Geological Sciences Research
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Microscopic Algae and Massive Landslides: Studying Utah’s Climate Through Geology
Thirteen thousand years ago, Utah got cold–really cold. The last ice age had been over for at least 5,000 years, but after a sudden drop in temperature, the climate—heading towards warmth and dryness—flipped a U-turn. As snow and ice crisscrossed the state, the sudden increase in precipitation triggered a massive eighteen-mile-long train of landslides that altered the natural topography of parts of central Utah.
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Technology Unlocks Petroleum Potential
BYU alum Chris Bexfield has worked ten years for one of the United States’ top hydrocarbon producers—combining business, technology, and geology.
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BYU Geochemist Plays Detective with Water and Dust
Wind carries a particle of dust from the dry lake bed to the mountain snowpack. The snowpack melts, and the water flows down streams and rivers, through a pipe, and to the tap.
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Geological History: It’s Written in Stone—Mudstone
Some people stop playing in the mud by age ten—not Alex Washburn. In August 2016, the geology graduate student found himself across the world steeped in mud, collecting samples.
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Bridging the Gap between Academia and Industry
After thirty-nine years in the oil industry, he’s back to teach BYU students how to apply their understanding of geology to working in industry.
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Point of the Mountain: Unstable Ground?
Traverse Mountain, also known as Point of the Mountain, marks the border between the Salt Lake Valley and Utah Valley. Many buildings and houses stand on this well-known piece of Utah geology.
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Paleontology: ‘It’s Like Christmas Everyday’
Fourteen-year-old Brooks Britt and his cousin—armed with paleontology books and canteens full of water—decided to mount their own expedition to dig for dinosaurs.
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From Ancient to Modern
During the Fall of 2016, as part of the Petroleum Systems class (Geology 525), Dr. Hudson traveled with nine students to the Texas Gulf Coast to see for themselves the depositional environments they’d spent the semester studying in the classroom. From rivers to estuaries to shorelines and beyond, coastal settings are responsible for many of the conventional reservoirs from which we produce oil and gas. Seeing these environments first-hand gives students the opportunity to better grasp the scale and complexity of the architectural elements at the surface.
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Geology Underfoot and under Rover
Hannah Bonner’s research is both down to earth and out of this world—literally.
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From Chariot to Prius: Society’s Developing Use of Resources
For a thousand years, Hittite chariots rolled through the Middle East, injecting the empire’s influence into what is now present-day Turkey and Syria. The Hittite Empire’s success can be largely attributed to one thing—metal resources.
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BYU Profs Discover Moabosaurus in Utah’s ‘Gold Mine’
Move over, honeybee and seagull: it’s time to meet Moabosaurus utahensis, Utah’s newly discovered dinosaur, whose past reveals even more about the state’s long-term history.
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Prehistoric “Buzzsaw Killer” Comes to BYU
America loves a good shark story. The country’s obsession with the frightening fish has been manifested by its love of Jaws, Shark Week, and four full-length Sharknado films. Little do Utahns know, the state has its own shark story–kind of. Hundreds of millions of years ago, Northern Utah was at the bottom of a prehistoric sea, which housed large, shark-like creatures with sets of teeth like buzzsaws.
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Geology Graduate Students Win Regional Geophysics Competition
BYU geology students Scott Meek and Trevor Tuttle demonstrated their geology prowess with their first place victory at the 2016 Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) Rocky Mountain Challenge Bowl in Denver, Colorado.
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BYU Scientist Finds a Towering Mountain on an Earth-like Moon
NASA featured the work of Jani Radebaugh this week, who discovered a 10,948 foot peak on Saturn’s largest moon.
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Professor Uses Geology to Save Lives
Given the proper resources, a team of geologists can often predict the possibility of an earthquake in a particular location. This provides a way to help those most at risk minimize casualties and losses.
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Studying Creation in Paradise
Not all parts of the Earth are the same age. Geology master’s student Kimberly Sowards had the opportunity to take her geology skills to a younger part of the planet: Hawaii.
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Making the Most of Utah’s Geology
Identifying a geological fault in the earth’s sub-surface might seem above the expertise of most college-age kids, but geology students at BYU are learning that it’s definitely doable.
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