Snehamoy Chatterjee (GMES/EPSSI) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $127,810 research and development grant from NASA. Thomas Oommen (GMES) is the Co-PI on the project “Minerals and Rock Type Mapping Using Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-Next Generation (AVIRIS-NG) Data.” This is a one and a half year project.
By Sponsored Programs.
Find your own treasures at the Tulip City Gem and Mineral Club’s annual rock, mineral and jewelry show. At the show, visitors will have the opportunity to crack their own geode to find crystals. This is in keeping with this year’s theme “Geodes — Hidden Treasure.”
The A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum at Michigan Technological University in Houghton is loaning its display, “How Geodes Are Made.” It will include 10 museum-quality geodes from Mexico, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and Argentina.
Dulcinea Avouris’s, who was advised by Simon Carn (GMES), lead research published in the journal Geology and was highlighted in a Focus article along with a news brief in EARTH Magazine.
The interaction between earthquakes and volcanoes intrigues the public and provides a complex and cascading hazard that challenges scientists across a spectrum of disciplines. The key to understanding earthquake-volcano interactions is the response of gas and magma to earthquake-imposed stresses.
Paul and Janet Clifford continue the donation of their mineral collection to the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum.
They recently donated 201 specimens, the second installment of the approximately 4000 specimens they pledged in 2003. They have now donated about half of their collection to the museum.
Paul is the former curator of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s gem and mineral collection and was assisted by Janet. An endowment has been created by the Clifford’s with the proceeds to be used to purchase specimens for the museum’s collection.
The quality, depth, and breadth of Michigan Tech’s mineral collection continues to improve through the generosity of donors such as Paul and Janet Clifford. The museum looks forward to the next installment of their minerals.
By A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum.
Mark Kulie (GMES/GLRC) is attending the American Meteorological Society 38th Conference on Radar Meteorology this week (August 28 to September 1, 2017) in Chicago.
He will present a talk entitled “Seasonal Variability of Shallow Cumuliform Snowfall: A CloudSat Perspective” in the “Moving Platforms. Vehicle, Airborne, Shipborne and Spaceborne: Satellite” session. He is also co-chairing the “Cloud Studies Using Radars” conference session.
Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society (AMS) is the nation’s premier scientific and professional organization promoting and disseminating information about the atmospheric, oceanic, hydrologic sciences.
Mark Kulie (GMES/EPSSI) is the principal investigator on a project that has received an $86,255 research and development grant from the NASA. The project is entitled “Snowfall in the GPM Era: Assessing GPM Snowfall and Ice Microphysical Retrievals Using Independent Spaceborne and Ground-Based Observations.” This is the first year of a potential two-year project totaling $186,255.
Lake Superior Magazine published a feature about minerals of the Keweenaw, referencing the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum at Michigan Tech as an outstanding public minerals display.
The region is world famous for vast deposits of iron ore and native copper. During the last 150 years, the rocks have yielded immense tonnages from those deposits and attracted early settlers to the iron and copper mines. Our regional ores were critical in helping the Allies win World Wars I and II. But iron and copper are far from the only commercial minerals around this vast lake. Gold, platinum, silver, nickel, and gemstones such as amethyst, agates and even diamonds have been found here.
The region holds fame in another geologic camp. Collectors seek many Lake Superior minerals for their beauty, aesthetic qualities or rareness. Outstanding regional minerals form private and public collections worldwide and close to home at the A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum at Michigan Technological University in Houghton.
Read more at Lake Superior Magazine, by Gene L. LaBerge, George W. Robinson.
Dr. LaBerge is the author of Geology of the Lake Superior Region and is professor emeritus of geology at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Dr. Robinson is the former curator of the A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum and professor of mineralogy at Michigan Technological University, Houghton.
An alumna of GMES is one of seventy-five distinguished scientists to receive the distinction from groups representing their disciplines within the American Geophysical Union.
Lauren N. Schaefer, University of Canterbury, is a recipient of the 2017 Natural Hazards Focus Group Award for Graduate Research. Lauren earned her Ph.D. in Geological Engineering from Michigan Tech in 2016 under the advising of Dr. Thomas Oommen.
Congrats, Lauren! We’re all cheering for your continued success.
https://eos.org/agu-news/2017-agu-section-and-focus-group-awardees-and-named-lecturers
Chad Deering (GMES/EPSSI), is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $250,718 research and develop grant from the National Science Foundation.
The project is titled “Assessing Changes in the State of a Magma Storage System Over Caldera-Forming Eruption Cycles, a Case Study at Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand.”
This is the first year of a potential three-year project which could total $349,665.
By Sponsored Programs.
The largest volcanic eruptions are rare events but can represent a global catastrophe. Smaller eruptions may still have significant (billions of dollars) economic impacts and may affect the lives and livelihoods of large numbers of people, even in places distant from the erupting volcano (e.g., the relatively small eruption in Iceland in 2010). This project focuses on the Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ) in New Zealand as a case study of a large and very active volcanic system, and will focus on developing a better understanding of how the temperature and mobility of a magma body below the surface changes before, during, and after a major eruption. This study will contribute to our understanding of the volcanoes that produce such large eruptions (for example, Yellowstone volcanic system in the US), and will provide critical context for interpretation of real-time hazard monitoring at these and other active volcanoes. In addition, the project will include research experience for a K-12 teacher and development of new standard-based physics, chemistry and mathematics curriculum that will be disseminated broadly.
WLUC TV6 aired a story about students at Calumet-Laurium-Keweenaw Elementary School building a boulder garden. The project is funded by a Michigan Space Grant Consortium geoheritage pilot grant to Michigan Tech to create boulder gardens and rock walks at CLK and E. B. Holman Elementary Schools, using representative rocks of the Keweenaw.
Students are also designing interpretative signage to accompany the installations with info about rock types and how geology has influenced life in the Keweenaw.
