The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences is pleased to share a new publication co-authored by Professor Sandra J. Carlson in Science Advances. The study explores the evolutionary history of brachiopods, a group of marine animals with a fossil record stretching back to...READ MORE
Scientists report fossil evidence of the first fully marine amphibian in a study from the University of California, Davis; Peking University; and the Geological Museum of Guizhou. The amphibian is an armored, giant salamander-sized, bottom-dwelling ocean creature that the researchers named...READ MORE
UC Davis Distinguished Professor Isabel Montañez recently joined Geology Bites to discuss how Earth's climate history can help scientists understand the effects of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide. The episode focuses on the Late Paleozoic Ice Age, a period spanning approximately...READ MORE
The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Davis welcomes Dr. Pablo Moreno-Yaeger as its newest Summa and Awwiller Postdoctoral Fellow. With a background in volcanology, geochemistry and geochronology, Moreno-Yaeger studies the processes that shape volcanic systems...READ MORE
Dawn Sumner — a UC Davis geologist, planetary scientist and astrobiologist — is among the 53 scientists newly elected as fellows of the American Geophysical Union, or AGU, for outstanding achievements and contributions to earth and space science. “I deeply appreciate this international recognition...READ MORE
To understand the nascent stages of our roughly 4.6-billion-year-old solar system, researchers rely on cosmic time capsules, such as asteroids and meteorites. These materials capture the chemistry of the environments in which they formed, and one of the most pristine and primitive is a class...READ MORE
Michael Oskin was camping with his friends atop San Gorgonio Mountain, southern California’s highest peak, when the infamous Lander’s earthquake struck just before 5 a.m. on June 28, 1992. As aftershocks from the 7.3 magnitude earthquake rolled through the campsite, trees..READ MORE
On June 24, 2026, two devastating earthquakes struck the northern coast of Venezuela. The 7.2 magnitude foreshock was followed roughly 40 seconds later by a 7.5 magnitude mainshock. Known as a doublet, these earthquakes caused widespread damage and destruction in the country’s...READ MORE
Melting and breaking icebergs in the far-off, northeastern region of the Pacific Ocean can weaken a massive current system in the Atlantic Ocean, according to a University of California, Davis study published in Nature Communications. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or...READ MORE
Goabaone Jaqueline Ramatlapeng vividly remembers when she would go without water from domestic pipes for days. Growing up in Kopong, a small village in Botswana, Ramatlapeng, her family and those in surrounding villages faced a similar plight: water scarcity. And when the water did flow, it was salty...READ MORE
