Geology Department Fall 2019

Geology Department Union College Fall 2019

The Union Geology Department is a vibrant community of students and faculty, learning inside and outside the classroom and engaging in many different exciting research opportunities. The faculty continues to be very research active and productive and their accomplishments are documented throughout this newsletter. This past year saw students in Alaska, Peru, and Portugal, as well as local areas for fieldwork and sample collection. Upon return from the field, the students use our world-class instrumentation for analyses, including our isotope-ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS), laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometer (LA ICP-MS), scanning electron microscope, ion chromatographs, and Raman spectrometer. These field and analytical experiences are a pivotal part of the students’ development as scientists and key to their success in applying to graduate school and jobs after graduation. The annual fall Geological Society of America meeting was in September this year and several of our faculty (John Garver, David Gillikin, and Jacquie Smith) and students (Alaina Chormann ’20; Steve Camarra ’20, Kaylee Ve- lasquez ’21 and Emma Puhlaski ’22) presented their work in Phoenix. In the spring, many of our senior students (Hayley Bennett ’19, Matt Cole ’19, Rebecca Lippitt ’19, Heidi O’Hora ’19, and Annika Wells ’19) and Kurt Hol- locher presented their work at the Northeastern section of the Geological Society of America meeting, held in Portland, ME. Students working in Alaska (Will Fisher ’19 and Mollie Pope ’19) presented at the Cordillera section meeting in Portland, OR. We also had a presence at the 2018 American Geophysical Union fall meeting, with presentations by Jack Wassick ’19 and his advisor Mason Stahl and the 2018 Geological Society of America fall meeting in Indianapolis, with presentations by Hayley Bennett ’19 and Heidi O’Hora ’19, and talks by Holli Frey and INSIDE THIS ISSUE John Garver. Chair’s Note...... 1 As seen in the list above, our graduating seniors were very active in research, with four students (Hayley Bennett Faculty Updates ...... 2-6 ’19, Will Fisher ’19, Rebecca Lippitt ’19 and Heidi O’Hora ’19) earning departmental honors, based on their thesis work and a departmental presentation. The Smith Prize, awarded to the student(s) with the highest professional Geo Club ...... 7 potential went to Will Fisher ’19 and Heidi O’Hora ’19 and the Faculty Prize for contributions to the department Publications ...... 8 was awarded to Hayley Bennet ‘19 and Mollie Pope ’19. The student Geology Club continues to be active, spear- 2020 Seniors ...... 10-11 heading the senior picnic send-off, outreach events at local science festivals and schools, and the ever-popular Din- Grants ...... 12 ner and Disasters movie nights once a term. Alumni Updates ...... 13-15 I end this note with a tremendous thank you and words of appreciation for Deb Klein, the geology Department ad- ministrative assistant for the last eleven years. Deb will be retiring in January to Florida and Europe and to spend more time with her family. In her tenure in the department, Deb has been the glue holding the place together, SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST helping students and faculty with tasks big and small, from organizing the annual Mohawk Watershed Symposium to scanning receipts to handling petitions. There are no words to express how much we have valued Deb and how  Senior Spotlight via Insta- much we will miss her presence in the department. gram

Stay in touch with the department through our Facebook and Instagram accounts and send us your news and up-  Photos from GSA Phoenix dates to include in the newsletter!  Goodbye Deb

2019 Geology seniors front row: Annika Wells, Rebecca Lippitt, Hayley Bennett, Heidi O’Hora, Matt Cole. Back row: Jack Wassik, Mollie Pope, Max McGeown, John Vu, Will Fisher, Matt Cole. Missing Maddi Corcoran and Maddie Borek um. We continue to have several projects Holli Frey from Dominica in various stages of development. In September, I attended a VOILA workshop in Trinidad, focused on volatiles in the Lesser Antilles and got some additional insights on the implications of our detrital zircon study for paleogeographic reconstructions of the Caribbean. This year I began a new project in central Oregon, looking at some of the young (<500 ka) explosive and effusive rhyolitic deposits near Bend. Rebecca Lippitt ’19 studied the Tumalo Tuff and Bend Pumice, using trace element bulk chemistry and two-oxide ther- mometry and fugacity to elucidate magma Holli at Sky Pond in Rocky Mountain NP, CO. genesis. She presented her work at NE GSA in March. Madi Corcoran ’19 focused on It’s hard to believe I began my twelfth year plagioclase textures and chemistry in 2 ka at Union this fall. I am in my fourth year as rhyolitic lavas peripheral to South Sister Doing fieldwork in the Chugach Mountains of chair of the department and was promoted Volcano. to full professor, so I suppose I am now Alaska. officially “senior faculty”. In addition to my Two former petrology students, Sarah Hick- Schenectady area is underlain by the Utica teaching and research, I have stepped into ernell ’18 and Katherine Swager ’17, began Shale and the Schenectady Formation; both a new role as part of the General Education graduate programs at Stanford at University units have shale with relatively high urani- Task Force at Union, which is attempting to of Wisconsin, respectively, this fall. um concentrations and high fracture densi- redesign the core curriculum to better Over the summer, Matt and I took the girls ty. Hence there is a local radon problem, serve our students. to Oregon for vacation to visit family and and students tackle the measurement of I continue to teach senior seminar, volcan- volcanoes and do a little sampling. Natalie radioactivity and radon, but also the practi- ology, and petrology. Volcanology was a and Zoe, now 8 and 6, really enjoyed Pow- cal implications of what this means for resi- particularly fun class this past winter, as we ell’s book store, but were equally enamored dents in Schenectady County. discussed the 2018 eruptions at Kilauea in of Mount Hood, Smith Rocks, and Crater Last Spring I was appointed by Governor Hawaii. Students learned about cutting- Lake. Cuomo to sit on the ReImagine the Canals edge volcano monitoring techniques, as task force to look into the future of the Erie well as how communities cope with an on- Canal. This complicated task involves un- going eruption. The maps, datasets, and derstanding floods and ice jams, invasive blogs published by the Hawaii Volcano Ob- species, irrigation, and other canal-related servatory of the USGS were a great re- issues. A major goal of this effort is to look source and allowed the students to study into ways that the Canal can be developed many facets of the eight-month event. to become driving force in local economic On the research front, I wrapped up a cou- development and to evaluate new forms of ple of projects in Dominica. We published a recreation and tourism on the canal (or paper in Geology in October on the crystal- here, the Mohawk River). One item on the lization episodes of zircon and the implica- agenda is Ice jam flooding on the Mohawk, tion for magmatic storage conditions. The which is still a major problem. The chronic work was based on senior theses by Sarah and damaging flooding cause by ice jams on Brehm ’15 and Rebecca Babiak ’16, who are Natalie, Holli, and Zoe atop Cascade Mountain, NY. the Mohawk, especially in the Stockade co-authors on the paper. In March, we pub- district of Schenectady, is a concern and lished a paper in the Journal of Volcanology the focus of mitigation efforts. For more and Geothermal Research on the chemical about the task force and this effort go here. and isotopic compositions of hydrothermal John Garver https://www.ny.gov/reimagine-canals- waters in Dominica from 2013-2017. We initiative/reimagine-canal-task-force I enjoyed another busy year with teaching showed that the reservoir feeding the Boil- In March 2019, we hosted the 11th annual ing Lake in the Valley of Desolation has and research. I continue to teach courses in Sedimentology and stratigraphy, Natu- Mohawk Watershed Symposium at Union, changed from a shallow sulphate-rich which was well attended by both profes- source to a deeper brine-source since moni- ral disasters, and Tectonics. My research is focussed on Alaskan tectonics, natural sionals and students. Union is still playing in toring began in 2000. We also explored the important leadership role in the Mohawk mysterious lake draining events that peri- radiation in the environment, and the Mo- hawk Watershed. Watershed. The Symposium has played a odically occur at the Boling Lake and deter- pivotal role in dovetailing science and poli- mined the recent 2016 event was caused by My Spring term Natural Disasters course cy in management decisions. a small landslide into the lake which has become a favorite course of mine be- blocked the conduit. Collectively, this work cause it allows for an interesting mix of My research activity in tectonics is still pri- provides a baseline for future monitoring of science and policy. This course is designed marily focused on understanding the evolu- volcanic unrest in the area. The work was for first-year students, and for many of tion of Cretaceous and Paleocene strata in based in part on senior theses by Tara them it is their first introduction to science Alaska and California. This last summer we Metzger ’15, Kathryn DeFranco ’16, and and the scientific method. A new lab pro- returned to the Yakutat area to work on Carli Aragosa ’17 and funding from National ject that I just integrated into this course is Cretaceous-Eocene strata of the Yakutat Geographic and the Keck Geology consorti- a module on rock radioactivity and radon Group. Our field work was focused on the rocks in Harlequin Lake, a 20 mile-long 2 in the rocks in the Schenectady area. The freshwater lake that has some of the fastest ety of America meeting in Phoenix. At receding glaciers in Alaska. Calving ice and home, our son Lucas just started middle floating icebergs were an interesting field school this year – which is causing lots of hazard that we dealt with daily while doing adjustments for everyone. We’re all super our field sampling. busy, but are having fun!

David Gillikin

Marcy Anorthosite on Cascade Mountain in the high peaks region, Adirondacks. Geologist for scale.

gether with users of various skill levels. There is currently much interest in the kind of work we are doing, because the triple- quad mass spectrometers are still fairly new, and there is a specific challenge to getting the gas flow within the reaction cell to play nice with the time variable ablation signal. Reaction gases work much more David Gillikin, Alaina Chormann, and Alan cleanly with the triple quads, and novel Wanamaker muddy - after caving in Portugal. applications in geochronology and geochemistry are an excellent area to push further research. Union is one of a handful Dave Gillikin of labs able to do this kind of work, which is Last fall, I taught Stable Isotopes and had a Matt Manon an exciting opportunity for all of us. wonderful group of students. The class was The new XRD is now installed in the base- This year it was great to work with a lot of fun and the students explored some ment of Olin and, following the requisite Matthew Cole ’19 on his senior thesis pro- very cool projects including water isotopes installation hiccups, is happily scanning for ject examining the effects of ammonia gas in the springs at Saratoga, water use in trees peaks through a wide range two-thetas. So in the reaction cell of the mass spec, and on campus, and dog diets. I also taught In- far, we’ve observed the transition from its applications to the U-Pb system for troduction to Oceanography and Earth and quartz to tridymite using the high tempera- geochronology. After a summer field sea- Life Through Time – including the weekend ture stage. Sadly the days of the well-loved son in the Adirondacks, Matt spent the trip to the Catskills. This year we had beauti- Phillips instrument and its chart recorder year characterizing zircons, and then blow- ful weather and the waterfalls at Kaaterskill may now be forever behind us. were amazing. In early spring I joined a joint ing them away, studying the effects of the Union/Michigan field excursion to the Peru- ammonia on the U-Pb system with our On a personal front, we got to do some vian Andes. The team was Laura Piccirillo new mass spec. Matt presented his find- geotourism this summer with Natalie and ‘20, Professor Don Rodbell, and I, along with ings at northeast GSA, and has moved on Zoe, taking them out to see volcanic sights U. Michigan professor Naiomi Levin and her to a successful Minerva Fellowship in Ken- in Oregon, from Mt Hood all the way down two PhD students Phoebe Aron and Sarah ya, so without him I will press onwards in to Crater Lake. There are few geologic sites Katz – yes the same Sarah who was our lab the lab, and am now in the process of col- in the world that can compare to staring technician for two years! We helped the lecting more standards for geochronologi- into the deep caldera left by the explosive Michigan group get orientated around the cal analyses. In the next few weeks we’ll eruption of Mount Mazama. A truly hum- lakes and then the Union team descended be installing a SQUID onto the ICP which, bling experience. Looking forward to a good into two high altitude cave systems to col- rather than shooting ink all over the place, winter ahead, with lots of time in the lab, lect samples. The trip was a huge success will hopefully produce a smoothed, pre- and with the family, and then onto teaching and Laura has been working hard on her cise ablation signal. one of my favorite classes, geophysics. Hope you are all well and always happy to samples. I am still working closely with Holli on the hear from you about your adventures be- issue of whether subvolcanic magma I also worked with Alaina Chormann ’20 on yond Union. an NSF funded cave project in Portugal. We chambers freeze up completely before visited the caves twice this year with our eruptions (cold vs hot storage) and other collaborator Alan Wanamaker from Iowa petrogenetic processes in volcanic rocks State University. We collected samples and from both Dominica and now Oregon. In downloaded data from several loggers in collaboration with Pat Joseph at the Seis- the caves. Alaina is sampling a stalagmite mic Research Centre of the UWI, we con- from southern Portugal at high resolution to tinue to investigate hydrothermal waters help reconstruct paleoclimate. Two other from Dominica, which appear to be chang- students, Steve Camarra ’20 and Emma Pu- ing over time. halski ‘22, are working on my NSF Antarcti- This year I again presented at the biennial ca scallop project and we recently discov- North America Workshop on Laser Abla- ered that shell nitrogen isotopes are a good tion in Austin Texas. The workshop is al- proxy of sea ice cover! Alaina, Steve, and ways an invigorating experience, where a Emma all presented at the Geological Soci- wide variety of laser applications mix to- Wizard Island, Crater Lake, Oregon. 3 on metamorphosed igneous rocks near Kurt Hollocher the Quabbin Reservoir, central Massachu- Don Rodbell setts, was accepted. That one involved interpretation of igneous geochemistry and a new, late Taconian tectonic model. The other paper was on Norway rocks, but sadly was rejected. For that one I’ll continue work. I’ve been separating zircons for age dating to bolster some ideas for it. Also in the fall, winter, and especially spring and summer I was heavily involved in preparation for and installation of the new $327,000 Rigaku XRD, a shared instrument purchased with an NSF grant. That took considerable time from other work, but it all had to be done to make sure the Dave Gillikin, Don Rodbell, and Laura Picirillo Iceland field trip. Kurt Hollocher standing below outside Huagapo Cave, Peru after a day of spe- instrument worked and was usable by lunking. a lava flow that was erupted during the last local people, including me. interglacial period, when this part of Iceland was My field research over the past year took ice-free. These columns are quite large for the During the school year I had a thesis stu- me to the central Peruvian Andes with col- area, typically 1.5 meters across. dent who worked on the Union College leagues Dave Gillikin (Union College) and Water Initiative (http:// Naomi Levin (Michigan) and students Sarah minerva.union.edu/hollochk/water/ Katz and Phoebe Aron (Michigan), and I taught Physical Geology as usual last year, index.html, contact us if you want a kit so Laura Piccirillo ’20 (Union) to establish rain but with three lab sections. The slight over- we can analyze your water for lead, cop- sampling sites to better understand the load was so I could go on sabbatical leave per, and zinc). I also had a summer stu- modern isotopic composition of rainfall, during winter and spring. During the sab- dent who worked on the same general and thus how best to interpret the emerg- batical my plan was mostly to work on pa- project, expanded to include New York ing oxygen isotope record from a long (700 pers, and learn to use the laser ablation, ICP City. Thesis student Sophia Bute ’19 pre- kyr) core from Lake Junin. In addition, -MS system to age date zircons from vari- sented her work in a poster at the North- Dave, Laura, and I started a new cave-based ous places. In the winter, however, Mason eastern Section Meeting of the Geological project to extract paleoclimate records Stahl taught a course in R programming. I Society of America, in Portland, Maine. I from local caves. The latter had us deep in wanted to learn something like that to help also presented a poster at the same con- several caves for many hours wading with data manipulation while writing pa- ference, on some of my work in Norway. through cold water with wet suits, head pers. Unfortunately, it was a tough course lamps and dry bags. In all, it was a fast- (for me) and took up most of my time. In In July I also attended a 10-day field trip on paced and very productive field season! the end, I couldn’t get programs for my the geology of Iceland, led by three geolo- own work to work properly, except one, gists from around the U.S. who do work Much of my research time at Union was which was actually a big time saver. there. The trip was spectacular, and I spent working with colleagues preparing brought back samples, photos, and new manuscripts for publication on results of I finished a couple of papers in the spring, understanding that will help in my Physical our years-long project on extracting and both with Union student coauthors. One, Geology and Petrology courses. analyzing a drill core from Lake Junin Peru. As of this writing, six manuscripts are in various stages of the publication process from “in preparation” to “in review” to “in press”. The Lake Junin drilling project began in earnest in 2008, so it is especially rewarding to see the results getting out. In addition, I worked closely with senior thesis student Annika Wells ‘19 and PhD student Sam Mark (University of Pittsburgh) on our ongoing research in to Cajas National Park to better understand the role of the El Nino Southern Oscillation on sedimentation in the region’s lakes. Iceland field trip. The pillow lava interior of a In late August, I embarked on a 3 month- Pleistocene, sub-glacial, basalt fissure eruption. long trip that included a trip to Indonesia An eruption under the thick ice cap melted a Iceland field trip. Waterfalls along a river carved for a workshop on PaleoENSO records (1 lake for itself. At high pressures, deep in the into thick flood basalts. The basalts have large week) and then on to the University of lake, the eruption is relatively quiet and produc- columns exposed in vertical section on the left Queensland (Brisbane, Australia) to co- es large piles of pillow lavas like these. As the side. In the foreground are the eroded tops of volcanic pile thickens and the eruption vent direct Union’s Australia term abroad. The the same columns. This valley was carved large- term has been a rewarding one for me and nears the surface, it becomes more explosive, ly by a series of large glacial outburst floods, producing lava fragments instead of pillows. for our students; trips to Stradbroke and from Vatnajökull far to the south. These glacial Heron Islands, and to Springbrook and The fragments cascade down the flanks of the floods are estimated to have had flows as large volcanic ridge, still under the lake surface, hid- as 900,000 cubic meters per second, five times Giraween National Parks have been the ing the interior pillow lavas. Here, a gully has the typical discharge of the Amazon River. highlights. Brisbane is a wonderful city, and eroded down to expose the pillows. the University has been very welcoming. A side trip to Tasmania, and another to New 4 (Continued Rodbell) Zealand to visit former counting! importance for everyone, but even more so student Chris Moy (Union ’98; now faculty The Hans Groot Kill has emerged as a tiny for anyone working in the field of environ- member at the University of Otago), have mental sciences as well as earth sciences: but important contributor to contamina- been thoroughly enjoyable. tion in the Mohawk River. Our next step is the misinformation campaign surrounding climate change and the consequences of It was a year of graduations for my daugh- to determine where the Hans Groot Kill, ters. Erika (25) completed her MS degree which is buried beneath residential neigh- this. I invited three amazing speakers who have worked on this issue from different at Iowa State University and just began borhoods in its upstream reaches, gets its her PhD at Montana State University, and water. Stormwater and sewage are perspectives (journalism, law, and science). The continuous attacks on climate science Gaby (22) graduated from St. Lawrence among the likely sources, in addition to and started an internship in a law firm in baseflow and runoff. Along with John implore us to make sure all of our students are well trained in this field. Albany. We will all be home for Thanksgiv- Garver and research students Eva Willard- ing, which will make for a nice reunion. Bauer ’22 and Dan Goldman ‘20, we’ve been collecting weekly samples from the Hans Groot Kill to measure pathogen levels, mainly Enterococcus, a fecal indicator bacteria. All but one of 190 samples have exceeded the EPA guidelines for recrea- tional waters, typically by several orders of magnitude. Fecal bacteria levels rise during rainstorms, adding weight to the argument that stormwater and sewage make up much of the flow in the Hans Groot Kill, and not solely during high-flow events. Liz Andonie In addition to teaching, I was very lucky to Chris Moy (Union ’98) and Don Rodbell in front of Lake Pukaki, New Zealand work with two wonderful students this year. Liz Andonie ‘19 and Max McGeown ’19 continued research on the urban stream syn- drome, research that I started about five Jacquie Smith years ago. They sampled urban and rural streams in and around Schenectady and compared element and ion concentrations, as well as indicators of nitrogen pollution using stable nitrogen isotopes of algae.

Eva Willard-Bauer and Jacquie Smith sampling the Hans Groot Kill on campus in April 2019. This is one of seven sampling sites both on and off campus. Samples are analyzed for Enterococcus, a fecal indicator bacteria. All but one of 190 samples has exceeded EPA guidelines for Enterococ- cus. Microplastic particles (biggest ones) from the high-flow sample collected in the Hans Groot Kill I presented results of our work at the 2019 on the Union College campus during a rainstorm Annual Meeting of the Geological Society in June 2018. The sample contains well over of America in Phoenix and gave a talk at 7,000 individual microplastic particles collected in the 2018 GSA meeting in Indianapolis. eight minutes of sampling. Abstract found here: My primary research focus is the extent of https:gsa.confex.com/gsa/2018AM/ microplastic pollution in tributaries of the meetingapp.cgi/Paper/319620 I'm also Mohawk River. Last year (summer 2018) we teaching Environmental Geology (GEO sampled 21 tributaries and the upper Mo- 112) again, which is fun. hawk River (in Rome) during relatively low- flow conditions; the Hans Groot Kill on the Union College campus was also sampled at Max McGeown during summer research work. high flow. Microplastics are present in all of Anouk Verheyden the samples. Among the low-flow samples, Finally, next to teaching and doing research the highest abundance (859 particles) and Last year I taught my usual two courses: with students, the isotope lab has kept me 3 concentration (11.8 particles/m ) are both Introduction to Environmental Science as busy as ever and Madelyn Miller has her found in the sample from North Chuctanun- well as Paleontology. In addition, I taught hands full keeping up with the continuous da Creek in Amsterdam, an urban stream the Environmental Science, Policy and Engi- stream of samples passing through the lab. with a history of contamination by sewage. neering (ESPE) Senior Seminar and orga- In terms of work study students, Hayley The highest abundance and concentration nized the ESPE Winter Seminar Series, a Bennett ‘19 has graduated and we will sure- overall, however, are found in the high-flow series of talks focused on a specific topic. I ly miss her. But we are very lucky to have sample from the Hans Groot Kill: >7,100 chose a topic that should be the utmost particles and >144 particles/m3 – and 5 Laura Piccirillo ‘20, Jason Higginbotham ‘21, field sites in Vietnam and Bangladesh. My job is to ensure the labs run smoothly, Emma Puhalski ’22, and Rebecca Laventure This year I began working on a new project prepare samples, test them, and assist stu- ’23 who will help us run the lab this year. to examine hydrologic processes across dents and professors with their research and Their work in the lab gives them hands on the United States by using groundwater theses. In addition, I have also participated experience, but also develops their problem isotopes. This work has been advancing in in an experiment with student Laura Picciril- -solving skills, patience and determination, large part due to Jaclyn Gehring ’20, who lo and Prof. Anouk Verheyden-Gillikin, which are all very useful skills for further spent this past summer working on this looking into alternative ways to preserve achievements in life. The presence of these project and is now continuing with this water samples for dissolved inorganic car- major scientific instruments in the Geology work for her thesis. As part of this work bon testing, as the current method involves Department gives students a fantastic op- we have also been conducting a focused a very toxic chemical, mercuric chloride. The portunity to learn. study of the water supply of Schenectady first stage of the experiment was recently using stable water isotopes of tapwater completed, however we hope to continue it and the Mohawk River to characterize the further. degree of surface water groundwater in- I graduated from SUNY New Paltz in 2018 Mason Stahl teraction and the implications for the mu- with a BS in Environmental Geochemical nicipal water supply. Science. My senior thesis involved a ground- Last year was exciting and rewarding from water study of an abandoned cement mine both a teaching and research perspective. Last winter I developed and taught a new class Exploring Environmental Data, which in Kingston, NY. My intention is to eventual- I’ve continued with my research on carbon ly go to graduate school for Climatology. cycling in rivers and I had two thesis stu- I thoroughly enjoyed! The class focused on dents (Jack Wassik ’19 and Connor Horan learning the fundamentals of program- ’19) whose work was an important part of ming, data analysis, and data visualization this research. They did great work studying so that students are equipped to ask and George Shaw carbon cycling in rivers along with the geo- answer questions with data in a rigorous, logic and hydrologic factors controlling efficient, and reproducible fashion. By the When George was asked to submit an upstream chemistry in Upstate NY. We pre- end of the term, the students were able to date for the newsletter he stated “I don’t sented our research at AGU in Washington develop their own code to analyze and think I’ll have time to write my own update D.C. as well as at several regional meetings. interpret “big data” of all types (e.g. cli- for the newsletter” So the editor of the This work has also led to a new collabora- mate, population, geochemical) and the Geo newsletter will fill you in on George’s tion with a colleague at U. Delaware and class culminated in each student con- activities. ducting their own independent research I’m excited to keep moving forward with Emeritus Professor Shaw is on campus al- this line of research. project. I found this class incredibly fun to teach and I really look forward to teaching most daily and he’s been very busy being a and continuing to develop it in the future. scientist. He’s currently working on submit- My class is also part of the new Data Ana- ting a grant with Heather Watson (Union lytics minor and I have been closely in- Professor of Physics) on “Experimental De- termination of the effect of pressure on volved with the newly formed, interdisci- freezing point depression in salt solution”. plinary Center for Data Analytics here at Union. He was recently cited in one of his previous students’ online biographies. Here is what My family is doing great – Norah is now was said two and a half and she loves exploring the outdoors, in particular streams, so we may “First Outcrop: In the spring of 1980 I took have a future hydrologist on our hands! an intro. to Geology course just for fun. Candice is finishing up Nurse Practitioners Early in the class our professor, a geophysi- Taking a hiking break during our Global Arsenic school and is excited to soon be an NP. cist named George Shaw was showing typi- Working Group meeting in Colorado I’ve enjoyed this past year and I am excit- cal panoramic slides of spectacular moun- ed for the year to come. tain scenery and explaining geologic fea- My work on global groundwater arsenic is tures to us, when he suddenly turned into underway and I led our first working group the class exclaimed with all the energy of a meeting at the USGS Powell Center in Fort four year old on his birthday that the best Collins, CO this August. The weeklong Maddie Miller thing about geology is that “they pay you meeting was very productive and brought to do this!” George still has “the energy”. together collaborators from across the US (Columbia, MIT, U. Delaware, USGS, EPA) and abroad (ETH/EAWAG Zurich and Geo- logical Survey of Denmark). My research Deb Klein student Beck DeYoung ’21, played a key It’s been a pleasure working in the Geology role in the success of the meeting, by pre- Department. I’ve enjoyed reaching out to paring much of the data and computer alumni, meeting Geology students and as- code needed for this research. I am looking sisting faculty. forward to continuing down the research I’ve become an experienced travel agent plan that we laid out during our meeting. As while working here and I plan to make use part of this project my co-PI and I are happy of these skills in the near future. to have welcomed a post-doc to our group Madelyn (Maddie) in the stable isotope lab Thank you to all the alumni that have sent who began working with us in September. preparing water samples. I’m also continuing to work on additional congratulations to me on my retirement. I’ll projects focused on groundwater arsenic at Hello! I'm Maddy, the Laboratory Techni- miss your emails, phone calls and visits! 6 cian for the Stable Isotope and Core Labs. Cheers! Update from Sarah Katz

My second year at Michigan is going well collection stations in the watershed. We have an undergraduate research student and I am working to understand water had an awesome time and it was great to working to analyze the eggshells, and we budgets in the modern Lake Junin Basin have Union colleagues (Don Rodbell, Dave expect that the oxygen isotopes of the shells using a new isotope technique, triple oxy- Gillikin and Laura Piccirillo) join us in the will tell us about local groundwater. gen isotopes. In May 2019, I traveled to field! I am hoping to return to Peru in May Peru with a group of Union and Michigan 2020. students and faculty to collect surface water samples and construct precipitation I also assisted UM PhD student Phoebe Aron with her field work in southern Peru and we collected over 100 chicken eggshells from around the region! This year, I

Don Rodbell and Phoebe Aron constructing a precipitation station at Carhumayo school, east Dave Gillikin in Peru. Sarah Katz collecting carbonate sediments at of Lake Junin Laguna Yanacocha

GEO CLUB

This fall we held Dinner and Disasters, which we hold once a term, a graduate school information session led by Profes- sor Holli Frey, and we recently participated in an outreach event at Lincoln Ele- mentary School in Schenectady. Last spring, we also participated in an outreach event at Pinewood Elementary School in Rotterdam and held our annual Rohit and Dan educating students at Lincoln spring picnic to celebrate the graduating Elementary School about climate change and what they can do to help prevent any further seniors and the end to another successful Dan Goldman sharing an example of a lake environmental harm. school year. core, and talking about how we use these cores Once again, the Geo Club at Union has to determine climate in the past. been successful and very active. The club holds weekly meetings, run by the President At the outreach events, we have been edu- Laura Piccirillo ‘20, the Vice President Dan- cating different grade levels about climate iel Goldman ‘20, and our Media Chair Rohit change and showing the students lake Thota ‘20. At these meetings, students and cores from the area. Students in the de- faculty in the department, as well as other partment continue to volunteer at the MiS- students on campus interested in geology ci museum of science as well throughout gather in the map room and discuss events the year. The Geo Club looks forward to we are hosting or would like to host, im- another great school year, participating in portant and interesting topics in geology, more outreach events in the community and ways to increase our outreach within and increasing the knowledge about the the community. geology department to other students on Rohit explaining to Lincoln Elementary School campus. children what climate change is. 7 Publications

Bostick, B.C, Nghiem, A.A, Stahl, M.O., Harvey, C.F., van Geen, A. (2019) Extensive Cryptic Sulfur Cycling Affecting Arsenic Levels in Van Phuc, Vi- etnam. Goldschmidt Abstracts. Bute, S., Hollocher, K., and Frey, H.M., 2019, An open-ended program to analyze drinking water: Public service, education, and research outreach using spare analytical instrument time. Geological Society of America, Northeastern Section Meeting, Abstracts with Programs, doi: 10.1130/ abs/2019NE-328119. Cheng, L., Normandeau, C., Bowden, R., Doucett, R., Gallagher, B., Gillikin, D.P., Kumamoto, Y., McKay, J.L., Middlestead, P., Ninnemann, U., Nothaft, D., O. Dubinina, E., Quay, P., Reverdin, G., Shirai K., Tore Mørkved, P., Theiling, B. P., van Geldern, R., Wallace, D. W. R. (2019). An international inter-comparison of stable carbon isotope composition measurements of dissolved inorganic carbon in seawater. Limnology and Oceanography: Methods 17: 200-209. doi: 10.1002/lom3.10300 Davidson, C.M., and Garver, J.I., 2019. Sediment Assimilation exerts primary control on HF isotope ratios in the Paleocene-Eocene Sanak Baranof plutonic belt, Alaska. GSA Abstracts with Program, Cordilleran Section, Portland Oregon. v. 51, n. 4. Fisher, W.S., Pope, M.D., Malik, A.M., Garver, J.I., and Davidson, C.M., 2019. Zircon facies in the Paleocene-Eocene Orca Group GSA Society of America Abstracts with Program, Cordilleran Section, Portland Oregon. v. 51, n. 4. Frey, H.M., Manon, M.R.F., Brehm, S., and Babiak, R.N. (2018) Episodic crystallization in young explosive eruptions in Dominica, Lesser Antilles revealed by U-Th dating of zircons: Geology, v. 46, 887-890. Garver, J.I., and Davidson, C.M., 2019. Revisions to the stratigraphy of the flysch facies of the Chugach, Prince William, and Yakutat terranes, southern Alaska: Implications for reconstruction of Baja BC. GSA Abstracts with Program, Cordilleran Section, Portland Oregon. v. 51, n. 4. Gillikin, D.P., A.D. Wanamaker, C.F.T. Andrus (2019). Chemical Sclerochronology. Chemical Geology doi: 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2019.06.016 Hollocher, K., Robinson, P., Lucas, B., and Mabee, S., 2019, Geochemistry of intrusive rocks on the Prescott Peninsula, central Massachusetts, USA: Implications for late detachment faulting within the Ordovician Taconian volcanic arc. American Journal of Science, v. 319, p. 658-693, doi: 10.2475/08.2019.02. Hollocher, K., van Nostrand, M., Robinson, P., and Walsh, E.O., 2019, Igneous geochemistry of the Blåhø Nappe of the Middle Allochthon, Norwe- gian Caledonides: A deeply subducted segment of rocks geochemically similar to those exposed in the Støren Group of the Upper Allochthon. Geological Society of America, Northeastern Section Meeting, Abstracts with Programs, doi: 10.1130/abs/2019NE-328104. Joseph, E.P., Frey, H.M., Manon, M.R.F., Onyeali, M.C., DeFranco, K., Metzger, T., and Aragosa, C. (2018) Continuation of the fluid geochemistry monitoring time series for geothermal systems in Dominica, Lesser Antilles island arc: 2009-2017 Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, v. 276, 86-103 Lippitt, R., Frey, H.M., and Manon, M.R.F. (2019) Crystallization conditions of the Tumalo Tuff, Bend Pumice, and Shevlin Park Tuff near South Sister, OR: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 51, No. 1, ISSN 0016-7592. Manon, M.R.F., Cole, M. (2019) Potential and Pitfalls of Mercury Elimination with a "Triple-Quad" ICPMS North American Workshop on Laser Abla- tion, v. 3, 82. Nghiem, A. A., Stahl, M. O., Mailloux, B. J., Mai, T. T., Trang, P. T., Viet, P. H., et al. (2019). Quantifying Riverine Recharge Impacts on Redox Condi- tions and Arsenic Release in Groundwater Aquifers along the Red River, Vietnam. Water Resources Research, (iii), 2019WR024816. https:// doi.org/10.1029/2019WR024816 Pope, M.D., Fisher, W.S., Malik, A.M. Garver, J.I., and Davidson, C.M., 2019. Provenance of sandstone clasts from conglomerate of the Paleocene- Eocene Orca Group in Prince William Sound, Alaska. GSA Abstracts with Program, Cordilleran Section, Portland Oregon. v. 51, n. 4. Schartman, A., Enkelmann, E., Garver, J.I. and Davidson, C.M., 2019. Uplift and exhumation of the Russell Fiord and Boundary blocks along the northern Fairweather transform fault, Alaska. Lithosphere, v.11, n.2, p. 232-251 Shimkus, A., and Smith, J.A., 2019, Confirming the presence of microplastics in Capital Region fish using a novel no-kill abdomen massage, in Garver, J.I., Smith, J.A., and Rodak, C., Proceedings of the 2019 Mohawk Watershed Symposium, Union College, Schenectady, NY, March 22, 2019, v. 11, 74 p., p. 49-53. Smith, J.A., Caruso, E., Wright, N., Willard-Bauer, E., and Garver, J. I., 2019, Elevated microplastic concentration in a small tributary stream under high-flow conditions: implications for the Mohawk River, New York: 2019 GSA Annual Meeting, Phoenix, AZ, (22-25 September 2018), Paper 227- 3, Abstracts with Program v. 51, no. 5, doi: 10.1130/abs/2019AM-333564. Smith, J.A., Caruso, E., and Wright, N., 2019, Extreme rainfall, high water, and elevated microplastic concentration in the Hans Groot Kill: implications for the Mohawk River, in Garver, J.I., Smith, J.A., and Rodak, C., Proceedings of the 2019 Mohawk Watershed Symposium, Union College, Schenectady, NY, March 22, 2019, v. 11, 74 p., p. 54-59. Stahl, M.O., Gehring, J., Horan, C., Wassik, J., (2018) Connecting the Age and Fraction of Riverine Labile Organic Carbon to Watershed Geology and Land Use. Abstract [B51L-2114] presented at 2018 Fall Meeting, AGU, Washington, DC, 10-14 Dec 2018. Vansteenberge, S., Verheyden, S., Genty, D., Blamart, D., Goderis, S., Van Malderen, J.M., Vanhaecke, F., Hodel, F., Gillikin, D.P., Ek, C., Quinif, Y., Cheng, C., Edwards, R.L., and Claeys, P. (2019). Characterizing the Eemian-Weichselian transition in northwestern Europe with three multiproxy speleothem archives from the Belgian Han-sur-Lesse and Remouchamps cave systems. Quaternary Science Reviews 208:21-37. Waters, L.E. and Frey, H.M. (2018) Crystal-poor rhyolites and rhyodacites from Volcán Tepetiltic, Mexico: Evidence for melt formation, crystallization and eruption over short timescales: Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, v. 361, p. 36-50.

8 Geology students present at the 2019 Geological Society of America annual meeting in Phoenix, AZ

Stephen Camarra ’20, Professor David Gillikin, Professor Alan Wanamaker (Iowa State U.), and Emma Puhalski ’22 at their GSA poster. Kaylee Velasquez '21 presenting research she did this past summer as part of a Keck Geology Consortium project. Kaylee investigated vertebrate fossils in Cretaceous Judith River and Hell Creek formations in Montana with Dr. Raymond Rogers and Dr. Kristi Curry Rogers (Macalester College).

Emma ‘22, Steve ‘20, and Professor Gillikin presented oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen isotope data from Antarctic Scallop shells. They are investigating if these shells can be used as a proxy of sea ice state (funded by NSF). Alaina Chormann ‘20 presenting her poster on Portuguese stalagmites with an aim to reconstruct Iberian paleoclimate over the past 1000 years. Alaina is working with both Gillikin and Wanamaker (funded by NSF).

9 Follow us on Instagram! Geology Seniors unioncollegegeology

Jaclyn Gehring ‘20 Steve Camarra ‘20 Alaina Chormann ‘20

Jaclyn Gehring is a top-notch student and one of Steve Camarra is from Johnstown, New Alaina Chormann from Concord, New the best the Geology Department has to offer. York and is the unofficial “funny-guy” of Hampshire, is a bright pupil of the Geology Jaclyn (JQ to friends) is from Wild Crest New Jer- the Geology department. This summer Department studying the carbon and oxy- sey and is also a part of the Union College Swim Steve’s research focused on scallop gen isotopes of modern stalagmites found Team. This summer Jaclyn worked with Professor shells from two locations in Anarctica to in southern Portuguese caves used to de- Mason Stahl implementing a data synthesis char- understand ice coverage during the termine paleoclimate conditions in south- acterize patterns and hydrological patterns of quaternary period. Steve drilled, pol- ern Portugal. Her project is part of a larg- shallow aquifers in the US. Then using special R ished and drilled hundreds of samples er research effort to evaluate the dynamic programming language Jaclyn will be able to an- for analysis with the assistance of Dave changes in the larger regional climate sys- swer specific questions about tap and groundwa- Gillikin, his research advisor. Keep up tem through time with her thesis profes- ter samples collected. Keep up the wonderful the shell-shocking work, Steve! sor Dave Gillikin. Keep up the apatite water work, Jaclyn! work!

10 SENIOR SPOTLIGHT

Dan Goldman ‘20 Laura Piccirillo ’20 Rohit Thota ‘20

Dan Goldman is our Geology Vice President and Laura Piccirillo is our beloved Geology Presi- On November 19-23, I along with Profes- avid Union College Mailroom employee. Dan is dent and motivational leader. Laura is from sor Garver and Dan Goldman, flew to from Larchmont, New York and is did research Rotterdam, New York and is no stranger to the University of Arizona where we this summer with Professor John Garver. Their research as she has worked with Professor learned and performed laser chronology work specifies on foreign terranes in Yakutat, Anouk Verheyden-Gillikin. This summer on zircon crystals taken from Alaska to Alaska and determining the age and provenance Laura worked with Professor Donald Rod- better understand the timing of deposi- of the foreighn flysch and mélange. Keep mak- bell on speleothems collected from two tion and metamorphism of these ter- ing our earth’s quake, Dan! caves in Peru. Using isotope dating tech- ranes. niques as well as further data analysis, All Unioncollegegeology posts are from Laura will be able to construct the climate Rohit Throta history of the area inspected. Keep up the gneiss work Laura!

11 Grants

$1,290,000 awarded 2015-2018 - Deep Drilling of Lake Junin, Peru: Continuous Tropical Records of Glaciation, Climate Change and Magnetic Field Varia- tions Spanning the Late Quaternary. Principal Investigator: D.T. Rodbell. Organization: National Science Foundation $149,000 awarded 2014–2018- Award Supplement: Collaborative Research: RUI: Deep Drilling of Lake Junin, Peru: Continuous Tropical Records of Glacia- tion, Climate Change and Magnetic Field Variations Spanning the Late Quaternary. Principal Investigator Donald Rodbell with co-Investigator David Gilli- kin and Senior Personnel Matthew Manon and Anouk Verheyden-Gillikin. Organization: National Science Foundation $463,226 awarded 2017-2021- Translation and accretion of the Yakutat microplate and Prince William terrane, Alaska. Principal Investigators John Garver and Cam Davidson, Carleton College. Organization: National Science Foundation $307,241 awarded 2017-2019 - MRI: Acquisition of an Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer for Expansion of Analytical Activities and Research Training in the Earth Sciences. Principal Investigator: Holli Frey; Co-PI’s Garver, J.I., Gillikin, D.P.,Hollocher, K., and Rodbell, D.T. Organization: National Sci- ence Foundation Major Research Instrumentation Program $15,630 awarded 2017-2019 - Investigation of Microplastic Pollution in Tributaries of the Mohawk River. Principal Investigator Jacquie Smith. Organiza- tion: NYS DEC’s Mohawk River Watershed Grants $681,471 awarded 2018-2021 - Bridging the gap from northern Iberia to northwest Africa to reconstruct atmospheric dynamics and hydroclimate for the last 2,500 years. Principal Investigator: David P. Gillikin (Union: $64,684) Organization: US National Science Foundation, P2C2, Collaborative research $201,695 awarded 2018-2020 - The Antarctic Scallop as Key to Paleoenvironments and Sea Ice Conditions: Understanding the Modern to Predict the Past. Principal Investigator: David P. Gillikin (Union $37,144) Organization: US National Science Foundation, Antarctic Earth Sciences, Collaborative Research $154,000: awarded 2018-2020 – Global Variability in Groundwater Arsenic. Principal investigators: Mason Stahl, Holly Michael (U. Delaware), Clifford Voss (USGS), Benjamin Bostick (Columbia). Organization: USGS Powell Center. $76,338.00: awarded 2019-2021 - CUE Ethics: Collaborative Research: Evaluating Frameworks for Incorporating Computing Across the Curriculum; Principal Investigator: Kristina Striegnitz; Senior Personnel: Mason Stahl (and others): National Science Foundation $327,398.00 awarded 2018 - MRI: Acquisition of a Powder X-Ray Diffractometer (PXRD) for Interdisciplinary Research and Research Training Award Num- ber:1828144; Principal Investigator: Michael Hagerman; Co-Principal Investigator: Joanne Kehlbeck, Heather Watson, Samuel Amanuel, Ann Anderson; Senior Personnel: Kurt Hollocher; Matthew Manon; Mary Carrol; Rebecca Cortez; Organization: National Science Foundation $35,450 awarded 2018-19 - Geology of the Chugach-Prince William terrane in northern Prince William Sound, Alaska; Principal Investigator: John Garver Organization: Keck Consortium $996,038 awarded 2018-23—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program; Principal Investigator: Joanne Kehlbeck; Co-Principal Investigator: David A. Cotter; Senior Personnel: Holli Frey and Brad Bruno; Organization: National Science Foundation

Goodbye Deb

Congratulations to Deb who will be retiring on January 2nd 2020!!! Deb has been working in the Geology Department since 2009. For all those years, Deb has been the smile that welcomes faculty and students every day, she has been our cup of coffee that has kept us going, our sanity during the whirlwind that is our ten-week term, the emergency operator for all last- minute tasks, the go-to person for any question and a patient ear that listened to all our daily troubles. From all of us in Geology, students and faculty alike, we will miss you so much, Deb, but are so happy for you, as we know Last Geo Club meeting of the fall term, saying goodbye Deb. Front row: Kaylee, Izzy, Ian, Sidney, Em- you will be fully enjoying your retirement! ma, Blake, Drake, Chango, Steve Back row: Chloe, Grace, Meghan, Whitney, Daniel, Laura, Deb, Lau- ren, Grace, Rohit, Emma, Dave Third row: Jack, Alex, Dan, Casey

12 William Kirchgasser ‘61 Notes from Alumni Kate Kaminski ‘14

William Kirchgasser Since graduation from Union 5 years ago, a passed away on Jan- lot has changed in my life, and all of it was uary 14, 2019. Wil- possible because of the experiences I had in liam was the first Will Pinkston ‘12 the Geology Department! After Union, I student to receive earned my M.S. in Geology at the University of Idaho. My thesis focused on the geophys- the E.F.C. Smith prize After 3 years with an investment bank, I in 1961. After gradu- ical modeling of helium transport in mantle found my way back to geoscience chasing a shear zones, and I was also fortunate ating from Union in MS at the University of Texas at Austin. Our 1961 William went enough to be invited on a research survey work on pore pressure at the Macondo aboard the R/V Atlantis through WHOI. This to Cornell University well was published in May in Scientific Re- to earn his Masters survey was an incredible and life-changing ports. I've now been a geologist with Hess experience, and I accomplished a lifelong and Doctorate de- Corporation in Houston for 2 years. In Au- grees. He joined the goal – to travel to the bottom of the ocean! William Kirchgasser gust, I married fellow Dutchman Amanda In our quest for “popping rocks” (highly SUNY Potsdam facul- Greenberg '12. Photo courtesy Garner ty in 1969 and re- vesicular rocks packed full of gas, found at Funeral Service tired in 2004. the Mid-Atlantic Ridge), I was able to dive in Lauren Graniero ‘12 HOV Alvin to a depth of 3000 m. This re- William has donated to the Geology depart- search opportunity opened an unexpected ment periodically in the past and be- I recently graduated with my Ph.D. from door for me, and after graduation, I was queathed a generous amount to the geology the University of North Carolina at Chapel offered a Physical Scientist position with the field fund in memory of Professors Leo Hall Hill in Geological Sciences and am currently Naval Oceanographic Office at the Stennis and Phillip Hewitt. working as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Space Center in Mississippi. NAVOCEANO His obituary may be found at: Paleoclimatology lab at UNC. My current provides navigational, bathymetric, and research examines how modern and ar- oceanographic support to the entire Depart- https://www.dignitymemorial.com/ ment of Defense, especially the U.S. Navy, obituaries/potsdam-ny/william-kirchgasser- chaeological limpet shells from the Canary 8129783 Islands can be used to reconstruct seasonal using a fleet of civilian ships equipped with sea surface temperature in the subtropical state-of-the-art surveying instrumentation eastern North Atlantic Ocean during peri- to map the ocean floor. In this position, I ods of abrupt climate change. In other have been able to travel all over the world J R (William) Van Order ‘93 news, I married a fellow geologist in June in and have so far spent about 200 days at sea Since graduation I have moved around Cooperstown, NY! -- I'm actually sitting in the airport as I write quite a bit. Stops along the way include this, ready to fly to my next mission. New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Philadelphia I am forever grateful to everyone in the and finally back to central NY state. I have Geology department for helping me get spent time in environmental consulting where I am today, and for giving me the and environmental, health & safety (EHS) opportunities that led to me finding a ca- software firms including URS, ERM, Envi- reer that I'm passionate about. If anyone is ance, Locus Technologies, CH2M Hill and ever down in the Gulf Coast area, I'd love to currently Golder Associates. catch up! In February I was presented with an opportunity to build a new team/service line at Golder. The past 10 months have been very busy standing up a team to deliver Lauren & Thomas Chapman consulting services related to software implementation of EHS software. The work my team does is largely for mid-sized to large industrial clients helping them set Ron Obremski ‘59 up commercial software to comply with A short bio would report that Betty and I regulations and satisfy reporting require- are in good health and enjoy traveling ments. While I have been doing this sort by land and by sea. We have traveled of work for about 20 years, this was an throughout the year. An example would be opportunity to build a completely new a fourteen day tour this November through service line at Golder. It is fun work and Amsterdam, Brugges, Paris and Lon- making something from nothing has been don. We close out the year with a seven gratifying on several levels. day Western Caribbean cruise in December. On a personal note, I am living on the Raleigh, North Carolina is a great place to southwest side of Syracuse, married with live. Our children and their progeny agree two kids and two retired racing grey- and we have 12 grandchildren and 8 great- hounds. I swore I would never, ever move grand children living within an hour of us. back to anywhere close to Syracuse, but fate it seems is not without a sense of I continue to enjoy using the geology humor... learned at Union. From the Outer Banks and coastal bays to the Blue Ridge Moun- Feel free to reach out to me here: tains, Carolina offers a diverse landscape for discovery. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrvanorder/ Kate Kaminski with HOV Alvin 13 Tara Metzger ‘15 Greg Brenn ‘14 Emily Crampe ‘15 This past year has been an exciting one that Lots of updates and moves in the last cou- This Fall marks about 2.5 years for me at Geoscience Australia as a Duty Seismolo- has involved packing and unpacking quite a ples years! In the spring of 2018, I graduat- few times. Last summer I returned to Glaci- ed with my MS degree in geology from the gist in the National Earthquake Alerts Cen- tre (The Aussie analog to the USGS NE- er National Park as an interpretive ranger. University of Delaware, where my stud- While there I talked with hundreds of peo- ies were focused on fluvial geomorphology IC). Part shift work, monitoring local and global seismicity, and part research, cur- ple about geology and hydrology and ex- and dendrochronology. My research was plored a lot of the lesser traveled parts of recently published in Earth Surface Process- rently working on finite fault inversion methods, this job has it all. Send me an the park on my days off. (A nice respite es and Landforms (Event-scale accretion from the over 3 million visitors who came revealed through tree-ring analysis of bur- email ([email protected]) if you happen to be in Canberra, and I'll show to the park this year). After an early snow- ied plains cottonwoods, Powder River, MT, storm came through the park in October, I USA)! Promptly after I finished my MS, I you the best that the Bush Capital has to offer! welcomed the 50 degree temperatures and moved to Washington, where I worked as a misty rain of Oregon, and returned to Ore- Geomorphology/Imminent Threats Geosci- Chris Kelly ‘15 gon State University to finish up my MS entist-in-the-Park Intern at Mount Rainier degree in Water Resources Science. Things National Park. This was an amazing experi- I’m working as a hydrogeologist for the are looking good, so I should be wrapped ence where I was able to spend most of my up early spring! My research focuses on time either tromping over glaciers col- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program in Boston, MA. assessing long term changes in streamflow lecting water samples and assisting in mass across ten watersheds at the HJ Andrews balance surveys or hiking miles of river Experimental Forest, an LTER site in the banks surveying and mapping glacial riv- Cascades. ers. After the internship ended, I eventual- Sarah Brehm ‘15 ly made my way back to the East Coast, I am currently in my fifth (and hopefully where I am currently working for Golder final) year of my Ph.D at the University of Associates in NH. I mostly work for their Michigan working with Becky Lange. The geohazards team, mapping, surveying, and past few years have involved a lot of field- assessing landslide hazards. I love that I've work to collect basalts from various loca- been able to continue working in the natu- tions in California and along the Yellow- ral hazards sector of geology - the class that stone hotspot track. More recently, I have roped me in all those years ago! been working on high temperature experi- ments to show how fast olivine crystals can grow in a basaltic melt. The majority of this year has been focused on writing up my first manuscript on the Big Pine volcan- Emily in Glacier National Park ic field, which will be the first chapter of my dissertation. With my final year al- ready underway, the main objectives will be writing everything up, defending on time, and hunting for a teaching job back east. See you at AGU! Olivia Thurston ‘16

This spring I will be participating in a the SUPERGROUP Grand Canyon Field Fo- rum this April to explore the timing, causes, and consequences of the Great Uncon- formity. I am currently running zircon-He samples from the basement units just below the Great Unconformity of the Grand Canyon as part of my PhD dissertation.

Tara next to a crevasse on Emmons Glacier during a water sampling survey at Mount Rainier.

A field photo from a basin development and

Sarah Katz, Heidi O’Hora ’19 and Sarah Brehm ’15 sedimentation field course that I took in Coun- ty Clare, Ireland this past spring. 14 at the University of Michigan. Alex Dolcimascolo ‘17 Andres Gallego ‘18 Katherine Swager ‘17 I received my Master’s degree from Central Currently I’m back home In Boston work- I have started my Master's degree at UW- Washington University this past spring and ing as a Environmental Scientist for a small Madison, and am loving it so far! started working as a Tsunami Geologist for Environmental Consulting firm based out- the Washington Geological Survey. At The side of Boston. WGS, I have been working on tsunami inun- Heidi O’Hora ‘19 dation modeling and mapping for the outer coast of Washington state and within the Jordy Herbert ‘18 Heidi O'Hora is in her first year of the mas- Puget Sound from several earthquake ter's program at the University of Michi- sources like Cascadia, the Seattle Fault, and I'm doing well post graduation. Been work- gan, conducting research in the UM Stable a maximum considered Alaska-Aleutian ing a consulting job for a little over a year and Clumped Isotopes for Paleoclimate scenario. Working at the WGS has been an now in Bedford, MA, and I'm starting up and Paleoceanography Lab to reconstruct amazing learning experience so far. One of the process to go to graduate school next climate surrounding the Cretaceous– my favorite work activities is also partici- year. Paleogene mass extinction using ~66 mil- pating in a variety of outreach activities lion-year-old shells from Southeast Neth- such as setting up exhibits at local commu- Rebecca Lippitt ‘19 erlands. She aims to use her research as a nity emergency preparedness expos, and natural CO2 emissions experiment to de- giving presentations to many diverse I’ve been working as an education/ termine how the Earth responds climati- groups and stakeholders within Washing- interpretation outreach intern at Dinosaur cally on a global scale to increasing atmos- ton to communicate hazard science. National Monument in Utah. I help with pheric CO2 and to apply this information the everyday stuff around the park like toward better understanding modern cli- talking to visitors and giving programs to mate change and predicting future long- ensure they understand the geological, term consequences. paleontological, and anthropological sig- nificance of the park, but my main job is to run virtual field trips to the Carnegie Quar- ry through Skype in the Classroom. This Mollie Pope ‘19 program connects us with classrooms around the world and gives us the oppor- Currently working for the Redbird Ranger tunity to teach students about the Jurassic District of the Daniel Boone National Forest environment of the Morrison Formation and will be until December 27th (unless the and the dinosaurs that called it home. We government shuts down). I’ve submitted climb the bone wall to ensure students get my travel request form for South Africa, so up close and personal with these ancient I’m officially leaving for Cape Town on Janu- beasts. If you have any questions about ary 5th. I’ll be doing an igneous petrology Alex in the Lower Johns River, WA, pointing this internship opportunity, please reach project that would investigate the for- to a paleotsunami sand deposit preserved out! My email is [email protected] mation of the Saldanha Volcanic Complex in the riverbank stratigraphy from the 1700 with Dr. Chris Harris at the University of Cape Town. My project is titled Oxygen Cascadia event. Isotope Variation in the Saldanha Quartz Porphyry. Alison Horst ‘17

I started working at the Washington Geo- logical Survey (with Alex Dolci) this July. My job has consisted of mostly fieldwork so far - collecting gravity and magnetic data in southwest WA and I will be working with geologists mapping in the area to look for crustal faults and analyze the seismic haz- Rebecca in Echo Park at the confluence of the ard. It has been an awesome place to work, Green and Yampa Rivers. and Dolci's cube is right across from me, so I see him all the time! Sarah Hickernell ‘18

I started an igneous petrology Ph.D. program at Stanford University in September. I'm starting off on a project looking into the connections between high-silica rhyolites and granite plutons. Understanding the generation of high-silica rhyolites has implications for predicting and understanding future rhyolitic eruptions, which tend to be more explosive and catastrophic than their View into Whirlpool Canyon from the end of Natural Arch in the Stearns District of the Daniel more mafic counterparts. Boone National Forest! Harper’s Corner Trail. 15 Union College Geology Department 807 Union St. Schenectady, NY 12308

Phone: 518-388-6770 Fax: 518-388-6417 E-mail: [email protected]

Geology Funds and Support

Donations to the Geology Department can be made to three dedicated funds: 1.The Geology Alumni Fund is a relatively small, continuing fund that is used by the Geology Department for items not covered by the normal Departmental budget, grants, or other sources of funds. This fund is used to sponsor speakers, geologic symposiums, and Geology Club. This year, for example, it helped us sponsor

2. The Geology Field Fund is an endowed fund dedicated to supporting student field work, including field camp, long course-related trips, and summer research work. The Field Fund is funded by major gifts from John Wold ‘38, J. Clark Alberts '44, George R. MacCaulay '50 and Alumni. This year the fund helped defray costs for students traveling to Panama for the Bioge- ochemisrty field trip as well as costs associated with research in Peru and the Hans Groot.

3. The Edmund Sawtelle Fund is a continuing fund started and supported by Edmund Sawtelle’52 to assist us in Instrument Maintenance. This fund has helped us keep our ICP-MS running and support the Stable Isotope Lab as well as other major scientific equip- ment.

Together, these funds help us to help our students have the opportunities they need to excel in graduate school, the geoscience industry, and in any other field to which they wish to apply themselves. We thank all those who have so generously donated to the Geology Department.