NEWS SPOTLIGHT

Across the department, EOAS researchers made their mark in 2025. Here is a brief highlight of some of the great research out of the department. Congratulations on all of the impactful work, we can’t wait to see what folks uncover in 2026!

March - Sharper images of Earth’s interior using neural networks

New research by Anran Xu and Lindsey Heagy shows that using neural networks in geophysical imaging can reduce common artefacts and improve how subsurface structures are mapped from field data. By training the neural network during inversion rather than beforehand, the method better recovers key features like fault boundaries, offering a promising advance for seismic surveying.

June – Microbial indicators of copper deposits

An entirely EOAS study led by student Bianca lulianella Phillips shows that surface microbes living on rocks above buried copper sulphide deposits can act as reliable indicators of where those copper resources are hidden underground. By linking specific microbial communities to underlying ore, the work offers a biological tool to guide more efficient and less invasive mineral exploration.

Read the UBC EOAS article here: Microbial DNA offers clues to where copper is buried

July - Mapping water tables with machine learning

An EOAS team developed high-resolution machine learning models that predict how deep the water table sits across large parts of the United States and Canada. Lead author Joe Janssen trained their models on millions of real and proxy observations, the researchers produced detailed maps that help improve our understanding of groundwater distribution — a key factor for ecosystems, drinking water resources, and land planning.

August – Asteroid Bennu and the origins of the solar system

New analysis from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission shows that asteroid Bennu contains an unexpected mix of rocks, water-altered minerals, and organic material, offering rare clues about how planets first came together. EOAS researchers Dominique Weis, Marghaleray Amini, and Vivian Lai were part of the international team behind this discovery.

Read the UBC EOAS article here: Asteroid Bennu holds clues to the origin of our solar system

August – The mystery of Sea Star Wasting solved

Researchers, led by EOAS and Hakai Institute scientist Melanie Prentice, identified the cause of sea star wasting disease, the devastating marine epidemic that has killed billions of sea stars along the Pacific coast since 2013. They found that a pathogenic Vibrio bacterium triggers the rapid tissue decay characteristic of the disease, resolving a decade-long mystery and opening new paths for monitoring and recovery.

Read the UBC EOAS article here: "Disease detectives" solve decade-long mystery of sea star wasting disease

August – Oyster die-off culprit identified

Research led by EOAS scientist Kevin Zhong has identified Pacific oyster nidovirus 1 (PONV1) as a key driver of recent oyster die-offs on the BC coast, linking the virus to widespread mortality in farmed and wild oyster populations. The study clarifies the biological cause of major losses in an ecologically and economically important species.

Read the UBC news article here: New mega RNA virus may hold the key to mass oyster die-offs.

September – Linking atmospheric patterns to extreme heat

An EOAS study shows that large bends in the jet stream play a key role in driving extreme hot and cold events across the Northern Hemisphere, with potential to be altered further due to climate change. By comparing different ways of measuring these atmospheric patterns, Elliot Roocroft, Rachel White, and Valentina Radić identified which indicators best capture when and where temperature extremes are most likely to occur, helping improve how scientists interpret and predict extreme weather.

October – Earthquake risk in southern BC

An EOAS study led by student Raul Mendoza investigated earthquake risk in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia by modelling seismic hazard scenarios for a set of active faults in southern BC. Their results highlight which faults — including the Fraser fault and Alouette Lake fault near Vancouver — could produce significant shaking and should be priorities for further study and risk planning. This work advances understanding of local earthquake threats and supports better preparedness for communities.

November – Lithium deposits in BC

Led by EOAS researcher Catriona Breasley, this study shows that the chemistry of minerals found at the surface can point to lithium-rich rocks buried deep underground near Revelstoke. By linking easily measured rock properties to hidden lithium deposits, the work provides a new way to support critical mineral exploration in British Columbia.

Read the UBC science article here: Will B.C. get a charge from lithium?

December – Improving how we model oil spills

EOAS researcher Raisha Lovindeer and her coauthors developed a new way to model how oil spills move through marine ecosystems, tracking contaminants from seawater into plankton, fish, and higher predators. By linking oil exposure to both immediate and long-term biological effects, the work improves our ability to assess ecosystem-wide impacts of spills and support better response and recovery planning.

We are excited to share that Dr. Hal Bradbury, Assistant Professor in Chemical Oceanography in the department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (EOAS), has been awarded support from the B.C. Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF) by the Government of B.C. The BCKDF goes towards the development of research infrastructure, with the goal of fostering innovation at B.C.’s research institutions. The $400,000 in funding will contribute to the development of a stable isotope laboratory at EOAS for the purpose of carbon cycle and climate change research.

Dr. Bradbury’s isotope geochemistry research focuses on the marine sedimentary environment. The project supported by the BCKDF will couple research into the climate of the past with research into critical mineral deposit formation. Studying the sensitivity of Earth’s climate to changes in greenhouse gas concentrations as well as the minerals integral to the clean-energy transition sets this project apart - it may increase both our understanding of future climate change and our ability to combat it. 

In receiving this award Dr. Bradbury joins 71 UBC award holders who the province hopes can help institutions attract gifted researchers and collaborate with industry. Congratulations Hal! 

Learn more about Dr. Bradbury’s research in this interview:

Read the full PMSA article here: Collaboration Between Canadian and Chilean University Consortiums Strives to Understand and Protect the Ocean 

Canadian and Chilean marine science organizations have formalized a new partnership to strengthen collaborative ocean research and education across the Pacific Rim and polar regions. The agreement, signed on November 25, 2025, brings together the Pacific Marine Science Alliance (PMSA), a consortium of five western Canadian universities including UBC, and the newly forming Chilean National Consortium of Ocean Science, led by the Océanos Institute at the University of Concepción and comprising ten research institutions across Chile. 

Canada and Chile together account for more than one-fifth of the world’s coastline and play leading roles in Arctic and Antarctic research. Despite their distance, the two countries have strikingly similar Pacific coastal environments and face many of the same ocean challenges, related to climate change, ocean acidification, fisheries resource management, and coastal hazards. Coordinating research across hemispheres creates new opportunities to understand how large-scale ocean processes shape regional ecosystems and the communities that depend on them. 

For UBC researchers, the agreement builds on more than a decade of Canada–Chile collaboration led by Dr. Philippe Tortell, a professor in Biological Oceanography at EOAS, whose work spans the eastern Pacific and polar regions. These collaborations have supported joint field programs, graduate student exchanges, and international training in ocean observation, biogeochemistry, and data science. Programs such as PRODIGY (Pacific Rim Ocean Data Mobilization and Technology) have provided many EOAS students with interdisciplinary and cross-cultural experience alongside Chilean colleagues. 

“This agreement marks a significant step forward in building a large-scale ocean research program across the Pacific Rim,” said Tortell. “Canada and Chile share many ocean challenges, and with that, a responsibility to provide global leadership in the protection and sustainable development of ocean resources.” 

The agreement signing followed a research visit to Chile by a Canadian delegation representing PMSA, including EOAS faculty Philippe Tortell, Rich Pawlowicz and Michael Bostock, along with UBC Dean of Science Mark MacLachlan. Hosted by the University of Concepción, the Catholic University of Chile, and the Catholic University of Valparaíso, the visit focused on identifying opportunities for coordinated research programs, shared infrastructure, and expanded student mobility, with plans to begin these efforts in 2026. 

The PMSA–Océanos agreement was signed alongside a Memorandum of Understanding between NSERC (the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) and Chile’s national research agency, ANID (Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo), creating a broader framework for Canadian-Chilean research collaboration. Representatives from both countries’ science ministries, funding agencies, and diplomatic missions attended the signing ceremony. 

Together, these agreements mark a major milestone for Pacific Rim ocean science under the UN Ocean Decade, positioning UBC and its partners within a growing international network dedicated to advancing ocean knowledge and stewardship at a global scale. 

EOAS hosted American science-comedian Ben Miller on November 5th for a whirlwind, 24-hour visit. Miller has performed in Victoria and Toronto before (and even in Benmiller, Ontario), but this was his first chance to visit Vancouver and meet the EOAS community. The city greeted him with steady rain, warm crowds, and excellent sushi squeezed in just before his flight home. 

Miller started his visit with lunch on campus with four EOAS graduate students. The group discussed his path from engineering to full-time comedy, his approach to science communication, and the process of shaping complex scientific ideas into accessible, humorous material. Students were particularly interested in how he balances scientific accuracy with storytelling, and how he handles challenging audiences—an experience familiar to any researcher presenting their work.

After lunch, Miller spent a few hours exploring campus and particularly enjoyed the Museum of Anthropology before heading to the Earth Sciences Building for the evening performance. The show sold out, with extra hopefuls gathered in the lobby in case there were any no-shows. EOAS professor Brett Gilley opened the event before Miller took the stage for his one-hour set, Volcano.

Volcano is Miller’s second full-length science-comedy show, developed after he served as the Artist in Residence at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park in 2023—the first stand-up comedian ever selected for that role. During his residency, he learned about the science, history, and cultural significance of Hawai’i’s volcanoes, and transformed those experiences into a show that blends accurate geoscience with approachable comedy. The EOAS audience responded accordingly with “explosive” laughter throughout the performance.

Ben Miller’s Volcano show uses humour to make complex geoscience accessible, and EOAS was thrilled to host an evening that celebrated both scientific curiosity and the value of creative communication. We want to make this an annual event. If you have earth-science inspired comedians that you would love to see grace the halls of ESB next year, please reach out to the EOAS communications team via socialmedia@eoas.ubc.ca. 

Read the full UBC Science article here: Will B.C. get a charge from lithium?

Researchers from the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (EOAS) at UBC have uncovered the first major lithium-bearing pegmatite in British Columbia – the Prof pegmatite above the town of Revelstoke on Boulder Mountain – marking an important advancement in understanding the potential of critical mineral resources of the province.

This discovery was led by Dr. Catriona Breasley, a recent EOAS PhD graduate and now founder and Principal Consultant at Criterra. While examining the outcrop, Dr. Breasley suspected that some of the clear crystals with pink rims and a distinctive lustre were lithium-rich petalite—an insight she later confirmed through X-ray powder diffraction. Over three field seasons, she collected more than 100 tourmaline samples from the Prof pegmatite. 

“B.C. is a geologist’s dream, especially up in the alpine where there’s perfect rock exposures,” says Dr. Breasley. “When you find petalite mineralization in one pegmatite, the likelihood you’re going to find much more is quite high. There are hundreds of pegmatites in the area, which are fairly difficult to reach, places that could contain much more significant lithium mineralization than what I found at the Prof pegmatite.”

Crucially, Dr. Breasley also developed a new method that uses tourmaline chemistry as a roadmap to detect lithium hidden deep underground. “We can see a hundred or more pegmatite intrusions in a 15-kilometre band running from Mount Begbie to Boulder Mountain,” says Dr. Lee Groat, Professor at EOAS and PhD supervisor of Dr. Breasley. “However, very few show lithium minerals on the surface — and the Prof pegmatite is the only one that has petalite. What Catriona found was that the chemistry of the tourmaline can tell you if an intrusion is likely to contain lithium at depth. This is important because the surface expression of a pegmatite dike is often small.”

Together, these findings highlight the broader potential of the Revelstoke region for future resource exploration and provide geologists with a new and effective way to identify lithium-rich pegmatites. Their work strengthens Canada’s ability to assess its critical mineral resources at a time when demand for lithium, particularly for rechargeable vehicle batteries, continues to grow.

Watch the UBC Science interviews with Drs. Breasley and Groat:

If you’ve spent time in the Earth Sciences Building, you’ve probably seen the Beaty Biodiversity Museum directly across Main Mall the beautiful whale skeleton makes it hard to miss. What’s less obvious is that EOAS and the Beaty Biodiversity Museum have more in common than just their affinity for enormous hanging sea-creature bones – Dr. Bruce Archibald also sits in the centre of this overlap. 

Dr. Archibald is the Curator of the Fossil Collection at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. He has taken on the task of bringing order to EOAS’s fossil holdings, a research-grade collection that spans the entire geologic column and includes material from around the world. But his ambitions extend beyond cataloguing. Dr. Archibald wants to make UBC a hub for Eocene research. “We’ve got the good stuff,” he says. “If we can focus on this and build what we have here, I think that the Beaty will have a world-class collection.” 

The Eocene fossils of the BC interior document life in upland forests about 51 million years ago,  an exceptionally warm time when many modern plant and animal groups first appeared. An amazingly rich record of insects, leaves, fish, flowers, and rare birds and mammals was fossilised in lakes scattered across the landscape from Smithers, BC through south-central BC to northern Washington, preserving an extraordinary biodiversity. The BC and Washington uplands offered a temperate refuge from the extreme Eocene heat, and Dr. Archibald’s research shows that their ecosystems rivalled the richness of modern tropical rainforests. Fossils from these sites reveal communities where plants and animals that we now consider strictly temperate or tropical coexisted.

The Eocene ended with a drop in atmospheric carbon and an intense plummet in global temperatures that resulted in the extinction, adaptation, and changes in the ranges of many plant and animal species. The divide between those that adapted to cold winters and those that did not offers a window into how modern life might respond to human-driven climate change.  Remarkably, many of the fossils that record this shift are only a short trip from campus

Dr. Archibald makes excursions to these fossil sites regularly, contributing many thousands of specimens to the collection, but fieldwork is only part of what drives him. Dr. Archibald’s unwritten policy is that he makes an effort to engage with local people, to learn about what the fossils mean to them and share his own knowledge. He often gives public talks, helps run field schools for teachers, works with First Nations, and organizes dig-days for kids. This connection  with communities has blossomed in many ways— from collaborating with Indigenous Elders on naming newly discovered species, to long-lasting and rewarding relationships with local fossil enthusiasts. One Princeton resident, Beverley Burlingame, is determined to find a fossil worthy of display at the Beaty Museum; Dr. Archibald believes she deserves an award for amateur paleontology. Another, Daniel Moses from the Colville Reservation, has had Dr. Archibald’s guidance in fostering his love for fossils since he was six. Now pursuing a Ph.D. in paleontology at Arizona State University, Daniel still  joins him in outreach events, connecting communities with their deep past.

Dr. Archibald’s work highlights how a well-curated fossil collection can support both research and community outreach. His steady efforts to strengthen UBC’s Eocene collection reflect that practical goal, and the benefits are already taking shape in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum and in the communities he works with.