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John Caskey Associate Professor of Geology B.A. Geology - Humboldt State University M.S. and Ph.D. Geology - University of Nevada, Reno At SFSU since 1998 Phone: (415) 405-0353 Office: TH 616 E-mail: caskey@sfsu.edu |
Research and/or Teaching Area: Neotectonics, seismotectonics of coastal central California and Nevada
I continue to involve students in my summer research out in central Nevada focusing on a variety of recent and ongoing projects such as: patterns and rates of paleoseismicity in the central Nevada seismic belt; characteristics of active faults in relation to geothermal resources in the Basin and Range; paleoliquefaction in the Stillwater seismic gap; and pluvial lake histories and using pluvial lake shorelines as tiltmeters to measure isostatic and tectonic deformation. Much of the work we’ve accomplished over the past few years has recently come to fruition through manuscripts either accepted or submitted to the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America and the Journal of Geodynamics. I’ve organized and participated in a number of field trips the past few years; none more exciting and rewarding than the 2003 Annual Pacific Cell Friends of the Pleistocene field trip to Dixie Valley, Nevada. In keeping with tradition, the Friends trip was an epic experience, camping out under a star-filled desert sky and full moon with over 200 crazy students and professionals for three days and nights. The aspects of historical faulting, paleoseismology, and chronostratigraphy of the central Nevada seismic belt we presented seemed to go over pretty well too. It’s been a fun teaching majors’ courses in Structural Geology, Field Methods, Neotectonics, and a non-majors course on earthquakes, working with students on their thesis research, and spending most of the summer months in the field trying to keep my research progressing, often in new directions. In the last few years I’ve had the privilege of working with some talented and enthusiastic M.S. and B.S. students on interesting local projects such as: documenting the active nature and style of deformation along the (blind) Serra thrust fault in southwest San Francicso (Drew Kennedy); Tectonic geomorphology and paleoseismic behavior of the southern Rodgers Creek fault (Carrie Randolph-Loar); correlation and uplift rates of late Pleistocene marine terraces along the Seal Cove fault (Mitch Monroe); Geophysical mapping of serpentinite bodies in the San Francisco Presidio (Joe Pesche); and mapping and Ar/Ar dating of coast range volcanic rocks at Burdell Mountain with implications for long-term offset on the East Bay fault system (Rick Ford).
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Petra Dekens Assistant Professor of Oceanography B.A. Marine Biology – University of California, Santa Cruz MESM (Master of environmental Science and Manangement – UC Santa Barbara MS Marine Science, UC Santa Barbara Ph.D. Ocean Sciences – UC Santa Cruz At SFSU since 2007 Phone: (415) 338-6015 Office: TH 623 E-mail: dekens@sfsu.edu |
Research and/or Teaching Area: Paleoceanography / Paleoclimatology
Direct temperature measurements only extend about two hundred years, during which time climate variations were relatively minor. Paleoclimate research is therefore required to put the global warming trend of the last decades within the context of the Earth’s dynamic climate system.
My primary research interest is understanding the mechanisms which sustained a warm climate in the early Pliocene, the most recent period of time when Earth’s temperatures were warmer than they are today for a sustained period of time. My records of sea surface temperatures (SST) in the tropical and sub-tropical oceans have demonstrated that the worlds upwelling regions, which are very biologically productive and characterized by cool temperatures in the modern ocean, were significantly warmer during the early Pliocene compared to today (water off of California was 9°C warmer!). As I establish my lab here at SFSU I plan to pursue several research questions to further improve our understanding of the warm pliocene: Are warmer upwelling regions during the early Pliocene associated with major changes in biological productivity? Are global upwelling regions linked through changes in the ventilated thermocline? What are the meridional and zonal SST gradients off the Calif
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David Dempsey Professor of Meteorology B.S. Mathematics and Atmospheric Science, University of California, Davis Ph.D. Atmospheric Science, University of Washington, Seattle At SFSU since 1989 Phone: (415) 338-7716 Office: TH 610 Site Manager, Weather Graphics and Simulation Laboratory E-mail: ddempsey@sundog.sfsu.edu |
Research and/or Teaching Area: Dynamic meteorology, mesoscale meteorology, coastal zone systems
The year was 1999. The dot-com bubble was stretched (almost) to bursting. A national movement toward science education reform was gathering momentum, fueled by grant money and stimulated by new ideas and research about teaching and learning. California had approved a new set of content standards for future high school science teachers. Soon came new standards for future K-8 teachers. At about that time, Karen Grove (then department Chair) and I had become both dissatisfied with traditional science teaching and convinced that improving teacher preparation in science was important. We decided to tap into the money flowing into science education reform. In 2000 we received a grant from NASA-NOVA, and in 2002 we landed another one, from NSF. These grants have led to the creation of two experimental, interdisciplinary geoscience courses designed for future teachers (and others). Our NASA-NOVA grant funded GEOL/METR 310, "Planetary Climate Change", which investigates the dynamics of climate change and is aimed at future high-school science teachers and geoscience majors. it. Our NSF grant funded GEOL/METR 309, "Investigating Land, Sea and Air Interactions", for future K-8 teachers, which Ray Pestrong and I have co-taught with a colleague from the College of Education. We also bought eighteen networked Mac G4 laptop computers and remodeled Room 604 of Thornton Hall to create a new, combination classroom/computer lab, which has stimulated teaching experiments in several classes besides G/M 309. (However, it has also meant more work--maybe too much!--for me as computer lab administrator.)
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Oswaldo Garcia Professor of Meteorology B.S. Applied Geophysics, Columbia University M.S. and Ph.D, Atmospheric Science, State University of NY at Albany At SFSU since 1988 Phone: (415) 338-2061 Office: TH 509 Chair, Department of Geosciences E-mail: ogarcia@sfsu.edu |
Research and/or Teaching Area: Physical meteorology, air-sea interactions, tropical convection systems
One of the most important developments in the Department of Geosciences over the last few years is our new Bachelor of Science program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. We are seeing significant interest in the new program and are hopeful that interest will translate into increasing student enrollments. Students in this new program that plan to go on to graduate school are required to do a senior research project on a topic that interests them. Last year I thoroughly enjoyed supervising the research projects of the first two students that graduated under the new program. Mike Richards performed a statistical analysis of aircraft turbulence reports over the United States and Serena Chew analyzed the relationship between El Niño and La Niña events on the flow of the Caroní River in Venezuela. Both Mike and Serena got admitted to prestigious graduate programs; we look forward to many more students following in their footsteps. In addition to my teaching duties, which involve majors classes dealing with the broad field of physical meteorology and air-sea interactions, I have spent a lot of time in recent years representing our department and the College of Science and Engineering at the Academic Senate of SFSU. I am currently serving as the chair of the Academic Program Review Committee of the Senate and I am also serving as co-chair of the All-University Committee for Students, Faculty and Staff with Disabilities. Probably the most rewarding activity that I am engaged in at this time is working in the SF-ROCKS project with other colleagues from the department, our dedicated student interns and the teachers from several San Francisco high schools. The meteorology component of SF-ROCKS involve the installation of weather stations at participating high school and the deployment of a net of rain gauge stations by dozens of high school students throughout the city. In addition, we meet on a weekly basis with four tenth graders from Burton High School on a project to compare the accuracy of different forecasting techniques. Their result will be presented at a poster session at the Fall AGU meeting in December.
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Research and/or Teaching Area: Hydrodynamics of coastal areas and current systems along continental margins
The new undergraduate degree in meteorology and oceanography means that my teaching duties are being shuffled. For my first four years at SFSU I taught the GE class, Geol 102: Introduction to Oceanography and a series of graduate oceanography classes that attracted mostly students pursuing the MS in Marine Biology. In addition I developed a class to teach the MATLAB programming language. With the new degree I will start teaching more majors classes. The first was offered last spring, Metr 200 and 201, a combined course to introduce atmospheric and oceanic dynamics. The students especially appreciated a day cruise on the R/V Point Sur. Well, most of them appreciated the cruise....This academic year I have the opportunity of being the visiting faculty at the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. Bill Broenkow retired last year so I am teaching the Introductory Physical Oceanography Course while the search is on for his replacement. I’m enjoying working with new colleagues and seeing another facet of the CSU. My research is taking an unexpected turn. About every 30 years the oceanography community undergoes a national self examination. The present self evaluation (http://www.ocean.us/ and http://www.pewoceans.org) is coming out strongly in support of creating regional associations for operating coastal ocean observatories. One important component will be monitoring coastal surface circulation using a technology referred to as HF radar (high frequency). We set up an experimental array at RTC in 2000 using a new instrument called CODAR (Barrack et al., Oceans 2000). Since then I have been looking for funding opportunities to create a permanent CODAR installation in San Francisco Bay and the Gulf of the Farallones. Federal money has been available for two other regional observatories. One is CI-CORE (Center for Integrative Coastal Observation, Research and Education, http://mlml.calstate.edu/cicore) which is a California State University federal entitlement initiative to create a monitoring network at CSU campuses aimed at serving local regulatory agencies and providing educational tools. Kenneth Coale, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, is the head of the program and, as of last August, I am the coordinator. The second is NOAA funding to hire a person to help organize a central California “Regional Association” to be the liaison between federal funding sources and the observing work in California. I’m serving on the executive council of this group and am working to see that all three efforts pull together to make sure central California is a national leader in coastal observing. These are exciting times to be active in coastal oceanography and in a department that has created a new degree directly related to these challenges. Certainly no complaints about not enough to do.
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Karen Grove Professor of Geology and Oceanography B.S. Geology - University of Maryland Ph.D. Geology - Stanford University At SFSU since 1990 Phone: (415) 338-2617 Office: TH 509 Site Manager: Earth Systems Laboratory E-mail: KGrove@sfsu.edu |
Research and/or Teaching Area: Sedimentation and tectonics, coastal sedimentary environments, Quaternary geology, tectonic geomorphology. My research interest is the interpretation of the tectonic evolution of an area based on studies of sediments and geomorphic features. Since 1992, I have been investigating the Quaternary history of the Point Reyes region, located about an hour north of San Francisco. The main tectonic feature in this area is the San Andreas fault, which lies in a linear valley between the Point Reyes Peninsula and the Marin County mainland. My current project in the Point Reyes region is using marine terrace on the western flank of the Point Reyes Peninsula to evaluate the role of contractional deformation in the region. To reconstruct the paleogeography of the fault zone, we have studied Late Pleistocene estuarine and alluvial sediments that were deposited in the fault valley. To obtain more information about fault zone geometry, we have analyzed subsurface water- and oil-well logs and completed a high-resolution gravity survey. To evaluate the structural style and changes through time, we have measured faults and folds and the elevations of deformed sediments. Many undergraduate studies have assisted with this research. I am particularly interested in developing new techniques to more actively engage students in the process of science. This is easier in small-sized classes for majors, which include field trips, laboratory activities, and assigned geologic reports. It is more difficult in large-sized courses for non-majors, such as my lower division introductory oceanography course. In this course, I have used technology as a tool, and have developed online materials to encourage more interaction with the course material.
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Research and/or Teaching Area: Hydrogeology, vadose zone hydrology, aqueous geochemistry, groundwater contamination, hydroclimatology, and climate change/variability effects on water resources.My research goals are the improved understanding of processes that affect the sustainability of water resource in California and the western United States. Similar to other arid and semiarid regions, an available and clean source of water is especially critical for sustainable society. However, many water resources are threatened because of depletion and contamination from human activities and climate variability and change. In particular, my research focuses on processes that affect groundwater quantity and quality. Groundwater is an essential component of the global water cycle, the largest source of global freshwater, and is one of the most important natural resources because it is the primary source of drinking water to over one quarter of the population worldwide. Groundwater provides much of the Nation’s public and private water supply, supports agricultural and industrial economies, and contributes flow to rivers, lakes, and wetlands. In California, groundwater is the largest source of freshwater and is pumped at rates that exceed groundwater use in all other States. Groundwater enhances water supplies because it has a capacity to help meet water needs during periods of increased demand during drought and when surface-water resources are close the limits of sustainability. Therefore, it is critical to improve understanding of groundwater interactions within the global water cycle, supports ecosystems and society, and responds to complex human activities that are coupled to natural-climate variability (such as the El Niño/Southern Oscillation) and human induced climate change. To address these concerns, my students and I use field, laboratory, and modeling-based research to answers critical questions about the many process-level controls on groundwater quantity and quality in vulnerable aquifer systems in agricultural, coastal, urban, and alpine settings.
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Tim Janssen Assistant Professor of Oceanography Department of Geosciences San Francisco State University 1600 Holloway Ave. San Francisco, CA 94132 P: +1 415 338 1209 F: +1 415 338 7705 Email: tjanssen@sfsu.edu At SFSU since 2008
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Research and/or Teaching Area: Deterministic and stochastic wave propagation, nonlinear dynamics and statistics, wave modeling, wave-current interaction, and coastal hydrodynamics and transport processes. The ocean never rests. Waves, born in distant storms, travel across vast oceans to the world's beaches and coastlines. Currents, driven by wind, waves and astronomical forcing, redistribute heat, chemicals and nutrients across the globe. Near the shore, breaking waves and strong currents shape the coast and its beaches. The dynamics of the coast and the coastal ocean are complex and highly challenging, but we cannot afford to ignore it. We need to understand how storm wave conditions impact our beaches, how gradual and recurring changes in climate will affect coastal ocean dynamics, and what the effects are of (man-made) changes to the nearshore environment.
My research aims to contribute to our fundamental understanding of coastal ocean dynamics and improve and develop predictive models for waves and coastal currents. My interests include: nonlinear wave dynamics, wave propagation through complex media, wave-current interaction, air-sea interaction, and nearshore ocean dynamics in general.
Mary Leech Assistant Professor of Geology B.S. Geology - San Jose State University Ph.D. Geological and Environmental Sciences - Stanford University At SFSU since 2005 Phone: (415) 338-1144 Office: TH 515 E-mail: leech@sfsu.edu |
Research and/or Teaching Area: Petrology, geochemistry, geochronology, the tectonics of mountain building, and natural hazards. My research involves field work that has taken me to mountain belts all over the globe - the Indian Himalaya, the Dabie-Sulu belt in eastern China, the Scandinavian Caledonides of Norway, the Urals Mountains in Russia and the Kokchetav massif in Kazakhstan. While each is unique, these mountain belts have one thing in common: ultrahigh-pressure eclogite-facies rocks. The eclogites form in subduction zone complexes in the suture zones of mountain belts (where two continents are essentially stitched together) and record a complete pressure-temperature-time history from comprising the edge of a continent, to subduction into the upper mantle and then the return path back to the surface. An ever-increasing number of these subduction zone complexes contain evidence that eclogites were subducted to depths in the upper mantle where pressures are great enough to form microscopic diamond (>100 km or >70 miles) thus making them ultrahigh-pressure rocks. Study of these subduction zone complexes involves investigation into not only the petrology and geochemistry of these rocks but also large-scale processes of continental collision and subduction, crust-mantle interactions and the tectonics of mountain building.
My research has required a variety of analytical techniques, in which undergraduate and graduate students have already been involved: radiometric dating (U-Pb dating of zircon on an ion microprobe [SHRIMP] using cathodoluminescence imaging, and apatite fission-track dating); establishing mineral chemistry using an electron microprobe; investigating the graphite-diamond transition using x-ray diffraction, raman and infrared spectroscopy, and scanning and transmission electron microscopy; and stable isotope analyses of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen using infrared CO2 and in-situ UV laser ablation mass spectrometry and on an elemental analyzer.
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John Monteverdi Professor of Meteorology B.A. Geology - University of California, Berkeley M.A. Geography/Climatology - University of California, Berkeley Ph.D Geography/Climatology - University of California, Berkeley At SFSU since 1979 Phone: (415) 338-7728 Office: TH 613 Geosciences Web Site Manager E-mail: montever@sfsu.edu |
Research and/or Teaching Area: Synoptic and Mesoscale Meteorology, Severe Weather, Operational Weather Analysis and Forecasting, Coastal Zone Meteorology. I have been interested in unusual storms since my childhood, particularly after the disastrous storms of 1955 caused so much flooding in California. Although severe and unusual storms in California remained an interest of mine that blossomed into an area of research, my specific research thrust lies in the area of tornadic thunderstorms, particularly tornadic supercells. Since 1991, I have published eight studies in the refereed literature, have had seven conference presentations and four Technical Memoranda publlished by the National Weather Service in the area of tornadic storms in California. In addition, I was co-coordinator or session chair of the American Meteorological Society's (AMS) Conference on Severe Local Storms in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2004 and 2006, and served on the Severe Local Storms Committee of the AMS for the period 1996-1998.
The major thrust of my research in this area was to show that supercell tornadic thunderstorms can and do occur in California and to bring forecasting techniques on such storms to the National Weather Service Forecast Offices in this part of California. My refereed publications have included co-authors with the National Severe Storms Lab, the Storms Prediction Center, the National Weather Service and with undergraduate and graduate students at San Francisco State University.I n the midst of all this research activity, I maintain an active teaching and administrative role in the Department, the latter culminating in the approval of a BS in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and a Certificate in Meteorology for Broadcasters. Finally, in this guise, in Spring 2003, I was happy to serve as catalyst for the naming of the Department of Geosciences as the site for the new Satellite Field Office of the NWS’s Weather Forecast Office in Monterey.
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David Mustart Professor of Geology B.S. Trace Element Geochemistry-University of British Columbia Ph.D. Geology - Stanford University At SFSU since 1971 Phone: (415) 338-7729 Office: TH 620 E-mail: mustart@sfsu.edu |
Research and/or Teaching Area: Experimental petrology, geochemistry, economic geology, and soils geology
How do you keep this man down? After everyone in the department gave him up for dead, and started the monumental task of cleaning out his office, David suddenly reappeared at the beginning of last semester, and immediately assumed the grueling schedule that has been his modus operendi (Matt will explain the etymology) In his customary whirlwind fashion David is characteristically everywhere at once. When he's not teaching Chas's mineralogy course, taking on Lisa's historical geology, or stimulating students in physical, he's chairing the departmental curriculum committee and contributing to space and HRTP issues. David is able to maintain his ambitious travel schedule, having visited, during this past semester alone, Singapore, Zimbabwe, Tasmania, Tierra del Fuego and Uzbekistan. Locally he's been to Redwood City and Pacifica, and confides in me his ambition to see Milpitas. He's still committed to studying granite pipes, apparently oblivious to the fact that the revised building codes now require that all plumbing be either copper or approved plastic. This does not dissuade geology majors and graduate students, however, who are eager to work under his inspired tutelage. He regularly tutels Charlene, and is overseeing Matt's dictionary of esoterica (a euphemism for geology terms you'll only find in Norway).
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Raymond Pestrong Professor of Geology B.S. Geology - City College of the City University of New York M.S. Geology (Civil Engineering Minor) - University of Massachusetts Ph.D. Geology - Stanford University At SFSU since 1966 Phone: (415) 338-2080 Office: TH 623 E-mail: rayp@sfsu.edu |
Research and/or Teaching Area: Environmental geology, geomorphology, engineering geology, geosciences and the arts, multimedia in education, tideland studies. I am most interested in what we can learn about ourselves through an investigation of Earth processes, an area identified as "Earth Metaphor." This is necessarily a broad-ranging topic, encompassing the connections that exist among the Geosciences and virtually every discipline that involves human interactions with the Earth. The aesthetic qualities of distinctive geologic patterns and forms concern me at present, both from a conceptual base, and as a vehicle for generating student interest in the Geosciences. I am also involved in documenting the multisensory nature our planet, and incorporating these elements as part of a more traditional Earth Sciences pedagogy.
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Leonard Sklar Assistant Professor of Geology B.S. Applied Science - New York University B.E. Civil Engineering - Cooper Union M.S. Civil Engineering - University of California, Berkeley Ph.D. Geology - University of California, Berkeley At SFSU since 2003 Phone: (415) 338-1204 Office: TH 622 E-mail: leonard@sfsu.edu |
Research and/or Teaching Area: Fluvial, Hillslope, and Tectonic Geomorphology; Engineering Geology; Hydrology; Ecosystem Restoration
Together with my student collaborators, I am asking both basic and applied research questions about the physical processes that shape the surface of the earth and other planetary bodies. We work at both the geological times scale at which landscapes evolve and the much shorter engineering time scale at which humans create and solve problems. We use a spectrum of research approaches, including field observation and experimentation, laboratory physical modeling, development of theoretical models, and numerical landscape analysis and simulation.
Recent and current research questions include: How do rivers cut through bedrock to create valleys and limit the heights of mountains? How can we better manage sediment to restore aquatic ecosystems downstream of dams? How are river channels carved by liquid methane into water ice on Saturn’s frozen moon Titan? What are the feedbacks between biology and geomorphology in a desert travertine stream? What controls the size distribution of sediments supplied by hillslopes to river channels? What are the linkages between form and process in bedrock landscapes?
I teach courses in Geomorphology and Engineering Geology, and in quantitative methods applied to geoscience problems at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
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Lisa White Associate Dean, College of Science and Engineering Professor of Geology B.A. Geology - San Francisco State University Ph.D. Geology - University of California, Santa Cruz At SFSU since 1990 E-mail: lwhite@sfsu.edu Phone: (415) 338-1571 Office: TH323 |
Research and/or Teaching Area: Micropaleontology, paleoceanography, stratigraphy, historical geology
My broad research interests remain in the area of paleontology and, although it’s been challenging for me to balance the chairship with coordinating the SF-ROCKS program, supervising graduate students, and teaching classes, I am happily pursuing new research directions with my graduate students. I have graduate students working on Mesozoic molluscan cold seep communities in the Great Valley Group (Kristin Hepper), gastropod assemblages in a hot spring in Cuatro Ciengas, Mexico (Zita Maliga), mastodon and mammoth stratigraphy in late Cenozoic fluvial terraces (Bob Davies), and sediment transport in Raccoon Strait, central San Francisco Bay (Kasha Parker).
As principal investigator of the SF-ROCKS program (Reaching Out to Communities and Kids With Science in San Francisco, http://sf-rocks.sfsu.edu) I coordinate a geoscience education project with high schools in the southeastern part of San Francisco (see details in the SF-ROCKS section Focus). My work with the S.F Unified School District extends beyond the SF-ROCKS project to collaborations with scientists at the California Academy of Sciences, the U.C. Museum of Paleontology, and the SFUSD Project INQUIRES to develop a number of inquiry-driven standards-based activities for middle school science teachers on California Landscapes and the Dynamic Earth (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/calandscape/index.html). This work with teachers and students has caused me to retrace some of my San Francisco roots. As a product of SFUSD and SFSU, I have enjoyed bringing my experience as an alumnus and now as a professor to educating the next generation of teachers and students.
