Ed Grew is Pardee Symposium Speaker at Geological Society of America Meeting

UMaine Alert

Posted: April 19, 2024 - 1:32 PM

At approximately 9:24 a.m. on Friday, April 19, a University of Maine graduate student was struck by a university vehicle on Long Road at the University of Maine campus in Orono. The student reports that they are at a local hospital with minor injuries.

Emergency services, including the Orono Fire Department, University Volunteer Ambulance Corps, University of Maine Police Department, Orono Police Department and Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.

The university vehicle involved in the incident was a Chevrolet Express van. It was being operated by a university employee.

Counseling services and support are available for students, faculty or staff who may have been affected. The Counseling Center can be reached at 207-581-1392 and the Dean of Students Office can be reached at 207-581-1406.

The scene has been cleared and Long Road is now accessible. An investigation is being conducted by the University of Maine Police Department with assistance from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office Crash Reconstruction Unit. Any witnesses to the incident are encouraged to contact Lt. Noel Santiago at noel.santiago@maine.edu.

November 10, 2010 News

Research Professor Ed Grew gave an invited Pardee talk “Evolution of the Minerals of Beryllium, and Comparison with Boron Mineral Evolution” at the GSA meeting in Denver on November 1, 2010. Robert Hazen of the Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science, organized the Pardee Keynote Symposium, “Mineral Evolution: The Coevolution of the Geo-and Biospheres.” In 2008, Hazen had invited Ed to collaborate on research in the emerging topic of mineral evolution. Pardee Symposia are interdisciplinary sessions addressing broad, fundamental issues in geosciences, and the session on mineral evolution drew a large audience. Ed’s talk, co-authored with Hazen, concerned the evolution of the 107 known mineral species of beryllium. The oldest beryllium mineral yet reported in the scientific literature is emerald from the 3 billion year old Gravelotte deposit in South Africa. The photograph shows beryl crystals from an Early Cambrian pegmatite that Ed collected on one of his expeditions to Antarctica. Ed discussed how episodic increases in species diversity in boron and beryllium minerals appear to correspond with certain models of supercontinent distribution in the Precambrian. Ed also discussed obstacles in the study of mineral evolution. The geologic record is very incomplete, as there are major gaps due to erosion, metamorphism and subduction. There are 262 known minerals of boron, but boron deposits with high species diversity such as evaporites (for example, the borate ulexite) are rarely preserved in Precambrian rocks, and determining boron mineral evolution is thus much more difficult.