A woman wearing a veil over her head sitting among different rock formations.

Department of Geoscience News

Geoscience is an all-encompassing term used to refer to the earth sciences. Geoscientists strive to understand earth processes and study the origin and evolution of our planet; the chemical and physical properties of minerals, rocks, and fluids; the structure of our mobile crust; the history of life; and the human adaptation to earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, and floods.

Current Geoscience News

Students at Pida Plaza on the first day of classes (Josh Hawkins, UNLV).
Campus News | September 1, 2023

A roundup of prominent news stories highlighting university pride, research, and community collaboration.

Graduation surprise
Campus News | August 1, 2023

News stories from the summer featuring UNLV students and faculty.

marine fossil fragments
Research | July 11, 2023

Discovery of abundant, diverse range of remains give scientists new lens on historical underwater ecosystem changes and potential future conservation strategies.

a set of model teeth with blue plastic gums
Campus News | May 16, 2023

News highlights featuring UNLV faculty and students who made local and national headlines.

Image of the Grand Canyon from above
Research | May 3, 2023

UNLV geologists name ancient rock layer after Las Vegas mountain that contains similar strata; research published in the journal Geosphere.

 

UNLV letters surrounded by roses
Campus News | March 17, 2023

A roundup of news stories highlighting UNLV faculty and students who made headlines locally, nationally, and globally.

Geoscience In The News

Las Vegas Weekly
August 24, 2023

A lot of the time, when someone mentions the University of Nevada Las Vegas, they’re speaking of its renowned School of Hospitality, its fast-growing medical school or its Jerry Tarkanian-era men’s basketball teams. But UNLV is also one of the nation’s top research universities, awarded an R1 classification (“very high research activity”) from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Join the Weekly as we peek into the laboratories where world-changing scientific research is ongoing.

Las Vegas Weekly
August 24, 2023

A lot of the time, when someone mentions the University of Nevada Las Vegas, they’re speaking of its renowned School of Hospitality, its fast-growing medical school or its Jerry Tarkanian-era men’s basketball teams. But UNLV is also one of the nation’s top research universities, awarded an R1 classification (“very high research activity”) from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Join the Weekly as we peek into the laboratories where world-changing scientific research is ongoing.

Las Vegas Weekly
August 24, 2023

A lot of the time, when someone mentions the University of Nevada Las Vegas, they’re speaking of its renowned School of Hospitality, its fast-growing medical school or its Jerry Tarkanian-era men’s basketball teams. But UNLV is also one of the nation’s top research universities, awarded an R1 classification (“very high research activity”) from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Join the Weekly as we peek into the laboratories where world-changing scientific research is ongoing.

Scripps National News
July 28, 2023

Conservation efforts for Lake Mead appear to be helping, though there's still work to be done.

Cope
July 12, 2023

Humans began to alter environments long before records were kept of the things that lived in them, making it difficult for scientists to determine what healthy ecosystems should look like. The researchers have now shown that the recent fossil record preserves an authoritative snapshot of marine environments as they existed before humans.

Popular Science
July 11, 2023

As we plunge into Earth’s sixth stage of mass extinction (that we are aware of), biologists looking to conserve and restore ecosystems that have been stripped of plant and animal life can face a pretty daunting task. However, help is on the way in the form of some of the ocean’s worms, mollusks, and crabs. A study published July 11 in the journal PeerJ, finds that fossils from these groups are actually preserved in the fossil record in proportion to their diversity, making for a solid source of information about past ecosystems.

Geoscience Experts

An expert in planetary science, igneous petrology, and Martian geology.
Carrie Tyler is a marine conservation paleobiologist.
An expert on water resources, paleoclimatology, and environmental pollution. 
An expert in geology, paleoecology, paleontology, and the history of geology.
Lachniet is an expert in paleoclimatology, quaternary geology, climate change and stable isotope geochemistry.
An expert in earthquakes, structural geology, tectonics, and neotectonics.

Recent Geoscience Accomplishments

November 7, 2022
Krishnakumar Nangeelil, Peter Dimpfl, Zaijing Sun (all Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences), Shichun Huang (currently faculty at UTK, a former member of the department of geosciences at UNLV), and Mayir Mamtimin (Halliburton) published an article titled, "Preliminary Study on Forgery Identification of Hetian Jade with Instrumental Neutron…
September 1, 2022
Simon Jowitt and Brian McNulty (Geoscience) recently published a paper in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews on critical metals – often discarded as a byproduct of mining operations – that are vital components in the global push for low-carbon energy generation, storage, and transport. Researchers explored the current global supply and…
April 29, 2022
Amanda Ostwald and Arya Udry (both Geoscience) and their collaborators, Valerie Payré (NAU), Esteban Gazel (Cornell), and Peiyu Wu (Cornell) published a paper, “The Role of Assimilation and Factional Crystallization in the Evolution of the Mars Crust”, in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Ostwald is geoscience graduate student, and…
November 3, 2021
Shichun Huang (Geoscience), Min Li (Physics and Astronomy) and their colleagues published an article, Sulfur Isotopic Signature of Earth Established by Planetesimal Volatile Evaporation, in Naure Geoscience. Using sophisticated ab initio and thermodynamics calculations, they showed that the Earth's sulfur, an important volatile element, budget is…
March 30, 2021
David Rice,  Zachary Grande, Ashkan Salamat, Jason Steffen (all Physics and Astronomy), and Oliver Tschauner (Geoscience), along with former UNLV postdoc Chenliang Huang (Physics and Astronomy) published a study on the properties of the interiors of distant, extrasolar planets in the "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society." This study…
March 23, 2021
David Kreamer (Geoscience) was invited by the president of the United Nations General Assembly to speak to the member states in open session at a high-level UN meeting on the "Implementation of the Water-Related Goals and Targets of the 2030 Agenda" earlier his month. Kreamer spoke on an interactive panel on water data, information, and governance…