Campus News

Hydrogeologists have taken the closest look yet at the intricate cycle of fluids that flow relentlessly beneath the seafloor. That flow, it now appears, is far more forceful than expected. Driven by the heat of the planet’s interior, water courses through pores and cracks under the ocean in earth’s upper crust. The water leaches minerals…

The slow but relentless drippings of calcium-rich water in caves may open a new window on earth’s past climate, thanks to a precise dating technique under development at UCSC. Preserved within the stark beauty of stalactites and stalagmites are two records of changes in the climate of the outside world. One such record is purely…

Dan Aldrich, assistant chancellor for University Advancement, was honored for his more than 20 years of distinguished service to the advancement field at the annual meeting of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District VII, held in San Diego in December. The Environmental Studies Board has announced this year’s winners of…

Ben Crow Assistant Professor of Sociology Ben Crow studies international development issues with a focus on water and agriculture. Crow’s current focus is on peasant agriculture in south Asia; he has spent almost ten years studying the rural rice and finance markets of Bangladesh, exploring the thesis that access to markets varies by social class…

The seismic gap hypothesis of earthquake recurrence, threatened by four large and seemingly "premature" quakes in the last two years, appears under closer scrutiny to remain valid. The hypothesis maintains that once an earthquake ruptures a fault, the same region will not rupture again until enough time passes–usually many decades or centuries–for stress to rebuild.…

By a two-to-one margin, members of UCSC’s Academic Senate have approved a proposal that will permit new students–beginning next fall–to accumulate a grade-point average. Under the grading plan, both new and continuing students will also be eligible to request letter grades for all classes, beginning in the fall. Of a total of 276 votes cast…

A national Associated Press article called upon UCSC astronomers Robert Kraft and Michael Bolte for input about a new theory that researchers have overestimated the ages of the oldest stars in the galaxy by several billion years. Kraft, Bolte, and others are taking the theory seriously, but have yet to be convinced. Andy Markovits of…

"Hot spots," the isolated patches of volcanism unrelated to plate tectonics, may spring from surprisingly deep within the planet: the turbulent boundary between earth’s mantle and its core. That conclusion, sure to put scientists on the spot at the AGU meeting, has arisen from intense study of a layer at the base of the mantle…

Research News And Feature Ideas, Issued Periodically By The UCSC Public Information Office Astronomy I Keck Telescope spies the likely building blocks of modern galaxies Acting as the world’s most powerful telescopic tandem, the Hubble Space Telescope and the W. M. Keck Telescope are starting to unravel the evolutionary histories of galaxies dating to when…

The following letter was sent on December 26, 1996 by President Atkinson to UC chancellors concerning a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson to issue a preliminary injunction against enforcement of Proposition 209. December 26, 1996 CHANCELLORS Dear Colleagues: On December 23 Judge Henderson of the United States District Court for the Northern…

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA–Frank Drake, president of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View and research professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, has issued the following statement about the death today of astronomer Carl Sagan. Drake and Sagan were close friends and longtime working colleagues, dating to their simultaneous tenures…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Members of a University of California task force charged with developing strategies to get more Latino students "in the pipeline" toward higher education have issued a new report that concludes that the university must work closely with public schools to help prepare Latino students for college, and that parents can play an important…