UTK Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences

Some of our grad students, accompanied by Assistant Professors Chelsea Mackaman-Lofland and Manuel Scharrer, kicked off the start of summer with a trip to Utah to practice field skills and examine spectacular real-world examples of orogenic systems and sequence stratigraphy – topics covered in their spring semester classes. Thank you to our alumni and Advisory Board whose contributions supported these field experiences.

On Thursday, the Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences Department celebrated our students and faculty with Awards Day. Annually, undergraduates, graduates and faculty receive recognition for the awesome things they do in this department.

Be on the lookout for more post about awards day throughout the week!

Sonja Schmoyer, a third-year doctoral student in the UTK Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences, was recently awarded a grant from the National Geographic Society to help protect endangered hemlock trees.

She is one of the first 20 recipients of a conservation grant under National Geographic's American Keystones initiative.

Schmoyer's research highlights the importance of hemlocks as a foundation of their ecosystems. Her goal is to study their decline and contribute to tools that can monitor, manage, and preserve these ecosystems.


UT Graduate School

Meet UTK Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences Assistant Professor Chelsea Mackaman-Lofland!

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, surrounded by mountains, volcanoes, and active tectonics, many of Mackaman-Lofland's formative memories were of the natural world around her. Her experiences inspired her to pursue Earth science in college and graduate school.

Now, she is an expert in structural geology and tectonics combining a variety of field, analytical, and numerical modeling-based approaches in her research.

At its core, her research explores and tries to understand the relationships among crustal deformation, topographic evolution, and deep Earth dynamics.

The Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences Department would love to celebrate our amazing faculty and staff, and share some of the recognition they have been awarded from the College of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Robert Jacobsen – College of Arts and Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award

Dr. Linda Kah – College of Arts and Sciences Excellence in Research, Distinguished Research Career at UT Award

Dr. Anthony Faiia – College of Arts and Sciences Technical Support Award

One of our graduate students, Shymah Kundladi, recently got her research published! This paper examines how the Late Ordovician Richmondian Invasion reshaped marine communities in the Nashville Basin. Using fossil occurrence data and quantitative models, it compares patterns of origination, extinction, and ecological interactions among native and invasive groups through time. The study shows that the arrival of mostly generalist invaders increased overall diversity, while also placing selective pressure on some native taxa through competitive interactions. Overall, she argues that the invasion led to ecological reorganization and selective turnover rather than a complete collapse of the ecosystem.

On Monday, the Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences Department hosted a Splashdown Party for NASA's Artemis II mission. Students and professors engaged in outreach, teaching folks about the lunar structure, geology, and the open ended questions that Artemis will help us answer.

Special thanks to for donations of a Tennessee treat, Moon Pies indeed made the whole event even sweeter.



Background photo credit: NASA/Artemis II Crew

Today, in conjunction with EEPS’s Artemis II Splash Party, Mineral Monday was all about lunar minerals.

Anorthite (Ca Plagioclase) is the dominant mineral of the Lunar Highlands, the rugged and old parts of the lunar crust.

Ilmenite (FeTiO3) is a dense oxide that formed late in the crystallization of the lunar mantle. The titanium bearing layer is so dense that it might have caused gravitational instabilities that lead to mixing of the lunar mantle.

Be on the lookout for more posts about the Splash Party!

If you want to learn more about our Moon, hang out with space and geoscientists, and eat a Moon Pie, com to the Artemis II Splash Party!

From 10-4 in Strong Hall's atrium and room 129, we will be celebrating the most recent lunar mission.

Prof. Linda Kah and co-authors recently published in the journal Geology about records of an ancient Martian sandstorm.

Check out a summary article, or the real deal:
https://phys.org/news/2026-04-serendipitous-discovery-martian-ripple-reveals.html

https://www.geosociety.org/GSA/GSA/News/pr/2026/GSA_News_Release_26-12.aspx

https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/doi/10.1130/G54158.1/727953/An-ancient-sandstorm-recorded-by-supercritical?searchresult=1