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Bridget R. Scanlon, Ph.D. - Bureau Seminar Series
Start:January 7, 2022 at 9:00 am
End:
January 7, 2022 at 10:00 am
Location:
Zoom
Contact:
Dena Miller, dena.miller@beg.utexas.edu
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Assessing Linkages between Drinking Water Quality Violations and Social Vulnerability in the United States
Increasing concern over our drinking water supplies, particularly in socially vulnerable communities, has prompted government initiatives to increase compliance and provide safe drinking water for all. Here we evaluated health-based violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act in community water systems across the US to decipher spatiotemporal relationships between violations and social drivers. We show that water quality violations are strongly linked to social vulnerability in the Southwest US (e.g., arsenic, radionuclides, and nitrate) and Southcentral US (disinfection byproducts) where violations and social vulnerability are both high and in the Midwest where both are low. However, violations are generally not linked to social vulnerability in the Southeast (low violations, high social vulnerability) and in the Northeast (high violations, low social vulnerability). Texas ranked first in terms of EPA serious violators and in number of community water systems with any health-based violations. Approximately 100 times more people experience both high levels of any drinking water violation and high social vulnerability (~12 million people) relative to populations with low violations and social vulnerability. Of all social vulnerability metrics, poverty and minority status exhibited the strongest linkages to violation incidence. Notably, persistence of violations over time is strongly linked to social vulnerability (R2: 0.62–0.83) across the US, indicating much greater challenges for socially vulnerable communities to attain and maintain system compliance. These water quality challenges and associated environmental justice issues are likely exacerbated by climatic factors. Understanding spatiotemporal variability in noncompliance can help guide deployment of new infrastructure funding to address health-based violations which disproportionately persist in socially vulnerable populations served by very small to small community water systems in mostly rural settings.
Bridget Scanlon is a Senior Research Scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin. Her current research focuses on water quality issues related to EPA regulations and linkages to social vulnerability throughout the U.S., with particular emphasis in Texas. This study should help guide water infrastructure funding to improve compliance with EPA regulations. She has (co)authored ~160 publications. Dr. Scanlon is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
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Meeting ID: 945 0823 4089
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Buddy Price presenting for Bureau Seminar Series
Start:January 14, 2022 at 9:00 am
End:
January 14, 2022 at 10:00 am
Location:
Zoom
Contact:
Dena Miller, dena.miller@beg.utexas.edu
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“New Insight into Basinal Depositional Processes and Resulting Stratal Architecture in the Permian Basin”
Over the last two decades studies have emphasized the underappreciated impact of bottom currents and point-sourced gravity-driven currents in deepwater allochthonous carbonate depositional environments, leading to re-interpretations of many previously examined systems. Wolfcampian and Leonardian intervals in the Permian Basin provide a thick succession of basinal strata to re-evaluate with updated insight and models. Subsurface mapping and cross sections highlight multiple mounded and elongate carbonate-mud rich accumulations reaching up to 800m thick along the western slopes of the Delaware Basin. The mounded nature, lack of platform-focused sourcing, and presence of oblique cross-cutting channels suggest these features represent carbonate contourite drifts generated by bottom currents as opposed to gravity-driven deposits. Thickness relationships also indicate bottom currents may locally sweep sediments from toe-of-slope environments, inhibiting platform progradation.
In the deeper basin, mapping highlights previously undocumented point-sourced carbonate accumulations interpreted as calciclastic submarine fans. Some fans extend into the basin over 100km and reach 250m in thickness. The fans range in composition, containing both carbonate debrites and turbidites with varying volumes of mud-rich siliciclastic deposits. Runout of gravity flows resulted in concentration of comparatively coarser carbonate material in proximal fan environments and finer siliciclastic mudstone, siltstone, and organic matter in fan fringe environments.
The findings are significant as the processes responsible for drift and fan formation impart significant control on facies distribution and subsequent reservoir quality, reservoir architecture, organic matter distribution, and vertical and lateral distribution of barriers to induced fracture growth. Correct characterization across multiple zones may highlight stacking of sub-environments to explain production trends, identify advantageous locations for multi-zone development, or inform spatial differences in horizontal well spacing and stacking. Lastly, as these new interpretations recognize calciclastic drifts and fans in one of the most heavily studied and geologic data-rich areas in the world, it indicates these systems are likely overlooked and more common in the ancient rock record.
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Spring Semester Classes Begin
Start:January 18, 2022
End:
January 18, 2022
Charles Kerans, Ph.D. presenting for Bureau Seminar Series
Start:January 21, 2022 at 9:00 am
End:
January 21, 2022 at 10:00 am
Location:
Zoom
Contact:
Dena Miller, dena.miller@beg.utexas.edu
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Carbonate Sedimentologic/Stratigraphic Record of Climate Change from Bahamas-Caicos Archipelago
One of the most compelling uncertainties of global warming scenarios is the magnitude and rate of sea-level rise if temperatures continue to increase at current rates unchecked. The most immediate insights into this ongoing crisis derive from careful monitoring and modeling of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, whose potential for rapid collapse pose an imminent threat to coastal inundation. Reconstructing the rate and magnitude of sea-level rise from the earth’s most recent warm periods, or interglacials, and in particular the well-studied last interglacial (LIG) or marine isotope stage 5e (MIS 5e), provides additional constraints. The carbonate sedimentologic/stratigraphic record of the LIG is uniquely well suited to record the deep-time record of climate forcing with its high-fidelity track of shorelines and reefs. Studies conducted over the past 7 years within the carbonate group at UT Austin in collaboration with Exxon-Mobil and USF have generated significant insights into the role of such critical climate events as LIG peak sea-level, the Middle Pleistocene Transition (MPT), the Last Interglacial (LIG), and melt-water pulses (MWP’s) following T1 (the last glacial termination). Important questions regarding the global mean sea level response during peak LIG warming, and the impact of glacioisostatic adjustments (GIA) on this record and the Holocene record of sea level rise will be considered.
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Meeting ID: 983 6654 7203
Passcode: 997092
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UTIG Seminar: Ariel Lellouch, Tel Aviv University
Start:January 21, 2022 at 10:30 am
End:
January 21, 2022 at 11:30 am
Contact:
Constantino Panagopulos, costa@ig.utexas.edu, 512-574-7376
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Contact costa@ig.utexas.edu for a link to join the live talk.
Speaker: Ariel Lellouch, Tel Aviv University
Host: Duncan Young
Title: Seismic applications of downhole DAS
Abstract: Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) is an emerging technology that leverages optical fibers to record the seismic wavefield with an unprecedented spatial resolution. In this talk, I will describe various seismic-band applications utilizing optical fibers deployed in boreholes. We first illustrate how records from a vertical DAS array can be simply and effectively processed to construct velocity models, detect microseismic events and earthquakes, locate them, and estimate their magnitude. Then, we show how a horizontal DAS array deployed in an unconventional shale reservoir records guided waves propagating for hundreds of meters with frequencies as high as 700 Hz. Thanks to the high resolution of DAS measurements, guided waves are recorded unaliased despite their very short (< 10 m) wavelength. We compare the field observations with semi-analytical and wave-equation modeling approaches. Guided waves are also strongly affected by open fractures induced by hydraulic stimulation. We use a horizontal cross-well acquisition of perforation shots recorded by a DAS array in a simple, geometrical analysis of horizontal fracture growth. We also analyze guided waves generated by microseismic events and can locate the events despite the unidirectional nature of the DAS measurements.
Water, Climate and Environment Seminar | Bridget Scanlon - JSG/BEG
Start:January 21, 2022 at 12:00 pm
End:
January 21, 2022 at 1:00 pm
Contact:
Cansu Demir, Ana Maria Restrepo, cdemir@utexas.edu, anarestrepo@utexas.edu
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Title: Assessing Global Water Scarcity Using Satellites
Planetary Habitability Seminar: Kennda Lynch, LPI
Start:January 24, 2022 at 1:00 pm
End:
January 24, 2022 at 2:00 pm
Contact:
Constantino Panagopulos, costa@ig.utexas.edu, 512-574-7376
UT Paleontology Seminar: Dr. Alexis Mychajliw
Start:January 27, 2022 at 11:00 am
End:
January 27, 2022 at 12:00 pm
Location:
JGB 4.102
Contact:
David Trevino Ledesma, ledesma-david@utexas.edu
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Zoom link: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/91661118623
Graduate Studies Committee (GSC) Meeting
Start:January 27, 2022 at 12:30 pm
End:
January 27, 2022 at 2:00 pm
This is an internal Jackson School of Geosciences meeting for faculty and research scientists who are part of the Graduate Studies Committee.
DeFord Lecture | Debbie-Ann Gordon-Smith
Start:January 27, 2022 at 4:00 pm
End:
January 27, 2022 at 5:00 pm
Location:
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/96370762511
Contact:
John Lassiter
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Investigation of water resources and nutrient biogeochemistry on the island of Jamaica using environmental tracers
Dr. Debbie-Ann Gordon-Smith, The University West Indies, at Mona
Abstract: Global water resources have been under severe stress due to various factors including poor management, pollution and changes in rainfall patterns due to climate variability. The small islands of the Caribbean, such as Jamaica, have not been spared; prolonged periods of drought, extreme weather events and increased urbanization have led to water shortages and impaired water quality.
Sustainable management of these natural water resources requires an understanding of the dynamics of their physical behavior and their chemical constituents. Environmental tracers have proven to be very effective tools for studying the transport and mixing of surface and subsurface water on regional and global scales.
This lecture will introduce the audience to the use of stable and radioactive isotopes as tracers in the investigation of the fresh and coastal waters of Jamaica. The talk will describe the analytical techniques used in these isotopic studies, present findings related to the sources, pathways and fate of nutrients and other inorganic contaminants, and suggest implications of these findings for the sustainable management of Jamaica’s water resources.
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.
BEG Seminar: Peter Eichhubl, Ph.D.
Start:January 28, 2022 at 9:00 am
End:
January 28, 2022 at 10:00 am
Location:
Zoom
Contact:
Dena Miller, dena.miller@beg.utexas.edu
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Peter Eichhubl, Ph.D. – Senior Research Scientist – Bureau of Economic Geology -The University of Texas at Austin
A chemo-mechanical view on caprock failure—implications for carbon and hydrogen storage in subsurface reservoirs
Storage or disposal of fluids such as carbon dioxide, wastewater, or hydrogen in the subsurface can result in chemical disequilibrium between the resident brine and the formation. In this presentation I explore how chemical change can enhance or inhibit fracture growth, and how such processes can affect shale caprock integrity of storage reservoirs.
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Meeting ID: 968 9014 7542
Passcode: 790884
UTIG Seminar: Lin Liu, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Start:January 28, 2022 at 10:30 am
End:
January 28, 2022 at 11:30 am
Contact:
Constantino Panagopulos, costa@ig.utexas.edu, 512-574-7376
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*** Due to the 14 hour time difference between Austin and Hong Kong, this seminar has been scheduled to start at 9:00am CT ***
Contact costa@ig.utexas.edu for a link to join the live talk.
Speaker: Lin Liu, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Host: Xiaohua Xu
Title: Geophysical investigations of thawing permafrost
Abstract: Accumulating observational evidence shows widespread thawing and degradation of perennially-frozen ground known as permafrost. Thawing permafrost has profound effects on terrestrial ecosystems, hydrologic and landscape processes, and infrastructure. However, it is challenging to study and monitor permafrost mainly because it is purely defined by the subsurface thermal condition. Through a few local to regional-scale studies, I will show how integrative measurements using geophysical methods, such as Ground Penetrating Radar, space-borne Radar Interferometry, and Surface Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, offer quantitative understandings on surface and subsurface processes associated with thawing ice-rich permafrost.
UTIG Seminar Series: Tanner Mills, UTIGApril, 19 2024Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AMLocation: PRC 196/ROC 1.603 Speaker: Tanner Mills, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Texas Institute for Geophysics Host: Peter Flemings Title: Predicting greenhouse gas fluxes to the atmosphere from thawing permafrost Abstract: Arctic permafrost is thawing at rapid rates, which threatens to expose large stores of soil organic carbon to microbial degradation. As microbes utilize this carbon source, they produce greenhouse gasses (GHGs; CO2 and CH4) that can be emitted to the atmosphere and act as a positive feedback during future global temperature increases. While the permafrost carbon feedback has received much attention in the literature, little is known about the multiphase flow properties and the temperature dependence of microbial GHG production rates in thawing permafrost, both of which are essential for predicting GHG emissions from permafrost in the future. Flow experiments of synthetic and natural permafrost specimens under frozen conditions and incubations of permafrost samples are being performed to better understand the effective and relative permeabilities and GHG production rates of thawing permafrost soils. These data will be integral in providing new source terms for permafrost and global carbon models. |
Master\'s Thesis PresentationsApril, 19 2024Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PMLocation: JGB 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. |
Hot Science - Cool Talks: \"Humans vs AI\"April, 19 2024Time: 5:30 PM - 8:15 PMLocation: Burdine 106 Advancements in AI have unleashed astonishing capabilities, but it is not magic. Peter Stone reveals his insights into cutting-edge AI and robotics and explores how they may reshape our world. Someday these technologies could win the World Cup, and they are already outperforming the best humans at complex tasks like high-speed racing. |
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 |