Earth and Planetary Sciences Event Calendar
Unless noted, all listed events are open to the general public.
Wednesday Seminar in Geology: GEL 190/290
Seminars are scheduled for Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 PM. Additional optional seminars that may be included as part of the Geology 190 series may be scheduled at other times.
Friday Brown Bag: "A Geology tradition since the Phanerozoic!"
Fridays at noon. Students and faculty give informal lectures on research, travel, or other interests. Bring a brown bag lunch.
Campus map: Earth & Physical Sciences Building | Roessler Hall
submit an event to the department calendar (restricted access)
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2018, Special Lunch Bag Seminar
12:10 PM, 1316 Earth and Physical Sciences
“How corals make rocks” - by Prof. Paul Falkowski, Rutgers University
Over the past few years, we have identified a set of proteins in zooxanthellate coral skeletons and corresponding genes within the host genome. Simultaneously we established a cell culture of corals that form nano-polyps that precipitate aragonite. Using that information, we have identified a set of coral acid-rich proteins (CARPs) that, in vitro, precipitate aragonite in unamended seawater. In this talk, I will describe how biology can help understand the formation of carbonates in the geological record.
Wednesday, October 24th, 2018, Wednesday Seminar
4:10 PM, 55 Roessler; Tea and cookies at 3:45 in the aviary - (2110 EPS)
“Origins and Strength of a Long-Lived Californian Fault”- by Dr. Elisabeth Nadin, University of Alaska Fairbanks
The Proto-Kern Canyon fault in the southern Sierra Nevada (CA) batholith was active from 100â90 Ma during subduction of the Farallon plate. Exposures of fault rocks transcend from ~10 km depths at the northern end of the fault to ~25 km depths at its southern end, allowing us to sample a vertical gradient in deformation. In this talk, I will discuss the origins and history of the fault, and explain how it differs from shear zones to the north that were active at the same time. I will also present electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analyses of deformed rocks to quantify crystallographic preferred orientations and offer insight into relative strain and temperatures of deformation. Coupled with thermometry and grain-size analysis, these measurements offer insight into strain rate and general deformation conditions at different levels of a ductilely deforming fault zone. With this information, we can build a profile of rock strength with depth in fault zones.
Wednesday, October 31st, 2018, Wednesday Seminar
4:10 PM, 55 Roessler; Tea and cookies at 3:45 in the aviary - (2110 EPS)
“The subduction plate interface: rock record and mechanical coupling (from long to short timescales)” – by Dr. Philippe Agard, University of Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris
Short- and long-term processes at or close to the subduction plate interface (e.g., mineral transformations, fluid release, seismicity and more generally deformation) might be more closely related than previously thought. Increasing evidence from the fossil rock record suggests that some episodes of their long geological evolution indeed match or are close to timescales of the seismic cycle.
Based on a number of critical observations and an exhaustive compilation of worldwide subducted oceanic rocks (episodically recovered from subduction zones), together with insights from thermomechanical modeling, I herein attempt to provide a new dynamic vision of the nature, structure and properties of the plate interface — and to bridge the gap between the mechanical behavior of active subduction zones (e.g., coupling inferred from geophysical monitoring) and fossil ones (e.g., coupling required to detach and recover subducted slab fragments).