Geology Department N e w s l e t t e r

Western University

Department News 2009-2010

Happy 2010! The Department of Geology is once again happy to have the chance to share some of the happenings of the past year with our alumni and friends. As you’ll notice when reading this newsletter, we have had another busy, successful year here in Macomb. Luckily, all of the budget problems in the state of Illinois haven’t caused us to change our activities yet. Speaking of budgets, we are proud to announce that you, our alumni, donate at a higher dollar amount per capita than any of the departments in the College of Arts and Sciences! Our small but active department rarely beats those departments with hundreds of majors (e.g. Biological Sciences, English and Journalism, Psy- chology) at anything so Dr. Calengas was suitably proud of our alumni when these figures were shared at a College meeting.

We do have a couple new faces in the Geology Department this year. To offset the loss in enroll- ment caused by offering a small-enrollment Freshman section of our Introduction to the Earth course (Geol 110), the College agreed to hire an instructor to teach an additional section of Geol 110 each semester. The instructor we hired, Sara Bennett, was already quite familiar with the de- partment since she came to Macomb with me in 1994. Our other new member of the Department is our secretary Diane Edwards. Diane joined us mid-year and has immediately fit right in. She is not unfamiliar with Tillman Hall as, in years past, she worked for the Department of Geography. We haven’t asked her if we are better than Geography, but we know the answer anyway (and she is smart enough not to answer such a silly question).

To facilitate the interaction of the Department with our alumni we have created a WIU Geology Department Facebook page. To view it and become a fan you can search for it on Facebook or go to the Geology Department web site (www.wiu.edu/geology/) and click the Facebook link on the left side of the page. This page will make it much easier to share photos of our recent field trips and other Departmental events with our students and ―extended family‖ off campus. We’re thinking about making a WIU Geology Department Twitter account but we want to wait and see how this Facebook thing works out first. Steve Bennett ([email protected]) Alumni Newsletter Editor

The Geology picnic was held at Horn Field Campus last spring, which offered plenty of room for volleyball. Some attendees even made use of the climbing tower after the pic- Geology faculty and students at our annual Bonding nic. (Photo by Amy Brock) Night held at Aurelio‟s Pizza P a g e 2 Geology Department Newsletter

Leslie Melim

You'd think that without Field Camp, I'd spend more of the summer at home...not! I put over 10,000 miles on my little Subaru with two trips to Texas (research at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX and a meeting) and a separate trip to New Mexico for field work. You can bet I heard about it from my cats (all three of them...in chorus!). All that travel and hard work paid off with two papers, several talks and lots of good data. Three students worked with me during the year: Dan Gustafson finished up his project on the statistics of cave pools and presented at the Annual GSA Meeting in Portland, OR even though he graduated in May. His graduate school even helped pick up the tab (since WIU will only help current stu- dents). We had quite a crowd at GSA this year with myself and Dr. Amy Brock, two students presenting (Dan, '09 and Matt Mayerle, senior), and two alumni just checking it out (Randi Leischiedt, '09, Jonathan Love, '09). A good time was had by all (and it didn't even rain every day, a plus for Portland!). Derek Clark and John Chawula spent 2 weeks in the Carlsbad area describing yet more pools in Carlsbad Caverns and spending a couple of days in Cottonwood Cave. John had fun being "scale" (see photo--yep, it is right-side up. You should of seen it from the other side as he hung over an edge ;-). Both then completed re- search projects in the fall. Derek did his project on "Classification of Pool Fingers from Carlsbad Cavern" and then graduated. John finished his on "Classifying Cave Pools in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico" and has one more semester John Chawula in Cottonwood Cave with to graduate. spectacular pool fingers and u-loops (all the Per usual, there was a big home remodel project—this time during the semester drippy looking mineral). He had to hang timed so I could work on it over Spring Break. It was a big one—completing redo- upside-down over the edge for nearly 10 ing the kitchen. I took it down to the studs and started over. Well, my contractor minutes while our cave photographer got the did. It was too much for me alone. The result is spectacular. That finishes my right shot. Photo by Kenneth Ingham. house, I have remodeled it completely, inside and out. Now I'll just have to make the furniture to furnish it! Papers and Talks (undergrad co-authors underlined):

Boston, P.J., Spilde, M.N., Northup, D.E., Curry, M.C., Melim, L.A., and Rosales-Lagarde, L. 2009. Microorganisms as speleo- genetic agents: Geochemical diversity but geomicrobial unity, in Klimchouk, A.B. and Ford, D.C. eds., Hypogene Speleo- genesis and Karst Hydrology of Artesian Basins. Special Paper 1: 51-58. Ukrainian Inst. Speleology & Karstology, Simfer- opol, Ukraine. 280 pp.

Gustafson, D. Melim, L A., Kooser, Ara, Northup, D.E., Study of Cave Pools in Carlsbad Cavern, New Mexico: Controls on Bio- them Distribution, Annual Meeting Geological Society of America, Portland, Or., Presented October 20, 2009; Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 41, No. 7, p. 399

Kooser, A., Crossey, L. Northup, D., Spilde, M. and Melim, L., 2009, Geomicrobiology and hydrology of pool precipitates in the Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico, USA. Proceedings 15th International Congress of Speleology, v. 3, p. 1562-1567.

Melim, L.A. and Spilde, M.N., 2009, Astounding Rates of Precipitation and Recrystallization Iin Experimental Cave Pearls in an Underground Limestone Mine, Annual Meeting Geological Society of America, Portland, Or., Presented October 20, 2009.; 9; Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 41, No. 7, p. 399

Melim, L.A., Gustafson, D., Kooser, A, Northup, D.E., and Spilde, M.N., 2009, The geology of cave pools: Clues for the microbi- ology, 15th International Congress of Speleology, Kerrville, TX, Proceedings, p. 397-398.

Melim, L.A., Liescheidt, R.L., Northup, D.E., Spilde, M.N., Boston, P.J. and Queen, J.M., 2009, A biosignature suite from cave pool precipitates, Cottonwood Cave, New Mexico, Astrobiology, v. 9, pp. 907-917. Geology Department Newsletter P a g e 3

A my B r o c k

Happy 2010! 2009 was a fun and busy year for me. In the spring I taught Glacial Geology (Geol 421) and team-taught Natural Disasters (Geog 430). The Glacial Geology class had a fun trip to Wisconsin and Kettle Moraine State Park that involved a hunt for the elusive Elephant Rock. I also visited a number of area schools and spoke with students about Ge- ology and Geology Careers. Over the summer, Geology major Matt Mayerle and I took a trip to Nevada to start a map- ping project funded by the USGS EdMap program. We spent a couple of weeks mapping Neogene and younger sediments and surfaces north of Las Vegas. It was hot but we cov- ered a lot of ground and will be going out in this winter break to do some final field check- ing. Matt was able to travel to Portland, Oregon to the GSA Annual Meeting and present his preliminary map as a poster. We received a lot of excellent feedback and are looking forward to submitting our final map at the end of the spring semester. This summer I also traveled with my mom to the Big Island of Hawaii where we stayed several nights in Vol- cano next to Kilauea. It was awesome! Fall involved a trip to Portland to present my research at the GSA meeting. I was able to get out to see Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens. I’ve been plugging away on a paper that I hope to get submitted soon that reports a new way to view the internal features of highly indurated soil materials. My co-authors and I have a publication coming out in GSA Bulle- Amy on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. tin that we worked hard on. It’s nice to have that finally finished up, submitted, and ac- cepted. The Geology Club had a great trip to the Field Museum that included a behind the scenes tour that included the storage of large specimens in the basement and meteorites. On the home front, I adopted two kittens (Hutton and Indi) who keep me thoroughly entertained and are always in trouble. I’m looking forward to a great 2010 and hope everyone has a great year! Make sure to keep in touch with us!

Kyle Mayborn It has been another good year here at WIU. I have been steadily transfer- ring the lectures for my upper divisions classes into PowerPoint. It has been fun incorporating pictures from previous years fieldtrips into the lectures. One of which was a really good picture of joint hackles from this year’s fieldtrip to north- ern Wisconsin. The trip also contained new stops to look at some of the Keween- naw rift volcanics. It was a good trip with a great group of students. It’s also nice to report that I had seventeen students in Mineralogy this year. That’s the biggest Mineralogy class I have had since starting in 2000 and it looks like next year’s class will be similar. In anticipation of having a larger group than normal I had Bob Johnson replicate some of the wooden blocks for Mineralogy. I gave him some hard ones with a lot of faces, but sure enough he was able to reproduce all of Kyle at the rim of a phreatic crater in Death them. It sure made Mineralogy exams a lot easier to administer. Valley. Photo by Mari Mayborn. On the research front I had a student present at regional GSA in Rockford, Illinois and also took a student with me for fieldwork in northern Wisconsin. Ryan Hubb worked with me on modeling the differentiation history of mafic and syenitic dikes from southern Greenland. He did a great job and was able to present a poster at the North-Central Section GSA meeting. I also started some new research on the Mellen Complex in northern Wisconsin. Randy Gustafson (WIU undergrad) and I spent a few days collecting samples from the Mineral Lake Intrusion. We also got a few samples from the mafic dikes that cut the intrusion. Randy is currently working on the petrography of the samples for his undergraduate research project. On the personal front, Mari is working hard to realizing her dream of being a speaker and a writer. She has given a few talks this year and currently has a article under consideration by a webzine editor. This will be an interesting year for her. Chris- tina is a junior at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. She is excited because she gets to spend the spring semester in England. As for me I managed to play in eight disc golf tournaments this year. I played reasonably well and had a lot of fun. But, my new- est hobby is trail running. Getting out into the woods and running is a blast and I managed to run in a few races this past fall. I’m planning on running in a few more races this year. I hope that all is going well for you. Please send me an email, I would love to hear how everyone is doing (KR- [email protected]). P a g e 4 Geology Department Newsletter

Peter Calengas

Hello to all of you! I hope this note finds you all in good health and spirit. The department is doing well, and thanks to your support, we have been able to further increase the support of scholarships and travel to professional meetings by our majors to present their undergraduate research and still maintain our many in-class field trips and our biennial field camp. I continue to teach Geology 113 (Energy and Earth Resources) in the Fall and at Quad Cities during the sum- mer intersession. I also continue to teach Geology 375 (Environmental Geology) as a world wide web course! On the professional side, I continue to serve as a consultant to the Industrial Minerals sector, on roof control and industrial mineral prospects. Best wishes to everyone, and if you are ever in the region, please stop in and say hello!

Diane Edwards

After 18 months of retirement from WIU Libraries administrative office, I have returned fulltime to WIU as Geology’s departmental secretary. I am delighted to be working with such a fine group. Kristie Parkins accepted a promotion to the Department of Social Work. Kudos to her! I hope to keep the department running as efficiently as both Kristie and Vicki did. I started my new position in Geology on December 14, 2009 and could tell immediately that a great respect for fellow colleagues and dedication to professions exists amongst faculty. What an awesome feeling to be a part of this team! I look forward to learning all I can and serving our students. There’s nothing like going home at the end of the day and knowing that you have truly helped someone. My husband, Steve, and I reside about five miles east/southeast of Rushville, so I’m a commuter to campus. We also own a welding/steel sales business in Beardstown. Our two children are out of the nest and have given us 5 grandchildren and a step-grandson – ages range from 3 months to 15 years. Son, Adam works with Steve in the family business. Daughter Amy is an OB/Gyn in Springfield. Last summer the five grandsons all played ball either in Rush- ville or Springfield. I was never at a loss for something to do. Alums, please feel free to call or contact us at any time. It’s always good to hear from you and learn what’s going on in your life. There’s something about WIU that keeps drawing us back – fond memories, I would guess. Thank you for your continued support. Bob Johnson

Epoxy coat, sand, fill, sand…, Opie inches closer to the finish line. The anchor points are installed and should be up to the task of supporting his mass. This might be a bit misleading as I expect the finished weight will be well under 100 lbs., not anywhere close to the ½ ton weight the living animal could approach. As Ichthyo- saurs go, Opie should be quite impressive. Randy Gustafson has taken the assistant’s spot held by his brother Dan and continues the fine finishing work that Dan started. Thank you, Dan. In addi- tion to my Geology duties you can see my efforts in the issues of Focus that appear in your mailbox twice a year. I am the graphics/ layout editor for the College of Arts and Sciences magazine. On more personal notes, my daughter Nancy married Steve Cope in July. The wedding was lovely. Everyone had a good time, and no one got obnoxious. See photo ―Bob busts a move‖. As for the 2009 Heart of Illinois Stunt Championships, I again finished victorious in a very small field. The weather was nearly perfect and I got a sunburn to go with my first place certificate. Happily, I am no longer the only control line flyer in Macomb. Tony Lang is the new piano technician for the Music Department and a fellow aeromodeler as well. It’s really nice to have some- one to practice and share stories with. Who knows, maybe my skills will improve. I’m even expanding a bit into radio control fly- ing. Geology Department Newsletter P a g e 5

Jack Bailey

Ye-Haw! Howdy, Gang, Yep, it’s me again, the ol’ hillbilly, still alive and kicking after all these years. I reckon retirement (pronounced ―retarment‖ where I come from) ain’t so far away – just around the corner. Oh, I reckon I’ll still haunt Tillman, work on clams and such, but I’ve got a serious itch to spend quality time becoming reacquainted with the hills and hollers of Appalachia in search of mountain culture and down-home cookin’. Speaking of food (never far from my mind), have you folks ever heard of Marlinton, ? Well, every year they hold a big shindig down there called the ―Roadkill Cook-off‖. (Visualize coon-huntin’ combined with NASCAR!) And the best part is you don’t even need a hunting license – just gas up the pickup and pump up the retreads. Anything you flatten on the highway can compete at the Roadkill Cook-off where their motto is, ―You kill it, and we’ll grill it.‖ I read about some of their tasty ―interstate‖ special- ties: ―thumper meets bumper‖, ―spicy smeared deer‖, and ―bumper-bruised barbecued black bear‖ (an alliterative masterpiece!). Possum brains also seem to be popular; but I reckon they can be gamey tasting if there’s too much asphalt; they say coon brains are sweeter. Next, you could head on over to the annual Livermush Cook-off in Marion, North Carolina, where barbecue is accompanied by the bluegrass rhythms of the New Skillet Lickers, and the combined cacophony of the flat-foot buck dancin’ contest and ―Tractor-Cruise-in‖. (If you don’t know, livermush is a pan-fried concoction of ground liver mixed with beaten eggs, grits, spices, and lard.) Finally, it’s on to Lawrenceburg, Kentucky for the State’s official dish, BURGOO! (Burgoo is a kind of thick made of beef, chicken, lamb, cabbage, carrots, onions, celery, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, and most anything else that’s half-way edible, i.e., beans, peas, okra, threadbare overalls, etc. Looks a little like dogfood but I think it tastes way better! I’m told that I’m supposed to be using this space to summarize my professional activities this past year, so here goes: In addition to staying busy teaching historical geology (Geology 112) and invertebrate paleontology (Geology 330), I’m still doing Paleozoic clam research. Since my last newsletter blurb, I’ve published two papers (I think I told you folks about these last year -- they were in works back then): BAILEY, J. B. 2009. Shell orientation terminology among the Bivalvia (Mollusca): Problems and proposed solutions. Jour- nal of Paleontology, 83(3):493–495. PECK, R. L, J. B. BAILEY, R. J. HECK, and N. T. SCAIFF. 2009. X-ray CT scan as an aid to identification and description of a new bivalve species (Molllusca) from the Mississippian Bluefield Formation, Southeastern West Virginia. Journal of Paleontology, 83(6):954–961. Back in November, I finished a new monograph on solemyid bivalves from the Pennsylvanian Mazon Creek Fauna of Illinois. Solemyids are commonly called ―awning clams‖ – very interesting little critters that burrow in stagnant muds. Most lack a digestive tract, instead using the metabolic energy released by chemosymbiotic sulfur-oxidizing bacteria living within their gills. I hope to see the study published late in 2010. Try as I might to shake loose from dinosaurs, my past research on ―humpbacked‖ dinosaurs still seems to stir up some interest. After working with National Geographic magazine on an article a couple of years ago, I’m currently advising the BBC in London on African dinosaurs for an upcoming video update to the Walking with Dinosaurs series. On a final note, I said a sad farewell to my 22-year old Honda Accord, replacing it with a 2009 Honda Fit. Although I love my new Fit, the appearance really takes some getting used to -- looks like something designed by Klingons. (I can’t find the switch for the cloaking device yet, but I’ll swear it’s here somewhere!) Well, other than that, things are about the same as usual except my beard is whiter, my hair is thinner, and gravity is taking its unrelenting toll. Best wishes to all. Keep smiling! Jack ―Life may be a lot simpler if you plow around the stumps, but if you BLOW UP the stumps, life is a lot more exciting!‖ ―…things are about the same as usual…‖ P a g e 6 Geology Department Newsletter

Steve Bennett

Greetings everyone! I hope the last year has treated you well. I continue to keep busy teaching Hydrogeology, Introduction to the Earth, Geologic Field Methods, and a summer section of Oceanography. In an effort to help prepare our students for the workplace or graduate school, I continue to slowly change Geologic Field Methods such that the students create their projects using com- puter software. There is not use fighting it, the days of hand-inked maps are gone. I continue to serve on various committees on and off campus, am Treasurer for the Illinois Groundwater Association, and serve as advisor for our chapter of Sigma Gamma Epsilon. I also produce this newsletter and maintain the Geology Department website so if you have any questions, concerns, criti- cism, rants, etc. about either of these please feel free to contact me (SW- [email protected]). Me and my sons struck a pose for Sara during a hike I’ve begun working on some projects with the WIU Geographic Information in Rocky Mountain National Park last summer. Systems (GIS) Center. Nothing worthy of publication yet, but we have ongo- What a beautiful place, I could go there every year. ing interests in the Vishnu (Photo by Sara Bennett) Springs property, WIU’s Fink property, and a site in the Illinois river bottoms near Beardstown that has some inter- esting geomorphic features. I can’t wait for the weather to improve so we can do more fieldwork! My sons are growing like weeds and their activities keep us busy most weekends with basketball, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and 4H. This spring and summer will bring soc- cer, baseball, Boy Scout Camp, Art Camp, 4H County Fair, and maybe even some unscheduled free time! I continue to play softball in the Macomb summer leagues, and I made the mistake of playing on two teams last summer. Since the Macomb leagues typically play two games each night I often played four games in two days. With apologies to you St. Louis Cardinals fans, I could have used the ―Mark McGwire Diet and Fitness Program‖ to help me recover quicker (not improve my Me, WIU GIS Center employees Tim Schroll, performance.) I continue to play disc golf as time permits and enjoy traveling to tour- and Chad Sperry located a secondary spring naments with Kyle Mayborn. at the Vishnu Springs property by georefer- encing a 100-year-old plat map and using a If you are in the Macomb area please drop by the Geology Department. We love to GPS. We plan to do more investigating at the see our alumni and hear what they are up to. We also enjoy receiving email updates site when it is warmer out!(Photo by Chad from our alums and, as mentioned on the first page of this newsletter, have started a Sperry) WIU Geology Department Facebook page to facilitate information sharing between the Department and alumni throughout the year. Best wishes in 2010!

Sara Bennett

I just completed teaching my first semester of Introductory Geology, lecture and lab! I greatly enjoyed teaching lab classes in graduate school at University and it was fun to get back into the thick of it. Thanks to PowerPoint and the awesome depths of the Internet, I spend a por- tion of my day updating images and information concerning the lecture material I discuss in class. I find my past experiences working three summers at the USGS in Indianapolis (looking for stream erosion along bridge piers) gives me useful anecdotes to mention in class. My experiences working at Carlsbad Caverns National Park as an undergraduate and my visits to other great places of geologic importance give me great inspiration for class discourse. My main goal is to develop lecture material that allows me to express my enthusiasm for geology and hopefully im- part some of that enthusiasm to the students taking the class. My next goal is to use simple yet useful demonstrations in class to help improve knowledge flow for the students. My most favorite all time activity is to take long hikes in National Parks. While I have your attention, I would like to encourage everyone who hasn’t done so yet to try wild caving and rappelling. If you can rappel in a cave then all the better! Have fun and enjoy the outdoors! Geology Department Newsletter P a g e 7

Geology Field Trips Rock! (bad pun, I know)

2009 Graduates Derek Clark John-Franklin Dzuryak Students in Dr. Mayborn‟s Spring, 2009 Petrology/Structural Geology field trip take Daniel Gustafson a break on an igneous metabreccia of the Mellen Igneous Complex in Wisconsin. Kevin Moon (Photo by Kyle Mayborn)

Dr. Melim stops to explain an outcrop in Giant City State Park during our annual Fall field trip. The WIU group took part in the SEPM field trip to locations in southern Illinois. (Photo by Amy Brock) Schafer Field Camp Scholarships Andrew Armstrong Randy Gustafson Who hasn‟t looked at a geologic map of an area on a picnic table during a geologic field trip? Students in Dr. Mayborn‟s Spring, 2009 Petrology/Structural Geology got to experience this right-of-passage for aspiring geologists.(Photo by Kyle Mayborn)

A geology student poses by a weathering phenomenon known as tafoni that was well-developed in the sandstone exposures at Giant City State Park, Illinois. (Photo by Amy Brock) P a g e 8 Newsletter Title Geology Department Newsletter

John Klasner

It doesn’t seem possible that we've lived in Marquette, Michigan for nearly five years. We moved here in the spring of 2005 after looking several years for a place to retire. Friends from Macomb wondered about our sanity--moving north to a cold, isolated region such as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. But it has turned out well for us. Gretchen's brother lives nearby and we do enjoy winter sports. Also, Marquette is a beehive of activity. There are always things to do. We keep busy with volunteer activities and do a lot of traveling, especially to visit our kids who are scattered from Rochester, New York to Seward, Alaska. If you should be traveling this way--Marquette is on the way to everywhere--be sure to look us up. The scenery is great and the geology is inspiring. We'd be happy to show you around. Our address is: 5 Red Fox Trail, Mar- quette, Michigan; our phone number is (906) 249 1348 and our email address is [email protected]. We'd love to see you. Be sure to look us up. Willard McCracken

Will McCracken and wife Gail have moved from our two story Townhome to a one story patio home. We are less than a mile from a 20-plus square mile flood basin (in Terry Hershey Park, Houston). There are lots of biking and hiking trails in the park with a diversity of wildlife. Two days ago a large mountain lion was sighted by two hikers. Abundant exotic wild- life (not normally seen in the city) include possums, moccasins and rattlesnakes, and alligators. This area is underlain by Pleistocene sand and clay deposits of the Beaumont Formation. When I was in high school, we (Science Club) made a ma- jor discovery of a Mastodon in the clay deposits along Buffalo Bayou. We enjoy our four cats which have become our "children". Our cats have become our "Masters" and have trained us to re- spond to their every need. In return we get a lot of affection in the form of cuddling, purring and kissing (licking). Students and colleagues are always welcome to visit us. My cell phone is 713-252-7004. Kristie Parkins

Greetings from WIU to our wonderful friends and Geology alumni. It’s been quite a year, hasn’t it? I hope all of you are doing well! 2009 brought many changes to my family, as I’m sure it did to yours also. I kept up with my classes for spring, but I had to take the fall off because my husband and I welcomed a beautiful baby girl to our family in September. Lauren Grace is such a wonder- ful addition to our already-full household! She is as sweet as they come, and her sister and brothers love her to pieces. Speaking of her siblings, all 3 of my older kids are in school this year! It’s so hard for me to believe that my ―baby‖ (who is no longer a baby!) is in Pre-K this year. He’s done well at adjusting to a new routine, but it helps that he has a cousin in his class, and an older brother and sister watching out for him. Drew spends as much time outside as possible. He loves skateboarding and biking, and participated in his last season of tag football. Next year, I’m afraid, will be the real thing. And finally, Paige has kept us very busy this year with tumbling events. She qualified for USTA nationals, and placed third at the Jr. Olympics. Her tumbling and dance team were invited to perform at the half-time show for the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on New Year’s Day also. That was quite an experience for all of us! Another change that I made was a very difficult decision to promote out of the Geology Department. I’ve loved work- ing with the faculty (and Bob too!) dur- ing my 3 years at WIU. I’m going to miss them all dearly, but I’m still close by in the Social Work Department. It’s been a bit of an adjustment, but I’m fi- nally getting used to a new routine. I hope you’ll send a warm welcome to Diane Edwards who is taking over my desk in Tillman. She’s done a wonder- ful job so far at picking up where I left off. I wish you all the best in 2010 and beyond. I would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone for making the Geology Department such a successful department. I hope you all continue to keep in touch! V o l u m e 1 , IGeology s s u e 1 Department Newsletter P a g e 9

Alumnus Tom Williams’s Fossil Discovery

We received an interesting note from Thomas C. “Tom” Williams, a geology alumnus who graduated from WIU back in 1980. Tom subsequently received his Masters in geohydrology form ISU and currently works as an Environmental Protection Geologist with the Illinois EPA. In the summer of 2009, Tom made a spectacular discovery while hunting for fossils in the Pierre Shale of Nebraska with a group called Paleo Prospectors, based at Gainesville State College, Georgia. On a cold cloudy afternoon, Tom noticed portions of the jaw of a mosa- saur, an extinct marine reptile related to modern monitor lizards. Subsequent digging with the team leader, Dr. Steven Niklas, revealed teeth, vertebrae, ribs and much more – a nearly complete skeleton of Tylosaurus – a mosasaurian apex predator of the Cretaceous seas. The remainder of the skeleton was excavated by the team in July and August of 1980, and restoration of the skeleton will begin in the of Spring, 2010.

Thomas Craig Williams, M.S

Left: Tylosaur locality, Pierre Shale, Nebraska. Right: Photos of vertebrae and ribs of the tylosaur prior to excavation.

Alumnus Dan Gusta- fason („09) poses with current major Mat- thew Mayerle at the National GSA Con- vention in Portland, Oregon

Alumnus Nathan Webb („07) poses with a poster of his graduate research that he presented at the North-Central Section GSA meeting in Rockford, Illinois. His poster was titled “Factors Influencing the Distribution of the Illinoian Ridged Drift of Southwestern Illinois‖ P a g e 10 Geology Department Newsletter

20 Years Later: Field Camp 1990

Kneeling in front, left to right — Lynn Sonkin, Kim Horton, Cathy McCormack Standing, left to right — Chuck Gnuse, Scott McGill, Dr. Archbold, ―Kay‖ Ifekoya, Alen Curtiss, Dr. Calengas, Doug Branden, Jeff Crockett, Paul Glubczynski, Michele Poe, Joe Stambaugh, Jennifer Seul (Photo by Dennis Wells)

Steve Bennett presents the W.A. Tarr Award to John-Franklin Dzuryak. This award is given annu- ally to a Sigma Gamma Epsilon member for their contributions to the local SGE chapter. The national office send the certificate and, for the past two years, a check for $50 to the award winner. Geology Department Newsletter P a g e 11

Undergraduate Research Presentations

Geology alumnus Ryan Hubb („09) poses next to the poster of Geology major Matthew Mayerle and advisor Dr. the undergraduate research he conducted with Dr. Kyle May- Amy Brock pose next to the poster they presented born. Their poster, titled “Fractional Crystallization Modeling at the National GSA Convention in Portland, Ore- of the Syenitic and Basaltic Dike Suites of the Gardar Province, gon. The poster was titled “Preliminary map of Southern Greenland” was presented at the North-Central Sec- late Neogene and younger sediments in the western tional GSA Meeting in Rockford, Illinois. portion of the overton, Ne 7.5 minute quadrangle Nevada”.

Donations The Geology Department would like to thank the individuals and organizations listed below for their donations. Your generous gifts have allowed us to provide scholarships, defray student costs of field trips, purchase scientific equipment for use in undergraduate research, and cover registration fees and travel expenses of students presenting research at geologic conferences. Again, thank you!

Mary Allen (’87) Charles Gnuse (’91) (Matching for S. Koza) Bruce Souder (’83) Timothy Aten (’85) Terry Gordon (’74) David McBride (’56) Holly Stein (’76) AT&T Foundation (Matching Stephen Gustafson (’98) Robert McGaughy (’81) Sheri Stevens (’93) for T. Gordon) Frank Halcomb (’73) Joseph McKee (’83) Daniel Stowe (’83) Thomas Bartles (’72) Todd Hall (’96) Robert Olson (’86) Timothy Tessendorf (’75) Dennis Bomke (’76) David Higgins (’78) Petersen Environmental Susan Turner (’95) Margaret Branson Steven Holthe (’84) LLC Dorothy Tynal (’83) Craig Brown (’97) Sandra Jankowski-Rose Kim Perez (’76) Eric Tyrrell (’85) Peter Calengas (’78) Harley Ponsler (’74) Scott Walters (’81) John Carl (’85) William Jardine (’85) Spencer Quam (’77) Mitchell Weller (’07) Julie Dunai (’85) William Johnson (’85) Stanley Robinson (’77) Kristen Woody (’00) Jeffrey Durrant (’77) Philip Kaminski (’07) Lora Rosenhauer (’78) David Wronkiewicz (’82) John Franklin Dzuryak (’09) Marvin Klusman (’67) Robert Rozen (’73) Anna Efnor (’89) Scott Koza (’01) Ginny Rust (’04) EOG Resources Inc. Marathon Oil Founda- Stephen Shafer (’83) (Matching for K. Perez) tions Inc/US Penny Silzer (’85) Department of Geology Non-Profit Organization Western Illinois University U.S. POSTAGE Macomb, IL 61455 PAI D

Phone: 309-298-1151 Fax: 309-298-3399 E-mail: [email protected]

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Recent Field Trips

(Left) Geology club members react in terror to “Sue” during a field trip to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

(Right) Dr. Brock and students in her Spring 2009 Glacial Geology course pose next to a sand quarry in Wedron, Illinois.