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

New research published today in Nature Communications suggests that during and following devastation of land plant communities at the end of the Permian period, rivers and lakes became hostile to life owing to the proliferation of toxic microbes. UConn Earth Sciences Professors Tracy Frank and Chris Fielding are among the team of geoscientists who generated […]

For me, the first week of fall semester 2021 culminated with a UConn Today feature article by Elaina Hancock titled: “Rx for Humanity: Whole Earth Environmentalism.” The article’s subtitle “Whole Earth Environmentalism is mine. It popped out accidentally when I was trying to describe what Earth System Science was to an outsider who wasn’t getting […]

Last  year was a breakthrough year for the Department of Earth Sciences. Perhaps you noticed the stronger support by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; the addition of two full professors active in paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental research; the dean's appointment of a new department head (Tracy Frank); a near-doubling of our graduate student group; […]

This summer, two distinguished full professors will be traveling east from Lincoln, Nebraska to usher in a new epoch for UConn earth science. On August 23, Tracy Frank will become the new head of the Department of Earth Sciences within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Her husband, Chris Fielding, will become one of […]