GEOSCIENCES at Virginia Tech

Weekly Newsletter #14, Dec. 9, 2014

PHOTO (Matt Petroff): GEOS undergraduate students Spencer Klepetzki, Matt Petroff, Leigh Shannon, Leo Kasmer, Bridget Casey, and Sara Cauthen take a break from detailing facies information on the GEOS3204 field trip to Rocky Gap, Virginia.

UPCOMING EVENTS Potluck and AAPG ugly sweater contest

• WHO: VT Geosciences • WHEN: December 11, 12:00 pm • WHERE: Museum of Geosciences • DESCRIPTION: Bring a dish to share. Sign up here. AAPG will be having an ugly

sweater contest! Prizes include $25.00 for first place and $10.00 for second place.

NEWS • A recent paper written by Sarah Mazza and Esteban Gazel Eocene volcanism in

Virginia was featured in the NSF GeoPrisms Fall 2014 Newsletter. Pilar Madrigal is also featured in a photo from the Virginia Science festival, showing the department’s active role in community and outreach.

• Aida Faraough, Esther Schwarzenbach, and Bob Lowell are chairing an oral session at the 2014 AGU Fall Meeting titled, Chemical, physical, and biological interactions during serpentinization of ultramafic rocks on Firday, December 19, 2014 from 10:20 am-12:20 pm in Moscone South, room 310.

RECENT VT GEOS PUBLICATIONS • Rygel, M.C., Sheldon, E.P., Stimson, M.R., Calder, J.H., Ashley, K.T., and Salg, J., 2014, The

Pennsylvanian Springhill Mines Formation: Sedimentological framework of a portion of the Joggins Fossil Cliffs UNESCO World Heritage Site. Atlantic Geology, 50, 249-289.

• Anderson, D.L. and King, S.D., 2014. Driving the Earth Machine? Science, 346, 1184-1185.

Have a picture and short caption, or news that you want to send for next week’s newsletter? Email your news items to

Victor Guevara at vguevara@vt.edu.