Arts & Sciences

Robert Osburn (yellow helmet, recording and sketching) and WUSTL graduate student Jenny Lippmann (measuring and doing compass readings) conducting the cave survey in a small passage of 23 degree cave in Crawford County, Missouri.The Caves of St. Louis County and the Bridges of Madison County share a common theme: loss. The former, a scholarly paper that appears as the sole entry of the current issue of Missouri Speleology, is a description of some of St. Louis County’s 127 known caves and a warning that development over the past two centuries has eliminated or destroyed many caves in a state that could quite rightly call itself the Cave State. The latter is a tear-jerking novel, made into a movie by Clint Eastwood about a doomed, unlikely love affair, a hallmark of the ’90s with all the permanence of the Backstreet Boys. Caves, though, are in trouble, in St. Louis County, Missouri, and elsewhere, says co-author Robert Criss, Ph.D., professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

The figure shows the dynamics of a slab-tear earthquake (top), compared with a shallow thrust earthquake (bottom). The slab-tearing event typically doesn’t feature an accompanying tsunami.Seismologists at Washington University in St. Louis and their colleagues in Australia, Japan and Tonga have determined why a large earthquake in Tonga did not cause a large tsunami. A tsunami warning was issued around the Pacific Rim following the magnitude 8.0 earthquake on May 3, 2006, but the resulting tsunami was very minor and caused no damage.

Eminent British archaeologist Lord Colin Renfrew to speak on cognitive archaeology and how we become human, at the Assembly Series, 4 p.m., March 22 in Graham Chapel.

Mosaic Whispers, the University’s award-winning a cappella ensemble, will celebrate its “Super Sweet 16” anniversary with the release of a new CD during its annual Splash of Color concert 7:30 p.m. March 2-3 in Graham Chapel.

Violinist Silvian Iticovici, pianist Seth Carlin and violist Stephen Ewer will join with members of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for a recital of works by Robert Schumann (1810-1856) and Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975).

Frank K. Flinn, Ph.D., adjunct professor of religious studies, provides insight on the controversy surrounding a new Discovery Channel documentary, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, which airs March 4. Flinn, a consultant in forensic theology, is an expert on religion and the law, including issues related to the separation of church and state, government funding of faith-based social program and the display of religious symbols in schools, courtrooms and other public places.

Jo Labanyi, professor of Spanish and Portuguese at New York University, will speak on “Facts and Fictions: Knowledge, Delinquency and Madness in Late 19th-century Spain” at 4 p.m. Feb. 27 in Umrath Hall Lounge. Labanyi is the first speaker in the spring Faculty Fellows Lecture and Workshop Series sponsored by the Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences.

Michael Kimmel, Ph.D., a leading expert in the study of American male identity and behavior, will give a talk on “Mars, Venus or Planet Earth? Women and Men in a New Millennium” as part of the Assembly Series. The talk, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 11 a.m. Feb. 28 in Graham Chapel.

Robin D.G. Kelley, Ph.D., one of the country’s pre-eminent scholars in African-American history, will serve as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University Feb. 28-March 1. Kelley, who is professor of history and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California, is a leading scholar of the modern civil rights movement, jazz studies and African-American music and culture.

Violinist Silvian Iticovici, pianist Seth Carlin and violist Stephen Ewer will join with members of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for a recital of works by Robert Schumann (1810-56) and Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75).