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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100 YEARS The Ocean's Long Memory How Dust Collapsed an Empire Lawyers on the Art of Persuasion in Science - Eos.org
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
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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100 YEARS The Ocean's Long Memory How Dust Collapsed an Empire Lawyers on the Art of Persuasion in Science - Eos.org
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.,
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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
100 YEARS The Ocean's Long Memory How Dust Collapsed an Empire Lawyers on the Art of Persuasion in Science - Eos.org
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
100 YEARS The Ocean's Long Memory How Dust Collapsed an Empire Lawyers on the Art of Persuasion in Science - Eos.org
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
100 YEARS The Ocean's Long Memory How Dust Collapsed an Empire Lawyers on the Art of Persuasion in Science - Eos.org
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
100 YEARS The Ocean's Long Memory How Dust Collapsed an Empire Lawyers on the Art of Persuasion in Science - Eos.org
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
100 YEARS The Ocean's Long Memory How Dust Collapsed an Empire Lawyers on the Art of Persuasion in Science - Eos.org
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
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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
100 YEARS The Ocean's Long Memory How Dust Collapsed an Empire Lawyers on the Art of Persuasion in Science - Eos.org
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 2019
NEWS

                             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 // 9
NEWS

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 2019
NEWS

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 // 11
NEWS

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 2019
NEWS

   “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 // 13
OPINION

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 2019
OPINION

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 // 15
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