Programs:

• Basin Research
• Earth Surface Processes
• Hydrogeology
• Ice and Climate
• Physical Sedimentology
• Structure, Tectonics, Geodynamics

Basin Research[website]

The 'Basin Research Group' is the title Peter B. Flemings has appropriated for his research group here at Penn State. We note that there are many different investigators (see Sedimentary Geology at Penn State and Geodynamics) working on aspects of basin research at Penn State and we are just a part of that effort. Our group is multi-disciplinary and studies stratigraphy, subsurface fluid flow (through both modeling and 4-D seismic analyses), sediment transport and stratigraphic modeling. A strong component of our effort is the use of seismic (2 and 3-D) and well data to constrain our work.

Earth Surface Processes [website]

The Earth Surface Processes group at Penn State studies the nature of physical, chemical, and biologic processes that operate at and on the surface and seeks to understand the dynamic ways in which these processes interact. Our investigations span a wide range of temporal and spatial scales and typically integrate multiple disciplines. Selected examples of ongoing investigations include: 1) physical, chemical and biologic controls on chemical weathering, 2) climatic and sedimentologic controls on annual fluvial incision rates in Taiwan, and 3) internal dynamics of ice sheets and their relationship to global climate, and 4) the evolution of topography in the Indo-Asian collision zone.

Recognizing that, to a large degree, the geologic evolution of the earth system can be viewed as a manifestation of the complex interactions operating at the interface between the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere, most of our faculty have strong ties to other research groups in the department, including Global Change and Earth History, Hydrogeosciences, Ice and Climate, Sedimentary Geology, Solid Earth and Applied Geophysics, and Tectonics and Geodynamics

Hydrogeology [website]

The hydrogeology/environmental geology program dates from 1961 and enjoys a national reputation. It is undergoing a rejuvenation with the addition of two new faculty members in the coming year. Its graduates are among the nation's most outstanding hydroscientists, academics and consultants. Students may either select class work available in a number of departments to obtain breadth or elect to focus their studies to gain competence along narrower fields of study. Thesis and dissertation topics may emphasize field, laboratory or theoretical developments. Opportunities exist to develop hydroscience interests in a wide range of topics including fluid flow and solute transport processes, GIS, aqueous geochemistry, organic geochemistry, environmental geophysics, environmental geology, mining and energy, radioactive waste isolation, forest hydrology, soil physics and chemistry, and environmental engineering while maintaining strength in other more traditional aspects of hydrogeology, geology, geochemistry and geophysics. Demian Saffer will join the faculty in January 2005. His interests include the role of pore fluids within tectonically active ocean margins, along active faults and the study of methane and water production within High Plains coal deposits. Kamini Singha will join the department in fall 2005. Her research focuses on the integration of near-surface geophysical data with more standard hydrologic testing to help characterize local-scale hydrogeologic processes and calibrate hydrologic models.

Ice and Climate [website]

Ice and Climate Research addresses the effects of ice on sea level, the history of climate in ice cores, and interactions of ice with its surroundings.  Even small changes in glaciers and ice sheets can reatly affect sea level, so Penn State ice researchers are active in studies especially focused on changes in the West Antarctic ice sheet.  Ice cores contain incomparable histories of past climates including startling revelations about abrupt climate changes, and Penn Staters use the physical properties of the ice to interpret past climates and ice-flow processes. Glacially sculpted landscapes record the power of ice to modify the landscape and perturb iogeochemical cycles, another focus of Penn State research. 

Recent student projects have included geophysical surveys of ice-stream initiation in West Antarctica, measuring ice motion in Alaska, characterizing ice cores at the National Ice Core Laboratory in Denver and at remote Antarctic sites, and modeling of the future of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.  Faculty members Sridhar Anandakrishnan and Richard Alley are especially active in the Ice and Climate Group, together with esearchers Don Voigt, David Pollard, and Audrey Huerta.  Ties to many other disciplines broaden the field greatly.