A new archive dating back to Spring 2010 and containing over 250 recorded science talks is available now on our website. The archive also includes over 50 UTIG Discussion Hour (formerly UTIG Brown Bag) talks..

This Hornraiser seeks to lift the burden from JSG students facing unexpected hardships as they push forward in their studies.
 

UTIG researcher Cornelia Rasmussen led the analysis of a rock core from the Petrified National Forest. The study pieced together a continuous, unbroken stretch of Earth’s history from 225 million to 209 million years ago, helping scientists investigate abrupt environmental changes from the peak of the Late Triassic and how these changes affected plants and animals.

WE ADAPT TO WORKING FROM HOME
UTIG climate scientist Jud Partin describes his experience
transitioning his research online and offers insight into the realities of working from home.

GLOBAL WARMING MAY REAWAKEN ANCIENT CLIMATE PATTERN
Research reveals that a seesaw climate pattern similar to El Niño could emerge in the Indian Ocean as early as 2050, which could cause floods, storms and drought to be more extreme and become more frequent.

UTIG IN THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Rob Porritt, a UTIG research science and engineering associate, weighs in on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted seismologists, particularly how social distancing and reduced traffic have made it easier to detect low-level seismic activity.

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UTIG STAFF AND STUDENT AWARDS 2020
Every year UTIG recognizes the work of our hard-working staff and students. This year we had to move the awards ceremony online. Now, more than ever, it is important to thank our students and staff for their outstanding contributions.

View all the awards

NEW UTIG GRAD STUDENT IS A FULBRIGHT VISITING SCHOLAR
Edward Clennett has been awarded the Fulbright Scholarship to research plate tectonics and geodynamics in the U.S. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Oxford, where his master's project used seismic tomography models and geological evidence to constrain the plate tectonic history of western North America since 170 million years ago.

THREE UTIG STAFF MEMBERS RECEIVE AGU’S EDITOR'S CITATION FOR EXCELLENCE IN REFEREEING
Each year, AGU recognizes a number of outstanding reviewers for their work, as selected by the editors of each journal. Yuko Okumura, Rob Porritt, and Laura Wallace received AGU's 2019 Editor’s Citation for Excellence in Refereeing. Yuko and Rob were selected for their contributions to Geophysical Research Letters and Laura was selected for her contributions to JGR: Solid Earth.

UTIG GRAD STUDENT RECEIVES AGU’S OUTSTANDING STUDENT PRESENTATION AWARD
Xian Wu received the Outstanding Student Presentation Award for a talk she gave at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in December 2019. The prestigious award is granted each year to only the top 5% of student participants. In her talk, Wu demonstrated a way of predicting the duration of El Niño events.

GRANT FUNDED BY UTIG SUPPORTS TRAVEL TO AGU FOR FUTURE GEOSCIENTISTS
The Austin Student Travel Grant is designed to help students recoup the costs associated with travelling to the annual meeting of American Geophysical Union (AGU), the largest gathering of Earth and space scientists in the world. In December 2019, Kitrea Pacifica Takata-Glushkoff used the grant to present her work at AGU’s Fall Meeting.

TWO BOOKS NOMINATED FOR THE ROBERT W. HAMILTON BOOK AWARDS
Two books authored by UTIG staff members were among the 45 nominations for the 2020 Robert W. Hamilton Book Awards. Authors of all nominated books will be honored at a virtual award ceremony hosted by the University Co-operative Society.

The University Co-op Hamilton Book Awards
Wednesday, October 14th
4:30 pm to 6:00 pm

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MARCY DAVIS
Roadside Geology of Tennessee

PETER FLEMINGS, STEVEN PHILLIPS, CARLA THOMAS, YI FANG, MANASIJ SANTRA, & THE UT GOM2 METHANE HYDRATES GROUP
AAPG Bulletin, Special Issue: Gas Hydrates in Green Canyon Block 955, deep-water Gulf of Mexico: Part I
AAPG Bulletin, Special Issue. September 15, 2020

KYUNGJAE IM, DEMIAN SAFFER, CHRIS MARONE & JEAN-PHILIPPE AVOUAC
Slip-rate-dependent friction as a universal mechanism for slow slip events
Nature Geoscience. September 7, 2020
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0627-9

BENJAMIN STEPHENS & CHARLES JACKSON
Abrupt transitions in an atmospheric single-column model with weak temperature gradient approximation
Weather and Climate Dynamics. August 14, 2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-1-389-2020

KRISTA SODERLUND, KLÁRA KALOUSOVÁ, JACOB BUFFO, CHRISTOPHER GLEIN, JASON GOODMAN, GIUSEPPE MITRI, G. WESLEY PATTERSON, FRANK POSTBERG ET AL.
Ice-Ocean Exchange Processes in the Jovian and Saturnian Satellites
Space Science Reviews. June 29, 2020
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-020-00706-6

ALLISON LAWMAN, JUDSON PARTIN, SYLVIA DEE, CHRISTIAN CASADIO, PEDRO DI NEZIO, & TERRENCE QUINN
Developing a Coral Proxy System Model to Compare Coral and Climate Model Estimates of Changes in Paleo‐ENSO Variability
Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. June 16, 2020
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019PA003836

KIRK SCANLAN, ANJA RUTISHAUSER, DUNCAN YOUNG, & DONALD BLANKENSHIP
Interferometric discrimination of cross-track bed clutter in ice-penetrating radar sounding data
Annals Of Glaciology. June 10, 2020
https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2020.20

CHRISTOPHER LOWERY, PAUL BOWN, ANDY FRAASS, & PINCELLI HULL
Ecological Response of Plankton to Environmental Change – Thresholds for Extinction
Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Science. May 20, 2020
https://doi.org/10.31233/osf.io/mtner

KELLY OLSEN, NATHAN BANGS, ANNE TRÉHU, SHUOSHUO HAN, ADRIEN ARNULF, & EDUARDO CONTRERAS-REYES
Thick, strong sediment subduction along south-central Chile and its role in great earthquakes
Earth and Planetary Science Letters. May 15, 2020
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116195

DOUGLAS FOSTER, ZEYU ZHAO, DHANANJAY KUMAR, DANICA DRALUS, & MRINAL SEN
Frequency dependent amplitude versus offset analysis
The Leading Edge. February 1, 2020
https://doi.org/10.1190/tle39020084.1