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RECENT NEWS

SCMA Attends Walter Munk Day 2023 - Celebrate our Oceans

October 14, 2023

SCMA faculty and researchers were honored to participate in Walter Munk Day 2023 which celebrated Walter's 80-year legacy of daring exploration and discovery through scientific research, education and ocean conservation. A steady crowd mulled through the event learning about Kumeyaay heritage and culture alongside a myriad of ocean sciences. The SCMA was excited to share our vision, mission, and enthusiasm for marine archaeology with the public.

SCMA Announced an Official Member of the UNITWIN Network for Underwater Archaeology

September 1, 2023

During the 9th meeting of the UNESCO States Parties in Paris, the SCMA was announced as a member of the UNITWIN Network for Underwater Archaeology. This official link was one of the many things SCMA director Dr. Isabel Rivera-Collazo accomplished as one of the experts invited to participate in the Exchange Day, which centered on the preservation of underwater cultural heritage.

INAH - UCSD Project Awarded UNESCO Best Practices of Underwater Cultural Heritage

August 8, 2023

Researchers from Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) and UC San Diego/SCMA were awarded with the UNESCO Best Practices of Underwater Cultural Heritage distinction for their work in the Yucatán! This award was announced a the 9th meeting of the UNESCO States Parties in Paris this June. This is a very prestigious award given out by the States parties to recognize the project team for their outstanding and sensitive work in preserving, communicating, and documenting the underwater cultural heritage at the site of Hoyo Negro.

The SCMA Hosts a Reception for the North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH)

May 19, 2023

The SCMA had the pleasure of attending the 2023 conference for the North American Society for Oceanic History held at the San Diego Maritime Museum from May 17 through May 20. This year's conference theme, "Beaches, Islands, Ports, and Ships: Placing the Pacific in the North American Maritime Imagination" showcased research from across the US focusing on a wide range of maritime connections, cultural landscapes, and examinations into the meaning and processes of maritime history.

Marine Archaeology Students Host a Poster Exhibition at Birch Aquarium

March 16 , 2023

The undergraduate and graduate students of UC San Diego’s Introduction to Maritime and Underwater Archaeology course closed out the 2023 Winter Quarter by hosting a poster exhibition at Birch Aquarium on March 16. During the event sponsored by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego's Latin American Studies, and the SCMA, a total of 76 students engaged with the aquarium’s guests and staff sharing their group research projects, their favorite maritime stories, and personal connections. Students told the story of humanity’s complex interactions with our world’s waterways through a variety of themes and topics.

UC San Diego Scientists Race to Document Mexico's Maya Ruins

January 24, 2023

When archaeologist and SCMA Associate Director Dominique Rissolo’s phone rang last summer, it was a colleague from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) calling with a time-sensitive request. The team were scrambling to meet a huge challenge in the face of the Maya Train, an enormous infrastructure project under construction in southern Mexico. Projected to run nearly 1,000 miles long, its path starts in Palenque and weaves through dense jungle to make a complete circuit of the Yucatán Peninsula. This proposed route cuts within 100 feet or even directly over caves containing centuries-old Maya ruins.

Scripps Launches Two Projects on the Impact of Climate Change on Coastlines and People

October 25, 2022

The University of California San Diego has received two five-year National Science Foundation (NSF) grants totaling $6.6 million to fund research hubs in Southern California and Puerto Rico. NSF funded the hubs through its Coastlines and People program. Leading the Southern California research hub is Scripps Institution of Oceanography coastal oceanographer Mark Merrifield, director of the Center for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation. His team’s $5 million project will examine the human impact of extreme heat waves and how they may be affected by ocean processes as part of climate change. Merrifield’s team aims to produce results that will guide planning strategies for heat adaptation in Southern California.

New Fellowship Supports Diversity in Scientific Diving

May 5, 2022

A new program at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego seeks to break down some of these barriers, and aims to make the diving community a more inclusive space. Officially launching in Fall 2022, the DIVERsity Fellowship Program will support a small cohort of outstanding and diverse undergraduate and graduate students at UC San Diego who want to contribute to oceanographic research but face barriers to inclusion in scientific diving programs.

Scripps Receives $350,000 Grant to Support Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

January 31, 2022

Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has received a grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation to support equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) programs on campus. The three-year grant will provide funding to a comprehensive outreach and recruitment program to foster a diverse student pipeline in geosciences, cultivate a sense of belonging among underrepresented minority students, and help Scripps Oceanography build meaningful relationships with students from backgrounds that have traditionally been underrepresented in STEM, and especially in geosciences.

How Earth’s Magnetic Field May Provide New Ways of Dating Ancient Archaeological Artifacts

August 16, 2021

In an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers from the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Department of Anthropology have filled in some of the regional gaps in the record of Earth’s magnetic field. To do so, they used artifacts from the Neolithic period spanning roughly 8,200 to 5,500 years ago.

Massive Tsunami Hit the Neolithic Middle East 9,000+ Years Ago

December 23, 2020

According to a new study from an international team of researchers, a massive tsunami swept over the coastline near Tel Dor, Israel, sometime between 9,910 and 9,290 years ago. The date makes it the oldest known paleo tsunami in the Eastern Mediterranean. Published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, the paper is by Gilad Shtienberg, Richard Norris and Thomas Levy from the University of California San Diego, with colleagues from Utah State University and the University of Haifa. It is part of an ongoing, long-term project between UC San Diego’s Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology (SCMA) and Haifa’s Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies, directed by paper co-author Assaf Yasur-Landau, to investigate how humans have, over the past 12 millennia, adapted to climate and environmental change along Israel’s Carmel Coast.

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