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  • PNSN's Bill Steele featured in Article Discussing How Recent Earthquakes Relate to Seattle
    Friday, April 4, 2014
    PNSN's Bill Steele and Prof. John Vidale are featured in an article discussing how the recent earthquakes along the Ring of Fire do not increase Seattle's chance for an earthquake. Read More
  • Prof. Vidale featured in Article about Ring of Fire Earthquakes
    Friday, April 4, 2014
    Prof. John Vidale is featured in an article discussing the improbability that the recent quakes in California, Chile, and Panama are related. Read More
  • Prof. Vidale featured in USA NOW: L.A. earthquake: More to come?
    Tuesday, April 1, 2014
    Prof. John Vidale of the PNSN is featured in the USA Now segment "L.A. earthquake: More to come?" which discusses the recent LA earthquake and whether more are likely to follow. Read More
  • Prof. Montgomery Assisting the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance Association
    Tuesday, April 1, 2014
    Prof. Dave Montgomery is assisting the NSF backed Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance Association as they review the Oso disaster. The group's goal is to review major disasters to hopefully mitigate future disasters. Read More
  • Porf. Vidale featured in Article about Difficulty of Predicting Mudslides
    Wednesday, March 26, 2014
    Prof. John Vidale is featured in an article about the inherent difficulties in predicting future mudslides. Read More
  • Fangzhen Teng Awarded MSA Award from Mineralogical Society of America
    Wednesday, October 30, 2013
    Prof. Fangzhen Teng is the 2014 recipient of the Mineralogical Society of America's early career award, the MSA Award. Congratulations to Prof. Teng. Read More
  • In recognition of Dr. Gary B. Hansen
    Thursday, October 10, 2013
    In recognition of Dr. Gary B. Hansen by: Tom McCord September 28, 2013 I have been informed that Dr. Gary B. Hansen passed away late Thursday evening, September 26, from complications of ALS. He died while sitting at his computer, working on some science or technical issue. This was a highly appropriate setting for Gary. Gary was a hard working and very dedicated scientist who contributed to a number of parts of the Planetary Sciences. He loved the work and the science. Working, I am sure, is where he wanted to be ("with his boots on," so to speak). Gary B. Hansen was born 12 July 1953 in Denver Colorado. He earned a BS in Engineering and Applied Science from the California Institute of Technology, 1975, an M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1986, and a Ph.D. in Geophysics, 1996, both from the University of Washington. He held a variety of positions throughout his career, starting as an engineer for CBS television in Los Angeles 1976-79, then at the jet Propulsion laboratory, Pasadena CA (Asst. cognizant engineer for the Galileo spacecraft flight computer). At JPL he also performed considerable laboratory work on the properties of CO2 ice, which eventually supported his Ph.D., dissertation. In 1996, he came to work with me at the University of Hawaii as a researcher in my Division of Planetary Geosciences and worked closely with me and my graduate students for six years before I retired from the University and set up my own Institute near Winthrop, Washington. Gary moved to the University of Washington, became a Research Faculty there, but we continued to work on joint projects. Gary had a long connection with and loved Seattle, and he participated in its music and sports scenes as well as his research. He owned a house there even when he worked at the University of Hawaii. The University of Washington was the natural place for him to be associated and the Department of Earth and Space Science (ESS) found a way to enable this. He felt comfortable there and contributed to several parts of the Department and its research effort, in addition to working on his and our planetary science projects. As his health failed, the ESS provided what assistance and support they could to enable his participation until the end. For this I am sure Gary, as well as those of us who knew Gary, were very appreciative. Gary’s specialty became radiative transfer, especially in multi scattering media, such as CO2 and H2O ices. This was essential to the study of the outer solar system satellites. When Gary came to work with me in 1996, we were just beginning the observational phase of the Galileo mission and its infrared spectrometer, NIMS. As the spectra rolled in, we had a feast, and we made several important discoveries. This would not have happened without Gary’s deep understanding of the physics behind the signals the spectrometer was receiving. Further, Gary was a wizard at developing calibrations and corrections for this finicky instrument and its idiosyncrasies, and he worked long, hard hours developing credibility for the NIMS data (and later for the VIMS data too). Gary was an essential component to the growth and development of several graduate students and post doctoral fellows, several of whom are professional scientists in their own right today. They too, I am sure, will join in recognizing our appreciation for Gary’s contributions and his friendship. Read More
  • Faults can reseal months after quakes
    Tuesday, October 1, 2013
    John Vidale talks to ScienceNews about the importance of understanding how faults heal and how that affect earthquake cycles. Read More
  • Earth and Space Science glaciologists and isotope geochemists (grads and faculty) lead paper on the new deep ice core from Antarctica, in the latest issue of Nature.
    Sunday, September 29, 2013
    T. J. Fudge, Eric J. Steig, Bradley R. Markle, Spruce W. Schoenemann, Qinghua Ding, Howard Conway, Peter Neff, Andrew J. Schauer & Edwin D. Waddington are featured in the latest issue of Nature for their work on the "Onset of deglacial warming in West Antarctica driven by local orbital forcing" Read More
  • Karl Lang and Colleagues featured in the August Science
    Sunday, September 29, 2013
    Karl A. Lang, Katharine W. Huntington and David R. Montgomery's Geology Article "Erosion of the Tsangpo Gorge by megafloods, Eastern Himalaya" is featured in August's Science "Editor's Choice" Section Read More