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The University of Southampton
Aerospace

Was There Ever Water on Mars? A lecture by Professor Victor Baker 10th October 2012 Event

Origin: 
Geography and Environmental Science
Time:
19:30 - 20:45
Date:
10 October 2012
Venue:
Lecture theatre A (room 1041), building 44 (Shackleton Building), Highfield Campus, Southampton SO15 1BJ.

For more information regarding this event, please telephone Sarah Dack on + 44 (0) 23 8059 2522 (x22522 internal) or email S.L.Dack@soton.ac.uk .

Event details

The first 2012/13 Seminar Series Geography and Environment lecture held in conjunction with the Royal Geographical Society by Professor Victor R Baker.

Recent advances in astronomy hold the prospect for delivery of a great many Earth-like planets, rich in both water and possible habitats for life, thereby greatly expanding from the current sample of one. Neverless, until it proves possible to do geological science of Earth-like planets by study of Mars. The early geological histories of both Mars and Earth are closely tied to the role of water, extending from the nature of planetary accretion to the origin of a physically coupled atmosphere and ocean, the prospects for initiating plate tectonic, and historical records of punctured greenhouse-to-icehouse climatic transitions. Recent discoveries from Mars missions, such as Curiosity, reveal the extensive role of water in generating sedimentary rocks, active and relict glacial and periglacial features, aqueous weathering products (clay minerals and sulfates), alluvial fans and deltas, the extensive development of palaeolakes and even a transient ocean, thought to be formed by megafloods.

This is a ticketed event, to RSVP please contact Sarah Dack S.L.Dack@soton.ac.uk or telephone + 44 (0) 23 8059 2522

There will be refreshments from 6.45pm onwards, the lecture starts at 7.30pm, followed by a post lecture drinks reception.

Vic Baker lecture
Lecture poster

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Speaker information

Professor Victor R Baker,The University of Arizona,Victor R. Baker is Regents’ Professor of Hydrology and Water Resources, Professor of Geosciences, and Professor of Planetary Sciences at The University of Arizona. A past president of The Geological Society of America, he was the 2010 recipient of The Distinguished Career Award from that society’s Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology Division. His 360 research articles and 16 books deal with the geology and palaeohydrology of Mars, Quaternary palaeohydrology and geology, flood geomorphology, and the history/philosophy of the earth and planetary sciences. His honors include Foreign Membership in the Polish Academy of Sciences, Honorary Fellowship in the European Union of Geosciences, the David Linton Award of the British Society for Geomorphology, a Fulbright-Hays Senior Research Fellowship, and an Indo-American Fellowship. His work on megafloods has been featured on multiple television documentaries for PBS, BBC, and the National Geographic, Discovery and History Channels, including the 2005 NOVA production “Mystery of the Megaflood.”

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