Events

BEG Seminar: Tamie Jovanelly - Berry College

Exploring the quality of major river systems: lessons learned in conservation

As a hydrologist, Dr. Jovanelly has traveled the globe for more than a decade testing water quality on major river and surface water systems while asking the question, “What is the best way to promote clean water for all?” Through her qualitative and quantitative data collection it has become apparent that solving any water crisis must start with the understanding of human perceptions towards the environments in which they live and their value systems.  Her global water quality data show that human connect to water differs by religious following, and intrinsic or instrumental ethos.

Dr. Tamie Jovanelly research website:  https://globalwaterquality.com

Join Zoom Meeting
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UTIG Seminar Series: Mark Panning, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Download Presentation Slides (PDF)

Speaker: Mark Panning, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Host: Cyril Grima

Title: Planetary Seismology: Nearly 3 years on Mars, and a return to the Moon

Abstract: InSight has been recording seismic data on Mars nearly continuously since landing in November, 2018.  This mission has not been without challenges, including work to get the heat flow probe to depth, and a fight to keep energy going in the absence of dust cleaning through dust devils. In this time on the surface, we’ve observed hundreds of seismic events, which have let us determine key characteristics of the martian crust, mantle, and core. Meanwhile, NASA has recently selected a set of geophysical instruments, including the Farside Seismic Suite with instruments derived from InSight, to fly on a commercial lander to Schrödinger Crater on the far side of the Moon. This will be the first seismic data recorded anywhere on the Moon since the Apollo instruments were turned off in 1977, on the most sensitive seismometer ever to record on the Moon, and the first ever on the far side of the Moon.

EPS Faculty Meeting

UTIG Discussion Hour: Zach Sickmann, UTIG

Speaker: Zach Sickmann, Postdoctoral Fellow, UTIG

Title: Progress on “fingerprinting” the illicit sand crisis

GeoTalks Webinar | Dean Claudia Mora and Andrew West

EPS Undergraduate Research Fair

Undergraduate research in EPS is of critical importance for both the education and research missions. Because momentum has been stymied by the COVID pandemic, faculty and researchers want to kick-start undergraduate involvement in research for the next academic year.

The event starts at 5 pm and will be hybrid – meaning presentations by faculty and researchers will be in person in JGB room 3.222 or via Zoom at this link: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/92686072555

The Research Fair will be followed by an in-person an socially-distanced pizza social on the JBG patio starting at 6 pm to offer a more informal way for undergraduates to ask questions or connect with faculty and researchers that are present. Please RSVP here if you will be attending the pizza social.

UT Paleontology Seminar

Inferring Reptilian Ecology in the Fossil Record Utilizing High-Resolution CT Data and Stable Isotope Ratios as a Proxy

Mitchell Riegler

University of Florida

Zoom Link: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/91661118623

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.

DeFord Lecture | Marisa Palucis

Geomorphic response to climate change in the Arctic: Implications for early Mars

Dr. Marisa Palucis, Dartmouth University

Abstract:

Alluvial fans may represent one of the last widespread signs of significant fluvial activity on Mars’ surface. Understanding the climatic conditions during the formation of these features may provide key insights on habitability and climate change on Mars.

Numerous studies have used data and theory from terrestrial fans from warm, arid, rainfall-dominated climates to estimate flow discharges, runoff rates, and total water volumes that likely built Martian fans. However, it has been suggested that Martian fans sourced water only from snowmelt, and perhaps under periglacial conditions. Thus, there is a knowledge gap about the dominant processes building fans under periglacial conditions, and importantly for Mars, a lack of understanding about the characteristic flow magnitudes during depositional events.

In this talk I will present results from a field-based terrestrial analog study involving characterization of the sedimentology and geomorphology of a periglacial alluvial fan in the Richardson Mountains, Northwest Territories, Canada. I will (1) qualitatively describe the range of sedimentary processes occurring on a periglacial alluvial fan and compare them to prior observations, (2) report measured flow discharges and runoff rates that occurred during a summer storm event, and (3) show that melt rates suggested for Mars are capable of entraining and transporting appreciable amounts of sediment by fluvial processes.

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: Michael Young - Bureau of Economic Geology

Regional Land Impacts in Texas from Energy Development

Understanding landscape impacts from the development of fossil and renewable energy sources is essential to land use decisions and management. This presentation focuses on current and potential future landscape alteration stemming from oil and gas, wind and solar installations, including recent observations and estimates of land needed in west Texas over the next ~30 years to accommodate estimates of new facilities. The field site focuses on the Permian Basin of West Texas, an area of significant interest for energy production. The research findings will be placed into the context of the broader discussions of the energy transition, in Texas and elsewhere, and how new and ongoing research at the Bureau will help to understand and quantify the broader life-cycle impacts of a broader mix of energy systems.

Send anonymous feedback on Bureau presentations to: speakerfeedback@beg.utexas.edu

UT participants may login at utexas.zoom.us with UT-EID/password

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UTIG Seminar Series: Heather Ford, Queen Mary University of London, UK

Speaker: Heather Ford, Queen’s University in London, UK

Host: Chris Lowery

Title: The mid-Pleistocene Enigma: detangling regional and global signals in seawater ð18O records

Abstract: High-resolution seawater ð18O records, derived from coupled Mg/Ca and benthic foraminifera ð18O analyses, can be used to evaluate how global ice volume changed during the mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT, ca. 1250–600 ka). However, such seawater ð18O records are also influenced by regional hydrographic signals (i.e., salinity) and changes in deep-ocean circulation across the MPT, making it difficult to isolate the timing and magnitude of the global ice volume change. To explore regional and global patterns in seawater ð18O records, we reconstruct seawater ð18O from coupled Mg/Ca and ð18O analyses of Uvigerina spp. at Ocean Drilling Program Site 1208 in the North Pacific Ocean. Comparison of individual seawater ð18O records suggests that deep-ocean circulation reorganized and the formation properties (i.e., salinity) of deep-ocean water masses changed at ca. 900 ka, likely related to the transition to marine-based ice sheets in Antarctica. We also find that an increase in ice volume likely accompanied the shift in glacial-interglacial periodicity observed in benthic carbonate ð18O across the MPT, with increases in ice volume observed during Marine Isotope Stages 22 and 16.

Friends and Alumni Networking Event at GSA Connects 2021

UTIG Seminar Series: Ian Hamling, GNS Science, New Zealand

Speaker: Ian Hamling, GNS Science, New Zealand

Host: Xiaohua Xu

Title: Our shifting planet: Utilising satellite observations for measuring the deformation of the Earth’s surface

Abstract: The surface of our planet is constantly deforming and changing shape in response to the build-up and release of tectonic strain before and after an earthquake or the movement of magma in the crust. In the past, measuring this deformation was time consuming, expensive and in the case of volcanoes, often required the observer to venture into difficult or dangerous regions to make measurements. However, the development of a technique known as Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) has revolutionized the way we measure the deformation of the Earth’s surface.

From the triggering of volcanic eruptions and zombie volcanoes to nationwide estimates of the interseimic deformation and Vertical Land Movements (VLM), this talk will cover a range of InSAR observations from across the SW-Pacific and explore how we can utilise these vast datasets to improve our understanding of volcanic and tectonic processes.

DeFord Lecture | Claire Masteller

How rivers remember: the effects of flow history on sediment mobility in gravel-bed rivers

Dr. Claire Masteller, Washington University

Abstract: Rivers transmit environmental signals across landscapes.  In the wake of a changing climate, predicting river channel response to variations in flow magnitude and flood frequency is of significant importance for floodplain communities and ecosystems. As these environmental perturbations propagate across a drainage basin, it’s important to consider the role of prior flow history in a channel when predicting its future evolution. However, widely used models for fluvial sediment transport currently do not integrate these history effects. This omission represents a fundamental, outstanding knowledge gap in earth surface processes.
In this talk I will focus on the process of bedload sediment transport in gravel-bed rivers, where memory effects are observed over a variety of time-scales.  I will first discuss the origins of memory in gravel bed rivers, using results from a series of laboratory flume experiments.  I will then apply these new insights to a unique, continuous record of coarse sediment transport to quantify the thresholds for memory formation and destruction in a steep mountain stream. I will discuss the development and implementation of a history-dependent function to better describe sediment mobility by accounting for these memory effects.

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: Jerry Jensen - Bureau of Economic Geology

Estimating vertical permeability in the Ormskirk Sandstone, East Irish Sea Basin

Engineers love permeability. After all, permeability is simple in concept, a major control on production and economics, and it is easy to measure. What’s not to love about permeability?

Alas, in truth, permeability is a difficult and mercurial rock property: 1) it is extremely variable, typically varying by four to six orders of magnitude in a reservoir; 2) permeability is scale-dependent, changing with sample size; and 3) permeability is direction dependent, changing by a factor of 10 or 100 when the flow direction changes. What a monster! Fortunately, there are a few ways to tame the beast, including 1) taking many samples, 2) measuring permeability in multiple ways; and 3) relating the permeability to the reservoir geological features.

This talk will demonstrate all these taming ways in a case study. We show that 1) integrating probe permeameter, core plug, and wireline tester measurements with the geology leads to a coherent picture of vertical permeability for the Ormskirk Sandstone; 2) without the geological information, we needed twice as many samples to obtain the same level of uncertainty of the estimated vertical permeability; and 3) permeability assessment within a geological framework reduces the upscaled vertical permeability variation from more than three orders of magnitude to less than one order of magnitude.

Send anonymous feedback on Bureau presentations to: speakerfeedback@beg.utexas.edu

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In-Person at PRC, BEG Bldg. 130, Main Conference Room 1.202

Water, Climate and Environment Seminar | Caleb E. Adams - LANL

A Plant Physiology-based Live Fuel Moisture Model for Use in Fire Behavior Models

Habitability Seminar: Charity Phillips-Lander, SWRI

A seminar from the Center for Planetary Systems Habitability

Title: The Value of Building a Texas Astrobiology Community

Speaker: Charity Phillips-Lander, Senior Research Scientist, Astrobiology, Space Science and Engineering Division, Southwest Research Institute

https://habitability.utexas.edu/events/

UTIG Discussion Hour: Antoniette Grima, UTIG

Speaker: Antoniette Grima, Postdoctoral Fellow, UTIG

Title: Deep slab dynamics and surface evolution

Lithosphere and Dynamic Earth seminar: Elizabeth Catlos

DeFord Lecture | Nandita Basu

Water Quality Challenges and Opportunities from the Local to the Global Scale

Dr. Nandita Basu, University of Waterloo

Abstract: Declining water quality is a growing global issue. As the human population increases, a multitude of factors, from intensive agricultural practices and widespread over-application of commercial fertilizers, to climate change and wildfires threatening our drinking water supplies, to emerging contaminants from rapid urbanization and concentrated livestock operations, threaten our water resources.

Multiple new policies have been developed to improve water quality in our lakes and streams; however, water quality remains a persistent problem. In this talk, Nandita Basu will address the nature of water quality challenges, especially focusing on long term legacies of nutrients, and discuss opportunities for addressing some of these challenges through a combination of top-down analysis — using large geospatial datasets to identify watershed functional  traits — and mechanistic modeling, from the reach to the watershed scale. Through this discussion, she will highlight novel approaches for regional- and global-scale solutions to water quality challenges.

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 D. Warwick - USGS

Coal Geology and Resources of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plain

 The primary coal-bearing strata of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plain occur in Upper Cretaceous, Paleocene, and Eocene coastal, deltaic, and fluvial sediments deposited along the north-northwestern margin of the Gulf of Mexico Basin. Coal ranks in this area range from lignite to bituminous. Most of the coal currently mined in Texas is lignite from the upper part of the Wilcox Group (Paleocene to Eocene), whereas in Louisiana and Mississippi, lignite is mined from the lower part of the Wilcox Group. Other Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plain coal-mining areas in south Texas and northern Mexico have produced bituminous coal from the Upper Cretaceous Olmos Formation and Eocene Claiborne Group, and lignite from the Eocene Jackson Group. Coal beds within the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plain generally are less than 15 ft thick and most coal mines produce from several beds. All coal-bearing strata dip regionally into the Gulf of Mexico Basin unless disturbed by local faulting or folding.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has assessed recoverable coal and coalbed gas resources of the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plain. Detailed assessments of coal quality and coal resources were focused on parts of the Wilcox Group in (1) northeast Texas, (2) central Texas, and the Sabine uplift in (3) Louisiana and (4) Texas.  Estimates of coal in these areas total 97 billion short tons with less than 500 ft of overburden, or 175 billion short tons with less than 2000 ft of overburden (Warwick and others 2011, American Association of Petroleum Geologists Studies in Geology No. 62). The USGS assessment of coalbed gas resources of the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plain estimated a mean of 4.06 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, technically recoverable, continuous gas resources primarily from the Wilcox Group coals (Warwick and others 2007, https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2007/3039/).

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Meeting ID: 958 5597 6870
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Meeting ID: 958 5597 6870
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UTIG Seminar Series: Michael Pyrcz, UT Cockrell School of Engineering

Speaker: Michael Pyrcz, Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, UT Cockrell School of Engineering and Department of Geological Sciences, UT Jackson School of Geosciences

Host: Gail Christeson

Water, Climate and Environment Seminar | Matthew Bartos - UT CAEE

TBD

UTIG Discussion Hour: John Christian, UTIG

Speaker: John Christian, Postdoctoral Fellow, UTIG

Title: Disentangling the roles of natural variability and anthropogenic forcing in driving rapid outlet glacier

Lithosphere and Dynamic Earth seminar: Student Talks

Aaron Satkoski, Sarah Brooker, Hoss Hostettler

DeFord Lecture | Xiaowei Chen

Multi-scale analyses reveals diverse triggering processes during induced earthquake sequences

Dr. Xiaowei Chen, University of Oklahoma

Abstract: In the past decade, Oklahoma experienced a large-scale earthquake experiment with significant variations of seismicity rates that are strongly correlated with injection rates from wastewater disposal. In response to the increased seismicity rate, the seismic network has been significantly expanded, providing a rich dataset to better understand the earthquake triggering processes during fluid injection. The original view of induced seismicity was simple and straightforward – increase pore pressure reduces effective normal stress, promoting fault failure. However, observations in Oklahoma suggests that triggering processes of induced earthquake sequences can be very complex, and are strongly influenced by fault structure and stress state.

In this presentation, I start with large-scale observation of seismicity migration and stress/fault distributions. Multi-scale analysis of seismicity migration allows us to derive hydraulic properties for the Arbuckle group and the crystalline basement. These parameters contributed to large-scale modeling that suggested the importance of poroelastic stress from fluid injection. With detailed analysis of the stress state of seismogenic faults, we find that fault stress state could strongly influence temporal evolution of earthquake sequences. Then, I discuss diverse triggering processes observed during several individual sequences. The Woodward sequence in western Oklahoma suggests that earthquake-to-earthquake triggering drives the fault activation. The Guthrie sequence in central Oklahoma occurred within a complex fault mesh network, and showed evidence of aseismic slip along a normal fault. These detailed observations provide a reference framework for future earthquake rupture simulations within different fault systems, and insights into the triggering processes during fluid-driven natural earthquake sequences.

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: Rick Colwell, Oregon State University

Water, Climate and Environment Seminar | Daniel O. Breecker - JSG

Automated monitoring of soil CO2 and O2  concentrations