Earthquake Insights From the Best Recorded Volcanic Caldera Collapse In History

Two outstanding problems in seismology are predicting the recurrence times of earthquakes and understanding the physical processes that immediately precede them. While geodetic measurements record elastic strain accumulation, most faults have recurrence intervals far longer than available measurements. Foreshocks provide the principal observations of processes prior to mainshocks, yet variability between sequences has limited generalizations of pre-failure behavior. In 2018 Kilauea volcano...

Surface Evaporation and Rainfall Partitioning in Arid Lands - Local and global perspectives

The presentation will explore two interconnected vignettes related to surface evaporation. In the first part we will review basic aspects of surface evaporation and discuss how soil type modulates evaporation dynamics via surface resistance and internal drainage that shelter infiltrated rainwater from evaporation losses (but not from plant water uptake). These basic elements offer a simple pathway for estimation of surface evaporation losses locally and globally. In the second part,...

Talk Title:  Raising our expectations for DEI work in geoscience faculty evaluation systems: an insight into who sustains this work and how this labor is recognized and rewarded

Abstract: The geosciences have an ethical obligation to increase the low racial and...

Talk Title:  Advances in Global Hydrology based on GRACE Satellite Gravimetry

Abstract:  Two decades of GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite data have significantly advanced our understanding of global hydrology. GRACE satellites measure variations in Earth’s gravity which are controlled mostly by water storage changes, such as those related to...

Talk Title:  Reconstructions of Cenozoic atmospheric CO2 and ocean carbon cycle perturbations

Abstract:  My research interests focus on understanding the role of the ocean, and in particular the role of marine carbonate chemistry in global climate change. As I was originally trained as a (marine) biologist, my way of approaching paleoceanographic questions often...

Talk Title:  Witnessing the Assembly of Planetary Systems

Abstract:  We have observed a stunning diversity in the properties of exoplanetary systems which questions our understanding of planet formation. Does this diversity arise from differences in initial conditions? Are there multiple modes of planet formation which preferentially build different types of planets? Or does this diversity stem from the evolution of the newly born planetary system as the natal protoplanetary disk dissipates? Over the last several years we have gained an incredible...

Talk Title:  The Thermal Histories of Solar System Moons and Small Bodies

Abstract:  The heat flow of a planetary body plays a major role in defining its evolution and current composition, driving processes from internal differentiation during its formation period through geological activity at the current time. However, these same active processes erase many of the surface signatures that would allow us to reconstruct its long-term thermal history. In this talk, I will present novel observational approaches, using primarily the ALMA interferometer...

Talk Title: Water in Earth

Abstract: Water is essential for life as we know it and Earth is often referred to as a water world. But where Earth’s water comes from, how much was accreted, how much was retained in its deep interior, and how it has been recycled through deep time have proven exceptionally challenging questions that require a broad, multi-disciplinary perspective. In this talk I will provide an overview of recent work on these questions with a slant...

Talk Title:  The Evolution of the Marine Carbonate Factory and the Rise of Biomineralizing Animals

Abstract: Formation of calcium carbonate is one of the primary pathways by which carbon is recycled between the ocean-atmosphere system and the solid Earth. On long timescales, changes in the magnitude of the marine carbonate factory—the...