Department of Geosciences at UMass Amherst

We're thrilled to have several Department community members presenting at the 2023 Geological Society America National Meeting. If you're attending the conference, be sure not to miss these presentations!

Dr. Matthew Winnick, along with Dr. Colin Gleason (CEE), recently secured a 3-year NSF grant to better model how much CO2 is added to the atmosphere by lakes, rivers, and streams and how that changes with stream hydrology on a global scale. 

Dr. Martín Medina Elizalde's paleoclimate research was recently featured in a 4-part National Geographic Documentary "Rise and Fall of the Maya"

The efforts of Dr. Christine Hatch and Living Obsrevatory at Tidmarsh Farm in southeastern Massachusetts, to restore a former cranberry bog, have recently been highlighted as a success story in bringing back wetlands from the dead.

The increase in severe weather and precipitation seen this summer has many worried about New England's dams.  Christine Hatch was interviewed by several news outlets this summer and weighs in:

Find out more about all of the undergraduate majors teh department offers, including Q+A sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and extended open hours for the Rausch Mineral Gallery

An Indigenous-led and majority Indigenous consortium of communities and researchers just launched the NSF-funded Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science. The effort involved the hard work of many folks across departments and institutions, and EGCS is proud to be a member, with Dr. Jonathon Woodruff serving as one of the principal investigators, and Dr.'s Julie Brigham-Grette and Rob DeConto serving as participating scholars

Dr. Sarah McKnight, along Dr. David Boutt, Dr. Brendan Moran, and collagues at the University of Alaska Anchorage, are the first to characterize two different types of surface water in the hyperarid salars—or salt flats—that contain much of the world’s lithium deposits. This new characterization represents a leap forward in understanding how water moves through such basins, and will be key to minimizing the environmental impact on such sensitive, critical habitats.

UMass Amherst’s Integrated Concentration in STEM (iCons) Program has announced the appointment of Christine Hatch, extension associate professor in the Department of Earth, Geographic and Climate Sciences, as the new associate director of academics. In her new role, Hatch will oversee the academic programs of iCons and provide leadership to the program’s faculty and students.