It may seem counterintuitive, but on the heels of the most recent IPCC report on our changing climate, Kyle Armour finds reasons for optimism. “The degree of climate change we’ll experience this century depends on our future greenhouse gas emissions, which depend on the collective choices we make. Our future is up to us,” says Armour. He posted his thoughts on Twitter when many headlines about the report’s findings were overwhelmingly grave.
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The National Science Foundation has funded a multi-institutional team led by Oregon State University and the University of Washington to work on increasing resiliency among Pacific Northwest coastal communities. The new Cascadia Coastlines and Peoples Hazards Research Hub will serve coastal communities in Northern California, Oregon and Washington. The hub’s multidisciplinary approach will span geoscience, social science, public policy and community partnerships.
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This week, a few members of the UW News team joined glaciologists from the UW Department of Earth & Space Sciences on a trip to Mt. Baker. Students that came along got a pop quiz on glaciology from their professor on the hike up, and learned about how the recent heat wave impacted the snow melt on the ice. Taryn Black, a PhD candidate in the department, led the hike and is featured in this video.
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Leveraging the tectonic laboratory of the Cascadia subduction zone, the University of Washington today announced a new effort to best understand how to study and live with the threats of earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanos, landslides and other seismic hazards. Dubbed the GeoHazards Initiative, the interdisciplinary work aims to develop and promote the adoption of early detection systems both on land and at sea to help prevent the loss of human life and property.
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When looking at a periodic table, potassium might not be the first element you’re drawn to – distracted instead by gold, copper or silver. But a new paper published in Science Advances suggests we should be paying more attention to this abundant substance. The study – with first author Yan Hu, a recent graduate student and postdoctoral researcher in the UW Department of Earth and Space Sciences and now at Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris – advances our ability to trace potassium isotopes at high precision, unleashing a suite of potential applications ranging from measuring past climates to further understanding ocean chemistry.
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