Abstract: Three years ago, the New Horizons spacecraft returned the first close-up images of Pluto and Charon. In this talk I will discuss what we have learned since then about Pluto's interior and evolution.... Read more about Department Colloquium Series
Ralph Keeling, Professor of Geochemistry in the Geosciences Research Division of Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Prof. Keeling is the 2018 Harvard EPS Visiting Scholar.
A perspective from four decades of studying the land carbon sink. Are we entering a jungle world?
Roughly 25% of the excess CO2 from fossil-fuel burning is being absorbed by land plants, as part of a “land carbon sink”. Typically the concern is raised that this sink may eventually turn into a source driven by climate warming, releasing additional...
Title: "A persistent and dynamic East Greenland Ice Sheet over the past 7.5 million years”
Short Bio: I am a paleo climatologist who uses the geologic record to decipher the patterns and mechanisms of past changes in climate and ice sheets on decade to million year time scales.... Read more about Department Colloquium Series
Title: "Remotely sensed canopy water content as a predictor for tree mortality"
Abstract: The rate of drought-induced tree mortality has increased across the world, and is expected to continue to increase dramatically as temperatures (and associated with them, evaporative demand) continue to rise.... Read more about Department Colloquium Series
Title: "Rifting in Africa: Seismological views from Afar"
Abstract: The rifting of continents and eventual formation of ocean basins is a fundamental component of plate tectonics, yet the mechanism for break-up is poorly understood. Rifting of the continents leading to plate rupture occurs by a combination of mechanical deformation and magma intrusion, but the available driving forces have been estimated to be as much as an order of magnitude smaller than those required to rupture thick continental lithosphere.... Read more about Department Colloquium Series
Title: "Exploring the Echs of Giant Planet Migration -- Lost Neptunes and Early Bombardment"
Abstract: Heavily cratered surfaces on the Moon, Mars, and Mercury show the terrestrial planets were battered by an intense bombardment during their first billion years or more, but the timing, sources, and dynamical implications of these impacts are controversial. Dynamical models that include populations residual from primary accretion and destabilized by giant planet migration can potentially account for observations.... Read more about Department Colloquium Series
Short Bio: Gabriel Vecchi is Professor at the Princeton University Department of Geosciences and at the Princeton Environmental Institute.... Read more about Department Colloquium Series