Dr. Marcus I. Bursik This is Me

Education

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1. 1. The Map That Changed The World | Geology Lecture Series

   lfbuffalo.org/exhibitions/map/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/29/2006   Last Visited: 11/30/2007

   Dr. Marcus I. Bursik Professor of Geology, University at Buffalo

2. 2. halrager.org

   halrager.org/WordPress/categor - [Cached]

   Last Visited: 8/14/2007

   UniSci: Making the First Single Topographic Map Of The World A project led by Marcus Bursik, Ph.D, associate professor of geology at the University at Buffalo involving the topographic mapper being flown by the space shuttle Endeavour could help to develop a new and far more accurate way to map features of shorelines and aid scientists in determining past and future volcanic and seismic activity in an area. Once the shuttle returns to Earth, Bursik will analyze some of the data to examine the unusual topography surrounding Mono Lake, east of Yosemite National Park in California.

3. 3. Wildlife News:Temperatures, Not Hotels, Likely Alter Niagara Falls' Mist

   www.wildlifenews.co.uk/article - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/15/2006   Last Visited: 10/6/2007

   "According to our findings, it is unlikely that the buildings at the falls enhance the mist," said Marcus Bursik, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Geology in the UB College of Arts and Sciences, who led the study with several students who were investigating the plume for their graduate-degree projects. "Rather, our data show that it's air and water temperature that control the amount of mist.
   
   "It turns out that the bigger the temperature difference between the air and the water, the higher and more substantial is the mist plume and the thicker is the mist at the Falls," he continued.
   
   Bursik, a volcanologist who has studied atmospheric plumes at volcanoes, noted that plumes, regardless of their origin, have common features.
   
   He was motivated to study the Niagara Falls plume back in 2002.
   
   "I started wondering why the plume rose to different heights on different days," said Bursik, who often can see the plume from his building on the University at Buffalo's North (Amherst) Campus about 20 miles away.
   
   According to the data the UB researchers gathered, the plume is highest during times of the year when the water temperature is higher than the air temperature, which typically occurs during fall and winter.
   
   Bursik explained that in late autumn, even when the air temperature can fall to about 40 or 30 degrees Fahrenheit, the water still remains quite warm, as high as 60 degrees Fahrenheit, conditions that are ideal for a large, high plume.
   
   During the winter, he continued, the temperature of the water remains at 32 degrees Fahrenheit because it is constantly flowing, but the air temperature will plunge by twenty or thirty degrees or more.
   
   "Those temperature differences create more mist flow and a higher plume," said Bursik.
   
   The perception that there have been more misty days in recent years may just be related to temperature trends, he noted.
   ...
   "The predicted and measured plume heights matched well, consistent with the notion that the plume is just higher and thicker when the temperature difference is bigger," said Bursik.