houck2040/artisci huggingface dataset:
the berg-hughes center partners with the crisman institute on an integrated research initiative to provide innovative solutions for the petroleum industryfeb 11 2016the crisman institute for petroleum research harold vance department of petroleum engineering college of engineering and the berg-hughes center for petroleum and sedimentary systems department of geology & geophysics college of geosciences have initiated a joint industry project production from unconventional oil and gas reservoirs has revolutionized the energy outlook for north america and the world and has placed texas as the number one producer in the country these resources are of vital economic and social importance to texas and the nation yet fundamental geoscience and engineering questions remain to be solved the joint industry project aims at developing predictive geologic reservoir simulation and fracture propagation models to help industry optimize field development this project will focus on two integrated data sets; one from the permian basin unconventional oil plays and the other from the eagleford/eaglebine oil play more than 25 faculty in both colleges have participated in designing the research program to date more than a dozen oil and gas companies have agreed to provide financial data and other support it is anticipated that additional texas a&m departments and corporate partners will join the project in the petroleum industry solutions are most often advanced by interdisciplinary teams through this innovative partnership faculty and graduate students in the geosciences petroleum engineering and other disciplines will work together to develop new solutionsber to build predictive models to solve complex problems associated with developing shale reservoirs for additional information please contact dr steve holditch (crisman institute; sholditch@petamuedu) or dr carlos dengo (berg-hughes center cdengo@tamuedu)
ping yang receives nasa exceptional scientific achievement medal dec 20 2017nasa has awarded a nasa exceptional scientific achievement medal to dr ping yang professor and department head of the department of atmospheric sciences and david bullock harris chair in geosciences yang accepted the recognition oct 31 at the nasa goddard space flight centers 2017 agency honor awards ceremony only six medals of this category were bestowed by nasa in 2017 this prestigious nasa medal is awarded to both government and non-government individuals for exceptional scientific contributions (specific concrete scientific achievements) toward achievement of the nasa mission the award is given for individual efforts that have resulted in a key scientific discovery or resulted in contribution(s) of fundamental importance in this field or significantly enhanced understanding of the field the college of geosciences commends yang for his tireless service to texas a&m university and to leading research that benefits the state nation and world
bowen in an iodp core repository housed at texas a&m and an example of what ocean core samples which are each several feet long look like in the iodp labs (photos courtesy of melanie bowen and iodp)
predicting droughts requires accurate data and this texas a&m team is helpingnov 28 2017drought-predicting computer models are not made just so that scientists can say i told you so when your favorite lake runs low from agriculture to infrastructure to tourism major sectors of the economy need a heads-up on what weather conditions are coming down the pipethese vitally needed models run on input data and two texas a&m university experts are working to improve the precipitation data fed into models which will in turn help federal agencies such as the national oceanographic and atmospheric administrations (noaa) research line office and national weather service (nws) better predict and prepare for droughts dr brent mcroberts research assistant professor in the texas a&m department of geography has received a grant from noaas modeling analysis predictions and projections (mapp) program in partnership with the national integrated drought information system (nidis) the newly funded project improving the drought monitoring capabilities of land surface models by integrating bias-corrected gridded precipitation estimates will be led by mcroberts with co-investigator dr john nielsen-gammon texas state climatologist and regents professor in texas a&ms department of atmospheric sciences as part of this new project the research team will participate in noaas mapp drought task force working with other mapp-funded scientists on related projects to rapidly advance project objectives the team will be using the grant funds to improve drought monitoring by integrating reliable high-resolution precipitation information into land surface models land surface models are critical in our ability to assess future drought conditions so that we can properly allocate water resources said mcroberts precipitation is one of the most important variables driving land surface models so it is essential to have confidence that the precipitation is accurately depicted drought has and continues to cause serious social and economic impacts throughout the united states according to the noaa national centers for environmental information a single drought event costs the us about $97 billion on average from agricultural and drinking water supplies to infrastructure health ecosystems and energy costs drought negatively affects myriad sectors and regions "high resolution and accurate precipitation can help improve operational us drought monitoring and potentially improve our drought prediction capability especially over arid and semi-arid regions in the western and southwestern parts of the us " said mike ek deputy director of noaa's environmental modeling center within the national weather service through the new national drought resilience partnership as well as nidis and its regional drought early warning systems (dews) noaa working with interagency and academic colleagues strives to improve the countrys capacity to manage drought-related risks and mitigate impacts by providing the best available information and tools investing in research to improve drought monitoring directly supports this mission dr brent mcroberts and dr john nielsen-gammon
texas a&ms andrew dessler named a fellow of aaasnov 21 2017dr andrew dessler of texas a&m university has been named a fellow of the american association for the advancement of science (aaas)dessler is a professor in the department of atmospheric sciences and the earl f cook professor of geosciences at texas a&m election as a aaas fellow is an honor bestowed upon aaas members by their peers this year 396 members have been awarded this honor by aaas because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications new fellows will be honored feb 17 at the aaas fellows forum during the 2018 aaas annual meeting in austin as part of the atmospheric and hydrospheric sciences aaas section dessler was elected as an aaas fellow for outstanding research in atmospheric chemistry and physics teaching writing and community service we are so proud that dr desslers profound contributions to atmospheric and climate science are being honored by the aaas said dr debbie thomas interim dean of the college of geosciences at texas a&m this distinction truly is a fitting affirmation of his impact on the field the tradition of aaas fellows began in 1874 currently members can be considered for the rank of fellow if nominated by the steering groups of the associations 24 sections or by any three fellows who are current aaas members (so long as two of the three sponsors are not affiliated with the nominees institution) or by the aaas chief executive officer the council is the policymaking body of the association chaired by the aaas president and consisting of the members of the board of directors the retiring section chairs delegates from each electorate and each regional division and two delegates from the national association of academies of science the american association for the advancement of science (aaas) is the worlds largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal science aaas is a non-profit founded in 1848 and includes nearly 250 affiliated societies and academies of science serving 10 million individuals aaas mission is to advance science and serve society by leslie lee '09 dr andrew dessler
undergraduate oceanography students on a research cruise in galveston bay aboard the rv trident on nov 4
researchers on the r/v point sur manage water sampling equipment photo courtesy of dr jason sylvan
volunteers bring the geosciences to texas a&m chemistry open houseoct 26 2017the texas a&m university department of chemistry hosted the 30th annual chemistry open house and science exploration gallery oct 21 at texas a&mfaculty and student volunteers from the college of geosciences at texas a&m joined in the annual open house showcasing the american chemistry societys theme for its 2017 event chemistry rocks! thousands of attendees from around the region took part in interactive geosciences demonstrations such as why tap water tastes like alka seltzer hurricanes and atmospheric chemistry space rocks ocean acidification conductivity and heat capacity! im so grateful to our team – their contributions as the inaugural group of geosciences chemistry open house volunteers are inspiring said dr debbie thomas professor and interim dean of the college their efforts are a beautiful example of our commitment to sharing geosciences with young students and helping empower lifelong learners to deepen their knowledge of the world in which they live college of geosciences volunteers educated participants at the chemistry open house college of geosciences outreach volunteers included: dr j brian balta visiting professor of petrology in the department of geology and geophysics; graduate students brandon geddie matthew couchman and undergraduate students samantha bowers rigoberto godinez javier romero and tamara dorgu dr ethan l grossman professor and michel t halbouty chair in the department of geology and geophysics; and post-doctoral scholar dr will defliese and graduate student meagan depugh dr chrissy stover wiederwohl instructional assistant professor in the department of oceanography; and graduate students veronica ruiz xomchuk alyssa alsante noura randle ruby schaufler and elise wilbourn dr renyi zhang university distinguished professor of atmospheric sciences harold j haynes chair in geosciences and professor of chemistry in the college of science; and graduate students bowen pan jiaxi hu jeremiah secrest yixin li and yun li view more photos from the event by leslie lee volunteers from the college of geosciences educating participants at the 2017 chemistry open house at texas a&m photo by elise wilbourn
college of geosciences outreach volunteers included: dr j brian balta visiting professor of petrology in the department of geology and geophysics; graduate students brandon geddie matthew couchman and undergraduate students samantha bowers rigoberto godinez javier romero and tamara dorgu dr ethan l grossman professor and michel t halbouty chair in the department of geology and geophysics; and post-doctoral scholar dr will defliese and graduate student meagan depugh dr chrissy stover wiederwohl instructional assistant professor in the department of oceanography; and graduate students veronica ruiz xomchuk alyssa alsante noura randle ruby schaufler and elise wilbourn dr renyi zhang university distinguished professor of atmospheric sciences harold j haynes chair in geosciences and professor of chemistry in the college of science; and graduate students bowen pan jiaxi hu jeremiah secrest yixin li and yun li view more photos from the event by leslie lee
volunteers from the college of geosciences educating participants at the 2017 chemistry open house at texas a&m photo by elise wilbourn
dr gerald north kristian siem and austin heider college of geosciences 2017 award recipients
top: lauren replogle texas a&m university; malarie obrien coastal carolina university bottom: katie david tulane university; patrick saylor dartmouth university photo courtesy of the us navy
the freshwater plume from gavleston bay black lines depict the shipping channel top data are wind and tide data image credit: dr kristen thyng
eight tabs buoys collect data in the gulf of mexico photo courtesy of gerg
harvey could knock-out power for 125 million texans texas a&m expert saysaug 24 2017as the middle texas coast braces for hurricane harveys landfall forecast models show that the storm could leave at least 125 million texans without powerour model is forecasting that a significant number of utility customers along the middle texas coast and south central texas including corpus christi san antonio and victoria will experience outages said dr brent mcroberts of texas a&m universitys department of geography in the college of geosciences who is part of the research team that runs the model the national hurricane center (nhc) updated harvey to a hurricane thursday describing the storm as intensifying rapidly and predicting its landfall near rockport texas just north of corpus christi either late friday evening or early saturday morning storm surge high winds and flooding are likely called the spatially generalized hurricane outage prediction model the research teams model uses nhc hurricane data such as eye location and wind speed and duration along with environmental variables for each location – elevation land cover soil moisture drought indices tree and vegetation characteristics and population densities to compute a statistical outage forecast power outages are often highly correlated with wind speed mcroberts said the models latest prediction shows approximately 420 000 power customers losing power which would total 125 million total people affected in those residences typically hurricane-related outages are caused by downed power lines which result from strong winds or trees getting entangled with the lines he explained strong winds will blow over both the powerlines and the trees the forecast model has been developed over a decade at texas a&m the university of michigan and johns hopkins university and the research team now includes mcroberts dr seth guikema and sara shashaani of the university of michigan and dr steven quiring of the ohio state university texas utilities use the research teams forecast to prepare for tropical storms and hurricanes and following the storms they then provide the research team with the actual outage data which the team uses to refine and improve the model its a mutually beneficial relationship that helps the utilities keep residents and businesses informed and also helps the researchers keep the model accurate mcroberts said before hurricane sandy caused devastating damage in october 2012 the model accurately predicted the number of power outages it would cause in the us he said and the team has continued to refine and improve it since for up-to-date power outage forecasts see the models website which is updated about every 6 hours with the latest data and for more detailed information about the model see this journal article by: leslie lee outage forecast based on the national hurricane center official track and intensity forecast
outage forecast based on the national hurricane center official track and intensity forecast
renovations of dudley hughes '51 lecture hallaug 23 2017this summer the department of geology and geophysics has been overseeing the renovation of the dudley hughes 51 lecture hall also known as room 101 within the halbouty geosciences buildingtexas a&m university and the department of geology and geophysics invested a million dollars into the renovation that will include making the room look nearly as it did when the building underwent original construction including a decorative stenciled ceiling the media in the lecture hall will also undergo an update during the renovation the halbouty building originally named the petroleum engineering and geology building was constructed in 1932 the buildings intricate and highly ornate architectural details include tile mosaics and cast stone sculptural details typical of designs by samuel c p vosper who designed 10 of the original texas a&m campus buildings the building features castings of seashells pebble mosaics and recessed doors with iron grillwork a heroic panel over the side entrance symbolizes petroleum exploration while mexican tile adorns the buildings front exterior other cast stone figures and mosaics in the building also reflect mexican architecture the original t-shaped building had a central tower with an octagonal art-deco dome that disguised a water tank used to maintain pressure in the campus heating system the building underwent massive renovations in 1972 when the tower was removed for safety reasons and a 60 000-square-foot addition to the building was completed the building was renamed as the geosciences building in 1977 for michel t halbouty class of 1930 a successful geologist and petroleum engineer in 1997 the dudley hughes 51 lecture hall underwent renovations which included the addition of modern educational technologies such as a smart lectern and surround sound now twenty years after the most recent renovation to the lecture hall every effort is being made to preserve the historical characteristic of the room including the beautiful stained glass windows that depict mineral classes and other characteristics that were hidden during the last renovation this renovation will end before classes begin this fall 2017 semester the department of geology and geophysics will host a re-dedication ceremony of the dudley hughes 51 lecture hall on september 29 2017 at 4 pm during the department open house to rsvp for the re-dedication ceremony please click here please click here to view pictures of the halbouty building and how it has changed over time (photos courtesy of the texas a&m cushing library and spirit magazine) image of the michel t halbouty building
center for tectonophysics' 50th anniversaryaug 22 2017october 2017 marks the 50th anniversary for the center for tectonophysicsthe center for tectonophysics is an interdisciplinary research group initiated in 1967 for dual purposes: to undertake basic and applied research of both natural and induced rock deformation processes and the broad range of geologic structures formed and to provide research support training and mentoring of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows pursuing advanced studies in the area of tectonophysics the john w handin laboratory for experimental rock deformation is the centerpiece of the research program and provides a variety of experimental systems allowing study of deformation and transport behavior of rock at physical and chemical states simulating surface to upper mantle conditions the laboratory is equipped with more than a dozen testing machines to deform rock and measure physical properties controlled environment chambers sensors and digital data acquisition systems a rock repository sample preparation equipment and a machine shop graduate students visiting scientists research scientists and faculty use the laboratory for research and teaching activities the center also manages the mel friedman petrofabrics laboratory and sowers library to support teaching and research activities the friedman laboratory is dedicated to the study of deformation textures of naturally and experimentally deformed rocks to celebrate the many achievements in education research and service over the past 50 years the center will host a variety of activities over the 2017-2018 academic year more information about the celebration and center for tectonophysics is at their website: https://tectonotamuedu/ graduate students with dr fredrick chester dr judith chester dr ben duan dr patrick fulton and dr hiroko kitajima on a field trip while at the southern california earthquake center (scec) for an annual meeting
graduate students with dr fredrick chester dr judith chester dr ben duan dr patrick fulton and dr hiroko kitajima on a field trip while at the southern california earthquake center (scec) for an annual meeting
2017 geologic field campaug 21 2017the largest geologic field camp in department history occurred this past summerthe 2017 geologic field camp had 75 students participating in the montana dorm field camp and 22 students in each of the two traveling field camps coming to a grand total of almost 120 undergraduate students completing their field camp this summer students mapped the geology around dillon montana for four weeks while the traveling field camps also completed maps in utah our undergraduate students utilize various geologic mapping techniques such as taking strikes and dips utilizing steronets taking bearings and more we give a special thanks to the support of chevron as they provided student scholarships to make field camp more affordable click here to check out these pictures of the 2017 the montana field camp (taken by dr patrick fulton and teaching assistant cristina figueroa) student taking strike and dip of rock unit during montana geologic field camp (photo credit: dr patrick fulton)
student taking strike and dip of rock unit during montana geologic field camp (photo credit: dr patrick fulton)
clock-wise from top-left: (1) a section of sediment core from lake gervais with conspicuous annual laminations (light & dark bands) (2) divya seen taking a frost-bitter slab from one of the recovered cores (3) graduate students coring at lake gervais little canada mn (4) phd student divya at dead fish lake fond du lac reservation with incipient wild rice growth