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Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Faculty News Institute for the Study of Earth and Man

Ancient Hammerhead with Sharp Teeth was First Vegetarian Reptile

Modern Readers Originally Posted: May 9, 2016 Don’t let those sharp teeth fool you, because this ancient hammerhead reptile had no appetite for meat. The hammerhead’s most distinctive feature was its two menacing rows of teeth, with one group resembling needles and another group resembling chisels. That would normally hint that it was a carnivore, and […]

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Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Events Faculty News

Could Texas’ dirty coal power plants be replaced by geothermal systems?

Dallas Morning News Originally Posted: April 26, 2016 For Texas electricity customers, geothermal energy is pretty much an afterthought. But some scientists — and even some people in the oil and gas business — say that heat from deep underground may become a significant source of power. At least, that’s the message at a conference […]

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Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Events Faculty News

SMU ‘Power Plays’ conference April 25-26

SMU NEWS Originally Posted: April 22, 2016 DALLAS (SMU) – SMU’s renowned Geothermal Lab will host its eighth international energy conference April 25-26 on the Dallas campus, focused on using the oilfield as a base for alternative energy production through the capture of waste heat and fluids. In addition to oil and gas field geothermal […]

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Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Faculty News

Heather DeShon, Earth Sciences, seven million Americans at risk of man-made earthquakes, USGS says

Washington Post Originally Posted: March 28, 2016 Earthquakes are a natural hazard — except when they’re man-made. The oil and gas industry has aggressively adopted the technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to shatter subsurface shale rock and liberate the oil and gas lurking there. But the process results in tremendous amounts of chemical-laden […]

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Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Faculty News

Matthew Siegler, Earth Sciences, ancient lunar ice indicates the moon’s axis slowly shifted by 125 miles, or 6 degrees, over 1 billion years.

SMU Research Originally Posted: March 23, 2016 NASA data leads to rare discovery: Earth’s moon wandered off axis billions of years ago A new study published today in Nature reports discovery of a rare event — that Earth’s moon slowly moved from its original axis roughly 3 billion years ago. Planetary scientist Matthew Siegler at […]

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Anthropology Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Graduate News

Grad student discovers river in Peru so hot it boils animals alive

Tech Insider Originally Posted: February 22, 2016 Deep in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, an anomalous and perplexing natural wonder lies: A raging river that boils. Once just the stuff of folklore, geophysicist Andrés Ruzo, a PhD student at Southern Methodist University, set out to find the legendary waterway himself. He not only found […]

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Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Faculty News

SMU-led seismology team cited in Dallas Morning News story on oil fracking

Dallas Morning News Originally Posted: February 18, 2016 Oklahoma is dealing with earthquakes, so why isn’t Texas? Texas regulators seem to have a tough time finding a link between injection wells used to dispose of hydraulic fracturing wastewater and seismic tremors. A SMU-led study team found a probable association but the Texas Railroad Commission continues […]

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Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Faculty News

Egypt unveils rare whale fossil museum to boost tourism

Daily Mail Originally Posted: January 14, 2016 SMU professor Louis Jacobs led a study that discovered dozens of rare “walking whale” fossils in the Sahara desert. “The whales were stranded upriver at a time when east Africa was at sea level and was covered with forest and jungle,” said Jacobs. Now, a $2.17 billion museum […]

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Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Faculty News

Matthew Hornbach, Earth Science, XTO presents map of North Texas fault lines

Dallas Morning News Originally Posted: The fault lines on the map are clear and strikingly large. They slant north to south across Dallas, Tarrant and neighboring counties. Some have nicknames. One is the Big D Fault, a thick, red gash at least 14 miles long that cuts below Oak Cliff, Love Field and the Medical […]

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Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Faculty News

Brian Stump, Earth Sciences, says North Korea likely detonated a nuclear explosion

Science Magazine Originally Posted: January 6, 2016 Does North Korea really have an H-bomb? By Richard Stone North Korea claims to have detonated its first hydrogen bomb yesterday. But experts are skeptical that the pariah state detonated—not an ordinary atomic device—but a much more powerful “H-bomb of justice,” as state media is now calling it. […]