CAMPUS NEWS
15
SUMMER 2014
Shaking the World GSW geology makes waves participating in large-scale seismic experiment Georgia Southwestern recently participated in the first half of a largescale seismic experiment, called the Suwanee Suture and GA Rift basin, or SUGAR, experiment. The principal investigators of the SUGAR experiment are Donna J. Shillington, Ph.D., from Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia University; Daniel Lizarralde, Ph.D., from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; and Steven Harder, Ph.D., from the University of Texas-El Paso. Undergraduate Geology students from GSW, along with other volunteers, assisted with the experiment. The goal of this experiment is to gain a better understanding of tectonic movement and evolution. Its focus is on the South Georgia Rift Basin, which starts in the southern part of South Carolina and extends through Georgia and into Alabama. The Suwanee Suture
runs through the South Georgia Rift Basin from east to west. The experiment has been divided into two parts: a western profile, which GSW assisted with, and an eastern profile that will be take place in 2015. These profiles, or lines, are roughly 170 miles long, and run north to south, crossing the South Georgia Rift Basin and the Suwannee suture. The western profile spans roughly from Columbus, Ga., to Valdosta, Ga., and intercepts Americus, where the field team was stationed. The eastern profile will span from Milledgeville, Ga., to around Waycross, Ga.
along a 300-km-long transect across southwest Georgia,” said Shillington. “The sound waves will be generated by 12 controlled blasts in deep holes and recorded on over 1000 small seismographs [devices that read sound waves].” During Spring Break, fourteen teams of two, including GSW students, deployed the seismometers along the profile in holes that have been recently drilled. The controlled blasts were then detonated at night, far away from any houses or structures. Afterwards, the seismographs were retrieved and the data was downloaded.
The experiment will provide information about the South Georgia Rift Basin by using sound waves. “We are using sound waves to image geological features up to 40 km beneath the earth’s surface
Writing Up a Storm GSW student Alison McCarter named top writing tutor in Southeast process free of charge. Alison McCarter is one of the GSW writing consultants, and she has been awarded the 2014 Southeastern Writing Center Association (SWCA) Undergraduate Tutor Award.
Alison McCarter (left), the recipient of the 2014 SWCA Undergraduate Tutor Award, consults a peer. ‘Every writer needs a reader’ is the unofficial motto of the GSW Writing Center. The Writing Center has seven ‘readers’ and writing consultants who assist students from all disciplines in strategies for all aspects of the writing
McCarter, an English and professional writing major, has been a writing tutor since January 2011. Since then, she has become an instrumental part of the GSW Writing Center designing fliers and brochures, giving presentations, and, in the words of the Writing Center Director Lauren DiPaula, Ph.D., being “an excellent writing consultant.” McCarter was nominated for the SWCA
Undergraduate Tutor Award by DiPaula and her fellow tutors. Founded in 1981, SWCA hosts annual conferences throughout the Southeast to serve as a forum for the writing concerns of students, staff, faculty, and writing professionals. SWCA also gives out awards each year to recognize the excellence of writing tutors from three categories: undergraduate, graduate, and professional writing tutors. The winners represent the best from the SWCA region which includes North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Puerto Rico, and the American Virgin Islands.
