Paleontologists are getting a glimpse at life over a billion years in the past based on chemical traces in ancient rocks and the genetics of living animals. Research published Dec. 1 in Nature Communications combines geology and genetics, showing how changes in the early Earth prompted a shift in how animals eat.
Shellfish, along with other marine organisms, are facing a crisis, one that affects the
integrity of their shells. As carbon dioxide emissions increase in the atmosphere, so too
does the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by our oceans, leading to ocean
acidification. Graduate student Meghan Zulian has devoted her doctoral studies to
understanding how ocean acidification, and more broadly climate change, affects
culturally, economically and ecologically important shellfish, including abalone
As dean of the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis, the largest college on campus that more than 14,000 undergraduate students call home, Estella Atekwana envisions the college as a bridge that helps students make their dreams a reality while being a powerhouse for interdisciplinary research.
A fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Geological Society of America, geochemist Kari Cooper, a professor of earth and planetary sciences in the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis, won the American Geophysical Union’s Norman L. Bowen Award, which honors a mid-career or senior scientist for outstanding contributions to the fields of petrology, volcanology and geochemistry.
Over the course of her career, Distinguished Professor Isabel Montañez has created a
research niche in the fields of geochemistry and paleoclimatology: applying an Earth
systems science approach to recreate Earth from eons past. For her monumental work
in the geology field, Montañez recently received the Geological Society of America’s
Arthur L. Day Medal.
Caden Williams is among 413 college students nationwide selected from a pool of more than 5,000 applicants to receive the prestigious STEM scholarship, which was established by Congress in 1986 to honor the late U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater. The award provides up to $7,500 for college expenses. This is the sixth consecutive year that a UC Davis student has been named a Goldwater Scholar.
For roughly five years, Alba Rodríguez Padilla, a doctoral student in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, has studied the physics and geology underlying earthquakes. Her research will help inform policymakers and engineers responsible for creating earthquake insurance policies and building new infrastructure.
In 2006, the Cassini spacecraft recorded geyser curtains shooting forth from “tiger stripe” fissures near the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus — sometimes as much as 200 kilograms of water per second. A new study suggests how expanding ice during millennia-long cooling cycles could sometimes crack the moon’s icy shell and let its inner ocean out, providing a possible explanation for the geysers.
Sarah Stewart, professor of earth and planetary sciences at UC Davis, will discuss planetary collisions and the discovery of a new type of astronomical object at a public lecture supported by the Winston Ko Professorship in Science Leadership. Stewart’s presentation will be “A New Creation Story for the Earth and Moon.”
In July 2019, a series of earthquakes — including two major shocks of magnitude 6.4 and 7.1 — struck near Ridgecrest, California, between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. For local residents, it was a violent interruption to the Fourth of July holiday. For seismologists, it was a rare opportunity to study how earthquakes damage the Earth’s crust.
