Thursday, October 6 • 8:30 – 9:30 AM • Pond Student Union Theater
Lava Super-eruptions; Environmental and Landscape Effects
Stephen Self, Volcano Dynamics Group, Dept. of Earth Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
How will the next volcanic super-eruption affect us? Stephen Self will begin by explaining how plains-type basaltic volcanism, defined from lava fields such as the Craters of the Moon and others in the western USA, occurs and changes the landscape. Drawing on information from similar historic events such as Laki (Iceland) in 1783-84 and Lanzerote (Canary Islands)in 1730-36, which both erupted approximately 10-15 cubic kilometers of magma, the formation of fissure vent systems (like the Great Rift), the output of lava from the vents, and the emplacement of the lava flow fields will be discussed. Magma degassing is an important aspect of such eruptions. The severity and style of atmospheric impact that may arise from volatile releases
during a future plains-type eruption will be highlighted.
Self will then scale-up to lava super-eruptions, or the formation of flood basalt provinces, which have occurred spasmodically throughout Earth history. These huge lava provinces have volumes ranging from 100s to millions of cubic kilometers, such as the Columbia River Basalt and Deccan
(India) provinces. They were produced at extremely fast rates and are distinguished from all other basaltic volcanism by the repeated effusion of huge batches of magma. Self’s studies of the Columbia River Basalt lava flows suggest that eruptions of this magnitude last in the order of a decade and are capable of emitting huge amounts of sulfur dioxide gas. The potential atmospheric impact of such large-scale, long-term events is being investigated, but even smaller ones, such as Laki, have had disastrous effects.
Stephen Self has studied volcanoes and volcanic rocks in almost every part of the world and has written over 140 articles in the scientific press and popular magazines. He has taught short courses for universities and industry, and has been a keynote speaker at international conferences. Self was previously a Professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Hawaii. He now holds the Chair in Volcanology at the Open University, UK, and heads the Volcano Dynamics Group in the Department of Earth Sciences. He is currently leader of the UK’s Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group and co-author of the Geological Society’s Working Group report on Super-eruptions. His research interests include large-scale basaltic volcanism, mechanisms and deposits of explosive volcanic eruptions, and the effects of eruptions on global climate and the environment.
Friday, October 7 • 8:30 – 9:30 AM • Pond Student Union Theater
Archaeology and Human History on Idaho’s Snake River Plain
C. Melvin Aikens, Emeritus Professor, University of Oregon
People have lived on the Snake River Plain for perhaps 15,000 years, since the waning of the last ice age. Their cultures changed again and again over that time, always being shaped by the area’s distinctive natural environment. Archaeological evidence, interpreted through the medium of Native American traditional knowledge, reveals the human story.
C. Melvin Aikens began his archaeological career in l958 as an undergraduate field assistant on the Glen Canyon archaeological project in southeastern Utah. After several years work in the Southwest, he developed research interests in the broader intermontane western region, especially the Great Basin, which he continues to pursue. He served for a number of years as Head of the Department of Anthropology and currently serves as Director of the University of Oregon Museum of Natural History. He holds a B.A. degree in Anthropology from the University of Utah (1960), and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Anthropology from the University of Chicago (1962, 1966). Aikens was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in l983, and named the Oregon Academy of Science Outstanding Scientist for 1990. In 1995 he received the High Desert Museum’s Earle A. Chiles Award, recognizing “accomplishments in promoting thoughtful management of the natural resources of the Intermountain West.” Dr. Aikens has directed the UO Archaeological Field School since joining the University of Oregon faculty in l968-69. His research focuses on the archaeology of the Great Basin of North America and of Japan, with collateral interests in the archaeology of their encompassing regions. He is author or editor of fifteen books and many book chapters and journal articles.
Friday, October 7 • 7:30 – 9:30 PM • Stephens Performing Arts Center
The Sagebrush Ocean: A Naturalist’s Vision of the Great Basin
Stephen Trimble, writer and photographer
Come with Stephen Trimble to the Great Basin Desert. Enter sagebrush seas, climb island mountains, stand in the center of dry lake-beds and look to a horizon where mountains recede in a haze of mirage. Nowhere else in the West is there such a continuous sweep of undeveloped country filled with such silence. The Great Basin Desert —an ocean of sagebrush— sweeps from the Sierra to the Rockies, from the Snake River Plain to the Mojave Desert. “Biogeography” best sums up Trimble’s focus on this land: what lives where, and why. He introduces concepts of desert ecology and discusses living communities of animals and plants that band Great Basin mountains —from the exhilarating emptiness of dry lake-beds to alpine regions at the summits of the 13,000-foot Basin ranges. In this fascinating slide show, Trimble will share stories and photographs from his books, The Sagebrush Ocean: A Natural History of the Great Basin, winner of The Sierra Club’s Ansel Adams Award and The High Desert Museum’s Chiles Award, and Earthtones: A Nevada Album, winner of the Shepperson Award from the Nevada Humanities Council.
As writer, editor, and photographer Stephen Trimble has published nineteen books. His bedrock focus is the land—western wildlands and natural history—including: The Geography of Childhood: Why Children Need Wild Places (with Gary Nabhan) • The Sagebrush Ocean: A
Natural History of the Great Basin • Earthtones: A Nevada Album (with Ann Ronald) • Blessed By Light: Visions of the Colorado Plateau • and • Words From the Land: Encounters with Natural History Writing. Trimble spent ten years listening to Southwest Indian people, and their stories fill his books: The People: Indians of the American Southwest • Talking With the Clay: the Art of Pueblo Pottery • and • Our Voices, Our Land. He has also contributed commentaries to local and national NPR shows, especially “The Savvy Traveler.” Stephen Trimble was born in Denver, his family’s base for roaming the West with his geologist father. After a liberal arts education at Colorado College, he worked as a park ranger in Colorado and Utah, earned a master’s degree in ecology at the University of Arizona, and served as director of the Museum of Northern Arizona Press. He has been a full-time free-lance writer and photographer since 1981. Trimble makes his home in Salt Lake City and in the redrock country of Torrey, Utah, with his wife and two children.
Stephen Trimble’s presentation is made possible in part by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council.
