Inside this issue:

Greetings from the Chair 1

Geochemistry at USC 2-3

Costal Ocean Dynamics Lab

4

ScherLab News 5

John Lab 6

DoE Supplemental Award

7

Continental Paleoclimate; Student Honors

8-9

University of South Carolina Fall 2010 Newsletter

Greetings from the Chair

Dear Friends of USC Earth and Ocean Sciences, It is almost hard to be-lieve that another semester is reaching it‘s completion…Time really flies. I am very pleased to introduce this fall 2010 newsletter with a special focus on our young faculty who have contributed so

much in such a short amount of time! Our re-cent additions include Dr. Michael Bizimis (2008), Dr. Howie Scher (2008), and Dr. Sasha Yankovsky (2006), and I am really pleased to welcome our most recent faculty member, Dr. Seth John, into the Earth and Ocean Science and the USC Gamecock family. This semester has seen some changes. Firstly, Dr. Gene Yogodzinski stepped down from the position of Associate Chair after two years of service. Dr. Jim Knapp accepted the responsibility and assumed the position of As-sociate Chair in August. Thank you Gene for your service to the department and welcome Jim! Dr. Dave Barbeau succeeded Dr. Ray Torres as our Graduate Studies director. Thank you Ray for all of your hard work and welcome Dave! We also welcome Erin Palmer who takes over for Toni Bracey as the Graduate Service Coordinator. Thank you Toni and welcome Erin! Contributions to our General Fund are used in assisting students who attend conferences and bringing in speakers to our regular Thurs-day afternoon seminar series. I would like to thank our contributors as the research and field trip experiences would have been financially difficult on many students were it not for your generous contributions. We have had an excel-lent seminar series this fall with speakers com-ing from the University of North Carolina (Tamloin Pavelsky and Jason Barnes), Stanford (Mark Zoback), Brigham Young University (John McBride), University of Memphis (Maria Magani), University of Houston (Donald Van

Nieuwenhuise and Alan Brandon) , University of Washington (Dave Montgomery) and from our department (Reshmi Das and Art Cohen). The topics for these seminars have ranged from hydrology, geomorphology, climate change, geochemistry, coal and peat and structural ge-ology. Graduate students gain valuable knowledge from our seminars, which are re-quired for their curriculum. In these economically difficult times, the stu-dents, faculty and I sincerely appreciate all of your contributions. I do hope that you consider giving to the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences. Our alumni, faculty, staff and students have been busy as evident from the many news items in this newsletter. We invite you to send us information so that we can share it with our readers. I wish to thank our excellent office staff, Mar-gee Zeigler, who is also responsible for assem-bling this newsletter; Shelley Schlenk, our un-dergraduate coordinator; Erin Palmer, our grad-uate coordinator and the two business manag-ers Prischilla Ramsey and Charlene Wilson-Profit as well as our Information Technology coordinator Jaehoon Choe. Thank you, and Happy Holidays and a Hap-py New Year to you and your families, Go Gamecocks!

Venkat Lakshmi, PhD, P.E., Professor and Chair

Earth and Ocean Earth and Ocean Earth and Ocean SciencesSciencesSciences

Inside this issue:

Faculty, Students, and Alumni Activity

10-11

Page 2 Earth and Ocean Sciences

Geochemistry at USC By Michael Bizimis

Michael Bizimis joined the department in the fall of 2008. His research is broadly in the areas of geochemistry, isotope geochemistry and mantle petrology, and recently, he has ex-panded his research into surface processes and environmental chemistry. Dr. Bizimis and fellow faculty members Dr. Scher and Dr. John are occupying the new clean lab and mass spec-trometry facilities inside Sumwalt. Dr. Bizimis and his group of students and post-docs are involved in several different geo-chemistry projects, from the scales of convection and mixing in the mantle, to mercury isotopes in the environment, to crustal building processes in the Archean.

Current research projects: Scales of heterogeneity and processes in the oceanic mantle Mantle xenoliths provide actual snapshots of the convective oceanic mantle and their compositions reflect time-integrated processes that have taken place over billions of years. In an invited talk at the European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna, Austria, this summer, Bizimis showed that the age of the last major depletion event in samples from the convective mantle is not older than two billion years, while the distribution of depletion ages is the same on all different sampling scales: Hawaii, global Mid Oceanic Ridge peridotites and global ophio-lites. This implies efficient convective mixing in the mantle that progressively ―erases‖ old depletion events and homogenizes the different mantle mineralogies. The distinct and constant age peaks in the different sample populations in turn suggest a time constant for mantle convection in the order of 500 m.y.

Chalcophile and siderophile element systematics in the mantle The behavior of siderophile and chalcophile elements in the mantle as well as Os and Pb isotope systematics may record evidence of core interaction with the mantle. In a recent paper published in Chemical Geology, Bizimis and coworkers showed that sulfides from pyroxenites in the oceanic mantle cannot explain the coupled Pt-Re-Os isotope

systematics of some Hawaiian lavas and komatiites and sug-gested that outer core may contribute to mantle plume compo-sitions.

Mantle-seawater interaction during serpentinization It is only that during the last decade that peridotite - hosted hydrothermal systems have been observed on the ocean floor. However, little is known on how warm seawater interacts with mantle rocks. With support from an NSF grant to Bizimis, graduate student Carl Frisby is conducting experiments of sea-water - peridotite interaction at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and also at USC in order to constrain the ele-mental exchange between mantle and seawater during ser-pentinization. In addition, student Caitlin Gionfriddo (graduated in May, currently in Australia) presented her thesis work at the Goldschmidt Conference this summer and showed that during serpentinization both the sulfur contents and Cu, Zn concentrations increase in mantle peridotites. This sug-gesting large scale remobilization and re-precipitation of sul-fides during hydrothermal alteration of mantle rocks.

Thermobarometry of Hawaiian xenoliths Graduate student Shawn Wallace is performing high precision ICP-MS analyses in the contents of Ca and Al in mantle oli-vines in order to put new, precise constraints on the tempera-ture and pressures of equilibration of peridotite xenoliths be-neath the earth‘s most voluminous mantle plume. Shawn presented his work over the summer in the Goldschmidt Con-ference in Tennessee.

The Bizimis Group (from left to right): Reshmi Das, Carl Frisby, Whit Patterson ,Michael Bizimis, Won Howell, Courtney Douglass, Shawn Wallace, and Tarun Khana

Fe-Ni-Sulfide from an abyssal peridotite in the Mid Cayman Rise. The dark layers on top show the oxidative break down of sulfide magnetite

Mercury isotopes as a tracer of Hg in the environment The recognition of mass-dependent and multiple mass-independent effects on the isotopic composition of environ-mental Hg presents a new tool to constrain the mercury cy-cle. With a PIRA award from the University of South Carolina, Bizimis recently begun on a new area of research that includes laboratory and field experiments designed to understand the mechanisms of transformation of Hg species and their relative importance on the Hg cycle (including water, soil, atmosphere, biosphere), as well as the fluxes along the various paths of the cycle. Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Reshmi Das, has joined the group from Calcutta, India and has begun the Hg isotope measurements. Our first data is extremely promising: it shows that within the sediments on a single barrier island it is possi-ble to identify different sources of Hg, where in the marsh sedi-ments most of Hg is likely coming from the seawater itself through adsorption in the organic rich mud layers, while in other sediments in the upland Hg appears to be coming from atmospheric deposition only. Geochronology of the South Indian archean craton Constraining crustal growth processes and whether a depleted upper mantle was widely present on Earth already in the ar-chean is key in resolving between different models of mantle evolution and differentiation. Dr. Gene Yogodzinski and post-doctoral fellow Tarun Khana from Hyderabad, India, are cur-rently working on the geochronology of the Gadwal greenstone belt, eastern Dharwar craton, a little studied archean craton. Preliminary data shows that these rocks represent a ~3 billion year old arc system, from already depleted mantle source. This work will be presented at the upcoming AGU conference.

Page 3 University of South Carolina

rela

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pro

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bili

ty*

Won Howell (undergraduate student) is preparing mineral separates from

peridotites for further analyses

Re-depletion age distribution of peridotites from Hawaii, abyssal peridotites and osmiridiums from global ophiolites. Note the lack of depletion ages older than 2 b.y., and the repeated presence of

peaks at 1.2 b.y., 500 m.y. and 0 m.y.

Mass independent Hg isotope fractionation data on sediments from Sapelo Island, Ga. collected in our lab.

The data suggests that the Hg accumulated in the marsh (TT2) is most likely from the water, while the Hg in the

sandy core (TT4) is from atmospheric deposition

Grace Maze, a Marine Science undergraduate student, worked in Sasha‘s Lab for several years. Her research was supported by the NSF REU supplemental grant and by the USC Magellan Scholar Award. She studied how the freshwater-driven coastal currents are affected by atmospheric cyclones. Grace ran a numerical model that mimicked the Alaska Coastal Current. She presented her results at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland, OR (February 2010) and at the USC Discovery Day 2010. She won the Discovery Day competition in the category Natural and Environmental Sciences II – posters. Grace co-authored a paper that summarized some of her findings: Yankovsky, A.E., G.M. Maze, and T.J. Weingartner, 2010: Offshore transport of the Alaska Coastal Current water induced by a cyclonic wind field. Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L03604, doi:10.1029/2009GL041939. Now Grace Maze is a graduate student at the University of Miami. In the summer 2010, Sasha Yankovsky conducted field work in the Santee River, SC with his graduate student Legna Torres-Garcia (PhD candidate in geology since 2009) and fellow faculty member, Ray Torres. Legna already has a MS degree in astronomy, and she is a recipient of the USC SEAGEP award (summer 2010), and no, she is not Ray‘s relative. The field work was focused on understanding the tidal dynamics in the river channel at the upstream limit of tidal penetration. One of the bottom tripods was almost lost as the rope that led to this tripod was found severed. However, Legna‘s determined diving for several hours in near-zero visibility succeeded and the instruments with valuable data were retrieved. Now Legna processes and analyzes this data set and will present the results at the Aquatic Sciences Meeting ASLO-2011 in San Juan, Puerto Rico (her home place).

Ziming Ke, Marine Science graduate student from P. R. China, found inspiration in revisiting a classic problem of the geophysical fluid dynamics—the propagation of tidal waves along the oceanic margin. His first paper has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Physical Oceanography, the premium journal among physical oceanographers (where USC was absent for so many years): Ke, Z., and A.E. Yankovsky, 2010: The hybrid Kelvin-edge wave and its role in tidal dynamics, J. Phys. Oceanogr., in press (available online).

Page 4 Earth and Ocean Sciences

Coastal Ocean Dynamics Lab By Alexander “Sasha” Yankovsky

Grace Maze at Discovery Day 2010

She won 1st place in her category. Title ―Buoyant Plume from Multiple

Sources of Freshwater in the Presence of Cyclonic Wind Field‖

Legna Torres : SBE26plus Tide Recorder is back from the bottom of the Santee River!

Page 5 University of South Carolina

ScherLab News By Howie Scher

The Scherlab carries out research in the field of geo-chemical paleoceanography. Paleoceanography is the study of the ancient oceans. Using chemical markers in marine sed-iments information about ocean circulation, seawater chemis-try, and inputs from continental weathering can be used to reconstruct past ocean conditions. Research in the Scherlab range from the role of the oceans during abrupt climate change, the interplay of continental weathering and carbon dioxide in controlling the time scales of the carbon cycle, and how well newly discovered chemical markers in marine sedi-ments reflect conditions in both the modern and ancient oceans. Current projects in the Scherlab investigate the exist-ence of significant glaciation on Antarctica during the early Cenozoic, changes in seawater chemistry during the global transition from warm to cold temperatures at the Eocene/Oligocene boundary, the cycling of trace metals in the modern ocean, and the retention of the silicon isotopic signal of prima-ry productivity in marine diatoms during dissolution. Students, affiliates, and collaborators of the Scherlab utilize the state-of-the-art clean lab and plasma source mass spectrometers in the Center for Elemental Mass Spectrometry (CEMS). The Scherlab has enjoyed an extremely productive sum-mer, and the momentum has carried into the Fall semester. The Scherlab hosted Liz Griffith, an assistant professor at Kent State, who analyzed barite crystals from a unique hydro-thermal spring for trace metal content and isotopic composi-tions in CEMS. Howie and Liz used these results as prelimi-nary data in for a proposal submitted to NSF in July 2010. In August, Howie was invited to give a talk on Southern Ocean circulation during the final breakup of Gondwanaland at the NSF funded Austral Portals workshop in Southampton, NY. At the International Conference on Paleoceanography (ICP), held in La Jolla, CA in late August 2010, Scherlab mem-bers and affiliates presented three posters. ICP, held every

three years, is the premier venue for showcasing paleoceano-graphic research. Gabby Munn (MS student, expected gradu ation May 2011) presented a poster on her master thesis titled ―Exposing hidden glaciations of the early Cenozoic‖. Howie presented new results that document major ocean circulation changes related to the northward migration of Australia during the early Cenozoic. Aimee Pusz (PhD student in Bob Thunell‘s lab) presented results from a collaborative project with Howie on ocean circulation during the glaciation of Ant-arctica. In Fall 2010 the Scherlab welcomed Annie Opseth, a Gus-tavus Adolphus College graduate with a BS in Chemistry. Annie is a PhD student working on a newly funded NSF pro-ject to analyze neodymium isotopes in samples from the Inter-national GEOTRACES North Atlantic section. Currently, the Scherlab is working towards the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union where the Scherlab has submitted five abstracts. Brian Smith, an undergraduate in Marine Science will present the results from his senior thesis. Wayne Buckley (MS student, expected graduation Summer 2011) will present results from his master‘s thesis. Howie will give a talk on a new project that aims to reconstruct ocean circulation in the Tasman Sea in collaboration with the Univer-sity of Sydney and Indiana State University.

(From left to right): Wayne Buckley, Gabby Munn, Howie Scher, Aimee Pusz, and Brian

Smith

Seth John joined the faculty of the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of South Carolina in Fall 2010.

The John Lab at USC studies metals in the ocean. A primary focus of current research is measuring iron isotopes in seawater. Iron is an important nutrient for phytoplankton. Without iron, algae cannot grow to support the food chain and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Using iron isotopes, we seek to understand how iron gets into the oceans, how it is removed from the oceans, and the biological importance of nutrient iron for the growth of phytoplankton in the oceans. The lab also studies the biological fractionation of iron isotopes in culture, theoretical models of metal isotope cycling in the oceans including Cd and Zn, and virus-metal interactions.

Several aspects of my research include:

Seawater iron isotopes We have developed some of the first methods for the analysis of iron isotopes in seawater. Below are profiles of iron isotopes in the San Pedro Basin (left) and the North Atlantic (right). Both profiles show significant variations in δ56Fe with depth in the water column, providing unique insights into the biogeochemical cycling of iron in the oceans. Both theoretical models and laboratory experiments are being pursued to help with interpretation of data such as these.

Trace metal oceanography at sea The ability to work cleanly (avoiding trace-metal contamination) at sea is a crucial for trace-metal oceanography. The concentration of iron in seawater is less than 1 part per billion, so a single speck of dust or rust could be enough to contaminate the samples.

Virus precipitation with iron Viruses play an important role in the ecology of the ocean. However, the study of marine viruses is often limited by current ultrafiltration techniques which are expensive, slow, and inefficient. Working in collaboration with the Sullivan lab at the University of Arizona, I have developed new techniques to remove viruses from seawater by flocculation with iron hydroxides. A simple schematic (below) illustrates the gains in efficiency that are possible with this new method. Our new method also reduces the setup cost from about $20,000 to $400, and reduces processing time from about 12 hours to 2 hours.

Page 6 Earth and Ocean Sciences

The John Lab at USC By Seth John

Visiting Biosphere 2 with my family on the drive from Los

Angeles to Columbia, South Carolina

Teflon-lined Niskin bottles are used to collect sea-

water that is free from iron contamination.

Niskin samplers are mount-ed to the bottom of a CTD rosette so that they can be

closed as the rosette is falling through the water.

Any contamination from the rosette is left behind as the

sampler falls into clean

water.

On board the ship, all samples are handled under

a plastic canopy with filtered air in order to keep

dust out of the samples

The virus precipitation method being used at

Biosphere 2 in Tucson, Arizona

Page 7 University of South Carolina

Carbon capture and storage, focused on curbing the increase in greenhouse gas emissions into the global atmosphere, is an emerging issue with governments and private industry around the world. As evidence of this in-terest in December 2009 the University of South Carolina and its research partners ini-

tially received $4,950,639 from the U.S. Department of Ener-gy‘s National Energy Technology Laboratory for geologic char-acterization of the South Georgia Rift basin (SGR) for source proximal CO2 storage. Our initial funding was supplemented in September 2010 with an additional $5,000,000 bringing the total three year funding to $9,950,639. This research effort is being led by the Earth Sciences and Resources Institute (ESRI-SC) and the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences (EOS) at the university. John Shafer (ESRI-SC) is the Principal Inves-tigator. Michael Waddell (ESRI-SC), Camelia Knapp (EOS) and James Knapp (EOS) are Co-Principal Investigators. Mem-bers of the research team include the South Carolina Geologi-cal Survey, the University of Illinois, Weatherford Laboratories (Houston, TX), and Bay Geophysical, Inc. (Traverse City, MI). The Department of Energy is funding 10 projects aimed at increasing scientific understanding about the potential of prom-ising geologic formations to safely and permanently store car-bon dioxide deep underground. The research is being man-aged by the Office of Fossil Energy‘s National Energy Technol-ogy Laboratory and includes projects in Illinois, Colorado, Tex-as, South Carolina, California, Alabama, Kansas, Utah, and Wyoming. The selected projects are examining the usefulness of potential geologic storage sites; augmenting existing data through coordination with a public database; and participating in technical working groups on best practices for site charac-terization and approving storage site selection. The information gained from these projects will further DOE‘s effort to develop a national assessment of CO2 storage capacity in deep geo-logic formations. Additionally, the results of this research will be accessible to the public and industry looking to understand future opportunities for building U.S. commercial sequestration projects. Our study is evaluating the feasibility of CO2 storage in the Jurassic/Triassic (J/TR) saline formations of the buried SGR and providing all data and analyses associated with this deter-mination to the NATCARB database. The J/TR sequence, based on preliminary assessment of limited geological and geophysical data, has both the appropriate areal extent and multiple horizons where significant amounts of CO2 may po-tentially be stored permanently and safely. The presence of several igneous rock layers within the sequence may provide adequate seals to prevent upward migration of CO2 into the Coastal Plain aquifer systems. A thick (~250 m) basalt layer exists at approximately 600 m to 850 m below ground surface over a wide area of potentially promising CO2 storage capacity with many additional mafic igneous rock layers beneath it.

Clastic sediments occupy the intervals between the mafic igne-ous rocks that are believed capable of storing large amounts of CO2. Further, the target storage depth is well below the 1 km critical depth to maintain CO2 as a supercritical fluid. Given the significant number of CO2 sources in the southeastern U.S., particularly in southeastern South Carolina, and the positive geologic characteristics of the SGR, we believe that the SGR is a significant CO2 storage site that can be commercially de-veloped. The possibility of storing CO2 deep underground in South Carolina holds promising opportunities for economic develop and enhancement of a green economy in the state.

Supplemental Funding for South Carolina Study of Promising Geologic

Formations for CO2 Storage By John Shafer, Research Professor and Director of Earth Sciences and Resources Institute, USC

Related links:

www.energy.gov

www.esri.sc.edu

www.geol.sc.edu

Alexander Prokopenko‘s research interests are in studying sediment records and reconstructing past climate changes. On continents, a network of long records preserving signals of past climates is extremely sparse, m a k i n g t h e m u n i q u e exceptions rather than a rule. Yet, terrestrial paleoclimate archives are the main regional

source of data on past changes in seasonal temperatures, atmospheric circulation and the associated modes of climate variability. To develop robust realistic model solutions of future climate, it is important to be able to simulate past changes in regional hydrology, seasonal precipitation associated with shifts in the large-scale circulation systems such as westerlies or monsoons. So far Dr. Prokopenko‘s research has focused on lacustrine sediment sequences; he took part in lake coring in Russia, Mongolia and Tibet. He was involved in the international efforts of Baikal Drilling Project and Hovsgol Drilling Project as Chief scientist on initial core description and sampling campaigns. Dr. Prokopenko is the USC representative at DOSECC (Drilling, Observation and Sampling of the Earth's Continental Crust, www.dosecc.org ) and works closely with LacCore National core processing and archive Facil i ty (http:/ / lrc.geo.umn.edu/LacCore/laccore.html ). Dr. Prokopenko uses light isotopes to track climate-driven changes in regional atmospheric precipitation (Fig. 1) and carbon cycle of lakes (Fig. 2), he used past changes in productivity (recorded as cycles of biogenic silica and organic matter accumulation) to develop orbitally-tuned (astronomical) timescales for continuous Plio-Pleistocene records in continental Eurasia. As a part of broad international collaborative efforts to synthesize regional climate signals, Dr. Prokopenko worked on diatom biostratigraphic records, bulk sediment mineralogy and geochemical signatures of past changes in weathering and basin hydrology, on linking palynological signals of changes in watershed vegetation, and on marine-terrestrial correlations of paleoclimate records.

Page 8 Earth and Ocean Sciences

Continental Paleoclimate

By Alexander Prokopenko (Ph.D. „97)

Figure 1. A basin-wide shift in oxygen isotope ratios of lacustrine carbonates in Lake

Hovsgol, Mongolia, during the last deglaciation indicates increased advection of heat and

moisture in continental interior Asia via Northern Hemisphere upper mid-latitude westerlies.

Figure 2. Baikal record of productivity-related proxies

during the last 250 kyr. Shaded bars mark ice volume maxima as reflected by the global benthic δ18O

signal. Isotopically-heavy bulk δ13Corg in Lake Baikal is typical of glacial periods (black arrows). Interglacial and interstadial periods are characterized by peaks in

TOC and TN (white arrows). The amplitudes of Baikal productivity proxy responses are reasonably

proportionate to the amplitudes of orbital forcing and

of marine benthic δ18O signal.

Figure 3. Pollen-based quantitative reconstructions of

climate parameters during MIS 1, 5e and 11 interglaci-als from Lake Baikal sediment records compared with Antarctic temperature anomalies nd atmospheric CO2

levels.

Page 9 University of South Carolina

ASBPA 2010 - Celebrating the Diversity of the Coast Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences Researchers'

Work Featured at Palmetto Pillar Awards

Nirnimesh Kumar (M.S. ‗10), PhD candidate in the Ma-rine Science Program at USC, received a Best Student Paper award from the American Shore & Beach Preserva-tion Association annual meeting, ASBPA 2010 - Celebrat-ing the Diversity of the Coast, in Charleston SC 13-15 Oc-tober. The title of his presentation was Measurements and 3-D Modeling of Nearshore Circulation on a South Carolina Beach. The award was presented by Dr. George Voulgar-is, Kumar's advisor. This was the first time in the 80 year history of ASBPA that the annual science & technology conference convened in South Carolina. Over 200 attend-ed with 80 presentations on topics such as coastal pro-cesses modeling, sea level rise impacts, beach erosion, tidal inlet dynamics, and regional sediment manage-ment. Former students and faculty who presented includ-ed Dr. Jacqueline Michel (Research Planning Inc.) and Bill Eiser (SCDHEC-OCRM). Dr. Miles Hayes, former chair of the Department of Geological Sciences, was honored as a "Hero of the Profession" at the awards luncheon. Dr. Tim Kana (Coastal Science & Engineering), an EOS adjunct professor, was conference co-chair and organizer.

Electron micrographs taken by master's candidate Gregory Wyche and Professor Arthur D. Cohen in connec-tion with Wyche's master's research on Nymphaea and Taxodium peats from the Okefenokee Swamp were in-cluded in a presentation organized by the Greater Colum-bia Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by several business organizations, including, Consortium for Enter-prise Systems Management, Vc3, and Engenuity. The images were displayed, along with work by other USC researchers, on August 31st, 2010, during the annual Pal-metto Pillar Awards, in which organizers sought to high-light nanotechnology-relevant research currently being performed at USC. The micrographs consisted of second-ary electron Field Emission SEM images of biogenic silica structures taken at magnifications as high as 16000X. The samples utilized were obtained from the EOS Peat Sample Bank and are being studied in an effort to demon-strate a biogenic silica based paleofire-intensity meter.

Continued from Page 8 Current research focuses on signals of changes in at-mospheric circulation over continental Asia associated with abrupt and millennial-scale climate change (Fig. 1), and on multi-proxy ‗portraits‘ of past interglacials - periods with low continental ice volume and high sea-level (more or less simi-lar to today). Prior interglacial periods may be viewed as either analogs to the non-anthropogenic component of the modern climate or as a series of ‗natural experiments‘ on warm climates under boundary conditions different from those of today. Proxy records of past interglacials thus pro-vide indispensable data for constraining climate simulations and testing the performance of the models; a broad geo-graphic network of proxy records is critical for understanding how the interplay of forcing and feedback mechanisms shapes the Earth's climate.

A pending NSF proposal aims at capturing the diversity of interglacials in the upper mid-latitude Northern Hemisphere during the past 800,000 years, to match the time span of the longest Antarctic ice core record of the Southern Hemi-sphere temperatures and global atmospheric CO2 level (Fig. 3). Another upcoming project aims at recovering a thick se-quence of fine Pliocene diatomaceous sediments of paleo-lake Idaho (formerly a large lake in the Snake River Plain rift basin) as a part of the ongoing multidisciplinary Project HOTSPOT (www.usu.edu/geo/shervais/Shervais-USU-Geology/Project_Hotspot.html).

Publications (Department faculty in bold)

Guenthner, W.R., Barbeau, D.L., Reiners, P.W., and Thomson, S., 2010, Slab window migration and terrane accretion preserved by low-temperature thermochronology of a magmatic arc, northern Antarctic Peninsula, Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, 10. doi:10.1029/2009GC002765. Park, H., Barbeau, D.L., Rickenbaker, A., Bachmann-Krug, D., Gehrels, G., 2010, Application of Foreland Basin Detrital‐Zircon Geochronology to the Reconstruction of the Southern and Central Appalachian Orogen, Journal of Geology 18, 23-44, doi:10.1086/648400. Barbeau, D.L., Davis, J.D., Murray, K.E., Valencia, V., Gehrels, G.E., Zahid, K.M., and Gombosi, D.J., 2010, Detrital-zircon geochronology of metasedimentary rocks of northwestern Graham Land, Antarctic Science 22, 65-78, doi:10.1017/S095410200999054X Muller-Karger, F. E., R. Varela, R. C. Thunell, M. I. Scranton, G. T. Taylor, Y. Astor, C. R. Benitez-Nelson, L. Lorenzoni, E. Tappa, M. A. Goñi, and C. Hu (2010) The CARIACO Oceanographic Time Series. In: Carbon and Nutrient Fluxes in Continental Margins: A Global Synthesis, Editors: K.-K. Liu, L. Atkinson, R. Quinones, and L. Talaue-McManus, Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 454-463. Humphries, M., A. Kindness, W. N Ellery, J. C. Hughes, and C. R Benitez-Nelson (2010). Accumulation rate of clastic and chemical sedimentation and their role in the long-term development of the Mkuze River floodplain, South Africa, Geomorphology, 119, 88–96. Maiti, K., J.L. Carroll and C.R. Benitez-Nelson (2010) Sedimentation and Particle Dynamics in the Marginal Ice Zone of the Barents Sea, Journal of Marine Systems, 79, 185-198 Milne, A., Landing, W., Bizimis, M. and Morton, P., (2010) Determination of Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb in seawater using high resolution magnetic sector inductively coupled mass spectrometry (HR-ICP-MS). Anal. Ch. Acta 665, 200-207. Canfield, G. M., Bizimis, M. and Latturner, S. E. (2010) Transition-Metal ion exchange using poly(ethylene glycol) oligomers as solvents. Chem. Mater. 22, 330-337. Sen, I. S., Bizimis, M., Sen, G. (2010) Geochemistry of sulfides in Hawaiian garnet pyroxenite xenoliths: Implications for highly siderophile elements in the oceanic mantle. Chem.Geol., Volume 273, 180-192. Nyadjro, E.S., B. Subrahmanyam, V.S.N. Murty, J.F. Shriver (2010). Salt Transports in the near-surface layer in the Monsoon-influenced Indian ocean using HYCOM", Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2010GL044127 Egbue, O., J. Kellogg, 2010. Pleistocene to Present North Andean "escape",

Tectonophysics, doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2010.04.21

A. E. Cameron, Camelia C. Knapp, Michael G. Waddell, Adrian D. Addison, and John M. Shafer, 2010, Structural and Stratigraphic Control on the Migration of a Contaminant Plume at the P Reactor Area, Savannah River Site, South Carolina, 2010, Environmental Geosciences, vol. 17, no. 2, p. 77-98. M. A. Fillerup, J. H. Knapp, Camelia C. Knapp, and V. Raileanu, 2010, Mantle Earthquakes in the Absence of Subduction? Continental Delamination in the Romanian Carpathians, Lithosphere, vol. 2, no. 5, 333-340. Springer, A.L., Camelia C. Knapp, P.T. Gayes and L.R. Gardner, 2010, The

Holocene Depositional History of Thousand Acre Marsh (Georgetown County, SC, USA) from Correlation of Ground Penetrating Radar with Subsurface Stratigraphy, Southeastern Geology Journal 47(2); 95-104. Martinez, N., Murray, R., Thunell, R., Peterson, L., Muller-Karger, F., Lorenzoni, L., Astor, Y., and Varela, R., 2010. Local and regional chemical signatures of surface sediments of the Cariaco Basin and Orinoco Delta, Venezuela, Geology. 38, 159-162. Wejnert, K., Pride, C., and Thunell, R., 2010. The oxygen isotope composition of planktonic foraminifera from Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California: Seasonal, annual and interspecies variability, Marine Microplaeontology 74, 29-37. McCarney-Castle, K.+,G. Voulgaris, and A.J. Kettner, 2010. Analysis of fluvial suspended sediment load contribution through Anthropocene history to the

South Atlantic Bight coastal zone, U.S.A. The Journal of Geology, 118(4): 339-416. Haus, B.K., L.K. Shay, P. Work, G. Voulgaris, R. Ramos, J. Martinez-Pedraja, 2010. Wind speed dependence of single site wave height retrievals from HF Radars. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 27: 1381–1394. doi: 10.1175/2010JTECHO730.1 Yankovsky, A. E., G. M. Maze, and T. J. Weingartner, 2010: Offshore transport of the Alaska Coastal Current water induced by a cyclonic wind field. Geophysical Research Letters, 37, in press, doi:10.1029/2009GL041939. Ke, Z. and A. E. Yankovsky, 2010: The Hybrid Kelvin-Edge Wave and Its Role in Tidal Dynamics. Journal of Physical Oceanography, in press (available online).

Honors and Awards (Department faculty in bold)

Amanda Savrda (M.S.) was awarded a 2010 Geological Society of America (GSA) Graduate Student Research Grant for her project proposal entitled "Assessing the role of plate kinematics and subduction dynamics in the thermal tectonic history of the southern Antarctic Peninsula.‖ Amanda was also selected to be a fall 2010 University of South Carolina Partners in Inquiry Fellow through USC's Center for Teaching Excellence. Christopher G. St. C. Kendall was awarded the SEPM 2010 Distinguished Service Award with an outstanding web-based teaching resource for stratigraphy and sedimentology through the SEPM website. The Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD, German Academic Exchange Service) has invited George Voulgaris to Germany to pursue his research interests on wave and current measurements using HF and VHF surface radar systems. Dr. Voulgaris was awarded a prestigious Research Visit Grant for Faculty and he will spend two months (December 2010 and January 2011) in Germany at the University of Hamburg, Institute of Oceanography. His host and collaborator at the University of Hamburg will be Dr. Klaus-Wernet Gurgel and his team. (The DAAD is a joint organization of the universities and other institutions of higher education in the Federal Republic of Germany. Supported from public funds, the DAAD promotes international academic cooperation, especially through the exchange of students and academics. This invitation and award is indicative of the international reputation of the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences and contributes significantly in the internationalization of the University of South Carolina. This comes after Dr. Voulgaris spent a month in May 2010 at the University of Rouen, France where he was a Visiting Professor at the Laboratory of Continental and Coastal Morphodynamics at the Department of Geology.)

Grants (Department faculty in bold)

Bob Thunell and Howie Scher, have received a three-year grant from NSF for $440,877 for a project entitled ―Real Time Assessment of Ocean Acidification Proxies and Their Incorporation in the Marine Sediment Record.‖

Faculty & Student Activities (Department faculty names are uppercased)

The special issue on "OSTM/Jason-2 Calibration/ Validation" Marine Geodesy was just released, which was Co-edited by SUBRA BULUSU. GWEN GEIDEL was recently appointed a member of the EPA Science Advisory Board on Mountaintop Mining and Aquatic Ecosystem impacts.

DAVE BARBEAU along with his colleague Ross MacPhee at the American Museum of Natural History (NYC), conducted a NSF sponsored workshop at Stony Brook University on Long Island Entitled: Austral Portals: Tectonics, Paleogeography and Biogeography. The workshop brought together about 15 geologists and paleontologists to rectify the apparent incongruities with the tectonic and paleontologic histories of Antarctica, South America and India. The workshop was funded by the NSF Office of Polar Programs. CHRISTOPHER G. ST. C. KENDALL is currently consulting in Kuwait for the Kuwait Oil company under contract with Schlumberger. Dr. Kendall is also in the process of having a book published: Quaternary carbonate and evaporite sedimentary facies and their ancient analogues: A Tribute to Douglas James Shearman (Special Publication 43 of the IAS) Christopher G. St C. Kendall (Editor), Abdulrahman Alsharhan (Editor).

Page 10 Earth and Ocean Sciences

Page 11 University of South Carolina

Nickles Badger (M.S.‘10) is working as Field Systems Engineer and Analyst at the Infra-sound Laboratory of the Hawaiian Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawaii, Manoa. The lab, located in Kailua-Kona, operates a permanent infrasound net-work with stations throughout the Pacific and Indian oceans in cooperation with the Depart-ment of Defense and the United Nations for nuclear bomb test monitoring. The lab also performs analyses on infrasonic signals for applications including volcano and tsunami monitoring, ocean breaking wave studies, bolide studies among others. Ongoing short term investigations are being conducted in Panama, Ecuador, and Greece and through-out the Hawaiian and Midway Islands. Nick-les will be involved in data analysis and presentation along with maintaining and im-proving hardware and software systems.

Elizabeth Ann Bell (B.S. ‘08) just recently received an NSF award fellowship. Elizabeth Ann attended USC on a McNair scholarship, the most prestigious award for out-of-state students, and earned a Barry M. Goldwater scholarship to pursue a career in science. She is currently working on a doctorate in geochemistry at UCLA.

Albert C. Hine (Ph.D. ‘75), Professor and Associate Dean of the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida, received the Francis Shepard Medal for sus-tained excellence in marine geology from the Society for Sedimentary Geology which is affiliated with the 40,000 member American Association of Petroleum Geologists. [The Francis P. Shepard Medal is awarded for sustained excellence in marine geology by the Society for Sedimentary Geology affiliat-ed with the American Association of Petrole-um Geologists.] Citation: Professor Albert C. Hine is cited in recognition and appreciation of his many, varied and excellent contribu-tions to Marine Geology in the training of students and in the conduct of quality re-search on continental shelves and shorelines, carbonate platforms both deep and shallow, clastic and carbonate sand bodies, as well as his administrative assistance and support to large national research efforts and goals.

Dr. Donald Van Nieuwenhuise (Ph.D. ‘79), Director of the Professional Geoscience Pro-grams in the Department of Geosciences, as well as director of the Applied Sequence and Biostratigraphy Program at the University of Houston was a recent guest lecturer at the University of South Carolina. The title of his talk was, ―Impact of the BP Macondo #1 Well Blowout and Oil Spill: A Perspective.‖ For more information, visit:http://www.sc.edu/news/newsarticle.php?nid=1256 (Dr. Van Nieuwenhuise has appeared in over 100 network television and live radio interviews in 2010).

Dr. Jacqueline Michel (B.S. ‘74, M.S. ‘76, Ph.D., ‘80) is the president of Research Plan-ning Inc. in Columbia. She is the Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Team (SCAT) coordi-nator for Louisiana and has been working on the spill since April 28th as part of the NOAA team of scientific support coordinators. Most of her work involves managing the collection of data on shoreline oiling conditions and making the cleanup recommendations. She is also working on issues such as the barrier island berm (which she recommended against), protection strategies, assessment of submerged oil, issues with cleanup of marsh-es, development of new approaches for marsh cleanup, and evaluation of new tech-nologies. She rotates into Louisiana for about 20 days and then returns every two weeks.

In 2004, I was a freshman arriving at the University of South Carolina. I had absolutely no clue what I was planning on

doing once I made it to USC. In high school my goal was to make good grades such that I could get into college and at

the same time try to get some scholarships so that I would not have to pay for my tuition out of pocket. I chose a major in

Electrical Engineering simply because someone told me it would be a good field to go into. After a month I decided it was

not for me. I searched different departments, took a few classes, and I decided that I really enjoyed my Geology class.

That class resulted in my new major, my first job at USC, and my joining two student organizations, SEAS and the Geolo-

gy Club. I was hooked. Although I was very happy in Geology some of my other classes captivated my attention. Ger-

man, Anthropology, and Geography all fascinated me to the point that I wanted more. It may have been because I was

struck with the temptation of traveling. Slowly but surely each year I added one of them as a major, and each time I add-

ed one semester onto my stay at USC. I enjoyed nearly all of my classes, although I might not have admitted it while I

was taking them. I started working for Housing my sophomore year as a Resident Advisor, and I continued to work for

housing until I graduated. I studied abroad in Germany, I spent Spring Break in Costa Rica, I analyzed samples in Arizo-

na, I studied rock formations in Colorado, I played in the marsh at Baruch, and I canoed down the Saluda River here in

Columbia. On May 8, 2010, after six years at USC, 77 classes, 230 hours, two degrees and four majors, I finally graduat-

ed. I would not trade a minute of my time at USC for anything in the world. I owe it all to not having a clue to what I want-

ed to do with my life after high school, to the wonderful faculty and staff at USC, and to one entry level Geology Class

that opened a door into a world of possibilities. Thank you USC!!!

Four Majors, What??? By Alan Rickenbaker (B.S. „10)

Alumni News

DEPARTMENT OF EARTH AND OCEAN SCIENCES COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

COLUMBIA, SC 29208

Earth and Ocean Sciences University of South Carolina

701 Sumter Street Earth and Water Sciences Center

Room 617

Columbia, SC 29208

(803) 777-4535

www.geol.sc.edu

Alumni, we want to hear from you!

Please send us your professional news or class notes. (Remember, we love photos). Do you have any stories that you would like to share from your days in the department? Information may be emailed to: alumni@geol.sc.edu For those of you who email us with your news, we will send you an Earth and Ocean Sciences t-shirt!

Please Designate My Gift As Follows: □ $__________ Earth and Ocean Sciences Discretionary Fund (1A3103) □ $__________ SC Seismic Network Fund (1A3981) □ $__________ Dr. Mack Gipson, Jr. Memorial Scholarship Fund (1B1951) □ $__________ John Carpenter Endowment for Geosciences and Environmental Science (1C1633) □ $__________ Travel Fund for Vertebrate Paleontology (1C1737) □ $__________ Stephen Taber Fund - Monetary awards given annually to outstanding graduate and undergraduate students (1B1101) □ $__________ Pradeep Talwani Endowment Fund for Graduate Students in Geophysics (B11435)

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My gift to support the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences is: □ $25 □ $50 □ $100 □ $250 $ □_________

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*All gifts to USC Foundations are used to support the University of South Carolina. Checks can also be made payable to the USC Treasurer’s Office; these gifts are managed by the State of South Carolina. All gifts qualify as tax deductions under appropriate laws.

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