School of Earth and Climate Sciences

The Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded $1,504,063 to a University of Maine project quantifying snowpack properties in the Arctic led by School of Earth and Climate Sciences faculty members Chris Gerbi and Seth Campbell, who also is affiliated with the Climate Change Institute. read more 

Peatlands are a treasure trove of organic material. Researchers at the University of Maine are using their knowledge of hydrogeology and computer modeling to understand exactly what these overlooked areas contribute to the greater environment and how to ethically manage them. read more

Creating new, more accurate methods for quantifying the stress and flow rate experienced by deforming rocks at the boundaries of moving tectonic plates is the goal of a University of Maine study funded with a $392,372 National Science Foundation grant. Scott Johnson, a professor of structural geology, and Senthil Vel, a professor of mechanical engineering, […]

A University of Maine Ph.D. candidate has created a new mapping tool that can help scientists and resource managers better predict how vulnerable different coastal estuary settings in Maine are to pollution. Pollution vulnerability in estuaries and bays can be determined by the source of contamination, how it is transported to coastal waters and how […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Seth Campbell, associate professor at the School of Earth and Climate Sciences and Climate Change Institute, with $1,001,174 over two prestigious grants that will fund research about Alaska and Canada glacier change and connect hundreds of low-income high school students and first-generation college students with polar research. NSF funded […]

Studying the response of Antarctic ice sheets to past warming episodes is essential to understand how they may respond to the present warming climate, as their melting and collapse can contribute to global sea level rise. Detailed records of past ocean temperatures close to the continent are rare, but clues to how ice sheets and […]

Clues from receding glaciers at 15,000 feet in Uganda by Phil Hirschkorn (WMTV).

In his career as a University of Maine geologist, Martin Yates has been recruited to help investigate geologic anomalies, but none like the one found last year on Pennington Mountain in Aroostook County. His work contributed to a major discovery of critical mineral resources of rare earth elements and trace metals that was the first of its […]

Ancient geological discrepancies can not only puzzle scientists, but can also lead to revelations about our present climate once they are solved. An international team led by a University of Maine researcher has uncovered a 20,000-year-old geological mystery in Uganda that will inform how scientists understand the relationship between glaciers, sea level temperatures and precipitation […]

Geologists have long determined the age of rocks and minerals by measuring the decay of certain isotopes, but the process can be time consuming and labor intensive. Alicia Cruz-Uribe, associate professor of mineralogy and petrology in the School of Earth and Climate Sciences at the University of Maine, is hoping to make the use of […]

Edward Grew, research professor in the School of Earth and Climate Sciences at the University of Maine, has helped a team of Chinese and European scientists obtain official recognition for three new minerals discovered as tiny inclusions in corundum (Al2O3) from a chromite mine in Tibet, China. The new minerals have been approved by the […]

The combination of global atmospheric warming and westerly winds shifting toward the poles will likely speed up the recession of mountain glaciers in both hemispheres, according to a UMaine study. Mountain glaciers freeze and gain mass when the climate cools, and melt and lose mass when the climate warms. The extent to which the fluctuations […]