Volume 23, Summer 2018 DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY Annual Alumni and Friends Newsletter 1 INSIDE THIS ISSUE Editors: Lorilie Steinke and Kent M. Syverson Phone: 715.836.3732 | Fax: 715.836.5627 Letter from the chair ............................2 Faculty and Sta News .........................12 Field camp updates .............................3 Internships ....................................14 Responsible Mining Initiative ....................4 Sponsorships ..................................19 2018 Geology Banquet ..........................6 Awards ........................................20 Spanning the Globe .............................7 Congrats, Grads! ...............................21 Geology/RMI Advisory Board ....................9 Alumni News ..................................22 Scholarships ...................................10 Student Research Day ..........................25 Earth Science Seminar Series ...................11 Donations .....................................26 Cover image: Betty Walter, Field Geology II, Montana Jay Cooke State Park, MN LETTER FROM THE CHAIR 2018 Students and faculty continue to conduct resounding success. This summer nineteen research expanding the knowledge of our students will have paid internships with mining natural world. Students (with faculty mentors) companies, environmental consulting rms, have been researching topics such as diusion and governmental agencies. In addition, in quartz and tourmaline crystals (Ihinger), $42,000 in geology scholarships and grants soot and nanoparticle geochemistry using TEM were awarded at the spring banquet thanks (Hooper), sustainability behaviors of students in to generous alumni and corporations. These Davies Center (Clark), VMS geochemistry (Lodge), opportunities dierentiate our program from Precambrian greenstone belts in Ontario (Lodge), others in the Midwest (see included stories). Neogene basin analysis in Argentina (Mahoney), Donations of alumni and friends continue surface- and ground-water quality in western to be extremely important to our program. Wisconsin (Mahoney and Vitale), and evaluation The “Adopt a Field Camper” campaign and of ice-ow direction data in Maine (Syverson). a half sponsorship of Field Camp I by Mathy Not only this, but ve students presented research Construction and Milestone Materials allowed results at GSA-Seattle, two students at AWRA us to defray $12,700 in student tuition costs (see where they won the Best Undergraduate Poster separate news items). Thanks to all who adopted award, four students at ILSG in Iron Mountain, a eld camper! Even as we have received several MI, where one student won a Best Poster Award, large corporate gifts, the smaller, undesignated seven students at NC GSA in Ames, IA, and donations from alumni and friends commonly three students at the SME national meeting in give the department exibility to send students Minneapolis where they won a top poster award to present research results at regional and (and $1000)! It’s been a great year for research! I hope this newsletter nds you well! The national conferences, x equipment, support Department of Geology has had a good year. In The Responsible Mining Initiative [RMI] our eld program for undergraduates, and fund August our new tenure-track hydrogeologist, continues to expand student educational valuable scholarships to defray rising tuition Dr. Sarah Vitale, joined us from the University opportunities. Our 3rd Advisory Board expenses. Alumni who send job announcements of Connecticut. She has been an excellent meeting with stakeholders was held on May and speak for our Earth Science Seminar Series addition to our faculty and immediately began 15th to discuss program array and potential help our students see the world beyond the collaborating with undergraduate research partnerships. Seventeen external stakeholders campus walls. Thanks for your support! If you students. UWEC submitted a Capital Project from industry and government agencies are ever in the Eau Claire area, please visit us! Request this spring for a new science building. (including 11 alumni) attended this valuable That process was “interesting.” Gareld Ave. input session. In addition, MSHA 24-hr New Miner along the Chippewa River is torn up and being training and the Responsible Mining Seminar recongured into a pedestrian mall—should were oered to fteen students this spring. Dr. Kent Syverson be nice when nished this fall. In addition, the Our eorts to enhance internship and department will undergo its seven-year program scholarship opportunities have been a review during the 18-19 academic year. 2 COURSE UPDATES MIN/PET I FIELD TRIPS By Robert Hooper Min-Pet I went on two eld trips in fall 2017, and for the 25 new geology majors these trips are their rst exposure to geology in the eld (and camping in cooler weather). The rst week of October, we took a Thursday through Sunday eld trip to northern Wisconsin and the UP Michigan. With climate-change, the trees in the Porcupine Mountains were not quite changing color and there was still much green vegetation in the woods. The weather in the North Country was warm and most of Field Geology I students at work in New Mexico. the bugs were gone. As always, the rocks in weather! They held bonfires a few nights at the Mid-Continent rift were spectacular, even the Black Range using the new fire-pit and though the water was a little high to access grilled dinner outside several nights almost as the outcrops below many of the waterfalls. if it was summer! It was nice to trade the bone- The eld trip to the Black Hills in mid-October chilling cold of Wisconsin for the sunshine in was again a success, but the weather was highly southern New Mexico. The group attended a variable. We had a great start to this ve-day fantastic music concert with Acoustic Eidolon eld trip with temperatures in the 60s and 70s in the Hillsboro Community Center where the and clear skies, but by the third day we were field camp crew made up almost 50% of the dealing with thunder-snows in the Black Hills. total audience. The students really enjoyed We found better weather in the Bear Lodge the music and meeting with the musicians Field Geology I crew at our home in Mountains. Students enjoyed making it all the after the concert up at the Black Range Lodge. New Mexico, January 2018. way to Devils Tower. The Black Hills has so many dierent igneous and metamorphic rocks to FIELD CAMP I UPDATE Field camp is more than learning about study that we could clearly spend two weeks NEW MEXICO mapping rocks because students have all and just touch the surface. This year we spent sorts of other “life-skills” to learn. Clearly, By Robert Hooper one entire day studying metamorphic rocks in this year was no different. Every morning the eld and one complete day on alkali-igneous Bob Hooper and Scott Clark took a group of 24 before we went in the field, we covered the rocks between Lead, SD, and the Bear Lodge students down to the New Mexico field camp basics of driving field vehicles in New Mexico. Mountains. These geology eld trips always (Geol 470) in January. We continue to operate We advised all student drivers to be careful lead to great cohort camaraderie and really out of the Black Range Lodge in Kingston, about the less-improved roads in southern excite the students about their future studies in NM, and this field experience provides an New Mexico with Scott and Bob reminding geology. I hope we can continue to oer such excellent opportunity for our students to students every morning to put the biggest exciting eld opportunities well into the future. learn geologic mapping and professional rocks under the tires instead of under the geologic report development during the transmission or the oil pan. However, you Winterim period in January. Starting this year, cannot always get 22-year-old students to take Winterim is now four weeks long instead of you seriously when offering such sound advice. three weeks. The change in schedule allowed One student found out that in addition to the students to spend three full-weeks in the field oil pan and the transmission, there is also a and almost an entire week back on campus front differential on the four-wheel drive in late January to finish their ArcMap projects vehicles... By hitting the biggest rock on the prior to spring classes. This calendar change road, our driver managed to puncture a hole in seems to have reduced student stress about the differential and drain all the fluid. It is a turning in the final project by the due date. good thing that we were only about 30 miles from the nearest town! Luckily, we had three This year we left UWEC with temperatures other Suburbans and by squeezing eight on campus at -20 degrees (F) and it was well people into each Suburban, we transported 2017 MinPet I crew at Devils Tower, WY. below freezing all the way to Albuquerque. everyone while the injured vehicle was in the However, once we turned south toward Chevrolet dealership in Truth or Kingston, we left the cold behind and for three Consequences. The tow truck driver, the full weeks had temperatures in the 50s and 60s service technician, the service manager with brilliant sunshine. The students seemed at the dealership, and Jim at the Caballo gas to enjoy spending time outdoors in reasonable station all repeatedly told us that when we 3 Field Geology II students near the Jefferson River in Montana. are driving back in Apache Gap we should Students supported by Covia (formerly Unimin Corp). Field Camp grant at Field Geology II in Whitehall, have students put the tires on the bigger Montana, June 2018. Each student received $830. rocks instead of the differential. Go figure! during Field Camp. As per tradition, John and RESPONSIBLE MINING The ranchers in southern New Mexico continue Sherry prepared their signature elk dinner the INITIATIVE UPDATE to let us use their private land, so students map last evening and was once again a highlight for By Kent Syverson rocks in some of the most scenic and pristine the group.