Jan. 22

Venkat Lakshmi

University of Virginia

Progresses and Challenges in Hydrology

Abstract: In order to study land surface hydrology, we need to use a multitude of tools, namely, modeling, observations and their synergism. After multiple decades of hydrological modeling, we still have major challenges. However, we have novel observations and mathematical methods that are now available and can be harnessed to achieve progress. These include earth observations that are available at global scales and at high spatial resolutions and frequent temporal repeat. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) can be used (specifically Transfer Learning) to determine streamflow in un-gaged or poorly-gaged watersheds.

In this talk, I will focus on four major questions and provide examples for each of the questions. These examples will highlight both advances and limitations for each issue.

(i) Do earth observations compare well with in-situ counterparts?

(ii) How important is rainfall in hydrological modeling?

(iii) Can we get higher spatial resolution of earth observations?

(iv) How do we study un-gaged/poorly gaged watersheds?

Feb. 12

Jake Jordan

Mati Carbon

Enhanced Rock Weathering for Improved Smallholder Farmer Welfare: An At-Scale Case Study for Rice Agriculture in India

Feb. 19

Daniel Minisini

Exxon

The Consequences of Low Sediment Accumulation Rates in Marine Environments

Feb. 26

Eileen Martin

Colorado School of Mines

Is Seismology Actually Useful for Climate and Hazards Monitoring?

Abstract: The past two decades have seen major advances in seismic sensors, with growing application to observe fine-scale changes in the near surface, often forced by climate change or geohazards. This includes technologies such as portable nodes, low-weight accelerometers, and fiber-optic distributed acoustic sensing. With these sensors, we’ve observed new signals, imaged small features in the subsurface, and gotten our first up-close look at more processes. Modern seismic sensors can be the subsurface counterpart to remote sensing observations, which sounds ideal, but most folks in the geohazards and climate communities aren’t racing to adopt seismology into their toolkit. In this talk, we’ll look at the practical challenges keeping seismology from being more useful, and several of our recent advances that are helping us overcome these issues. We’ll explore these challenges in the context of alpine glacier observations, seismic hazards mapping, and a multi-year permafrost monitoring study. This talk will touch on sensor deployment in the field, large-scale data management, making our data analyses faster, and the challenges of automated interpretation of results in these new contexts. 

March 5

Mattia Pistone

University of Georgia

Exploring Gas Accumulation in Magmas: Bridging the Gap Between Field and Laboratory Measurements

Abstract: Gas accumulation in magmas prior to eruptions represents a key process that controls the explosivity of volcanoes. The efficiency of accumulating gas in a magma is modulated by chemical and physical parameters such as magma ascent rate, modal proportions of melt, minerals, and exsolved fluids in the magma, and geochemistry of mafic to felsic magmas and associated fluids. Currently, we deal with an interesting conundrum of data acquisition. In the field, we largely monitor and study mafic volcanoes because they degas and erupt more frequently than their felsic counterparts. Vice versa, in the lab, we often study pre-eruptive gas accumulation in felsic magmas that are commonly associated to the most hazardous volcanism. In this case, lab experiments are often conducted using felsic materials because they are thick/viscous (all the phases including gas bubbles are efficiently trapped), undercooled (“slow and lazy” in crystallising), and geochemically evolved (their composition does not change much during the experiment). In this seminar, I want to explore this dichotomy of lessons that we gain from natural volcanoes and laboratory. Based on my research in the lab and in the field, I will showcase my attempt in filling the existing gap in knowledge between mafic and felsic systems by exploring: 1) how gas bubbles influence magma transport, and 2) how gas geochemistry modulates the level of isolated porosity in magmas.

March 12

Sarah Katz

Yale University

Andean Climate and Hydrology over the Last 650,000 Years: Insights from Lake Junín, Peru

Abstract: In this talk, I will discuss the hydroclimate history of the central Peruvian Andes over the last 650,000 years. Specifically, I will show how carbonate clumped and triple oxygen isotope measurements from Lake Junín (11°S) sediment cores can be used to reconstruct ancient monsoon dynamics, local water balance and temperatures, and sediment transport in the basin. First, I will present evidence linking South American Monsoon intensity to Earth’s orbital configuration during two recent interglacial periods. Further, I will show that these forcings directly impact local water balance, linking tropical hydroclimate to global climate forcings. Second, we will examine the glacial intervals of the core when carbonate isotope stratigraphy is compromised by detrital carbonates; I will present a framework for using clumped isotopes to extract meaningful paleoclimate information from the Junín cores and other carbonate archives.

April 16

Rachel Glade

University of Rochester

April 23

Yanlan Liu

Ohio State University