ETSU Department of Geosciences

09/10/2026

An ETSU-led study shows how a fossil discovered decades ago helped rewrite the history of an extinct mammal that once inhabited coastlines across the Pacific.

09/08/2026

As we head into fall, our location in northeast Tennessee offers stunning opportunities to see fall foliage. Starting on Friday, ETSU's fall color reports will return for the season! These reports will feature information from Dr. Andrew Joyner, a professor in the department who is also the Tennessee State Climatologist and Travis Watson, ETSU's campus arborist and an alumnus of our graduate GIS certificate program. The weekly fall color reports will be published on ETSU News.

ETSU's weekly Fall Color Reports return Sept. 11 with expert forecasts, science insights and tips for experiencing autumn across Appalachia.

09/01/2026

Next Thursday, September 10th, at 3:30pm Eastern/2:30pm Central Dr. Ernenwein will be presenting a webinar for the The Memphis Area Geographic Information Council (MAGIC) discussing her work using drones to map unmarked graves at historic cemeteries. The webinar titled "Beyond GPR: Using Drones for Cemetery Mapping" is free and open to the public. You can find out more information and register for the webinar on the MAGIC website:

Historic cemeteries often present a difficult archaeological problem: the people are buried there, but the locations of individual graves may no longer be visible at the ground surface. Over time, markers may be lost, damaged, or removed. As a result, a cemetery that appears to contain open ground m

08/27/2026

Congratulations to Drs. Schubert and Samuels on their recent publication in PaleoBios that revises the age of short-faced bears by over a million years. The paper is open access and can be found here: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7zs962s4

08/04/2026

Congratulation to alumni of the department Robert McSweeney as well as Drs. Nandi, Ernenwein, and Luffman on their new publication in Environmental & Engineering Geoscience. The article titled; “Change Detection for a Slow-Moving Soil Landslide Using Multi-Source LIDAR” comes from Robert’s thesis research. The team used UAV-based LiDAR sensors to detect changes in the surface of a 59-acre landslide area located near an interstate highway in eastern Tennessee. The analysis revealed scarp and toe positions shifting 11.8–41.7 in. per year and elevation changes ranging from −7.4 ft of erosion to +6.6 ft of deposition. Although widespread geomorphic change was limited, persistent surface deformation indicated ongoing landslide activity. Field verification and inclinometer comparisons confirmed the LiDAR-based assessments, demonstrating the value of repeated LiDAR monitoring for evaluating the surface expression of slow-moving landslides and supporting long-term transportation infrastructure management.
The full article will be available for open access in the November issue of the journal.

07/01/2026

ETSU is part of a NASA-funded project led by the University of Alabama in Huntsville to improve drought monitoring in the Southeast.

06/18/2026

Last weekend Dr. Wallace and master's students Joe and Will presented at the American Society of Mammologists, and a big congratulations to Joe on winning the “Outstanding Oral Presentation – Master’s Student” award!

06/03/2026

ETSU researchers are helping uncover a largely hidden chapter of American history.

Using advanced LiDAR technology, faculty partnered with researchers and historians in New York to search for traces of Timbuctoo — a mid-1800s settlement established for free Black Americans in the Adirondack Mountains.

The work combines cutting-edge geospatial research with archaeology and history to recover stories nearly lost to time.

https://news.etsu.edu/articles/etsu-researchers-help-uncover-hidden-black-settlement

06/02/2026

We were happy to have a group from the ETSU Upward Bound program visit the department today to learn about our use of drones for mapping as well as making weather observations using infrared thermometers and sling psychrometers.

05/20/2026

A potentially powerful El Niño could develop later this year – but what would that actually mean for Appalachia?

ETSU researchers are tracking how shifting Pacific Ocean temperatures could influence drought conditions, hurricane activity and weather patterns across Tennessee and the broader Appalachian region.

https://news.etsu.edu/articles/what-a-powerful-el-nino-could-mean-for-appalachia