Earth and Climate Sciences

Jupiter’s moon Europa may be a habitable world. Galileo spacecraft data suggest that an ocean lurks beneath its frozen ice surface. A paucity of large craters argues for a young surface and recent geological activity, and magnetic measurements imply that a salty ocean persists today. Europa’s ocean and surface are inherently linked. This presentation will summarize both our state of knowledge about Europa and the science potential of NASA’s mission to explore Europa and investigate its habitability.

The Mars Curiosity rover is still going strong after 3.5 years on Mars and has recently reached exposures of sedimentary rocks that are yielding dramatic new insights into Martian history! Please join us to welcome Chief Project Scientist John Grotzinger (Caltech/JPL) who will give an update on the latest findings and answer questions from the audience.

Geology 250 End-of-Semester Poster Session

Airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a technique that measures surface elevation using an aircraft-mounted laser. The result is an extremely detailed rendering of Earth’s surface, with a typical resolution of about 1 m. As Vermont moves quickly towards statewide coverage, LiDAr is enabling countless new applications in fields such as hydrology, soils and agriculture, ecology, forestry, and land use management.

Vermont Geological Survey Student Symposium - student research presentations