RESEARCH

Programs

The Center for Geohazards [.doc] is the Department of Geology's Signature Program under which the following programs are classified. Each of these major groups houses a variety of different geologic disciplines, giving our students unique opportunities for multidisciplinary research:

Environmental Geosciences: Recent research includes: studies which seek to understand ground-water flow and contaminant transport at multiple scales; environmental site characterization; environmental risk assessment; fate and transport of toxic metals; trace metal chemistry of hydrocarbon source rocks; shallow and deep subsurface characterization (such as monitoring environmental remediation processes and oil/gas exploration) using geophysical techniques; phase changes in biologic calcium phosphate minerals; and phyllosilicate research including the role of clays in oil and gas exploration and production. Learn more.

Volcanology: Recent research includes: Landform change related to wildfires; coupling between faulting and volcanism; understanding dangerous volcanic phenomena, such as deadly clouds of ash and gas; avalanches and mud flows for hazard mitigation; understanding volcanic hazards using remotely sensed data and presenting the results in a mode that will be most useful for several types of end users; investigations of volcanic eruptions on the ocean floor; study of basaltic lava flows; and, the study of volcanoes on Mars, Venus and Io. Learn more.

Climate Change: Recent research includes: monitoring Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet mass balance and investigating ice dynamics by using remote sensing and photogrammetry; studying subglacial topography and geology by remote sensing and airborne geophysics; Participating in NASA’s ICESat and planned ICESat-II cryospheric satellite altimetry missions; Mapping lineaments from remote sensing for CO2 sequestration; monitoring permafrost and soils in Alaska; reconstructing Greenland ice stream changes using cosmogenic exposure dating and lake sediment coring; reconstructing Arctic climate change using lake sediments on Greenland and Baffin Island; Chironomid- and Varve-based temperature reconstructions; dating Holocene glacier changes in Alaska and Baffin Island; dating glacier change and jokulhlaup occurrence in the Colorado Rockies. Learn more.

Integrated Tectonics and Stratigraphy (iTAS): Recent research includes: Fault recognition and tectonic history based on a wide array of data sets; fault effects on sedimentology, stratigraphy, seismic hazards, and fluid migration (such as water, contaminants, and hydrocarbons); testing and refining the Ordovician sequence stratigraphic boundaries along the eastern Laurentian margin; interpreting the structure, sedimentology, sequence stratigraphy and biological evolution within the Taconic Foredeep Basin; evolution and biostratigraphy of various graptolite, trilobite and brachiopod groups. Learn more.

Evolution and Ecology: The subject matter of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior is broad-ranging and encompasses those aspects of the life and environmental sciences that characterize how organisms interact with each other and their environment and how those interactions change over time. They are essential to the study of applied and basic topics such as studies of human origins (paleoanthropology), biodiversity over space (community ecology) and time (paleobiology), the function and evolution of body plans and life histories (evolutionary ecology), the origins of social systems (socioecology), the effects of climate change and biotic invasions on ecosystems, conservation, bioremediation, and epidemiology. Learn more.

Facilities

Major research facilities and equipment include: a volcanic simulation laboratory to model volcanic flows; an environmental geochemistry lab with facilities for analysis of solid and aqueous samples including; X-ray diffractometer (XRD), five gas chromatographs (Agilent & SRI) with mass spectrometer, electron capture, flame ionization and/or thermal ionization detectors, analyzers for solid (UIC) and aqueous (Shimadzu) total organic carbon (TOC) and total organic nitrogen (TON), a ion chromatograph (dionex) configured for major cations and anions, UV-Vis spectrophotometer, atomic force microscope (AFM) with inverted microscope and epifluorescence, and an environmental anaerobic chamber; a geophysics research lab including geometrics strataview R-60 portable engineering seismograph, pulseEKKO ground penetrating radar surface and borehole system, Ohmmapper subsurface profiling system, Trase soil moisture time domain reflectometry system, and GeoXH subfoot GPS; a cosmogenic radionuclide facility with full rock processing capabilities, mineral separation equipment, low-pressure chromatography station, hydrofluoric and perchloric acid capable fume hoods, and target packing station, lake sediment analysis facility with magnetic susceptibility meters, freeze drier, furnace, microscopes and sediment thin-section equipment and a lacustrine paleoenvironment lab; a digital mapping lab to support remote sensing, digital photogrammetry, GIS and geodesy with digital photogrammetric workstations, a Geowall multi-projector 3D visualization system, a full range field spectrometer, a real-time differential geodetic GPS system and high performance PC’s featuring various software packages, and a remote computing facility of NASA’s ICESat satellite later altimetry mission; ecological research labs including multiple microcentrifuges, thermocylers, ultracold freezers, LI-COR Gene ReadIR 4200 automatic DNA sequencer, Speed-Vac evaporator, algal culture facility, and several temperature controlled environmental chambers  In addition, our students have full access to the graduate computer laboratory with state-of-the-art software to use for course work and research projects.