Tag: geologic research
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Endings and Beginnings
William & Mary’s class of 2015 has graduated. On Sunday morning the Geology department held its graduation reception, and the mood was suitably festive as our latest cohort of seniors took possession of their diplomas. As I noted in earlier posts, part of what makes a bachelor of science degree in Geology from William &…
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The Saddest Affair: A Geologic Perspective on the Battle of the Crater, U.S. Civil War
One hundred and fifty years ago this week a terrible and pernicious battle was fought at Petersburg, Virginia during the American Civil War. In the summer of 1864 the Confederate and Union armies were at a stalemate; dug in and facing each other across a long front. Lt. Colonel Henry Pleasants, a mining engineer from…
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Summer Research: Stories from the Microscope
The Buckmarlson Banshees have spent much of the past seven weeks in the field working to understand the geology of the eastern Blue Ridge and western Piedmont. But this past week we came indoors and spent time observing our samples under the petrographic microscope. Earlier in the summer we cut rock samples into small chips…
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Summer Research: Introducing the Buckmarlson Banshees
Try to find Buckmarlson on a map and you won’t have much luck. It’s the newly created place name for our field area in Virginia’s west-central Piedmont. Buckmarlson is a portmanteau word we created based on the names of the three counties in which our geologic studies are taking place: Buckingham, Albemarle, and Nelson counties.…
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Summer Research: The Gravity of the Situation
I’ve just returned to Williamsburg after a month of field research in Utah at Fish Lake and the High Plateaus. I journeyed to Utah with a team of four W&M undergraduates, nicknamed the Wayne WonderMonkeys (more on their name later). June brought copious rain to Williamsburg (more than 25 cm (10”) fell on campus), all…
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Living the Dream: Back to Alberene
Remember the Alberene Dream Team from the summer of 2011? This talented group of undergraduates poured themselves into research projects aimed at understanding the geology of the eastern Blue Ridge Mountains that summer and continued their work as part of their senior research during the academic year. Alex Johnson, the youngest member of the Alberene…
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When Mountains Move
My first post as a W&M blogger came after our Utah field season during the summer of 2008. Indeed, we lived the high life that July, conducting geologic research on the Fish Lake Plateau, a broad and broken highland situated nearly 2 miles above sea level. My undergraduate research students: Trevor Buckley, JoBeth Carbaugh, and…
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Making Hay with the Alberene Dream Team
August is here and a new semester looms just around the corner. As the old saying goes it is best “to make hay while the sun shines” and Alberene Dream Team did just that, they baled a bunch of “research hay” during their summer field campaign in the eastern Blue Ridge Mountains. Let’s review. The…