Faculty News

Terri Woods

Fall semester I focused on teaching at the col= lege level, and with respect to science education in the public schools. I have = been active in “Teachers and Scientists Collaborating (TASC)”, participating in workshops and visiting K-8 teachers in their classrooms. T= his program emphasizes a hands-on approach to science that both the teachers and students are really getting excited about. With a scientist they have met a= nd can call on the teachers are less reluctant to venture with their students = into the “undiscovered country” of experimentation and interpretatio= n of observations. I also reviewed some science textbooks, getting some of my co= lleagues involved in the process. We were aghast at the many factual errors routinely included in these books, especially at the middle-school level. Finally, I participated in DPI’s effort to provide high-school earth science teachers with a framework and exercises on which = to base their courses. At the college level, I switched to a new book for Oceanography, which required that I redo my Course Pack to change over the hundreds of page and figure numbers to match the new text. I also got my website going, for the first time updating it myself. It has basic informat= ion about my research but also all my oceanography and physical geology lectures and some of the exercises for these classes. My MS students will be interes= ted to see some of their work highlighted. Finally, I have been doing some scie= nce. Delynda Tolen-Mehlhop, Don Neal and I got Delynda’s thesis published= in Southeastern Geology this year and I am finally putting together an initial manuscript summarizing the results of some of my groundwater work in the Southeastern Coastal Plain of NC.

Richard Mauger

Lucy and I have three dogs, two huskies and a b= lack chow mix. We walk them each day rain or shine.
I'm awaiting a microprobe session at VPI (in Ma= y, I hope) to finish up some mineralogical details on the Italian Mt., Colorado, scapoli= te skarn project. Cl/Br rations in the scapolite suggest that the paren= tal brine for the metasomatism came from dissolutio= n of halite. The only logical source is the Eagle evaporite= basin to the north. Brine flow toward the Italian Mt. area was driven by two different factors.

Extensive release of CO2 from dissolving and reacting limestone provided bubbles to the brine, lowering the fluid density and driving brine flow upward toward discharge ponts in the Italian Mt area. Second, ince late Eocene time, surface elevations in the Eagle Basin have been substantially lowered by subsurface dissolution of halite. Thus during Eoce= ne and Oligocene time, surface elevations in the basin would have much higher = than today and high enough to have driven subsurface brine flows southward toward the Italian Mt. area. Today, evaporates in the Eagle Basin are almost exclusively gypsum. Halite has survived only at depth in the bas= in.

The microprobe session will also contribute to studies of a "white rock" that I collected many years ago in Chihuahua. I mad= e some progress in mineral ID and genesis, but many phases were still unknown. Recently, tobermorite and = thaumasite have been identified. Thses are rare minerals in geology, but are very prominent in the Portland cement/concrete literature. Evidently this white rock started as a block of Cretaceous limestone that w= as emplaced in a major volcanic vent and shallow intrusion. Magmatic heating decomposed the original calcite, leaving a very reactive residue of minerals similar to those in Portland cement. Subsequently, an influx of wa= ter initiated a sequence of reactions that to some extent emulated hydration reactions that occur as Portland cement cures to concrete.

Steve Culver

Once more I had an enjoyable year; mixing administration, teaching and service means that life is never boring. But if I waxed lyrical here about administration, that would be boring. So I’ll concentrate on my research. I’ve been advising or coadvising several graduate students who continue to contribute in many positive ways to our knowledge of the geologic developme= nt of coastal North Carolina. Two of these students went on to do PhD’s last year and two more gainfully employed in geology. We spent a fun but hard three week= s at the coast last summer working on Ocracoke Island, Core Banks, Core Sound a= nd Cedar Island. This field work is the basis for s= everal thesis projects being undertaken this year funded through the US Geological Survey.

I also received help from two graduate students and two undergraduates on a project, funded by the Petroleum Research Fund,= to investigate a new statistical approach to recognize large-scale patterns of diversity and community structure. This work involves an ecologist and a statistician at the Smithsonian Institution; the students have had the opportunity, not only to work closely with these researchers, but also to visit and explore the “behind the scenes” Smithsonian that is off limits to the general public.

Finally, I must note that we beat Geography ag= ain last year in a co-ed soccer match but unfortunately, we lost to Biology. As losers we have challenged Biolo= gy this year. With Mike O’Driscoll, who grew up playing hurling and Gaelic football, on the t= eam this year. I’m expecting victory. No pressure, Mike, but it’s = up to you!

My very best wishes to all our alumni, = old and new.

Stephen B. Harper

On the teaching front, my typical teaching semester still includes 2 sections of Dynamic Earth (Geology 1500) and 1 se= ction of Environmental Geology (Geology 1700).&n= bsp; As has been the case since I first arrived in the Geology Department= in 1992, part of my teaching duties still include training and mentoring our Graduate Teaching Assistants to teach Geology 1501 labs. Our departmental curriculum still = has me teaching Geomorphology (Geology 5000-5001) every other spring semester, whi= ch includes the current spring semester of 2005. During the first weekend in March = I took the 7 students in my Geomorphology class on a weekend field trip to see the Peeks Creek debris flow and other landslides that occurred in September of = 2004 in southwestern NC. We will g= o on a second weekend field trip to the Outer Banks during the second weekend of A= pril.

I will be in the teaching rotation for the UNC System-wide Geology Field School in New Mexico and Colorado in May = 2005 for the seventh straight year and will be teaching at the Abiquiu and Taos, NM sites and then carry the students over to <= st1:place w:st=3D"on">Cuba, NM. For the 2005 field course, we will= have 35 students enrolled in the summer geology field course from 4 universities in North Carolina (ECU, UNC-W, UNC-CH, and WCU), 2 universities in Virginia (J= MU and GMU), and one student from the University of Pittsburgh. With the help of my old JMU connec= tions we will have 14 students from JMU at the 2005 edition of our Summer Geology Field Course. This will be th= e 41^st year of the UNC System-wide Summer Geology Field Course, which had its orig= inal beginnings as strictly a UNC-CH endeavor in 1965, located out of Fort Burgwin = Research Center at Rancho de= Taos, NM. In honor of our 41^st= anniversary, Richard Spruill, who guided the field course in its transition from the original UNC-CH field course to the system-wide field course, will teach the Abiquiu, NM field exercise along with= Scott Eaton (JMU), Melanie Busch (UNC-CH), and myself.= Many important contributions have = been made by Dr. Spruill and Dr. Mauger here at ECU and its original founder Dr. David Dunn (formerly at UNC-CH and now retired from University of Texas at Dallas) during these 41 years!

I received my 4^th teaching grant stipend since 2000 for ~$7800 from the Office of the Provost at ECU plus $9= 25 expense funds to purchase a high end Nikon slide scanner. The grant is to create a series of Photo-based Field Trips on the department WEB site for Geology 1500, 1501, = and 1700. I continue to be a pass= ionate field and landscape “film” photographer. I have also photographed all facul= ty, staff, and students to create a “Photo Board” across from the d= epartment office and on the department WEB site.&nbs= p;

My primary research interest is evaluating the role of mass wasting and surface and sub-surface dissolution in the evoluti= on of tower karst in coastal areas of Krabi and Phang Nga = Provinces along the southwest coast of Thailand. I am also looking for approaches t= o date high sea level stands along the western coast of Thailand, indicated by notche= s 3-5 meters higher than modern notches. My focus on the high notches is on the “exterior” tufa stalactites that have grown down from the visor = of the high notches. I recently received an email from a fellow named John Gray, w= ho is the original kayaker of = Phang Nga = Bay in Thailand. He has agreed to take me around in= his boat and kayaks to many places that I have never been able to get to. So, I am very excited about this possibility for July-August. = During my travels around Krabi and Phang Nga Bay, I will be looking for tsunami deposits from the December 26, 2004 Tsunami Event. I have a potential tsu= nami deposit, collected in 1999 at Ao Nang, that yielded a radioc= arbon age of ~600 years BP. = So, I am curious to see if I can find deposits with similar characteristics from = the 2004 Tsunami Event since there are no reliable historical records for south= ern Thailand.

As for other travel plans for the summer of 20= 05, I would like to visit Yunnan Province in southw= est China to check out the pinnacle karst in the St= one Forest (Shilin) just east of Kunming and explore the upper Mekong River Basin.&= nbsp; Also, I would like to return to Ha Long Bay in north Vietnam<= /st1:place> to see more tower karst there that I did not ge= t to see in 2002. Perhaps a bit ambitious!!!

Dave Lawrence

Last summer I got to visit more fault zone localities in the cliffs of the Pleistocene glacial deposits of Puget Sound, and some older faults that cut the Tertiary mudstones of the Olympic Mountains. What a region to have rapidly growing cities.

I also spent some time last summer evaluating = the region around Great Falls, SC, as a research area, and in the fall wrote a successful USGS-EDMAP grant proposal to fund David Foster’s thesis project in the area. He’ll be doing some detailed mapping of faults a= nd shear zones in the eastern half of the pluton, = where there are some pretty amazing outcrops. A diversion of the Catawba River for power generation has exposed the rocky river-bed for several kilometers. Just to m= ake things really interesting, the pluton sits very= near the intersection between three exotic terranes:= the Carolina, Charlotte, and Silverstreet. This summer I’ll be tea= ching summer school, as well as getting down to Great Falls to advise David, and to go hunting for some = good outcrops near the terrane boundaries.

During this spring I’ve had a good time teaching Field Methods; the Hot Springs field trip will be the weekend of April 14-17. I also have been teach= ing Geophysics; I’ve added a short component on ground penetrating radar,= but so far the cable has not cooperated for lab. Mallinson has a new one on order, = so we may be able to re-schedule. Aren’t black boxes wonderful?<= /span>

Reide Corbett

Spring has sprung and another semester winds down. This year has been quit= e a roller coaster ride. I have b= een focusing much of my time on a couple new research projects and moving into = our new space in Flanagan. I imag= ine you will hear a lot about this new space…and for good reason, it is really nice. We have moved our geochemistry laboratory into the new lab.&= nbsp; We have also moved in quite a lot of new equipment. Walsh, Mallinson, and I were succe= ssful in bringing in close to half a million dollars for new lab and field equipm= ent to help build our coastal research program.&n= bsp; We purchased a new ICP-Optical Emission Spectrometer and UV Spec for= the geochem lab, two new high purity germanium dete= ctors, an additional 8 alpha spectrometers, and a low-background beta counter for = the Environmental Radioactivity Measurement Laboratory, and are in the process = of purchasing some field instruments for evaluating real-time sediment process= es. This additional equipment will rea= lly boost our capabilities for research and education in marine geology.

My group was still active in work off the Mississippi delt= a this year. In fact, we had a littl= e seed money from the National Science Foundation to evaluate the potential sedime= nt remobilization on the shelf adjacent to the Delta in response to Hurricane Ivan. That was a really great cruise and our data (although preliminary) is very interesting, indicating = two separate mechanisms for sediment delivery to different regions of the shelf (more to come). Our work with= the USDA and the Neuse River nitrogen work= is still on-going and moving forward. We hope to install some shallow we= lls this summer and begin evaluating the subsurface transport of nitrogen in the shallow groundwater and hyporheic zone. Finally, a group of us are startin= g a new project funded by NOAA to evaluate the shore-zone modification in respo= nse to sea level rise in North Ca= rolina estuaries. This should be a v= ery interesting and obviously relevant project that we will work on over the ne= xt 3 years…stay tuned.

I am still teaching the same courses as previo= us years and really enjoying it. The introductory oceanography course can really be rewarding when you see the l= ight bulb turn on in a students eyes. I had a pretty good class in the fall and I think they liked it as much as I did. This spring I am teachin= g my graduate Biogeochemistry course. The exciting thing this semester is that I have added a 3 day field = trip with the combined efforts of O’Driscoll and Walsh. We are all currently teaching grad= uate courses that are related, so we put together a combined fieldtrip that actu= ally starts today (April 1). We wi= ll essentially drive the entire R= oanoke drainage basin (from headwaters to estuary) discussing water, sediments, and carbon/nutrients along the way. Should be exciting!

I hope your year has been equally rewarding an= d I look forward to seeing many of you at the annual Pig P= ickn’!

J.P. Walsh

It has been an exciting year, but very challenging. In the Fall, I taught Sedimentology for = Dr.Rigsby. The students performed well, and i= t was difficult to quench their thirst for knowledge. We had a great fieldtrip to Shackleford Banks where we conducted surficial sampling and measured elevation profiles.&= nbsp; This Spring, I am instructing a new gradu= ate course called Land-Sea Interactions. In this class we are investigating the transport and storage of wate= r, sediments, and solutes from mountains to sea in the Albemarle-Pamlico dispe= rsal system. In conjunction with R= eide Corbett’s Biogeochemistry class and Mike O’= ;Driscoll’s Surface-Water Hydrology class, we had a fieldtrip to examine the Roanoke Ri= ver from the Blue Ridge to Albemarle Sound (April 1-3). Also this spring, I had a research cruise of the coast of New Zealand. Two ECU Geology grad students and = my wife (who was responsible for the web site) also came to sea. This research is aimed at understa= nding the fate of fluvially derived sediment on the continental slope. Please che= ck out our web site to learn more about the research project: www.coastal.geology.ecu.edu/nz.

Don Neal

It is hard to believe another year has come and gone. Things don’t seem= to change much, just the faces. = I am still plugging away at deciphering the geology of West Virginia but not as rigorously as= in the past. My students keep me coming back to various aspects of Appalachian geology. Last spring I had two students fin= ish up their master’s: John Co= oper working on the Ste. Genevieve in southwestern Virginia and Clif Whitfield working on the Little Stone Gap formation also in southwestern Virginia. Since then John has taken a job wi= th Power Resources looking for uranium in Wyoming and Clif is working for NC DENR in Winston-Salem as an inspector f= or erosion and sediment control sites, dams, and mines. Sarah rice is slated to finish up = here thesis on Ordovician chert from southwestern Virginia this semester. She is already empl= oyed by an outfit in Alexandria, Virginia, doing environment= al work. Erin Must, a current gr= ad student is just starting a project on the Berea Sandstone in West Virginia. This should be fun. I am also drawn to the coastal pla= in of North Carolina. Kristen Frye, another grad student, is starting a project on the geology of the Carolina Stone Quarry in Craven County. It is producing a phosphatic rock (hard to say right now= if it is a limestone or a sandstone), a somewhat mouldic limestone, and some marl. It,= too, looks like an interesting project. As you can see, I am keeping busy.

As Terri reported above, Delynda Tolen-Mehlhop, Te= rri and I got Delynda’s thesis published in Southeastern Geology. I don&#= 8217;t think Southeastern Geology recognized my name as it probably would not have been published. I have never = had any luck with them. I am still involved in GSA as Secretary-Treasurer of the Southeastern Section. We had a very good, although small, meeting in Biloxi<= /st1:City> this spring. The section meet= ing will be in Knoxville next spring so plan to give a paper and join other alums. It promises to be a good meeting.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Next week is the biennial conventi= on of Sigma Gamma Epsilon. I come t= o the end of my second term as National President and will relinquish my gavel. It has been a good ride but I will= be glad to become Past-President.

For now this is all I can muster in the= way of news. I am always glad to = hear from you even if I don’t respond to all of my email. Keep well.

Dave Mallinson

My work with the North Carolina Coastal Geology Cooperative (NCCGC) is still occupying most of my research time. For those of who don’t know,= this is the USGS-funded research program to define the Quaternary evolution of t= he North Carolina c= oastal system. We have recently made= some very exciting and significant discoveries.= The first is the recognition of an early Pleistocene high that may be controlling the location of Cape Hatteras, and represents an ancient shoreline and perhaps a cape. Next, we have discovered that the = Outer Banks are much younger in general, than previously thought, and have collap= sed at least twice during the last 6,000 years, in response to sea level and paleoclimate changes. We have also been using new dating methods (optically stimulated luminescence), combined with ground penetrating radar data to define the age and sea level significance of paleoshorelines o= n the North Carolina coastal plain. Finally, J.P. Walsh and I purchased a multibeam= bathymetry system and have great plans for that in the near future, includi= ng mapping inlets, and mapping the shelf edge to evaluate the potential for up= per slope failure, mass-wasting events and tsunami.

Sta= nley R. Riggs, Distinguished Research Professor=

I am still actively involved in the ECU/USGS/NCGS North Carolina Coastal Geol= ogy Cooperative Program. This major research program deals with the origin and evolutionary development of the NE NC co= astal system during the Quaternary glacial and interglacial episodes. This multiy= ear program involves about 20-25 ECU geology faculty, staff, and students, along with about 6 USGS and 3 NCGS personnel, and several faculty from the U of Delaware and Virginia Institute of Marine Science. We are now in our fifth year and h= ave received funding and support from the US Geological Survey, US National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Army Corps of Engineers, NC Divis= ion of Coastal Management, NC Dept. of Transportation, NC Division of State Par= ks, and NC Sea Grant. The program continues to be very productive. I have been involved in numerous workshops and lectures to the NC Dept. of Transportati= on, NC. Division of Coastal Management, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Cape Lookout National Seashore, and the NC Senate and Ho= use Committees on the Environment and Natural Resources. We are getting ready t= o drill 6 more deep core holes on the Pamlico-Albemarle Peninsula--we now have 19 between Kitty Hawk and Cape Lookout. These cores= are being drilled on sites defined in the seismic and ground-penetrating radar data. Last summer’s field program took us from Ocracoke Island down through Core Banks and= Core Sound. This summer’s field program will be doing last minute work for= the series of books that we are preparing on the NC coastal system. =

To keep up with the ECU-USGS-NCGS research program, visit both the ECU geology= and the USGS websites—some of our progress reports are now on the ECU web= site (www.ecu.edu/geology/c= oastal.html; http:= //woodshole.er.usgs.gov/project-pages/northcarolina/). We always look forward to hearing from each of you, or better yet, come out= in the field with us—get your feet muddy and your gills wet before they permanently dry out!

Cheers, Stan Riggs

Catherine Rigsby

This year has been a very different kind of year for me. I was catapulted into the position= of “Chair of the Faculty” (I had been Vice Chair) after the elected chair resigned and have spent an unbelievable amount of time representing t= he faculty to the university administration and leading the Faculty Senate. Even so, I have managed to squeeze= in a bit of teaching and research.

“Sediment Transport and Depositional Processes” was great in the Fall. The class had more CRM students th= an in the past and, from all counts, everyone learned much. Our Cape Lo= okout field trip was awesome (as usual) – even the unexpected afternoon = 220;march” through pounding rain. I was impressed with the way every= one took the adverse conditions in stride.&nbs= p; Please check out the field trip photos <http://core.ecu.edu/geology/Rigsbyc/images/CapeLookout20= 04/CapeLookoutIndexPage.html>.

Field work in the Rio Hauncane valley, Peru, w= ent well last summer (photos from this and other field projects/trips are available = at <htt= p://core.ecu.edu/geology/Rigsbyc/images/PhotoGalleries.html>. Jim Watson managed to take a couple weeks away from the coast and from managing the Flanagan move-in and join u= s in South America. He was a great asset in the field – not to mention fun! He was very good at picking tiny gastropods from outcrops of lake sediments and passable at rowing a small inflatable boat loaded with survey= ing equipment across rivers. But,= for those who didn’t know, he is also fluent in S0, he was excellent with our Peruvian and Bolivian colleagues and seemed to have great fun talking with everyone he met. I hope he ge= ts to come out in the field with us again!

In the Fall I attended another meeting in China (this time in the ancient wall= ed city of Xi’an and in March I presented an overview of my South American research at meeting in Miramar, Argentina. Both of these meetings gave me a c= hance to meet new international colleagues and to work on developing new projects. Yes, I’m still waiting to hear about funding for the Tibet project. If funding com= es through, Erin Hemric and I will spend a month or so this summer in the Lake Qinghai basin (mostly in working in the Rio Buha valley= ). We’re keeping our fingers cr= ossed . . .

Student news: Renee Farabaugh is getting married (yes, to John) this spring. And Pattie Ba= ucom recently took a new job (after a +/-6 month sabbatical snow boarding in Colorado!) with = an environmental firm.

I hope everyone is doing well and welcome news from your all!

How you can support ECU Geology

You now have three w= ays in which you can support the Geology educational programs at ECU.

First, you can contribute to the Alumni account. Annual contributions from many of you keep this account hovering in = the $7500 range. Every year we use around $3000 to send graduate students to conferences to present the result= s of their research.

Secondly, you can contribute to the C.Q. Brown account. A portion of the interest from this account is used each year as a scholarship for the strongest rising senior in our undergraduate program.

Third, you can contribute to our Century account. We opened this account in 2004 with a long-term goal of accumulating $250,000. The total is curren= tly $8500. Its purpose is to prov= ide for the long-term security of the department should state budget reductions= or other unforeseen eventualities ever threaten our well-being.

Hopefully, you can s= ee that we have a plan to cover various aspects of our needs through these thr= ee accounts. Your contributions = would clearly be welcomed, but I would also appreciate any thoughts you might have about how we can improve our fund-raising efforts.

Thanks to all.<= /o:p>

Steve Culver

Chair =

3D"Collapsible ATTENTION ALUMNI:

SGE needs your help!

We are selling t-shirts again to raise funds for the annual Pig Pickin’. This year, we will also be selling Koozies (similar to left image).

Our t-shirt design for this year will have a tsunami theme. The Koozie will commemorate the = 2005 Pig Pickin’ on the front, and will also h= ave a dedication to the memory of Jean Lowry on the back.

Pricing:

Short sleeve* - $12 (with one Koozie $15)

Long sleeve* - $18 (with one Koozie $21)

Additional Koozies= - $5 ea.

*Add $1 for XXL size

ADD $5.00 for shipping and postage<= /span>

For more information and how to order, please = send an e-mail to the current SGE president (Erin Hemric) at <emh1027@mail.ecu.edu&g= t;. Orders should be pre-paid.

Pick up your order at the pig pickin’ and save on the shipping cost if you order by April 15, 2005.

Send orders to:

&n= bsp; = ; Sigma Gamma Epsilon

&n= bsp; = ; Department of Geology

&n= bsp; = ; East Carolina University

&n= bsp; = ; Greenville, NC 27858= -4353

3D"Text