Department of Geosciences

Newsletter 2004

(text version)

Table of Contents

Water in the Geosciences
From the Department Chair
Geosciences Trip to South Africa
Faculty Profiles
An Alumni Trailblazer: Jean Clark
Deep Dives on the Izu Forearc Ridge: Sherman Bloomer
Geosciences Tailgaters
Discovery Days
Mount Saint Helens erupts
Ecosystem Informatics Program
Geosciences Courses From Anywhere
New Alumni, 2003-2004
Three Sisters Map Available
Yeats Chair Campaign
Faculty Awards
Alumni Updates
Geosciences Department Benefactors
Geosciences Department Corporate and Matching Gifts
Supporting the Department of Geosciences

Water in the Geosciences
Water. The competition for it is increasing, and farmers, environmentalists, developers, and Native Americans all have different views on how it should be used. There’s not enough of it in the arid Southwest, now in the middle of an extended drought. And much of the drinking water in the world is polluted, most notably in the developing world but even in the United States. When a major river crosses an international boundary, as the Jordan, Euphrates, Columbia, and Colorado Rivers do, conflicts arise as to how that water should be allocated.

Oregon State University faculty and students in both the Geology and Geography Programs are working with water issues. A natural starting place is the forested landscape of the Pacific Northwest. For example, what is the relationship between water supply and logging? Julia Jones (Geography) has found that old-growth coniferous forests in the Northwest take up more of the abundant water than young forests do. Hence forest harvesting leads to increased water yield and to an increased potential for flooding. Stephen Lancaster (Geology) has found that removing wood from mountain watersheds can at least double the average runout of debris flows, which increases hazards and affects aquatic habitats, sometimes catastrophically. Their research is done cooperatively with the OSU College of Forestry and the US Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis.

There are many problems in the transport of impurities in water, but none are as serious as those around nuclear waste-disposal sites. Dorthe Wildenschild (Geology, Civil Engineering) has worked at the proposed highlevel nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, where the problem is that of radioactive wastes possibly leaving the repository and entering the groundwater and surfacewater systems. Roy Haggerty (Geology) and his students have worked on the chemical transport of fluids in fractured rock at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico and on the Swedish waste-disposal program. From this work Haggerty found a similarity between chemical transport in fractured rock and transport in that part of a stream directly below or beside its channel, where stream water temporarily becomes groundwater. This zone, called the hyporheic zone, is the subject of collaborative work with the Forest Service on how the hyporheic zone works.

Anne Nolin (Geography) works in a field she calls snow hydroclimatology. She studies the dynamics of snow accumulation and melting on the world’s great ice sheets as well as in mountainous areas where snow accumulates at temperatures not far below where it melts, using NASA’s Multi- Angle Spectral Radiometer. Changes in snow albedo (how much solar energy is absorbed by ice and snow versus how much is radiated back into space) are sensitive to small changes in climate, which impact hydropower generation, reservoir storage, rain-on-snow floods, and winter recreation. Increases in snow melt and glacier runoff can raise sea level and change ocean circulation patterns, as Peter Clark (Geology) and his collaborators are finding out.

How do air, water, and contaminants behave in soil pore space? Many fundamental questions remain on this topic. Wildenschild is studying the physics of flow and transport in the shallow subsurface by using numerical modeling, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and more recently, by directly studying pore space using the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. This new imaging technique has other applications, including colloidal and virus transport and biofilm growth.

The use of scarce water resources in drainage basins that cross international boundaries is commonly fraught with political turmoil. Israel must share the Jordan River with Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. Mexico must deal with what’s left of the Colorado River when it finally crosses the international border. Aaron Wolf (Geography) has been working on conflict resolution funded by the United Nations through a consortium he helped found with nine other universities. His sabbatical research this year will take him to Vatican City, Bangkok, and Jerusalem. He also is developing graduate and professional certificate programs in water-conflict prevention and resolution. Mary Santelmann (Geography) is modeling economic outcomes of different land-use decisions in watersheds of Oregon and Iowa.

Community outreach by faculty and graduate students is an important part of our department’s water program. Groundwater flow models were shown to students of high school age as part of the OSU SMILE (Science and Math Investigative Learning Experience) through Project Hydroville. Our models also have been demonstrated in Oregon high schools and to Benton County’s Kids Day for Conservation.

Faculty members at OSU are involved in addressing many of the most important concerns surrounding water and water resources. Their research in hydrology, surface-water quantity and quality, watershed analysis, water-resource management, and water policy is bringing OSU into the top tier of universities in the area of water resources.

From the Department Chair

As I reflect on the past year, we have many reasons to be optimistic about the future of our department and the university. We’re experiencing a renewed commitment to quality higher education, and we’ve had a stellar year attracting outstanding faculty and students.

Our newsletter presents a few highlights from this past year, but our website gives more information at www.geo.oregonstate.edu. One of the most important things we did last year was to update our long-range plan. This plan is integrated with the broader vision of the college and university. We want OSU to be the best possible place to study the Geosciences by constantly upgrading our facilities and curriculum and by attracting the best faculty to develop research programs and apply the most effective teaching ideas.

Some of the major curricular changes are already in place. We will offer a new flexible Earth Science BS degree that allows students who choose it to focus on several areas such as earth system science, public interpretation, earth science education, and applied earth science. In addition, we began offering new certificates for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students as part of the Geographic Information Science Certificate Program. This is collaborative with the Colleges of Forestry and Engineering and is designed to present students with a practical streamlined set of courses targeted at GIS techniques and applications.

For the 6th year we organized Geo-Day (May 14). This event included presentations by 23 graduate students, plus the department awards ceremony. A list of the student presentations plus their abstracts is given on the website.

Another student event this past year was the field trip to South Africa supported by alumni, the department, several mining companies, and the participants themselves. One of the undergraduate participants, Zeitel Gray, has written an article about the trip that appears later in this newsletter.

We continue to set new levels of research productivity, with grant awards of $3.4 million, which is 50% above our previous record year. Most important, we did this while maintaining the same number of undergraduate majors and student credit hours, and an increased number of graduate students.

Phil Jackson retired last winter, but Phil will be helping us for another year on a part-time basis, while we conduct a search for a resource geographer to replace him. Our newest faculty member, Ed Brook, arrived this fall. He is a geochemist who studies the chemical signals that are proxies for climate change.

We have done a lot of moving and shifting in the department. We have installed wireless internet hubs, installed a new electron microprobe (in collaboration with Marine Geology), made 235 Wilkinson Hall into a “smart classroom”, remodeled 203 Wilkinson into the new conference room, and converted 127 Wilkinson into a digital petrography laboratory.

Much of this renovation has been supported with funds contributed by alumni and friends of the department. In addition, donors created several new student scholarships and fellowships this year. These contributions allow us to attract the best students and to provide the facilities necessary to learn and to conduct cutting-edge research in the geosciences. Because we have a central role in the university’s future plans, and because we have organized our priorities early, endowed faculty positions in our department, a new building (in collaboration with the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences), and student fellowships in Geology and Geography will have a high priority in OSU’s capital campaign.

Finally, for those of you who attend the football games, we are again sponsoring tailgaters before all home games on the steps of Wilkinson Hall for our alumni, students, faculty, and friends. I encourage you to come to a tailgater and have one of our students or faculty members show you around, so you can see the good things that are happening.

Roger Nielsen

Geosciences Trip to South Africa

At the beginning of the 2003-2004 school year, a few students and faculty had an idea to go to South Africa for Spring Break. Through a lot of hard work, planning, a winter seminar, and fundraising, the idea became a reality. It may have been one of the most memorable experiences of our lives. Every day was full of wonder.

We departed on Friday March 12 for Seattle, and by Sunday morning we were in Madrid for a 16-hour layover. Because of the terrorist attacks on the city 3 days before, it was a very emotional time to have visited. Many places were closed, but we still had the opportunity to visit a few cathedrals and art museums.

At midnight, we boarded the plane for Johannesburg. We arrived at 11 o’clock in the morning and were welcomed by John Dilles and Anita Grunder, the faculty trip leaders, and Paula Ogilvie, a student guide from the University of Witswatersrand. The next day, the Geology Department at the university was kind enough to provide us with a day of seminars on the geology of South Africa. The day of lectures included a trip to see our first Precambrian outcrop, a banded iron formation. We closed the day with a lovely dinner at the home of Rick Menell, Chair of Anglovaal Mining. We were off to a great start.

While in South Africa and Lesotho, we visited many mines. Everywhere we went, the hospitality was exceptional. It was a real eye-opener to see what it takes to obtain the resources on which we depend. First we had a tour of the Randfontein Estates Gold Mine, where we had the experience of going 1300 meters below the surface. At the Steelpoort Mine of Anglo Plat, we had a tour of the platinum mining operations as well as a delightful three-course lunch with the mine managers and geologists. In Lesotho, we had the opportunity to visit the Letseng Diamond Mine, where they mine kimberlite. We also went for a tour of the Sheba Gold Mine near the Barberton Mountains. At the Phalabora Mining Complex, they mine vermiculite, copper, and apatite for phosphorus.

Other places that we traveled to included the Vredefort Dome (a giant meteorite impact site), Golden Gate National Park, Kruger National Park, the Bushveld Complex, Sterkfontein Caves (a famous locality for hominid fossils), the Botanical Gardens, several markets in various towns, and lots of fabulous landscapes—Sani Pass was fantastic. We packed in a lot, which meant a lot of driving. Along the way, we collected samples for ourselves as well as for several lab collections. Our last day was spent at a market in Johannesburg, where we all purchased various South African gifts. We left Johannesburg at 8 pm on Sunday and were in Corvallis late Monday evening, March 29.

I would suggest that everyone participate in a trip like this at least once in their college career. As an undergraduate, I spent time with faculty, graduate students, and professional geologists that I probably never would have met otherwise. You can only learn so much from a textbook, but to be able to get out and see what you have been studying gives you a completely different understanding. The most amazing part of this was that 3 billion year old rocks are something that I had only seen in a book or in the lab. But in South Africa, I saw gigantic outcrops of these ancient rocks. Thank you to all who supported our efforts!

Zeitel Gray

Faculty Profiles

Edward J. Brook

Edward J. Brook joined the Geosciences faculty in Fall Term 2004. Ed is a low-temperature geochemist who uses cores from the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Caps to study climate change. For that reason, his lab in Wilkinson Hall includes a walk-in freezer.

Ed focuses on air bubbles trapped in the ice, which provide a record of the ancient atmosphere at the time snow accumulated to form ice. These bubbles contain traces of gases that are proxies for climate variability. He has been studying methane and now will include carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. This requires building some new instruments, and Ed currently is developing a new technique to release the air bubbles by crushing the ice in a vacuum.

Ice cores contain dust, and some of this is extraterrestrial. Ice may provide a much higher resolution record of extraterrestrial dust than marine sediment, which has been the source of most data in the past. Ed has been developing techniques to take advantage of this potential, and with colleagues he published the first measurements of extraterrestrial helium in ice. Some people have speculated that extraterrestrial dust affects climate, and work on ice cores may help evaluate that suggestion.

Another of Ed’s fields of interest is dating exposed rock surfaces using cosmogenic nuclides (10Be, 26Al, and 3He), an interest shared with Peter Clark and Andrew Meigs. Ed uses this dating technique to reconstruct ancient ice sheets. Although this work started in Antarctica, his present work focuses on the Northern Hemisphere, especially the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet in Norway and former ice sheets in eastern Europe, where he has been working with Peter Clark and his students.

His PhD in chemical oceanography is from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, following earlier degrees in geology from Duke University and the University of Montana. He was a postdoc at the University of Rhode Island and after that worked at the Vancouver campus of Washington State University.

The arrival of Ed Brook increases the visibility of the Quaternary research group at OSU as one of the premier centers of global climate-change research in North America. In the short time since arriving at OSU, he has received grants from both the National Science Foundation and the Gary Comer Foundation (Lands End Clothing Company) to study how greenhouse gases vary when climate changes abruptly. For students interested in doing research with Ed, be sure to wear warm clothes, as he is most comfortable on the ice.

Ed’s first teaching challenge will be to develop a new “capstone” course for our department. This course will be taught at the upper division level (almost exclusively seniors) and will focus on teaching the students how to apply the different components they have learned during their undergraduate experience to the solution of problems in the geosciences. This innovative approach to learning will require students to integrate individual strengths into a team effort and to be individually accountable for their contributions— skills compatible with their careers in industry, teaching, or research after they graduate.

Mary Santelmann

Mary Santelmann, research assistant professor of geography, conducts research into questions such as what land-use and land-restoration practices should be used in rural areas to improve water quality and enhance biodiversity, while at the same time responding to peoples’ traditions and economic needs. Mary has been teaching courses in biogeography since she joined our faculty in 1992. She took the place of retired biogeography professor Bob Frenkel (although Bob is still active in wetlands research himself). Santelmann has a PhD in ecology from the University of Minnesota.

Her most recent projects integrate biogeography and human geography at the watershed level in the Willamette Valley, and also in central Iowa. In these projects, various land-use alternatives are represented in a geographic information systems database and with computer-simulated images. The consequences of employing various land-use practices (in terms of water quality, plant and animal distribution, acceptability to watershed residents, and economic impacts) can then be estimated and compared to current land-use management practices. Methods used for generating the alternatives depend on the goals of the research. For the Iowa project, where new designs and multigoal scenarios were desired, the alternatives were generated through a collaborative design process with a team of landscape architects. For the Willamette Valley, where the goal is to assist existing watershed councils in developing and implementing restoration plans, the alternatives are generated using software of a GIS-based decision system (RESTORE), developed in collaboration with OSU colleague John Bolte of the Bioresources Engineering Department.

Mary’s funding comes from the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency. Her graduate students have canvassed citizens’ attitudes toward water resources protection in Portland, modeled species response to habitat change, and developed a GIS-based method for predicting freshwater wetland type at the Oregon coast. She is currently developing a web-based distance-learning course in biogeography, GEO 324.

Mary Santelmann arrived in Corvallis with her husband George King, who also has a PhD in ecology from the University of Minnesota. George manages scientific research projects in Corvallis for the Dynamac Corporation. They share dualcareer responsibilities while parenting their three children. She is also active in promoting science in Corvallis schools, along with music, and she organized a choral festival involving 300 singers and four childrens’ choirs in July 2004.

Christopher Daly

Christopher Daly says that climate, like politics, is local. If you'd like to plant a vineyard, or if you are concerned about wildfire risk in a national forest, you need more than the satellite maps of weather fronts and the position of the jet stream. The effects of climate on vegetation depend on which way the slope faces, how close you are to the coast, and the altitude. In addition, for planning purposes, you need to know how local climate will change in the face of global warming.

Daly, research associate professor of geosciences, worries about these problems. He combines his knowledge of biogeography, weather, climate, and geographic information systems to develop computer models of today's climate and the climate expected in the near future. Climatic data are based on observations at individual weather stations, and Daly interpolates between those observations to produce regional climatic maps. His unique climate interpolation model, called PRISM, accounts for elevation, rain shadows, coastal effects, temperature inversions, and other factors that control spatial climate patterns. The result is the most accurate and detailed climate maps available today.

Funded by the US Department of Agriculture, Daly has produced official precipitation maps for every state that are accurate enough to stand up to legal challenge. He also has produced a new climate atlas for the United States, updating the previous atlas published in 1968.

Daly organized an externally funded group of five professionals called the Spatial Climate Analysis Service (SCAS). This group does academic research, but principally its mission is applied climatology, leading to an award to Daly by the American Meteorological Society for the outstanding contribution to applied meteorology for 2004. His group has clients in Canada, China, Mongolia, Taiwan, southeast Asia, and Europe. The SCAS website www.ocs.oregonstate.edu/prism/ receives more than a million hits per year.

Dorthe Wildenschile

Dorthe Wildenschild was hired as an assistant professor in September 2002 along with her husband Dr. Adam Kent as a dual-career hire. She has a joint appointment between the Department of Geosciences and the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering. Dorthe received a PhD in Civil Engineering from the Danish Technical University in 1996. After graduating, she had postdoctoral appointments at her graduate institution, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and at the University of California, Davis.

Dorthe’s research interests are focused on the characterization of the shallow subsurface environment. She mainly investigates this environment from an experimental angle, but she also frequently uses numerical modeling. Past research has dealt with geophysical characterization of soils to determine if a link can be made between their electric and acoustic properties and the geophysical modeling necessary for effective remediation strategies at contaminated groundwater sites. Near-surface characterization was also a focus when she worked on the Yucca Mountain Project, the site for the proposed US nuclear waste repository. A major concern of the storage of nuclear waste is safeguarding the environment for 10,000 years to come with respect to radioactive waste potentially leaving the site and entering groundwater and other freshwater sources.

In recent years, Dorthe’s research interests have increasingly turned to small dimensions. Using the synchrotron radiation facility at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, she is currently applying high-intensity x-rays to microimaging and quantifying pore-scale processes in geologic materials. With the micrometer resolution available with synchrotron-based microtomography, individual pores and liquids and gases may be imaged in three dimensions to learn about pore-scale processes in the subsurface. The technique is nondestructive. The highly controlled environment in such small-scale experiments is perfect for limiting the sources of error, and the results are therefore useful for developing new thermodynamic theories and computer models. Collaboration with colleagues from OSU, UC Riverside, UC Davis, and the University of North Carolina is aimed at these goals.

Some day, Dorthe plans to turn her attention back to larger scales again and apply the newfound knowledge to problems that are more directly relevant to society, such as environmental problems and their remediation, water management, and irrigated agriculture.

Dorthe is on the lookout for students interested in the quantitative aspects of the physics of flow and transport in the subsurface, with an emphasis on detailed experiments supported by computer modeling. At present, Mark Porter is a PhD student working on high-performance modeling of pore-space processes in permeable media, Rebecca Weaver is a MS student working on groundwater modeling in the Deschutes River Basin, and Katherine Culligan is a visiting PhD student from the University of Notre Dame work ing on experiments and thermodynamic theory about pore-scale processes.

Currently, Dorthe is teaching Environmental Geology for nonscience majors in Geoscience, and Groundwater Modeling in Civil Engineering. When Dorthe is not teaching or working on hydrogeologic issues, she is busy learning how entropy affects her year-old son.

An Alumni Trailblazer

Jean Bowman Clark has a unique place in the history of the Department of Geosciences. She was the first woman geology graduate at both the BS and MS levels. As department chair, Roger Nielsen had the privilege to interview Jean for this profile. It provided wonderful insight into what the department was like 65 years ago, and enjoyment because he is old enough to like being called a “kid”.

Jean grew up in Prineville, Oregon, where her father made his living in real estate law. Her path to us began as a consequence of a summer program in archaeology at Chaco Canyon run by the University of New Mexico. When she came home to Oregon, she enrolled in the Geology Program at Oregon State because it was the only geology, anthropology, or archeology program in the state at the time.

One of the longstanding departmental traditions that Jean participated in during her time here was working as an assistant on a research project while she was an undergraduate. Some of the people who had the greatest influence on her were Drs. Ethel Sanborn (paleobotanist), Earl Packard (paleontologist, department chair, and first dean of the College of Science) and W.D. Wilkinson (mineralogist, petrologist). She worked on research projects in central Oregon and collected and identified fossil plant specimens used as stratigraphic indicators. After graduating with a BS in 1939, one of these projects grew to become her master’s thesis, which was on the geology of the Hampton Quadrangle, under “Doc” Wilkinson.

After she completed her MS in 1940, Jean went to work at the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI). In her time there, she worked on a variety of projects, some in paleontology, some in what we now call outreach, some in the geology of central Oregon.

In 1942, Jean married another Oregon State graduate, Fred D. Gustafson, mining engineer. They then went to work for Anaconda Copper, and moved to Montana. As with many families of their generation, their lives became very complicated in the next few years, involving the military and many moves.

After the war, Jean went back to graduate school at the University of Washington and broadened her education with a Masters of Library Science. Fred went to work for the Oregon Department of Water Resources. Jean applied her degrees as librarian for Marion County, until her retirement in the 1980s. All that time she and her family have retained a strong affinity and connection to Geosciences at Oregon State.

Jean, her children Maryla, Chris, Shelly, and Fred, her eight grandchildren, and three greatgrandchildren, would like to join us in announcing their creation of the Jean Bowman Clark Geology Fellowship in the Department of Geosciences. This endowment will generate funds in perpetuity for our students.

Deep Dives on the Izu Forearc Ridge

OSU is on the edge of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, but at least one member of our department heads for an even longer subduction zone on the other side of the Pacific: the Izu- Mariana Subduction Zone. Geochemist Sherman Bloomer has managed to get away from the rigors of being Dean of the College of Science to pursue his dream of better understanding this firstorder tectonic feature.

In May 2004, he boarded the Japanese research vessel Yokosuka for a 1-week cruise to the Bonin Islands south of Japan, where a combined Japanese- American research team studied the steep western scarp of the Ogasawara Forearc Ridge, using the submersible Shinkai 6500. In addition to being cochief scientist, Bloomer participated in one of the submersible dives. The Shinkai 6500 sampled Eocene volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks in a section with more than 3 km of relief on the arcward backside of the ridge. The scientific party also mapped the detailed bathymetry of the ridge, revealing a northwesterly grain crossing the regional northerly trend of the ridge. This cruise, together with earlier ones Bloomer has conducted farther south on the Mariana part of the subduction zone, will add important information about how oceanic subduction zones operate, including the tectonic setting of “suprasubductionzone” oceanic crust.

In addition to his research and administrative activities, Bloomer teaches one of the large sections of beginning geology.

Geosciences Tailgaters

The Department of Geosciences sponsored tailgaters for alumni, faculty, students, and friends this fall before Beaver football games. We plan to continue these fun times during the 2005 season. The tailgaters begin 2 hours before kickoff for each home game. The tailgaters will be on the front steps of Wilkinson Hall. For our alumni and their accompanying family and friends, we’ll have plenty of free burgers (both meat and veggie), dogs and sausages, chips, salads, desserts, as well as soft drinks. We’ll also have open house in Wilkinson Hall so that you can see some of the latest work being conducted by the department. Specific tailgater activities will be posted and updated in advance on our website. We look forward to seeing many of you at the tailgaters, to renewing old acquaintances, and to making new ones.

GO BEAVERS!

Discovery Days

The Department of Geosciences made its first appearance at the biannual College of Science "Discovery Days", April 20-21, 2004, at LaSells Stewart Center. The event drew over a thousand elementary and middle school students from throughout western Oregon. The department's interactive exhibits included groundwater hydrology, plate tectonics and earthquakes, computer mapping, volcanic eruptions, rock and mineral displays, and live photos transmitted by the Rover from Mars! The students used geographic information systems software to locate their home or school and print out a map of it. Undergraduates from our Geosciences Club, along with several graduate students, worked with Dr. Bob Lillie to engage these future Beavers and their teachers and parents in the excitement and importance of the varied aspects of the earth sciences. We look forward to bigger and better exhibits next year, which in honor of Mount St. Helens will feature volcanoes. And we welcome ideas and involvement from our alumni and friends.

Mount St. Helens Erupts

The dynamic Earth showed its stuff this past year in the Pacific Northwest, and our students and faculty have been excited. Precursor earthquakes began during September 2004, and surface effects began on October 1. As we go to press in mid-November, the new dome in the 1980 crater has quadrupled its growth rate during the past month. It is now 100 meters high. Magma is rising steadily beneath the dome, and it is also arching up the glacier that lies within the crater, and feeding a surface extrusion of lava. Anita Grunder has kept the department informed, grad student Mike Rowe has been sampling, and Chuck Rosenfeld and Bob Yeats gave talks about the 1980 eruption. Some experts predict that the volcano will return to its pre-1980 ice-cream-cone shape within the next few decades. Because of the hazards, the closer viewpoints at Johnston Ridge and Windy Ridge are closed, but the main Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center remains open Thursday through Monday.

Three Geosciences Students Begin Ecosystem Informatics Program

Geosciences PhD candidates Janine Rice, Alan Tepley, and Tiffany Vance are among ten students from five additional departments (Computer Science, Mathematics, Bioengineering, Forestry, and Fisheries and Wildlife) to begin an ecosystem informatics integrated minor that was inaugurated Fall Term. Julia Jones is director of the National Science Foundation funded program, which aims to develop innovative solutions to ecosystem problems by blending the sciences and mathematics, sharing expertise, and working in interdisciplinary teams.

Take Geosciences Courses from Anywhere

Want to update your skills or learn a new one? Several 10-week courses are now available on the Web, and we invite you to continue learning with us. Costs, similar to those of on-campus courses, are currently $564 for a 3-credit course, and all credits may be used toward a degree. To learn more, visit the ecampus website and search for Geosciences classes or call 1-800-667-1465.

Courses remaining in this academic year include the following:
GEO 103 Geography of the World’s Oceans, 4 credits, Spring Term (Keller)
GEO 265 Geographic Information Systems, 3 credits, Winter, Spring Terms (Becker)
GEO 300 Environmental Conservation, 3 credits, Winter Term (Matzke)
GEO 307 Geology of National Parks, 3 credits, Spring Term (Lillie)
GEO 323 Climatology, 4 credits, Spring Term (Jackson)
GEO 324 Biogeography, 4 credits, Spring Term (Santelmann)
GEO 380 Earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest, 3 credits, Spring Term (Yeats)
GEO 465 Geographic Information Systems and Science, 3 credits, Winter, Spring, Summer Terms (Wright), also available as a graduate course

New Alumni, 2003–2004

Aaby, Alyssa, Geography MS 04
Arighi, Louis M., Geology MS 04
Arsenault, Ann Michelle, Geology MS 04
Ashley, Sara L., Geography MS 04
Ashton, Rebecca H., Geology MS 03
Babcock, James F., Earth Science BS 03
Becker, Joseph P., Geology BS 04
Bennett, Brian A., Geology BS 04
Bessey, Amber D., Geology BS 04
Blankespoor, Brian, Geography MS 04
Ciecko, Bryan J., Geology BS 04
Clayton, Benjamin L., Earth Science BS 04
Coble, Matthew A., Geology BS 04
Colombo, Mary C., Geology BS 04
Crouse, Kenneth R., Geography MS 03
Culhane, Jerrica E., Geography BS 04
Culver, Benjamin D., Geology BA 04
Davidson, Robert E., Geography BS 04
Ensor, Kelly L., Geology BS 04
Esch, Theresa A., Geology BS 03
Garis, Adam J., Geology BS 04
Giglia, Sheryl K., Geography MS 04
Goebel, Brett C., Geography BS 04
Gray, Zeitel N., Geology BS 04
Green, Joe V., Geology BS 04
Hadid, Karim, Geology BA 04
Hall, Teresa C., Geology BS 04
Harpole, Jason L., Geography BS 04
Heidrich, Erin L., Geography BA 04
Hensley, Jeb D., Geology BS 03
Heyman, Ofer, Geography PhD 04
Johnson, Louise C., Geography BA 04
Kaye, Grant D., Geology MS 03
Kohut, Edward J., Geology PhD 04
Koslofsky, Adam D., Geology BS 04
Krehbiel, Jennifer L., Geology BS 04
Larsen, Peter A., Geography BS 04
Liljedahl, Eric J., Geology BS 04
Lundblad, Emily, Geography MS 04
Marshall, Baron R., Geography BS 04
Martin, Bond C., Geography BS 03
Mattson, Megan H., Geography BS 04
McCrary, Kelly A., Natural Resources BS 04
McCutcheon, Mark S., Geology MS 03
McKendrick, Stephen, Geography MS 04
Natoli, Jennifer A., Geology MS 04
Oakes-Miller, Hollie K., Geology BS 04
Perigny, Matthew T., Geography MS 04
Petcovic, Heather, Geology PhD 04
Primiano, Anthony M., Natural Resources BS 04
Rinterknecht, Vincent R., Geography PhD 03
Rodgers, Jennifer L., Geology BS 04
Ross, Jackson D., Geology BS 04
Roy, Martin, Geology PhD 03
Smith, Dianna M., Geography MS 03
Stewart, Roland D., Earth Science BS 04
Stueber, Jeffrey C., Geography BS 04
Van Osdol, Matthew J., Geography BS 04
Wallick, Jennifer Rose, Geology MS 04
Walls, Jonathan D., Geography BS 04
Wampler, Peter, Geology PhD 04
Watterson, Nicholas B., Geography MS 04
Williams, Gretchen T., Earth Science BS 03

Three Sisters Map Available

The long-awaited geologic map of the Three Sisters Volcanoes and adjacent central Oregon by Emeritus Prof. Edward M. Taylor and coauthors has been printed by the US Geological Survey and is now available with text for $14 + shipping as map I-2683 from 1-800-ASK-USGS. It also soon will be available for downloading from the Web at http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/i-map/i2683. This map summarizes many years of research, and it cites the contributions made by 15 of Ed’s former OSU geology students, including Dave Sherrod, Deb Cannon, Rich Conrey, Tom Dill, Pete Hales, Britt Hill, Scott Hughes, Angela McDannel, Steve Pitts, George Priest, Gary Smith, Don Stensland, Dave Thormahlen, Pete Weidenheim, and Karl Wozniak (Sherrod, Conrey, and Smith are coauthors, along with Mark Ferns and Willie Scott). The map and text will be used in support of wilderness recreation, land-use planning, water and aggregate resources, volcanic-hazard analysis, and geologic interpretation of the central Cascades.

Department Announces Yeats Chair Campaign

We are planning to create an endowed faculty position in the field of earthquake geology and active tectonics. Oregon State University is an internationally recognized leader in this area, largely due to the work of Robert S. Yeats and his students. Over the span of his career, the scientific contributions of his research group have emphasized earthquake studies and their implications for society.

OSU’s College of Science is launching an endowment campaign to recognize Dr. Yeats’s body of work and to attract a new rising star to continue his legacy in earthquake geology. This addition will greatly improve our ability to deliver the educational mission of the department in field-techniques training, graduate education, and large-format courses. It also will help us to teach fundamental principles of earth sciences and the relevance of innovative approaches in scientific research to Oregonians and the world.

A reunion symposium recognizing Bob’s contributions, the continued importance of this field, and the excitement generated by the work of his former students and colleagues, will be held this coming June in Corvallis and Newport, June 24– 25, 2005. If you wish to attend, please contact Roger Nielsen (Chair, Geosciences Department) or Andrew Meigs (Chair, Yeats Chair Committee).

Faculty Awards

Steve Cook: His Environmental Conservation and Sustainability course is listed among the university’s top-5 baccalaurate core courses in the OSU Daily Barometer.
Andrew Meigs: OSU College of Science Carter Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching.
Gordon Matzke: Received the Abler Distinguished Service Award of the Association of American Geographers.
Dawn Wright: Fulbright Fellowship for research at the Irish Marine and Coastal Resourses Centre, University College Cork.

We’re Interested In You

Next year, the OSU Geosciences Newsletter will feature our alumni, who we hope, have had their lives enriched by their experience here. It is fascinating to read previous newsletters that tell us how careers have changed over the years, sometimes in unexpected ways. Your experiences help us evaluate the effectiveness of our program. So, right now, send us a paragraph or two about yourself and your family, and please include your current address, phone number, and email. Send them to Melinda Peterson at petersom@geo.oregonstate.edu, or to a faculty colleague. We are proud of you. We want to keep in touch and to give you the chance to stay connected with the friends you made in school.

Geosciences Department Benefactors (11/03–11/04)

Ted & Linda Alsop • George Anderson • Glen & Suzanne Anderson • Steven Anderson • Claus & Betty Axelsen • Lester & Betty Delker Barkley • Kenneth & Donna Barrow • Rick Bastasch • Gary Beach & Mona Beach Bernardi • John Bedford • Peter Behr • Kathryn Berger • Elizabeth & Thomas Berkman • Kenneth Bevis • Gary Bigham • Matthew & Kimberly A. Bixby • Stanley Blair • Heidi & Eric Blischke • John Philip & Louise Brogan • William Brown • Mary Brugo • Victoria Bruzese• John & Janet Bubb• Brian & Rebecca Butler • Drusilla Butler & Einar Skinnarland • John & Shirley Byrne • Richard & Patricia Carlton • Jill Camine • Janine Castro • Scott & Genie Churchill • Howard & Marilyn Coble • Robert & Linda Coble • John & Kathryn Kaiser Coleman • Kenneth & Cynthia Cunningham • Howard & Shirley Davis • William & Pamela Davis • Marshall Deacon • Michelle Deplois • Wayne & Sabra Dexter • John Dilles • Steven & Sandra Dodson • Steven Dole • Darrell & Natalie Siderius Downs • James & Joyce Drake • Frederick & Rebecca Eberlie • David & Laurie Edwards • John Erickson • Donald & Geraldine Esch • Bruce & Beverly Fahlstrom Falkenstein • Anne Fiedler • Cyrus & Rebecca Field • Richard & Katheryn Fifarek • John Flint • Robert Foot • Gary Freuler • Owen & Harriet Furuseth • Richard & Beverly Gaarenstroom • John & Teresa Gallagher • Bill Gallahan • Marshall Gannett • Nikolaus & Marci Gerhardt • Mike Gerstenberger • Norman & Donna Gilmont • Reed & Margaret Glasmann • James & Rebecca Golden • William Goodhue • Donald & Margaret Grettum • Anita Grunder • Andrew Gutgesell • Ronald & Sandra Hall • Jay & Jeannie Hammitt • Kevin & Barbara Harrison • John Hatch • Frederick & Clara Horne • Mark Houser & Joan Allmaras • John Hruska • Jonathan & Janell Huggins • Scott Hughes & Vivian Hughes Golightly • Steven & Karen Hunter • Philip & Patricia Jackson • Terry Jackson • Thomas & Sonia Jamir • Gary & Clara Jarman • William Jarvis • Peter & Debbie Jenkins • Paul & Linda Jenkinson • Betty Johnson • David Johnson & Karen DeBont • Floyd & Donna Johnson • Betty Johnston • Mildred & Andrew Johnston • Michael & Susan Jones • Dorothy & Chester Josef • Brenda Keith • Richard & Connie Kepler • Christen Kilsgaard • Glenn Kirkindall • Helen Krogh • Amy & Brett L’Manian • Andy Lau • Timothy & Linda Lauer • Michael & Mary Lewis • Reed & Karen Lewis • Joseph Licciardi • Greg & Mary Liljedahl •Robert Lillie • Douglas & Vicky Manske • John Marshall • Richard & Linda Marston • Jack & Jane Martin • Gordon & Mary Ann Matzke • Lois Matzke • Kevin & Dina McCarty • Angela McDannel • Cynthia Schneider McDonald • Philip & Doris McGuire • Andrew & Sarah Meigs • Brian & Angela Millar • Robert Miller • Errol & Ann Montgomery • George Moon • George & Ellen James Moore • Morley & Lois Moran • Irene Mundorff • Daniel & Jackie Murphy • Daniel Myers • Duane & Ruth Nellis • Roger Nielsen • Joyce Hout Northam • Albert & Eloyce O’Connor • Richard & Jean O’Grady •Roxanne & Richard O’Hearn • Leslie Olmstead • James Olson & Linda Besse • Mark Ostlind • John & Diane Packard • Elliott & Twyla Parker • David Pawelek • Peter & Jane Penoyer • Barbara & John Perdue • Curt & Carolyn Pugh Peterson • Heather & Greg Petry • John & Rebecca Preston • Kenneth & Katherine Rathje • William Rense • Edward & Janet Bilton Reyes • Paul & Valerie Rosenberg • Patrick & Janis Roberts Rutty • Rand Rydell • Leslie Safley • Kenneth & Constance J. Sansome • Alexander Sapiens & Lisette Artiga • Daniel Saul • Alexander & Margie Schriener • Sigmund Schwarz • George & Danielle Sharp • Peter Shields & Wen Wu • Amy Sikkema-Young & Wytse Sikkema • Michael & Loralyn Simmons • Philip & Janis K. Simon • Wayne & Cheryl Sitkei • Greg Smith • Tracy & Penelope Smith • David & Kay Sorenson • Wayne Stout • Martin & Soraya Streck • Kirby & Kathleen Golden Stross • William Taubeneck • Timothy & Rosemary Tolle • Patrick & Robin Tolson • Wayne Tonack • Susan & Dennis Tower • Gerald & Christine Tunstall • Andy & Roberta Ungerer • Jonnie & Thomas VanderZanden • Philip & Emily Pierce Verplanck • Melvin & Cynthia Vuk • Alan Wallace • Stephen & Jeannie Walsh • Chris & Wendy Wayne • William Wendell • John Whitaker • Willis & Maurla White • David R. Williams • David & Susan Williams • John Williams • Randi Williams • Stanley & Marjorie Williams • Eric & Brandy Wilson • Steven & Louise Wilson • Bernard & Wendy Wong • Douglas Yadon • Robert & Angela Yeats • Mark Yinger • Shira Yoffe •Mark Younger

Corporate and Matching Gifts

Arrowhead Band Instrument Service • BP Amoco Foundation • Bechtel Foundation • ChevronTexaco • Dominion Foundation • ExxonMobil Educational Foundation • Hewlett-Packard Company • E Jeanine Jones Family Trust • Landau Associates, Inc • Newmont Mining Corporation • Merrill Family Foundation • Placer Dome Exploration Inc • Society of Economic Geologists Foundation Inc • State Farm Companies Foundation • Tiger Deck LLC • Unocal Foundation • Williams Gas Pipeline West • Xcel Energy Foundation

To Support OSU’s Department of Geosciences

If you wish to support the work of the department, please make checks to the OSU Foundation, annotated with Geosciences or with one of our programs. Thank you.