A study involving Professors Tracy Frank and Chris Fielding in the Department of Earth Sciences provides new insights into the latest Permian mass extinction. Published in Nature Communications, the team collected and analyzed samples from terrestrial sites in southern Pangea for mercury, which is a proxy for volcanic activity. These southern hemisphere mercury records capture […]

Learn about the geology of Connecticut through 10 essays in Connecticut Magazine by Department of Earth Sciences Professor Robert Thorson. In this collection, he describes many unique aspects of Connecticut’s landscape that help define the state’s identity. By recounting Connecticut’s tectonic, glacial, and human history, Thorson illuminates how the land of steady habits came to […]

A new study by Earth Sciences professor Ran Feng explores the North American Monsoon during the Pliocene. Published in AGU Advances, the researchers used a combination of model simulations and proxy reconstructions to better understand how the North American Monsoon responded to this past warm interval. The authors find an intensification of the North American […]

As part of interdisciplinary research team, Department of Earth Sciences Professor Lisa Park Boush was awarded 2.5 million dollar from the National Science Foundation to explore the relationship between climate change and biodiversity at Lake Tanganyika, Africa. To do so, the team will collect and analyze sediment cores from the lake bed using a variety […]

A new study published in Paleoclimatology and Paleoceanography explored Australian climate during the early-to-middle Eocene (55-40 million years ago). The research, led by Dr. Tammo Reichgelt in the Department of Earth Sciences, used plant fossils from southern Australian to reconstruct past temperature and precipitation. Despite the continent of Australia being closer to the South Pole […]

A study led by Assistant Professor Ran Feng in the Department of Earth Sciences provides a new explanation for how ancient subtropical drylands become mesic habitats. Published in Nature Communications, the team conducted a series of simulations to investigate the climate conditions responsible for generating mesic subtropical conditions over 3 million years ago during the […]

A team of scientists, including Department of Earth Sciences researcher Megan Mueller, have a new explanation for how mammals originally from Asia were able to colonize Europe around 34 million years ago. In a new Earth Science Reviews article, the team documents several lines of evidence for an ancient continent, named Balkanatolia, between Europe, Africa, […]

New research suggests that climate change played an important role in the Frasnian–Famennian mass extinction (~372 Ma). UConn Earth Sciences current and former graduate students Jaleigh Pier, Sarah Brisson, and Dr. Andrew Beard and Professors Michael Hren and Andrew Bush generated the new results, which show that a cooling climate was likely responsible for the […]

New research published in The Journal of Environmental Quality by Department of Earth Sciences alumni Dr. Mark Higgins and Dr. Meredith Metcalf and Professor Gary Robbins finds a link between arsenic levels in wells and proximity to historic orchards. Although use of arsenic in pesticides was phased out decades ago and many orchards have been […]

Our new department head, Dr. Tracy Frank, discusses earth science careers, her research, and the future of the field in an interview for UConn Today. She discusses how earth scientists are uniquely equip to tackle current and future environmental problems. Link to the UConn Today article