2020
Earth Sciences
- November 18, 2020
Geologist David Rubin elected fellow of the American Geophysical Union
David Rubin, a researcher in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, has been elected a fellow of the American Geophysical Union.
- November 16, 2020
UC Santa Cruz leads interdisciplinary consortium for astrobiology research
With funding from NASA, the UCSC-led team will lay the foundation for detecting the signatures of life in the atmospheres of other planets.
- November 10, 2020
Radioactive elements may be crucial to the habitability of rocky planets
Earth-size planets can have varying amounts of radioactive elements, which generate internal heat that drives a planet’s geological activity and magnetism.
- November 02, 2020
Wildfire brings destruction and opportunity to researcher’s field site
Hydrologist Margaret Zimmer has received NSF funding to study the impact of wildfire on the site where she has been studying how water moves through the landscape.
- September 10, 2020
High-fidelity record of Earth’s climate history puts current changes in context
A continuous record of the past 66 million years shows natural climate variability due to changes in Earth’s orbit around the sun is much smaller than projected future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions.
- September 01, 2020
In the line of fire
Alumnus Adam Lowdermilk had built a career as a musician, but the tragic 2018 Camp Fire prompted a change of heart and a leap into firefighting.
- August 22, 2020
Research buildings saved as wildfire sweeps across Big Creek Natural Reserve
Fire preparedness and hard work by fast-moving fire crews and UC Santa Cruz staff is being credited for saving research and residential buildings at the Landels-Hill Big Creek Natural Reserve on the Big Sur coast.
- July 22, 2020
New study shows retreat of East Antarctic Ice Sheet during previous warm periods
Evidence of glacial retreat in the Wilkes Basin 400,000 years ago suggests ice loss in this region could add 10 to 13 feet (3 to 4 meters) to future global sea level rise.
- June 22, 2020
Evidence supports ‘hot start’ scenario and early ocean formation on Pluto
A new study suggests that Pluto and other large Kuiper belt objects started out with liquid oceans which have been slowly freezing over time.
- June 02, 2020
Alumna Kathy Sullivan embarks on another first, this time to the ocean’s depths
The first American woman to walk in space, Sullivan is now aiming to be the first woman to visit the deepest spot in the oceans.
- April 28, 2020
Watching the flow of water through oak woodlands at Arbor Creek Experimental Watershed
To understand how California's beloved oak woodlands will fare in a rapidly warming climate, UCSC researchers are putting a headwaters stream in the Diablo Range under a hydrological microscope.
- April 27, 2020
Planetary scientist Francis Nimmo elected to National Academy of Sciences
Francis Nimmo, professor of Earth and planetary sciences, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
- April 14, 2020
Planetary scientist Myriam Telus wins NASA Early Career Award
Myriam Telus, assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences, has received funding from NASA through the Planetary Science Early Career Award program to support her research in cosmochemistry, the chemical analysis of extraterrestrial materials.
- March 16, 2020
In Memoriam: J. Casey Moore (1945–2020)
Casey Moore, professor emeritus of Earth and planetary sciences, died on Wednesday, March 11.
- February 20, 2020
Aquaculture to benefit people and the environment
Two graduate students have received a one-year, $150,000 grant to create environmentally sound seaweed and sea cucumber farms on the coasts of Kenya and The Gambia.
- February 11, 2020
Bringing new perspectives to astronomy
An array of grants from the Heising-Simons Foundation is helping UC Santa Cruz accelerate astrophysics and other sciences while changing what we think an astrophysicist looks like
- January 27, 2020
Seismic biomarkers in Japan Trench fault zone reveal history of large earthquakes
Researchers found multiple faults with evidence of more than 10 meters of slip during past large earthquakes in the region hit by the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake and tsunami.
- January 16, 2020
In death of dinosaurs, it was all about the asteroid — not volcanoes
Volcanic activity did not play a direct role in the mass extinction event that killed the dinosaurs, according to an international team of researchers.
