Events

RoKafe

Faculty Meeting

DeFord Lecture | Laure Zanna

 Climate modeling with AI: Hype or Reality? by Laure Zanna, New York University

Abstract: Climate simulations remain one of the best tools to understand and predict global and regional climate change. Uncertainties in climate predictions originate partly from the poor or lacking representation of processes, such as ocean turbulence and clouds, that are not resolved in global climate models but impact the large-scale temperature, rainfall, sea level, etc. The representation of these unresolved processes has been a bottleneck in improving climate simulations and projections. The explosion of climate data and the power of machine learning (ML) algorithms are suddenly offering new opportunities: can we deepen our understanding of these unresolved processes and simultaneously improve their representation in climate models to reduce climate projections uncertainty? This talk discusses the advantages and challenges of using machine learning for climate projections. The focus will be on recent work in which we leverage ML tools to learn representations of unresolved ocean processes – in particular, learning symbolic expression. Some of this work suggests that machine learning could open the door to discovering new physics from data and enhance climate predictions. Yet, many questions remain unanswered, making the next decade exciting and challenging for ML + climate modeling for robust and actionable climate projections.

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 Series: Ann Dunlea, WHOI

This talk is part of the 2023 Ocean Discovery Lecture Series.

Speaker: Ann Dunlea, Assistant Scientist, Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Host: Chris Lowery

Title: What controls the long-term trajectory of Earth’s climate and ocean chemistry?

Abstract: What controls the long-term trajectory of Earth’s climate and ocean chemistry? How do marine sediments regulate — and bear witness to — these changes? Over the past 50 million years, the Earth has cooled from a “Greenhouse” to an “Icehouse” due to a decline in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Yet, the mechanisms that caused the cooling are still contentious. Examining marine sediment drilled during IODP expeditions allows the exploration of the role of the seafloor in modulating global climate, providing unique perspective on this longstanding debate.

In this talk, I will present a hypothesis supported with empirical evidence that invokes changes in reverse weathering on the seafloor to explain the increase in seawater Mg/Ca and global cooling observed over the past 50 million years. This hypothesis inverts prevailing hypotheses and abundant models that require an increase in silicate weathering as the driver of many elemental and isotopic trends over the Cenozoic. Stemming from this work are avenues of research to reconsider the role of the seafloor in biogeochemical and climate enigmas with implications for Earth’s past, present, and future climate.

Biography: Ann G. Dunlea completed her PhD at Boston University with Richard W. Murray, researching biogeochemistry and paleoceanography of pelagic clays from the South Pacific Gyre. She became a postdoc at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 2016 and was hired as an Assistant Scientist there in 2019. Dunlea’s research investigates the diverse and dynamic subseafloor geochemical processes actively interacting with the ocean and long-term changes in climate. Learn more.

Hot Science - Cool Talks "A Dinosaur's Roar"

Based on Hollywood movies, many of us imagine that a dinosaur may have roared like a lion or a tiger. But what if instead of roaring, dinosaurs instead cooed? By examining birds as living descendants of dinosaurs, Dr. Julia Clarke shares how ancient dinosaurs may have produced sound and what that tells us about modern-day birds.

Julia Clarke is a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist at UT Austin who studies birds and dinosaurs to better understand major transitions in the history of life. Dr. Clarke’s research focuses on how structures in living animals developed and how novel ways of moving—such as avian flight—evolved.

Cool Activities: 5:30 – 6:40 p.m.

Talk with Q&A: 7:00 -8:15 p.m.

Hot Science – Cool Talks provides a front-row seat to world-class research. For additional information, please visit www.hotsciencecooltalks.org.

Planetary Habitability: Charles Cockell, University of Edinburgh

Speaker: Charles Cockell, Professor of Astrobiology, UK Center for Astrobiology, University of Edinburgh

Host: Sean Gulick

Title: The subsurface habitability of Mars

Abstract: As the surface of Mars is today generally unsuitable for life because of the lack of persistent liquid water, we look to its subsurface as a place to test the hypothesis of life, particularly the possibility of extant life. The subsurface habitability of Mars is likely to be shaped by the presence of pervasive impact craters on the planet and the history of briny water. Using empirical data on the microbiology of impact craters and deep subsurface briny environments on Earth, we can construct hypotheses about the habitability of this environment. Experiments on unusual salts such as perchlorates at high pressure also reveal some unexpected possibilities in the subsurface. After the science, in the final ~5-10 minutes of this talk, I’ll show how the habitability of Mars can be used to advance prison education!

RoKafe

40 Hours for the Forty Acres

WHEN: April 12-13, 2023
WHERE: Online

40 Hours for the Forty Acres is The University of Texas at Austin’s biannual day of giving. For 40 hours, UT alumni, students, faculty, staff, parents and friends come together to support the people, places and pursuits that mean the most to them, amplifying their impact through the power of Longhorn Nation. This spring, the Jackson School of Geosciences is raising funds to support the Rapid Response Program, a critical initiative in ensuring scientists have the necessary funding to respond to natural disasters.

Contact Courtney Vletas at cvletas@jsg.utexas.edu for more information on getting involved!

40 Hours for the Forty Acres

WHEN: April 12-13, 2023
WHERE: Online

40 Hours for the Forty Acres is The University of Texas at Austin’s biannual day of giving. For 40 hours, UT alumni, students, faculty, staff, parents and friends come together to support the people, places and pursuits that mean the most to them, amplifying their impact through the power of Longhorn Nation. This spring, the Jackson School of Geosciences is raising funds to support the Rapid Response Program, a critical initiative in ensuring scientists have the necessary funding to respond to natural disasters.

Contact Courtney Vletas at cvletas@jsg.utexas.edu for more information on getting involved!

DeFord Lecture | Ken Williams

The East River Watershed: Hydro-biogeochemical Studies Spanning Scales and Disciplines by Kenneth Williams, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Abstract: Uncertainty associated with predicting watershed hydro-biogeochemical behavior remains high as climate change, extreme weather, wildfire, land-use change, and other disturbances significantly reshape interactions within the world’s watersheds. The Watershed Function Science Focus Area (SFA) is reducing this uncertainty by addressing the grand challenge question: “How do mountainous watersheds retain and release water, nutrients, carbon, and metals in the Anthropocene?” Specifically, the project addresses how early snowmelt, drought, and other disturbances influence mountainous watershed hydro-biogeochemical dynamics over seasonal to decadal timescales. Research is conducted within the East River watershed, which is an archetypal mountainous headwater of the Upper Colorado River Basin, a region critical for water, energy and agriculture in the Western US and a region especially vulnerable to changing snow dynamics. The SFA is developing new ways of conceptualizing, characterizing and predicting aggregated watershed hydro-biogeochemical behavior. The SFA takes a “system-of-systems” approach using insights from individual subsystems to inform larger-scale predictions of aggregated watershed behavior. This seminar will focus on a series of research “vignettes” that cover topics addressing below-ground processes controlling geogenic nitrogen cycling and novel pathways for anaerobic methane oxidation and scale-integrating, above- and below-ground datasets that impact hydrologic processes and vegetation dynamics including future scenarios for vegetation mortality.

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 Series: Charles Cockell, University of Edinburgh

Speaker: Charles Cockell, Professor of Astrobiology, UK Center for Astrobiology, University of Edinburgh

Host: Cornelia Rasmussen

Title: Impact cratering as a biological process

Abstract: Asteroid and comet impacts are well known to be able to cause profound geophysical changes to planets, and the vast energies released are generally regarded as catastrophic for life. Yet these energies can cause geophysical changes of benefit to life, such as the alteration of target rocks that improve fluid flow and energy availability for microorganisms. Discussing results from a range of different impact craters, I’ll explore the effects of impacts on surface and subsurface habitats for life. Although now rare on Earth, on Mars, where plate tectonics has not been active, impact craters likely profoundly influence the subsurface and near-surface habitability of that planet. As impact events are universal, so are the potential effects on life anywhere else in the universe.

Master’s Saturday

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 Saturday.

RoKafe

Faculty Meeting

UTIG Seminar Series: Jim Gibeaut, Texas A&M

Planetary Habitability: Hector Garza, Jackson School of Geosciences

Speaker: Hector Garza, Doctoral Degree Student, Jackson School of Geosciences

Host: Tim Goudge

Title: How old is the Ordovician-Silurian Boundary at Dob’s Linn, Scotland? Integrating LA-ICP-MS and CA-ID-TIMS U-Pb zircon dates

Abstract: Sedimentary rocks exposed at Dob’s Linn, Scotland, have significantly influenced our understanding of how life evolved over the Ordovician to Early Silurian giving insight to the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction (LOME). The current interpreted chronostratigraphic boundary between the Ordovician and Silurian periods is a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP), calibrated to 443.8±1.5 Ma (Hirnatian-Rhuddanian age), based on biostratigraphic markers, radioisotopic ages, and statistical modeling. We dated hundreds of zircon grains from three metabentonite ash horizons using Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), and a subset of the grains were re-analyzed using Chemical Abrasion Isotope Dilution Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry (CA-ID-TIMS). We present a high-precision CA-ID-TIMS 238U-206Pb weighted mean date of 440.44±0.72 Ma for the Coronagraptus cyphus biozone. However, we report significantly younger and, in some cases, older LA-ICP-MS zircon dates for the Coronagraptus cyphus, Akidograptus ascensus, and Dicellograptus anceps zones as a result of Pb loss and systematic biases. Our results suggest possible biostratigraphic misplacement, identifies concerns with Dob’s Linn’s validity as a GSSP section and examines various LA-ICP-MS maximum depositional age (MDA) approaches consistent with CA-ID-TIMS data.

Biography: Hector Garza is a Ph.D. candidate at the Jackson School of Geosciences Department of Geological Sciences. Before starting the Ph.D. program, Hector spent several years working in the Oil and Gas industry as a geoscientist specializing in clay mineralogy and characterizing reservoirs using geochemistry. As part of his Ph.D. work, Hector is interested in comprehending major geologic and evolutionary events in Earth’s history and systematic biases with the U-Pb system and dating techniques. He is specifically researching the timing of early land colonization by terrestrial biota to understand the development of Earth’s Early Paleozoic biogeochemical cycles and evaluating how life appeared and transformed this planet.

RoKafe