I’ve been a volunteer at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History with my colleague Graham Edwards since 2017. In this role, we’ve hosted monthly video streams, a recurring blog, and various pop-up museum exhibits. Our goals as museum volunteers are to promote Earth science literacy in the community, and to facilitate a long term partnership between the museum and the Earth and Planetary science department at UCSC.
Short description of portfolio item number 1
Short description of portfolio item number 2
G. Piccione, E.T. Rasbury, B.A. Elliott, J.R. Kyle, S.J. Jaret, A.S. Acerbo, A. Lanzirotti, P. Northrup, K. Wooton, R.R. Parrish
Geosphere, 2019 PDF Web
We studied a suite of hydrothermal veins that crosscut the Round Top laccolith in the Trans-Pecos magmatic province of west Texas. Using spectroscopy and LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating of fluorite, nacrite, and calcite, we elucidate the timing and mobilization history of REE enrichment in this important REE deposit. These combined techniques allow us to identify at least two vein forming fluids that mobilized REE between 6 and 4 Ma
T. Blackburn, G.H. Edwards, S. Tulaczyk, M. Scudder, G. Piccione, B. Hallet, N. McLean, J.C. Zachos, B. Cheney, & J.T. Babbe
Nature, 2020 PDF Web
Press coverage in National Geographic
U-series isotopes of subglacial precipitates from beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) record an open-system event ca. 400,000 years ago in the subglacial Wilkes Basin. Our data and models support ice retreat and seawater incursion during this time, suggesting that the Pleistocene EAIS was not as stable as previously assumed.
G. Piccione, T. Blackburn, S. Tulaczyk, E.T Rasbury, M.P. Hain, D.E. Ibarra, K. Methner, C. Tinglof, B. Cheney, P. Northrup, K. Licht
Nature Communications, 2022 PDF Web
Press release from UCSC News
U-series age constraints and geochemical analyses of layered opal and calcite precipitates from beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet record growth and decay of marine terminating outlet glaciers driven by millennial-scale climate forcing. These results indicate that ice at the Antarctic margins is highly sensitive to changes in ocean temperature, and can respond rapidly to climate forcing.
G.H. Edwards, T. Blackburn, G. Piccione, S. Tulaczyk
Science Advances, 2022 PDF Web
Subglacial mineral precipitates record ocean forcing of Heinrich events and widespread subglacial groundwater connectivity.
E.T Rasbury, G. Piccione, W. Holt, W.B. Ward
Earth-Science Reviews, 2023 PDF Web
In this paper we review the existing geochronology from Carboniferous-Permian cyclothems and highlight the potential for U-Pb carbonate dating to significantly improve the current age constraints
Past ice sheet conditions are notoriously difficult to resolve, as the most recent ice advance razes geologic records of previous glaciations. One of my research initiatives combines geochronological and geochemical characterization of subglacial precipitates to link changes in the basal environment to ice sheet dynamics. 
Subglacial hydrology has a significant effect on ice sheet motion. Yet, the interaction between ice sheet dynamics and long-term changes in the subglacial hydrologic system beneath major ice sheets are virtually unconstrained. In my research, I leverage the subglacial precipitate record to reconstruct the timescales and triggering mechanisms of floods beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet. 
My research helped develop the first U-Pb dating of fluorite, which we applied to hydrothermal veins related to Rio Grande rifting in the Round Top Laccolith, Texas (below). Fluorite geochronology is a powerful tool to characterize hydrothermal fluid events, ore genesis, and late stage magmatic processes. 
Undergraduate course, University 1, Department, 2014
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Workshop, University 1, Department, 2015
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