Under the Rock 2019 SUNY Geneseo’s GSCI Annual Newsletter

Greetings from the chair:

Dear All: I was recently musing about how lucky I and also met up with some alumni who were also am to be the head of this department. The GSCI attending (see below). crew of faculty and staff truly strive every day to help students achieve their best. We also have a A mini reunion at department that is home to you, our amazing alumni. AGU-Dec. 2018. From left to right: If we ever forget to tell you, we (yes…all of us) are Julianne Sweeney, so proud of the work you do…you are teachers, Mike Reed, Micah lawyers, parents, oil/gas company employees, Woods, Riley Sessanna, Dori farmers, environmental consultants and so much Farthing, Meghan more. We love what you model for our students Guild how you continue to help support them. I also love that this student-centered nature has been a hallmark of this department since its establishment 50 years ago and we are deeply invested in it continuing in Over the summer, I had the pleasure of working with perpetuity. a McNair scholar who investigated how slag responded to acidic environments. She carried out lab Did you see that mention of a 50 year milestone? leaching tests and gathered XRF data to try and Yes… it’s the department’s birthday year and to help understand how the slag is changing. Another student celebrate this milestone, we want you to join us for a on my research team is looking at the impact of reunion and a party next summer. Keep reading for freeze-thaw processes on slag. Interesting things more info. going on in my lab and I love it.

This academic year included our biennial field trip— My family is doing well. My children have led by Dr. Scott Giorgis and Dr. Nick Warner. We discovered temporary hair dye thanks to a gift from also hosted a community-wide party for the Mars their cousins so now Emma (3rd grade) regularly Landing (see photos), and so much more. In Dec. sports blue hair and Alex currently is a red head. I 2018, I was delighted to attend the AGU meeting in also have enjoyed serving as an Odyssey of the Mind Washington DC. As part of this meeting, I went to a coach for Emma’s team and find their enthusiastic workshop for chairs of geoscience departments creativity energizing.

Greetings from the other Faculty: Scott Giorgis: Amy Sheldon: Howdy Geneseo Geology Alumni! My big news for Greetings everyone! this year centered around co-leading a trip to Death It seems like yesterday that the academic year began, Valley and the Mojave Desert in southern California but we just said goodbye to another graduating class. I with Nick. This was a huge undertaking… lots of encourage you to connect with one another through work and lots of fun. About a year ago Nick and I Linkedin, Geneseo Geology Alumni Facebook spent a week scouting possible geology stops, which “friend”, and conferences. Make opportunities, and involved multiple hikes at 114˚F (stupid) and take any provided, to get to know each other. Our terrifying stories from Nick about tarantulas “family” is pretty awesome. (shudder). I will have trouble sleeping just remembering those vicious, soul destroying I’d like to focus my update on a unique opportunity I organisms. All seven of us went (Dori, Jeff, Jackie, had this year. Last Fall (2018), I volunteered to be Sarah, Amy, Nick, and myself), so the trip went off part of a year-long pilot program called Advancing without a hitch, even with a government shutdown. Cultural Competency that had intentional Students got a taste of geological mapping in the representation from all corners of the College. The Salt Hills and world class geology throughout Death group explored topics including identity, implicit bias, Valley. I look forward to going again sometime in stereotype threat, dominant narratives, and power, to the future. We really couldn’t do these trips without develop strategies to provide a more inclusive your support. Alumni donations provided environment. The program went beyond typical scholarships to students and funded the scouting institutionalized training – it was far more than trips that allowed us to put together the mapping checking a box. I am proud of Geneseo for providing exercises in the Mojave. Thanks! Outside of work, this experience in its commitment to promoting Dominick and Elena continue to get older and more diversity, equity and inclusion. I genuinely believe fun. This year we started playing badminton and that I am a better person as a result of the rich Dungeons & Dragons, but not at the same time. If discussion and reflection offered. How often can you are in Geneseo, please drop by and say hello. I anyone say that after training?! I have already always love seeing you and hearing what you are up implemented several changes to my teaching and look to. forward to doing more next year. Along the same thread, Nick Warner and I attended a conference on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Geoscience programs this recent Spring to better support students within our program.

Brian and the kids continue to be AWESOME. If you’re able to attend the 50th anniversary next summer, you might see them there.

Jackie Wittmer-Malinowski and Scott Giorgis in Gower Gulch, Death Valley. Note the dipping beds. Thanks to Amy Sheldon for taking such great pictures on the field trip and sharing the over FaceBook and Twitter. I got a lot of great feedback about my attire.

This is a rare photo of Amy from the January trip. She was the official trip photographer which meant she was often on the other side of the camera. Many of the photos you see in the newsletter are hers.

Faculty Updates continued:

D. Jeffrey Over:

Alumni and friends!

magnetic susceptibility in Upper Devonian shales in It has been a busy year. In the fall ‘18 I taught TN and KY that appeared in PPP. Family-wise I Environmental Science and Stratigraphy. Alyssa adopted a frat cat – Hops – to join Cinnabar the ginger DeMott ’19 started an interesting project on tabby and I have nine laying hens. In April Jin-Si Tentaculites minutus Hall - this took on a life of its defended her masters thesis at the University of own and involved borrowing specimens from the Victoria on dinoflagellates from the Monterey Basin NY State Museum and American Museum of during the last thermal maximum. She currently has Natural History. Emily Hauf ‘19 worked on high an internship on shore line processes with the resolution 3-D imagery of conodonts. The 2018 National Park Service in Sandy Hook, New Jersey. retreat went to the Niagara Peninsula. We were able to visit the old Caleb Quarry – a former shale works in the Rochester Formation near Middleport, now owned by fossil hunters. The 2018 GSA was in Indianapolis, so we loaded four vans and headed to the conference with stops in northern PA at the Union City Dam (see photo), western OH to look at the Ordovician, and then Carboniferous carbonates across southern Indiana.

The alumni meet-up was in the St. Joseph Brewery Public House - a converted church. Our January trip was to southern CA where we stayed at Zzyzx and a very wet Death Valley. In the spring ‘19 semester I taught History of Life and Dinosaurs, which included a brilliant trip to Texas were we found dinosaur material in Big Bend, and seminar with 49 GSA trip stop at Union City Dam in northern Pennsylvania - Upper students. Several interesting directed studies were Devonian clastics. undertaken: Yvonne Bennett ‘20 looked at conodonts from a core of Kettle Point shale – her work resulted in the Frasnian-Famennian boundary being moved about 17 m below where others had placed it. Vince Farruggia ‘19 and Joe Rugerrio ‘19 looked at the magnetic susceptibility and high resolution correlation of the Marcellus Shale in the Genesee River Valley.

Sarah Hackett ‘19 investigated the magnetic susceptibility of the Kettle Point Frasnian- Famennian boundary interval. Paige Walsh ‘20 compiled a set of maps using ArcGIS for the Genesee Valley conservancy property at Mill Creek near Wayland. Several papers were submitted and published, notable was a study with Janelle Wallace Upper Cretaceous Javelina Formation on the west flank of Rattlesnake ‘16, Emily Hauf ‘19, Josie Chiarello ‘19, and Jin-Si Mountain, Big Bend National Park as co-authors that looked at the conodonts and

Faculty Updates continued:

Jackie Wittmer-Malinowski: I also had the honor to conduct research with Emily Hauf (‘19) and Josie Chiarello (‘19) on a Hello Geneseo Geologists! unique Ordovician reef in Missouri. In the spring of 2019, Josie successfully defended her honors It has been a very exciting and successful second thesis based on these rocks. year for me as part of the faculty in our department. In the fall ‘18 I taught Sedimentation for the first time. It was a course that involved labs in the field with projects focusing on the sedimentology of the area. In addition, I organized and led a two-day field trip for our majors to Indianapolis, Indiana with Jeff Over. This trip allowed us to see great geology but also provided an opportunity for our students to attend the 2018 National GSA Conference in downtown Indianapolis. Thank you Alumni for helping to support this trip! It allowed us to bring 23 students. At GSA, they participated in career Left: Emily Hauf (’19) and Right: Josie Chiarello (’19) studying an Ordovician Reef complex in MO. workshops, presented their research, and learned how to network. During this past summer I continued my Finger Lake research with three new undergraduate In the 2019 spring I led a three-day field trip for students and a colleague, Andrew Michelson, from Invertebrate Paleontology to the Cincinnati Arch SUNY Maritime. We hope to capture a revealing (Ohio and Kentucky) and had the students explore record of how the finger lake aquatic communities and conduct field investigations on the beautiful and have been influenced by human impacts over the unique Ordovician fauna exposed in the area. I also last 200 years! participated in the ‘19 January trip to the Mojave and Death Valley in Southern California with the In family news, my two girls are flourishing and department. I have never been to California so it was loving New York. My girls are both celebrities in a great experience and I had a great time teaching the department and my oldest daughter is very and learning with the students on the trip. fond of our graduating class and is devastated that they will not return in the fall. In August we also are adding a new member to our family! We welcomed a baby girl (Elora) and have now started a new chapter in our lives, where my husband and I are figuring out how to be parents of three little girls!

Jackie Wittmer-Malinowski, Jake Okun (’19) and Gavin Gleasman (’19) gathering water samples in Conesus Lake.

My research program continued to grow with a successful field season with Jake Okun (‘19) on the conservation paleobiology of macroinvertebrate communities of the Finger Lakes (see photo). Jake All of the GSCI faculty and staff enjoying some time together while in successfully defended his honors thesis in the spring Death Valley. ‘19.

Faculty Updates continued:

Nick Warner: Hello alumni and friends. The 2018/2019 academic year will certainly go down as the most challenging, stressful, and incredibly rewarding year for me since joining Geneseo.

If you read previous newsletters or follow the campus social media, you will know that I have been working on NASA’s InSight mission to Mars for the last several years – including helping to choose a safe landing site. Last newsletter I reported that InSight successfully launched from Vandenberg Air Force base. I can now report that it successfully landed on Mars at Elysium Planitia (maybe you’ve been living under a rock – hopefully a cool rock)! Two Geneseo geology majors and I went to the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, CA to not only watch the From left to right, Nick Warner, Heather Lethcoe (JPL intern), Megan Kopp (’19), and Alyssa DeMott (’19) posing in front of our workstations landing with the InSight team, but to participate in post- at JPL during InSight landing operations. landing operations. Alyssa DeMott (‘19), Megan Kopp (Dec. ‘18) (see pictures), and I were members of the Instrument Site Selection Working Group – an elite force of geologists, geophysicists, and engineers who were tasked with finding suitable locations to place InSight’s seismometer and heat flow probe in front of the lander. The students were fully funded by NASA/JPL to attend and participate. The team desperately needed them for the ArcGIS skills that they learned in Geomorph and Remote Sensing! We spent almost 4 weeks measuring and evaluating the local terrain and eventually found a suitable placement location (right before Christmas ‘18). InSight is currently operating spectacularly and has even detected a few Mars quakes! Nick Warner pointing at a rock in the first image seen from InSight. Following the ‘18 holiday season we all travelled back to California for the Mojave/Death Valley department trip – my favorite part of which involved a near torrential rainstorm that caused the alluvial fans to activate and the student’s tents to be flooded. It was a good time. The News from the Emeriti: 2019 summer brought more fun with InSight, more research with students, and just a tiny bit of relaxation. The Bogers:

The Bogers continue to be national adventurers, avid birders, and folks who read good books and pass along the best bits to others. They continue to also be exceptional for staying in touch with alumni and the letting current faculty know about the adventures of all of you! Phil’s love of music continues to thrive and he graciously shares mixes with current faculty and many of you as well. He and Janie are often on the road so, if you want to track them down, drop them an e-mail or check into his Blog to see how they are faring. Inspired by Nick, the GSCI group carried out an experiment using blocks of normal and “dry” ice to see how they travel down a sand dune in Death Valley. We were hoping to re-create some geomorphology observed on Mars.

News from the Emeriti continued:

Dr. Hatheway: Greetings from the old stomping grounds familiar to many of you, 62 Second Street! Life continues to Dr. Young: treat us well, and we continue to stay active. Hard to R. Young continues to plug away from his crowded believe, but after devoting 39 years to the College, office on projects in AZ and NY. A brief field trip to it’s been 12 years since we retired. Talk about how Peach Springs, AZ (May, 2018) was coupled with time flies! To illustrate: our oldest grandkid just participation in the GSA Rocky Mountain Section graduated from college, while the youngest will meeting in Flagstaff where he ran into former finish high school next year. Fortunately, we haven’t Geneseo majors, now relocated to the southwestern changed a bit! The accompanying visual is proof of US. Research on the Colorado River-Grand Canyon that statement, us with Mt. St. Helens in the history was highlighted in an all-day “Theme background (see below). You do, however, have to Session” at the 2019 GSA meeting in Phoenix. Such use your imagination to see the volcano behind us Colorado Plateau conferences have been organized since it blended into the clouds. This photo was every decade since 2000. The 2010 symposium is taken at the Visitors Center in April ‘19, at the end the subject of a series of papers in the journal of a delightful cruise down the Snake and Columbia Geosphere, now available to everyone for free online Rivers, following in the footsteps, so to speak, of (Origin and Evolution of the Colorado River System). Lewis and Clark. This was a return visit for us to the Young’s 4-year project at the West Valley Nuclear northwest, having been there in 1978 a couple of Service Center near Springville, NY, with months after Mt. St. Helens exploded. The undergraduates from SUNY Geneseo and SUNY difference in the landscape in the intervening 40+ Fredonia, has resulted in a manuscript documenting a years is truly extraordinary. newly recognized late glacial advance across western New York that stopped just north of Geneseo. This previously unrecognized event coincides with the transition from the Bolling-Allerod (warm) to the Younger Dryas (cold) Late Wisconsin climatic episode ~13,000 calendar years BP. This research, based on 41 new and revised 14C ages, has fueled presentations to the Rochester Academy of Science, the Buffalo Association of Professional Geologists (BAPG), the Rochester Committee for Scientific Information, and the Central NY Association of Professional Geologists, as well as for the 2019 March meeting at the GSA Northeast Section meeting in Portland, Maine. Geology alum Eraklis Hristodoulou’s poster on a related pond excavation near Geneseo won 2nd place and $200 at the student

We send our best to all those that kept us engaged at poster session sponsored by the BAPG last year. the College for those 39 years. We have lots of great Young was awarded the Center for Environmental memories, many of which are associated with out- Information and River Watch’s 2018 Elizabeth of-the-classroom experiences such as field trips, Thorndike Environmental Leadership Award. The informal sessions at our home, or accompanying you award acknowledged his major contributions relating on jaunts to national meetings. What we continue to to projects for various National (USEPA, USGS, marvel at is the successes, both in a personal and USACE), State (NYSGS), and local county projects professional sense, you – our GSCI alumni - have relating to the geology of the Genesee Valley and the enjoyed once you left Geneseo. Genesee River. These days, Young is available most afternoons in his office (ISC-213), and can often fill You are a remarkable group! Our best wishes to all, in visitors as to the activities of current faculty, who and wishing for a large turnout at next year’s may be off pursuing exciting geologic adventures reunion! : ) elsewhere. Otherwise, he might be found mowing his lawn or attacking dandelions at 31 Stuyvestant Manor.

Come and join us for Geneseo’s Geology 50th Anniversary Party! Saturday July 18, 2020 Let’s get the family together to help celebrate 50 years of greatness!

Here are some details: • The big celebratory event will be on Saturday July 18, 2020 when we would love to have you join us for a BBQ dinner. We plan to have this dinner start at 6:00 PM and will hold it here on campus.

• We will also have an informal “meet up” at the Big Tree on Friday night for those of you who arrive early for the weekend.

• During the afternoon on Saturday, we will host an “open house” during which you can visit the department and see what students and faculty are up to these days.

• We hope you all can come and join us! Keep an eye out for more information and the chance to sign up for the event. Also…we will be looking for volunteers to help out…perhaps you would like to help choose the beers? Perhaps you would like to help decorate for the party? We’d love your help.

It will be as fun if not more than these folks A small group of folks who were had mapping in the Mojave! reunion. (this was only a small set of who was there) present at the 2006

Our July ‘20 gathering will definitely be as fun as these GSCI alumni had from ’84.

We can’t wait to see you all in July and we hope that our 2020 gathering is even bigger than our 2013 Reunion!

Student Awards and Accolades from the ‘18-‘19 academic year: 2018 AGU Virtual Poster Showcase for Undergraduates: Zenja Seitzinger (’21) was awarded 3rd place for her poster at AGU, which shared work she did on the geophysics and petrology of the Three Sisters Outcrop in El Paso, Texas. This research was associated with a summer ‘18 REU program that she participated in at the University of Texas-El Paso. At Geneseo, Drs. Giorgis and Farthing helped her with her work.

Phi Beta Kappa Inductees: Josie Chiarello, Jake Okun and Gavin Gleasman (all ‘19)

Departmental Awards: Megathlin Award: Gavin Gleasman ‘19 Field Camp Award: Zenja Seitzinger ’21 and Elizabeth Spizuoco’19 Geology Alumni Scholarship: Abigale O’Connor ’21 and Seamus Kearney ’20 Agate Award: Gavin Gleasman, Josephine Chiarello, Jake Okun (all ’19) Geology Service Award: Emily Hauf ‘19

Summer REUs, Internships, Research Assistants, etc. Jonah Stiner ‘20, Internship, LaBella Assoc., Rochester, NY Zenja Seitzinger ‘21, Keck Project-Texas Charity Betters ‘21, Mickey Leland fellowship Maria Leonard ‘21, McNair fellowship Margaret Deahn ‘21, NSF-REU American Rock Salt Intern: John Enright ‘20, Vincent Farruggia ‘19 Lucas Ayers ‘20-Geneseo GSCI Summer Researcher Abigale O’Connor ‘21-Geneseo GSCI Summer Researcher Rachel Leone ‘21-Geneseo GSCI Summer Researcher Grace Buechner ‘21-Geneseo GSCI Summer Researcher Katie Meerdink ‘20-Geneseo GSCI Summer Researcher Lauren Kahler ‘21-Geneseo GSCI Summer Researcher Brady Derrick ‘20-Geneseo GSCI Summer Researcher Seamus Kearney ‘20-Geneseo GSCI Summer Researcher (with NASA) Lauren Burgess ‘20-Geneseo GSCI Summer Researcher (with NASA)

Congratulations to our 2019 Seniors! Lauren Badding Madeline Ess Joseph Ruggiero Sean Bailey Vincent Farruggia Nancy Shemet Nick Cancalosi-Dean Gavin Gleasman Taylor Smithers Michael Chaborek Sarah Hackett Jake Spinella Josephine Chiarello Emily Hauf Elizabeth Spizuoco Timothy Clark Caroline Hurlburt Joanna Sydow Cameron Cummings Sarah Keenan Jonathan Teboul Peter de Garay Alec Minavio Sydney Welch Carly Dellis Paulina Nebiker Timothy Williams Alyssa Demott Jake Okun Sarah Dyal Rebecca Richards

OTHER GSCI EVENTS FROM 2019:

-Sigma Gamma Epsilon-the Geology Honors Society was resurrected and we inducted 19 students!

MARS LANDING PARTY:

We had a Mars Landing party to watch Insight land on the red planet. This event was open to all members of the community and campus. We had headbands with rockets, popcorn and even NASA give aways of stickers. In the front row, you might recognize Dr. Olympia Nicodeimi and Dr. Savi Iyer. It was awesome and we even made the local news! On the screen in front, you can see the feed from NASA that we projected onto the big screen in Newton’s largest lecture hall.

AMERICAN ROCK SALT LECTURE:

Thanks to Matt Lamanna from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History for being this year’s American Rock Salt Lecturer. Dr. Lamanna shared with us some of the amazing fossils he has been studying from northwestern Gansu Province, China and from Antarctica. These fossils are helping science better understand the origin of modern birds.

HAZWOPPER TRAINING: Thanks to the generous support from you, our friends and alumni, we once more offered OSHA-associated Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HazWoper) Training to our students. This regulatory training introduced participants to essential aspects of health and safety when working in areas that have been chemically contaminated. It is also a common training requirement for those who work in the environmental sector. All participants completed the on-line 24-hour HazWoper Occasional Site Worker Training Program. The Geology Fund sponsored the second part of the training--- the 16-hour OSHA HazWoper Practical and Hands-on Training.

SOME FAVORITE PHOTOS FROM DEATH VALLEY & the MOJAVE: