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Upcoming Events

Virtual seminars: While the COVID-19 pandemic continues, all UTIG events will be held online. If you would like to attend any of our online talks please email costa@ig.utexas.edu.

March 2021

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  • CPSH Seminar: Dr. Ken Wisian, University of Texas at Austin

    CPSH Seminar: Dr. Ken Wisian, University of Texas at Austin

    March 1, 2021 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
    Zoom Meeting

    A seminar from the Center for Planetary Systems Habitability

    Speaker: Dr. Ken Wisian, Associate Director, Environmental Division - Bureau of Economic Geology, and Research Scientist, Center for Space Research - Cockrell School of Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin

    Title: Geothermal Energy in the Outer Solar System

    https://habitability.utexas.edu/events/

    See more details

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  • UTIG Discussion Hour Seminar: Joshua Russell, Brown University

    UTIG Discussion Hour Seminar: Joshua Russell, Brown University

    March 2, 2021 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
    Zoom Meeting

    Contact nmccall@utexas.edu for a link to join the live talk. 

    Speaker: Joshua Russell, Brown University

    Title: Rift-to-Drift: Uncovering the relic lithospheric signature of continental breakup offshore eastern North America

    See more details

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  • Special Seminar Online: Surui Xie, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego

    Special Seminar Online: Surui Xie, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego

    March 3, 2021 @ 10:00 am - 11:00 am
    Zoom Meeting

    Contact costa@ig.utexas.edu for a link to join the live talk.

    Speaker: Surui Xie, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego

    Host: Shuoshuo Han
     
    Title: Geodesy at The Land Margins: Challenging yet Rewarding

    Abstract: High precision space geodetic techniques have been widely used in measuring Earth changes due to slow or rapid processes. While they continue to provide important observations for a variety of geophysical studies, technical limitations have hampered their applicability in monitoring several key Earth processes in critical zones, such as tidal-timescale or shorter timescale variations of the outlet glaciers and mélange in the polar regions, as well as strain accumulation and release processes in the offshore portion of subduction zones. Continued development of terrestrial and marine geodetic techniques can overcome some of the difficulties and thus complement existing methods. However, they can be technically challenging. In this talk I will present several examples of space, terrestrial, and marine geodetic techniques in observing some key Earth processes at the marginal zones, including: 1) observing marine-terminating glacier and mélange motion in Greenland with terrestrial radar interferometry; 2) measuring subduction zone interface locking and transient events with GPS; and 3) shallow water seafloor motion and water level monitoring with a GPS spar-buoy.

    See more details

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  • UTIG Discussion Hour Seminar: Zachary Sickmann, UTIG

    UTIG Discussion Hour Seminar: Zachary Sickmann, UTIG

    March 9, 2021 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
    Zoom Meeting

    (This talk was rescheduled from Tuesday, February 16, 2021)

    Contact nmccall@utexas.edu for a link to join the live talk. 

    Speaker: Zachary Sickmann, Postdoctoral Fellow, UTIG

    Title: Thinking about sand mining from source to sink

    See more details

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  • Special Seminar Online: Benjamin Keisling, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

    Special Seminar Online: Benjamin Keisling, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

    March 10, 2021 @ 10:00 am - 11:00 am
    Zoom Meeting

    Contact costa@ig.utexas.edu for a link to join the live talk.

    Speaker: Benjamin Keisling, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University

    Host: Tim Goudge

    See more details

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  • UTIG Seminar Online: Xiaohua Xu, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego

    UTIG Seminar Online: Xiaohua Xu, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego

    March 12, 2021 @ 10:30 am - 11:30 am
    Zoom Meeting

    Contact costa@ig.utexas.edu for a link to join the live talk.

    Speaker: Xiaohua Xu, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego

    Host: Harm Van Avendonk

    Title: Probing Earth’s Shallow Crust with Space Geodesy

    Abstract: Contemporary earthquake hazard models hinge on an understanding of how strain is distributed in the crust and the ability to precisely image the earthquake rupture. The development in these fields is driven by the newer generation of space geodetic tools. In this presentation, I'll be focusing on the shallow most part of the Earth’s crust, and bridge the mechanisms of reduced shallow rupture (shallow slip deficit) with the widely distributed shallow faulting. I show that a large part of the shallow slip deficit is due to incomplete data coverage near the fault when combined with a regularized inversion, and thus the associated seismic hazard may have been underestimated. Thus, near-fault geodetic observations are indispensable to fully image large strike-slip events. I’ll then present our newest findings associated with the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence, where we found numerous previously unmapped strain concentrations (fractures) with an InSAR phase-gradient technique. Most fractures are displaced in the direction of tectonic stress (prograde), while a number of them are displaced in the opposite direction (retrograde). Our analysis shows that both types of fractures are caused by the stress change from the main rupture – prograde fractures are triggered slip while retrograde fractures are strain concentrations in a weak compliant fault zone. The different mechanisms can be understood if the shallow part of the faults are always critically stressed. And a major implication is that shallow tectonic strain is widely distributed in diffuse strike-slip areas like the Mojave shear zone, which also explains the larger deficit in the shallow earthquake ruptures near Ridgecrest.

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  • UTIG Seminar Online: Tian Dong, UT Jackson School of Geosciences

    UTIG Seminar Online: Tian Dong, UT Jackson School of Geosciences

    March 17, 2021 @ 10:00 am - 11:00 am
    Zoom Meeting

    (This talk rescheduled from March 5)


    Contact costa@ig.utexas.edu for a link to join the live talk.

    Speaker: Tian Dong, Department of Geological Sciences, UT Jackson School of Geosciences

    Host: John Goff

    See more details

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  • UTIG Seminar Online: Jessie Pearl, United States Geological Survey

    UTIG Seminar Online: Jessie Pearl, United States Geological Survey

    March 19, 2021 @ 10:30 am - 11:30 am
    Zoom meeting

    (This talk was rescheduled from Friday, February 19, 2021)

    Contact costa@ig.utexas.edu for a link to join the live talk.

    Speaker: Jessie Pearl, United States Geological Survey

    Host: Chris Lowery

    Title: Multiproxy reconstructions of late Holocene coastal climate and extreme events

    Abstract: The densely populated coastlines of the United States face unique natural hazards and are at the forefront of global change phenomena, and including sea level rise, rising global temperatures, changing storm frequency and intensity, and growing anthropogenic pressures. Adaptation to, and mitigation of, the impacts of these phenomena rely on extensive and accurate records of coastal stressors and an understanding of their secondary ecological effects. Instrumental data of physical and biological changes along the coast extend, at best, about 120 years and are usually much shorter. Thus, longer high-resolution records of coastal phenomena are essential to determine the potential range and return interval of storms, floods, droughts, and earthquakes. Multi-centennial to multi-millennial length tree-ring records are annually-resolved proxies for environmental change that fill these critical data gaps. These records ultimately improve coastal management and hazard planning, as well as detect and attribute trends in regional climate phenomena. Using climate field reconstructions, a network of subfossil 'drowned' forests and co-located sediment records, radiocarbon, and paleoecology studies I show how we can date and characterize both long term trends and punctuated extreme events along the northeast and northwestern coastlines of the United States.

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  • UTIG Seminar Online: Ram Tuvi, UTIG

    UTIG Seminar Online: Ram Tuvi, UTIG

    March 26, 2021 @ 10:30 am - 11:30 am
    Zoom Meeting

    Contact costa@ig.utexas.edu for a link to join the live talk.

    Speaker: Ram Tuvi, Postdoctoral Fellow, UTIG

    Host: Zeyu Zhao

    Research Areas: Computational geophysics, seismic tomography, and beam-wave processing

    See more details

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UTIG Seminar Series

The UTIG Seminar Series is a forum for cutting-edge earth and planetary sciences attended by UTIG scientists, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students. Every semester, we invite leading scientists around the U.S. and beyond to present results from their recent research projects. We also occasionally enjoy presentations on geoscience education and workplace diversity and inclusion.

To receive email updates about the UTIG Seminar Series contact costa@ig.utexas.edu, or subscribe to our seminar mailing list below.

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Seminar Chair: Shuoshuo Han 

Guide for Seminar Speakers

UTIG Discussion Hour

The UTIG Discussion Hour hosts weekly talks Tuesday afternoons at 2 pm CST. The Discussion Hour is a flexible format seminar hosted by UTIG and open to all members of our community. Presentations range from spotlighting new geoscience research to less technical talks sharing fieldwork excursions.

Co-organizer: Naoma McCall

Co-organizer: Erin Heilman

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Seminar Archives

UTIG Seminar Series and Discussion Hour talks are open to the geoscience community and, whenever possible, are made freely available online. Our archive includes almost every UTIG Seminar Series talk since 2010 as well as many recorded Discussion Hour talks. These can be accessed at the links below. If you know of a UTIG science talk not listed in the archive please contact costa@ig.utexas.edu.

UTIG Seminar Series – Spring 2021

2020 Fall

2020 Spring

2019 Fall

2019 Spring

2018 Fall

2018 Spring

2017 Fall

2017 Spring

2016 Fall

2016 Spring

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2015 Spring

2014 Fall

2014 Spring

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2010 Fall

UTIG Discussion Hour Archive

2021

2019 – 2020

2018 – 2019

2016 – 2017

2015 & Earlier

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Institute for Geophysics

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