UT Jackson School of Geosciences

06/01/2026

That's a wrap on our annual Marine Geology and Geophysics field camp! 🏖️🏖️🏖️

GEO349/397 provides hands-on training in marine geological and geophysical data collection and processing for graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Working in teams, students travel to Port Aransas, TX and hop on University of Texas Marine Science Institute research vessels to learn sediment coring and analysis and seafloor mapping techniques using streamer seismic reflection, side-scan sonar and multibeam bathymetry.

Teams then integrate and interpret data collected here to examine Gulf Coast shelf geology and present findings to their peers and members of the energy industry.

Congrats to this year's teams!🎉

05/30/2026

Cuatro Cienegas, Mexico is home to about 10,000 people, 70 endemic species, a national park, and a booming agriculture sector. The quality and extraction of its groundwater, which fills its iconic “pozas,” or pools, is a topic of clear importance to the community.

Students on the Jackson School of Geosciences’ Hydrology Field Camp spent last week sampling the water here to measure the quality, levels, and flow of the groundwater. The group collaborated with researchers and fellow undergraduates from the University of Coahuila.

The work involved a lot of swimming, sweating, and trampling through tall grass. Yesterday, the student groups presented their findings on the water quality, officially wrapping up their three-week field camp!

05/29/2026

05/27/2026

Y'all held up pretty good! 🫠

What’s in a day’s work for our hydrology field camp in Cuatrociénegas, Mexico? The group is studying desert spring water in Rio Mezquites and other spring-fed pools. 💧

Their to-do list includes:
- Analyzing water chemistry
- Mapping groundwater flow paths
- Geophysical surveying
- Measuring streamflow
- (and hopefully a nap!)

05/26/2026

Congratulations to Jackson School Professor Zong-Liang Yang, the first climate scientist to be appointed to the board of directors for The Climate Health Society.

"Solving the climate-health crisis takes every sector working in concert. Dr. Yang's appointment brings critical expertise to the Climate Health Society that will accelerate innovative connections,” Professor Ying Zhang, board chair of the Climate Health Society, said in a statement.

The Climate Health Society is a global professional organization that advances interdisciplinary collaboration in research, education, and innovation to understand and act on the health consequences of climate change.

Read more about Yang's appointment here: https://www.einpresswire.com/article/913596441/climate-health-society-welcomes-pioneering-climate-scientist-dr-zong-liang-yang-to-its-board

05/23/2026

Some more photos from our summer field camps!

Here are some highlights from our GEO 660B cohort after three weeks exploring geology field sites across the southwest.

05/22/2026

Geology students in their element! 🪨

The first dispatches from GEO 660A are coming in after three weeks in the American southwest.

This is just the start! Stayed tuned for more adventures from the field!

05/22/2026

Texas is known for its storms. A new Nature study led by UT Austin scientists looks at how the state’s four largest cities – Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, and Austin – impact where, when and how frequently severe weather occurs. ⛈️

🔗 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10479-7

Jackson School of Geosciences professors Dev Niyogi and Zong-Liang Yang are co-authors on the study, along with state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon of Texas A&M University. The research was led by Xinxin Sui, who conducted the research while earning a Ph.D. from UT’s Cockrell School of Engineering and is now a post-doctoral researcher at the Colorado School of Mines.

The Nature study analyzed 40,000 summer storms – from small thunderstorms to Hurricane Harvey – over the past 23 years.

Key findings include:
• Cities spin up small, local thunderstorms – with Houston being the leader, due to the influence of land-sea interactions and urban heat.

• The urban heat island effect can intensify cold-front associated storms as they approach cities and later lower their intensity as they pass through cities. Cityscapes, with their dense and tall buildings can further disrupt the storm system.

• Cities could be causing tropical storms and hurricanes to release rain at lower levels in the atmosphere – which has implications for flooding and emergency response.

The Texas cities have different geographies and climates but share a similar influence on storms. This finding suggests that what’s happening in Texas can give insight into how cities are affecting storms around the world, and help communities prepare and build resiliency to them. 🌍

📽️: A stormy Austin skyline. Credit: Allyssa Dallmann

05/22/2026

Michael Sweet, a research scientist at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) and co-program director of the Gulf Basin Depositional Synthesis (GBDS) project is the recipient of the 2026 Doris Malkin Curtis Medal by the Gulf Coast Section of the Society for Sedimentary Geology. It i...

05/21/2026

What if we said we missed y’all