major typhoon struck Taiwan in August of 2009, producing 2.6 me-ters of rain in a 3 day period. Landslides and debris flows which oc-curred during this ty-phoon exposed new out-crops and revealed fault systems that went previ-ously unrecognized. Tim, Chung, and Dave will be returning to Tai-wan this June for the Western Pacific Geo-physics Meeting to pre-sent their most recent findings.

(see photos below)

Professor Tim Byrne and graduate students Chung Huang (PhD) and David Mirakian (MS) are part of an ongoing research project studying the detailed structural geology of Taiwan. Fieldwork was con-ducted for 6 weeks in January and February of 2010. Taiwan is a mountainous island roughly 400km long and 150km wide off the southeast coast of China which has formed as a result of an actively evolving arc-continent collision. With some of the highest tectonic up-

lift rates, erosion rates, and seismicity in the world, Taiwan attracts a great deal of interest from geologists. Re-search was conducted in two study areas across the island in the Hsuehshan and Central Range where some mountain peaks climb to 4000 meters. Field data on active faults and other tectonic structures was collected in major watersheds to recon-st ruct incremental changes in kinematics and deformational styles across two colli-sional zones. A

GRAD STUDENTS IN TAIWAN

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT

APRIL 9TH, 2010 VOLUME 6, ISSUE 7

GEOSCIENCES NEWSLETTER

IN THE NEWS FOR

GEOSCIENCES:

• Rare earth minerals are not actu-ally rare, but if China has anything to say about it, they may become scarce in the near future, experts say. And that could pose real prob-lems for the U.S.’ high-tech indus-tries that rely on the metals, includ-ing everything from hybrid cars to renewable energy to computers and mobile phones. But in March, rare earth experts testifying before the U.S. House of Representatives said that there is a way to avoid this potential shortage: Reopen a long-idle U.S. mine—Molycorp’s Moun-tain Pass mine in California.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE :

ANNOUNCEMENTS 2

EVENTS 3

EPOD 4

GEOTRIVIA 5

CALI QUAKE 6

GeoClub 5

Denise Burchsted re-ceived the the AWG "Lone Star Rising Ca-reer Scholarship," of $1000, which she re-quested to use toward the reinstatement fees for her Professional En-gineer (PE) license. Congrats Denise! 2010 GSA Annual Meeting: October 31—November 3, Denver CO.

http://www.geosociety.org/

meetings/2010/ AGU is looking for pro-posals for the 2010 Horton (Hydrology) Research Grant. This is a grant for PhD candidates doing research in hydrology and water resources. The awards are $10,000, and the winners get featured in Eos and receive travel

grants to travel to the Fall Meeting - AGU h t t p : / / w w w. a g u . o r g /educat ion/grants/pdf /HortonRGApp_2010.pdf

End of Semester Information: Friday April 30th—Last Day of Spring Semester Classes! Monday May 3rd—Saturday May 8th: Final Ex-ams. Check out the online schedule:

http://adastrarpt.prod.uconn.edu/reports/exams/STORRS_1103/finals.htm

Sunday May 9th: Undergraduate Commencement! *Note Geoscience graduation is the ceremony #2, at 4:30pm!

Please join us for this seminar on Thursday, April 15, 2010 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Student Union Theatre.

Engineering team members who worked at Hamilton Standard

In recognition of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 13 Mission, The NASA Connecti-cut Space Grant Con-sortium and the UConn School of En-gineering present "Connecticut, We Have a Problem."

during the Apollo 13 mission will speak about Hamilton Stan-dard's role in rescuing the astronauts.

ANNOUNCEMENTS, AWARDS, PUBLICATIONS, ETC. . .

NASA APOLLO 13 PRESENTATION

PAGE 2 GEOSCIENCES NEWSLETTER

For additional informa-tion, please contact Diane Perko at 6-

2429 or via e-mail dianep@engr.ucon

n.edu.

Fan palm fossil from Fossil Butte National Monument.

Some photos of the stu-dents who were on the GSCI 3990 trip the Grand Canyon!

SPRING BREAK FIELD TRIP

PAGE 3 VOLUME 6, ISSUE 7

SCHEDULE OF

EVENTS

• Marine Science Seminar Series Dr. Christophe Sher-wood, USGS ‘Sediment Transport Studies’ Friday May 7th, 3:00pm Marine Sciences Building Avery Point.

**Keep your eyes open for talks from potential Geomor-phololgy candidates coming to interview in May or June! **

SCHEDULE OF

EVENTS

DEPARTMENTAL

SEMINARS

• Geoscience Seminars take place on Tuesdays at 4:00pm in Beach 233 (not all weeks, please look for sched-ule)

• EEB seminars take place on most Thursdays at 4:00pm in BPB 130.

• Physics seminars take place on most Fridays at 4:00pm in Physics build-ing P038.

• Chemistry seminars take place Wednesdays at 4:00pm in Chem A203.

• MCB seminars take place on most Tuesdays at 4:00pm in BPB130.

• ENVE seminars take place on Fri-days at 12 noon in CAST 212.

• Marine Science seminars take place on Fridays at 3:00pm at the Avery Point campus in room 103. *Seminars students are interested in? We can see about setting up a webcam to cast the seminar here in the Beach Hall library.

Braided stream at Mt. McKinley

EPOD from 3/14/2010

The San Andreas Fault is generally considered a boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. Maps often show plate boundaries as distinct, narrow lines; however, nature is seldom so simple. Geologists have discovered dozens of less well-known faults that parallel the San Andreas Fault and absorb some of the offset of the plates. One of the faults that parallel the San Andreas in the San Francisco Bay area of California is the Hayward Fault. It can be traced by a variety of fault related features above the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay. Earthquakes are often caused by sudden movement along geologic faults. But movement along fault surfaces can also occur slowly, which is called fault creep.

Memorial Stadium on the University of California Berkeley campus was completed in 1923. This structure is bisected by the Hayward Fault, which is slowly wrenching the stadium apart at a rate of 1/20 in (1.2 mm) per year. Over the years several large cracks have opened in the walls of the stadium including the opening shown here that’s bridged by a metal plate. Offset is also apparent in the floor below the seats as shown by the white arrow. A multi-million dollar renovation project has begun that will repair and reinforce this structure, help to prevent further seismic damage and help protect people in and near the stadium in the very real possibility of a major earthquake. Photo taken on February 11, 2010.Photographer: Tom McGuire

EARTH SCIENCE PICTURE OF THE DAY

PAGE 4 GEOSCIENCES NEWSLETTER

President—Catie Thorne

Secretary—Regina Graziano

Treasurer—Steve Lavoie

Advisor—Abi Hastillo

:

Meetings are held every Wednesday evening at 7:00pm in Beach Hall 233 (our library).

Anyone is welcome to join, so come check us out!

The club gave another shortened Haiti Earth-quake talk on 4/2 as part of a presentation on Haiti culture.

Coming up? A possible

f i e l d trip to do some rock and mineral collecting locally in April!

Stay tuned for new officer voting that will be coming

out via email before the end of April.

Come to meetings or check out our website

• 3D Geologic Map This geologic map allows viewers to see the geol-ogy in three dimensions (3-D). They created an overlay of the new geo-logic map of the St. George 30' x 60' quad-rangle (the map is cur-rently in the final stages of review) that can be draped over the land-

• Desert Varnish: See microscopic pictures of minerals and bacteria associated with desert varnish. Films of bacte-ria can successfully withstand years of desic-cation!

http://www.highmars.org/niac/niac06a.html

scape on virtual globes such as Google Earth™.

http://geology.utah.gov/geo_guides/st_george/

index.htm

More to come next issue!

GEOCLUB NEWS AND EVENTS

GEO-WEBSITES

GEOSCIENCE CURRENTS AND GEO-TRIVIA plines have higher percent-ages of degree recipients with physical disabilities than other STEM disciplines: Geoscience, Oceanography, Geography, and Mining En-gineering. Read more in issue #21:

http://www.agiweb.org/

workforce/Currents/Currents-021-Disabilities.pdf

Fun with Geoscience Trivia

********************* 1. What kind of well is formed when groundwater flows to the surface under its own pressure in a bore hole? 2. What do you call a confining layer of geologic material along an aquifer that has little or no permeability or hydraulic con-ductivity? 3. What term is given to a natu-ral depression in the water table around a well during pumping?

Geoscience Currents #21 Science, technology, engi-neering, and mathematics (STEM) have relatively low percentages of bachelor de-gree recipients with physical disabilities. The average per-centage of bachelor degree recipients with physical dis-abilities in all geosciences degree elds (6.45%) is on par with other STEM elds.

Four geoscience subdisci-

PAGE 5 VOLUME 6, ISSUE 7

4. Whose equation forms the scientific basis for studying fluid movement through porous mate-rial? 5. What is the term for the level at which groundwater pressure is equal to atmospheric pressure, sometimes visualized as the "surface" of the groundwater in a given vicinity?

Get answers here:

http://www.geosociety.org/GSA_Connection/1003/

trivia.htm

for more info!

http://www.geosciences.uconn.e

du/geoclub.html

Also, Check out our Flickr Site with photos of GeoClub trips and mem-bers!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoclub/

GeoClub at Tory Cave Fall 2009

This part of Baja has ex-perienced numerous pow-erful earthquakes over the past 100 years, including a magnitude-7.0 that struck the region in 1892, and a magnitude-7.0 or -7.1 earthquake that oc-cured in 1915.

CALIFORNIA EARTHQUAKE

The Center for Integrative Geosciences mission is to offer transdisciplinary programs of instruction and research that advance understanding of the in-teraction of biological, chemical, geological, and physical processes, includ-ing feedback mechanisms, at all spatial and temporal scales that have shaped Earth through geologic time, continue to shape the environment today, and which provide the basis for understanding the present and future impact of

human activity on this planet.

We will be issuing these newsletters monthly throughout the academic year to keep associated students, staff, alumni, and faculty up-to-date

on the Center’s activities!

Center for Integrative Geosciences 354 Mansfield Road U-2045

Storrs, CT 06269 Phone: 860-486-4432 Fax: 860-486-1383

E-mail: geology@uconn.edu

Pieter T. Visscher—Director Abigail Hastillo—Program Assistant

UNIVERSITY OF

CONNECTICUT

North American Plate. USGS' Earthquake Haz-ards Program notes that the mainshock of Sun-day's quake likely oc-curred along a strike-slip segment of the plate boundary, the southeast-ern part of the Laguna Salada fault; however, there are several active faults in the region, and to determine whether this is indeed the fault that slipped, seismologists will need additional confirma-tion, such as evidence of surface rupture. The La-guna Salada fault zone extends from the Califor-nia-Mexico border into

A magnitude-7.2 earth-quake struck northern Baja California, Mexico, at about 3:40 p.m. local time Sunday, according to the U.S. Geological Sur-vey. At least two people were killed, several hun-dred were injured and thousands were without power as a result of the quake. Aftershocks as high as magnitude 5.0 have continued to rattle the region today.

The quake occurred along a highly seismically active plate boundary, where the Pacific Plate is moving northwest relative to the

northern Baja. The epi-center of the earthquake was shallow, only 10 kilo-meters deep, and was lo-cated about 26 kilometers southwest of the Mexican town of Guadalupe Victo-ria, and 167 kilometers east-southeast of Tijuana.

http://www.geosciences.uconn.edu