class notes
From the Bedrock Up If you’ve ever wondered how the Connecticut River Oxbow was formed or how sand dunes are a product of glacial erosion, then Will Ouimet ’97 is your go-to geologist. Now an assistant professor of geography at the University of Connecticut, Mr. Ouimet has studied the geomorphology and landscape evolution of regions from the Tibetan Plateau to the Connecticut River Valley. It was a discussion of the latter region that brought him to the Whately (MA) Public Library on November 15, 2010. In a presentation titled “Stonewalls and Sand Dunes: Exploring the Geomorphology and Glacial History of Whately,” Mr. Ouimet, then a visiting professor of geology at Amherst College, exposed the geologic structure that lies beneath Whately and shared the awesome impact that glaciers have had on western Massachusetts in the past thousands of years. The bedrock that lies underneath Whately reveals a clear distinction between the western and eastern halves of the town. While the western portion—part of the Berkshire hills—is composed of metamorphic and igneous rocks, eastern Whately lies on top of sedimentary rocks. These rocks were deposited in the Deerfield Rift Basin and have eroded away over time, creating the Connecticut River. Mr. Ouimet also revealed how the movement of glaciers over Massachusetts many thousands of years
WILL OUIMET geologist
’97
ago is reflected in natural landscape features that Whately residents see every day. Glacial erosion created scratches in the bedrock, formed small, streamlined hills, and left behind debris and large boulders. Even sand dunes are creations of glaciers; strong glacial winds blew fine sediment into dunes. Mr. Ouimet, who holds a BA from Williams College in geosciences and mathematics and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in geology and geochemistry, left his audience with an idea of the geography of the Whately Public Library itself. Fifteen thousand years ago, the library would have been just offshore from the edge of Lake Hitchcock; now, it sits in the perfect spot to observe the diversity of glacial deposits and landforms in this small corner of New England.
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Winter 2011