Dating the Dinosaur Pompeii

Northeastern China is home to one of the world’s most remarkable collections of dinosaur fossils. The Jehol biota contains fossils of dinosaurs, plants, insects and fish, many of them preserved in unusual detail with traces of skin and feathers, dating back to the Early Cretaceous period 101 to 143 million years ago.

AGU Honors UC Davis Earth Scientists

Distinguished Professor Isabel Montañez and Professor Qing-zhu Yin of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences have been named fellows of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Crystallized Climate

California Cavern, in Calaveras County east of Stockton, is one of hundreds of caves hidden beneath the Sierra Nevada foothills. By cracking open stalagmites from these caves, Distinguished Professor Isabel Montañez and her students have teased out a timeline of Northern California’s climate history stretching back nearly 20,000 years.

California Academy of Sciences Honors UC Davis Geochemists

Two professors from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences were inducted into the ranks of California Academy of Sciences Fellows. They are among 14 new fellows honored at the Academy’s annual meeting, held virtually this year on Oct. 13.

Meteorites Show Transport of Material in Early Solar System

New studies of a rare type of meteorite show that material from close to the sun reached the outer solar system even as the planet Jupiter cleared a gap in the disk of dust and gas from which the planets formed. The results, published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, add to an emerging understanding of how our solar system formed and how planets form around other stars.

Mantle Neon Illuminates Earth’s Formation

The Earth formed relatively quickly from the cloud of dust and gas around the sun, trapping water and gases in the planet’s mantle, according to research published Dec. 5 in the journal Nature. Apart from settling Earth’s origins, the work could help in identifying extrasolar systems that could support habitable planets.