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artist rendition of asteroid hitting Earth's atmosphere

Researchers model airbursts, a common yet little-understood cosmic impact process

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Left to right: Anna Boser, Naomi Tague, David Valentine, and Leander Anderegg.
Photo Credit
UC Santa Barbara
Left to right: Anna Boser, Naomi Tague, David Valentine, and Leander Anderegg.

UCSB faculty and students among the American Geophysical Union’s 2024 honorees
David Valentine
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
David Valentine

Discoveries from Disasters: A conversation with oceanographer David Valentine
SEM image of shocked quartz
Photo Credit
Courtesy Image
Shocked quartz grains, with fissures filled with meltglass

Shocked quartz reveals evidence of historical cosmic airburst
Icebergs float of Greenland in the arctic sea.
Photo Credit
Explora_2005 via iStock
Legions of icebergs brought the Atlantic circulation to its knees during the last glacial period.

Historic iceberg surges offer insights on modern climate change
close shot of a book cover
Photo Credit
Matt Perko

‘In the Shadow of the Seawall’ tackles coastal land use dilemmas in the age of sea level rise
the sun sinks behind the horizon of the Black Sea

Anoxic marine basins are among the best candidates for deep-sea carbon sequestration
lab equipment
Photo Credit
McLean Echlin
The prototype of UCSB's TriBeam microscope, developed by the Tresa Pollock Lab before it was commercialized by Thermo Fisher Scientific

Scientific research soars with NSF’s Major Research Instrumentation program
A large crescent moon shines in the early twilight over tidal mudflats.
Photo Credit
DALL-E, prompt by Harrison Tasoff.
A soft summer evening in the Paleoproterozoic, as envisioned by DALL-E.

Even the oldest eukaryote fossils show dazzling diversity and complexity
early evening stars over a desert landscape

Farmers and ranchers in the Southwestern U.S. face challenges due to human-induced atmospheric warming
The surface of Lake Superior from the back of a research vessel.
Photo Credit
Alexandra Phillips
The sulfate poor waters of Lake Superior could provide insights on the biochemistry of Earth's early ocean.

Research in Lake Superior reveals how sulfur might have cycled in Earth’s ancient oceans
A roadcut slices through the Great Unconformity.
Photo Credit
Adrian Tasistro-Hart
Cambrian Sawatch sandstone from the Sauk Transgression caps 1 billion-year-old Pikes Peak granite (pink) marking the Great Unconformity in a roadcut in Manitou Springs, Colorado.

Geologists link continental flooding to subduction, with consequences for geologic gaps and the rise of complex life
illustration of comets in Earth's night sky

A prehistoric cosmic airburst preceded the advent of agriculture in the Levant
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