A unique lab class: UW students explore nation’s largest dam removal

Students on the Barnes

The Friday Harbor Laboratories, located on the remote shores of the San Juan Islands, provide a unique setting for students to live and breathe marine research. This spring, a group of students from several different colleges and universities participated in one of the labs’ apprenticeships looking at the effects of the Elwha Dam removal on the Strait of Juan de Fuca’s marine environment. 

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Seattle 2100: Apocalypse or Utopia?

Seattle in the future

A changing climate is sure to alter the world and our region as we know it. Some of those changes are known, some of them unknown. On the heels of the recent National Climate Assessment, Seattle Weekly’s Kelton Sears visited the Climate Impact Group here at the College of the Environment and spoke with Lara Whitely Binder, CIG’s outreach specialist, to find out what’s in store for Seattle’s future. 

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College scientists elected to the WA State Academy of Sciences

Washington State Academy of Sciences logo

The Washington State Academy of Sciences has elected 18 new members to their ranks this year, including several that work in or closely with the College of the Environment. The organization is charged with providing expert scientific and engineering analysis to inform public policy-making, and works to increase the role and visibility of science in the State of Washington. Among those elected from the College of the Environment are Andre Punt, professor and director of the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences; Eric D’Asaro, professor in the School of Oceanography and the Applied Physics Lab; and Bradley Colman, affiliate professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences. 

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Oso disaster had its roots in earlier landslides

An aerial view of the slide site at Oso, Washington.

An interdisciplinary team of risk analysis experts, engineers, and scientists — including Earth and Spaces Sciences’ David Montgomery — released a report on Tuesday offering details about the Oso landslide that happened earlier this year. The  report focuses on observations and data collection where the landslide occurred, reviews nearby geologic conditions and land-use and landslide risk assessments, and collects eyewitness accounts of the disaster. 

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Geophysicists prep for massive ‘ultrasound’ of Mount St. Helens

The crater of Mount St. Helens.

Scientists are gearing up to get started in earnest this weekend on a massive collaborative effort to map the internal plumbing of Mount St. Helens. The College of the Environment’s Department of Earth and Space Sciences is playing a major role–lead by professor Kenneth Creager–along with numerous other institutions. The researcher’s goal is to better understand the inner workings of the mountain and other volcanoes in the Cascade Range as in order to better protect nearby urban areas. 

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