Spring 2009 The Buffalo River: the Fight to Save a Land of Prehistoric Beauty - Emmy award-winning filmmaker Larry Foley spet two years researching, writing, and producing the film, which features the talents of Fulbright faculty members George Sabo, James Greeson, Dale Carpenter, John King, David Stahle, and Thomas Hapgood.
June 3, 2009 Quaternary Geologists Win Timescale Vote - The Interntional Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) has elected to formally define the base of the Quaternary at 2.6 million years before present, and also to lower the base of the Pleistocene - an epoch that encompasses the most recent glaciations - from its historical postion at 1.8 million years to 2.6 million years ago.
April 9, 2009 Lava Lakes and Planetary Origins - the research of Dr. FangZhen Teng featured in Research Frontiers Magazine
April 9, 2009 3-D Atlas Reveals Undiscovered Sites - the research of Dr. Jackson Cothren featured in Research Frontiers Magazine
March 9, 2009 Researchers Study Cave's 'Breathing' for Better Climate Clues
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A University of Arkansas researcher studying the way caves “breathe” is providing new insights into the process by which scientists study paleoclimates. Katherine Knierim, a graduate student at the University of Arkansas, together with Phil Hays of the Geosciences department and the U.S. Geological Survey and Erik Pollock of the University of Arkansas Stable Isotope Laboratory, are conducting close examinations of carbon cycling in an Ozark cave. Caves “breathe” in the sense that air flows in and out as air pressure changes.
The researchers have found that carbon dioxide pressures vary with external temperatures and ground cover, indicating a possible link between the carbon found in rock formations in the caves and seasonal changes. They presented their findings at a recent meeting of the American Geophysical Union. [MORE...]
February 26, 2009 Earth: Publisher Creates Atlas of an Entire Planet
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Earth is a lavish atlas, as bold and ambitious as the name suggests. Weighing in at 62.2 pounds, nearly two feet tall, costing $3,500 for a leather-bound edition and featuring spectacular photography, this atlas may stand as a testament to a publisher’s faith in the endurance of books.
“Most atlases are about space. We created a book about place — in this case, the place is a planet,” said Tom Paradise, one of 45 major contributors to the volume, which contains 154 detailed maps and more than 800 photographs. Paradise, director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, wrote most of the section on North Africa. Besides its weight and cost, what makes Earth unique is how the many facets of a place are integrated into one volume: physical features, foods and language, agriculture and natural resources, economics and politics, people and culture, climate and geology. “No other atlas has been able to capture all of these aspects in such an informative, accurate and beautiful manner. Already it’s being called the ‘must-have Atlas,’ ” Paradise said. [MORE...]
February 5, 2009 University of Arkansas Model Suggests Origins of Mars Gullies
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – University of Arkansas researchers have used chemistry and geology to create a model that may explain the mystery of how modern-day gullies form on the surface of Mars. Research professor Vincent F. Chevrier and graduate student Travis S. Altheide of the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences report their findings in Geophysical Research Letters.
Planetary surveys have found abundant evidence of gullies on Mars, which suggest that at some point liquid has flowed across the planet’s surface. Liquid water cannot exist on the surface of Mars given the current temperatures and pressures, so for many years, scientists theorized that the gullies formed hundreds of thousands of years ago during a change in the angle between the planes of the planet’s equator and its orbit about the sun. [MORE...]
January 22, 2009 Researchers Use New Target to Tackle Question of Nutrient Source in Watershed
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Researchers at the University of Arkansas have for the first time adopted a technique used in marine environments to examine the sources of excess nutrients found in streams in the Illinois River Watershed. Graduate student Brian Breaker, with Erik Pollock, Brian Haggard of the Arkansas Water Resources Center and professor Phil Hays of the Geosciences department and the U.S. Geological Survey, reported their preliminary findings at a recent meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
The Illinois River Watershed is the site of a mystery – high nutrient loads that have muddied the waters between Arkansas and Oklahoma. The nutrient loads themselves are not contested, but the source of these high amounts of nitrogen and phosphates are, and currently the sources of the nutrients are not explicitly identified. [MORE...]
November 17, 2008 Explore Geographic Information Systems with the University Libraries and CAST
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University Libraries and the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies are hosting a local celebration of Geographic Information Systems Day for the campus and community. The GIS Day Open House will showcase real-world applications of GIS technology by students, faculty and other specialists from the University of Arkansas and the region. [MORE...]
November 3, 2008 From Arkansas to Ireland: Graduate Student's Work Leads to World Archaeological Congress Presentation
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Who would guess that a little over two years after beginning graduate school at the University of Arkansas that Chris Angel would be speaking at an international conference about his research on the Bedouin city of Um Sayhun, Jordan? Not Chris Angel himself. “Two years ago I didn’t think I’d be doing any of this,” Angel said. “I am still in a little shock.” Although neither Angel nor his professor, Tom Paradise of the University of Arkansas is an archaeologist, they were invited to speak about “Emerging Global Technologies” this summer at the 2008 conference of the World Archaeological Congress in Dublin, Ireland. [MORE...]
October 9, 2008 New Observations and Model Suggest Multiple Magma Reservoirs Affect Volcanic Eruption Cycles
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Discovering what happens beneath an active volcano is a job that’s often too hot for researchers to handle, but a University of Arkansas scientist and his colleagues have created a new and better way to “look” at what’s going on in the molten magma that lies beneath a volcano’s surface. Their model not only reaches some interesting conclusions, but also allows the researchers to make a prediction as to what the system will do over time. Glen Mattioli, professor of geosciences at the University of Arkansas; Derek Elsworth and Barry Voight, professors at Penn State University; graduate student Joshua Taron of Penn State University and professor Richard Herd of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, published their findings Thursday, Oct. 9, in the journal Science. “Nobody has done this before,” said Mattioli. “This methodology could be significant for volcanic systems elsewhere.” [MORE...]
October 6, 2008 Jackson Cothren Appointed New Director of the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – William Schwab, interim dean of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, has appointed Jackson Cothren as the next director of the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies at the University of Arkansas. “Professor Cothren comes from a strong background in spatial technologies and so he understands fully their many applications, from the work he has done with national researchers to the projects he has undertaken at the center, such as helping both high school and college students integrate the technologies into the community projects they create,” said Schwab. “I know he will bring a multitude of talents to his new position.” [MORE...]
August 12, 2008 Interdisciplinary Project Involves Students in Sustainability Research
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Students at the University of Arkansas are designing a sustainable future using algae from local streams. A multidisciplinary group of faculty from the University of Arkansas, funded by the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates Program, brought students to campus for the summer for research projects with a common theme – managing and designing ecological services in a sustainable way to increase human prosperity. The group is working with Native American tribes from across the United States to explore sustainability ethics across many cultural traditions. [MORE...]
July 17, 2008 Research Reveals Patterns of Terrorist Preparation
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Analysis of an extensive terrorism database housed at the University of Arkansas has revealed patterns in activities of terrorists preparing for an attack, information that can be invaluable for law enforcement agencies seeking to prevent terrorist attacks. Brent L. Smith, director of the university’s Terrorism Research Center, reported the research results in the current issue of the National Institute of Justice Journal and will present the results at an upcoming NIJ conference. Funded by a series of NIJ grants, Smith was assisted by Kelly Damphousse of the University of Oklahoma as well as Jackson Cothren and Paxton Roberts of the University of Arkansas. [MORE...]
June 19, 2008 Iron Isotope Composition in Lava Lake Points to Possible Ways to Trace Planetary Origins
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A University of Arkansas researcher and his colleagues have found differences in the iron isotope composition of basalts from a lava lake in Hawaii that point to new ways of studying the origins of the earth and other planets. Fang-Zhen Teng, assistant professor of geosciences and a member of the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, Nicholas Dauphas of the department of geophysical sciences and a member of the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago, and Rosalind T. Helz of the U.S. Geological Survey report their findings in the June 20 issue of the journal Science. [MORE...]
April 23, 2008 Magazine Focuses on Sustainability Research
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Designing landscapes, creating efficient power sources, developing better business practices, examining human impact on small creatures – through these and other projects, University of Arkansas researchers work to create a better world for the long term. The work of these faculty and others is showcased in the spring 2008 issue of Research Frontiers. “Being a sustainable university means that as we educate new generations of leaders, conduct the research that makes our lives better and reach out to the communities of Arkansas and beyond, we do not compromise future generations,” says John A. White, chancellor and Distinguished Professor of industrial engineering.
In addition to the articles in the magazine, Research Frontiers on the Web features new videos that show research being conducted on an Arctic Lake in northern Canada and among the ruins of an ancient city in Petra, Jordan. Geosciences professor Sonja Hausmann and an international team of colleagues traveled to Lake Pingualuit in the northernmost part of Quebec, Canada, to study the environment of the pristine lake and learn more about past climates based on tiny creatures called diatoms. Another geosciences professor, Tom Paradise, has spent more than 20 years in Petra, Jordan, studying the impacts of weathering and tourism on this unique World Heritage Site carved out of sandstone cliffs. [MORE...]
March 03, 2008 Keeping Traditions in a Modern-Day Bedouin Village
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - University of Arkansas researchers have used modern digital-mapping technology to uncover an ancient tradition still practiced by a Bedouin tribe that once roamed Jordan but now has settled into a modern village. The findings appear to have no parallel anywhere. Tom Paradise, professor of geosciences, and graduate student Chris Angel worked with the country of Jordan and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to create a digital map of the Bedouin city of Um Sayhun on a cliff that overlooks Petra, Jordan. [MORE...]
January 28, 2008 Focus the Nation: University of Arkansas to Participate in National Teach-in on Global Warming
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The University of Arkansas will participate in Focus the Nation's Teach-in on Global Warming. On Wednesday, Jan. 30, and Thursday, Jan. 31, more than 1,000 educational institutions will focus on global warming in an effort to educate young people about the pressing need for changes to sustain the planet and to outline actions people can take now to reduce the effects of global warming.
"Global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions is the über-ubiquitous issue of our times," said Nick Brown, the university's executive assistant for sustainability. "It influences and is influenced by business practices, technological choices, our philosophical relationship to the planet and personal habits. Our management of this single issue, more than any other, will define the quality of life for our descendants. Participation in Focus the Nation's Teach-in is one of many steps that the university will take in the coming year to address this issue." [MORE...]
December 11, 2007 Arctic Impact Crater Lake Reveals Interglacial Cycles in Sediments
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - A University of Arkansas researcher and a team of international scientists have taken cores from the sediments of a Canadian Arctic lake and found an interglacial record indicating two ice-free periods that could pre-date the Holocene Epoch. Sonja Hausmann, assistant professor of geosciences in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas, and her colleagues will report their preliminary findings at the American Geophysical Union meeting this week.
The researchers traveled by increasingly smaller planes, Ski-doos and finally sleds dragged on foot to arrive at the Pingualuit Crater, located in the Parc National des Pingualuit in northern Quebec. The crater formed about 1.4 million years ago as the result of a meteorite impact, and today it hosts a lake about 267 meters deep. Its unique setting - the lake has no surface connection to other surrounding water bodies - makes it a prime candidate for the study of lake sediments. [MORE...]
October 13, 2007 Chesapeake Energy Establishes Scholars Program at the University of Arkansas
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Chesapeake Energy Corp. has established the Chesapeake Scholars Program at the University of Arkansas. Chesapeake has pledged $100,000 over the next five years to provide fellowships to the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences department of geosciences that will help support graduate teaching and research assistants who are pursuing careers in energy exploration and production.
"We are grateful to Chesapeake for the financial commitment to our graduate students in the department of geosciences," said John White, chancellor of the University of Arkansas. "The highly competitive graduate fellowship provided by Chesapeake will have an immediate impact on our ability to attract outstanding graduate students and researchers to enter geosciences fields. I know Chesapeake Energy will find this to be a tremendously worthwhile investment in the future of the nation's energy industry." [MORE...]
August 1, 2007 Digging into Archaeological Information
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Archaeologists have more information about mankind's buried history than ever before, and the amount of information grows every day. Unfortunately, most scientists can't use the bulk of this information because they can't get to it. There is no easy way for one group of researchers to share what they've learned with other scientists, to compare each other's data, or to combine information from different studies, old and new. Even worse, information is being lost every day, partly because there is no uniform system for storing it.
Scientists at the University of Arkansas and four other institutions hope to address this problem by creating a cooperative, self-sustaining organization, archaeoinformatics.org, to develop a system that will make existing archaeological documents, data and images more accessible. The project will develop new software tools and strategies that will be used to increase the accessibility of existing electronic data in ways that will make it possible to link previously isolated data together - helping archaeologists better understand the past. The work is made possible with the help of a $152,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the University of Arkansas.
W. Fred Limp, University Professor of anthropology, geosciences and environmental dynamics, Leica Geosystems Chair in Geospatial Imaging and director of the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies at the University of Arkansas, serves as the project's principal investigator. Keith Kintigh of Arizona State University, Dean Snow of Pennsylvania State University and Timothy Kohler of Washington State University along with Chris Dore and Clay Mathews from the archeological consulting firm Statistical Research Inc. will serve as key collaborators on the project. [MORE...]
June 25, 2007 Mapping to the Edge of Information
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - As students leave campus classrooms for summer vacation, university officials across the United States are already planning for fall. University of Arkansas schedulers are trying to figure out how to place tens of thousands of students in thousands of rooms with hundreds of instructors at dozens of different time slots in a given week. Solving some of these complicated logistical issues may one day be as simple as clicking a computer mouse, thanks to the combined efforts of campus planners and geospatial researchers at the University of Arkansas.
The two groups are collaborating on a project to gather data and develop software that will combine basic building information - age, condition of building systems, academic suitability, technological amenities, size and use of rooms, availability, evacuation routes and utility information. This information is used primarily for space management and includes enhanced features such as architectural drawings and important information on wiring, plumbing, technology, accessibility and locations of elevators and exterior doors. [MORE...]
April 24, 2007 Opportunity Rocks
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - A program designed to attract the interest of underrepresented students in geosciences will pair undergraduates with University of Arkansas professors to study aquifers in central Arkansas and seismic hazards in Central America. The pilot project, funded by the National Science Foundation for two years, will involve eight undergraduate students - six from NorthWest Arkansas Community College and two from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff - who will work with geoscientists at the University of Arkansas, using remote sensing, global positioning systems and geographic information science to study important geologic issues in Arkansas, Central America and the Caribbean.
"We are exploring ways to enhance diversity in the geosciences," said Pamela Jansma, chair of the university's department of geosciences and principal investigator for the project, which will be called uGRO - short for undergraduate Geospatial Research Opportunities. If the pilot project succeeds, it may lead to a long-term, federally funded program to expose underrepresented students to geoscience research. [MORE...]
March 14, 2007 Big Picture for Small Borers
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - University of Arkansas researchers are using cutting-edge spatial technologies to study the aftermath of an insect infestation that has devastated red oak populations in Arkansas and Missouri. By combining this research with field work, they seek patterns that might help explain what trees are vulnerable to infestation, thus helping forestry professionals determine future forest management practices.
The red oak borer, a middle-sized, nocturnal brown "long-horned" beetle, lived in relative obscurity in red oak trees in the Ozark Mountains until 1999, when forestry professionals and researchers began noticing oaks dying in droves. When Fred Stephen, University Professor of entomology, and his students began examining the trees, they found them filled with borers. [MORE...]
April 27, 2006 Spatial Information Storehouse
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - University of Arkansas researchers worked with NASA, USAID and Central American countries to create a database of geospatial information for use by government and nonprofit agencies, scientists and others to help make informed decisions about land use. The data warehouse, called MesoStor, contains climate, soil, rainfall, land cover and infrastructure information, as well as satellite imagery and data from the 1980s to the present. The information spans countries from southern Mexico to Panama.
In one example, most of the countries are using MesoStor and geographic information system (GIS) models developed by CAST researchers to prepare inputs for carbon sequestration models of greenhouse gas production so that they can make estimates for the Kyoto treaty. [MORE...]