uppercrust 2015

In Celebration of Warren Huff’s

50 Honored Years as a Faculty Member

of the Department of Geology

L e t t e r f r o m t h e D e p a r t m e n t H e a d

I n s i d e t h i s I s s u eLetter from the Department Head ...................................................................................................... Pages 1 - 2Faculty & Students News ................................................................................................................. Pages 3 - 15UC Fracking Reseach Receives firts-ever science and Community Award .................................................. Page 8Mommoth and Mastodon Behavior was less Roam, More stay at Home............................................. Pages 11-12A Pioneer in eLeraning at UC Pilots Echo360 System ............................................................................. Page 16UC Professor Chosen to Lead Paleontological Society ............................................................................ Page 17UC Carrer Days ............................................................................................................................. Pages 19 - 21Graduate Degrees 2014-2015 ................................................................................................................. Page 21Colloquium & Visiting Speakers 2014-2015 ............................................................................................ Page 22Honoring Dr. J. Barry Maynard on his retirement .................................................................................. Page 23Spring Banquet Awards .................................................................................................................. Pages 24 - 25Alumni News ................................................................................................................................. Pages 26 - 47From ‘Jurassic Park’ to Fulbright Scholar: Christopher Aucoin............................................................... 7Geology Donor List ................................................................................................................................ Page 38A Call to Action ..................................................................................................................................... Page 48

U p p e r C r u s t

1

ran a two-day event on careers for our students. This was organized by one of our distinguished alumni, John Thaeler, who very generously set up an endow-ment to allow us to run the event. As part of this event, six of our alumni visited our department to talk with students about their professions, discuss possibility ca-reer paths and provide advice. We are very indebted to our alumni for making this a very successful event. We plan to run this event every year to help our students with their career development.

Our graduate students have been very successful again this year in obtaining nu-merous grants to support their research, including obtaining grants from Sigma Xi,

Geological Society of America, Paleontological Soci-ety and hydrocarbon companies. They also continue to present their research at national meetings and are publishing their work in international peer-reviewed journals. The exciting research that our students have been undertaking has taken them to distant lands, in-cluding Trinidad, Germany, Chile, Greenland, the Hi-malaya, St Croix and Canary Islands. This past year we successfully graduated four master and two doctoral students.

Our weekly colloquium series continues to be suc-cessful. We had a mix of students and external speak-ers give presentations throughout the year. External speakers included Greg Walsh (USGS), John Aleini-koff (USGS), Francesca Hopkins (Jet Propulsion Labo-ratory), Rachel Headley (University of Wisconsin) and Sora Kim (University of Chicago). A big thanks goes

Dear Alumni,

I hope you all had a good year. Our year has been packed with ex-citing and stimulating activities and events,and hope you enjoy reading about some of them in this year’s edition of the Upper Crust. This will give you a little taste of what we have been up to throughout the past year, but please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like to talk in more detail about what we have been do-ing in our department.

Again this year our students have been extremely busy. We had a re-cord number of undergraduate stu-dents enroll in our programs. Our students continue to all be highly motivated and very enthusiastic. This past March they even organized and ran their own field trip out west to visit such wonders as the Grand Canyon. Together with our graduate students, they have been very ac-tive in organizing fun and stimulating events, includ-ing running booths at the Cincinnati GeoFair and the SW Ohio Science Fair, visiting local schools, and ar-ranging picnics and holiday parties.

We are continuing to provide our students with ex-citing field opportunities, which include our three exotic fieldtrips to high mountains (Himalaya), high latitudes (Alaska) and marine margins (Bahamas). This year we ran our Himalaya and Bahamas fieldtrips, and next summer we will be running our Alaska fieldtrip. We have also been enhancing laboratory research op-portunities for our undergraduates in many of our new laboratories. This past year, for the first time, we

F a c u l t y & S t u d e n t S

2

to Andrew Czaja who again this year did a superb job in putting the program together, and to all our speak-ers who presented their stimulating research.

Our faculty continue to excel and are providing novel opportunities for our students. This past year we submitted research grant proposals to many fund-ing agencies such as the National Science Founda-tion, USGS, National Geographic Society and NASA, and were very successful in obtaining lots of funding. This is continuing to boost our repetition and provide invaluable resources for us to help train students for the future workforce. The number of papers we have published throughout the year is extremely impres-sive, including publications in some of the very highly ranked journals including Nature Geoscience, Pro-ceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, Paleo-geography, Paleoecology and Paleoclimatology, Geo-morphology, Quaternary Science Reviews,Quaternary Research, Journal of Geophysical Research, Litho-sphere, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, and Pa-leobiology.

Last September, we held an event to celebrate War-ren Huff ’s 50th year on our faculty. It was very nice to see many of you in our department for this event. We also saw many of you at Barry Maynard’s retire-ment event that we held last April at the Cincinnati Observatory. Although Barry retired this past Janu-ary, fortunately for us he is continuing as an Emeritus Professor to carry on his research and work with our students in our department. In addition, David Nash retired this past May, but he will be staying on as a McMicken Professor for the next three years to con-tinue to teach geology for engineers and further his research on groundwater. We will be holding a retire-

ment event for Dave this coming September. We hope to see many of you at this event.

Our Alumni Advisory Committee continues to grow and we are very appreciative of all their hard work over the past few years. You will find a page in the Upper Crust about our Alumni Advisory Committee. Please do contact them to discuss ways you might help with our activities. Also, please do not hesitate to contact me also to find out more about what we have been doing for our students and how you might help out. If you would like to know more about what we are doing on a weekly basis then please check out our very informal weekly newsletter, Rolling Rocks, that I produce every Friday during the academic year at http://www.artsci.uc.edu/departments/geology/news-and-events.html.

I should like to sincerely thank Warren Huff and Tim Phillips for their hard work in compiling and produc-ing this newsletter. Please accept my sincere thanks to all of you who have generously supported our pro-gram during the past year. Your support is extremely appreciated as it allows us to undertake many excit-ing educational and life transforming experiences for our students. Please keep in touch with us and please do not hesitate to drop by the department if you are in town.

Hope you all have a wonderful year.

Best wishes,

Lewis Owen

D e p a r t m e n t o f G e o l o g y

3

F a c u l t y & S t a f f N e w sAttilA Kilinc

2014-2015 academic year has been a busy and exciting year for me. I continued to teach Graduate Research, Environmental Volcanology, Physical Ge-ology and Earthquakes and Society with increased enrollments in the last three courses. Next year, I also will teach Thermodynamics. The Governor of Ohio John Kasich has appointed me for a three-year term to the Ohio Geology Advisory Board. We meet four times a year and advice the Governor on variety of topics related to geology. I also con-tinue to serve as a member of the Executive Com-

mittee of the VGP section of the American Geophysi-cal Union. As AGU mem-bership exceeded 65,000, organizing sessions in our annual meeting has become very challeng-ing. My graduate student Ibrahim Ugurlu and I are applying the Crystal

Size Distribution theory to Pore Size Distribution in sandstones. Results are exciting and Ibrahim has already made two presentations in national meetings. Our thermodynamic modeling of zon-ing in plagioclase with my former PhD student Gokce Ustunisik and our col-league Roger Nielsen was published in Lithos and re-ceived great deal of atten-tion in the community. This paper was downloaded 717 times in four months.

Finally, I am continuing with our seismological recordings of earthquakes anywhere in the world using our S-102 seismom-eter in the department. You might be interested in knowing that it took P-waves from the April 25, 2015 earthquake in Nepal to arrive Cincinnati 14 minutes 34 seconds.

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and produc-tive year.

Attila q

J. BArry MAynArd

I have in the past few years focused mostly on corro-sion scales in water distribution sys-tems. The mineral-ogy and geochem-istry is quite similar to supergene en-richment (brochan-tite and malachite become your con-stant companions), so there is a good transfer of theory and techniques, but it’s a different audience. Have a look at http://www.sedi-mentaryores.net/Pipe%20Scales/Index_corro-sion.html. My consulting company, Maynard, Agnello & Associates, is currently testing carbon-based filtration systems as monitoring tools for distribution systems to use in com-plying with lead and copper regulations. We’re also working on the development of iron-impregnated fabric filters for whole-house removal of lead, arsenic and manganese. I re-tired from teaching January 1, 2015, and have been busy trying to downsize my paper files and my rock collections. At the same time we are looking for a home for the Department’s ore deposits collection, so if anyone wants a good set of South American porphyry depos-its let me know. You have to act fast, though. My wife, Emmaly, and I will be moving to Port-land, OR, where both our children (James and Elise) live, probably over the summer. I plan to go into full-time consulting on water chemis-try issues out there.

Thanks to the Geology Department for a great reception at the Observatory in April. A copy of my remarks is on my website at

http://homepages.uc.edu/~maynarjb

Editor’s note: A copy of Barry’s remarks at his retirement reception are also posted at http://tinyurl.com/m482e9j q

U p p e r C r u s t

4

F a c u l t y & S t a f f N e w sWArren Huff

I am continuing to collaborate with colleagues in Anthropology and Physical Geography along with Lew-is Owen on a study of Quaternary volcanism in the southwest and its probable effects on some of the early cultures in that area. I am pleased to welcome Elizabeth Haussner from S U N Y Geneseo who will focus

her MS research on this topic.

E l i z a b e t h ’s research in-volves the study of volcanogenic compo-nents in soil profiles from the paleoindian

site at Chaco Canyon, NM and the extent to

which they coincide with the timing of major eruptions

from Sunset Crater volcano north of Flagstaff, AZ. This project represents the increas-ingly collaborative interactions that our depart-ment is developing with other STEM disciplines in A&S.

In addition, I have ongoing projects with German and Swedish colleagues looking at Ordo-vician and Silurian K-bentonites exposed in the Devonian-age Siljan impact structure in south-central Sweden, and with Russian colleague An-drei Dronov on Ordovician K-bentonites from Siberia that appear to indicate a modified orien-tation of the collision arc between Baltica, Siberia and Laurentia at that time.

I continue as secretary of The Clay Miner-als Society, which takes me to annual meetings as well as executive committee meetings at the society office in Chantilly, VA each year. This sum-mer we will have a joint meeting with the Euro-


pean Clay Groups at the EuroClay Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Geological Society of London has declared 2015 to be the Year of Mud. As they point out, “Mud repre-sents both and end and a beginning – the end of the cycle of erosion and transport, and the beginning of the generation (through burial and trans-formation) of new materials of great value to society.” Hooray for mud!

But perhaps the real highlight of 2014 for me was a huge party that the department held to celebrate my fiftieth year as a UC faculty

member. It was a blast, with many friends, fam-ily and alumni in attendance, plus some excellent food and a great bluegrass band. You can see a few photos of the evening’s activities at http://ti-nyurl.com/q67lnr8.

Beyond that, I continue to teach introduc-tory level physical and historical geology along with graduate-level courses in clay mineralogy. The fall and spring semester intro courses are of-fered in both face-to-face and online format. As those of you currently working in academia are well aware, technology is dramatically changing the nature of higher education. My face-to-face class enrollment has been dwindling in recent years while the number of full-time UC students choosing to take the online class has dramatical-ly increased. My lectures are captured by audio/video recorders and posted on our course man-agement tool, Blackboard, for the online class. All weekly quizzes, exams and homework assign-ments are posted on Blackboard, as well, so most of these students never attend an in-class presen-tation or discussion. I am also currently serving on a couple of campus-wide committees charged with increasing the University’s focus on eLearn-ing. q

5

During the past year I have contin-ued my research in quantifying timing and rates of active mountain building. Together with my graduate students Sarah Falkowski, Adam Piestrze-niewicz and Catherine Dunn we are studying the St. Elias Mountains that formed at the collision zone of the Ya-kutat microplate with North America, located in southeastern Alaska and southwestern Yukon. Adam and Sarah investigate the spatial and temporal pattern of rock exhumation within the mountains on land and the mod-ern sediments transported by large glacial systems, using fission-track, U-Th/He, and Ar/Ar dating tech-niques. Catherine joined the depart-ment last September and investigates the offshore sedimentary record of the St. Elias orogeny by applying zir-con fission-track dating on borehole material from the Gulf of Alaska. Ad-ditionally, I have three undergradu-ate students Bridget Taylor, Victoria Thomas, Emily Cigolle who are work-ing on various projects in the ther-mochronology lab. Check out my new group website to learn more: http://enkelmann.weebly.com/

Besides working in the thermochronology lab I conducted fieldwork last summer in south-

east Alaska and Northwestern Terri-tory (Canada). The letter was a recon-naissance trip funded by the National Geographic Society. Together with Jenny Arkle (graduate student at UC) we conducted a 2-week long rafting expedition crossing the Mackenzie Mountains, collecting rocks and sand for various dating analyses. Last Sep-tember Sarah Falkowski, Adam Pies-trzeniewicz, Jenny Arkle and my-self traveled to Chamonix (France) where we presented our research at the International Conference on Thermochronology. Also past Sep-tember I organized together with my colleagues Craig Dietsch and Dylan Ward the annual 4-day graduate stu-dent field trip to the southern Ap-palachians. Otherwise past year was busy with teaching the Structural Geology Class and a new 1000-level class called Geology in your Shop-ping Cart. During the past year I was fortunate to obtain funding from the National Science Foundation and the American Chemical Society – Petro-leum Research Fund, which will allow

me to continue my work in Alaska in the next years. q

evA enKelMAnn

F a c u l t y & S t a f f N e w s

U p p e r C r u s t

T his year’s 4-Day Field Trip will be held on September 18-20 in conjunction with our annual

Departmental Career Day.

We will visit several active shale frack-ing sites in Ohio and discuss both the source geology and the technological and environmental aspects of extrac-tion and waste disposal. Interested alumni are welcome to join us.

Join Us!

The Geological Society of America 2015 Annual Meet-ing will be held November 1-4, 2015 in Baltimore, MD.

(http://community.geosociety.org/gsa2015/home/). I would like to invite you to attend and to join us for

an alumni get-together on Monday, November 2 from 6:30 PM - 09:00 PM, in Key Ballroom 2 of the Hilton Bal-timore next to the convention center. .

I hope to see you in Balt imore!

2 0 1 5 G S A R E C E P T I O N

6

cArl Brett

The past academic year was extraordinary for me in many ways. I was awarded the title of University Distinguished Research Professor and, bet-ter yet, I spent more than two months in the field studying Paleozoic geology and pale-ontology around the planet and worked with many out-standing graduate and un-dergraduate students.

Graduate students are flour-ishing: James Thomka com-pleted and published several papers on Silurian paleoecology and started teaching position at the University of Akron; he intends to defend his dissertation during the coming summer; Matt Vrazo has nearly completed his studies of Silurian eurypterids received special commendation from Sigma Xi and a prestigious Dean’s Fellowship for 2015-2016. Christopher Aucoin completed a Masters degree and started his PhD studies; he received a Fulbright Fellowship to spend a year studying Ordovician sequences in Ontar-io. Masters students Allison Young and Cam-eron Schwalbach are making good headway in their respective studies of local Ordovician sequence stratigraphy and paleoecology. Alli-son received the first Paul Edwin Potter Award for her research involving subsurface to out-crop correlations of the Lexington Limestone-Kope Formation. Cameron received the De-partment’s Good Spirit Award for his efforts on behalf of the Geology Club.

In addition to extensive field study of the lo-cal Tristate’s Ordovician and that of Missouri and Oklahoma, I did field work on four con-tinents and eight paleocontinents (Laurentia, Baltica, Peribaltica, South China, Indochina, Sibumasu, and Precordillera) through a se-ries of outstanding field conferences in the western US, Estonia, Poland, Hubei, and Yun-nan Provinces China, and Argentina. One is, of course, awed by the magnificent scenery and fascinated by the differences in culture of the varied and sometimes “exotic”, venues. But, perhaps above all, I am struck by the simi-

larities of patterns displayed by the rocks themselves, of “time specific facies” that transcend the local, and point to common global pat-terns in the past.

In May 2014 I ran an extend-ed field trip course in Utah and Colorado with help from two graduate students, Cam-eron Schwalbach and Allison Young and 20 energetic and enthusiastic undergrad stu-dents. All in all we traveled some 5000 miles in 12 days,

experienced weather of all four seasons and visited over 50 sections in five different states. Many of my students, some of whom had never been west of Indianapolis, said it was a life-changing experience; I personally found it one of the most exciting and-despite weather issues-smoothest trips that I have run.

Participation in the outstanding IGCP 591 field conference and excursions in Estonia in June 2014 fostered my interests in correlations between Laurentia and Baltica. In particular, comparisons suggest strongly similarities be-tween the successions of Sheinwoodian age in Saaremaa and those I have long studied in the Niagara region. This will lead to further collab-orative study on correlation of depositional sequences, time-specific facies, and improved eustatic curves for the Silurian.

Following the Estonia meeting I spent sev-eral days with graduate student Christopher Aucoin, as well as colleagues from Poland and Germany, examining and sampling outcrops in the Silurian-Devonian of the Holy Cross Mountains. I also made preliminary observa-tions of drill cores from central and eastern Poland, housed at Warsaw; remarkably, these cores show evidence of very similar patterns of sequence stratigraphy and facies change in the late Eifelian-Givetian interval to those in eastern North America, included in the famed “Marcellus Shale” interval. I intend to collabo-rate with Prof. Wojtek Kozlowski of the Uni-versity of Warsaw on a project that will test for



Continues on next page

7

bioevents in the Silurian of South China and Laurentia

In September and early October I attended the International Paleontological Convention in Mendoza, Argentina. The outstanding post conference field excursions on the Paleozoic of the Precordillera in during October, 2014 led to new interest in comparative studies of stratigraphy and bioevents of Laurentia and the enigmatic Precordillera Terrane.

Finally, but importantly, I have initiated col-laborations with UC alumnus, Dr. Peter Holt-erhoff of the Hess Oil Corporation (Houston) to set up collaborative educational/ research ventures in key Ordovician oil and gas source rocks. We have received funding for a pilot study dealing with linkage of gamma ray, chemo-, C-isotope and sequence stratigraphy of outcrops of the Lexington Formation and subsurface cores from the “Point Pleasant-Uti-ca” oil and gas field. Graduate student Allison Young has spearheaded efforts to sample and analyze outcrops and cores across a shelf to basin gradient. Together with UC alumni Pat McLaughlin (Wisconsin Geological Survey) and Ben Dattilo (Indiana-Purdue University), we intend to run a field and core workshop for Hess researchers in 2016. q

(Editor’s note: A list of Carl’s 2014 publica-tions is posted at http://tinyurl.com/oeqkcxe)

synchroneity of sequences and bioevents in the paleocontinents of Baltica and Laurentia.

During August 2014, I travelled to China for the IGCP meeting in Kunming and field con-ference in the Yunan Province, as well as for research on new potential Aeronian and Tely-chian stratotype sections in the Hubei Prov-ince. In a field research party headed by Dr. Junxuan Fan (Nanjing Institute) and Silurian Subcommission Chair, Mike Melchin, I spent four days examining, measuring, and sampling sections along a roadcuts at Bajiaomiao in the Shennongjia National Forest region. These lo-cations feature very complete outcrops with excellent graptolite biostratigraphic control and a number of K-bentonite (volcanic ash) layers, which may eventually allow for direct U/Pb dating. I was also able to make a pre-liminary paleoenvironmental and sequence stratigraphic interpretation of the outcrops and to link three major TR cycles, tentatively with global curves, suggesting at least some eustatic control.

In addition, I was very excited to visit sec-tions of Cambrian-Silurian rocks of the Yun-nan Province (including the famed Chengji-ang Cambrian sites) during the spectacular mid- and post-meeting field trips of the IGCP 591 Kunming meeting in August 2014. This fieldwork fostered interests in making stud-ies of comparative sequence stratigraphy and


U p p e r C r u s t

cArl Brett (Continued)

October 4-11, 2014. Arnie Miller and 25 faculty and students in St. Croix teaching an interdisciplinary course on natural diasaters with a focus on studying the legacy of Hurricane Hugo (1989).

8



The Ohio Environmental Council recently honored UC geology researcher Amy Townsend-Small and her team in recognition of their study of hydrau-lic fracturing and its impact. Amy Townsend-Small recently shared the stage with former Ohio gov-ernors Robert Taft and Ted Strickland when she picked up a state-wide honor for her innovative work test-ing groundwater in Eastern Ohio.

Townsend-Small leads UC GRO (Groundwater Research of Ohio) to study the potential effects of hydraulic fractur-ing, or fracking, on groundwa-ter in the Utica Shale of Ohio. UC GRO was awarded the Ohio Environmental Council ’s first-ever Science and Com-munity Award because of its innovative approach to gath-ering and reporting research findings.

But community connections are not the only innovative elements of UC GRO. Another is the very concept of testing groundwater before fracking begins on land nearby.

Townsend-Small and her team of graduate and undergraduate researchers, all of whom coinci-dentally happen to be female, collect samples and test for concentrations of methane, hydrocarbons and salt. While these gases and compounds can be linked to fracking practices, they can also be found organically. Without a clear sense of what the groundwater contained before fracking, residents and natural gas drillers won’t be able to ascertain what impact, if any, fracking itself has.

So far, Townsend-Small said in her acceptance speech at the OEC’s annual Green Gala, the clearest impact of fracking in Eastern Ohio is fear. Residents are concerned about their water and about their air. “I believe ever y Ohioan has the right to not wor-r y about whether their water or air will make them sick,” Townsend-Small said.

Scientist Amy Townsend-Small explains how she tests water wells for methane in Carroll County, Ohio.

Credit: Lisa Song, InsideClimate News

Because of interest in surrounding communities and counties, UC GRO recently expanded to new testing sites in Belmont, Columbiana, Harrison and Stark counties.

That growth stems, in part, from Townsend-Small ’s system of partnering with concerned community members. Community members are so much a part

of UC GRO that representa-tives joined Townsend-Small and her graduate and under-graduate research assistants to accept the award from the Ohio Environmental Council in Columbus.

Paul Feezel , chair of Carroll Concerned Citizens, has been instrumental in educating his neighbors in Carroll County about UC GRO and encourag-ing their participation in the study. Carroll County is home to more than half the state’s natural gas drill ing sites and thousands of more sites are approved for future drill ing, according to the research col-

laborative, Ohio Policy Mat-ters.

“People need to know what’s in their water,” Feezel said. “ The more education and research we

can help suppor t, the better.”

At the event, Townsend-Small thanked UC, the communities in which she works, her research team and the individuals and foundations who have founded UC GRO so far. “ We aren’t funded by the natural gas industr y or any government entity,” she said. “In order to keep doing this impor tant work, we need continued suppor t from people who, l ike us, want to take a proactive approach to protecting hu-man health and the environment.” q

uc frAcKing reseArcH receives first-ever science And coMMunity AWArd froM oHio environMentAl council

By Elissa Yancey

9

leWis oWen

During the past academic year, I have contin-ued my research and teaching that focuses on the Quaternary geology and geomorphology of tec-tonically active mountain belts and their forelands. This has involved fieldwork with students and col-leagues in Scotland, India, New Mexico, Nevada and Southern California, and laboratory work in our geochronology laboratories. I published 13 pa-pers in peer-reviewed journals with students and colleagues, and published a book chapter. During this period, I continued to work on my NSF-funded project on rates of glacial erosion. I also contin-ued work on the Chaman fault funded by the Na-tional Academies research grants. In addition, we

acquired new funding from NSF and the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program and a con-tract project with URS to work on active faulting. I have continued as Editor-in-Chief for CATENA and Associate Editor for Quaternary Research and Qua-ternary International. My teaching included cours-es on natural hazards, surface processes and the geology of the Himalaya. This past year, I continued to work with my graduate students, Kate Hedrick and Jeanette Arkle, and took on a new graduate student Elizabeth Orr. Kate should be graduating sometime soon. I also continued to work with post-doctoral researcher Madhav Murari on many proj-ects locally and in distant parts of the world. q

Sampling for erosion rates and modeling the latest in field cloth-ing on a high peak in Scotland. In the distance is Ben Nevis the highest peak in Scotland.

Elizabeth Orr

Lewis Owen worked with a major corporation to analyze sediment samples from a potential dam site in Panama. UCRI can’t even begin to express our excitement over the chance to work with a ge-ology department whose expertise is recognized and experience is sought by companies all over the world.

BreAKing it doWn. The UC Geology lab, under the supervision of Sar-

ah Hammer, just completed a project on behalf of Continental Mineral Processing, which leads North America in the production of mineral sand -- zir-con, to be exact -- for use in coatings, ceramics and electronics. UC Geology won the contract thanks to its leading-edge knowledge, labs and equipment, which it recently used to extract the highest pos-sible yield of usable material from zircon pellets.

(In layman’s terms, that means UC Geology used a giant rock crusher to pulverize 1,000 pounds of mineral into sand, then packaged the sand up and sent it on its way.) UCRI is excited about these part-nerships and glad that we had the opportunity to support the University in showcasing its expertise to outside industry. Special thanks goes out to the companies that sponsored these projects, as well as to Lewis Owen, Sarah Hammer, Kate Cosgrove, Cindy Treacy, Marcia Miladinov and everyone in the College of Arts & Sciences and the Department of Geology who helped UCRI to establish these initial contracts. We look forward to working with you a lot more in the future! If you are interested in how your College or company can work with UCRI, just contact [email protected] to get started. Until then…..rock on! The UCRI team [email protected]. q

sifting tHrougH sediMent

UC Geology recently completed its first two projects with UCRI. Here is a quick break down:

U p p e r C r u s t


10

BrooKe croWley

The 2014-2015 academic year has treated me well. I have enjoyed working on several projects, in-cluding a methodology validation proj-ect that involved 20 laboratories from around the world (Pestle et al. 2014, PLoS ONE), and a collaborative project with a Russian team that developed a classification system for geological her-itage sites with paleogeographical sig-nificance (Bruno et al. 2014, Earth Sci-ence Reviews). I also published a paper investigating the foraging ecology of Late Pleistocene mastodons and mam-moths from the Cincinnati region with recent Geology undergraduate Eric Baumann (Baumann and Crowley 2015, Boreas). I

have been ac-tively pursuing strontium iso-topes as a nov-el geochemical tool for inter-preting mobil-ity of living and n o w - e x t i n c t organisms in North America and Madagas-car. This ave-nue of research has resulted in a very fruitful

collaboration with Fennemen Assistant Research Professor Josh Miller, and I anticipate a manuscript summarizing some of our efforts will be published later this year.

Outside of my own research, my PhD student, Ja-nine Sparks, advanced to candidacy last fall. Jani is

making great progress with her research and she recently received funding from Sigma

Xi to fund one of her projects that will determine resource use by prehis-toric people on Trinidad. My Masters student, Stella Mosher, successfully defended her thesis in March. We are currently retooling her text, which is about isotopic patterns in cloud forest

vegetation on Tenerife, for submission to Ecology.

I have also had the pleasure of mentoring two very dedicated undergraduate students for



their senior thesis projects this year. Both of these students, Ian MacAdam and Danielle Strasinger,

presented their findings at the UC undergraduate research conference at the end of the spring term. Dani-elle was also awarded a STEM Excel-lence in Undergraduate Research Award for her project.

Finally, I have very much enjoyed refining my courses to be increas-ingly student-led. These changes have resulted in exceptionally re-warding teaching experiences. For example, in the fall, I implemented

group research projects in my Stable Isotope Ecol-ogy course. Groups of undergraduate and gradu-ate students developed and carried out a variety of projects including identifying ancient agricultural practices using charred seeds, deciphering differ-ences in the diets of urban and rural raccoons, and establishing isotopic differences between organic and conventional dairy products. I was quite im-pressed with all of the projects and three of the teams presented their findings at the Graduate Re-search Symposium this spring.

So to wrap up, this has been a great year for both me and my students. As the summer approaches, I now look forward to catching up on some time in the lab and also writing up a few projects so I can clear my plate for some new and exciting research that will commence next fall. q

Mike Menard’s afternoon motoring at Kentucky Speedway.

11

MAMMotH And MAstodon BeHAvior WAs less roAM, More stAy At HoMeBy: Tom RobinettePhotos By: Dottie Stover, UC Creative Service

UC research on mammoths and mastodons could benefit modern-day elephants.

Their scruffy beards weren’t ironic, but there are reasons mammoths and mastodons could have been the hipsters of the Ice Age.

According to research from the University of Cincinnati,the famously fuzzy relatives of el-ephants liked living in Greater Cincinnati long before it was trendy – at the end of the last ice age. A study led by Brooke Crowley, an assis-tant professor of geology and anthropology, shows the ancient proboscideans enjoyed the area so much they likely were year-round resi-dents and not nomadic migrants as previously thought.

They even had their own preferred hangouts. Crowley’s findings indicate each species kept to separate areas based on availability of fa-vored foods here at the southern edge of the Last Glacial Maximum’s major ice sheet.

“I suspect that this was a pretty nice place to live, relatively speaking,” Crowley says. “Our data suggest that animals probably had what they needed to survive here year-round.”

COULD THE PAST SAVE THE FUTURE?

Crowley’s research with co-author and recent UC gradu-ate Eric Baumann, “Stable Isotopes Reveal Ecological Differences Among Now-Extinct Proboscideans from the Cincinnati Region, USA,” was recently published in Boreas (http://onlinelibrary.w i l e y . c o m / d o i / 1 0 . 1 1 1 1 /bor.12091/abstract), an in-ternational academic research journal.

Learning more about the different behav-iors of these prehistoric creatures could ben-efit their modern-day cousins, African and Asian elephants. Both types are on the World Wildlife Fund’s endangered species list.

(http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/ele-phant). Studying how variable different types of elephants might have been in the past, Crowley says, might help ongoing efforts to protect these largest of land mammals from continued threats such as poaching and habitat destruction.

“There are regionally different stories go-ing on,” Crowley says. “There’s not one over-arching theme that we can say about a mam-moth or a mastodon. And that’s becoming more obvious in studies people are doing in dif-ferentplaces. A mammoth in Florida did not behave the same as one in New York, Wyo-ming, California, Mexico or Ohio.”

THE WISDOM IN TEETH

For their research, Crowley and Baumann looked to the wisdom in teeth – specifically museum specimens of molars from four mast-odons and eight mammoths from Southwest-ern Ohio and Northwestern Kentucky. Much can be revealed by carefully drilling a tooth’s

surface and analyzing the stable carbon, oxygen and strontium isotopic signatures in the powdered enamel.

Each element tells a differ-ent story. Carbon provides insight into an animal’s diet, oxygen relates to overall cli-maticconditions of an ani-mal’s environment and stron-tium indicates how much an animal may have traveled at the time its tooth was form-ing.

“Strontium reflects the bedrock geology of a loca-tion,” Crowley says. “So if a local animal grows its tooth and mineralizes it locally and dies locally, the strontium isotope ratio in its tooth will reflect the place where it lived anddied. If an animal grows its tooth in one place and then moves elsewhere, the

UC’s Brooke Crowley uses isotopic analysis in her research. Here she works with samples of bones from

extinct lemurs.

Research led by UC’s Brooke Crowley, posing with this mammoth mandible, has uncovered some interesting ideas about mammoth and mastodon behavior.

U p p e r C r u s t


12

UC graduate Eric Baumann worked with Brooke Crowley researching mammoth and mastodon behavior.

strontium in its tooth is going to reflect where it came from, not where it died.”

Their analysis allowed them to determine several things:

• Mammoths ate more grasses and sedgesthan mastodons, which favored leaves from trees or shrubs.

• Strontium from all of the animals (exceptone mastodon) matched local water samples, meaning they likely were less mobile and migratory than previ-ously thought.

• Differences in stron-tium and carbon

between mammoths and mastodons sug-gest they didn’t in-habit the same lo-calities.

• Mammoths preferred to be closer to the

retreating ice sheet

where grasses were more abundant, whereas mastodons fed farther from the ice sheet in more forested habitat.

“As a geologist, questioning the past is one of the most interesting and exciting things to do,” says Baumann, an environmental geologist with a con-tractor for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agen-cy. “Based on our data, mammoths and mastodons seemed to have different diets and lived in different areas during their lives. This is important because

it allows us to understand how species in the past lived and in-teracted. And the past is the key to the present.”

Crowley of the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences (http://w w w.ar tsci .uc.edu/) plans further research into how strontium isotopes can be used to explore megafauna, includ-ing other projects dealing with mammoths and mastodons. q



MAMMotH And MAstodon (continued)

KAte cosgrove Hi All,

This morning was a big day for Geology and the Field Station! Da-vid Nash received a big check (and I do mean big, look at the size of it!) to help fund some of the work that he and Amy Townsend- S m a l l are doing with their Ground Water project at the Field station. This event was sponsored by Duke Energy, their Foundation making the donation, and was on the banks of the Ohio River, in Covington. You’ll see in some of the pictures all of the big wigs who turned out. Nash, David Lentz, our Provost – Beverly Dav-enport, and the Dean of our college, Ken Petren.

Needless to say, David Nash is going out on top! Glad I was able to be there and memorialize some of the fun. Plus, I helped Nash stay focused while talking to the reporter from the Enquirer.

Congratulations to David, Amy and David Lentz! q

13

yurenA yAnes

2014 was an exciting year. Last fall I was promoted to tenure-track Assis-tant Professor. With this new position I have had the chance to develop new multidisciplinary courses and teach at the undergraduate and graduate level. In the fall I teach an introduc-tory course on “Tropical Islands”, in which I cover basic concepts and prin-ciples of geology, biology, archeolo-gy, paleontology and conservation on island systems. In the spring I teach an upper level course on “Holocene En-vironmental and Cultural History”, in which we read scientific articles and book chapters, and discuss major climatic and cultural events and tran-sitions over the last 11,500 years. Through my teaching I have had the opportunity to interact with numerous brilliant UC students with various backgrounds and in-terests. This has certainly been a highly rewarding ex-perience for me.

In the fall of 2014, graduate students Elizabeth Bul-lard and Alex Wall joined our Department and are pur-suing a Masters in Geology. They are co-advised by Prof. Arnie Miller and myself. Elizabeth is trying to under-stand if and how land snail communities from Tenerife, Canary Islands, respond to Quaternary climate change (prior to human interference). Alex is evaluating if and

how land snail communities from across the Canary Archipelago are affected by human impact. We are getting ready to conduct a 1-month field research expedition in May 2015 to collect all samples necessary for both of their projects.

I am also very excited to expand my lab with graduate student Wes-ley Parker who will join our Depart-ment this fall 2015. Wesley will be pursuing a Masters in Geology and he is broadly interested on climate

change, anthropogenic impacts and mollusks. He is presently considering working on Holocene archeo-logical shell middens from the Canary Islands as part of his research here at UC.

Apart from teaching and graduate student mentor-ing, I have written several research grants in collabora-tion with other UC faculty and scientists from other in-stitutions, and published several papers and abstracts on Quaternary Mollusks. I have given two invited collo-quium presentations at the Univ. of Missouri and UCLA. Through my research I have had the chance to travel to new places, meet new people and expand my scientific collaborations, which is probably the part of my job I enjoy the most. q

U p p e r C r u s t


PAul Potter

The highlight of 2014 for me was co-teaching Basin Dynamics, Geology 6044, with Barry Maynard, who attended and participated in every class and taught two weeks, when I was away. This was an introductory course that had a wide range of topics including some totally new to the department such as the interpretation of reflection seismic sections. Our principal objective was to show and teach students how to “put all the parts of a basin study together.” Certainly there is no course that integrates an earth science geology curriculum bet-ter than a course in basin dynamics. We had 15 students (ten graduates and five undergraduates) and met three hours a week. The course was greatly enriched by three outside, every day users of seismic sections (one each from the Kentucky Geological Survey, BHP Billiton, and Exxon Mobil Upstream) with 15 hours of hands on inter-pretation and sequence stratigraphy. To my knowledge, this is the first time seismic sections have received much attention in the Geology Department. We also read pa-pers, everyone made a class presentation of a basin, and for a final, the students submitted a theme on a basin. Barry and I found it much work, because we not only

included many new topics, but also because we had to prepare many handouts (in lieu of a book). I can’t speak for Barry, but I was tired, but very satisfied about what we accomplished, at the end of 14 weeks last fall. All in all, a landmark course for the geology department.

I traveled to Brazil for two weeks during the fall semes-ter and gave a most successful lecture, “Linking the Mio-cene of South America to the Global Miocene and the Deep Earth”, went to the annual meeting of the AAPG, am helping Attila with a MS student, Ibrahim U, and also helping Barry prepare a short essay, “What Do You Mean 110 Percent Porosity? Twenty Definitions with Different Meanings”, and working with my Brazil petroleum geolo-gist friend to finish our Miocene series of papers.

Outside of geology, I walk to the university frequently, had a new hip installed successfully (now both hips and both knees are replaced and part of my pelvis as well and all are working well), go to the symphony now and then, and do some outside reading. My main health problem is arthritis.—nothing to laugh at. q

14



WAyne goodMAn (MS ’76)

Consulting Geologist/Board Member/Owner Associate at Core Energy LLC. Owner at Northern Lights Energy,

Saginaw, MI. [email protected]

edWArd o’donnell (MS ’63) [email protected]

Senior Geologist in the Regulatory Guide Development Branch in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)

Office of Research

tHoMAs KleKAMP (MS ’71)

Past-President of the New Orleans Geological Society.Senior geologist with Amber

Resources LLC. [email protected]

J. todd stePHenson (MS ’79) Vice President Geosciences

Northern Division at Chesapeake Energy. [email protected], jtoddstephenson@

gmail.com

We are extremely grateful to the members of the Alumni Advisory Committee for their continued support and recommen-dations concerning departmental long-range plans. As both the academic and industrial worlds of geoscience continue to

undergo change it is extremely helpful to have the insight of these individuals to help balance our our decision-making activities.

Photos: Almério Franca

Prof. Potter received an award from Dra. Sylvia, a general manager, on behalf of Petrobras for his long and profitable relationship with the company.The event was at Petrobras HQ in Rio de Janeiro 2007

Taken in 1977 in front of the old Petrobras lab at Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro. If I am not mistaken, this was the very first consulting job that Prof Potter had with Petrobras.

In August we wil be celebrating Dr. Paul Potter ’s 90th Bir thday!

B I R T H D A Y

15

crAig dietscHGreetings All. I would like to

dedicate this year’s newslet-ter update to offer a small cel-ebration and salute to Barry Maynard who was Head of De-partment when I was hired. At that time, the Department had a microprobe (one of those oft-seen at the time ARL 4-channel instruments) housed in Basic Sciences (a very cool building). Barry had tweaked the probe to analyze feldspars well and I remember him really enjoying probing…the probe made it over to the new

building with some funding from Amoco(!) but was ultimately a victim of being an analog, completely un-automated instru-ment getting overrun by fast-advancing au-tomated, digital tech-nology.

Going on 4-day field trips with Barry was always interesting and re-ally fun, with a lot of laughs, interesting geology, and memorable localities. Barry organized and ran a few trips to eastern Kentucky where we stayed at the Settlement House (a more detailed place name I never knew). We spent the days measuring great highway sections of coal-bear-ing strata and the nights being entertained with live music (played by our talented grad students and Warren Huff, of course) and drinking lots of beer. A 5-day out to the St. Francis Mountains in

Missouri was memorable, too, with terrific geology (includ-ing a funky barite mine) and a tremendous party Saturday night followed by the infamous breakfast of “tiffy and gravy” (some of you must remember this…). Barry and I ran a trip together to Ducktown, TN and I had a particularly pleasant cou-ple of summer days down there pre-running the trip. One of the things Barry had arranged was to have a former mining engi-

neer talk to our group one morning about what it was like to live and work in Ducktown at the height of the lead mining and processing there, which, incredibly, created morning and evening acidic fogs. I appreciated that Barry always was interested in the cultural aspects of being out in the field. One of our stops was at a hard-to-find settling pond; from this vantage point, we could clearly see that Ducktown was completely sur-rounded by a high-standing ridge — defining a thrust sheet with the ore-bearing rocks located in a tectonic window through this allochthonous sheet.

Also, a big shout-out for David Nash, uphold-er of truth, honesty, and the true American way! Thanks for always telling it like it is (was)! I’m gonna miss you! q

steve Wells (MS ’73, PhD ’76) President of the Desert Research Institute (DRI) of the University and Community College System of Nevada.

[email protected]

tiM Agnello (BS ’82, MS ’02)Professional geologist in the Cincinnati area

http://www.ohiovalleylandslides.com/ [email protected]

JoHn ruPP (BS ‘78) Senior Research Scientist at Indiana Geological Sur-

vey. Consulting Geologist at John A. Rupp Consulting. [email protected]

Mr. MArK P. fisHer (BS ’78, MS ’81)Marathon Oil

[email protected]

cHAd A. ferguson (MS ’03, Ph.D. ’09)Exploration Geologist/Stratigrapher at BHP Billiton

Petroleum. [email protected]

Jennifer J. Krueger (MS ’91)Associate Principal / Office Manager at GZA

GeoEnvironmental, Inc. [email protected]

U p p e r C r u s t


16


U C geology pro-fessor Warren Huff understands

students. I t ’s an attribute that ’s easily evidenced in

the online geology course he opened eight years ago with just their needs, plus his in-terests, in mind.

“A lot of them have jobs, family responsi-bilities or they don’t want to get up early and come to class,” Huff said. “I understand that and star ted online geology classes out of my own interest in them, too. The tech-nology was available.”

Huff was one of the first McMicken Col-lege of Arts and Sciences professors to of-fer an online course and has worked with a couple of different lecture capture systems that have enabled him to conduct online courses effectively : Camtasia and Podcast Producer. Now that Echo360 has appeared on campus, he’s piloting that system, too.

“ What’s good about Echo360 is that it shows you statistics of the number of stu-dents actually utilizing the recording, and you can do a lot more with it in terms of ed-iting compared to previous programs,” Huff said.

Echo360 is a streamlined lecture capture system that allows instructors to create and upload content to Blackboard – before, dur-ing or after class – and students to access it anytime, anywhere and from any device.

It works through a screen-capturing tool that is mounted atop the professor ’s com-puter monitor and records everything shown on the monitor, l ike lecture slides and online demonstrations.

“ The videos it takes made me change the way I teach my face-to-face classes be-cause the recording won’t record me turn-ing around to write on the blackboard,” Huff said. “Instead, I’ve spent a lot of time work-ing on HTML files and links to images, news ar ticles and our textbook.”

These included-features, along with the ability to further engage students through demonstrative lectures they can view out-side of a classroom setting, have made Huff ’s online courses just as successful as his face-to-face ones. q

A Pioneer in eLearning at UCPilots Echo360 System

By: Alexis O’Brien

one tecH-sAvvy Professor froM tHe McMicKen college of Arts & sciences uses A neW Pilot systeM to cAPture in-clAss lectures for online courses.


(http://community.geosociety.org/gsa2015/home/).

2 0 1 5 G S A R E C E P T I O NI would like to invite you to attend and to join us for an

alumni get-together on Monday, November 2 from 6:30 PM - 09:00 PM, in Key Ballroom 2 of the Hilton Baltimore next to the convention center. .


17

U niversity of Cincinnati professor Arnold Miller has been named as president-elect of the Paleontological Society, an internation-

al organization devoted to the advancement of the study of paleontology. Miller will actually serve three consecutive two-year terms; first as president-elect, then as president, and finally as past-president. Miller was elected by members of the society who voted via electronic ballot over the summer.

Arnold Miller has been a professor at UC since 1986, teaching in the fields of paleontology, geology and environmental studies. He is also adjunct curator of invertebrate paleontology at the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History. Miller’s research focuses on biodi-versity throughout geological time and in the present day. In particular, much of his study has centered on mass-extinction events and patterns of evolutionary diversification. He has been a prolific contributor to the signature journal in his field, Paleobiology, which he also co-edited from 1992 to 1995, and has pub-lished several papers in the journal Science.

Miller has received a “Best Paper” award from the Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, is a member of the Fellows of the Graduate School at UC, an organization he chaired from 2010 to 2012, was elected Centennial Fellow of The Paleontological Society in 2007, and was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2013.

Miller, who came to UC after receiving his doctoral degree from the University of Chicago, has served in editorial roles for numerous geology and paleobiol-ogy journals, and as member or chair of a number of related professional committees. He was chair of the organizing committee for the Ninth North American Paleontological Convention, which attracted more than 500 paleontologists from 26 countries to the UC campus in the summer of 2009.

The Paleontological Society is an international non-profit organization representing scientists, scholars, students and educators from 40 nations. Founded in 1908 in Baltimore, Maryland, and incorporated in 1968 in Washington, DC, the Paleontological Soci-ety is devoted to the advancement of the science of paleontology through the dissemination of research by publication, and funding researchers worldwide through numerous grant programs.

Miller is the second UC faculty member to be chosen to serve as president of the society. Kenneth Caster, formerly a professor of geology and Fellow of the UC Graduate School, served as president of the organi-zation in 1960. Miller will assume his new position as president-elect when the Paleontological Society meets in conjunction with the Geological Society of America in Vancouver in October. q

UC Professor Chosen To Lead Paleontological Society

U p p e r C r u s t

By: Sean Pace-ScrivenerPhotos By: Jean Assell

Professor Arnold Miller HAs Been selected As tHe next

President of tHe PAleontologicAl society.

T his year’s 4-Day Field Trip will be held on September 18-20 in conjunction with our annual Departmental Ca-

reer Day.

Join Us! We will visit several active shale frack-ing sites in Ohio and discuss both the source geology and the technological and environmental aspects of extraction and waste disposal. Interested alumni are welcome to join us.

18



Glendening, Everett A., beloved husband of 65 years to Wilhelmina (nee Hanley), loving fa-ther of Nanci, James (Katherine Paulson), Thomas (Susanna Stieff ), Terry, and Susan Neff (Gerry), dear grandfather of Christo-pher, Ann Doering, Claire, William, Amy, Steven Fischer, Austin Fischer and Andrew Neff, special great- grandfather of Michael and Myles Doering.

August 28, 2014. Age 85.

Visitation will be Thursday September 4, 2014 from 5-9pm at the Thomas-Justin Memorial 7500 Montgomery Rd. in Kenwood. Funer-al service will be Friday September 5, 2014 11am at Armstrong Chapel United Methodist Church corner of Drake and Indian Hill Rd. in India Hill.

Dear Mrs. Glendening,

On behalf of all of the faculty, staff and stu-dents in the Department of Geology I want to express our sincere condolences on the loss of your dear husband, Everett. “Glen,” as he was known to all of us back in the 1980s when he was the lead architect in the design and con-struction of what he eventually labeled the Geology/Physics Building, was an absolutely marvelous individual to know and to work with. Once the State of Ohio approved funding for the construction of this building and identi-fied Glen as the chief architect for the project

he went to work interacting with all of the clients, which in-cluded both Departments of Geology and Physics plus the university maintenance people and the State architect’s of-fice. We were all extremely impressed by the combination of artistic, design, engineering and political skills that Glen exhibited in the course of building this structure. Each cli-ent had their own specific set of wishes and constraints, and Glen worked successfully to satisfy all of them. Our building was officially dedicated on October 9, 1987 so the enclosed photo of Glen and my colleague Prof. Barry Maynard would have been taken sometime during the preceding months.

Again, we offer our sincere condolences on his passing.

Sincerely,

Warren D. Huff

I N MEMORY O F

EVERETT A. “GLEN” GLENDENING

1987Dedication of the newly

completed Geology/Physics Bldg.

19

JoHn tHAeler - InstIgatour

Since 2012, John has been the Chief Operating Officer for Vitruvian Exploration II LLC, a private equity funded inde-pendent oil and gas exploration and production company located in The Woodlands, TX. John’s passion is to deliver

high value growth by leading E&P organizations through the identifica-tion, capture, exploration and development of oil and gas resources, while occasionally enjoying a nice cabernet. From 1999 to 2012, as SVP of Exploration with Southwestern Energy he led many E&P activities, including the discovery and development of Fayetteville Shale, which helped transform SWN from a small, utility-based company into a mid-sized S&P 500 oil and gas independent. Before joining SWN, John held various technical and managerial positions during a 20-year career at Occidental Petroleum Company where he worked in Africa, the Middle East, Central and South America, and the continental U.S.

UC GEOLOGY CAREER DAYS2014

In 1977, John escaped from Cleveland State University with his B.S. degree. With much encouragement from his wife Helen, John worked diligently to receive his M.S. in Geology from UC in 1979, working close-ly with Drs. Maynard, Potter and Pryor to get out and get a job. Not knowing when to quit, John followed all this with an M.B.A. from the University of Houston. He remains a long-standing member of AAPG, SPE and IPAA. In 2013, John was greatly honored to be recognized as a University of Cincinnati Distinguished Alumni. John’s remaining pas-sion is to give back to the department, and in 2014 the Thaeler Careers 101 Fund was kicked off with the goal of helping UC Geology prepare for jobs in industry. q

KAte BulinsKi - academIa

Kate Bulinski is an Associate Professor of Geosciences in the School of Environmental Studies at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky. She received her B.S. in Geoscience from The Pennsylvania State University in 2002 and her Ph.D. from University of Cincinnati in 2008. In addition to teaching three classes for undergraduate students each semester, she pursues paleontological research of-

ten involving her students. Most recently Kate’s research has focused on characterizing the paleoecological relationships at the Devonian Falls of the Ohio coral fossil beds in Clarksville, Indiana. Aside from teaching and research, Kate also enjoys promoting study abroad opportunities for students. In the last two years she traveled to India with a group of undergraduates, launched an annual Peru field course with a colleague in Anthropology, and will be traveling to Guatemala with a group of students in the spring of 2015. Kate and her husband Ned enjoy traveling together as well, and delight in living just “down the road” from Cincinnati, where they can still come up occasionally to catch Cincinnati Reds games (and collect fossils, of course). q

UC Geology Career Days Speakers, November 16th - 17th, 2014

U p p e r C r u s t

20


cHAd ferguson – oil & gAs

Chad has worked as an exploration and development geologist in the oil and gas industry (Houston, Texas), first with BP America and currently with BHP Billiton Petroleum, since 2009. His areas of industry expertise include sedimentology/stratigraphy of deepwater clastic systems, play-based

exploration geology, and seismic interpretation. He has worked on exploration projects from pros-pect- to basin-scale, planned and drilled a deep-water production well, led/instructed industry field trips/training courses, and served as a graduate recruiter/interviewer on several occasions. Before joining industry full-time, Chad held several visiting and adjunct academic positions and worked

with BP America as an intern.

In 2000, Chad graduated from Hope College with a B.S. in geology, followed by a Masters (’03) and Ph.D. (’09) in paleontology at UC working with Dr. Arnie Miller. With the aid of Drs. Miller and Potter, the encouragement of his wife, and timely men-torship from a few alumni, Chad was fortunate to secure an opportunity in the oil and gas industry. He is excited to be a guest speaker at the first annual UC Geology Career Days, rep-resenting the oil and gas industry, because he sees this as a wonderful opportunity to pay the investment that others made in him forward to the next generation of UC geologists. q

BrendA HundA - MuseuMs

Brenda grew up in Alberta—Canadian dinosaur country — which was the perfect place to develop her fascination for fossils. Paleontology has been a life-long passion of hers, and

going out on “dinosaur digs” in the badlands of Alberta as a teenager had a major impact. She went on to study paleontology at the Univer-sity of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada where she earned a B.Sc. in Honors Paleontology in 1997. She decided to stay at the University of Alberta but with a shift in focus from vertebrate to invertebrate paleon-tology. She received her M.Sc. in Geology in 1999. She then moved to

California and received her Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the University of California, Riverside in 2004. This research focused on evolutionary patterns of Flexicaly-mene (Trilobita) from the Upper Ordovi-cian (Cincinnatian Series) of Ohio, Ken-tucky, and Indiana. Because the fossils in the type area of the Upper Ordovician are so amazing, when the opportunity arose for a chance at the Curator of Inver-

tebrate Paleontology position at Cincinnati Museum Center, she took it. She has been the Curator of Inverte-brate Paleontology at Cincinnati Museum Center since 2004. She is also Adjunct Professor in the Geology De-partment at the University of Cincinnati and a Lecturer at Northern Kentucky University. As Curator, Brenda is involved in many aspects of the Museum, including but not limited to: exhibit design, educational programming development, community outreach, cura-tion of the largest collection of Upper Ordovician fossils in the world, development of a scientific research program, and playing in the one of the highest diversity fossil sea bottoms in North America. q

ricH PoHAnA – geotecHnicAl engineering

Rich Pohana is the Geotechnical Engineer for the City of Cin-cinnati. He works in the Engineering Division of the Depart-ment of Transportation and Engineering. His main respon-

sibility is to provide geotechnical expertise for landslide prevention and stabilization on city-controlled property. Since 1989 the City of Cincinnati has completed sixty-nine landslide stabilization projects at a cost on the order of $21.4 million. Rich also oversees the inspec-tion, maintenance and replacement of over 50 miles of city owned retaining walls. The success of the city’s Retaining Wall and Landslide Stabilization Program has been nationally recognized by the United States Geological Survey, the Federal Highway Administration and the Transportation Research Board.

Rich obtained his B.S. in Geology in 1981 from Cleveland State Uni-versity and his M.S. degree in Geology from UC in 1983. He began his professional ca-reer with the H.C. Nutting Company, a local Cincinnati geotechnical consulting firm. In 1989 he became the first and only engineer-ing geologist employed by the City of Cin-cinnati. While working Rich attended UC’s College of Engineering and Environmental Science and obtained a M.S. degree, specializing in geotechnical en-gineering in 1990. He obtained his Professional Engineer’s license in 2001. Rich was an Adjunct Professor in the College of Applied Science from 2004 to 2012 where he was the instructor for the Soil Mechanics course. q

21

U p p e r C r u s t

AdAM flege – environMentAl engineering

Adam has worked as a geologist in the environmental consulting/engineering industry since 2000. He received his B.S. in Geol-ogy from the University of Cincinnati in 1999. Focusing on con-

structed wetlands related to coal mine drainage, he completed his M.S. in Geology from the University of Cincinnati in 2001 under the mentoring of Dr. Barry Maynard. Adam earned his Professional Geologist certification from the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 2005 and his Registered Profes-sional Geologist certification from the State of Georgia in 2013.

Adam is currently Senior Geologist with Apex Companies, LLC and is responsible for due diligence involving Phase I and Phase II ESAs as well as remediation of contaminated properties. Adam’s experience has included underground storage tank closures, vapor in-trusion assessments and mitigation, ground-water and soil remediation, source removal, in-situ bioremediation and chemical oxida-tion, exposure pathway risk assessments, asbestos management plants,

and stormwater pollution prevention plans. Adam is also an Adjunct Professor with Miami University Ohio, teaching Environmental Geol-ogy and Geology of National Parks since 2007. Adam’s passion is geology and he enjoys talking about rocks and teaching others about the sto-ries rocks can tell. q

JAy ZAMBito iv - industry

Jay received his Ph.D. in Geology (Paleontology/Stratigraphy) from UC in 2011. He has a B.S. in Earth Science from SUNY College at Brockport (04) and a M.S. inGeology from the University

at Buffalo, SUNY (06). Following a two year post-doctoral research position at Central Michigan University and West Virginia University, Jay started at the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey. Jay’s research interests include Paleozoic

paleoecology, stra-tigraphy, and pa-leo-climatology. In addition to pursu-ing his research at the WGNHS, Jay also produces geologic maps and provides geologic information about Wisconsin’s industrial sand resources to the public, government, and industry. q

Andrew Zaffos, PhD. “DIAGNOSIS AND PREDICTION OF VARIATIONS IN THE

ENVIRONMENTAL DISTRIBUTIONS OF MARINE FOSSIL TAXA ACROSS SPACE AND TIME”.

Advisor: Arnie Miller

Christopher Aucoin, MS. “REVISED CORRELATIONS OF THE ORDOVICIAN (KATIAN,

RICHMONDIAN) WAYNESVILLE FORMATION OF OHIO, INDIANA AND KENTUCKY”.

Advisor: Carl Brett

Stella Mosher, MS.“CARBON ISOTOPE DISCRIMINATION AND NITROGEN ISOTOPE VALUES INDICATE THAT INCREASED RELATIVE HUMIDITY FROM

FOG DECREASES PLANT WATER USE EFFICIENCY IN A SUBTROPICAL MONTANE CLOUD FOREST”.

Advisor: Brooke Crowley

Jason Cesta, MS.“TIMING OF ALLUVIAL FAN DEVELOPMENT ALONG THE

CHAJNANTOR PLATEAU, ATACAMA DESERT, NORTHERN CHILE: INSIGHTS FROM COSMOGENIC 36Cl”.

Advisor: Dylan Ward

Kelsey Feser, PhD.“UTILIZING THE SUBFOSSIL RECORD OF SEAGRASS-

ASSOCIATED MOLLUSKS TO REVEAL RECENT CHANGES IN COASTAL MARINE ENVIRONMENTS”.

Advisor: Arnie Miller

Adam Piestrzeniewicz, MS. “CHARACTERIZING VARIATIONS IN EXHUMATION AT THE

YAKUTAT-NORTH AMERICA COLLISION ZONE”. Advisor: Eva Enkelmann

Graduate Degrees 2014-2015

Claire Botner, MS. “ELEVATED METHANE LEVELS FROM BIOGENIC COAL-

BED GAS IN OHIO DRINKING WATER WELLS NEAR SHALE GAS EXTRACTION”,

Advisor: Amy Towndsend-Small

22


Distinguished C ollo quium & Visiting Speakers 2014 -2015

dr. nAte BrAdleyUS Bureau of Reclamation

Denver, ColoradoLarge Scale Hydraulic

Modeling of the Trinity River: Science-Supported River Restoration

Project Priorization and Decision Making.

dr. lori PeeKCo-Director of the Center for

Disaster and Risk AnalysisColorado State University

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill:Enduring Health Effects and Youth

Empowerment Efforts Along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

dr. JoHn A. BreyerMarathon Oil

From the Arch to the Uplift:Depositional Changes in the

Cenomanian-Turonian Interval (Eagle Ford and Woodbine Groups) across

Central and East Texas.

dr. nAdine McQuArrieThe University of Pittsburgh

Evaluating the importance of structural geometry, rates of thrusting

and topographicevolution on thermochronometer cooling ages: in-

sights from the Bhutan Himalaya.

dr. nAtAlie Kruse-dAnielsOhio University

On-Site Treatment of Hydraulic Fracturing Flowback and

Produced Water: Removing Hardness Ions and

Radioactive Isotopes.

dr. Arndt scHiMMelMAnnSenior Scientist,

Organic Geochemistry andChemical Oceanography

Indiana University, BloomingtonNatural outgassing of shale gas and

the discovery of a sink for atmospheric methane.

dr. cHAd fergusonBHP Billiton

The Practice of Sequence Statigraphy in

the Gulf Coast. dr. sHuHAi xiAoProfessor of Geobiology

Geosciences, Virginia Tech

On The Eve of The Cambrian Explosion: Biological Evolution in

The Ediacaran Period.

dr. MArK KreKelerMiami University

Department of Geology &Environmental Earth Science

Short Stories From The Transmission Electron Microscope.

dr. gregory WAlsHUS Geologic Survey- Vermont

Unraveling the History of Complex Deformed Rocks - An Example from

Bronson Hill Anticlinorium of Western New Hampshire.

dr. cHris WidgACurator of Geology,

Illinois State MuseumLast of the American Elephants: The Midwestern Mammoth and

Mastodon Project.

dr. frAncescA HoPKinsJet Propulsion Laboratory

Mitigation of Methane Emissions in Cities: How New Measurements and Partnerships can Contribute

to Emissions Reduction Strategies.

dr. BetHAny l. eHlMAnnCalifornia Institute of Technology

Jet Propulsion LaboratoryAqueous Environments during Mars’ first

billion years: Mineralogic Clues from Orbiting Infrared Spectrometers.

dr. sorA KiMUniversity of Chicago

Ecological Dynamics in Modern and Ancient Sharks: Insights from Stable

Isotope Analysis.

dr. rAcHel HeAdley University of Washington, ParksideFrom the mountains to the prairies: gla-

cial landscapes and processes.

dr. Broxton Bird

Indiana University -PUIReconstructing Holocene hydroclimates

with high-resolution lake sediment archives from the world’s water towers.


(http://community.geosociety.org/gsa2015/home/).

2 0 1 5 G S A R E C E P T I O NI would like to invite you to attend and to join us for an

alumni get-together on Monday, November 2 from 6:30 PM - 09:00 PM, in Key Ballroom 2 of the Hilton Baltimore next to the convention center.


23

An evening at the Observatory honoring Dr. J. Barry Maynard on

his retirement.

U p p e r C r u s t

SprinGAwards Banquet2014 -2015


24

U p p e r C r u s t

25

26


2014-2015

27

Do you have any recollections of field trips, social events, classroom experiences or other experiences

during your UC days that you would like to share with your alumni colleagues?

Send them to Warren Huff, email: [email protected] or Dept. of Geology, UC, Cincinnati, OH 45221 and we’ll include them in next years’ issue.

U p p e r C r u s t

Addison Myers (ms ’53)In 1953, in graduate school, I was a TA handling a lab

for under graduates. One of my students was a guy who said he was taking geology because he wanted to go to the moon to do geology there. I thought he was a nut case. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

In the fall of 1956 Larry Lattman and I attended an Aerial Photo Technical School in Delft Holland. I had just been discharged from the Army in Germany and wanted to go to this school to follow my interest in photo geology. Also, I could use the GI bill to cover all my costs. Low and behold, about two weeks after I arrived, Larry showed up for the same purpose.

The school’s building was brand new and the build-ers were putting on the final touches, one of them being the elevators. Some days the elevators would work; some days they wouldn’t. On the latter days they would put up a sign which said Bauten Dienst, or in English, Out of Service. It became a joke among the students that the normally super efficient Dutch engineers were being flummoxed. It was a moment in time and space that neither Larry nor I can forget.

Addison

stAn scHWeinfurtH (Bs ’52, ms ’58)Thank you Warren: It’s great to hear the good news

from the Department. I receive the Alumnae news and I can see that the campus has been changed in considerable ways; very handsome. I am very in-volved in this senior’s community and even do a little geology on the side. Lots of interesting stuff on the east side of the Appalachians.

Stan

WAlter lAufer (Bs ’56)Letter to Lewis Owen

Dear Lewis,

Just a short note to let you know everything is well in the oil fields of West Texas in spite of the precipi-tous drop in oil prices. Hope everything is going well for you and the UC Geology Dept. I really enjoy the “Upper Crust” and every once in a while I recognize a name from the past. I hope you and the geology de-partment have a very Merry Christmas and a wonder-ful and prosperous New Year.

Walt




Join Us!

28

Henry (HAnK) scHocH (Bs ’66)Warren, Life is good out here. I’ve joined the Grand Junction Geological Society, which is populated by a large number of real working professional geologists from the oil, mining, and project remediation indus-tries. Why they tolerate a lapsed pretender like me is a mystery. It’s a pretty active bunch, and it brings in good speakers, most recently Juergen Scheiber from Indiana University, and it sponsors some great field trips. A while back, the group hosted a regional gath-ering of the AAPG.

I continue my one-man survey of Colorado National Monument for archaeological sites, wandering around alone in the backcountry with GPS and camera. My efforts are neither systematic nor comprehensive, but thus far I’ve identified 430 sites, and the databases I’ve built are now being used as a foundation (finally) for a three-year professional survey. Along the way, of course, I note the occasional dinosaur bone and oth-er geological goodies. We’ve an interesting section here, an exposed Proterozoic basement of schist and gneiss laced with granitic and lamprophere dikes and capped unconformably by a discontinuous sequence of Mesozoic sediments. A bit of structure, too, since the monument is located on the northern tip of the Uncompahgre uplift.

I’m also heavily invested in backyard astronomy and do a lot of public outreach where I share views of the nighttime (and sometimes daytime) sky through my little Questar scope. The year before last, our club at-tracted 400 participants for the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun, and a somewhat smaller number for the annular eclipse.

I hope this email finds you in good health and good spirits.

Hank

gerAld g. scHABer (ms ‘62, Phd ’65)Warren,

Sandy and I continue to keep busy these days here in Flagstaff (AZ). Sandy has, for sixteen years now, been volunteering her time working at several non-profit Thrift shops which donate their proceeds to many different local charities. She is currently vol-unteering one day a week at two different such thrift shops. We have four grandchildren, including two granddaughters currently in their second year at Em-bry-Riddle University (Prescott, AZ) and the Univer-sity of Arizona (Tucson, AZ) majoring in Meteorology

and Biology, respectively. We also have a grandson who is presently a high school junior in Flagstaff (AZ), and another granddaughter in her sophomore year in Kingman (AZ).

As for my activities, I have finally completed my au-tobiography, my historic family tree and my ancestral genetic history story based on recent analysis of my DNA. I have, for example, been successful in trac-ing my paternal (Schaber) family tree back to a Jakob Schaber who was born 1607 in the small town of Ren-ningen in the Wurttemburg District of Germany; and died there before 1653.

Interestingly, that information alone has resulted in my finding out that I am a direct-line 8th cousin of actress Patricia Grace Kelly who (as many of us re-member) married Prince Rainer III of Monaco in April 1956. It turns out that the family of Grace Kelly’s mother, Margaret Katherine Majer, was also from Ren-ningen, Germany---and that Grace’s 6th great grand Aunt, Anna Catherina Egeler (1661-1691), married my paternal 6th great grandfather, Johannes Schaber (1660-1731) in November 1683 in Renningen. I found sixteen different “Schaber’s” listed in Grace Kelly’s ex-tended family tree that is posted on-line. Grace and Prince Rainer’s son, Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi, is the current Monarch of Monaco--and my 8th cousin 1X times removed. Who knew?

I have also extended my Schaber-line’s “genetic” history even further back into very ancient times by having my Genome (DNA) isolated, analyzed and in-terpreted-- most recently through the National Geo-graphic Society’s (NGS) Genographic-2.0 Project that was made available to the general public in 2013. The quite impressive Genetic History Report sent to me on-line by the NGS traces both my paternal and ma-ternal haplogroups, or specific branch on the human family tree, back to the time and place my ancient an-cestors left East Africa (Bet. 60,000 and 70,000 years ago) and began their extended path of migration throughout central, west and southwest Asia; eventu-ally entering the European Subcontinent and more or less dominating the human genetic lines in the Brit-ish Isles (mostly Ireland) sometime during or soon af-ter the retreat of the last Ice sheets about 5,500 years ago. I have also learned that 98 percent, or more, of all persons alive today who carry the same rare pa-ternal haplogroup as me (R-F3952 or M222) reside in Ireland.

A l u m n i N e w s

29

My Genetic History Report from the Genographic-2.0 program also revealed that (1) I am 42% Northern European, 41% Mediter-ranean and 16% Southwest Asian; and (2) that 1.6% of the total DNA in my genome is Neanderthal, and 0.6% is Denisovan (an-other cousin Hominid). Genealogy can be fun indeed—and very addictive. I recommend it to anyone who has an inquisitive mind and has a lot of spare time on their hands—like me. All my best to everyone at the Department of Geology at U.C. -- the five years I spent there in Graduate School (1960-65) were wonderful and full of joy and laughter with good friends—including you Warren.

Jerry

scHABer (Continued)

U p p e r C r u s t

gerAld (Jerry) scHABer (ms ’62, Phd ‘65)in a note to Ken Tankersley:

Ken,

I was thrilled to find the link (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150416155323.htm) when I carried out my usual morning search of new science research re-sults appearing on Sciencedaily.com. The excellent discus-sion of the great work you are doing with your students at Big Bone Lick certainly brought back a LOT of fond memo-ries to me. As you probably know from our earlier discus-sions between you, Warren and I, Big Bone Lick has been my stomping grounds since I was a teenager living in nearby Covington, Kentucky. In fact, my early explorations of Big Bone Creek in the mid-1950’s resulted in my finding the small Mastodon (or was it a Mammoth?) skull that presently resides in the Behringer-Crawford Natural History Museum in Devou Park, Covington, Kentucky. I recall that I spotted that skull in the creek bank at Big Bone in 1955 or 1956. I couldn’t be present here a few days later when it was dug out by my good friend Elis Crawford and others because I was picking up and delivering auto radios for my father

who had his own Auto Radio Repair business in downtown Covington.

Elis and I had become very good friends back in the early 1950s-- and I was a constant “presence” at the then Beh-ringer Museum—chatting with Elis about every possible subject related to the natural sciences—especially geology, minerals and vertebrate/invertebrate paleontology. Elis was a truly wonderful teacher and friend. I credit much of my interest in the natural science to his influence.

As you also are probably aware, I also participated as site geologist during the first formal excavations of the verte-brate assemblages at Big Bone in the early 1960’s led by Dr. Bertrand Schultz from the University of Nebraska at Lin-coln. I worked at these excavations during 1962 and 1963 as I completed my Master’s Thesis (1962--“The Weathered, High-level sands and Silts of Northern Kenton County, Kentucky”) at U.C. under Dr. Richard Durrell-- and began my Doctoral research at U.C. under Frank Koucky on “The Mineralogy and Crystal Chemistry of the Sulfosalt Minerals: Bournonite, Seligmannite, Aikinite, Diaphorite and Freisle-benite.” I completed my Doctorate in 1965 and soon after left for Flagstaff, Arizona to began my career with the U.S. Geological Survey, Branch of Astrogeology.

The results of your (and your students) latest findings at Big Bone –especially with regard to the impact of climate change, animal extinction trends and human reactions to same are very interesting. I knew as a young boy (visiting Big Bone) that there was a long and complicated history there to be discovered. Thank you and your student’ s role in continuing a very long fascination by many naturalists with this famous piece of Kentucky. Keep up the great work!

Gerald G. Schaber-Flagstaff, AZ.

ed o’donnell (ms ‘63, Phd ‘67)I missed S. Warren Carey but I remember people in the Depart-

ment talking about him. This was Pre-plate tectonics. In Caster’s Historical Geology class he described the similarity of geologic units between Brazil and S. Africa. He told of pre-WWII days laying out a collection of Devonian fossils from South Africa for his Brazil-ian students to identified They thought the formations from Brazil. I recall that I wasn’t swayed by him at the time since I was mentally following the crowd. Still, he was awfully convincing.

Warren Huff’s reply;

Yes, Ken was very intrigued by the idea of continental drift. I remember he invited a well-know Australian, S. Warren Carey to

give a departmental lecture on the expanding earth hypothesis. That was one way people had of explaining how and why conti-nents moved apart. With him we had a newly hired faculty mem-ber named Chris Powell, also from Australia. I vividly recall that when Carey finished his talk Powell stood up in the back of the room and challenged him on the physical mechanism behind an expanding earth. Ken was furious that anyone should question his distinguished guest like that.

You might say that we are very fortunate to be part of the gener-ation that saw the emergence and development of plate tectonics.

A l u m n i N e w s

JoHn Breyer (Bs ’70)Editor’s note: John, who works for Marathon Oil,

visited the department on 10/8/14 and gave us a su-perb first-hand look at what the modern oil industry is really like.

October 18th, 2014

ed HAnsen (BS ’78)

Editor’s note: Thanks to Linda Fulton for calling atten-tion to the following article about Ed Hansen’s activities at Hope College:

Dr. Edward Hansen, professor of geology and environmental science, has led multiple groups to HallandProvince in Sweden to conduct work with the Geological Survey of Sweden, a unique opportunity for students to gain research experience abroad. Pictured from left to right at work this past May are Dr. Edward Hansen and seniors Stephanie Vincent, Ryan Vander Meulen and Audrey La Roche (missing, because he was taking the photograph instead of in it, is senior Randy Wade, who also provided the image at lower right).

From left to right are the members of the research team that visited the nation this past May: Front Row, Au-drey LaRoche, Ryan Vander Meulen and Stephanie Vincent; Back Row, Dr.Edward Hansen and Randy Wade.

John Beyer in Poland.

30

31

U p p e r C r u s t

lindA fulton (Phd ’77)When I began working as Music

Director at Ripley (OH) First Pres-byterian Church in 2003, I had no idea that geology would solve a legendary mystery surrounding its pipe organ. As you can see from the photo, the organ is prob-ably the most striking feature in the otherwise plainly Calvinistic sanctuary. The congregation told me that it was built in 1885 by Au-gustus B. Felgemaker of Erie, PA. They told me that nothing had been modernized on this organ, save for an electric blower to sup-ply the wind – in 1885, that would have required a human to pump the organ. And they pointed out that the organ didn’t exactly fit the space in the front of the sanc-tuary because it was not built for this church but for a church “in Charleston.”

As the story goes, this pipe or-gan was on a flatboat on the Ohio River to be delivered to that church when the boat captain got word that the church no longer wanted the organ. And, as he happened to be near Ripley, he docked and asked if anyone in the village wanted to purchase this organ, which the Presbyterians did for the sum of $1500.

After hearing this story, I had a million questions: which Charleston? West Virginia? South Carolina? Why didn’t the church want the organ? Who wouldn’t want this organ! But all I got was the old mechanic’s shrug and an “I dunno.” Well, lost in the sands of time, I thought.

Then about six years later I was perusing an issue of Earth magazine which featured an article about increased risk assessment for earthquake potential east of the Mississippi River. And on the map which accompanied the article there was a huge bullseye over New Madrid, MO with the date 1811 and also over Charleston, SC, with the date August 31, 1886. It all came together faster than you could say seis-mic shock wave. The reason I play this organ every Sunday is an earthquake which damaged the church

in Charleston, SC, so badly that they were unable to accept the organ.

Following that lead, I headed off to the public library in Ripley to look through whatever news-papers they had from 1886 to see if I could verify my theory. Sure enough, there were a number of stories about the Charleston earthquake (pre-Richter scale, but judged to rival the 1906 San Francisco quake) and how it was said to have caused church bells in Louisville and Detroit to ring. And there were also a few sto-ries about the Presbyterians and their purchase of a pipe organ. It was installed in the fall of 1886 and a Professor McKenzie from Cincinnati came to play the inaugural recital in November 1886. So, 129 years later, I think it’s appropriate that a geolo-gist gets to play this wonderful

instrument which the church acquired through the “fault” of a geological event.

And what about the church in Charleston? Well, they did get a Felgemaker pipe organ in 1887 according to the online database of the Organ Historical Society. The church was First Scots Presbyterian Church which still stands on Meeting St. in Charleston. Sadly, the organ was lost in a chancel fire in 1945.

There are other Felgemaker organs in southern Ohio. First Presbyterian Church in Hillsboro has one still in use dating from 1899. There was one in the Presbyterian Church in Augusta, KY (ca. 1879). How-ever, all that remains is the pipework of the façade. You can see if your hometown has any historic pipe organs like this Felgemaker. Just go to: www.organ-society.org and click their link for the Organ Historical Society Pipe Organ Database and search by state and city. Also, there is a stoplist for this organ and a few additional photos q.

32

tod rousH (Bs ’74)

Warren,

I found these photos of the 1971 Frank Koucky trip up through Ohio/Michigan and down through Wis-consin & Illinois.

Photo 1: Frank talk-ing about dune formation on the north end of Lake Michigan. Besides Frank I recognize – left to right – Merrill (Essex) Emmons, Mike Fein, Claudia Miller.

Photo 2: On north bank of Lake Michi-gan – l to r – Ken Appel, ? , Frank, and Steve Riedel.

Photo 3 at (under) Munising Falls – l to r - ?, ?, John Robinson, Frank, Steve Riedel, Dennis Gillespie, Tom Fiorito,?, Andy Salsbury?, Merrill Emmons, Claudia Miller, Mike Fein, Scott Brockman, LeRon Bialak?

Munising Falls is one of about 123 waterfalls that ring Lake Superior that was created by the mid-conti-nent rift that formed about 1.1 – billion year ago.

The rift is filled with a very thick section of the Ke-weenawan Basalts which give all the area it’s charac-teristic red color.

Photo 4: Rabbit Rock – on top – Claudia Miller and Dennis Gillespie

Rabbit Rock is one of many of the so-called ‘cas-tellated mounds’. Con-sisting of nearly flat ly-ing Cambrian Sandstone the mounds are erosional remnants carved by wave action within Glacial Lake Wisconsin and subse-quent stream erosion.

Photo 5: Republic Iron Mine - The future Doctor Stephen Riedel! (making little rocks out of big rocks. Actually he’s collecting spec-ular hematite, the ore being quarried at Republic. I be-lieve the mine has since shut down.

Photo 6 (Top of page): Maumee River near Toledo in foreground John Robinson, Ken Appel, & Claudia Miller (sitting). This was (is?) an ex-cellent exposure of stromo-toporoids.

Many of the sites Frank took us to are stops on the field trip I go on, help with, put together the guide for, for my friend at Nicolet College.

Good Times!

Cheers,

Tod

A l u m n i N e w s

33

U p p e r C r u s t

stePHen P. reidel (MS ’72)

Editor’s note: Steve is the lead co-author of The Co-lumbia River Flood Basalt Province, GSA Special Paper 497 published in 2013. A recent review in the Bulletin of Volcanology describes it as follows: The Columbia River Flood Basalt Province (CRFBP) is considered to be one of the smallest continental flood-lava regions on Earth, and it has been probably one of the most investigated in the past several decades. Researches focused on the CRFBP has delivered fundamental new knowledge for understanding lava emplacement in, and evolution and the stratigraphic significance of, flood-lava fields in general, and has provided impor-tant reference points for many researchers to further advance our understanding of continental basaltic large igneous provinces elsewhere. In this sense the CRFBP has become an iconic geological region from which key ideas and statements on the formation of

doug JordAn (BS ’77, MS ’79)

Editor’s note: An archive photo of a Potter/Pryor sedimentology class field trip to the Mississippi Riv-er point bars near Hickman, KY in 1985. Pho-to shows Doug Jordan on the left and Wayne Pryor (hat) in the center.

continental flood-lava fields have originated. In addi-tion, the CRFBP is among those regions where several well respected and by today, iconic, volcanic geolo-gists have made their research mark through well-cited research papers over the past decades. The Co-lumbia River Flood Basalt Province volume has been edited by a group of experts who have made signif-icant contributions to the research of the area. The impressive book has 440 pages, numerous excellent illustrations and an additional geology map as Plate 1 (Bedrock Geologic Map of Part of the Silcott Quadran-gle and Part of the Clarkston Quadrangle, Clarkston, WA). Overall The Columbia River Flood Basalt Province is a monumental work that will surely be a significant reference for many researchers in the future. q

rousH (continued)

I also have this photo from an intro trip you ran.That’s an outcrop of the Ohio Black Shale (my notes say). It would be 1969 I be-lieve.

roBert “BoB” BABBs (BS ’73)

Editor’s note: Bob and Maryann currently live in Ft. Collins, CO where they take full advantage of all the hiking and other outdoor activities that are so popu-lar in the Front Range region. They visited UC in early June as part of an eastern trip to see friends and rela-tives.

34

A l u m n i N e w s

Hi, Warren,

I don’t know if you have a copy of this trip picture or not, but I’m forwarding it to you with my best shot at identifying the participants.I believe, was taken at a campground in Islamorada, Florida, and would have, I think, been Spring Break of 1973.

K n e e l i n g, Le f t t o R i g h t : B ob Lenhar t (a l i t t le behind the others, red shir t ) ; Hugh Hamburger (not a major, never saw him except on this t r ip ! ) ; Wayne Pr yor ; Cliff Lee ; Helen Klein ; E.J. Webb ; Andy Hannan .


toM KleKAMP (Ms ’76)

Willis E. Conaster (BS ‘55, MS ‘58), Michael Fein (BS ‘73) and

Tom Klekamp (MS ‘76)

Back Row, Standing, Left to Right: Tim Dalbey (un-dergrad major, I think he finished, very distinctive 70’s gonzo hair!)’ LeRon Bielak (M.S., now long-time Fed employee at MMS, Washington); Mary Lou Motl (first time I met her, before she married WAP); Rich-ard Martin; Owen BeMent; Wayne Goodman (per-haps the last picture of beardless me and before-the-weight-loss me).

Cheers, Wayne

A very interesting series of threads about plate tec-tonics and the Ken Caster connect there. While the concept was far more broadly (but not quite absolute-ly) accepted by the time I came to campus in 1972, there were still occasionally lively discussions about how pervasive (and yes, proven) plate tectonics was. Ken was a very strong advocate, and was a key player in broader acceptance with his paleontological ties between South American and African faunas of Gond-wana. One of his unofficial nicknames around the de-partment was “God of Gondwana”. Ken’s work on faunal links were published, either as a primary or contribut-ing author. He was definitely “a player” in all of this.

While I was on campus in the 1970’s long before cable TV changed the way we communicate, late night talk radio of every imaginable genre was a key connect-ing medium. At the time, there was a national program with a Bible-thumping radio evangelist named Garner Ted Armstrong. Wayne Pryor introduced us to him on a field trip during late night happy hour. It made for pretty interesting entertainment! On one or maybe several occasions, Garner Ted called out KEC by name as one of those “terrible heretics” who couldn’t leave well enough alone and had to preach about such awful

Famous among Geology Department regulars, the Christmas tree made of liquor bottles at Fries Café. Collegue Steve Meyers is in the picture. At last report he was teaching HS sience in northern Cincinna-ti burbs, around Mason, I think.!974? We made KEC a birthdat cake of his favorite echino-

derm of the day, the carpoid. The frosting job was meticu-lously done to get the plates properly emplaced and iden-

tified! Ken made some comments concerning accuracy of plates before blowing out the candles!

things as evolution and plate tectonics. KEC absolutely reveled in getting under the skin of Garner Ted and crowed about it for quite some time!

In the spring of ’75. The Department held a weekly seminar in which each faculty member gave a talk on how Plate Tectonics related to his/her discipline. Most memorable was Kees DeJong’s talk providing a very detailed mathematical calculation of the amount of energy involved, in kilocalories, of a plate boundary collision. He then compared that enormous energy to various servings of food. Most notably, a whole Dutch Chocolate cake. After making the calorie conversions, he would punctuate each with “this don’t mean a damn thing!”. In my most notable Kees quote during presentation with derived-in-detail statistical calcula-tion about something tectonic, he punctuated with ‘ the World is too Small for Statistics.” I have used that line, in all seriousness or in jest, numerous times over the years! Thanks Kees. Another highlight of sorts was on the Prof. Briskin’s presentation. During which sirens went off and the building was evacuated. Saylor Park tornado touched down along the Ohio Valley and was heading our way!


U p p e r C r u s t

35

36

1 2 3

7

8

11

14

16

19 18

17

1513

9

10

5 6

?

A l u m n i N e w s

12

4

Wayne A. Pryor1974-75 Field Trips

to Florida

Recognize anybody?

Recognize anybody?

37

W hen the Jurassic Park movie franchise was first released, it sparked an interest in paleontol-ogy with young viewers around the country.

Doctoral student Christopher Aucoin is one such person. Ever since he first watched the Jurassic Park movie when he was four, he wanted to become a paleontologist. Aucoin is proof of how pursuing a childhood dream can lead to academic and professional success.

After completing a bachelor’s degree in ge-ology and anthropology from the State Uni-versity of New York at the College of Oneonta in 2012, Aucoin entered the University of Cin-cinnati to pursue a master’s degree.

“I chose UC from my masters to work with Dr. Carlton Brett,” Aucoin said. “He is world re-nowned in geology and working with him has been an honor and a privilege. Likewise the department of geology has long been known for excellence in Stratigraphy and Paleontol-ogy and it is wonderful to be part of that his-tory.”

Aucoin completed his Master’s of Science in Stratigraphy and Paleontology in 2014 and is currently working towards earning his doctoral degree.

During his time at UC, Aucoin faced many of the same dif-ficulties that plague graduate students: finding funding and the ever-changing nature of research projects. For Aucoin, these difficulties have been more of a source of excitement than real problems.

Fortunately, Aucoin has been able to overcome these ob-stacles and has received numerous grants during his gradu-ate career. He has received five research grants including a grant from the Association of Applied Paleontological Sci-ences, AAPS, and another grant from the American Associa-tion of Petroleum Geosciences, AAPG.

Aucoin’s successes also span beyond grants, he has also published his first professional paper in the Estonian Jour-nal of Earth Science.

Additionally, Aucoin has completed a variety of field stud-ies throughout his time as a graduate student. For the last three years, he has been working on the stratigraphy and paleontology of the Ordovician Waynesville and Liberty Formations. Aucoin has been working towards correlating

From ‘Jurassic Park’ to Fulbright scholar:how christoPher aucoin became one oF the mcmicken’s

most successFul Doctoral stuDentsBy: Amona Al-Refal

the strata across Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana; he also exam-ines at biotic turnovers and changes in sea level.

Most recently, Aucoin received a Fulbright Fellowship to study in Canada starting fall 2015. While in Canada, Aucoin will study stratigraphical correlations between the U.S. Mid-Continent and southern Ontario in order to understand

how climate, tectonics and sea levels changes during the Ordovician age (450 million years ago) affected the paleoecology and paleoge-ography of the area.

This research project began as a part of Aucoin’s Masters Thesis, which he defended this past September. While working on his master’s degree, Aucoin studied the local Waynesville Formation because of its unique shale deposits, called butter shales, which are known for their exquisite trilobites, including Isotelus, the state fossil of Ohio. The Waynes-ville Formation also contains an ecological event known as the Richmondian Invasion, a

period of time where marine organisms from different parts of the world moved into the Cincinnati region.

While studying the Waynesville Formation for these pur-poses, Aucoin came across evidence that this interval may have undergone significant climatic fluctuations. As a re-sult, his Doctoral Dissertation will focus on examining this evidence to understand how it might relate to his earlier research with the butter shales and the Richmondian Inva-sion.

From this research Aucoin is hoping to find evidence for the same climatic fluctuations in coeval strata in Ontario.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here at the depart-ment of geology,” Aucoin said. “The faculty are wonderfully resourceful and are often open to discussion. But what has really stuck out is the sense of community between under-graduates, graduates students and faculty.”

Due to his hard work and dedication to the field, Aucoin went from being one of the countless Jurassic Park fans to joining elite group of graduate students who have com-pleted research, publications and received one of the most prestigious researching fellowships in the country. q

U p p e r C r u s t

38

Mr. Eugene J. AmaralMr. Robert J. Beltrame

BP Fabric of America FundJohn A. Breyer, Ph.D.

Mr. Ralph Briegel and Mrs. Sandra S. BriegelKatherine V. Bulinski, Ph.D.

Mr. Leland W. BurtonMs. Elizabeth Cola

Ms. Annette M. CromptonAndrew D. Czaja, Ph.D.

Devon Energy CorporationHugh W. Dresser, Ph.D.

Dry Dredgers, Inc.Estate of Lucile and Richard Durrell

Robert J. Elias, Ph.D.Mrs. Janet M. Elliott

Frank R. Ettensohn, Ph.D.Mr. Rhett R. Everett

ExxonMobil Education FoundationMr. Michael N. FeinMr. Robert Ferree

Mr. Steven M. FerrisConnie and Mark Fisher

Mr. Stephen J. FolzenlogenMs. Janet G. Gasper

Mrs. Theresa D. GerrardMr. Dennis P. Gillespie

Mr. Jeffrey P. GinterMs. Evelyn M. Goebel

Mr. Wayne R. GoodmanMr. Dominique Haneberg-Diggs

Mr. William L. HarmonMrs. Katherine M. Hertlein

F. D. Holland, Jr., Ph.D.Warren D. Huff, Ph.D.

Mr. John C. Kern

Mrs. Nicole KirchnerMs. Elizabeth A. Krebes

Mr. and Mrs. Walter A. LauferMr. Michael G. Loudin

Marathon Oil CompanyDr. Richard V. Martin

Mr. Jack E. MaseMr. Louis T. MellingerDavid L. Meyer, Ph.D.

Arnold I. Miller, Ph.D. andMs. Mary Jo Montenegro-Miller

Mrs. Diana K. MillerLewis A. Owen, Ph.D.

Phoenix Environmental, Inc.Mr. Jesse B. Pogue II

Mrs. Mary Lou Pojeta and John Pojeta, Jr., Ph.D.Paul Edwin PotterMr. Eric M. Redder

Stephen P. Reidel, Ph.D.Mrs. Cornelia K. Riley

Mr. Edgar RoeserMr. Tod W. Roush

Mrs. Maria H. RufeRichard B. Schultz, Ph.D.

Shell Companies Foundation, Inc.Frederick E. Simms, Ph.D.

Amy Townsend-Small, Ph.D.James T. Teller, Ph.D.Mr. John D. ThaelerMs. Raelyn E. Welch

Ms. Caitlin E. WhitehurstMr. William L. M. Wilsey

Mr. John M. Wunder

Department of Geology Donors 2014 -2015

A l u m n i N e w s

Thank You All for Your for Contributions to the UC

Geology Department’s Continued Excellence!

39

U p p e r C r u s t

JoHn ford (BS ’81)

Dr. Nash:

I hope all is well with you as this school year winds down.

I have been working on the side (aka “for free”) with the Swiss Geologic Commission (Swiss Topo) as they continue systematically mapping their country. They are in the final edits of the quadrangle that I mapped for my thesis many moons (30 yrs.) ago. The map is done, but they are finalizing the explanatory booklet that will accompany it. Too bad for most, it will be a German-version only.

Finished up a Report to Congress on Defense-Re-lated Abandoned Uranium Mines last summer and helped on a similar effort for mines on Navajo Nation that is currently under review by DOE (http://energy.gov/lm/downloads/defense-related-uranium-mines-report-congress-august-2014).

Otherwise, it has just been the typical environmen-tal projects for soil & groundwater remediation.

Sincerely,

John Ford

MArio vincent cAPuto (PhD, ‘88)

Dear Warren,

I hope that all is well with you. It was a delight to finally see you at the UC reunion during the Denver GSA conference in October, 2013. I’ve been meaning to contribute to the alumni news-letter, Upper Crust, of the UC De-partment of Geology for decades now, but time typically gets away from me and I miss the deadline. So, this time, dog-gone-it, I’m straight-away composing this personal sketch now in August, 2014, and sending it to you to be included in the newsletter for 2015.

Those 3 years from 1983 to 1986 as a PhD student at UC were my first living in the mid-west. Field trips on the Gulf coastal plain and in the Florida Keys and heart-to-heart sessions with Wayne Pryor; traveling with Dave and Ross Meyer to a GSA conference in Orlando, Florida; guitar play-ing with Winston Norrish and Ben Greenstein espe-cially when “renown session musician,” Wayne Pryor, would sit-in with us; playing racquetball with “Billy Bob” Harrar and tennis with Andrea Haas; field work

in Utah with Mike “Rupert” Westerfield; and movie-times with John Haynes and Ken Loos are foremost memories that I cherish and savor. Starkville, Missis-sippi was one stop on Wayne’s Gulf coastal-plain field trip in autumn 1983, and 3 years later, Bill Harrar, Mike Westerfield, and Andrea Haas helped me load a truck bound for Starkville. With PhD not-in-hand, I moved there from Cincinnati to begin a full-time, tenure-track teaching appointment in the Department of Geology and Geography (now called the Department of Geo-sciences) at Mississippi State University (MSU). There, I finished the dissertation (returned to UC to defend it in 1988); taught courses in physical geology, his-torical geology, geowriting, physical sedimentology, depositional environments, stratigraphy, sedimenta-ry basins, and geology of western United States; over-saw student thesis-work in the Bahamas and northern Gulf of Mexico; and served as undergraduate advisor. I’d been away from California since 1976 and longed to return, so I did after earning tenure and promo-tion to associate professor at MSU. Thereafter at Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) in Walnut, California, I chaired the department of geosciences for a few years, was a four-time Educator of Distinction, and taught a host of geology and oceanography courses from 1993 until 2010 when I took early retirement from full-time teaching at age 57.

Retirement has afforded me a rebirth in my geologic career with invited lectureships at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Po-mona) and at San Diego State University (SDSU), where I teach sedimentary geology, oceanog-raphy, and Earth system science. My ongoing field projects deal with eolian and marine sedimen-tary rocks in southern Utah, eo-lian limestones in the Bahamas, and Neogene and Quaternary

eolian and fluvial sedimentary strata in southern Cali-fornia. I currently serve as a member of MSc thesis committees at SDSU and at California State Univer-sity, Fresno (Fresno State), plus I have my own gradu-ate and undergraduate students at SDSU working on theses in southern Utah and in southern California. In spring, 2014, the Department of Geological Scienc-es and the College of Sciences at SDSU awarded me Outstanding Geology Faculty for 2013-2014. Come

40

A l u m n i N e w s

June, 2015, I’ll present my lat-est findings on Bahamian eo-lian limestones at the natural history-geology conference on San Salvador Island, Baha-mas. And in August, 2015, if all goes well and enough people register, I’ll co-lead a trip on the sediments of Hawaii and Kauai for the Pacific Section SEPM (Society for Sedimenta-ry Geology) (PS-SEPM).

Dave Best (emeritus, North-ern Arizona University) and I co-authored a workbook in Geologic Disasters for Kend-all-Hunt Publishing Company in 2011, and Don Prothero (emeritus, Occidental Col-lege) and I are co-authoring a new book on the geology of California for CRC Press. Since, 2001, PS-SEPM welcomed me as secretary, then later as membership manager, news-letter editor, publications manager, and now as manag-ing editor. In 2011, the Pacific Section awarded me Honorary Membership for distinguished service to the Society and dedication to continued ex-cellence in stratigraphy and sedimentology.

I have been notified that I am to receive the Baylor Brooks Distinguished Alum-

cAPuto (continued)

ni Award from the Department of Geological Sciences and the Geol-ogy Alumni Association at San Di-ego State University. The award will be presented at the annual geol-ogy department banquet on April 24th when I will be recognized for my teaching of the Sedimentology and Lithostratigraphy course in the Department of Geological Sciences over the last 4 years and for my continuing to mentor graduate and undergraduate geology students in their theses.

I’ve managed to stay in touch with John DeReamer, Doug Jor-dan, John Haynes, and Ben Green-stein over the years. Dave Meyer and I see one another at GSA con-ferences and on San Salvador Is-land, Bahamas. I send cheerful greetings and a wish for the best of everything to all my former class-mates, and to those professors who were my respected mentors while I was a student at UC in the 1980s: You, John Grover, Attila Kilinc, Barry Maynard, Dave Meyer, Dave Nash, and Paul Potter. There are unfilled voids in my life since Wayne and Kees left us; I miss them profoundly. If any past class-mates wish to contact me, please do so at [email protected].

Sincerely, Mario

cArlos Jorge de ABreu (MS ’89)

Dear Professor Huff,

I hope all is fine with you. Thank you for the nice cards/invitation for meeting at the GSA congress. I am already for 4 years in Brasilia. It was on an old proj-ect to come back to central part of Brazil.

I have a daughter 13 years old. In the future I will take her to know Cincinnati.

How is Professor Potter? Is he going to UC regularly? I will call him.

Very best regards,

Carlos

41

U p p e r C r u s t

JoHn HAynes (MS ’85, PhD ’89)

A hearty Congratulations to John and Maribeth on their

July 2014 wedding!Published in The Daily Progress,

Charlottesville, VA News, March, 2014

Mary Elizabeth (Maribeth) Mallon and John T. Haynes of Charlottesville are pleased to announce their engagement. Maribeth is the daughter of Paul and Doris Mallon of Pittsford, NY, and John is the son of Mary Jane and the late Robert C. Haynes, Jr. of Charlottesville. The future bride earned a Bachelor of Science de-gree in Economics from Denison University in Granville, Ohio in 1981. She has been employed with IBM since 1981, and is now the Global Market Segment Manager, Coun-ter Fraud and Financial Crimes, IBM Software Group. The future groom earned a Bachelor of Sci-ence degree in Geology from Denison University in Granville, Ohio in 1981. He earned a Masters degree in Geology from the University of Cincinnati, in Cin-cinnati, Ohio, in 1985, and a Doctoral degree in Geol-ogy, also at the University of Cincinnati, in 1989. Since 2008, he has been employed as an Assistant Profes-sor in the Department of Geology and Environmen-tal Science at James Madison University. After being good friends since meeting each other at college in September, 1977, early in the first week of their fresh-man year, John and Maribeth became reacquainted in 2010, after almost 28 years had passed since they’d last seen each other. It was love at second sight! A July 12, 2014 wedding is planned at The Sanctuary at The Haven, 112 West Market Street, Charlottesville, after which the couple will reside in Charlottesville.

dAnA ulMer-scHolle (BS ’81

Dana, along with her husband Peter Scholle and co-authors Juergen Schieber and Robert Raine have just published AAPG Mem-oir 109, A Color Guide to the Petrography of Sand-stones. This 540-page volume is described as a practical guide for stu-dents and professionals to learn the fundamen-tals of microscopic ex-amination of sandstones, mudrocks, and associat-ed rocks. With more than 1100 color illustrations, it covers the identification of grains, textures, and structures of clastic terrigenous rocks as well as their diagenetic alteration (compaction, cementation, dis-solution, and replacement) and porosity reduction or enhancement. It also provides classification diagrams for formal description of those rocks and their poros-ity.

Although the majority of the outcrop and subsurface examples come from the United States (35 states and Puerto Rico), there are representative photographs from 32 other countries, including many from the off-shore areas. The foldout birefringence chart and an included DVD with Powerpoint files of all the petro-graphic images provide additional aids for instructors and students.

The authors’ description cites: “Dana developed an early love for geology while growing up on the classic Upper Ordovician outcrops around Cincinnati, Ohio. She received a B.S. degree in 1981 from the University of Cincinnati. Dana completed a M.S. degree (1983) at Southern Methodist University working on the Missis-sippian Arroyo Peñasco Group of New Mexico. After a stint working for ARCO Exploration Co., she returned to SMU for a Ph.D. (1992). Her dissertation research concentrated on evaporite-related diagenesis in upper Paleozoic carbonate rocks from New Mexico, Wyoming and Greenland. Dana has worked, or consulted, for a number of companies including Amoco Oil and Gas Co., ARCO Exploration, ARCO International, Mobil Research, and Maersk Oil and Gas. Currently, she is the co-owner of Scholle Petrographic, LLC, a petrographic consulting company. Dana is also an Associate Research Professor

42

WE DO NOT HAVE CURRENT MAILING ADDRESSES FOR THE

FOLLOWING ALUMNI.CAN YOU HELP?

Mr. Lloyd CarsonMr. Alfred Gaither

Mr. David J. Green (MS ‘72)Ms. Jessica Kelley (BS ’04)

Mr. Glenn King (BS ’87)Mr. Shuguang Mao (MS ‘95)Ms. Susan Parrett (ATT ‘81)

Mr. Terry E. Rowekamp (BS ‘65)Dr. Robert T. Russell

Mr. Paul R. Schuh (BS ‘78)Mr. Kenneth Sparks

Mr. James I. Streeter (BS ‘60)Ms. Deirdre Whitley

Mrs. Krista A. CollinsMr. Richard E. Terry (MS ‘90)

A l u m n i N e w s

ulMer-scHolle (continued)

at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. She teaches carbonate-related courses including pe-trography and depositional/diagenetic models. Her re-search interests include CO2 sequestration in carbonate and siliciclastic systems, carbonate sedimentology and diagenesis, petrography, low-temperature isotope and trace element geochemistry, fluid inclusion analysis and fluid flow histories in sedimentary rocks. While at New Mexico Tech, she has also been involved in environ-

mental investigations that include heavy-metals biore-mediation and fate-and-transport of heavy minerals in the environment. She is the author, coauthor or editor on numerous papers, reports, books and CD-ROMs with AAPG Memoir 77 receiving the Robert H. Dott, Sr., Me-morial Award (2005).”

AlMério BArros frAnçA (PhD ’87)

Dear Prof. Maynard,

I have made some plans before knowing about your retirement party on April 2nd. Myself, Rosangela and some friends have plans to go on a long motorhome trip in Australia. If it were not for this I most certain-ly would be in Cincinnati to see you and friends of a long time that will be in the Geology Department next month.

The years I spent in Cincinnati with my family in ear-ly 80’s were important to my professional life and to my family education. They all have good memories of every single detail they lived in USA, such as playing, Autumn leaves, snow, Thanksgiving, even going to school. I do still remember classes in Old Tech Build-ing, and kind of feel disappoint when I look at pic-tures I took there and realized it is all gone. But that is life. I bet in your new Geology building you do not miss Old Tech.

I have learned a lot with you, not only geology but also ethics. You are a great professor.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

All the best Um grande abraço do amigo

Almério

Jeffrey sPencer (BS ’80)

Dr. Huff,

Thanks for the note. Not much new since last year. I’m still with Amromco and working eastern Europe from our Houston office. I usually make a two-week trip to Romania once a quarter or so. I’m still serving as president of the Petroleum History Institute and as Historian for the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies. Oldest daughter is a junior at Texas A&M; youngest will graduate high school in June and is struggling with whether to attend Texas A&M or the University of Texas.

Best,

Jeff

Matthew Kearney (BS ‘80)

Hi All,

Here ‘s a brief update of things since I left UC. I am currently living in Dala=las, Texas with my wife Car-ole and our three children. I have been working at Caldwell Engineering, Inc. (geological consulting) for about 6years and am currently looking for projects in environmetal and oil and gas industry.

Matt

43

U p p e r C r u s t

terry AcoMB (BS ’93, MS ’97)

Surf ’s up!! Colorado River, only happens about 2 or 3 times per decade when flows exceed 21,000 cfs (> 140% snowpack).

Enjoy, do not laugh too hard...... I have all the surfing skills of someone from Ohio.....

http://vimeo.com/97584987I have been catching a lot of grief for the nose clips especially. “Colorado Chrome” - something about a racehorse that wears some nasal apparatus...

My whitewater helmet has a facemask on it - for run-ning shallow, boney streams. I am ugly enough already I don’t need the scars from when my face scrapes on the bottom of the shallow creeks I sometimes run...

Intereresting story behind this wave. 3/4 mile down-stream is a “roller dam” for capturing irrigation water (you will die if you go over - actually through/under it), so this is a semi-dangerous thing. Death will hap-pen when someone either with poor fitness or get-ting knocked semi or unconscious on the wave. Not yet though. Anyway, to build the dam (in 1904) they built this upstream dam then tore it down of course. What remains is a structure on the bottom of the river - a river wide flat concrete slab, 20 feet from upstream to downstream end, with a gentle 10 to 1 downward slope. This makes an incredible standing wave, with a RADIUS gentle enough to hold kayaks and longboard surfboards (only at very high flows as mentioned). Most standing waves are to “tight” to hold surfboards - the nose will dig in. You do not see this in nature -

there are some other surfable standing river waves in the world (google Austria, Germany, Montanna), but they are typically very narrow, and nasty, mean dan-gerous beasts. This one is user friendly and awesome and fun. So, it is man-made, but by accident.

It was above 21,000 cfs for 9 days this year so I surfed it hard for all 9 days. It might happen next year, or not for another 10 years. Depends on the western slope snowpack. Last happenned in 2011 which was when I first surfed it. Surfing in the desert, how cool is that.... Long rides too....

My buddy Larry made the video. Music choice - ... so-so. I would have used “Riverside” by America

Here is a local Grand Junction TV news story on it - very informative, small town TV at its best. Jono and Brian are my buddies, and BT was riding MY stick!!!

http://www.nbc11news.com/home/headlines/Big-Sur-makes-an-appearance-on-the-river-261758661.html

ricHArd (ricH) scHultZ (PhD ’91)

Since last year’s newsletter, I have moved on from Elmhurst College where I had been a tenured faculty member for 14 years. I joined Southern New Hamp-shire University’s (SNHU) College of Online and Con-tinuing Education and serve as a remote faculty mem-ber in charge of our new online science programs in environmental science, geosciences, and soon-to-launch geospatial technology programs. I also do professional development for science faculty as well.

SNHU’s online population has grown to over 70,000 students now and we are bursting at the seams with new students and online programs. I was a bit hesi-tant about giving up tenure, but it has turned out well for me and I only visit New Hampshire on a limited basis over the year. The rest is remote work from my office which is only one mile from my home. I have a great setup and enjoy the work.

All my best to UC Geology faculty and staff.

Best, Rich Schultz

44

A l u m n i N e w s

sHAron (dieKMeyer) st. louis (MS ’90)

Editor’s note: A recent photo of Sharon with friends.

AdAM flege (BS ’99)(A note to Dr. Maynard)

Dr. Maynard,

I just wanted to thank you for all of your help and guidance through the Masters program and all of your mentoring. It was a blessing to have worked with you and had you as a professor. I wish you all the best in Seattle. See the attached most up-dated picture of all of us from Henry’s baptism. From tallest to shortest are Katherine 11, James 9, Rachel 7, Grace 5, Michael 2.5 and Henry 2 mos. Erin and I are blessed….. and extremely busy!

Thanks,Adam

cesAr JAcQues AyAlA (MS ’83, PhD ’93)

Dr. Huff:

It is very nice to hear from you and it is good to hear that Dr. Potter is still active. I have very good memo-ries from the Geology Department. There were some tough times, but these were compensated with really enjoyable ones, like in the fieldtrips or the TGIFs.

I continued working for the Geological Institute of the National University of Mexico. Also continued my research in Sonora. In 2013 I got funds from the National Council of Science and Technology (CONA-CYT, something like NSF) to continue my work on the Cretaceous of northwest Sonora. In my dissertation I provided an interpretation on the tectonic evolution, but using only sedimentology. Now I will provide zir-con ages to prove my original interpretation as well as the existence of Late Cretaceous piggyback basins and piggyback thrusts. The Paleozoic was emplaced upon the Mesozoic; first recognized by Kees DeJong. Now we know that it was emplaced upon the Upper Cretaceous.

There was a period in which I did almost no geology. In 2003 I was asked to be in charge of a seismic net-work in eastern Sonora. There is an active fault, the Pitáycachi Fault, that caused an estimated 7.5° magni-tude seismic event in May 3,1887. With this data sev-eral papers were published in the BSSA and in Geofísi-ca Internacional. Unfortunately, in 2011 this network was closed and dismantled. And a side activity that I have is being the editor of the magazine Nuestra Tierra (Our Earth). It is a 20 page magazine published twice a year devoted to divulge those scientific top-ics that are related to Earth: Geology, Geophysics, As-tronomy, Biology, Ecology, etc. The purpose is to pro-vide an attractive way for students in high school and university to learn about the different possibilities they have to work in. It is now 10 years that we began this project. And we have had works by well-known Mexican scientists.

By the way, in a previous issue of Upper Crust there is a photograph of the whole group in a field trip. Behind us is a rig with to “Humping to please” logo. I took that picture and handed out to several col-leagues. And please, say hello to Dr. Potter, Dr. May-nard, Dr. Kilinc, Dr. Nash. And my best wishes to you and all the Geology Department.

Dr. César Jacques Ayala

45

BoB gAines (MS ’98)

New Burgess Shale Fossil Site Found in Canada’s Kootenay National Park

Marble Canyon is so remote that researchers helicop-tered their equipment in and out of teh site and camped there. Credit: Gabriela Mangano.

JuAn cArlos gArcíA y BArrAgán (Post-Doc ’90) ¡Tempus fugit! As Dr. David Nash said. The last time I was

at the University of Cincinnati was in 1992. It is obvious to say that many things had happened. First I want to say that I deeply regret the disappearance of my teacher and dear friend Dr. Kees A. DeJong as well as Dr. Wayne Pryor. Without their help it would not be possible to survive dur-ing my stay in Cincinnati. It was only one year (1989-1990) but it was astonishing and wonderful, at the same time, to get involved in the Sed/Strat group as well the vibrant life of the Dept. of Geology in that epoch.

Back in Mexico, I resumed my activities at the Universi-dad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). I participated in several studies related to the sedimentary evolution of northern Sonora. During the last 4 years I am collaborat-ing with César Jacques, another UC alumnus, trying to propose an alternative hypothesis to the Mojave-Sonora

Standing: at the extremes, my sons Luis and Juan Carlos; at center, their wives: Paty and Lizeth. Standing girl: granddaughter Lizeth.

Sitting granddaughters, from left to right: Inés, Claudia, María Fernanda and Carla. My wife Paty is holding grandson Carlos Andrés.

megashear. We think we have found a reasonable expla-nation for the origin of the metamorphic rocks around the Caborca-Altar region. A Late Cretaceous age for these rocks makes a strong argument for huge thrusting during the Laramide deformation. Soon we will present the final results of this investigation.

Also, during all these years I have taught at the new Univer-sidad Estatal de Sonora (former Centro de Estudios Superiores del Estado de Sonora). This experi-ence has enriched my life as a ge-ologist and has made many close friends among the students. Another task that led me to read many pa-pers outside my specialty is reviewing papers for the Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Ge-ológicas, the Boletín de la Sociedad G e o l ó g i c a Mexicana and Nuestra Tierra. The last one is a small, sci-ence diffusion journal made at UNAM, Hermosillo, Sonora. Still, I have plans to grow and improve our Petrographic Laboratory, as we expect many graduate students to enroll in our geology program. I envisage in the near future, a balance between field studies, teaching and laboratory work. The first task will diminish in an unknown way. Although, retirement is still not in my mind, I hope to accomplish several writing tasks I have postponed in the past.

As for my family: six grandchildren have “forced” me to change my habits and renewed my depleted energies. Re-ceive my warm greetings from Sonora !!!

U p p e r C r u s t

At Kees´s office, Sum-mer 1990. (25 kg ago !!).

46

A l u m n i N e w s

dAvid rAy (PhD ’01)Hi Warren,

I’m swamped with all sorts of tasks here. I have recently purchased a house and so much of my free time is taken up with building work. Add to this lots on at work, a talk at the London geol. Soc. coming up and several ongoing research projects, and it’s fair to say I need a holiday!

Good to hear from you,Dave

sHAun BecKer (BS ’08)Anna - Born 7:46 PM Sep-tember 27, 2014. 7lbs, 10 oz. of strawberry blonde perfection.

tiM Agnello (BS ’82, MS ’02)Warren, -Tim and I went on a tour of the Mill Creek barri-er dam. See attached photo of him with daughter Maria.

J. Barry Maynard

lisA fAy-tHorP (BS ’03) A lovely photo of Quintessa Fay-Thorp, born 6-14-14. Congratulations! ª

MiKe rAgsdAle Class of 2000Hey Everyone!

In case you didn’t know, I’ve been busy over the past couple months working on a product called Bailout. Due to the support from many of you already, this product has gone viral and we are now getting requests for this all over the world. Above is a link showing the product and short video, along with a tab to vote.

I would love your support just one more time by mak-ing a first vote or one more vote before it closes. All you have to do is click this link and make an account, or click already have an account in the top right corner. The catch is, if you vote before Sunday night, you can vote again on Monday. The contest ends on the 15th and all the voting has to be done before then. Every vote mat-ters and if you guys could share this and forward this email it would be an amazing help!




Join Us!

http://cincinnatiinnovates.crowdspark.com/entries/1486

47

U p p e r C r u s t

PAtricK cullen (BS ’13)Dr. Huff,

Everything is going well, I hope everything with you is go-ing well too. I have actually been seeing UC professor names quite often lately in literature. My current job with Nytis Exploration Company, LLC deals a lot with the Berea Sand-stone along the Kentucky/West Virginia state line. Dr. Potter and Dr. Maynard have some published work on the Berea in southern Ohio that has aided in my understanding of the formation. It is also nice to read papers by people you have actually met, it gives personality to the reading.

Patrick

eMily Wendler (BS ’10)Our congratulations

to Emily, who has tak-en on a new position in Oklahoma City as a radio reporter.

Established in 1955, KOSU is a member-supported public radio network that operates 91.7 KOSU in central Oklahoma including Stillwater and Oklahoma City and 107.5 KOSN in

northeast Oklahoma including Tulsa, Bartlesville and the Grand Lake area. KOSU can also be heard at 107.3 in south Tulsa and at 101.9 in Okmulgee. Reaching thousands of listeners ev-ery week, KOSU features local music with The Spy and distinguished public radio news and information service with award-winning local news cover-age and NPR news content. KOSU also

features signature public radio news and cultural programs from PRX, American Public Media, Public Radio Internation-al and independent producers.

JoAnne BAllArd (MS ‘09) & ZHenZHu WAn (PhD ‘12)Both Joanne and Zhenzhu stopped by for a visit on May 27,

2015 and to bring us all up to date on their current activities. Zhenzhu is currently employed by Aramco in Saudi Arabia and Joanne has just completed her doctoral degree in geography at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

BecKy nAgel-reverMAn (MS ‘08)

nAtHAn MArsHAll(MS ‘12) left &AlexAnder steWArt (BS’00, PhD ‘07) center

tAnyA del vAlle (BS ‘09, MS ‘12) Hello Warren,

In March, I married Adil Wa-dia in Jamaica. He is a geol-ogy professor at Akron Uni-versity Wayne Campus.Tanya

Do you have any recollections of field trips, social events, classroom experiences or other

experiences during your UC days that you would like to share with your alumni colleagues?

Send them to Warren Huff, email: [email protected] or Dept. of Geology, UC, Cincin-nati, OH 45221 and we’ll include them in next

years’ issue.

48

A l u m n i N e w s

E N D O W M E N T

Bucher Walter Fund All-purpose fund for research and teaching.

Fenneman nevIn h. Fund: Supports research and travel.

student sedImentology research Fund: Support for graduate students in stratigraphy and sedimentology.

raWlInson george and Frances Fund: Graduate fellowships.

caster Kenneth e. Fund: Support for graduate students in paleontology, including a summer

fellowship.

cooK Walter and Kathryn h. scholarshIP Fund: Used for scholarship awards to undergraduates, and for field-camp scholarships.

durrell rIchard h. and lucIlle Fund: Public education, including outside speakers.

geology alumnI graduate FelloWshIP Fund: To support graduate fellowships.

hoholIcK-Potter InternatIonal FIeldWorK travel Fund: to be used for international fieldwork.

KleKamP thomas c. student travel Fund: A relatively new fund, to be used for undergraduate student travel for research.

larsen leonard Fund: Instructional field trips.

student FIeld exPerIence Fund: Used for field camp, as well as other field experiences of students.

research In geology Fund: A primary repository for annual gifts. Open for investments of any sort in research.

A C A L L T O A C T I O N !Your contribution to some or any of the following endowments is greatly appeci-ated and strengthens the Department of Geology. Gifts enable us to better serve our students, staff and faculty. They help support a wide array of programs and

services, including undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships.

For additional assistance making your gift, or for more information, please contact:Shelly Deavy, Associate Director of Development,Kathleen CollinsMcMicken College of Arts and [email protected], [email protected]

Mail checks to:

The University of Cincinnati FoundationPO Box 19970Cincinnati, OH 45219-0907

$ .00

$ .00

$ .00

$ .00

$ .00

$ .00

$ .00

$ .00

$ .00

$ .00

$ .00

$ .00

$ .00

!!

!!

Thank You!

uppercrust 2015

Documents