March 10, 1997

Of Note

Paleobiologist Richard Norris, who earned his B.S. with honors from UCSC's Earth Sciences Department in 1982, made a big splash in the news in February by leading a team that investigated the biggest splash of all: the purported impact of a large meteorite in the Caribbean 65 million years ago. Norris, now an associate scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, was cochief scientist of an Ocean Drilling Program expedition that probed into the seafloor off the South Carolina coast. The team found bands of sediment that, in Norris's words, provide "proof positive of the impact." The layers included what appear to be vaporized remains of the meteorite itself, in addition to evidence that most life in the ocean was wiped out. "We've got the smoking gun," Norris told the Associated Press. "These neat layers of sediment bracketing the impact have never been found in the sea before." Other scientists have hypothesized that the impact also killed off the dinosaurs--a connection that propelled Norris into the worldwide media spotlight overnight.

Islamicism and Regional Politics in Egypt is the title of a talk by Martina Rieker, research associate with the Center for Global, International, and Regional Studies at UCSC, on Monday, March 10. The presentation is part of the ongoing Stevenson Global Security Colloquium, which is held from 3:30 to 4:40 p.m. in Room 110, Social Sciences 1. Faculty, students, and the general public are invited. For more information, call (408) 459-2833.

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