Lori Bettison–Varga
Associate Professor of Geology

(B.A. University of California at Santa Barbara, 1983; M.S., Ph.D. University of California at Davis, 1986, 1991; Wooster since 1992). In the Fall of 2004, Lori taught First Year Seminar and in the Spring of 2005 Oceanography. Lori was one of four faculty who taught in the First Year Learning and Living pilot project, in which first-year students live with their FYS colleagues in an on-campus house.

Lori continued in her role of Faculty Grants Associate (FGA) at the College during the 2004-05 academic year, but added an additional responsibility. In November 2004, the Keck Geology Consortium moved to Wooster from Carleton College with Lori as Director through August 2007. During the first eight months of housing the Consortium, Lori worked with her administrative assistant, Dr. Marlene Eberhart, to revise the Consortium web pages (keck.wooster.edu), develop an on-line application and selection process, and launch the first electronic publication of the symposium volume. Colorado College hosted the Consortium’s 18th Annual Research Symposium, where three Wooster students presented the results of their Keck-sponsored research.

In Lori’s role as FGA, she worked with faculty and administrators in submitting proposals to a variety of external funding agencies. The Henry B. Luce Foundation provided a $270,000 grant to support the Environmental Analysis and Action Program, a project proposal headed by Lori. This program began supporting student/faculty environmental research projects with local and national policy implications during the Summer of 2005. Greg Wiles is among the first group of four faculty members to be involved with the project. Lori coordinated other successful grant projects, acquiring support for minority recruitment and retention efforts and a $25,000 planning grant from the Teagle Foundation for a year-long assessment project with the Five Colleges of Ohio.

Lori presented workshops at the GSA meeting in November 2004 and the American Association of Colleges and Universities Annual Meeting in January 2005 in San Francisco. In June 2005, Lori began a three-year term as President-Elect on the Council on Undergraduate Research’s Executive Board.

In August 2005, Lori’s new title at the College will be Associate Dean for Research and Grants. Despite these more administrative-type responsibilities, she holds out hope that she will have time to get that big compilation petrology paper on the Black Mountains region in review before the end of 2005!


Brennan T. Jordan
Visiting Professor of Geology

(B.A. Hofstra, 1990; M.S. Idaho State University, 1994; Ph.D. Oregon State University, 2002; Wooster since 2003). Brennan taught Mineralogy and Geology of Natural Hazards in the Fall Semester, and Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology and Geology of Natural Hazards in the Spring of 2005.

Brennan led a follow-up to the 2003 Iceland Keck project in the summer of 2004. He was joined by Keegan Schmidt (Lewis-Clark State College) and seven students in a project that expanded on the studies in north-central Iceland in 2003 and explored new territory in the remote Westfords of northwestern Iceland. Charlene Adzima (’05) was one of the participants in this project and focused her fieldwork on a coarsely porphyritic andesite (unusual in Iceland) exposed in the mountain Langadalsfjall in north-central Iceland.

In addition to working with Charlene, Brennan supervised the Senior Independent Study research of Josh Michaels (’05) and Amanda Trenton (’05), both of whom participated in a Keck project in Canyonlands National Park, Utah. This exciting project was a shallow geophysical survey of Cyclone Canyon, a narrow Quaternary graben that formed in response to surficial, rather than tectonic, processes. Josh analyzed seismic refraction lines from the northern portion of the graben and developed a structural model for the formation of the grabens. Amanda analyzed seismic reflection lines from the southern portion of the graben and considered the magnitude of extension across the graben system.

The 2004-2005 academic year was a productive one for Brennan in terms of research and publication. His paper “Geochronology of age-progressive volcanism of the Oregon High Lava Plains: Implications for the plume interpretation of Yellowstone” was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research and another paper, “Age-progressive volcanism of the Oregon High Lava Plains: Overview and evaluation of tectonic models” is in press in the Geological Society of America Special Paper, Plates, Plumes, and Paradigms. Brennan made professional presentations at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver in November and 2004 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Brennan is also participating in an American Geophysical Union Chapman Conference, “The Great Plume Debate” in August 2005 in Scotland.

Brennan has completed his two-year term with The College of Wooster, and will be headed back to Whitman College for the 2005-2006 academic year. Brennan wishes to thank his faculty colleagues and the students at Wooster for two wonderful years.

Robert J. Varga
Chairperson
Associate Professor of Geology
Shoolroy Chair of Natural Resources

(B.S., M.S., Arizona, 1974, 1976; Ph.D. University of California at Davis, 1980; Wooster since 1992). I was on leave during the 2004-2005 academic year. Currently I am teaching Structural Geology and a First Year Seminar course on The Public Face of Science.

During my leave, I focused my efforts on several field and laboratory projects. In summer 2004 I worked with two energetic sophomore students, Andy Horst (’07) and Kaylin Siegner (’07) in our paleomagnetics laboratory. Kaylin and Andy were a great help in processing the hundreds of paleomagnetic cores that we collected the previous summer in Iceland. We are working in Iceland on the structural history of several “flexure zones” that appear to be exposed analogs to spreading centers that have relatively high rates of spreading, such as much of the East Pacific Rise. We are using paleomagnetism to get a handle on structural rotations due to normal faulting at these fossil ridges and to assess the timing of faulting relative to igneous events.

Kaylin and Andy also joined me for several weeks of fieldwork this past summer in the southwest. Our focus on this NSF-funded project is to sort out complicated mid-Miocene volcanic stratigraphy, including several ~20-18 million year old ash flow units. While in the field we measured seven key volcanic sections in western Arizona, southeastern California, and southern Nevada and collected several hundred oriented samples. Upon returning to Wooster, Andy and Kaylin worked on the cores in our paleomagnetics laboratory, a project that will continue through the Fall semester.

A major effort of my leave was our winter oceanographic cruise to the southern Pacific Ocean. As part of a longer term study to understand the interplay between structural and magmatic events at spreading centers, my colleagues and I traveled to the Pito Deep at 23°S latitude. On the way there I was able to spend time in the Chilean Andes and on Easter Island where we boarded the research vessel Atlantis. Much like at Hess Deep near the Galapagos Islands which we studied in 1999, Pito Deep is a deep gash that exposes a natural cross section of ocean crust produced at the East Pacific Rise. We photographed and sampled this section using a variety of vehicles, including the robot JASON and the manned submersible ALVIN. I was able to use both vehicles to collect about 70 oriented samples that we will use for a variety of structural, paleomagnetic, and hydrothermal/metamorphic studies during the next several years. A particularly exciting find during our cruise was the discovery of a fossil hydrothermal system exposed in cross section. This is important because we can now study what happens at depth beneath active black smoker systems along spreading centers. As luck would have it, the need for a deep-water port to off-load our equipment required us to end our cruise in Tahiti.

Gregory C. Wiles
Assistant Professor of Geology

(B.A. Beloit, 1984; M.S. SUNY Binghamton, 1987, Ph.D. University at Buffalo, 1992; Wooster since 1998). Greg taught Processes and Concepts of Geology and Climate Change in the Fall semester of 2004, and Geomorphology and Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology in the Spring semester of 2005.

During the Fall of 2004, Greg advised two Senior Independent Study students. Will Driscoll (‘05) completed a thesis examining the tree-ring record from Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, Alaska. He identified marked changes in boreal tree growth in the region that he linked with moisture stresses on forests associated with warming temperatures. Nick Young (’05) continued work at the Columbia Glacier in Alaska and compiled records of climate change for the North Pacific during the first millennium AD. A dramatic cooling centered on AD 600 that rivals or exceeds Little Ice Age cooling was the subject of his thesis. Together with Greg and others, Will and Nick presented results of this work at the fall GSA meeting in Denver. The Alaska work is funded by the NSF and is a collaborative project with Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. The group presented results of this North Pacific work at various meetings including an invited presentation to the American Geophysical Union in December. Also at the GSA meeting in Denver, Josh Michaels (’05), Elyse Zavar (’07), Tom Lowell (University of Cincinnati), and Greg presented results of ongoing studies of the post–glacial history of Ohio.

During the Summer, Greg worked with Sophie Lehman (’08), Elyse Zavar (‘07), Anton Heitger (’06), Anne Krawiec (’06), and Peter Johnson (’06). Summer research by the group was funded by a Luce Foundation Grant, the National Science Foundation, departmental funds, and the National Geographic Society. Sophie worked on extending tree-ring records for Northeast Ohio through dating historical structures (old houses and barns). Elyse continued work on the post-glacial alluvial history of Northeast Ohio and at the same time helped develop a tree-ring record from far east Russia. Anne and Anton traveled to Alaska’s Columbia Bay and will work on isotope dendrogeochemistry and the glacial geologic history of the Land Lobe Glacier, respectively. Peter will use aspects of fieldwork done in Alaska’s College Fiord for his I.S. work. This project is in collaboration with Portuguese researchers, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Cincinnati.

Together with several others, Greg was a co-author of an article that will appear in the Journal of Climate. This work outlines the use of North Pacific tree-ring records and tropical corals in reconstructing the North Pacific Index (NPI). Greg continues to serve as Associate Editor of Tree Ring Research.

During Fall 2004, Greg taught a new course, Climate Change. Field and lab projects for the course included developing a new ring-with tree-ring chronology for a remnant old growth white oak site at Brown’s Lake Bog and the analysis of a lake core extracted from Brown’s Lake. The tree-ring record will be used in drought studies and the efforts to date historical houses and barns in Ohio. Radiocarbon dating of two loess layers within the lake core led to the discovery of an important climate event (the 8200 yr. BP) in Ohio’s climate history. Greg worked with Brian Lutz (’05, Biology) in a tutorial during the spring semester to further investigate this finding. Greg will again teach Processes and Concepts of Geology and Climate Change in Fall 2005, he will teach Environmental Geology and Geomorphology and Hydrogeology in the Spring.

Mark A. Wilson
Lewis M. and Marian Senter Nixon Professor of Natural Sciences

(B.A. Wooster, 1978; Ph.D. Berkeley, 1982; Wooster since 1981). Mark taught History of Life and Invertebrate Paleontology in the Fall Semester, and History of Life, Sedimentology & Stratigraphy, and Desert Geology in the Spring of 2005. One of Mark’s teaching high points was a field trip to his Mojave Desert homeland as part of the Desert Geology course.

Mark had four Senior Independent Study students in 2004-2005. Suzanne Boyenton (’05) studied the carbonate petrography and paleoenvironments of Ordovician limestones in central Tennessee. She and Mark were assisted by Jeff Bowen (’06) and Monica Umstead (’06) in their summer fieldwork near Nashville. The project was supported by an American Chemical Society (Petroleum Research Fund) grant to Mark. Allison Mione (’05) and Kevin Wolfe (’05) did fieldwork with Mark in the Negev Desert of Israel; they were supported by the Wengerd Fund, the Copeland Fund, and the Geological Survey of Israel (with Amihai Sneh and Yoav Avni). Allison described and interpreted an unusual Triassic bivalve from Makhtesh Ramon which may represent a new family, and Kevin worked on a Jurassic rocky shore the team found in Makhtesh Qatan. Mark did fieldwork on Long Island, The Bahamas, in the Spring of 2004 with Drew Feucht (’05) and Al Curran of Smith College. During the summer they described the stratigraphy and paleoecology of the transition between the Pleistocene and Holocene on the island. Some of their work was published in a conference guidebook.

Tim Palmer (Executive Officer of the Palaeontological Association) and Mark published a conceptual paper this year entitled: “Calcite precipitation and dissolution of biogenic aragonite in shallow Ordovician Calcite Seas” in Lethaia. You can download a copy at: www.wooster.edu/geology/PalmerWilson05.pdf

In August 2004, Mark traveled to the Czech Republic to give a talk on the Ordovician Bioerosion Revolution at the Fourth International Bioerosion Workshop. He also participated on an extensive geological field trip through the Czech Republic and a little bit of Poland.

Mark returned to Israel late in the spring to do paleoecological and stratigraphic studies of the Jurassic sequences in the north (the Golan) and south (the Negev). Jeff Bowen (’06) met him in Tel Aviv for the second half of the trip as part of Jeff’s I.S. fieldwork. During the summer Mark took Erica Clites (’06) and Monica Umstead (’06) to the south coast of England to work in the wonderful Jurassic rocks exposed there. These Independent Study projects were supported by the Wengerd and Copeland funds.

This year Mark gave three public presentations on his experiences in Israel and the Czech Republic. His audiences included various groups of students and faculty at Wooster and the Wooster Kiwanis Club. He also gave an address at the annual Senior I.S. dinner in May.

Mark continues to serve as the Program Coordinator for the Paleontological Society, as an Overseas Representative for the Palaeontological Association, and as a member of the review boards for Choice and American Reference Books Annual. He is also a member of the advisory board of Geology Today. In December 2004 he received an “Excellence in Education” award from Ohio magazine.

This year Mark will be on leave in the Fall Semester (much of it spent in London). He is teaching History of Life and Sedimentology & Stratigraphy in the Spring.

Karrie McAllister
Department of Geology Technician

(B.A. Wooster, 1999; Wooster since 2000). This is Karrie’s fifth year managing the seismic station for the College. She is also working with the state survey on expanding the educational uses of OhioSeis and hopes to do some outreach programs and add educational web pages.

Karrie is also a Musikgarten teacher, teaching music to children ages 0-3 at the Wayne Center for the Arts. This fall she started teaching cooking classes at area grocery stores, putting her liberal arts degree to excellent use.

She, her husband, Ryan (‘00), daughter Ellen (4) and Toby (2) recently moved to Orrville.

Patrice Reeder
Administrative Coordinator

Departments of Geology, Philosophy, and The Pre–Law Advising Program
(Wooster since 2000)

Patrice has now completed her first full year as our Administrative Coordinator and finally feels like she has settled into her position, as well as her new office.

During this academic year Patrice assisted in the simultaneous faculty searches for the Geology and Philosophy Departments, acted as the Assistant Tournament Director of the 2004 Midwest Regional Moot Court Tournament, collected and organized data on class attendance policies for the EPC Subcommittee on Conflicts between Academics and Co-curricular/Extra-Curricular Activities, and completed a course in the software program Dreamweaver. She organized the many special activities hosted by both departments, including the holiday luncheon for Geology and Philosophy majors, The Twenty–Fourth Annual Osgood Lecture, The Eighth Bell Distinguished Lectureship in Law, the 2004 Midwest Regional Tournament of the American Collegiate Moot Court Association, the Birdsall-Driess Lecture, two Gillespie Chair Lectures, and Philosophy’s Phi Sigma Tau dinner and induction ceremony.

Patrice is grateful for the practice she has been receiving with organizing several lectures and special dinners simultaneously, she says this made planning her son’s high school graduation party a snap.

Anton Heitger ('06) and Anne Krawiec ('06) in Alaska