school’s impact, and celebrate the incredible Jackson School community.

Visit the event page to register.

UTIG Seminar Series: Sara Santos, UTIG

Speaker: Sara Oliveira Santos, University of Texas Institute for Geophysics

Host: Krista Soderlund

Title: Shrimp as a model organism for bio-inspired underwater vehicles

Abstract: Metachronal locomotion, characterized by the sequential beating of appendages moving in a tail-to-head motion with a phase lag, is present across a wide range of length scales and Reynolds numbers (Re). During the power stroke, the swimming appendages move opposite the swimming direction, maximizing their surface area to generate drag-based thrust in each pleopod. During the recovery stroke, the profile area decreases, reducing the drag on the appendages and creating net thrust. Metachronal, drag-based swimming in shrimp has been studied to understand its ecological significance and find solutions for underwater propulsion. However, we have yet to explore many important mechanisms of shrimp swimming, especially at the single appendage scale. We investigate the individual characteristics of their kinematics and morphology to understand the methods of success in shrimp swimming. We designed and built a fully articulated, multi-link robotic platform, integrating the kinematics of shrimp pleopods. Its modular design allows for integrating morphological features to test any particular parameter of interest and is suitable for studying multi-legged systems. Using experimental techniques, we use our robotic platform to investigate the hydrodynamics of a single beating appendage’s near- and far-field flow. We performed concurrent kinematics, force, and velocimetry measurements to examine the generation of drag-based thrust and lift, and the formation of vortices around one propulsor. We found that shrimp produce lift through a leading-edge vortex during the power stroke by taking advantage of the angle of incidence of their exopodite. Insights from our robotic platform can provide design guidelines for bio-inspired underwater uncrewed robots, contribute to understanding the evolutionary history of metachronal swimmers, and establish a link between their adaptations and the ecosystem.

Jackson School 20th Anniversary Celebration and Reunion

Come celebrate the Jackson School’s amazing journey to becoming one of the preeminent geosciences institutions in the world!

We hope you’ll join us for this special milestone as we reflect on two decades of achievements and look ahead to the future of the Jackson School. A fantastic lineup of events is planned, offering opportunities to reconnect with former students, colleagues, and friends, engage in discussions about the school’s impact, and celebrate the incredible Jackson School community.

Visit the event page to register.

Bureau of Economic Geology Seminar Series

DeFord Lecture | Dr. Mike Ek

Land-Atmosphere Interactions: Will Clouds Form? by Dr. Mike Ek, director of the Joint Numerical Testbed Program at the National Center for Atmospheric Research

Abstract: Local land-atmosphere coupling involves the interactions between the land-surface and the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), and in turn with the free atmosphere above. Initiation of fair-weather cumulus requires an increase in relative humidity at the ABL top, and depends on a number of processes, some opposing each other. Those processes include the evolution of surface fluxes, sub-surface heat and moisture transport, surface-layer turbulence, as well as boundary-layer development, and warm- and dry-air entrainment into the ABL from the free atmosphere above.  Following an analytical development, we use modeling and observational data sets to examine this question.

UTIG Seminar Series: Molly Patterson, Binghamton University

Speaker: Molly Patterson, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, Binghamton University

Host: Chris Lowery

Title: Catchment sensitivities of the west and east Antarctic ice sheets to orbital forcing during the mid- to late Pliocene

Abstract: The Antarctic ice sheet appears as a large, massive homogenous blob on most maps, yet some computer models predict there is considerable variability with respect to how the ice sheet may change under various warming scenarios due to different Earth systems processes. Sediment records recovered from the ice margin during ocean drilling expeditions associated with the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and its predecessor programs can help provide some insight on the causes of Antarctic ice sheet variability. Such insight is fundamental towards understanding some of the sensitivities of how the ice sheet might respond to future climate change.

Geochemical records from the deep, which reflect past changes in ice volume and global temperature, demonstrate clear oscillations in ice volume that were paced by astronomical variations. Such astronomical variations involve eccentricity (the shape of Earth’s orbit, ~400 and 100 thousand year cycles, kyr), obliquity (tilt of Earth’s axis, ~41 kyr), and precession (wobble of Earth’s axis, ~20 kyr) cycles. While geological records recovered from the Antarctic margin also demonstrate this, the exact mechanisms for how orbital forcing impacts ice sheet mass balance, including regional sensitivities of ice sheets to marine and terrestrial climate feedbacks, remain elusive. I will present two high-resolution mid-Pliocene to Early Pleistocene (~3.3 to 2.3 Ma) records of iceberg-rafted debris recovered from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Ross Sea margin and the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) Wilkes Land margin collected during IODP Expeditions 374 and 318, respectively. These results suggest that different sectors of marine-based margins of Antarctica’s ice sheets have different sensitivities to various climate and oceanic feedbacks resulting from astronomical variations. Our findings ground-truth computer modeling experiments that highlight large spatial variability in the response of Antarctica’s ice sheet to future warming, and that sensitivities of the ice sheet to atmospheric and marine forcing differ in each catchment.

Bureau of Economic Geology Seminar Series

DeFord Lecture | Dr. Charlie Kerans

Sea Level and Climate Patterns During the Last Interglacial for the Bahamas-Caicos Archipelago: Impact of a 40 yr Program of Carbonate Field Research by Dr. Charlie Kerans, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin

Abstract: Carbonate strata host a rich record of paleoclimate and past sea level during the Last Interglacial (LIG) across the Bahamas-Caicos Archipelago (BCA). Current models of ice sheet history and glacioisostatic adjustment across the LIG can be significantly improved by a detailed whole-island/cross-archipelago understanding of this record. Field data from Great Inagua, the Caicos Platform, San Salvador Island, and Abaco are leveraged here with cross-BCA DEM data and airborne lidar imagery to provide new estimates of relative sea level (RSL). Essential improvements in GIA models and global mean sea level (GMSL) estimates can derive from these data. However, the myopic focus on GMSL may be, in part, a distraction from the insights gained into past climate states and wave/wind energy in the western North Atlantic during the LIG vs. the mid-late Holocene.

Before covering the BCA story, a vignette of the JSG carbonate group’s path to arrive at this focus on Pleistocene RSL and paleoclimate will emphasize the importance of field-based research and education in reaching these insights. The BEG Reservoir Characterization Research Lab began detailed characterization of carbonate outcrops and subsurface datasets in 1987 and has continued pushing science and technological boundaries in outcrop digital characterization and stratigraphic analysis. The Permian Basin, the Cretaceous and Jurassic of the GOM and Middle East, and most recently the Holocene-Pleistocene of the BCA have been significant “testing grounds” for this research. Much of this work has enhanced our field educational curriculum and been improved by it.

This combined expertise in carbonate outcrop characterization has enabled interrogation of Pleistocene stratigraphy across the BCA in a way not previously possible, allowing a more complete reconstruction of the archipelago’s dynamic relative sea level history. The BCA MIS 5e RSL record is shown to include an early +4 m highstand, followed by a short-lived fall to +1m, and then a peak highstand of at least +6, but more likely +8-10 m, before a rapid forced regression dropped SL below the top of the platforms. The previous suggestion of a northward gradual increase in peak MIS 5e RSL from 2.2 m in the southwest to above 6.5 m in the north is challenged, suggesting a need for reassessment of recent GIA models. The dramatically more energetic aeolian and wave-generated deposits of the MIS 5e could be of equal or greater importance relative to GMSL in assessing climate impacts of a warmer world as compared to their mid-late Holocene counterparts.

UTIG Seminar Series: Allie Balter-Kennedy, LDEO

Speaker: Alexandra (Allie) Balter-Kennedy, Postdoctoral Scholar, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Host: Benjamin Keisling

Title: Update from the GreenDrill project: Evidence for reduced northern Greenland Ice Sheet extent during the Pleistocene from subglacial rock and sediment

Abstract: Sediment and bedrock beneath modern ice sheets archive evidence of reduced ice-sheet extent when climate conditions were favorable for deglaciation, including during the Holocene and other Pleistocene interglacials. In this talk, I will highlight ongoing work from the GreenDrill project, which is a targeted effort to recover and analyze subglacial material at strategically selected locations in northern Greenland. In 2023 and 2024, we deployed two US NSF Ice Drilling Program drills and collected a total of ~22 m of subglacial rock and sediment. I’ll focus primarily on a core collected beneath the 500-m-thick Prudhoe Dome, an ice dome in northwest Greenland, which records ice-free periods through at least the Pleistocene, including the Holocene. Ice-sheet modeling suggests that such ice-free conditions at Prudhoe Dome require, at minimum, GrIS-wide mass loss equivalent to a 0.19–0.73 m global sea-level contribution.

Master's Thesis Presentations

The Master of Science (MS) degree at the Jackson School of Geosciences is considered to be the professional degree for a career in the Geosciences. This degree is the foundation for students pursuing employment in the petroleum industry, environmental and hydrogeological fields, state and federal government agencies, and other related geoscience fields. Some students also use the MS degree as preparation for pursuing a Ph.D.

The Energy & Earth Resources Interdisciplinary program provides the opportunity for students to prepare themselves in management, finance, economics, law and policy leading to analytical and leadership positions in resource-related fields. The private sector and government organizations face a growing need for professionals that can plan, evaluate, and manage complex resource projects, commonly international in scope, which often include partners with a variety of professional backgrounds.

As requirements for these degrees, students must present a professional talk on Master’s Thesis Presentations.

Bureau of Economic Geology Seminar Series

DeFord Lecture | Dr. Karen McKinnon

Another record-breaking heatwave? Understanding the trends and drivers of heat extremes by Dr. Karen McKinnon, University of California Los Angeles

Abstract: Heat extremes result from the convergence of atmospheric and land processes across multiple spatial and temporal scales. While we can be quite confident that heat extremes will become more frequent in a warming world, major uncertainties remain in terms of how and why they will change. A recent notable example was the 2021 Pacific Northwest heatwave, which was so extreme that researchers initially struggled to put a nonzero probability on it. Using both in situ observations and a large climate model (CESM2) ensemble, we find that record-smashing extremes are much more likely to occur in regions like the Pacific Northwest that have climatologically positively skewed temperatures, which reflect the existence of processes that converge to cause very large extremes. As a result, the event was consistent with a human-caused warming of the mean combined with a low-probability sampling of an extreme weather pattern. More broadly, do we find evidence in the observational record that summertime extremes are warming faster than typical summertime temperatures? Despite the many recent high-impact heat waves around the world, we find that observations and climate models agree that the hottest summer temperatures have warmed at the same pace as the median from 1959-2023, although the coldest summer temperatures have warmed more slowly. The trends in the extremes compared to the median can be predicted from an equation derived from the surface energy balance, and are due to changes in surface radiative heating, and the fraction of heat that goes into evaporating water, on extreme versus typical days. Finally, we show that, in contrast to the general expectation of humidity increasing in a warmer climate, humidity has been decreasing on hot days across the semiarid subtropics, with concerning implications for fire risk. In the US Southwest, we trace the decrease to declining soil moisture and evapotranspiration, indicating an important land surface control on humidity trends. Collectively, the results provide a framework for understanding the probability of very unusual events in the relatively short observational record, and highlight the important role of energy partitioning at the surface for both heat and humidity trends.

UTIG Seminar Series: Jud Partin, UTIG

Speaker: Jud Partin, University of Texas Institute for Geophysics

Host: Yuko Okumura

Title: Back to the Future: Ancient El Niño events in a Warming World

Abstract: Extreme El Niños are hazardous events that caused widespread damage in the latter half of the 20^th century, and we do not know how they will respond to anthropogenic warming. Models project a range of responses of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) strength to dramatic 21st-century increases in atmospheric CO₂ – from a 50% increase, to no change, to a 50% decrease. Our approach to address the uncertainty of future extreme El Niño event projections is to examine how ENSO and extreme events respond to changes in background climate states different from today in both models and paleoclimate proxies. Past changes in ENSO act as an out-of-sample test for the emergent constraints of future ENSO strength and extreme El Niño frequency. However, the brevity of observations and the scarcity of tropical Pacific paleoclimate data coverage prior to 1960 leads to uncertainties in quantifying past ENSO variability.

Here, I present new deglacial and Holocene coral oxygen isotope records from Vanuatu and compare them with previously published coral data and new climate model simulations to analyze ENSO response to external forcings over the last 15,000 years. The coral records from the last ice age are unique, as most old coral archives of past El Niños were flooded in the rise of sea level during the last deglaciation. Using an ultra-portable drill our group designed and built, we recovered ice age corals from a rapidly uplifting island in Vanuatu that brought these ancient corals to the near surface. Using the Community Earth System Model V1, a model that projects more extreme El Niño events under anthropogenic forcing, I show that both the simulations and coral records exhibit a decrease in ENSO strength and extreme El Niño frequency 12 and 15 thousand years ago during the last deglaciation relative to modern times. Contrasts between past and future changes in simulated ENSO suggest exacerbated impacts of extreme El Niño events across the tropical Pacific in a warming world, pointing towards a future with higher socioeconomic losses due to these hazardous events.

Bureau of Economic Geology Seminar Series