News

Plate Tectonic Gemstones in the New York Times A recent paper by Lee Groat and colleagues (Stern et al. 2013) in the journal Geology entitled quot;Plate tectonic gemstonesquot; was recently highlighted in the online edition of the New York Times.

Richard Pawlowicz was awarded the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society's President Prize for his outstanding contribution in developing the new seawater standard TEOS-10. His novel contributions provide greater accuracy in estimating the physical properties of seawater. The groundbreaking publication was: Pawlowicz, Wright and Millero (2011), The effects of biogeochemical processes on ocean conductivity/salinity/density relationships and characterization of real seawater, Ocean Sci. 7, 363-387.

Susan Allen was awarded the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society's Francois Saucier Prize in Applied Oceanography for her application of fluid dynamics to better understand biological and chemical processes in the ocean and, in particular, for her recent groundbreaking work in developing a robust method for forecasting spring blooms in the Strait of Georgia.

Emilie Benoit (UBC Undergrad) was awarded the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society's Undergraduate Scholarship for academic excellence.

The following undergraduate students were awarded Shell Mapping Prizes for excellence in geological mapping at the Oliver Field School (EOSC 328), May 2013 : Tim Jusupov, Patrick Hill, Moses Towell and Melissa Friend.

Kelly Russell, Ben Edwards and Lucy Porritrecently published the first description of a passage zone (stratigraphic surfaces marking major transitions in depositional environments) preserved entirely within pyroclastic deposits (in Nature Communications; see http://science.ubc.ca/news/702). Their discovery requires extension of the passage zone concept to accommodate explosive volcanism and guides future studies of hundreds of glaciovolcanic edifices on Earth and Mars.