Science of a Tsunami – CBS News Video

OSU’s Dawn Wright, Professor of Geography and Oceanography, talks about the science behind the power of tsunamis. (If you are unable to view the video below, click here to see it at the CBS website.)

more about “Science of a Tsunami – CBS News Video“, posted with vodpod

Follow Dawn on Twitter: @deepseadawn

Earth’s orbital changes affect freeze and thaw

From the Eugene Register Guard:

Researchers led by a professor at Oregon State University said they finally have confirmed what some scientists have believed for some time: that the last ice age ended because of a slight shift in the Earth’s orbit. The findings could help scientists predict how the planet’s remaining ice will be affected by global warming as well as when the planet will again be topped by miles-thick ice.

OSU geosciences professor Peter Clark is the lead author of a paper published this week in the journal Science. A joint project undertaken by several universities and government agencies, the study pinpointed the timing of the last ice age in an effort to determine which of several planet­wide changes brought the Earth out of the freezer.

Transmissions from the Ice Sheet continue

Earlier this year, Ph.D. student Logan Mitchell spent two months working at the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide research station in Antarctica. Now, Ph.D. student Julia Rosen will spend three weeks this summer at the North Greenland Eemian Ice Core Drilling Project (NEEM), and she will continue the blog.

Julia took some photos from the aircraft (an LC-130, which can land on ice). Here’s a glimpse of two outlet glaciers.

Hot News on Volcanoes

For teachers planning to focus on volcanoes this year, see this Web site maintained by Dr. Shan de Silva, professor of geosciences at Oregon State University. The site includes curricula, a kids page, a blog about ongoing volcanic activity and a world map showing volcano locations.

Mount St. Helens (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey)

Current rate of glacial melt may be occurring slower than feared

There is evidence that this current has shut down with some regularity in the past — and sometimes quite rapidly — in response to large influxes of fresh water from melting glaciers.

However, it appears as though the current rate of glacial melt is occurring at a more gradual pace which will “give ecosystems more time to adjust to new conditions,” said study coauthor Peter Clark, a professor of geosciences at Oregon State University.

Click here for the full story from AFP.

Aaron Wolf in the Utne Reader

Water Negotiator Aaron Wolf Spreads Liquid Hope

Wolf’s calling takes him all over the world, wherever bodies of water—usually rivers—are shared by two or more countries. A dam built upstream, on one side of the border, will affect the flow of water on the other side. Whose needs are more important? Is generating electricity the priority? What about pollution?

“Everywhere you find real tension,” he says, “you’ll also find shared rivers.”

Related OSU links:

OSU’s Water Resources Graduate Program

Aaron Wolf in the department of Geosciences

You Know You’re Putting in an Honest Day’s Work When Your Research Project Shows Up in Popular Mechanics

Ed Brook has missed more than his fair share of faculty meetings on campus, but he’s off the hook. That’s because he and his team have been off in Greenland, working chain saws and pickaxes to free huge chunks of ice containing gases they study to understand climate change. In this article from Popular Mechanics, Brook, who was 39 at the project’s outset and 45 at its conclusion, says “We should’ve got in shape, I don’t think I could do this again.”

Ed! That’s what grad students are for!

In the photo: Ed Brook and Logan Mitchell, from the OSU Mentors program.

Reminder: F.A. Gilfillan Memorial Award Lecture tonight (Monday, May 4)

Date: May 4, 2009

Austin Auditorium, LaSells Stewart Conference Center

Welcome: 7:15-7:30 p.m.

Introducing Dr. Peter Clark
Dr. Sherman H. Bloomer, Dean, College of Science

Lecture, Q&A: 7:30-8:30 p.m.

About Dr. Peter Clark:

Dr. Peter Clark earned a BS from St. Lawrence University, an MS from the University of Waterloo, and, in 1984, a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. He worked as an assistant professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago before coming to OSU in 1988. Dr. Clark has pursued wide ranging studies with students and collaborators, including controls on global sea level change, the history of northern hemisphere ice sheets, the role of ice sheets in global climate change, and mechanics of large scale glacial movement and sediment deposition. Deciphering mechanisms of abrupt climate change is a major focus of his work – integrating theoretical studies, field observations, and lab work. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, has edited three influential books, and has been continuously funded by the NSF since 1987.

Dr. Clark’s work has been recognized with the 2007 Easterbrook Award from the Geological Society of America and the 1997 Gladys Cole Memorial Research Award, also from the GSA. He has played a major leadership role in his discipline, work that includes organizing a Chapman Conference and international conferences on ice sheets, an invitation to be a keynote speaker to the Geological Society of London, service as an editor and on editorial boards of four major geological journals, and significant roles in the leadership of the GSA, and most recently as a lead author for the US Climate Change Science Program on Abrupt Climate Change.

Dr. Clark has been a consistent and committed contributor to education in his department. A baccalaureate core course he developed on Global Change and Earth Science remains a popular part of the Synthesis requirement; he has contributed to numerous required majors courses in geology and a diversity of graduate courses in stratigraphy, glacial geology, and geochronology. His Ph.D. students have gone on to post-doctoral positions at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Columbia University, University of British Columbia, and Oxford University, and faculty appointments at the University of New Hampshire, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the University of Quebec at Montreal, and the University of St. Andrews.  He has also been serving as program director for geology for some time, and is one of the directors of the PALEOVAR initiative, a multi-year, multi-institution program in climate change studies funded by the National Science Foundation.

About the F.A. Gilfillan Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Science:

A true Renaissance man, Francois A. “Doc” Gilfillan inspired colleagues and students alike. He served the College of Science as dean from 1938 to 1962, and OSU as acting president from 1941 to 1942. Doc Gilfillan dedicated his professional life to scholarship and science at OSU as a faculty member in pharmaceutical chemistry.

During his administration as dean, the College gained stature because of his work to establish many new programs in research and education. He was fluent in German, Russian, French, and Italian; studied Latin, Greek, and Japanese; and knew ancient Sumerian and a few NW Indian dialects. His love of learning led him to explore new knowledge all his life.

In his memory, his family established the F.A. Gilfillan Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Science. The purpose of the award is to recognize distinguished scholarship in science by honoring a faculty member in the College whose scholarship and scientific accomplishments extend over a substantial period of time at OSU and are widely recognized by peers. The winner of the award receives a plaque presented at the annual College of Science Faculty and Staff Awards Day, a stipend, and an opportunity to present their research in a public lecture.

Committed to a Fault

In the arid environment east of Bend, erosion is slow. Topography reveals the presence of fault lines where they are not obscured by ancient lava flows. (Photo: Anita Grunder)

Some of us need a direct, physical connection with a subject to look at it through the lens of science. For Ajeet Johnson, an OSU master’s student in Geosciences from Bend, that connection came from rock climbing at Smith Rock and skiing at Mt. Bachelor. Now she locates fault lines and seeks answers to questions about Earth movements in Central Oregon’s High Lava Plains. She is looking for clues to explain a landscape shaped by volcanoes and colliding tectonic plates, and she wants to know what those clues might mean for our future. See “Committed to a Fault” in the latest issue of Terra.

Nick Houtman

OSU Professor Peter Clark co-authors study of Antarctic ice melt

Here’s a story from the Calgary Herald about a study of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the effects its collapse could have on the earth’s rotation:

The enormous ice sheet, which many experts believe could collapse as the climate warms, is so heavy that as it melts it “will actually cause the Earth’s rotation axis to shift rather dramatically,” reports a team led by geophysicist Jerry Mitrovica, at the University of Toronto. The scientists say the North and South poles would move about half a kilometre if the entire ice sheet collapses and shifts more water north.

…

He and his colleagues stress that the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, while a big concern, is not imminent and may not occur for centuries. “But these findings do suggest that if you are planning for sea level rise, you had better plan a little higher,” says co-author Peter Clark at Oregon State University.