GEOLOGY OPEN NIGHTS
Geology Open Nights are part of a science lecture series which are open to the public.
The Geology lectures are usually presented by faculty on aspects of their research,
expertise or a topic of public interest.
This series is offered in conjunction with our Astronomy, Physics and Ecology and
Evolution Departments. The links to their lecture schedules can be found below.
ASTRONOMY OPEN NIGHTS
THE LIVING WORLD
WORLD OF PHYSICS
Lectures are usually held in the Earth and Space Science Building, room 001, at 7:30
PM
on most Fridays during the academic year.
SPRING 2020
FALL 2019
IN-SERVICE CREDIT FOR TEACHERS
NYS teachers who wish to receive CTLE credit for any of these lectures must register
here
for each lecture you attend
and
sign-in at the lecture.
The Graduate School will send a CTLE certificate about six weeks after each lecture.
Current Schedule Abstracts
February 28, 2020 - Gregory Henkes
The Environments of Human Evolution in East Africa
There are a variety of hypotheses for the patterns and processes of human evolution,
but virtually all call on changes in the local environment and regional or global
climate to perpetuate hominin speciation over the last 4-5 million years. This talk
will be part tour through the geologic and paleontological changes in East Africa
and part review of the environmental and climatic changes that accompanied them. My
research interests are better understanding the chemistry of sedimentary rock archives
of environment and climate, thus my focus will also be on how these records are developed
and where the state-of-the-art currently lies.
Dr. Henkes received his Ph.D. in isotope geochemistry from Johns Hopkins University
in 2014. Following that he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University from 2014-2016
and joined the faculty in the Department of Geosciences at Stony Brook University
in 2016. He is also a faculty in the Interdepartmental Program in Anthropological
Sciences and an affiliated faculty in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences
and with the Turkana Basin Institute. He runs an isotope geochemistry laboratory on
campus and has conducted fieldwork in Kenya, The Bahamas, Australia, and Norway.
November 22, 2019 - John Parise
The Stone Age Did Not End Because of a Lack of Stones: Materials Production as a
Reflection of Economic Power
It’s right there in the constitution: “To promote the progress of science and useful
arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to
their respective writings and discoveries.” Societies rise and fall based on their
intellectual capital, and their economic well-being depends on their mastery of earth
materials. The development and utility of modern materials still depends on, sometimes
rare, materials we obtain from the Earth. This talk will present examples where basic
research into the benefaction of Earth materials led to transformative economic gains,
such as the electrochemical extraction of aluminum metal. In the 1800s aluminum was
more valuable than gold. It is now $0.68 a pound. The cold embrittlement of tin
buttons during Napoleon’s Russia campaign provides a counter-example; the unintended
consequences of a breakthrough in technology, and the worst wardrobe malfunction in
military history. To meet the challenges of a new age, where energy production and
electrical grid stabilization will be key challenges, the Earth abundance of certain
elements will determine the finite number of materials we can use to meet these challenges.
John Parise is a mineralogical crystallographer and Solid State Chemist with joint
appointments at Stony Brook University (SBU) and Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL)
on Long Island New York. His research interests intersect mineralogy, mineral properties
the properties of novel materials developed with inspiration from the naturally occurring,
though rare, minerals. His recent interests include exploratory high-pressure materials
synthesis, aided by theoretical and in-situ x-ray and neutron scattering. In 2012
he was appointed Director of the Joint Photon Sciences Institute, a SBU-BNL initiative
to promote education, training and research at BNL's National Synchrotron Light Source-II.
He directs the Department of Energy’s, Energy Frontier Research Center, GENESIS, A
Next GENeration SynthESIS Center, which is headquartered at Stony Brook and involves
8 other institution nation wide. Professor Parise obtained his PhD from James Cook
University, for work carried out in neutron scattering at the Australian Atomic Energy
Commission. He had previously spent 2 years in a masters program at Osaka University,
Japan. He has held appointments in Chemistry at Du Pont and at the University of
Sydney. He has published over 400 papers and holds 4 patents.
October 25, 2019 - William Holt
A Trek Across Western North America Through Geological Time
Western North America today consists of high topography with many roughly north-south
trending mountain belts, including the Rockies, the Basin and Range province, and
the Sierra Nevada range. The complex geology and topography owes much of its existence
to a long history of subduction and mountain building along the western margin of
North America, followed by the development of the San Andreas Fault system in California.
At the conclusion of the period of wide-spread convergence about 35 million years
ago a major mountain range existed to the west of the Rockies in what is now the Basin
and Range province. Little is known about the precise height or distribution of this
mountain chain. This topography experienced a dramatic collapse as subduction ceased
along the western margin of North America and the current San Andreas fault system
developed. This collapse of topography continues today. In this talk I will provide
a tour through geologic time of the west and show new research results that demonstrate
that this ancient mountain range once rivaled the Andes Mountains of South America.
What remains enigmatic is how or why the lithosphere weakened enough for the topography
to collapse. Geophysical evidence points to a hot upper mantle beneath these regions.
Furthermore, the introduction of water into the upper mantle and crust from the ancient
Farallon slab that subducted beneath North America likely played a major role as a
weakening mechanism that facilitated the collapse of topography coupled with widespread
volcanism.
William Holt is a Professor in the Department of Geosciences, Stony Brook University.
His interests include seismology and active tectonics. Professor Holt uses observations
from seismology, space-geodesy, and geology to constrain the forces operating in the
lithosphere that are responsible for producing earthquakes, plate tectonics, and mountain
building. Professor Holt is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, an NSF early
CAREER awardee, and was given an Alumni Achievement award from the University of Arizona.
Professor Holt was on the founding Board of Directors for the UNAVCO, which is a non-profit
university- governed consortium that facilitates research and education in geodesy.
Holt later served on the UNVACO board again in the period of 2009 – 2013 and was chair
during the period of 2010 – 2012.
September 27, 2019 - Troy Rasbury
Boron in Long Island Fresh Water
Boron isotopes have been used as a tracer of the source of contaminants such as nitrate
to surface and groundwater in a variety of terrestrial settings. We conducted a survey
of Long Island waters including rainwater, spring fed creeks and rivers, subterranean
groundwater discharge, and ponds across eastern Long Island to determine if boron
could be a useful tracer of contaminants. A major motivation was to identify the source
of nitrate to groundwater and to the Long Island Sound. Nitrates can cause harmful
algal blooms in ponds, lakes and in the Long Island Sound. As background to this study
we analyzed samples that are potential sources of nitrates including septic samples
as well as some commercially available fertilizer and manure to consider potential
contaminants to the waters.
Septic waters have high boron concentrations and light boron isotope compositions,
likely derived from bleach. Fertilizers also have high concentrations and have a range
of isotope ratios, but are mostly isotopically distinct and heavier than septic samples.
Manure has lower boron concentrations and is isotopically heavier than commercial
fertilizer. Seawater has high boron concentrations and is isotopically very heavy.
This study shows that boron from seawater is a significant source of boron without
concomitant increases in salinity. Volatilization of boric acid from seawater likely
accounts for ratios that are even heavier than seawater. Ponds in the Pine Barrens
have boron isotopes similar to seawater with the lowest boron concentrations of any
samples we measured, likely reflecting the average composition of rainwater. There
is a remarkable range in boron isotopes across all the fresh groundwater samples we
measured. There is little trend with boron concentrations suggesting that there are
multiple sources with different isotope compositions.
Combining these results with analyses of subterranean groundwater discharge (SGD)
which has been conducted in several locations on the Long Island Sound indicates that
the source of nitrate to the Long Island Sound through SGD has isotopically light
boron isotopes and is not one simple source, but rather must represent a range of
sources. This is consistent with the idea that non-point source contributions of nitrate
to the Long Island Sound are significant.
Troy Rasbury is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geosciences. She is an
isotope geochemist and oversees the Facility for Isotope Research and Student Training
(FIRST) at Stony Brook University. The work presented here represents a new direction
for her research and is collaborative with Henry Bokuniewitz and J. Kirk Cochran of
SoMAS. Students including Caitlin Brown, Joe Tamborski, Deanna Downs, and Brooke
Peritore have been involved in this research and contributed to the data and discussion.
