Seminar Schedule for 2024-25
November 18, 2024 – Dr. Ethan Baxter, Boston College
3:00pm in Wachenheim Room B11 (Bronfman Auditorium)
‘The Story of Garnet: Tectonics, Water, and Time”
Garnet is a common mineral in many metamorphic rocks that dazzles with its colors and often euhedral crystals. It also grows over a wide range of conditions, recording processes of the deep earth spanning millions of years. We will explore how garnet can be used as a history book of those tectonic, petrologic, and geochemical processes, many of which involve the role of water in the earth system. Garnet is just one example of how “Every Rock Has a Story”, referring to Ethan Baxter’s YouTube Channel to inspire kids of all ages about the geosciences.
Previous Events this Year
September 19, 2024 – Professor Matt Carter, Williams College
12:00pm in Wachenheim Room 102
“Strategies for Designing and Delivering a Scientific Presentation”
A hands-on workshop for GEOS thesis students or anyone that will be presenting at conference(s). A copy of Prof. Carter’s book “Designing Science Presentations: A Visual Guide to Figures, Papers, Slides, Posters, and More” is available in the GEOS student lounge.
September 27, 2024 – Thesis Previews with our Class of 2025 thesis students: Josh Bruns, Liv Chambers, Claire Eilers, Li-Norah Flynn, Javier Jenkins-Sorensen, Emma Neuhauser, Noah Phipps, Ari Quasney and Sam Sidders
1:00pm in Wachenheim Room B11 (Bronfman Auditorium)
October 17, 2024 – Dr. Christopher Halsted, Williams College
3:00pm in Wachenheim Room B11 (Bronfman Auditorium)
“Unraveling the glacial history of New England with cosmogenic nuclides”
The distinct and varied landscape of New England is due in large part to repeated episodes of glacial inundation during past cold periods. Constraining the timing and dynamics of these glacial episodes has long been a focus of regional surficial geologists and ice sheet modelers, who view the melt histories of paleo-ice sheets as valuable analogues for modern ice sheet stability. In this talk I present two recent advances in our understanding of New England glacial history, both using the geochemical system of cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating. By comparing cosmogenic exposure ages to other geochronometers such as radiocarbon ages and glacial varve chronologies, we infer that both exposure and radiocarbon ages are likely biased near the maximum glacial limit in the region, thus limiting our ability to confidently constrain the timing of initial glacial retreat after the Last Glacial Maximum. However, farther inland there is good agreement between dating methods and a clear pattern of ice retreat is determined. In these more inland areas, we take advantage of mountains to take exposure ages along vertical profiles, tracking the lowering ice surface as the last great ice sheet in the region thinned. We determine that a period of warming around 14.5 thousand years ago was associated with a widespread period of rapid ice thinning in New England, suggesting that this former ice sheet margin was highly sensitive to warming. These results provide valuable insight into the regional history of glaciation and provide empirical constraints on ice sheet behavior in warming climates.
November 5, 2024 – Dr. Jeremy Shakun, Boston College
3:00pm in Wachenheim Room B11 (Bronfman Auditorium)
“Recent tropical Andean glacier retreat is unprecedented in the Holocene”
Tropical glaciers, which are particularly vulnerable to climate warming, have retreated rapidly over recent decades, but how large they are now compared with during the rest of the Holocene is unclear. We measured extremely low concentrations of cosmogenic nuclides in recently exposed bedrock at four glaciers in the tropical Andes, indicating that these locations have been covered by ice throughout the Holocene. Our results imply that these glaciers, at least, are smaller now than they have been in at least 11,700 years. These findings are a dramatic reminder of just how perilous the state of tropical glaciers is in our warming world.
November 11, 2024 – Lauren Interess Adventure Fellowship presentations by Samantha Sidders ’25, who travelled to Italy, and Javier Jenkins-Sorensen ’25, who travelled to Patagonia.
11:00am in Wachenheim 015
Sam explored the relationship between humans and volcanoes in Southern Italy from ancient times to the present. She traveled to Naples, explored the archaeological sites at Pompeii and Herculaneum, and then spent most of her time on Sicily, where she hiked Mt. Etna, explored Catania, Syracuse, and Taormina, and visited a winery on the slopes of the volcano.
Javi: Travels in Southern Patagonia: The monumental and the vast. Javi traveled thorough Parque Nacional Los Glaciares in Argentina for 5 days before crossing the Andes to return to Chile where he spent 4 days exploring Puerto Natales and Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. Traveling solo, he spent a lot of time learning to enjoy his own company, as well as getting to know fellow travelers.
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