2011 Newsletter
Department of Geological Sciences and Environmental Studies
Geo Bing
●
In This Issue
Letter from the Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Horvath: Nature Preserve
as Classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Hubenthal: Rolling Seismometers
Image and Educate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
MacDonald Retirement Reception . . . . 8
Faculty News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Comments from Alumni . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Graduate Degree Completions . . . . . . 10
Alumni Giving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
In Memorium: Dick Beerbower . . . . . 14
Grad student Elliot Jagniecki
works in the lab to grow
nahcolite or trona, which he
can control by CO2 levels.
1
The John Bridge Chair
in Energy Geology
T
Richard V. Demicco — Chair
“The department
is in a
renaissance!”
Geo Bing Newsletter
●
Editor: David M. Jenkins
Geo-Bing is published periodically
by the Department of Geological
Sciences and Environmental Studies
at Binghamton University
2
he department is in a renaissance!
As I write this, we are interviewing
candidates for a tenure-track
faculty position in geomicrobiology,
finishing significant upgrades to our secondfloor laboratory facilities, starting a search
for a technician to oversee our expanding
analytical facilities and, with the backing
and support of the dean and the Alumni
Council, setting a fundraising goal to endow
the newly established John Bridge Chair in
Energy Geology.
As most of you know, John Bridge had
to retire last year for health reasons. This
left a huge, unanticipated hole in our
department. John’s departure was made
all the more difficult because, just after
his retirement, he won the Sorby Award
from the International Association of
Sedimentologists — the “Nobel Prize” of
sedimentary geology. It is awarded once
every four years by the largest international
group of sedimentary geologists on Earth.
As John’s stellar efforts had begun to be
recognized, his loss was particularly hurtful
to our program. Most of you also know
that the Marcellus Shale play, already in full
swing in Pennsylvania, will likely start soon
in New York. John’s expertise in sedimentary
geology and experience consulting for energy
companies would have really been a boon
in training our students for anticipated
jobs that would evolve as development
proceeds. Understanding the architecture
of sedimentary deposits filling basins is also
a critical need for environmental geology
and hydrogeology. Matt Telfer of Border
to Border Exploration was chair of our
Alumni Council last year and saw this turn
of events as an opportunity to really help
the department. Matt and I went to the
dean and he pitched the idea of trying to
replace John with an endowed position.
Our goal is to hire a basin analysis geologist
with experience in the energy industry
to teach our students the nuts and bolts
of sedimentary basin exploration and
development. This person would also teach
structural geology because Bill MacDonald
has also retired. The dean endorsed the idea
and Matt generously offered to get the ball
rolling with a significant donation. As it now
stands, we have enough seed money to hire
a basin analysis sedimentary geologist for a
few years and, although the University will
pick up the position after that, it would
be a fitting tribute to John if we could
raise enough to permanently endow an
eponymous line in our department. I am
targeting interested corporations with a
vested interest in northeastern geology to
donate toward endowing this position. I
need your help and would welcome your
phone call at 607-777-2604 or e-mail at
[email protected]. I have contacted
some of you, and I might be contacting
others about this as we move forward. Every
contribution makes a difference. As John
probably won’t ever read this, I will also
tell you that we are going to have a party
to celebrate last year’s Sorby Medal winner.
The party will be at McGirk’s Irish Pub at
1 Kattelville Road in Chenango Bridge on
Saturday, April 16 starting at 7 p.m. I hope
to have more to tell everyone at that party
about this effort, so if you are in the area that
evening, stop in.
From
the
Chair
Baltzer. For those of you who don’t know
him, Ed is a geotechnical consultant who
mostly deals with environmental issues in
Colorado. He, and all the council members,
share a genuine interest in keeping
Binghamton Geology relevant and strong.
The retirement of a colleague is always
bittersweet. Bill MacDonald retired last year
after 45 years. We had a surprise party for
him organized by Nuna and Steve Dickman.
Well, it was almost a surprise party. I am
guessing that something about the magnetic
field in the building told him what was up,
but he went along with us anyway. Bill tells
me he is as busy, if not busier than ever, as
you will see from his entry on page 13.
Photo: Dave Tuttle
Our search for a geomicrobiologist is in full
swing. Many, if not most, paleontologists
these days refer to themselves as
geobiologists, reflecting a substantial
expansion of the search to identify and
describe ancient life on Earth and even
on other planets. On Earth, the search
for ancient life in Precambrian rocks has
commenced in earnest. Not only are
geobiologists looking at stromatolites and
microbial fossils with renewed interest, but
they are scouring Archean and Proterozoic
rocks for molecular fossils — ancient
organic compounds such as lipids, steranes,
and other organic “biomarkers” that
point to life as surely as a skeletal hard
part. The organisms that will be found in
ancient rocks using these techniques are
microbes. The application of biomarkers to
Phanerozoic rocks is producing new insights
into ocean and atmosphere evolution and
even mass extinctions as we have come
to realize that microbes drive nearly all of
the geochemical cycles that make Earth
habitable.
We had a great pool of applicants for our
position with candidates interested in how
both modern and ancient microbes have
affected our planet.
The University seems to be in our
corner. We are only one of a handful of
departments across the campus that got
to hire a tenure-track line this year. They
have given us the go ahead to hire a new
technician and have sunk hundreds of
thousands of dollars into upgrading our
teaching and laboratory facilities. We will
be having an open-house to show off our
new second-floor laboratories. These include
a clean room laboratory set up for the
new geomicrobiologist. We even got new
windows on the south side of the building!
There have also been a few deaths of
members of the Binghamton Geology
community. James R. “Dick” Beerbower
passed away last fall and is remembered
in this newsletter by Bill Stein, a closecolleague in the paleobotany group in the
Biology Department. Dick was chair when
I first started in the department and he
and I had a number of great conversations
about topics of mutual interest while he
was still here. He once gave me a number
of photographs for a paper I was writing.
After he and Bobbie moved to Washington,
I would always run into him at Geological
Society of America meetings. He was a kind
and generous colleague. I will also miss
Paul Covey, Burrell Montz’s husband, who
passed away recently in North Carolina.
Back in the day, Paul would bring Laura and
Cliff to join the other children of Geology
Department faculty at Friday afternoon
“tea.” He was a gentle soul.
As you can tell, the Alumni Council, which
Dave Jenkins instituted a few years ago, has
really stepped up to help and encourage the
department. The incoming president is Ed
3
Nature Preserve
as Classroom
by Dylan Horvath,
Steward of
Natural Areas
Photo: Dave Tuttle
I was walking along, leading a group of
first graders in the Nature Preserve and
we spotted a doe lying under a tree about
10 feet from the Marsh Trail. As per my
advice in the beginning of our walk, the
kids were pretty quiet. They started to sneak
over to the deer and after a moment the
kids suddenly yelled, “deer!” and charged
towards it. I could see the doe’s eyes bulge,
its body quiver, and then it bolted. That’s all
right, the deer need the exercise anyway.
It’s hard to believe that I have been associated
with Binghamton University for more than
10 years, half of those years as the steward
of natural areas, but previously as a biology
graduate student and Nature Preserve
volunteer. When I first took the job, some
people asked what I wanted to make the
Nature Preserve and natural areas into. I
replied that I didn’t want to change them, but
keep them as they are, or more accurately, keep
doing what has been done — encouraging
biodiversity, education and research.
Photo: Francesca Corea, Penguin Group (USA)/DK
Dr. Richard Andrus, Dr. Julian Shepherd
and Friends of the Nature Preserve volunteers
have taken care of the Nature Preserve
long before I came along. They created
and maintained trails, started creating and
maintaining habitat, removed invasive
species, and then led tours to tell people all
about it. They still do. But now that there is a
position whose job it is to do all those things,
4
which happens to be filled by me right
now, the activities have expanded, and Drs.
Shepherd and Andrus have more time to do
other great things. From this point forward, I
will often say “we,” which is me, Drs. Andrus
and Shepherd, Friends of the Nature Preserve
(FNP) and various Nature Preserve advocates
and volunteers.
Being the steward of natural areas has
become far more education oriented than
I thought it would be (which is good), and
there are some aspects that I didn’t even
consider, which have become surprisingly
important and satisfying. Each semester
we lead an average of 300 children from
many local schools, some as far away as
Harpursville, through the Nature Preserve.
During fall 2009, for “Read for the Record,”
we had probably the largest tour ever, with
425 toddlers (dressed like giant caterpillars)
and their parents. The year I started, we
brought every Binghamton seventh-grade
student for educational walks as part of a
graduate student-written grant. Of course,
I can’t lead all these walks myself, so either
students from my Natural History course
(fall) or recruited volunteers (spring/
summer) help out. Volunteer nature guides
are mainly Binghamton students, but also
faculty, staff and community members.
School children aren’t the only ones learning
about the natural world with us in the
Nature Preserve. Community groups,
alumni, current students and just about
anyone who contacts me can get at least
a tour. Lyceum, retirees, garden clubs and
residential hall groups are now regular
participants of our nature walks. When I
first started, I was worried about generating
interest, but I’ve never had to find groups to
visit as they’ve been contacting me from the
beginning. We have done educational walks
about all sorts of subjects such as ecology,
geology, wildlife, Native Americans, edible
S t a ff
“Being the Steward of
Natural Areas has become
far more education
oriented than I thought
it would be (which is
good), and there are some
aspects that I didn’t even
consider which have
become surprisingly
important and satisfying.
”
Photo: Greg Albert
plants and tracking. I seem to specialize
in showing off the important aspects of
ecology in deceased animals and scat.
Most recently, a coyote-killed yearling deer
became the subject of a FNP hike.
Informal public (including student) usage of
the Nature Preserve seems to have increased
a lot over the last decade. I spent almost as
much time out there when I was a graduate
student as I do now. I see more people now
than ever and I see visitors (or evidence
of them) in places where I never used to.
Balancing human usage with conservation
and education is a challenge and requires
difficult decisions. In response to some recent
incidents and ongoing behavioral patterns,
one major change resulting from increased
human usage will be the banning of dogs
from the Nature Preserve and natural areas.
On the other hand, “natural” pressures, such
as deer and invasive plants, are increasing as
well. Deer are a big problem as our campus
woods are filled to over capacity. Two years
ago, I counted 40 deer near College-in-theWoods alone. In order to return our woods
to more healthy function and diversity, it
may require more tough decisions. For now,
students have made deer exclusion fences
to demonstrate what might grow in the
absence of such heavy herbivorous pressure.
More fences are in the works.
I have branched out to work with other
groups on campus. Engineers Without
Borders, along with FNP volunteers, built
steps at our Redwing Trail entrance, and
boardwalks, and they are currently building
a deer exclusion fence. Various service
groups have helped with clean-up.
in
f o c u s
I mentioned that some aspects of the
job have been surprisingly satisfying and
important. One aspect is that I try to
provide as many opportunities as I can
for students to gain experience in working
outdoors, whether it is in the physical
maintenance or the educational parts of
the job. To that end, along with training
nature guides, I formed a subgroup of the
FNP, the Nature Preserve Regulars (a.k.a.
Super Friends). The regulars are teams of
weekly volunteers who help remove invasive
species, maintain habitat or help out with
clearing/repairing trails. A few students have
written to me or told me that working in
the Nature Preserve made college life more
enjoyable or even helped relieve the stress
of life’s problems. Amazingly, I find myself
in a position to write recommendations
for students, and some of them have gone
on to field positions or outdoor education
jobs. It is very rewarding to see volunteers or
students go on to have great experiences.
Even though a few people hate me (I know,
they’ve told me) for trying to enforce the
necessary rules that we have for our natural
areas, I find the majority of our visitors
pleasant to talk to and I love playing the
naturalist role, answering questions about
wildlife and nature. I’ve run into parents
who tell me their kids still talk about visits
to our Nature Preserve when I showed them
a water snake and all the adults ran away
while the kids wanted to take the snake
home. Hopefully, interest and support for
the Nature Preserve and natural areas will
only increase (not just among people). We’re
doing something right — a visitor added the
208th species to our bird list last spring.
5
Rolling Seismometers Image
and Educate
by Michael Hubenthal,
Senior Education Specialist,
IRIS Consortium
([email protected])
N
ope, not rolling on wheels…
rolling across the conterminous
United States (from west to east)
and Alaska. Over the past seven years, a
network of 400 high-quality broadband
seismographs with associated signal
processing, power, and communications
equipment are being placed in temporary
sites with station spacing of about 70 km.
After a residence time of two years, each
instrument is picked up and moved to
the next carefully selected location on the
eastern edge of the array. This rolling array of
seismometers, called the USArray, is currently
positioned over the central United States.
However, the edge of the array will reach
western New York in late 2012, with full
coverage of New York in 2013 (Figure 1).
To determine how features at Earth’s surface
correlate with structural and compositional
differences deep within the planet,
seismologists need this dense network of
seismic stations so they can record seismic
waves that have propagated through finer
and finer slices of the earth beneath them. In
Figure 1: USArray seismometer deployment map. Starting in 2004, the array collected data over the western
U.S. and is progressively rolling eastward. The USArray will be in our backyard sometime in early 2013.
6
addition to producing high-resolution images
of Earth’s subsurface, this information also
enables scientists to link structures inherited
from earlier stages of continental formation
to known and potential geologic hazards
(e.g., earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides). Also
associated with the array’s eastward transition
is an ongoing education and outreach
effort. This effort, in collaboration with the
seismological and educational communities,
develops and implements programs designed
to enhance seismology and Earth science
education in K-12 schools, colleges and
universities, and in adult education.
USArray — Producing
Scientific Products
Before the advent of USArray, insights
into mantle structure beneath the western
United States were obtained by piecing
together small regional-scale P-wave studies,
or from global travel time or surface wave
tomography. However, with the data
collected with USArray, seismologist can
employ systematic tomographic imaging of
the entire continent at or near the resolution
of the best currently available regional-scale
studies. This high-resolution tomographic
imagery is achieved by combining the
thousands of seismic readings from the
USArray with observations from seismic
stations around the globe. Figure 2
exemplifies this process and maps out large
regions of the western United States where
seismic waves traveled slower (red) or faster
(blue) than average. How fast the waves
travel depends on the type of material they
travel through. Waves travel faster through
cold, stiff materials, like the Juan de Fuca
Plate that can be seen subducting into
the mantle in figure 2 (b-b’). Waves travel
slower through warmer materials, like hot
rock beneath the Yellowstone hotspot, seen
Figure 2. Tomographic cross-sections generated from USArray data. (A) Section across Cascadia subduction
and Columbia plateau. (B) Section across southern extent of Juan de Fuca subduction. (C) Section across Sierra
Nevada and Basin and Range Province. (D) Section through Yellowstone hotspot track. (Burdick et al, 2008)
in figure 2 (d-d’). As a result these images
contribute to our understanding of firstorder geological structure of and processes
in the mantle beneath North America.
For example, the Yellowstone hotspot is
distinctly seen up to ~ 350-km depth. At
this depth the hotspot appears to be cut
off by a feature that is connected to other
structures beneath California. It is possible
that the source of the Yellowstone hotspot is
shallow, but if the source were deeper, this
observation suggests a complex interplay of
the upwelling associated with the hotspot
and deeper mantle structures.
eye-catching poster designed specifically for
use in middle and high school classrooms.
In the final product (figure 3, right) the
discrepant image of a faucet both attracts
attention and links the unfamiliar concept
of the spreading out of seismic waves to a
similar but more familiar scenario of a drip
causing ripples on water. The title, phrased
as a question, invites viewers to consider the
analogy further. The entire concept is made
approachable by a clean, artistic design that
flows through the eye-catching faucet, to the
title, to a prominent URL where viewers can
go to learn more.
USArray — Producing an
Educational Product
Figure 3: Developing an educational product from data. The evolution of IRIS’s most recent educational poster
begins (left) with a visualization of an earthquake that occurred in the center of the USArray. Next (center), the
visualization is combined with additional imagery to create a visual analogy. The message is strengthened (right)
and prepared for classroom use through the application of educational and design principles.
C A N A DA
S TAT E S
OCEAN
U N I T E D
+.001 mm
PACIFIC
On February 21, 2008, a magnitude
6.0 earthquake occurred in Wells, Nev.
By happenstance the epicenter was
approximately in the center of the USArray.
By recording the change in amplitude of the
ground through time, the array illustrated
in unprecedented detail the propagation of
seismic waves outward from the epicenter
(figure 3, left). While fascinating alone,
this visualization was transformed into an
educational product by combining it with
the image of a faucet to illustrate a classic
earth science analogy: “Seismic waves radiate
outward from an earthquake’s epicenter
like ripples on water” (figure 3, center).
Applying educational and design principles
and rendering a contoured view of the data
transformed this kernel of an idea into an
Normal
ground
surface
- .001 mm
February 21, 2008 — Wells, Nevada, M=6.0
50 seconds
Seismometer(s):
No Motion
Downward Ground
Motion
Upward Ground
Motion
95 seconds
Time after earthquake
150 seconds
An earthquake can be compared to a water drop that is suspended from a
faucet and falls into a pool creating ripples. Like the drop that falls, earthquakes
result from the sudden conversion of potential energy, stored elastically in
rocks, to kinetic energy. Then, like the ripples on water, the released energy
travels outward through Earth in all directions as seismic waves. Seismic waves
propagate by temporarily deforming the ground. Sensitive instruments called
seismometers detect and record these ground changes. Ground deformations
following the Wells, NV earthquake were recorded at nearly 400 seismometers
and combined to create the visualization in this poster.
www.iris.edu/explore
Visit us for further exploration and to access instructional resources related to this imagery
About the author
Since I don’t teach courses in the department, most of you are unlikely to know me. I am the senior education specialist at the Incorporated
Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), a consortium of 100 U.S. universities (including Binghamton University) that manages and operates
comprehensive, high-quality geophysical facilities that enable exciting discoveries in seismology and the Earth sciences. For the past eight
years, from an office in the department, I have developed, managed and evaluated IRIS’s professional development programs for teachers,
the IRIS Undergraduate Internship Program and numerous educational resources (both print- and web-based) serving middle and high school
audiences. With a background in science education, my current interests focus on the development of visuals for the classroom and the process
by which students develop and use mental models of scientific phenomena.
7
A r o u nd
t h e
dep a r t m ent
Bill MacDonald Retires
Bill MacDonald, center, with Mike Peters
(Psych.), left, and Jim Sorauf.
The department wishes Bill MacDonald
well on his recent retirement from the
department. Bill came here in 1965 from
Princeton University as a structural geologist
with particular interests in Caribbean
and Latin American regional geology. He
supervised many graduate student theses
and was an integral part of the Caribbean
geology emphasis at Binghamton. He set
up a paleomagnetics lab in the department
specializing in application of the technique
known as anisotropy of magnetic
susceptibility (AMS) to discerning the flow
fabric of rocks that have no other obvious
indicators of flow direction. One of Bill’s
passions was meteorite impact regions,
Bill, Karen Pompi, Matt
Telfer, Herm Roberson.
Currie Palmer,
Marguerite Kane, Bill,
Nuna MacDonald.
8
which he described in some detail in his
research highlights in the 2007 Geobing
newsletter (available through our website).
Bill has collaborated with researchers all
around the world, particularly in South
America. The department had a surprise
retirement party for Bill on October 9,
2010, in the Geology lounge, which was well
attended by friends, family and colleagues
as seen in the photos shown here (all taken
by Dave Tuttle). The event was topped off
with the presentation of a plaque honoring
Bill’s 45 years of service to the department,
complete with an etched section of an iron
meteorite. Bill, we all wish you the best on
your well-deserved retirement!
F a c u l t y
N e w s
Dick Andrus
Jeff Barker
Bob Demicco
The main new project for me this past year was the
decision to buy a very rundown house in Binghamton
and fix it up for low-cost student housing. The idea here
is to renovate this in an energy-efficient way and also
have lots of green space. The first house is done and
has worked quite well. I have added a second house to
the project, next door to the first, and am now starting
on it. I hope to even do geothermal (heat pump) here.
We will also be building on a passive green house.
The affordable housing will offer an environmentally
designed place that is rather different from the muchtouted “luxury housing” being offered at twice the price.
Did you know that the modes of surface waves in
the Earth are very much like the modes of sound
waves in a musical instrument? Both are due to the
interference of waves bouncing back and forth between
a low-pressure end (the surface of the Earth or the
bell end of a wind instrument) and a high-pressure
end (at depth in the Earth or the mouthpiece or reed
of the instrument). Because we can’t go into the Earth
to observe the interference phenomenon of surface
waves, the concept, not to mention the mathematics,
can seem rather obscure to students. Most of them,
however, have played an instrument of some sort and,
while they probably didn’t understand the physics of
their instrument, when demonstrated in class, they can
readily grasp and accept how these things work. So,
we pluck a guitar string, or play a note on a clarinet, or
whistle, or sing, then look at the spectrum of the signal
generated using a free program called Audacity. You can
see all the harmonics of the note played, even though
you might not really hear them. It’s that combination of
harmonics that gives each instrument its characteristic
sound. Seismic waves in the Earth generate surface
wave harmonics and those characteristic harmonics
can tell us a lot about the internal structure of the Earth.
I think I have finally figured out a problem that has
vexed me for a number of years. The problem is how
the isotopic record from marine shells don’t seem
to square with the chemical records of ancient sea
water preserved in fluid inclusions. This will either be
one of those “Aha, why didn’t I think of that” papers
in Science or Nature, or it will turn out like so many of
my other great ideas. You know, the ones that adorn
geology textbooks. Karen and the boys are doing well,
although I still worry about Ed out on Lawn Guyland.
As Karen says, he still has a roof over his head, so
it cannot be that bad. One of the side benefits from
working with Matt Telfer on the Alumni Council is that
he had gotten me to drag my old Hammond B-3 organ
out of mothballs and get back to playing rock and roll.
In fact, last summer, Matt got most of his old local band
together and, along with his daughters, we played at
Thirsty’s on the South Side. We didn’t sound half bad.
Matt’s daughters have great voices and Matt and his
buddy Mark are superb guitarists. It was a blast, but it
is kind of difficult to play gigs when part of your band
lives in Texas and the rest in upstate New York.
The Tropical Forestry Initiative project that I’ve been
involved in for 16 years in Costa Rica continues to
do well. We’ve had 15-20 students attend our July
program each year, where they learn a lot of tropical
ecology as well as work on ecological restoration.
As far as teaching, I’ve settled into Environmental
Literature as a great course to share my love of books
with that modest percentage of students that still
read. In reaction to all the BS flying around about
“sustainability,” I’m also teaching a course called
Sustainability: Fake vs. Real.
I mention this simply because I love teaching, which
means finding ways to connect with students and
help them understand geological or geophysical
concepts in their own terms. I also love making music
and continue to play French horn in the Binghamton
Community Orchestra, the Southern Tier Concert
Band, a variety of school musicals and accompanying
some choral groups. My woodwind quintet, the Mosaic
Winds, recently performed at the Walton Theater in
the Catskills, and we’re looking forward to playing
Peter and the Wolf at library programs this summer.
Meanwhile, I’m completing my third year as faculty
master of Dickinson Community, which gives me
plenty of opportunity to interact in a variety of ways
with our outstanding undergraduate students. Carol
and I are enjoying our house up in the hills east of
Binghamton, where we’ve had a number of chances
to cross-country-ski out the back door this winter.
There’s a dry gas well (Trenton formation) behind our
house just waiting to be re-drilled into the Marcellus.
I’ll let you know how that turns out. We’re also looking
forward to a drive across country this summer to see
my kids in Arizona, as well as to visit Bryce Canyon,
Great Salt Lake, the Grand Tetons, Mt. Rushmore and
other beautiful spots along the way. Good thing we’ve
got a Prius!
9
A l u m ni
C o nnecti o ns
Alumni Giving
A note about giving
to the department:
Some alumni have asked why their
contributions do not always appear on this
yearly list of donors. The donors recognized
in this newsletter are those who have
specifically indicated that their contributions
be given to the Geology Department. To
ensure this, you will need to specify that
your contribution goes to the Geology
Department or, even better, that it be directed
to the Geology Fund, account 10796. Your
contributions to the Geology Fund help us
with some of the basic operations around the
department, such as the welcoming luncheon
for incoming graduate students, support
for our visiting seminar speakers, hosting
alumni reunions on campus and at national
meetings, etc. We are extremely grateful for
this support. Contributions should be sent to
the Binghamton University Foundation, PO
Box 6005, Binghamton, NY 13902-6005, and
please note that it is for the Geology Fund,
account 10796.
10
The department gratefully acknowledges
these individuals who have contributed to
departmental accounts over the past year.
Ms. Cheryl Alexander ’70
Ms. Laura Merrill Bazeley ’75
Dr. Wallace A. Bothner ’63
Mr. Richard J. Bottjer ’81
BP
Ms. Jennifer L. Candela ’93
Ms. Mary Rose Cassa, MA ’80
Chevron Corporation
Ms. Andrea D. Cicero ’97
Mr. David R. Conorozzo ’98
Mrs. Maureen E. Conorozzo ’98
Ms. Amy M. Curran ’79
Mr. Donald W. Curran, MA ’80
Dr. David F. Dominic, MA ’83
Ms. Martha J. Dunn, MA ’80
Dr. Bruce Alan Geller, MA ’81
Ms. Joan C. Giebink ’76
Dr. Norman L. Gilinsky ’78
Mr. Timothy D. Glazar ’85
Mr. Matthew Gubitosa, MA ’84
Mr. Kenneth R. Helm, MA ’82
Mr. Eric A. Hetland, MA ’99
Ms. Laura K. Howe, MA ’97
Dr. Carl E. Jacobson ’75
Dr. Carol D. Jacobson ’75
Dr. David M. Jenkins +
Dr. Ying Jiang, PhD ’98
Dr. Eric Lee Johnson, MA ’85, PhD ’90
Mrs. Maria A. Johnson, MA ’85
Dr. Peter L. Knuepfer +
Mrs. Maureen P. Leshendok ’70
Dr. Jianren Li, PhD ’96, MS ’97
Mr. Chris Maples
Ms. Sara A. Marcus ’90
Mr. Thomas R. Merenda ’83
Microsoft Corporation
Dr. Stephen Oakley Moshier, MA ’80
Ms. Kim Kucharski Muller ’79
Dr. Douglas G. Patchen ’64, MA ’67
Ms. Sara L. Peyton
Sempra Energy
Mr. Adam Shale ’04, MAT ’07
Mr. Robert C. Sudaley ’82, MAT ’85
Dr. Anthony J. Tabone ’92
Dr. John Charles Tacinelli, MA ’91
Ms. Susan J. Templeton
Mrs. Denise Lynn Waite, MA ’90
Ms. Donna E. Weidemann ’81
Mr. Walter Frederick Wintsch Jr. ’81
Dr. Qingjun Yao, PhD ’94
+ Faculty/Staff
Please note that this list was compiled from
information provided by the Binghamton
Foundation based on their records of
January 2010 through December 2010.
We sincerely apologize for any errors,
omissions or inaccuracies.
F a c u l t y
N e w s
Steve Dickman
Joseph Graney
Dave Jenkins
The past 12 months have been a “banner” year for
me professionally. Three (that’s 3) manuscripts saw
publication — as many as I’ve ever had in one year
— one with a colleague at JPL, one with one of my
doctoral students (Nirupam Dey) and one solo. Though
I only attended two conferences (about as many per
year as I can take), one was in Brazil and about as
memorable as my travels ever get (though at my age,
the several hundred pictures I took will help with the
“memorable” part). And, in the fall semester, I teamed
up with Tim and Pete to co-teach a new course on
climate and paleoclimate. Among other things, it
provided me with my first opportunity in decades to
tell students, during a brief introduction to climate
modeling, that “computers” once referred to people,
not machines!
As always, Joe Graney and his students are involved
in several environmental geochemistry projects. One
of Joe’s new “hobbies” involves work on the oil sands
deposits in Alberta. That work is sponsored by the
Wood Buffalo Environmental Association. Joe reports
that field trips to northeastern Alberta can be quite
invigorating, especially in January! PhD graduate
student Jonathan Schmitkons continues to work
on an interdisciplinary project with several of the
biology graduate students on assessing ecosystem
impacts from roadway emission sources. Jon will be
presenting some of the results at the GSA meeting
in Pittsburgh in spring 2011. Joe is overseeing work
on this project along with John Titus and Weixing
Zhu, both from Biological Sciences, through several
phases of grant support from the Wallace Foundation.
Joe continues in his role as associate director for
the Center for Integrated Watershed Studies (CIWS).
CIWS is involved in several projects that involve
collaboration with the Upper Susquehanna Coalition
(USC). The USC gave PhD graduate student Jason
Johnson a research assistantship package to support
his efforts to help establish baseline physical and
chemical measurements in watersheds in Bradford
County, Pa. This project also involves work with the
Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) and
their real-time water-quality monitoring network
in Pa. Joe hosted two workshops at Binghamton
University that aided the SRBC in their outreach effort
to spread their monitoring network to watersheds
in New York, in anticipation of the development of
the Marcellus natural gas resources. Work on urban
hydrology projects continues with other CIWS faculty
and students. For those of you who remember “Lake
Lieberman,” it will be undergoing an expansion in
order to accommodate new construction on campus.
Several students from the geology, biology, and
environmental studies programs will be involved in
the design and monitoring phases for this enlarged
wetland complex. A perfect field laboratory for projects
on campus! Joe also reports that his wife, Dawn,
continues to expand her adjunct instructor activities at
Broome Community College. She specializes in both
classroom and online courses in health information
technology. Joe and Dawn recently visited Bermuda to
celebrate their wedding anniversary. Joe encourages
you to stop by their abode on Jensen Road if you
would like to sample a “Dark & Stormy,” a libation
they became fond of during their Bermuda trip.
This past fall Jean, Andrew and I spent my sabbatical
leave in Cambridge, England, where I worked with two
faculty members at the Downing Street site. My official
host was Tim Holland, who helped me become fairly
proficient, or enough to be dangerous, at operating
his program, Thermocalc. This software has steadily
grown in popularity in the geological community and
is quite powerful, once you understand that the human
thought process is an integral part of the program and
learn how to set up the input files. Learning to use
this software helps me do calculations in chemically
complex systems (eight components) and see how the
work that I have done in chemically simple systems is
integrated into more complex systems. I also worked
with Michael Carpenter to learn a technique known as
autocorrelation analysis as applied to infrared spectra
for the purpose of extracting information on cation
mixing in mineral solid solutions. While in England we
were living just north of Cambridge in a small village
known as Histon, renting a lovely two-bedroom house.
Jean and I, and maybe Andrew, enjoyed our stay in
Cambridge. Research by Juan Carlos Corona and
Ashley Basora is pretty much complete and their work
is in various stages of being written up for publication.
Nick Holsing is doggedly pursuing the synthesis of
diamond, which has now pushed the upper limits
of temperature reached in the Hydrothermal Lab
to something like 2100°C. Much of his work has
been devoted to simply stabilizing the pressure
assemblage to work at such high temperatures. My
research continues into cation mixing in sodic- and
calcic-amphibole solid solutions to better understand
the conditions of metamorphism in high-pressure
terranes. Please feel free to contact me by e-mail
([email protected]) as I always enjoy hearing
from former students.
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A l u m ni
C o nnecti o ns
Comments from Alumni
Please join our
website alumni list
Our alumni webpage (geology.binghamton.
edu/alumni.html) continues to be a popular
place for alumni to post email addresses,
short updates of family and jobs, or items
of interest. We have found this to be a
valuable resource for alumni wishing
to contact others, and also for current
students seeking information on career
opportunities. In the next several months
we anticipate that the geology website
will be revised to conform to a campuswide format. It is unclear what effect this
will have, if any, on the alumni website.
Until then, you are welcome to submit
new entries to our alumni list or update
information already on our website, by
sending your entry to Anne Hull at ahull@
binghamton.edu.
We received the following comment from Mike Penzo (1981) after the 2010 Geo-Bing
newsletter was published, which is reproduced here with Mike’s permission.
“I was sorry to hear about the passing of one of my favorite
people in the world, Mrs. Bemis. When I arrived in Binghamton
in the fall of 1978 as a first-year graduate student, first time
living away from home, Mrs. Bemis was the first person that
I met. She welcomed me and made me feel like I belonged.
I remember that she was the maker of the popcorn at
every Friday afternoon tea. She was one of the nicest, most
compassionate people that I have ever met. She will be missed.
“In regards to the 1979 photo that appeared in the newsletter,
I was not in that picture because I was driving to Lake Placid
for a ‘Friends of the Pleistocene’ meeting with Don Coates after
pulling an all-nighter. FYI, the person identified in the photo as
‘Leslie______’ was Leslie Hammer.”
Graduate Degree Completions
We congratulate the following graduate
students who have completed their degrees
in 2010:
Ashley Michelle Basora (MS) – Thesis
title: A Blueschist Facies to Greenschist
Facies Transition Model Represented by the
Reaction: Glaucophane + Paragonite + 2
Quartz = 2 Vermiculite + 2 Albite.
Stephen Catalfamo (MS) – Thesis title:
Assessment of Stream Flow Response and
Water Quality Within a Small Tropical
Watershed in Costa Rica.
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Daniel Alejandro Maeso Díaz (MS) –
Thesis title: Opaque Mineral Analysis of
the Amaga Formation and Potential Source
Rocks and its Relation to Uplift of the
Columbian Andes.
Joanna Charlann Walker (MA) – Thesis
title: Effects of the Broome County
Municipal Landfill’s Clay Cap on the
Surface and Groundwater Hydrology of the
Castle Creek Watershed.
Juan Carlos Corona (PhD) – Dissertation
title: An experimental Study on the Stability
of Blueschist Facies Assemblages in the
System FeO-Na2O-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O.
F a c u l t y
N e w s
Peter Knuepfer
Bill MacDonald
I continue to be director of the Environmental
Studies Program, which has grown over the last few
years to well over 200 majors and minors. Burrell
Montz’s move to East Carolina (should we call that
Binghamton South, since Sid Mitra moved there too?)
certainly was a blow to the program, but we carry
on. More work also with faculty governance, both
here and in the SUNY system, where we make efforts
to push back against the severe budget cuts that
have happened and are proposed (as of this writing).
It’s hard for campuses to cope when more than a
third of their state funding has been or soon will be
pulled back, though at least Binghamton hasn’t had
to close programs/majors. And on the research side,
it’s on to coring for paleoflood analysis. Students are
working with me to try to unravel the history of floods
in the upper Susquehanna River basin over the last
several thousand years by studying flood-derived
sediments exposed in outcrop or recovered from
coring operations. The project is still in its infancy, but
we hope to establish an initial paleoflood record from
a couple of sites we’ve been investigating.
Various research projects are keeping me busy. I have
been measuring the AMS (anisotropy of magnetic
susceptibility) of diabase sills from Victoria Island in
the Canadian Arctic Islands, where Professor Naslund
and I sampled and mapped in a helicopter survey
program for several weeks last summer with the
Canadian Geological Survey. My Nevada research,
involving mapping outflow patterns from various
unknown caldera sources using AMS, is nearing
completion. I hope to finish that project this semester.
Professor Brooks Ellwood has involved me in a
magnetic susceptibility variation study of Milankovitch
cycles in Paleozoic platform deposits of Kentucky; that
work is likely to expand elsewhere. I am still working
with several graduate students. Daniel Maeso finished
his MS at the end of last semester; Dan Wheeler
should finish this semester. On a February visit to my
daughter Erin and new grandson, Nuna and I dropped
by for a short visit with Professor Paul Enos and his
wife, Carol, at Kansas University in Lawrence. Paul
served as faculty member here many moons ago, and
is still an avid cyclist.
Tim Lowenstein
Our group’s study of microorganism communities
in fluid inclusions has had a very good year. We
got a new three-year NSF grant for the research,
and articles came out in GSA Today (January) and
Earth magazine (April 2011; check out the article
because there are lots of photos including one
from the 2007 Bartle field trip). PhD student Yaicha
Winters is studying starvation survival of archaea
in fluid inclusions; it turns out that when conditions
for growth are poor, some of these microbes shrink
in size and go into a sort of suspended animation.
We are also looking at the preservation of ancient
DNA. Mike Timofeeff, biology PhD student Krithivasan
Sankaranarayanan and anthropology professor
Koji Lum have teamed up to study ancient DNA in
halite and gypsum crystals — there is plenty of it,
from archaea, algae and who knows what else. PhD
student Elliot Jagniecki is working on the phase
equilibria of sodium carbonate minerals like trona,
shortite and nahcolite under the direction of David
Jenkins. Those experiments will help us constrain
Eocene atmospheric CO2 and sediment burial
temperatures. Elliot is also doing a field-oriented
project on Eocene Green River tufas and travertines,
trying to unravel their origin (springs? lakes?) and
their significance in terms of inflow waters and lake
Lowenstein
water chemistry. PhD student Zack Smith is interested
in aqueous geochemistry and is tackling water inflowbrine evolution questions for some important rift
lakes (Bogoria and Magadi in East Africa) and Laguna
Verde in Chile. Natalie Nahill (visiting PhD student
from the University of Pennsylvania) is working
on the chemistry of the oldest-known seawater
trapped in fluid inclusions in halite from the Officer
Basin in Australia. We also now have undergraduate
sophomore Nora Holt working in the lab.
You all will be happy to hear that Bob Demicco and I
led two Bartle field trips in the last year — one to the
Florida Keys and one to coastal Virginia and Maryland.
Those trips are a time to let go a little (or at times a
lot) and have fun doing field geology. Our group also
visited the desert closed basins of California and
Nevada in June (the worst time to go).
The University is building us a brand new
geochemistry lab on the second floor of Science 1,
which will open this spring. It is really first rate and
will have space for a new mass spectrometer and
geomicrobiology lab. Speaking of geomicrobiology,
we will be hiring a new faculty member in this field to
begin in fall 2011.
Family stuff: Kirby is a happy sophomore, majoring in
art at Brown. Scott is working in Manhattan for Global
Strategy Group and Maggie is in her second year of
medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. Sally
and I have completely remodeled our house over the
last six months. It looks majestic — we are going to
have a huge party when it is completed. I hope to see
some of you over the coming year.
13
I n
m e m o r i a m
James R. (Dick) Beerbower
W
Photo: Dave Tuttle
e mark with great sadness
the passing of Professor
Emeritus James R. (Dick)
Beerbower, who died Monday, September
27, 2010. Dick received his PhD from the
University of Chicago in 1954 and served
in faculty positions at Lafayette College,
Easton, Pennsylvania, and at McMaster
University, Hamilton, Ontario (Canada),
before coming to Binghamton University
in 1969 as the chair of the Department
of Geological Sciences. Dick oversaw
the growth of the department while he
was chair off and on between 1969 and
1986, when the department reached
an all-time high of 17 faculty and nine
professional staff. His teaching interests
included Darwinian evolution, vertebrate
paleontology and paleo-ecosystems. He
co-taught an interdisciplinary course on the
history of terrestrial ecosystems with Doug
Grierson and later William Stein, both
of the biology department. Dick was an
excellent field geologist, as well as a leading
theoretical figure in the formative period of
modern paleobiology. He is especially noted
for pioneering work analyzing the structure
and dynamics of early terrestrial ecosystems
represented by lower and middle Paleozoic
rocks worldwide. He liked observing fossils
in rocks and then thinking deeply about
how to recover useful biological information
from them. William Stein noted that Dick
was a good friend and valued mentor whose
influence continues to have direct impact on
his research and teaching at Binghamton.
Dick officially retired in 1993, but
continued to teach and do research in
the department until 1999 when he and
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his wife, Bobbie Friedman, moved to
Washington, D.C. He was devoted to the
profession to the end, as evidenced by
his presence at the Geological Society of
American meeting in Portland, Oregon, in
the fall of 2009, where he spent much of
his time talking with alumni, associates and
old friends. Binghamton University and the
paleontological community lost a valued
and influential colleague who will be sorely
missed.
Memorial gifts may be made to the
Binghamton University Foundation,
Memorial Account #10351. Note “in
memory of Dick Beerbower” in the
memo section of your check and mail to:
Binghamton University Foundation,
PO Box 6005, Binghamton, NY 13902-6005.
Those wishing to send condolences may
do so to: Bobbie Friedman, 550 N St. SW,
Apt. S-102, Washington, DC 20024.
Selected publications of
Dick Beerbower:
Beerbower, J.R. (1968) Search for the Past:
an Introduction to Paleontology, 2nd ed.
Prentice-Hall, 512 p.
Beerbower, J.R. (1969) Interpretation of cyclic
Permo-Carboniferous deposition in alluvial plain
sediments in West Virginia. Geological Society
of America, Bulletin, Vol. 80(9), 1843-1847.
Beerbower, J.R. (1971) Field Guide to Fossils.
Houghton-Mifflin, 52 p.
Beerbower, J.R. (1985) Early development of
continental ecosystems. In: Geological Factors
and the Evolution of Plants, B.H. Tiffney (ed.),
pp. 47-91. Yale University Press.
F a c u l t y
N e w s
Dick Naslund
Karen Salvage
Francis Wu
My family and I returned from our sabbatical in Chile in
August 2010 and have been getting readjusted to life
in the USA. We have all recovered from the earthquake
trauma of last year (3:34 a.m. local time, Feb. 27,
2010, magnitude 8.8) and are glad to be back on terra
firma in Binghamton, where earthquakes are both rare
and small. I am teaching Intro Geology again this year,
which I always enjoy because it forces me to keep
up with current developments in geology. This year
I am looking more into the geologic implications of
alternative energy and the proposed gas development
in the Marcellus Shale below Binghamton.
I taught both Hydrogeology and Environmental
Hydrology last fall semester and am teaching Water
and Watersheds this spring. Environmental Hydrology
is a laboratory course, with the Fuller Hollow Creek
watershed serving as our outdoor lab. I enjoy it, and
I think the students learn much more from actually
doing fieldwork than from reading about it in a book.
Some weeks they are less than thrilled about being
out taking measurements during the pouring rain, but
that is when all the interesting hydrology happens!
The Water and Watersheds course, which is for
non-majors, is fun for me because its objective is to
examine water’s impact on societies and societies’
impact on water resources (as well as learn about the
science of hydrology). Some of the issues we tackle
include water scarcity and cross-border tensions in
the Middle East and between Mexico and the United
States, flooding and drought, and availability of clean
water for drinking and sanitation in the third world.
I have learned much and have received very nice
feedback from past students.
I have been on half-time with the University since
February, 2009, meaning that as long as I maintain
certain level of sponsored research I do not have
to teach. This is a boon to my research effort as I
have gathered a tremendous amount of data in the
field that will take a monumental effort to digest and
interpret. There are a series of papers to be written. To
collaborate with my colleagues working on the TAIGER
project, I spent most of my time in southern California,
over a month in Taiwan and a couple of weeks in
Austin, Texas, last year. My PhD student, Hao KuoChen, has already defended and is nearly completed
with his dissertation. He plans to be a post-doc with
me for two years. Out of the six U.S. institutions
involved in the TAIGER project, he is the first PhD. I
continue to learn more about geological subjects that
I took courses in many years ago, but their contents
have completely changed and have become so rich.
I have been re-educated throughout my career, but it
has become especially critical now, as I am trying to
understand what are the most important geological
processes in mountain building.
My research continues to look at igneous petrology,
layered intrusions and igneous ore deposits. My
research focus for the next few years will be on
differentiated sills. I am working with a big mapping
project on Victoria Island in the Canadian Arctic,
and will be doing some detailed work on a series
of extensively differentiated late Proterozoic sills
associated with the Franklin Igneous event that
affected much of northern Canada. With the ice
melting in the Arctic, there is a lot of interest in the
geology of the far north. I am also trying to finish up
an old project on the Palisades sill in New Jersey and
reanalyzing some samples from the Basistoppen sill
in Greenland, which I worked on 20-plus years ago.
Our work on the iron deposits at El Laco, Chile, and
Durango, Mexico, is continuing with colleagues in Chile
and Mexico, and I have a new student looking at a
metasomatic iron skarn associated with the sills we
are studying on Victoria Island.
The kids are all doing well. Skye is in graduate school
at the University of Washington, Sterling is working at
a local sheltered workshop, and Neelam, Kalindi and
Cambria are all seniors in high school this year, so we
are looking at a big graduation party in June. My wife,
Cheryl, is back at her job as the head of a local high
school library and continues to work on her education
PhD. I hope we will get a chance to see all of you in
the near future at reunions or scientific meetings. If
you have any igneous problems, questions, comments
or new ideas, or if you just want to say hello, drop me
a line at [email protected].
I continue to participate in the Critical Zone
Observatory project with colleagues at Penn State. I
am working on watershed-scale hydrologic modeling,
which integrates surface water and groundwater flow
as well as soil moisture and plant evapotranspiration
dynamics. It has been a challenge. Binghamton
University’s Center for Integrated Watershed Studies
(CIWS) continues to be active. The center brings
together faculty from a variety of disciplines who are
involved in watershed-related work. Last spring we
had a graduate-level seminar on wetlands, with four
faculty members and 10 graduate students from the
biology and geology departments participating. It
was great to come together to learn and teach in this
interdisciplinary environment.
On a personal note, many of you who were in school
during the last decade may remember my dog, Hunter,
who was a constant presence in the department. He
passed away last fall and is buried on the farm where
he and I first met.
My regards to all of the hydrogeology/environmental
geology alums. Please keep in touch (ksalvage@
binghamton.edu). It is always great to hear news of
“life after Binghamton.”
Photo: Dave Tuttle
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New windows for south side of Science I (Photo: D. Tuttle)
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