1999 Newsletter the University of Texas at Austin Department of Geological Sciences Mark Cloos, Chairman Department of Geological Sciences
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1999 Newsletter The University of Texas at Austin Department of Geological Sciences Mark Cloos, Chairman Department of Geological Sciences William L. Fisher, Director Geology Foundation Mary Koch Managing Editor Margaret L. Evans Layout and Design Photos by Joseph Jaworski No State-appropriated funds were used to publish this newsletter. This Page: Old fence showing cedar posts exhumed by Hurricane Carla waves at Gulf Beach, Port Aransas, September 1961, after burial by dunes for unknown period of time but possibly 60 to 70 years. There was no trace of wire or staples on the fence posts. Photo provided by Ernest L. Lundelius. 1999 Newsletter The University of Texas at Austin Department of Geological Sciences Cover: See related story inside. (1). An aerial tramway takes workers from the mill area at a 10,000-foot elevation to the Ertsberg office complex 2 3 next to the Ertsberg pit at 12,000 feet. Photo provided by 1 4 Mark Cloos. (2). Roy Luck (right) leads field trip in 1998 for PT Freeport Indonesia geologists at the Lime Quarry, the site of some of his M.S. thesis work. Photo provided by 7 55 Mark Cloos. (3). View looking south near the top of the Heavy Equipment Access Trail (HEAT Road) at 13,000-foot elevation with Ridge Camp barracks and workshops in the distance at 7,000-foot elevation. This road provides 8 6 direct vehicle access to the Grasberg Mine. Benyamin Sapiie mapped every structural feature along this winding road as part of his dissertation studies. Photo provided by Mark Cloos. (4). The access road to the Ertsberg mining district. This spectacular road, an engineering marvel, was carved into the mountainside in 1969. Widening of the road in the early 1990’s provided fresh outcrops that were the basis of detailed stratigraphic and structural analysis by Andrew Quarles van Ufford and Benyamin Sapiie. The foreground roadcuts are lower Paleozoic strata. The top right peak is Zaagham Mountain, underlain by Mesozoic clastics. The top left ridge is underlain by Cenozoic limestone and capped with the glacial ice at a 15,000-foot elevation. Photo provided by Mark Cloos. (5). The UT Ertsberg team arrives at overlook for Grasberg Mine. (Front row from left to right) Eric James, Benyamin Sapiie, Paul Warren. (Top row from left to right) Andrew Quarles van Ufford, Mark Cloos, Rich Weiland, Eric Beam, Tim McMahon, and Todd Housh. Photo provided by Mark Cloos. (6). The Grasberg open pit in March, 1999, located at a 14,000-foot elevation in the highlands of Irian Jaya, Indonesia (west New Guinea). The Grasberg orebody, discovered by Freeport McMoRan, Inc. exploration geologists in 1988, contains the world’s third largest reserves of copper and largest proven reserves of gold. Open pit mining, now producing nearly 10 percent of the world’s new copper supply, will continue well into the next century, when decades of underground block cave mining will then begin. Photo provided by Steve Van Nort. (7). Rich Weiland (bottom left), Benyamin Sapiie (upper right), and two Irianese field assistants discuss trail conditions. Photo provided by Mark Cloos. (8). View looking northeast from the Grasberg Mine toward the Meren Valley fault zone in Cenozoic limestones. The Carstenz glaciers, located at 3°S, cap the ridges. Photo provided by Mark Cloos. Table of Contents A Letter from the Chairman ........................................................................................................1 Faculty and Staff Listing .............................................................................................................2 Faculty Personal Notes ..............................................................................................................4 The Ertsberg Project: 1989-1999 ...............................................................................................10 Field Work in New Guinea as Part of the Ertsberg Project .........................................................17 Lundelius Symposium on Quaternary Vertebrate Paleontology..................................................20 Department Hosts Symposium on Global and Environmental Change ......................................22 Gulf of Mexico Study Completed...............................................................................................24 Glenn and Martha Vargas Retire ................................................................................................25 SIPES Makes Donation for Grants-in-Aid ...................................................................................26 Faculty Awards and Honors .......................................................................................................26 Staff Awards ...............................................................................................................................27 Bill Muehlberger Receives Geological Society of America’s Structural Geology and Tectonics Division’s Best Paper Award .........................................................................28 Professor Daniel S. Barker Receives 1999 College of Natural Sciences Teaching Excellence Award......................................................................29 Professor Daniel S. Barker Retires ..............................................................................................30 In Memoriam: Dr. Samuel P. Ellison, Jr. .....................................................................................31 In Memoriam: Gunther Karl Hoops ..........................................................................................32 Endowed Lecturers ....................................................................................................................33 Visiting Speakers ........................................................................................................................34 Speakers—Faculty and Staff in the Department of Geological Sciences.....................................35 Student Speakers—Technical Sessions .......................................................................................36 Research and Teaching Assistants, 1998-1999 ...........................................................................38 Field Excursion to the Central Andes—GEO 381R .....................................................................39 Summer Field Camp 1999—GEO 660 .......................................................................................41 Placement Office Update, 1998-1999 .......................................................................................42 Student Awards and Honors ......................................................................................................43 Johanna A. Devereaux Receives AGU Award ............................................................................44 Karen I. D. Mohr Receives NASA Award ...................................................................................44 Matthew Rodell Awarded NASA Earth System Science Fellowship ............................................45 Marcia L. Branstetter Receives Graduate Fellowship..................................................................45 Orlando J. Ortega Receives Minority Outreach Program Scholarship ........................................46 Calvin A. Lee Receives Goldwater Scholarship ..........................................................................47 Jaime D. Barnes Receives UT Endowed Presidential Scholarship ..............................................47 Students Receive University Co-Operative Society Undergraduate Research Fellowships .........48 Student Officers for Fall 1998 and Spring 1999 .........................................................................48 Graduate Student Executive Committee .....................................................................................49 Graduate Fellowships, Scholarships, and Awards ......................................................................50 Undergraduate Scholarships and Awards ...................................................................................53 Degrees Awarded ......................................................................................................................55 Bureau of Economic Geology ....................................................................................................58 Institute for Geophysics .............................................................................................................59 Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory—Thanksgiving in the Cretaceous ......................................61 Walter Geology Library..............................................................................................................63 Geology Foundation Advisory Council News ............................................................................64 Gifts ...........................................................................................................................................68 Geology Foundation Endowed Accounts ...................................................................................71 Geology Foundation Advisory Council ......................................................................................75 Memorials..................................................................................................................................77 Notes from the Alumni ..............................................................................................................81 A Letter from the Chairman Student and faculty awards