Image of olivine through a polarizing mcroscope.
Thermal infrared image showing upwelling plumes along the California coast
Geosciences News
Lisa White Wins 2008 GSA Bromery Award for the Minorities (11/1/08)
The Bromery Award recognizes the outstanding education and service contributions and commitment to the advancement of minorities that characterized Bill Bromery’s career. No person is more appropriate to receive the first Bromery Award than Dr. Lisa White, who has demonstrated the same commitment and drive to help minorities achieve success while maintaining a strong record of research and service to the geologic community.
Mary Leech Awarded $783,210 NSF Grant (8/27/08)
Mary Leech, along with Co-PIs: A. Ichimura, B. Manning, W. Denetclaw, K.-S. Teh, has received a major research instrumentation grant from the NSF totalling $783,210. The grant will be used to purchase a field emission scanning electron microscope equipped with accessories that will perform energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy and cathodoluminescence. Mary and her co-PIs anticipate the SEM will be installed and ready for use in mid-2009, greatly expanding faculty and student research opportunities in Geosciences, Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Engineering. SEM data have different applications within the geosciences and reflect the diversity of research in the Department of Geosciences including study of mineral growth textures; compositional variations in minerals and identification of inclusions to estimate pressures and temperatures of growth or reaction; zircon growth zoning for U-Pb dating on an ion microprobe (SHRIMP); imaging mineral, rock, and fossil surfaces to study porosity, cementation, weathering processes, and identification.
Petra Dekens Awarded NSF Grant (7/25/08)
Petra Dekens has been awarded an NSF grant for $230,808. She'll be reconstructing a 5 million year record of sea surface temperatures and subsurface conditions in a site in the south Atlantic subtropical gyre. The work will address questions about the link between the subtropical gyres and the tropical oceans through the ventilated thermocline, and the role that changes in that link played in the transition from globally warm condition of the Pliocene to the much colder Pleistocene.
John Monteverdi's Field Tornado Research 2008 (5/15/08)
John Monteverdi posts a Blog of his field research each year. His research has led to over ten publications in the referreed literature, including several with his students. Here's a link to his blog/diary from the trip in May and June of 2008.
Karen Grove Leads Student Expedition to Andean Cordillera (1/10/08)
In 2006 Karen spent 6 months living in Chile as a Fulbright Scholar. She worked in the geology department at the Universidad de Chile in Santiago and was also able to travel throughout the country. For geologists, it's an amazing place and she wanted to share it with students from San Francisco State. Karen was "jjazzed" that 18 SFSUers decided to accompany her to South America to explore the Andes. Here's the website that documents this successful student expedition into the Andean Cordillera.
