Syracuse University Geology Club hosts 2011 CNY Earth Sciences Student Symposium

Snowball Earth and how and why mountains move are among the topics to be presented during the 2011 CNY Earth Sciences Student Symposium, 9 a.m.-6:30 p.m., Friday, April 15, on the Syracuse University campus. Guest speakers include well known scientists from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, and the University of Victoria School of Earth and Oceanic Science. The event will also include a presentation by the SU Lava Project at 5:30 p.m. at the ComArt Building on Comstock Avenue, and poster sessions highlighting student research.

The lectures and lava pour are free and open to the public. A complete schedule of events is available on the web at http://earthsciences.syr.edu.

Dennis Kent, adjunct senior research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, will present “Paleolatitude from Mesozoic Pangea and Constraints on Cordilleran Motions” at 11 a.m. in the Maxwell Auditorium. Kent, who is also the Board of Governors Professor of Geological Sciences at Rutgers University, is widely published and an original member of the ISI Highly Cited Researchers. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union and the Geological Society of America.

Paul Hoffman, adjunct professor at the University of Victoria School of Earth and Oceanic Science, will present “Snowball Earth: The Ultimate Climate Disaster,” at 4 p.m. in the Heroy Auditorium. Hoffman, a Canadian geologist and former Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology at Harvard University, is widely known for the theory of Snowball Earth, co-published with Daniel P. Schrag. The theory posits that the Earth’s surface became entirely or nearly entirely frozen at least once, more than 650 million years ago.

The Lava Project is a collaboration between sculptor Bob Wysocki, assistant professor of art in SU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts; and Jeff Karson, the Jessie Page Heroy Professor of Earth Sciences in The College of Arts and Sciences.

The symposium is hosted by the SU Geology Club and sponsored by the Department of Earth Sciences in The College of Arts and Sciences; the Division of Student Affairs; the Graduate Student Organization; National Grid; Parratt Wolff, Inc. East Syracuse; Groundwater and Environmental Services, Inc. North Syracuse; the Institute of Engineering and Technology; and the Central New York Association of Professional Geologists.