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UO E-clips, Oct. 31
Top stories for October 31, 2007: Mineral ages documented by UO researchers show Blue Mountain rocks related to Klamath, Sierra Nevadas, report Science Daily and UPI; UO seeks state bonds to back arena proposal, the Register-Guard reports in its advance coverage of Friday state board of higher education meeting; UO gets graded on going green, the Daily Emerald says in reporting that the university is in the top 25 of public and private universities in a College Sustainability Report Card 2008; and "Extinction by comet" is the headline of The Oregonian's coverage of a Clovis-age theory being promoted by two UO researchers, who are among a large team of investigators
Mineral ages show Blue Mountain rocks related to Klamath, Sierra Nevadas (Science Daily, UPI and multiple media outlets internationally): New evidence, based on mineral dating, suggests that rocks of the Blue Mountains, the oldest geological formation in Oregon, may have been derived from the Klamath and Sierra Nevada mountain chains, University of Oregon researchers report. The findings, presented October 29 at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, come from zircon grains in Triassic and Jurassic sedimentary rocks (dating from 144 million to 248 million years ago) from Blue Mountain basins in northeastern Oregon. The approximate ages of the zircons, based on isotropic dating, match the ages of rocks to the south in the Klamath Mountains, said Todd LaMaskin, a UO doctoral student in geological sciences.
UO seeks state bonds to back arena proposal (Register-Guard): The University of Oregon’s new $227 million basketball arena would be financed entirely through state-backed debt under a plan the UO is presenting to a higher education board this week. Some critics worry that the plan is financially risky, but UO administrators defend it as safe and practical. UO officials on Friday will seek the first of three approvals they need, when they ask the state Board of Higher Education for permission to request legislative approval of $200 million in bonds to build the approximately 12,500-seat arena. The Legislature previously approved $27 million in bonds to buy land for the project.
UO gets graded on going green (Daily Emerald): The Sustainable Endowments Institute recently scored the University a B- grade on environmental sustainability. The University placed in the top 25 out of 200 public and private universities in the institute's College Sustainability Report Card 2008. The University scored an A in the categories of administration, climate change and energy, food and recycling and green building; a B in transportation; a C in investment priorities; and an F in endowment transparency and shareholder engagement. The report praised the Lillis Business Complex as being one of the greenest business school buildings in the nation, and it gave kudos to the University for purchasing food, beef, milk and flour from local businesses and farms.
Extinction by comet (The Oregonian): Overhunting. Abrupt climate change. Disease. Scientists have cited those and other theories in their decades-old debate about why mammoths, mastodons, sloths, saber-toothed cats, camels, horses and other large creatures disappeared from North America at the end of the last ice age. Now a research group that includes two University of Oregon scientists (Jon Erlandson and Douglas Kennett) is proposing a more dramatic cause for the extinctions: A 3-mile-wide comet or asteroid exploded over Canada or slammed into the continent about 13,000 years ago.