U of M Geosciences

Geosciences Award Ceremony - Commencement

2013-04-26T11:13:00.001-06:00

The Geosciences Awards Ceremony will be held on Friday, May 10, at noon in CHCB 304. Join us for a celebration of student awards, grants, and scholarships received during the 2012-2013 academic year. After a short ceremony to present certificates honoring our awardees, we will celebrate with cake and punch! All faculty, staff, students, family, and friends are welcome.

If you have not yet provided me with a list of your awards, grants, etc., please do so as soon as possible.(loreene.skeel@mso.umt.edu)

The 2013 main UM Commencement Ceremony will be held in Washington-Grizzly Stadium at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 18. All candidates for degrees are to meet at the Oval at 8:45. The Geosciences Department’s ceremony will begin at 11:30 a.m. in Charles Clapp 304 NOT at 12:00 noon. The graduation picnic will follow at 12:30 on the lawn south east of the Charles Clapp Building. Hamburgers, hot dogs, beverages, plates, and utensils will be provided. Please bring a hot dish, salad, or dessert.

If you will be participating in the departmental ceremony, please complete the attached questionnaire and return it to me by May 6. You may participate in commencement even if you are graduating in the Summer or Fall of 2013. Cap and gown are optional for our ceremony.
Questionnaire HERE

loreene.skeel@mso.umt.edu

Geology Club T-shirt Printing Fundraiser

2013-04-25T14:08:00.000-06:00

On Friday 5/3 from 11:00 to 1:00 we will be having a screen printing fundraiser in the lounge/kitchen, using the image on attached flyer.You can print on bags, shirts, hoodies, anything you can think of with the exception of loose weave and fuzzy clothes. This fundraiser will go to support Geology Club field trips.

Hope to see you there.
Thank you,
Thomas, Margeaux, and Rob

Developing Your Interview Skills

2013-04-16T09:40:00.000-06:00

ConocoPhillips interview recommendations

TAEM interview with Prof. George D. Stanley, Jr. of U. of Montana « The Eerie Digest

2013-04-09T13:54:00.001-06:00

TAEM interview with Prof. George D. Stanley, Jr. of U. of Montana « The Eerie Digest

iPads in the Lab with Julie Baldwin

2013-03-14T14:18:00.000-06:00

A showcase of technology's use in geology classrooms at the University of Montana's College of Arts and Sciences.

Belt Symposium V

2013-02-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

When - July 31-August 4, 2013.
Where - Salmon, Idaho
Contact James.sears@umontana.edu

The meeting is held jointly with 38th Annual Field Conference of TRGS (Tobacco Root Geological Society) Visit TRGS website for registration details (trgs.org)

Pre-meeting field trip to Glacier Park. July 29. Meet at St Mary Visitors Center at 8 am. Field trip proceeds over Going-to-the-Sun Road to West Glacier. Participants then proceed on their own to Missoula. On July 30, we meet at East Gate parking lot in Missoula at 8 am and have 1/2 day field trip to Missoula Group in Blackfoot Canyon. Then participants proceed to Salmon, Idaho, on their own.

Participants provide own transportation, meals, and lodging.

2012 Outstanding Student Paper Award

2013-01-28T16:04:00.000-07:00

Toby Meierbachtol won the AGU Fall Meeting 2012 Outstanding Student Paper Award (OSPA) - Cryosphere section – for his poster titled:

Poster title: Subglacial Conduit Stability in the Ice Sheet Interior: Western Greenland

Description:
Surface melt water reaching the bed of the Greenland ice sheet imparts a fundamental control on ice sheet motion. It is thought that growth of efficient water-routing conduits beneath the Greenland ice sheet during the summer melt season offsets the effects of increased input from the surface. Through a combination of numerical modeling and in-situ measurements in boreholes drilled to the bed along a 30 km transect on Greenland, we conclude that conditions suitable for rapid conduit growth are limited to near the ice sheet margin. We suggest that the current conceptual model of subglacial drainage needs to be adjusted to account for processes in the ice sheet interior beneath thick ice.

Student Publication

2013-01-28T15:58:00.001-07:00

Ph.D. student Nick Silverman with faculty colleagues publishes paper modeling winter precipitation in the Rocky Mountains:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2012WR012874/abstract

Department Potluck

2013-01-28T09:05:00.000-07:00

Dear Geosciences Department,

We will be kicking off the spring semester with a department potluck Thursday, January 31, at Stensrud Events Hall located near the Northside Kettlehouse at 314 N 1st W. The event will start at 6:30 pm. The department is providing BBQ Chicken from Kind Swine, a mixed green salad, and non-alcoholic beverages. Please bring a dish to share. If you are interested in a vegetarian main dish, please email sharon.bywater-reyes@umontana.edu to discuss ideas.

thanks!

Toby and Sharon (aka Potluck Planning Committee)

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Bob Weidmam, Professor Emeritus

2013-01-03T08:57:00.003-07:00

Bob Weidmam, Professor Emeritus, passed away on Saturday, December 29th. Bob was a tremendous advisor and teacher in the UM Geology Department for nearly four decades. He is remembered for his great field teaching and dedication to undergraduate education that continued after he retired with the Robert and Eleanor Weidman Scholarship to support student summer field work. This scholarship has helped many students attain the expertise in the filed that Bob so valued in his career at UM and we are all very grateful for Bob's and Eleanor's legacy to the Geoscience program.

Read Bob's obituary in the Missoulian at this link:

http://missoulian.com/news/local/obituaries/robert-mcmaster-weidman/article_389dbdc4-54ec-11e2-8706-001a4bcf887a.html

MTPR interview with Professor Joel Harper

2012-12-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

Sally Mauk talks with researcher Joel Harper about melting ice and rising seas…

Holiday Greetings to Alumni and Friends

2012-12-03T11:24:00.002-07:00

Click Image to view Full Holiday Newsletter

John Joseph Mahoney died on Friday 23 November in Honolulu

2012-11-26T15:01:00.000-07:00

To those alumni and friends who knew John Mahoney while he was at the University of Montana in the late 1970s, we have some very sad news. I just received this note below from one of my colleagues at the University of Hawaii where John was on the faculty:

"John Joseph Mahoney died on Friday 23 November in Honolulu after a brief illness. John was a professor emeritus and research scientist in the department of Geology & Geophysics, and a lover of the natural world.
He is survived by his wife Nancy; his siblings Donna Mahoney, Marla Mahoney, and Tom Mahoney, and their families; and by his three WW II jeeps.
A web memorial for John is being put together by his colleagues, and we would greatly appreciate reminiscences and perspectives from other scientists who knew John or worked with him.
Please send contributions for the web to Kathleen Ruttenberg, kcr "at" hawaii dot edu, or Neil Frazer, neil "at" hawaii dot edu.

Mahalo."

This is extremely sad news and very unexpected. Apparently John was diagnosed with an incurable disease only four weeks ago, so his death was very sudden and quite unexpected. If you have past reminiscences please share them with the folks at the University of Hawaii. I will post more information on this news section of our website as we receive it.

Sincerely,
Johnnie

UM PROFESSOR FINDS GREENLAND ABSORBS LARGE AMOUNTS OF MELT

2012-11-07T13:12:00.000-07:00

Nov. 07, 2012

MISSOULA –

University of Montana glaciologist Joel Harper will publish research findings in an article titled “Greenland Ice Sheet Contribution to Sea Level Rise Buffered by Meltwater Storage in Firn” in the Nov. 8 issue of the journal Nature.

According to the research, a large storage sink for meltwater generated on the surface of Greenland exists in a layer of old compacted snow called firn, which is up to 100 meters thick. Because some of the melt is absorbed by the firn, not all of the melt from the huge ice sheet contributes to rising sea levels, yet.

Scientists know that sea level currently rises about 3.2 mm per year, with about half of that rise comes from melting ice around the world. Researchers estimate that 20 to 40 percent of that new water comes from Greenland.

Harper led a team of researchers from the University of Wyoming, University of Colorado-Boulder and the Universite de Liege in Belgium to study the meltwater path on the Greenland ice sheet from 2007 to 2009. Funded by a National Science Foundation grant, the team set out to determine just how much of the meltwater generated in Greenland travels to the sea and what happens to the melt that doesn’t.

“The melt generated from low elevations easily escapes to the ocean, but there’s a large area at higher elevation where the fate of the melt is highly uncertain,” Harper said. “Quantifying how melt can infiltrate and refreeze in cold snow and firn is critical to understanding sea-level changes.”

The researchers spent three months spread over three summers traversing the ice sheet on snowmobiles and skis while taking measurements. They used a radar system to track water deep in the firn, drilled more than 30 ice cores and installed sensors within the ice to track the migration of water.

They found that some of Greenland’s melt can penetrate deeply into the firn, bypassing thick lenses of ice where previous water has refrozen. Since completing the field research, the team has run computer models based on their data to investigate the problem further. Their calculations quantify how much of the firn layer already has been filled by meltwater and how much additional storage remains.

Despite the fact that Greenland absorbs some of its massive melt, the firn is filling at a rate faster than winter snowfall can create more. Harper said the firn will hold an additional 322 to 1,289 gigatons of water, where 1 gigaton is equivalent to a cubic kilometer of water. Based on measurements of the melt already absorbed, the researchers were able to determine a rough estimate of how much longer the firn will continue to take melt.

“Under a range of plausible climate scenarios, filling this firn will take on the order of decades,” Harper said. “It’s not a year or two of heavy melt that’s going to do it, but it’s also not centuries. The rate that the storage sink is filled will dictate changes to the area of the ice sheet that contributes melt to the oceans.

“You can only route water into this storage sink for so long before it fills up and meltwater from higher elevations is rerouted to the oceans.”

The research team’s findings come at a crucial time for Greenland. Satellites have monitored the amount of melt on the ice sheet daily since 1980. These measurements show that the area experiencing melt and the duration of melt each summer have increased on average. This year was the first time since monitoring began that the entire ice sheet experienced melt, though ice cores show that this has happened on a few occasions in the past.

Despite the existence of the water storage sink in the firn layer, multiple lines of independent measurements show that Greenland has lost mass and the rate of mass loss has increased.

“Since the firn can absorb some of the surface melt, this means that understanding other mechanisms for mass loss, such as iceberg calving and melt of the nonfirn-covered areas are critically important,” Harper said.

The next step is to study meltwater at the bottom of the ice sheet by drilling 1,000-meter long boreholes to take measurements beneath the ice. In August, Harper and a partner at the University of Wyoming were awarded a $1.3 million NSF grant to investigate how the melt generated at lower elevations finds its way to the base of the ice and influences the movement of the massive ice sheet.

For more information call Harper at 406-243-5867 or email joel@mso.umt.edu.

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BP

State

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American Water Resources Association

2012-10-24T14:30:00.001-06:00

Three of our graduate students won awards for best posters (first-third sweep) at the American Water Resources Association meeting recently: Sharon Bywater-Reyes, Brett Woelber, and Erika Colaiacomo. Congratulations to them all!

NATIONAL FOSSIL DAY October 17, 2012

2012-10-08T09:12:00.000-06:00

ConocoPhillips interviews

2012-09-18T15:59:00.000-06:00

ConocoPhillips will be on campus September 20 and 21 conducting interviews for full-time positions and/or internships. Access your Griz eRecruiting account to learn more. www.umt.edu/GRIZeRecruiting

Apache interviews

2012-09-16T15:56:00.000-06:00

Apache will be on campus September 17 and 18 conducting interviews for full-time positions and/or internships. Access your Griz eRecruiting account to learn more. www.umt.edu/GRIZeRecruiting

News Release, 09/12/2012, "UM RESEARCHERS RECEIVE STATE-OF-THE-ART MICROSCOPE"

2012-09-12T10:04:00.001-06:00

Sept. 12, 2012

Contact: Julia Baldwin, associate professor, UM Department of Geosciences, 406-243-5778, jbaldwin@mso.umt.edu.

UMRESEARCHERS RECEIVE STATE-OF-THE-ART MICROSCOPE

MISSOULA –

The University of Montana is the recent recipient of a VEGA-3 Variable Pressure Scanning Electron Microscope, which will be installed in a Clapp Building lab on Wednesday, Sept. 12, by an engineer of the TESCAN company.

The $425,000 microscope is funded primarily by the National Science Foundation’s Major Research Instrumentation program and will allow UM researchers to look at objects at the micron and nanometer scale. The microscope uses electrons instead of light to magnify objects tens of thousands of times, magnifying one-millionth to one-billionth of a meter.

The instrument also features several special detectors that can capture other types of images. For example, researchers can spatially map the individual chemical elements in a sample, obtain precise information about the chemical composition of materials at a particular spot, spatially map mineral distribution in a rock or look at the orientation of crystal lattices of individual minerals in geological samples. It essentially integrates surface imaging, chemistry and crystallography into a single tool.

“The tool will allow UM faculty to expand into new research, particularly with respect to environmental, energy resources and materials-based archaeology research that previously couldn’t be done on UM’s campus,” said Julia Baldwin, associate professor of geosciences and the driving force behind getting the SEM to UM.

Researchers in geosciences, anthropology, chemistry and biochemistry, physics and astronomy and the College of Forestry and Conservation will use the instrument. Applications include analyzing porosity and mineralogical composition of rocks and minerals, materials-based archaeology research on the sources of lithic materials and transport strategies, imaging mineralogical and morphology changes in fire ash and the effects on runoff and documenting the nature and compositions of metal contamination in fluvial sediments.

The instrument temporarily will be housed in UM’s Clapp Building but will move to a new state-of-the-art electron microscopy suite in UM’s Interdisciplinary Sciences Building in the coming year, along with existing campus instruments that are currently housed with the Division of Biological Sciences.

Because the UM is one of the few western universities with a scanning electron microscope that offers such a wide versatility in imaging capabilities, it will be made available for use by faculty from other universities and colleges. Other agencies such as the Fire Sciences Lab and the Montana Bureau of Mines & Geology also have expressed interest in its applications.

Free MATLAB seminar on Wednesday, October 3, 2012 in the James Todd Building (aka Continuing Education), room # 204.

2012-09-12T08:46:00.000-06:00

Here is a link to the registration page.

Geosciences Fall Potluck Sept 6, 6:00 p.m.

2012-08-30T15:30:00.001-06:00

Geosciences is hosting a fall potluck picnic on Thursday, September 6, at 6:00 p.m. at Bonner Park (1798 Ronald Avenue) for faculty, students, and staff (also significant others and children) at Bonner Park (1798 Ronald Avenue). We will provide hamburgers, hot dogs, beverages, plates, and utensils. Please bring a main dish, side, salad, or dessert to share.

We hope to see you there!

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2012 UM /Geosciences Commencement

2012-04-16T11:35:00.000-06:00

The 2012 UM Commencement Ceremony will be held in Washington-Grizzly Stadium at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, May 12. All candidates for degrees are to meet Saturday, May 12, at 8:45 a.m. at The Oval. Students should look for signs indicating where the department will begin their line of march. The Geosciences commencement ceremony will be at NOON (not 2:00 p.m.) in CHCB 304. The graduation picnic will follow at 1:00 p.m. on the lawn south east of the Charles Clapp building. Hamburgers, hot dogs, beverages, plates, and utensils will be provided. Please bring a hot dish, salad, or dessert.

Please let me know as soon as possible if you will be participating in the departmental ceremony (cap and gown are optional for our ceremony). If you do plan to attend, please complete the attached questionnaire and return it to me by May 4. There is also a sign-up sheet by the office door.

Questionnaire.pdf
Questionnaire.doc

Loreene Skeel

The University of Montana

Department of Geosciences, CHCB 311

32 Campus Drive #1296

Missoula, MT 59812

Phone 406-243-2341

FAX 406-243-4028

Presidents Update Highlights UM Paleo Center 1:43

2012-04-16T11:13:00.002-06:00

Reasons to study Geosciences...

2012-03-28T14:32:00.001-06:00

Geosciences Monday Seminar is Reinstated! (First talk will be Feb. 6)

2012-02-01T16:15:00.004-07:00

We are happy to announce the Monday seminar series at the UM Geoscience Department has been reinstated this semester, beginning February 6th at 4:10pm in room CHCB 304. Subscribe to our RSS feed, email list, or check HERE for upcoming speaker announcements. Full Schedule HERE (.pdf)