MENU
When the ground rumbles in Antarctica, it may be an icequake — like an earthquake but caused by the movement of ice, not rock. A new study by Penn State researchers found that these seismic events are driven by ocean tides at a major ice stream in West Antarctica.
Anyone who has taken a long road trip or bike ride has used a product of the spurge plant family — rubber. The spurge family, or Euphorbiaceae, includes economically valuable plants like the rubber tree, castor oil plant, poinsettia and cassava. Newly identified fossils found in Argentina suggest that a group of spurges took a trip of their own tens of millions of years ago. Driven by climatic changes and land movements over millennia, a group of spurges relocated thousands of miles from ancient South America to Australia, Asia and parts of Africa, according to research led by Penn State.
University students in science and engineering are increasingly aware of the importance of data visualization and communication skills. For one thing, they understand they live in a data-driven world, so regardless of their future career choices, data skills are key. What’s more, they also know our world is increasingly fast-paced, so transferable skills like communication, data analysis, storytelling, and design would be valuable even if they transition in their studies or careers later on.
Sierra Melton, a doctoral student in the Penn State Department of Geosciences, was selected as one of 110 doctoral students in the United States and Canada to receive the prestigious $20,000 P.E.O. Scholar Award. The P.E.O. Scholar Awards program, established in 1991, provides substantial merit-based awards for U.S. and Canadian women who are pursuing a doctoral-level degree at an accredited college or university.
Set on pursuing a career in the music industry from a young age, Carl Fredrick Aquino never could have predicted that his career would lead him to follow the path to become a climate scientist at Penn State. But after six years of writing music for film, television and video games in Los Angeles, he decided to return to school, setting out on a mission to save the planet.
Fractures in Earth’s subsurface play an important role in our energy systems – from providing pathways to extract fossil fuel from rock deep underground to supporting emerging green technologies like carbon storage and enhanced geothermal heat – but predicting the properties of these fractures remains challenging. A new method developed by a Penn State-led team of scientists may paint a clearer picture of fractures as they open and close in real time.
Why did the Vikings disappear from Greenland 400 years after settling there? New research led by Harvard University and Penn State using geologic and climate records found that sea-level rise likely contributed to the Viking’s disappearance from the island in the 15th century.
Enrolling in Geoscience 435 in fall 2021, fourth-year Penn State student Alysha Ulrich did not expect to end the course with a literature review on-track to be published in a peer-reviewed academic journal.
In 2002, an area of ice about the size of Rhode Island dramatically broke away from Antarctica as the Larsen B ice shelf collapsed. A new study of the conditions that led to the collapse may reveal warning signs to watch for future Antarctic ice shelf retreat, according to a Penn State-led team of scientists.
Kimberly Lau, assistant professor in Penn State’s Department of Geosciences and an associate in the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, was recently selected to receive a 2023 Sloan Research Fellowship. Awarded since 1955 to the brightest young scientists across the United States and Canada, the two-year Sloan Fellowships are one of the most competitive and prestigious awards available to early-career researchers.