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Alka Tripathy-Lang

Alka Tripathy-Lang is a freelance science writer covering stories about Earth and environmental science. Alka holds a Ph.D. in geology from Arizona State University and conducted postdoctoral research at the Berkeley Geochronology Center.

Dawn Wright climbs out of Victor Vescovo’s submersible The Limiting Factor, which took both Wright and Vescovo 10,919 meters (35,823 feet) below sea level, into Challenger Deep.
Posted inFeatures

Dawn Wright: Diving Deep to Discover the Secrets of the Ocean

by Alka Tripathy-Lang 25 July 202322 August 2023

The chief scientist at Esri wound her path into and out of academia.

Hurricane Hunters approach Hurricane Florence in 2018.
Posted inFeatures

Hunting Hurricanes

by Alka Tripathy-Lang 25 May 202325 May 2023

NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters risk their lives each time they fly into the eye of a storm to collect crucial data for forecasting, hurricane modeling, and research.

A sketch of a blue lake in the mid ground with a brown dock in the foreground. In the background, cliff faces of the gray Canadian Rockies repose under a blue sky with white clouds.
Posted inNews

Rocky Voices: A Q&A with Eva Enkelmann

by Alka Tripathy-Lang 15 May 202315 May 2023

A new book aimed at young adults explores the construction of the Canadian Rockies from the perspective of the minerals, fossils, and waterdrops that make and shape the landscape.

Ropy black basalt solidifies, with orange-red lava visible, like embers in a fire.
Posted inNews

Crystals Track Magma Movement Beneath Iceland

by Alka Tripathy-Lang 28 February 202319 July 2023

Crystals from Fagradalsfjall’s eruption mark how mantle magma might have been moving years before geophysical indicators alerted scientists to unrest.

Riverbed construction
Posted inFeatures

Grains of Sand: Too Much and Never Enough

by Alka Tripathy-Lang 25 January 202317 February 2023

Sand is a foundational element of our cities, our homes, our landscapes and seascapes. How we will interact with the material in the future, however, is less certain.

A cloudy sky above a landscape of evergreens and trees lacking any leaves, a cascade of beaver ponds cuts through the forest. On the right side of one of the ponds, a moose stands with its head down, reflected in the water.
Posted inNews

Scientists EEAGER-ly Track Beavers Across Western United States

by Alka Tripathy-Lang 3 January 20233 January 2023

Efficiently tracking nature’s engineers—beavers—at the scale of entire watersheds over time is now possible, thanks to a new artificial intelligence–trained model called EEAGER.

On the right is the first stratigraphic section of the Grand Canyon, from Powell’s 1875 report, showing what would later be termed the Great Unconformity. A is the metamorphic basement—the oldest rocks that have been contorted. B is the Precambrian Grand Canyon Supergroup, which is composed of tilted sedimentary rocks that lack fossil assemblages. C indicates flat-lying Paleozoic rocks, which contain fossils marking the explosion of life. Two unconformities can be seen at x and y, with the former marking the Great Unconformity. The image on the left is a recent photograph of the Grand Canyon from Walhalla Plateau, with the red line showing the Great Unconformity. Blue lines trace the tilted layers below the famed surface, and yellow lines trace the flat-lying sedimentary rocks on top.
Posted inNews

The Great Unconformity or Great Unconformities?

by Alka Tripathy-Lang 23 December 202231 January 2023

Some scientists think the Great Unconformity was caused by Snowball Earth’s glaciations. Recent work suggests these phenomena might not be related.

Close-up of the palm leaves of Babad Lombok held together by a string threaded through a hole in each page. Each side of the palm leaves shows inscriptions in Old Javanese.
Posted inNews

Stories Scribed on Palm Leaves Help Scientists Understand Ancient Eruption

by Alka Tripathy-Lang 19 December 202219 December 2022

Deposits from the 1257 Samalas eruption may contain artifacts of an ancient kingdom, according to scientists who link volcanology studies with histories written onto palm leaves.

A map of the world centered on the Pacific Ocean, with continents in gray and oceans in white. Lines of bright colors cross the oceans and wind around continents, depicting the locations of transoceanic subsea cables.
Posted inNews

Making Underwater Cables SMART with Sensors

by Alka Tripathy-Lang 12 December 202212 December 2022

Future cables that stretch across the ocean, transmitting cat videos and financial transactions, could also contain temperature, pressure, and seismic sensors that would allow scientists to spy on the seafloor.

Three globes showing deep mantle structures in shades of red (hot structures) and blue (cold structures), with shading in each color family indicating depth. The first globe represents the mantle at 200 million years ago. The second shows the mantle at 100 million years ago. The third shows the present-day mantle. Superimposed atop the mantle structures are gray outlines of where a new model shows the continents were at each time. These globes show Asia and Australia on the left and the Pacific Ocean on the right.
Posted inNews

Billion-Year Rewind Tracks Supercontinents and Mantle Structures

by Alka Tripathy-Lang 12 October 20224 August 2023

Scientists have traced past pathways of tectonic plates back a billion years using computer models, with intriguing results. Incorporating geologic data as a check on model output, however, has proven tricky.

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Features from AGU Journals

RESEARCH SPOTLIGHTS
Geophysical Research Letters
“Neural Networks Map the Ebb and Flow of Tiny Ponds”
By Sarah Derouin

EDITORS' HIGHLIGHTS
Community Science
“Collaboration Helps Overcome Challenges in Air Quality Monitoring”
By Muki Haklay

EDITORS' VOX
Reviews of Geophysics
“What We Know and Don’t Know About Climate Tipping Elements”
By Seaver Wang

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