Skip to main content Skip to footer unit links

News

Remnants of trees poke up from the sand on the Washington coast. These stumps helped researchers date the previous Cascadia earthquake.
| In the News

Stress-testing the Cascadia Subduction Zone reveals variability that could impact how earthquakes spread

A new University of Washington study examining 13 years of ground motion data from sites near the Cascadia Subduction Zone shows that the entirety of the fault may not be as tightly locked as researchers thought, which could change our understanding of how a big earthquake might hit the Pacific Northwest. ESS Associate Professor Marine Denolle is a co-author.

Read more
| In the News

Snowball Earth: Why the planet stayed frozen for 56 million years

A new study led by ESS graduate student and planetary scientist Trent Thomas finds intensified seafloor weathering was the decisive factor that allowed one planet-wide ice age to last 56 million years. This result overturns a long-standing assumption that carbon vented from volcanoes controls the duration of Snowball Earth glaciations. Thomas is interviewed.

Read more
Headshot of David Catling.
| In the News

ESS Professor David Catling named interim director of the UW Astrobiology Program

David Catling has been named interim director of the UW Astrobiology Program, an interdisciplinary group that spans four UW colleges, including the College of the Environment. Catling, a professor of Earth and space sciences, is an astrobiologist and planetary scientist who studies what characteristics of Earth help it support life, and whether what we think of as life might be found on other planets.

Read more
Eric Steig in a yellow parka holding an ice core from 1776 in a cold lab.
| In the News

UW glaciologist Eric Steig featured in CBS Sunday Morning segment on American history and climate change

UW glaciologist and ESS Professor Eric Steig was interviewed on the February 15th CBS Sunday Morning show. In the segment, "These United States: George Washington and climate change", Steig showed CBS Environmental correspondent David Schechter around his lab (Δ*IsoLab, the isotope geochemistry laboratory in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences, which he co-leads with other ESS and Atmospheric Sciences faculty). Together they looked at an ice core dating back to 1776, at the start of the American Revolution.

Read more
A view of the city of Seattle along with the Space Needle, downtown, Elliot Bay and Mount Rainier.
| Announcements

University of Washington launches the Paros Geohazards Center

The College of the Environment has launched the Paros Geohazards Center, establishing a world-class center of research excellence to understand and mitigate environmental and geologic hazards, with an emphasis on developing new and emerging technologies that can help save lives. The Department of Earth and Space Sciences, including the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, is one of the Center's core units.

Read more at College of the Environment
| In the News

The dirt on dirt: Flood recovery starts from the ground up for Washington farmers

The road to recovery for Washington farmers following last month's widespread flooding includes cleaning up and replacing their soil. "You can think of healthy, fertile soils as the foundation that keeps civilization afloat," ESS Professor David Montgomery is quoted. Large-scale flooding can not only wash away these healthy, fertile soils, but it can also bring in undesirable additions such as plastic, oil, and roadway runoff.

Read more on KUOW
Back to Top