Thank you
KU Geology educates future geoscientists and drives cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research addressing some of Earth’s most pressing issues impacting humanity.
As you read this, you play a key role. Thank you for all you do to advance this important work.
David A. Fowle, Chair KU Geology
I look forward to seeing all the wonderful ways in which we’ll continue to grow and thrive together.
Welcome to the latest edition of the G-Hawker magazine. We all appreciate the positive feedback we received after our introduction of the new format. We continue to adjust and tweak the structure of the magazine but are very happy with the new format as well. I must especially thank Steve Hasiotis for working so hard as editor, pushing on deadlines as well as writing and editing.
We have had another great year, with our faculty and students (and some alumni!) traveling to Spain, the Grand Canyon, and across the United States. We had the pleasure of traveling to several alumni events to meet face-to-face with you. The Geology Associates Advisory Board met in person this fall (no football tailgate this year) and will be meeting again in the spring when we will host our annual G-Hawk Student Symposium.
Erin Seybold, who joined us in April 2024, and Sam Zipper, who joined in January 2024 (see an introduction to Sam on page 29), have settled in nicely in their new roles in the department, and both are already taking on teaching roles in two of our introductory classes. Unfortunately, paired with this excellent news was the sad (for us) news that Leigh Stearns was leaving us for a position at the University of Pennsylvania. Although disappointed to have her leave us, we are grateful for her incredible contributions to our department during her tenure here.
The renovation of Lindley Hall continues in earnest. When completed in 2025 or 2026, the building will have a completely new HVAC system, upgraded sewer connections and bathrooms, and waterproofing of the basement levels and general updates throughout. We expect to begin having conversations with KU Facilities Planning & Development early in the new year to discuss programming and repopulating the space with geography and environmental studies. Although there have been significant hiccups in the process, we continue to weather the storm and look forward to our return to the renovated space.
Finally, I would like to share a personal and professional update with you all. After five fulfilling years as the chair of the KU Department of Geology, I have decided to step down from this role. Serving in this capacity has been a true honor, and I am deeply grateful for the unwavering support you have shown me and our department throughout this time. Your commitment and contributions have been instrumental in advancing our goals and supporting key initiatives. In particular, your enthusiasm for the Field Camp Modernization Project has been inspiring. This endeavor, which holds such promise for the future of our students and faculty, will not be possible without your current and future generous backing and belief in our vision. Please know that I will continue to work closely with this project, as it remains very near to my heart.
As I transition from administrative duties, I am excited to return to my roots in teaching and research. This new chapter will allow me to refocus on what first drew me to this incredible field, and I am eager to share in the academic journey with our students once again.
Thank you once more for your dedication to our department and for making my tenure as chair such a rewarding experience. I look forward to seeing all the wonderful ways in which we’ll continue to grow and thrive together.
With gratitude and warm regards,
The spring 2024 field seminar took students to the Mediterranean coast of southeast Spain to examine carbonates, coralgal reefs, deepwater sedimentation, sequence stratigraphy, tectonics of the Iberian Peninsula, and more. Here, faculty and students study coastal outcrops. (See page 34.)
by Hannah Proffitt
FORGING NEW COLLABORATION
Associate professor Marina Suarez braves her fears — and the cold — and follows her fascination with the Cretaceous Period to Antarctica.
14
CLOSER TO MARS Fourth-year doctoral candidate Sarah Lamm shares her experience as an analog astronaut and geologist for Crew 297 at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. 46 WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE THEY NOW? Alumni talk about life after KU in this new column.
BURROWING, WAVES, AND CURRENTS Student Alexa Goers and her advisors compare modern, Holocene, and Pleistocene deposits in The Bahamas.
On the trail to the motherlode, and The Bahamas Maritime Museum
The times ... they are a-changin’
Rocks & Rockets: Igniting STEM passion in rural Kansas
We say thanks: Corporation and foundation gifts
Linear algebra for Earth scientists
What do we still need to know about streamflow depletion?
The crossroads of cloud computing, Google Earth, and geoscience concepts
A Bahamian tale of burrowing, waves, and currents
A pervasive period of Pleistocene pedogenesis in the Great Plains
Updating the ichnotaxonomy of the Cretaceous Dakota Group
Why do animals construct helical burrows?
Ancient arachnid from coal forests of America stands out for its spiny legs
Have you ever seen a beaver fly … or climb … or levitate?
We asked KU Geology alumni, faculty, students, and friends what advice they have for a new geology student. On balancing classwork with research, professor Gene Rankey offers, “Start early, with a very small project with very manageable expectations.” Point taken.
See more on page 58.
Analog
G-Hawker is published annually by the University of Kansas Department of Geology (KU Geology) as a resource for alumni and friends. Articles may not be reprinted or edited for reuse without special permission from the department. Editorial, publication, and distribution costs are underwritten by the Krueger Fund of the Geology Associates Program of the Kansas University Endowment Association.
Chair: David A. Fowle
Editor:
Stephen T. Hasiotis
Assistant editor: Carolyn Church Design and layout: Robin Ward, The Write Design
Ritchie Hall 1414 Naismith Drive, Room 254 Lawrence, KS 66045
785-864-4974 | geology@ku.edu geo.ku.edu
Stephen T. Hasiotis,
Editor Professor of Geology
The goal is to carry on our august tradition of educating geoscience leaders of the future.
Welcome to the 2024 edition of the reimagined G-Hawker!
We hope that you enjoyed your 2023/2024 issue of the magazine in which we took a whole new look at how the news from KU Geology alumni, the department, faculty, students, and the Geology Associates Advisory Board is presented to you. We heard good things, and we appreciate your positive feedback.
We appreciate all feedback, actually. It’s important that we know how you feel about your G-Hawker magazine — your interest in the diversity, quality, and presentation of its content — because this publication has several important jobs. It helps bring our KU Geology family together. It also serves as the “face” of KU Geology for prospective students, faculty, donors, and friends. It should reflect the personality and excellence of the academic programs offered at the Earth, Energy, & Environment Center in Ritchie and Slawson Halls.
The main goal of KU Geology is to carry on our august tradition of being a nationally and internationally recognized program for educating geoscience leaders of the future. The G-Hawker helps link the KU-educated leaders of every decade — past, present, and future — to build a better tomorrow.
In this issue, we have added a new column to the magazine called “Where in the World Are They Now?” (We have a soft spot for the old VH1 documentary series.) This new section spotlights former KU Geology students who graduated with a bachelor’s, master’s, and/or a doctoral degree. It provides alumni an opportunity to introduce or re-introduce themselves to the greater KU family and to tell us about their life after KU. Each piece includes the alum’s academic background and updates their professional and personal status, accompanied by a few photographs. We hope you like this fun, interesting new column and hope that it encourages you to contribute!
As always, your feedback is welcome so that we can continue to deliver the achievements of the KU Geology faculty, students, and staff and KGS colleagues to our extended G-Hawker family and friends.
Very truly yours,
Students, faculty, and friends of the University of Kansas geology department attended “Allen Exploration Adventures: On the trail to the motherlode, and The Bahamas Maritime Museum, Freeport, Grand Bahama,” a special presentation late last fall by Carl Allen and Jim Sinclair. Allen, former CEO of Heritage Bag Co. and now CEO of Allen Exploration, is a professional treasure hunter whose biggest passion combines his love of fishing and hunting. Sinclair is an archeologist employed by Allen Exploration.
In their presentation, they told of Allen Exploration’s search, recovery, preservation, and display of the artifacts of the Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas, a Spanish vessel that sunk in The Bahamas in 1656 en route back to Spain, loaded with treasure. To date, they have found many extraordinary artifacts, ranging from swords to emeralds to silver bars to gold chains.
Carl and Jim told of how they remain hot on the trail to find the motherlode. For the purpose of exploration and adventure, Allen has assembled a fleet that includes a 164-foot (50-meter) Westport Gigi; the 183-foot (56-meter) Damen Axis; an 80-foot (24-meter) Viking Frigate; a Triton submarine; a Citation X+ jet; an Icon A5 amphibious plane; and many more support vessels and tools.
Their finds have remained in The Bahamas, facilitated by Carl Allen’s creation of The Bahamas Maritime Museum in Freeport, Bahamas, which includes an amazing collection of their treasures and antiquities. The museum also highlights the history of The Bahamas, its varied and rich maritime traditions, and the diverse people who shaped The Bahamas of today.
Perhaps the highlight of the presentation was the show-and-tell of artifacts that Carl and Jim brought with them to KU to show the audience. The hands-on collection ranged from several silver and gold coins, to examples of gold and emerald jewelry, and cannon balls, all of which were recovered from the Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas Some of the students even got to wear a long, heavy, wide gold chain that stretched nearly 1.5 meters in length.
Allen Exploration has been generous in sharing their findings and knowledge of the area with KU Geology students both in The Bahamas with professors Gene Rankey and Stephen Hasiotis for field trips and in their visit to KU.
For many years, KU Geology professor Tony Walton taught the highly successful GEOL 535 Petroleum & Subsurface Geology for advanced petroleum engineering undergraduate students and geology students. At the request of KU Geology Chair David Fowle, professors Jay Kalbas, Bob Goldstein, and Gene Rankey were tasked with “reimagining” this course, transforming it into GEOL 535 Subsurface Energy Geology, a team-taught course that would fully embrace petroleum geology as well as subsurface geologic concepts related to the energy transition.
The updated scope of this course has expanded to include a broader portfolio of subsurface energy types and practices, as well as to bring the energy transition into focus. The energy transition includes a major change to energy supply and consumption for the future of our world. This transition includes what may be more environmentally friendly “renewable energy,” and it is currently underway to attempt to limit climate change.
The trio offered the revised course for the first time in the fall 2024 semester. Although the course still includes the fundamentals of subsurface geology relevant to petroleum systems, much of the course examines how subsurface geologic concepts are applicable to a range of established and nascent energy systems that support the energy transition. It explores aspects of subsurface evaluation in the context of subsurface carbon storage, naturally occurring hydrogen, subsurface energy storage, critical minerals, wastewater injection, and geothermal energy.
The course included a field trip to a drilling site in Iola, Kansas, with Colt Energy, and the students examined both carbonate and siliciclastic cores.
On August 17, 2024, Colby, Kansas, was host for the third annual Rocks & Rockets event organized by Sarah Lamm, a fourth-year doctoral candidate under Dr. Claire Marshall. This hometown outreach effort, which has grown in popularity each year, attracted more than 500 attendees from across Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska.
The overall concept of Rocks & Rockets is simple yet powerful — to inspire a love of science through interactive, hands-on activities that are accessible to everyone. This free event, designed for all ages and abilities, featured an array of exciting stations, including a portable planetarium, NASA stickers and postcards, free science books, a giant map of Mars, an astronaut training course, fossil digs, and a mineral identification game. Activities were thoughtfully adapted for participants of varying ages and abilities, including sensory bins and games suitable for children and adults with special needs. Many activities were translated into Spanish, and free Spanish books were available for participants.
Attendees had the unique opportunity to interact with professional scientists and volunteers from diverse scientific backgrounds, including geologists, astronomers, chemists, and physicists. The success of the event was made possible by the dedication of 40 volunteers, ranging from hobbyists to doctorate holders. Volunteers came from the University of Kansas, the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS), the Kansas Biological Survey, Kansas Strong, Fort Hays State University, Kansas State University, the Cosmosphere, the U.S. National Weather Service in Goodland, and the community.
In a region where opportunities for scientific engagement are rare, Rocks & Rockets is quickly becoming a cherished annual tradition. Families left the event with smiles on their faces, free science books in hand, and heads full of new knowledge. The popularity of this event clearly shows that it will have a lasting impact, highlighting the importance of making science accessible to all and inspiring the next generation of scientists and explorers.
The event was funded by the Kansas Geological Foundation. Additional organizers included Dr. Pamela Kempton from Kansas State University’s geology department and Jeanette Bosch, a NASA solar system ambassador.
We extend our gratitude to these foundations and corporations for their gifts to KU Geology in 2023–2024:
Banks Family Foundation
BP Corporation
North America, Inc.
Chevron Corporation
Chevron Humankind
Matching Gift Program
ConocoPhillips Company
Coterra Energy Inc.
ExxonMobil Foundation
The Groundwater Foundation
Harrison Family Fund at the Douglas County Community Foundation
Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory
Ovintiv
Shell Oil Company Foundation
Thank you for your investment in the geosciences and in KU Geology students and faculty.
KU Geology alumni receptions are held in various locations throughout the year. Thanks to all who joined us in 2024 — in Lawrence, Kansas, in April; in Houston, Texas, in August; and in Anaheim, California, in September. If we missed you, just picture yourself here next time! Email us at geology@ku.edu to get on the list. (See more on page 21.)
Previous page, clockwise from top: KU Geology alumni Ibrahim Zallum, Matthew Allen, Fatema Panahi, Zuana Alam, and Hillary Mwongyera at the Anaheim reception during the GSA Annual Meeting in September; Bill Dodd and Twyla Dubois review Harrison Field Station renovation plans at the Lawrence alumni reception, hosted by Don and Tammy Steeples at Bella Sera in April; professor Noah McLean, third from left, with alumni Clay Campbell, Peter Copeland, and Andrew Hoxey in Anaheim; Joey Tierney, Dustin Heese, and Ellis Fangmann in Lawrence; Alison Olcott and Marcia Schulmeister in Lawrence; Peter Laudon, Rick Abegg, and Erik Hiemstra at the Houston alumni reception in August
This page, clockwise from top: Nathan Winters and Willy Rittase at the Houston alumni reception; Houston-area KU Geology alumni John Intfen, Brian Sitek, Hannah Wasserman, Erica Dalman, Adrienne Duarte-Sitek, and Aaron Hess at the reception at Birch Resources; Ernie Angino at the Lawrence alumni reception; GAAB members Kyle Gorynski and Steve Dixon at a reception at The Oread hotel in Lawrence; Catherine, left, and Mike Brondos, right, with Carina and Ken Lister at the alumni reception in Anaheim
In February 2024, the director of the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS), Dr. Jay Kalbas, with the help of KGS senior leaders, composed a comprehensive summary report of the work of the KGS — its mission, new organizational structure, finances, service and research output, and strategic imperatives. The following executive summary highlights excerpts from that report, which is available under separate cover.
The Kansas Geological Survey (KGS) is charged by statute with making “a complete geological survey of the state of Kansas, giving special attention to any and all natural products of economic importance, in order to determine the character, location, and amount of such products, and to prepare reports on the same. ...” While the specific focus areas of KGS research continue to evolve, for 160 years the KGS mission has remained remarkably consistent — to produce research insights that directly impact the economic development, utilization, and preservation of Kansas’s abundant geological resources.
The center of KGS work — our “why” — is “Advancing Science and Serving Kansas.” We are focused on both, and everything we do as an organization fits within, and serves as evidence of, that identity.
The KGS advances science through fundamental and applied research in geology. Between 2018 and 2023, Survey scientists and engineers filed 160 reports, produced 218 unique contributions to the scientific peer-reviewed literature, and gave more than 630 scientific presentations. Survey staff brought $31 million of grant awards to the state of Kansas to fund new research throughout the state and fully support the salaries of 98 professionals and students (more than 60 percent of the Survey makeup).
Fundamental and applied contributions to science spanned the broad array of subjects around which the KGS is designed — water, energy, food, geohazards, stratigraphy, geophysical applications, ancient human migrations, education, etc.
At the same time, the KGS serves the citizens, businesses, and policy makers of the state of Kansas. The KGS web server is accessed approximately 8.4 million times each year. The computing services and libraries teams facilitate 56,000 wireline log
downloads and 46,000 oil and gas records downloads every month. The Data Access and Support Center facilitates the Kansas Online Water Use Report and geospatial data for the state’s 911 operators. The KGS’s Kansas Geologic Sample Repository in Wichita stores, catalogs, and curates rock records from more than 150,000 wells. The geophysical applications team measures seismicity across the state with a precision and accuracy as good as or better than the state of practice anywhere in North America. The field services and geohydrology teams measure (by hand) water levels across the state’s most important resource, the High Plains aquifer. Paired with priceless digital and rock core archives maintained by the Survey and new airborne geophysical surveys of the Ogallala Formation, the KGS is assembling one of the most comprehensive and impactful analyses of groundwater resources in the world.
Primary users of information generated by the KGS are federal, state, and local entities, including the U.S. Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Energy, and Agriculture; the U.S. Geological Survey; the Kansas Legislature; the Kansas Water Authority and Water Office; the Kansas Departments of Agriculture, Transportation, and Revenue; as well as the 911 Coordinating Council, the State Historical Society, and regional groundwater management districts. Several agencies (e.g., the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Kansas Corporation Commission [KCC]) leverage the KGS web service to make data available to their users.
KGS science is foundational for private companies and consultants that deal with construction, geological hazards, energy development, utility scale power providers, and groundwater for irrigated agriculture, industries, and municipal use. The KGS commonly receives feedback that companies “spend all day every day” using KGS online tools and archives. Also as importantly, the information and science generated at the KGS serves the region’s educators and private citizens, providing fundamental information about the natural resources of the region, along with context about why these scientific insights matter in a changing world.
New programs will analyze groundwater quality across the state of Kansas, investigate impacts on human and environmental health in partnership with researchers at KU Medical Center, and measure the three-dimensional (3D) geophysical properties of the Ogallala aquifer. Work in subsurface geological mapping and energy will, for the first time, provide statewide 3D structure, thickness, and geological property maps of the region’s deep formations, providing direct insights for wastewater re-injection projects, hydrocarbon reservoir distribution, and carbon storage potential. Through an ongoing collaboration between the KCC and KGS scientists and engineers, airborne drone-based geophysical surveys are helping to identify buried orphaned oil wells.
New work across all KGS programs is centralizing terabytes of historical and newly generated data into a comprehensive “data ecosystem,” which will
provide new integration and analysis capabilities to researchers and industry users. Major new federal investments will fund work on the distribution, sealing properties, and critical mineral concentrations of salt formations across western Kansas. Applications for hydrogen energy storage could attract whole new economies to the region.
Without a doubt, the KGS is evolving. Geology, which is an integrative systems science, is changing at the same time the state of Kansas and the nation are wrestling with serious energy and natural resources questions. The divisions and programs of the KGS are designed to bring teams of subject-matter experts together in a collaborative environment that nurtures creativity and fosters teamwork to help address these issues. Our teams — geohydrology, libraries, stratigraphy, publications, geoarchaeology, GIS support and computing services, cartographic services, human resources, applications data integration, the Drill Core Library, energy, field services, the Kansas Geologic Sample Repository, geohealth, finance, the Data Access and Support Center, geophysical applications, communications and outreach, information technology, business operations — function best when they function together with a common purpose: Advancing Science and Serving Kansas.
The information and science generated at the KGS provides fundamental information about the natural resources of the region, along with context about why these scientific insights matter in a changing world.
Research Highlights are color coded to indicate primary disciplines. Each article is marked with just one color; however, as you know, our research is interdisciplinary. Every story is one of spirited collaboration, as remarkable people work on critical issues facing our planet.
Energy
Geochemistry
Geomicrobiology
Geophysics
Glaciology
Hydrogeology
Paleontology
Sedimentology & Stratigraphy
Tectonics & Structural Geology
Over the years of teaching, professors Doug Walker and Noah McLean found it beneficial to introduce students to introductory linear algebra so that they could learn to set up problems and solve them. Although KU Geology students are required to take introductory courses in calculus, it does little to help them formulate problems represented by systems of equations. Our undergraduate geology majors do not get the exposure to the variety of tools available from linear algebra from their courses to gain insights into Earth science problems.
Walker and McLean’s book covers the fundamental aspects of linear algebra — from vector properties, matrix operations, and solving systems of equations, to the computation and use of eigenvectors and eigenvalues for such problems as stress and strain. They go even further and take up the subject of singular value decomposition, a newer focus of applied linear algebra. All of the material is presented with examples from and applications to the Earth sciences. In a mathematically sound way, Walker and McLean present familiar problems that appeal to physical scientists. For example, the three-point problem to determine the orientation of a planar surface is revisited in most of the chapters. Chapter 1 begins with the graphical and algebraic solution to the three-point problem; however, by the time Chapter 5 is reached, the reader will be able to deal with a 50-point problem if needed. Similarly, they bring back many examples from structural geology and strain to grow the understanding and complexity of what can be determined using linear algebra. In early chapters, the reader will learn that deformation is just a linear transformation, but by Chapter 8, they will understand how to move in and out of the eigenbasis for a problem. This repetition, accompanied by increasing complexity, allows the reader to appreciate their growing understanding of linear algebra and problem solving as they read the book.
The authors do not consider this a math textbook. Their aim with this book is to provide a resource for students and instructors who are spurred on more by making measurements and calculations on rocks. While some students can apply a theorem to problems in their particular field of study, be it the Earth sciences or biology or chemistry, the experience of Walker and McLean is that most students benefit from extra motivation and context that derives from observations on physical systems.
When water is pumped out of a well, it can lead to two issues: groundwater depletion, in which water levels in aquifers decline — a major problem in western Kansas, and streamflow depletion, when the well intercepts groundwater that would have otherwise flown into a nearby stream. Streamflow depletion cannot be directly measured because streamflow is simultaneously being affected by weather, reservoirs, and other factors in addition to pumping, so estimating streamflow depletion has been a priority for hydrologic science for decades.
Sam Zipper, an assistant scientist at the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS) and assistant professor in the University of Kansas Department of Geology (see page 29), recently led an international group of hydrologists in a recent publication identifying priority research topics related to streamflow depletion. The team, funded by the U.S. Geological
Survey and including KU Geology professor Mary Hill and doctoral graduate Misty Porter, identified three overarching themes, and specific research priorities within each theme.
Critically, scientists need to link changes in flow caused by streamflow depletion to quantitatively estimate the impacts of these streamflow changes on ecosystems and water users. This will enable applied researchers and industry to develop improved tools for estimating streamflow depletion and linking those estimates to water management decisions.
Making these advances will require basic scientific research and collaboration between hydrologists and scientists in other fields, highlighting the need for interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate research and education programs for students in the Earth sciences
Zipper et al., 2024, Water Resources Research
Groundwater depletion and streamflow depletion:
A) Conceptual diagram showing groundwater depletion and streamflow depletion in an aquifer cross-section; B) The “missing streamflow” in a hydrograph resulting from streamflow Zipper et al., 2022, Journal of the American Water Resources Assocation
This image shows a vision for streamflow depletion research priorities to improve the decisionmaking process (outer oval) and benefit society (center oval). Core priorities are located near the most relevant steps of the decision support process, and specific areas for research advancement are italicized for each priority.
Zipper et al., 2024, Water Resources Research
Barriers to field investigations — both physical and financial — are considered to hinder retention in undergraduate geology programs within the geoscience community. Increasing accessibility and encouraging the development of virtual tools that supplement field experiences and expand accessibility including cloud computing for GIS data processing expands the capabilities of researchers, educators, and industry professionals working with large data sets.
A team of KU geologists led by the newly minted Ph.D. Andrew Hoxey along with Mike Taylor, Doug Walker, and Diane Kamola published a paper in GSA Today that describes two Google Earth Engine (GEE) web applications — the Plane Orientation Calculator (POC) and the Topographic Swath Profiler (TSP) — designed for beginner to expert users to examine and use global Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). Web applications combine the speed and power of cloud computing with a graphical user interface that can be operated with a mobile device from anywhere with internet access.
The GEE plane orientation calculator web application calculates a strike and dip (i.e., orientation) of the plane defined by three, user-selected points on a DEM (i.e., the three-point problem). This tool uses established methods of interpreting map patterns and elevations to understand the geometry of surface features, a fundamental interest to structural geologists. The POC combines basic geologic mapping concepts and cloud computing web application to measure structural features at any location on Earth within the coverage of public data. Users can make multiple measurements, catalog locations and orientations, and export data for use in other software. The simplicity of the tool allows users at all levels to conduct remote geologic mapping. Elevation data, local relief, and regional trends in topography are displayed in topographic swath profiles — an approach used to recognize areas of interest to geologists and geomorphologists.
The GEE TSP web application quickly queries public DEMs selected by the user to create
A lasting adage in carbonate sedimentology is “carbonates are born, not made,” emphasizing the biological origin of much of the sediment itself. Although the sedimentologic influences of organisms commonly are emphasized, few studies systematically describe and characterize the paired nature and distribution of sediment, trace morphologies, and bioturbation fabrics in carbonate systems, or how they relate to such physical influences as waves, tides, and currents.
To explore this concept, student Alexa Goers and her advisors Stephen Hasiotis and Gene Rankey compared and contrasted carbonate facies and bioturbation patterns in Pleistocene, Holocene, and modern carbonate shoreface deposits on the Crooked–Acklins Platform (CAP), southeastern
Application example of the GEE and POC and the three-point problem
topographic swath profiles. Users can customize measurements before displaying or exporting the sampled data as text or vector files. Topographic swath profiles are created instantly via cloud computing, reducing the time and computing budget typically required for such analysis.
Hoxey, A.K.R., Taylor, M.H., Walker, J.D., and Kamola, D.L., 2024, Google Earth Engine web applications for investigating and teaching fundamental geoscience concepts. GSA Today, v. 34, p. 4–10. https://doi.org/10.1130/GSATG588A
Bahamas. The data for this research was collected using SCUBA and free-diving, with SCUBA conducted day and night from shallow water to the shelf edge (25–30 m deep) to observe and catalogue at various water depths a variety of fishes and invertebrates making traces below the surface and mixing sediment. Current meters measured recorded the hydrodynamics, and sediment and outcrop samples were collected to compare modern, Holocene, and Pleistocene deposits. The results of this integrated study reveal how both sedimentology and bioturbation in modern and ancient carbonate shoreface deposits reflect the large-scale, along-strike changes in energy and hydrodynamic conditions. These trends indicate a progressive, north-to-south increase in energy reflecting the change in margin orientation relative to the direction of dominant wave energy.
—continued on next page
When most of northern North America was covered by ice at the peak of the last Ice Age 23,000 years ago, the central Great Plains (GP) was ice free and home to large megafauna including giant ground sloth, wooly mammoth, and saber-tooth cats. Surprisingly, our current understanding of what late Pleistocene climatic and environmental conditions were like in this region is somewhat limited and generalized.
Dr. Tony Layzell and colleagues at the Kansas Geological Survey sought to better quantify past climatic and environmental conditions in the GP, publishing their results in Quaternary Science Reviews. They focused on a period toward the end of the last Ice Age known as Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3, ca. 59–27 ka. They also investigated how past climates impacted regional river systems by assessing when they were aggrading and when riverine landscapes were stable.
Their study identified thick packages of MIS 3-age sediments containing buried soils at 20 localities across the GP. A robust chronology of over 50 ages indicated that early MIS 3 (ca. 59–40 ka) was a period of aggradation in river valleys. However, a shift occurred in late MIS 3 (ca. 40–27 ka) to widespread landscape stability and soil formation, implying that high magnitude flooding was minimal during late MIS 3. Atmospheric circulation patterns that favor such stable conditions include zonal airflow that inhibits incursions of moist, maritime air from the Gulf of Mexico (GOM).
Dr. Kate Andrzejewski analyzed the stable oxygen and hydrogen isotopic composition of clays from the late MIS 3 soils. Estimated oxygen isotope values of
Integration of oceanographic, ichnologic, and sedimentologic characteristics of these shoreface deposits led to the development of a new ichnofacies conceptual model specific to wave-dominated, carbonate shoreface systems and provides a framework for interpreting the controls on sedimentological, ichnological, and petrophysical variability in other shallow-marine carbonate shoreface depositional systems that are distinct from siliciclastic analogs. Goers emphasized a major difference is that carbonate systems generate their sediment locally through biotic and abiotic processes, unlike siliciclastic systems that commonly receive sediment from such point sources as rivers.
Goers, A., Hasiotis, S.T., and Rankey, E.C., 2023. Controls on bioturbation and sediment distribution within carbonate shoreface deposits: Insights from heterogeneity in Pleistocene and recent strata. Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 93, p. 797–824. https://doi.org/10.2110/jsr.2022.024
Photographs of MIS 3-age alluvium and buried soils from A) the Wolf River, B) the Ninnescah River, and C) the Cimarron River
paleoprecipitation were up to 8.5‰ lower (18O-depleted) relative to modern rainfall values, suggesting that the dominant moisture source was from Pacific and Arctic air masses (i.e., no 18Oenriched moisture from the GOM). Paleotemperature were 6–9°C, which are 4–7°C lower than modern mean annual temperatures.
Stable carbon isotopes indicated that a notable proportion of warm season grasses were present across the GP — up to 46% and 89% in the east and west, respectively. Although warm season grasses typically favor warmer temperatures, Layzell argues that their abundance in the GP was favored during colder MIS 3 climates by a low atmospheric CO2 environment that had sufficiently warm temperatures and effective precipitation during the growing season.
Layzell, A.L., Andrzejewski, K.A., Mandel, R.D. and Hanson, P.R., 2024. Landscape and paleoenvironmental change in stream valleys of the Central Great Plains, North America, during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (ca. 59–27 ka). Quaternary Science Reviews, 338, p.108830. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108830
Stingray feeding on shrimp, clams, and worms living within the seafloor; pockmarks are created by fish feeding on animals living close to the seafloor surface
(See more images from this research on page 48.)
The upper part of the Lower Cretaceous to the lower part of the Upper Cretaceous (Aptian-Cenomanian) Dakota Group along the Colorado Front Range is famous for its dinosaur tracks, particularly those that occur at the internationally known National Natural Landmark Dinosaur Ridge. Each year a quarter of a million people visit this tracksite, which is part of the Dinosaur Megatracksite, also known as the Dinosaur Freeway, that stretched along the Western Interior Seaway (WIS) from New Mexico to Colorado.
However, many people have wondered what other animals lived in this area where the dinosaurs lived and traveled through during their lifetimes. As a matter of fact, many of those Dakota Group outcrops are replete with an array of odd markings, known as trace fossils, that were made by microbes, plants, and animals that lived in continental, transitional, and marine environments at that time.
The task to formally organize, describe, and update the taxonomy of all these traces — known as ichnotaxonomy — was tackled by
Andrew Oligmueller, with the help of his advisor Stephen Hasiotis, and resulted in a monograph for his master’s degree, published in the online journal University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions Before this momentous undertaking, many trace fossils were misidentified, left in open nomenclature, or given incorrect names, which resulted in misinterpreted depositional environments and ecologic reconstructions.
Oligmueller’s research resulted in the description and compilation of 32 invertebrate ichnogenera and 34 ichnospecies, six tetrapod ichnogenera and three ichnospecies, and two types of plant root traces.
This research is important for scientists studying the Dakota Group in outcrop and core in the Front Range as well as elsewhere along the WIS for a number of reasons, related Oligmueller. First, trace fossils can be used to better interpret the paleoenvironmental and paleoecological settings of the strata. The invertebrate trace fossils are more accurate indicators of the physicochemical conditions that controlled organism distribution within the paleoenvironments along the WIS
coastline during the Late Cretaceous. Refinement of the depositional settings also improves the use of the Dakota Group outcrops in the Colorado Front Range as analogs for understanding subsurface reservoirs and seals in the Denver Basin.
Oligmueller, A.R. and Hasiotis, S.T., 2024. An ichnotaxonomic assessment of the Cretaceous Dakota Group, Front Range, Colorado, USA, and its comparison to other Western Interior Seaway deposits. University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions, no. 23, p. 1–87.
At top: The trace fossils Thalassinoides suevicus and Zoophycos insignis in the upper part of the Glencairn Formation in the Dakota Group at Skyline Drive, Cañon City, Colorado
Above: Adult and juvenile Caririchnium leonardii along with Magnoavipes caneeri, Muddy Formation, Dinosaur Ridge
Helical patterns occur in nature, ranging in size from the double helix (DNA), the helices of climbing plants, and the shell coiling of snails, to the helical burrows of invertebrate and vertebrate animals. Even humans use helices in the form of threads on screws and bolts, to springs and coils, to spiral (helical) stairwells in buildings.
The geologic record contains many examples of helical burrows since the Cambrian explosion (~540 million years ago) and are still produced by animals today. Helical burrowing by animals is considered an extended phenotype — where burrow architecture is an expression of the genotype of the organism. The question posed by Dr. Sean Doody, postdoc Shivam Shukla, and KU Geology professor Stephen Hasiotis in an article in Wiley’s Ecology and Evolution was, Why do animals construct helical burrows? The extended phenotype of helical burrowing in animals has evolved independently many times. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the evolution of helical burrowing in some taxa, but no one study has sought a general explanation that encompasses all taxa.
Helical burrows in extant taxa: A) Top-down view of a Varanus panoptes burrow; B) Side view of a Varanus gouldii burrow; C) Diagram depicting Varanus gouldii burrows; and D) Burrows of scorpions in genus Urodacus
The trio of scientists reviewed helical burrowing in extant and extinct animals including from those from the trace-fossil record and tested 10 hypotheses for why animals construct helical burrows, including new ideas based on their research. Six of these are post-construction hypotheses, benefits to the creator or offspring, realized after burrow construction — and four are construction hypotheses reflecting direct benefits to the creator during construction. Doody and Shukla focused their efforts on extant reptiles and mammals, whereas Hasiotis focused on trace fossil taxa and extant scorpion burrows. They examined the fit of each hypothesis to 21 taxa representing 77–188 species, based on natural history, behavior, and deductive reasoning, from published sources. Their analysis showed that increased drainage, deposit feeding, microbial farming, and offspring escape cannot explain helical burrowing behavior in the majority of taxa. Not one general explanation could be found to explain the evolution of helical burrowing in animals. Rather, the function and evolution of the helix as an extended phenotype provides different advantages for different taxa in different environments under different physicochemical controls.
Doody, J.S., Shukla, S., and Hasiotis, S.T., 2024. Why animals construct helical burrows: Construction vs. post-construction benefits. Ecology and Evolution, 2024; 14:e11181, p. 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.11181.
Behavioral strategies resulting in or from helical burrowing: A) Antipredator; B) Microclimate; C) Air pocket formation and sediment-fill; D) Switchback to helix; E) Biomechanical: rotational torque caused by sediment stiffening
All sorts of arachnids crawled around the coal forests of the Carboniferous in North America and Europe more than 300 million years ago. These included ones we recognize in the Midwest, such as spiders, harvestmen, and scorpions, as well exotic animals that now occur in warmer regions, such as whip spiders and whip scorpions.
But there were also quite bizarre arachnids in these Carboniferous habitats belonging to now extinct groups. Even among these stranger species now lost to time, one might have stood out for its up-armored legs. This led two scientists to conclude it doesn’t belong in any of the known arachnid orders.
The ancient critter, Douglassarachne acanthopoda, was recently described in a new paper published in the Journal of Paleontology, co-written by Paul Selden, distinguished professor emeritus from the University of Kansas Department of Geology and the Natural History Museum of London, and Jason Dunlop from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.
Selden stated, “Douglassarachne acanthopoda comes from the famous Mazon Creek locality in Illinois and is about 308 million years old. This compact arachnid had a body length of about 1.5 centimeters and is characterized by its remarkably robust and spiny legs — such that it is quite unlike any other arachnid known, living or extinct.”
acanthopoda, named for its up-armored spiny legs, has resemblance to modern harvestmen spiders, but with a more experimental body plan.
“The genus name Douglassarachne acknowledges the Douglass family, who kindly donated the specimen to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago for scientific study once it became apparent that it represented an undescribed species,” said Dunlop. “Then, acanthopoda refers to the unique and characteristic spiny legs of the animal.”
“Spiders were a rather rare group, only known at that time from primitive lineages, and they shared these ecosystems with various arachnids which have long since died out,” said Dunlop. “Douglassarachne acanthopoda is a particularly impressive example of one of these extinct forms. The fossil’s very spiny legs are reminiscent of some modern harvestmen, but its body plan is quite different from a harvestman or any other known arachnid group.”
According to the team, Mazon Creek fossil locality is one of the most important windows into life in the late Carboniferous, producing a wide range of fascinating plants and animals. The present fossil was discovered in a clay-ironstone concretion in the 1980s by Bob Masek and later acquired by the David and Sandra Douglass Collection and displayed in their Prehistoric Life Museum.
Note: The original story by Brendan Lynch at the KU News Service was edited for the G-Hawker
Most of us have seen or come across beaver workings in and around the areas where we live — from chewed remains of small fallen trees with ends that looked like they were put into a pencil sharpener, to small ponds behind dams of sticks and mud with a lodge in it. These ecosystem engineers are important for creating new habitats for an array of plants and animals by changing the landscape.
However, when you find beaver gnaw marks on trees at 1 m, 2 m, even 4 m above the ground you suddenly realize something out of the ordinary is going on there!
That was exactly the feeling Stephen Hasiotis got when out for a motorcycle ride around Perry Lake, Kansas, with partner Shelley Hepler. When he realized the markings were made by beavers, he contacted his friend and colleague Ilya Buynevich at Temple University, who was working on >20 sites with traces of resurgent beaver activity along streams around Philadelphia. They both realized that the Kansas beavers weren’t capable of superorganism feats, but recorders of the flood levels in Lake Perry that in 2019 almost overtopped the dam and filled it to 97% capacity.
Buynevich and Hasiotis undertook research on the morphology and distribution of gnaw markings to publish a preliminary report in a Ukrainian-led venue on this incredible find, which is still under study. The series of distinct tree damage areas with clusters of double-grooves are interpreted as beaver gnaw marks, identified by clear sets of subhorizontal incisor traces. Compared to previously published beaver workings, the Lake Perry markings occur at anomalously high elevations above the ground. Recognition of tree gnaw markings and associated traces has major implications for paleoflood reconstructions, as well as historical riparian ecology and ichnological record of beavers in the geologic record.
Buynevich, a native of Ukraine, points out that these ecosystem engineers are playing a role in the Ukrainian fight against Russian invaders. In some forested parts of the country, especially in the north, locals are halting the annual removal of beaver dams that normally trigger flooding of roads, homesteads, orchards, and farmlands. With dams intact, rapidly expanding areas of wet, boggy marshlands impede or preclude passage by heavy armored vehicles, exemplifying an unexpected defensive military benefit of the keystone landscape engineer.
Buynevich, I.V. and Hasiotis, S.T., 2024. Anomalously elevated beaver gnaw marks: image analysis and paleo-flood implications. Topical Aspects of Modern Scientific Research: Proceedings of VIII International Scientific and Practical Conference. CPN Publishing Group, Tokyo, Japan, p. 208–216.
Andrea (Boyd) Steinle, B.S. 1990, M.S. 1996, Chair Geology Associates Advisory Board
KU Geology’s research impacts global advances in an incredible array of fields.
Time has a funny way of seeming to plod along; then, suddenly, you realize how quickly the seasons have flown by. I am well into my third and final year as chair of the Geology Associates Advisory Board, and I’ve been reflecting on the number of changes I have seen during my term.
Not only have we seen old and new members rotate through their terms of service, but we will be rotating through our executive board members at the close of our spring 2025 GAAB meeting, adding a new vice chair and letting Ron Wallace exit his role as past chair. I’d like to thank Ron for his many great years of service to the GAAB and the executive board. Ron has worked tirelessly as an advocate for our mentoring program as well as continuing to run classes with the department to educate students on environmental and hydrogeologic issues. He has also been a valuable executive board member, bringing his insight and previous experience to the table. Thank you, Ron!
Additionally, the board has worked to improve and strengthen the way we run our business. We have sought guidance through surveys and discussions to incorporate the latest social and technologic strategies in our meetings, while still retaining the purpose — supporting the faculty and students in the KU Department of Geology. We have reset our committees to align with the bylaw requirements and we have standardized presentation materials to help reduce preparation time drain on the department staff. Change is constant and we will continue to evolve our meeting formats to create a strong, efficient, and meaningful experience for the board and the department.
The department has also seen changes with new partnerships, new staff, and new faculty. The greatest challenges for those in a university department — aside from the constant need to update and upgrade equipment, provide competitive compensation to faculty/staff, and recruit/maintain healthy student enrollment — is to be leaders in research. KU Geology’s research programs impact global advances in an incredible array of earth, energy, and environmental fields from climate change to groundwater protection to carbon exploration, usage, and storage.
One notable but incredibly necessary change brought to the forefront during my term is the Field Camp Modernization Project. To date we have received just over $400,000 in support of this project. Over the past several years we have received a great deal of support and yet we still need your help in realizing this goal.
This fall a GAAB field camp committee was formed to work with KU Endowment and the department on the planning process, finding ways the GAAB can help with stepping closer to moving dirt! Please consider ways that you can help to bring about this change through: 1) making connections for corporate leads; 2) recommending foundations with missions aligned with this project; and/or 3) supporting individually as an alum or as part of an alumni group.
Though traditional “boots on the ground” have been and will be cornerstones to field mapping, changes in technology allow drones and other remote sensing techniques to provide data previously inaccessible. Our field courses should be designed to facilitate modern techniques, and our field station should provide safe and comfortable accommodations for our future geologists.
One thing that has not changed and continues to be a high point for our board and alumni is getting to see each other throughout the year, especially at our receptions. This year the department hosted events in Lawrence, Kansas; in Houston, Texas; and in Anaheim, California. Staying connected is an important element in maintaining communication and fostering Jayhawk camaraderie. Thank you all for attending when you can!
My final words for the G-Hawker as advisory chair are to thank you all for your support during my term as well as the wonderful support you provide to the department. The department values the support from us in all capacities. We are an invaluable asset to the department, whether we are volunteering time to help mentor or teach short courses, helping to forge connections with industry, or providing the ever-important funding to update labs, support scholarships, and, most certainly, renew the outstanding KU field experience reputation with much-needed improvements.
We are an amazing team when we work together, and I look forward to continuing my role as a past chair starting next spring and as a GAAB member for years to come. I hope to see many of you along the way. Thank you for all that you bring to KU Geology!
PREVIOUS CHAIRS
MERRILL W. HAAS: 1971–1989
HUBERT H. HALL: 1990–1994
WILLIAM L. ADAMS: 1995–1999
WILLIAM D. POLLARD: 2000–2004
SCOTT D. ADAMS: 2005–2008
JAMES M. FUNK: 2009–2012
STEVE C. DIXON: 2013–2016
BRADFORD E. PRATHER: 2017–2019
RON WALLACE: 2020–2022
ANDREA STEINLE
Chair of the Advisory Board
Senior Geologist Jonah Energy
DAVID A. FOWLE
Chair and Dean’s Professor Department of Geology University of Kansas
RICK ABEGG
Exploration Review Team Earth Science Consultant, Upstream HQ Chevron
JOEL ALBERTS
President Chalk Creek Production Co., LLC
ERNEST E. ANGINO** Professor Emeritus Department of Geology University of Kansas
STEVE J. BLANKE
Retired Occidental Petroleum Corporation
ALLYSON ANDERSON BOOK
Vice President Energy Transition Baker Hughes
RAUL F. BRITO
President & Principal Brito Oil Company, Inc.
STEPHEN BURNS
Owner B-4 Oil & Gas
NICK CESTARI
Senior Staff Geologist
PEOR Development Projects Occidental Petroleum Corporation
DAVE CLOTHIER
Retired McCoy Petroleum Corporation
GEORGE COYLE Managing Partner Energy Innovation Capital
MACKENZIE CREMEANS Project Hydrogeologist Geosyntec Consultants
SARAH DARBY Vice President Geology Parsage Oil
PETER M. DILLETT Vice President of Geology Birch Resources, LLC
STEVE DIXON** Investor
RONALD DRAKE Assessment Geologist U.S. Geological Survey
MARTIN DUBOIS Retired Improved Hydrocarbon Recovery, LLC
GONZALO ENCISO Oil and Gas Consultant
KRISTIE FERGUSON President KLF Geological Consulting, LLC
WILLIAM L. FISHER** Professor and Barrow Chair Emeritus Department of Geological Sciences The University of Texas at Austin
JIM FUNK** President J. M. Funk & Associates, Inc.
NATHAN A. GEIER Geophysicist Coterra Energy Inc.
BOB GOLDSTEIN** Haas Distinguished Professor Department of Geology University of Kansas
KYLE GORYNSKI Advisor Chesapeake Energy
ALLAN HEMMY Senior Geologist Kolilbri Global Energy
BOB HENTHORNE Vice-President, Geotechnical Engineering Professional Engineering Consulstants
STEPHEN R. HOFFINE Retired Burns & McDonnell
CHRISTOPHER W. HOLIEN Retired ConocoPhillips
DAVID McBRIDE** Retired ExxonMobil Exploration
JOHN McCLURE Retired Detech Inc.
KENT McDONALD Retired USD 497, Lawrence, Kansas
ALEX NOLTE Geophysicist ExxonMobil
SANDRA PERRY Partner/Owner Perry Remote Sensing LLC Vice President Emerald Operating Co.
JIM PHILLIPS President/Agent Phillips Exploration, L.C.
WILLIAM D. POLLARD Retired Burnett Oil Company
BRAD PRATHER Managing Member CarTerra, LLC
BILL REETZ Regional Sales Manager, Key Accounts Manager QED Environmental Systems
CLAYTON ROARK Retired Koch Exploration Company, LLC
DEBRA RUTAN Retired CrownQuest Operating, LLC
ARTHUR SALLER Geological Consultant
BLAIR SCHNEIDER Associate Researcher & Scientific Outreach Manager Kansas Geological Survey
CRAIG SLAWSON Founder Slawson Energy, LLC
JIM SNYDER President Snyder Exploration Co.
ANDREW SPARKS Business Development JDH Capital
GEORGE STANLEY Professor Emeritus, Department of Geosciences Director, Paleontology Center University of Montana
SUSAN STOVER Retired Kansas Geological Survey
ERIC VOGL Retired ExxonMobil
RON WALLACE Retired Georgia Department of Natural Resources
TONY WALTON** Associate Professor Emeritus Department of Geology University of Kansas
STACEY WELTMER Retired ExxonMobil
JULIE WESTHOFF Principal Kennedy/Jenks Consultants
BOB WILLIAMS JR. Certified Petroleum Geologist #4573 Pathway Petroleum, LLC & Pathfinder Minerals, LLC
**Honorary Life Members
—by Marina Suarez, associate professor
On January 24, 2024, I got my first glimpse of my home away from home for about a month and half this year: James Ross Island, an island off of the Antarctic peninsula. The dark-colored rock in the distance contrasted with the icebergs floating along the RRS Sir David Attenborough in Santa Marta Cove.
I’ve never been a cold-weather person, but it’s hard to say no to a once-in-a-lifetime experience. This area wasn’t always icy in the geologic past, though, and that is what brought our team here.
I’ve always been fascinated by the Cretaceous Period (~145 to 66 Ma) — from the age of 6 when I started collecting shallow marine Cretaceous fossils in South Texas, to today and my first trip to the Southern Hemisphere. The climate system during the Cretaceous has typically been characterized as a greenhouse with estimates for the temperatures in the mid-30s°C (mid to upper 90s°F) in tropical latitudes and in the teens at the polar regions. Estimates of CO2 concentration ranged from 2x to 14x modern CO2 levels.
Fossils indicate that the polar regions likely hosted lush environments — and that is specifically where our team, led by principal investigator Brian Atkinson (KU Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and KU Biodiversity Institute) and co-investigator Selena Smith (Earth and environmental sciences, University of Michigan) was aiming. Their NSF-funded project to study the plants of James Ross Island got the green light in 2023. Brian, knowing my love of the Cretaceous and expertise in Cretaceous continental stratigraphy and paleoclimatology, asked if I’d be willing to join his team. A mixture of excitement and terror went through my head when I read the email. One of my excitements about returning to KU as faculty five years ago was the chance to expand my collaborations. I had invited Brian to give a geology colloquium a couple of years prior to his email.
The idea of going to Antarctica, though, seemed a bit terrifying — and I won’t lie, the recently publicized bullying and harassment that people, especially women scientists, have suffered also gave me pause. Beyond that, my father had recently suffered a stroke and much of my time in the spring of 2023 was spent flying back and forth between Texas and Kansas. After a lot of deliberation and discussions with friends and family, I decided, though with still a healthy dose of fear, to go for it.
Previous page: View of James Ross Island, Antarctica, from the deck of the RSS Sir David Attenborough
The “Arctic Oven,” our cook, dining, and socializing tent
The Cretaceous rocks of James Ross Island range from Santonian to Campanian (~86 Ma to 72 Ma); though refining this age constraint is one of my goals. The strata come from the Hidden Lake, Santa Marta, and Snow Hill Island formations. These formations consist of sediments that were shed from the Antarctic peninsula active margin. Depositional environments likely ranged from coastal to mid-shelf and submarine debris flow. Many of the rocks were likely lithified quickly as our target fossils (a wide array of fossil plants) were preserved in concretions prior to significant compaction.
On January 8, Brian, Rudy Serbet, paleobotany collections manager at KU, and I squeezed into an airport transportation van along with our gear to Kansas City International Airport. It was about –13°C (8°F) in Kansas — and when I checked the weather in James Ross Island, it was actually warmer ... still below freezing, but not that far below freezing — so I thought maybe it won’t be so bad. In Atlanta, we met up with more of our team. Selena Smith, Eric Roberts (stratigrapher at Colorado School of Mines), and Monica Carvalho (Earth and environmental sciences, University of Michigan). It was great to meet in person — for months we had been meeting on Zoom — and to have a beer before for our long flight to Chile. Once we were in Punta Arenas, Chile, we met our camp manager and field implementor, Diane Hutt (Antarctic support contract); our field safety guide, Mark Whetu (New Zealand); and another collaborator, Ari Iglesias (National Scientific and Technical Research Council [CONICET], Argentina).
Under Diane’s direction, we spent a week packing our gear. Everything we would need to get through 40 days — food, water, gear, tents, sleeping bags, emergency kits, rock hammers, shovels, picks, rock bags, etc. — all had to be packed into a shipping container to be transported by the Sir David Attenborough (SDA).
On January 17, we departed Punta Arenas. As we pulled away from the port, we saw several whales, which I decided to take as good luck.
After traversing the Drake Passage, we came to Day 1 of our expedition, the put in. Two other team members (Mark and Eric) and I made landfall in Santa Marta Cove from the Terror (a landing craft on the SDA with a crane). Along with us were volunteers from the crew of the SDA. Our job was to get our main shelter set up: a large, elongate, dome-shaped tent called the “Arctic Oven.” This was our galley. The rest of the team unloaded the rest of our shipping container onto a spit about a mile (1.6 km) to the east–southeast of our proposed camp site where the water was deeper. From the spit, Ari and Monica were tasked with ferrying our kit over to the campsite using an ATV and trailer.
After hopping off a Zodiac (also called a Humber) and exchanging my Muck Boots for hiking boots, we began the approximate half-mile (0.8 km) hike to our camp over rocky land cut by small slushy streams. It began snowing as we started to approach the location on our GPS — wet, slushy snow, the worst kind for
setting up a camp. Despite this, we got to work digging trenches around the footprint of the tent to anchor the guy lines of the tent with a technique that was new to me. Using slings around about 1.5- to 2-foot (46–61 cm) lengths of bamboo buried in the trench, we created very secure anchors for our guy lines. At about lunchtime, a second set of volunteers arrived from the SDA to relieve the first set and to bring us a nice hot lunch from the kitchen staff of the SDA.
At some point Ari and Monica arrived covered in mud. The ATV trailer didn’t work as we expected and muddy streams draining toward the cove really hampered the transport of equipment from the spit to the camp site. Despite this, slowly but surely the camp began to take shape. While I had my doubts about getting it set up before the end of the day, we accomplished our objective. By morning, the volunteers and the SDA were gone from Santa Marta Cove, and we were on our own for the next 40 days.
After spending the next day finishing camp setup, our third day on the island was the first field day to start our exploration of the outcrop. We hiked to a small canyon within about a mile (1.6 km) of camp. We headed to an area where previous workers had documented some fossils in their field notes. While not far, the trek was a little harder than I expected. Hiking in multiple layers across significant scree composed of Miocene volcanics and underlain by very fine, wet, squishy alluvial mud made walking quite slow.
“I’ve never been a cold-weather person, but it’s hard to say no to a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
—Marina Suarez
I got my first glimpse of a fossil along the way — something I least expected, a solitary Scleractinid coral in a sandstone fragment. This was not something I expected in siliciclastic rocks very far from the tropics where one expects to see corals. Turns out these cold-water corals are not as uncommon as I thought. Our paleobotany leaders quickly started finding their targets: concretions with plant fossils. The most obvious to me were the petrified wood fragments, some with invertebrate borings; less obvious were the small brown blebs, which I was told are fossil seeds and/or fruits (prime targets for our paleobotany friends).
Meanwhile, Eric and I started our strategies for where we would describe and collect a stratigraphic section. The plan for me was to collect bulk sedimentary samples to generate a carbon isotope stratigraphic record. For his part, Eric targeted samples for detrital zircon U-Pb analyses and mollusk fragments for Sr-isotope analyses. This site,
which we ended up naming Pretty Creek, yielded 95 samples, including strontium and zircon samples.
Carbon isotope chemostratigraphy is widely utilized throughout the Cretaceous Period to constrain and correlate sections across different depositional environments. The premise behind this is that, in a well-mixed ocean-atmosphere system, perturbations to the carbon cycle affect the carbon isotope value of surface ocean water and the atmosphere in contact with it. The CO2 in the atmosphere is the source of carbon for primary producers on land and in the ocean, so measuring the carbon isotope value of either bulk organic carbon or carbonate carbon (with some caveats), changing through time, often results in characteristic positive or negative isotope excursions. While the later part of the Cretaceous Period does not have carbon isotope excursions as large as does the Early Cretaceous, a number of events do occur that
I hope to identify, including the Santonian-Campanian Boundary Event, the Mid-Campanian event, the Late Campanian event, and the Campanian-Maastrichtian Boundary Event.
On the fifth day of our trip, the plan was to hike to one of the further sites from which plants had been reported to the west of our camp over the San Jose Pass. Rather than going over the pass, we decided to walk along a drainage that takes us past one of the Island’s many glaciers, San Jose Glacier. Along the way, we stopped to take a breather and saw many large boulders that had tumbled down the scree slope below the glacier. This became a fortuitous glance as we began to identify an abundance of fossils in the boulders that are in concretionary conglomerates. The conglomerate clasts included potato-sized concretions that encased plant fossils, bone fragments, and fish, as well as other invertebrates, including crustaceous, bivalve fragments, and basketball-sized ammonite fragments! I’ve never seen such a variety of fossils in a single boulder. This became a major site for us, and we returned many times during our trip. Several of the fossils I collected contained early calcite cements. This excited me because it is my hope that we will be able to date these carbonate phases using uranium substitutions in the calcite crystal structure, something that our KU Isotope Geochemistry Lab is refining with great success.
As the field work progressed, we fell into a routine. At each site the paleobotanists fanned out and started collecting bags and bags of concretions. Eric and I scouted for good outcrop to describe, measure, and sample. We cached samples at a
convenient location, and either Mark or Diane gathered the samples and transported them back to camp with the ATV.
We ended up being lucky with only a few bad weather days — snow, rain, or katabatic winds, or all three. While the snow and winds were difficult to deal with, especially for me — as the smallest person on the team, I could easily be blown over — it’s the boredom and the missing home that was the worst part of the weather days. To combat this, Diane kept us all in good spirits by making great food. I’ve not eaten so well in the field before. We even worked out how to make brownies on one of those days. While one of the negatives of Antarctica is that it is cold, it is also a positive. There is no need to try to keep food cold; food can stay in coolers or plastic bins outside. With no major land-based predators or pests (or even bugs), we didn’t need to worry about critters getting into things. And on the days that it did warm above freezing, we simply needed to drive the ATV to the shore to collect pieces of icebergs for the coolers. The constantly changing weather led to beautiful skies. I always marveled at the colors and shapes of clouds.
By Day 40, we had collected approximately nine tons of rock, which we assembled near the coast for pickup. The SDA arrived and repeated the process of Day 1 in reverse. The crew of the SDA and the onboard science team, who were at sea the entire time, were eager to set foot on solid ground, and so on our take-out day were greeted by lots of smiling faces to help shuttle our gear and precious samples back to the ship. There were definitely a few times in which I held my breath as the Terror craned our rock boxes aboard. I couldn’t help thinking about a cable snapping, sending all of our hard work to the bottom of the ocean but, luckily, they made it onboard. By evening, we were on our way back to South America.
The amazing trip was just the start of what I hope to be a long, collaborative relationship with my fellow James Ross Islanders. We have begun planning new potential funding opportunities. My hope is that we can strengthen our collaborations with our fellow colleagues. Andreas Moeller (KU Geology) has already agreed to collaborate with the potential to date early calcite cements. The work of scientists such as Brian Atkinson who seek to understand the trajectory of biological evolution and the response of ecosystems to changing climate is vital for our understanding of future Earth. We geologists play a critical role in understanding the timing and climate context of ecosystem evolution. The samples arrived in Lawrence, Kansas, on July 3, 2024. I can’t wait to be able to share with everyone the new knowledge we will glean from our research. Stay tuned.
Q. A.
Sam Zipper, an assistant scientist at the Kansas Geological Survey and, since January 2024, assistant professor in the KU Department of Geology, was recently highlighted in KU’s “I Am Striving” video series. This is a good opportunity to introduce him to you, too.
EXPLAIN YOUR RESEARCH AS YOU WOULD EXPLAIN IT TO SOMEONE OUTSIDE YOUR FIELD, SUCH AS YOUR GRANDPARENTS.
I’m an ecohydrologist, and what ecohydrologists do is study interactions between ecosystems and the water cycle. For me, that focuses on agricultural areas and how agriculture uses water resources for things like irrigation; and also how agriculture affects water resources by changing how the plants are using water; and, ultimately, what that means as far as runoff into groundwater, rivers, and streams.
Q. A.
WHAT DOES YOUR RESEARCH LOOK LIKE? WHAT METHODS DO YOU USE?
My work uses a mixture of field-based data collection — going out to rivers, streams, and wells and collecting information about where the water is and how it’s moving. It uses data science from publicly available datasets like the U.S. Geological Survey, streamflow data, or meteorological data collected by other organizations. We also use computational modeling tools to do simulations of how under different management or climate practices we might expect the water resources to change. By putting those three different types of methods together, we can develop a holistic understanding of how different interactions might affect surface water resources, groundwater resources, and what that means for the environment and society.
Q. A.
Like many geologists, I started just because I like to go outside and play around in rivers and streams and lakes. But the reason that I’ve stuck with ecohydrology, specifically, is that it’s very timely science. Water challenges are growing every day here in Kansas and around the world. And it’s really valuable for me to be doing work on topics that we need answers and solutions to quickly. And so doing this work, looking at how humans interact with the water cycle, can hopefully help us understand what types of solutions we can use to address a lot of challenges that we’re facing now.
Q. A.
One of the biggest realizations I had when I was coming into the world of hydrologic science is that, at this point, humans are one of the main drivers of the water cycle. In geology, we think a lot about different geological time periods, like the Triassic, when the dinosaurs were around. And right now, lots of people argue that we’re now in the Anthropocene, in which humans are the dominant factor that’s shaping how the world around us works. The research that I do focuses on how humans affect water resources, and how those water resources, in turn, affect things like the economy, agricultural production, and those other types of activities. This helps us understand how the world of physical science and how the world of society can kind of come together.
I think our research has an impact on Kansas because we’re addressing the challenges that Kansans face every day. As part of the Kansas Geological Survey, we work closely with other groups around the state, like groundwater management districts, K-State extension programs, nonprofit groups like Friends of the Kaw or the Nature Conservancy, all of whom care deeply about the water resources in the state and how those water resources can serve ecosystems and society. So, what we try to provide are the scientific underpinning that they can use to make the right decisions with their organizations and their constituencies. We’re policy neutral here at KGS. We don’t take positions about what people can or should do. But a really critical role is providing the facts and the information that other groups can then go and take to make the decisions that they need to meet their needs.
“It’s very timely science.”
—Sam Zipper
I can give two examples. One study that we’ve got going on right now is focused on climate change and the future of the Kansas River watershed. The Kansas River comes right here through downtown Lawrence; I bring my kids down there all the time to go play and look at the river. One of the big concerns that I was starting to hear after I moved to Kansas is that western Kansas is facing so many challenges with aquifer depletion and limited water supplies. How do we avoid that here in eastern Kansas? This project is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and we’re bringing together a team of agricultural and climate modelers, hydrologists, biogeochemists, and geographers to study both physical and social change. Looking out 50 or 70 years for this watershed, how are the water resources ultimately going to change? And how might they respond to different types of management strategies? And, then, how can we ensure that agriculture can adapt in a way that is still able to be productive, profitable, and viable without having negative impacts like we’re seeing in western Kansas where we’re having major problems with aquifer depletion?
Another project that we’re working on actively right now tries to use satellite data to understand how people are deploying water conservation actions in western Kansas. When people are irrigating, they are changing the amount of water that’s moving from the plants up into the atmosphere. And so, we’re working with satellite data developed by NASA and other organizations to track where on the landscape is water being managed differently and how different management practices ultimately affect the amount of water that’s being used and the response of the groundwater system. We’re working together with a lot of partners out in western Kansas, including a number of different farmers, extension agents, and different groups to help figure out how we can help take these new advanced digital tools and integrate them into the day-to-day management activities of agricultural communities and agricultural organizations, all to help people make decisions that are going to help them manage water resources in an efficient and responsible way.
This feature is edited from an interview and video conducted by Vincent Munoz at the University of Kansas Office of Research. The video from the original interview is available online at youtube.com/watch?v=hB4oPvpyLyg
GEOLOGY 556 HYDRO CAMP
SPRING 2024 FIELD SEMINAR IN SPAIN
The next time you visit the Harrison Field Station in Cañon City, Colorado, you may notice six yellow, metal boxes standing tall among the weeds.
The boxes protect shallow groundwater monitoring wells that were installed during last summer’s GEOL 556 Field Methods in Hydrology course. The wells were made possible by a generous joint donation from our industry partner, GDI Drilling, and KU Geology alumnus, John McClure. Thanks to Dean and Eric Stedman, owners of GDI Drilling in Colorado Springs, Colorado, students in KU’s Professional Science Master’s (PSM) in environmental geology program were introduced to state-of-the-art drilling and well installation methods conducted using a rotosonic drilling rig.
Associated borehole logging, well construction, and groundwater sampling exercises were part of the class, affectionately known as “hydro camp.” These exercises were enhanced by insightful advice from John, a former environmental professional with more than 20 years of drilling experience.
This year’s hydro camp was also supported by a presentation on mine effluent management at the Carlton Tunnel by Ron Parratt of Newmont Mining (Victor, Colorado). Representatives of
Geotech Environmental Equipment (Denver, Colorado), Nikko Aragon and Andrew Visco, presented low-flow groundwater sampling methods and XRF analysis of soil metals, rounding out our introduction to contaminated site monitoring.
As part of the drilling event, the geology department hosted an open house for alumni, neighbors, and the driller’s clients.
The PSM students traveled from Colorado, Kansas, and West Virgina to be part of the class, meeting in person for the first time at the Harrison Field Station. The GEOL 556 class is offered each July by Dr. Marcia Schulmeister, and it is available to traditional and remote KU students, and to working professionals who seek continuing education credits (CEUs) in support of professional geology licensure.
Above: KU hosts a drilling demonstration and open house for alumni, neighbors, and the driller’s clients as part of the two-day drilling event.
At left: One well is installed immediately adjacent to Fourmile Creek, allowing for the evaluation of stream-aquifer interaction at the Harrison Field Station.
Students in the spring 2024 field seminar enjoy geology with a view in southeast Spain
What do castles, carbonate rocks, and calamares have in common?
The spring 2024 field seminar brought a dozen students to the Mediterranean coast of southeast Spain. This field course — led by professors Evan Franseen and Bob Goldstein, with contributions from Diana Ortega-Ariza, assistant scientist for the Kansas Geological Survey and a courtesy professor for the KU Department of Geology — prepared students with lectures and readings about tectonics of the Iberian Peninsula, cool water and tropical carbonates, coralgal reefs, evaporites, microbialites, deepwater sedimentation, sequence stratigraphy, and paleotopographic controls on sediment distribution.
The field seminar featured work that Evan, Bob, and their students had done on the rocks of the region, much of which had been transformed into field
exercises. For the exercises, the students formed into teams, made their own observations, and reported out to the group. This resulted in lively debates about interpretations, which honed students’ logic and presentation skills.
Travel and lodging for each student was heavily subsidized by donations from Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and individual geology donors. The students greatly appreciated the help, realizing that without that
assistance the trip could not have moved forward.
This field seminar also marked a milestone of sorts. Evan Franseen started working on these rocks more than 40 years ago for his dissertation, and he and Bob have been working together on them for about 35 years, co-advising many incredibly talented students. About halfway through the field trip, Evan’s retirement from the University of Kansas became official. He said to Bob, “I am now retired so you lead the rest of the trip.”
He was only joking, of course — both Evan and Bob love leading this trip together and neither wanted to miss a minute of it!
At top: Bob, Evan, and Diana are happy to be leading a field trip in Spain, and Ellis Fangmann is happy that they are happy.
At left: The group on Mesa Roldan Photos courtesy Hannah Proffitt
Keep looking back to see ahead
Sarah Lamm, a fourth-year doctoral candidate under Dr. Claire Marshall, completed a mission in April 2024 as an analog astronaut and crew geologist at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) near Hanksville, Utah. As part of Crew 297, Lamm and her five teammates spent two weeks living and working in an isolated habitat that simulates life on Mars.
During the mission, the crew lived in an 8-meter wide, two-story habitat, which served as both their living quarters and main workspace. They also had access to a repair and maintenance module, a science dome, and a greenhouse. Fresh food was rare, except for the fresh bread and a small greenhouse harvest of 2.52 kg of herbs and vegetables. Water was also in limited supply, so the goal was to conserve as much as possible, with Crew 297
averaging just 4.3 gallons per person per day. To further simulate life on Mars, communication with Earth was restricted to email with no attachments and a 20-minute delay to mimic the 6to 40-minute data lag astronauts would experience on Mars.
Venturing outside the habitat, known as extra-vehicular activities (EVA), required full spacesuit gear. Lamm participated in eight EVAs, logging 19 hours in a >30-pound suit, leading most of these excursions. On most EVAs, they drove to a destination in one of the four electric “rovers” (utility terrain vehicles).
Lamm’s personal research during the mission focused on testing a portable gamma-ray spectrometer in the field, a last-minute change after the original planned instrument broke just weeks before the mission.
Despite the setback, she found the spectrometer to be a practical tool for astronauts, requiring minimal training and performing well under the mission’s constraints. Her findings suggest that, while gamma-ray technology might not be the perfect choice, it remains a viable and durable option for planetary exploration.
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Sarah Lamm focused on testing a portable gamma-ray spectrometer during a two-week mission at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah
Each day in the habitat ended with psychological tests, part of a broader study on the mental wellbeing of crews in isolated and confined environments. Crew members were required to jot down notes about their day and interactions, then rate various factors, such as the number of positive or negative emotions they experienced, and assess their stress levels on a scale of 0–100. Lamm only once rated her stress level in the 40s, during a mild medical emergency in the field caused by issues with her spacesuit that led to it being retired permanently. Usually, her stress levels were in the 10–20s.
After completing her doctorate, Lamm hopes to work at a national laboratory, participating in spacecraft operations and conducting spectroscopic research on the surfaces of Mars and Titan.
Lamm thanks the Kansas Geological Survey for the use of their gamma-ray spectrometer, and the University of Kansas Department of Geology and graduate student travel fund for funding this trip.
KU Geology student team takes silver in international AAPG IBA CCS West competition
The American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) conducts annually the Imperial Barrel Award (IBA) competition where student teams from universities in sections and regions around the world analyze subsurface data sets to evaluate prospective hydrocarbon basins. Teams work intensively over a period of eight weeks and deliver their results in a 25-minute presentation to a panel of industry experts.
Over the past 25 years student teams from 88 countries and 577 universities have competed, including KU Geology; we won the U.S. Mid-Continent regional competitions in 2017 and 2021. In 2024, the IBA competition was expanded to include projects in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and in Geothermal Exploration.
The KU IBA team participated in the CCS West division where it placed second against teams from the University of Alberta (first place), San Diego State University (third place), University of Texas at Austin, University of Calgary, and Campinas State University (UNICAMP–Sao Paulo, Brazil). The team was mentored by alumni Karen Lechtenberg and Edward Washburn, graduate student Mary Ama Tsiboe, and KU Geology faculty George Tsoflias and Anthony Walton.
We are proud of our KU G-Hawk IBA team and wish the next year’s team success!
—by Alex Arimes
My master’s thesis project focuses on the sediment routing systems (SRS) of the fluvial-deltaic deposits of the upper part of the Upper Cretaceous Dakota Group along the Front Range of Colorado, and whether the surface between the fluvial and deltaic strata results from autogenic processes in the SRS or from such allogenic processes as sea level change.
The excellent exposures in the Colorado Front Range over a north–south distance of >500 km provide ample opportunity for an outcrop study of a fluvial-deltaic SRS. The deltaic component of the Dakota Group, the Ft. Collins Member of the Muddy Sandstone, represents the western shoreline of the Western Interior Seaway during the Kiowa-Skull Creek cycle. Previous studies have interpreted the surface between the overlying Horsetooth and Ft. Collins members to be unconformable and a classical sequence boundary formed in response to relative sea-level fall (i.e., allogenic process). However, a study from Nazworth (2017) yielded younger Maximum Depositional Ages (MDAs) for the Horsetooth Member than previously interpreted at ~98–100 Ma from biostratigraphy, raising the question of the driving mechanism of the boundary between the two members represents autogenic processes and is conformable.
As part of my research, I traveled to the Arizona LaserChron Center at the University of Arizona, Tucson, over the week of Labor Day. There, I performed LA-ICPMS U-Pb dating on 12 whole rock samples collected in total from all of my field locations. I was trained on how to pick zircons for analysis and how to use their
Thermo iCAP RQ quadrupole ICPMS by two postdocs, one of which is a KU alum! I picked 315 zircon grains from each sample for analysis using the aid of SEM thin-section images. Data reduction of the analysis results was done in-house at the lab, and I was shown how to use the data to create MDAs and Kernel Density Estimate (KDE) plots.
This trip was an amazing learning experience and vital for making progress on my research. MDAs are the primary evidence needed to answer the question I am asking for my research. One of the drivers of my research is the earlier study that yielded younger MDAs for the fluvial strata. If the MDAs from my analysis of deltaic strata statistically overlap the fluvial MDAs, then the boundary is autogenic.
MATTHEW ALLEN, Ph.D. geology
Geochemical Approaches to Studying Paleoecology in the Cretaceous Cloverly Formation Advisor: Marina Suarez
CODY BARNETT, M.S. geology
Spatiotemporal Trends in Basal Melt and Basal Crevasse Growth for Tidewater Glaciers in Northern Greenland Advisor: Leigh Stearns
SAMUEL BELDING, P.S.M. environmental geology
The Hidden Valley Seep: A Geophysical Investigation in Lawrence, Kansas Advisor: Marcia Schulmeister
RILEY BIEL, M.S. geology
Structural/Stratigraphic Examination of the Critical Mineral Content of Lower-Pennsylvanian Strata in the Cherokee-Forest City Basin Advisor: Stephan Oborny
MARGARET BIRMINGHAM, Ph.D. geology
Life in Extreme Environments: A Comprehensive Analysis of Biosignature Preservation in Gypsum Advisor: Alison Olcott
MARC CENTER, M.S. geology
Fluid flow and Deformation History of Denver Basin, CO Region: Insights From Petrographic and Geochemical Analyses of Calcite-filled Fracture Cements in the Niobrara Advisor: Andreas Moeller
CHRISTINE CHAN, Ph.D. geology Techniques and Applications for Dating Young Zircon from Death Valley, California and Taupō Volcanic Zone, New Zealand Advisor: Noah McLean
KIMBERLY CODDINGTON, P.S.M. environmental geology Differentiating Volatile Organic Compound Groundwater Contamination between Gas Migration and Leachate Infiltration in Landfill Monitoring Wells Advisor: Marcia Schulmeister
ELSON CORE, M.S. geology
Sedimentologic and Reservoir Character of a Tropical Mixed Heterozoan-Large Benthic Foraminifera-Volcaniclastic Ramp System, Northeastern Dominican Republic Advisor: Evan Franseen
LOGAN FRENCH, M.S. geology
Characterization of Groundwater-Lake Water Interactions at Unnamed Lake Near Bemidji, Minnesota Advisor: Rick Devlin
DAVIDSON GARWAY,
P.S.M. environmental geology Assessment and Mitigation of Coastal Sand Mining in Liberia Advisor: Marcia Schulmeister
ANDREW HOXEY, Ph.D. geology
Orogen-parallel Shear along the Western Nepal Fault System: Challenging 2D Models for Convergence and Informing Earthquake Hazard Preparedness Advisor: Mike Taylor
CATHERINE OPALKA, M.S. geology
Late Pleistocene (MIS 3 and 2)
Bioclimatic Change Inferred from the Geochemistry of Buried Alluvial Soils of the Central Great Plains, USA Advisor: Anthony Layzell
RYAN POWELL,
P.S.M. environmental geology
Vulnerability of Groundwater and Air Quality to a Chlorinated Solvent Release in Yonkers, New York Advisor: Marcia Schulmeister
HANNAH PROFFITT, M.S. geology
The Development of Efficient, Low-Cost Seismometers for Local Earthquake Monitoring Advisor: George Tsoflias
DRAE ROGERS,
P.S.M. environmental geology
Geochemical Evolution in a Neutral Mine Drainage System: An Investigation Along Fourmile Creek in Teller and Fremont County, Colorado Advisor: Marcia Schulmeister
TIMOTHY SHABAN,
P.S.M. environmental geology
Geochemical Analysis of Nutrients in Hydric Soils Flint Hills National Wildlife Refuge
Advisor: Marcia Schulmeister
ALEXANDRA STAUB, M.S. geology
Characterization of an Incised Valley Fill in the Aberdeen Member, Upper Cretaceous Blackhawk Formation, Book Cliffs, Utah
Advisor: Diane Kamola
JOSLYNN VANDERSLICE,
P.S.M. environmental geology
Water Levels and Nitrate
Concentrations in the Elkorn River Natural Resource District of Nebraska Network
Advisor: Marcia Schulmeister
EMILY VASKO, P.S.M. environmental geology
A Comparative Analysis of PFAS Groundwater Concentrations Using Purge Sampling Strategies in Northern Alabama
Advisor: Marcia Schulmeister
ABDULLAH WAHBI, Ph.D. geology
Reconstructing Ancient ContinentalScale Sediment Routing Systems: Source-to-Sink Analysis of the Early Cretaceous McMurray Formation of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin
Advisor: Mike Blum
Undergraduate Program
NICOLAS FLORES, B.S. general geology
NICHOLAS GREER, B.S. general geology
MAKENNA HARRIS, B.S. general geology
PETER MAYNARD, B.S. environmental geology
GASTON MEYA, B.S. general geology
GRACE NELSON, B.S. environmental geology
MICHAEL RABENA, B.A. general geology
OLIVIA REED, B.S. environmental geology
KRISTEN SPINELLI, B.A. general geology
RORY SWEEDLER, B.S. general geology
Abbreviation Key
B.A. – Bachelor of Arts degree
B.S. – Bachelor of Science degree
P.S.M. - Professional Science Master’s degree
M.S. - Master of Science degree
Ph.D. – Doctor of Philosophy degree
Degrees awarded December 2024–Summer 2025 will be listed in the next issue.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) G.W. Caylor Grant
Nicholas Ferry
AAPG IBA CCS West Competition2nd Place
Ali Albulushi
Alex Arimes
Elynor Head
Westin Scott
Yakov Yermakov
AAPG R. Dana Russell Memorial Grant
ZJ Gao
American Geophysical Union (AGU) Scholarship
Saiful Apu
Apply-to-Sail Research Cruise Grant
Saiful Apu
Association for Women Geoscientists Awards (AWG)
AWG Osage Chapter Graduate Research Scholarship
Alex Arimes
Anna Weldon
AWG Osage Chapter Sean S. Thomson Service Scholarship
Alaura Custard
Cargèse International Workshop on Earthquakes by IESC Travel Grant
Saiful Apu
Geological Society of America (GSA)
ArcGIS Short Course Grant
Saiful Apu
GSA Geophysics and Geodynamics Division Best Student Presentation
2025
Hannah Proffitt
GSA Mineralogy, Geochemistry, Petrology, and Volcanology (MGPV) Division Travel Grant
Sarah Lamm
GSA Research Grant
ZJ Gao
GSA South Central Travel Grant
Saiful Apu
ZJ Gao
Geological Society, London–Research Grant
ZJ Gao
Houston Geological Society Calvert Scholarship
Nicholas Ferry
IODP Schlanger Fellowship
ZJ Gao
International Association of Sedimentologists (IAS) Post-graduate Research Grant
ZJ Gao
Kansas Geological Foundation Scholarship
Austin Bruner
Nicholas Ferry
Brian Heyer
Sarah Lamm
Hannah Proffitt
Madison and Lila Self Graduate Fellow 2020–2024
Nicholas Ferry
Madison and Lila Self Graduate Fellow 2021–2025
Bryan J. Rodriguez Colon
Madison and Lila Self Graduate Fellow 2023–2027
Dan Mongovin
Mars Interior and Geophysics after InSight Meeting by JPL Travel Grant
Saiful Apu
National Groundwater Association Farvolden Scholarship
Hanna Szydlowski
National Science Foundation International Sedimentary Geology Congress Travel Grant
Elynor Head
Seismological Society of America (SSA) Global Travel Grant
Saiful Apu
Society of American Military Engineers Greater Kansas City Scholarship
Nicholas Ferry
Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM) Student Research Grant
Alex Arimes
Marc Center
University of Kansas
KU Graduate Student Travel Grant
ZJ Gao
Sarah Lamm
KU International Enhancement Scholarship
Saiful Apu
KU Madison and Lila Self Memorial Scholarship
Alaura Custard
Erasmus Haworth Honor Awards
Undergraduate
Makenna Harris
Rory Sweedler
Master of Science
Hannah Proffitt
Doctor of Philosophy
Andrew Hoxey
Lee C. and Darcy Gerhard
Student Prize for Field Research in Geology
Margaret “Meg” Birmingham
Merriam Graduate Student Research Award
Dan Mongovin
Leo M. and Robert M. Orth
Water Resources Award
Patience Bosompemaa
Jan F. and Mary L. van Sant
Geology Excellence Award
Andreas Moeller
Geology Field Investigation Course GEOL 360
Alfred Ferguson Geology Scholarship
Laikyn Coursen
H.A. and Elsie Ireland Scholarship
Evanne Alstrom
Annelene Caruso
Megan Jenkins
Eliot Manning
D.A. McGee Scholarship
Benjamin Britt
John Bryant
Brooke Pryor
Study Abroad in Greece: Natural Environment and Civilizations Course GEOL 370
Joseph Minton Patterson Scholarship in Geology
Sean Brown
Abilene Cashman
Iris Cunningham
Braden Kendrick
Angelina Kirton Atkinson
Eliot Manning
Aleksa Mehmedovic
Field Methods in Hydrology Course GEOL 556
Louis F. & Bets Dellwig Geology Field
Camp Scholarship
Ellis Fangmann
Christopher Hilger
Saria Osman
Brendan Soles
Christina Tiggeman
Introductory Field Geology (Field Camp) Courses GEOL 560 & 561
Beu Geology Field Camp Scholarship
Ali Albulushi
Luis Aparicio
Caden Bokarae
Grace Dorst
Luke Maresh
Kristen Spinelli
Louis F. & Bets Dellwig
Geology Field Camp Scholarship
Mohammed Al-Shukaili
Nicolas Flores
Robert P. Harrison
Geology Camp Scholarship
Ali Albulushi
Caden Bokarae
Grace Dorst
Nicholas Greer
Luke Maresh
SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS FOR SUMMER 2024
Angino-Ferry
Geochemistry Scholarship
Hanna Szydlowski
Yakov Yermakov
Joneel Zinto
Henbest Scholarship in Geology
Alex Arimes
Marc Center
Xiaolin “Kevin” Han
Sarah Lamm
Roscoe G. Jackson II Graduate Research in Geology Award
Zuana Alam
Nick Ferry
Roger Kaesler Memorial Student Support Award
Margaret “Meg” Birmingham
Catherine Opalka
Colleen Sullivan
Anna Weldon
Dean A. McGee
Scholarship in Geology
Marc Center
Raymond C. and Lilian B. Moore
Scholarship
Margaret “Meg” Birmingham
James A. & Rowena E. Peoples
Scholarship in Geophysics
Hannah Proffitt
Andres Salamanca
Michael Shahin
Wallace E. Pratt Geology
Graduate Student Support Fund
Josh Colasante
Z.J. Gao
Cari Matthaei
Richard D. Smith Geology Scholarship
Alaura Custard
Ray P. Walters
Scholarship in Geology
Ellis Fangmann
Malisse Lummus
KU Rising Student Scholars Funded by James Minton Patterson Scholarship in Geology
Chancellor’s Scholarship
Laikyn Coursen
Braden Kendrick
Eliot Manning
Samuel Walters
Landon Woodworker
Traditions Award
Ayanna Spruill
Crimson & Blue Award
Luke Maresh
Jayhawk Scholarship
Audrey Brand
Abilene Cashman
Alec Waggoner Memorial Scholarship
Brooke Pryor
Alfred Ferguson Geology Scholarship
Grace Dorst
Avery Gustafson
Marian Hershberger
Willa Kay Kelpe
Braden Kendrick
Reagan Lee
Luke Maresh
Allysen McDaniel
Charles Micek
Andrew Paget
Pranav Puppala
Claire Romine
Shanise Sims
Ayanna Spruill
Imogene A. Herndon Scholarship
Logan Baker
Frederick T. Holden
Scholarship
Benjamin Allegeier
Mohammed Salim Al-Shukaili
Jonah Blake
Audrey Brand
Abilene Cashman
Laikyn Coursen
Kyle Davison
Elijah Ditto
Matthew Donnellan
Chandler Haganey
Noah Harty
Dequan Kent
Mussi Mereid
Morgan Stoughton
Bill D. & Carolyn A. Holland Scholarship
Tenley Bertz
H.A. & Elsie Ireland Scholarship
Timothy Burnett
Aaron Grumet
Freda and Roy Lehman Scholarship
Claire Butzlaff
Kimberly Cady
Dean A. McGee Scholarship in Geology
Luis Aparicio
Landon Woodworker
Raymond C. and Lilian B. Moore Scholarship
Evanne Angela Alstrom
Lillian Reed
Samuel Thomas
Jennifer Townsdin
Nathan Zet
Ralph C. Lamb Geology Scholarship
Caden Bokarae
Megan Jenkins
Cal Johnson
Eliot Manning
Joaquin Suazo
Samuel Walters
Ray P. Walters Scholarship in Geology
Sean Brown
Everett L. Bradley Memorial Scholarship
Ali Hassan Albulushi
Henbest Scholarship in Geology
Sara Armfield
The University of Kansas Department of Geology is pleased to announce the recent winners of the Erasmus Haworth Distinguished Alumni Award — in 2023 for Kathleen Counter Benison, Ph.D. 1997, and Jason R. Cansler, M.S. 2001, and in 2024 for Joel A. Alberts, B.S. 1980, and K. David Newell, Ph.D. 1996. Established in 1949 to recognize outstanding KU geologists for their contributions in academia or government service, the award is named for Erasmus Haworth (1855–1932), the first chair of the KU Department of Geology.
Kathleen “Kathy” Benison, Ph.D. 1997, grew up near the beach in Massachusetts, where she was interested in science and nature as a child. She earned a bachelor of science degree in geology and chemistry from Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts in 1990, a master of arts degree in geology from Binghamton University in New York in 1993, and a doctorate in geology from the University of Kansas in 1997. She worked at the Kansas Geological Survey during the last two years of her doctoral program.
Kathy was a professor at Central Michigan University from 1997 to 2012. Since then she has been a professor of geology at the West Virginia University Department of Geology and Geography.
She is a sedimentary geologist and educator who specializes in the geology, geochemistry, astrobiology, and microbiology of salt minerals, especially those that form in acid salt lakes. Her research aims to understand the systems interactions among lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere of modern and ancient acid saline lakes on Earth and Mars. This research involves fieldwork, petrography, fluid inclusion studies, sediment geochemistry, and Raman laser spectroscopy (much of it focused on salt minerals).
Kathy is a return sample selection participating scientist for the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission, a science editor for the journal Geology, and a GSA Fellow. She said she is grateful to her KU and KGS mentors, especially Bob Goldstein, Paul Enos, Gwen MacPherson, and Lynn Watney, and to the donors to scholarships she was awarded through the KU Department of Geology.
In addition to her teaching and research, Kathy is married and is a mother of three adult children.
Jason Cansler, M.S. 2001, currently serves as the president and CEO of privately held Birch Permian Holdings, Inc., an active horizontal well development company in the Midland Basin, Texas. Since the company was founded in 2018, Birch pursued an accelerated development model, drilling more than 450 horizontal wells, across six stratigraphic targets, and ramped up production to more than 100,000 BOEPD (barrels of oil equivalent per day) net.
Prior to his Birch Permian experience, Jason joined Rock Oil II as president in March 2014. Rock Oil II was a Riverstone portfolio company with the specific strategy of applying the company’s land and technical expertise to the acquisition and development of assets in top-tier North American unconventional oil plays. During the Rock Oil II life cycle, the company was able —continued on next page
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to accumulate a large, contiguous position in the northern Midland Basin, execute an appraisal and delineation program, and ultimately sell its asset base to SM Energy for $980 million in the fall of 2016.
Prior to joining Rock Oil II, Jason spent nearly 15 years integrating his geologic understanding of oil and gas reservoirs with the commercial skills necessary to acquire and develop them. He spent the first 11 years of his career at Chevron working in various technical and commercial roles, both onshore and offshore.
After his time at Chevron, Jason joined a small team at Wells Fargo to found its Oil and Gas Acquisitions and Divestiture Team, where he participated in buy-side and sell-side advisory assignments that led to $4.5 billion in closed transactions between 2011 and 2014.
Jason earned his bachelor of science degree in geology from Kansas State University and his master of science degree in geology from University of Kansas. He also earned an MBA from Tulane University.
Joel Alberts, B.S. 1980, is a petroleum geologist, certified in both Texas and Kansas, who resides in Edmond, Oklahoma. Now self-employed, he owns Antero Energy & Minerals LLC with active projects in several states. Currently he is involved in exploration of oil, gas, and rare-earth elements in numerous play types.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in geology with a minor in business from KU in 1980, Joel started his career in Jayhawk country prospecting for a Wildcatter, Red Tiger Drilling’s owner George Angle (Angle was a pioneer in finding and processing helium). The company was small, and Joel learned many skills that gave him a good perspective of how to get things done in the oil patch.
Joel went to Oklahoma in 1996 to begin work for Chesapeake Energy Corporation. He developed projects in the expanding Austin Chalk play in Texas and Louisiana, leading to his early experience in horizontal drilling for fractured rock. In 1999, he joined Devon Energy Production Company to assist in acquisitions and exploitation. He conducted a geological field study of the Newark, East (Barnett Shale) Field. He evaluated 200 locations in Barnett Shale, working with a team to technically justify more than 350 new wells. He then conducted digital data integration, prospect review, and mineral evaluation of more than 500,000 gross acres after Devon’s Santa Fe Snyder acquisition. Later he evaluated producing properties in eastern Texas and northern Louisiana following the Pennzoil acquisition, and he managed many drilling and workover projects.
In 2003 Joel became the senior exploration geologist for K2X Energy, where he developed resource prospects in Delaware Basin in west Texas and drilled multiple exploratory tests. He also supervised and integrated the geochemical analysis of new sample data into a multidisciplinary team evaluation and interpretation. He became chief geologist for H. Huffman & Co. in Oklahoma City in 2007, reviewing and recommending outside opportunities from industry partners incorporating technical and economic evaluation. He often was the representative with operators during drilling, logging, coring, and drill stem testing, and he also advised on completion procedures.
Joel has served on the AAPG Advisory Committee, and is a former councilor for DPA of AAPG. He has served as board member of KU’s Geology Associates Advisory Board, board member of Oklahoma Geological Foundation, chair of OCGS Field Trip Committee, and member of the Society of Independent Professional Earth Scientists. He has held a variety of positions in the Oklahoma City Geological Society and is a contributor to the Shale Shaker and other journals.
He also has actively supported the Mid-Continent Geological Library. When he was getting started, log library access to data subscriptions (as well as the availability of geological programs such as PETRA or Geographix, and scanning and plotting equipment) were invaluable to him. Joel has the qualities of a great teacher and motivator — always willing to share his knowledge about geology, business, and how to network.
K. David “Dave” Newell, Ph.D. 1996, received his bachelor of science degree in 1973 in geology with a math minor at Indiana State University, Terre Haute; his master of science degree in 1975 in structural geology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison; and his doctorate in 1996 at the University of Kansas, studying carbonate geology.
Dave worked at the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS) for 42 years in the Energy Research Section before retiring in 2023. During this time, he also served an adjunct professor at the Emporia State University Department of Earth Sciences and adjunct professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, Department of Geosciences.
Dave’s research interests in carbonate geology include fluid inclusions and geological studies related to exploration and utilization of unconventional resources — coalbed gas, shale gas, low-BTU gas, and CO2 sequestration.
Dave has been recognized for his research and served in scientific communities. His honors include the Best Poster Presentation 2006 (co-author), Energy Minerals Division (EMD), American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Annual Convention in Houston, Texas; EMD President's Award for Excellence in Presentation 2004, AAPG Annual Convention, Dallas, Texas, and again in 2009 (co-author) at the AAPG Annual Convention in Denver, Colorado. Dave has been a member of the AAPG, the Kansas Geological Society, Kansas Academy of Science, Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, Geological Society of America, Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM), and Sigma Xi (scientific honorary). He served as treasurer (2005–2007) and midcontinent advisor (2008–2012) for the Energy and Minerals Division of the AAPG. He is also a registered geologist in Kansas.
“THREE
—by John Doveton, Kansas Geological Survey emeritus scientist
The search committee had decided K. David Newell was the successful candidate for a position with the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS) Energy Research section, and it was now the mission for Lynn Watney and I to close the deal. We chose Henry T’s on West 6th Street, probably because it was the only bar that you could get draft Guinness in 1981 in Lawrence — times were simpler back then.
The three of us roosted at the bar, with Dave in the middle, Lynn rhapsodizing on the wonderful range of research projects and applications in the Kansas subsurface into his left ear, while I promoted the golden opportunity of a Ph.D. from the KU geology department into his right. The reason that I remember this occasion so vividly was that the more I raised my sales pitch, the more doubtful Dave looked ... I guess that it is a Hoosier thing.
But Dave accepted the position and it all came to pass. He completed his monumental doctoral dissertation on the Ordovician Viola Limestone in southcentral Kansas, while embarking on a host of projects that covered the entire Kansas stratigraphic column — ranging from Precambrian studies of the Midcontinent Rift and the occurrence of hydrogen, surficial geologic mapping, comparison of Mississippian oil and gas production in horizontal versus vertical wells, to a summary of Niobrara gas production in northwestern Kansas.
Dave has seamlessly integrated his lab measurements with field work across the state and described them in meticulous reports, highlighted by his development of imaginative computer graphics for maps and cross plots. His Haworth Award recognition is a well-earned tribute to the cumulative body of geologic work over a period of 42 years by an individual who is well known to geologists across the Midwest. His dedication to Kansas geology continues to this day in his research as an emeritus scientist at the KGS.
Life keeps moving for this environmental geologist
Greetings and salutations!
My name is Sean Hammersburg. I am a fall 2016 alumnus of the KU Geology graduate program with a master of science degree in geology. I came to KU in fall 2012 after taking a year off after finishing my bachelor’s degree at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. My master’s thesis was titled, “Ichnotaxonomy of the Cambrian Spence Shale Member of the Langston Formation, Wellsville Mountains, Northern Utah, USA.” It was the first ichnological assessment of the Cambrian Spence Shale and of a North American Burgess Shale-type
deposit. Twenty-four ichnogenera and 35 ichnospecies were identified, with one newly purposed ichnospecies named for one of the specimen donors, and one proposed ichnospecies transferal to another ichnogenus. My thesis was published as a monograph in the KU Paleontological Contributions in 2018 with myself, Stephen Hasiotis, and Richard (Dick) Robison as co-authors. To date, my paper has been cited in more than 40 journal articles!
After finishing my degree, I worked at one of the Dillon’s Grocery Stores in Lawrence due to the 2017 federal hiring freeze. In September 2019, I was hired as a geologist in drycleaning and superfund program in the Bureau of Environmental Remediation at the Kansas Department of Health & Environment. I help oversee the cleanup of contaminated former and active drycleaning sites and
assist the U.S. EPA at a handful of superfund sites in the state of Kansas. In May 2023, I became a state-licensed geologist after passing the second of two exams administered by the Association of State Boards of Geology. My official title became professional environmental geologist at KDHE.
I still live in Lawrence, Kansas, and commute to Topeka for work three days per week and telework the other two. My hobbies include watching sci-fi tv shows like Star Trek, playing video games, listening to audiobooks and podcasts, and playing Dungeons & Dragons as both player and gamemaster/dungeon master. My future plans and goals are to stay with KDHE for a while but maybe transition to federal levels like U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or U.S. Geological Survey, or maybe go back to school to pursue a doctoral degree.
Greetings to all the G-Hawkers! This is Kwan Yee Cheng. It has been “a few” years since I left KU. I received my bachelor of science degree in geology with a concentration in geophysics in 2008 and my master of science degree in geology in 2011. My master’s thesis title was “Investigation of radar subsurface sounding through seasonal cycles collected by Mars shallow radar (SHARAD) in the South Polar area,” and my research was conducted under Dr. George Tsoflias. The objective of my research was to measure the change in thickness of the South Polar Ice Sheet on Mars using a spaceborne ground-penetrating radar onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Upon graduation, I went to work for Samson Resources as an exploration geophysicist in Tulsa, Oklahoma. My work covered across the Anadarko, Williston, Powder River, Delaware, and Midland basins. I worked there for five wonderful years and met many great people before I moved to Long Island, New York. I became a safety coordinator for a Korean food manufacturing company in Brooklyn, New York,
as opportunities for geoscientists were few and far between around the New York City metropolitan area at the time. I also started volunteering as an EMT, responding to medical emergencies and driving an ambulance. That’s when I realized I wanted to be more than just an EMT because I absolutely enjoyed helping people in need, and that the scope of practice as an EMT was just too limited.
I decided to start looking into nursing programs and eventually started nursing school in 2020 in Peoria, Illinois. I also started teaching Introduction to Earth Science at Illinois Central College as an adjunct faculty. I received my bachelor of science degree in nursing in 2022 just before moving to Kansas City. I am currently working as a registered nurse in the cardiovascular ICU at Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. My wife and I really enjoy being back in the Kansas City metropolitan area and being able to visit the geology department more often. I’m still in touch with many G-Hawkers.
At top: Kwan with his boys on a 2022 camping trip to Badlands National Park
At left: Kwan, front right, with his classmates on Hawaiian shirt day during the 2007 GEOL 560 Field Camp
Clockwise, from top left: Forereef clinothems in the Miocene of Spain; K. David Newell, wrapped in KU flag, with Stephen Hasiotis; representatives of Geotech Environmental Equipment Inc. demonstrate low-flow sampling in one of the new wells at the Harrison Field Station; trace fossil of a shrimp burrow network, Ophiomorpha, in Pleistocene outcrops preserving the bioturbated upper shoreface, similar to the present-day setting (Goers, A., Hasiotis, S.T., and Rankey, E.C., 2023); shrimp mounds up to 30 cm tall rise above the thoroughly bioturbated seafloor (Goers, A., et al.)
Peter Laudon began his studies at the University of Kansas in the fall of 1984 and completed his bachelor’s degree in geology in May 1988. His grandfather, Lowell Laudon, served as the chairman of the KU geology department from 1941 to 1948. Peter’s father, Bob, was born in Lawrence in 1943, and Peter’s cousin, Joe Laudon, earned a master’s degree in geology in 1987, working with Dr. Walker.
The rest of the story — Peter’s relationship with KU Geology, the track his life took, and why he donates to the department — is in his own words.
After completing my undergraduate studies at KU, I pursued a master’s degree in geology and geophysics at the University of Missouri–Columbia-Rolla, graduating in 1992. Due to limited job prospects, I enrolled in the doctoral program in geologic engineering at the University of Missouri–Rolla. However, my academic path shifted when I discovered a strong interest in petroleum engineering during my coursework. I pursued a bachelor of science degree in petroleum engineering due to the ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) accreditation of the program, facilitating a quicker path to becoming a licensed engineer.
In 1989, Catherine and I were married, and in 1993, our son Sam was born, motivating me further to secure employment. I completed my petroleum engineering degree in 1995 and commenced work as a well site engineer at Halliburton Energy Services in Duncan, Oklahoma, where I was primarily involved in designing and implementing fracture and cementing treatments. Since then, I’ve held positions as both a geologist and reservoir engineer at Halliburton, Phillips Petroleum Company, Landmark Graphics, Chevron, and LaRoche Petroleum Consultants, and have spent the last 12 years at DeGolyer and MacNaughton (D&M) in Dallas, Texas. Throughout, I’ve had the privilege of contributing to diverse oil and gas projects globally.
Currently, I serve as the assistant division manager for the AfricaLatin America-Caribbean Division at D&M in Dallas. Previously, I held the same role for the Europe-Africa-Middle East Division for four years. In this capacity, our team conducts independent assessments of oil and gas fields, producing comprehensive reserves and resources reports essential for our clients’ public filings and financial endeavors.
Our evaluations entail estimating the Original Hydrocarbons in Place (OHIP) and determining economically recoverable hydrocarbons, adhering to specific reserves rules such as SEC or the Petroleum Resources Management System (PRMS). I’ve had the privilege of contributing to assessments on nearly every significant oil and gas discovery across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, courtesy of D&M’s broad client base. My work has taken me worldwide, with standout projects in locations like the Republic of Congo and Saudi Arabia.
One of my favorite memories from my time at KU involved working for and assisting Dr. Enos with his research endeavors and fieldwork in Florida Bay, between the Florida mainland (everglades) and the Florida Keys. Spending a week alongside Dr. Enos there remains a highlight! One of the research goals consisted of assessing the impact of carbonate precipitation and sedimentation rates on the filling of sediment within Florida Bay. Dr. Enos over the years reminds me of the absence of the publication of my work on the project, which I acknowledge and do regret!
Another favorite memory from my time at KU is, of course, celebrating the KU Men’s Basketball national championship victory in 1988 over Oklahoma in my final semester before graduating.
My grandfather, Lowell Laudon, served as chairman and professor at the University of Kansas from 1941 to 1948 with one of his passions being the teaching of the summer field geology course. The summer field course influenced numerous students, including his four sons Tom, Dick, Bob (my father), and John. All four of Lowell’s sons became geologists. Two were professors teaching their own geology field courses (Tom at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, and my father Bob at the University of Missouri-Rolla).
I strongly believe that the essence of geological education lies in immersive experiences, such as the geology summer field course and geological field trips. This conviction stems from my own time in the field, examining, studying, and interpreting rocks, formations, structures, and observing the vast scale of geology. These experiences significantly enhanced my own understanding and interpretation of geology. For me, the geology program at KU laid the foundation for my ongoing education and career — for which I am very thankful.
As a result, my wife Catherine and I have consistently contributed to the Florence and Lowell Laudon Fund, specifically aimed at supporting student geologic field trips.
An advertisement from 1947 showcases the KU Field Geology Course, featuring Lowell Laudon’s Republic CB Aircraft in downtown Lawrence on the (Kansas) Kaw River. This aircraft played a vital role in flying students to remote locations in Canada and Alaska for their studies.
I strongly believe that the essence of geological education lies in immersive experiences.” —Peter Laudon “
The rich student experiences and innovative research that set KU Geology apart are possible because of our donors. Funds are still needed for renovations and new construction at the Robert P. Harrison Field Station. Your support for scholarships, equipment, and research is vital and always appreciated.
To learn more about giving to KU Geology, please contact Department Chair David Fowle, 785-864-1955, or a member of the KU Endowment Association development staff team for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences:
• SHERI HAMILTON, senior development director and team lead, 785-832-7454
• RICHARD FLOERSCH, associate development director, 785-832-7397
• CONOR TAFT, associate development director, 785-832-7386
• JOSH WINDHOLZ, development officer, 785-832-7351
Or, give online via KU Endowment’s secure and simple website: geo.ku.edu/ways-support
FACULTY
MICHAEL D. BLUM
Ritchie Distinguished Professor; Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin, 1992; fluvial and coastal sedimentology, sequence stratigraphy
J. F. DEVLIN
Professor; Ph.D., University of Waterloo, 1994; hydrogeology, groundwater remediation, contaminant, transport, geochemistry
DAVID A. FOWLE
Dean’s Professor and Chair; Ph.D., University of Notre Dame, 2000; geomicrobiology, aqueous geochemistry, limnology
ROBERT H. GOLDSTEIN
Merrill Haas Distinguished Professor; Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1986; sequence stratigraphy, diagenesis, fluid inclusion studies of carbonates
STEPHEN T. HASIOTIS
Professor; Ph.D., University of Colorado, Boulder, 1997; paleontology, ichnology, sedimentology, sequence stratigraphy, terrestrial paleoecology, geomicrobiology
NOEL M. JACKSON
Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Stanford University, 2013, geodesy, fault mechanics, subduction zones
JAMES (JAY) KALBAS
Professor; Ph.D., Purdue University, 2006; Director and Senior Scientist, KGS, siliciclastic sequence stratigraphy, tectonics of sedimentary basins
MARY C. HILL
Professor, Ph.D., Princeton University, 1985; water resources, uncertainty analysis, food-energy-waste systems
DIANE L. KAMOLA
Associate Scientist, Ph.D., University of Georgia, 1989; sequence stratigraphy, basin analysis, clastic sedimentology
CLAIRE MARSHALL
Associate Professor, Ph.D., University of Technology Sydney, 2001; mineralogy, solid-state Raman spectroscopy
NOAH M. McLEAN
Hubert H. & Kathleen Hall Associate Professor, Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012; thermochronology
ANDREAS MÖLLER
Associate Professor; Dr. rer. nat., Christian-Albrechts Universitat zu Kiel, Germany, 1996; petrology, geochronology
ALISON N. OLCOTT
Associate Professor; Ph.D., University of Southern California, 2006; paleogeobiochemistry
EUGENE C. RANKEY
Professor; Ph.D., University of Kansas, 1996; carbonates, seismic and sequence stratigraphy, coastal processes, geomorphology, blue carbon
JENNIFER A. ROBERTS
Professor and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Graduate Studies; Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin, 2000; microbial hydrogeology
MARCIA K. SCHULMEISTER
Ph.D., P.G., Professor and Director, Professional Science Masters; University of Kansas, 2000; hydrogeology, aqueous geochemistry, environmental geology
ERIN SEYBOLD
Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Duke University, 2017; Assistant Scientist, KGS; watershed hydrology, aquatic biogeochemistry, stream-aquifer interactions, water quality
MARINA B. SUAREZ
Associate Professor; Ph.D., University of Kansas, 2009; paleoclimate, stable isotopes, sedimentary geology, petrography
MICHAEL H. TAYLOR
Professor; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 2004; neotectonics, continental deformation
GEORGE P. TSOFLIAS
Professor; Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin, 1999; exploration geophysics, near-surface geophysics, induced seismicity
J. DOUGLAS WALKER
Union Pacific Resources Professor; Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1985; structural geology, geoinformatics, geochronology, tectonics
SAM ZIPPER
Assistant Professor; Ph.D., University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2015; Assistant Scientist, KGS; echohydrology, hydrology, human-water interactions
EMERITI AND RETIRED FACULTY
ERNEST E. ANGINO
Professor Emeritus; Ph.D., University of Kansas, 1961; geochemistry
ROSS A. BLACK
Associate Professor Emeritus; Ph.D., University of Wyoming, 1990; geophysics, reflection seismology
PAUL ENOS
Distinguished Professor Emeritus; Ph.D., Yale University, 1965, carbonate geology
EVAN K. FRANSEEN
Professor Emeritus; University of Wisconsin, 1989; carbonates, sequence stratigraphy
LUIS A. GONZÁLEZ
Professor, Retired; Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1989; stable isotopes, carbonate geochemistry, diagenesis, paleoclimate
GWENDOLYN L. MACPHERSON
Professor Emerita; Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin, 1989; hydrogeology.
CARL D. McELWEE, Professor Emeritus; Ph.D., University of Kansas, 1971; physical hydrogeology, geophysics
RICHARD A. ROBISON
Distinguished Professor Emeritus; Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin, 1962, paleontology
PAUL A. SELDEN
Gulf-Hedberg Distinguished Professor Emeritus; Ph.D., University of Cambridge, 1979; paleobiology of Arthropoda (especially Chelicerata and Myriapoda), paleoecology
DON W. STEEPLES
McGee Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Vice Provost; Ph.D., Stanford University, 1975; shallow seismic reflection, crustal analyses, micro earthquake recording
WILLIAM R. VAN SCHMUS
Distinguished Professor Emeritus; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1964; geochemistry, meteorites, geochronology
ANTHONY W. WALTON
Ph.D., P.G., Associate Professor Emeritus; The University of Texas at Austin, 1972; sedimentology of siliciclastic and volcanoclastic rocks; petroleum geology
PALEONTOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
MIKE CORMACK
Editorial Staff,; Ph.D., University of Kansas, 1999; philosophy
BRUCE LIEBERMAN
Director; Ph.D., Columbia University, 1994; geological sciences
SUPPORT TEAM
JOE ANDREW
Research Associate, 2009–present
JASON ASH Information Specialist, 2006–present
ISABELLE BUSENITZ Facilities Manager, 2023–present
MANUEL CARMONA Administrative Associate, 2023–present
CAROLYN CHURCH
Endowment & Alumni Coordinator, 2019–present
KATE COLLINS
Graduate Program Coordinator, 2021–present
MOHAMMED EL-SHENAWY Laboratory Manager, 2024–present
BARBARA HIGGINS-DOVER Undergraduate Advisor, 2024–present
PIKE HOLMAN
Research Technician, 2021–present
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS
MARIA ELENA ORDUNA ALEGRIA
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Kansas
GAURAV TALUKDAR
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Kansas
See website (geo.ku.edu) for list of courtesy and adjunct faculty.
Alumni inquiries: Carolyn Church, 785-864-0086, cchurch@ku.edu
Faculty
Blum, Michael mblum@ku.edu 785-864-8868
Devlin, J. F. JFdevlin@ku.edu 785-864-4994
Fowle, David A. fowle@ku.edu 785-864-1955
Goldstein, Robert H. gold@ku.edu 785-864-2738
Hasiotis, Stephen T. hasiotis@ku.edu 785-864-4941
Hill, Mary C. mchill@ku.edu 785-864.2728
Jackson, Noel M. nmjackson@ku.edu 785-864-0590
Kalbas, James (Jay) jaykalbas@ku.edu 785.864.5686
Kamola, Diane kamola@ku.edu 785-864-2724
Marshall, Claire cpmarshall@ku.edu 785-864-3071
McLean, Noah noahmc@ku.edu 785-864-7193
Möller, Andreas amoller@ku.edu 785-864-1447
Olcott, Alison N. olcott@ku.edu 785-864-1917
Rankey, Eugene C. grankey@ku.edu 785-864-6028
Roberts, Jennifer A. jenrob@ku.edu 785-864-1960
Seybold, Erin erinseybold@ku.edu 785-864-1544
Schulmeister, Marcia mschulme@ku.edu 913-897-8426
Taylor, Michael H. mht@ku.edu 785-864-5828
Tsoflias, George P. tsoflias@ku.edu 785-864-4584
Walker, J. Douglas jdwalker@ku.edu 785-864-7711
Zipper, Sam samzipper@ku.edu 785-864-0364
Retired and Emeriti Faculty
Angino, Ernest E. rockdoc@sunflower.com 785-864-4974
Black, Ross A. black@ku.edu 785-864-4974
Enos, Paul enos@ku.edu 785-864-4974
Franseen, Evan K. evan@kgs.ku.edu 785-864-4974
Gonzáles, Luis A. lgonzlez@ku.edu 785-864-4974
Macpherson, Gwen L. glmac@ku.edu 785-864-4974
McElwee, Carl D. cmelwee@ku.edu 785-843-4164
Robison, Richard A. rrobison@ku.edu 785-864-4974
Selden, Paul selden@ku.edu 785-864-4974
Steeples, Don don@ku.edu 785-737-3399
Van Schmus, W. R. rvschmus@ku.edu 785-843-0072
Walton, Anthony W. twalton@ku.edu 785-864-2726
Paleontological Institute
Cormack, Mike msc@ku.edu 785-864-3338
Lieberman, Bruce blieber@ku.edu 785-864-2741
Support Team
Andrew, Joseph jeandrew@ku.edu 785-864-7709
Ash, Jason jasonash@ku.edu 785-864-2750
Busenitz, Isabelle Isabelle.busenitz@ku.edu 785-864-0874
Carmona, Manuel manuel.carmona@ku.edu 785-864-5653
Church, Carolyn cchurch@ku.edu 785-864-0086
Collins, Kate katecollins@ku.edu 785-864-0131
El-Shenawy, Mohammed m.elshenawy@ku.edu 346-247-9019
Higgins-Dover, Barbara bobilou@ku.edu 785-864-6823
Holman, Pike plholman@ku.edu 785-864-1508
See website (geo.ku.edu) for list of courtesy and adjunct faculty.
James Raymond McCauley (B.S. 1970, M.S. 1973, Ph.D. 1977) died October 29, 2024, at home in Lenexa, Kansas, at age 77.
James “Jim” was born March 12, 1947, in Kansas City, Missouri. At a young age he moved with his family to Merriam, Kansas, and was a proud Kansas resident for the rest of his life. He was raised by hard-working parents, who although did not have a college education themselves, made education a priority for their children. The value of education was instilled in Jim from a young age until his last day on Earth. He was an avid reader, the smartest person anyone in his family had ever met, and always seeking to understand any topic he did not know about, which became rare.
Following high school at Bishop Miege in Merriam, Kansas, Jim attended the University of Kansas, where he received his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in geology. He remained in Lawrence and at the University of Kansas, working as a geologist for the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS) for 32 years. His career as a geologist allowed him to learn every road, county, and landmark throughout the great state of Kansas. Any trip with those he loved involved his chosen scenic routes with stops to view rock formations or drive below the speed limit to view rock
layers created by a road cut. His accomplishments in his career and time spent admiring the state included publishing Roadside Kansas: A Traveler’s Guide to its Geology and Landmarks
Jim’s favorite part of his time at the KGS was leading the Wheat State Tour, which at the time was a five-day tour of Kansas for University of Kansas faculty. At the end of the tour, attendees were asked their favorite part of the trip, and the most common answer was “Jim McCauley,” and his quips, jokes, stories, and songs. In addition to educating faculty on all the sites and history of Kansas, his wit and singing voice added humor and unexpected entertainment.
In addition to his wife Kelli, Jim is survived by daughters, Jamie and husband Ehren of Lawrence, Kansas, and Katie and husband Josh, also of Lawrence; stepdaughter Sara of Lenexa, Kansas, and stepson Bryan of Lenexa, Kansas; four grandchildren; brother Dan and wife Lisa, and sister Kathleen and husband Myron; five nieces; and many other extended family members.
Memorial contributions can be made in Jim’s name to the University of Kansas. He would love to know that contributions were made in his name to assist students in getting an education.
Marion E. “Pat” Bickford died June 23, 2024.
He was born August 30, 1932, in Memphis, Tennessee, to Marion E. and Elisabeth (Ellis) Bickford. He attended schools in Memphis until 1945, when his family moved to Winona, Minnesota. There he attended Phelps Junior High School and Winona Senior High School, graduating in 1950. He then attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he met his adored wife of 69 years, Elizabeth (Betsy) Eckey Bickford, who survives him, along with their three children: Mark Bickford (Rhonda) of Ithaca, New York; Martha Bickford (Perry) of Louisville, Kentucky; John Bickford (Jennifer) of St. Paul, Minnesota; and four grandchildren: Keenan Larsen,
Ellis Larsen, Zoe Bickford, and Simone Bickford deNoyelles. He is also survived by his sister Elise Jorgens of Seabrook Island, South Carolina.
At Carleton College, Pat was elected Phi Beta Kappa and a member of Sigma Xi, graduating in 1954 with a bachelor of arts degree in geology. The same year he married Betsy and began serving in the United States Army (1954–1957) as an electronics specialist on Nike antiaircraft missile systems. He was discharged in the rank of Sergeant First Class. Following military service, Pat attended graduate school at the University of Illinois, ChampaignUrbana where he received an master’s degree in 1958 and a doctoral degree in 1960. His major area of study was petrology with a minor in chemistry.
Following his graduate work, Pat taught geology at San Fernando State College, California, from 1960 to 1964 and was a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA, 1963–1964. He and his family then moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where he was an assistant professor, associate professor, and professor at the University of Kansas from 1964 to 1990.
Pat and Betsy then moved to Cazenovia, New York, where he served as professor and chair of the Syracuse University geology department from 1990 to 1997 and as professor emeritus from 1997 until his death.
Pat’s principal interests, other than his family, were the geological sciences. He loved teaching, and treasured current and earlier contacts with his students and colleagues. He led many, many field trips with his geology students and was the author of more than 120 scientific articles. He served the Geological Society of America as editor for three years and as books editor for five years. He received the Society’s distinguished service award twice, first in 1991 and again in 2008.
Pat had a lifelong interest in music. He sang in the Carleton College choir, and later in the Syracuse University Oratorio Society and the Cazenovia College Chorale. For a number of years, he studied classical guitar, although he always said, “I’m not very good.”
Pat was a lifelong, committed Christian. He was raised in the Episcopal Church, in which he was very active until 2000, when he was received into the Roman Catholic Church in which he served as a lector.
Pat was a loving husband, brother, father, and grandfather. He had a great sense of humor (he loved puns) and was an optimist throughout his long life. His family enjoyed many adventures with him.
George Leidigh Coleman II (M.A. 1960) died peacefully at age 89 on April 1, 2023, with his daughters by his side.
He was born in Dayton, Ohio, on August 29, 1933, to John Edward Coleman and Jean MacMicken Coleman, and grew up there. After graduating from Colonel White High School, he went on to Cornell University where he majored in geology and met his wife, Joan Pinckney.
After their marriage in 1956 they moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where he attended the University of Kansas and earned his master’s degree in geology.
George and Joan moved to Waterville, Maine, in 1963 so he could teach geology as an interim professor. At about the same time as the tenured professor returned, the registrar position opened and he became the registrar of Colby College in 1966, where he served for 40 years until retiring in 2006.
There were so many dimensions to George: husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, birder, musician, sports fanatic, and pun master extraordinaire. He was very involved in his community. Of special note, his involvements included senior warden, lay reader, and treasurer at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church; more than 25 years on the board of the Waterville Opera House; decades of bird counts with local Audubon; and involvement with the United Way.
Predeceased by his parents and niece Pam, George is survived by his sister Chase; daughters, Sue and husband Tom, Leigh and husband Alan, and Beth and husband Jimmy; grandchildren; great-grandchildren; nephews; a niece; and numerous friends who became family.
George S. “Shelby” Schulte (B.S. 1954, M.S. 1958) died peacefully in Kansas City, Missouri, at Veteran’s Hospital, April 24, 2024, at age 93.
George, or “Shelby” to his family, was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, to George Daniel Schulte and Nellie Grace Milne and grew up in Oregon, Missouri. High school valedictorian, Shelby then attended the University of Kansas where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology and was in ROTC there. He received the Erasmus Haworth Honor Award for leadership as an outstanding master’s degree senior in geology.
He went on to work in the oil and natural gas industry as a geologist for several years. He served as a Naval officer for three years where he was stationed overseas in the South China Seas, Japan, and trained in Europe for a total of nine years serving his country. George served with “A” Division as an auxiliary machinery officer on the U.S.S. El Dorado and was stationed at one time on the U.S.S. Missouri as a midshipman with a battle station being a 16-inch turret.
Later, he entered the computer systems field and spent 31 years designing and installing large-scale computer systems. He retired from Hallmark Cards as director of data resource management.
He was a member of Lenexa Baptist Church, TKE Fraternity, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #846. He volunteered with Boy Scouts of America, Mic-O-Say, and was involved with Creation Science Association of Mid America where he had many friends.
He enjoyed golfing and spending time encouraging, guiding, and inspiring his family. Shelby was a believer in Christ and avid in his Bible studies. He was a member of Lenexa Baptist Church and taught Biblical Creation courses at church and at Christ Prep High School. He also spent years teaching and writing about the Biblical and scientific evidence supporting the account of the Creation. He based his course on the Bible and the two editions of the book he authored and published entitled, “Darwin’s Origins of Species ... Science or Fantasy?” He gave interviews, speeches, and book events on the topic, and was even planning to start a blog into his 90s.
George is survived by his high school sweetheart, Mary, his wife for 70 years; brother William Dallas Schulte; son Dr. Stephen Schulte and wife Debbie, and daughter Susan Ronnekamp and husband Kurt; three grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren; as well as many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by a sister, Mary Marie Miller.
Alistair W. McCrone (Ph.D. 1961) of Lynnwood, Washington, died August 17, 2023, at the age of 91. McCrone was president emeritus and the longest serving president (1974–2002) of Cal Poly Humboldt University (formerly Humboldt State University). Dr. McCrone was born October 7, 1931 in Saskatchewan, Canada.
He conducted geologic field work in Canada during the summers while he was completing a bachelor’s degree at the University of Saskatchewan, a master’s degree at the University of Nebraska, and a doctoral degree at the University of Kansas, graduating in 1961.
After teaching and serving in administrative roles for 11 years at New York University, and four years as the academic vice president at the University of the Pacific, Dr. McCrone became the Humboldt State University president in 1974. In keeping with his passion and enthusiasm for teaching, and to remain connected with the students, he also taught several geology classes while he was president. Dr. McCrone helped shape the university into the outstanding institution it is today and extended education opportunities to countless people in northern California and beyond.
Richard “Dick” Schuman (M.S. 1963) of rural Columbia City, Indiana, passed away at age 92 on June 27, 2024, at Parkview Regional Medical Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Born September 21, 1931 in Columbia City, he was a son of the late Homer Earl and Dorothy C. (Kanable) Schuman. Growing up on a farm in Richland Township, Indiana, Richard graduated from Larwill High School in 1949.
He attended Purdue University until he was inducted into the U.S. Army on September 9, 1952. After serving in the Korean Conflict, he was honorably discharged on July 9, 1954. He returned to the area and attended Indiana University in Bloomington, where he received a bachelor’s degree in geology.
He then attended the University of Kansas, where he earned a master’s degree in geology. He continued his postgraduate work, pursuing a doctorate in geology at Stanford University in California.
Dick joined the Standard Oil Company and worked in Texas as a geologist and later took an assignment in Egypt. When Standard Oil asked him to relocate to Chicago, he declined and returned to the family farm in Richland Township.
Having the desire to help others with his knowledge and experience, he joined the Peace Corps, becoming one of the oldest volunteers. Dick was assigned to Gambia, West Africa, where he taught remote villagers better methods of farming and self-sufficiency.
Throughout his life, Dick had a quest for knowledge, keeping current with world events. He traveled to many countries and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa.
He was skilled with his hands, whether performing carpentry, electrical, or mechanical work on the farm. To keep physically fit, he participated many times as a fast-paced walker in the Veteran’s Marathon of Whitley County. Dick was, in fact, a walking encyclopedia, as he was well versed in history. He liked to garden and had taken the Master Gardener courses.
He is survived by his siblings, Paul R. Schuman, Mary E. Schuman, and Nancy J. Schuman; nieces; great-nieces; and many great-great nieces and nephews.
Bill B. Crow (B.S. 1956, M.S. 1960) died June 23, 2018, in Houston, Texas.
1951–1960
Curtis E. Adams, 1951
Yacoub Ahmad Qandil, 1959, 1961
William L. Brown, 1954
Victor C. Cope Jr., 1956
John E. Donnici, 1951
M. Robert Douglass, 1952, 1954
G. Lloyd Foster, 1958
Julian W. Hawryszko, 1957
Robert W. Heil, 1959
Robert K. Melton, 1957
Herbert A. Mendoza, 1959
Patricia Tucker Morgridge, 1956
George W. Plant, 1952
H. Jack Reed, 1956
Warner H. Sorenson, 1959
Robert L. Tedrick, 1960
Jay D. Whiteford, 1954
1961–1970
Thomas D. Brown, 1964
Carlos R. Canard, 1967
Gary P. Davidson, 1967
Ibrahim Abd El Wahid, 1963
Jack D. Fowler, 1962
Musa A. Haggiagi, 1970
Patricio Harrington, 1961
John Huh, 1968
Wayne E. Kanzig, 1969
Federico F. Krause, 1970, 1974
Tommy R. McKellar, 1962
J. Peter Mills, Ph.D., 1965, 1974
James W. H. Monger, 1961
Yacoub Ahmad Qandil, 1959, 1961
Malcom B. Roy, 1966
Frank Radke Jr., 1967
Howard C. Thornton Jr., 1967
Fred R Weiner, 1962
1971–1980
Ola Green Bangole-Yenvou, 1975
Abdurrazak A. Endisha, 1979
Hugo I. Guerra. 1980, 1987
Federico F. Krause, 1970, 1974
Randy T. Laney, 1976, 1978
Edward L. Leanhard, 1979
Yehuda Lilo, 1978, 1981
J. Peter Mills, Ph.D., 1974
Francois R. Nguene, 1978
Adeleke Odutola, 1972
Ali Seyrafian, 1978
Benja Songsirikul, 1978
John M. Thomen, 1971
Leonard L. Woolsey, 1971
1981-1990
Zulkifly Ab Rahim, 1985
Talat Y. Abdullah, 1984
Mehemmed A. Busifi, 1982
Mark Carpenter, 1985
Andrew Daniel, 1985
Rodziah H. Daud, 1986
Dave Evans, 1984
Hugo I. Guerra, 1980, 1987
Mitchell D. Hall, 1983
E.F. Johnson, 1982
Karan S. Keith, 1983
Yehuda Lilo, 1978, 1981
Chung-Yao Lui, 1981
Mastura Abdul Malik, 1986
Paul B. Myers III, 1989
Soheila Nasseri, 1983
Gillian B. Poulter, 1984
Nelda Haraldson Radford, 1983, 1985
Karen K. Smith, 1983
Stephen M. Smith, 1987
Monsef A. Swedan, 1981
Milos Velechovsky, 1985
Kent R. Wells, 1987
Susie Woltkamp, 1989
Di Zhou, Ph.D., 1985
1991–2000
Abdulrahman M. Alissa, 1999
Tyan-Ming Chu, Ph.D., 1996
Karma, 1999
Terence J. Meehan, 1993
Thomas G. Sabin, 1995
Alan Wade, 1992
Katherine N. Zentmire, 1999
2001–2010
Mohammad A. Abdullah, 2005
Sa’Ad Fahd Al-Awwad, 2003
Abdullah Alqahtani, 2005
Aisha H. Al-Suwaidi, 2008
William R. Bailey, 2003
Govert J. A. Buijs, Ph.D., 2006
Michael W. Christie, 2005, 2008
Peter W. Davis, 2002
Vionette DeChoudens-Sanchez, 2007
Pema Deki, 2008
Christopher R. Jones, 2009
Susanne E. Jones, 2001
Rebecca Scheppy King, 2001
Emily A. McWilliams, 2006
Joseph C. Miller, 2010, 2013
Jessica E. Poteet, 2004, 2007
Benjamin J. Rocke, 2007
Niall D. Toomey, 2003
Javier De Palacios Zambrana, 2009
Mustapha Zater, 2006
2011–2020
Cassie E. Absher, 2015
Shamma S. A. K. Al Kaabi, 2014
Hussain O. A. Bohuliga, 2019
Chase V. Breckwoldt, 2018
Logan C. Byers, 2013
Xi Chen, 2016
Xiaoru Chen, 2015
William T. Dugard, 2012
Maggie E. Duncan, 2017
Yousuf K. Y. Fadolalkarem, 2015
Holly L. Field, 2018
Christian Hager, 2015
Bei Huang, Ph.D., 2012
Isaac T. Javier, 2015
Huan Liu, 2014
Joseph C. Miller, 2010, 2013
Fatma Ouaichouche, 2012
Edgardo J. Pujols-Vazquez, 2012
Jeffrey T. Steen, 2014
Andrew J. Templin, 2019
Isabel Villaneda-Vanvloten, 2017
Abdul Wahab, 2017
Graham M. Wicks, 2019
2021–
Fares J. G. A. Alalawi, 2022
If you are in touch with these G-Hawkers, please ask them to reconnect! email geology@ku.edu phone 785-864-4974 online geo.ku.edu
As we look to the past to see the future, we asked KU Geology alumni, faculty, students, and friends this all-important question:
What advice would you give to a brand new geology student?
“1) Don’t specialize too much in school. You never know what knowledge will be useful. 2) Don’t expect to do just one thing throughout your working life. It won’t happen, and would be very boring!
3) Be concise!”
—David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Ph.D. 1983, geologist and poet
“Take ownership of your work. Your work is not your instructor's work, so don't wait for them to tell you how, or how well, to do something. The standards you hold today will dictate your success tomorrow. Also, go to Free State Brewery! Cheers!”
—Andrew Hoxey, B.S. 2010, B.S. 2017, Ph.D. 2024
“Take a wide variety of different geology classes, especially those with field trips. You never know which one will introduce you to your passion. It might not be what you expected!”
—Makenna Harris, B.S. 2024
“In my opinion, the hardest part of wrapping up a thesis or dissertation was writing. However, writing would not have been hard if I had taken the time at the beginning of my graduate school career to read one or two papers related to my research each week. By doing the reading and writing a short summary of each paper, I would have had most of my introduction and background chapters written ahead of time and would have allowed myself to focus on the results and discussion later. So, my best advice to those just starting: Focus on classes, read a paper each week, and write a summary of each paper. Before you know it, you will be busy with research, and you may be grateful to have a chunk of writing already done. Also, get involved in clubs early on and apply for all the scholarships. It will help you meet your peers, earn some extra money, and possibly land some important interviews.”
—Hannah
Proffitt, B.S. 2020, M.S. 2024
“Take advantage of the many great resources KU offers. Talk to the faculty and get involved in their research; meet the alumni at gatherings. Both groups want you to succeed! And, of course, go on as many field trips as you can! To balance classwork and research: Start early, with a small project with very manageable expectations; make it something you enjoy. Learn how to manage your time, then as appropriate, in later years take a bigger project — and, if you can, get credit with an honors thesis so it appears on your transcript.”
—Professor Gene Rankey
“The piece of advice I would give to new Geology Students is this: Always Stay Curious. Ask Questions, even if they’re ‘dumb’ (but I don’t think dumb questions exist!). And try to learn, see, and experience as much as you can. There is so much we get to discover and absorb as geologists, so make sure to be as curious, excited, and engaged as you can and remember to have fun and enjoy!”
—Daniel D. Mongovin, M.S.
2023
“-Take every opportunity to go to the field.
-Tune up your ability to make observations and to gather, measure, and integrate data.
-Consider geological problems in the context of what can be learned from a variety of data types, both qualitative and quantitative. As one of my professors in graduate school said, ‘Geological problem solving is like defining the shape of an n-dimensional body in hyperspace.’ We may never have exact answers, but empirical approaches — that is, finding approaches that work — are often as important or more so than defining exact causeand-effect relationships.
-Try to consider early on whether you are more interested in an academic career or a career in industry. On either path, try to design your course work to best prepare you for your career. Your professors and internships in industry can assist with this. (Many types of careers in industry will offer extensive on-the-job training. Often, a master’s degree is important, but a doctorate isn’t necessary.)
-Engage with your professors. Let them know your interests and demonstrate your abilities to them.
-Work hard on required courses for the major outside of geology. Integrate what you’ve learned into your geological thinking and communication skills. -Engagement and communication skills are always very important.”
—William
D. Pollard, M.S. 1970
We want to know!
“Get some early experience doing what you want to do for your career. If you want to be in academia or go to grad school, try to do some undergraduate research with a professor. If you want to go into industry, try to get a summer internship. Even volunteering somewhere can be useful — anything to stand out. Use your department's network — alumni and professors are usually happy to help students. Also, get into the field and see as many rocks as you can!”
—John W. Counts, M.S.
2013
“I would tell new geology students that there are many career paths in geology. Students can find employment with mining, critical minerals, mapping, groundwater, environmental consulting, KDOT, federal agencies and state surveys, oil and gas reservoirs, geothermal reservoirs, ESRI/GIS and many other locations. Many of these jobs are good-paying jobs! It is my experience that geoscientists are passionate about their work, they enjoy what they do, and they know that they play a vital role in our society, environment, and economy. I suppose geoscientists get some fresh air out in nature from time to time and that can also have positive physical and mental health benefits!”
—Isaac J. Allred, Ph.D. 2022
Email us at geology@ku.edu or call us at 785-864-4974.
“As a new geology student, start by focusing on foundational topics like mineralogy, petrology, sedimentology, and stratigraphy — these will form the backbone for more advanced studies. Develop strong observation skills, cultivate the ability to visualize in 3D, and embrace the outdoors, as fieldwork is a cornerstone of geology. Equip yourself with essential tools such as sturdy boots, a rock hammer, and a reliable field notebook, and practice making meticulous field sketches and notes. Build your network by engaging with professors, peers, and geological societies. Seek internships and field trips for hands-on experience and consider pursuing certifications to enhance your career prospects. Most importantly, explore the diverse branches of geology to discover your passion. This passion will guide you in choosing a specialization and building a fulfilling career in geology.”
—Ellis Fangmann, B.S. 2024
“Study what you love, work for people you admire and respect, and think about where you want to be in three to five years.”
—Susan Carroll, B.S. 1983
Alex Staub, Houston, TX, 678-591-9535, amstaub97@gmail. com. M.S. 2024, geology. Petroleum geologist.
Nick Cestari, Katy, TX, 512-751-3384, nickcestari27@gmail.com. M.S. 2016 geology. Senior staff geologist, Oxy. My wife and I recently adopted a baby girl, and she is now 4 months old! I have returned to Oxy after a stint at a geothermal startup and I continue to engage people through my podcast CORE Knowledge.
Kwan Yee Cheng, Leawood, KS, 785-979-2003, chengkwanyee@gmail. com. B.S. 2008 geophysics, M.S. 2011 geology. Working as a R.N., Saint Luke’s Hospital, Kansas City, MO.
John W. Counts, Brunswick, MD, jwcounts@gmail.com. M.S. 2013 geology. Research geologist, U.S. Geological Survey. Still at the USGS in Reston. I work on research and conduct assessments in the Gulf Coast and Alaska. This summer I helped with drilling a research core into Cretaceous strata on the North Slope. The entire rig, daily supplies, and crew had to be helicoptered up to the top of Slope Mountain, with drilling going 24 hours a day (see image below). We recovered several hundred feet of core which will eventually be publicly available at the Geologic Materials Center in Anchorage.
Adam Yoerg, S Pasadena, CA. ayoerg@ gmail.com. B.S. 2016 geology, M.S. 2018 geology. Hydrogeologist, Jacobs Engineering.
Jessica Cundiff, Hudson, MA, 617-448-7402, paleogirl23@hotmail. com. M.S. 2001. Curatorial associate, invertebrate paleontology, Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Ulf Becker, Lawrence, KS, 281-543-4282, rcjhgeo@gmail.com. B.S. 1992 geology. I retired from ExxonMobil in March 2024 and have moved back to Lawrence with my wife, Kelly, who is also a KU grad (B.S. 1990 education).
Andrea Steinle, Morrison, CO, 720-626-6913, littlerocks2020@ outlook.com. B.S. 1990, M.S. 1996 geology. Petroleum geologist. Senior geologist, Jonah Energy, Denver, CO.
Susan Carroll, Oakland, CA, B.S. 1983 geology. susan_carroll@att.net. Geochemist, post doc director, materials aging and compatibility lead (retired). I retired from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in March 2024 after more than 30 years. While there I conducted research for the safe disposal of radioactive waste, the mitigation of greenhouse gases and material stability, and served as the deputy leader for the Atmospheric, Earth and Energy Division and the lab’s postdoc director. I am grateful to KU (bachelor’s degree) and to Northwestern University (doctorate) for providing a strong foundation that would see me through my career. I’ve also had the pleasure of witnessing my own mini legacy. My son, Jackson, just graduated from Cal Poly Humboldt with a bachelor’s degree in geology; Coralie, a daughter of a family friend, is working on her doctorate in geochemistry at Rhode Island University; and Natalie, another daughter of a family friend has a double major in geology and biology.
David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Tuscaloosa, AL, 205-246-9346, jopnquog@ gmail.com. Ph.D. 1982 geology. Sedimentologist and paleontologist, Geological Survey of Alabama (retired). I have a new book of speculative poetry out, Unwelcome Guests. Growing vegetables, keeping an eye on tropical weather, and still working on the Mississippian microalgae.
Aaron R. Phillips,, Baxter Springs, KS, 620-202-0922, aphilli100@gmail.com. B.S. 1986 geology. Vice president of technical services, Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association.
Tim Spencer, Derby, KS, 316-788-2155, jhawks119@yahoo.com. B.S. 1980. Retired March 31, 2023, and have been traveling with my wife, spending time with kids and grandkids.
Jeffrey M. Jordan, Highlands Ranch, CO, jmcjordan@msn.com. B.S. 1977, M.S. 1979 geology. Senior environmental scientist (retired). Married Sharon Miller in 2018. Sharon and I are enjoying retirement, traveling in our small RV. Traveled to southeast Oklahoma to see the eclipse in April and will be traveling to Canada in September along the Icefields Parkway in Alberta. Stop by if you’re in the Denver area! Rock Chalk!
Dr. Richard D. (RD) Lewis, M.A., M.S., M.B.A., M.S.S., Ph.D., Stafford, VA, richard.d.lewis1.civ@mail.mil. B.S. 1974 geochemistry. Manager, nuclear arms control technology, research and development directorate, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Fort Belvoir, VA,
Curtis Morrill, Highlands Ranch, CO, cgmorrill@yahoo.com. B.A. 1976 geology.
William D. Pollard, Austin, TX, 817-313-0719, william.pollard 17901@ gmail.com. M.S. 1970 geology. Retired president of Burnett Oil Co., Inc. Kathy and I celebrated our 60th wedding anniversary this summer in Colorado Springs at the Garden of the Gods
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WHAT FIRST SPARKED YOUR INTEREST IN
Resort, where we had a great view of some spectacular geology! We met on a dude ranch near Woodland Park where we were summer employees, while we were both undergrads — Kathy at KU, and I at Florida State. Later this year we traveled to Scotland and while there, we went to Siccar Point, No. 1 on the list of geological heritage sites in the world as designated by the International Union for of Geological Sciences in 2022. Siccar Point is famous as being the location of an angular unconformity that was observed and examined by James Hutton in the 1780s. The exposure was very influential in causing him to develop concepts of uniformitarianism and deep time. Prior to this time, the view was largely held and taught that the Earth was about 6,000 years old, following a strict and literal interpretation of Genesis. Current data suggests the unconformity represents a 65-millionyear period between vertically oriented Silurian Greywackes (marine) and near-horizontal Devonian Old Red Sandstone (continental). Good images of the outcrops can be seen on the internet. Hutton is considered the founder of modern geology. His book Theory of the Earth was first published in 1788 and is well worth reading. He had a lot of great insights. It is inspirational. The last sentence of the one of the volumes is, “The result, therefore, of our present enquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning — no prospect of an end.”
We were at Siccar Point on a beautiful day. The shortest walk into the location, which is a promontory jutting out into the North Sea, is at least eight-tenths of a mile, partly along a cliff line above the sea and partly over very green pastures. The point is very remote and in great farming and ranching country, about 40 miles east of Edinburgh. It was a delightful part of our trip. We also saw that castles in Scotland are often built on volcanic plugs and related sills that are elevated above the surrounding landscape and good for fortification. Edinburgh Castle and Sterling Castle are two examples. The William Wallace memorial is positioned atop the “Abbey Crag,” a hill with an obvious igneous sill that overlooks the historic battleground where the Scots defeated the English to the east of Sterling Castle. Makes me want to watch Braveheart again! We went up to Glencoe, which is along the Great Glen, the most conspicuous fault zone in Scotland, going all the way across the country, and the location of the great lochs. The Glencoe area is very beautiful, and the mountainous terrain is mostly volcanic in origin. I just purchased a publication from the British Geological Society that is supposed to be the state-of-the-art information on the Glencoe caldera. I look forward to reading it! I highly recommend Scotland to all interested geologists! Hope all is well with the department and the Geology Associates!
Can’t wait to hear!
Jerry Alice Lineback, Paradise, CA, 603-504-2376, jalinebk@gmail.com. B.S. 1960, M.S. 1961 geology. Retired professional geologist. After leaving KU in 1961, I went to work for the Indiana Geological Survey and earned my Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1964. From there, I embarked on a 50-year-long career in geology, having several gigs and many adventures. I rode one oil boom to bust. My last gig was with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment cleaning up hazardous waste, from which I retired at age 72 to become a full-time caregiver for my mobility-impaired spouse, Carol Stevenson Harlow (Barnard 1969, Yale M.S.). I am now 86 years old and still doing geology while living high on a volcanic ridge with the Sierra Nevada on the east and the Central Valley and Coast Range on the west. Geology has been good for me; it saved my life. I am a transgender woman from birth. My education and my profession enabled me to deal with my gender dysphoria until I could become a woman. I have noted with disgust that politicians in many states want to prevent trans people from receiving medically necessary treatment. The availability of life-saving medical care should not be politicized. Tyson Runnels, Blaine, WA, tysond_2@ msn.com. B.S. 1969. Associate technical fellow for advanced computing, The Boeing Company (retired). I have a new appreciation for Earth’s biosphere.
Ritchie Hall | Earth, Energy, & Environment Center
1414 Naismith Drive, Room 254
Lawrence, KS 66045-7575
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“It’s hard to say no to a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
—Marina Suarez
