News

The Canadian Geotechnical Colloquium prize involves the selection of a young (under 40) engineer who shows top promise in their professional or academic career, to present a state-of-the-art colloquium address at the annual Canadian Geotechnical Conference.

Second place, 2013 Canadian Geotechnical Society's Student Competition Undergraduate Report Award - Jenna Bowling, Ryun Humenjuk, Crystal Lei, Adam Woods, Xiao Qin Yang. EOSC 445 (Engineering Design Project): "Foundation and West Approach Embankment Design of the New Fraser River Crossing".Nicole Eriks - 4th-year Geology Major Student;Nicole has been awarded the Mineralogical Association of Canada "Distinguished 2012-2013 Undergraduate Student Awardee" for demonstrated academic excellence in Mineralogy, Crystallography, Petrology, Geochemistry and Economic Geology at the University of British Columbia.

Kathi's fellowship supports work that builds understanding of the character and mechanics of seismic tremors that occur before and during volcanic eruptions. A principal motivation of her project is to provide a reliable way to use the emergence and evolution of various tremor properties to inform eruption forecasting models. Congratulations Kathi! For more information about the Vanier program: http://news.ubc.ca/2013/10/03/young-researchers-receive-4-8-million-boo…

A recent study published in Nature by EOAS Assistant Professor Sean Crowe with colleagues at the University of Copenhagen says that Oxygen appeared in Earth's atmosphere 3 billion years ago, which is 700 million years earlier than previously thought. Crowe and colleagues found evidence for low concentrations of oxygen in 3 billion year old soils found in South Africa. These soils are among the oldest on Earth. Crowe's work suggests that photosynthesis, which led to the oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere and the eventual evolution of aerobic life, began much earlier than previously believed.

Catherine Johnson was elected to be a 2013 Fellow of the American Geophysical Union for her varied and fundamental contributions to research in Planetary Science and Geomagnetism.Congratulations Catherine!

The Pacific Centre for Isotopic and Geochemical Research (PCIGR) welcomed the arrival of the Nu Plasma 1700, a high-resolution multi-collector mass spectrometer.After 45 days via sea-freight, the shipment arrived at EOAS in 11 large crates, which took 6 hours to unpack and bring into the cleanlabs.This instrument is the first of its kind in Canada, and only the fifth worldwide. The Nu Plasma 1700's large geometry, and 4.5 ton magnet, allows precise and accurate measurements even for challenging isotope systems (e.g. Fe, Cr, Si).This will open avenues for new isotopic tracer studies in the Earth, ocean, atmospheric, environmental and biological sciences, and marks a significant addition to the Department's analytical capacity.For Photos see Picasa web album.