Eugene Smith and Minghua Ren (both Geoscience) and a team of researchers, including Arizona State University archeologist Curtis Marean recently published a study, “Humans Thrived in South Africa through the Toba Eruption about 74,000 Years ago,” in the journal Nature. The study counters previously held beliefs that the eruption of…

Oliver Tschauner and Shichun Huang (both Geoscience) recently published an article titled,  “Ice-VII Inclusions in Diamonds: Evidence for Aqueous Fluid in Earth’s deep Mantle,” in Science magazine. The research team discovered the first direct evidence that fluid water pockets may exist as far as 500 miles deep into the Earth’…

Christopher Adcock, Oliver Tschauner, Elisabeth Hausrath, Arya Udry, and Minghua Ren (all Geoscience) and a team of international researchers recently published a research paper titled, “Shock-transformation of Whitlockite to Merrillite and the Implications for Meteoritic Phosphate” in Nature Communications. The research focuses on how shock…

Steve Rowland (Geoscience) and a team of undergraduate students from the College of Sciences recently announced the discovery of fossilized reptile footprints northeast of Las Vegas that are 60 million years older than the earliest dinosaurs. Rowland presented the work in October at a meeting of the Society of Vertebrate…

James Pollard (Geoscience), program director of his department's partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service forest inventory and analysis (FIA) program, has entered into a new funding agreement with FIA for $1.5 million per year. This joint venture will enable UNLV researchers to continue…

Wanda Taylor (Geoscience) and her graduate class recently were featured in the Vegas PBS series Outdoor Nevada. Taylor and her students join host John Burke to investigate earthquake fault lines in the California Wash Reservoir. Vegas PBS’ Outdoor Nevada originally aired from 1995 to 1999. Hosted by highly regarded…

Josh Bonde (Geoscience) is one of 10 community members to be appointed to the Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument Advisory Council by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior. The council will provide the secretary guidance for the management of the monument, including advisement on the preparation and implementation of a park management plan.

Matthew Lachniet (Geoscience) was featured in the December 2015 issue of National Geographic Espana. The piece was about previous work that Lachniet conducted using a 2,400-year-old stalagmite from a cave in southwestern Mexico. The research describes how the rise and fall of the ancient pyramid city of Teotihuacan and other Mesoamerican…

Paleontologist Josh Bonde (Geoscience) recently was featured on the Vegas PBS series Outdoor Nevada. Bonde and host John Burke went fossil hunting at Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument. Vegas PBS’ Outdoor Nevada originally aired from 1995 to 1999. Hosted by highly regarded television host and actor John Burke, Outdoor Nevada will delve…

Zhongbo Yu (Geoscience) recently received the John Hem Award for Excellence in Science & Engineering from the National Ground Water Association. The award honors significant scientific or engineering contributions to the understanding of groundwater. The award will be presented at the 2015 Groundwater Expo in Las Vegas this week. Yu was…

Josh Bonde (Geoscience) spoke to nearly 800 students from Kitty Ward Elementary School about fossils as part of National Fossil Day at Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument on Oct. 14. Steve Ross, Las Vegas Mayor pro tem, spoke to the students about the new national monument and Superintendent Jon Burpee taught the…

Matthew Lachniet (Geoscience) and his research team, which includes collaborators from the University of New Mexico, were awarded a $334,529 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for their project, "Collaborative Research: Testing the Hypothesis of an Orbital Forcing of Southwestern North America Climate over the Past 500,000 years."…