UNDER THE ROCK SUNY Geneseo’s GSCI Annual Newsletter SUMMER 2018

Greetings from the chair:

Happy end of summer to all of our Geneseo GSCI friends and family. My first year as chair Fall Brook waterfall, Geneseo has been a good one. I find I am very privileged to lead such a strong department On a department level, we have started to dedicate some that continues to inspire and nurture young intentional focus to making sure we are safe when we take geologists as well as make an impact on our students on field trips. To help us learn more about best understanding of the Earth and all its facets. practices regarding safety, we invited Kurt Burmeister (University of the Pacific) to come and present a “field Mineralogy and Petrology continued to serve large numbers safety course” to our department. It was co-sponsored by over the ’17-18 academic year. Mineralogy had a whopping 48 the Provost’s office and our department (thanks to all for students! They brought a zeal and curiosity that made for some your support). This training was attended by a student, all great term paper reading. It looks like this upcoming year will of the GSCI faculty and staff, and faculty from the Bio and be slightly smaller, but that will allow students to have easier Geography departments. It was a transformational event access to instruments such as the X-ray diffractometer. made us think more proactively about field safety, and we have already started to implement changes to our field In the fall, I was delighted to attend the national GSA meeting trips. We now have safety vests for students as well as a in Seattle and was part of three presentations. My sign we can place in the road to warn people when we are presentations covered research involving learning in geoscience studying roadside outcrops. We’ll include photos of the college classrooms, the use of reflectance spectrometry, and signs in the next newsletter! how best to digitize a rock, mineral, fossil and map catalog. Two of these presentations were co-authored with students In closing, I want to thank all of you for being so who did a great job and represented Geneseo well. supportive of our department. We love it when you come and visit and meet with current students and hope we can My own research work in the area of slag also kept going in foster more of those cross-generation interactions in the conjunction with some interesting student directed studies. upcoming years. Please know that your support has made One of these projects investigated samples from a historical a difference for students as they pursued summer research smelter in Delaware. Casey Hoffman ’18 studied the samples to here in the department, attended national geology determine if they indicated a smelting process that was meetings, and even helped to co-sponsor safety courses influenced by techniques brought to the colonies by African here in the department. Please keep in touch and come and slaves. It was a really neat project that mingled anthropology, visit! You can even check out the newly-painted GSCI history and science! walls (including Nick Warner’s office which now looks like Mars with its orange walls!). On a personal level, the family is doing great. Alex will be a 4th grader, and Emma will be a 2nd grader this upcoming year. Keep an eye out in future newsletters for more news They both have a great appreciation for nature and still come regarding your favorite emeriti faculty and some insights home with rocks in their backpacks. Their school folders get on departmental history! beaten up a little more than other students, but I am not complaining! Sincerely,

Dori Farthing

Welcome to our newest faculty… Dr. Jackie Wittmer-Malinowski! She has joined the GSCI department as our paleontologist who is teaching Basin Analysis, Environmental Geology, Sedimentation, and a climate change course! Here’s her report….

DID YOU KNOW THE DEPARTMENT NOW HAS A DRONE? Hello Geneseo Geologists!

I am so happy and excited to be part of the geology department at Geneseo! My husband, Peter, and my two girls, Rose (5) and Abigail (16 months), and I moved here in July 2017 and have been happily adjusting to New York life and Geneseo. In the fall, I taught Paleontology and Environmental Geology for the first time. I was very impressed by the number of students in Paleontology (almost 40!) and the warm of a reception I have received from the entire department.

This spring, I learned very quickly about New York winters by breaking my ankle after slipping on ice before the semester started. With the extraordinary and tremendous help from everyone in the department, I was still able to teach my new course, Basin Analysis, with Jeff Over’s help while I recovered. Thermal image of the ISC This summer, I taught at the Wasatch-Uinta Field Camp in (including the Greene Hall wing). Park City, Utah and started my research program with Jake Okun’19 on the conservation paleobiology of macroinvertebrate communities of the Finger Lakes. I’m looking forward to The above image was taken by Amelia Mindich ’18 as part another great year being part of the Geneseo geology family of work associated with her thesis project. Through her (without broken limbs hopefully)! work, she wanted to better understand the heat loss of buildings on campus and used the drone to look at the influence of building age and style on heat loss.

This image shows the surface temperature of the ISC in the fall in the early evening. Our drone is a DJI Inspire 1 drone equipped with a Zenmuse FLIR camera, acquired by Dr. Scott Giorgis and Dr. Nick Warner who received an Innovative Technology Instruction Grant (IITG).

Dr. Jackie Wittmer-Malinowski and the family (from left to right: Pete, Abby, Rose and Jackie) 2

MORE FACULTY UPDATES: AMY SHELDON: NICK WARNER: Greetings everyone! Time flies when you’re having fun. Greetings! I’m writing this newsletter entry from Burbank, CA This year, we welcomed a strong group of new majors in where I recently attended the launch of the InSight mission to Physical Geology in the fall. It is fun to work with such Mars. The launch site at Vandenberg Air Force base was foggy enthusiastic students and see their progression through on the morning of the launch so I was unable to snap a picture. the major as they take Isotope Groundwater, or I have included a picture from NASA of the Atlas V emerging Geochemistry as juniors and seniors. from the fog. I am somewhere below those clouds. My research year began with treasures given to us by The InSight mission has involved six years of research effort to alumnus Eugene Gorman ’79 from a decommissioned lab. characterize the geology of the landing site. Multiple Geneseo It was very thoughtful on his part and useful for us. We geology students have been involved including Anthony have already refurbished parts of the equipment in my lab. Pivarunas ’15, Julianne Sweeney ’17, and Anne Kelly ’18. Two Scott Booth ’20 continued working with me along with Geneseo geology students, Alyssa Demott and Megan Kopp, first-year student, Abigale O’Connor ’21. will travel with me to the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) on November 26th, 2018 for the landing. Our job is to map the This year, I also assumed the role of Principle Investigator geology of the workspace in front of the lander. (PI) on our NSF grant that provides scholarships to promising geology, geochemistry, and geophysics majors I also continue to develop my three upper level GSCI courses - with financial need. After collaborating with the director Planetary Geology, Remote Sensing, and Geomorphology. This of financial aid, the grants office, and the vice president of is only my second year of teaching geomorph and with the help administration and finance, we were able to increase the of Ben Laabs, Dick Young, and others I think I have the course awards to roughly half of the scholars to better meet their in really good shape. The new course includes several labs that financial needs. This effort highlighted the extremely give our students experience with GIS. This has already paid dedicated, hard-working, and student-centered off for some who have rolled their experience into finding jobs professionals we have here at Geneseo. And, what a joy it that have a heavy GIS component. was to observe student reactions! Tears of joy were shared. Those moments were the highlight of my year. Finally, this summer I am returning to Iceland to run a study abroad program with Lytton Smith in English called “Writing Brian and the kids are doing well. Brian had a much better and Knowing the Land.” I am bringing eight Geneseo geology year than last as he learns how to navigate MS, and he students to do fieldwork in Iceland while assisting creative entered the Old-As-Dirt-Club in March. Brian and I are writers with their landscape-based narratives. I’m really learning that Middle School breeds weirdness in otherwise excited to keep this trip going for years to come. (See page six normal kids. It seems to be a time of testing new and in this newsletter for a few images from Iceland.) highly irritating habits – from bottle flipping and spinners to vocal noises and gestures. Our kids tell us that they don’t do it nearly as much as every other kid in school. Seriously though, the kids are awesome. Nick is on a premier soccer team this year, so soccer is a year-round commitment for us. He has also taken up first-person-view quad racing. He builds and repairs his own quads and speaks to us in jargon that we barely comprehend. Daisy gave up formal gymnastics instruction and took up baking. She made an amazing cake for Brian’s 50th. She’s still an avid reader and has an amazing knack for creative writing. She has several novels in the works.

I hope the year has been wonderful for each of you and that next year is ever better! But hey, if it doesn’t turn out that way, remember – it could be worse, you could be in middle school.

The Atlas V Mission Launch as it rises above the clouds (NASA)

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FACULTY UPDATES CONTINUED:

D. JEFFREY OVER SCOTT GIORGIS It has been a fun year. Summer ’17 started with a trip to Hello Geneseo Geologists! It has been another good year Cincinnati with Lucas Ayers ‘20, Josie Chiarello ’19, Emily Hauf for Geneseo Geology. We had a large group of people take ’19, and Jin-Si. We spent time describing and sampling a core structural geology this year (40 students) and a pretty big through the Chattanooga Shale, took a field trip with Carl Brett field trip to the Adirondacks, Vermont, and the Catskills. and Chris Wade ’13 to look at Silurian carbonates, and then The weather was good for the most part and we only had headed to the wilds of Kentucky to visit Mammoth Cave and one group forget their tent (oops!). This spring I am collect geodes at Lick Creek. I then went to Spain for the working with Nick Warner to plan our January 2019 field International Conodont Symposium where I presented research trip to Death Valley and the Mojave in Southern California. on Devonian-Carboniferous work in the Dyer Formation. Samples I collected in the Pyrenees were then worked up and Beyond the field trips, research has also been moving Jin-Si and I had our first co-authored paper on the conodonts along. I started a new project looking at the flooding on from the Pas section and the D-C boundary, which she the southern shore of Lake Ontario and learned a lesson presented at the GSA meeting in Seattle. Josie and Emily also that would not be lost on many of you: the first thing you presented their work on the Chattanooga in Seattle. It was should always do on a project is talk to Young. He can good to see all the alums at the meeting and gathering. probably answer half of your questions already. Outside of NY, we are continuing to work on pluton emplacement in In the fall, the Department welcomed Zhang XinSong, a Ph.D. Utah and just received funding to visit a new location, the student from the University of Wuhan who came to Geneseo to Pine Valley Mountains. One of the reasons I love working work on Upper Devonian conodonts for a year. The retreat in Utah is that we have such a great alumni group in Salt was to the North Country where we had good weather while Lake City. I hope to see some of you out there this May. looking at Ordovician strata and glacial features while camping at Selkirk Shores State Park. Lastly, Dominick and Elena continue to enjoy hanging out in the department and scrawling graffiti on the white In the spring semester, I taught History of Life, Stratigraphy, boards. My favorite from this last year scribbled on a and a one-credit class in the Bahamas (San Salvador) during board just outside Amy’s office: “Poop. Scott Giorgis wrote spring break with Sid Bosch (Biology) and colleagues from that.” We are keeping it classy. It is always fun to hear SUNY-Onondaga. Post-spring break was really snowy, which from you and see you in person, here in Geneseo or out and made for difficulty in accessing field trip stops for Stratigraphy about. Please keep in touch. Cheers! – Seth Green Drive along Rochester gorge was closed! It also was a challenge getting to the NC-GSA meeting in Iowa where Nick Hogancamp ’13 gave an interesting talk and Emily and Josie also gave talks.

2018 is the last time Stratigraphy will be taught in the spring – we are moving it to the fall so I can continue to teach Sed Pet and Dinosaur as spring electives.

In family news, Jin-Si entered a MSc program at the University of Victoria, British Columbia in fall ‘17, where she is working on a microfossil and climate change project in the department of Geology and Oceanography.

The fall ’18 Structure Field trip on the Champlain Thrust in Burlington, VT.

From left to right: Jin-Si Over, Chris Waid ’13, DJO, Josie 4 Chiarello ’19, Emily Hauf ’19, and Lucas Ayers ’20.

In Other Noteworthy News: It’s the end of an “era” here in Geneseo. Dr. Richard Hatheway has truly truly retired! Below is a news article written about a

celebration of his 32 years as mayor of Geneseo. The GSCI department sings his praises and

wishes him (and Linda, too) all the best in his retirement.

The following appeared in the April 11, 2018

edition of the Genesee Sun:

Members of the proud Hatheway family as they celebrated Dr. Hatheway’s time as Geneseo’s mayor.

Hatheway Farewell a Toast to the Community

“In a special evening at the Big Tree Inn community members and colleagues gathered in a tribute to former mayor Richard Hatheway.

Hatheway served as the Mayor for 32 years and in his farewell comments cited the successes, numerous volunteer organizations in the commu nity and in a gracious moment of gratitude thanked his wife Linda.

“It’s not all about government, it’s about cooperation. It’s about utilizing the skills that other people bring to the table,” said Mayor Hatheway. “It’s all of you people that really make Geneseo what it is. It’s been a pleasure and an honor serving as your mayor.”

Geneseo Fire Chief Andrew Chanler was the host of the event and former Village Trustee and Deputy Mayor Sandra Brennan organized the evening.

Chief Chanler broke down the numbers over the years for Mayor Hatheway where over 32 years it covered 384 months, 768 Village Board meetings and approximately 1536 hours of meeting which he attended.

Numerous people spoke, joked and thanked the Mayor for his numerous contributions to the Village of Geneseo.

“The thing about Dick Hatheway is when you called him you always got a call back and you were always working towards a solution,” said Nick Mazza, former County Administrator. “Dick it was a pleasure working with you – at the county level and at the Village level. You were always working towards the best interests of the Village, Community and College.” -(Written by Josh Williams) 5

NEWS FROM THE STUDENTS:

GEOLOGY CLUB: This year, the Geneseo Geology Club raised money, organized departmental events and community outreach, and most importantly - talked about rocks.

This year's e-board organized monthly events, including a geological bingo night complete with rockin' prizes, movie night screenings of scientifically inaccurate apocalypse flicks, and even a Geology Formal. In March, Geology Club held peer advisement for younger students, and also took a group of students as representatives from the department to Festival of Ideas, an annual event held at nearby Brighton High School, to lead a 'Mineral & Fossil Fun' workshop for future geologists in grades K-5. A group photo of the faculty and students who A great time was had by all! participated in the Bahamas course and trip (The Biology and Geology of Coral Reefs). The Geology Club also underwent some restructuring and opened up its weekly meetings to all so that it could help strengthen bonds between all majors. Communication between students and faculty was a priority, and major inroads were made to improve relations. Although this year's Geology Club had its faults, the faculty will concede that they were mostly stress-related.

A class photo from the 2018 Iceland course. They are all lounging on Ogmundarhraun (a 12th century lava flow) before continuing on their adventure to see a homestead ruin buried by the historic eruption.

Geode searching in “Geode Valley,” KY thanks to excellent directions from Farthing. (from left to right: Gavin Gleasman ’19 estimating the strike of normal faults in Thingvellir National Park, Iceland with a Brunton Jin-Si Over, Lucas Ayers ’20, Emily Hauf ’19, and Josie Chiarello ’19. compass. Photo by Tim Williams ’19.

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STUDENT AWARDS AND ACCOLADES: OTHER GSCI EVENTS FROM 2018:

NSF AWARDS Julianne Sweeney '17 has won an NSF Graduate Fellowship in the area of Geosciences. Sweeney will be using this fellowship at Syracuse where she will be studying hydrogeology this fall.

Nicholas Sullivan '10 is presently in a Ph.D. program at University of Wisconsin-Madison was named Honorable Mention in the area of Geosciences/Paleoclimate.

Honorable mention also went to Janelle Goeke '16 (Geology minor) who is currently in a Ph.D. program in Coastal Ecology at Texas A&M Galveston.

In Seattle, 33 current students, faculty, alumni and friends gathered for an evening of good food and conversation! It was great to see all of you. We look forward to seeing folks again in Indianapolis! (Thanks to Brandy Rink for this image.) GSA AWARD Josie Chiarello ’19 was awarded First Place in the Undergraduate Student Oral Presentations at the 2018 North-Central Section meeting of the Geological Society of America in Ames, Iowa. She presented work mentored by Dr. Jeff Over and her talk was entitled: “Late Devonian Conodonts and Facies from the Shallow Shelf Strata of the Broken Rib and Coffee Pot Members, Dyer Formation, Chaffee Group, Central Colorado.”

Phi Beta Kappa Inductee: Amelia D. Mindich ’18

Megathlin Award: Amelia D. Mindich ’18

In recognition of outstanding academic achievement Thanks to Matt Golembeck for being this year’s American Rock Salt and service for a graduating senior Lecturer. He gave a great talk about how geology informs landing on Mars and exploring our neighboring planet. His talk filled Field Camp Award: Paul Nichols ’18 Newton 202 with members of the local and campus community who Supported by the Herbert Sheldon Field Camp all came away with a better appreciation for how geology informs planetary exploration. Award and the Bob Sirianni ’07 Field Camp Award

Geology Alumni Scholarship: Margaret Deahn ’21 Scholarships given to continuing students in Summer REUs, Internships, Research Assistants, etc. recognition of outstanding academic skills. Josie Chiarello ’19 and Scott Booth ’20: National Science Foundation (NSF) REU Agate Award: Amelia D. Mindich ’18 Jake Okun ’19 and Tim Williams ’19: Awarded to seniors with strong academic records SUNY Geneseo GSCI Department Summer

Research Awards Geology Service Award: Casey Hoffman ’18 Angela Curto ’20 and Liz Spizuoco ’19:

American Rock Salt Internships

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HAZWOPER TRAINING AND A THANK YOU… In May 2018, group of students and staff (including Chemistry staff) signed up for OSHA-associated Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HazWoper) Training. 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. Instructional Support Technician Dr. Sarah Gaudio coordinated all the details for the training on campus.

All participants completed the on-line 24-hour HazWoper Occasional Site Worker Training Program. The Geology Fund and the Chemistry Department sponsored the second part of the training--- the 16-hour OSHA HazWoper Practical and Hands-on Training. The participants really appreciated this opportunity and wrote you a note of thanks….

No geologists were harmed in the making of this photograph…they were all well trained! (Thanks to Sarah Gaudio for the photo.) The training group gets practice putting on safety suits and guidance about how to work in a chemically contaminated setting. (Thanks to Sarah Gaudio for the photo.)

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CONGRATULATIONS TO THE GRADUATING CLASS OF 2018!

Graduating Seniors – May 2018

Adele Antalek Allison G. Bargabos William E. Barnes Isaac B. Bilinski

Harry W. Cassetta Anna Chinchilli *

Juliana R. Conlon Alison Cook *

Cole A. Farnam Nicole L. Gregg

Melissa S. Hartwig Paige R. Havener

Casey Hoffman Anne E. Kelly

Mary K. Legawiec Klajdi Macolli

Ryan McKendry * Leanna M. McLane

Jeremy G. Medina Amelia D. Mindich

Ashley B. Monti Carolien N. Mossel

Paul Nichols Elizabeth Pellegrino

Deborah Pierson Brandon Perpall

Chrisanne Ross * Brennan M. Voorheis

Gregory C. Vouzianas

* December 2017 Graduate Our proud crew of 2018 graduates!

Graduate School and Internship Plans: Adele Antalek: Richard Gilder Graduate School at The American Museum of Natural History (NY) Mary Legawiec: Queen Mary University of London (UK) Juliana Conlon: University of Waterloo (Canada) Chrisanne Ross: University of Waikato (NZ) Cole Farnam: University of Cincinnati (OH) Lizzie Pellegrino: University of Montana Another photo of part of our graduating class that includes Ashley Monti: some ’17 graduates as well as graduates who finished their Geotenerife Internship in the Canary Islands degree in December ’17. (Thanks to Abby Dennett ’17 for Anna Chinchilli: the photo.) Geocorps Internship at Mendocino National Forest

(As a side note, many of our recent graduates have just recently been accepted into graduate programs. Congratulations to all!)

Some graduation thoughts from one of our newest alumni…( thanks for letting us include them!): “As I start to wrap up my senior year, I have been feeling really sappy and emotional (surprise, surprise). Just wanted to say thank you

to Geneseo Geology for giving me the opportunity to have met and become friends with all of these lovely individuals. There truly is no other department like ours. I love you all, thank you for an awesome four years here!” -ML 9