Geological and Mining Engineering and Science News

In early August, sailors in the southwest Pacific Ocean began to see their environment transmogrify. As far as the eye could see, the ocean turned from an azure delight into a colossal gathering of clinking, floating rocks. And then came the foul, sulfurous odors.

Satellite images—plenty of which were shared on Twitter by Simon Carn, a volcanologist at Michigan Technological University—showed a giant pumice raft twisting and warping in the open ocean, pushed around by the winds and waves. The raft covered an area a bit larger than San Francisco.

Read more at Gizmodo, by Robin George Andrews.

Rudiger Escobar-Wolf (GMES/EPSSI) is Principal Investigator on a project that has received a $294,662 research and development grant from the National Science Foundation. The project is titled “Collaborative Research: Lahar Dynamics and Monitoring: A Multiparametric Approach Grounded in Infrasound.” This is a potential three-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.

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Lahars, or volcanic mud flows, produce infrasound (low-frequency acoustic energy) that can be detected from distances of many kilometers. As such, it is possible to remotely characterize these hazardous mud flows by tracking their flow positions and energetics through time.

This work seeks to develop infrasound analytical tools to locate where lahars initiate, how far and fast they move, and estimate their mass flow.

Toward these goals the project will deploy and maintain seismic and infrasonic instruments at Fuego Volcano (Guatemala), where lahars are common during the rainy season (April through September). Rain gauges and time lapse cameras will be installed at locations along the lahar paths to understand how lahars initiate and to validate flow characteristics through direct observation.

This award is cofunded by the PredicMon of and Resilience against Extreme Events (PREEVENTS) program.

Read more at the National Science Foundation.

Thomas Oommen (GMES/EPSSI) is Principal Investigator on a project that has received a $39,999 research and development grant from the US Department of State. The project is titled, “Developing and Improving Disaster Management Studies Course in India.” This is a one-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.

James DeGraff (EGM/EPSSI) is the Principal Investigator on a research and development project that has received $35,000 from the US Geological Survey.

This project is titled “Keweenaw Fault Geometry, Related Structures, and Slip Kinematics Along the Lac La Belle-Mohawk Segment, Michigan.” Chad Deering (EGM) and Aleksey Smirnov (EGM) are co-PI’s on this one-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.

Simon Carn (GMES/EPSSI), is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $79,390 research and development grant from NASA. The project is entitled “Exploiting High-Cadence Observations of Volcanic Eruptions from DSCOVR/EPIC.”

This is the first year of a potential three-year project totaling $267,948.

By Sponsored Programs.

Aleksey Smirnov (GMS/EPSSI), is the principal investigator on a project that has received an $87,524 research and development grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The project is entitled “Collaborative Research: Geomagnetic Field Strength and Stability Between 500 and 800 Ma: Constraining Inner Core Growth.”

This is the first year of a potential three-year project totaling $289,747.

By Sponsored Programs.

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Earth’s magnetic field protects the planet from solar particles that would otherwise erode the atmosphere. Thus, the magnetic field is thought to be an essential factor ensuring long-term planetary habitability. Today, this geomagnetic field is powered by growth of the solid inner core. But thermal models suggest Earth has not always had a solid inner core; the time of the onset of inner core growth has ranged from 500 million to more than 2.5 billion years ago. This represents a fundamental unknown about the planet. Arguably the best way to investigate this question is to use “paleomagnetism”, the record of the ancient magnetic field trapped in rocks and crystals as they form. Such data have motivated the hypothesis that the geomagnetic field, and the magnetic shielding of the atmosphere from solar particles, almost collapsed 565 million years ago, but then the field slowly recovered. This event may record the birth of the solid inner core. This hypothesis will be tested through studies of rocks ranging in age from 800 to 500 million years old found in Australia, Canada and the United States. The collaborative work will involve a team of 5 scientists at 3 institutions (including an underrepresented minority and woman scientist), and will be integrated into education and outreach efforts at each university, including efforts to expand opportunities for first-generation and historically underrepresented individuals.

Read more at the National Science Foundation.

Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences (GMES) adjunct assistant professor Luke Bowman gave a collaborative presentation titled, “Multidisciplinary, International Geological Hazards Research Experiences,” at the Geoscience and Society Summit, March 18 – 21, 2019, in Stockholm, Sweden. The Summit was part of a multi-year effort by organizers to articulate the roles of geoscientists in solving 21st Century challenges and reaching the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Summit was sponsored by the American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America and the Bolin Centre for Climate Research.

Bowman presented the evolution of disaster risk reduction research by GMES students and faculty over the past three decades. The co-authors included professor and chair John Gierke, emeritus professor Bill Rose, associate professors Thomas Oommen and Greg Waite, and research assistant professor Rudiger Escobar-Wolf. The work that Bowman presented outlined a unique history of how GMES has actively broadened its faculty and student research interests to tackle societal issues in conjunction with the geophysical aspects of natural hazards in international settings.

A study by Nathan Manser (GMES/EF) on human pathogen destruction in resource recovery systems is cited in the World Health Organization’s recent Guidelines on Sanitation and Health.

Manser ND, Cunningham JA, Ergas SJ, Mihelcic JR (2016). Modeling inactivation of highly persistent pathogens in household-scale semi-continuous anaerobic digesters. Environ Eng Sci. 33: 851-860.

The purpose of these guidelines is to promote safe sanitation systems and practices in order to promote health. They summarize the evidence on the links between sanitation and health, provide evidence-informed recommendations, and offer guidance for encouraging international, national and local sanitation policies and actions that protect public health. The guidelines also seek to articulate and support the role of health and other actors in sanitation policy and programming to help ensure that health risks are identified and managed effectively. World Health Organization