On Saturday in the Moss Arts Center three of our graduate students — Rose McGroarty, Esther Oyedele, and Prescott Vayda — participated in the 10th annual Nutshell Games, in which participants are given exactly 90 seconds to explain their research to an audience of non-specialists. All three of those students were among the five presenters — from a group of 29 participants — chosen by a panel of judges to receive a $500 scholarship.

Geosciences faculty and students staffed the department booth at the Virginia Tech Open House, where prospective undergraduates (mostly high school seniors) learn about academic majors at Virginia Tech. Assistant Professor Julia Cisneros gave the introductory College of Science presentation to the entire group of parents and prospective students, and other volunteers included faculty members Maddy Schreiber, Sean Bemis, Jim Spotila, and Ying Zhou, and students Ella Davis, Maddi Williams, Morgan Lundberg, Saye Woodard, and Brooklyn Harris.

Associate Professor Sarah Stamps delivered a keynote presentation at the International Forum on Microplate Tectonics (Oct. 25-27) held in Qingdao, China and hosted by Ocean China University on the topic of "Resolving Microplates in Africa Using GNSS Geodesy and Numerical Modeling". In-person attendance was about 200, and there were over 15,000 people attending online.

Assistant Professor Julia Cisneros hosted the annual Paper Marigold Workshop, in honor of Día de los Muertos.  Marigolds hold a special significance in Mexican culture as the flower of Día de los Muertos. Every year Dr. Cisneros hosts a morning of drop-in paper marigold making in her office.

Geosciences students sharied the wonders of geoscience with children of all ages in the Moss Arts Center at this year's Science Fair. Volunteers included Henry Aayers, Danielle Fitzgerald, Prescott Vayda, and Vicki Yarborough.

Our Study Abroad students continued their field exploration of Swiss geology last week, under the direction of Professors Mark Caddick and Rick Law.

The Friday seminar was given by Dr. Mary Droser of UC-Riverside, who spoke on "Widespread slime, muck, and goo: Implications of Ediacaran organic mats for paleobiology, sedimentology, and the search for life elsewhere." The visit was hosted by Dr. Shuhai Xiao.