Eberly News

Tagged with Geology and Geography
Martina Caretta

Downtown Campus Library to host 'Women and Water' exhibit and panels

Eberly News /

“Women and Water,” an exhibit featuring artwork collected and created by West Virginia women active in the fields of water policy and advocacy, will be on display at West Virginia University’s Downtown Campus Library from March 4 to April 30 in conjunction with the WVU Libraries’ year-long “WATER” exhibit and Women’s History Month.

Shifting storm tracks and warming climate have marred countries south of the equator, particularly Australia, in recent decades with drought-like conditions and less rainfall.

Through trees and ice

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WVU geographer earns NSF award to reconstruct 2,000-year climate history of Southern Hemisphere

A field trip to Namibia to study volcanic rocks led to an unexpected discovery by West Virginia University geologists Graham Andrews and Sarah Brown. While exploring the desert country located in southern Africa, they stumbled upon a peculiar land formation—flat desert scattered with hundreds of long, steep hills. They quickly realized the bumpy landscape was shaped by drumlins, a type of hill often found in places once covered in glaciers, an abnormal characteristic for desert landscapes.

Unearthing an ice age in the African desert

Eberly News /

A field trip to Namibia to study volcanic rocks led to an unexpected discovery by West Virginia University geologists Graham Andrews and Sarah Brown. 

WVU students receive NASA Space Grant fellowships

WVU students receive NASA Space Grant fellowships

Eberly News /

Eight students from West Virginia University’s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences have been awarded undergraduate fellowships from the NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium for the 2018-2019 academic year.

For more than a decade, geology students at West Virginia University have used the same advanced software used by oil and gas companies worldwide, expanding their marketability for industry jobs. Petroleum Experts Limited has furthered this access with an in-kind gift of its MOVE software, valued at $2.2 million.

WVU receives $2.2 million software gift from Petroleum Experts Limited

Eberly News /

For more than a decade, geology students at  West Virginia University have used the same advanced software used by oil and gas companies worldwide, expanding their marketability for industry jobs. 

The world’s forests are on a fast food diet of carbon dioxide, which is currently causing them to grow faster. But a researcher at West Virginia University, along with an international team of scientists, finds evidence suggesting that forest growth may soon peak as the trees deplete nitrogen in the soil over longer growing seasons. West Virginia’s wildlands are a “canary in the coal mine for climate change” because of the forests’ biodiversity, which, along with rich soils and abundant rainfall, make them among the strongest forests globally, according to Brenden McNeil, an associate professor of geography at WVU’s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. The state’s forests have been resilient to a barrage of logging and acid rain in the 19th and 20th centuries but are now exhibiting symptoms of declining health because of climate change.

New research suggests forests, like humans, require a balanced diet

Eberly News /

The world’s forests are on a fast food diet of carbon dioxide, which is currently causing them to grow faster. But a researcher at  West Virginia University, along with an international team of scientists, finds evidence suggesting that forest growth may soon peak as the trees deplete nitrogen in the soil over longer growing seasons. 

Looking back on her career at West Virginia University, Elizabeth Young, a Charleston, West Virginia, native reflects on memories of her adventures competing on the rowing team, walking through the snow blanketed campus and the lifelong friendships she created along the way. Her passion for history led her to double major in history and geography and obtain a minor in French. In summer 2018, the Gilman Scholarship sent Young on a four-week study abroad trip to Montpellier, France, where she was able to practice her French language speaking skills.

Meet the Grads: Elizabeth Young

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While taking a drive down West Virginia’s “country roads,” have you ever considered the origins of the windy hills and valleys that make up the landscape fondly thought of as “Almost Heaven?” West Virginia University geologist Joseph Lebold leads you through them in his new book, “Roadside Geology of West Virginia.” Part of Mountain Press Publishing Company’s national series, “Roadside Geology,” it is available now.

West Virginia is shaped by geology

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WVU geologist gives tour of state's 'roadside geology' in new book

In Cuba, over 65 percent of the archipelago of islands is karst, a landscape that is characterized by numerous caves, sinkholes, fissures and underground streams. These caves are rich in biology, archeology and history and played an important role in the interactions between American and Cuban scientists during the Cold War and in the years following. Maria Perez, an assistant professor of geography in West Virginia University’s Department of Geology and Geography, led members of the student caving club, WVU Student Grotto, on a new study abroad trip to Cuba in May 2018.

Beneath the surface: WVU students cave in Cuba

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WVU students cave in Cuba

Improving shale energy productivity and reducing the environmental footprint of the natural gas industry are the goals of a West Virginia University partnership at a second Marcellus Shale Energy and Environmental Lab to be located in western Monongalia County. WVU researchers from multidisciplinary departments, as well as undergraduate and graduate students, will use the advanced models they develop for this project, continuing to address complex technical, environmental and social issues surrounding unconventional energy development. The researchers will use best practices in environmentally responsible shale development as they undertake subsurface scientific investigations.

WVU advances technology and transparency to shale gas in new MSEEL site

Eberly News /

Improving shale energy productivity and reducing the environmental footprint of the natural gas industry are the goals of a  West Virginia University partnership at a second  Marcellus Shale Energy and Environmental Labto be located in western Monongalia County.