houck2040/artisci huggingface dataset:
stationary field camp the 2019 stationary summer field geology course met for three weeks of mapping in the northern rocky mountains of southwestern montana based out of dillon montana the group of 30 students four tas and one instructor examined rocks ranging in lithology from basalt flows to shale-sandstone-carbonate sequences to plutons and gneisses and ranging in age from eocene to archean projects included individual mapping exercises of outstanding examples of structures and stratigraphy a group mapping exercise in igneous and metamorphic rocks that are among the oldest known in the world and a six-day mapping project of the renowned sandy hollow fold-thrust system the course was a lot of hard work sometimes in adverse weather conditions including snow on two occasions but always in the beautiful outdoor geology laboratory of big sky country
students getting the lay of the land photo by michelle cherpastudents compiling field data in the classroom overseen by ta ryan elmore and dr brent miller photo by michelle cherpa
breaking up the work were two days off that gave students a chance to rest and recuperate or to pick from an abundance of outdoor activities adventures on days off included touring yellowstone national park fishing world-famous trout streams like the big hole river visiting excellent geology museums in butte and bozeman and enjoying nearby hiking journeys in the end students came away from summer field camp with a clear picture of the character and complexities of real rocks in the natural environment and with an appreciation for the scale and scope of geology that cannot be replicated in paper exercises or with rocks in a box we hope that every student also came away with many fond memories a sense of deserved earned achievement and even a few new friends by dr brent miller
arches map area looking across a salt collapse structure the green morrison formation with plentiful dinosaur bones is visible and if you look closely you can see delicate arch in the distance photo by matt dorsey
traveling field camp it was a cold blustery field camp this year and the traveling camp endured the early summer conditions camping in tents in wind rain and sleet from south central utah to southwestern montana
photo of traveling field camp group in front of delicate arch in arches national park utah photo by matt dorseya spectacular example of a drag fold with the beds on the left (footwall) being deflected downward into a normal fault at arches map area photo by matt dorsey
the students improved their field skills and constructed excellent maps stratigraphic columns cross sections and stereographic projections of field projects that included complex geology overlying salt tectonics east of arches national park igneous intrusions of the henry mountains heavily folded terranes of the laramide and ancient metamorphic terranes of early collisional tectonics as during every year students found new localities of dinosaur bones in the morrison and recovered the annual "first dinosaur bone" prize by dr andreas kronenberg
tilted bedding and the principle of horizontality photo by dr andreas kronenbergnewspaper rock in canyonlands national park utah photo by dr andreas kronenberg
tim logan with the cace lidar on top of the eller o&m building (photo by chris mouchyn)one of the tornadoes produced by the supercell near mccook nebraska (photo by tim logan)
dr tim logan assistant professor of atmospheric sciences and director of the houston lightning mapping array network had the opportunity to take aerosol measurements during a storm chasing trip in the southern great plains over the summer logan used a state-of-the-art micro-pulse lidar which stands for light detection and ranging to take these measurements the lidar instrument is part of the texas a&m center for atmospheric chemistry and the environment (cace) an interdisciplinary research center that carries out research for environmental sustainability and air quality the storm chase began in oklahoma shortly after the end of the spring semester in may an ideal time for storm chasing because the transition between spring and summer is the climatologically most active time for severe thunderstorms in the united states with preparation good route planning and a favorable environment seeing supercell development would be likely logan said that this presented a good opportunity to have multiple vantage points to transect a developing supercellthe lidar has mobile capability which allows for the observation of thunderstorms from a variety of vantage points since july 2018 the lidar has been running on the rooftop of the eller o&m building and has been gathering a variety of data but opportunities for transecting passing thunderstorms are limited there have been a couple of times where thunderstorms have passed directly over the o&m building with the lidar running logan said and you can get certain vantages of the anvil stratiform rain and convective core regions but you have to be lucky enough that the storm will pass directly overhead logan believes that while the national weather service and other organizations were also out with monitoring equipment to take observations that day in may he was the only one with a lidar dows or doppler on wheels are mobile radar units that are often taken to observe supercells in developing environments but lidars are not frequently used for this kind of field observation so logans data is unique lidar operate on the same physical principles as radar but can take different sets of observations and so having a lidar present allows for a fuller suite of observational dataand that afternoon logan was able to collect some fascinating datawe intercepted a tvs (tornadic vortex signature) the tvs passed right over the beam logan said we were able to successfully intercept a tornadic supercell: the wall cloud the tvs anvil region stratiform rain region everything im pretty sure what was i was looking at went on to make the mccook tornado in nebraska so we were right there when it was just forming that supercell would go on to produce 2-3 inch diameter hail and four tornadoes including one that was rated as an ef-2 with wind speeds of 120 mph for now the lidar is back on the roof of the o&m building taking steady measurements of the atmospheric column as various particulates flow overhead from aerosols to saharan dust and more since beginning operation in 2018 it has been continually delivering interesting data and since it survived a passing tornadic thunderstorm will continue to do soby david coates
why are tornado casualty rates higher in some regions than others dr tyler fricker visiting assistant professor in the department of geography at texas a&m university recently published research in the annals of the association of american geographers that gives insights into tornado casualty rates across the united states and casualty prediction models my interest was in trying to better understand tornado casualty events across the country fricker said we have a pretty good understanding of some broad-scale factors that influence tornado casualties but what we dont have is a great understanding of the community-level or placed-based factors that might influence those casualties the goal of frickers research was to define and identify particularly devastating tornadoes and the communities that were most impacted by those tornados with an analytical model he previously developed fricker combined data from individual tornados with additional socioeconomic demographic and physical variables from the areas surrounding where each individual tornado occurred with this information inputted into the model the model outputs the number of causalities (injuries and fatalities) that would be expected from the tornado the casualty estimate is then compared to the actual number of casualties that occurred during the tornado the comparison provides important information about which areas are more or less vulnerable to tornados than experts expect through these comparisons you can start to understand which tornados cause many more casualties than we expect which tornados cause roughly the same number of causalities we would expect and which tornados did not have as many causalities as we would expect he said those are all different questions frickers research primarily focused on the instances of higher than expected casualty rates
damage from a tornado in albany ga on january 22 2017 (photo by tyler fricker)dr tyler fricker (photo by chris mouchyn college of geosciences)
a nationwide tornado casualty analysis the study was purposefully done at a nationwide scale to discern the regional similarities and differences across the country that might not be evident without a evaluating the entire country you dont want to shut different areas of the country off he said they are each going to have unique variabilities and we are going to need to understand all of them if we are actually going to reduce the number of tornado casualties the results of frickers study suggest that there is a lot more to be learned from the variability in tornado casualty numbers for example regions of the country that are already known to be susceptible to high casualty events (eg southeast) had even higher casualty rates than expected when compared to model predictions since the model already accounts for the factors that tornado casualties are most commonly attributed to such as mobile home ownership and low income it suggests that there are other variables that are not being taken in to account these numbers are unusual even when accounting for how many mobile homes were in the tornados path he said the question becomes: is there something going on there besides the mobile homes and the income level that are driving these high casualty rates fricker hopes to continue his research by expanding the project to include an interview-based approach to find out what factors in the community may be influencing the high rates of tornado vulnerability across the nation dr frickers article was co-authored with dr james elsner from florida state university by rhett douris
of the 254 texas counties 102 had their warmest september on record in 2019 (getty images photo)
learning environmental policy first-hand: aggie grad interned at epameteorology graduate lucero marquez 19 spent the summer working for the us environmental protection agencyoct 23 2019marquez with the epa administrator andrew wheeler (photo courtesy of lucero marquez) after lucero marquez ‘19 graduated from the department of atmospheric sciences at texas a&m university in may of 2019 she headed to washington dc and spent the summer interning with the office of water in the us environmental protection agency (epa) marquez obtained her internship through the texas a&m public policy internship program (ppip) which connects students to domestic and abroad policy-related internships the program allows for students to integrate classroom knowledge with practical application within a professional setting while working at the epa marquez participated in a range of projects for the first project she used the hydrological and water quality system model (hawqs) in an effort to simulate climate changes the second project focused on communication allowing workers within the office to ask questions about science or legislation or allowing them to provide insight for future interns finally she worked with the national water program resiliency work group creating news letters and participating in work group meetings to discuss how to increase water resiliency in the united states while attending texas a&m marquez took a class that focused on the politics of environmental science discussing past and current epa projects and legislative impactmarquez (third student from right) and other interns meeting with epa administrator andrew wheeler (photo courtesy of lucero marquez)marquez in front of the epa headquarters (photo courtesy of lucero marquez) reflecting on her internship experience she advises undergraduates to learn in the classroom and then to also do their best to apply that gained knowledge in the real world when she began at texas a&m as a meteorology major marquezs goal was to study weather and improve forecasting but her coursework soon helped her decide on studying climate change and environmental policy it is a big field that needs people to step up needs people to be on the front line because it is a problem she said things need to be done and im just trying to see now where i can go to help in that cause currently marquez resides in austin and works as a modeling assessment specialist in the air permitting division of the texas commission on environmental quality by amanda hoth ‘21
marquez with the epa administrator andrew wheeler (photo courtesy of lucero marquez)
after lucero marquez ‘19 graduated from the department of atmospheric sciences at texas a&m university in may of 2019 she headed to washington dc and spent the summer interning with the office of water in the us environmental protection agency (epa) marquez obtained her internship through the texas a&m public policy internship program (ppip) which connects students to domestic and abroad policy-related internships the program allows for students to integrate classroom knowledge with practical application within a professional setting while working at the epa marquez participated in a range of projects for the first project she used the hydrological and water quality system model (hawqs) in an effort to simulate climate changes the second project focused on communication allowing workers within the office to ask questions about science or legislation or allowing them to provide insight for future interns finally she worked with the national water program resiliency work group creating news letters and participating in work group meetings to discuss how to increase water resiliency in the united states while attending texas a&m marquez took a class that focused on the politics of environmental science discussing past and current epa projects and legislative impact
marquez (third student from right) and other interns meeting with epa administrator andrew wheeler (photo courtesy of lucero marquez)marquez in front of the epa headquarters (photo courtesy of lucero marquez)
reflecting on her internship experience she advises undergraduates to learn in the classroom and then to also do their best to apply that gained knowledge in the real world when she began at texas a&m as a meteorology major marquezs goal was to study weather and improve forecasting but her coursework soon helped her decide on studying climate change and environmental policy it is a big field that needs people to step up needs people to be on the front line because it is a problem she said things need to be done and im just trying to see now where i can go to help in that cause currently marquez resides in austin and works as a modeling assessment specialist in the air permitting division of the texas commission on environmental quality by amanda hoth ‘21
watch: the international laboratory for high-resolution earth system predictionthe ihesp lab seeks to develop a new advanced modeling framework for high-resolution multiscale earth system predictionsoct 18 2019 video produced by the texas a&m division of research as the world comes to terms with extreme weather produced by climate change the scientists at the new international laboratory for high-resolution earth system prediction (ihesp) are creating an advanced modeling framework to improve long-term forecasting these models will convert detailed weather data into high-resolution multi-scale images at the global and regional scales the lab combines the expertise of three world-class institutions: qingdao pilot national laboratory for marine science and technology texas a&m university and the national center for atmospheric research dr ping chang professor of oceanography and atmospheric sciences and holder of the louis and elizabeth scherck chair in oceanography in the college of geosciences serves as ihesp director the ihesp lab seeks to develop a new advanced modeling framework for high-resolution multiscale earth system predictions and provide reliable information at both global and regional scales ihesp will establish texas a&m university as the leader in climate modeling said dr jack baldauf texas a&m senior associate vice president for research the new knowledge generated from this program will allow decision makers policy makers the ability to make informed decisions written in collaboration with the texas a&m division of research
video produced by the texas a&m division of research as the world comes to terms with extreme weather produced by climate change the scientists at the new international laboratory for high-resolution earth system prediction (ihesp) are creating an advanced modeling framework to improve long-term forecasting these models will convert detailed weather data into high-resolution multi-scale images at the global and regional scales the lab combines the expertise of three world-class institutions: qingdao pilot national laboratory for marine science and technology texas a&m university and the national center for atmospheric research dr ping chang professor of oceanography and atmospheric sciences and holder of the louis and elizabeth scherck chair in oceanography in the college of geosciences serves as ihesp director the ihesp lab seeks to develop a new advanced modeling framework for high-resolution multiscale earth system predictions and provide reliable information at both global and regional scales ihesp will establish texas a&m university as the leader in climate modeling said dr jack baldauf texas a&m senior associate vice president for research the new knowledge generated from this program will allow decision makers policy makers the ability to make informed decisions written in collaboration with the texas a&m division of research
scott gifford awarded society of independent professional earth scientists foundation scholarshipgifford is a graduate student in the department of geology and geophysicsoct 17 2019scott giffordscott gifford a masters degree student in the texas a&m university department of geology and geophysics was awarded $4 000 from the marvolene speed bennett and carleton d speed jr endowed fund by the society of independent professional earth scientists (sipes) foundation the sipes foundation selected five outstanding earth science and engineering students to receive scholarship awards this year giffords research is focused on sequence stratigraphy of the eagle ford and woodbine groups in the east texas basin and his faculty advisors are dr mike pope and dr art donovan the society of independent professional earth scientists is a national organization of more than 900 self-employed geologists geophysicists and engineers engaged primarily in domestic energy exploration and development since its founding in 1981 the sipes foundation has awarded scholarships to 254 promising earth science and engineering students the sipes foundation also conducts educational seminars contributes funding to earth science publications and continuing education programs and maintains a library of earth science films by ali snell
scott gifford a masters degree student in the texas a&m university department of geology and geophysics was awarded $4 000 from the marvolene speed bennett and carleton d speed jr endowed fund by the society of independent professional earth scientists (sipes) foundation the sipes foundation selected five outstanding earth science and engineering students to receive scholarship awards this year giffords research is focused on sequence stratigraphy of the eagle ford and woodbine groups in the east texas basin and his faculty advisors are dr mike pope and dr art donovan the society of independent professional earth scientists is a national organization of more than 900 self-employed geologists geophysicists and engineers engaged primarily in domestic energy exploration and development since its founding in 1981 the sipes foundation has awarded scholarships to 254 promising earth science and engineering students the sipes foundation also conducts educational seminars contributes funding to earth science publications and continuing education programs and maintains a library of earth science films by ali snell
in this handout image provided by nasa/jpl-caltech/msss a color image from nasas curiosity rovers mast camera shows part of the wall of gale crater the location on mars where the rover landed august 5 2012 on mars (image by nasa via getty images)
baldauf named texas a&m associate vp for research yang serving as interim associate dean for researchjack baldauf will serve as senior associate vice president for research at texas a&m and ping yang will serve as the college of geosciences interim associate dean for researchoct 9 2019dr jack baldaufdr ping yangafter serving as executive associate dean and associate dean for research in the texas a&m university college of geosciences for the past nine years dr jack baldauf has been named senior associate vice president for research and is now located in the texas a&m division of research in this role jack will provide leadership for our international programs space and environmental initiatives faculty development and recognition and strategic research planning said dr mark a barteau vice president for research at texas a&m before serving in his most recent position as college of geosciences executive associate dean and associate dean for research baldauf served in several roles including deputy director and manager of science operations for the integrated ocean drilling program and the ocean drilling program (now the international ocean discovery program) dr baldaufs gift for building teams and his talent for establishing interdisciplinary connections has elevated the entire research enterprise of the college and has led to major research initiatives across campus said dr debbie thomas dean of the college of geosciences we are exceedingly grateful for his energy vision and follow through and we are exceptionally proud that his talents are broadly recognized by campus leadership and throughout the geosciences community dr ping yang professor of atmospheric sciences and holder of the david bullock harris chair in geosciences will serve as the college of geosciences interim associate dean for research through april 30 2020 dr yangs superlative record of scholarship combined with his deep experience previously serving the college as department head of atmospheric sciences will be invaluable to us all and we are exceedingly grateful for his leadership thomas said a search advisory committee will conduct an internal search for the next associate dean for research in the spring of 2020 by leslie lee 09