Other Earth Sciences Commons^™

Minerals Rock!: Improving Audience Engagement And Interest In Stem Through Enhancement Of The In-Person And Online Mineral Collection At Ursinus College, Juliette Lyons

Environment and Sustainability Summer Fellows

Museums are a vital source of educational resources for the general public. They provide information on a variety of topics and disciplines and encourage visitors to be excited about and engaged in learning something new. As we work to comprehend key topics such as climate change, it is especially important for the broader public to better understand science, including geology. While the geological collection at Ursinus, Pieces of Earth’s History, is not in a museum, implementing methods that museums use can improve the reception of the collection. Through the application of research gathered through articles, journals, books, and talking with …

Geo 170 - Earth Science And Society, Yuri Gorohkovich

Open Educational Resources

Syllabus for our new OER course

Flow Structure And Mixing Near A Small River Plume Front: Winyah Bay, Sc, Usa, Christopher Papageorgiou, George Voulgaris, Alexander E. Yankovsky, Diane Bennett Fribance

Faculty Publications

This study presents Eulerian data from Winyah Bay, SC, USA collected during the passage of a tidal plume. The data captured the evolution and structure of the plume and include high-resolution velocity and temperature time series, supplemented by temperature – salinity profiles from a MicroCTD profiler. The observations identified a pre-existing plume extending to 4 m, with a water density of 1023.6 kg m⁻³, laying above denser ambient waters. Upon arrival, the newly discharged tidal plume introduced a fresher layer (1020.7 kg m⁻³) extending to 2.6 m, gradually thinning due to radial spreading. The plume's frontal …

Mitigation Behaviors Of Homeowners And Renters In The Wildland Urban Interface, Aishwarya Borate, Omar Pérez Figueroa, Douglas Houston, Christopher Ihinegbu, Ariane Jong-Levinger, Jochen E. Schubert, Brett F. Sanders

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Residential development within the wildland-urban interface (WUI) has greatly expanded in the United States since the 1990s, amplifying wildfire risk by placing people and structures in greater proximity to flammable vegetation. Household wildfire mitigation actions can vary substantially by cost, knowledge required, and perceived effectiveness, but few studies have examined them separately and how their adoption varies by housing tenure in the context of wildfires. To address this gap, we surveyed residents living in WUI areas within Southern California near recent burn scars in the Santa Ana and San Bernardino Mountain ranges. Drawing on the Protection Motivation Theory and the …

Land Instability Compounds The Risk Of Sea Level Rise In Alexandria, Egypt, Rejoice Thomas, Sara Zouriq, Shahryar Fazli, Amr Fawzy, Nikolay Grisel Todorov, Surendra Maharjan, Wenzhao Li, Erik Linstead, Daniele Struppa, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The coastal region of Alexandria Governorate in Egypt holds significant strategic importance for trade while being susceptible to extreme weather events. It confronts a dual challenge of the rising sea levels and, as found in this study, land instability. While much attention has been rightly directed towards sea level rise (SLR), the stability of the land warrants equal consideration. Here, a comprehensive analysis of land stability is conducted in Alexandria by measuring Line of Sight (LOS) displacements and assessing their topographical, hydrological, and coastal impacts. Persistent Scatterer Interferometry technique is used to measure the LOS displacements in association with land …

Access To Augustana’S Ascension Chapel: Who Gets To Worship?, Jaycee C. Bythewood

Race, Ethnicity, & Religion

This poster seeks to educate readers about the challenges disabled students would face in attending a service in Augustana College’s Ascension Chapel and how inaccessible this actually is using maps crafted by the author with hand-gathered data.

Geochronology Of Senèze, Eric Delson, Sébastien Nomade, Sevket Sen, Evelyne Debard, Jean-François Pastre, Jean-Jacques Bahain, Qingfeng Shao, Christophe Falguères

Publications and Research

The age of the Senèze mammalian fauna has been discussed since it was first reported in 1892. 40Ar/39Ar ages reported by Nomade et al. (2014) and recalculated here to agree with current standards placed the deposits between 2.20 and 2.07 Ma. Paleomagnetic data collected in 2001 and 2004 help to narrow the age range, especially of the levels yielding fossils in 2001–2006. In the western sector, fossils can be securely dated between 2.10 and 2.08 Ma, while in the southeastern sector, they are slightly older, between 2.20 and 2.18 Ma. Senèze is one of the few later Cenozoic European sites …

Reviews And Syntheses: Variable Inundation Across Earth’S Terrestrial Ecosystems, James Stegen, Amy J. Burgin, Michelle H. Busch, Joshua B. Fisher, Joshua Ladau, Jenna Abrahamson, Lauren Kinsman-Costello, Li Li, Xingyuan Chen, Thibault Datry, Nate Mcdowell, Corianne Tatariw, Anna Braswell, Jillian M. Deines, Julia A. Guimond, Peter Regler, Kenton Rod, Edward K. P. Bam, Etienne Fluet-Chouinard, Inke Forbrich, Kristin L. Jaeger, Teri O'Meara, Tim Scheibe, Erin Seybold, Jon N. Sweetman, Jianqiu Zheng, Daniel C. Allen, Elizabeth Herndon, Beth A. Middleton, Scott Painter, Kevin Roche, Julianne Scamardo, Ross Vander Vorste, Kristin Boye, Ellen Wohl, Margaret Zimmer, Kelly Hondula, Maggi Laan, Anna Marshall, Kaizad F. Patel

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The structure, function, and dynamics of Earth's terrestrial ecosystems are profoundly influenced by how often (frequency) and how long (duration) they are inundated with water. A diverse array of natural and human-engineered systems experience temporally variable inundation whereby they fluctuate between inundated and non-inundated states. Variable inundation spans extreme events to predictable sub-daily cycles. Variably inundated ecosystems (VIEs) include hillslopes, non-perennial streams, wetlands, floodplains, temporary ponds, tidal systems, storm-impacted coastal zones, and human-engineered systems. VIEs are diverse in terms of inundation regimes, water chemistry and flow velocity, soil and sediment properties, vegetation, and many other properties. The spatial and temporal …

Increasing Atmospheric Evaporative Demand Across The Tibetan Plateau And Implications For Surface Water Resources, Shiqin Xu, Dennis P. Lettenmaier, Tom R. Mcvicar, Pierre Gentine, Hylke E. Beck, Joshua B. Fisher, Zhongbo Yu, Ningpeng Dong, Akash Koppa, Matthew F. Mccabe

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The Tibetan Plateau, known as the “Asian water tower,” is a hotspot for complex hydroclimatic changes. We reveal that the previously decreasing atmospheric evaporative demand (Eo) trend at the end of the 20th century has reversed over the last two decades. Although both wind stilling and solar dimming have persisted, their effects on Eo rates have been overshadowed by increasing air temperatures and decreasing relative humidity, leading to a net rise in Eo for 1980−2015. Using the empirical “top-down” Budyko approach, we estimate that across seven sub-catchments draining the Tibetan Plateau, a 10% increase in annual-averaged …

Scaling Arctic Landscape And Permafrost Features Improves Active Layer Depth Modeling, Wouter Hantson, Daryl Yang, Shawn P. Serbin, Joshua B. Fisher, Daniel J. Hayes

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Tundra ecosystems in the Arctic store up to 40% of global below-ground organic carbon but are exposed to the fastest climate warming on Earth. However, accurately monitoring landscape changes in the Arctic is challenging due to the complex interactions among permafrost, micro-topography, climate, vegetation, and disturbance. This complexity results in high spatiotemporal variability in permafrost distribution and active layer depth (ALD). Moreover, these key tundra processes interact at different scales, and an observational mismatch can limit our understanding of intrinsic connections and dynamics between above and below-ground processes. Consequently, this could limit our ability to model and anticipate how ALD …

Spatiotemporal Economic Impact Analysis Of The Taal Volcano Eruption Using Electricity Consumption And Nighttime Light Data, Ma Flordeliza P. Del Castillo, Toshio Fujimi, Hirokazu Tatano

SOSE Affiliate: Manila Observatory

Analyzing the spatiotemporal dimension of the economic impacts of disasters is critical for providing timely and proportionate support. However, traditional economic impact measures often lack spatiotemporal details. Hence, we estimated the daily electricity consumption (EC) loss using high-frequency EC data and analyzed temporal dimensions of the immediate impacts of Taal Volcano’s eruption on January 12, 2020. Subsequently, we computed the nighttime light (NTL) change using high-resolution NTL data to analyze the spatial distribution of these impacts. The temporal analysis revealed two EC loss peaks. The first peak coincided with the power outage and decreased energy demand, followed by a brief …

Analyzing Acid Rain And Industrial Activity, Jooyoung Jeon

Open Educational Resources

This assignment by Jooyoung Jeon asks students to explore the relationship between acid rain occurrences and industrial activity by analyzing open datasets. It was created as part of a workshop on OER-based Active Learning at John Jay College in 2025.

Cover Crops Can Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions From No-Till Maize In Southern Brazil: Insights From A Long-Term Field Experiment, Guilherme Rosa Da Silva, Adam J. Liska, Cimélio Bayer

Adam Liska Papers

Brazil is one of the countries that has the most agricultural area under no-till (NT) management. This research study aims to evaluate life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from maize (M) grain production in agroecosystems that used different cover crops under NT management in southern Brazil. The data for this study were from a long-term 41-year field experiment in southern Brazil. The long-term experiment evaluated the effects of fallow (F) and cover crops (oat (O), vetch (V), cowpea (B), pigeon pea (P), and lablab (L)) on nitrous oxide and methane emissions and soil carbon (C) sequestration in maize agroecosystems. Five cropping …

Estimating Medium-Term Regional Monthly Economic Activity Reductions During The Covid-19 Pandemic Using Nighttime Light Data, Ma Flordeliza P. Del Castillo, Toshio Fujimi, Hirokazu Tatano

SOSE Affiliate: Manila Observatory

Economic impact estimates of the initial lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic showed a significant reduction in economic activities globally. However, the succeeding impacts and their spatiotemporal distribution within countries remain unknown. Studies showed that nighttime light data (NTL) has effectively revealed the spatiotemporal dimensions of the economic effects of COVID-19. Thus, this study used NTL data to determine the medium-term regional monthly economic impacts of the pandemic in the Philippines in terms of the Economic Activity Reduction (EAR) index. We generated a spatial error model, regressing pre-pandemic NTL on mean temperature, maximum rainfall, and built-up area. This model explained …

Enhanced Lithological Mapping In Arid Crystalline Regions Using Explainable Ai And Multi-Spectral Remote Sensing Data, Hesham Morgan, Ali Elgendy, Amir Said, Mostafa Hashem, Wenzhao Li, Surendra Maharjan, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Lithological classification is essential for understanding the spatial distribution of rocks, especially in arid crystalline areas. Artificial intelligence (AI) recent advancements with multi-spectral satellite imagery have been utilized to enhance lithological mapping in these areas. Here we employed different AI models namely, Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest Classification (RFC), Logistic Regression, XGBoost, and K-nearest neighbors (KNN) for lithological mapping. This was followed by the application of explainable AI (XAI) for lithological discrimination (LD) which is still not widely explored. Based on the highest accuracy and F1 score of the previously mentioned models, RFC model outperformed all of them, and …

Case Study: Abandoned Mines Reclamation And Extrapolation Technique In Gis, Yuri Gorokhovich

Open Educational Resources

The goal of this exercise is to integrate vector/raster data for the input in the model that will predict locations of possible mine reclamation projects in USA. The original publication is: Gorokhovich Y., A. Voros, M. Reid, E. Mignone. 2003. Prioritizing Abandoned Coal Mine Reclamation Projects Within Contiguous United States Using Geographic Information System Extrapolation. Environmental Management, October 2, vol. 32, issue 4. 527-534.

Assessment And Prediction Of Meteorological Drought Using Machine Learning Algorithms And Climate Data, Khalid En-Nagre, Mourad Aqnouy, Ayoub Ouarka, Syed Ali Asad Naqvi, Ismail Bouizrou, Jamal Eddine Stitou El Messari, Aqil Tariq, Walid Soufan, Wenzhao Li, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Monitoring drought in semi-arid regions due to climate change is of paramount importance. This study, conducted in Morocco’s Upper Drâa Basin (UDB), analyzed data spanning from 1980 to 2019, focusing on the calculation of drought indices, specifically the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) at multiple timescales (1, 3, 9, 12 months). Trends were assessed using statistical methods such as the Mann-Kendall test and the Sen’s Slope estimator. Four significant machine learning (ML) algorithms, including Random Forest, Voting Regressor, AdaBoost Regressor, and K-Nearest Neighbors Regressor, were evaluated to predict the SPEI values for both three …

Data From: Interweaving Recurring Slope Lineae On Mars: Do They Support A Wet Hypothesis?, Daniel P. Mason, Louis A. Scuderi

Earth and Planetary Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

This is a metadata only access point for the referenced dataset hosted in the Dryad data repository. The following abstract relates to the dataset that is available through Dryad.

Included in these supplementary materials is a manuscript citation and manuscript keywords for the manuscript “Interweaving Recurring Slope Lineae on Mars: Do They Support a Wet Hypothesis?”, as submitted to the scientific journal Icarus. Also included are two JP2 image files, a digital terrain model (DTM) file, two shapefiles, and forty-eight CSV files that all collectively detail data relating to channel counts and sinuosity measurements for Martian hillslope features known as …

Effect Of Biomass Water Dynamics In Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensor Observations: A Long-Term Analysis Of Maize–Soybean Rotation In Nebraska, Tanessa Morris

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The precise measurement of soil water content (SWC) is crucial for effective water resource management. This study utilizes the Cosmic Ray Neutron Sensor (CRNS) for area-averaged SWC measurements, emphasizing the need to consider all hydrogen sources, including the time-variable ones like plant biomass and water content. Chapter 1 presents a background on soil moisture estimation, CRNS technology, and an overview of the study. It discusses various soil moisture measurement techniques, highlights the gap in knowledge addressed by CRNS technology, explains CRNS functionality and advancements, and outlines the study's motivations and methods.

Chapter 2 reports a study conducted near Mead, Nebraska, …

Estimation Of Useful-Stage Energy Returns On Investment For Fossil Fuels And Implications For Renewable Energy Systems, Emmanuel Aramendia, Paul E. Brockway, Peter G. Taylor, Jonathan B. Norman, Matthew Kuperus Heun, Zeke Marshall

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

The net energy implications of the energy transition have so far been analysed at best at the final energy stage. Here we argue that expanding the analysis to the useful stage is crucial. We estimate fossil fuelsʼ useful-stage energy returns on investment (EROIs) over the period 1971–2020, globally and nationally, and disaggregate EROIs by end use. We find that fossil fuelsʼ useful-stage EROIs (~3.5:1) are considerably lower than at the final stage (~8.5:1), due to low final-to-useful efficiencies. Further, we estimate the final-stage EROI for which electricity-yielding renewable energy would deliver the same net useful energy as fossil fuels (EROI …

Enhancing Landslide Susceptibility Modelling Through A Novel Non-Landslide Sampling Method And Ensemble Learning Technique, Chao Zhou, Yue Wang, Ying Cao, Ramesh P. Singh, Bayes Ahmed, Mahdi Motagh, Yang Wang, Ling Chen, Guangchao Tan, Shanshan Li

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

In recent years, several catastrophic landslide events have been observed throughout the globe, threatening to lives and infrastructures. To minimize the impact of landslides, the need of landslide susceptibility map is important. The study aims to extract high-quality non-landslide samples and improve the accuracy of landslide susceptibility modelling (LSM) outcomes by applying a coupled method of ensemble learning and Machine Learning (ML). The Zigui-Badong section of the Three Gorges Reservoir area (TGRA) in China was considered in the present study. Twelve influencing factors were selected as inputs for LSM, and the relationship between each causal factor and landslide spatial development …

Estimation Of Sugarcane Yield Using Multi-Temporal Sentinel 2 Satellite Imagery And Random Forest Regression, Alireza Taravat, Gebeyehu Abebe, Berhan Gessesse, Tsegaye Tadesse

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Advancements in remote sensing techniques have greatly enhanced crop monitoring and yield estimation, with spectral vegetation indices (VIs) serving as a key component. Our study investigates the use of Sentinel-2 data, notable for its red-edge bands, in estimating sugarcane yield in Ethiopia's Awash Basin. Utilizing 22 VIs from S2 imagery, our approach combines Random Forest (RF) regression with the Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE) algorithm to improve the accuracy of sugarcane yield predictions. The results demonstrate the superior performance of the RF-RFE method over traditional RF with full datasets and Stepwise Multiple Regression (SMR). Particularly, VIs focusing on the red-edge spectral …

Migrating Whooping Crane Activity Near U.S. Air Force Bases And Airfields In Oklahoma, David A. Brandt, Aaron T. Pearse, Mark T. Bidwell, John Conkin, Matthew Butler

United States Geological Survey: Publications

The Aransas-Wood Buffalo population of Grus americana (Linnaeus, 1758; whooping cranes) migrates through the United States Great Plains, encountering places substantially altered by human activity. Using telemetry data from 2017 to 2022, we investigated whooping crane migration behavior around U.S. Air Force bases in Oklahoma. Our study focused on potential collision risks between whooping cranes and aircraft, a substantial concern for aviation safety. We determined that activity was greatest at Kegelman Air Force Auxiliary Airfield, near whooping crane critical habitat. On average, 61 percent of marked whooping cranes used locations west of Kegelman Air Force Auxiliary Airfield and Vance Air …

Earthquakes And Seismic Waves: Solutions For Fermi Questions, March 2024, John Adam

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Solution to Question 1: To estimate h, we take the geometric mean of 1 km and 70 km, or ~8 km, and take ρ ≈ 2500 kg/m³.

Hence, δl ≈ 4 × 0.05 × (2.5 × 10³ kg/m³) × (10 m/s²) × (8 × 10³ m) × (2 × 10⁴ m) × 0.1 ÷ (3 × 10¹⁰ kg · m⁻¹ · s⁻²) ≈ 1.3 m. (Note that this is not meant to be an estimate of the width of the Icelandic rock fracture in the photograph, though it appears to be of the right order …

Earthquakes And Seismic Waves, John Adam

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

This article discusses earthquakes and seismic waves. It explains that earthquakes occur in the crust or upper mantle, with "shallow" earthquakes happening above a depth of 70 km in the crust. The article also introduces the slider-block model, which is a simple model used to understand earthquake behavior. It provides equations to calculate the displacement and maximum slip velocity of the fault based on various factors. The article then presents two questions related to earthquake calculations. Additionally, it mentions Fermi Questions, which are brief questions with estimation techniques.

Investigating Drought Response And Paleoclimate Potential Of A New Network Of White Oak Chronologies In Western Kentucky, Usa, Audrey J. Heichelbech, Maegen L. Rochner, Megan Gibson

Undergraduate Research Events

In Kentucky, historic and paleo-climate data are limited, and current understanding of long-term climate change in the state relies on instrumental data spanning only 1895-present. Proxy data are necessary to extend the temporal and spatial span of climate information. One potential proxy source for Kentucky is tree ring data, but currently, only four such datasets are publicly available on the International Tree Ring Data Bank (ITRDB). Archaeological and archival timber sources may help to fill in this gap. In the 1940s, Florence Hawley-Ellis, the first woman dendrochronologist, collected samples of white oak (Quercus alba L.) from four counties in western …

Review Of Harmful Algal Bloom Effects On Birds With Implications For Avian Wildlife In The Chesapeake Bay Region, Barnett A. Rattner, Catherine E. Wazniak, Julia S. Lankton, Peter C. Mcgowan, Serguei V. Drovetski, Todd A. Egerton

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The Chesapeake Bay, along the mid-Atlantic coast of North America, is the largest estuary in the United States and provides critical habitat for wildlife. In contrast to point and non-point source release of pesticides, metals, and industrial, personal care and household use chemicals on biota in this watershed, there has only been scant attention to potential exposure and effects of algal toxins on wildlife in the Chesapeake Bay region. As background, we first review the scientific literature on algal toxins and harmful algal bloom (HAB) events in various regions of the world that principally affected birds, and to a lesser …

How Is Flash Drought Understood?—Experts’ Definitions And Decision-Makers’ Perceptions, Caily Schwartz, Tonya Haigh, Mark D. Svoboda, Madeline Goebel

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Because flash drought is a relatively new phenomenon in drought research, defining the concept is critical for scientists and decision-makers. Having detrimental impacts on many sectors, it is important to have a consistent definition and understanding of flash drought, between experts and stakeholders, to provide early warning to the community. This study focuses on onset and progression of conditions and demonstrates the difference in flash drought identification for 15 events across six quantitative definitions of flash drought that use the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM). Five flash drought events have been studied in the literature while 10 additional events have been …

The Patchwork Governance Of Ecologically Available Water: A Case Study In The Upper Missouri Headwaters, Montana, United States, Amanda E. Cravens, Julia B. Goolsby, Theresa Jedd, Deborah J. Bathke, Shelley Crausbay, Ashley E. Cooper, Jason Dunham, Tonya Haigh, Kimberly R. Hall, Michael J. Hayes, Jamie Mcevoy, Rebecca L. Nelson, Markéta Poděbradská, Aaron Ramirez, Elliot Wickham, Dionne Zoanni

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Institutional authority and responsibility for allocating water to ecosystems (“ecologically available water” [EAW]) is spread across local, state, and federal agencies, which operate under a range of statutes, mandates, and planning processes. We use a case study of the Upper Missouri Headwaters Basin in southwestern Montana, United States, to illustrate this fragmented institutional landscape. Our goals are to (a) describe the patchwork of agencies and institutional actors whose intersecting authorities and actions influence the EAW in the study basin; (b) describe the range of governance mechanisms these agencies use, including laws, policies, administrative programs, and planning processes; and (c) assess …

Droughtscape, Summer 2023, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

DroughtScape, Summer 2023