Department of the GeoPhysical Sciences

Geophysical Science News

• Nicolas Dauphas, Nicole Nie, Timo Hopp, Justin Hu, Zhe Zhang and other scientists at the Origins Lab at UChicago reveal conditions in early solar system

  December 03, 2021

  Most meteorites are made of tiny beads of glass that date back to the earliest days of the solar system, before the planets were even formed. The beads of glass inside these meteorites are called chondrules. Scientists with the University of Chicago have published an analysis laying out how these beads, which are found in many meteorites, came to be—and what they can tell us about what happened in the early solar system. “It’s a huge question in the field of cosmochemistry,” said Dauphas.

  Now, finally, the team is happy to have put a significant dent in the mystery. Read the full article, by Louise Lerner, by clicking here.

• Nick Crouch leads study on better way to analyze the history of evolution and extinctions

  December 01, 2021

  Postdoc Nick Crouch in David Jablonski’s lab led an analysis by a multi-institutional team of researchers to test the effects of a basic assumption on how lineages diverge in evolutionary trees. The group assembled a new phylogeny for a group with a rich fossil record, the bivalves, inserted 86 time-calibration points from the fossil record, and quantified the distortions created by assuming that all lineages arise by bifurcations or “forks” rather than by allowing one lineage to branch from another. Click here for more details.

• Open Faculty Search in Geophysical Sciences

  October 26, 2021

  The Department of the Geophysical Sciences is accepting applications to join the faculty at the rank of Assistant Professor (tenure-track) or Associate Professor. Review of applications will begin November 1, 2021 and will continue until the position(s) are filled. [Originally posted on 27 August]. EOE/Vet/Disability

• Megan Mansfield leads analysis of a unique exoplanet spectral sequence, finds evidence for compositional diversity

  October 23, 2021

  2021 PhD graduate Megan Mansfield (now NASA Sagan Fellow at the University of Arizona) led an analysis of exoplanet "Hot Jupiter" spectra that has been published in Nature Astronomy. Mansfield and her team (including University of Chicago Astronomy and Astrophysics Professor Jacob Bean) analyzed the strength of the water vapor feature in secondary eclipse data for Hot Jupiters as a function of temperature, finding trends that (when compared to models) suggest compositional variability between Hot Jupiters. Click here for more details.