Earth & Planetary Sciences
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Air Resources District funds air pollution research and teaching at UC Santa Cruz
Partnership between UCSC and the Monterey Bay Air Resources District supports a new course on air pollution and research on high-tech sensors to detect pollutants.
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Iron volcanoes may have erupted on metal asteroids
NASA’s upcoming mission to the asteroid Psyche could look for signs of past eruptions, and evidence of ‘ferrovolcanism’ may also turn up in iron meteorites.
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Postdoctoral fellowship supports planetary science research
The 51 Pegasi b Fellowship will fund Xinting Yu’s research at UC Santa Cruz on formation of clouds and hazes on exoplanets.
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Planetary scientist Francis Nimmo honored by Royal Astronomical Society
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) has awarded the 2019 Harold Jeffreys Lectureship to Francis Nimmo, professor of Earth and planetary science at UC Santa Cruz.
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The complex history of Earth’s magnetic reversals
UC Santa Cruz geology professor Robert Coe will be presenting his paper, “What We Know and Don’t Know about Reversals” during the upcoming American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in Washington, D.C. this December.
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Grassland expansion—not human hunting—drove ancient African extinctions
A new study revealed ecological changes in the African savanna, not the emergence of our hominin ancestors, led to the extinction of African ‘megaherbivores’ millions of years ago.
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Gary Griggs covers region’s history of natural disasters in new book
Griggs puts the natural disasters of recent decades into historical context in his latest book, ‘Between Paradise and Peril: The Natural Disaster History of the Monterey Bay Region.’
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Planetary scientist Francis Nimmo awarded 2018 Farinella Prize
Francis Nimmo, professor of Earth and planetary sciences, was awarded the 2018 Paolo Farinella Prize at the European Planetary Science Congress in Berlin.
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NSF funds powerful new supercomputer for UC Santa Cruz researchers
The new high-performance computer system will support research in theoretical astrophysics, climate science, materials science, and other fields.
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Injection wells can induce earthquakes miles away from the well
A study of earthquakes induced by injecting fluids deep underground has revealed surprising patterns, suggesting that current recommendations for hydraulic fracturing, wastewater disposal, and geothermal wells may need to be revised.

