Georgina DeWeese

Department of Geosciences

University of West Georgia

Fall 2007 Newsletter

Letter from the Chair

Dear Alumni, family and friends,

This fall marks the beginning of a very exciting year for the Department of Geosciences. Construction on the Callaway Addition has already begun, and the east side of Callaway is now a rather large hole in the ground. The official groundbreaking ceremony for the Callaway Addition is scheduled to coincide with the Pig Roast, so that alumni and friends of the department can participate. The big day is Saturday, September 29, 2007. The Pig Roast starts at the Bergstrom’s ~ 2:00 p.m. – renew friendships, play volleyball, horseshoes, etc. We will eat in the shade at 4:00 p.m. – this will give us plenty of time to socialize and get to the groundbreaking at 6:00. The ground breaking will only take a few minutes. Please bring a shovel so that we can get pictures of masses of alumni breaking the ground. After the ground breaking we will go to the Pig Roast for more fun and the wonderful drawings for prices that support the Geoscience Club activities. The Geoscience Club student members claim that their volley ball and horseshoe teams can beat any combination alumni team. Are you up for the challenge on our unique “both sides face downhill” volley ball court? They will also have games for children. We hope to get as many of you as possible to both events on the 29^th.

If all goes well with the construction, the Callaway Addition will open in August 2008. We will offer tours of the Callaway Addition and may even have the Pig Roast on campus. The Callaway Addition (27,649 ft²) will more than double the size of the existing Callaway Building (21,942 ft²). The addition will be attached to the east end of the Callaway Building with direct access across all three floors. The ground floor will include a new rock preparation lab, core storage, thin section, crushing, grinding, sedimentation, and mineral separation labs and four faculty offices. On the second floor there will be an atrium-style building entry with lower and upper lobby, a large, 40 seat GIS lab, two lecture halls (70 and 48 seat), multi-media conference room, as well as offices for faculty, Chair and Director of Center for Water Resources. The third floor will feature a water quality lab, human geography room, 20-seat research computer lab, physical geography research lab, paleoecology lab, and office space. A weather station will be mounted on the roof. For the first time, the entire Department of Geosciences will be housed under one roof and our classroom and lab facilities will be truly spectacular.

We are in need of some large, impressive display items for the lobby and outdoor spaces. If you have access to nice samples that you could get donated to the Department and send to us, now is the time to do it while the building construction contractor has large equipment on site to unload 7,000 pound quartz crystals and T. rex skeletons. Send me an email or call (678-839-4050) if you can help.

We are also excited to have three new tenure-track faculty members this year. Drs. Hannes Gerhardt, Georgina DeWeese, and Christopher Berg replace the departed Drs. Nicol, Ivester, and Ratajeski, respectively. Read more about our new faculty below.

Student and faculty success continues at a high level. We have seven students and six faculty/staff presenting at the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver on October 28-31, 2007. Dave Bush is Technical Program Chair for the Denver GSA meeting. We have 70 majors in the Department spread across our four degree programs.

The Alumni Newsletter is being revamped to include more alumni news, so please write to tell us what you’ve been up to. We want pictures! The newsletter will also be posted online and distributed by email.

The John Chambers Memorial Scholarship is just a few hundred dollars short of reaching the magic $10,000 level at the West Georgia Foundation. After reaching $10,000 the Scholarship is “endowed” within the Foundation and we will get an annual ~5% toward the student scholarships. Checks can be made out to the West Georgia Foundation marking on the check for line the Chambers’ scholarship.

Janice, Stefanie, Tim, Megan, Garrison, and I look forward to seeing you on the 29^th. We will eat right at 4:00 pm.

Sincerely

Curtis Hollabaugh

Chair and Professor

News from the New Faculty

Chris Berg – Metamorphic Petrology

Georgina DeWeese – Biogeography

I completed my PhD in Geography at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in August 2007. That same month, I began as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geosciences at West Georgia. I am a biogeographer, interested in how climate, fire, and humans impact the distribution of plants. I am also a dendroarchaeologist – I use tree rings to date historical structures, musical instruments, and anything made of wood. In the past year, UWG students have accompanied me on research trips to the Chief John Ross House in Rossville, GA and to the Buffalo National River in Arkansas. The image at right, above, shows me obtaining a core sample at the Chief John Ross House. The image at left shows me with student Brian Parrish doing fieldwork at the Buffalo National River. As you can see, dendrochronology is grueling work! I was attracted to West Georgia because of its dedication to undergraduate research. At West Georgia, I will be teaching courses in weather and climate, meteorology, climate change, biogeography, and dendrochronology.

Hannes Gerhardt – Political and Cultural Geography

Dr. Hannes Gerhardt is the department’s newest human geographer. Dr. Gerhardt completed an undergraduate degree in philosophy from the University of Miami and a Masters degree in geography from the University of Oslo in Norway. Most recently, he earned his PhD in geography form the University of Arizona. The title of his dissertation was "The Geopolitics of Distant Suffering: U.S. Government and Faith-Based Responses to ‘Genocide’ in Sudan." Whereas Dr. Gerhardt’s interests span the entire gambit of political and cultural geography, his primary research focus is on geopolitics and the geography of ethics. Hannes also maintains a regional expertise in Africa, where he has conducted research in Ghana and Rwanda. It is Dr. Gerhardt’s hope to be able to offer a summer course in Africa that teams up with African students in a geographically-focused service learning project. Dr. Hannes Gerhardt comes to Carrollton with his wife and young daughter.

News from the faculty/staff

Dave Bush

I am proud to announce the formal organization of the Center for Coastal Studies at West Georgia. The Center’s mission is to provide data and advice concerning coastal processes, hazards, and other critical coastal issues. The Center will be a partner with the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines (PSDS). PSDS was established in 1985 at Duke University by Orrin H. Pilkey. Under Dr. Pilkey’s direction, the program has taken a worldwide view of modern coastal processes and geologic hazards. The Program’s goal has been the examination of the geologic basis for managing developed shorelines in a time of rising sea level. Dr. Pilkey served as the sole director of PSDS until 2007 when the Program was relocated to Western Carolina University under the direction of Robert S. Young. The Center for Coastal Studies at the University of West Georgia is the Georgia affiliate of PSDS. I am a senior research fellow in PSDS as well as Director of the UWG Center for Coastal Studies.

I also continue as Editor of Southeastern Geology and repeat my standing request for manuscripts. Visit the website at www.southeasterngeology.org.

I have the pleasure of serving as the Technical Program Chair for the 2007 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Denver. A near-record 3,661 abstracts were accepted, with 2,047 oral presentations organized into 22 concurrent sessions. A public forum on forensic geology will be a highlight of the conference. Mark your calendars for October 28-31. Plans are in the works for a late-breaking session on the earthquake in Peru and perhaps Hurricane Dean. Visit the GSA website at www.geosociety.org.

Phil Novack-Gottshall

This has been an exciting and eventful year for Phil Novack-Gottshall and his wife, Sandy! Although his major research interest continues to be the community ecology of Paleozoic fossil assemblages (the focus of his dissertation), he has been focusing more recently on the role of body size as an important trait of fossil invertebrates. He published the major chapter of his dissertation in Paleobiology this Spring and has another chapter in press at Palaios. He just completed two new manuscripts examining Paleozoic body size trends, and has some others in the pipeline. The first is in review at Paleobiology and the second was just submitted to Nature. The latter focused on size trends in brachiopods and was co-written with recent departmental alumnus Adam Lanier ('07), who did much of the data collection and analyses during his senior-year independent project and presented his research at southeastern GSA.

Phil's interest in body size led to his participation in a three-year working group of paleontologists and ecologists (including members from Stanford, Chicago, and Virginia Tech) at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center housed at Duke University. He is also participating this year in a working group of the Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems Consortium at the Smithsonian and an NSF workshop bringing together Chinese and American paleontologists to collaborate on the Ordovician radiation (and K/T extinction and Himalayan Uplift). Combined with teaching and conferencing, this is looking like a very busy next few months. His wife's year has been even more exciting. After being signed in November by a fantastic Manhattan literary agent, Denise Shannon, Sandy's short story collection and then-unfinished novel went to auction with various publishing houses, eventually being won by Random House, who offered a wonderful advance but wanted the novel completed by Sept. 1. After many months hard work, Sandy's glad to discover she does enjoy writing novels, and she submitted her first novel under deadline. Look for it, tentatively titled Precious, in bookstores Fall 2008/Spring 2009 (depending, of all things, on the political vagaries of an election year!) and the short story collection a year later. Now that she's done, she keeps busy, judging a literary contest and headlining the Flathead Writer's Conference in scenic Whitefish, Montana (where Phil's hoping to spend a day at adjoining Glacier National Park, sans black bears.) Needless to say, we've had a very good year, although we (and our many pets) regret not taking any vacations (unless class field trips count).

Jeong Chang Seong

Rebecca Dodge

Dr. Rebecca L. Dodge spent the last year as Interim Executive Director of AmericaView, Inc. (AV). AV is a non-profit, state-based educational consortium active in 30 states; all partner academic institutions teach applied remote sensing in diverse disciplines including geoscience, forestry, agriculture, and meteorology. There is a focus on undergraduate research and internships, especially at the 9 GeorgiaView member campuses. Academic partners cooperate with government and industry to ensure successful applications of imagery of all kinds and scales to solve problems within each state and region. The organization is funded by the U.S. Geological Survey. Dr. Dodge also worked with 16 local K-5 teachers last year to establish environmental education within the elementary and primary schools in Carrollton, Georgia. She laid the groundwork for expanding the educational partnership with Jr. High and High School level teacher training in Biology, Environmental Science, Earth Science and Life Science.

Tim Chowns

After spending last fall on research leave, Tim Chowns is back in the department this year. The fifty or so of you who have contributed to vibracoring on Jekyll Island should be watching Southeastern Geology to see the final results, published along with alumni Bryan Schultz and James Griffin. The work on Jekyll suggests that several major inlets on the coast have changed location within the last few thousand years in response to rising sea levels. Tim spent most of last year working on his Red Mountain manuscript which has been submitted to the Alabama Geological Survey for publication. That takes care of the stratigraphy. Now for the petrography!

Julie Bartley

Julie Bartley was promoted to full professor this year. She continues to oversee the West Georgia Microscopy Center, which holds our scanning electron microscope and associated equipment. Last year, she began serving as UWG’s first-year program coordinator and continues in that role this year. She had great fun this summer, meeting each of the more than 1800 freshmen that started at UWG this fall. Can you believe how much we’re growing? She’s also continued to work on Proterozoic reefs and microbes as well as peculiar Precambrian carbonate fabrics. Geology students Michael Bucari-Tovo and Ashley Manning worked this summer on research projects related to these topics. Julie even brought a biology major, Hannah Hunter, over from the dark side to work on the microstructure of blastoid skeletons. Ashley Manning will present the results of her research on the fossilization potential of microbes at the GSA Annual Meeting in Denver and Julie will give a talk there as well, coauthored with Linda Kah of University of Tennessee, that attempts to explain how four meters of colloidal carbonate beds formed on the Proterozoic seafloor!

Randy Kath

Dr. Kath continues the work of groundwater exploration and development in igneous and metamorphic aquifer-well systems of the southeastern Piedmont/Blue Ridge. As part of this ongoing research, Dr. Kath has refined a new pumping test methodology with Tom Crawford (Professor Emeritus) that better estimates the long-term sustainable yield from these igneous and metamorphic aquifer-well systems. In addition to groundwater projects, Dr. Kath has been working closely with the tunnel projects that are under construction in the metro-Atlanta area. This work involves detailed geologic mapping of the tunnels both prior to (surface mapping) and during construction (underground mapping). Data from three of the tunnels were presented at Southeastern GSA meetings and are providing new insight into the geology and structure of the Brevard Zone. Currently, Dr. Kath is mapping along the Emerson-Talladega Fault in Polk County, southwest of Rockmart, Georgia. Lithologic and structural data from this project has provided new interpretations as to the lateral extent and structural relationship of the Chilhowee Group, west of the Cartersville District.

Andy Walter

During the previous year I presented papers at two academic conferences. In November, at the Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), I presented a paper analyzing the impacts of urban revitalization in Tallahassee, FL, from the perspectives of homeless men and women. I have submitted this paper to the journal Urban Geography. My paper at the AAG national meeting in San Francisco in April examined the geographic strategies pursued by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) in their successful boycott against Taco Bell. This paper was part of a larger project on the political geography of the CIW’s struggle against south Florida growers for better wages and working conditions and to be recognized as a bargaining agent for farmworkers. I received a Faculty Research Grant from the Learning Resources Committee to visit Immokalee and conduct interviews with workers, which I did in June. I also conducted some of the research at the US Social Forum in Atlanta, where the CIW made a variety of presentations. During the year, I completed the first phase of research on the local food system in Carroll County using a SRAP grant from UWG to employ geography major, Mechelle Puckett. The second phase of the project, which I will carry out with another student assistant during the upcoming year, was awarded funding in April. Additionally, in May I was accepted to and attended a weeklong Institute for Geographies of Justice in Athens, GA, sponsored by the journal Antipode, which brought together 35 junior and senior faculty and advanced PhD students from around the country to discuss how academic geographers can and should work to create a more socially and ecologically just world.

Jim Mayer

Jim Mayer is on leave from teaching responsibilities during fall semester 2007 while he finishes writing up results of earlier studies and prepares class notes for Hydrogeology. He has promised the UWG Geosciences Club to lead karst hydrogeology (caving) field trips this Fall and they seem determined to hold him to his word. We look forward to some very muddy students in the near future. Dr. Mayer will resume normal teaching duties in Spring 2008.

News from the Alumni

Rachel B. Strom

Rachel B. Strom has held the position of VALOR Project Manager for the South Georgia Regional Development Center in Valdosta, GA for the last 7 years. She is a graduate of the State University of West Georgia (B.S. geology, 1997.) and spent her first professional years in the GIS field employed at GeoFields, Inc. A desire to serve the public brought Mrs. Strom to South Georgia where she has nurtured the budding VALOR (VAldosta LOwndes Regional) program and watched it grow to be an award winning example of co-operative GIS used throughout the state.

Rachel with family

Brian Nicholas

Brian Nicholas is starting his 6th year at Lamar County Middle School. He is currently working on making the Earth Science Curriculum be much more project and technology oriented. Brian has been married now for four years to Mandi and they have a little girl that just turned three named Mary Syble. He has a solar panel being installed here to use for research just like the one at Central Middle School. Brian coaches football at the middle school and has two cats.

Karen S. King

Karen King bought her first home in April. She has left Tetra Tech after 2 years for a mid-level to senior position with Aerostar. She is working with animal rescues in her spare time.

Alice Stagner

Alice Stagner (’04; at right in foreground) is currently working toward a Master of Science degree at the University of Oklahoma on a high-resolution study of late Paleozoic dust deposited in western equatorial Pangaea. Following graduation from UWG with a BS in Geology, Alice worked as a geologist in environmental consulting and planned to pursue graduate studies when the right opportunity presented itself.

Working with paleoclimatologists Drs. Lynn and Mike Soreghan of OU, Alice is taking a unique approach to mixed carbonate-clastic Paleozoic sedimentology. Her thesis work examines dominantly carbonate glacio-eustatic sequences with the aim of isolating eolian sediments in deep-time marine systems and exploring the temporal and spatial significance of dust within the broader Earth system.

“But why study dust? Everybody asks that. I mean, really, dust is about the most boring substance a person sees in their backyard. But here’s the thing… so is a rock, until you interview it, see what it has to say.” Last February, Alice conducted fieldwork in Arrow Canyon, Nevada, on a system of Middle to Late Pennsylvanian shallow marine carbonates from the Bird Spring Formation (outcrop view at right). Over the next year, she’ll be compiling an integrated lithologic and geochemical dataset to evaluate links among productivity, high-frequency climate change, and the resultant stratigraphic record. “We want to know whether we can identify glacial-interglacial and higher-order climate change using these very fine-grained, eolian sediments.”

Alice adds, “It’s going to be a fascinating glimpse into Earth’s history. With all the buildup in the world and at the office water-cooler about climate change, people are going to begin earnestly demanding information and I think scientists have to be ready. If not with answers for the future, then at least ready with appropriate questions about Earth’s past climate. It’ll have to be a community effort among scientists, and geologists in particular, who have (as my undergraduate advisor calls it) “the time perspective.” That’s what I’m in it for. But don’t get me wrong. These energy schools have their perks. You know, last fall I was swimming with jellyfish and barracuda in the Florida Keys… on a course fieldtrip from Oklahoma!”

At right – petroglyphs in Arrow Canyon

CHESTER W. JACKSON

After graduating with a B.S. in Geology at West Georgia, I decided to pursue a Masters degree in coastal geology at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW). While in Wilmington, I was involved with several projects along North Carolina’s coast. These projects included work ranging from barrier island shoreline evolution to seafloor mapping. Fortunately, I was also able to maintain ties to West Georgia and work on other coastal geology projects along the Southeast U.S. and Caribbean with colleagues there. After finishing at UNCW, I was offered a job with the state of North Carolina as coastal hazards analyst but decided to turn it down to pursue a Ph.D.

I returned back to Georgia in the Fall of 2004 and have been working at UGA on my dissertation research in the Department of Geology. My current research involves looking at the modern shoreline evolution of the Georgia coast and creating new software tools for GIS to aid with shoreline research. My current advisor has a joint appointment with UGA and the Skidaway Inst. of Oceanography and I’m often in Savannah working on various tasks at Skidaway.

I’m still involved with other projects in addition to my doctoral research and have benefited greatly from being able to work with people like Dave Bush and Rebecca Dodge at West Georgia. They have been instrumental in providing me with various resources and guidance on key projects such as shoreline change assessments of Jekyll and Cumberland Islands. This support has helped me tremendously with my dissertation research. Although I’m no longer a student at West Georgia, I’m honored to still be connected to the place that helped me find one of my greatest passions in life and has given great opportunities.

The photograph is of a group (including CJ, and Drs. Bush and Kath from a short course ran in St. Thomas in 2001.