EARTH & PLANETARY SCIENCES NEWS ARCHIVE 
Computer simulations by EPS researchers support the idea that a giant impact could explain the bipolar topographic differences on Mars [Full Story]
Patrick Chuang and Slawek Tulaczyk promoted
The department is pleased to announce the promotion of Patrick Chuang to Associate Professor with tenure and of Slawek Tulaczyk to Full Professor.
Graduate student Nicholas Van Der Elst receives ARCS Foundation Scholarship [Full Story]
New findings by EPS researchers suggest that uplift of the Tibetan Plateau occurred in stages [Full Story]
Jim Zachos participates in AAAS Symposium on ocean acidification [Full Story]
Lisa Sloan and Andy Fisher discuss the impacts of future climate change on California water resources at a public forum [Full Story]
Casey Moore participates in project to deep-drill into the Nankai Trough seismogenic zone [Full Story]
Study by researcher Simon Day finds that oral traditions effectively warn people about tsunamis [Full Story]
Graduate alumna Brooke Crowley wins a campus photography prize [Full Story]
Rob Coe receives the AGU Gilbert Award [Full Story]
Andy Fisher advises regional planners on water resources [Full Story]
Quentin Williams appointed chair of the UCSC Academic Senate [Full Story]
Francis Nimmo awarded Macelwane Medal from AGU
Associate Professor Francis Nimmo has been awarded the James B. Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union. The medal is the AGU's highest honor for young scientists. [Full Story]
Matthew Clapham new Assistant Professor of geobiology
This year's search in geobiology led to the appointment of Matthew Clapham (M.S., Queen's Univ., 2002; Ph.D., Univ. of Southern California, 2006). Matthew is a paleoecologist and geobiologist who has studied the structure of the earliest metazoan communities and the paleoecology of the Permo-Triassic transition. Matthew is currently a post-doctoral researcher at Queen's Univ., Ontario. He will join the department in January 2008.
Quentin Williams named chair of the Executive Committee of COMPRES
Quentin Williams has been elected to a three-year term as Chair of the Executive Committee of COMPRES, the Consortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Sciences. COMPRES is a community-based consortium that supports research in the materials properties of Earth and planetary interiors with particular emphasis on high-pressure science and technology and related fields. It is charged with the oversight and guidance of important high-pressure laboratories at several national facilities, such as synchrotrons and neutron sources.
Emily Brodsky and Francis Nimmo promoted
The department is pleased to announce the promotions of Francis Nimmo and Emily Brodsky to Associate Professor with tenure.
Graduate Student Peter Lippert receives ARCS Foundation Scholarship [Full Story]
Francis Nimmo awarded Urey Prize in Planetary Science
Assistant Professor Francis Nimmo has been awarded the 2007 Harold C. Urey Prize in Planetary Science for his contributions to the understanding of terrestrial planets and icy satellites and their evolution. This is the second such award bestowed upon UCSC Earth & Planetary Sciences faculty in recent years, as Professor Erik Asphaug was awarded the Urey Prize in 1998. [Full Story]
Climate change and green technology the focus of UCSC Foundation forum
Climate change expert Lisa Sloan and green technology proponent Steve Westly will be the keynote speakers during the sixth annual Foundation Forum at the University of California, Santa Cruz, on Friday, June 8, at 4 p.m. in the Music Center Recital Hall. [Full Story]
Scientists reconstruct prehistoric behavior and ecology of northern fur seals
A team of researchers has documented major changes in the behavior, ecology, and geographic range of the northern fur seal over the past 1,500 years using a combination of techniques from archaeology, biochemistry, and ecology. [Full Story]
Frictional heating explains plumes on Saturn's moon Enceladus
Tidal forces acting on fault lines in the Enceladus' icy shell cause the sides of the faults to rub back and forth against each other, producing enough heat to transform some of the ice into plumes of water vapor and ice crystals... [Full Story]
UC Santa Cruz research team sheds light on diet of early human ancestors
New isotopic evidence suggests that the diet of our early human ancestors contained a high proportion of bulbs and other underground parts of plants, or the tissue of animals that ate such plants. [Full Story]
Seismologists discover complex structure in Tonga mantle wedge
Although geologists have a pretty good picture of the processes that produce volcanic arcs, a new study finds that the structure of the mantle wedge may be far more complex than anyone had imagined. [Full Story]
New technology shows old faults are smoother than young ones
Old earthquake faults appear to be smoother than young ones, worn smooth over time by friction like the brake pads of an old car. That's one of the most striking insights of a new study by geologists at the University of California, Santa Cruz. [Full Story]
Gary Griggs gives Ricketts Memorial Lecture at Sanctuary Currents symposium
Gary Griggs, professor of Earth and planetary sciences and director of the Institute of Marine Sciences, was chosen to give the Ricketts Memorial Lecture at Sanctuary Currents 2007, the annual symposium of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. [Full Story]
Christine Hatch receives AGU Outstanding Student Paper Award in hydrology
Christine Hatch has been selected to receive an Outstanding Student Paper Award from the Hydrology Section of the Fall 2006 AGU meeting for her presentation... [More]
Jim Zachos delivers the Emiliani Lecture at 2006 AGU
Jim Zachos gave the Cesare Emiliani Lecture at the Fall 2006 AGU meeting. This annual lecture is organized by the Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology Focus Group and honors the memory of Cesare Emiliani, one of the pioneers of the study of ancient oceans. [Full Story]
Gary Griggs receives Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award
Founding faculty member Gary Griggs’s popular oceanography class ”has been introducing students to science and conservation issues in an engaging, thoughtful, and clear manner for almost four decades,”... [Full Story]
Alumnus Noah Diffenbaugh receives AGU award in atmospheric sciences
Alumnus Noah S. Diffenbaugh received the 2006 James R. Holton Award from the Atmospheric Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union. [Full Story]
New instrument reveals raindrop formation in warm clouds
How do raindrops form? It's a simple question, but the answer is far from elementary. Tiny water droplets somehow merge to become full-sized raindrops, but the details remain a mystery. [Full Story]
Seismologists measure heat flow from Earth's molten core into the lower mantle
For the first time, scientists have directly measured the amount of heat flowing from the molten metal of Earth's core into a region at the base of the mantle... [Full Story]
Local research team pinpoints local impact of climate change
Lisa Sloan and the Paleoclimate and Climate Change Group are published on the front page of the Santa Cruz Sentinal. [Full Story]
Listening for silent earthquakes
Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula is known for good surf and beautiful beaches. Among seismologists, however, it is better known for earthquakes. [Full Story]
UCSC Earth & Planetary Sciences professors featured on NOVA
Gary Glatzmaier and Robert Coe, both professors of Earth sciences, were featured in "Magnetic Storm," a program in the PBS television series NOVA about Earth's magnetic field, which was recently rebroadcast. [Show Description]
Fall lecture series at the Seymour Center will focus on global climate change
The Fall Lecture Series at UC Santa Cruz's Seymour Marine Discovery Center will focus on climate change and global warming. October 5th, 12th & 19th. [Full Story]
New book looks at Santa Cruz coast "Then and Now"
A new book by Gary Griggs, professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz, and local architect Deepika Shrestha Ross offers a unique look at the Santa Cruz coastline. [Full Story]
Department changes name to Earth & Planetary Sciences
The Earth Sciences Department has changed its name to Earth & Planetary Sciences. [Full Story]
Geophysicists featured in the History Channel's Mega Disasters series
UCSC geophysicist Steven Ward and visiting researcher Simon Day are featured in "East Coast Tsunami," airing this week on the History Channel as part of the cable channel's Mega Disasters series. [Full Story]
Increased flow of groundwater after earthquakes suggests oil extraction applications
The most obvious manifestation of an earthquake is the shaking from seismic waves that knocks down buildings and rattles people. Now researchers have established a more subtle effect of this shaking... [Full Story]
Two faculty elected fellows of Geological Society of America
Andrew Fisher and Paul Koch, both professors of Earth sciences, have been elected fellows of the Geological Society of America in recognition of their significant contributions to the science of geology. [Full Story]
Study shows earthquake shaking triggers aftershocks
A new analysis of earthquake data indicates that aftershocks are triggered by the shaking associated with the mainshock, rather than by the added stress on nearby faults resulting from rearrangement of the Earth's crust. [Full Story]
Saturn's moon Enceladus may have reoriented
Enceladus, a small icy moon of Saturn, may have dramatically reoriented relative to its axis of rotation, rolling over to put an area of low density at the moon's south pole. [Full Story]
Sunken slab of ocean floor detected
Halfway to the center of the Earth, at the boundary between the core and the mantle, lies a massive folded slab of rock that once formed the ocean floor and sank beneath North America some 50 million years ago. [Full Story]
New capture scenario explains origin of Neptune's oddball moon Triton
Neptune's large moon Triton may have abandoned an earlier partner to arrive in its unusual orbit around Neptune. Triton is unique among all the large moons in the solar system because it orbits Neptune in a direction opposite to the planet's rotation... [Full Story]
Original seismograph of 1906 San Francisco earthquake on display at Lick
On April 18, 1906, the seismographic station at the University of California's Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton obtained the only good record of local strong ground motion from the great earthquake that devastated San Francisco that day. [Full Story]
San Francisco earthquake of 1906 is focus of March 15 lecture
With the centennial of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake approaching, UCSC will host a free public talk this month on the earthquake that devastated San Francisco and marked the birth of modern earthquake science. [Full Story]
Alumna Kathryn D. Sullivan honored with atrium dedication
Family, fellow alumni, and distinguished guests gathered on April 21 to celebrate the career and achievements of Kathryn Sullivan...
[Full Story]
Fast track to global warming
Human activities are releasing greenhouse gases more than 30 times faster than the rate of emissions that triggered a period of extreme global warming in the Earth's past, according to an expert on ancient climates. [Full Story]
Collisions between embryonic planets studied
Hit-and-run collisions between embryonic planets during a critical period in the early history of the Solar System may account for some previously unexplained properties of planets, asteroids, and meteorites... [Full Story]
Glacier's retreat in Greenland
Satellite images show that, after decades of stability, a major glacier draining the Greenland ice sheet has dramatically increased its speed and retreated nearly five miles in recent years. [Full Story]
Unmanned submersible sheds light on an undersea volcano
Rock samples collected last year show surprising variation in the chemistry of an undersea volcano on the Juan de Fuca Ridge near Seattle. [Full Story]
Simulations shed light on Earth's history of magnetic field reversals
A new analysis of computer simulations of Earth's magnetic field suggests that its behavior was different early in Earth's history, resulting in greater stability and fewer reversals of the magnetic field. [Full Story]
Rapidly accelerating glaciers may increase how fast the sea level rises
Satellite images show that, after decades of stability, a major glacier draining the Greenland ice sheet has dramatically increased its speed and retreated nearly five miles in recent years. [Full Story]
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