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Earth Science

A half-corroded barrel seeps toxic waste into the seafloor.
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Courtesy Image
Untold amounts of toxic waste were carelessly, though legally, disposed of off the California coast. Their presence continues to haunt human and wildlife health.

Award-winning documentary explores the unfinished tale of DDT

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The Earth gradually becoming whiter.
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
On its own, Earth would shift toward another ice age in about 10,000 years, scientists say. But humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions may have radically shifted the climates trajectory.

Scientists match Earth’s ice age cycles with orbital shifts
A researcher in a hardhat looks off to the right on a boat.
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Courtesy Image

Professor David Valentine’s toxic waste discovery featured in LA Times documentary at SBIFF
artist rendition of asteroid hitting Earth's atmosphere

Researchers model airbursts, a common yet little-understood cosmic impact process
Left to right: Anna Boser, Naomi Tague, David Valentine, and Leander Anderegg.
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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
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Matt Perko
David Valentine

Discoveries from Disasters: A conversation with oceanographer David Valentine
SEM image of shocked quartz
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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.
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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.
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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
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