UC Davis scientists from fields across earth and space science will present their work during the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, Dec. 14-18. More information about the meeting.

This tip sheet highlights a range of UC Davis research, from the origin of planets and Pluto, to the future of water in the West, to minerals in Earth's mantle. 

Monday, Dec. 14:

8 a.m. Thomas Harter (thharter@ucdavis.edu) looks at nitrate contamination in the Central Valley aquifer from 1945 until today.

8 a.m. Katherine Ransom (lockhart.katherine@gmail.com) estimates the contribution of manure, fertilizers, septic waste and natural sources to groundwater nitrate in the San Joaquin Valley, California.

10:50 a.m. Alisha Clark (anclark@ucdavis.edu) examines the elastic properties of silicate melts to develop new interpretations of low velocity anomalies under hot spots and arcs.

1:40 p.m. Katrina Arredondo (karredondo@ucdavis.edu) models deforming slabs in subduction zones.

1:40 p.m. Angela Hawkins (akhawkins@ucdavis.edu) investigates induced and triggered earthquakes at The Geysers geothermal field in California.

1:40 p.m. Quinn Norris (jqnorris@ucdavis.edu) discusses a simple model for understanding fracking and fracking-related earthquakes.

1:40 p.m. James Oltjen (jwoltjen@ucdavis.edu) presents a Web-based mapping platform named "BeefTracker” to provide beef cattle ranchers a tool to determine how cattle production fits within sustainable ecosystems.

1:40 p.m. Mark Yoder (yoder@physics.ucdavis.edu) introduces Virtual Quake, a system for developing earthquake forecasts.

Tuesday, Dec. 15:

8 a.m. Misun Yang (mskang007@gmail.com) presents experimental results from tests of brine migration, a concern in long-term nuclear waste storage sites.

8 a.m. Megan Krusor (mkrusor@gmail.co)m investigates mineralization within modern microbial mats.

8:15 a.m. Sarah Stewart (sts@ucdavis.edu) discusses planetary formation models and problems.

9 a.m. Magali Billen (mibillen@ucdavis.edu) describes an irregular feature in the Tonga Slab that suggests the slab is tearing in two.

9:05 a.m. Charles Lesher (celesher@ucdavis.edu) presents new constraints on the mantle lithosphere beneath Greenland.

9:30 a.m. John Rundle (jbrundle@ucdavis.edu) discusses methods to calculate probabilities of major earthquakes.

11:05 a.m. Michael Oskin (meoskin@ucdavis.edu) shows how high-precision 3D imaging is revolutionizing information collection immediately following earthquakes.

1:40 p.m. Kei Ishida (kishida@ucdavis.edu) tracks the ratio of snow to precipitation as it gradually decreases over three Northern California watersheds during the 21st century.

1:40 p.m. Sarah Moffitt (sarahevelynmoffitt@gmail.com) examines changes in benthic ocean ecosystems during mid-Pleistocene climate change.

1:40 p.m. Allison Rubin (aerubin@ucdavis.edu) investigates pre-eruptive processes in volcanoes.

2:40 p.m. Sujoy Mukhophyay (sujoy@ucdavis.edu) presents high-precision xenon measurements suggesting between five to eight mantle turnovers in Earth's history.

3:10 p.m. Simon Lock (slock@fas.harvard.edu) demonstrates a new model for the origin of the moon.

Wednesday, Dec. 16:

8 a.m. Charles Trexler (cctrexler@ucdavis.edu) explores the role of subduction in generating the Greater Caucasus Mountains.

8 a.m. Sarah Lambart (slambart@ucdavis.edu) estimates the proportion of pyroxenites in the mantle, which affects buoyancy and could have geodynamic implications.

8 a.m. Louise Kellogg (lhkellogg@ucdavis.edu) models the onset of convection in planetary interiors.

8 a.m. Curtis Williams (cdwill@ucdavis.edu) documents helium isotope variation along the global mid-ocean rift system.

11:51 a.m. Neil Griffis (Npgriffis@ucdavis.edu) finds better time constraints for the late Paleozoic Ice Age in the Paraná Basin, Brazil.

1:40 p.m. Marie Weisfeiler (mweisfeiler@ucdavis.edu) discusses methods for estimating the surface temperature of exoplanets.

1:40 p.m. Julie Witcover (jwitcover@ucdavis.edu) documents a shift towards a diverse mix of alternative fuels since California enacted the Low Carbon Fuel Standard in 2010.

2:40 p.m. Josue Medellin-Azuara (josuemedellin@gmail.com) reviews the impacts of California’s ongoing four-year drought and its importance for state water supply systems.

Thursday, Dec. 17:

8 a.m. Mustafa Dogan (msdogan@ucdavis.edu) shows how sustainable groundwater management and climate change are likely to affect California’s water supply system.

8 a.m. William Glassley (geobg@nf.au.dk) studies the metamorphic history of 1.8 billion-year-old rocks in West Greenland.

8 a.m. Sarah Enders (skenders@ucdavis.edu) examines 40,000 years of nitrogen cycling as recorded in northeast Siberian permafrost.

8 a.m. Shruti Khanna (shrkhanna@ucdavis.edu) tracks invasive species in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California.

8 am. Tyler Mackey (tjmackey@ucdavis.edu) discusses microbial mats in Lake Joyce, a perennially ice-covered lake of the Antarctic McMurdo Dry Valleys.

9 a.m. Jose Pablo Ortiz Partida (joportiz@ucdavis.edu) analyzes the economic effects of water management policies.

9:30 a.m. Kari Cooper (kmcooper@ucdavis.edu) investigates the history of magma reservoirs through zircon crystals in plutons and volcanic rocks.

10:20 a.m. Deborah Brosnan (deborahbrosnan@gmail.com) discusses applying science in the midst of disaster events during a special session on scientists and hazards.

10:35 a.m. Trevor Waldien (tswaldien@ucdavis.edu) documents complex patterns of exhumation in the Alaska Range along the Denali Fault System.

11:20 a.m. Gregory Pasternack (gpast@ucdavis.edu) examines habitat restoration on the lower Yuba River, California, through sediment sluicing and natural floods.

11:50 a.m. Katherine Markovich (khmarkovich@ucdavis.edu) analyzes the declining alpine snowmelt runoff in California and Chile.

12:05 p.m. Christopher Cappa (cdcappa@ucdavis.edu) studies the complex relationships between sea spray aerosols, ocean water and phytoplankton. The aerosols scatter solar radiation and serve as cloud seeds.

1:40 p.m. Ángeles Casas Planes (angelescasasp@gmail.com) maps habitat suitability for the black-backed woodpecker in the 2013 Rim Fire burn area in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

1:40 p.m. Andrew Nichols (alnichols@ucdavis.edu) looks at the effects of intentional levee breaches on the lower Cosumnes River, California.

1:40 p.m. Kasey Schultz (kwschultz@ucdavis.edu) combines tsunami modeling and earthquake simulations to develop better tsunami scenarios for the prototype Pacific Rim Tsunami Early Warning System.

1:55 p.m. Eric Cowgill (escowgill@ucdavis.edu) finds evidence of earthquake clustering in the paleoseismic record along the Altyn Tagh fault bordering the Tibetan Plateau.

4 p.m. M.L. Kavaas (mlkavvas@ucdavis.edu) looks at future floods in the Cache Creek watershed, California, under various climate change scenarios.

Friday, Dec. 18:

8 a.m. Erik Davies (erikjdavies@gmail.com) proposes collision scenarios for the origin of Pluto and its moons.

8 a.m. Rui Zhang (rwzhang@ucdavis.edu) finds a large-scale meteorological pattern during cold air outbreaks over the California Central Valley. The outbreaks can trigger multibillion dollar agricultural losses.

8 a.m. Matthew Weber (mdweber@ucdavis.edu) documents topographic changes on the lower Yuba River, California, during flooding caused by atmospheric rivers.

8 a.m. Chih-Yang Chen (cycch@ucdavis.edu) tests a tropical cyclone model for the Northwestern Pacific.

8 a.m. Marielle Pinheiro (marielle.pinheiro@gmail.com) documents changes in water and energy during the life cycle of Hurricane Katrina.

9 a.m. Catherine Davis (cvdavis@ucdavis.edu) probes the foraminifera paleothermometer at high latitudes.

9:15 a.m. Mark Lubell (mnlubell@ucdavis.edu) provides an overview of several studies of how farmers make decisions about climate change adaptation and mitigation.

9:45 a.m. Susan Ustin (slustin@ucdavis.edu) analyzes the impact and recovery of wetlands following the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

1:40 p.m. Dawn Sumner (dysumner@ucdavis.edu) discusses the geologic history of rocks at the base of Aeolis Mons in Gale Crater, Mars.

1:40 p.m. Lorraine Hwang explores the social and technical barriers to software attribution among the members of the geodynamics modeling community.

1:40 p.m. Joseph Biello (biello@math.ucdavis.edu) reveals that midlatitude Rossby waves can generate convectively coupled Kelvin waves.

3:10 p.m. Alan Rhoades (alan.m.rhoades@gmail.com) forecasts future climate change impacts on water resources in the western United States.

4 p.m. Richard Grotjahn (grotjahn@ucdavis.edu) studies how Californian Central Valley summer extreme hot spells develop.

4:30 p.m. Susan Ustin (slustin@ucdavis.edu) co-authors an assessment of the potential impact of the 2015-2016 El Niño on the California Rim Fire burn scar.