News Archive

This summer, coral researchers from around the world gathered to share their latest findings at a conference devoted to reef science, conservation and management.

UB researchers, including geologist Jason Briner, will travel to Greenland in late June and early July as part of a project called GreenDrill. Their goal is to gather information that could help them better understand the rise of global sea levels. GreenDrill is funded by the National Science Foundation to study the Greenland Ice Sheet and the bedrock underneath.

A feature of West Antarctica has been named for UB researcher Sophie Nowicki to honor her leadership in helping the world understand the future of sea level rise. An internationally known ice sheet scientist and climate modeler, Nowicki joined UB in 2020 after many years at NASA. She is an Empire Innovation Professor in the Department of Geology, College of Arts and Sciences, and a core faculty member in the UB RENEW Institute.

At the boundaries between tectonic plates, narrow rifts can form as Earth’s crust slowly pulls apart. But how, exactly, does this rifting happen? Does pressure from magma rising from belowground force the land apart? Or is a rift just a rip, created mainly by the pulling motion of tectonic plates that are drifting away from each other? A study in the journal Geology explores these questions and sheds new light on how this process works.

1/13/2022: Shambhu Upadhyaya and Jason Briner are the recipients of the 2021-22 Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award, presented by the Graduate School to recognize UB faculty for their support and development of graduate students through their mentoring activities.

1/3/2022: How will climate change impact Earth’s ice sheets in the 21st century? And how much will sea levels rise as a result? It depends on how quickly we act, says UB geology researcher Sophie Nowicki.

11/3/2021: They’re born. They live once, erupting for a period that might last for days, years or decades. Then, they go dark and die. This narrative describes the life of a monogenetic volcano, a type of volcanic hazard that can pose important dangers despite an ephemeral existence. The landscape of the southwestern U.S. is heavily scarred by past eruptions of such volcanoes, and a new study marks a step toward understanding future risks for the region.

10/11/2021: Glaciologists have teamed up with computer scientists to build an online portal for ice sheet science. The new science gateway is called GHub, short for “Glaciology Hub,” and it houses datasets, computational tools and educational materials about the science of ice sheets and sea level rise. The site seeks to centralize these resources. It also provides a space for collaboration.

10/6/2021: For decades, scientists had debated whether P. kükenthali was its own species, or the same species as another coral called Plexaura homomalla. Because P. homomalla was known to send sperm and eggs into the water — not fully formed larvae — the 2016 sighting added a new dimension to the conversation.

9/7/21: For a decade, glaciologist Sophie Nowicki has played a lead role in coordinating international efforts to answer these and other questions about the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. The resulting research, conducted by a global community of scientists, is now helping to inform decision-making worldwide on issues relating to climate change.