Speaker: Isabelle Caban, M.Sc. student with Brian Yanites

Title: ADI Geoheritage and Oil Drilling in PA

Speaker: Dr. Gary Pavlis, Professor Emeritus, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Title: New Insights on the Tectonics of Alaska Region from a Synthesis of Earthscope Seismic Imaging Results

Bio: My area of specialization is seismology, which is a branch of geophysics. My research can be described as a mix of experimental, theoretical, and computational work directed at addressing earth science problems. I have extensive experience with deployments of modern passive seismic array instruments, having been involved in a continuous series of field projects running from the late 1980s to the present.

Speaker: Dr. P. David Polly, Professor EAS and Department Chair

Bio: A vertebrate paleontologist, he studies the evolution of mammals and other vertebrates in the fossil record, including trait-based studies of community response to environmental change, geometric morphometric analysis of evolution and morphology, phylogenetics, biogeography, and speciation on regional and continental geographic scales.

Speaker: Charles Salcido, EAS Ph.D. student working with David Polly

Title: Can You Eat Well in Flatland?

Bio: I am seeking to quantify changes in diet and evolutionary lag in the skulls of therian carnivores using functional morphology and biomechanics.

Speaker: Dr. Travis O’Brien, Assistant Professor EAS

Title: Atmospheric Rivers in the Midwest!

Bio: Research within Travis’ group focuses on understanding what controls weather and climate phenomena that impact human and natural systems. He and his group specialize in utilizing a combination of numerical models, novel data analysis techniques, and fundamental theory to form and test hypotheses about what controls the physical characteristics and occurrence of weather patterns: from fog to extremes. 

Title: Revisiting the mechanisms and thresholds of mass extinctions

Abstract:  Mass extinctions (MEs) have the capacity to dramatically change the Earth system and the evolutionary trajectories of its biosphere over very short time scales. In this sense, MEs may be the closest Phanerozoic analogue to inform how modern biota may respond to current/future environmental change. Studies of MEs typically focus on triggers (e.g., asteroid impact, large igneous provinces) or kill mechanisms (e.g., temperature change, marine anoxia, acidification) associated with extinction events. However, this work investigates conditions of the Earth system prior to the MEs themselves and explores the influence of thresholds dynamics in enhancing (or inhibiting) extinction intensity once triggered. I present a first-order test of the relationship between “pre-existing conditions” in the Earth system and extinction magnitude, with consideration of what this model predicts for our current Earth system.

Title:  Near-trench crustal deformation at the Hikurangi subduction zone from a decade of seafloor geodetic experiments: implications for shallow megathrust behavior

Abstract:  Resolving the distribution of interseismic coupling and transient slow slip event processes at offshore subduction zones is hampered by the difficulty of measuring offshore crustal deformation. I will present results from several offshore experiments along the Hikurangi subduction zone, New Zealand, including data from seafloor pressure sensors, ocean bottom seismometers, and seafloor geodetic measurements. I will integrate these observations with new understanding of the physical properties of slow slip regions from recent IODP drilling and seismic imaging to discuss the physical properties and processes that influence shallow subduction megathrust slip behaviours that we observe geodetically.

Speaker: Bei Liu, Research Geologist, Indiana Geological and Water Survey

Title: Organic matter in black shales: Accumulation, thermal maturation, and contribution to the pore system

Bio: Bei Liu received his B.S. and M.S. degree from China University of Geosciences (Beijing) in 2012 and 2015, respectively, and his Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from Indiana University Bloomington in 2020. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Indiana Geological and Water Survey, Indiana University Bloomington from 2020 to 2021. Liu’s area of expertise is organic petrology, shale oil and gas, coal geology, and critical minerals. He has published more than 20 research papers related to shale and coal studies. Liu is currently on the AAPG EMD Tight Oil and Gas Committee and the Academic Editor of International Journal of Coal Science & Technology.

Title:  Linking heterogeneous expressions of subduction along the Cascadia margin

Abstract:  Spatial correlations between lateral heterogeneity in geophysical, seismogenic, and tectonic features is observed along the Cascadia margin. Both the overriding and downgoing plate have been invoked to play the dominant role in controlling along-strike correlations between seismogenic behavior, potential field measurements, morphological/tectonic characteristics, and seismic structure; however, significant feedbacks likely exist between the two. Our recent seismic images suggest that zones of basal accretion of material from the downgoing plate to the overriding plate may link the seismogenic, geological, and morphological expression of subduction in Cascadia. In the northern and southern portions of the forearc, this “subcreted” material is also characterized by thick (~10 km) anomalously low shear-wave velocity zones. The thickness, high internal reflectivity, and low Bouguer gravity signatures likely indicate that this subcreted material is composed of dominantly (meta)sedimentary material that has been emplaced through successive subcretion events over geologic timescales. Furthermore, the anomalously low velocities and spatial correlation with high non-volcanic tremor (NVT) density and short slow slip recurrence intervals indicate that these regions are fluid-rich. While 1st order variations in the fluids that control NVT and slow slip likely result from differences in the permeability of the downgoing slab as inferred from its stress state and the distribution of intraslab seismicity, these subcreted packages likely represent thick, vertically-impermeable regions in the lower crust that further accentuate this correlation. Variability in the amount of subcretion explains patterns of exhumation and uplift along the Cascadia margin and the resulting forearc topography over geologic timescales, and is likely controlled by some combination plate interface geometry/rheology and overriding plate architecture.

Title:  Trees, Climate and Climate Intervention, and rethinking measures for climate change

Abstract: I will address two questions: What good are trees? and, Are we thinking about climate change and climate intervention using the right metrics? The answers are linked in less-obvious ways, and are, I think, challenging. The main goal of the talk is to encourage you to think about some things perhaps a bit differently than you have previously, rather than to convey lots of data.

Title:  Direct Air Capture of Carbon Dioxide Via Mineral Looping Using MgO

Abstract: MgO-based mineral looping promises to be a cost-effective ($46-159/tCO₂) process to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere at the gigaton scale. Most previous research on MgO for CO₂ adsorption focused on removal at higher temperatures from flue gas. There is a lack of understanding of reaction pathways at ambient conditions and in the presence of humidity. In addition, it is currently not understood how impurities influence the hydration and carbonation reactions. In my talk I will cover 1) the role of amorphous phases during passivation layer formation on MgO, 2) In situ observations of film formation during MgO hydration and carbonation and 3) Effect of impurities on the MgO hydration reaction.

Title:  Sedimentology of an ocean margin on Mars

Abstract: Sedimentary basins contain archives of Earth history, but it is unknown if Mars had similar sedimentary basins larger than craters. Reading the stratigraphy in such basins should provide a higher fidelity record of Mars history than the more widely used erosional record, such as the valley networks cut into the planet’s southern hemisphere. In the first part of this talk, I will use a numerical experiment and Earth-analog stratigraphy to show that landforms called fluvial ridges, found widely across Mars, are created where basin-filling alluvial stratigraphy is exposed by erosion. In the second part, I will interpret >6000 km of fluvial ridges exposed at a region of Mars called Aeolis Dorsa. Using measurements of stratigraphic position and paleoflow direction made from satellite data, I will show evidence that the deposits accumulated along the margin of an ocean that occupied the northern-hemispheric basin of Mars 3.5 billion years ago. The stratigraphy records sea-level rise of nearly a vertical kilometer, and possibly up to two kilometers. This water volume would have been comparable to Earth’s Arctic Ocean and is consistent with other estimates of the ancient martian water budget.

Speaker: Nathan Roden M.Sc. student, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Studying with Shelby Rader.
Title:  Mineralogical controls on rare earth element redistribution and enrichment: A study from the Franklin Mining District, New Jersey

Bio: I am studying how metals, particularly those that include non-traditional stable isotopes, are remobilized and redeposited within ore-forming systems.

Speaker: JeongYeon Han, Ph.D. student working with Doug Edmonds
Title:  Numerical Modeling of Decoupled Channel-levee Systems and Implications for Flood Dynamics

Speaker: Aleksandr (Sasha) Marfin, Post-doctoral Researcher working with Shelby Rader
Title:  Siberian Trap Large Igneous Province: molybdenum isotope evidence for multiple magmatic sources

Bio: I am studying continental flood magmatism and associated Cu-Ni-PGE sulfide deposits by traditional and non-traditional stable isotope systems. 

Title:  Atmospheric Rivers: Forecasting, Observing, and Managing the Impacts of Extreme Precipitation in the western United States

Abstract: Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are narrow corridors of intense water vapor transport frequently associated with precipitation upon landfall. On the west coast of the U.S., the absence of ARs causes drought, and ARs are associated with almost all flood hazards. In recent years, a Research and Operations Partnership (RAOP) called Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations (FIRO) has been developed that is focused on water supply resilience and flood hazard mitigation and is conducting several viability assessments at several watersheds in the western U.S. with significant precipitation inputs from ARs. FIRO requires improved AR forecasts to maximize success. With this and other motivations, Atmospheric River Reconnaissance (AR Recon) was developed as an interagency, international RAOP that collects unique observations in the northeast Pacific to improve AR landfall forecasts and associated precipitation forecasts during the cool season (November – March). Motivated by early demonstrations of value, AR Recon observations are now officially called for in the U.S. National Winter Season Operations Plan. This presentation will cover the functioning of both of these RAOPs over the past several years, which encompass both dry and wet periods in California, and review the observations and forecast improvements enabled by AR Recon.