Geological Record 2016 by CPMS Marketing

GEOLOGICAL RECORD BYU Geological Sciences Magazine // 2016

Graduate Student Profiles p. 4, 8 Alumni Spotlights p. 6, 10 Undergraduate Student Profile p. 12 Field Trip p. 14 Student Research p. 16 Faculty Spotlight p. 17 Faculty Research p. 18

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MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

PRODUCTION Managing Editor: Ashley Lee Assistant Editor: Tiana Moe Graphic Designer: Jessica Olsen Writer: James Collard Writer: Jeremy Stanford Writer: Maureen Elinzano

CONTACT US Have a comment or question? Would you like to nominate someone to spotlight in our next issue? Contact the Alumni Relations Committee:

Thomas H. Morris 801-422-3761 tom_morris@byu.edu Brooks B. Britt 801-422-7316 brooks_britt@byu.edu Sam Hudson 801-422-4657 sam.hudson@byu.edu

Dear BYU Geology Alumni and Friends, As I begin my second term as Department Chair and reflect on the past three years, one thing stands out above all the others: the selfless generosity of many people whose financial contributions have made possible the operation of the Department. I continue to be amazed that even undergraduate Geological Sciences students, faculty, and staff from BYU contribute back to the University. Prior to coming to BYU, I worked in industry, academia, and government service. Never have I seen such generosity. How can I help but be humbled? In 2015, the Department lost faculty member Summer Rupper, who is pursuing greater opportunities at the University of Utah. We wish her the best and look

forward to continued collaboration. We were pleased to have Professor Jeffrey Keith rejoin our faculty after serving eight years as an Associate Academic Vice President. In the past year, we again had a high percentage of undergraduate students participate in mentoring experiences with faculty; however, participation has been declining. Likewise, the number of undergraduate students declaring Geological Sciences as a major has been declining, perhaps due to the dip in oil prices. The Department will explore ways to keep Geological Sciences fresh and relevant as a major and press harder for faculty and students to develop exciting mentoring relationships. Graduate student applications remain high, even as we struggle to find funding

for the candidates who apply, more and more of who are coming from outside BYU. In late 2015, we redesigned the Department Alumni Board and agreed to replace Gerald A. Morton, who has stepped down after serving for a decade. He will be succeeded by two co-chairs: Bill Keach and Tom Chidsey. Bill and Tom, with combined experience in industry, academia, consulting, and government service, will represent the full range of career options that graduates consider in the rapidly changing field of Geological Sciences.

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John McBride Professor and Chair Geological Sciences, BYU

Utah Geologic Highway Map Lehi F. Hintze $15 The classic geologic map includes seven strat columns, cross sections, a condensed geologic history, relief map, and photographs of selected scenic geology, all on one 36 x 24 inch folded sheet. Don’t drive through Utah without it.

Beyond the Visible Landscape W. Kenneth Hamblin, 2004. $65 Everyone heard Ken exclaim, “Stop the van—I feel a lecture coming on.” Travel though Utah’s deep time in the comfort of your living room with this 300 page hardcover featuring panoramic photos on every page accompanied by geological insights.

To purchase, go to geology.byu.edu, click on Books & Maps, and Books, Maps, and Other. 2

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Geologic History of Utah Lehi F. Hintze & Bart J. Kowallis, updated 2009 edition. $33 You may have cut your teeth on the smaller, yellow-covered edition of this tome. It’s time to upgrade to the latest field guide to Utah’s geology. Fully updated with current tectonic interpretations and 116 detailed strat sections.

PHOTO: rock box, courtesy of NASA

SELECTED DEPARTMENTAL PUBLICATIONS

ROCK

BOX Geological Samples

First Glimpse of Pluto Captures Worldwide Attention

Pluto captured the hearts of people worldwide when the New Horizons spacecraft visited the most distant planet in the solar system last July. Pluto’s surface has large patches of extremely young, and perhaps currently mobile, exotic ices. Its moon, Charon, has a moon-encircling giant chasm, attesting to an active past. New Horizons team member John Spencer spoke to the Geological Sciences department in our annual Quey Hebrew lecture about the geological wonders of the Pluto system. He talked of large glaciers of dense, viscous nitrogen ice capable of rafting more rigid but less dense blocks of water ice, strangely aligned ridges reminiscent of yardangs, and possible cryovolcanoes. Polar deposits of methane and carbon monoxide ice, plus older, cratered regions covered in organic materials lend a variety of colors to the landscape. There are plans to visit one more icy object in early 2019 before leaving the embrace of the solar neighborhood.

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Dear Fellow Alumni, For about 15 years, I have had the privilege of serving on the BYU Geology Alumni Board under the direction of two outstanding chairs: Steve Church, followed by Gerry Morton. A few months ago, John McBride asked me to co-chair the Alumni Board with Bill Keach when Gerry stepped down. Although I felt completely inadequate for the job, I couldn’t turn him down. To me, the Geology Alumni Board is all about the students and helping the department help students. For years, I have volunteered at the annual CPMS Student Research Conference; taught core workshops for BYU geology classes; and participated in field seminars to the Bahamas, West Texas, and England. I love being with these eager, bright, young students, and I love my close association with the department to which I owe so much. After I graduated from BYU in 1977 with a Master of Science degree (I had the late, great Dr. Lehi Hintze as my thesis advisor), I went on to work in the oil

PHOTO: rock box, courtesy of NASA

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MESSAGE FROM THE ALUMNI CHAIR industry. Following the major downturn in the late 1980s, I found myself among the unemployed, so I know firsthand some of the challenges that current students and alumni are facing. I returned to BYU for a year of study in the groundwater program. I was then hired by the Utah Geological Survey and have worked there for nearly 27 years—the best move of my geologic career. None of this would have been possible without the education I received at BYU. Thus, it is my sincere goal as the Geology Alumni Board co-chair to serve the students and department to the best of my ability. Whether it involves assisting with student mentoring, job searches, fundraising, or maintaining contact with other alumni, the Alumni Board’s focus is the students! All the best, Tom Chidsey Geology Alumni Board Co-Chair Geological Sciences, BYU

ON THE COVER “The Tanks” above Capitol Gorge in Capitol Reef National Park. These natural waterpockets are carved into the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone. Dr. Tom Morris and graduate student Kinsey (Bowman) Spiel are finishing a book on the geology of Capitol Reef National Park. See article on graduate student Kinsey Spiel. Courtesy of Tom Morris

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A 16-Year-Long Thesis

By James Collard

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her family. Ross taught Geology 101 at Utah Valley University before she put her passion for geology on the backburner and made motherhood her fulltime job. It’s a decision she still stands by today. “I love being a mother and I have never regretted choosing that path,” Ross said. After all five of her children started elementary school, Ross returned back to school in 2014. Because credits expire after five years at BYU, Ross had to reapply and retake all of her classes. But despite her lack of recent experience and research, she excelled in her studies. “It took a lot of studying and a lot of work but I was surprised by how much I actually did remember,” Ross said. Even though she had to retake all of her classes, Ross discovered she could use her same thesis from 13 years earlier, although it would require many updates. For example, a study about a Colorado super volcano had taken the geology community by storm in 2002, one year after Ross left BYU. Ross altered her approach to her thesis based on the Colorado super volcano’s eruption. “[The magma] actually cooled almost to a solid and then got heated up by some other event, then erupted,” Ross said. The process of magma cooling to a solid and then reheating is called rejuvenation. After the research on the Colorado super volcano was published, geologists accepted rejuvenation as the primary theory of super volcano eruptions. The volcano Ross’ thesis was based on, the Cottonwood Wash Tuff, was very different from the volcano in Colorado. “Rather than cooling down to almost solid, we see just a little bit of cooling and then eruption.” Ross said. Ross’ research challenges the theory

that the super volcanos in the area required rejuvenation to erupt. In December, she presented her research at the annual American Geophysical Union meeting, which had 28,000 registrants. “It was a little intimidating but so amazing to have the opportunity to actually talk to all these really notable people in the field and to share my research with them,” Ross said. Overall, the knowledge and experiences Ross gained through her studies were well worth the wait. “I would tell myself to do it again if I could go back in time. It was everything I hoped it would be,” Ross said. Additionally, returning to school helped Ross gain a greater appreciation of education. “I really think it has improved my children’s perception of schooling,” Ross said. “It’s improved my understanding of sacrifice.” She encourages anyone who has put their education on hold to find a way to finish. “Figure out when it works for your family,” Ross said. “Don’t beat yourself up about it; not everybody gets it done in the same amount of time and that’s okay.”

PHOTO:Courtesy of Keryn Ross

fter 16 years of working and waiting, Keryn Ross successfully graduated with her masters’ degree in geology in 2015. Ross’ interest in geology began at a young age with a fascination of volcanoes. She recalls finding books about volcanoes on trips to the library as a child with her mother and five siblings. “I knew exactly where the volcano books were, and I’d go get them every time.” Ross said. “[I would] read everything I could about volcanoes.” Ross continued to pursue that interest as she began studying geology at BYU in 1995. As an undergraduate, she studied the makeup of volcanic rocks in Mexico with Dr. Kowallis and Dr. Christiansen. She helped present that research in a regional meeting at UC Berkeley. Ross earned her bachelor’s degree in geology in 1999 and began her master’s degree that same year. The focus of her graduate thesis and research was the Cottonwood Wash Tuff, an inactive super volcano that had erupted millions of years earlier. Her professors, Dr. Christiansen and Dr. Best, had been studying the Cottonwood Wash Tuff and similar volcanoes in the Indian PeakCaliente volcanic fields in Utah’s west desert. “If you think about how big the Mt. Saint Helens eruption was, the [Cottonwood Wash Tuff eruption] was 2,000 times that,” Ross explained. However, Ross soon had to put her work on hold in order to focus on her new family. “I did all the work, I did all the classes, and then I got married,” Ross said. “[I] started working full time to support my husband and never finished writing the thesis.” After Ross got married, she started working as a geology teacher to support

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PHOTO: courtesy of Brent Greenhalgh

GRADUATE STUDENT PROFILE

PHOTO: courtesy of Brent Greenhalgh

PHOTO:Courtesy of Keryn Ross

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ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Discovering the World One Rock at a Time

or Brent Greenhalgh, studying geology means snorkeling in the Bahamas, scrubbing the moss off outcrops in the northeastern United States, wandering through the Permian Basin in West Texas, and excavating a dinosaur nest in Utah. “Few other majors will take you around the world like geology will,” Greenhalgh said. “You’ll see and experience things few others experience.” During his undergraduate and graduate studies in geology at BYU, Greenhalgh spent many field trips doing things few others experience. A field trip. Greenhalgh took for an elective course in vertebrate paleontology was particularly influential. “I was fascinated by the discussions that we had in class and the field trip we went on to Vernal, Utah,” Greenhalgh said. “We found turtle shells, a horse tooth, and a Brontothere limb all in one morning.” The experience was so interesting that it persuaded Greenhalgh to switch his major from physical science education to geology as an undergraduate student. Greenhalgh’s passion for studying geology was amplified during another field trip for a Stratigraphy and Sedimentology course.

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“The field trip to Capitol Reef National Park in Utah sealed the deal,” Greenhalgh said. “Learning that you could read the rock record like the pages of a book and understand what the earth was like millions of years ago was incredible. I knew geology was right for me.” After receiving his Bachelor of Science in geology in 2004, Greenhalgh continued his education through his graduate studies at BYU. More studies in geology meant more field trips—including the aforementioned dinosaur nest trip in Utah. “I had the great opportunity to participate in undergraduate mentoring with Brooks Britt,” Greenhalgh said, “We excavated a dinosaur nest with eggs in it, measured sections, dug trenches, worked in the lab preparing bones, and did all kinds of cool paleontology things that only a few people ever get to experience.” Since graduating from BYU with his Master of Science in geology in 2006, Greenhalgh has established a career in the oil and gas industry, having worked at companies including XTO Energy, Anadarko Petroleum, and Wexpro Company, a subsidiary of Questar. The field trips that Greenhalgh participated in at BYU helped prepare him for his current job at Questar.

Images obtained from Wikipedia with permission

By Maureen Elinzano

Images obtained from Wikipedia with permission

“The education at BYU, particularly the field courses and experiences, covered most of the rocks that I’ve planned and drilled wells into,” said Greenhalgh. “The BYU field experience provides a great analog to the work they do elsewhere in the world. For me it was an experience in the very rocks I have been working in.” Furthermore, Greenhalgh’s work has allowed him to take more trips throughout the Rocky Mountain region. “I have primarily focused on Cretaceous and Tertiary reservoirs in southwestern Wyoming, Greenhalgh said. “I have done a lot of detailed stratigraphic work to find new resources in mature fields. I was assigned different fields and basins and had the primary task of developing the geologic story that would support new wells being drilled.” But teaching and mentoring undergraduates, like Greenhalgh did when he was a graduate student, is still an aspect of his life that he wants to explore further. “I would love to teach the basic courses and run field trips at BYU,” Greenhalgh said. “Most people, when they see a national park or other beautiful geologic features, they have a sense of wonder just because it’s beautiful. I appreciate this and love to add the geologic story so they

understand a little bit of the reason that it’s there.” Overall, Greenhalgh is grateful for the impact that his passion for geology has had in his life. “It has blessed me in developing a love for learning— about many subjects beyond geology, too—and it has provided me with a great career and the ability to support my family,” Greenhalgh said. And although Greenhalgh doesn’t know where his career will take him next, he’s confident that the future holds many great possibilities for him. “The things I know are that I will be using geoscience to add value to whatever organization I’m a part of,” Greenhalgh said. “This is really my goal: to stay connected to the science, to add value wherever I am. I want to be constantly learning and growing in my abilities— scientifically and in value creation.” Whatever path Greenhalgh takes, he simply wants people to enjoy and appreciate the world around them for more than just its beauty. “That’s what I like the most about geology: being able to help people gain even more enjoyment in their outdoor experience because they learn a little more about it,” Greenhalgh said. GEOLOGICAL RECORD GEOLOGICAL RECORD

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GRADUATE STUDENT PROFILE

Taking a Load Off Your Mind By Jeremy Stanford

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field it’s sometimes hard to present information in a way that people who don’t know our vocabulary will understand.” Spiel has partnered with BYU professor Tom Morris to create a book about the natural history and features of Capitol Reef National Park. The book will then be available for purchase at the park, either as a geological reference guide or a souvenir. Spiel’s task is to make the book an engaging read for the visitors, most of whom have never studied geology. Dr. Morris has already written two of the geology books used throughout the state, and his works are now sold at all five national parks in Utah: Canyonlands, Arches, Capitol Reef, Zion, and Bryce Canyon. Capitol Reef, however, does not currently have its own comprehensive text for visitors. Spiel and Morris have visited the park several times to conduct research and gather content for the book. Its purpose is to explain the geological features of the park; what they’re called, what they’re made of, and where they came from. According to Spiel, a simple guide for park visitors will be beneficial because the geology of Capitol Reef is more complex than that of other Utah parks. The park contains nineteen different geologic formations, whereas most parks in Utah have only four or five. The geology in Capitol Reef also

spans a longer time period than many other parks, with 275 million years of history. “It’s kind of a hidden gem of Utah’s national parks,” Spiel said. “It has some really cool geology.” The task of creating the geology book became the premise for Spiel’s thesis. She has been studying how to make learning from books easier through instructional typography, the science behind designing educational materials to maximize comprehension and retention. “In educational psychology, there’s a theory called the cognitive load theory,” Spiel said. “If you’ve designed something correctly, the reader’s mind shouldn’t have too heavy of a load in order to retain the information on the page.” Spiel is a proponent of continually learning. Although her career path did not unfold as she had planned, she now sees past experiences as learning opportunities. “There’s never a dead end in training yourself to have skills and learn new things,” Spiel said. “Some . . . options are hard to get to, but there’s never an end of the road.”

PHOTOS: Courtesy of Kinsey Spiel (left) and Brent Greenhalgh (right)

nyone who visits a Utah national park can tell that it’s beautiful. Anyone who wants to know what made it that way can turn to Kinsey Spiel. Kinsey Spiel, a graduate student from Puyallup, Washington, developed a love for geology as an undergraduate at BYU-Idaho. While she was trying to fill her general education credits, she took a geology course that involved several field trips and was captivated by the natural wonders that she saw. “We went to the Grand Canyon and southern Utah,” Spiel said. “I just fell in love with geology.” This experience persuaded Spiel to obtain her undergraduate degree in earth science education. As someone who has a love for both geology and education, Spiel originally thought that she would become a geology teacher after her time at BYU-Idaho. But after a brief experience as an earth science teacher in a middle school, she decided to explore other options that involved both geology and education. Now, Spiel is at BYU pursuing her master’s degree in geology with an emphasis in education. BYU has provided her with an opportunity to combine both of her interests into a single project. Her goal is to help visitors to national parks understand the geological features surrounding them. But, as most geologists are aware, it is not always easy to explain complex geological processes to a non-expert audience. “There’s a science behind writing educationally,” Spiel said. “In a science

PHOTOS: Courtesy of Kinsey Spiel (left) and Brent Greenhalgh (right)

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ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Jack of All Trades By James Collard

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om Chidsey has written over 70 technical papers, 30 non-technical articles, and 90 abstracts. He has served as president of several geologic associations, edited six books, and raised three kids with his wife of 40 years. According to Chidsey, all of this is a direct result of his education at BYU. “I owe everything, career as well as family . . . to the Church, BYU, and the Department of Geological Sciences,” Chidsey said. Chidsey, a BYU graduate and senior scientist for the Utah Geological Survey (UGS), has led a long, successful career as a geologist. While his achievements are impressive, Chidsey went through his own struggles and successes to arrive at this point in his life. Chidsey is the great-great-grandson of Abraham O. Smoot, the namesake of the BYU administration building and an early member of the LDS Church. However, Chidsey is actually a convert to the LDS Church. “A.O. Smoot financially helped save BYU, yet here I was not raised LDS,” Chidsey said. Chidsey and his family joined the church when he was thirteen years old, and he left to study at BYU in 1970. He took his first geology class as a freshman at the suggestion of a roommate who said it was easier than the other required general education physical science classes. “One month into the class, I decided to major in geology,” Chidsey said. Although he enjoyed the classes he was taking, it took a great deal of work to succeed in the geology major, especially without the support of his father. Chidsey only received one letter from his father during his time at BYU, in which he discouraged his son from continuing to study geology. Chidsey had previously not done very well in math and science in high school.

“He said, ‘Don’t do it. You’ll never be able to handle the chemistry, physics, and math that go along with it,’” Chidsey said. “It was kind of an inspiration to prove him wrong. I studied really hard, took a bunch of remedial science and math classes, and did well in everything.” Chidsey left BYU in 1977 with not only bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology, but also with a wife.

“I’m not looking at retirement yet. I’m having too much fun.” Chidsey was working on his master’s thesis in western Utah and met his wife at a dance in the Wilkinson Center ballroom when he decided to return to Provo for the weekend. “I spotted this pretty young girl out there [at] on the dance floor, I asked her for a date after our third dance, and six months later we were married,” Chidsey said. “If I hadn’t majored in geology, none of that would have happened.” Chidsey began his career in Kingsville, Texas, as a production geologist for Exxon. Three years, later he returned to Utah to work as an exploration geologist for Questar in Salt Lake City. Chidsey had a ten-year run with Questar until the late 1980s industry downturn. “In 1989, they closed their Salt Lake office and laid everybody off,” Chidsey said. “I found myself out of work at age 37 with three little kids . . . and no jobs out there, so I returned to BYU.” Chidsey began taking classes in groundwater geology and quickly found a job with the UGS due to his experience and education at BYU.

He’s been there ever since. “I’m kind of a jack of all trades,” Chidsey said. Chidsey has spent the majority of his time at the UGS conducting a wide variety of geologic research on oil and gas to provide companies with information about Utah’s petroleum potential, outcrop reservoir analogs, and how to increase reserves from existing fields. However, he has also researched carbon capture and sequestration, Great Salt Lake microbialites, and groundwater aquifers, as well as the geology of Utah’s state and national parks. He has even looked at Utah landscapes to understand the geology of Mars. “I’ve done stuff all over the place,” Chidsey said. One of the many studies he led involved developing an in-depth outcrop characterization of the fluvialdeltaic Cretaceous Ferron Sandstone in central Utah to help industry better understand similar producing reservoirs in other locations worldwide. “That was a huge project that took many years to complete and publish. BYU’s Tom Morris and his student were also key participants,” Chidsey said. Chidsey supervised many different projects as the petroleum section chief for the Utah Geological Survey but recently focused on his position as a senior scientist to publish more of his work. “I would say the most fulfilling thing is seeing results of our research published; making it available to the public,” Chidsey said. “I also really enjoy leading field trips and teaching core workshops based on that work, especially to students.“ Chidsey has been doing just that for 27 years at the UGS. “Maybe I’m just lucky that I’ve had the career I’ve had, but it’s wonderful,” Chidsey said. “I’m not looking at retirement yet. I’m having too much fun.”

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UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT PROFILE

Obtaining an Immersive Education by James Collard

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dimensional view of the formation by studying satellite imagery and aerial photos and conducting on-location research. Chambers’ research at the Morrison Formation led her to look deeper into mapping. “I found a fascination for maps and spatially related data and the power of what you can find out when you link facts with a spot on the earth,” Chambers said. Because of her interest in mapping, Chambers began taking classes in geographic information systems. These classes provided her with an opportunity to study abroad in Europe with the engineering department. Chambers was the only geologist among a group of engineers during her trip to Europe. As the only geologist, her studies were focused on analyzing a construction project in the Netherlands. Her experience helped her understand how to work with others outside of her major, rather than groups of geology students just trying finish labs. Chambers appreciates all the different experiences she has gained on her excursions. “I’ve done trips with the geology department . . . that have been really helpful in terms of putting classroom learning into practice,” Chambers said. “I feel like that’s an essential part of geology education; really any education.” Chambers has traveled with the geology department to the Bahamas, Florida, Hawaii, Death Valley, and multiple other locations across Utah. Each of these trips has caused Chambers to tackle new problems and obstacles that she hasn’t encountered before. “That’s where my feeling of accomplishment really comes,” Chambers said. “I still struggle just as much, but it’s at a much higher level and I can see myself improving.” Chambers’ struggles and successes at BYU have helped her develop a confidence in herself that she will continue to carry as she pursues new experiences. “I have a confidence in being able to tackle anything, academically or career-wise, that I didn’t have before when I very first started at BYU,” Chambers said. Chambers will graduate in August and begins a Ph.D. in tectonics at Lehigh University this fall. She hopes to use her acquired to knowledge to mentor others as a professor.

PHOTO: Courtesy of Mariah Chambers

rom studying carbonite systems in the Bahamas to digging for dinosaurs in Moab, geology undergraduate Mariah Chambers has grown to understand the importance of learning experiences outside the classroom. “It’s total immersion in the real setting and that’s where I feel connections can really be made and things start clicking,” Chambers said. “It doesn’t always make sense in the textbook because it’s not always textbook perfect in real life.” Chambers has collected plenty of experiences outside the classroom. She was taught from a young age that learning can occur in all sorts of environments. “Being homeschooled, every family vacation was an educational field trip,” Chambers said. “We would learn whenever we would go on family vacation.” These educational family vacations often included trips to national parks, which is where Chambers was first introduced to geology. After her early experiences with geology, studying geology at Brigham Young University was a natural next step. Chambers began doing mentored research with Dr. Brooks Britt during her freshman year. Her research with Dr. Britt involved mapping multiple dinosaur digs, including one near Dinosaur National Monument. Dr. Britt’s team discovered the first vertebrate fossils located in nugget sandstone, a rock unit common throughout southern Utah. Britt’s discovery suggests that there may be other dinosaur bones in nearby areas. Chambers has been responsible for mapping where the bones are located in the rock and how they came to be there. “I’ve mapped over 10,000 bones and fragments from that quarry and I’ve been responsible for keeping track of various data on those bones,” Chambers explained. In addition to her research at the dinosaur quarry, Chambers has been conducting research on sections of the Morrison Formation near Castledale, Utah. The top layers of the Jurassic age rock have been stripped away, leaving a section exposed in plain view. This exposed section allows geologists to observe segments of ancient, preserved river channels the way they appeared when they were flowing. Chambers has been able to develop a three-

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Becoming Real Geologists in Utah by Maureen Elinzano

tudents in Geology 210 spend two weeks learning about geology in Utah, but not one class takes place in a classroom. From Bryce Canyon to Capitol Reef to Little Cottonwood Canyon, the majestic rock formations of Utah become the students’ classroom.

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PHOTO: Courtesy of Randy Skinner

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Dr. Thomas Morris, along with Professor Randy Skinner, teaches the Geology 210 class at BYU. Geology 210 students learn about the geologic history of Utah and how great rock formations came to be relative to historic events in mountain history. “It’s a fun course, no question, because we get to see great places and great rocks,” Morris said. “But there’s a lot of learning that’s going on in this course, too.” Morris uses the first week of the course to teach the students about sedimentary rocks. Morris and the students visit Zion National Park, the Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Bryce Canyon National Park, and Capitol Reef National Park. At each of these famous Utah landmarks, students learn about Utah’s geological diversity by looking at and analyzing the rocks up close at well-known areas within these parks. “We talk about the relationship between the canyon geomorphology and the strata that’s cutting through at the Narrows at Zion and hike the Navajo Loop at Bryce Canyon,” Morris said. “We let the students play around the Coral Pink Sand Dunes . . . and then we visit the Strike Valley at Capitol Reef and study its stratigraphy and structure and how it relates to the landscape.”

FIELD TRIP SPRING 2016

“You are not a real geologist until you’ve hiked through the brush up the side of the mountain and pounded a rock with a hammer!”

interval of time through Utah’s geologic history,” Morris said. “This trip helps them in other classes to understand the puzzle pieces of that geologic history.” The Geology 210 field trip gives students an opportunity to have hands-on experience studying geology in a state that is known for its rock formations. “If you go to a Rocky Mountain university and you’re a geologist and you don’t understand the rocks in Utah, you’ve failed as far as taking advantage of what’s here,” Morris said. “Geologists from all over the world come to Utah to look at our rocks, and there is such a wide variety of them. It’s a fabulous place to be in the field and learn about rocks.” Studying geology in Utah benefits not only the students’ education, but also their careers. “I think our recruiters who come to employ our students look at BYU as a place where students really know rocks,” Morris said. The skills that the students acquire and the experiences that they have during these unique field trips with Utah’s rich geology as their classroom shape them into being the best geologists that they can be—and into real geologists who really do know rocks. “You are not a real geologist until you’ve hiked through the brush up the side of the mountain and pounded a rock with a hammer!” Skinner said.

PHOTO: Courtesy of Randy Skinner

After a week of visiting some of Utah’s greatest landmarks with Morris, students learn about igneous and metamorphic rocks from Skinner during the second week. Skinner takes the students up and down the Beehive State, where they learn about igneous and metamorphic rocks at Black Rock Desert, the Santaquin Metamorphic Core Complex, and Little Cottonwood Canyon. “We do a lot more with rocks that came out of volcanoes and earthquakes—rocks that were formed deep inside the earth,” Skinner said. During the trips, students collect measurements from rocks that indicate wind direction. After each week, the students head back to the lab on campus where they take all of the measurements they collected and complete a rose plot that illustrates the statistics of their

measurements. By doing this, the students get a feel for how wind is blowing and practice performing a paleo-current analysis. “They also plot the formations in as best as they can on a topographic map and then make a cross-section of what it would look like on the subsurface when the rocks come up on the surface,” Morris said. Overall, the students learn skills on these field trips that prepare them for the rest of their undergraduate geology classes, including introductory mapping skills, rock identification, and understanding the relationships between sedimentology, stratigraphy, structural geology, and geomorphology. “They do a lot of work with a basic geology tool called a Brunton compass, which allows them to take measurements of the attitude, or orientation, of a layer of rock so that they can put that down on a map,” Skinner said. Students also learn about important moments in Utah’s geologic history, including the Sevier orogeny, a great mountain building event that occurred during the late Cretaceous period. “We give them a sense of the events, the climatic conditions that were around, and which mountain belts and basins were present at any given

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STUDENT RESEARCH

Digitally Mapping the Geologic Wonders of Utah by Maureen Elinzano

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on digitizing the maps are performing a service not only for UGS, but also for Utahns and anyone else who might use these maps in the future. “The idea is that once they’re on the UGS website, anyone can download them, bring that map into their computer and analyze them to make new maps,” Dr. Christiansen added. The initiative is espe-cially useful for geologists, who can access the maps much more easily when they’re online. For the students who have contributed to the Digitizing Maps Initiative, knowing that their work helps professional geologists is a big deal. “Sometimes you learn how to use things in class, but you don’t get to do real world applications with them,” Tomlinson said. “It’s cool being able to see how it applies to solving a problem and to see how it actually works out in real life.” Additionally, students who have worked on the initiative are grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of such an important project. Their experiences have been a great help both in their careers and in their educational endeavors. “It always looks nice on a resume to say that you worked with the Utah Geological Survey; especially for going into graduate schools and looking for jobs,” Northrup said. The Initiative benefits not only the UGS, the BYU geology students, and the public as a whole, but future generations of geologists as well. Nevertheless, these future generations of geologists still have plenty of work to do in the Beehive State. “This is an ongoing project because there’s still lots of maps that need to have this done,” Dr. Christiansen said. “Utah has its fair share of geology!”

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s 1 o PHOTOS: Courtesy of Scott Ritter (left) and Michael Dorais (right)

ecause of modern technology, the paper geologic maps that describe Utah’s many natural wonders are outdated. Graduate student Dustin Northrup and undergraduate student David Tomlinson have helped the Utah Geological Survey (UGS) bring those maps into the future through the Digitizing Maps Initiative. The Digitizing Maps Initiative, led by Zach Anderson of the Utah Geological Survey and Dr. Eric Christiansen in the Department of Geological Sciences, allows students to help the UGS digitize geologic maps that were previously recorded in large formats on paper. Geologic maps are important because they show the distribution of rock types at the surface of the planet, which aids with mineral exploration, hazard studies, and understanding the history of Earth. However, because geologic maps are traditionally published on paper, they are not always accessible for to everyone who wants to use them. “The Utah Geological Survey has been working on getting all of these old maps into digital format so that other people can use them,” Dr. Christiansen said. “An important skill for our students is knowing how to do this.” The Utah Geological Survey provides the maps and the materials and the students digitize the maps using a map creation program called ArcGIS. After the students digitize the maps, they give the files to the Utah Geological Survey. Then, the Utah Geological Survey reviews, edits, and posts their maps on the UGS website within six to twelve months. Students can participate in the initiative as a research credit course. It is similar to an internship in that students receive hands-on experience and learn to work independently to develop the necessary skills to digitize maps. Typical geologic maps cover about 50 square miles, so digitizing them is a task as huge as many of Utah’s mountains. “I remember spending six hours a week for a semester on a project called the Granite Mountain SW Quadrangle,” Tomlinson said. “There’s a lot of people that go out and do these field measurements. They’re doing hundreds of them and you have to plot each of those on the maps.” The students who spend so much time and effort

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FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Building Careers in the Bahamas By James Collard

PHOTOS: Courtesy of Scott Ritter (left) and Michael Dorais (right)

eology professor Scott Ritter knows the secret of how best to prepare students for careers in petroleum geology: take a trip to the Bahamas. Every two to three years, Ritter and faculty associates take a group of geology students on a spring field trip to the Bahamas to study limestone depositional environments and their petroleum potential. Ritter and his students examine sedimentary patterns and processes in a wide range of modern limestone-producing environments that include tidal flats, reefs, ooid sand shoals, and restricted marine lagoons. Carbonate rocks deposited in these environments are common in ancient limestone formations around the world and they contain large quantities of oil and natural gas. The trip also permits the students to observe modern sedimentary rocks and compare them with those seen in 125,000 year old limestones exposed in roadcuts and sinkholes on North Andros Island, the group’s base of operation. Ritter learned the importance of expanding students’ horizons and observing rocks as they form from his former professor, W. Kenneth Hamblin. “He really saw the value of taking students to places where processes were happening,” Ritter explained. In his later years, Hamblin founded the Hamblin Mentored Field Trip Fund, which provides geology students with opportunities to travel across the world to study geology in all types of environments. Studying geology in an environment wholly different from Utah’s dry desert gives students a broader understanding of worldwide geology. Unlike the 100 My old rock formations in Utah, many of the limestone formations in the Bahamas are only tens of thousands of years old. Or in the case of modern settings, only a few days or weeks old. “It’s kind of cool because we can go on the island in The Bahamas, look at 125 Ky old limestone, and then we can go to

a place . . . where that rock is now forming,” Ritter said. Ritter helps his students utilize the knowledge they obtain in the Bahamas to understand geological formations closer to home. For example, Squaw Peak situated just east of BYU campus is also a limestone formation. However, it was formed hundreds of millions of years ago when Utah was covered with shallow marine waters. “We can go up on the hillside here and use what we’re learning in the Bahamas and other modern settings to interpret what was happening here [in Utah] 300 million years ago,” Ritter said. While understanding the history of an area is important, the hydrocarbon research that Ritter and his students conduct in the Bahamas can have a direct influence on modern society. “About half of the world’s petroleum comes out of limestone,” Ritter said. “The electricity we have here, the heating we have here is because somewhere natural gas or coal has been burned to generate electricity…so we can just flip on the switch. Oil provides the raw materials for gasoline that fuels cars. Without hydrocarbon exploration, we’re in trouble.” Many BYU geology students find jobs in the petroleum industry and hydrocarbon exploration after graduating. Ritter understands the importance of providing students with firsthand experiences so they can be competitive job candidates. “We’re just trying to give them the skills so they can compete with students from the nations finest universities and then become the most successful and best employees possible,” Ritter said. Even though he works hard to help his students find stable jobs, Ritter’s greatest fulfillment comes from increasing his students’ awareness of the world around them. “I think concepts in geology really enrich a student’s perception of the world in which they live,” Ritter said. “It’s like putting on a pair of glasses that clarifies the workings of our home planet both now and in the geologic past.” GEOLOGICAL RECORD

FACULTY RESEARCH

The Detective Work of Geology by Jeremy Stanford

ccording to Dr. Michael Dorais, geological research shares much in common with detective work. Sometimes the small clues can answer big questions. Dr. Dorais enjoys finding elusive pieces of geological evidence. Born and raised in New Hampshire, his search for clues has taken him back to his home state many times over the past 30 years. Dorais has been studying the geological processes that formed the northern Appalachian Mountains of New England. “We’re always trying to understand a process,” Dorais said. “How do certain rocks form? How was the crust assembled? You’re looking for little clues of all different types, like trace element concentrations in minerals.” Dorais said that many people in his field are inclined to study the geological phenomena similar to those present where they grew up. For example, many geologists who grew up around the red rocks of southern Utah enjoy studying sediments. Most of Dorais’ work has involved granitic rocks, since he is from the Granite State. Dorais has contributed to a picture of the geological processes that formed the East Coast through decades of studying the geological clues in granitic rocks in that area. Through this process, some of the biggest questions in geology have gradually become clearer to

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him—such as the question of how continents form. “It’s one of the first-order problems in geology,” Dorais said. “We’ve made tons of progress, and I think some of the major questions have been solved, but there’s always more and more.” Large continents form as smaller pieces of land collide with one another. According to Dorais, several island arcs, micro-continents, and continents have collided with the East Coast over time. For example, Rhode Island, most of Connecticut, and eastern Massachusetts were formerly part of another continent that collided with North America millions of years ago. These collision events can explain the topography of that region. For example, mountains formed as a result of those collisions. “Consider it somewhat like collisions on a highway,” Dorais said. “One car smashes into another, and another car into that one. That’s what’s happened on the East Coast of North America.” These processes that took place millions of years ago still have a tangible impact on the East Coast even today. For example, studying collision events can provide clues about why these rocks influence the quality

of groundwater or the fertility of farmlands across New England. Dorais considers his recent project in New Hampshire perhaps his most compelling piece of geological detective work. Dorais has been studying plutonic rocks containing large amounts of garnet, a red-colored mineral sometimes found in granite. These garnetrich rocks provide clues that help answer yet another big geological question: what is the origin of granite? “It’s a problem that I have wrestled with for over thirty years,” Dorais said. Scientists already know that granite is formed through the crystallization of magma, and that this magma is formed when a “source rock” melts beneath Earth’s surface. The granites that Dorais found, however, actually contain garnet from of the source rock that did not completely melt. Under extreme heat, these resilient red crystals remained solid when very little else did. “They came from where the granite was born,” Dorais said. What is interesting about these garnet crystals is that they were carried up to the emplacement level of the pluton at about 12 km depth. Normally, one would expect the higher density garnet to be left behind as the granite melt traveled upward. In this case, however, the magma was traveling so quickly that these solid pieces got carried up with it. “When I was a graduate student, people were arguing about whether or not pieces of source rock get carried up with granites,” Dorais said. “People argued for decades. If that’s happening, where is it? Can we put our fingers on it?” In the end, many people concluded that the idea was not scientifically sound and that such deposits of solid residual source rock did not exist in high crustal level plutons. Dorais’ discovery proves otherwise. “We can actually put our fingers on something that was right where the magma formed, and was carried up with that magma,” Dorais said. “That’s been one of the most fun studies I’ve ever done.”

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QUEY HEBREW LECTURE

BYU Students get First Glimpse of Pluto System by Jeremy Stanford

ince the final months of 2015, millions of people have seen the photos of Pluto from the New Horizons mission. But only a fortunate few people have had the chance to hear about the mission from a scientist directly involved in the project. At this year’s Quey Hebrew lecture, Dr. John Spencer of the Department of Space Studies at the Southwest Research Institute addressed BYU students about the results of the New Horizons mission. Dr. Spencer has been directly involved in the project since the craft’s launch in 2006. At 36,000 miles per hour, the craft was the fastest ever

launched from earth. Even ten years after its launch, it still moves at roughly the same velocity: ten miles per second. Traveling at that speed, the craft reached the moon in nine hours and Jupiter a year later. The scientists in charge of planning the route to Pluto decided to use Jupiter’s gravitational pull as a sort of boost for the New Horizons spacecraft. According to Dr. Spencer, using Jupiter’s gravity shortened the journey to Pluto by about two years. “As we flew by Jupiter, we were taking pictures of the moons as we went past,” Spencer said. “It wasn’t our main job to study Jupiter’s moons, but we got some

pictures anyways.” By sheer luck, the New Horizons cameras captured a video of an active volcano on one of Jupiter’s moons called Io. The video is only five frames long, but Spencer and his team were proud of it anyway, calling it “the first ever extraterrestrial volcano movie.” “We took some pictures just for scenery,” Spencer said. “You don’t get to go to Jupiter very often, so you want to come back with good pictures.” The photos of Pluto revealed a landscape like nothing Spencer had seen before. Pluto’s geography includes large mountains several miles high, smooth plains, canyons, and even some formations that are shaped like rivers. “We never expected to see this much variety on Pluto.” Spencer said. The mission answered several questions regarding the Pluto system. The composition of Pluto’s

atmosphere became more clear; it includes methane CH4, carbon monoxide, and a lot of nitrogen. Spencer and his team also learned that some of the surfaces of Pluto are very old, while other parts are very young and geologically active. The data takes roughly four and a half hours to travel from Pluto to Earth. More data is arriving every day. In fact, some of Spencer’s photos had never been shown in public before the lecture, making BYU students some of the first people to see them. Dr. Spencer predicts that the final pieces of data will arrive in fall of this year. Without all of the data, Spencer noted, much of what we think we know about Pluto is still speculation. Before the New Horizons mission, Pluto was little more than a mysterious white speck in the sky. Now, there is a whole new world waiting to be discovered.

Giving to the Department of Geological Sciences Donations to the Department of Geological Sciences provide scholarships and mentorship awards to deserving students. Please join us in assisting our students achieve a quality education and an effective career.

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Brigham Young University Department of Geological Sciences S-389 Eyring Science Center Provo, UT 84602

UPCOMING EVENTS OCTOBER 14

Alumni Luncheon

Time TBA BYU Conference Center

Homecoming Game

Alumni Field Trip

For other Homecoming Activities go to homecoming.byu.edu/schedule.cfm

Swim traces (subparallel claw scratches) and footprint with scales of reptile in Early Triassic Ankareh Formation, Spanish Fork Canyon, Utah.

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SPRING 2016