Department Newsletter
Spring Semester 2002
by Susan Delap -- Click here for previous news items.

Hydrology Grad Student Places in Mexican Triathon
April 13, 2002 -- Laura Wilcox placed 3rd in women's age group 20-24 and 10th overall in the 7th annual Rocky Point Triathon, held in Puerto Penasco, Mexico, located on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Cortez and approximately 750 miles from Socorro. The race consisted of a 1500 meter swim ("relatively calm, warm and pretty much uneventful"), a 40 km bike ("hot and windy out-and-back style course into the Sonoran Desert"), and a 10 km run ("hilly with one very large off-road climb in the third mile that requires runners to go completely up and over"). Laura traveled with two other NMT students, Steven Montoya and Christian Krueger, with transportation assistance from the NMT Gymnasium. They are currently training for the Ironman Wisconsin in September: a 2.5 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run. (Photo and information courtesy Laura Wilcox.)

Prospective Graduate Students Visit E&ES Department
March 11, 2002 -- The Earth and Environmental Science Department invited 16 prospective graduate students from around the country to visit for the weekend on March 7-10. All have since been admitted into one of our graduate programs.

Arriving in Albuquerque on Thursday, some students took the Tram to the top of the Sandias. All later joined John and Betty Wilson and grad student David Boutt for dinner at the Church Street Cafe in Old Town, Albuquerque, before traveling to Socorro.

Friday activities included introductory talks, visits with individual professors, and a tour of campus laboratory facilities in the morning. After lunch at Martha's Black Dog, students broke into groups and visited various field sites over the next two days including the Canyon Trail of the Bosque del Apache, which features research on faults and fluid flow, Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge/Long-term Ecological Research Site, and Quebradas Canyons. Some groups also visited historical points of interest, including Trinity Site, and enjoyed mountain hiking in the Magdalenas (Cibola National Forest).

Friday evening students attended several receptions, some visited by alumni, including a pot-luck dinner hosted by Dana and Peter Scholle. Saturday evening the entire department assembled in beautiful San Lorenzo Canyon north of Socorro for a bonfire and dinner. Students departed on Sunday.

Click here for more pictures.--Rick Aster and John Wilson (Photos courtesy Peter Mozley)

NSF Division Director Visits IRIS/PASSCAL
January 28, 2002 -- "THE GRAND TOUR . . ." National Science Foundation (NSF) Division Director Herman Zimmerman recently was given a tour of the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Consortium's Program for Array Seismic Studies of the Continental Lithosphere (PASSCAL) Instrument Center, which is located on the New Mexico Tech campus in Socorro. The tour of the NSF-funded research facility included a short walk outside the building to look at one of IRIS/PASSCAL's newly installed state-of-the-art seismic monitoring stations.

Pictured (from left to right) examining the seismic station are Zimmerman, NSF division director of Earth sciences; Rick Aster, professor of geophysics at New Mexico Tech and principal investigator for IRIS/PASSCAL; Jim Fowler, program manager of IRIS/PASSCAL; and Marcos Alvarez, director of IRIS/PASSCAL. The IRIS/PASSCAL Instrument Center is tasked with developing hardware and software associated with earthquake and other geophysical research, providing logistical support for seismic experiments, and maintaining a pool of more than 1,000 portable seismographs that are routinely employed in field research conducted throughout the world by NSF staff, geophysicists, and other scientists. (Article and photo courtesy New Mexico Tech Public Information Office)

Geology Prof Shows Local Students Sand Dunes
January 26, 2002 -- Peter Mozley, Associate Professor of Geology, spoke to a group of local school children and parents at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. The 228,000-acre refuge, located about 20 miles north of Socorro, is used for international research and is closed to the general public.

Students from Socorro's Cottonwood Valley Charter School and parents were allowed to tour the facility as part of the school's Young Explorers program, an extracurricular outdoor education program created by local teachers and parents “to encourage children to explore, be curious, ask questions, and learn how to find answers to their questions.” Children spent time in the visitor center's science lab examining a variety of animal specimens and using computers, guide books, and microscopes. Dr. Mozley discussed sand dune formation with the children and displayed sand grains as seen from one of the microscopes onto a television monitor.

The outdoor fun began with the group hiking to some sand dunes, stopping along the way to investigate different kinds of animal tracks and guessing at their origins. A smaller group pushed on to the large dunes at the Rio Salado to frolick in the mountains of sand. Harold Tobin, Assistant Professor of Geophysics and local parent, demonstrated the fine art of sand dune surfing, as shown above.--Susan Delap (Photo courtesy Peter Mozley)

Geophysics Prof Named Chair of IRIS Committee
January 10, 2002 -- Richard C. Aster, professor of geophysics and research geophysicist at New Mexico Tech, recently was appointed chairman of the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Education & Outreach Standing Committee, one of four standing committees within the IRIS consortium that oversee the organization's core programs.

The IRIS Education & Outreach program is charged with developing and implementing IRIS programs designed to enhance seismology and Earth science education in K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and with the general public. In collaboration with the seismological and educational communities, IRIS Education & Outreach is committed to fostering an appreciation for and understanding of seismology and related studies of the Earth.

Aster, who has been a New Mexico Tech researcher and faculty member since 1991, is also the principal investigator for another of IRIS's core programs -- the Program for Array Seismic Studies of the Continental Lithosphere (PASSCAL) Instrument Center, a National Science Foundation facility located on the Tech campus that supports seismological research throughout the world with a pool of more than 1,000 portable seismic instruments.

IRIS is a research consortium of about 90 universities and other institutions involved in exploring the Earth's interior through the collection and distribution of seismographic data. (Article courtesy of George Zamora, New Mexico Tech Public Information Office)