100 YEARS The Ocean's Long Memory How Dust Collapsed an Empire Lawyers on the Art of Persuasion in Science - Eos.org
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VOL. 100 • NO. 4 • APR 2019
The Ocean’s
Long Memory
How Dust Collapsed
an Empire
Lawyers on the Art of
100 YEARS Persuasion in Science
Session, Workshop, and Town Hall Proposals Now Open for Submissions Deadline: 17 April 2019 agu.org/fallmeeting
FROM THE EDITOR
Editor in Chief
Heather Goss, AGU, Washington, D.C., USA; Eos_EIC@agu.org
Editors
How Did We Get Here? Christina M. S. Cohen
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, Calif., USA
David Halpern
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, Calif., USA
T
cohen@srl.caltech.edu davidhalpern29@gmail.com
he shells of tiny ancient sea organisms We know that José D. Fuentes Carol A. Stein
hold the evidence that underpins one of however our society Department of Meteorology Department of Earth
Pennsylvania State University and Environmental Sciences
the newest fields in the Earth sciences. reacts to that infor- University Park, Pa., USA University of Illinois at Chicago
In the 1950s, Cesare Emiliani at the University mation in the coming juf15@meteo.psu.edu Chicago, Ill., USA
Wendy S. Gordon cstein@uic.edu
of Chicago was learning how to measure stable decades, the conse-
Ecologia Consulting
isotopes in invertebrates and use those data as quences will be Austin, Texas, USA
a proxy to make conclusions about environ- reflected in our envi- wendy@ecologiaconsulting.com
mental factors. One day he turned that study ronment for a very Editorial Advisory Board
to ancient foraminifera taken from sediments long time. For this Mark G. Flanner, Atmospheric Jian Lin, Tectonophysics
in the ocean floor. The oxygen isotopes he reason, one import- Sciences Kirk Martinez, Earth and Space
Nicola J. Fox, Space Physics Science Informatics
found in their shells told him that the ocean ant topic of study and Aeronomy Figen Mekik, Paleoceanography
was once much warmer—that, in fact, the right now is determining how much heat is Steve Frolking, Biogeosciences and Paleoclimatology
Edward J. Garnero, Study of the Jerry L. Miller, Ocean Sciences
ocean changed over time. Paleoceanography stored in the oceans. A recent study used data
Earth’s Deep Interior Thomas H. Painter, Cryosphere
was born. collected by the HMS Challenger expedition, Michael N. Gooseff, Hydrology Sciences
In April, as AGU continues its Centennial which launched in 1872, beginning the mod- Brian C. Gunter, Geodesy Philip J. Rasch, Global
Kristine C. Harper, History of Environmental Change
celebrations, we’re looking at this nascent but ern era of the study of oceanography. Compar- Geophysics Eric M. Riggs, Education
critical field, which has already proved so pro- ing the temperature observations with those Sarah M. Hörst, Planetary Adrian Tuck, Nonlinear
Sciences Geophysics
lific it’s expanded into two major components. taken today shows that the Pacific Ocean is
Susan E. Hough, Natural Hazards Sergio Vinciguerra, Mineral
AGU launched its Paleoceanography journal in still cooling in response to the Little Ice Age Emily R. Johnson, Volcanology, and Rock Physics
1986, and as it embraced the growth and evo- during the 14th to 19th centuries. This direct Geochemistry, and Petrology Andrew C. Wilcox, Earth and
Keith D. Koper, Seismology Planetary Surface Processes
lution in the field, changed its name to Pale- evidence of the ocean’s “long memory” Robert E. Kopp, Geomagnetism Earle Williams, Atmospheric
oceanography and Paleoclimatology last year. means that modern climate models—most of and Paleomagnetism and Space Electricity
John W. Lane, Near-Surface Mary Lou Zoback, Societal
“We now use, in addition to fossils, a broad which only use data from the beginning of the
Geophysics Impacts and Policy Sciences
and growing range of stable isotope composi- Industrial Revolution—need to incorporate
tions, trace element concentrations and ancient signals and that the effects from mod-
Staff
Production and Design Editorial
organic biomarkers in fossils and sediments as ern warming will be seen throughout the Faith A. Ishii, Manager, Production Caryl-Sue Micalizio, Manager,
quantitative proxies for a growing number of planet for a long, long time (p. 4). and Operations Eos News and Features Editor
environmental properties,” wrote journal edi- Cesare Emiliani’s revolutionary work con- Melissa A. Tribur, Senior Peter L. Weiss, Interim Manager/
Production Specialist Features and Special Projects
tor in chief Ellen Thomas when she announced tinues today through programs such as the Editor
Beth Bagley, Assistant Director,
the change in Eos. “In our present time of core drilling conducted aboard the JOIDES Res- Design and Branding Randy Showstack, Senior
environmental change, it is, more than ever, olution vessel and that of NSF’s Paleo Perspec- Travis Frazier, Senior News Writer
important to use proxy data on Earth’s past in tives on Climate Change, which is currently Graphic Designer Kimberly M. S. Cartier, News
order to evaluate Earth’s future, thus making soliciting proposals that will provide data on Valerie Friedman, Senior Writer and Production Associate
our past a key guide to our future.” Earth’s past climate sensitivity to specific Graphic Designer Jenessa Duncombe, News
Marketing and Production Intern
Paleoclimatologists know better than any- variables.
Jessica Latterman, Director, Liz Castenson, Editorial
body that understanding Earth’s past is nec- At AGU and Eos, we continue to support the Marketing, Branding & Advertising and Production Coordinator
essary for understanding what’s happening to work of and listen carefully to the information Liz Zipse, Assistant Director, Advertising
the climate today—and why the recent warm- learned by paleoceanographers and paleocli- Marketing & Advertising Dan Nicholas,
Angelo Bouselli, Marketing Display Advertising
ing can’t simply be explained by natural matologists because every time we learn more dnicholas@wiley.com
Program Manager
cycles. As a result, this young field has been about our past, we learn a little bit more about Heather Cain,
Nathaniel Janick, Senior
uniquely shaped by the challenge and urgency our future. Specialist, Digital Marketing Recruitment Advertising
hcain@wiley.com
of communicating its findings to the public. Ashwini Yelamanchili, Digital
It’s no surprise that a recent workshop for sci- Marketing Coordinator
entists to learn lessons in persuasive commu-
nication from lawyers was funded by the ©2019. AGU. All Rights Reserved. Material in this issue may be photocopied by
individual scientists for research or classroom use. Permission is also granted to
National Science Foundation (NSF) Paleocli- use short quotes, figures, and tables for publication in scientific books and journals.
For permission for any other uses, contact the AGU Publications Office.
mate Program (p. 18). Heather Goss, Editor in Chief
Eos (ISSN 0096-3941) is published monthly by AGU, 2000 Florida Ave., NW,
Washington, DC 20009, USA. Periodical Class postage paid at Washington, D.C.,
and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Member
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Use AGU’s Geophysical Electronic Manuscript Submissions system to submit a
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Views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect official positions of
AGU unless expressly stated.
Christine W. McEntee, Executive Director/CEO
Earth & Space Science News Eos.org // 1
CONTENTS
20
26
Features
31 20 Scientists Invited to
Collaborate in Ocean
Observing Mission
Cover Story
By Rosemary Morrow et al.
The Surface Water and Ocean Topography
31 Searching for Life mission will begin by scanning Earth’s surface
once a day. What could you discover with
Under the Seafloor SWOT?
By Gretchen L. F
rüh-Green and Beth N. Orcutt
Can shallow mantle rocks generate nutrients to support life?
26 Forensic Probe of Bali’s
Great Volcano
By Frances M. Deegan et al.
On the Cover
The carbonate chimneys that make up the “Lost City” in the Mid-Atlantic New evidence helps explain Mount Agung’s
Ridge are the largest hydrothermal vent structures in the ocean. frequent eruptions.
Credit: Billy Brazelton/Return to the Lost City 2018 Expedition
2 // Eos April 2019
CONTENTS
NEWS
06 44
Columns
From the Editor AGU News
1 How Did We Get Here? 36 Advancing FAIR Data in Earth, Space,
and Environmental Science
News
4 Scientists Discover Evidence of Long “Ocean Memory”
Research Spotlight
5 Stroke Deaths Rise, Life Expectancy Falls 39 How Will Melting Glaciers Affect Streamflow?
with Polluted Air 40 More Evidence Humans Migrated to the Americas
6 Ancient Arctic Ice Cover Undone by Warming via Coastal Route
8 Volcanic Flank Collapse in Italy Tied to Ancient Tsunami 40 Ancient Faults Amplify Intraplate Earthquakes
9 Was the Akkadian Empire Felled by Dust? 41 How Ningaloo Niño Supercharges the El Niño–
10 An SOS Call for Ocean Health and National Security Southern Oscillation
12 Deaf Students Feel the Universe’s Vibrations 42 Gravity Waves Dance Above Antarctica in Winter
in New Workshop 43 Organic Particles Affect Carbon Cycling in Boreal Waters
43 New Plasma Wave Observations from Earth’s
Opinion Magnetosphere
44 Unraveling the Origins of Australia’s Ancient
14 Universities Can Lead the Way in Supporting Mountain Chains
Engaged Geoscientists
18 Being Persuasive: Lessons from Lawyers That All
Scientists Need
Positions Available
45 Current job openings in the Earth and space sciences
Postcards from the Field
48 Diving in a sinkhole in Lake Huron to monitor and
sample field experiments to measure the changing
water composition.
AmericanGeophysicalUnion @AGU_Eos company/american-geophysical-union AGUvideos americangeophysicalunion americangeophysicalunion
Earth & Space Science News Eos.org // 3
NEWS
Scientists Discover Evidence
of Long “Ocean Memory”
T
he world’s first oceanography expedi- mates. Past research has uncovered evidence much, Gebbie explained, “when you sum up
tion, which set sail in 1872, is still of the Little Ice Age across the globe; it crops that temperature change over such a big vol-
uncovering new insights today. up in ice cores, tree rings, corals, sediments, ume of the Pacific Ocean, it actually adds up to
In a study published in January in Science, and cave formations. a lot of energy.” The cooling trend is enough
researchers analyzed thousands of measure- In the latest study, the researchers pulled to offset one quarter of the heat gained in the
ments from the HMS Challenger expedition, data from the Challenger expedition, which surface of the ocean during the 20th century.
the scientific voyage that sailed around the “marks the beginning of modern oceanogra- This offset is not enough to overwhelm the
globe from 1872 to 1876. The data revealed phy,” said Gebbie. The scientific expedition steadily increasing global warming signal in
that the deep Pacific Ocean is still cooling took top to bottom measurements from the the surface ocean, he notes, but will help
from a dip in global temperatures that chilled world’s oceans for 4 years, often using ther- researchers better constrain how much heat
surface waters several centuries ago. mometers tied to hemp ropes. The new has been taken up by the ocean.
Waters take so long to reach the depths of research compared the temperatures with Gebbie believes that the latest results could
the Pacific that “they are still responding to modern-day measurements and ran an inde- be helpful for climate modelers. “Most com-
the cooling trend that marked the entry into pendent model using 2,000 years of climate prehensive climate models are started from
the Little Ice Age,” said first author Jake Geb- records to search for cooling trends. equilibrium at some time near the beginning
bie of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institu- of the Industrial Revolution,” Gebbie noted.
tion in Woods Hole, Mass. The findings could A Chilling Trend “What this study shows is that there’s still
improve climate models and may offer a clue Gebbie and his collaborators found a signal some influence from ancient signals that orig-
into how future oceans will respond to modern of cooling in the Pacific in both the mea- inated from the surface before the Industrial
global warming. surements and the model. The model calcu- Revolution.”
lated that the Pacific deep waters have
Data Taken by Hemp Rope cooled by 0.02°C over the past century. The Ocean Memory
Understanding the ocean’s history through long-term trend in the data matches up Timothy DeVries, an assistant professor at the
past changes in climate can help scientists “pretty closely” with what the model pre- University of California, Santa Barbara who
pinpoint just how much heat is stored in the dicted, said Gebbie. was not involved in the study, said that these
oceans, a hot topic of current research. Taken together, the results reveal that the results are important because “it reminds us
Earth’s climate cooled globally between the deep Pacific is still slowly being replaced by of the long memory of the ocean.” Scientists
14th and 19th centuries in what’s known as waters from the Little Ice Age, which are caus- who measure ocean temperature trends will
the Little Ice Age, causing temperatures to dip ing the deep to cool down. Although the “take note of these results” and begin scour-
roughly half a degree Celsius by some esti- decrease in temperature may not seem like ing their field measurements for these signals,
DeVries said.
“Long memory in the climate system is
both a fascinating phenomenon and also a
major difficulty in understanding the ocean
state today,” said Carl Wunsch of Harvard
University, who is acknowledged in the paper.
“This paper is, to my knowledge, the first one
to document direct, plausible evidence that
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce
the deep ocean ‘remembers’ long-ago climate
states.”
The latest results hint at future conse-
quences of present-day climate change. “The
signal of modern warming will more quickly
overwhelm the previous signals,” Gebbie said.
Once the present-day warming reaches the
depths, he added, “it will take several hundred
to even a thousand years for that signal to be
removed.”
“Whatever we’re doing today at the surface
will have consequences for a long time,” Geb-
bie said.
By Jenessa Duncombe (@jrdscience), News
Writing and Production Intern
4 // Eos April 2019
NEWS
Stroke Deaths Rise, Life Expectancy
Falls with Polluted Air
Agency (EPA). They focused on
annual average levels of PM2.5, a
category of breathable particles
around 30 times smaller than the
width of a human hair. PM2.5 is a
main cause of hazy or smog-filled
air, and past research has con-
nected it with heart disease and
respiratory illnesses. Liu’s team
found that 51% of the counties
surveyed had annual average PM2.5
levels that exceeded the EPA’s air
quality standard limit of 12 micro-
grams per cubic meter.
The team also gathered county
data on stroke mortality, overall
life expectancy, poverty rate, rural
population percentage, and the
number of primary care physi-
cians per 1,000 residents from the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. When they com-
pared PM2.5 levels with health and
demographic data, the research-
ers found that higher annual lev-
els of PM2.5 were significantly
correlated with both stroke mor-
tality rate and life expectancy in
men and women. Populations
This map shows the average rate of stroke deaths for adults in the United States from 2014 to 2016. The data are grouped by county that breathe polluted air experi-
and shaded darker purple in areas with higher rates of stroke deaths per 100,000 residents. The stroke belt spans the southeastern ence higher rates of death from
region of the country, roughly from eastern Texas to Virginia. Credit: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strokes and have shorter life
expectancies, the study con-
P
cluded.
eople living in regions with a high level Liu presented these preliminary results in Poor air quality hit hardest in counties with
of fine-grained air pollutants have February at the International Stroke Confer- a higher percentage of people living below the
shorter life expectancies and an ence in Honolulu, Hawaii. poverty line and counties with fewer physi-
increased rate of death from a stroke, accord- cians per capita. Those factors are markers for
ing to new research. The study, which sur- The Stroke Belt whether residents have ready access to an
veyed counties across the United States, also The researchers gathered air quality data from affordable health care provider who can treat
found a link between poor air quality and more than 1,550 U.S. counties from 2005 to the effects of air pollution, the researchers
higher levels of poverty and reduced access to 2010 from the U.S. Environmental Protection said.
affordable healthcare. When the team mapped out which regions
In almost half of the areas surveyed “the experienced the strongest effects, it found
annual average [pollution] was at a level con- Higher annual levels of that people living in southern states had the
sidered acceptable. However, 51 percent of highest rates of stroke death and the lowest
counties had an annual average exceeding”
PM were significantly
2.5 life expectancies due to high PM2.5 levels, fol-
that limit, said Longjian Liu in a press release. correlated with both lowed by those living in the Midwest, North-
Liu is a medical doctor and an associate pro- east, and West. The intersection of poor air
fessor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the stroke mortality rate and quality, lower income, and fewer doctors in
Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel southern states may help explain a phenome-
University in Philadelphia, Pa. “To reduce the life expectancy in men non called the “stroke belt,” an 11-state
risk of stroke, clinicians should consider their and women. region where nearly 8.5 times as many people
patients’ likely exposure to air pollution along die from a stroke than in other areas of the
with other risk factors,” he said. United States.
Earth & Space Science News Eos.org // 5
NEWS
Ancient Arctic Ice Cover
Undone by Warming
Cars in rush hour highway traffic driving in hazy air.
Credit: iStock.com/ssuaphoto
Pollution Elevates Personal Risk
“Places that are usually high in air pollution
and other types of environmental risk are also
associated with low socioeconomic status
areas, unemployment,…access to medical care, Glacier researchers Simon Pendleton and Gifford Miller collect ancient plants preserved beneath an ice cap on Baffin
and utilization of medical care,” Daniel Lack- Island in Arctic Canada. Modern warming has caused the ice to retreat and expose the material preserved beneath.
land, a doctor of public health and a professor Credit: Matthew Kennedy, Earth Vision Institute
of epidemiology at the Medical University of
T
South Carolina in Charleston, explained in a
press release. Lackland, who was not involved
with this research, added that these demo-
he melting of ice caps and glaciers in the
Canadian Arctic has exposed plants that
“Glaciers are in some
graphic variables exacerbate lifestyle factors died tens of thousands of years ago. ways purely reactionary
that increase the stroke risk from air pollution. Radiocarbon dating of the plants and sur-
What can a person who lives in the stroke rounding rocks has revealed when the ice first to climate.”
belt do? “Knowing that I’m in a high-risk crept over the plants and preserved the land-
area,” Lackland said, “and knowing that I’m scape beneath.
at high risk personally, that [should] be even “Glaciers are in some ways purely reaction-
more of an emphasis that I need to develop a ary to climate: It warms, they shrink. It cools, study dead plants and rocks at the edges of its
healthy lifestyle.” they grow,” Simon Pendleton told Eos. “The ice caps and glaciers. Glaciers on high-
On the basis of this research, Liu’s team plant ages and the radiocarbon in the rocks elevation, low-relief terrain like Baffin Island
suggests that primary care physicians begin to tell us that they’ve likely had continuous ice are useful for paleoclimate studies because
take air pollution into account when assessing cover for the last at least 40,000 years.” Pend- they adhere to the rock rather than sliding and
patients who are at risk of a stroke. “Clini- leton is a geoscientist at the Institute of Arctic eroding the surface.
cians can then encourage at-risk patients to and Alpine Research at the University of Colo- “They actually preserve the landscape
take measures to reduce their exposure when rado Boulder and the lead author on the paper underneath to a really high degree,” Pendle-
possible,” Liu said. “Avoiding major roadways that reported these results in Nature Communi- ton said. When the ice cap retreats, “those
during rush hour traffic, keeping car windows cations in January (bit.ly/under-ice). plants come out from underneath the ice in
closed, and setting the air conditioner to cir- In addition, the researchers found that the the exact same position that they went under
culate internal air” are a few options Liu sug- plants and landscapes are exposed today the ice thousands of years ago.” The team col-
gested. Changing a commute to work or avoid- because “the most recent century of warming lected dead plants—mostly fragile mosses and
ing congested and industrial areas completely, that we have experienced was greater than lichen—from the edges of 30 ice caps and gla-
however, might not always be feasible for low- [that of] any century in the past 115,000 ciers on Baffin Island.
income individuals. years,” Pendleton said.
Radiocarbon Ages
Delicate Dead Plants The researchers determined the approximate
By Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@AstroKimCartier), The researchers traveled to Baffin Island in year the plants died using radiocarbon mea-
Staff Writer Nunavut, Canada, in 2013, 2014, and 2015 to surements. “Radiocarbon dating in organic
6 // Eos April 2019
NEWS
material is based on the idea that living organ-
isms—plants, you, me, anything that breathes—
exchange CO2 [carbon dioxide] with the atmo-
sphere,” Pendleton explained. “That CO2 is a
combination of 12C and [radioactive] 14C.”
The amount of radioactive carbon left in
dead organic material directly relates to when
it died and stopped replenishing its levels of
14
C. Pendleton and his colleagues found that
most of the plants died at least 40,000–50,000
years ago, marking the time span that those
plants were covered by ice.
At nine of the sample sites, the team also
measured the 14C concentration in surface
rocks. The radioactive carbon in surface rocks
is caused by energetic particles from space
striking the surface. Ice cover shields the rocks
from these particles. “Basically, it’s an on-off
signal,” Pendleton explained. “When the
landscape is exposed, you’re producing 14C;
when it’s covered by ice, you’re not.”
The researchers compared 14C measure-
ments to models of radiocarbon concentration
that depend on the ice cover thickness. This
can reveal whether a rock was exposed after
the glacier first expanded. They found that in
eight of the areas, the ice that originally killed
the plants 40,000 years ago never melted
away—until now.
An ice cap on Baffin Island. Researchers collected preserved plant life from the edge of this ice cap and found that it
Undoing Consistent Ice Cover had died more than 48,000 years ago. Credit: Gifford Miller, University of Colorado Boulder/INSTAAR
“We know the Arctic is changing,” Pendleton
said. “We see it in shrinking sea ice and
retreating glaciers and changing ecosystems. For this, they looked to ice cores collected in was not involved with this research, said that
What we don’t know is, When was the last Greenland by other teams. The Greenland ice the study “is amazing but alarming, since it
time the Arctic was actually as warm as it is cores showed that the most recent time before shows that the recent melt is unprecedented
today?” the plants died that the Arctic had warming in the Holocene. The small ice caps on Baffin
Ages from radioactive carbon can reach back similar to today’s was 115,000 years ago, Island are highly sensitive to temperature,
only so far, Pendleton explained. The during the Last Interglaciation. and their retreat is emblematic of the Arctic
researchers wanted to know when Baffin “You can have a year here and a year there cryosphere.”
Island last experienced warming similar to where the temperatures may be pretty warm Kelly also said that using radiocarbon mea-
today’s and thus when their field sites may or very cold,” Pendleton said. “The climate surements from the plants and rocks, com-
have been ice free. system is naturally chaotic. But now what bined with ice core ages, is a promising
we’re seeing is con- research technique for paleoclimate and
sistent warmth cryosphere research. “It’s a relatively new
undoing this contin- methodology that could and should be
uous ice coverage of applied in the Arctic and elsewhere to deter-
the past 115,000 mine a more detailed record of past ice
years.” extents,” she said.
Pendleton said that the team will return to
Running Out Baffin Island in the near future and collect
of Time more samples from the ice caps. “So many of
“This is an exciting these small ice caps you’re seeing are going to
paper that docu- be gone in the next 10 years,” he said. With
ments the magni- time running out, scientists must “try and
tude of recent warm- preserve that record, or at least access that
ing in the Arctic,” record, before it’s gone.”
Meredith Kelly, a
glacial geologist at
Dartmouth College
Preserved ancient moss collected from the margin of a retreating ice cap on Baffin in Hanover, N.H., By Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@AstroKimCartier),
Island. Credit: Matthew Kennedy, Earth Vision Institute told Eos. Kelly, who Staff Writer
Earth & Space Science News Eos.org // 7
NEWS
Volcanic Flank Collapse in Italy
Tied to Ancient Tsunami
that the three tsunamis inundated Stromboli
between the 14th and 16th centuries. Focusing
on the oldest and largest tsunami, the team
found that no large, contemporaneous earth-
quakes were noted in historical records. The
lack of a seismic event, paired with lava
records showing a collapse of the volcano’s
Sciara del Fuoco (Stream of Fire) lava feature
around 1350, suggest that the tsunami waves
were triggered by the collapse of the flanks of
the volcano, the researchers concluded.
Graves in the Rubble
Rosi and his colleagues also used archaeologi-
cal evidence to show that the tile roof of a
medieval church in northeastern Stromboli
had collapsed right around the same time.
They also found three graves containing
human remains that were hastily dug in the
collapsed tiles. Landslide-induced shaking
might have irreparably damaged the church
and killed people, the team proposed.
Further evidence of this tsunami might also
be in literature. In November 1343, the writer
Francesco Petrarca recorded a sea storm that
pummeled the harbor of Naples, destroyed
boats, and killed hundreds of people. It’s
The volcano on Italy’s Stromboli Island has been erupting since 1932. Credit: iStock.com/MaRabelo entirely conceivable that a tsunami originating
on Stromboli could have swept 200 kilometers
T
north and rolled up the shoreline of the Italian
he Italian island of Stromboli has long
attracted residents and visitors, thanks
This research “sheds new mainland, Rosi and his collaborators con-
cluded. Communities in southern Italy may be
to its mild climate, fertile soils, and pic- light on the persisting “exposed to a much higher tsunami hazard
turesque views. But there’s a sinister side to than previously thought,” the researchers
Stromboli: The steep flanks of its active vol- hazard of landslide- wrote in January in Scientific Reports (bit.ly/
cano periodically slough off, creating land-
slides that tumble into the sea and trigger tsu-
generated tsunamis in tsunami-stromboli).
This research “sheds new light on the per-
namis. Now geoscientists and archaeologists the Tyrrhenian Sea.” sisting hazard of landslide-generated tsuna-
have shown that one of these events in the mis in the Tyrrhenian Sea,” said Max Engel, a
14th century was likely responsible for the geomorphologist at the University of Cologne
rapid abandonment of the island. An enor- in Germany not involved in the research.
mous, deadly marine storm reported in Naples have to dig long before their machinery Rosi has a long history with Stromboli—his
in 1343 was also probably due to the same tsu- revealed something other than normal soil. doctoral thesis in the 1970s focused on the
nami waves, the researchers proposed. These “Below 1 meter, we immediately found some- island—and he is looking forward to continu-
findings suggest that southern Italy is at a thing that was completely different,” said ing fieldwork there. In the future, he plans to
higher risk of tsunamis than previously Rosi. Three clearly defined layers of pebbles dig deeper in search of even older tsunami
known. and black sand emerged, “closely resembling deposits to study how often large waves have
what you see when you go to the beach,” Rosi struck Stromboli. Extracting history from lay-
Something Completely Different said. This material, the researchers surmised, ers of sediments is hard, however, Rosi
Mauro Rosi, a volcanologist at the University had been swept inland by tsunami waves. admits. “The identification of past tsunami is
of Pisa in Italy, and his colleagues excavated To calculate approximately when these tsu- not an easy task.”
three trenches in the northeastern part of namis occurred, the researchers used
Stromboli to look for signs of ancient tsuna- carbon-14 dating to age date charcoal frag-
mis. Working 170–250 meters from the ments buried directly below the tsunami By Katherine Kornei (hobbies4kk@gmail.com;
present-day shoreline, the researchers didn’t deposits. Rosi and his colleagues estimated @katherinekornei), Freelance Science Journalist
8 // Eos April 2019NEWS
Was the Akkadian Empire
Felled by Dust?
Stalagmites in a cave in Budapest, Hungary. Credit: iStock.com/Obencem
F
orty-two centuries ago, the flourishing Everything Just Disappears the culprit, but the imprecise ages of marine
Akkadian Empire—spread across Archaeologists have long been baffled by the records make it difficult to definitively link the
modern-day Iraq, Turkey, and Syria— abrupt abandonment of northern Mesopota- geophysical and archaeological evidence, Car-
suddenly disappeared. Paleoclimatologists and mian settlements roughly 4,200 years ago. olin said. “Unless you know the exact timing…
other geoscientists now have one possible “There’s this specific point in time where you can’t say anything about a cause and effect
explanation. Using precisely age dated chemi- everything just disappears [from the archaeo- relationship.”
cal measurements from a stalagmite collected logical record],” said Stacy Carolin, the paleo- Carolin and her colleagues—including geo-
in a cave in Iran, researchers found an abrupt climatologist who led this research while at chemists and members of the Iranian Cave
uptick in dust at that point in history. This Oxford University in the United Kingdom and and Speleology Association and the Geological
heightened dust activity, which persisted for is currently at the University of Innsbruck in Survey of Iran—have now analyzed the chem-
300 years, might have made for uncomfortable Austria. Sediment cores obtained from the ical composition of an 18-centimeter-long,
living conditions and difficulties in farming, Gulf of Oman have suggested that increased semitranslucent stalagmite from Gol-e-Zard
the researchers suggest. dust activity in Mesopotamia might have been (Yellow Flower) cave near Tehran to look for
Earth & Space Science News Eos.org // 9NEWS
signatures of dust. Because stalagmites slowly
build up over time as dissolved minerals per- An SOS Call for Ocean Health
colate through rock and drip from cave ceil-
ings, they’re like clocks recording local envi- and National Security
ronmental conditions. Using uranium-thorium
radiogenic age dating, Carolin and her team
S
found that their stalagmite started growing
about 5,200 years ago. They estimated an age en. Sheldon Whitehouse doesn’t just resource conflicts—whether they relate to
uncertainty of 31 years for their measure- think that the administration’s push to fisheries, mineral rights, or territorial dis-
ments, far more precise than the centennial- construct a wall along the U.S.–Mexican putes—and possible solutions.
scale resolution of other studies. border in the name of national security is a “In a world that’s ever more crowded and a
bad and trumped-up idea that triggered the world that is ever more competitive, sustain-
Dust for 300 Years recent government shutdown. ability needs to be at the core of our national,
Carolin and her collaborators found an uptick Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, foreign, and security policies in a way that I
in magnesium, a component of dust, in the thinks that the security threat along the U.S. don’t think it has been to date,” project direc-
stalagmite beginning 4,260 years ago (in a twist southern border pales when compared with the tor Whitley Saumweber said at the January
of geophysical convention, all dates are refer- security threat that the United States and other launch event.
enced as years before 1950). This dust likely nations face from the decline in health of the Ocean security combines traditional con-
derived from the alluvial plains of the Tigris world’s oceans. That decline, caused by climate cepts of maritime security with the principles
and Euphrates Rivers—that is, the location of change, population growth, overfishing, and of conservation and sustainable use of marine
the Akkadian Empire—and was transported by other threats, is leading to increasing competi- resources, according to Saumweber, who was
prevailing winds, the researchers suggest. They tion and conflict over marine resources. President Barack Obama’s director for ocean
concluded that high levels of dust might have “When [President Donald] Trump moves and coastal policy on the White House Council
caused the Akkadian Empire settlements to be on to another topic, he’ll be talking about on Environmental Quality. “Over the long
abandoned. “Dry, arid conditions could have something completely different, and this term, unless you’re thinking about sustain-
been detrimental to agricultural settlements,” political episode is likely to pass,” White- ability, you are not secure in the maritime
Please make DQ narrower to make for better house told Eos at the launch of the Stephen- sphere. So it’s not just a conservation solution
line spacing. “The dustiness may have made son Ocean Security but a vital element of
living conditions unbearable as well.” (SOS) Project in Janu- soft power and a critical
The stalagmite records exhibited heightened ary. “The mounting “There is no better alternative to the more
dust activity for the following 290 years, the problems in the oceans time to talk about the exploitive path,” he
researchers showed, remarkably consistent are only going to build said.
with the 300-year interval of abandoned set- into worse and worse needed integration of In an interview with
tlements revealed in the archaeological evi- security concerns, ones Eos, Saumweber said
dence. These findings were published in Janu- that our military and sustainability and that “the world is
ary in Proceedings of the National Academy of defense experts have
national security in changing out from
Sciences of the United States of America (bit.ly/ warned us about now under our feet” in many
NAS-evidence). The data are suggestive of a for 5–6 years,” White- the marine space.” ways, including from
link between the geophysical and archaeologi- house said. He was the dramatic impact of
cal records, but it’s hard to know for sure, said referring to warnings climate change on the
Carolin. “The idea that there’s a relationship including the Penta- oceans, a shifting geo-
between climate and society is a provocative one.” gon’s 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review, political dynamic and the rapid ascent of
Other researchers are supportive of a real which describes climate change as a global China, and the Trump administration’s
cause and effect correlation, however. This threat multiplier. “views on America’s place in the world,
work “provides another line of evidence sup- Comparing the security issue along the which have allowed other nations to step into
porting the idea of a link between climate U.S.–Mexican border with ocean security places where we were previously a larger
variability and societal change,” said Matthew issues, Whitehouse told Eos, “One is, I think, presence.”
Lachniet, a paleoclimatologist at the Univer- temporary, political, and largely rhetorical. “There is no better time to talk about the
sity of Nevada, Las Vegas who was not One is deep, abiding, and potentially cata- needed integration of sustainability and
involved in the research. strophic.” national security in the marine space,” Saum-
Carolin is currently analyzing other Iranian weber said.
stalagmite samples that afford a deeper look Ocean Security Project Is Launched
into the past. She and her colleagues are look- The SOS Project, which is an initiative of the South China Sea and Arctic Ocean
ing at climate change over ice age cycles on the Center for Strategic and International Studies Case Studies
timescale of centuries. “We are interested in (CSIS), a Washington, D.C.–based policy Saumweber explained that the launch event
reconstructing the climate state of this region… research organization, focuses on the connec- focused on two initial SOS projects that look at
when our human ancestors were migrating out tion between ocean health and global security sharply contrasting areas of the ocean. One
of Africa and into Asia through southern Iran.” and the need to support sustainable develop- project focuses on the South China Sea, an
ment to manage global marine resources and area crowded with fishing vessels, many of
reduce conflicts. The project plans to highlight which may be involved in illegal, unreported,
By Katherine Kornei (hobbies4kk@gmail.com; key aspects of ocean security. Among them are and unregulated fishing. There China is
@katherinekornei), Freelance Science Journalist identifying current and potential marine asserting its dominance in “an incredibly
10 // Eos April 2019NEWS
Fishing boats in the South China Sea near the Vietnamese coast. Credit: Paul Hampton/Shutterstock
crowded space with incredibly complicated commercial fishing in the central Arctic The industry “maintains a very large and
debates around jurisdictions and boundaries Ocean. complex armada of false-front organizations
and resource use and without any real effec- In the Arctic, “we have the opportunity to designed both to obscure the hand of the fos-
tive mode of collective governance,” Saum run an experiment, if you will, and think sil fuel industry and to propagate junk and
weber said. about the lessons that we have in the South false science to counter the legitimate science
The other initial SOS project looks at the China Sea of what happens when you have a that the world knows” about climate change,
currently relatively unexploited Arctic Ocean, crowded space with heavy exploitation and he said. “Although the climate-denial appa-
which already has strong international gover- little to no governance,” he said. “Well, what ratus has won unseemly influence in Con-
nance structures in place, including the inter- happens if we can set up that kind of regime gress now, it will surely lose the test of time.”
governmental Arctic Council and a new inter- at the start? What happens if we can be con- Whitehouse said that the administration is
national agreement to prevent unregulated scious about where this all might end up?” doing “reasonably well” at some “specific
and localized levels” regarding the oceans,
Climate Change Threats “where common sense and factuality con-
to the Oceans tinue to exist.” He said, for instance, “I don’t
At the CSIS event, Sen. White- think the denial operation has done a very
house focused on the threat of effective job at infiltrating NOAA [the
climate change to the oceans, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-
noting that they annually absorb tration] and trying to shut down its scientific
more than 9 zettajoules of excess efforts.”
heat energy due to climate However, Whitehouse added that the
change and carbon emissions. He administration is doing poorly in many other
said that the added heat the areas. “The extent to which this administra-
oceans absorb “is equivalent to tion has been—to put it very bluntly in the
four Hiroshima-sized nuclear terms the Founding Fathers would use—
bombs exploding in the ocean corrupted by an interested party”—the fossil
every second, with all of the fuel industry—“is almost unprecedented in
thermal energy of that release our history.”
captured by the ocean.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (left) with Stephenson Ocean Security Project Whitehouse sharply criticized
director Whitley Saumweber at the 9 January launch of the project. “the nefarious political activi- By Randy Showstack (@RandyShowstack),
Credit: CSIS ties” of the fossil fuel industry. Staff Writer
Earth & Space Science News Eos.org // 11NEWS
Deaf Students Feel the Universe’s
Vibrations in New Workshop
De Leo-Winkler and other
astronomers at the University of
California, Riverside decided to
create their own outreach activity
in partnership with the California
School for the Deaf, Riverside
(CSDR). The team decided to focus
on developing an activity that
uses the sense of touch to convey
information. Research into brain
development has shown that in
people who are born Deaf or who
lose hearing later in life, the brain
rewires itself to process vibra-
tions in the absence of sound
through a phenomenon known as
neuroplasticity.
The researchers gathered
recordings of Earth and astro-
nomical phenomena that produce
distinct sounds or that vary with
time. For data that were outside
the range of human hearing—
about 20–20,000 hertz—they
used an algorithm to shift the
sounds into that range.
For nonauditory data sets, the
researchers used a technique called
sonification to transform the data
A purple and green aurora lit up the sky above Delta Junction, Alaska, on 10 April 2015. Deaf students felt the vibrations of sonified
into sounds and vibrations the stu-
aurora data in a new workshop that featured the vibrations of the universe. Credit: Sebastian Saarloos
dents could experience.
CSDR teachers gave their
A
expertise and guidance to the
new workshop brought the vibrations “We all like the stars,” he said. “If that was astronomers when selecting sounds that
of the universe to Deaf students, a enough—if looking through a telescope or would produce detectable and distinguishable
group often overlooked in informal interacting with things related to science or to vibrations. They also developed American Sign
outreach activities. Astronomers and teachers astronomy in general was enough—then we Language (ASL) interpretations for unfamiliar
at a school for Deaf children partnered to would all be scientists or we would all be astronomy terms in the accompanying narra-
design an activity that transformed cosmic astronomers. You need an extra push as a citi- tive.
phenomena into vibrations that students zen to be enticed or enamored with science.” The team held the workshop in a multisen-
could feel and could connect with visuals and a sory sound lab at CSDR. The lab converts
scientific narrative. Making Astronomy Data Vibrate sound into other mediums, such as vibrations
“It’s the beginning of trying to think of sci- According to recent surveys, over 5% of the and light, that can be experienced by Deaf
entific outreach with a much broader appeal, world’s population are Deaf or hard of hear- individuals.
where everyone is capable and must have ing, but this community represents only about
access to public outreach of science,” Mario 1% of recently awarded science and engineer-
De Leo-Winkler, an astronomer and director ing doctorates. This is partly due to the scar-
The brain rewires itself to
of the National System of Researchers of Mex- city of Deaf-accessible science, technology, process vibrations in the
ico, told Eos. engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses
When he began looking into astronomy in higher education, De Leo-Winkler absence of sound through
outreach activities for children with physical explained. The number of Deaf-accessible
disabilities, De Leo-Winkler found that there STEM and astronomy-related outreach and a phenomenon known as
were many activities designed for blind peo- research programs has grown in recent years, neuroplasticity.
ple, who could not see the stars, but few and De Leo-Winkler wanted to create one in
designed specifically for Deaf children. his own backyard.
12 // Eos April 2019NEWS
“We’re giving the explanation, we’re show- “We’re opening the door Opening the Door
ing the imagery, and we’re producing the vibra- This workshop focused on astronomy phe-
tions at the same time,” De Leo-Winkler said. for others to be able to nomena, but the techniques could easily be
adapted to other STEM disciplines, such as
Vibrations of the Universe explore for themselves physics, stem cell research, or genome map-
The researchers held two workshops in the
multisensory sound lab for CSDR students in
what has been done and ping, De Leo-Winkler said.
“I think the possibilities are limitless,” he
grades 3–8. They collected feedback from par- to think out of the box.” said, “as long as you have a clear interpreta-
ticipants after the first workshop and altered tion of the information that you want to
their set of vibrations, visual materials, and transfer to the students and as long as it’s
verbal and ASL narratives in the second work- fun.”
shop in response to that feedback. the solar system and beyond with 19 different The team has made all of its sound files
The students first learned some introduc- vibrations. Some of the vibrations they expe- and presentation materials freely available
tory astronomy in their classrooms before rienced include Earth’s auroras, the vibra- online at bit.ly/astronomy-vibrations.
participating in the workshop. The workshop tions of the Sun, and radio emissions from “We’re opening the door for others to be
presenter then introduced students to the idea Saturn recorded by the Cassini spacecraft able to explore for themselves what has been
that sounds and vibrations are connected and (listen to the accompanying audio files at bit done and to think out of the box,” De Leo-
gave examples that students might be familiar .ly/Eos-vibrations). Winkler said. “We invite people to take it in,
with, like thunderstorms or pots of bubbling Eighty-three students participated in the to use it, to reimagine it, and to follow some
water. The presenters explained that every- two workshops and provided overall positive of the steps and create new and innovative
thing in the universe produces energy and that feedback about the experience. The team things.”
energy can be converted into sounds or vibra- analyzed the survey responses and published
tions that they could feel. the results in February in the Journal of Science
The workshop activity took the students on Education and Technology (bit.ly/astronomy By Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@AstroKimCartier),
a journey from Earth outward to the edges of -deaf). Staff Writer
Send Eos
a Postcard
from the Field!
Submit an interesting photo
of your work from the field or
lab to bit.ly/submit-PFTF and
we’ll feature it online or in the
magazine.
Photo by Lija Treibergs; submitted by Adrianna Trusiak
Earth & Space Science News Eos.org // 13OPINION
Universities Can Lead the Way versities must also evolve to incentivize such
engagement.
in Supporting Engaged Geoscientists To fix the disconnect, university-based geo-
scientists should use faculty and student gov-
ernance structures to create change that
strengthens the culture and formalizes sup-
port for public engagement.
What Is “Engagement”?
Public engagement describes “intentional,
meaningful interactions that provide opportu-
nities for mutual learning between scientists
and members of the public,” according to the
American Association for the Advancement of
Science (AAAS). In other words, engagement
includes all of the activities that scientists do
to bring their work into the world around
them and the ways that scientists do better by
learning from people beyond academia.
Engagement activities can include commu-
nication with the public, providing input into
policy making, citizen science, and research
cooperation. Each of the authors has been rec-
ognized as a public engagement fellow by the
AAAS Leshner Leadership Institute, and we
each take our own approaches to engagement
based on what works best for our research
topics and personal style.
For us, engagement activities include work-
ing with national and local parks on environ-
mental monitoring and restoration projects
that involve hundreds of volunteers, building
Geoscientists address society’s challenges by engaging with nonscientists of all ages. Universities can play a vital role
in providing support, guidance, and resources for these efforts. Credit: Karin Higgins, Strategic Communications, Uni-
Universities should play
versity of California, Davis a central role in both
bottom-up cultural
G
eoscientists play a critical role in opposition to a growing understanding that
addressing societal challenges related engagement is a necessary ingredient in change and top-down
to natural hazards, climate change, the actionable science: Researchers cannot and support for public
environment, energy, and resource issues. should not craft usable knowledge all on their
Many geoscientists who recognize this critical own [Clark et al., 2016]. Training and encourag- engagement.
role put their knowledge into action by engag- ing individual geoscientists to engage the
ing with local communities and beyond, and public is necessary, but insufficient, to address
we are called upon by public leaders to do the critical societal challenges that involve the
more of this work [e.g., Lubchenco et al., 2015]. geosciences. relationships with local and state leaders to
Engaging with societal challenges requires improve the resilience of climate-sensitive
more than just a one-way transfer of facts. It How Do We Fix This Disconnect? communities, and working with policy makers
necessitates multidirectional dialogue with We suggest something different: Universities worldwide to help inform the negotiation and
those outside the research community based should play a central role in both bottom-up implementation of international treaties to
on shared values and understanding [Meadow cultural change and top-down support for address toxic pollution. We also spend time
et al., 2015]. Universities benefit from this type public engagement. Geoscientists are edu- translating science for state and federal
of engagement through the rigorous use- cated in and often employed by universities, decision makers and designing research proj-
inspired research it generates, as well as from and universities can coordinate existing ects in collaboration with stakeholders.
better community relations, higher-quality resources and build new capacities to amplify
teaching, and service learning opportunities. geoscientists’ collective impact. Five Core University Capacities
Unfortunately, at many universities, We recognize that motivating and enabling That Support Public Engagement
engagement is still viewed as an optional pro- scientists to create a culture of engagement Universities can bring scientists together in
fessional activity, having a lower priority than cannot happen in a vacuum—support and ways that transcend disciplinary boundaries,
research, teaching, and university service opportunities must come from a university’s spawning innovative ideas for tackling societal
[Whitmer et al., 2010]. This perception stands in institutional and administrative levels. Uni- challenges. Solutions to such problems require
14 // Eos April 2019OPINION
integrative, multidisciplinary perspectives, to connect to the public. The AGU Centen-
broad collaborations, and strategic engage- nial Celebrate 100 grants are a perfect
ment with specific public audiences. example: Small amounts of money
We propose that universities develop five can jump-start engagement
core institutional capacities to support public activities.
engagement. These capacities are not unique to The investment pays off:
geoscience engagement, but they can catalyze Universities benefit when
transformation when combined and directed at their scientists are ambas-
large-scale interdisciplinary challenges. sadors who publicize the
• Creating networks of scientists from
across disciplines working on public engage-
return on investment of
scientific funding. Scien-
ment to provide peer-mentoring support and tists can leverage engage-
collaboration on existing and new initiatives ment initiatives to pursue
• Developing best practices, informed by
literature on science communication and out-
meaningful activities with
broader impact, and they
reach, to train, educate, advise, and support can build bridges beyond
faculty and students the university to solve prob-
• Convening stakeholders to collaborate
with academics on projects, events, and
lems.
Institutional change does not
engagement strategies toward shared goals have to take an all-or-nothing
(stakeholder groups can include concerned approach—incremental steps can
citizens, nongovernmental organizations, demonstrate the value and success of
industry representatives, and government university investments.
officials)
• Establishing incentives such as merit
pay, workload modifications, and tenure and
Give Engagement
Formal Structure
Universities can support their faculty, staff, and students—and advance their mis-
sions—by embracing five core capacities to support public engagement. In this
promotion credit to support developing and Support way, the university forms the central pillar that enables a swirl of public engage-
engagement skills and to recognize high- Systemic change requires ment activities by many members of the university community. Credit: Bethann
quality engagement activities supporting and recognizing Garramon Merkle
• Facilitating regular evaluation of public
engagement activities and processes, using
team-based and long-term
efforts that build to signifi-
evidence-based approaches to improve the cant outcomes, not just recognizing a few stel- Geoscience faculty and students can, indi-
quality of engagement and university support lar individuals or events within a university or vidually and collectively, push departmental
To build these core institutional capacities, professional society. To facilitate collective and university administrations for formalized
universities could integrate best practices, action by many geoscientists, formalized support structures. Department chairs and
expertise, and support that may already exist infrastructure supporting engagement must tenure stream faculty, who have greater access
scattered throughout each university, allow- be in place. to power within university structures, could
ing universities to coordinate, leverage, and For example, universities often have Cen- lead the charge for institutional change, but
elevate existing resources. One approach is to ters for Teaching and Learning to help faculty all members of the university community
create centers with professional public and others improve teaching; these centers should be empowered to advocate for change
engagement staff that provide a one-stop offer training sessions, provide targeted indi- through departmental committees, student
shop for students, faculty, and staff. How- government, and unions.
ever, universities should tailor their approach The National Science Foundation and other
to their unique needs and contexts. Systemic change requires funders value public engagement as a
“broader impact.” Organizations like the
Effective Engagement Requires Funding, supporting and recognizing National Alliance for Broader Impacts provide
but It Won’t Break the Bank team-based and long- examples of engagement successes that sci-
Universities need to make long-term commit- entists can use as a jumping-off point. But
ments to engagement, with sustained support term efforts that build to networks within institutions can also facili-
from administrators. In addition, students, tate idea exchange, local knowledge, and in-
faculty, staff, alumni, and local communities significant outcomes. person training and support so that research-
can work individually and collectively to build ers can better maximize engagement efforts.
a case for why resources for public engage- Rather than being informal and ad hoc,
ment are critically important. engagement can be prioritized if university
Building engagement capacity requires vidual assistance (e.g., evaluating individual administrators create a formal space for ideas
resources, but engagement is not a zero-sum teaching efforts by observing classes), and to grow. Through such a space, university-
game, and resource requirements can be connect faculty to research in education and based networks can grow as individual scien-
modest. For example, universities can help evaluation. Engagement centers could fulfill tists across the campus find each other.
build partnerships with community groups, similar needs, such as providing training in The collegial atmosphere has an added
making it easier for individual faculty to communications, making connections to benefit: Just like the way research collabora-
institute collaborations. They can offer small experts in policy and law, or helping organize tors pool together to discuss a negative result
seed grants to faculty and students who seek stakeholder engagement workshops. or a failed experiment, universities can sup-
Earth & Space Science News Eos.org // 15You can also read
