alumni reception - Syracuse Universe Department of Earth Sciences ...

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Meet the Department’s Newest Faculty Member Dr. Zunli Lu Returning to up-state New York as a faculty member at SU is unexpected for me, but this only adds a great amount of excitement to this new job. During my PhD study at the University of Rochester, I interacted with both faculty and former students in the SU Department of Earth Sciences and all of the happy memories do make me feel that I am coming back home. I look forward to the formal start of my career at SU in January 2011! My interests in ocean chemistry, crustal fluids, global climate changes, and the carbon cycle will guide my research projects in the near future. I am currently investigating how the global ocean became oxygen-depleted during Mesozoic climate warming (Oceanic Anoxic Events). It will be an important part of my research activities at SU to understand oceanic redox changes in the context of climate and evolution. Zunli Lu standing in front of Oxford University and the Ghost Forest: tree stumps that traveled from Ghana to Oxford. To make this and other lines of research possible, SU has generously agreed to set up a state-of-the-art clean lab and to provide funds for purchasing an ICP- MS. Both facilities are good additions to the current strength of geochemistry in our department, particularly the new TIMS in Scott Samson’s lab. Teaching is as valuable as research. I will teach Aqueous Geochemistry and will be happy to teach other classes related to climate and oceanography. In all of these courses, I will emphasize the connections between sub-disciplines of Earth Sciences as much as possible. Like many other scientists, I benefited from this type of training in terms of stimulating research ideas and interests. More importantly, it helped me to learn the delicate balances ubiquitously present in the natural environment where we all reside. I am actively preparing for a smooth set-up of the lab and teaching with lots of fun in January. When I wrote on Facebook that I plan to move to Syracuse in the New Year, someone said to me:”are you nuts?” No, not really. I know what a Syracuse winter is like, but I also know the department will be warm! Zunli at the ICPMS Lab at Oxford
SU LAVA Project In a fusion of science and art, Dr. Jeffrey Karson (Earth Sciences) is collaborating with SU Sculptor Dr. Bob Wysocki (Art Department), to make basaltic lava flows right here in Syracuse. Since early 2010 they have been melting basalt and pouring lava flows a few feet across. This is the only academic setting in which basaltic lava flows are being created on a natural scale. morphologies commonly found in natural lava flows, including sheet flows, levied flows, ropey pahoehoe, hyaloclastite, etc. They provide an interesting and informative perspective on natural flows, numerical models and analog experiments. The flows draw excited crowds to the SU foundry at the ComArt Bldg. Get a glimpse of one of these events at: http:// earthsciences.syr.edu/Research/TectonicsOceanLitho/ TectonicsOceanLithoReasearch.html. The experiments focus on key parameters that determine the final morphology of flows. In Geology 101 everyone learns about the blocky “aa” and smooth “pahoehoe” forms of lava typical of Hawaiian eruptions. But many other forms occur in nature, and the forms reflect differences in physical processes during their eruptions. Perhaps the most widespread, but rarely seen, type of lava flow on Earth is pillow lava that covers the seafloor and is erupted along the mid-ocean ridges. Only carefully controlled experiments will link lava shapes to their composition, temperature, flow rate, slope, vesicle and crystal density, etc. Using only basaltic material (so far) they have made multiple lava flows over rock slabs, sand, ice, dry ice, and into water. Flow rates and slopes have also been varied. The results show a wide range of Drs. Karson & Wysocki plan a cross disciplinary class for both science and art students to explore the physical properties and aesthetics of lava for Spring 2011.
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Page 3 and 4: GRADUATE STUDENTS James Andrew Bear
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Page 15 and 16: advisor, Professor Linda Ivany, and
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Page 23 and 24: illion year time-scales. As a potas
Page 25 and 26: FACULTY RESEARCH Suzanne Baldwin An
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