2012 Letter from the Chair
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A publication of The University of Maryland Department of Geology Grameo 2012 LETTER FROM THE CHAIR Dear Alumni and Friends, After nearly a year and a half as the Department Provost, Dr. Mary Ann Rankin, who spent chair, I can more fully appreciate the tremendous many years as Dean of the College of Natural job done by my predecessor, Michael Brown. Sciences at the University of Texas, Austin. That When folks ask me, “How’s the chair’s job?” I means that Ann Wylie, after more than a decade typically reply, “Well, the Department has sur- in University administration, will be returning vived and so have I!” It was a challenging but to the Department. Ann plans to use the latter extremely rewarding year. It started with an half of 2012 to organize her research materials. email from the outgoing Dean, Steve Halperin, Then she will have a well-deserved sabbatical in Geology Chair Roberta Rudnick shakes hands with Dr. Bai informing me that it is time for the Department’s the first half of 2013. She plans to use this time Chunli, the President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, periodic External Review. Therefore, much of to organize her mineral collection and donate during her induction into the Academy in June this year. the fall semester was spent producing a self- to the Department, and write a popular science study report that helped the Department to take book on the geology of the Catoctin Mountains. stock of where we are and also to think about This year we also welcomed Assistant the future and how we can improve. Our able Professor Vedran (Ved) Lekic to the Depart- visiting committee, composed of Marilyn Fogel ment (see last year’s GeoGram for a description INSIDE THIS ISSUE (Chair, Geophysical Lab, Carnegie Institution of Ved’s work). Ved has already engaged students of Washington), Frank Richter (University of in seismological research and is teaching a new Chicago) and Norman Sleep (Stanford), spent course on “Observational Geophysics.” 2 Geology Renovations two days at the University in February meeting As you will see in the remainder of this 3 Research Focus: Dr. Sarah Penniston-Dorland with all stake holders and crafted a report that GeoGram, our students, faculty and alumni 4 The Frugal Experimentalist: Jerry Weidner acknowledged our accomplishments and made continue to excel and bring acclaim to the 9 ESSIC Travel Award recommendations for areas that should and can Department and the University. To commu- be improved. As a result of the review, we have nicate such news to our friends and alumni we commenced construction of a student lounge, have started a departmental Facebook page. If knocking out walls in about half of the fourth you are a Facebook user, you may simply click floor of the Geology Building. Most of the on the link on our Departmental website, “like” construction was completed over the summer the Facebook page and you will receive news months and in a few weeks our Geology majors feeds as they are posted. If, instead of a virtual (as well as our graduate students and faculty) visit you are ever in the region, please do stop by will finally have a place to relax, have a cup of for a face-to-face visit and have a cup of coffee in coffee, check email or converse in a comfortable the new student lounge! atmosphere. We are indebted to Dean Banavar for his support in this endeavor! Elsewhere in this issue you will read about the renovations to our teaching labs in the Geology building. Geology is looking better than ever! Roberta Rudnick In other news, the University hired a new 11-15-2012 BEFORE AFTER of the building. However, renovation of the facilities, and to the individuals outside the GEOLOGY RENOVATIONS teaching labs was not the only construction Department who helped bring them to fruition, by Philip Piccoli project going on at that time. The storage in particular Tony Brown in Facilities Manage- room was being expanded and converted into a ment who oversaw the renovations, and Tom Three decades of continuous use had taken its student lounge. That left one obvious solution: McMullen and Sean Davis in the Dean’s office toll on the teaching labs in the Geology Building. materials from all three teaching labs would be who drew up the plans and coordinated Since the department moved into the building stored in several small offices vacated for the efforts. n in 1982, thousands of students have learned the summer. the fundamental principles of fossil, mineral, Monday, May 21st was moving day. and rock identification, map reading, and the Undergraduate and graduate students, and proper use of stereonets in these labs. The wear faculty helped to move samples to the storage and tear was evident. For several years, members locations. Three labs and a storage room were of the department discussed the possibilities of emptied simultaneously. Many of the samples when and how to best renovate the space. Over were transported and stored in their original THREE the past year, a plan was finally set in motion drawers in toto. Others were boxed and crated, to renovate these labs into new and enhanced and tagged with a color to indicate where they renovated labs places to teach and learn. would be stored. With all of the help and prior Following the conclusion of classes in the planning, the bulk of the materials were moved spring, a series of well choreographed moves in just three hours. were implemented in order to maximize the Progress was sporadic over the summer. 1000 time contractors had available to work during Floors and drop ceilings quickly disappeared, the short summer break. Several logistical and a prep room was constructed. After what square feet hurdles had to be overcome. How do we teach seemed to be a long lull, professors were nervous summer labs when construction was occurring? and wondering where their fall courses would Where were lab materials going to be stored? be taught if construction was not completed Traditionally, a small lab had been taught on time. Then the new drop ceilings went in OPEN in the Department over the summer. Given and walls were painted. After another period that all of the teaching labs in the building were of inactivity, cabinets and lab tables arrived and being renovated, where would the courses be were installed, and even some of the correct 24/7 taught? The solution was straightforward—the drawers arrived! August 27th marked the day lab was taught in the Department’s Gems and that specimens moved back into the labs. Minerals Museum. This provided a rare Students are now benefitting from the for opportunity for a group of students to access enhancements made to the labs. Over 1000 the museum on a daily basis. sq. ft. of lab space was renovated, including STUDENTS Rocks and minerals, maps and microscopes, new tables, storage cabinets and shelving. All all had to be moved to temporary, secure loca- three labs are available to Geology students on a tions while construction was taking place. If 24-hour basis with access granted by using their times were normal, the Department would have student IDs. The Department and its students access to a large storage area on the fourth floor are thankful to have these newly renovated 2 GeoGram 2012 Looking at spectacularly veined (white and beige- colored) and folded (pencil pointing to fold) lawsonite- blueschist facies rocks of the Catalina Schist, Santa Catalina Island. (L-R): undergraduate student Natalie Sievers, graduate student Julia Gorman, Assistant Professor Sarah Penniston-Dorland. We are currently investigating lithium and investigating the role of such mixing in the RESEARCH FOCUS its isotopes as tracers of fluids within subduc- formation of metamorphic reaction zones in the by Assistant Professor tion zones. This work is done in the Plasma Catalina Schist and the Attic-Cycladic Complex Sarah Penniston-Dorland Laboratory in collaboration with my Maryland of Syros, Greece. This work is done in the Isotope colleagues Richard Ash, William McDonough Geochemistry Laboratory in collaboration with A major thrust of my research addresses funda- and Roberta Rudnick. This work is important my Maryland colleagues Rich Walker and mental questions of how water travels through for a variety of reasons, one of which is that Phil Piccoli. rocks at elevated pressures and temperatures, fluids derived from subducting slabs contribute Trace element concentrations in rocks and what elements are transported by that water to the generation of magma and associated arc and minerals can also be a powerful tool in within the Earth’s crust. In my research group, volcanoes. The results we have obtained suggest investigations of the effects of metamorphic we use the mineralogy and geochemistry of that fluid flow events during metamorphism fluids. Undergraduate student Natalie Sievers metamorphic rocks to decipher evidence of may be relatively brief, perhaps only a hundred is measuring trace element concentrations of fluid-rock interactions. We are currently inves- years in duration. Graduate student Leigh metaconglomerate cobbles of the Catalina tigating fluid-rock interactions at convergent Roble is working on a project investigating Schist and its minerals in order to understand plate boundaries through the study of subduction- diffusion of lithium in metamorphic reaction which elements are transported by metamor- related metamorphic rocks using novel zones within the Catalina Schist. phic fluids. geochemical tracers. The associated field areas We also investigate other geochemical Most recently I have become interested in include the Catalina Schist and the Franciscan systems that can potentially inform us about new ways to estimate the temperatures at which Complex, both located in western California.