Events

Bureau- James Gibeaut, PhD - TAMU CC, Harte Research Institute

Bureau Seminar Series

UTIG Seminar Series: Laura Larocca, Northern Arizona University

EPS Faculty Meeting

UTIG Seminar Series: Dan Fu, Texas A&M University

Contact costa@ig.utexas.edu for a link to join the live talk.

Speaker: Dan Fu, Assistant Research Scientist, Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University

Host: Patrick Heimbach

Title: Explore Tropical Cyclone Future Projections Using High-Resolution Numerical Simulations and Machine Learning Technique

Abstract: Tropical cyclones (TCs) pose great risks to individuals and societies, particularly in terms of their local impacts, underscoring the importance of a better understanding of their future change and predictability sources. In this talk, I will use three different modeling approaches, including the TC-permitting high-resolution global climate model, cloud-resolving regional coupled model and convolutional neural network (CNN) data-driven model, to explore TC future projections across various spatial and temporal scales.

1) There is no consensus on how climate change can influence global mean TC numbers and their tracks over individual ocean basins. Using multi-model ensembles of high-resolution atmosphere-only and fully coupled global climate model (GCM) experiments from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6th phase (CMIP6) High Resolution Model Intercomparison Project (HighResMIP), we found that the global mean TC frequency generally decreases in the warming climate, primarily due to more stable atmosphere and increased vertical wind shear. However, the atmosphere-only and coupled simulations exhibit distinct spatial patterns of TC genesis and track projections. A signal-to-noise-maximizing empirical orthogonal function analysis reveals that climate internal multidecadal variability dominates TC projections in atmosphere-only simulations even over century timescales. In contrast, the anthropogenic external forcing determines future TC changes in the coupled simulations. Moreover, we showed that the increasing trend of extreme TC rainfall in the atmosphere-only simulations, are significantly underestimated compared to that in the coupled simulations.

2) It has been widely recognized that TC genesis and development require favorable large-scale environmental conditions. Based on these physical linkages, we trained ensembles of CNN to establish the nonlinear empirical relationship between seasonal TC activities and large-scale environments. Our data-driven model can accurately reproduce the historical TC observations, and yields even higher seasonal TC prediction skills compared to those predicted by operational centers. By applying this data-driven model to 20th century reanalysis data, we found a significant decreasing trend of seasonal TC activity in the western North Pacific since the 1830s, but moderate-weak increasing trend in the North Atlantic. Consistent with the TC projections directly resolved by the HighResMIP models, the application of CNN model to standard resolution CMIP6 simulations also suggests a decrease of global mean TC activity in the future climate. We also applied this data-driven model to decadal prediction and paleoclimate data to study TC variabilities.

3) To better evaluate the potential impacts of climate change on TC-induced damage to the human community, we employed the newly developed Regional Community Earth System Model (R-CESM) to make the hindcast simulations of those historically occurred TCs in cloud-resolving horizontal resolution. Using the “pseudo global warming” approach, we also performed R-CESM “future projection” experiments for Hurricane Harvey (2017). We found that Hurricane Harvey can induce 45% (31%) more rainfall if it were to occur in the 2090s (2050s). Moreover, Hurricane Harvey caused flooding inundation area in the Houston Clear Creek watershed is projected to increase by 32% (28%).

UT Paleontology Seminar: Sarah Davis

DeFord Lecture | Julia Clarke

Shape, Size, and Sound: Inference of Extinct Dinosaur Vocalization

Dr. Julia Clarke, The University of Texas at Austin

Abstract: TBD

DeFord Lecture Series
Since the 1940’s, the DeFord (Technical Sessions) lecture series, initially the official venue for disseminating EPS graduate student research, is a forum for lectures by distinguished visitors and members of our community. This is made possible through a series of endowments.

UTIG Seminar: Sarah Aarons, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Contact costa@ig.utexas.edu for a link to join the live talk.

NOTE: The seminar will be held in person at BEG’s VR Room (1.116C)

Speaker: Sarah Aarons, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego
 
Host: Cornelia Rasmussen

Title: The role of dust on Earth’s climate: insights from the paleoclimate record & modern ecosystem

Abstract: Dust is a long-recognized component of the lithosphere-atmosphere-ocean system, strongly linked to variations in Earth’s climate. Dust is fine grained sediment that is associated with dry, arid areas where constant wind erosion and lack of vegetation allows for the accumulation of large amounts available for transport via wind. Dust is also an important constituent in high latitude Polar regions, formed by the physical grinding of ice sheets and glaciers over bedrock, where rapid advances during cold periods produce increased amounts, or rapid retreats leave behind a layer of sediment previously covered by ice. The generation and transport of dust from a source area to its sink is strongly related to climate on timescales ranging from seasonal to glacial-interglacial, and can be an important source of critical nutrients capable of enhancing primary productivity in both terrestrial and marine environments. In this seminar, I will focus on the dust cycle in the modern and paleoclimate record; through examining the changes in the composition of dust trapped in passive dust collectors in a mountain ecosystem and dust within Antarctic ice. I will begin with discussing how in environments where physical erosion outpaces soil production, dust becomes a significant source of nutrients. I will then pivot to a dust record preserved in ice from the last interglacial period to explore whether sediment transport and composition can be used to infer past ice sheet extent.

Graduate Studies Committee (GSC) Meeting

This is an internal Jackson School of Geosciences meeting for faculty and research scientists who are part of the Graduate Studies Committee.

Doctoral Defense: Harpreet Kaur

The final doctoral examination for HARPREET KAUR has been scheduled for April 12, 2022; 3:00PM; EPS 1.102.

The PhD project “Improving Accuracy And Efficiency Of Seismic Data Analysis Using Deep Learning” was supervised by Dr. Sergey Fomel.

Committee members include: Raymond Abma, Mrinal K Sen, George Biros and Kyle T Spikes

The defense is open to all members of the University community and the public.

Doctoral Defense | Benjamin Rendall

The final doctoral examination for BENJAMIN RENDALL has been scheduled for APRIL 14, 2022; 9:00AM; VIRTUAL.

The PhD project “Regional And Global Controls On Carbonate Factory Composition And Stratigraphic Architecture During Global Icehouse:  Examples From The Pennsylvanian, New Mexico and The Pleistocene, Bahamas” was supervised by Dr. Charlie Kerans.

Committee members include: Steven L. Bachtel, Brian K Horton, David Mohrig, and Xavier Janson

ZOOM link:  https://zoom.us/j/3677431934

The defense is open to all members of the University community and the public.

UT Paleontology Seminar: John Moretti

DeFord Lecture | Ryan Smith

Sensing Groundwater from a Distance: Harnessing Satellite and Ground-based Geophysics to Model Hydrogeologic Fluxes and Their Impact on Natural and Human Systems

Dr. Ryan Smith, University of Missouri S&T

Abstract: Climate change, population growth and land use change are increasing the scarcity of surface water supplies and driving greater demand for groundwater resources. This trend has led to the ongoing depletion of many of the world’s aquifers. While many have observed regional groundwater depletion, the processes driving this depletion, and its effect on aquifer dynamics, are poorly understood. One major barrier to improving understanding of these processes is a lack of data at appropriate resolution and scale. The booming satellite industry is providing petabytes of earth observational data that have the potential to answer many of these scale- and resolution- dependent questions, but relating these disparate datasets to hydrogeologic systems requires an improved fundamental understanding of the system properties linking aquifer processes to land surface dynamics. For example, Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) can be used to estimate earth deformation with cm- to mm- accuracy, but the mechanisms linking aquifer dynamics to ground deformation are complex, non-linear and vary with time. Evapotranspirative flux, a major component of groundwater use, can be modeled with thermal satellite imagery, but these models alone often do not adequately explain groundwater demand, indicating complex inter-relationships between evapotranspiration, precipitation, infiltration, groundwater use and surface water use. In this talk, I will discuss several ongoing projects that seek to address these challenges, including both process-based and data-driven models that integrate in-situ data, as well as ground-based and satellite geophysics to identify key, scale-dependent drivers of groundwater flux, explore how temporally varying hydrologic parameters can alter aquifer dynamics, and link groundwater over-use to impacts on water quality.

DeFord Lecture Series
Since the 1940’s, the DeFord (Technical Sessions) lecture series, initially the official venue for disseminating EPS graduate student research, is a forum for lectures by distinguished visitors and members of our community. This is made possible through a series of endowments.

TBD - Bureau Seminar Series

Bureau Seminar Series

Doctoral Defense | Colin Schroeder

The final doctoral examination for COLIN SCHROEDER has been scheduled for APRIL 15, 2022; 10:00AM; VIRTUAL.

The PhD project “In-Situ Visualization And Characterization Of Mud-Filtrate Invasion And Filter Cake Deposition Using Time-Lapse X-Ray Micro-Computed Tomography (Micro-CT)” was supervised by Dr. Charlie Kerans and Dr. Carlos Torres-Verdin.

Committee members include: Nicola Tisato, Robert G Loucks

ZOOM link:  https://utexas.zoom.us/j/98323688567

The defense is open to all members of the University community and the public.

UTIG Seminar: Adam Woodhouse, UTIG

IN PERSON TALK!

Contact costa@ig.utexas.edu for a link to join the live talk.

Speaker: Adam Woodhouse, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Texas Institute for Geophysics

Host: Chris Lowery & John Goff

Title: Triton: Applications of the largest species-level fossil occurrence database to marine macroevolution and paleoclimate development

Abstract: The Cenozoic planktonic foraminiferal fossil record is the best species-level fossil record available to science. As such, the construction of the novel planktonic foraminiferal occurrence database, Triton (Fenton & Woodhouse et al. 2021), allows for prospection of deep-time marine biogeography dynamics in response to changing global climate on an unprecedented spatio-temporal scale. Here, I demonstrate how the Triton database is helping address our understanding of marine evolution:

1. Cenozoic climate development has shaped the evolution of the planktonic foraminifera, and these patterns are persistent within Triton. However, there are inherent biases which exist within sampling strategies used to generate geological datasets, and Triton is no exception. I show how these strategies, coupled with sedimentological features that affect the deep-sea drilling record, shape the marine micropaleontological record.
2. The Triton record indicates that paleolatitudes of speciation have varied with regard to the underlying global climate conditions of the Cenozoic. I show that the Greenhouse regime of the early Paleogene was dominated by speciation further from the equator, in contrast to modern, cooler Icehouse patterns. As global temperatures declined, this was progressively complimented by lower latitude speciation, and this tropical speciation cradle now acts as the primary marine speciation cradle which defines the modern latitudinal biodiversity gradient.
3. Preliminary work using bipartite networks to analyze the Triton dataset reveal fascinating networking patterns within the spatial distribution of ecological and morphological groups. I demonstrate how species specificity patterns within the planktonic foraminifera suggest that there has been a latitudinal shift of ecological generalists towards the equator over the last 10 million years, discussing the potential drivers.

As anthropogenic forcing pushes global climate state towards regimes not experienced for millions of years, understanding how marine biogeography and biodiversity responds through deep-time will potentially allow for greater mitigation of present and future biodiversity crises.

Doctoral Defense | Yuquian (Philomena) Gan

The final doctoral examination for YUQIAN (Philomena) GAN has been scheduled for APRIL 15, 2022; 12:00PM; JSG 3.222.

The PhD project “Shelf-Slope Sediment Transport In Medium-Sized Basin Margin Clinoforms , With A Focus On Slope Channel Facies And Architecture” was supervised by Dr. Cornel Olariu and Dr. Ron Steel.

Committee members include: Cristian Carvajal, Brian K Horton, David Mohrig

The defense is open to all members of the University community and the public.

Doctoral Defense | Grace Beaudoin

The final doctoral examination for GRACE  BEAUDOIN has been scheduled for APRIL 18, 2022; 9:00AM; EPS 2.136 and virtual.

The PhD project “The Behavior Of Halogens (F, Cl, Br, I) In Altered Oceanic Crust During Prograde Subduction Zone Metamorphism And Devolatilization” was supervised by Dr. Jaime Barnes.

Committee members include:

Sarah Penniston-Dorland

Daniel Stockli

John C Lassiter

Timm John

ZOOM link:  https://utexas.zoom.us/j/2499821061

The defense is open to all members of the University community and the public.

Doctoral Defense | Zhicheng Geng

The final doctoral examination for ZHICHENG GENG has been scheduled for APRIL 19, 2022; 10:00AM; VIRTUAL.

The PhD project “Deep Learning For Pattern Recognition In Seismic Reflection Data ” was supervised by Dr. Sergey Fomel.

Committee members include:

Luming Liang

Mrinal K Sen

Omar Ghattas

Xinming Wu

ZOOM link:  https://utexas.zoom.us/j/92442876163

The defense is open to all members of the University community and the public.

Faculty Meeting

UT Paleontology Seminar: David Ledesma

Doctoral Defense | Paul Morris

The final doctoral examination for PAUL  MORRIS has been scheduled for APRIL 21, 2022; 1PM; VIRTUAL.

The PhD project “Modeling The Architecture And Dynamic Connectivity Of Deep-Water Channel Systems Using A Forward Stratigraphic Model” was supervised by Dr. David Mohrig and Dr. Jacob Covault.

Committee members include:

Richard Sech

Zoltan Sylvester

Timothy A Goudge

ZOOM link https://us04web.zoom.us/j/8858518964?pwd=Y2VoTFloYUhmZzVZME0zUXliemlPdz09

The defense is open to all members of the University community and the public.

DeFord Lecture | Jesus Gomez-Velez

Where does all the plastic go?

Dr. Jesus Gomez-Velez, Vanderbilt University

Abstract: Plastic pollution threatens the health of humans and aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems globally. Proposing coping strategies and solutions to this threat requires a clear understanding of the processes controlling the fate and transport of mismanaged plastics at multiple scales, going from watersheds to regions and even continents. River corridors are the primary conveyors and traps for mismanaged plastic produced within the landscape and eventually released into the ocean. During this talk, I explore the primary sources of plastic pollution globally and present the results of a new flow and transport model for plastic waste in riverine environments. We found that only a fraction of the mismanaged plastic entering rivers since the 1950s (roughly 0.25%) will be delivered to the ocean by 2100, with most of the plastic being sequestered in freshwater ecosystems. The patterns of plastic accumulation and its residence time are strongly controlled by the (i) topology and geometry of the river network and (ii) the relative location and trapping efficiency of flow regulation structures, primarily large dams. Our modeling results highlight the role of rivers as major sinks for plastic waste and the need for targeted remedial strategies that consider the river network

DeFord Lecture Series
Since the 1940’s, the DeFord (Technical Sessions) lecture series, initially the official venue for disseminating EPS graduate student research, is a forum for lectures by distinguished visitors and members of our community. This is made possible through a series of endowments.

Bureau Seminar Series - Tim Dixon, ieaghg

Bureau Seminar Series

UTIG Seminar Series: Daphné Lemasquerier, UTIG

—- IN PERSON —-

Contact costa@ig.utexas.edu for a link to join the live talk.

Speaker: Daphné Lemasquerier, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Texas Institute for Geophysics

Host: Krista Soderlund

Title: Modeling the large-scale dynamics of Jupiter: vortices and zonal jets

Abstract: The ongoing NASA’s Juno mission is providing stunning observations of Jupiter, which underline the complex fluid dynamics involved in the gas giant. Among others, Jupiter’s atmosphere exhibits multiple persistent vortices embedded within strong zonal jets, both features being part of an intense turbulent flow. I will present laboratory experiments complemented by numerical and theoretical analyses to better understand the emergence and properties of Jovian vortices and zonal jets.
First, I will focus on large-scale Jovian vortices and I will show that based on their quasi-equilibrium state, we can predict the vertical extent of midlatitude anticyclones. We find that they are shallow structures, confined near the weather layer, as recently confirmed by the Juno data, and we predict that the Great Red Spot thickness has remained constant despite its horizontal shrinkage.

Second, I will focus on the strong and deep east-west winds responsible for the banded aspect of Jupiter, the so-called zonal jets. We designed a setup where dominant zonal jets emerge spontaneously from a rapidly rotating turbulent flow with a topographic beta-effect. Our experiments demonstrate the essential role of Rossby waves in the emergence and nonlinear saturation of the jets, and we study the properties of the associated turbulent flow in the so-called zonostrophic regime, relevant to the gas giants.

Because the physical effects involved are not exclusive to Jupiter, our results aim to be generic and applicable to other fluid systems subject to analogous physical effects, such as oceans, atmospheres, and planetary liquid cores.

Water, Climate and Environment Seminar | Anna Turetcaia - JSG

Speaker: Anna B. Ture?caia (PhD Candidate, JSG)

Title: Aerobic Metabolism of Organic Matter in River-Hyporheic Zone Systems Through the Lens of Flume Experiments

Zoom Link: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/93865487444

Doctoral Defense | Kathleen Wilson

The final doctoral examination for KATHLEEN WILSON has been scheduled for APRIL 22, 2022; 1PM; JGB 3.222 & virtual

The PhD project ” The Quaternary Sedimentology, Geomorphology, And Sediment Transport Mechanisms In The Bahamas And Turks And Caicos Islands” was supervised by Dr. David Mohrig.

Committee members include:

Travis Swanson

Timothy A Goudge

Charles Kerans

ZOOM Link: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/95376805779

The defense is open to all members of the University community and the public.

Undergraduate Research Fair

To kick off Family Weekend, please join us for the JSG Undergraduate Research Fair next Friday April 22 at 3:30 pm in the Holland Student Center (JGB 2.102) to learn more about undergraduate research opportunities across the Jackson School. We will have a panel of researchers and students to answer questions about the breadth of undergraduate research experiences at the Jackson School.

Pizza will be provided. We look forward to seeing you there.

Family Weekend at JSG

Please join faculty and staff in the Department of Geological Sciences to learn more about the department. After introductory remarks, there will be lab tours and light refreshments.

UT Paleontology Seminar: Dr. Allison Stegner

DeFord Lecture | Malak Tfaily

Disentangling organisms’ metabolic responses and acclimation to environmental gradients through ecometabolomics

Dr. Malak Tfaily, The University of Arizona, Environmental Science

Abstract: Advances in different -omics technologies have revolutionized biological research by enabling high-throughput monitoring of biological processes at the molecular level and their responses to environmental perturbation. Metabolomics is a fast-emerging technology in systems biology that aims to profile small compounds within a biological system that are often end products of complex biochemical cascades. Thus, metabolomics can enable discovery of the genetic basis of metabolic variation by linking the genotype to the phenotype. Despite increasing accessibility of multi-omics technologies, integration of multi-omics data in analysis pipelines remains a challenge especially in the environmental field. In addition, there are still many associated bottlenecks to overcome in metabolomics before measurements will be considered robust. In this talk, I will go over current efforts in my lab that builds on ten years of analytical experience to develop comprehensive, open-source, command-line based pipeline for metabolomics data analysis. I will then spend the rest of the lecture describing how such data can help us disentangle organisms’ metabolic responses and acclimation to environmental gradients. This includes our work across three contrasting different ecosystems: the Tropical Rainforest Biome of Biosphere 2 (B2), Saguaro Desert National Park and peatland ecosystems.

DeFord Lecture Series
Since the 1940’s, the DeFord (Technical Sessions) lecture series, initially the official venue for disseminating EPS graduate student research, is a forum for lectures by distinguished visitors and members of our community. This is made possible through a series of endowments.

Bureau Seminar Series- Adam Simon, PhD, Univ. of Michigan

Bureau Seminar Series

UTIG Seminar: Talea Mayo, Emory University

Contact costa@ig.utexas.edu for a link to join the live talk.

Speaker: Talea Mayo, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, Emory University

Host: John Goff

Title: Climate change impacts on hurricane storm surge risk

Abstract: It is widely accepted that climate change will cause global mean sea level rise and increase coastal flood risk in many places. However, climate change also has significant implications for tropical cyclone climatology. Specifically, hurricane intensity, size, and translation speed are all expected to intensify in the future, and each of these influences storm surge generation and propagation. In this seminar, I’ll discuss two numerical modeling approaches we’ve taken to understanding what this means for storm surge risk.

In the first approach, we use a statistical/deterministic hurricane model with the hydrodynamic model, SLOSH, to simulate synthetic storm surges for coastal communities along the U.S. North Atlantic. We use extreme value analysis to determine probability distributions of storm tide, and integrate probability distributions of local sea level rise to understand the present day flood risk and how it will change over the next century. We find that for most of the observed regions flood risk can be expected to increase by a factor of 10. In the second approach, we use the convection permitting regional climate model, WRF, and the high fidelity storm surge model, ADCIRC, to simulate historical storm surges that impacted the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Coasts of the continental United States from 2000-2013. We then simulate the same storm surges under projected end of century climate conditions to assess the impact of climate change on storm surge inundation. We find that the volume of inundation increases for over half of the simulated storms and the average change for all storms is +36%, with notable increases in inundation occur near Texas, Mississippi, the Gulf Coast of Florida, the Carolinas, Virginia, and New York.

Water, Climate and Environment Seminar | Andrea Popp - Univ. of Oslo

Speaker: Andrea Popp | Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Norway

Title: Tracer-aided water source partitioning in cold region environments

Zoom link: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/93865487444

Masters Saturday

8:00 am – 8:40 am    BREAKFAST  Holland Student Center JGB 2.102

8:40 – 9:00 am          WELCOME BY DEAN CLAUDIA MORA

9:00 am –12:30 pm  SESSION 1 –  JGB 2.202

SESSION 2–  JGB 2.218

SESSION 3– JGB 2.324

SESSION 4 –JGB 4.102

12:30 am –2:00pm   LUNCH – Holland Student Center JGB 2.102