News & Events

PhD Thesis Defense: Gabriela Racz

Title: Inverse Modelling of Subglacial Hydraulic Processes

Date & Time: Tuesday, March 14 2023 at 2:00 PM

Location: ESB 5104

PhD Thesis Defense: Reid Merrill

Title: Studies of Forearc Seismicity and Structure in British Columbia and Washington State

Date & Time: Wednesday, March 15 2023 at 1:00 PM

Location: Graduate Student Centre - Room 200

PhD Thesis Defense: Colin Rowell

Title: Explosive volcanism through ice and water: quantifying controls on the dynamics, stability, evolution, and stratospheric injection of water-rich eruption columns

Date & Time: Wednesday, March 21 2023 at 10:00 AM

Location: ESB 5104

Seminar At SFU: Dr. Britta Jensen - Quaternary time-scales, Volcanism, tephrochronology

Dr. Britta Jensen will be giving a seminar at Simon Fraser University: March 16, Thurs at 2:30 pm PST. Britta joined the University of  Alberta in 2017 and has established herself internationally as an expert in global volcanism, (crypto-)tephrochronology, and paleoenvironmental studies.

The seminar is face to face but also can be joined remotely via this link.

Abstract: Mount Churchill, near the Alaska-Yukon border, is part of the Wrangell volcanic field and the source of the well-known “White River Ash”, which actually represents (at least) two major eruptions around ~1600 and ~1100 years ago. Although the White River Ash represents one of the largest Holocene eruptions in North America, very little is known about the eruption history of this volcano, and it remains unmonitored. For this talk I will explore the history of the Mount Churchill and White River Ash story, and how recent research is starting to suggest this volcano has been much more active in the last 11,000 years than previously thought.

IOF SEMINAR, “The environmental footprint of global food production” - March 17, 2023

Feeding humanity puts enormous environmental pressure on our planet. Most studies focused on this critical issue have addressed it piecemeal, one group of foods or one environmental pressure at a time. Dr. Halpern will share results from his recently published work compiling vast data on greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater use, habitat disturbance and nutrient pollution generated by 99% of total reported production of freshwater, marine and terrestrial foods (crops, livestock, fisheries, and aquaculture). He and his team mapped these pressures to produce the first ever global ‘footprint’ of food production, creating the opportunity to address many key questions. For example, they found that on land, five countries contribute nearly half of food’s cumulative footprint, and just 10% of the planet contributes 93% of this footprint. Additionally, the top five foods with the greatest environmental footprint are pigs, cows, rice, wheat, and milk. This work provides new insight into decisions about which foods we choose to eat, and how we can influence policy towards more sustainable food production.

Speaker: Dr. Ben Halpern, Professor, Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, UC Santa Barbara

Time: Friday, March 17, 2023 - 11:00am  - 12 noon. Over Zoom.

UBC members, alumni, and all others, please RSVP at here.