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Geoscience Newsletter Summer 2014

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Geoscience Newsletter Summer 2014 Geoscience Newsletter Summer 2014 """ Department News The seminar is attended by senior majors and all members of the Geoscience faculty. By all accounts, the seminar is a Hello alumni! As has been said in just about every pre- great course|for students and faculty alike. vious iteration, it is hard to believe two years have passed Recently, we have been expanding our lab space and ca- since the last edition of the Alumni Newsletter. I guess it's pabilities. We now have new lab space in the basement of true what they say, time and tide wait for no one. Moshier-Huchison House located on the North Quad. We First things first. you no doubt have noticed the new also have a new thin-section lab on the third floor of Olin. format of the newsletter. In an effort to keep you better Keen students have spent many-an-hour in the new labs. informed about happenings in the department, we have up- Despite recent curricular and infrastructure changes, dated and revised the format. In addition to updates from we remain committed to field-based geoscience education. the Chair and Faculty, we have included student profiles and Thanks, in large part, to the Fred Holden Field Trip Endow- a new section we are calling Field Notes, which highlights ment, we continue our ambitious field trip program. In the recent departmental field excursions. Finally, make sure to Fall of 2012, we examined the geologic history of Pennsylva- check out our oxbow lake contest|immortality awaits just nia. The following spring, we returned to the \big island" of around the meander! We will, of course, continue to include Hawaii for the second time since 2006. Last fall, we traveled your updates and contact information. to the Adirondack Mountains in New York and this spring It should come as no surprise that the department con- we went to Mammoth Cave and Lake Cumberland in Cen- tinues to draw bright, motivated, interested, and interest- tral Kentucky. Our next \big trip" (Spring, 2015) will be to ing students. In 2013, we graduated nine majors, five with Sicily in the central Mediterranean Sea. If you are interested Bachelor of Science degrees and four with Bachelor of Arts in joining us on an upcoming field trip, please drop us a line. degrees. In addition, we had three minors. This year, we Looking ahead, we are all excited to see what the future again had nine majors (two BS's and seven BA's), and two brings now that Denison has a new administration. As many minors. In each cohort, some are headed to graduate school, of you know, we have a new president, Dr. Adam Weinberg. some have gone to industry, and a few are off to new endeav- In addition, Dr. Kim Coplin, who some of you will remember ors outside the geosciences. No matter where their interests from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, is the new take them, I am sure I can speak for the rest of the faculty, Provost. Earlier this year the department met with Adam when I report that these have been fantastic students to work and Kim to discuss the \state of the department" in partic- with and we were sorry to see them go. That said, we have ular and the future of the college in general. We don't have a great new group, and we are looking forward to working much to report from these conversations yet, but we will keep with them in the coming years. you informed as events warrant. On the academic front, the department revised its cur- As always, thank you for your contributions to this riculum in 2012. The new major requires one introductory newsletter. It is always fun and rewarding to receive your course, two foundation courses (Historical Geology and Rocks updates. All of us here appreciate learning what you all have and Minerals), six middle- to upper-level elective courses, been doing after Denison. I suspect that, like most Denison and one capstone seminar. We implemented this revision for alums, you take pride in the college. That said, you should several reasons. First, the addition of energetic and creative know that, whether you learned from one of us or a former young colleagues dictates that our curriculum must evolve member of the Department, we take pride in you. You, our and it now better reflects who we are and what we do. Sec- alumni, are living proof that we're doing something right. ond, our new curriculum increases the flexibility of our course So spread the word, great things continue to happen in the offerings, allowing students to customize a major tailored to Department of Geosciences and at Denison. their individual interests. Finally, the required senior-level capstone course is designed to help our majors apply what |Dave Goodwin they have learned to a real world issue in the geosciences. Department Chair 1 Geoscience Newsletter Summer 2014 Department Honors The following scholarships and awards were presented at our annual Department of Geosciences Awards Banquets. These honors have been made possible by your generous support over the years. Thank you alumni! 2014 • Frederick T. Holden Scholarship.|Lindsey Hernandez, Nathan Thorne, and Sarah Williams. • Frank J. Wright Scholarship.|Liz Bertolett, Brittney Kirch, and Conner Toth. • Phillip LaMoreaux Geology Award.|Liz Bertolett, Christian Erickson, Kevin Stachura, and Jane Windler. • Richard H. & Marian N. Mahard Earth Science Award.|Emily Siegel. • Kirtley F. Mather Geology Award.|Allen Weik. 2013 • Frederick T. Holden Scholarship.|Liz Bertolett, Brittney Kirch, Emily Siegel, and Sarah Williams. • Frank J. Wright Scholarship.|Allen Weik and Jane Windler. • Phillip LaMoreaux Geology Award.|Mariann Bostic, Bailey Mueller, Josh Osborne, April Strid, and Amy Williamson. • Richard H. & Marian N. Mahard Earth Science Award.|Conner Toth and Cory Van Auken. • Kirtley F. Mather Geology Award.|April Strid and Amy Williamson. interests draw you in this direction, it's available through Barnes & Noble and Amazon. I returned to Cuba early last June after a 10-year break. Faculty News I had proposed to some agricultural engineers at the Uni- versity of Camaguey that we use DNDC to model soil car- Tod A. Frolking, Professor (1984{present) bon and greenhouse gases for their potential project using Two years ago I wrote about the early spring with an ab- Marab´u,an invasive thorny leguminous shrub, as a biofuel normally warm February and March. Mother Nature cer- in conjunction with the burning of bagasse, the fibrous stalks tainly paid us back this year with consistently cold weather left after juice is pressed from sugarcane. I presented a poster into May. Denison's commencement on May 17th, a Satur- on this topic at a sustainability conference in Camaguey. day, was held indoors because of temperatures in the upper Pete Zambon (2013) travelled with me. His energy, friend- 40's to low 50's! The Granville Farmer's market, and most liness and excellent Spanish made conversing with profes- markets in the heartland, get a slow start this year as farmers sionals fun and fairly productive. While the marab´ustudy have delayed planting due to cold and wet conditions. appears to be on hold, we did contact people at the Insti- Evelyn and I continue our interests in local farming and tute of Soils in Camaguey and then Havana who were excited market gardening. In February 2013 our coauthored book about using DNDC to support the study of several critical Homegrown: Stories from the Farm was published by Mc- soil issues in Cuba. This still may be possible but it seems Donald & Woodward, a local publisher of historical, envi- that our proposal may have died on the bureaucratic vine. ronmental, and regional books. Evelyn interviewed and then Not surprisingly Cuba hasn't changed much but there were compiled the stories of six local farmers growing and pro- many more 50's vintage U.S. cars on the road. It turns out ducing food for local consumption and through their words that Cubans had gained the ability to import foreign auto discusses many of the difficulties facing the local-foods move- parts a few years ago and they were buying small Isuzu diesel ment across the country. I added sidebars to each chapter engines to bring many old hulks back to life. Life is strange discussing topics ranging from glacial history to Ohio's agri- on La Isla. cultural past to the modern economics of local food produc- This summer, Emily Siegel (2015) is studying the grazing tion and of course that important soil parent material, silt! practices at two dairy farms in southeastern Ohio that sup- The book, while destined primarily for a local/regional audi- ply Snowville Creamery, whose owner Warren Taylor|the ence, is broadly relevant and somewhat unique in presenting dairy evangelist|champions the quality of milk from grass- issues from farmers' perspectives. Take a look at it if your fed cows. The farmers practice managed or mob grazing 2 Geoscience Newsletter Summer 2014 where cows are moved frequently from pasture to pasture. What Do You Think? This ensures fresh healthy grass and a fairly even return of manure to the fields. They are convinced the soil quality has The graph below shows the number of Denison Uni- improved dramatically in the 20 years they have been dairy versity geology graduates from 1965 through 2014. farming. Emily will test for this comparing soils of similar Also shown is the annual average (inflation adjusted) parent material that have been grazed for 10 and 20 years price of a barrel of crude oil in US dollars. Drop us a with plots that have not been mob grazed.
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