Department of Earth and Space Sciences

UW research scientist Mira Berdahl, along with ESS Professors Eric Steig and Gerard Roe, helped develop a modeling approach showing that the glacier retreat that enabled the Alaska landslide was driven entirely by human-caused climate change rather than natural processes. Berdahl is interviewed.

Scientists are now warning that scaling back the Ocean Observations Initiatve could put Washington and Oregon at risk. However, the cable system managed by the UW Pacific Northwest Seismic Network used for earthquake and tsunami monitoring is not being removed. ESS Professor and PNSN Director Harold Tobin is interviewed.

A UW study, led by ESS graduate student Paul Morgan and co-author ESS Associate Professor Alison Duvall, published April 16 develops a workflow to map dam susceptibility at a regional scale, using stream width and landslide volume to project susceptibility within the Oregon Coast Range.

David Catling, professor of Earth and Space Sciences (as well as adjunct professor of Atmospheric and Climate Science and interim director of the UW Astrobiology Program) has been elected as a fellow of the Royal Society. Founded in 1660, the Royal Society is the national academy of sciences of the United Kingdom and the world’s oldest continuous scientific academy, famous for its historic fellow…

A Westport school rooftop refuge completed in 2016 serves as Cascadia’s first engineered refuge for tsunamis. Area residents funded the structure through a bond of the Ocosta School District. Most years, an Ocosta science teacher takes secondary-school students on canoe trips to view Grays Harbor evidence for the hazards for which the structure was designed. This year's outing, on May 22, mixed O…

A new study conducted by UW researchers suggests that the Seattle fault zone may produce its largest earthquakes less frequently than scientists previously estimated. Published in the journal Geology, the study, led by ESS graduate studend Elizabeth Davis, found evidence that only one major earthquake of roughly magnitude 7.5 has occurred on the Seattle fault zone in the past 11,000 years.

University of Washington Provost Tricia R. Serio announced that Joel Thornton, a professor and chair of the College’s Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science, will serve as the next Maggie Walker Dean of the College of the Environment. Thornton has served as interim dean since last July, filling the position vacated by Maya Tolstoy. Thornton is an atmospheric chemist who studies the impacts…

A research team, led by UW Biology Professor and ESS Adjunct Professor Gregory Wilson Mantilla, has identified a new species in the Cimolodon genus from a fossil the team discovered at a research site in Baja California.

Recent ESS Colloquium speaker Assistant Professor Ching-Yao Lai (Stanford University) is interviewed.

A new study authored by Maleena Wjeratna Kidiwela, with mentorship from ESS Associate Professor Marine Denolle, indicates that a difference between the northern and central areas of the Cascadia Subduction Zone may create variability in how earthquakes rippling out of the fault could spread.

A swarm of offshore earthquakes near the Pacific Northwest poses no threat to land, says ESS Professor and PNSN Director Harold Tobin.

Two disciplines in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences ranked in the top 10 nationwide in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 Best Graduate Schools released April 6. Earth sciences tied for 9th, and Geophysics remained in a three-way tie for 9th (ranked in 2024).

Skip to content

Underwater waves triggered by falling icebergs are playing a bigger role in Greenland's ice loss than previously thought. ESS postdoc Dominik Gräff is lead author on the study.

Professor David Catling of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences has been elected as a 2026 Geochemical Fellow of the Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry. This international award is bestowed upon outstanding scientists who have made a major contribution to the field of geochemistry.