SyracuSe univerSity Department of

E a r t h S c i e n c e S

fall 2010

faculty

Suzanne l. Baldwin – sbaldwin@syr.eduProf. Baldwin specializes in noble gas thermochronology, P-t-t evolution of crustal terranes, plate boundary processes in the southwest Pacific, continental extensional tectonics.

paul G. fitzgerald – pgfitzge@syr.edu Prof. Fitzgerald specializes in low-temperature thermochronology (fission track, U-Th/He) applied to tectonics in extensional, convergent and strike-slip regimes. He has projects in Antarctica, the Basin and Range Province, Papua New Guinea, Alaska and the Pyrenees.

Gregory D. Hoke – gdhoke@syr.eduDr. Hoke studies the interactions of climate and tectonics on the earth’s surface using geomorphology and the stratigraphic record. His active research projects are in the southern central andes and SE tibet.

linda c. ivany – lcivany@syr.edu Prof. Ivany specializes in evolutionary paleoecology, geobiology, and paleoclimatology.

Jeffrey a. Karson – jakarson@syr.eduProf. Jeff Karson’s expertise lies in structural geology and tectonics of oceanic spreading centers and the relationships between magmatic construction and mechanical extension.

laura K. lautz – lklautz@syr.eduProf. Lautz specializes in physical hydrologic processes and their influence on water quality and movement through watersheds.

Zunli lu – zunlilu@syr.eduProf. Lu specializes in low temperature geochemistry and uses a variety of methods (trace elements, isotopes and models) to investigate crustal fluids, carbon cycle and global environmental changes.

cathryn r. newton – crnewton@syr.eduProf. Newton’s scholarly work involves studies of modern and ancient biodiversity, including the quantitative dynamics of ancient and modern mass extinction.

Scott D. Samson – sdsamson@syr.eduProf. Samson’s research includes U-Pb geochronology and Nd-Sr-Pb isotope geochemistry. These techniques are used to address diverse topics ranging from tephrochronology, to unraveling the evolution of orogenic belts, to tracking the birthplaces of suspect terranes.

christopher a. Scholz – cascholz@syr.edu Prof. Scholz specializes in sedimentary geology, the geologic record of climate change, paleolimnology, and sedimentary basin analysis.

Donald i. Siegel – disiegel@syr.edu Prof. Siegel is interested in peatland hydrogeology and geochemistry, contaminant transport in groundwater systems, and competitive chess.

emerituS faculty

Gary M. BooneJames C. BrowerDirk de WaardBryce M. handJohn J. PruchaJoseph E. robinson

aDJunct profeSSorS

E. Bruce Watson – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

reSearcH aSSociateS

Daniel Curewitz – dcurewit@syr.eduJennifer hargrave – jehargra@syr.eduMelissa Hicks – mkhicks@syr.eduJoseph Kula – jkula@syr.eduJames Metcalf – jrmetcaf@syr.eduaisha Morris – aimorris@syr.eduJocelyn Sessa – jasessa@syr.edu

liBrary – GeoloGy BrancH

Carol Cavalluzzi – Branch asst. – cacavall@syr.eduElizabeth Wallace – Librarian – eawallac@library.syr.edu

Cover Photo: Curtain of fire eruption with spatter rampart forming, Eyafjallajökul Volcano in Iceland (RAGNAR AXELSSON/AFP/Getty Images)

Newsletter:

Marion (Pat) Bickford (editorial)Julie J. Neri (editorial)Daniel Curewitz (technical)

GraDuate StuDentS

James andrew Beard – jbeard@syr.eduMartin Briggs – mabriggs@syr.eduJoseph Catalano – pjcatala@syr.eduTimothy Daniluk – tldanilu@syr.edutathagata Dasgupta – tdasgupt@syr.edStoney Gan – sgan@syr.eduKwasi Gilbert – kngilber@syr.edurobert Gobell – rpgobell@syr.eduDavid Gombosi - djgombos@syr.edu ryan Gordon – rpgordon@syr.eduNathan Graber – nrgraber@syr.eduJack Heitpas – jhietpas@syr.eduandrew horst – ajhorst@syr.eduRebekah Holt – rnholt@syr.eduMatthew Kissane – mkissane@syr.eduJessica Mantaro – jlchappe@syr.eduamy Morrissey – amorriss@syr.eduXiangyu (Sonya) Mu – ximu@syr.eduAleece Nanfito – afnanfit@syr.eduStephanie Perry – seperr01syr.eduSoumitri (Mimi) Sarkar – ssarka03@syr.eduAaron Satkoski - amsatkos@syr.eduDrew Siler – dlsiler@syr.edutonny Sserubiri – tsserubi@syr.eduJoshua taylor – jtaylo03@syr.eduJessica terrien – jjterie@syr.eduAlina Walcek – aawalcek@syr.edu Heather Wall – hlbaugh@syr.edu Xuewei Zhang – xzhang39@syr.edu Alex Zirakparvar – nazirakp@syr.edu

reSearcH faculty

Marion (Pat) E. Bickford – mebickfo@syr.eduLaura E. Webb – lewebb@uvm.eduBruce Wilkinson – eustasy@syr.edu

Staff

Bonnie Andrews – Office Coord. – bgwindey@syr.eduPeter Cattaneo – research analyst – pkcattan@syr.eduMichael Cheatham - Sr. res. Specialist - mmcheath@syr.edu Jacqueline Corbett – Lab. Tech. – jrcorbet@syr.eduJohn L. Davis – Curator of MineralsJolene Fitch – Undergrad/Grad. Coord. – jofitch@syr.eduJulie Neri – administrative assistant– jjneri@syr.eduJoanne Ranz – Ed. Asst. GSA Books – jlranz@syr.edu

a letter from tHe cHair

Dear alumni & Friends,

as we start a new academic year, it is a time for both reflection and anticipation. I am ending my first term as Chair of the Department and have just agreed to another 3 years in this position. I am very proud of the accomplishments of the Department over the past couple of years and

it is exciting to set some new goals that will keep us on a steep trajectory. Since I became Chair we have engaged in strategic planning, had an important External Review, and revamped the administrative structure of the Department. Thanks to the efforts of the faculty we have strengthened our research programs, broadened our curriculum and developed much stronger ties with alumni and friends of the Department. this continues to be a very exciting and rewarding place for faculty and students alike. Looking ahead, we plan to continue to hire new faculty, start essential building renovations, and acquire new research facilities that will allow us to extend the scope of our research programs. It is going to be an exciting time!

The faculty continues to evolve. Connie Weyhenmeyer left the Department in May and we wish her well in her future endeavors. Hank Mullins will retire at the end of Spring 2011. With these changes we look forward to making hires in the general areas of paleoclimate, geophysics and petrology to maintain the strength and balance of the faculty.

On the other side of the ledger, the Department is proud to welcome new assistant Professor Dr. Zunli Lu who is currently a postdoctoral investigator at Oxford University. Zunli’s specialty is aqueous geochemistry and his expertise will bring additional breadth and depth to geochemistry and hydrology programs across the SU campus. Zunli is married to Dr. Li Jin, who earned her PhD with Dr. Don Siegel just last year, so they are no strangers to the Department. We look forward to their arrival in January 2011.

Changing faculty interests and laboratory needs will require some renovations to the Heroy Geology Laboratory. We are making space for a new TIMS for Dr. Scott Samson, an ICPMS and supporting chemical labs for Dr. Lu. Creating these spaces results in a domino effect that will cause a number of other moves. These renovations are planned in the context of a master plan developed by Mike Cheatham that we hope will progressively transform the 1971 Heroy Geology Laboratory to a much more modern and efficient facility over the next few years.

Many honors were bestowed upon the Department in the past year. Don Siegel was awarded a prestigious Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professorship, which will allow him to merge his research and teaching interests. Suzanne Baldwin received a Chancellor’s Citation Award for Faculty Excellence and Scholarly Distinction in recognition of her outstanding research and leadership. two graduate students, Kwasi Gilbert and ryan Gordon, won highly competitive National Science Foundation Fellowships. David Gombosi received a coveted NASA Fellowship. a number of graduate students and recent grads had internships or received outstanding job offers in

industry and academic institutions. You will find details in the pages that follow. the Department is very proud of these well-deserved honors.

research continues to be the driving force behind the Department. In the pages that follow, you will find details about the many funded research projects of the faculty, postdoctoral investigators, and students ranging from Central New York to the far corners of the Earth and beyond. Funding for these projects comes from a wide variety of sources including various programs at NSF, NASA, Syracuse University, major Foundations, and the Petroleum Industry. Gifts to the Department and the Prucha Field Research Fund continue to support graduate student research opportunities. The results of these projects appear regularly in major scientific journals and are reported at national and international scientific meetings. Do not hesitate to contact any of us for more information.

Thanks to the generosity of our many alumni and friends, the Department has a family of endowments and funds that allow the Department, faculty and students to take advantage of research or educational opportunities that might otherwise be missed. Recently the Department has received two new major awards: the John J. Prucha, PhD, Endowed Fund from Dr. Carlos Dengo (BS ’76) of ExxonMobil Corporation and the Shirley and Donald Elston Endowed Fund from Shirley Elston of Flagstaff, CO. these funds will provide support for faculty development that will be a lasting tribute to their names. If you wish to make a donation to any of the funds of the Department you will find directions inside. Thanks to all of you for your contributions, great and small.

As always, we are eager to keep the lines of communications open with our loyal friends and alumni. In addition to this Newsletter, you can keep abreast of the activities of the Department at our website (http://earthsciences.syr.edu). Please send along any news or images to Julie Neri (jjneri@syr.edu) or to Dr. Cathryn Newton (crnewton@syr.edu), who is the Department’s Alumni Coordinator.

We hope you will plan to join the Department at one of our annual events. We will have an alumni get together on the SU campus during Reunion (Homecoming) Weekend, October 16 and we will hold our annual Alumni Reception at the Geological Society of America Meeting in Denver, November 1 (details for both events elsewhere in this Newsletter). If you are in Central NY, please drop by the heroy Geology Laboratory. We are always happy to show you around and reintroduce you to the Department. Or you can simply take a self-guided tour of the halls where there are numerous posters featuring ongoing research projects. I hope we will see you here sometime soon!

In closing, I want to thank all those who contributed to this Newsletter and especially to Pat Bickford, Julie Neri and Dan Curewitz who brought it all together. I hope you will enjoy this annual snapshot of the Department.

With warm regards,

Jeffrey a. KarsonJessie Page heroy Professor & Department Chair

Clean Water InItIatIve at SyraCuSe unIverSIty

icelandic rushing water. photo by: J.a. Karson

Water is becoming a limited resource for humans and ecosystems as human populations and their activities increase. Changing climate and shifting land use exacerbate limited water resources. For several years, those of us doing research in water-related fields (hydrogeology, hydrology, limnology, sedimentology, paleoclimate, etc) have developed significant collaborations at the grass-roots level, including joint research proposals, graduate-level seminars and co-advising of graduate students. although faculty and students across many departments at Syracuse already work at the forefront of these issues, the University plans to expand water science research to better address these and other areas of study. This initiative will better organize those working in water-related disciplines and market our strengths in the field for graduate student recruitment and national recognition of our programs.

The Department of Earth Sciences is taking a leading role a new “Clean Water Initiative” in the College of arts & Sciences. Dean George M. Langford has charged a committee to develop this initiative with arts and Sciences faculty with members: Don Siegel, Chris Scholz and Laura Lautz. As a first step to advance the program, the University has authorized a senior-level joint-hire between Earth Sciences and the College of Engineering. this new faculty member will develop an internationally recognized research program and contribute fully as a scholar through service to the water sustainability initiative. Don and Laura currently serve on that search committee, which will interview candidates this coming year. the College has also provided seed grants to develop collaborative projects in water-related fields. Don Siegel was awarded one of these to host an American Geophysical Union sponsored Gordon Conference on the intersection of lakes with urban areas this or next year.

The Clean Water initiative provides a strong opportunity for Earth Sciences to strengthen its research program, increase faculty development, and recruit strong graduate students to our program. Watch for more developments over the coming year as this initiative develops.

Meet the DepartMent’S neWeSt FaCulty MeMber

Dr. Zunli lu Returning to up-state New York as a faculty member at SU is unexpected for me, but this only adds a great amount of excitement to this new job. During my PhD study at the University of Rochester, I interacted

with both faculty and former students in the SU Department of Earth Sciences and all of the happy memories do make me feel that I am coming back home. I look forward to the formal start of my career at SU in January 2011!

My interests in ocean chemistry, crustal fluids, global climate changes, and the carbon cycle will guide my research projects in the near future. I am currently investigating how the global ocean became oxygen-depleted during Mesozoic climate warming (Oceanic Anoxic Events). It will be an important part of my research activities at SU to understand oceanic redox changes in the context of climate and evolution. To make this and other lines of research possible, SU has generously agreed to set up a state-of-the-art clean lab and to provide funds for purchasing an ICP-

MS. Both facilities are good additions to the current strength of geochemistry in our department, particularly the new TIMS in Scott Samson’s lab.

Teaching is as valuable as research. I will teach Aqueous Geochemistry and will be happy to teach other classes related to climate and oceanography. In all of these courses, I will emphasize the connections between sub-disciplines of Earth Sciences as much as possible. Like many other scientists, I benefited from this type of training in terms of stimulating research ideas and interests. More importantly, it helped me to learn the delicate balances ubiquitously present in the natural environment where we all reside.

I am actively preparing for a smooth set-up of the lab and teaching with lots of fun in January. When I wrote on Facebook that I plan to move to Syracuse in the New Year, someone said to me:”are you nuts?” No, not really. I know what a Syracuse winter is like, but I also know the department will be warm!

Zunli lu standing in front of oxford university and the Ghost forest: tree stumps that traveled from Ghana to oxford.

Zunli at the icpmS lab at oxford

Su lava projeCt

In a fusion of science and art, Dr. Jeffrey Karson (Earth Sciences) is collaborating with SU Sculptor Dr. Bob Wysocki (Art Department), to make basaltic lava flows right here in Syracuse. Since early 2010 they have been melting basalt and pouring lava flows a few feet across. This is the only academic setting in which basaltic lava flows are being created on a natural scale.

The experiments focus on key parameters that determine the final morphology of flows. In Geology 101 everyone learns about the blocky “aa” and smooth “pahoehoe” forms of lava typical of hawaiian eruptions. But many other forms occur in nature, and the forms reflect differences in physical processes during their eruptions. Perhaps the most widespread, but rarely seen, type of lava flow on Earth is pillow lava that covers the seafloor and is erupted along the mid-ocean ridges. Only carefully controlled experiments will link lava shapes to their composition, temperature, flow rate, slope, vesicle and crystal density, etc.

Using only basaltic material (so far) they have made multiple lava flows over rock slabs, sand, ice, dry ice, and into water. Flow rates and slopes have also been varied. the results show a wide range of

morphologies commonly found in natural lava flows, including sheet flows, levied flows, ropey pahoehoe, hyaloclastite, etc. they provide an interesting and informative perspective on natural flows, numerical models and analog experiments. The flows draw excited crowds to the SU foundry at the ComArt Bldg. Get a glimpse of one of these events at: http://earthsciences.syr.edu/Research/TectonicsOceanLitho/tectonicsOceanLithoreasearch.html.

Drs. Karson & Wysocki plan a cross disciplinary class for both science and art students to explore the physical properties and aesthetics of lava for Spring 2011.

neW enDoWMentS In the DepartMent oF earth SCIenCeS

The Department of Earth Sciences is pleased and thankful to announce the establishment of two new endowed accounts within the Department.

John J. Prucha PhD, Earth Sciences Endowed Fund: Created in 2010 by Dr. Carlos Dengo (BS ’76), this fund honors Professor Emeritus John J. Prucha. It is intended to enhance the quality and academic breadth of the faculty of the Department of Earth Sciences. It stands side-by-side with the Prucha Field research Fund that supports student research.

Donald P. and Ruth Shirley Elston Earth Sciences Endowed Fund: this endowed fund is named for alumni Donald (BA ’50, MS ’51, Geology) and Shirley (BA ’50, History) Elston. It will support research and faculty development in the Department of Earth Sciences.

Both of these new endowments will be formally presented at the 2010 Fall Reunion Weekend festivities on the SU Campus. Contributions to these and other funds are welcomed.

opportunItIeS to ContrIbute to your DepartMent

GeoloGy enDoWeD DevelopMent FunD: this fund may be used at the discretion of the Chair for any activities that enhance the Department.

john jaMeS pruCha FIelD reSearCh FunD: this endowment is used to help our graduate students cover the costs of their field studies.

GeoloGy DepartMent GIFtS aCCount: Gifts to this account are used to purchase software/hardware upgrades for our student computer lab, new maps and displays, field equipment or other needed items.

K. DouGlaS nelSon MeMorIal FunD: This endowed memorial fund supports research/recruitment of outstand-ing graduate students.

aleC G. WaGGoner MeMorIal FunD: this fund is used to support graduate student research proposals.

earth SCIenCeS FIelD CaMp FunD: This fund is used to assist students with respect to attending field camp.

GeoloGy enDoWMent For StuDent reSearCh FunD: Gifts to the account are used to assist graduate students in funding research projects which can include travel assistance to national meetings and publication charges.

Donations to any of the above funds can be made by mail. Please make your check payable to Syracuse University and indicate the fund to which you are contributing on the memo line. Mail to: Syracuse University, College of Arts and Sciences, Office of Advancement, 307 Hall of Languages, Syracuse, NY 13244-1170.

Mr. Martin acasterMr. russell M. agneMr. E. Louis amberMr. Nicholas a. azzolinaDr. Charles E. BartbergerMr. Ronald M. BelakMr. Michael J. BellottiDr. Marion E. BickfordMrs. Susan Guhl BrowneMr. George V. Bulin, JrMrs. Sara L. ClementDr. Maurice a. CucciMr. George E. DuchossoisMr. thomas r. Eschner

Dr. Paul G. FitzgeraldDr. richard M. ForesterDr. Ennis P. GeraghtyMr. Matthew GubitosaMr. Daniel G. JaffeDr. richard L. KrollMrs. hildred h. LasserMr. hannes E. LeetaruMr. Walter T. LevendoskyDr. John r. LewisMr. Milton R. MarksMrs. Ruth H. MajorMr. Harold N. MeakerProf. Katharine F. Nelson

Prof. Cathryn r. NewtonMr. John M. NobleDr. John J. PruchaNancy E. SpauldingMrs. Linda r. SternbachDr. Irving h. tesmerMr. Michael G. thonisMr. William P. Tolley, JrDr. Victor K. VereMr. John WeikartMr. Walter C. WoodmanseeMrs. Margaret Prucha Yarka

DonatIonS to the DepartMent 2009-10(Donations from July 2009 – June 2010)

Departmental awarDS of DiStinction in 2010

Suzanne Baldwin received the Chancellor’s Citation for academic Excellence in a ceremony last april. Suzanne was recognized for both teaching and research excellence in the geosciences and for her devotion to encouraging and supporting women to

enter and achieve success in science. among her high-profile projects in this area of science, she is the lead principal investigator for an international group of collaborators and a research team at SU working with a $3.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation Continental Dynamics Program. The collaborative project involves four other leading U.S. institutions and several leading international scientists investigating major tectonic processes in eastern Papua New Guinea using the region as a field laboratory to examine the rheological, petrological and thermal evolution of the lithosphere during the transition from subduction to rifting and seafloor spreading. This year Suzanne was one of only six to receive this prestigious award.

carlos Dengo – BS ’76 was awarded the Alexander Winchell Award at a seminar that was held in the Department of Earth Sciences on October 29, 2009. Dr. Dengo is the Geoscience Vice President of ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company. We, in the Department, look forward to Carlos’ return to campus this fall for the 2010 Fall

Reunion Weekend when the John J. Prucha PhD, Earth Sciences Endowed Fund is formally presented to the Department.

m. e. (pat) Bickford was honored by his alma Mater, receiving the alumni achievement award from the Department of Geology at the University of Illinois, where he received his MS (‘58) and Ph.D. (‘60) degrees.

linda ivany received the american federation of mineralogy Societies Scholarship foundation 2010 Honorary award for Distinguished achievement in the field of earth Sciences at the recent convention of the Eastern Federation of Mineralogical and Lapidary Societies, The award includes 2 EFMLS Scholarships of $2000/year normally for 2 years for the recipient’s Department. Linda and the Department were pleased to present these scholarships to Kwasi Gilbert and Jack Hietpas. Congratulations to Linda, Kwasi and Jack!

Donald i. Siegel was honored by being named the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor. this distinguished three-year appointment beginning Fall 2010 recognizes Don’s outstanding teaching at Syracuse University and

comes with a stipend and funding to expand on his course offerings. Don, as part of his Meredith project, has expanded his Honor’s course in “World Water” to include a trip to China for interested students, and his undergraduate offering this fall will be a general course in the “Science of Water.” Don, also through his Meredith efforts, formally linked his graduate course in “Contaminant Hydrogeology” with the Syracuse Law School trial practice class offered by the Federal District Attorney for Central New York. In this class, his science students provide environmental expert testimony in an authentic jury trial situation.

Suzanne Baldwin (l) receiving the Chancellor’s Citation from Chancellor Nancy Cantor (r).

Pat (r) receiving his award from Wang-Ping Chen (l), Head of the Department of Geology, University of Illinois.

Dr. Jeffrey Karson presenting Dr. Carlos Dengo the 2009 Alexander Wincell Alumni Award.

(l-r)Vice Chancellor Eric Spina, Don Siegel, and Chancellor Nancy Cantor at the Meredith Ceremony.

GraDuate StuDent reSearcH

martin Briggs My first year as a graduate student with the

Syracuse University Earth Sciences Department has been very positive and productive. During the fall of 2009 I worked along with my advisor, Dr. Laura Lautz, and Dr. Jeffery McKenzie of McGill University to determine the spatial distribution and magnitude of contaminated groundwater inflow to a stretch of lower Nine Mile Creek, not far upstream of Onondaga Lake in Syracuse. This work was done in conjunction with the consulting firm O’Brien and Gere, and we were able to identify a focused groundwater input and quantify the incoming volume per time using several methods including a relatively new fiber optic Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) method. I then travelled to the professional conferences of GSa in Portland, AGU in San Francisco, EGU in Vienna and CUAHSI in Boulder to present these and related findings.

Currently I am working near Lander, WY using both innovative DtS applications and other cutting-edge tracer methods to determine flux patterns and associated biogeochemical patterns and microbial reactivity around beaver dams. I am working alongside Danielle hare, a very determined undergraduate from the department.

We have also had field assistance from Tim Daniluk, local community college professors and students, and Dr. Laura Lautz. Danielle and I are staying on a 40,000+ acre ranch owned by the Nature Conservancy, an organization which has been very supportive of our efforts. The amazing red rock walled canyon and field site, teeming with rainbow

trout within walking distance of the bunkhouse, also helps the cause! None of this would have been possible without funding from the Syracuse University Graduate research Fellowship and the National Science Foundation’s CAREER grant awarded to Dr. Lautz. I look forward to presenting this summer’s research in both manuscript form and personally at further scientific conferences.

Joe catalano I begin my second year of my M.S. degree at Syracuse this fall. I am working with Suzanne Baldwin on the Magmatic Evolution of the Woodlark Basin in Papua New Guinea. I am in the process of gathering 40Ar/39Ar ages and whole rock geochemical data from a spread of volcanic rocks from the Milne Bay Province. I also was a part of the field work, in March 2010, collecting samples,

structural data, and characterizing rock relationships

Danielle Hare with the “catch of the day”

Tim Daniluk with sledge hammer!

Joe at field camp this June overlooking the geology of the Proterozoic granite and slate at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River National Monument.

from the outer islands of Milne Bay. In June 2010 I attended field camp through the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in the San Juan Mountains near Silverton, Colorado to fulfill the deficiency required to graduate. This trip would not have been possible without the financial support that I received from the department – which is backed by support from generous alumni to whom I would like to thank. It was a valuable learning experience. this December I plan to present some of my preliminary data at the annual meeting for Papua New Guinea as well as at A.G.U. in San Francisco.

timothy DanilukFor two weeks from June 27 until July

10, 2010, I taught surface water hydrology at the University of Missouri’s Branson Field Laboratory in Lander, Wyoming. There were 39 students at the camp from all over the country, and these were divided into four smaller groups for instruction.

During the first week, I instructed students how to gauge stream discharge using a variety of methods of varying complexity. Students were lectured on the basics of hydrology such as determining the cross-sectional area of a stream, stream velocity, and stream discharge. Estimation methods included timing an orange floating down the channel, flow meter calculations, dilution gauging using a slug test, and dye tracer tests.

During the second week, 11 students elected to take part in advanced hydrogeology projects. These included a trip to the Fremont County Landfill, creating a water budget for Dry Lake and Gauging the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie River, then performing a dye test through the underground karst network in Sinks Canyon. The students calculated whether

more, less, or the same amount of water (and dye) exited the canyon at the rise as it entered at the sinks. the students also sampled surface and subsurface geochemistry and water table elevations to generate a water table map for the island on which the camp is located. The final exam was a comprehensive, synthesizing surface water, groundwater, and geochemical methods to characterize surface and subsurface flow in a mountain tributary creek through an alluvium floodplain.

Now back in Syracuse, I will return to my research with Dr. Laura Lautz on hyporheic exchange in restored streams in Upstate New York. I am using temperature to quantify fluxes into and out of the streambed, and geochemistry to identify oxygenated and low oxygen environments in the hyporheic zone of the streambed.

tathagata (ted) DasguptaLast Spring I have successfully defended

my PhD thesis, which probably has the longest title in the history of this department: ‘Geochemistry and Geochronology of Alleghanian and ‘atypical’ alleghanian granites from south-central appalachians:

Implications for magma evolution and late Paleozoic terrane accretionary history in the southern Appalachians’! I would like to take this opportunity to thank my supervisor Dr. Scott Samson, all my committee members, especially Dr. Marion Bickford, for teaching me how to enjoy writing science articles,

Tim (left) with student group at Branson Field Lab. Dr. Dasgupta’s link from the Geology Department at Kent State.

and friends and colleagues of this department for helping me complete this long and exciting journey. Fortunately the end of the tunnel looks bright enough. From fall 2010, I will start working at the Kent State University, Department of Geology as an Assistant Professor, teaching introductory as well as advanced undergraduate and graduate level courses.

Simultaneously, I plan on collaborating with my supervisor Scott and other scientists from Kent State University to continue with my geochemistry research. Currently I am in the process of submitting my manuscripts for publication and hopefully they will see the light of day soon.

David GombosiThis year marks the approximate mid-point

in my PhD program, and the year has been a busy and productive one. On the NaSa-astrobiology project I’ve been working on with Dr. Baldwin, I’ve been characterizing Apollo 16 impact glass samples on the basis of their structure and geochemistry, using microraman spectroscopy and the electron microprobe at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). The goal of the project is to assess how quickly radiogenic 40ar diffuses out of impact glasses at ambient lunar temperatures. I’m trying to determine how this diffusive loss may alter the measured 40Ar/39ar age of impact glasses from the lunar surface, potentially yielding anomalously young ages of impact events. I’ve also succeeded in producing a beta version of a stochastic modeling routine to predict the range of fractional loss of ar from these impact glasses.

the second phase of my PhD research is developing the electron microprobe zircon fission-track dating technique. This new method allows us to date the mineral zircon (ZrSiO

4) and allows both

older and more heavily radiation damaged material to be dated than previously possible. this new tool will have applications to the low temperature evolution of basins, sediment dispersal pathways, and tectonics – particularly in Precambrian terranes.

The first part of this project involved working with nine labs across three continents to acquire and synthesize the required standard materials. As this phase of the project nears completion, I now possess one of the most complete collections of zircon-group mineral standards in existence. In the next phase of the project I will use RPI’s electron microprobe to start producing ages based on this standard material. Generous funding from the department’s Geology

Student research Fund has allowed me to purchase analytical time on the instrument, without which this project would not have been possible.

In December I published my first paper,

in Terra Nova entitled “New thermochronometric constraints on the rapid Paleogene uplift of the Cordillera Darwin complex and related thrust sheets in the Fuegian andes” ,which won a department student publication award.

This summer I’ve taken an intern position with ExxonMobil’s Upstream Research Company in houston. My research here is with the reservoir quality group examining the spatial extent and textures of microquartz growth on detrital quartz grains in the North Sea. this summer I was also awarded a NaSa Earth and Space Sciences Fellowship to examine the diffusion of Ne and ar in lunar impact glasses.

ryan Gordon I am a graduate student working towards my master’s degree with Dr. Laura Lautz. For the last year, I have been studying the interaction between surface water and groundwater in restored streams in Central New York State. I am interested in the spatial patterns of water exchange between streams and shallow aquifers through gravel streambeds. During the warm months, I conduct field research in restored streams near structures called cross-vanes. Cross-vanes are low, stone, dam-like structures that are built throughout the United States to restore the ecological

Dave in front of a piece of sandstone from the Atoka Formation, Ouachita Mountains, Oklahoma. Shown are sole marks (Flute casts) on the sandstone.

services of stream corridors. I am investigating how patterns of water flow in the streambed are affected by cross-vanes and the pool and riffle bedforms that develop around them. My field methods involve the use of heat as a tracer of water movement. In order to measure the direction and amount of water flowing through the streambed, I install arrays of temperature sensors that detect the movement of heat through saturated gravel. I use the records of temperature through time at a variety of points in order to model the patterns of water movement at my field sites. I also take water samples from the streambed sediments and analyze them for indicators of biogeochemical processes that take place in the streambed.

In April 2010, I was awarded a Graduate research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. this award will support my research and studies at Syracuse University for the next academic year and summer. I would like to thank the National Science Foundation for this financial support, and Dr. Laura Lautz for helping me submit a successful application to the Graduate research Fellowship Program.

Jack Hietpas My research is focused on assessing the utility

of detrital heavy minerals as provenance indicators. Following the success of utilizing the crystallization ages of detrital monazite, derived from modern river sediments, to record the complex tectonic history of the southern appalachians, I turned my attention to assessing the ability of monazite isolated from ancient sedimentary rocks to record tectonic events. In several samples detrital monazite recorded tectonic events

that were either significantly underrepresented or completely missed by the more commonly utilized detrital zircon methodology. Given the extremely valuable information we gained from detrital monazite ages my next step will be to measure both the bulk elemental chemistry and the Nd isotopic composition of the same monazite crystals that were previously dated. the outcome of this research will provide a valuable framework for understanding the utility of monazite as a provenance indicator. In addition to examining detrital monazite, my research also investigates the strengths and limitations of the microchemistry of detrital garnet as a provenance proxy. This research is being financially supported by very generous grants from the Prucha fund and the Gem and Mineral Society of Syracuse.

this past spring, my advisor Scott Samson and I attended an FBI-hosted meeting in Washington, D.C. this meeting was focused on utilizing isotope ratio mass spectrometry to aid criminal investigations

and for intelligence purposes. This was a very exciting meeting that demonstrated an atypical application of the techniques and principles that we use to investigate geological problems.

andrew HorstIn the wake of my qualifying exam last fall, I

press forward as a Ph.D. candidate to finish my three projects. All three are at different stages: writing for publication, data acquisition, and sample collecting; however, the overarching theme of my research involves a combination of structural geology with applied magnetic techniques to understand processes

Ryan taking streambed temperature in Boyer Creek.

X-ray map showing the distribution of calcium within a single garnet crystal. Such information will be used to attempt to “fingerprint” garnet donor source rocks and potentially link detrital garnet back to their specific source.

of crustal accretion at mid-ocean ridges. I am primarily investigating aspects of magmatic intrusions, crustal structure, and transform fault deformation in Iceland as an analog for other high-magma-supply spreading systems.

this past academic year, my third here at Syracuse, I was back on the Graduate School Fellowship. this was wonderful because it freed up more time for my research. I also took a couple of classes this past year, Geographic Information

Systems and Learning and teaching Science in an Undergraduate Setting, both of which really introduced me to new perspectives and techniques that will be quite useful down the road. I had the opportunity to present some of my research on Icelandic crustal accretion at the annual american Geophysical Union meeting last December. I also attended a conference this past May, with fellow graduate student Jack Hietpas, on Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) held at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. EBSD is a fascinating technique to determine crystallographic information from samples in a scanning electron microscope. I am particularly interested in using this method in the future to identify and quantify preferred crystallographic orientations in some of

my samples. In addition to research, writing, classes, and conferences, I have been out to California on two occasions in the past year to acquire data at Scripps Institution of Oceanography paleomagnetics lab.

During the past summer I spent about seven weeks in Iceland continuing fieldwork to finish up one of my projects. The main focus for this year’s work is to collect samples for paleomagnetic analysis and fault kinematic data to constrain models of deformation near a transform fault zone in northern Iceland. This work has been supported through several sources including an NSF grant to Dr. Jeffrey Karson (Syracuse University) and our colleague Dr. Robert Varga (Pomona College), an ExxonMobil Global Geoscience Student Grant (2009), two consecutive years of support from the John James Prucha Field Research Grant (2009 and 2010), and the K. Douglas Nelson Award (2010). Without such generous support, this project would not have been possible.

I look forward to this upcoming year as I will be a ta for Oceanography, taught by Dr. Daniel Curewitz in the fall, and I hope to finish writing another paper for publication too. I expect to make a trip out to the paleomagnetics lab at Scripps soon after my field season this summer. I will also be working with the Geology Club to organize our 6th annual Central New York Earth Science Student Symposium next spring. The coming year will surely keep me running!

Kwasi GilbertI work with groups of prehistoric whales that

inhabited the waters surrounding the United States Atlantic Coastal Plain (ACP). Belonging to the family Physeteridea (sperm whales), these whales speciated sometime in the mid -Miocene, and apparently persisted until the early Pliocene, when a combination of environmental perturbations and competitive stress precipitated their extinction. I study the fossils of these early whales, specifically their teeth, which are often the only remains at ACP sites. I’m interested in reconstructing life history and ecology, an objective that is somewhat complicated by the lack of cranial and post cranial material. Fortunately, sperm whale teeth are very valuable information repositories and can potentially tell a great deal about these amazing organisms. In the past few decades a number of techniques have been developed which exploit these important properties of sperm whale teeth to better understand characters of the extant species. My

Andrew (right) in Iceland collecting samples.

advisor, Professor Linda Ivany, and I have modified these methods specifically for this project. Our research involves the application of these modern techniques to prehistoric whale taxa. For instance, we are looking at growth banding in the teeth of these whales. these bands represent changes in the rate of dental hard tissue accumulation, are associated with seasonal phenomena, and can thus be used to estimate age. This technique was developed in the late 1950’s and is currently the most accurate method of aging stranded sperm whales, as their teeth grow continually and thus provide a record of lifespan. My advisor and I have adapted this method for use in these early whales with the goal of reconstructing the age makeup of the prehistoric atlantic coastal plain populations. to this end we section the teeth longitudinally to view banding patterns. We are in the process of exploring

a new promising technique: micro-computed tomography (Micro-CT). Micro-CT scanners use X-rays to take high resolution cross sections of objects, the X-rays detect minute density differences in the scanned object which manifest in the images as discreet features, and these density discrepancies can then be quantified and graphed. Contiguous growth bands have significantly different densities; hence theoretically this technique can be used to count growth bands and age our whales. Moreover, because the X-rays can easily resolve the internal features of the teeth, sectioning is precluded.

We are also interested in tooth chemistry,

which may be used as a proxy for ecology. Teeth record the conditions at hand during their formation. Chemical signatures in teeth can represent certain characteristics of the environment or be indicative of particular biological and/or behavioral traits. With the proper tools to extract these signatures and understanding of their dynamics it is possible to reconstruct environmental parameters or determine the biological/behavioral inclinations of an organism. In this study we are attempting to determine whether or not these whales were migratory groups, looking specifically at carbon isotopes. I am tremendously grateful to all the programs that are helping to fund, not only this research, but my scholarship. they are: the Eastern Federation of Mineralogical and Lapidary Society, the Paleontological Society’s Stephen Jay Gould Student Research Grant, the National Science Foundation’s Graduate research Fellowship, and the McNair Scholars fellowship, as well as contributions from The Syracuse University Office of Research and the Graduate School. I would also like to thank my advisor, Linda Ivany, for being a great mentor, colleague, resource and friend. I again sincerely extend thanks to all these programs and people, without which this research would not be possible.

nathan GraberI came to Syracuse University to start my

Masters last fall. Since my arrival I have worked towards completing my thesis research and have made a great deal of progress towards completing my sample analysis. For my project I will use (U-Th)/He thermochronology on apatite as well as DEM analysis, to study the uplift history of the Frontal Cordillera of the andes, near Mendoza argentina. I completed my field work, in Argentina, last January. While there I collected two suites of rock samples. Each set of samples consists of a vertical transect spanning approximately 2,500 meters of elevation change. the samples I collected come from the rio Mendoza and the rio tunuyan, river valleys. these samples will help constrain the timing of uplift by indicating when erosion significantly increased. this summer has been spent preparing the samples I collected in argentina to run helium analysis. this preparation consists of crushing and sieving my samples before separating the minerals on the basis of density, using LSt. Finally I will hand-pick apatite crystals which fit the specifications

Mandible and teeth of a prehistoric sperm whale (genus: Physeterula) from the Lee Creek Mine, North Carolina. Though smaller than their modern relatives, these whales were probably more deliberate predators, apparently feeding on fish and smaller whales as indicated by wear faceting on the teeth. The abundance of remains at the mine suggests it played some important ecologically role to these whales.

necessary for running helium analysis. I have also

begun to analyze the regional DEM for the area which, coupled with the helium data, will help piece together the complex history of the Andean, Frontal Cordillera in argentina.

amy morisseyI started graduate school at Syracuse last

august under the advisement of Dr. Scholz. My industry-funded research for my thesis will mainly focus on the interpretation of several vintages of seismic reflection data from Lake Turkana, in the East

african rift, in efforts to constrain the sedimentary patterns and history of subsidence of the lake’s southern basin.

During my first year at Syracuse, I focused mainly on completing my classwork. I took a wide range of classes within the department. Some classes covered topics that directly apply to the research I am doing, while other classes helped to broaden my geological knowledge. Many of my classes included field trips to places like the Finger Lakes region of New York and all the way to coastal Maine.

After the end of my first year, I got to travel to northern Kenya in East Africa to do my field work for my Master’s thesis. Lake Turkana is well known for its sites of hominid fossil discovery, but it is also an area with a diverse geologic history and a rich record of past climate change. Our research group spent a total of about 3 months in and around Lake Turkana collecting two types of seismic data and core, dredge, and rock samples. My trip to Africa is an experience that cannot be repeated, and I look forward to the analysis and interpretation phase of my work here at Syracuse.

Xiangyu mu recently, I have spent two months doing

field work on Lake Taihu in China, sampling water

Amy with Lake Turkana in the background.

Nate collecting samples in Argentina

Xiangyu on Lake Taihu

from the lake and its tributary. Lake Taihu is the third largest freshwater lake in China, with an area of about 2338 km2 and a mean depth of 1.9 m, a typical shallow lake located in the delta of the Yangtze River, the most industrialized and urbanized area in China. Its main function is supplying drinking water for the surrounding cities, such as Wuxi, Suzhou, and Shanghai, but tourism, aquaculture, fisheries, and navigation are important as well. however, with the economic development and increased population in the lake basin, Lake Taihu has suffered increasingly from serious eutrophication. the main reasons for the continued deterioration of the environment of Lake Taihu are increased water use and discharge; changes in agricultural practices and in fisheries and aquaculture; insufficient wastewater treatment; and an unsuitable management system.

In order to figure out where the main sources of contaminants which stimulate blue algae bloom come from, we assume that different land use has a strong relationship with different halogen concentration ratios, which could be used for tracing the contamination sources. the result should have great meaning for pollution control. also, from our water samples, after the quality monitoring is analyzed, we could get the general picture of the contamination distribution in Lake Taihu Basin which could provide necessary data information source for further research.

aleece nanfitoLast summer I spent in the field working in

southwest Iceland on an enigmatic strike-slip fault zone that is parallel to the rifts. I received generous

support from a John J. Prucha award, which allowed me to have a field vehicle and also purchase epoxies

needed for sample collection. My master’s work is focusing on the Glufjura Fault Zone, which is a N-S oriented, right-lateral fault. the fault zone cuts through nearly flat-lying Tertiary lavas and is defined by a tabular band of highly deformed breccia and gouge. It has also been injected by almost 50 dikes that span the life of the fault. Fault-scaling relationships suggest km’s of displacement, significantly more than previously estimated. Overall, this fault is far more complex in 3-D structure than other faults in Iceland. Other rift-parallel, strike-slip faults have been noticed elsewhere in Iceland, but have not been addressed in classical interpretations of rift processes.

this year I also participated in a lesson study group, which focused on updating a glaciers exercise in one of the introductory Earth Science courses. Members from the Department of Earth Sciences and the Department of Science Teaching worked together to create a lesson that was more inquiry-based and allowed the instructor to observe how the students were learning. as the new lesson was delivered, observers in the classroom collected feedback on student thought processes. With the data collected on student answers and discussion in class, the lesson can be modified to ensure the objectives of the lesson are met. the results are currently in preparation to be submitted to the Journal of Geoscience Education.

Steve riccioMy advisor Paul Fitzgerald and I conducted

research in the Eastern Alaska Range during June 2010 near the West Fork and Susitna Glaciers, the location of 2002 Denali Fault earthquake epicenter and initial rupture zone. We sampled granitoids on the North and South of the Denali Fault, and on the hanging wall and footwall on the south-splaying Susitna Glacier thrust fault. Samples were collected in several vertical profiles through plutons and along a horizontal transect from the Denali fault across the Susitna fault, in order to be able to understand the exhumation patterns and relations between the two faults.

I was awarded funds from the John Prucha Research Fund in May 2010, intended for our upcoming work in Alaska. The funding received was put towards helicopter time, used for supply drops, camp moves, reconnaissance, and sample collection. With the funding I received we were able to sample at a number of locations great distances along our intended horizontal transect, and move our camp to

Aleece (left) in Iceland with colleague Amanda Loman.

where we could better target granitic rocks necessary for the thermochronometers I plan to use. I am very grateful for the award, because without it our field season would not have been as complete or as successful as it was.

I have completed my field work and am now

processing my samples and familiarizing myself with the thermochronometers I will be using to date my samples. I am currently learning the fission track system, involving counting fission tracks left in apatite crystals from the spontaneous fission of uranium. I will be learning the (U-Th)/He system, also using apatite crystals, in which [he] is measured in order to determine isotope parent/daughter ratios and from that, the crystal age. Using the two thermochronometers, I plan to interpret time-temperature and exhumation histories of the rocks in relation to the major faulting in this area of the Eastern Alaska Range.

Soumitri (mimi) SarkarI conlcuded my four-year journey through

graduate school and defended my dissertation successfully in May 2010. I am grateful to the department, faculty and the graduate students for their warmth and support. It was a fun ride and I owe it all to them. I would like to take this opportunity to especially thank Dr. Don Siegel for being a friend, philosopher and guide. I want to extend my gratitude to the Siegel family for being my family here in Syracuse.

Currently I have joined the Environmental Law Clinic at University of Pittsburgh, School of Law as a consulting staff scientist. the Clinic provides to the community a broad range of legal and technical

assistance related to environmental problems and I am excited to be a part of the team. Simultaneously, I plan

on continuing my collaboration with Dr. Siegel for research projects on peatland hydrology and isotope geochemistry.

aaron Satkoskithis last year has been one of my toughest,

yet also most productive and rewarding. Since my last newsletter update I managed to present a talk at the national GSa meeting, publish a paper, complete my preliminary exam, go on a field excursion to collect rock samples with the USGS, and travel to the University of Arizona to analyze over 1,200 detrital zircons.

the national GSa meeting was a great experience, and my talk on the Archean rocks of the Minnesota River Valley was well received and also stirred up a little controversy over how rocks that are 3.5 billion years old were formed. Thus, I consider the talk a complete success! This project is still ongoing, and I am still collecting more isotopic and chemical data to help resolve this ongoing controversy.

In March my first paper, along with co-authors Sandra Barr (Acadia University) and Scott Samson, was published in the Journal of Geology. The worked showed that a part of the appalachians (a terrane known as Avalonia) originated in South America and traveled to Africa before finally ending up on the eastern part of North america. My co-authors and I are still studying avalonia and its long history and hope to have a follow up paper soon.Just as I was beginning to feel a small bit of confidence, it became time to take my preliminary exam, which is the sink or swim time in a PhD program. this also tends to be a time when people

Steven hiking Pyramid Peak – Alaska

Mimi atop Mt Joe capturing photo of Mt Marcy

realize they do not know as much as they thought they did, and I was no different. after was all said and done, I passed, and came away with a much more focused idea of what I need to do to accomplish my research goals.

Once my exam was over I traveled to the University of Arizona to analyze U-Pb in detrital zircons as part of a collaboration between SU and the USGS. The rock samples were collected from Vermont to Virginia. The trip was a huge success, and has started to give my collaborators and me much insight into where Cambrian sedimentary rocks along this part of eastern North America originated. This project is still ongoing, as I hope to analyze several thousand more zircons, this time from Virginia to Missouri. Combined with the previous data, the new study will give us a picture of how the entire eastern part of North america formed in the early Cambrian.Finally, I would like to thank the department for recognizing my efforts with several awards: a Student Publication award for my paper in the Journal of

Geology and the Newton C. Chute award for my service to the department and professional promise. I would also like to thank donors to the John J. Prucha field fund for awarding me money to collect ~1 billion year old rock samples along the eastern US. By collecting and analyzing these rocks I hope to learn more about potential sources to the Cambrian rocks mentioned above, and gain a better understanding of how the eastern US might have looked approximately 500 million years ago.

Drew SilerI’m starting the fifth year of my dissertation

research at Syracuse in the Fall of 2010. Last year

was a very busy year for me. In addition to serving as head ta for the department, I also made considerable

progress on my research. In addition to presenting a poster at AGU in December, I published my first, first-authored publication with my advisor Jeff Karson. I also went to the SIMS lab at UCLA and collected the last of my data, U/Pb in zircon geochronology data from Icelandic rhyolites. In May, I attended the ExxonMobil Big Horn Basin Field Trip, where we learned the basics of petroleum geology and play elements. this summer I am an intern at Chevron in Houston, TX, working in a reservoir management team on an oil field off the coast of Angola. I plan to finish my research and defend my dissertation in the Spring of 2011.

tonny SserubiriIt has been a great first year for me at the

heroy Geology Laboratory with lots of new things to marvel at. I’m thankful to the various Professors at the Department, especially my advisor Chris Scholz and graduate students who have made my stay here memorable.

Having completed my first year of Graduate School, my current focus is my Master’s thesis, which will comprise various sedimentological aspects, ranging from seismic data analysis and interpretation,

Sampling ancient gneiss in the Minnesota River Valley.

My exploration and field work in Iceland.

chemostratigraphy, lithostratigraphy, and well-log analysis. this research is to be done using data and samples from the Albertine Graben of Uganda, a largely lacustrine sedimentary basin. Josh taylor

I am going into my final semester of graduate work here at Syracuse, during which I plan to defend my dissertation. the past year was a productive one; I presented numerous aspects of my research at professional meetings and had a manuscript on my masters research accepted for publication. I am continuing to write my dissertation as I collect the last bits of data I need to finish up. This has been an exciting time of interaction with colleagues for comments, insight, and suggestions, as I discuss with

them my interpretations and conclusions. I hope to submit at least two manuscripts for publication in the coming months, with a third in the works. The first manuscript describes the Cenozoic fault history of southeastern Mongolia and its implications for the

accommodation of deformation in asia in response to collision with India. the second presents petrography and zircon U-Pb dating results that constrain the protoliths to metamorphic tectonites in southern Mongolia, which has bearing on the existence of the South Gobi microcontinent. a third manuscript, that will present the results of a low-temperature thermochronology study along basement blocks within southeastern Mongolia, will be in the works shortly.

After the Fall semester I will join the many students from Syracuse who have accepted job offers from the petroleum industry and move to houston. I am eager to take on the challenges that will come with this new work.

alina walcek Since starting at Syracuse University last fall,

I have made much progress towards my Master’s degree. My work involves determining the uplift history of the southern argentine Precordillera through studying geomorphic features. I will be measuring

cosmogenic nuclide concentrations of relict landscapes in addition to analyzing river response to uplift.

this past winter, I completed an awesome season of field-work in Argentina. We successfully collected samples from several paleosurfaces, in addition to sediment from various streams collected to determine erosion rates. these samples will be analyzed for multipe cosmongenic nuclides in order to piece together the uplift history of the andes.

This past year I have been lucky enough to receive funding from the GSa Student research fund, in addition to the Geology Endowed Student research Fund of the Syracuse University Department of Earth Sciences, for travel to Purdue University’s PRIME lab to prep samples for cosmogenic nuclide analysis. The funding paid for travel expenses while in Indiana

Josh “hitting” the road in Mongolia.

During a field seminar Green River Basin, Rock Springs, WY.

Alina & Nathan Graber in Argentina.

doing this work, and I would like to thank those who have contributed to the Endowed Student research Fund, as well as the Department of Earth Sciences, for awarding me this grant.

Xuewei ZhangI worked for Anadarko China as an Exploration

geologist prior to being enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Earth Sciences at SU in fall 2009. From Insider Anadarko, I had the opportunity to take a close look at many of Anadarko sponsored G&G consortia projects with universities and academic institutes around the world. the Lacustrine rift Basin research program directed by Prof. Scholz was one of those projects. I was very interested in the cool research done by the group and wanted to get involved, and that’s why I made my way to Syracuse. I found Syracuse University by chance, but I chose to be here following my heart.

As expected, my first year in the Dept. of Earth Sciences has been pretty exciting and fruitful: the courses I have taken, the exposure to various department colloquia and activities, all the field trips we made, and of course the research in which I have participated within the Lacustrine rift Basin group, all helped reshape the way I am thinking as an Earth scientist. One particular project, probably one of my Ph.D. projects, I am currently working on is a global study on sublacustrine channel and fan systems. the key issues we want to address include: what favors the initiation of sublacustrine channel and fan deposits; what accounts for the architectural and morphological differences (e.g., sinuosity of subaqueous channels) among these deep lake channel-fan systems; and are there quantitative relationships between channel-fan morphologies and geological parameters. It will be very challenging to characterize these sublacustrine channel-fan systems that show a wide range of age, location, and post-depositional process. hopefully we can find some interesting results.

alex ZirakparvarDuring the past year, I have continued to

make progress towards completing my PhD degree. I am working under Suzanne Baldwin, who has an NSF grant to study the formation and exhumation of metamorphic rocks in Papua New Guinea.

In October, I passed the PhD qualifying exam. Jeff Vervoort, who is a faculty member at Washington State University, was my former M.S. advisor, and is

currently a member of my PhD committee, attended the examination. During Jeff’s visit to Syracuse, we were able to finalize the preparations to a manuscript that we submitted to Earth and Planetary Science Letters. as of this time, the manuscript is still in review, but I hope that it gets accepted, as this will bring me one step closer to completing my degree. During the last year, I also finally published the results of my Masters thesis in the Canadian Journal of Earth Science (see Zirakparvar et al., 2010 in CJES vol. 47). In February of this year, I was also chosen to attend a National Science Foundation sponsored workshop for the ion microprobe at the University of California, Los angeles. I learned a lot about the use of ion microbeam techniques during this workshop, and decided to present a bit of what I had learned at the department’s informal graduate seminar after I had returned from this workshop. I will be traveling to UCLA again in July of this year to perform U-Pb analyses of zircons, and will be making use of some of the latest developments in resolving the spatial distribution of U-Pb ages in single zircon crystals that the team at the UCLA has been working on. I also traveled to the GeoAnalytical lab at Washington State University to perform geochemical analyses. At this

time I would also like to thank the Graduate Student Publication Award and Marjorie Hooker Award funds, since I received cash awards from both of these sources this year.

Alex collecting samples and data in Papua New Guinea.

rESEarCh aSSOCIatES

Daniel curewitz Introductory Oceanography (Ear 117), Volcanoes and Earthquakes (EAR 200), and Earth’s Climate (EAR111) have rounded out my teaching schedule quite nicely. In addition to developing and modifying lectures for the courses, I

am working on new ways to give students hands-on exposure and practical experience with the concepts and ideas that underlie the teaching material, mostly through the development of recitations and in-class activities. One aspect of teaching these courses that has been particularly rewarding is the focus on visual learning and the interpretation, deconstruction and creation of diagrams, charts or other means of absorbing and communicating Earth Sciences concepts.

I continue to delve into long- and short-term mechanical connections between faulting and hydrothermal activity through detailed investigation of more than 40 years worth of maps and data from the mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal systems exposed in the rift zones along the Mid-atlantic ridge, where it emerges and forms the Eurasian-North american plate boundary in Iceland. transporting the insights gained from investigation of on-land, heavily mapped and monitored areas into the deep frontiers of hydrothermal research along the submarine sections of the mid-ocean ridge system is the next phase of the work, and it is just over the horizon and will continue through the next year of investigation. Ultimately, the work is intended to incorporate ideas and results from previous research into structural control of hydrothermal activity, the geological impact and expression of dike intrusion at divergent plate boundaries, and fault population analysis of active rift systems.

Jennifer HargraveI’ve completed my first year at SU as part of

the Lacustrine rift Basins research group led by Dr.

Chris Scholz, which included a second trip to the southeastern shores of Lake Turkana, Kenya. For this trip, I spent two months around the village of Loiyangalani in search of lacustrine carbonates. Our living conditions improved from last year, from palm huts in a campsite to the Oasis Lodge which was complete with a warm spring-fed pool. We were able to interact more with the villagers, and several were employed to help us with our research. a group of us also visited a local secondary school to share with them our interest in Lake Turkana. A few of the students were particularly interested in geology and had rocks to share with us.

the trip was a very successful one, as we doubled our study area and collected and mapped numerous outcroppings of stromatolites, as well as ash layers which we will use to date and correlate our sections. In addition to the onshore fieldwork, I also assisted in the collection of offshore cores, acquisition of multichannel seismic data, and dredging.

We presented our preliminary findings at the annual aaPG meeting in New Orleans in april and generated a lot of interest among our sponsors last November. We are currently analyzing our newly collected data to produce a depositional model of the lake system.

Joseph KulaIt has been a challenging and exciting

year working here at Syracuse University, and in conjunction with the New York Center for Astrobiology. Degassing experiments on crystalline jarosite have been started to constrain the diffusion kinetics of radiogenic 40ar through the mineral. a primary goal of these experiments is to determine the argon closure temperature for jarosite and to evaluate any potential diffusive loss from the mineral over

Plaid shirt - icon of a geologist!

Jen is discussing the rocks that are commonly found around Lake Turkana at a local secondary school in Loiyangalani. Photo by M. Hicks

billion year time-scales. as a potassium-bearing mineral, jarosite is a potential chronometer for dating the presence of liquid water near the surface of Mars. to prepare for future Mars sample return missions where Martian jarosite will be analyzed, we are looking to understand how to properly interpret measured ages in the context of Mars geology.

Additionally, we have completed fieldwork in the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming where we collected a series of jarosite, hematite, and goethite-bearing samples from the Paleocene Fort Union and Eocene Willwood Formations. These units consist of ancient paleosols (soils preserved in the rock-record)

that underwent a post-depositional environmental transition from water-saturated to drained and arid; very similar to that of the Burns Formation at Meridiani Planum on Mars. as a near-surface geological analog for Mars, we are investigating the possibility of dating the transition from

wet to dry, and then apply the methodology to future Mars missions. ability to construct a time-scale for the past wet environments on Mars has important implications for the possibility of life to have developed on the planet.

In the background of these studies we are gearing up to run some simple experiments seeking to gain insight towards questions about the degree to which basalt outgases and re-equilibrates atmospheric argon when melted and recrystallized, if there is a mantle contribution toward excess argon in high-pressure amphibole, and what is the mantle argon signature recorded in various ultramafic rocks from the Late Paleozoic through the Mesozoic.

James metcalf I had another full year working as the noble gas thermochronology lab manager and research associate. This year marks the end of the NSF grant Paul Fitzgerald and Suzanne Baldwin received that I was originally hired on, investigating along- and across-strike patterns of uplift and exhumation in the

Pyrenees. We used a variety of thermochronometers (apatite fission-track, apatite (U-Th)/He, and K-feldspar 40Ar/39Ar) on samples collected throughout the core of the range and identified three primary episodes of exhumation in the Pyrenees. Our current methods best constrain the middle exhumation event that began in the Late Eocene (~40 Ma), and continued until the Early Miocene (~17 Ma). Working with our Spanish colleague Professor Josep-Anton Muñoz (Univ. of Barcelona), we are currently preparing manuscripts that discuss how this exhumational event fits into the overall orogenic history of the Pyrenees. We are hoping to continue our research in the Pyrenees, and are in the process of applying for additional grants to support our work. In addition to the Pyrenees research, I am kept busy with a variety of activities in the research group. We are implementing some upgrades to the noble gas lab, which will hopefully make sample analyses more

efficient. Working with Suzanne Baldwin, I therefore had a busy year of maintaining and updating the hardware in the noble gas lab. I am

impressed by the diversity of projects that the faculty, post-docs, and students in our group are pursuing; it certainly keeps the days interesting!

aisha morrisThis past year has been a busy and exciting

one for me here in the Department of Earth Sciences, as well as in the SU community as a whole. Over the past year, I have submitted two research proposals (one to NSF with an education and outreach focus and one to NASA examining glaciovolcanism in British Columbia), and have two more in the pipeline for submittal in the coming months. My latest research paper, examining the morphology, distribution and proposed formation of impact melt and debris flows on tooting Crater, Mars, has been accepted for publication in the planetary science journal, Icarus. I have also had the opportunity to teach the EAR105 course during the first summer session of 2010, and I had a blast interacting with the students in my class!

Joe intently looking for Martian analogs in Wyoming.

Jim spending a little “quality time” in the lab.

I will be teaching EAR111 in the fall, and I am truly looking forward to continued interaction with the students. I know now that teaching will play a major role in my future career plans.

In addition to my departmental and research-related activities, I have been able to participate in several different community and outreach-related

activities. I spent many of my Saturday mornings during the 2009-2010 school year volunteering with the Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP) in the School of Education. During my time with STEP, I worked with one of the Syracuse City School District (SCSD) Earth Science teachers to facilitate an earth science academic enrichment program for ninth and tenth grade SCSD students. In early July 2010, I was the Camp Director for the inaugural Girls Get It! Science, technology, Engineering and Mathematics camp here at SU.

With the cooperation of JP Morgan Chase, SCSD and SU, we brought 32 middle school girls to campus for a week of exciting science and engineering activities, as well as exposure to life on a college campus. The students enjoyed the camp immensely and many have already requested to come back next year!

Jocelyn SessaI have just finished an enjoyable first year as

a post-doc with Linda Ivany. My research focuses on quantitatively assessing the effects of climatic perturbations on factors such as faunal turnover, origination and extinction rates, and geographic range during the late Cretaceous through Paleogene of the Gulf Coastal Plain (GCP). I primarily work with mollusc fossils. I recently submitted a paper on the environmental and biological controls on the diversification and ecological reorganization of GCP marine ecosystems.

a wealth of data on the geographic occurrences of taxa through this time interval for the GCP are published in monographs, and for the past year I have supervised the creation of a taxon-locality matrix from

these sources. I supervise six researchers (high school through postdoc) in generating this dataset, which has evolved into an online database. the database currently contains ~15,000 localities and nearly 3,000 taxa. Once the database is completed it will be freely available online.

Climate is characterized using stable isotopes of mollusc shells, including seasonal reconstructions. We have generated mean and seasonal temperatures for most of the early Paleogene, as virtually no data of this kind exist for the GCP. I have supervised Trevor Schlossnagle in the collection and analysis of these data. along with Linda, Scott Samson, and trevor, we are working on combining strontium isotope ratios

with oxygen isotope data to evaluate the influence of paleosalinity on shell chemistry and to assess the potential of 87Sr/86Sr for age control in shelf settings like the GCP.

I have begun working with colleagues in southern Africa and Portugal to reveal a record of molluscan diversity from the tropics. Many modern mollusc genera arose following the K-Pg extinction, when certain bivalve and gastropod clades underwent an explosive global radiation. The tropics are frequently implicated as being the ‘cradle’ of this speciation burst, but are severely undersampled in relation to North america and Europe. In February, 2010, I spent three weeks in angola with two Portuguese colleagues on a reconnaissance trip. We identified numerous Late Cretaceous and exceptionally preserved Miocene and Pleistocene sections for further study. We are planning a return trip in early 2011. I will begin a fellowship at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural history in November, 2010.

Aisha (l) with students from Girls Get It!

Jocelyn showing off her “Orange Pride” even in Africa!

faculty reSearcH

Suzanne BaldwinAnother exciting year has flown by and we

celebrated many successes in our research group. For me, the highlight was being honored with a chancellor’s citation at an awards ceremony in April, during which time I was recognized for leading collaborative NSF and NaSa funded research programs, and co-coordinating the Women in Science and Engineering faculty mentoring program, among other achievements. Fieldwork in Papua New Guinea this year took Profs Paul Fitzgerald, Laura Webb, and MS student Joseph Catalano and me to the remote islands of the Woodlark Rise in the Milne Bay Province. There we collected volcanic samples that will give us clues as to the timing and conditions (e.g., source, P, T) of magmatism associated with rifting. The field season was made even more exciting by a category 5 cyclone that threatened to “take us all out”, a close encounter with a shark, and running aground on a coral reef. there was never a dull moment.

This fall I am especially looking forward to convening a new research seminar on thermochronology of planetary surfaces”. Invited talks at the Tectonics Crossroads GSA Global Meeting, in Turkey and at the NSF sponsoredGeoPRISMS Rift Initiation and Evolution workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico are also planned. And, I¹m looking forward to convening sessions at the 2010 annual GSa meeting with Dr. Joseph Kula, and at the 2010 fall AGU meeting with Dr. Laura Webb. If you plan to attend any of these meetings I look forward to catching up with you then.

paul fitzgerald topping this summer was a tremendously

successful field season in the eastern Alaska Range with new MS student Steve riccio and colleagues

from the University of Alaska and UC Davis.In this newly funded NSF project, we are

investigating the formation of the Alaska Range, with fieldwork focusing along the Denali fault. Steve and I mainly worked in the Susitna Glacier region where in 2002 a major thrust fault was discovered, but only because a M7.9 earthquake initiated there.

We were in incredible country and geology, but maximum satisfaction was due to zero bear encounters. In March we (Suzanne Baldwin, Joe Catalano and Laura Webb and I) had three weeks fieldwork in eastern Papua New Guinea on our NSF funded Continental Dynamics project investigating the development of the Woodlark rift and the exhumation of the world’s youngest eclogites. Initially we were based on Woodlark Island with fantastic support (the executive quarters!) by the gold mining operation there, followed by visiting selected islands over a large region, the first time many of these remote islands have seen geologists since the 1960’s. This trip was successful, scenic and eventful – as we avoided a category 5 hurricane and only hit one reef. I have also been working on papers for our NSF supported Pyrenees project with post-doc Jim Metcalf, co-PI Suzanne Baldwin and our Spanish colleagues from the University of Barcelona, prompting submission of another proposal in July. The fall of 2009 was a bit of a blur as I taught three classes, two of those being new, and attended 5 conferences/workshops including the 1st International Conference on antarctic Climate

Collecting rocks close to the Susitna Glacier

Suzane near some uplifted pillow basalts on the northern rifted margin of the Woodlark Rift.

Evolution in Grenada, Spain and a workshop on thermal modeling in aussois, France. Despite that, and the ever expanding job as Director of Graduate Studies, we managed to publish papers on the Basin and Range Province (Tectonics, GSA Special Paper), the Pyrenees (Earth and Planetary Science Letters), the Transantarctic Mountains (Tectonics) and the Adirondacks (GSA Bulletin) with other papers (Pyrenees, Alaska) in various stages of revision. The summer of 2010 will end with a group of us attending the 12th International thermochronology Conference

in Scotland where I am one of the keynote speakers. PhD students Josh taylor and Stephanie Perry are in the final stages of writing up their extensive thermochronology-tectonic PhD’s with both accepting positions at Exxon.

Gregory HokeI just finished my first full academic year at

Syracuse, complete with two graduate students to guide though their respective M.S. projects in tectonic geomorphology. Needless to say, it was an eventful year. Both of my students are working at elevations ≥ 3000 m (9,900 ft) in the Andes near Mendoza, Argentina. In order to take advantage of the warm summer conditions at these altitudes, we all spent New Year’s Eve in the air on our way to Argentina for 3 weeks of very productive fieldwork.

While in Argentina, I also began a pilot project with a collaborator at the University of Washington, instrumenting soil pits over a range of elevations and collecting samples to measure the temperature of soil carbonate formation, using a relatively new technique called “clumped isotope thermometry.” Back at Syracuse, the tectonic and geomorphology lab is busy

with activity, including new non-toxic, water-based mineral separation techniques.

Perhaps the biggest news from Hoke’s corner is that I landed my first major NSF grant from

the Tectonics Program. The project titled, “Basin evolution and elevation history of the SE margin of the Tibetan Plateau: constraints on the timing and mechanisms of surface uplift”, is a three-year, $365,000 (SU part) endeavor with collaborators from the University of Rochester, University of Michigan and the Institute of tibetan Plateau research in China. Last fall I was invited to participate in a one-day symposium on mountains at Cornell University, chaired a topical session at the annual GSa meeting in Portland Oregon, and gave an invited talk on my work in the Altiplano at AGU. I am a co-author of a paper in press in the journal Tectonics and am currently contributing to several manuscripts. this fall I will attend the IaS congress in Mendoza, argentina where an argentine undergraduate I helped supervise will present her work.

linda ivanyI took a semester-long sabbatical this past

spring after ten years and four consecutive semesters teaching the Department’s largest survey course, EAR 105, Earth Science. During the sabbatical, I made significant progress on manuscripts with students and colleagues. a paper with former student andrew Haveles (M.S. 2009) is in press at Palaios. Derived from Andrew’s thesis, the paper uses high-resolution stable isotope analysis on fossil mollusks from the US Gulf Coastal Plain to reveal how changes in growth rate led to larger body sizes in a famous Eocene unit called the Gosport Sand. a paper stemming

Advisor, field guide and cook!

Campsite close to the Sesitna Glacier.

from Caitlin Keating-Bitonti’s thesis (B.S. 2009) is also submitted for publication, and relates work with Prof. Scott Samson, and also colleagues at Yale University (Hagit Affek and Peter Douglas), to establish paleotemperatures in the Gulf Coast during the early Eocene climatic optimum, the warmest time in the Cenozoic. Caitlin’s high-resolution isotope work on fossil bivalves, combined with multiple other independent geochemical proxies for temperature, provides one of the most strongly supported estimates yet published, and yields values somewhat cooler than expected at low latitudes during this interval. Manuscripts with two other former students, Christy Visaggi (M.S. 2004) and Patrick Wall (Ph.D. 2009) are currently in revision as well. Christy’s paper in Palaios documents paleoecological patterns in Oligocene mollusk faunas from the US Gulf Coast. Patrick’s paper, in Paleobiology and with coauthor Carlton Brett (University of Cincinnati), quantifies the effect of the geographic distribution of paleontological samples on the turnover rates calculated from them in the Devonian Hamilton Group in NY. Carl’s colleague at Cincinnati, arnold Miller, and one of his students visited our paleo lab this past summer to microsample mollusks for stable isotope analysis to evaluate differences in growth rate among populations of the bivalve in the Caribbean.

A paper submitted with Tom Brey (Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research), Matt Huber (Purdue University), former student Devin Buick (B.S. 2004), and Bernd Schöne (University of Mainz) proposes that patterns in growth increment widths in

long-lived fossil bivalves and wood from antarctica offer evidence for the existence of ENSO variation during the Eocene greenhouse climate. Work with post-doc Jocelyn Sessa progresses on building a large comprehensive database on the faunal and climate record of the US Gulf Coast Paleogene. A paper on the K-T extinction and recovery is currently submitted to Paleobiology, and work with Jocelyn, Trevor Schlossnagle (B.S. at ESF 2009) and Scott Samson on oxygen and strontium isotope variation along the early Eocene Gulf Coast paleoshoreline is nearing completion. Finally, work with colleague Bruce Runnegar at UCLA comes to fruition with a paper in press at Geology exploring the significance of stable oxygen isotope values from a large Permian bivalve called Eurydesma. the data offer tentative support for the hypothesis that the oxygen isotope value of global oceans was more negative in Earth’s past. Bruce, his graduate student Dan Petrizzo and I recently completed three weeks of field work in SE Australia, collecting additional specimens from early Permian rocks to further test that hypothesis.

Jeffrey KarsonOver the past year administrative

responsibilities have continued to take up much of my time, but thanks to collaborations with research associates Dan Curewitz and aisha Morris, and graduate students Andrew Horst, Aleece Nanfito, and Drew Siler, our research programs have stayed on track and grown. Our group focuses on the Tectonics

of Oceanic Lithosphere and related processes. Ongoing projects include studies of subaerial seafloor spreading in Iceland, core complexes on the Mid-atlantic ridge, and upper crustal construction along

A pair of wombats stand in for the more typical Estwing hammer as scale in this shot of an early Permian bedding plane covered with large Eurydesma bivalves; Maria Island, Tasmania. Photo by Linda Ivany.

Research group in Iceland.

the East Pacific Rise. We are also focusing on the details of faulting in basaltic materials, fault control of hydrothermal systems, and parameters that control basaltic flow morphologies. One of the highlights of the year was a fieldtrip around Iceland for our group with co-investigator Dr. Bob Varga (Pomona College), and undergraduates Yexary Rodriquez and Amanda Loman.

In the coming year, we look forward to continuing these studies and to the publication of the results of recently completed work. Aleece (MS) and Drew (PhD) will finish their degree work and move on to the next stages of their careers. Matt Kissane (BS’ 2010 from Union College) will be joining our group in the fall after spending some time in the field in Iceland.

laura lautzresearch in the Lautz group has ramped up

this past year with the addition of three new graduate students who began their programs in Fall 2009. Martin Briggs (PhD) is doing research on heat tracing in hydrologic systems, with funding from my NSF CarEEr grant. he has developed new methods using fiber optic Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS). We wrap bend-insensitive fiber optic cable around a 2-inch rod, which is then installed in stream sediments. Using the wrapped cable, we can measure temperatures instantaneously every 1.5 cm along the rod, taking measurements in vertical profile every few minutes for weeks at a time. These detailed temperature profiles are then used to model rates of water flow through the subsurface. Marty is also using a new “smart” tracer, resazurin, to measure microbial activity in streams and their streambeds. Marty’s first manuscript for his PhD is currently in review with Hydrological Processes.

Tim Daniluk (MS) and Ryan Gordon (MS) are doing research on how stream restoration projects affect stream-groundwater interaction around restoration structures, with funding from NSF that started in January 2010. Billions of dollars are spent annually on stream restoration in the U.S., but assessments of impacts on subsurface hydrology are practically absent. tim and ryan will use a combination of heat and geochemical tracing to determine the degree to which restoration projects induce rapid stream-groundwater interaction. they will also assess associated impacts on physical, chemical, and thermal patterns in streambeds.

Preliminary results of their work were presented at the EGU (European Geosciences Union) annual conference in Vienna in May.

I continue to work on the broad research areas of heat tracing in hydrologic systems and stream-groundwater interactions by mentoring my graduate students on the aforementioned projects and working with colleagues. I recently completed a modeling study of how non-ideal field conditions impact the accuracy of heat tracing, work that appears in the journal Water Resources Research. I also have several papers co-authored with graduate students in 2010, including a paper co-authored by Syracuse alum Nate Kranes (MS ‘07) that appears in Hydrological Processes.

cathryn newtonafter eight years as Dean of the College of

Arts and Sciences, and a total of 16 consecutive years in administration, it is thrilling to have the chance to write and to teach as a full-time faculty member again. I continue to teach in the renée Crown University Honors Program (as I did as dean). For four iterations, I have co-developed and co-taught a course with honors Director and Philosophy professor Samuel Gorovitz, “linked lenses: Science, philosophy, and the pursuit of Knowledge”. the fourteen students in the course do serious readings in both science and philosophy – Gould, Margulis,

Laura and Sharon Lautz hiking – twin brother Aidan was also along only on Dad’s back!

hansen, Doidge, along with hume, Popper, Peirce, and others. They also do quite a bit of writing and revising. the class is intense and demanding for both professors and students. We use visitors in both the sciences and the arts, to stimulate and to challenge the Honors students, who come from fields that include architecture, Engineering, English, Bioengineering, Math, Philosophy, Biology, Management, and Women’s Studies. Our experimental course – and especially the approach of really pushing the students to sharpen their detectors and to strengthen their skills of associative thinking -- has been profiled by the University, College in Honors Program in articles this year: http://honors.syr.edu/TheCapstoneMagazine/TheCapstone_S10.pdf (see p. 21) and http://thecollege.syr.edu/pressrelease/trischkadiffee2010.htm.

On the other end of the spectrum, I taught approximately 390 students in Spring, 2010, in Earth Sciences 105. Outstanding TA’s Dave Gombosi, Aleece Nanfito, Josh Taylor, and Nathan Graber worked with me to create a more interactive, mini-lab curriculum that was tightly integrated with the lecture material. We used the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile in the mini-labs, and in general developed a curriculum that was much more hands-on. We are currently developing a manuscript to submit to GSa tODaY on this approach. this real-time approach -- in which we imported examples from breaking geologic events during the semester and enfolded them in the experiments and assignments -- seems to have

been successful with the broad range of students in the course. It was a bit hectic at moments, as for example, when the Chile earthquake occurred on Saturday morning and the mini-lab on convergent margins was scheduled to begin on Monday morning.

The shipwreck project has gone quite well and I am working to finish the first draft of the book in the months ahead. I have also been doing a series of public lectures on the project, including the AAAS keynote address in San Francisco last year. The database of 2038 shipwrecks from North Carolina is complete and fully searchable – using terms ranging from “brigantine” to “gold bullion”! – and has already drawn a great deal of attention in the marine archeology and maritime history world. The book also centers on marine and atmospheric processes as they relate to shipwrecks; the database has documented a remarkable history of hurricanes during the span 1526-1984. NOAA scientists sailing out of Woods Hole have recently used the Newton shipwreck database to search for and re-locate the wreck of YP-389, a tiny patrol boat that courageously held off the famously aggressive U-701 for several hours, in a nautical version of David and Goliath. One NOaa director wrote to me that using the LOraN-C coordinates from the database they “sailed right to the shipwreck”.

I am serving as the Department faculty’s Alumni Liaison this year and am enjoying hearing from you. Please write to me: crnewton@syr.edu.

Scott Samsonthe past year was a very busy one for the

isotope geochemistry group. after trips to England and Germany to ‘shop’ for mass spectrometers, I decided to purchase one from the English company Isotopx. The new instrument arrived in May 2010 and after a too-exciting evening we had it off the loading dock and up on the third floor (see action photo!). Most of the summer is dedicated to thoroughly testing the instrument (with the occasional break to watch world cup soccer matches). The instrument is truly state-of-the-art and we encourage all alumni, potential new students, and friends of the Department to come and see the new laboratory. as for ongoing research we continue to pursue our detrital zircon studies, including getting a grant from the US Geological Survey to study earliest Cambrian sandstones from the length of the Appalachians – one of many projects PhD student

Cathryn Newton reacts to the surprise unveiling of a glass sculpture dedicated in her honor.

Aaron Satkoski is working on. We are also continuing with detrital monazite and garnet studies. We were very pleased to have undergraduate Cheryl Nath, who is doing a minor in Earth Sciences, join our group this past year to work with PhD student Jack Hietpas on garnet chemistry. Cheryl and Jack presented their

results at the joint NE-SE GSA meeting in Baltimore. Jack’s research on detrital monazite was not only published in the February issue of GEOLOGY, but his paper was chosen as the topic of research Focus in that issue – well done Jack! In terms of geological meetings I was delighted to see alumna Patricia Clay, now a PhD candidate at The Open University in England, at the Volcanic and Magma Studies Group (VMSG) meeting in Glasgow, Scotland in January. as Patricia was my undergraduate advisee, I was particularly pleased to see her win the Geoff Brown Award for best scientific poster!

christopher ScholzOur Quaternary paleolimnology group has

been busy this year with lots of new faces arriving, others departing, and plenty of new field work underway, mainly on Lake Turkana in the northern Kenya Rift Valley. After nearly a decade at Syracuse – first as a double major undergraduate, and then as a graduate student - Bob Lyons successfully defended a Ph.D. dissertation focused on the Lake Malawi scientific drill cores. He has several papers published or in the works from his dissertation, as he pursues new horizons with Chevron-New Ventures. Ma student robert Gobell wrapped up his studies

of Skaneateles Lake this spring, and his results are contributing significantly to our understanding of bottom habitats and invasive species of that Finger Lake system. Graduate students Xuewei Zhang

(most recently at Anadarko –China), Amy Morrissey (University of Missouri), and Tonny SSerubiri (most recently from the Uganda Petroleum Exploration and Production Department) all settled into new research projects this year.

As our Lake Turkana field work kicked into high-gear this winter, Amy and Tonny joined Chris, post-docs Jennifer Hargrave and Melissa Hicks, and technical staff Jacqueline Corbett, Peter Cattaneo, Jack Greenberg, Douglas Wood, Phil Arnold and 30 Kenyan colleagues on an extended offshore field program. As the largest lake in the world in a desert, Turkana poses numerous challenges - including vicious winds, extreme isolation and lots of crocodiles - making small research-vessel data collection a new candidate for an X-games extreme sport. The R/V

Kilindi, our 40’ modular catamaran skippered by Jack Greenberg, collected 46 piston cores, vibrocores

A collective sigh of relief as the mass spectrometer makes it from the loading dock to the third floor of Heroy. (l-r: Ted Dasgupta, Jack Heitpas, Damian Tootle (IsotopX) and Aaron Satkoski)

Research group aboard the Kilindi

Lake Turkana storm.

and dredge samples during the field program, from a variety of environments in Lake Turkana’s South Basin. The 24-foot zodiac Hurricane inflatable was skippered by Douglas Wood, and this versatile vessel was fully outfitted for collecting sidescan sonar, ChIrP high-resolution seismic and small airgun seismic reflection data. It was also helpful for

transporting the onshore geoscience team to remote outcrop areas and as a back-up boat to the larger and slower Kilindi. The region of the Turkana Rift is the original homeland for our own species, and all these new data sets will contribute to new discoveries, and to understanding the past environmental variability of this remarkable system.

Donald Siegelthis past year, I have gotten into the public

arena while spending time educating people on the science of the shale bed methane--as well as the pseudoscience being presented as science by some. the Natural Gas industry wishes to produce trillions of cubic feet of gas from the New York and Pennsylvania Marcellus and Utica Shale formations. I have advised the USEPA and the State of New York DEC on this matter, and have been speaking on various media outlets at many levels about the process. I also hope to initiate a large scale research program, in collaboration with the Jackson School of the University of Texas, to forensically characterize the fluids produced with the methane throughout the nation to be able to clearly evaluate potential contamination in the future of water supplies.

along with ongoing peatland research of now 35 years (!), I have initiated this year a new multidisciplinary research program in China to

investigate the geochemistry of Taihu Lake the water supply for tens of millions of people. this research collaboratively ties SU’s Earth Science Department with the Biology and Oceanography departments in three universities in China, including Nanjing University. My new PhD student, Xiangyu Mu, heads up this effort.

Tied to my new interest in large lakes, I received funding from the Dean to mount an AGU Chapman Conference at SU on: “Environmental Intersections of Urbanization and Lakes.” I hope to attract major speakers from around the world to this conference. Last year I was also appointed as Chairman of the National Water Science and technology Board of the National research Council (the working arm of the NAS). I expect to be traveling around the nation advising committees on multiple water quality and quantity problems as part of this task.

as part of my Meredith Professorship, I am now focusing more on different kinds of teaching initiatives for the Department and University. For example, after 28 years, I handed over the reigns of my core hydrogeology class to Dr. Laura Lautz, and my Earth Science class for non-science major students to others in the Department. I now teach an honors

Windy?! Try it with contacts! (Jacqueline Corbett and Melissa Hicks).

The next “Iron Chef”?

Course on “World Water”, and will be teaching a new large lower division course on “The Science of Water” for the A&S curriculum. I plan to take undergraduate students to China in May 2011 to see firsthand the major water problems that nation has to deal with.

Finally, I insist on mentioning that last May, I took a comprehensive exam in the culinary arts at the Sichuan Institute of higher Cuisine in Chengdu. There, I was the first westerner invited to give a Chinese-style cooking demonstration to the master chef of the Institute. Video of the demo will be on Youtube sometime in the fall. The Institute’s master Chef commented that my knife skills were excellent, and that my presentation and order of cooking in the massive wok were fine. As to the taste, the Chef was sufficiently satisfied to invite both Bette and me (for baking) to give a set of presentations on western cooking. My appraisal was a “C” grade--but I passed!

Bruce wilkinsonthis past year, I became a paleontologist. For

the past couple of decades, I have been making light of stratigraphic types who see “cycles” in sedimentary successions (Emperor’s New Clothes). One way to look at the issue is to measure vertical distances between supposed cycle bottoms (e.g. sandstone bases of Carboniferous “cyclothems”). If indeed periodic, then distances should look like waiting times at a bus stop; regular recurrences in space or time. But, it turns out that “cycle” recurrence is largely random; cycle base separations are unpredictable, like the durations between goals in a World Cup soccer match

or the decay of radioactive elements; lots of short durations, few relatively long waiting times. that brings up the related question: if vertical stratigraphic distances are random, what do horizontal areas of sediment on modern surfaces look like? Well, it

turns out that patches of different carbonate facies across a depositional region like the Persian Gulf or the Bahamas is also well-described as being largely random; areas of patches are much like the pieces of a broken plate; lots of small pieces, relatively few big areas. Sizes of countries look exactly the same.

this all bears on paleontology because numbers of smaller fossil groups belonging to larger fossil groups (taxonomic membership frequencies) exhibit exactly the same distributions; groups with fewer numbers of subtaxa are more common than those with more subtaxa. Why should a broken plate model of random division of geographic depositional area also serve to describe taxonomic memberships? The reason may be that taxonomic identity (e.g. Mammalia, Primates, hominidae, Homo sapiens) is dependent on morphological attributes; on the basis of what an organism looks like. Just as depositional surfaces are partitioned among different facies, the division of biologic morphospace serves as the basis of classification for various organisms. Fun stuff.

Taxonomic membership distributions resemble the distribution of fragments of a broken plate.

emerituS corner

James BrowerI have just completed a study of the

paleoecology of the crinoids and other suspension feeding echinoderms from the Upper Ordovician (Trenton Group) Walcott-Rust Quarry near Trenton Falls, New York. The quarry represents a classic classic Lagerstätte that contains the most diversified Ordovician fauna in New York State. Approximately 75 species are known, belonging to seven phyla and three problematic groups. The exquisite preservation reveals detailed information about the life history and paleoecology of the fauna.

the crinoid and rhombiferan assemblages lived at the base of a carbonate ramp in moderately deep water, which was below wave base for all or most storms but still within the photic zone. the inhabitants of the soft substrate were buried rapidly by distal carbonate turbidity currents or mudflows. Because of the episodic sedimentation, the organisms were opportunistic. the suspension feeding echinoderms include nine crinoids, a rhombiferan, and a paracrinoid. they occur with a variety of filter feeding bryozoan colonies, a few brachiopods, and numerous trilobites. Most suspension feeding echinoderms were attached by small holdfasts to hard shelly substrates, some of which lay on the seafloor, whereas others may have been elevated when the larvae settled. Other types of holdfasts are distal stems that are tightly and permanently coiled around crinoid stems, open distal stem coils that lay on the substrate or were wrapped around soft objects, and recumbent stems running along the seafloor. The

echinoderms occupied levels from the seafloor to almost a meter above it, whereas the bryozoans and brachiopods ranged from the seabed to a maximum height of about 10 cm. The sizes of the echinoderm food grooves and comparisons with their modern analogues along with filtration theory indicate that they ate food particles that were mostly larger than those taken by bryozoans. In general, the different taxa of suspension feeding echinoderms living at the same elevation above the seafloor collected food particles of different maximum sizes; however, they overlapped greatly with respect to smaller food items. the various crinoid species were able to feed at different ranges of ambient current velocities, which also tended to separate them ecologically. Crinoids having narrow food grooves were restricted to feeding on small food particles, but they caught food items over a wide range of current velocities; the converse is also true, which suggests an evolutionary or behavioral tradeoff. as in most Ordovician crinoid communities, predation was comparatively low. regenerated arms in crinoids reflect predation on less than two percent of the individuals in the fauna, and the most likely fossilized culprits are trilobites and straight nautiloids. Competition for space and attachment sites within and between species of the Walcott-Rust Quarry crinoid and rhombiferan assemblages does not seem to have been significant in regulating their ecological structure. Comparison with shallow-water crinoid assemblages of roughly the same age demonstrates that the Walcott-Rust Quarry faunas were less diverse and less complex, possibly reflecting lower average current velocities, the episodic sedimentological disturbances, higher suspended sediment content in the water, and softer substrates.

marion (pat) BickfordAlthough I have been retired since 1997,

I continue to enjoy an active professional life. I have an active research program in collaboration with Abhijit Basu (Indiana University) to study the chronology of the Chhattisgarh Basin in peninsular India. Chhattisgarh is one of a number of so-called “Purana” basins, all of which have previously been thought to be latest Neoproterozoic (ca. 500-600 Ma). Chhattisgarh has accumulated more than 2 km of sediment, including sandstones, shale, and carbonate units, all of which are completely unmetamorphosed and mostly undeformed, a remarkable circumstance for any Precambrian basin. About 4 years ago we

Two crowns of the camerate crinoid Rhaphanocrinus simplex several associated bryozoans, and a trilobite with incrusting bryozoans. The height of the stem and larger crown is about 14 cm.

SHRIMP instrument at Stanford University.Another major activity is my work as Science

Editor for Books for the Geological Society of America. I am now in my fifth (and final) year of this work, in which I work with various authors and editors, worldwide, to produce GSa Special Papers and Memoirs on a wide variety of topics. Interestingly, Don Siegel became my co-editor about three years ago. We are ably assisted by Mrs. Joanne ranz, our Editorial assistant. this appointment has also brought me membership in the Publications Committee of GSa.

Much more important than these professional activities are my time with Betsy, my wife of 55 years, our three children, and our four grandchildren.

dated a rhyolitic tuff near the top of the succession at 1000 Ma, thus establishing that the basin is Mesoproterozoic. This was published in 2007 (Patranabis-Deb, Sarbani, Bickford, M. E., hill, Barbara, Chaudhuri, Asru K., and Basu, Abhijit, 2007, ShrIMP ages of zircons in the uppermost tuff in Chattisgarh Basin in central India require ~500 Ma adjustment in Indian Proterozoic stratigraphy; Journal of Geology, v. 115, p. 407-415.)

We have also dated detrital zircon populations in several of the sandstones, determining the sediment provenance and depositional history; a paper detailing with these studies is under review for the Journal of Geology (Depositional history of the Chhattisgarh Basin, Central India: Constraints from New ShrIMP Zircon Ages: M. E. Bickford, Abhijit Basu, Sarbani Patranabis-Deb, and Pratap C. Dhang; under review for Journal of Geology). The depositional history also has important tectonic significance, and yet another paper is under review for Precambrian research (Timing of assembly and break-up of India-East antarctica: Constraints from detrital zircon and monazite geochronology of Proterozoic sedimentary rocks in central India; Abhijit Basu and M. E. Bickford). I have done the dating through use of the

GeoloGICal SoCIety oF aMerICa booKS eDIteD at SyraCuSe unIverSIty

Beginning in January 2005, The Department of earth Sciences became the home for the editorial offices of GSA Books. Science Editors M. E. (Pat) Bickford and Don Siegel handle publication of both Special Papers and Memoirs for the Geological Society of America. Special Papers are book-length publications on a diversity of geological topics that are expected to have a “shelf-life” of at least five years. Memoirs are expected to have a shelf-life of at least ten years. Typically, scientists wishing to publish books with GSA will propose either to assemble, as editors, a book with multi-authored chapters, or to submit a long manuscript written by one or more authors. If the proposal is accepted, editors of multi-authored books will solicit chapters and arrange for reviews, or in the case of manuscripts written by one or more authors, the science editors will arrange for reviews. the Science Editors have the responsibility of insuring that submitted books meet the scientific standards of GSA.

Science Editors Bickford and Siegel are ably assisted by Editorial Assistant Joanne Ranz, who keeps records of books

in preparation, communicates with editors and authors, arranges submitted books for the review of the Science Editors, and sends accepted volumes to GSA Headquarters in Boulder, Colorado for publication. The editorial office is located in room 305 Heroy, between Siegel’s office in 307 Heroy and Bickford’s office in 304 Heroy.

Pat relaxes with his guitar

1) the Grenville mountain building event about 1 billion years ago, followed by

2) the opening of the Iapetus Ocean about 600 million years ago, which then was closed by

3) the collision between North America, Eurasia, and africa to form Pangea, and the Appalachian mountain chain about 400 to 200 million years ago, and lastly,

4) the opening of the present day Atlantic Ocean starting about 200 million years ago

All of these events left large scars, cracks, fractures, volcanic rocks and rift basins behind that have shaped the geography and geology of the East Coast of the

US – the Connecticut River, the Hudson River, the St. Lawrence river and many more rivers and basins from Nova Scotia to Georgia are reflections of that billion year history. Where the Earth’s outer shell is cracked, thinned, and rifted, it is easier for small stresses to cause earthquakes. The St. Lawrence region from Upstate NY and Ontario through Quebec, Vermont, New hampshire, Maine and into the Canadian Maritime provinces is actually host to quite a few (mostly small) earthquakes every year. There have been several quite large events, as large as magnitude 6.7 (1925) or estimated magnitude 7 (1663) have taken place in the region. For interesting information and excellent visual aids visit http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/zones/eastcan-eng.php (but I wouldn’t worry too much about “the big one” it’s pretty stable here in the middle part of the continent!)

SyracuSe univerSity rocKS & rollS

Story by: Daniel Curewitz

An interesting occurrence on June 23, 2010 (coincidentally, my daughter’s birthday) saw a somewhat surprising change in the behavior of the normally solid, quiescent earth beneath the City of Syracuse … the early afternoon of that day was interrupted by a rush of students and faculty into the halls (and outside!) as the building started swaying, shelves rattling, chairs rolling around… “What’s that!??” The calls started rolling into the office, several professors (Baldwin and Karson in particular) made cameo appearances on local TV and radio programs, and the questions from students, faculty and staff came fast and furious. My 10 years in Tokyo came back in a rush … “It’s a small earthquake somewhat far from us!”

A small office pool was quickly organized, seeing who could best predict the size and location of the earthquake. (Congrats to Jim Metcalf!) It turns out that there was a magnitude 5 earthquake about 200 miles north of the city, in Canada along the St. Lawrence river valley. Surprising? Not really. the St. Lawrence river valley is actually set in a rift system that is a remnant of several tectonic cycles (Wilson Cycles, named for famed geophysicist/geologist J. Tuzo Wilson) of opening and closing of oceans:

Zoe Curewitz - Birthday girl!

Jeffrey Karson appearing on local Channel 9 News.

The earthquake was centered near Ottowa, Canada.

northern appalaChIan FIelDtrIp

In april the combined Petrology and tectonics classes, along with several graduate students, took a field trip to examine the Paleozoic eastern margin of North America (Laurentia), as well as the composite Paleozoic magmatic arc terranes and accreted continental avalon terrane of eastern Ma and ME. The trip was jointly led by Emeritus Professor M. E. (Pat) Bickford, Professor Suzanne Baldwin, and Departmental Chairman Jeff Karson.

On Friday, April 23 the group examined the Pleasant Bay, ME igneous complex, a major gabbroic pluton first studied by Bickford, as his doctoral dissertation research, in the late 1950s. Evidence for magmatic processes such as rhythmic layering and magma-mixing between gabbroic and granitic magmas were studied. Mt. Desert Island, in acadia National Park was also visited to examine granitic plutons and associated volcanic rocks.

On Saturday, April 24, Professor Baldwin led the group in a study of beautifully exposed

amphibolite facies metapelitic rocks (metamorphosed shales) in the Casco Bay area. There we made petrologic and structural observations that allowed estimation of pressure-temperature conditions of metamorphism, and interpretation of the geologic and tectonic history of the area.

On Sunday, April 25 the group was joined by alum Mike Thonis, of Wellesley, Massachusetts. The field study moved westward through the Jurassic Connecticut River Valley rift system, and to a talc mine where mantle remnants within a suture zone were examined, and finally on into the Mesoproterozoic Berkshire massif.

Throughout the field trip, students assessed the tectonic setting in which the rocks were formed. Chairman Karson, in particular, made abundant use of a large white board and numerous colored pens to draw cross sections that made for lively discussions of the interpretation of field observations!

GraDuateS – unDerGraDuate

Bachelor of arts

Phillip G. CurtisYexary M. Rodriguez

Bachelor of Science

Elani J. KimlerMorgan J. Kortlander

Curtis W. Bixler

GraDuateS – GraDuate

Master of arts

Emily B. Feinberg

Master of Science

Jessica L. Meeks

Doctor of Philosophy in Earth Sciences

robert P. LyonsBryan K. Sell

Departmental awarDSunDerGraDuate aWarDS

Faye E. Merriam award(Undergraduate major for academic achievement, extra-curricular contributions, and professional

promise)Curtis W. Bixler

Thomas Cramer Hopkins Award(Outstanding junior or senior major in Geology)

Danielle K. hare

Estwing award(Oustanding Earth Sciences student)

Dale C. ringham

GraDuate aWarDS

Newton E. Chute award(Outstanding graduate student for scholarship, service

to the Department and professional promise)Aaron M. Satkoski

Marjorie Hooker Award(Outstanding Thesis Proposal)

Nasser A. Zirakparvar

Chairman’s AwardDrew L. Siler

K. Douglas Nelson award(Outstanding Graduate Research in Geophysics and

Tectonics)andrew J. horst

John J. Prucha award(Support for student field research projects)

Aaron M. Satkoskiandrew J. horst

Jack HietpasSteven J. riccio

Student Publication awardMartin a. BriggsDavid J. Gombosi

Jack HietpasAaron M. Satkoski

Drew L. SilerJoshua P.taylor

Nasser A. Zirakparvar

the entire Department of Earth Sciences congratulates all of our graduates (and their families) and our award

winners.

Khalifa abdulla (m.S. ’83)Khalifa will give the keynote address, “reviewing the latest policy developments for the libyan mining industry”, at the international MENa Mining Conference 2010 in Dubai this upcoming October. the address will present an overview of the regulatory developments and investment trends in Libya, and the regulatory outlook and foreign investment policies for the exploration and mining sector in the country. He has had a tremendous career in economic minerals, and is currently Chairman of the National Mining Corporation of Libya.

nick azzolina (m.S. ’05)

Today Nick is a Hydrogeologist with Foth Infrastructure & Environment, LLC in Green Bay, WI. Life is busy for the Azzolina family (Nick & Julie foreground and their three great children on vacation at Custer State Park).

Susannah ceraldi (B.S. ’01)Susannah is finishing up year 3 of teaching Urban Ecology at a high school in Brooklyn. She says it is now hard even to recall back when she was just beginning this new endeavor, after having served in admissions at the Sea Education Association in Woods hole and in a science

education camp in the Bay Area. Susannah writes, “I absolutely LOVE teaching, having a blast.”

patricia clay (B.S. ’04)Patricia defended her thesis, entitled ‘Ar-Ar Dating of Young Volcanic Glass’ this past March, and was awarded her PhD degree May 2010. Her research focused mainly on the application of Ar-Ar geochronology to volcanic glass from diverse eruptive environments, and correlating the Ar-isotope information with chemistry, volatile contents, etc. She plans to submit a paper or two for publication in the next few months. Patricia just started a new job on Monday at the University of Manchester in the Isotope Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry group for a two year PDRA position. She’s working on correlated chronology (Ar-Ar, I-Xe, Rb-Sr) of enstatite chondrites. Patricia received her BS from SU and MS from BU where she worked with Ethan Baxter.

matthew Heumann (B.S. ‘02, m.S. ‘04)Matthew J. Heumann successfully defended his PhD dissertation at the University of Utah on Sept. 3rd. The title of his dissertation is “Paleozoic-Cenozoic Evolution of the East Gobi Fault Zone, Southern Mongolia: A Protracted Record of Intracontinental De-formation and Basin Evolution, With Im-plications For Tecton-ics of Eurasia”. Matt will start working for

alumni newS

Geraldean H. lantier (B.S. ’01)The Department wishes to extend its sincerest congratulations to Geraldean H. Lantier (BS ‘01) and her husband Greg on the arrival of their bundles of joy, Augusteen & Ida, on March 24, 2010. If Geraldean were not busy enough, she is also the owner of Skaneateles 300 a women’s boutique in beautiful Skaneateles, New York.

Michael Tedeschi (B.S. ‘06)Michael Tedeschi received his MSc in May 2010 from Colorado School of Mines. The title of his thesis was “Geology of the Cerro Verde Iron Oxide-Cop-per-Gold Pros-pect: San Javier, Sonora, Mexico”. Mike is currently employed with Alaska Earth Sci-ences out in the

Kuskokwim region of south west Alaska doing gold exploration. Mike received his BSc from our depart-ment. This photo of Mike as an undergraduate- with a smile as wide as the ocean- is of him collecting uvite crystals on a mineralogy trip in the Adirondacks.

We at the Department of Earth Sciences would love to hear from (or about) any and all of our alums. Send us a note, or a picture, stop by for a visit! Contact Julie Neri email: jjneri@syr.edu

ConocoPhillips in the Exploration side of the company beginning in October 2010. Recall that Matt received his BS and MS from our dept.

Douglas patchen (ph.D. ’72)Doug has recently retired from the West Virginia Geological Survey, where he had an extraordinarily successful career for 43 years, as one of the movers and shakers in developing hydrocarbon resources of the East. he continues to be active professionally. he

still has SU season tickets for football, so we look forward to seeing him in heroy before one of the games this fall!

Joel thompson (ph.D. ’89)Joel is professor of Marine Sciences at Eckerd College, where he has been deeply involved in both interdisciplinary sciences and the programs abroad. he also has established a lineage of Eckerd students who have done publications from undergraduate research with him on microbial processes and then have gone on to complete doctoral research in the Earth Sciences. he returns to central New York from time to time to visit us. this summer, he did an intensive visit to England, retracing the steps of Charles Darwin and others critical to the development of evolutionary theory. (Photo from Eckert College website)

In MeMorIaM

John f. Heaney John F. Heaney, 81, died Sunday, August 22,

at Crouse hospital. he was a life resident of Syracuse. He retired from the U.S. Postal Service as a letter car-rier from the Colvin St. Station. he was a parishioner of St. Andrew the Apostle until its closing in 2006. He was predeceased by his wife, Rosemary, in 2002 and his brother, James, Heaney Jr. in 1998. He is survived by his sisters, Joyce heaney and Blanche Mosher of Phoenix, NY, and Jane Carr of Liverpool, NY, and his brother, thomas, of Syracuse. he is also survived by his sister-in-law, Julie Sharpe of Skaneateles, and several nieces, nephews and friends.

John’s trademark was his compassion and gen-erosity. John was a generous donor to the Department of Earth Sciences, and his presence will be sorely missed. (from the Syracuse Post Standard, August 25, 2010)

Samuel thomas pees Samuel Thomas Pees, 83, of Meadville, PA,

respected geologist, oil field historian, writer and lec-turer, died Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009, at Meadville Medi-cal Center.

Born Nov. 16, 1926, in Meadville, Sam Pees was the son of Henry Chester and Dorothy M. Cook Pees. A 1944 graduate of Meadville High School, Sam graduated in 1950 from Allegheny College with a bachelor of science in geology and in 1959 from Syra-cuse University with a master of science in geology. he also attended Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colo., and the University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Okla.

He served in the U.S. Army in the Philip-pines and South Korea during World War II. After the war in 1948, he worked in the Cape Yakataga area of Alaska with the U.S. Geological Survey. Beginning in 1953, Sam worked as a petroleum geologist for leading petroleum and oil companies, traveling exten-sively to South America, including Venezuela, Peru and Argentina; southeast Asia, including Indonesia; Australia; and the South Pacific. In 1978, Sam opened an oil and gas consulting company (Samuel t. Pees & Associates) in Meadville, which specialized in deep gas exploration in the northern Appalachian Basin. He retired in 1998.

Sam Pees was a prolific writer of geological

and historical papers, which were published in numer-ous journals, including the Petroleum History Insti-tute Journal, the american association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, and Pennsylvania Geology. he also contributed numerous ideas, research and text for bronze historical markers placed by the Pennsyl-vania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) commemorating significant individuals, events and landmarks in northwestern Pennsylvania. Sam enjoyed exploring the Oil Creek valley, where he documented and photographed the artifacts of the early oil industry that thrived around titusville and Oil City. he served as president of the Drake Well Foundation for several years.

Sam Pees also shared his knowledge, insights and findings through lectures. He was an engaging speaker and educator, thanks to his passionate inter-est in his subject. He was a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and received its highest honors. In 1987 and 1996, he was awarded the AAPG George V. Cohee Public Service award, which recognizes distinguished service and achievement. In 2000, he received the AAPG John T. Galey Memorial Award. In 2003, Sam Pees was recognized for lifetime achievement in the oil and gas industry with the Col. Edwin L. Drake Oilman award from the Petroleum history Institute. In addition, Pees was a Senior Fellow of the Geological Society of america and a trustee of the Paleontological research Institute. He compiled an extensive international art collection. Portions of his collection have been ex-hibited in many institutions. Parts of his collection have been donated to Syracuse University, Allegheny College and other organizations. (from the Meadeville Tribune, Dec. ‘09)

the Department of Earth Sciences wishes to pass along our condolences and best wishes to the family and friends of these important members of our extended academic family.

Scott Samson: Photography and geology go hand in hand, and Professor Scott Samson’s passion for photography has landed this photo from tasmania on the cover of this year’s EAR 101 textbook.

alina walcek’s oil pastel, titled Henry Lawson, drawing was one of the winners and was on display.

on My oWn tIMeSyracuse University has a program that it runs every year called “On My Own Time” where faculty, students and staff submit their original artwork and are judged by all the visitors to the exhibit. The winners are put on display for a month at the downtown Everson Museum. We are pleased to show off the entries from Earth Sciences that were on display.

neW arrIvalS!There are several brand new members of the Earth Science community!

Congratulations go out to Greg Hoke and his wife Barbara on the arrival of Teodor Krzysztof Hoke on Monday, May 24, 2010 at 14:16, he weighed 5 lbs 14 oz (2.66 kg) and measured 19 in (48.26 cm).

Graduate student Tonny Sserubiri met his daugh-ter, Eliana Godriver Nassiwa, for the first time after returning to Africa with his advisor, Professor Chris-topher Scholz, while they were doing research at Lake Turkana, Kenya.

Save the Date! GSa 2010 – aluMnI reCeptIon On november 1, 2010 the Department of Earth Sciences will host an alumni reception at the Geological Society of America National Meeting in Denver, CO. Our reception will be at 7:00pm in the Hilton Regency across the street from the Convention Center.

Hotel address

hyatt regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center650 15th Street, Denver, Colorado, USA 80202 Tel: +1 303 436 1234 Fax: +1 303 486 4450

Directions from Denver international airport (approximately 23 miles) Take Pena Blvd to I-70 West. Take I-70 West to I-25 South; exit at Colfax Avenue ( exit #210a) Take a left off the exit ramp, heading East, to Welton Street. Turn left onto Welton St. Proceed 3.5 blocks and turn left onto 15th Street. Make an immediate left into hotel’s circle drive.

In recognition of our own Man in Black’s birthday, the faculty, students and staff honored Jeff Karson’s sartorial habits last fall with a wear black day!

annual Fall pIGnIC hoSteD by

DrS. Ivany anD WIlKInSon

hIGh valley FarM

erIevIlle, ny

Save the Date!! -- hoMeCoMInG 2010

oCtober 16, 2010

On october 16, 2010 the Department of Earth Sciences will once again host an alumni reception in the lobby of Heroy Geology Laboratory beginning at 11:00am. Please come at 10:00am if you wish a tour of the facility. Come and reconnect with the professors past and present – we’re all looking forward to seeing you. After visiting the Department don’t forget to head to the Carrier Dome to cheer on the Orange vs. Pittsburgh.

Syracuse University

Department of Earth Sciences

204 Heroy Geology Lab

Syracuse, NY 13244