Map & Compass Monthly

Volume 1, Issue 2 December 2010

SGE Holiday Party! demands, social hour will be at 4pm on Friday.

SGE still purchases the first refreshment on the
first Friday of the month! So come down, relax
Get ready for the annual Departmental Holiday with colleagues & decompress...
Party held by SGE and Geoclub! It will be on the
evening of Thursday December 9th from 6-9pm.
This year, the celebration will be at Serendipity, a Energy Challenge Results
new, swanky martini bar downtown. Look
forward to live swing music, a 50/50 raffle Congratulations to the winners of the Fall 2010
benefiting the SGE scholarship fund, heavy Energy Challenge: Alpha Omicron Pi, Willkie,
appetizers, desserts and beverages, and traditional and SPEA! Alpha Omicron Pi used 23% less
Screwball festivities! This year, tickets will be energy and water than their expected use. Willkie
much more affordable for students!Tickets for the and SPEA each used 24% less than expected.
event will be $5 for students, $10 for staff and $20 Each winning building received a traveling trophy
for faculty. Tickets will be the same price for as a reward. Total savings among the academic
significant others, so bring them to the party! buildings, residence halls, and Greek houses
Raffle tickets will be $1 per ticket or 6 tickets for amounted to 541,206 kWh of electricity and
$5. Everyone will receive two free drinks. We will 1,286,199 gallons of water. An estimated 842,166
have SGE merchandise for sale, including the 2011 pounds of CO2 emissions and $34,739 in utility
calendar, departmental shirts, and other fun items. savings were avoided as a result of these efforts.
Please save the date- we will begin selling tickets Lets bring the trophy back to Geology next
on Wednesday, December 1. They can be semester!
purchased from John in the main office.
Faculty Profile:
SGE Updates... Erika
This is our second newsletter. I hope everyone Elswick
enjoyed our first release! My apologies to Arndt
My fondest In This Issue
for my horrible spelling & proof-reading abilities!
memory of Erika
As the Fall semester comes to a close, a new Elswick involves
semester fast approaches! Time to think about a 4-SUV caravan
up Pony Pass in • SGE Updates: Kim
class materials for the Spring semester. As a
fund-raiser SGE can provide lab manuals for your MT. Thanks to Shoemaker
classes. If you teach a 100-level course, SGE can her, there are • Fall Energy Challenge:
offer them for your class. You will be supporting very few places I
Adrian Maxwell
your student organizations as well as providing am afraid to
your students with decently priced materials. drive anymore. • Faculty & Student
Instead of lining the pockets of Barnes & Nobles Elswick is Profile: Jade Marks
and publishers, keep the money within the equally at home
in a wide • Geology Trivia:
department! Contact Michelle Lawing
(alawing@indiana.edu ) for more information. brimmed hat Crystal Hout
investigating the • 2010 Publications
For all members of the department, join us for the soil horizons in a
weekly social hour! In response to student borrow pit as she
is in the lab, carefully professor, and what and
and meticulously did they teach you? only
weighing samples and Erika: Wow, that’s day I
performing analysis. tough…I’ve had a lot of went
Elswick is an Assistant good ones. My Earth without
Scientist specializing in science teacher in high a field
geochemistry at IU. She school was wonderful…
studies stable isotopes in so were my advisors for
sedimentary settings, the my undergrad and
fate of metals in the PhD. I don’t think I
environment, can pick just one.
(particularly in tropical M&CM: In that
soils) as well as low case, do you have a
temperature “most valuable”
hydrothermal rock-water lesson learned in
interactions. Elswick school?
received her M.S. from Erika: I remember my bad days in the lab, just assistant. I got the
Wright State University PhD advisor reading my like you have good days feeling that someone
and her Ph.D. from the thesis drafts out loud to in the field and bad days was watching me so I
University of Cincinnati. me. It was a humbling in the field. The started walking back to
Map and Compass experience. One of the chemical aspect of my the car. I could hear a
Monthly had the most important lessons I research is very low purring sound that
opportunity to interview learned in school was to intellectually followed me all the way
Erika and find out more not “take my writing stimulating, but it is to where my vehicle was
about experiences and personally.” There isn’t important to understand parked. Just as I got in
interests in geology. a person out there whose the context of your the car and closed the
M&CM: When did you writing can’t be samples. As far as my door, a full-grown
first get interested in improved upon. You interests in geology are panther stepped out into
Geology? must be prepared to concerned, a good mix the road in front of me.
Erika: When I was absorb other’s of lab and field is M&CM: What is your
five or six I had a peanut constructive criticism. necessary. role in SGE and how
butter jar filled with Also, (as I tell my G329 M&CM: I know you long have you been
rocks. I was always students) “it’s all about have had some strange involved?
walking around picking the skills you learn in adventures doing field Erika: Currently I am
them up …I guess it was kindergarten.” It is work in the Caribbean. the SGE faculty advisor.
destiny. I went to important just to master Do you care to share any I started a few years
college for mathematics the basic powers of of those? after I came to IU
and I didn’t make the observation. Erika: Actually, many because the former
official switch to M&CM: You teach of my more stressful advisor retired. I was
geology until two both G329, which is a moments have occurred one of the two people
months before I field methods course, in the Caribbean. I know asked to take it on. My
graduated. However, I and G444, which is not a lot of people can first involvement with
was pursuing a geology predominantly a lab say that… I’ve been SGE began while I was
degree by the end of my course. These are two attacked my army ants working toward my
freshman year. You see, very unique classes. Do while walking through master’s degree. Three
all the math majors were prefer working/teaching tall grass. I’ve had my years ago I was the
sitting inside and all of in the lab or in the field? camp flooded out when regional vice president,
the geologists on the Erika: I really have no the water level rose 9m and last spring I was
floor below us were preference between lab overnight, and I’ve been elected president of the
going out. Math seemed work and field work. stalked by a panther. national council…so I
boring after that. After all, you can have That was by far one of have been heavily
M&CM: Who was good days in the lab and my most “scary” involved with SGE for
your most influential moments. It was the one quite some time.
M&CM: You must lizards are more complexities and Geology Trivia
really value your dramatic. I’ve always uncertainties of the
experiences within the been fond o f reptiles. Earth. Jim taught me that >The hottest place on
organization if you are When they’re active, the rocks don’t lie, and Earth is not Death
devoting that much time they are really active, but instilled in me a passion Valley, as many have
to it. Why do you think when they are at rest for decoding bits of incorrectly guessed. El
SGE is so important for they are very relaxed. Earth’s history. In short, Azizia (Libya) recorded
students? he showed me how to a temperature of 136°F
Erika: It is useful for Student Profile appreciate our planet and (57.8°C) on 09/13/1922.
students to have an think scientifically about The highest temperature
additional outlet – an Eric Stifter its past. recorded in Death Valley
opportunity to show M&CM: What is your was 134°F on
leadership. It is a M&CM: Tell us a little favorite thing about 07/10/1913.
common ground for about yourself… being a geologist? >The coldest place on
students to begin Eric: I was born in Eric: Unraveling the Earth is Antarctica. The
networking with their Tucson, AZ, but I grew secrets of the Earth: I lowest temperature
peers. It is easy to get up around Madison, WI. love thinking on measured was -129°F (-
“lost” as a member of a I really enjoy geologic time scales, 89°C) on 07/21/1983 at
large organization, but backpacking, insects, trying to understand and Vostok, Antarctica.
SGE unites students who learning, agates, describe natural
are at the same point in drawing, botany, processes, and the >According to the
their careers. It is traveling, Lake Superior, excitement of finding a USGS, at least 1,000
slightly less intimidating “what ifs,” and making new piece of the puzzle. tons of space dust and
and it attracts people mustard. Working outside in other materials enters the
with similar goals and M&CM: When did you gorgeous locations is a Earth's atmosphere &
interests. Not to mention first get interested in great perk, too. falls to the surface. This
it is a good resume perk. geology? is the equivalent of 109
M&CM: What advice M&CM: What are the grams or 1 gigagram.
Eric: I started collecting
do you have for students fossils when I was a most gorgeous places >If you thought
in the department who toddler, and the interest you’ve traveled? California was the most
are trying to make has steadily grown since Eric: Switzerland, earthquake prone state in
decisions about their then. After two years as Colorado’s Great Sand the US, guess again!
future? an English major, I took Dunes National Park, the Alaska is the most
Erika: Keep an open an intro geology course Grand Canyon, the earthquake prone state,
mind. Try to pick up as and switched majors. Sierra Nevadas, the on average experiencing
many out-of-class M&CM: What project Redwoods, Sicily, Puget a Mw 6 or greater every
experiences as you can are you working on for Sound. year. Florida and North
in the lab and in the your PhD/Masters? Dakota are the least
field. Don’t be afraid to M&CM: Now, just for seismically active states.
Eric: A detailed
ask your professors fun, if you were any type
isotopic, petrologic, and >There are roughly
about volunteering and of animal what would it
structural study of the 4,000 known minerals,
research opportunities. be?
Duke Island Complex. although only 200 of
It’s important to get Eric: A three-toed
experience. those are considered
M&CM: Who has been sloth…there is amazing significant. Between 50-
M&CM: If you could beauty in existing and
your most influential 100 new minerals are
be any type of animal surviving in a relaxed,
professor and what did described every year!
what would you be and low-energy state. The
they teach you?
why? sloth is a great example >Louisiana is losing
Erika: I think I would Eric: Dr. Jim Miller
of what can be by not almost 30mi2 of land due
be a lizard. A green from University of
being, and I like that to coastal erosion,
lizard though, not a Minnesota Duluth taught
idea. hurricanes, other natural
brown lizard...green me how to truly
& human causes, as well
appreciate the
as from subsidence. 2010 Departmental 2010 AGU Fall postseismic kinematic
Most of New Orleans Publications Meeting (12/11- slip inversions in a
sits 11' (3.4m) below sea 12/17) Bayesian framework
level. Over the past 60 Evaluation of a Kaj Johnson et. al.
years, parts of the siliclastic diamictite What is the Geometry
French Quarter have from the Maya of the Juan de 3-D crustal stress
sunk 2'. In 2000, the Mountains Erika Fuca/Farallon Slab? inversions for Taiwan
director of the USGS Elswick & Claudia New constraints from a Region Ray Chuang et.
said, “ With the Johnson, Journal of Synthesis of Wavefield al.
projected rate of South American Earth Imaging Gary Pavlis &
subsidence, wetland Science, April Xin Liu Introducing Terrestrial
loass, and sea level rise, Laser Scanning (TLS)
New Orleans will likely Metal Catalyzed to Undergraduate
Degradation and Analysis of Oblique
be on the verge of Plate Convergence Geology Curricula:
extinction by this time Racemization of Insights from the
Amino Acids in Iron along the Manila
next century.” Trench and the Indiana University
Sulfate Brines under G429 Field Course,
Source: Simulated Martian Philippine
Trench. Michael Summer 2010 Bruce
http://www.livescienc Surface condiations Douglas, Will Simmons,
Adam Johnson & Lisa Hamburger et. al.
e.com/php/trivia/earth et. al.
facts/index.php? Pratt, Icarus 207
qnum=1 Muddy tempestites:
Biomarkers as
A Hybrid Finite- Flume analogs vs.
Paleoenvironmental
Departmental Difference and ancient and modern
Proxies Simon Brassell
Analytic Element examples Juergen
News Groundwater Schieber & J. Southard
Colloquium Schedule Modeling H.M. And many more...
Haitjema, D.T. Joint coseismic and
December Feinstein, R.J. Hunt,
M.A. Gusyev,
12/06: Todd Royer, Groundwater,
School of Public and July/August
Environmental Affairs
(SPEA), Indiana Variations in Os
University. Using field isotope ratios of
experiments to examine pyrrhotite as a result
coupled biogeochemical of water-rock and
cycles in Indiana streams magma-rock
interaction:
12/13: No colloquium,
Constraints from
AGU
Virginia formation –
12/20-12/27: End of the Duluth Complex
semester, winter break!!! contact zone. Cory
Williams, Ed Ripley &
Chusi Li, Geochimica et
Cosmochimica Acta 74