Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota

Congrats Class of 2024! We're so proud of you and all of your accomplishments!

The Polar Geospatial Center (PGC) at the University of Minnesota (UMN) - Twin Cities is seeking a current UMN Graduate student in GIS or related fields to join the User Services team. Specific skills and workflows will be taught on the job, and opportunities for professional development and travel are available.

As a PGC Grad RA you will develop proficiency in GIS, remote sensing techniques, project management, and science support while building valuable connections in the polar science community and beyond.

Learn more by visiting: https://www.pgc.umn.edu/careers/student-position-available-graduate-research-assistant-summer-2024/

Reminder! Register today to present at the 2024 Earth Student Research Symposium co-hosted by and at Tate Hall! Abstracts are due March 15th.

A former ESCI Ph.D. Student (Advisor: Emeritus prof Calvin Alexander), Greg Brick, found evidence of an ancient glacial lake in Highland park! How cool!

Underground explorer Greg Brick finds evidence of an ancient glacial lake in St. Paul St. Paul native digs into city’s prehistoric past by splashing around in caves, hiking through ravines and sloshing in sewers.

Register today to present at the 2024 Earth Student Research Symposium co-hosted by and at Tate Hall! Abstracts are due March 15th.

The PGC and User Services Manager, Cole Kelleher, were featured in the latest Research Impact story developed by the University of Minnesota’s Research & Innovation Office. These impact stories are a useful way to inform the public and community about the unique work done by the PGC and the enriching environment at the University of Minnesota as a top public research institution.

“There’s no group in the US doing what we do or at the breadth of what we do in terms of mapping and using high resolution, commercial satellite imagery. And on top of that, we make products that are ultimately a primary resource to the polar science and logistics community. We’re now collaborating with supercomputers and have moved into application development to further advance the use of our products and services by the polar community.”

Read the full article at https://research.umn.edu/news/umns-polar-geospatial-center-provides-support-research-ends-earth.

Many thanks to Shashank Priya and the Research & Innovation Office team for the opportunity to focus on the PGC.

It's Give to the Max Day! All funds raised for ESCI will go towards relieving our students taking “Standards and Practices for Professional Geoscientists” of a large burden, allowing them to complete vital training and exams without additional cost.

Donate at z.umn.edu/esciGTMD23

Save the date for this school year's Earth Student Research Symposium! 4/5/2024!

Join us today in honoring Alumna Dr. Julie Stein who received a UMN Outstanding Achievement Award in 2020. Julie's award ceremony and lecture were delayed due to the pandemic and we are happy to be able to finally host her this evening at 4pm in 412 Pillsbury (the old attic space turned beautiful seminar room). Her talk is titled "Geoarchaeology of the San Juan Islands, Washington: Then and Now" Please join us if you are able!

We had a blast in the traveling photo booth during our graduation reception! 🎓😁

Congratulations to our graduating students!🎓 We were excited to celebrate with a department ceremony and reception last Friday!

We were excited to carve time out of our busy spring schedules to welcome Alumni into Tate hall to learn more about the state of the department, meet new(er) faculty and get insight into the pivotal work they do, and tour some of our world class lab spaces! This was an event to mark the beginning of our ESCI Alumni Network, which we are looking forward to developing further!

The Earth & Environmental Sciences Alumni Network will provide alumni, faculty, staff, and students an important link to the Department through field trips, social activities, educational events, professional networking, and informal mentoring (both virtual and in-person). Reach out to our External Relations Officer, Lexi Thompson, if you're interested in learning more, or have any questions ([email protected]).

Stop by the Tate Hall Atrium today between 11am and 4pm for a succulent! Cash only, and heads up they tend to sell quick!

The 2023 Earth Student Research Symposium is proud to announce Dr. Elizabeth Sumida Huaman as our keynote speaker! Read more about her work here: https://sites.google.com/view/umnearthsrs/2023-keynote?authuser=0 and be sure to register to attend here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScul-iMbrZRwD96UL2084rFni_3KhcKzbg8fOS-U0TacD6ELA/viewform?usp=share_link

Grad Students Selected to Attend AAAS Policy and Advocacy Workshop

https://cse.umn.edu/esci/news/grad-students-selected-attend-aaas-policy-and-advocacy-workshop

Grad Students Selected to Attend AAAS Policy and Advocacy Workshop Two Earth & Environmental Sciences Ph.D. students, Maddy Nyblade and Natalie Raia, have been selected to attend a premier science policy and advocacy workshop hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The Catalyzing Advocacy in Science and Engineering (CASE) workshop....

🚨Calling all post-docs and research staff! 🚨
Are you interested in providing invaluable feedback to our grad and undergrad presenters at this year’s Earth Student Research Symposium? Become a judge! Please register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScul-iMbrZRwD96UL2084rFni_3KhcKzbg8fOS-U0TacD6ELA/viewform?usp=share_link

https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2023/01/24/explorer-of-deep-earth-wins-vetlesen-prize/

Explorer of Deep Earth Wins Vetlesen Prize Using sophisticated equipment, David Kohlstedt has recreated the pressure, temperature and chemical conditions in the Earth's mantle, which humans cannot observe directly. His findings have laid the basis for understanding many of the processes that drive the planet's dynamics.

TODAY is the last day to register as a presenter for the 2023 Earth Student Research Symposium co-hosted by and !

Registration: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScul-iMbrZRwD96UL2084rFni_3KhcKzbg8fOS-U0TacD6ELA/viewform?usp=share_link

General information: https://sites.google.com/view/umnearthsrs/home?authuser=0

The English as a Second Language (ESL) class from the University of Minnesota's Intensive English Program visited our department to provide an opportunity for students to practice communicating in English about Earth Science topics. The students in ESL 130/230, taught by Catherine Clements, had been learning about natural disasters and they toured some cool labs that studied earthquakes and volcanisms. They toured the Aqueous Geochemistry lab, Structure Tectonics and Metamorphic Petrology lab, and the Rock and Mineral Physics lab. While visiting these labs, they learned about hydrothermal systems, significance of tectonic plate boundaries, and deformation mechanisms of Earth's interior, and how these can be related to natural disasters. We really enjoyed their visit and look forward to them visiting again next year! ✨

💟Happy Valentines day from us to you! If you want to sweeten up your day or someone else's, make sure to stop by our bake sale happening today from 12-4pm in the Tate Hall Atrium!💓

Were you wondering what happened to our T-Shirt Quilt?! Here's the update! We did a drawing in December and the winner was Mike Zazzera, alum class of 2011. Mike has graciously donated the T-Shirt Quilt back tot he department so we are able to display this iconic piece for all to see! Stop by our front office in Tate Hall and check it out if you haven't seen it yet!

We had a BLAST 💥 at this past weekend! Even stopped by to visit our display run by our talented ESCI grad students and Emeritus Professor, and resident meteorite expert, Dr. Calvin Alexander! We hope the kiddos had as much fun as we did! 🪐💫🌝

In addition to our academic studies, we always like to find time to unwind together as a lab too! Sometimes this looks like lab gatherings to make dumplings for the Lunar New Year or just taking a break from reading papers to express our science through art!

Since Manoomin/Psiη is particularly sensitive to the speed and magnitude of seasonal water level changes, it can be important to monitor water levels in wild rice lakes and rivers over time. Hydrologists can do this by installing stream gauges and piezometers to monitor surface and groundwater levels respectively. These gauges contain pressure transducers which record the pressure imparted by the parcels of water and air above them; through calibration, these sensors yield water level data over time.

Photo 1: Stream gauge and piezometer installed in the field.
Photo 2: Pressure transducers used inside gauges to monitor water levels and air pressure.
Photo 3: Survey equipment used to determine the exact location of monitoring equipment once installed.

Manoomin/Psiη, or wild rice, is an aquatic grass that has historical grown throughout the Upper Midwest. However, wild rice has declined significantly since the onset of Euro-American colonization due to a number of factors linked to land use change, resource extraction, and climate change. As part of the Tribal-University collaborative, Kawe Gidaa-naanaagadawendaamin Manoomin, we work to understand Manoomin/Psiη’s relationships with water systems through field studies, physical and statistical modeling, and knowledge co-production with our partners. In this work, we prioritize our Tribal partners questions around Manoomin/Psiη health, while supporting Tribal sovereignty.

Photo 1: Manoomin/Psiη flowers.
Photo 2: Collaborative members retrieving sediment cores in a Manoomin/Psiη river that are used to study porewater geochemistry.
Photo 3: Paddling through Manoomin/Psiη.
Photo 4: Manoomin/Psiη after harvest.
Photo 5: View of a Manoomin/Psiη lake while sensors are being surveyed.

In addition to using peepers, my group uses sediment cores to sample water and DNA! After we manually remove a core of sediment from the ground, which is arduous work by itself, we can use the core to either extract water or DNA. The water is sucked out of the core to be analyzed for different chemical components (ex. alkalinity, cations, anions, methane, etc.). Smaller sediment samples are collected from different depths of a core for DNA extraction. These samples will answer questions like what microbes are present?, how many of a certain microbe are present?, and what reactions are these microbes performing? This information is important for selecting initial conditions, having target chemical concentrations to aim for in the model, and deciding which reactions are important to include in the model.

Photo 1: Measuring the length of a sediment core
Photo 2: Extracting water from a sediment core
Photo 3: Splitting open a sediment core for DNA extractions

My name is Sam, and I research the hyporheic zone of a wetland in South Carolina. The hyporheic zone is the area within the sediment at the bottom of a stream where the surface water interacts with the groundwater. I use the peepers to collect water samples at and under the bottom of a stream. We analyze these water samples for different chemical species like dissolved iron, sulfur, and methane. I also use the surface and groundwater wells to record when water is flowing down into the ground or up toward the surface. This information is important to include in the reactive transport model PFLOTRAN to predict how the chemical profile in the hyporheic zone will look like in the future. When I’m not in the field, I’m coding in Python trying to figure out how to include all this information in the model. Most people talk to rubber ducks with they hit a mental block in their code, but as you can see, I have my small pig Porkchop to help me debug code.

Photo 1: Two assembled peepers for sampling pore water every few centimeters below the sediment-water interface
Photo 2: A groundwater well and surface water well in the Tim’s Branch wetland of South Carolina
Photo 3: Me with my little pig debugging some Python code and working with PFLOTRAN to model geochemical reactions

While the majority of my work happens in front of the computer (running the model , data analysis, debugging, etc.), I occasionally go out for field work! During my first field trip on the UMN nitrate project, we visited Bear Spring in SE MN and installed a sensor which measured nitrate and discharge.

Photo 1: Measurement equipment placed on pillars above the ground with a solar battery.
Photo 2: Small structure around the Bear spring discharge point.
Photo 3: This cow always stared me when I walking through; I they were curious what are we doing.

My name is Zixuan, and my research focuses on reactive transport modeling of nitrate. We study the transport of nitrate in agricultural areas in Minnesota and investigate how climate change and land use change impact the nitrate concentrations spatially and temporally. I simulate hydrologic processes and nitrate transport using numerical models. We then test different climate and land use scenarios using these models to observe the change in nitrate concentration. Ultimately, we aim to use our model to provide insight into groundwater and agricultural management.

Photo 1: A day in the office trying to debug the model.
Photo 2: Visualization of land cover types used in my model of the research area.

My research has taken me to the Ecuadorian Andes Mountains to conduct fieldwork in two different glacierized watersheds, one on Volcan Chimborazo and the other on Volcan Cayambe. I use water chemistry and weather data that our team collects from these watersheds to implement and calibrate my model. We have installed permanent weather stations that collect continuous precipitation and temperature data and stream discharge stations that measure the amount of water flowing through the stream. We visit these stations to download the data and repair any damage from the harsh weather conditions.

We also collect water samples throughout the watersheds, which we bring back to UMN for laboratory analysis. These samples help us characterize the current water chemistry, which is informative in predicting how the hydrochemistry might change under future conditions. We collect glacier ice and snow samples, as well as water directly from streams and groundwater springs.

Some days we hike up to our highest weather monitoring station, while other days, we take water samples at different locations. One of my favorite fieldwork experiences was conducting hourly water sampling over the course of an entire day right next to the Hermoso Glacier on Cayambe. At the end of our week-long fieldwork campaign, we had collected over 200 water samples!

After these water samples are analyzed, we share the data with local Indigenous communities living at the base of the watersheds. We aim to provide useful water quality information that they may use for water management decisions.

Photo 1: Collecting stream water samples.
Photo 2: Our highest elevation weather station on Volcan Chimborazo, located at almost 5,000 masl.
Photo 3: “Home” - our camp on Chimborazo.
Photo 4: Collecting a water sample from a groundwater spring with high sulfate concentration.
Photo 5: Downloading meteorological data from one of our weather stations.
Photo 6: Part of the fieldwork team hiking along a stream on Chimborazo.
Photo 7: Collecting stream discharge measurements by hand.
Photo 8: Sampling water directly from Hermoso Glacier, Cayambe.