School of Earth and Climate Sciences

A Magnitude 7.4 Earthquake occurred on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 18:02:48 UTC time (2:02:48 Eastern Daylight time). The shaking was significant enough to be measured on the seismometer at the University of Maine. The quake occurred at a depth of 20 km (12.4 miles) at a depth of 20 km (12.4 miles). The epicenter […]

We send out our congratulations to Eliza Kane and Audra Norvaisa for scholarships we learned about recently! Eliza is using a $5000 Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, to support her studies in Brazil this semester. This is a nationally competitive award aimed at supporting travel abroad for Pell grant-funded students. More information is at their […]

On February 23, Maine’s Sustainability Solutions Initiative and the Department of Earth Sciences are hosting a seminar with Dr. Robert Jacobson, a supervisory research hydrologist with the United States Geological Survey (http://www.cerc.usgs.gov/Staff.aspx?StaffId=268) . The event will include two presentations by Dr. Jacobson, both of which will take place in Wells Conference Center, Room 2.  For […]

Ed joined his wife Priscilla Grew and other volunteers in presenting “Sunday with a Scientist: Rocks and Minerals” at the University of Nebraska State Museum in Lincoln on December 18. The Museum’s monthly “Sunday with a Scientist” outreach programs are designed to appeal to family audiences. Volunteers from the University and local groups present topics […]

Assistant Professor Amanda Olsen is partnering with colleagues at Penn State and St. Francis University to create a database of environmental reactions in order to more comprehensively investigate rates of weathering, carbon sequestration, and other chemical processes that occur at Earth’s surface. The work is funded by the National Science Foundation. Read more at the […]

The late Charles V. Guidotti, Professor in the U Maine Department of Earth Sciences from 1981 to his untimely death in 2005, was honored in 2010 with having a new mineral, guidottiite, named after him. Stephen Guggenheim recently sent us photograph of guidottiite taken by Ludi von Bezing. Guidottiite is the black, shiny columnar material […]

Paul Mayewski, Director of the Climate Change Institute and Professor of Earth Sciences, along with Michael Cope Morrison of Opsin Imaging, has released a beautiful new book entitled Journey Into Climate: Adventure, The Golden Age of Climate Research, and the Unmasking of Human Innocence.  They use stories and period photographs to follow a number of […]

Department of Earth Sciences and Climate Change Institute Ph.D. student Bess Koffman was  recently awarded an NSF travel grant to support development of a postdoctoral research proposal.  After she completes her doctoral degree, Koffman plans to continue work on using particulate matter in snow and ice cores to better understand the complex relationships between atmospheric […]

Research Professor Edward Grew, now in his 27th year at the University of Maine, was recently selected to chair the Subcommittee on Garnet Nomenclature for the International Mineralogical Association-Commission on New Minerals, Mineral Names and Classification (http://pubsites.uws.edu.au/ima-cnmnc/). The task of the subcommittee is to review existing nomenclature of the 32 approved species of garnets and […]

JohnRyan MacGregor, an M.S. student working with Research Professor Ed Grew, took two trips in May and June, 2011 related to his investigations into boron-bearing minerals in granulite facies rocks and the crustal boron budget.  The first trip was to the Geological Association of Canada-Mineralogical Association of Canada spring meeting in Ottawa, where he presented […]

On Monday, May 16th, Marty Yates was honored for 25 years of service to the University.  Below is the text written to recognize his contributions. The Department of Earth Sciences welcomes the opportunity to recognize 25 years of service by Dr. Martin Yates to the University of Maine. Marty is the manager of the Department’s […]

Bess Koffman, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Earth Science and the Clmate Change Institute, and undergraduate major Eliza Kane were featured in the May 11, 2011, video on the government website science360. Link to the video.

We are pleased to announce that several ERS students and faculty have received College-wide awards. Congratulations! Karl Kreutz is this year’s winner of the Graduate Faculty Mentor Award in the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture, sponsored by the Graduate Student Government. According to the Graduate Student Government nomination criteria, “Graduate mentors offer their […]

Earth Sciences major Peter Strand will spend his summer at the highest point in the northeast – the Mt. Washington Observatory in New Hampshire. Peter was offered a position as a summer intern at the station, where he will assist with weather recording, ongoing scientific studies, and educational programs. For more information about the internship […]

Calvin Mako, an ERS major and member of the Honors College, has been invited to participate in a highly selective undergraduate research program run by the Keck Geology Consortium. The Consortium organizes several projects each summer in which undergraduates have the opportunity to work with faculty from around the country on cutting-edge research projects. Calvin […]

Tobias Koffman has been awarded the prestigious 3-year National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) provides fellowships to individuals selected early in their graduate careers based on their demonstrated potential for significant achievements in science and engineering. Three years of support is provided by the program for graduate study […]

The Geological Society of Maine Spring Meeting will be held: Friday, April 8, 2005, 1:00 PM Bates College, Lewiston, ME Department of Geology, Carnegie Science Hall, 44 Campus Avenue. Organizer: Marita Bryant mbryant@bates.edu, 207-786-6473 The Spring Meeting of the GSM will be held at the Bates College on Friday, April 15, 2011. Following our 31-year […]

The 10th annual Geddes W. Simpson Lecture is scheduled for Monday, April 4 in the McIntire Room of Buchanan Alumni House on the University of Maine, with a special program in honor of the tenth year of the series. The program will begin at 2 p.m. with a lecture by Elizabeth S. Bast, granddaughter of […]

Eva Wadoski, who received her M.Sc. in Earth Sciences from the University of Maine in August, 2009, was awarded a European Mineralogical Union (EMU) Poster Prize for her poster “Stepwise dehydration of goosecreekite: a structural study” co-authored with Thomas Armbruster, Biljana Lazic and Martin Fisch at the 20th General Meeting of the International Mineralogical Association, […]

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 […]