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Quarantine Conversation with Prof. Rachel White
Rachel is an Assistant Professor in Climate Dynamics in the EOAS Department. She studied physics at the University of Cambridge, before completing her PhD in Atmospheric Physics at Imperial College London. She has recently moved to Vancouver after working as a post-doc in Seattle (US) and then Barcelona (Spain), and is excited to be here at UBC. Rachel enjoys climate outreach and talking to the public about climate and extreme weather, and has aspirations to one day combine her hobby of aerial circus with a climate outreach event!
From modest digs at UBC, Canadian Earth science journal celebrates 100 years
The Canadian Mineralogist, a peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes papers from worldwide authors on all aspects of mineralogy, crystallography, petrology, geochemistry and mineral deposits, celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.
In typical Canadian fashion, the journal operates on a shoestring compared to its rivals—its office is a back room in UBC’s LS Klinck building and its editorial is powered by volunteers.
“This is one of very few scientific journals that isn’t associated with a commercial publishing house,” says UBC earth scientist Dr. Lee Groat, who serves as part-time chief editor of the journal. “Given increasing competition from commercial and predatory journals it’s unknown how long Canadian Mineralogist can survive in its current form. For now, however, we’re celebrating 100 years of a very unique Canadian achievement.”
Dr. Groat and managing editor Mackenzie Parker (UBC Earth and Ocean Sciences 2001) are aided by volunteer editors from across Canada and eight other countries. EOAS students gain experience and play an important paid role in fact checking—for example ensuring that mineral names adhere to international standards.
Rhiana Henry, the current mineral fact checker for Canadian Mineralogist and PhD student at UBC Vancouver, says working on the journal helps broaden her horizons beyond topics that would be covered under her PhD.
“Mineralogy bridges the disciplines of geology, crystallography, petrology, mineral deposits, and geochemistry, and I’m learning about each field,” says Henry, whose PhD is focused on a single mineral, beryl.
“I’ve read papers ranging from description of crystal growth in caves due to bat guano, papers about platinum group element ores in South Africa, papers on in-depth crystallography of newly described minerals, gem turquoise from the Middle East, minerals created by lightning strikes, and of the mineralogy and petrology of pegmatites from around the world.”
The ragtag approach does seem to be working—in 2019 the journal ranked second in Canada in its field, with an impact factor of 74.
The Canadian Mineralogist has its roots in Contributions to Canadian Mineralogy (part of the University of Toronto Studies, Geological Series), which was founded in 1921 by Thomas Leonard Walker and was the leading publication of academic mineralogical research in Canada for many years.
Support for Studies was withdrawn in 1948, but Martin Peacock, who at the time was both responsible for editing Contributions and serving as president of the Mineralogical Society of America, persuaded his council to devote one of the six yearly numbers of American Mineralogist to Canadian papers (they were called Canadian Contributions). Canadian Contributions continued as part of American Mineralogist until 1955, with The Canadian Mineralogist coming into existence two years later, in 1957.
The Canadian Mineralogist is recognized to be the continuation of the earlier Contributions, and its volumes are numbered accordingly. The Contributions to Canadian Mineralogy, University of Toronto Studies have been designated as volumes l to 4 of The Canadian Mineralogist; the seven Contributions of American Mineralogist have been designated as volume 5; and thus the first volume published as The Canadian Mineralogist is volume 6.
Currently six issues totaling approximately 120 papers are published per year.
A Day in the Life - Johan Gilchrist
Check out a day in the life of Johan Gilchrist, an experimental volcanologist and PhD Candidate at EOAS.
Tools for Landslide Risk Management Decisions
Alex Strouth and Scott McDougall
Quantitative risk assessments are used in BC to estimate life-loss risk at landslide hazard sites, and to compare these estimates with risk tolerance thresholds to determine the necessity for, and extent of, protection measures. The risk estimates are often calibrated by so-called ‘expert judgement’ because historical landslide fatality data are not readily available, and risk tolerance thresholds are referenced without a clear understanding of their origin or limitations. Our recent publications illuminate these issues, providing historical context, data, and suggestions for risk managers who make decisions about landslides that threaten human life. “Historical Landslide Fatalities in British Columbia, Canada” provides data in a format that can be used to calibrate quantitative risk estimates. It shows that landslides cause an average of one fatality per year in British Columbia and summarizes the historical frequency of multiple-fatality events (Figure 1). “Societal risk evaluation for landslides” provides a history of, and suggestions for, risk evaluation tools (in a format like Figure 1) that are used to determine if a community that faces landslide risk is ‘safe enough’. Our future research seeks a method for using the province-wide historical data to calibrate the site-specific risk evaluation tool.
Historical frequency of multiple-fatality landslide events in British Columbia.
Water table fluctuations impact the biodegradation of spilled fuels in soils
Cole J.C. Van De Ven, Keelin Scully, Mikaela Frame, Natasha J. Sihota, and K. Ulrich Mayer
As a result of the prevalence of fuels in our everyday lives, these fuels can be spilled or accidently released into the subsurface causing environmental and human health concerns. Fortunately, as a result of natural biodegradation in subsurface systems, these contaminants can be consumed and converted to less harmful by-products, carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). Utilizing this biodegradation is a viable remedial approach called natural source zone depletion (NSZD). To determine the effectiveness of NSZD, a non-invasive method of measuring the surface efflux of CO2 and CH4 has been developed. However, this study looked to better quantify this biodegradation in dynamic subsurface systems resulting from water table fluctuations, which are expected in natural systems. Using a unique experimental sand tank, measuring 4 m long, 1 m wide and 1.5 m tall, a fuel spill was simulated then we induced water table fluctuations and measured the resulting changes in effluxes and biodegradation. Results show that lowering the water table led to both short-term, large increases in effluxes and long-term increases in biodegradation. This research advances our knowledge of dynamic subsurface effects on NSZD and allows us to better monitor and assess the remediation of contaminated groundwater systems.
On decline, mobile fuel moves downward with the water table, allowing for the rapid release of anaerobically produced gas from below the water table and enhanced aerobic degradation of the more exposed, trapped fuel above the water table.
Insights Into the Origins and Compositions of Mantle Plumes: A Comparison of Galápagos and Hawai‘i
Karen S. Harpp and Dominique Weis
At the Pacific Centre for Isotopic and Geochemical Research, we performed new, high-precision analyses on isotopes of Pb-Sr-Nd-Hf for 83 samples from the Galápagos islands and compared them to data of similar quality from Hawaiian volcanoes. Both island chains are formed by mantle plumes that are rooted in the deep mantle and that play significant roles in mantle dynamics. This work is exciting because it shows comparable mantle plume structures and geochemical sources for both volcanic island chains: 1) both plumes are compositionally split into two halves and the volcanoes that form above either half have unique isotopic compositions, 2) both plumes straddle the boundary between the Pacific large low shear velocity province (LLSVP) and the ambient Pacific lower mantle, 3) the isotopic compositions of their volcanoes converge at a common composition representative of the average lower Pacific mantle (‘PREMA’), and 4) both plumes incorporate material from the Pacific LLSVP but erupt very different isotopic compositions from these plume domains (‘EMI’ and ‘HIMU’), which suggests that the Pacific LLSVP is more heterogeneous than previously thought. Studies like this that assess the composition Earth’s mantle are important to help us understand how the entire Earth system works.
Schematic diagram showing a side-view and plan-view of the Hawaiian and Galápagos plumes. Each plume consists of two main isotopic halves coloured orange and purple for those originating from the Pacific LLSVP and blue for those originating from the ambient lower Pacific mantle. Direction of plate motion is indicated in both cases and influences how the isotopic domains in the plumes are expressed in the overlying volcanoes – e.g., as a double geochemical chain for Hawaiian volcanoes and as stacked geochemical layers for Galápagos volcanoes.