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Steve Clemens, senior research associate in geological sciences at Brown University, will discuss the causes of variations in the strength of Asian monsoons noon-1 p.m. Friday, April 2, in Van Wickle Hall room 108.
Lunch will be provided free of charge to students and for $3 to faculty and staff. The event is part of the Geology Spring Seminar Series sponsored by the geology and environmental geosciences department.
The talk will be based on research designed to evaluate the mechanisms that cause changes in the strength of summer-monsoon circulation over the past 350,000 years, according to Clemens.
“At these long time scales, monsoon variation is forced both by changing patterns of incoming solar radiation as well as by internal feedback mechanisms (exchanges of energy among the ocean, atmosphere, and cryosphere),” he explains. “Our primary records of changing monsoon strength are derived from analysis of sediments recovered by the Ocean Drilling Program from the northern Arabian Sea.”
Clemens is an editor associated with the Ocean Drilling Program in the South China Sea and a member of the Scientific Committee on Ocean Research Asian Monsoon Working Group, the Environmental Science Steering and Evaluation Panel of the Ocean Drilling Program, and the Conceptual Design Committee for Non Riser Drilling, U.S. Science Advisory Committee. He is a Distinguished Lecturer, Unites States Science Advisory Committee, Ocean Drilling Program, as well as a member of the Geology editorial board, the National Science Foundation Marine Geology and Geophysics Review Panel, and the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study Project.
Clemens earned a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in marine geology from Brown and a B.A. in geology from Pomona College. He is a member of American Association of Petroleum Geologists, American Geophysical Union, and Geological Society of America.
In another Geology Seminar, Sheila Hutcherson will speak on “Geology from Beneath the Surface — Gold and Platinum Mining from a Geologist’s Point of View” noon Monday, March 22.
Harvard curator Bill Metropolis will discuss the university’s collection of minerals and offer samples for examination noon Friday, April 23.
Previous Geology Seminar talks:
Dana Emerson ’03, AmeriCorps program within the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, March 5: environmental outreach work
Annette Russo ’80, senior manager of global environment, health, and safety and mobility for telecommunications firm Avaya Inc. in Basking Ridge, N.J., Feb. 20 — “Trends in Environmental Programs and Legislation and Industry Response in a Post-9/11 World”
Guy Hovis, John H. Markle Professor of Geology, Feb. 6: “A European Sabbatical Travelogue — and Why I Destroy Minerals”