THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
The Department of Geosciences
Spring 2001
®
Volume 6, Number 2
INSIDE
News Around the Department
3
Central Andes Paleoclimatology
4
Recent History of Asian Monsoon
6
History of Pangean Megamonsoon
7
Imaging the Flat Slab Region
8
Dead Clams Tell the Tale
9
How Old Is the Desert? 10
Alumni News 12
Outstanding Alum, Chuck Kluth 14
Dave Lowell, Honorary PhD 15
GeoDaze 2001 16
This lake, Ren Co, lies in eastern Tibet near Chamdo at about 4500m elevation. Pollen
analyses from Ren Co sediments indicate higher abundance of trees in the mid-Holocene,
associated with higher monsoon rainfall. (See story on page 6; photo by Julie Cole.)
Letter from the Chair
Susan Beck
T
his has been a year of continuing
change for the Dept. of Geosciences. I
am thrilled to be the new Head of such
an extraordinary department and look
forward to getting to know more of you.
The department now has an
Associate Head, George Gehrels.
George will oversee the academic side of the department and
coordinate our student advising. George is an extraordinary
teacher, advisor and researcher, and, as our Undergraduate
Program Director, he had already taken on many of these
responsibilities. I am very pleased that he has agreed to accept
this position.
The spring semester has been a busy and exciting time for
us. We are involved in four new faculty searches this semester.
With George Davis’ appointment as Provost, we are
interviewing for a new structural geologist to replace him. We
are searching for an individual to fill the Lowell Chair in
Economic Geology. We are involved with the Anthropology
Dept. in a search for a geoarchaeologist to replace Vance
Haynes. And, we are involved in a search in the College of
Science Teacher Preparation Program. Two of the candidates
are geoscientists and, if either is selected, would have
Geosciences as their home department. It has made for many
interesting and diverse talks this semester and we look forward
to some exciting new colleagues in the near future.
The students organized yet another outstanding GeoDaze
Symposium this year. Chuck Kluth was named Outstanding
Alumni, and the Geosciences Advisory Board awarded Joaquin
Ruiz the Outstanding Faculty Award for his leadership and his
continuing contributions to isotope geochemistry research.
Our faculty’s continuing excellence in teaching and
advising was recently recognized by four College of Science
cont’d page 2
UA Geosciences
NEWSLETTER
Spring 2001
The UA Geosciences Newsletter is
published twice a year by the
Department of Geosciences
PO Box 210077
The University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721-0077
•
Boleyn E. Baylor, editor
520-621-4060
bbaylor@u.arizona.edu
•
www.geo.arizona.edu
GEOSCIENCES ADVISORY BOARD
STEVEN R. BOHLEN
Joint Oceanographic Institutions &
Ocean Drilling Program
REGINA M. CAPUANO
University of Houston
CHARLES F. KLUTH
Chevron
ROBERT W. KRANTZ
Phillips
DAVID J. LOFQUIST
EXXONMobil
J. DAVID LOWELL
Consultant
STEPHEN J. NARUK
Shell
DAVID K. REA
University of Michigan
WILLIAM H. WILKINSON (Chair)
Phelps-Dodge
LETTER FROM THE CHAIR, CONT’D
teaching and advising awards. Spence
Titley’s over 40 years of dedicated
teaching and research was recognized
with the Career Distinguished Teaching
Award. Spence, by the way, has advised
over 100 graduate students! Bob Butler,
our undergraduate geophysics advisor
for over 15 years, received the
Distinguished Advising Award. Terry
Wallace received the Innovation in
Teaching Award for his general education
course on Geologic Disasters and
page 2
DONORS
Department of Geosciences
The Department of Geosciences expresses its gratitude
to alumni and friends who continue their support of the department
through their generous contributions.
BERT S. BUTLER
Joseph R. Mitchell
•
PETER J. CONEY
FELLOWSHIP
Lawrence E. Archibald
Robin Bouse
Kurt N. Constenius
Brian & Danielle Horton
Jay L. Jackson (Exxon Matching Gift)
Tekla A. Harms
Laurel K. Kirkpatrick
Robert W. Krantz
(Phillips Petroleum Matching Gift)
Robert B. Laughon
Steven H. Lingrey
(Exxon Matching Gift)
Stephen Naruk & Regina Capuano
(Shell Matching Gift)
Nancy R. Riggs
•
KEITH KATZER SCHOLARSHIP
Alan C. Notgrass
•
DESERT LABORATORY
Annie McGreevy
J. DAVID LOWELL FELLOWSHIP
Mr. & Mrs. Harry Gin
•
Society. Peter DeCelles received the
Distinguished Teaching Award for his
dedicated teaching of our Field Camp.
Two of our students were also
recognized by the College of Science this
semester. Grad student Catherine
O’Reilly received the Outstanding
Teaching Assistant Award and undergrad
Alisa Miller received the Outstanding
Senior Award.
On the national scene, Bob Butler
has been named a Fellow of the
American Geophysical Union in
recognition of his outstanding research
EVANS B. MAYO
John W. Hoyt
•
MAXWELL N. SHORT SCHOLARSHIP
Omar E. DeWald
Joseph R. Mitchell
•
JOHN AND NANCY SUMNER
SCHOLARSHIP
Gary E. & Joan L. Jones
Eric Lauritsen
(Newmont Mining Matching Gift)
Steven Natali
•
ECONOMIC GEOLOGY
M. J. Fitzgerald
•
FIELD CAMP
Gretchen Luepke Bynum
•
UNRESTRICTED
Neal McClymonds
H. Nelson Meeks
David K. Rea
(Dodge Foundation Matching Gift)
Richard C. Robinson
Jeffrey G. Seekatz
(ExxonMobil Matching Gift)
•
in the field of paleomagnetism.
I hear from our alumni that they
really enjoy reading about the diverse
range of ongoing research in the
department. In this issue, we highlight
the Quaternary/Climate change research
that has continued to expand in the
department with projects from
southwestern North America to the
Andes of South America to Asia.
Again, I look forward to getting to
know our alumni. Keep us posted on
your latest news!
—Susan Beck
The University of Arizona/Geosciences Newsletter • Spring 2001
News
Around the
Department
Bob Butler Named
AGU Fellow
Bob Butler was selected as a Fellow of the
American Geophysical Union in January
2001. The rank of Fellow is one of the
AGU’s top honors and recognizes career
research achievement. In a given year, no
more that 0.1% of the AGU membership
can be designated as Fellows. Bob will
receive his award during a formal
ceremony at the AGU’s annual meeting
in San Francisco this December.
The AGU cited Bob “for signal
contribution to rock magnetism,
magnetostratgraphy, and the application
of paleomagnetism to tectonics”. Bob
joined the department in 1974 after
getting his PhD at Stanford and doing a
postdoc at the Univ. of Minnesota. As the
AGU citation indicates, Bob has worked
on a very broad range of problems. In the
first part of his Arizona tenure, Bob
focused on studying the
magnetostratigraphy of continental
sedimentary sequences, in particular the
San Juan Basin, NM. In the 1980s, Bob
drilled every red bed he could find and
determined the definitive apparent polar
wander path during the Mesozoic for
North America.
In the last few years Bob has
collaborated with George Gehrels on the
problem of suspect terranes of the
Canadian Cordillera and southeastern
Alaska, and challenged the notion that
very long range transport is the only
explanation of the paleomagnetic record.
Terry Wallace and
Shirley Wetmore
Receive Public Service
Awards
At a ceremony at UA’s Flandrau Science
Center in February, Terry Wallace and
Shirley Wetmore received public service
awards presented jointly by the Dept. of
Geosciences and Flandrau honoring their
many years of service and commitment
Terry Wallace and Shirley Wetmore.
to public outreach with the UA’s Mineral
Museum. Terry has been Curator of the Mineral Museum, the longest continuously
curated mineral museum west of the Mississippi, since 1984, and Shirley has shared
her extensive knowledge of minerals with thousands of children and other patrons for
22 years.
Following the award ceremony, Terry gave the kick-off talk on “The Mineral
Heritage of Mexico” at the opening of Flandrau Rocks! Minerals, Meteorites, and Mining.
What’s Shakin’:
Award-Winning
Online
Earthquake
Center
Anne Paquette and Alisa Miller with their award-winning
poster at Student Showcase 2000.
Last fall, undergrads Anne Paquette and Alisa Miller received First Place in the
Undergraduate Division of Physical Sciences at the annual UA Student Showcase.
Since then, they have continued their work entitled What’s Shakin’ and hope to have
a prototype of the project online by summer 2001.
The internet is an excellent tool for the collection and distribution of
environmental data that can be used for research, education, and public outreach.
This can be accomplished through a sensor web that gathers real-time data from
globally distributed sensors, such as seismometers, water gauges, and thermometers.
The sensor web then sends that data to an internet “hub” where the data are
processed for presentation for an online-resource center like What’s Shakin’.
Combining the massive amounts of information available into a positive
interactive web experience for the public requires that sites be easily accessible and
continually updated with current information while maintaining their user friendly
interface.
The significance of online-resource centers that utilize sensor webs is that the data
they provide can be rapidly accessed and represent a variety of current conditions around
the world. This data can then be used to provide faster analyses, which could lead to
better decision making in the realms of politics, weather forecasting, and hazard
analysis. These centers are also an excellent resource for the general public to get updated
information on topics relating to their environment. Besides supporting the real-time
data products, these systems are hosts to vast databases that can be used for many
research and educational purposes.
Anne and Alisa began this project in the Spring of 2000 with the guidance of Terry
Wallace. They were both drawn to working on a project in which they could share their
love of earth science with the community. The project has been funded through an
Honors College Undergraduate Research Grant.
Alisa is a graduating senior and Anne has one year remaining in her degree
program.
The University of Arizona/Geosciences Newsletter • Spring 2001
page 3
JULIO BETANCOURT
JAY QUADE
INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP:
PALEOCLIMATOLOGY OF THE
CENTRAL ANDES
O
ne of the frontiers in paleoclimatology is the role and
fate of the tropics in global climate change at
millennial to orbital time scales. In particular, little is
known about the relative influences and interactions of
insolation at high vs. low latitudes, changes in oceanic heat
transport, and remote teleconnections with large-scale and
interrelated features of the climate system, such as the Asian
Monsoon and the Walker Circulation (ENSO). Did climate
change in the tropics lead or lag ice volume changes at higher
latitudes? Is tropical climate variability caused by changes in
seasonal insolation at low latitudes, or do insolation changes at
high latitudes affect the tropics through large-scale
teleconnections such as El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)?
What are the effects of seasonal insolation variations over land
vs. sea in the tropics? The answer to these questions in part
requires high quality records of temperature and precipitation
from tropical landmasses. Fossil records from the wet tropical
lowlands are of limited variety and quality, so most of the effort
has focused on tropical highlands or along the edges of the
tropical rainfall belts.
It is therefore not surprising that the Central Andes (1030∞S) have fast become one of the most active stages for
paleoclimatological research. This research has involved ice core
measurements from tropical ice sheets, geomorphological
evidence for glacial advances and retreats, limnological evidence
from large (50,000 km2) and small (<1 km2) lakes, fossil rodent
middens, and various other kinds of climate proxies. The recent
flurry in research, however, has yet to produce consensus about
the magnitude and timing of temperature and precipitation
fluctuations, much less the forcing and large-scale mechanisms
involved in climate change. With the acceleration of
paleoclimatological research in the last decade have come
heated controversies about the history of the South American
Summer Monsoon.
The idea for this particular workshop came last spring. In an
informal seminar on Tumamoc Hill, we were reviewing the
rapidly-accumulating literature on Central Andes
paleoclimatology with several of our students (Jason Rech,
Claudio Latorre, Camille Holmgren, Christa Placzek, Jeff Pigati,
Bobby Gillis, and Nathan English). In many ways it read like
other world histories. The French occupied the high ground
early. The Swiss took over the salt trade on the dry, Pacific slope.
The Germans came up through Argentina, and the Alliance
sailed up the Amazon Fan. American flags are now flying on
windy stretches of Andean ice, and our Latin American
colleagues wait patiently to claim the spoils of war.
During our informal seminar, we realized the need for an
international summit to take stock of new developments and
controversies, some of which we had help stir up with our
recent work in the Atacama Desert. We asked Geoff Seltzer,
page 4
Map of paleoclimatological studies in the Central Andes.
Syracuse Univ., to help us organize this summit. Geoff has been one
of the principal players in Central Andes paleoclimatology over the
last decade, and currently chairs the PAGES (Past Global Changes),
PEPI (Pole-Equator-Pole Initiative) for coordinating paleoclimatic
and paleoenvironmental research on a transect through the
Americas. The necessary funds for the workshop were obtained
from two programs at the National Science Foundation, Earth
System History and the Inter-American Institute. We then set Jan
Price, our trusty coordinator of foreign and other affairs, on
arranging travel, accomodations, and a meeting room at the
University Marriott. Because much of the paleoclimatic research
featured in the workshop took place on the Altiplano, we imposed
on Susan Beck to speak on the crustal genesis of the Central Andes
and origin of the Altiplano for Friday night’s entertainment. Chip
Orr (USGS-Desert Laboratory) set up a web page for the agenda and
extended abstracts (http://wwwpaztcn.wr.usgs.gov/pcaw), and we
were set to go. On board were 60 scientists from Canada, Chile,
England, France, Germany, Peru, Switzerland and the United States.
The University of Arizona/Geosciences Newsletter • Spring 2001
The workshop was a big hit, judging from the spirited
sparring among the various contestants. As an aside, our
students in particular exhibited great poise in battle and more
than held their own. Many of the disagreements stem partly
from the sheer size of the area in question, and the complexity
of atmospheric circulation over two oceans, two hemispheres
and two major physiographies, the Amazon/Gran Chaco
lowlands and the Andean highlands. The discrepancies could be
due to poor dating, different sensitivities and response times of
the various types of records, or simply different interpretations
of each fossil record. Discrepancies could also arise from
inadequate understanding of the geographic complexity of
climate in the Central Andes, where variability in the moisture
source (the Atlantic and tropical lowlands) may be decoupled
from variability in the circulation mechanisms that transport
moisture across the highlands.
The workshop made one thing perfectly clear. There are few
fossil records or interpretations in full agreement. Over the last 1
million years, cyclicity in the sedimentology of the Amazon fan
suggests that maximum lowland precipitation coincided with
austral summer insolation minima. New lake level records,
however, indicate that the biggest lakes on the Bolivian
Altiplano were in phase with insolation maxima. The
discrepancy between the high and low ground is not necessarily
a problem. Drier lowlands and cooler, wetter highlands are
reproduced in at least one Atmospheric General Circulation
Model simulation for the Last Glacial Maximum (~21 kyr B.P.).
At critical times, such as the Younger Dryas (13-11.6 kyr B.P.),
there is evidence for aridity in the lowlands, but there remains
disagreement about whether it was wet or dry in the highlands.
There is no universally-accepted master chronology for regional
temperature fluctuations, a casualty of the “tropical
paleothermometry conundrum” in oxygen isotope
measurements from Andean ice cores. In the tropics, oxygen
isotopes seem to track, not only the temperature of the air mass,
but also the amount of precipitation it produces. The role of
cold temperatures vs. increased precipitation in maintaining
glaciers and large lakes in the Andes is undetermined, and
further complicated by the staggering in time of deglaciation
and lake desiccation. During the last glacial, a 6.5∞C depression
would have brought the O∞C mean annual isotherm near the
highstands (~3800 m) of the paleolakes, thus eliminating
terrestrial vegetation (and evapotranspiration) from their
watersheds. The ages of the highstands themselves are debated,
full glacial (22-16 kyr B.P.) from lake sediment cores and late
glacial (16-14 kyr B.P.) from shoreline tufas in the UyuniCoipasa Basin.
Disagreements extend into the Holocene and onto the
Pacific slope of the Central Andes. Saline lake deposits from
Salar de Atacama indicate highest lake levels during the full
glacial. Small lake records, paleowetlands, and vegetation
invasions into Absolute Desert indicate maximum summer
wetness in the late glacial-early Holocene (16-10 kyr B.P.). For
the middle Holocene (7-3 kyr B.P.), when Lake Titicaca dropped
100m below its current level, reconstructions differ among
records from the Pacific slope of the Andes. Even on the
Bolivian Altiplano, there are notable discrepancies in the timing
The University of Arizona/Geosciences Newsletter • Spring 2001
of mid- and late Holocene lake level fluctuations. Archaeologists
interested in climatic impacts on Andean prehistory are on
standby, waiting for the smoke to clear. To follow the latest
developments on Central Andes paleoclimatology, you might
want to consult some of the latest references below.
Abbott, M. B. et al., 2000: Holocene hydrological reconstructions
from stable isotopes and paleolimnology, Cordilera Real, Bolivia.
Quaternary Science Review 19, 1801-1820.
Baker, P. A. et al., 2001: Tropical climate changes at millennial and
orbital timescales on the Bolivian Altiplano. Nature 409, 698701.
Baker, P.A. et al., 2001: The history of South American tropical
climate for the past 25,000 years from the sedimentary record of
Lake Titicaca (Bolivia/Peru). Science 291, 640-643.
Betancourt, J. L. et al., 2000: A 22,000-yr record of monsoonal
precipitation from northern Chile’s Atacama Desert. Science 289,
1542-1546.
Clement, A.C. et al., 2000: Suppression of El Niño during the midHolocene by changes in the Earth’s orbit. Paleoceanography 15,
731-737.
Cross, S. L., 2000: A new estimate of the Holocene lowstand level of
Lake Titicaca, Central Andes, and implications for tropical
palaeohydrology. The Holocene 10, 21-32.
Garreaud, R. D., 2000: Intraseasonal variability of moisture and
rainfall over the South American Altiplano. Monthly Weather
Review 128, 3337-3346.
Grosjean, M. et al., 2000: A 22,000 14C year BP sediment and pollen
record of climate change from Laguna Miscanti (23ºS), northern
Chile. Global and Planetary Change 553, 1-17.
Harris, S. E. and Mix, A. C., 1999: Pleistocene precipitation balance
in the Amazon Basin recorded in deep sea sediments. Quaternary
Research, 51, 14-26.
Hostettler, S. W. and Mix, A. C., 1999: Reassessment of ice-age
cooling of the tropical ocean and atmosphere. Nature 17, 673678.
Hostettler, S.W. and Clark, P. U., 2000: Tropical climate at the Last
Glacial Maximum inferred from glacier mass balance modeling.
Science 290, 1747-1750.
Klein, A. G. et al., 1999: Modern and last glacial maximum
snowlines in the Central Andes of Peru, Bolivia, and northern
Chile. Quaternary Science Reviews 18, 65-86.
Liu, Z. et al., 2000: Modeling climate shift of El Niño variability in
the Holocene. Geophysical Research Letters 27, 2265-2268.
Maslin, M. A. and Burns, S. J., 2000: Reconstruction of the Amazon
Basin effective moisture availability over the past 14,000 years.
Science 290, 2285-2287.
Rodbell, D.T. et al., 1999: An ~15,000-year record of El Niño-driven
alluviation in southwestern Equador. Science 283, 516-520.
Rodbell, D.T. and Seltzer, G., 2000: Rapid ice margin fluctuations
during the Younger Dryas in the tropical Andes. Quaternary
Research 54, 328-338.
Seltzer, G. et al., 2000: Isotopic evidence for late Quaternary climatic
change in tropical South America. Geology 28, 35-38.
Sylvestre, F. et al., 1999: Lake-level chronology on the southern
Bolivian Altiplano (18ºS-23ºS) during late-glacial time and the
early Holocene. Quaternary Research 51, 54-66.
Thompson, L. G. et al., 2000: Ice-core palaeoclimate records in
tropical South America since the Last Glacial Maximum. Journal
of Quaternary Science 15, 377-394.
Vuillle, M. et al., 2000: Interannual climate variability in the Central
Andes and its relation to tropical Pacific and Atlantic forcing.
Journal of Geophysical Research 105, 12447-12460.
page 5
JULIA COLE
CARRIE MORRILL
JONATHAN OVERPECK
Unraveling the Recent History
of the Asian Monsoon:
Clues for Future Change?
P
ast droughts may have played
important roles in the demise of
agricultural civilizations in the Middle
East, Central America, and even here in the
Southwestern US. In Asia, recent work has
linked climate variability to major societal
transformations—the demise of civilizations
or the adaptation of radically different
subsistence strategies. What lessons for the
future can we take from these studies?
The monsoons have been extensively
studied in terms of their modern seasonal
variations, and we know something of how
they respond to the long-term changes in
the Earth’s orbit that pace the ice ages on
time scales of 20,000-100,000 years. But the
natural fluctuations on human time scales
of decades-centuries remain poorly
described and poorly understood. Such
changes have relevance for the future as
well as the past: billions of the world’s
people depend on monsoon rains for
agriculture, most at or near subsistence
level. As populations multiply throughout
Asia and Africa, societies become ever more
vulnerable to perturbations in climate and
other forms of environmental instability.
Knowing something about the variations of
monsoon strength in the past allows
planners to add the range of natural
variability onto projections of future climate
change, and ideally to devise systems that
are more resilient in the face of such
changes.
Nearly ten years ago, over plates of eel
in garlic sauce and other local specialties at a
Beijing restaurant, we began to plan the
framework of a paleoclimatic program that
would address how the monsoon varies
over decades to centuries. With colleagues
Kam-biu Liu (Louisiana State Univ.) and
Tang Lingyu (Nanjing Institute of Geology
and Paleontology), we laid out how we
would use lake sediments in central and
eastern Tibet (see cover photo) to produce
records of monsoon strength that would
address this time scale. Although central
and eastern Tibet is one of the most
sensitive regions for monsoon change, as it
lies on a strong rainfall gradient associated
with monsoon penetration, no previously
published high-resolution studies had
focused on this area. Moreover, previous
work had typically focused on longer-term
(millennial) changes. Our goal was to apply
page 6
D
40°
D
D
DD
M
D
DDDCD
D
D
CD D
D
20°
M
km
0
0°
60°
90°
120°
1000
150°
Fig. 1: Map of sites for paleoclimatic reconstruction of the monsoon, showing the pattern of change
seen at 4500-5000 years ago (relative to earlier intervals). Orange dots indicate drier conditions, blue
cooler, and green moister. Larger colored dots are significant using a robust statistical technique;
smaller colored dots are not significant using that method but have been interpreted as showing
changes based on other criteria. Small black dots show no change at this time. This analysis
suggests that the monsoon weakened substantially at this time, relative to earlier intervals.
similar paleoclimatic tools to understand
higher-frequency variability that is more
relevant to time scales of human and social
planning. These tools include the analysis
of the biological, geochemical, and
sedimentological changes in well-dated lake
sediments, which allow us to recover a
history of monsoon strength through the
impacts of changing monsoon rains on
local vegetation, runoff, lake depth, water
chemistry, and lake ecology. Proposals to
NSF and the Chinese Academy of Sciences
followed, along with field seasons in Tibet
(most recently in 2000), and we are now
beginning to uncover the slow natural
rhythms of the monsoon.
Because this region has few existing
paleoclimate records, one of our first tasks
was to describe rigorously the modern
environment, so that we could recognize
and quantify important past changes. One
of the key aspects of lake sediment that we
would measure is the abundance of
different types of fossil pollen, which tell us
about the vegetation surrounding the lake.
Past changes in pollen in the sediments
indicate vegetation changes, and translating
those changes into climatic terms (warm/
cold, wet/dry) requires that we first know
something about the relationship of
vegetation, pollen and climate today. On
our initial field trips in 1994 and 1995, we
collected hundreds of modern pollen
samples as we drove for weeks across eastern
and central Tibet. Dr. Liu has combined
these with hundreds more from his prior
collections, along with meteorological data
from dozens of climate stations, and derived
a new set of quantitative relationships
between vegetation, pollen and climate.
These have allowed us to convert the
changes in pollen abundance seen in the
lake cores into the first quantitative
estimates of past monsoon strength; our
results suggest that the region was 40%
wetter during the mid-Holocene (about
6000 years before present).
One of our biggest challenges in
developing high-resolution records of
climate from Tibet lake cores has been to get
many accurate radiocarbon dates from these
cores. Because the lake waters contain
dissolved carbon from very old geological
sources, anything growing in the lake will
appear to be older than it really is; even
modern plants in the lake have an apparent
The University of Arizona/Geosciences Newsletter • Spring 2001
radiocarbon age of over 1000 years due to
this old carbon effect. Although previous
studies have assumed such offsets are
constant through time, in fact it’s likely
that the offset changes as a consequence
of changing climate. To do better, we
need to isolate components of the
sediment that grew exposed to
atmospheric, rather than lake, carbon.
These include fossil remains of land
plants and bits of charcoal and terrestrial
insect parts that were blown into the lake
– all so tiny that they require the use of
the recently expanded UA/NSF
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry facility.
These components are extremely rare in
the sediments, and finding them has
proven to be one of the most difficult and
time-consuming aspects of this project.
But long hours of painstaking microscope
analysis has revealed that we can use this
approach to obtain better chronologies
than previously published for this region.
This is a major breakthrough in the
development of high-resolution climate
records from this region, and it is likely
applicable to lakes worldwide.
Although we have chosen a sensitive
region for this study, we cannot assume
that changes we infer from a few lakes in
central and eastern Tibet apply to the
entire monsoon region of Asia. An
important component of this work is
thus related to linking our results to other
paleoclimatic studies in Asia. In a paper
about to be submitted to The Holocene, we
have synthesized the results of 37 Asian
paleoclimate records (including our own)
to identify periods of synchronous
change across Asia and to define the
spatial pattern of such changes. Our main
results suggest that cooler and drier
conditions developed around 13,500
years ago, followed by a return to warmer,
wetter conditions 200 years later; these
are perhaps related to deglacial changes
in the North Atlantic that propagate
across the Asian landmass. Less well
explained is a change to cooler and drier
conditions in most records at 4500-5000
years before present (Fig. 1); we speculate
that it is related to intensification in the
tropical Pacific El Niño phenomenon
around that time. Today, stronger El
Niños typically accompany a weakened
monsoon.
As we document and attempt to
predict the effects on human activity on
current and future climate, it is sobering
to remember that Mother Nature may
still have big surprises up her sleeve. A
similar century-scale weakening of the
monsoon today would have disastrous
consequences for human well-being
within and beyond this region.
LONG-TERM PROJECT
TO DOCUMENT HISTORY
OF PANGEAN JUDY PARRISH
MEGAMONSOON
The upper part of the Triassic section in Ischigualasto Basin: Los Rastros, Ischigualusto,
and Los Colorados formations.
A
lthough we rightly pay closest attention to what is going on today and what
went on in the most recent past, paleoclimate studies of the older geologic
record are useful for providing information about the larger-scale limits of
Earth’s climate behavior. One of the projects we have going on right now is a
study of the climate in the Triassic of Argentina. This is the final phase of a longterm project to document the history of what paleoclimatologists call the Pangean
megamonsoon. The supercontinent Pangea, which included most of the present
continental landmass accreted into a large continent that stretched from pole to
pole, would have created a very strong, extremely seasonal climate that would
have affected almost the entire continent. How this megamonsoon developed and
then broke down as the continents drifted has been the focus of this research. We
have a picture of the history of this climate system over most of the world, but the
picture is rather hazy and we can’t resolve it without looking at the South America
quadrant of Pangea. Our work involves sedimentology, stratigraphy, paleosol
geochemistry, and plant paleobiology and taphonomy. Students Todd Shipman
and Tara Curtin are currently working on this project, and we are collaborating
with numerous other scientists in both the US and Argentina.
Fossil plants provide a lot of information about paleoclimate, and they are
part of the Argentina project. Not only do the types of plants provide information,
but perhaps more importantly, how the plants are preserved provides a lot of
information. Because plants have evolved and all the species I work with are
extinct, we usually don’t know their original environmental tolerances in order to
make a direct interpretation. But plants tend to have many characteristics that are
responses to environment and that are more or less independent of their exact
taxonomic classification. Past students and I have worked with fossil plants in a
variety of sedimentary rock formations that formed in semiarid paleoclimates, and
have started to observe common characteristics of how the plants are preserved
and features such as rooting patterns and plant stature and concentration. I’m
beginning to compile this information in order to contrast the preservation styles
with those of plants from wetter paleoenvironments. From this, I am hoping to
provide a guide to interpretation of climate-relevant plant preservation for use by
others.
The University of Arizona/Geosciences Newsletter • Spring 2001
page 7
SUSAN BECK
Imaging the Flat Slab Region in
Argentina and Northern Chile
Using Passive Broadband
Seismology
O
ur global seismology group has just started an exciting
project in Argentina and Chile to study the flat slab
region of the Andes. Between November and February
we installed 22 portable broadband seismic stations across the
Andes along two transects at 30∞S and 36∞S (Fig. 1).
The subduction of the Nazca plate beneath western South
America serves as the classic model for the subduction of an
oceanic plate beneath a continent. One of the intriguing aspects
of this subduction zone is the along strike segmentation of the
dip of the descending Nazca plate as defined by the slab
earthquakes. At approximately 30∞S the Nazca plate has a
subhorizontal geometry and extends inland over 300 km
beneath northwest Argentina. Trying to understand what causes
the dramatic changes in slab geometry, crustal architecture, and
mantle structure is a fundamental problem in plate tectonics. To
this end, we have a funded NSF project, the CHile ARGentina
Experiment (CHARGE). We are collaborating with the Univ. of
San Juan and INPRES in San Juan, Argentina and the Univ. of
Chile in Santiago, Chile.
Several of the seismic stations will be located in the Sierras
Pampeanas region to image in detail the continental lithosphere
and the subhorizontally subducting oceanic Nazca plate.
Preliminary results from receiver function analysis indicate that
the crust is only 32 to 34 km thick in the Sierra Pampeanas. The
flat slab geometry of the Nazca plate beneath the Precordillera
and the Sierra Pampeanas is a perplexing dynamical problem.
Why is the slab flat at 30∞S, and more “normally” dipping to the
south? The flat slab geometry has also been linked to the style of
deformation in the overriding plate and is often considered a
modern analog for the basement-cored uplifts associated with
the Laramide orogeny in the western US. There is considerable
debate as to the degree of coupling between the flat slab and the
overriding plate during the Laramide orogeny in the western US.
The flat slab under northwest Argentina is an ideal place to
study the degree of coupling between the continental
lithosphere and the slab and to look at the process of flat slab
subduction.
The broadband seismic stations will operate for 18 months,
recording continuously. We will visit the stations every three
months to collect the data. We have already recorded hundreds
of earthquakes to use in our studies. Stay tuned for results in the
coming year.
Fig. 1: Map of the topography in Chile and Argentina with the locations
of the broadband seismic stations.
Susan Beck (right) with collaborator Patricia Alvarado from
the University of San Juan, Argentina, looking at a possible
surface rupture of the 1944 earthquake that devastated the
cities of San Juan and Mendoza.
page 8
The University of Arizona/Geosciences Newsletter • Spring 2001
KARL FLESSA
Putting the dead to work: Constructing an
environmental baseline to assess the
environmental impact of upstream dams on
the Colorado Delta
DEAD CLAMS TELL THE
TALE OF THE COLORADO
RIVER DELTA
(L) View from space, looking south, of Salton Sea, Colorado Delta and Gulf of California and Baja California. (R) Shell
accumulations on islands of Colorado River Delta, Baja California, Mexico. Photo copyright Karl Flessa, 2000.
U
pstream dams and irrigation projects have profoundly
changed the diversity and biological productivity of the
Colorado River Delta in Mexico. Since the 1930s,
productivity is only 5% of what it was before the dams, and one
species of clam has almost disappeared because of the increase
in salinity. An environment that once supported billions of
clams and other life has vanished because river management
has reduced the flow of nutrient-laden fresh water to the tidal
flats of the Colorado Delta.
Islands composed entirely of gleaming white clam shells
line the lower reaches of the Colorado Delta, where the river
empties into the Gulf of California between the Baja peninsula
and mainland Mexico. Satellite images and field data indicate
that at least two trillion (2 x 1012) clam shells make up the area’s
beaches and islands. Seen from the ground, the shells form
miles of sun-bleached ridges, originally shaped by spring floods,
tides, and the passing of generations of abundant shellfish. In
the last seven decades, after the river’s flow virtually stopped, the
clams have become sparse and one species has almost disappeared.
Karl Flessa, Michal Kowalewski (PhD ‘95, now at Virginia
Tech), Guillermo Avila of the Univ. of Baja California and Glenn
Goodfriend of George Washington Univ. estimate in the
December 2000 issue of Geology that about 6 billion clams, with
a density of about 50 specimens per square meter, (about five
specimens every square foot) inhabited the delta before the
river’s natural flow was interrupted. Their recent survey of the
live fauna reveals that only about three specimens per square
meter (about 0.3 specimens per square foot) inhabit the delta.
One species of mollusk, the Colorado Delta clam, Mulinia
coloradoensis, was hit especially hard by the diversion of the
river’s water. The shell-rich islands indicate that this was once
the most abundant species inhabiting the delta’s tidal flats.
However, the researchers found only 12 live specimens of the
species in their study. UA Masters’ student Carlie Rodriguez,
Karl Flessa and UA research scientist David Dettman analyzed
The University of Arizona/Geosciences Newsletter • Spring 2001
the stable isotope composition of prehistoric shells of the
Colorado Delta clam. Oxygen isotopes show that the clam was
abundant when fresh water from the river still flowed to the
Gulf of California. The species is likely restricted to the delta and
its survival may be threatened by the lack of fresh water. Their work
was published in the February 2001 issue of Conservation Biology.
“Turning off the water supply of the Colorado River also
turns off the supply of nutrients that reach the northern Gulf of
California. And that has probably had a big effect, not just on
clams, but on shrimp and fin fish in the area,” Flessa said.
The reduction in number of shellfish, a vital part of the food
chain in the area, has meant a diminished food supply for
migratory waterfowl. The delta is a major stopover on the
migratory path for many birds, and the reduction of food
supply, Flessa and his team suggest, has probably affected some
bird populations over the years.
Flessa and his colleagues have been researching the
environmental effects of diversion projects in the Colorado
Delta since 1992. One of the problems for the researchers is that
little was known about the delta ecosystem before major
upstream dams and diversions disrupted the flow of the river.
“Ideally, you would like to have data from before and after
when assessing the environmental impact of the dams and
diversions,” Flessa said. They solved that problem, however, by
combining paleoecological and geochemical data to estimate
the past diversity and abundance of the shelly fauna in the
Colorado Delta.
It’s not known how much fresh water flow will be needed
to restore some of the habitats that have been lost as a result of
the cessation of water flow from the Colorado River into the
delta. “We’re never going to be able to go back to the way it was
before the dams were built, but it may be possible to allocate
some of the river water to restore some of these very important
cont’d page 10
page 9
OWEN DAVIS
ROY JOHNSON
ANDREW COHEN
J
ust how old is the desert? Researchers from the Department
of Geosciences have been studying for years the post-glacial
development of the Sonoran Desert. They can tell you that
saguaros didn’t return from their “glacial vacation” until 10,000
years ago, but what about deeper time? When did desert plants
first appear in the geological record? Which came first—the
desert or the plants?
A team of palaeontologists and geophysicists from the
department—in cooperation with Amoco (now part of BP)—
have answered that last question, at least for the Great Basin
Desert. The basin west of Salt Lake City has been arid since at
least the Miocene, and the desert plants have evolved to meet its
requirements.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s Amoco drilled 15 wells to
bedrock in the Salt Lake basin, and conducted hundreds of
kilometers of seismic surveys. A cooperative agreement between
Amoco and the UA, reached in 1993, has led to the publication
of a dozen papers on a variety of topics, and it paved the way for
the ongoing GLAD-800 research that was covered in last fall’s
Geoscience Newsletter.
The story of the desert is based on the pollen preserved in
the Great Salt Lake sediments. Through time, pollen and spores
have been blown or washed by rivers into the lake where they
have been preserved in its sediments. Because of its tectonic
setting, the Great Salt Lake basin has continued to deepen as the
sediments accumulated. This has led to continuous sediment
accumulation for over 13 million years, and for most of this
time the basin has held lakes or shallow marshes.
The accumulating sediment captured pollen from the desert
vegetation surrounding the lakes. It is a particularly good record
because the primary desert plants there are great pollen
producers. The Great Basin Desert, which fills the valleys around
the Great Salt Lake is characterized by sagebrush. Various salt
bushes are common near the lake margin, and the foothills are
covered with oaks, junipers, and shrubs.
The desert vegetation maintains, however, a tenuous hold
on the valley floors. Just (geological speaking) 15,000 years ago,
the valleys were filled with Lake Bonneville—a freshwater lake
the size of Lake Michigan. The pollen record shows the demise
of the desert during that time, and several times earlier when
pluvial lakes filled the basin. The pluvial cycles match the
timing of continental glaciations of the Pleistocene, and each is
followed by the establishment of desert as the water recedes.
These oscillations began about 700,000 years ago.
HOW
OLD IS THE
DESERT?
The smaller lakes that preceded the pluvial giants were
nonetheless surrounded by desert, and it was Great Basin desert
much like that of today. The elephants and camels roaming
among the sagebrush are now gone, and many of the streamside
trees are now extinct, but time-travelers from present-day Salt
Lake City would feel at home in the desert. In fact, they would
recognize the same gray sagebrush throughout the Pleistocene
and Pliocene and into the Miocene. Mountains rose and fell,
rivers changed their course, but the desert remained.
That’s not to say that the various climatic and tectonic
events didn’t alter the vegetation. Juniper woodland
disappeared during the pluvials, and then slowly migrated back
into the area during the warm periods. However, the essential
pattern of saltbush around the lake and sagebrush on the valley
floors was the same.
The sagebrush desert replaced an even more ancient desert
whose origin is older than the Basin itself. Its characteristic
species—shadscale and jointfir are still present in the desert, but
they are far less common than they were in the Miocene desert.
Shadscale (Sarcobatus) is found in North America deserts south
to about Las Vegas. Jointfir (Ephedra) species can be found in
most of the deserts of the world. Together, these two plants
dominated the Miocene desert of the Great Salt Lake Basin.
Those desert plants were there long before the sagebrush and
other desert plants that are now so characteristic of the region.
The desert is truly ancient.
Scanning electron
micrograph by J.W.
Nowicke, Grana
Palynologica,
1975.
DEAD CLAMS TELL THE TALE, CONT’D
habitats in the northern gulf. The scientific question then
becomes, how much water do you need? We plan on figuring
that out from the geochemistry of the shells,” Flessa said.
The approach pioneered in the study can be used to
estimate prehistoric baseline conditions and the productivity of
coastal ecosystems in other parts of the world. Such estimates
will be especially valuable in areas where no biological surveys
were made before humans modified the habitat.
page 10
Flessa’s work is supported by the National Science
Foundation, The Eppley Foundation for Research and the
Center for Biological Diversity.
Images of the Colorado Delta and shell accumulations are
available at: http://www.geo.arizona.edu/ceam/images/
images.html
Contact author: Karl W. Flessa, (520) 621-7336,
kflessa@geo.arizona.edu
The University of Arizona/Geosciences Newsletter • Spring 2001
FALL 2000 DEGREES
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE
TAMMY BALDWIN
DOUGLAS HAMILTON
Junior Education at the
2001 Tucson Gem and
Mineral Show
Outreach to Hundreds of Local
School Children
MASTER OF SCIENCE
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
STACIE GIBBINS, MS
Analysis of High Sulfidation Mineralization in
Grasberg Cu-Au Mine, Irian Jaya, Indonesia.
Spencer Titley.
Stacie is enrolled in the UA Geosciences PhD
program, working with Spence Titley.
MARK LEIDIG, MS
Interpreting Dipping Symmetry Axis Anisotropy
and Application to the Altiplano-Puna Volcanic
Complex, Central Andes. George Zandt.
Mark continues to work with George Zandt while
exploring various employment options.
RYAN MATHUR, PHD
RE-Os Investigations of Porphyry Copper
Deposits. Joaquin Ruiz.
Ryan has accepted a position as Asst. Professor at
Juniata College teaching water chemistry and
structural geology.
MARCELLA RIPICH, MS
Integration of Geophysical Data to Determine
Stream-Channel Deposit Geometry, Water Storage
Capacility, and Effects on Aquifer Recharge
Potential, Rillito Creek, Tucson, AZ. Roy Johnson.
Marcella has accepted a position with the USGS in
Tacoma, WA.
DENA SMITH, PHD
The Evolution of Plant-Insect Interactions:
Insights from the Tertiary Fossil Record. Karl
Flessa.
Dena has accepted a position as Asst. Professor at
the Univ. of Colorado in Boulder.
A local youngster proudly displays her collection
of rocks and minerals.
T
he Society of Earth Science Students (SESS) once again did a
spectacular job hosting the Junior Education Program at the
Tucson Gem and Mineral Show this past February. Undergrads
Becky Garoulette and Jessica Boartfield were the general
coordinators for the entire program. Erin Rosenberg, Bobby
Gillis, Arturo Baez, Alisa Miller, Melissa Giovanni, Olean
Krawciw and many other SESS club members were on the team
that made the whole program work during its three days. Over
450 UA students from our various introductory and advanced
geo courses volunteered for service at Junior Ed where about one
ton of rocks and minerals were given away to the thousands of
kids who visited the show!
KUDOS TO
ALEX BUMP
Outstanding Student Research Award,
GSA - Structure & Tectonics
AGU Outstanding Student Paper
ROBERT BUTLER
Fellow, AGU
COS Distinguished Advising Award
TARA CURTIN
Outstanding Student Research Award
GSA - Sedimentary Geology
PETER DECELLES
COS Distinguished Teaching Award
JIBAMITRA GANGULY
Invited Lecturer, Chinese Academy of Sciences
RYAN MATHUR
1st Place, UA 2000 Student Showcase
JAY MELOSH
2001 Gilbert Medal, GSA
ALISA MILLER
COS Outstanding Senior Award
The University of Arizona/Geosciences Newsletter • Spring 2001
ALISA MILLER and ANNE PAQUETTE
1st Place, UA 2000 Student Showcase
CATHERINE O’REILLY
COS Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award
JONATHAN OVERPECK
Walter Orr Roberts 2001 Award, AMS
SPENCER TITLEY
COS Career Distinguished Teaching Award
TERRY WALLACE
COS Innovation in Teaching Award
page 11
ALUMNI NEWS
1950s
ROBERT C. BRYANT (BS ‘55)
We finally sold the Ensenada house in
December. Had only three days after closing
to get out of the house and out of town (we
were only minutes ahead of the “Federales”
as we crossed the border). Parked the truck in
Las Cruces, NM and drove the van up to
Denver to see my Mom. It was the last time I
would see her, as we lost her on the 25th of
January [see p. 14]. She was 96, had a very
full life, and I believe she was “ready”. We
then arrived in North Miami and the next
day began purchasing an apartment on the
Pompano Beach-Ft. Lauderdale border—a
nice little apartment, in a nice area about a
mile from the beach. We are really “camping
out” and stumbling over boxes. We will be
weeks (months??) doing most of the odds and
ends. After all the moves we have made
(about a dozen in the last 14 years, and
about 60 times during my lifetime), you
would think that it would have become
automatic and routine . . . and easy. It has
indeed become automatic and routine, but
not any easier. I am getting too old for all this
nonsense!
bryantco3@juno.com
done in and around Hawaii (most recent
publication in the June 2000 issue of
Geology), but I’ve begun to look also at
other places such as the Canary Islands and
La Reunion, and certain other problems
pertaining to basaltic volcanism. Annette and
I have done some traveling (most recently
three weeks in Italy—where I had little
success in finding easily-digestible
information about the geology) and think
about a more permanent retirement to a place
having a milder climate and less expense
than Seattle. Not much else to say except that
we’ve recently become first-time
grandparents, to a beautiful little girl who
may become a Wildcat someday!
holchome@earthlink.net
1980s
ROBERT MCCORD (MS ‘86)
Bob is the Chief Curator of Natural
History and Curator of Paleontology at
Mesa Southwest Museum in Mesa, AZ.
robert_mccord@ci.mesa.az.us
YEMANE ASMEROM (PHD ‘88)
Yemane is the proud father of Stella Mae,
born April 1! asmerom@unm.ed
1960s
Nelson writes that he enjoys the
Newsletter and hopes to visit Tucson in
the near future—he’s currently living in
Corpus Christi, TX—to pick out a
retirement location.
JAN (WILT) RASMUSSEN
(MS ‘69, PHD ‘93)
1970s
ROBIN HOLCOMB (MS ‘75)
I’m retired from the USGS following a career
in volcano monitoring and research. While
waiting for my wife, Annette, to retire in a
year or so from her work as a computer
programmer/systems analyst, I’m
maintaining an affiliate-faculty office at the
Univ. of Washington, where I continue to
lead field trips and do research on basaltic
geomorphology and submarine volcanism,
especially on the growth and collapse of
oceanic volcanoes. Most of my work has been
page 12
JOHN LINDQUIST (MS ‘92)
John accepted a job offer from CH2M
HILL in Redding, northern California, as
a hydrogeologist. He writes that his
family misses the desert, but that they’re
having a great time hiking, fishing and
swimming while’s he’s at work.
jcl1126@aol.com
LANCE MILLER (PHD ‘94)
Lance, his wife Jana and two boys are
enjoying Alaska. After working for Echo
Bay Mines (1988-1997) and Placer Dome
in the Russian far east and Alaska (19971999), Lance became involved with a
small private company (Red Diamond
Mining). This past fall, he also took a
position as Executive Director of the
Juneau Economic Development
Council—a little different, says Lance,
than mineral exploration and
development, but quite dynamic
nontheless.
lancemiller@gic.net
ELISE PENDALL (PHD ‘97)
H. NELSON MEEKS (BS ‘66)
Jan has moved back to Arizona and is
living in Sonoita where she’s consulting
and also working parttime with STAN
KEITH (MS ‘79) of Magma-Chem
Exploration. jcrasmus@ix.netcom.com
Colloquium: Sedimentation and
Deformation Associated with Salt Stocks and
Welds in the La Popa Foreland Basin, NE
Mexico. Katie is currently on the faculty of
Geological Sciences at New Mexico State.
ROGELIO MONREAL (BS ‘82, MS ‘85)
Rogelio is the graduate program
coordinator for the Geology Dept. of the
Universidad de Sonora in Hermosillo,
Sonora, Mexico. He is currently working
on Cretaceous paleogeography in
northern Mexico. In June 2000, Rogelio
was appointed President of the Sonora
District of the Asociacion de Ingenieros de
Minas, Metalurgistas y Geologos de Mexico,
the most important Earth Sciences
professional organization in Mexico.
monreal@aurora.geologia.uson.ms
Elise is doing carbon cycle research at the
Univ. of Colorado Institute for Arctic and
Alpine Research. She’s a PI on a grant
focusing on stable isotope tracers of soil
carbon cycling in grasslands, and is
hoping to start some work in Panama
soon. But her biggest news is the birth of
baby Gabe in July. Elise says he’s an easygoing little guy and has even helped with
field work! She and husband Gary Bolton
frequently get together with UA friends
KIRK VINCENT (PHD ‘95) and LAURIE
WIRT (MS ‘88) in Boulder. Elise is
enjoying the active Colorado lifestyle, but
in the meantime is still applying for
permanent positions.
elise.pendall@colorado.edu
1990s
KATIE (GOEBEL) GILES (PHD ‘91)
Katie Giles returned to the department in
February to give a talk at the Geosciences
Gary and field assistant Gabe.
The University of Arizona/Geosciences Newsletter • Spring 2001
ALUMNI NEWS
RANDY
TUFTS
(PHD ‘98)
Recovery from my bone marrow transplant
for myelodysplasia is proceeding well. The
care provided by the University Medical
Center (Tucson) has been excellent, and I
was lucky to have a perfect donor match
from my sister, early detection, and terrific
support from family and friends. I hope to
return to my work at the UA Lunar and
Planetary Lab in the Fall.
The medical procedure involved a
transplant of both tissue (i.e., new marrow stem
cells) as well as a new immune system. The
tissue transplant went better than expected. It
started with chemotherapy to kill my diseased
marrow, followed by an infusion of stem cells
from my sister. Those new cells then
“engrafted” and began producing red and white
cells and platelets. The most recent marrow
biopsy revealed that my marrow was “female”
(since my sister was the donor) and there were
no abnormal “blast” cells in the sample. That
is very good news (although I am having to
change my wardrobe).
Currently, I am experiencing “Graft Versus
Host Disease,” in which the new marrow cells
attempt to reject my body. If left unchecked this
can be fatal, not what you want, so I am being
given various immune suppressant drugs to
damp it down, guided by regular monitoring. I
am not in any particular discomfort other than
feeling tired, weak, and lacking in concentration
(often humorously). All are temporary effects.
Despite the Draconian sound of all this, it
is much better than the alternative. I have been
given a new life—which I am enjoying
immensely, despite the various side-effects.
Sadly, my sense of humor has shown no
particular improvement.
I encourage each of you to register as a
Bone Marrow Donor through the Red Cross.
You can save someone’s life. Furthermore, the
stem cell procedure we used is relatively painless
and easy. Minority donors are particularly
valuable at this time.
My wife Ericha and I thank all of you
for your support and good thoughts. PS:
Notice the heretofore unobserved side-effect,
shown in the photo above! This temporary
Barney and Faye in Torre del Paire National Park, Patagonia, Chile.
n 1999, Bernard (PHD, ‘63) and Faye
Taylor Pipkin decided to give back to
the University of Arizona. Contact with
great teachers and the whole Tucson
experience in those days led them to
form a Charitable Remainder Trust that
designated the B. S. Butler Scholarship
as one of its beneficiaries. Faye notes
that, “the three years spent in Tucson
were memorable ones in our lives. Our
first child, Lorraine, was born in
Tucson and she is now working at St.
Mary’s Hospital while studying in the
graduate program in the School of
Nursing.” Faye’s family is totally
University of Arizona—her father, sister
and two brothers are graduates. The
Keith Taylor Legume Garden in the
Boyce Thompson Arboretum in
Superior (part of the University) is
named after her father and Faye has
designated the arboretum as a major
beneficiary.
“Inspirational teachers like John
Lance, John Anthony, Spence Titley,
and Evans B. Mayo made the
department a very close knit family in
those days,” says Barney. “I came to the
University in l960 from El Camino
Community College as a Science Faculty
Fellow supported by National Science
Foundation. The Soviet Union had just
sent up Sputnik and the knee-jerk
reaction in Washington was that our
science was going to hell in a hand
basket. The department welcomed me
on short notice and my work there
eventually led to a career in Engineering
Geology and a professorship at the Univ.
of Southern California. Joe Schreiber, my
principal advisor, saw to it that I received
the B. S. Butler Scholarship and I
appreciated the aid. Now we are happy
that we can contribute to its growth for
the benefit of future scholarship recipients.
It is also gratifying to me that the
department has been using Geology and the
Environment, which was written with DEE
TRENT (PHD ‘73) and is a total UA effort.”
Retirement has given the Pipkins
more time to travel. Barney lectures on
cruise ships and he and Faye have
participated in 26 cruises to such farflung places as Antarctica, the Amazon
Basin, and the Galapagos Islands. They
want to say “hi” to all their fellow
students and friends of the l960-63 era.
bpipkin@aol.com
alteration of ear morphology has been named
“vulcanitis” and is considered a sign that the
patient will live long and prosper. Family
members often develop a sympathetic case of
vulcanitis, as my wife Ericha demonstrates.
rtufts@pirlmail.lpl.arizona.edu
BARNEY AND FAYE
PIPKIN
I
The University of Arizona/Geosciences Newsletter • Spring 2001
page 13
ALUMNI NEWS
Outstanding Alumni
Chuck Kluth
It is with pleasure we announce that Chuck Kluth was honored at
GeoDaze as Oustanding Alumni. In his UA PhD dissertation, Chuck
unraveled the Jurassic mysteries of the Canelo Volcanics in
Southeastern Arizona. In his spare time, he and Peter Coney
explained the origin of the Ancestral Rockies. One of the foremost
structural geologists in industry, Chuck has headed Chevron's
distinguished "Structure School" thoughout most of his professional
career. He has been a friend to the department, giving short courses,
serving on the Advisory Board, providing illuminating data, and
serving as a great resource to graduate students. Best of all, Chuck is
simply a wonderful person with unmistakable "Kluthian" humor.
C
huck Kluth’s interest in geology was sparked by his wife
Mary Jo who discovered the joys of thinking about rocks
in college. Chuck and Mary Jo hunted fossils together in
the Paleozoic carbonates around their hometown of Rockford,
IL. Chuck got his BA in Business Administration in 1971 from
Augustana College, where he had gone to play basketball. He
subsequently switched to geology in graduate school, making
up an undergraduate degree in order to work on his MS and
thus has a BS (cum laude, ‘73) and an MS (‘74) in geology from
NAU in Flagstaff, AZ. His thesis was on the geology of a large
dacite dome, Mt. Eldon, just north of Flagstaff.
Chuck then went to work for Chevron in Denver, starting
in exploration and then working for a year in production
geology before taking a leave of absence to return to the UA to
work on a PhD with George Davis. His dissertation was on the
geology of the Canelo Hills, southeast of Tucson. The main
focus of that work was the mid-Mesozoic stratigraphy and
structural geology. Chuck returned to Chevron in 1980,
finishing his dissertation while back at work in Denver and
graduating in 1982.
While in Denver, he worked throughout the US from the
Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians in exploration
geophysics, and as
exploration supervisor
and technical advisor. In
1988, Chevron closed its
Denver exploration office
and Chuck moved to San
Ramon, CA to work on
exploration in Europe,
mostly in the central
Apennines and southern
Alps of Italy, but
including other places on
the continent. Since
1990, he has served all
over the world as a
structural geology and
exploration consultant with Chevron.
An important part of Chuck’s work with Chevron has been
teaching and running the Corporate Structural Geology Schools.
He started teaching parts of the schools in 1980 and took over
running the Structural Geology Schools in 1990.
Chuck has participated in the professional societies in
various roles, including chairing the AAPG Distinguished
Lecture Committee (1993-1998), and presenting several short
courses. He has served as associate editor of either the GSA
Bulletin or the AAPG Bulletin for the past 10 years. He has served
on the organizing committees for a number of AAPG and GSA
national and regional meetings, including serving as technical
program chair for the San Francisco AAPG national meetings.
He has also organized research meetings and a number of
technical sessions, as well as served as the chair of Chevron’s
Structural Geology Committee since 1990. Chuck is presently
the co-convenor of an AAPG Hedberg Research Conference on
new technologies and play concepts, to be held in Mendoza,
Argentina this fall.
His publications include papers and abstracts on structural
geology and tectonics from areas around the world, including
the western US on Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Tertiary structures,
cont’d page 18
IN MEMORY OF
LUCILLE L. BRYANT
Don and Rich ca. World War II. Don was on active duty in the Navy
and Rich built P-51 Mustangs.
page 14
LUCILLE L. BRYANT (Rich to her friends) of Denver, widow of Dr.
Donald L. Bryant (Professor Emeritus), died January 25, 2001 at
the age of 96. Mrs. Bryant was born in Prescott, in what was
then the Arizona Territory, on April 6, 1904. She married Dr.
Bryant in 1925. She was a homemaker, but during World War II
she built P-51 Mustangs and served as an LA County Deputy
Sheriff. She and her husband were long-time residents of
Arizona, living in the Tucson Mountains in a house that they
built themselves. She was a founding member of the National
Organization of Women, and of Opera Colorado. Survivors
include two sons, DONALD G. BRYANT (BS ‘54) of Colorado and
ROBERT C. BRYANT (BS ‘55) of Florida; six grandchildren; four
great-grandchildren.
The University of Arizona/Geosciences Newsletter • Spring 2001
Dave Lowell Receives
Honorary Doctor of
Science Degree
J
. David Lowell was presented with the Honorary Degree of
Doctor of Science from the UA at the Fall commencement
ceremony in December. That same week Dave was honored by
Geosciences faculty, friends and family in a gala dinner at the
Arizona Inn. Opening remarks at the dinner were made by UA
President Peter Likins and College of Science Dean Joaquin Ruiz.
Prof. Emeritus John Guilbert narrated an entertaining slide show
highlighting Dave’s life and career, and the evening was rounded
off by warm—and often humorous—toasts.
Dave has been a continuing friend of the UA and the
department. He’s led field trips for students to mines and geological
exploration sites and introduced the UA to the Keck Foundation
which resulted in more than $3 million in support for faculty in
Geosciences and in the College of Medicine. He has endowed a
graduate student scholarship and a Chair in Economic Geology.
Dave has also served on the Geosciences Advisory Board since 1996
and, in cycling off of the Board this year, was made an Honorary
Member.
Dave earned a BS degree in Mining and Geological
Engineering at the UA in 1949 and a MS in Geology from Stanford
Univ. in 1959. He owns Lowell Mineral Exploration Ltd., Lowell
Mineral Exploration LLC, and is the principal of the Minerals
Advisory Group. He is considered to be an expert in the field of
economic geology and an extraordinary ‘ore finder’ through his
amazing skill as a field scientist and through aggressive applications
of theory and methods.
Born in Nogales, AZ in 1928, Dave’s family has deep ties to the
west. His father was a mining engineer and his grandfather was a
“wild west adventurer” who sailed around the Horn to California,
and on another adventure rode a mule across Panama. Now a
resident of Rio Rico, Dave was not born to luxury. His career began
with hard work as a boy during the Depression, hand-sorting ore
for his father at a mine not far from their ranch. “One of the
fundamental conditions of my childhood was poverty,” said Dave.
“I had my first job when I was ten years old and had a regular job
most of the time after age twelve. We were raised to think it was
very necessary to have a college education.”
In the fall of 1945 Dave entered the UA and was admitted to
the College of Mines, where, due to his frequent appearance on the
delinquent lists, he became a well-known visitor in Dean Thomas
Chapman’s office! Dave credits part of his academic survival to
Dean Chapman’s faith in him, but at the top of his list of those
who have played a large part in his success is his wife Edith whom
he met and married while in school. Edith’s grandfather Godfrey
Sykes was a geographer with the Carnegie Institution’s Desert
Laboratory (now the Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill).
After graduating from the UA in 1949, Lowell worked as a
Mine Engineer for Asarco in Mexico and as a Geologist for the
Atomic Energy Commission. During this time, he was selected by
the US Government to investigate possible uranium deposits in the
Dominican Republic. After graduate study at Stanford and a stint as
an exploration geologist, Dave became an independent consultant
in 1961. Since that time, he has been a consulting geologist for
approximately 110 US and foreign mining companies, engineering
The University of Arizona/Geosciences Newsletter • Spring 2001
UA President Peter Likins, J. David Lowell and Joaquin Ruiz at Fall
Commencement ceremonies (photo by Robert F. Walker).
Pres. Likins, long-time friends Claire and Geoff Loudon (who came all
the way from London!), and Edith and Dave Lowell at Arizona Inn
dinner honoring Dave.
companies and governments. He managed exploration companies
that discovered Kalamazoo and Casa Grande West orebodies in
Arizona and La Escondida, Zaldivar and San Cristobal orebodies in
Chile. He was also a member of the discovery team for Vekol Hills in
Arizona, JA orebody in British Columbia, Dizon and FSE-Lepanto in
the Philippines, Leonor in Chile and manager of the exploration
program which discovered the Pierina deposit in Peru.
Lowell has been the recipient of a variety of honors and
awards, including election to the National Academy of Engineering
in 1999, the AIME Daniel Jackling Award, the Robert Earll
McConnell Award, the Robert Dreyer Award, the UA Distinguished
Citizen Award, the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
Distinguished Lecture Award, the SEG Thayer Lindsley
Distinguished Lecturer Award, the Economic Geologists Silver
Medal, and the American Mining Hall of Fame Medal of Merit. This
past February, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Mining and
Metallurgical Society of America. Dave is also the recipient of a
Doctor Honoris Causa from the Univ. of San Marcos in Peru.
“Dave’s commitment to the field of geology is evident by the
vigor in which he attacks the problems of finding mineral resources,
and his commitment to UA programs is evident by his intellectual
support of Geosciences curriculum, and his financial support of
faculty and students. He is an asset to the university, and we are
proud to call him our friend,” said Ruiz.
page 15
GEODAZE 2001
T
he 29th annual GeoDaze Symposium included 29 talks and 17 posters, with topics as diverse as lake-core paleoclimatic reconstruction,
the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk and its associated seismology, mantle convection, and the morphology of eolian deflation
surfaces. Both graduate and undergraduate students in Geosciences were well represented, as were several student presenters from other
departments and institutions.
The annual GeoDaze field trip, led by Jon Spencer, Charles Ferguson and Steve Richard of the Arizona Geological Survey, was to a
metamorphic core complex in the southern Picacho Mountains.
The Outstanding Alumni Award was presented to Chuck Kluth (PHD ‘82), now applying his structural geology expertise at Chevron.
His “kluthian” talk Mesozoic thrust faulting and tectonics of Liaodong Bay, northern Bohai Basin, eastern China capped off the symposium.
We cannot thank enough the students, faculty, staff and alumni for their tremendous support. Alumni were particularly remarkable in
contributing to student prizes this year. Thank you for making this latest, but far from last, GeoDaze Symposium possible and fun!
Leslie Hsu, Stacie Gibbins, Chris Butzer ~ Co-Chairs, 2001 GeoDaze Symposium
Chuck Kluth is
presented with his
Outstanding Alumni
Award by his former
advisor (now UA
Provost) George Davis.
GeoDaze Co-Chairs present student
awards. (Clockwise from upper, middle
left) Leslie Hsu and Katie Connelly,
Steve Young and Cris Butzer, Stacie
Gibbins and Carlotta Chernoff.
Bill Dickinson, Jon
Spencer and Charles
Ferguson at the
GeoDaze Field Trip.
GeoDaze 2001 would like to thank the following companies and individuals for their amazing support!
This symposium was made possible by their generous contributions
INDIVIDUAL SPONSORS
Mary Barrick
Gerard Beaudoin
Robert & Beth Bodnar
Cheryl Butler & Paul Williams
Anthony and Nancy Ann Ching
Jean Cline
Gary Colgan
M. Stephen Enders
Murray Gardner
John & Mary Guilbert
James Hays
Tom Heidrick
Corolla Hoag & Kevin Horstman
William Jenney
Richard Jones
Susan Kidwell
George Kiersch
Joseph Kolessar
Peter Kresan
Scott Lewis
Paul Lipinski
J. David Lowell
Leslie McFadden
Sally Meader-Roberts
H. Nelson Meeks, Sr.
Keith Meldahl
Nancy Naeser
Mary Kay O’Rourke & Paul Martin
Judy Parrish
Maxine Peirce
Bernard and Faye Pipkin
Michael Rauschkolb
Mike Rosko
John & Helen Schaefer
Jack & Jackie Schlemmer
John Schloderer
James Sell
Anne Shaw
Sarah Tindall
Spencer Titley
Yukimitsu Tomida
Dee Trent
Raymond & Jeanne Turner
John & Nicea Wilder
Isaac Winograd
Donald & Karen Witter
CORPORATE SPONSORS
Aquifer Science, Inc.
BP Amoco Foundation
Condor Exploration, LLC
ExxonMobil Exploration Co.
page 16
Kiersch Associates
Lowell Mineral Exploration
Minera Phelps-Dodge Mexico
E. L. Montgomery & Associates
Phillips Petroleum
SEG, UA Chapter
Sonshine Exploration
US Borax, Inc.
The University of Arizona/Geosciences Newsletter • Spring 2001
GEODAZE 2001
AWARDS
ERROL L. MONTGOMERY GRAND PRIZE
Catherine O’Reilly, One Fish, Two Fish, Who Eats Who Fish?
MURRAY GARDNER PRIZE FOR FIELD GEOLOGY
Jessica Duke, Supergene Copper Enrichment at Hanover Mountain, New Mexico
JOHN GUILBERT ECONOMIC GEOLOGY PRIZE
Carlotta Chernoff, Pyrites I Have Known and Loved: Unravelling the Complex History of Pyrite Formation in Organic-Rich
Sedimentary and Metasedimentary Rocks
MINERA PHELPS DODGE MEXICO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY PRIZE
Martin Herrmann, U-Pb Geochronology of Laramide Magmatism at the Sierrita Porphyry Copper Deposit, AZ, and its Implications
ANNE SHAW & STEVEN ENDERS ECONOMIC GEOLOGY PRIZE
Fernando Barra Pantoja, A Rhenium-Osmium Study of Sulfides from the Bagdad Porphyry Copper Deposit
MICHAEL RAUSCHKOLB, COROLLA HOAG & KEVIN HORSTMAN ECONOMIC GEOLOGY PRIZE
Jennifer Jannusch, Investigation of Structural Control on Coal Occurrence in the Black Mesa Basin: Application to Coalbed
Methane Exploration
GEOCHEMISTRY PRIZE
Steve Young, Muscovite-Chlorite Compositions as Indicators of P/T Conditions in Low-Grade Metamorphic Rocks: Application to
Pinal Schist, SE Arizona
GERARD BEAUDOIN GEOPHYSICS PRIZE
Elena Shoshitaishvili, Data Improvement by Subtraction of High-Amplitude Harmonics from Seismic Data: Implications for
Interpretation of CD-ROM Reflection Data
JUDGES’ GEOPHYSICS PRIZE
Katherine Connelly, Three-Dimensional Lithospheric Flexure Associated with the Topographic Load of the Andes Mountains
TOM HEDRICK STRUCTURE/TECONICS PRIZE
Guillaume Dupont-Nivet, Paleomagnetic Results from Tertiary Strata Adjacent to the Altyn Tagh Fault, Kinematics of the
Indo-Asian Collision
WILLIAM JENNEY STRUCTURE/TECTONICS PRIZE
April Larson, Defining the Fault that Caused the 1979 and 1989 Malibu Earthquakes (M 5.0) in Santa Monica Bay, California
LESLIE MCFADDEN GEOMORPHOLOGY/QUATERNARY GEOLOGY PRIZE
Christine Hallman, Spatial Relationships in Frost-Damaged Trees and Links to Major Volcanic Eruptions
PAUL LIPINSKI, DONALD & KAREN WITTER SEDIMENTOLOGY/STRATIGRAPHY PRIZE
Simone Alin, A Tale of Two Watersheds: Sonnets for Our Spineless Friends
BEST GRADUATE POSTER
Steve Young, Lithuium Isotopes: A Look at Fractionation, Evolving Analytical Techniques, Current Utility, and Potential Future
Applications / d18O Record of Low-Temperature Alteration of Rhyolitic Ashflow Tuffs, Clayton Ridge, Nevada
BEST UNDERGRADUATE TALK
Alisa Miller, Inner Core Heterogeneity Inferred from Differential PKP Travel Times
BEST UNDERGRADUATE POSTER
Anne Paquette, Underwater Explosions and the Sinking of the Kursk: An Experiment in Regional Calibration
OUTSTANDING TEACHING ASSISTANTS
Catherine O’Reilly and Ofori Pearson
The University of Arizona/Geosciences Newsletter • Spring 2001
page 17
OUTSTANDING FACULTY
AWARD PRESENTED TO
JOAQUIN RUIZ
The Geosciences Advisory Board presented Joaquin Ruiz with this year’s Outstanding Faculty
Award for his many contributions to the Dept. of Geosciences, the Univ. of Arizona, and the
geological community. Will Wilkinson, Chair of the Advisory Board, noted the following as
key to Joaquin’s achivement: his vision in guiding the Geosciences Dept. so that it ranks
among the preeminent geosciences departments in the Nation; his contagious optimism
that has helped develop a collegial department atmosphere; his achievements in teaching and research using geochemistry to
decipher elements of crustal evolution and the genesis of hydrothermal ore deposits; his participation on numerous University
committees, including the Long Range Strategic Planning Committee, and now as Dean of the College of Sciences; his service to
GSA, AGU, and many other organizations. The award was presented at the GeoDaze Awards Ceremony.
DICKINSON AND DECELLES LEAD FIELD
TRIP IN EASTERN CORDILLERAN
OROGENIC BELT
Over a brisk week last October, a group of 18 UA faculty and students made a
regional transect of the eastern half of the Cordilleran orogenic belt, beginning in
central Nevada and ending in southwestern Wyoming. Leading the trip were Prof.
Emeritus Bill Dickinson and Prof. Peter DeCelles. The trip was designed to bring
together students and faculty to debate the tectonics of the mid-Paleozoic through
early Cenozoic, with an emphasis on the potential connections between hinterland
deformation in Nevada and the classic frontal Sevier belt deformation in Utah and
Wyoming.
In Nevada, the field trip focused on the earlier orogenic history of the region,
which established the Roberts Mountains, Golconda, and Luning-Fencemaker
allochthons. Weekly seminars prior to the field trip provided the ‘contestants’ with
ample opportunity to consider actualistic tectonic models for various stages of
evolution of the orogenic belt. For example, Mediterranean-style retreating thrust
belts have recently been invoked for development of the mid-Paleozoic and Triassic
orogenic systems in western Nevada. Andean-style orogenesis is a likely analog to the
Late Jurassic-Cretaceous history of the Cordilleran fold-thrust belt. In addition to
upper crustal deformation in the hinterland and frontal parts of the orogenic belt,
ductile deformation and amphibolite-grade metamorphic rocks were examined in
the metamorphic core of the belt along the Nevada-Utah state line.
Regional megathrust sheets composed of Proterozoic quartzite were the focus of
the intermediate part of the trip, and basement-involved duplexes and frontal thinskinned thrusts and growth structures were highlighted on the final segment of the
trip. The students generally had a quantum learning experience, given the
opportunity to integrate concepts and information learned in many courses over
their years of study. “More trips like this should be run every year!” was a common
refrain.
CHUCK KLUTH, CONT’D
South America, west Africa and China. His current work
includes work on structures in the Middle East and eastern
China, which includes work on structural geometric tools for
the quantitative prediction of hydrocarbon trap geometry and
the quantitative evaluation of trap risk in exploration. Chuck is
also working on inexpensive, low-tech tools for the analysis of
structural geometry for students and on web-based distance
page 18
Bill Dickinson (far right) discusses mid-Paleozoic
syntectonic sedimentation with graduate students in
eastern Nevada.
learning programs in structural geology. Presently, he is Adjunct
Professor in the departments of geology at the UA and San
Diego State Univ. Chuck has also been one of the founding
members of the Geosciences Advisory Board, serving since its
inception in 1995.
Chuck and Mary Jo have been married for 30 years. They
have two daughters, Mary Anne, a freshman at UC, Berkeley,
and Becky, a junior in high school. An English Bulldog named
Dingus rounds out the household.
The University of Arizona/Geosciences Newsletter • Spring 2001
LIST OF THE
LOST
Where Are They
Now?
We’ve lost track of some of our alumni.
If you know their whereabouts, take a moment to let us know!
1940s
William R. Jones
Wayne E. Kartchnor
William B. Loring
Chi-jui Peng
1950s
Erich Blissenback
Robert E. Colby
David A. Cowan
Robert W. Dickerman
Robert R. Dorsey
Robert Ellsworth
Carl Fries, Jr.
James R. Gless
John H. Heyn
James R. Hillebrand
Robert L. Jackson
Zamir U. Kidwal
Rustam Z. Kothavala
Fred A. Michel, Jr.
Creighton G. Ryno
William L. Van Horn
Richard L. Whitney
1960s
Harold Aaland
Mohamed Abdulhussain
John L. Ablauf
Malcolm L. Alford
Abdul Rahman Almuhanna
L. Clark Armstrong, Jr.
Seid Mohamad Assadi
Rolando G. Barozzi
Judith A. Bray
William C. Butler
R. J. Cantwell
Huseyin T. Cetinay
Richard D. Champney
Ata-Ur-Rehman Chaudhri
J. Maurice Collier
Donald B. Cooley
Edwin H. Cordes
Richard E. Deane
Phillip P. Denney
Hassan D. Diery
Thomas N. Dirks
Kenneth L. Dyer
Wayne S. Estes
Sergio Garza
Maqsood Ali Shah Gilani
Avinash Vishnu Hardas
Brian J. Hogan
Joe P. Jemmitt
Robert M. Jorden
Kamel A. Kawar
Deane E. Kilbourne
Donald J. Kubish
George E. Maddox
James I. Marlowe
William P. Mathias, Jr.
Ghulam Mawla
William A. McClellan
John P. McLain
David G. Mickle
Charles H. Miles
M. T. Nassereddin
Mustafa F. Nuseibeh
Virginia L. Passmore
David M. Peabody
Don P. Pearson
Charoen Phiancharoen
James J. Riley
Robert G. Rohrbacker
Cyrus Samii
Jay Savera
Abdul Mannan Sheikh
Ijaz Ahmad Sheikh
Steve H. Simon
David G. Smith
Walter J. Smith
Robert Streitz
Garabed A. Tahmazian
Jack W. Tleel
A. J. Wells
Clyde A. Wilson
1970s
Robert E. Able
Eun S. Ahn
Khalid H. Al-Rawahy
John W. Andrews
Larry D. Arnold
John H. Behrens
James R. Cook
Brian P. Cooper
James D. Crabtree
Keith C. Crandall
George Curtin
Thomas C. Dever
John W. Devilbliss
Constance (Nuss) Dodge
I. Donnerstag
Mehdi Falahatitaft
Linda A. Foster
The University of Arizona/Geosciences Newsletter • Spring 2001
Peter E. Gasperini
Allen S. Gottesfeld
Zvi Grinshpan
Larry J. Hughes
Rigel (Lustwerk) Hurst
Susan (Bahnick) Jones
Peggy L. Jones
Brian A. Koenig
Steven M. Kunen
Jack R. Lagoni
Valerie W. (Walker) Laidlaw
Raymond C. Leonard
Paul H. Leskinen
Walter D. Lienhard
Romolo Marquez Oropeza
Arthur F. McIntyre
William G. McMullan
Robert Avery Moore
Margaret A. Mowrey
James C. Puckett, Jr.
William G. Reay
R. J. Sandberg
Marc H. Selover
Margaret (Peyton) Severson
Verl L. Smith
Charles H. Soule
David L. South
Wade E. Speer
Wilbur E. Sweet
Edwin N. Taylor
Katherine A. Taylor
David W. Thayer
Mark A. Theiss
Luis A. Velazquez
Sheryl L. Vrba
Clarence H. Walker
Mary E. Watson
Gary C. West
Robin S. White
C. Larrabee Winter
John L. Young
Jeffrey Zauderer
1980s
Saleh S. Alalawi
Salah S. Albehlany
Abdulaziz F. Aldossary
Abdulsalem M. Almurshidi
Rodney S. Anderson
Richard P. Barlow
Teresa A Bone
Jeanne T. Brooks
Anne M. (Fischer) Clunes
William D. Cunningham
Daniel J. Davis
John D. Declerk
Scott H. Dennett
John R. Doris
Michael C. Edelman
Mark O. Erickson
Christian N. Farnsworth
Robert C. Ferguson
Peter C. Gibson
Michael Grubensky
Abdi B. Haile
Susan L. Hamilton
Hamza Braiek Hamza
Andrea L. Handler-Ruiz
Frederick M. Haynes
John J. Heaphy
Garrett W. Jackson
Steven L. Kimsey
Kristen J. Law
Jody V. Maliga
William E. Malvey
Dale M. Mathews
Robert M. Matthiessen
Daniel A. Maus
William G. McArthur
Richard A. Morneau
Matthew T. Nelson
Mark D. Olivares
Deborah A. Peters
Kyle S. Rhuebottom
Steven Rooke
Luis Jesus Ruiz Gomez
Michael S. Sewell
Ernest Hsiao Hsin Shih
Yehia A. Sinno
Julia A. Staines-Hill
Frederick Stevenson
Robin L. Sweeney
Paula F. Trever
Julie L. Turnross
Luis A. Vargas-Mendoza
Ellen L. Vineyard
Michael H. Wagner
Julian D. Warner
John L. White
Cara J. Wright-Hodge
Toshiko Yasuda
1990s
Talib A. Al-Ajami
Rashid A. Alhashimi
Julie E. Carlton
Satoru Fujihara
George E. Gregory
Henri Grissino-Mayer
Patricia H. Lach
Felix M. Lerch
Jacob Letts
Margo M. Longo
Robert McEwen
Jennifer L. Myrick
Kathryn Nejdl
Carl W. Schnell
Aaron Sheaffer
Jun Wu
page 19
Keep us posted:
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New job? Kids? Back in school? Retired? Take a trip? See a classmate? Send us your news for future newsletters
(include a photo). Write us below or e-mail us at bbaylor@geo.arizona.edu.
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