News: EAS

A comet once thought to be a quiet dirty snowball cruising through the solar system becomes quite active when seen up close. Read more

Graduate student Paul Morgan and Professor Rick Allmendinger discuss craters in a Chilean desert that preserve the trajectories of giant rocks, allowing scientists to study the physics of rockslides. There’s a place in Chile’s Atacama Desert where trails of depressions punctuate the fine chusca dust. But what might seem like the footsteps left by a giant creature are in fact exquisitely preserved evidence of boulders that tumbled down a nearby cliff face before bouncing to their final resting place. The site, the Chuculay Boulder Field, is home to thousands of granite goliaths, some as big as... Read more

Cornell geologists, examining the desolate Vavilov ice cap on the northern fringe of Siberia in the Arctic Circle, have for the first time observed the rapid ice loss from an improbable new river of ice, according to new work in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. “This glacier went from doing basically nothing to doing something very unusual – evolving into an ice stream,” said Matthew Pritchard, professor of earth and atmospheric sciences and a fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. Could the stream be a result of climate change? Yes, Pritchard said, as a portion of... Read more

“In California, there is a strong element of climate change, but much of the problem also stems from land use, such as people building houses in ecosystems that traditionally burn regularly in the chaparral ecosystem of Los Angeles County,” Prof. Natalie M. Mahowald, earth and environmental sciences, said. “The current wildfires in California are certainly consistent with the expectations of a warming climate leading to increasing drought conditions in the western U.S.,” Brown said. According to Prof. Peter Hess, biological and environmental engineering, California is often struck by wildfires... Read more

"On Monday, the Trump administration officially notified the United Nation of the United States’ intention to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, a pact signed by over 200 countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, triggering a host of criticism from Cornell professors," including Bruce Monger (EAS). Read more

Motion of the Ocean Prof. Bruce Monger thinks that he has “the best job in the world.” Monger teaches BIOEE 1540: Introductory Oceanography, one of the largest classes at Cornell with over 1,000 students and 40 teaching assistants. The class “started small.” said Monger, but then enrollment began to climb. “One hundred and thirty, then it was 230 then 330,” Monger said. “I went from a couple-hundred-seat room in Olin Hall to Call Auditorium in Kennedy Hall then that one filled up. Now I moved it to Bailey Hall and [I teach] a little over a thousand students.” “Even though it’s a giant room you... Read more

We are seeking Ph.D. students to work on the following projects to begin in the Fall of 2020 in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University. Please contact the faculty listed below for more information. Please click here for the most up-to-date list of opportunities. Atmospheric Sciences: Prof. Peter Hitchcock ( aph28@cornell.edu) is seeking a student to work on large-scale atmospheric dynamics related to stratosphere-troposphere interactions in the tropics. Experimental petrology/geochemistry: Potential areas of research include investigations of planetary redox... Read more

From the Cornell Chronicle: In New York City, the students – participating in Cornell’s Global Climate Change Science and Policy class – met with Tonga’s Mahe Tupouniua, secretary of foreign affairs; T. Suka Mangisi, deputy chief of mission; Rose Kautoke, assistant crown council; and Siosiua Utoi’kamanu, Tonga’s representative for the U.N.’s Law of the Sea convention. The Global Climate Change Science and Policy class is taught by Natalie Mahowald, the Irving Porter Church Professor in Engineering; Allison Chatrchyan, senior research associate and director of the Cornell Institute for Climate... Read more

Twenty-four faculty members, representing six colleges and the Cornell University Library, make up the 2019-20 cohort of the Engaged Faculty Fellowship Program. Read more

Danielle Eiseman was one of four recipients of this year's Postdoc Achievement Awards, co-sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, as part of Cornell’s celebration of National Postdoc Appreciation Week. She was awarded the Excellence in Community Engagement Award and a $500 prize. Photo by Chris Kitchen. Read more