ALUMNI NEWSLETTER 2013
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News................................................................ 4
Research grants................................................. 9
Staff and new faculty......................................... 10
Visiting faculty and scientists............................ 11
News releases.................................................... 12
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Field course...................................................... 18
Undergraduate research program...................... 20
Undergraduate degrees and scholarships........... 21
Graduate degrees.............................................. 22
Graduate scholarships...................................... 23
Student awards................................................. 24
Publications..................................................... 26
Camp Branson needs...................................... 28
Contributions.................................................. 29
Endowments.................................................... 31
New faculty awards......................................... 33
Board members................................................ 34
From our board chair........................................ 35
News............................................................... 36
In memoriam.................................................. 39
Breaking news................................................. 40
Editor: Kevin L. Shelton
Composition: Shannon Hemenway
Printing costs of the Newsletter are provided by the
Geology Development Fund.
On the cover: Rainbow over Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
River, in early June before field camp starts. Hot spring activity has continued through the ages altering the lava to produce lovely colors. This is one of many features our students see while on the Tetons-Yellowstone excursion from Camp Branson. (Photo by Alan Whittington).
John Huntley (Virginia Tech, 2007)
Paleontology and paleoecology
James Schiffbauer (Virginia Tech, 2009)
Paleontology and geochemistry
Martin Appold (Johns Hopkins University, 1998)
Hydrogeology
Robert L. Bauer (University of Minnesota, 1982)
Precambrian geology
Francisco Gomez (Cornell University, 1999)
Paleoseismology and neotectonics
Cheryl A. Kelley (University of North Carolina, 1993)
Aquatic geochemistry
Mian Liu (University of Arizona, 1989)
Geophysics
Kenneth G. MacLeod (University of Washington, 1992)
Paleontology and biogeochemistry
Peter I. Nabelek (SUNY, Stony Brook, 1983)
Trace-element geochemistry
Eric A. Sandvol (New Mexico State University, 1995)
Seismotectonics
Kevin L. Shelton (Yale University, 1982)
Economic geology
Michael B. Underwood (Cornell University, 1983)
Sedimentology
Alan G. Whittington (Open University, 1997)
Crustal petrology
Miriam Barquero-Molina (University of Texas, 2009)
Field methods
Raymond L. Ethington (University of Iowa, 1958)
Conodont biostratigraphy
Thomas J. Freeman (University of Texas, 1962)
Carbonate petrology
Glen R. Himmelberg (University of Minnesota, 1965)
Chemical petrology
William D. Johns (University of Illinois, 1952)
Clay mineralogy
Shannon Hemenway, administrative assistant
Marsha Huckabey, administrative associate I
Carol Nabelek, research chemist
Stephen Stanton, library information specialist II
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This past year has been a time of great accomplishments that can be attributed to the hard work and dedication of our faculty, staff, students and alumni.
Highlights of our activities are presented throughout the Newsletter and reflect the spirit and excitement of teaching, learning and discovery that underlie our success.
In academia, there is little that rivals the satisfaction of hiring faculty members and watching them succeed. John Huntley (PhD, Virginia Tech) joined us in August as a new assistant professor in sedimentary environments/paleontology. There is a brief biography of John later in the Newsletter. I am pleased to announce the promotion of Cheryl Kelley and Alan
Whittington to the rank of full professor. Congratulations.
This year we will be searching for a new faculty member in the broad area of structural geology and tectonics. We are seeking an individual whose research will ideally complement and expand upon one or more of the areas of departmental expertise in solid-earth processes including geodynamics, igneous and metamorphic petrology, neotectonics, and seismology.
As you read through the Newsletter you will see that all of our faculty members are involved actively in research and presentations at national and international conferences that bring recognition and prestige to our department. Please join with me in celebrating their notable accomplishments.
We continue to attract talented students at both the
MS and PhD levels. This fall we have 36 graduate students in residence. This past year they presented or were co-authors on 23 presentations at national or international conferences, 3 regional conferences, published 6 papers, and received 13 research grants or fellowships based on proposals that they wrote. Our graduate students also continue to work cooperatively through the Geology Club and the MU Student
Chapter of the American Association of Petroleum
Geologists.
Eleven of our students completed graduate degrees this past year. We will miss each of those who are leaving. Yanying Chen and Rayan Yassminh are remaining at MU to pursue doctoral studies. Following a summer internship with Samson Resources, Joey
Cochran has moved to Virginia Tech for his doctoral work. Mark Grzovic is pursuing doctoral studies in remote sensing at St. Louis University. Others have found employment in a variety of fields. John Corley is working for the Missouri Department of Natural
Resources. Emma Hansen works as a mineralogist for Omya Inc. in Cincinnati. Nathan Hinrichs was an intern with Exxon-Mobil this past summer. Jeffrey Ingram is working for an engineering firm in St.
Louis. Mark Sutcliffe is working for Newfield Exploration in Oklahoma.
We are fortunate to have a new group of talented graduate students. Eleven new students arrived in
January and this fall. Bulbul Ahmed (MS from
University of Dhaka, Bangladesh) will work toward his PhD studying carbon sequestration with Martin
Appold. Claire Beaudoin (BS from Webster University in St. Louis) will pursue her MS studying carbon isotope compositions of methane produced in hypersaline ponds with Cheryl Kelley. Jesse Broce
(MS from Virginia Tech) will work toward his PhD studying experimental taphonomy and analytical paleontology of soft-bodied organisms of the Burgess-
Shale-type preservational style with Jim Schiffbauer.
Megan Brown (BS from Arizona State University) will work toward her MS studying intraplate earthquakes with Mian Liu. Danielle Cavender (BS from the University of Tennessee, Martin) will pursue her
MS studying unusual zinc-lead-copper deposits in
Missouri with Kevin Shelton. Joshua Field (MS from
Indiana University) will pursue doctoral studies of sub-economic MVT ore deposits and their relationship to economically viable deposits with Martin Appold. Jesse Merriman (MS from MU) is studying the thermal structure of continental lithosphere and the role of the lower crust for his doctoral work with Alan
Whittington. Sean Polun (MS from Idaho State University) is pursuing doctoral studies of neotectonics of the Afar depression, Ethiopia with Paco Gomez. Tara
Selly (BS from Gustavus Adolphus) is working toward her MS studying paleontology with Jim Schiffbauer.
Ariana Soldati (MS from the University of Pisa) is undertaking doctoral studies of the rheological evolution of basaltic lava flows during cooling and crystallization with Alan Whittington. Chen Song (MS in Civil Engineering from MU) is pursuing an MS in Geological
Sciences studying sedimentology and physical properties of samples from the Nankai Trough Seismogenic
Zone Experiment with Mike Underwood.

We received a number of very strong applications for graduate study this year. Although competition is keen among universities to attract highly qualified graduate students, our ability to attract quality students to MU is a reflection of both the strength of our programs and our ability to provide competitive financial support to students. The College of Arts and
Science continues to provide funds for TA stipends.
However, to be competitive with peer institutions, we supplement these stipends with Department Scholarships that are provided by a variety of endowed student scholarships.
In summary, we’re doing great! However, we would not be able to make competitive offers to attract these quality students without the help of our alumni and friends scholarship funds. We thank you for your commitment to our students!
Our undergraduate program has approximately 60 students. The departmental scholarship funds that our alumni have supported are critical in allowing us to attract and retain some of the best students on campus. In addition to our scholarship program, our departmental Undergraduate Research Program is supporting several students who are working on senior theses this academic year.
On behalf of the faculty, students and staff, I want to thank those of you who continue to support our department through your annual gifts.
On a personal note, let me thank our department’s alumni and friends for the kindnesses they have shown to me over the past decade.
Enjoy the Newsletter and remember to keep us informed of your activities.
We are now on Facebook (MUGeology), so “like” us to follow what we are doing.
Sincerely,
Kevin L. Shelton
Chairman and
E.B. Branson Professor
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Graduate students, from left, Arianna Soldati, Elizabeth Gammel, and Frank Calixto enjoy the fall 2013 welcome reception for new and returning faculty and students.

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Martin Appold was involved in several different projects over the past year studying the behavior of shallow crustal fluids. Chris Burrows completed his master’s thesis in December for which he modeled the hydrology of the Forest City Basin in the central U.S. and assessed the capacity of the St. Peter
Sandstone for large-scale CO
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sequestration. Ajit
Joshi began a new phase of his doctoral research on solitary waves in which he is assessing their capacity to transport methane instead of oil. Abdelsalam
Hassan continued his master’s research on fluid inclusions of the Vazante non-sulfide Zn deposit in
Minas Gerais, Brazil. His research is complementing the senior thesis work completed earlier this year by
Derek Prokopf, who studied fluid inclusions in the nearby Morro Agudo Zn-Pb sulfide deposit. Their work should provide insights into why fluids sourced from similar rocks in the same sedimentary basin can produce such strongly contrasting styles of mineralization. In April, Martin renewed a project with the
U.S. Department of Energy sponsored Southwest
Partnership for CO
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Sequestration. The project is focused on enhanced oil recovery and CO
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sequestration in the Farnsworth hydrocarbon field in northern
Texas. In June, Martin received approval for funding from the National Science Foundation to start a new project aimed at characterizing fluid inclusions in trace occurrences of Mississippi Valley-type (MVT)
Zn-Pb mineralization in the U.S. mid-continent.
The goal of the project is to see if the fluids that form trace occurrences of MVT mineralization differ systematically in composition from previously characterized fluids that form large ore bodies. The courses that Martin taught last year include Groundwater
Hydrology, Hydrogeologic Processes, and Mineral and Energy Resources of the Earth. In addition, he began redesigning the online version of Principles of
Geology.
Miriam Barquero-Molina had a happy 2012-2013 year in our Department. During the fall semester she taught Planet Earth and an upper-level, duallisted undergraduate/graduate-level course on the
Geologic Evolution of Western North America. In spring 2013 Miriam taught Sedimentology and
Principles of Geology. The class on the Geology of the Western U.S. had a field component, so during
Thanksgiving week recess they flew to Las Vegas, rented vehicles and drove off into the wilderness.
Their itinerary began east of Las Vegas, near Lake
Mead, where they started by studying Paleozoic rocks entrenched in Basin and Range deformation near
Frenchman Mountain. They proceeded towards the
La Madre Mountain area, west of Las Vegas, in order to observe Sevier-style Mesozoic deformation (Keystone and Red Springs thrusts) that has been preserved in spite of Tertiary extension. They gladly left Las
Vegas behind and continued west into Death Valley, where they spent two glorious days awash in breathtaking geology: Turtlebacks, the Amargosa Chaos,
Lake Manly shoreline deposits (such as Shoreline
Butte), Borax mines, volcanoes (Ubehebe and Little
Hebe craters, and associated smaller craters), alluvial fans and active faulting at Red Wall Canyon and
Mosaic Canyon, an active eolian field at the Mesquite
Dunes and, of course, the lowest topographic point in the continental US, Badwater Basin, and the salt flats.
Grudgingly they left Death Valley behind and crossed over the majestic Panamint Mountains to reach
Bishop, Cal. and the northern end of Owens Valley, where they spent a couple of days poking around recently to currently active volcanic areas, including the Long Valley Caldera, Mammoth Mountains, the
Mono-Inyo Craters, Panum Crater and Mono Lake with its shoreline tufa towers. And to complete what had been an incredible field trip, on Thanksgiving day they drove to Morro Bay, Cal., where they spend some happy moments looking at andesitic volcanic plugs, taking a swim in the Pacific Ocean, watching the sun set while sitting on a rocky pier, and cooking a group potluck-style Thanksgiving meal under the stars. It was quite an experience. When not teaching, leading field trips, or working on our field camp, Miriam spent some time thinking about and preparing for our upcoming Study Abroad program in Chile, which will take place over fall 2013 and winter intersession
2013-2014. With a current enrollment of 23 students, and capacity for a few more, Miriam, Bob and Kevin will be teaching a twice-weekly class on the geology of the Andean margin during the upcoming fall semester. The class will be in Chile from December 31st through January 17th of winter intersession. They will fly into Santiago de Chile, rent vehicles at the airport and drive north towards the Atacama region and will look at some impressive geology associated with the Andean volcanic arc on their pilgrimage north to the Altiplano-Puna. Once up there, they will have the chance to look at recent to active volcanism in the Altiplano-Puna, the largest porphyry-copper mine in the world, Chuquicamata, and the Salar the Atacama, one of the biggest salt lakes in the world. Miriam is happy to report that the number of undergraduate majors continues to creep up, currently hovering around 60.
Advising our undergraduate students continues to be a pleasure, and quite a bit of work!
Bob Bauer is spending much of the fall semester writing lectures for the study abroad course, taught with
Miriam Barquero-Molina, entitled “Volcanism and
Mountain Building Processes in Chile. The course

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NEWS involves two parts, a four-credit class this fall and a
17-day, two-credit trip to Chile, leaving this New-
Year’s Eve. Miriam has been working hard to set up logistics for the trip, and Miriam, Bob, Kevin and the students (23 enrolled) will all contribute to the class presentations this fall. We look forward to having a great report on the trip for next year’s Newsletter. Bob continued to teach at Camp Branson this summer.
After the field course was over, he spent two weeks working in the field with graduate students Michael
Hilmes and Jamie Russell, who are completing MS theses, and undergraduate student Sam Glasscock, who started a senior thesis. Michael’s work involves fracture modeling associated with the deformation that produced offset in the basin margin folds south of Lander (Dallas Dome, Derby Dome and Sheep
Mountain anticline). Jamie will be mapping part of
Hudson Dome and adjacent areas north of Lander.
Sam’s work involves fracture analysis across part of the
Dallas Dome – Derby Dome interchange. The end of the field season became a bit more exciting than usual when a forest fire in Sinks Canyon flared up with three more days of Bob’s planned fieldwork with students remaining. They saw the smoke up in the range from where they were conducting field work in the basin, but weren’t sure about the exact location until they got a phone call from Miriam telling them that Sinks
Canyon was being evacuated. They spent the next two nights in Lander, and got in one more day in the field.
By the third day of the fire, they were allowed to return to camp, but only to pack up and leave the next morning. The entire north side of the canyon was burned, but the fire was stopped at the Sinks Canyon road, just across from the entrance to Camp Branson. It was a very close call. This fall, Bob will be a co-leader on a field trip sponsored by the Mineralogy, Geochemistry, Petrology and Volcanology (MGPV) Division of
GSA that precedes the Geological Society of America
Annual Meeting in Denver. The trip to the Laramie anorthosite complex and its contact metamorphic aureole includes stops in the contact aureole that Bob studied with Jeff Edson, who completed his MS thesis research project in the area last spring. Jeff’s research was supported in part by a combination of grants from the U.S. Geological Survey, the Colorado Scientific
Society, and a Department award from the Keller
Opportunities for Excellence Fund. Bob continues to serve as the Department’s Director of Graduate Studies, and coordinates graduate recruiting and applicant admissions. Bob’s new student from this recruiting class is Jamie Russell, from Sam Houston State
University. Bob’s classes last year included Structural
Geology, Continental Tectonics, and Field Camp. This fall Bob is teaching Advanced Structural Geology, the
Chile course noted above, and is serving as the chair of the MU Campus Writing Board.
Ray Ethington reports that he examined numerous dinosaur bones and fossil eggs (with the yolk preserved) brought to the department by people who found them near outcrops of cherty Burlington Limestone. He thinks it likely that some of them did not accept his interpretation and sought a second opinion, but he has not as yet had anyone return to share what insights they obtained elsewhere. His long awaited paper (with John Repetski and Jim Derby) on the pre-St Peter Ordovician rocks of Ozarkia and adjacent regions was published early in the year in AAPG’s volume dedicated to James Lee Wilson. Present efforts are to finish manuscripts on Sauk/Tippecanoe strata in the Utah-Nevada border region and on the type Whiterockian Series in central Nevada, both involving students who passed through here in earlier years. When those efforts are completed, he expects to resume work on collections from the Midwest and the Great Basin that accumulated prior to retirement. For reasons known only to them, the Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences at Iowa State has designated him as a Distinguished Alum who will be recognized at a dinner in Ames in November. His ISU degree was awarded 60 years ago, and he is surprised that better candidates have not appeared in that interval; he did not decline the award however. (Editor’s note:
Ray authored this, so please don’t blame me.)
Tom Freeman is busy as always in a number of venues. He will attend the GSA meeting in Denver this fall with his usual exhibit hall booth. The number of schools using Tom’s Geology Field Methods continues to grow. Tom’s two lab manuals continue to be used on our campus plus at other schools. Environmental Geology 2e is taught by our geology faculty; and Geoscience Laboratory 5e, is directed within the Honors College by Sarah Humfeld in the Division of Biological Sciences. Honors College students work with seismic data provided by former Saint
Louis University, Brian Mitchell, who provided the graphics being required to locate the epicenter of an earthquake. Students soon discover, with wide-eyed interest, that the epicenter is within the state of Missouri. Closer to home, son Rob, CEO of TradeWind
Energy, continues to construct wind farms, as per those in Kansas and Oklahoma; while son Tom, who works with Polaris Institute, continues to deal with oil spills such as that of BP. Meanwhile, Peggy continues to spend time in her art studio, while also serving as our family’s travel agent.
Paco Gomez and his neotectonics research group had a productive year. In the classroom, Paco taught his regular courses on physical geology (for undergraduate science & engineering majors), surficial geology
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(undergraduate), and engineering geology (graduate/ undergraduate). Four students completed their M.S. degrees: William “Joey” Cochran (GPS and neotectonics along the southern Dead Sea fault), Alzubair
Abousaif (Quaternary faulting in the Wind River
Basin, Wyoming), Nathan Hinrichs (Paleoseismology along the Wutaishan fault, north China), and John
Corley (Neotectonics in the Daixian Basin, north
China). In addition, two students completed senior theses under his supervision: Howard Loftis analyzed ground-based radar data from the Helheim Glacier in
SE Greenland, and Letha Binel analyzed fault scarps in the central Afar region of Ethiopia (including field work). Ongoing studies include the Ph.D. studies of
Bjorn Held on kinematics and mechanics of landslides in the Rocky Mountain region, as well as the seismotectonic research along the Dead Sea fault of Ms.
Rayan Yassminh (co-supervised with Eric Sandvol).
Additionally, Sean Polun, a new student, is beginning his Ph.D. research on neotectonics in the central Afar region of Ethiopia. Fieldwork over the past year has seen the extremes: Greenland during the fall of 2012, and Ethiopia during the winter of 2013. In addition,
Paco has been conducting fieldwork on rock falls and landslides in Colorado in collaboration with colleagues from the Department of Civil Engineering. As part of his efforts to map topography and measure surface displacements, Paco is also starting to explore the use of low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles (flying robots!) as tools for mapping and surveying.
Glen Himmelberg is now in his sixth year as Chair of the Mathematics Department at MU. According to Glen, his time in the Math department has been an interesting, challenging and sometimes rewarding experience. Marilyn and Glen managed to get away in July; they spent several days in Denver with friends and then went to Charleston, South Carolina to spend some time with their daughter. They enjoyed being away from Columbia and the demands of the work environment. Makes one think that retirement may not be too bad the next time around.
John Huntley, his wife, Laura, and two-year-old daughter Lydia Grace are settling in well in Columbia and finding the climate agreeable after two cold winters in New York’s north country at St. Lawrence
University where John was a visiting assistant professor. John is currently teaching Principles of Geology and preparing to team teach Historical Geology and an upper-level/graduate course Patterns and Processes in the Fossil Record in the 2014 spring semester with Jim
Schiffbauer. In 2012-13 John co-authored a manuscript in Paleobiology investigating the interaction between bivalve hosts, their trematode parasites, and how temporal trends in this interaction are controlled by environmental changes exerted by glacio-eustatic sea level dynamics in Pleistocene-modern marine environments in the northern Adriatic Sea; a manuscript in Quaternary Geochronology establishing an amino acid racemization-based geochronology for the
North American freshwater mussel genus Lampsilis; and a manuscript in Journal of African Earth Sciences examining the paleoecology and stratigraphy of upper Cretaceous strata in the Sinai Peninsula,
Egypt. Two manuscripts are currently in press and in revision examining the palatability of brachiopods and how it relates to their post-Paleozoic decline (in press at Palaios) and an amino acid racemization-based study of time-averaging of Holocene bivalves from the
São Paulo Bight, Brazilian Shelf, respectively. John is excited to establish his lab at MU and is pursuing external and internal funding sources, and is actively recruiting graduate students for next fall.
Cheryl Kelley had much to be happy about this past year. In May, she celebrated the successful defenses of master’s students, Laura Senefeld and Brooke Nicholson. Laura investigated the organic matter degradation pathways and rates in two small coal mine lakes (one circumneutral and the other acidic) north of Columbia in the Rocky Fork Conservation Area. Brooke, on the other hand, was involved with understanding substrate limitation for methanogenesis in hypersaline environments. Cheryl did fieldwork both in Baja California,
Mexico and the Atacama Desert, northern Chile. In
January, Cheryl welcomed new graduate student,
Claire Beaudoin, to MU. Claire received her undergraduate degree at Webster University near St. Louis, and will continue some of the work in hypersaline ecosystems by exploring methane oxidation in these dry, salty places. She has already begun her fieldwork by accompanying Cheryl and other researchers to northern Chile after the end of classes in May. They visited two salars (Salar de Llamara and Salar de Atacama) and the El Tatio geyser field, the largest geyser field in the
Southern Hemisphere. In the classroom this past year,
Cheryl enjoyed teaching the Environmental Geology and Global Water Cycle in the fall semester and Organic Geochemistry in the spring. We are pleased to report that Cheryl was recently promoted to the rank of Professor.
Mian Liu continues to work on earthquakes and mountain building with his students and colleagues.
As part of an international collaborative project funded by the National Science Foundation, Mian’s group has been studying the earthquakes in North China, where a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in 1976 killed more than
250,000 people and wiped out the industrial city of
Tangshan. A series of small to moderate earthquakes

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Earthquake Administration. Mian also received a prestigious national scholarship from China, which supports his research in China and a guest directorship of the Computational Geodynamics Lab of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences. In the classroom, Mian taught Plate Tectonics and Thermal Processes in the
Solid Earth, a class that encourages students to learn computer programming by solving real geological problems. It is satisfying that this class has led to a number of student publications in recent years. Mian’s family is doing great. Daughter Karina started middle school this fall, and thanks to her schedule, Mian is arriving at the office by 7:30 every morning!
teach at Missouri State University, welcomed a new daughter in the spring, and will be presenting research at this year GSA meeting in Denver. Kelsey Putman has taken a full time job with Samson Resources in
Tulsa.
Peter Nabelek continued his collaborations with MU colleague Alan Whittington and Anne Hofmeister of Washington University to explore the effects of temperature-dependent thermal diffusivity on the rates of magma crystallization. He also continued his collaboration with colleagues from the Geological Survey of Canada to study the mechanism of sill emplacement and associated contact metamorphism in a Proterozoic sedimentary basin on Victoria Island in the Arctic
Canada. Peter’s graduate students continue to work on exciting research pertaining to various aspects of igneous and metamorphic geology. Yanying Chen began her doctoral studies on metamorphism and fluid flow in the Mesozoic White-Inyo magmatic arc in California. Elizabeth Gammel is pursuing master’s studies to determine the roles of Li, B, and other fluid-soluble elements by analyzing fluid inclusions in the San
Diego County pegmatite district. Peter and Elizabeth collaborated on field aspects of the project with former student Mona-Liza Sirbescu. Ashraf Gafeer is using trace element chemistry to determine sources of Tertiary lavas in Libya, including the deep Sahara desert.
Last fall, Peter enjoyed a conference and field trip to the Adamello batholith and its metamorphic aureole in the Italian Alps. The wine and grappa were tasty.
Ken MacLeod enjoyed his research leave traveling to
Germany, Austria, and England to collect samples and collaborate with European colleagues. He is enjoying being back in the classroom teaching the paleontology class this fall and both the dinosaur class and a graduate class on stable isotope techniques in the spring. His students also have had an active year. Page
Quinton was awarded an NSF fellowship to undertake
8 weeks of field, lab, and museum work in Australia through NSF’s East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes for U.S. Graduate Students. She reports that she saw many iconic Australian animals including a platypus in the wild, and she snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef. Page returned to Columbia with a nice suite of Ordovician conodonts and in the coming months will be analyzing them to compare their oxygen isotopic signature to values she’s measured in correlative samples from the U.S. Shannon Haynes successfully defended her master’s thesis last fall and has decided to stay at MU to work on a doctoral degree. She traveled to England in the spring to attend an Ocean Drilling Program workshop, is finishing writing a lengthy paper on the taxonomy of some Cretaceous planktonic foraminifera, and will be working for a couple of weeks this fall in Ellen Martin’s lab at the University of Florida measuring neodymium isotopes on Late
Cretaceous fish debris. Damon Bassett continues to
Eric Sandvol and the seismology research group have continued working this past year on the large amount of data from northern China and the Andean and
Tibetan plateaus. This year they deployed a 71 station broadband seismic network in central Turkey as a part of the Continental Dynamics Central AnaTolia
(CDCAT) project. Savas Ceylan and Eric worked with colleagues from the University of Arizona for approximately two months to finish installing all of the seismic stations. This is the largest deployment of its kind in Turkey. Katrina Burch from UMKC started her doctoral research this year on the joint inversions of receiver functions and surface wave dispersion curves for both the Tibetan and central Andean plateau in order to compare crustal thicknesses for the two largest plateaus on earth. She will also participate in the CDCAT fieldwork, helping to service the 71 station array starting in October. Savas Ceylan has published an important new model on the structure of the Tibetan plateau. In addition to this work, Savas has done important theoretical work on the resolution capability of recent surface wave tomography methods.
He has found that we are able to resolve structure that
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NEWS is a fraction of the wavelength of teleseismic surface waves. In addition, Gleb Skolbeltsyn is finished with his work imaging eastern Turkey and the Caucasus region using surface waves. Gleb is now working on analyzing shear wave splitting data in Turkey, Georgia, and Azerbaijan and has found that the slab he has apparently discovered is having a significant effect on mantle flow. Frank Calixto-Mori has just published his work on analyzing Rayleigh wave propagation across the PUNA array and is working to finalize his research on seismic anisotropy beneath the southern
Puna plateau. He is also beginning his work on the seismic attenuation of the Peruvian crust; this research is very important for the seismic hazard of this very tectonically active country. Wenfei Ku and Eric are continuing their work with the Air Force Research
Laboratory and the National Nuclear Security Agency on the seismic attenuation in the Iranian and Tibetan plateau. This research is important to be able to better predict seismic amplitudes across this complex plateau, which can be used in discriminating earthquakes from explosions. They have expanded their work from the crust to the uppermost mantle in order to understand propagation of shear waves within the lithospheric mantle. In addition to this work on attenuation,
Qiyun Yan is measuring Sn Q in northern China. She has found a very interesting attenuation structure that is significantly different from the velocity images in the region. Finally Rayan Yassminh has nearly finished her thesis on understanding seismic sources in the northern Middle East. She hopes to begin work on understanding the attenuation structure of the United
States in the near future.
volume on the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition slated to appear as the March 2014 issue of the Journal of Paleontology, organizing the 2014 Paleontological Society short-course associated with the Vancouver Geological
Society of America annual meeting, and submitting papers, 8 of which are in press or have been published, and another 5 are in various stages of review or acceptance. He is currently teaching Environmental Geology, Introduction to Geochemistry, and a graduate-level
Electron Microscopy in Geosciences problems course.
He’ll be co-teaching Historical Geology and a splitlevel course titled Patterns and Processes in the Fossil
Record in the Spring with new faculty member Dr.
John Huntley. Later this year through early next, he is looking forward to attending GSA with his students and chairing two topical sessions at the North American Paleontological Convention in Gainesville, Florida.
At home, Schiffbauer’s son PJ, now 17 months old, has made major strides in expanding his vocabulary. His new favorite word is dinosaur, although dad has been working very hard on getting him to say “Cambrian
Explosion,” much to momma’s dismay.
James Schiffbauer welcomed his first two graduate students this Fall. Coming in from Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, Tara Selly has started her
MS research to understand the preservation of a nifty
Cambrian critter, Anomalocaris, one of the Earth’s earliest “super predators.” She’ll be analyzing fossil materials, as well as conducting experimental decay trials with shrimp to understand timing of disarticulation. His PhD student is a familiar face, Jesse Broce, from Virginia Tech, where Schiffbauer served on his
MS committee. Jesse is a recipient of Mizzou’s Huggins Fellowship, and has decided he wants to focus his efforts on fossil worms—exciting! No, really! As worms are entirely soft-bodied, the route that must be taken for them to fossilize is exceptional. He will couple decay experimentation with paleontological, sedimentological, and geochemical analyses of some amazing fossil deposits known for capturing soft-tissues in the record. When he’s not busy drinking in the
Columbia life, he’s been contacting biologists to get his hands on various types of worms, from polychaetes to scalidophorans. Over the past year, Schiffbauer has been busy writing grant proposals, editing a special
Kevin Shelton begins his tenth year as department chair, continuing to balance administrative responsibilities, teaching and research. Kevin is working with new
MS student Danielle Cavender (BS from University of
Tennessee-Martin) on unusual Zn-Pb-Cu MVT ore mineralization in the lower portion of the Bonneterre
Dolomite of southeast Missouri. The mineralization does not appear to be related spatially to obvious stratigraphic controls, such as pinchouts of the Lamotte
Sandstone against Precambrian knobs. Ongoing studies will address geochemical and structural controls on ore precipitation and localization with the hope of developing a predictable exploration model for this unusual mineralization. Recent master’s student Emma
Hansen finished her thesis on gold mineralization in the north end of the Yellowknife greenstone belt,
Canada and works as a mineralogist with Omya Inc., a leading global producer and distributer of industrial minerals. Kevin is busy this semester teaching Economic Geology (at 8 a.m.!), Mineralogy and a couple of lectures in the Chile study abroad class. On the family front, son Ben and wife Sarah Eagle moved to
Austin, where Ben works for National Instruments and
Sarah works for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Daughter Emily has started her senior year at MU majoring in elementary education and is student teaching in Ashland. Lois and Kevin managed to find some time to get away to Yellowstone for a few days in July.
Mike Underwood devoted another year to the Nankai
Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment, serving as a member of the Project Management Team and Specialty Coordinator for Lithostratigraphy and Sedimentary

FACULTY
RESEARCH GRANTS
Petrology. He boarded D/V Chikyu for about a week to help with the crossover of science parties. Unfortunately, the long-anticipated riser drilling operations were hampered by damage to the riser pipe during a storm. This year, IODP Expedition 348 runs from late
September into January of 2014, with a target depth of 3800 meters below seafloor. One of our graduate students (Chen Song) will be sailing on the expedition as a sedimentologist, one of only three student participants from the United States. Mike was invited to New Zealand in April to give a keynote address at a
GeoPRISMS Workshop, and he was part of an international group to submit a successful IODP proposal for drilling slow-slip patches in the Hikurangi Trough.
As usual, he also taught three courses (Tectonics and
Sedimentation, Environmental Geology, and Oil and
Gas Resources).
Alan Whittington taught a graduate class in Silicate
Melts in Fall 2012, and the undergraduate Regional
Field Trip class and Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology in Spring 2013. The regional trip over Spring Break was almost stranded in western Kansas by a snowstorm, which led to the itinerary being reversed. Despite camping in temperatures as low as 12˚F in Grants,
NM, everyone remained in good spirits and they experienced a great assortment of geology from lava flows and calderas to uplifted mountain ranges, river terraces and sand dunes. It was a busy year in the lab, with two
Mike Underwood
Mike Underwood
Mike Underwood
$15,000
$15,000
$10,000
Eric Sandvol $265,000
Eric
Kevin Shelton $15,000
$1,500 Mike Underwood
Cheryl Kelley
Ken MacLeod
James Schiffbauer
Kelley
Alan
$7,500
$7,500
$7,500
Appold
Paco Gomez
Paco Gomez
$25,000
$290,000 new calorimeters installed and seven students doing research. In December, Thaïs Magaldi completed her senior thesis on basalts from Fuego volcano, Guatemala, before returning to Brazil to finish her degree. In
January, Jesse Merriman (MS 2011) returned to MU to begin working on his PhD on the thermal evolution of the lithosphere. In May, Sarah Smith completed her senior thesis on the properties of (Ca,Fe,Mg)Si
2
O glasses, and graduated with a BS in Chemistry. In the summer, field camp alum John Dedecker (FC 2012) stopped in Columbia for a week to measure the viscosity of the basalts he is studying at North Carolina for his MS degree. Spring was a busy semester for traveling, with a visit to the University of Toronto at the end of January, a petrology field trip to southeast Missouri and then the spring break field trip in March. In June,
Alan went to Camp Branson to assist Miriam with the
Yellowstone field trip, which this year included a new emphasis on the Eocene Absaroka volcaniclastic debris fans. In July, Alan went to a volcanology conference in
Kagoshima, Japan. The premeeting field trip included a visit to Aso caldera and climbing the summit lava dome of Mt. Unzen, while the mid-conference field trip included witnessing a spectacular eruption of
Sakurajima, from up close. The family is doing well – in April, Angela received a Kemper Award for teaching and together with Xander (9) and Hamish (6), they explored 8 of the 11 states in the SEC on a January road trip to Orlando.
Paco Gomez with
MU Geotechnical Engineering
Mian Liu, Milene Cormier,
Paco Gomez, Eric Sandvol
Mian Liu
Ken MacLeod
Ken MacLeod
$750,000
$2,147,000
$135,000
$225,000
$165,000
Peter Nabelek and Alan Whittington $246,000
Eric Sandvol
Eric Sandvol
Eric Sandvol
Eric Sandvol
$565,000
$328,000
$323,000
$112,000
Eric Sandvol $25,000
Angela Speck and Alan Whittington $280,000
Alan Whittington $439,000
Alan Whittington and MU co-PI’s $892,000
Alan Whittington $317,000
Mian Liu
Kevin Shelton
James Schiffbauer
Eric Sandvol
Robert Bauer
$150,000
$5,000
$75,000
$15,000
$12,000
9

10
FACULTY
STAFF
John Huntley comes to Mizzou geology most recently from St. Lawrence University where he served as a visiting assistant professor for two years. He completed his BS at Appalachian State University and MS at the University of North Carolina
– Wilmington (both in Geology). Upon completion of his PhD (Geological Sciences) at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University, John remained in Blacksburg for a year as a post-doctoral associate. This position was followed by a one-year position as a lecturer in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Kentucky and a two-year stint as a Humboldt Fellow at GeoZentrum Nordbayern at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität in Erlangen, Germany. John is a paleobiologist/paleoecologist interested in reconstructing long-term trends in organismal interactions preserved in marine invertebrate fossils (such as parasitism and predation), quantifying macroevolutionary trends in diversity and morphological disparity, and disentangling these records from the stratigraphic biases inherent in the fossil record.
Marsha Huckabey celebrated her
27th year at MU. As an administrative associate, she continues to excel at running the fiscal aspects of the department. She also works with our geology development board in their many activities throughout the year.
Shannon Hemenway is in her second year as our administrative assistant.
She balances a variety of tasks including grants, graduate admissions, and field camp.

FACULTY
VISITING SCHOLARS
11
In January 2013, Geology Development Board member Tim McHargue (FC ‘70, BS ‘71, MA ‘74), center, taught a weeklong course on Clastic Sequence Stratigraphy at MU. Twenty-four students attended the class, the largest group Tim has taught to date. Comments from students were uniformly glowing about the class, which represents another avenue in which alumni can
“give-back” to the department through donation of their time and talents. Tim is a Consulting Professor at Stanford University and has an adjunct professor appointment at MU.
The China Earthquake Administration awards overseas scholarships to ~ 20 scientists each year for international studies of earthquakes. Through Mian Liu’s efforts, MU has become a prime destination for these scholars. In 2012-13, our department hosted four scholars from different institutions of the China Earthquake Administration, from left, Shi Chen, Xiaogang Cai,
Daiqin Liu and Jia Cheng.

12
FACULTY
NEWS RELEASES
Supervolcanoes, such as the one sitting dormant under Yellowstone National
Park, are capable of producing eruptions thousands of times more powerful than normal volcanic eruptions. While they only happen every several thousand years, these eruptions have the potential to kill millions of people and animals due to the massive amount of heat and ash they release into the atmosphere. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have shown that the ash produced by supervolcanoes can be so hot that it has the ability to turn back into lava once it hits the ground tens of miles away from the original eruption.
Following a volcanic eruption, lava typically flows directly from the site of the eruption until it cools enough that it hardens in place. However, researchers found evidence of an ancient lava flow tens of miles away from a supervolcano eruption near Yellowstone that occurred around 8 million years ago. Previously, Graham Andrews, an assistant professor at California State University Bakersfield, found that this lava flow was made of ash ejected during the eruption. Following Andrew’s discovery,
Alan Whittington, a professor in the University of Missouri Department of Geological Sciences in the
College of Arts and Science, along with lead author Genevieve Robert and Jiyang Ye, both doctoral students in the geological sciences department, determined how this was possible.
“During a supervolcano eruption, pyroclastic flows, which are giant clouds of very hot ash and rock, travel away from the volcano at typically a hundred miles an hour,” Robert said. “We determined the ash must have been exceptionally hot so that it could actually turn into lava and flow before it eventually cooled.”
Because the ash should have cooled too much in the air to turn into lava right as it landed, the researchers believe the phenomenon was made possible by a process known as “viscous heating.”
Viscosity is the degree to which a liquid resists flow. The higher the viscosity, the less the substance can flow. For example, water has a very low viscosity, so it flows very easily, while molasses has a higher viscosity and flows much slower. Whittington likens the process of viscous heating to stirring a pot of molasses.
“It is very hard to stir a pot of molasses and you have to use a lot of energy and strength to move your spoon around the pot,” Whittington said. “However, once you get the pot stirring, the energy you are using to move the spoon is transferred into the molasses, which actually heats up a little bit. This is viscous heating. So when you think about how fast the hot ash is traveling after a massive supervolcano eruption, once it hits the ground that energy is turned into heat, much like the energy from the spoon heating up the molasses. This extra heat created by viscous heating is enough to cause the ash to weld together and actually begin flowing as lava.”
The volcanic ash from this eruption has to be at least 800 degrees Celsius to turn into lava; however, since the ash should have lost some of that heat in the air, the researchers believe viscous heating accounted for 100 to 200 degrees of additional heating to turn the ash into lava.
Robert, Andrews, Ye, and Whittington’s paper was published in September 2013 in Geology. The
National Science Foundation funded this research through a CAREER award to Whittington.
Story Contact: Nathan Hurst.

Rheomorphic ignimbrite of the ca 8-10 Ma
Rogerson Formation, Snake River Plain, southern Idaho. Although transported many kilometers from its source as volcanic ash in a pyroclastic density current, this rhyolitic material welded together during deposition in a high-strain shear zone and then flowed like lava, producing refolded folds. (Photos by co-author Graham Andrews, California State
University-Bakersfield.)
FACULTY
NEWS RELEASES
13

14
Alan Whittington dons traditional samurai armor during a volcanic conference in Japan.
PHOTO GALLERY
FIELD TRIPS
MU students and Miriam Barquero-Molina atop
Dante’s View along the crest of the Black Mountains overlooking Death Valley. This was one of several spectacular geologic sites that students in Miriam’s Regional Geology Fieldtrip class saw in their trip west. From left, Nolan Walla,
Joao Machado, Miriam Barquero-Molina, Cade
Claevelin, Meghan Howard, Tony Bollasina,
Laura Senefeld, Genevieve Robert, and Gina
Ceylan.
Tufa towers at Mono Lake, California. These amazing lacustrine calcium carbonate deposits originated underwater, but are now seen as spires because of the drop in lake level. This was another part of the amazing geology seen on the Regional Geology Fieldtrip.

Undergraduate student Howard Loftis measuring the velocity of the Helheim
Glacier (southeast Greenland) using
MU’s ground-based radar interferometer. Howard’s research with Paco
Gomez was assisted by funds from our department’s Undergraduate Research
Program.
PHOTO GALLERY
FIELD TRIPS
Undergraduate student Letha Binel surveying a fault scarp in the Afar Depression of east
Africa during fieldwork with Paco Gomez in
January 2013. Letha’s research was assisted by funds from our department’s Undergraduate Research Program.
15
Graduate students Yanying Chen (left) and
Elizabeth Gammel take time away from fieldwork in California to really get to know the rocks. Peter Nabelek inspires this type of starry-eyed dedication from his students.

16
Alan Whittington’s head provides the scale for large spherulites (rosettes, left middle) in the Nez Perce Creek lava flow breccias in Yellowstone National Park.
Field camp students saw many volcanic features under Alan and Miriam’s guidance.
PHOTO GALLERY
FIELD TRIPS
Graduate Student Claire Beaudoin at the
Salar de Atacama, Laguna Cejar, Atacama
Desert, Chile. Claire is studying carbon isotope compositions of methane produced in hypersaline ponds with Cheryl Kelley.
Graduate students Yanying Chen (left) and
Elizabeth Gammel at Yosemite, California during their summer 2013 field season. These two students of Peter Nabelek are studying deep crustal fluid flow associated with metamorphic of the White Mountains, California and evolution of Li- and B-bearing fluids in granitic pegmatite systems, respectively.

VISITING SPEAKERS
SPEAKERS
A rich and varied program of visiting speakers was funded by our Williamson Family Endowment Fund.
Last year’s Williamson Family Colloquia and other seminars included:
David Alvarez, U.S. Geological Survey, Columbia,
Missouri
Bottom sediment as a source of organic contaminants in Lake Mead, Nevada, USA.
Sara Carmichael, Appalachian State University
Manganese is the new black: microbial and fungal biomineralization in Appalachian cave systems.
Jean Cline, University of Nevada – Las Vegas
Nevada’s giant Carlin gold district – A unique continental margin hydrothermal system?
Katrina Edwards, University of Southern
California
Intra-terrestrial life.
John Huntley, St. Lawrence University
Stratigraphic paleoecology: Disentangling biological patterns from the rock record.
Sue Kay, Cornell University
Neogene lithospheric evolution of the Central Andean margin.
Jamie Levine, Appalachian State University
Syn-deformational partial melting in migmatites and evidence for strain-induced melting.
Greg Ludvigson, Kansas Geological Survey
The pedogenic siderite paleoclimate proxy.
Frank Patterson, Anadarko Petroleum
Mozambique: Discovery within a discovery.
Sarah Penniston-Dorland, University of
Maryland
Petrologic and geochemical evidence for fluid-rock interactions and mass transfer in subduction zone metamorphic rocks.
Henry Posamentier, Chevron Corporation
Integration of seismic stratigraphy and seismic geomorphology for prediction of lithology: Applications and workflows.
Alex Pullen, University of Rochester
Mesozoic tectonics and Miocene-Quaternary aridification in the sedimentary record of the Tibet Plateau.
Zhixiong Shen, Tulane University
Sedimentary records of late Quaternary vertical crustal motions in the Mississippi delta and their geodynamic implications.
Stuart Simmons, University of Auckland, New
Zealand (Society of Economic Geologists Distinguished Lecturer)
Geological controls on fluid flow in geothermal systems, examples from the Taupo Volcanic Zone,
New Zealand.
C. Geoff Wheat, University of Alaska
Geochemical constraints for hydrothermal flow on ridge flanks: The important role of sediments.
Seth Young, Indiana University
Linkage of ocean ventilation, weathering, and biodiversity in the Ordovician: A chemostratigraphic perspective.
Guangsheng Zhuang, Yale University
Understanding the growth of the Tibetan plateau:
From basin analysis, (U-Th)/He to paleoaltimetry.
17

18
FIELD CAMP
FIELD COURSE
Summer 2013 was a great year at Camp Branson. We gathered 43 students from 17 schools: University of
Missouri, Missouri State and University of Missouri-
KC (MO); University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
(TN), Wayne State (MI), Kansas State (KS), Sam
Houston State (TX), Indiana University Northwest
(IN), Montclair State (NJ), University of Cincinnati
(OH), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and St.
Norbert College (WI). We were pleased that 19 of our 43 students qualified for scholarships from our alumni contributions to the camp’s scholarship funds
(see photo). If you have a chance, visit our field camp website (http://fieldcamp.missouri.edu/) which is the main avenue through which potential students learn about our camp.
Our projects in field camp are diverse and highlight a broad range of geological field experiences, including sedimentology, stratigraphy and sedimentary environments, geologic mapping of folded and faulted sedimentary rocks, structural analysis of metamorphic rocks, surface and groundwater hydrogeology and reflection and refraction geophysics. We were able to work with a group of exceptional field instructors with expertise in the disciplines to which the students are exposed at Camp Branson. Jon Mies, a structural geologist at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, worked with Miriam on the field mapping projects on Dallas and Derby Domes. Alan Whittington and
Miriam accompanied the students on a four-day field trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons National
Parks. Eric Carson (University of Wisconsin-Madison and Wisconsin Geological Survey) led a glacial deposit-mapping project in Sinks Canyon during the 5th week of camp and an advanced glacial geomorphology project (new this year!) during the 6th week. Ed
Romanowicz (SUNY-Plattsburgh), and Sarah Ledford
(Syracuse University) oversaw all of the surface and groundwater hydrology projects. Eric Sandvol took charge of all the geophysics projects.
Our advanced projects in hydrogeology and geophysics once again proved to be very popular options amongst our students during the sixth and final week of camp, when students have the freedom to choose their final project in the course. For our advanced geophysics project, we used a total of
104 geophone channels composed of 2-16 channel
Missouri GEODES and 3-24 channel GEODES on loan from the Incorporated Research Institutions for
Seismology (IRIS) Program for Array Seismic Studies of the Continental Lithosphere (PASSCAL) instrument center. Our equipment allowed the students to run seismic lines nearly 500 meters long and record
72 shots (several of them with stacked data lines) in two days. One of the lines was located in the area between Dallas and Derby domes, where our two field-mapping projects on Mesozoic rocks take place. Data from the Dallas-Derby dome connection suggest that we imaged secondary deformation as well as fault gouge associated with a strike-slip fault that exists between the domes. Michael Hilmes will use the Dallas-Derby dome interchange data for his master’s studies here at MU. We also shot a line in the Owl Creek range, close to the Boysen Reservoir, in an area where Paco Gomez and some of his graduate students have been working in the last couple of years. We shot a line there last year, when the data suggested that we had imaged an active fault, which was located nearly directly below what was being interpreted as a fault scarp by Paco and his students.
Our second line in the Owl Creek Range will be used to construct a reliable 2D velocity model so that we can accurately estimate the amount of throw in the high-angle normal fault that we imaged last year.
Our advanced hydrogeology option comprises four different projects, which engage students in different kinds of hydrogeology applications: study of the
Red Canyon Creek watershed; dye-tracing exercise in the Popo Agie River in Sinks Canyon; hydrology of the Lander Landfill; and a slug test (evaluation of the change in the hydraulic head of an aquifer where water is quickly added to or removed from a well).
In addition to our faculty, we were once again lucky to be able to count on a strong supporting staff that allowed camp instruction to happen and for camp facilities to run smoothly. Our fantastic TAs were:
Jamie Russell and Michael Hilmes, both MU graduate students working with Bob Bauer; Angie Van
Boening (Texas A&M); Tyler Miller (Camp Branson student in 2011, graduated from the University of
Wyoming); Brady Lubenow (Camp Branson student in 2011, graduated from Minnesota State-Mankato);
Randall Bonnell (Camp Branson student in 2012, graduated from the University of Missouri). Jill
McKenzie, our cook, and Jessica McKenzie, our cook’s helper, did a superb job of keeping us all fed and happy for six whole weeks. Warren Ulmer and
Suki Smaglik, our caretakers, kept our camp in top shape, and cajoled our sometimes cranky facilities into cooperation. Thanks to all the faculty, staff, alumni and friends whose contributions continue to help Camp Branson move forward. We could not do it without you.

FIELD CAMP
FIELD COURSE
Camp Branson students mapping on Derby Dome in summer 2013.
19
Scholarship students include, from left, Moe Testa (Austin Peay), Alica Alexander (Missouri State), Howard Loftis (MU),
Tim Robertson (MU), Teresa Avila (MU), Doug Disbennett (University of Cincinnati), Michelle Rathe (MU), Gabe Cozart
(Sam Houston State), J. J. Morman (Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Sam Glasscock (MU), Emma Rosenow (MU), Paula Lancaster
(Wayne State), Laura Perry (MU), Gretchen O’Neil (MU).

20
STUDENTS
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH PROGRAM
Several ago we began a departmental Undergraduate Research Program. The program is funded from four Opportunities for Excellence in Geology Endowments (the John and Betty Marshall, Gene and Thelma Schmidt,
Walter D. Keller, and Norman E. Smith funds). Last year we funded undergraduate projects at ~ $3,000 each that led to Senior Theses. This year, we have four students pursuing Senior Theses.
The intent of the program is to provide funds to enable undergraduates to conduct meaningful field- and laboratory-based research as part of their MU education. There are a number of benefits to such a program:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
It encourages and rewards research starting early in our students’ careers.
It is a great recruiting tool to attract students to our program.
Our students will be more competitive and better prepared for graduate school and the work force.
The program increases our department’s visibility on campus and beyond.
(5) Integrating meaningful research into our undergraduate curriculum allows us to create a unique role relative to other state-funded universities in Missouri.
We are extremely grateful to the donors to the Opportunities for Excellence in Geology Endowments who have provided research opportunities for these students.
Thais Magaldi, left, presents the results of her undergraduate thesis research at MU’s Undergraduate Research Forum. Thais’s research, “Rheological, mineralogical and geochemical analysis of volcanic samples from Fuego volcano,
Guatemala ” was advised by Alan Whittington.

STUDENTS
UNDERGRADUATE
Bachelor of Arts
Andrew Moen
Bachelor of Science
Letha Binel (with Honors)
Randall Bonnell (Honors Certificate)
James Christopher
Cody Jaeger
Derek Prokopf (with Honors)
Josh Wallace
Letha Binel
Estimating magnitudes of Quaternary extension across the Afar triple junction
Advisor: Paco Gomez
Ronald Stuart
Tyler Adelstein
Jordyn Cloud
Samuel Glasscock
Lauren Hollins
Meghan Howard
Emma Rosenow
Teresa Avila
Cale Diehl
Daniel Gregory
Howard Loftis
Jacqueline Neufeld
Laura Perry
Michelle Rathe
Timothy Robertson
Howard Loftis
Ground-based interferometric imaging of glacial dynamics: Helheim
Glacier, SE Greenland
Advisor: Paco Gomez
Timothy Robertson
Thaïs Magaldi (visiting student from Brazil)
Rheological, geochemical and mineralogical analysis of volcanic samples from Fuego volcano, Guatemala
Advisor: Alan Whittington
Jordyn Cloud
Gretchen O’Neil
Clark Thomas
Laura Perry
Derek Prokopf
Constraints from fluid inclusion microthermometry on the origin of the
Morro Agudo Zn-Pb deposit, Minas
Gerais, Brazil
Advisor: Martin Appold
Sarah Smith (B.S. Chemistry)
Viscosity and mixing in molten (Ca,
Mg, Fe) pyroxenes
Advisor: Alan Whittington
Alica Alexander
Teresa Avila
Jennifer Campbell
Gabriel Cozart
Douglas Disbennett
Joshua Elson
Samuel Glasscock
Paula Lancaster
Howard Loftis
J.J. Morman
Gretchen O’Neil
Laura Perry
Michelle Rathe
Timothy Robertson
Emma Rosenow
Matthew Smith
Maurica Testa
Rebecca Valenzuela
William White
Karen Zelzer
Jordon Beem
Kyle Brown
Ellen Clippard
Samuel Glasscock
Martin Shane
Meghan Patzius
Michelle Rathe
Emma Rosenow
Teresa Avila
Meghan Howard
Christina Judas
Gretchen O’Neil
Jonathan Payne
Laura Perry
Timothy Robertson
Kaitlyn Compton
Samuel Glasscock
Michelle Rathe
21

22
Advisor: Francisco Gomez
Advisor: Francisco Gomez
STUDENTS
GRADUATE
Advisor: Robert Bauer
Advisor: Francisco Gomez
Advisor: Cheryl Kelley
Advisor: Robert Bauer
Advisor: Kevin Shelton
Advisor: Francisco Gomez
Advisor: Cheryl Kelley
Advisor: Robert Bauer
Advisors: Francisco Gomez and Eric Sandvol
Panoramic view of the Tetons in summer 2011.

Boyd Scholars
Claire Beaudoin
B. Danielle Cavender
Yanying Chen
Joshua Field
Elizabeth Gammel
Sean Polun
Gleb Skobeltsyn
Lily Carter Scholar
Chen Song
Davies Memorial Scholar
Jesse Broce
Ethington Geology Scholar
Tara Selly
Freeman Geology Scholar
Sean Polun
Geology Development Scholars (Chile)
Jesse Merriman
Robert Russel
Graduate School Scholar
Joshua Field
GSSF Scholars
Tara Selly
Himmelberg Geology Scholar
Anthony Bollasina
William Johns Scholar
Alexander Sehlke
Hal and Ruth Johnson Scholar
Alexander Sehlke
Walter D. Keller Scholars
Katrina Burch
B. Danielle Cavender
Page Quinton
Keller Opportunity for Excellence Scholar
Jesse Broce
STUDENTS
GRADUATE SCHOLARSHIPS
Craig Russell Knotts Scholar
Ajit Joshi
Knox Geology Scholar
Michael Hilmes
Marshall Opportunity for Excellence Scholars
B. Danielle Cavender
Yanying Chen
Elizabeth Gammel
Jiyang Ye
M. G. Mehl Memorial Scholar
Page Quinton
Miles Geology Scholar
Bjorn Held
Newfield Scholar
Michael Hilmes
Peck Graduate Scholar
Feng Lin
Rexroad Geology Scholar
Shannon Haynes
Staley Geology Scholars
Katrina Burch
Frank Calixto-Mory
B. Danielle Cavender
Jesse Merriman
James H. Stitt Scholar
Page Quinton
Fred H. Strothmann Scholars
B. Danielle Cavender
Shannon Haynes
M. Ray Thomasson Scholar
Katrina Burch
Tlapek Geology Scholar
Genevieve Roberts
Robert J. Russell
Tara Selly
Viele Geology Scholar
Bjorn Held
23

24
STUDENTS
AWARDS
Miriam Barquero-Molina (bottom right) introduces field camp students to the intricacies of a debris flow in the Absaroka
Range, west of Cody, Wyoming.

Tim Robertson receives the Estwing hammer from Field Camp Director Miriam Barquero-
Molina. This award honors the top undergraduate student to attend field camp.
STUDENTS
AWARDS
William (Joey) Cochran receives the 2012-13
Superior Graduate Achievement Award from
Director of Graduate Studies Bob Bauer.
25
Hal Johnson receives the 2012-13 James H.
Stitt Graduate Teaching Award from Director of Graduate Studies Bob Bauer.

26
STUDENTS
PUBLICATIONS
Calixto, F.J.
, Sandvol, E., Kay, S., Comte, D., Alvarado, P., Heit, B.,Yuan, X., 2013, Velocity structure beneath the southern Puna Plateau: Evidence for delamination: Geochemistry, Geophysics Geosystems
(in press).
Cavender, B.D.
, Shelton, K.L., Husman, J., 2013,
Unusual MVT Zn-Pb-Cu mineralization in the lower portion of the Bonneterre Dolomite, Viburnum
Trend, southeast Missouri: Geological Society of
America Abstracts With Programs, v. 45.
Ceylan, S., Larmat, C., and Sandvol, E., 2012, 3D resolution tests of two-plane wave approach using synthetic seismograms: American Geophysical Union
Fall Meeting.
Ceylan, S.
, Ni, J., Chen, J.Y., Zhang, Q., Tilmann,
F., Sandvol, E., 2012, Fragmented Indian plate and vertically coherent deformation beneath eastern Tibet:
Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 117, B11303, doi:10.1029/2012JB009210.
Christopher, J.
, Chen,Y., Ni, J., Ceylan, S. and
Sandvol, E., 2012, Upper Mantle Sn Attenuation in
Northeastern Tibetan Plateau: American Geophysical
Union Fall Meeting.
Frost, B.R., Bauer, R.L., Scoates, J.S., and Ingram,
J.S.
, 2013, The Laramie anorthosite complex and its contact metamorphic aureole, in Abbott, L.D., and Hancock, G.S., eds., Classic Concepts and New
Directions: Exploring 125 Years of GSA Discoveries in the Rocky Mountain Region: Geological Society of
America
Field Guide 33, p. 1–22.
Gross, M.B.
, and Nabelek, P.I., 2012, Variation and fractionation of lithium isotope ratios within single tourmaline crystals in the pegmatites of the Black
Hills, SD: American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
Guo, J.
, Underwood, M., Saffer, D., and Likos, W.,
2013, Apparent overconsolidation of mudstones in the Kumano Basin of southwest Japan: Implications for fluid pressure and fluid flow within a forearc setting: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, v. 14, p.
1023-1038.
Hansen, E.
, Shelton, K.L., Falck, H., and Pratico, V.,
2012, Oxygen isotope and lithogeochemical studies of gold mineralization of Ormsby and Clan Lake,
Yellowknife Greenstone Belt: 40th Annual Yellowknife
Geoscience Forum, p. 17.
Joshi, A.
, Appold, M.S., Nunn, J.A., 2013, Numerical investigation of hydrocarbon transport by solitary waves in the Eugene Island field, Gulf of Mexico basin: American Association of Petroleum Geologists
Annual Meeting.
Ku, W.
, Sandvol,E., and Kaviani., A., 2012, Sn attenuation in the Iranian plateau and Zagros: American
Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
Liang, X.
, Sandvol, E., Brown, L., Heit, B., Yuan, X.,
Mulcahy, P., Chen, C., and Kay, S., 2012, Delamination of southern Puna lithosphere from the body wave attenuation tomography images: American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
Liang, X.
, Sandvol, E., Chen, J.Y., Hearn, T., Ni,
J., Klemperer, S., Shen, Y., and Tilmann, F., 2012,
A complex Tibetan upper mantle: A fragmented
Indian slab and no south-verging subduction of Asian lithosphere: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v.
333-334, p. 101-111.
Lin, F.
, and Liu, M., 2012, Formation of the Shanxi rift in north China: The control of pre-existing lithospheric weakness: American Geophysical Union Fall
Meeting.
Liu, M., Wang, H., Ye, J., and Cheng, J., 2013, Intraplate earthquakes in North China, in Talwani, P., ed.,
Intraplate Earthquakes: London, Cambridge University Press (in press).
Loftis, H.
, Gomez, F., Stearns, L., and Hamilton, G.,
2013, Ground-based radar interferometric measurements of the terminus region of Helheim Glacier
(southeast Greenland): Geological Society of America
Abstracts With Programs, v. 45.
Mauney, M.T., Tazaz, A.M., Bebout, B.M, Chanton,
J.P., Kelley, C.A., Nicholson, B.E., Detweiler, A.M., and Davila, A.F., 2013, Isotopic analysis of methane bubbles obtained from Mars analogue hypersaline environments: Association for the Sciences of Limnology and OceanographyAquatic Sciences Meeting.

Merriman, J.D.
, Whittington, A.G., Hofmeister,
A.M., Nabelek, P.I., and Benn, K., 2013, Thermal transport properties of major Archean rock types to high temperature and implications for cratonic geotherms: Precambrian Research, v. 233, p. 358-372.
Nicholson, B.E.
, Kelley, C.A., Detweiler, A.M., Bebout, B.M., Mauney, M.T., Tazaz, A.M., Chanton,
J.P., and Davila, A.F., 2013, Stable carbon isotopes and rates of methane produced in the hypersaline environments of the Atacama Desert, Chile and Baja
California Sur, Mexico: Association for the Sciences of Limnology and OceanographyAquatic Sciences
Meeting.
Robert, G.
, Andrews, G.D.M., Ye, J., and Whittington, A.G., 2013, Rheological controls on the emplacement of extremely high-grade ignimbrites:
Geology, v. 41, p. 1031-1034.
Robert, G.
, Whittington, A., Knipping, J., Scherbarth, S., Stechern, A., Behrens, H., 2012, Effect of H
2
+ CO
2
O, and combined effects of H
2
, and H
2
O + F + CO
2
O + F, H
2
O
on the viscosity of a natural basalt from Fuego volcano, Guatemala:
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
Robert, G.
, Whittington, A.G., Stechern, A., and Behrens, H., 2013, The effect of water on the viscosity of synthetic calc-alkaline basaltic andesite:
Chemical Geology, v. 346, p. 135-148.
Romine, W.L.
, Whittington, A.G., Nabelek, P.I., and Hofmeister, A.M., 2012, Thermal diffusivity of
Mono Crater obsidian: Bulletin of Volcanology, v.
74, p. 2273-2287.
Skobeltsyn, G.
, Mellors, R., Gok, Turkelli, N.,
Yetirmishli, G., and Sandvol, E., 2012, Shear wave splitting in the East Anatolian-Caucasus region.
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
Song, C.
, Underwood, M.B., Schleicher, A., Ikari,
M., Saffer, D., and Marone, C., 2013, Influence of protolith composition and sliding velocity on the microfabric of fault gouge: Experimental results:
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
Tazaz, A.M., Bebout, B.M., Kelley, C.A., Poole, J., and Chanton, J.P., 2013, Redefining the isotopic boundaries of biogenic methane: Methane from endoevaporites: Icarus, v. 224, p. 268-275.
STUDENTS
PUBLICATIONS
Tazaz, A.M., Detweiler, A.M., Bebout, B.M., Nichol- son, B.E.
, Mauney, M.T., Kelley, C.A., and Chanton,
J.P., 2013, Methane production and isotopic analysis from hypersaline microbial mat incubations when sulfate reduction is inhibited: Association for the
Sciences of Limnology and OceanographyAquatic
Sciences Meeting.
Whittington, A.G., Andrews, G.D., Avard, G., Rob- ert, G., Ye, J.
, 2013, Thermo-rheological feedbacks in silicic lavas and ignimbrites: International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior
Meeting.
Whittington, A.G., Magaldi, T., Calderas, A.,
Chigna, G., Escobar-Wolf, R., Lyons, J., Mathias, O.,
Robert, G., Seaman, S., 2013, Does magma rheology control eruption style? The case of Fuego, Guatemala:
International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior Meeting.
Whittington, A.G., Robert, G., Andrews, G.D.,
Avard, G., Romine, W.L., 2012, Thermo-rheological feedbacks in silicic systems: Migmatites, lavas and ignimbrites: American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
Yassminh, R.
, Gomez, F., Sandvol, E., Ghaleb, H., and Daoud, M., 2013, Crustal stress across the northern Arabian plate and the relationship with the plate boundary forces: American Geophysical Union Fall
Meeting.
Ye, J.
, and Liu, M., 2012, A 3-D geodynamic model of strain partitioning in Southern California: American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
27

28
DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
CAMP BRANSON NEEDS
Smoke billows out of Sinks Canyon from a fire that was dangerously close to Camp Branson. This photo was taken atop the Nugget Sandstone on south Dallas Dome looking toward the northwest.
You might be aware that there was a fire in Sinks Canyon in July 2013 shortly after camp ended. It burned all the way up to Sinks Canyon Road, but failed to jump the road and camp was spared. Situations like this one highlight our need for a new vehicle bridge at camp, one that can accommodate Lander’s fire trucks. We have too big an investment at camp to risk losing it to another fire in the canyon.
Those of you who attended camp recently or who attended our 100th anniversary reunion at Camp Branson may recall driving or walking across the vehicle bridge that links our camp to the main road through Sinks Canyon. We recently engaged an engineering firm from Jackson, Wyoming to assess the structural soundness and load capacity of that bridge. Their opinion is that the bridge’s concrete foundations are in only fair condition and the bridge will need to be replaced in the near future.
New bridge construction at camp requires U. S. Forest Service approval and they would likely require that a new bridge be able to accommodate heavier loads, so that, if necessary, a fire truck would be able to get into camp.
Because we have such a large investment in Camp Branson, we need to ensure its protection with access for fire trucks. With the increasing frequency of fires in the canyon, this makes good sense.
An estimate to replace the existing bridge with one rated for higher loads is ~ $100,000. We have existing funds to begin the process of designing a new bridge, but we could certainly use help with funds for bridge construction. We hope to have a new bridge completed before the start of the summer 2015 field camp session. We hope that you will consider a contribution to our Camp Branson Improvement Fund to help with this effort.
Thank you!
Smoke marks the retreat of the fire that almost claimed Camp Branson. Note the destruction just on the other side of Sinks
Canyon Road from camp. Were we really lucky that camp was spared!

DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
CONTRIBUTIONS
The Department of Geological Sciences gratefully acknowledges the financial support of alumni and friends who promote the recognition, welfare and progress of the Department of Geological Sciences and the University of
Missouri. The University of Missouri’s Jefferson Club recognizes donors whose cumulative cash gifts or pledges to MU, including corporate matching contributions, total a minimum of $25,000 or whose deferred gifts total
$50,000 or more.
29
Snow at Camp Lander (before it was Camp Branson) on June 14,
1945. Photo by Betsy Page McRae (MU ’48).
Mrs. Norman F. Jeffries
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Weiser
Mr. and Mrs. Ed Williamson
Mr. John H. Marshall Jr.
Drs. Alice M. and John F. Blount
Dr. and Mrs. Tom Freeman Jr.
Dr. Herman Ponder
Mrs. John W. Tlapek
Mr. and Mrs. Richard G. Boyd
Mr. Donald S. Garvin
Mrs. Hugh M. Looney
Mr. Scott H. Raymond
Mrs. Walter G. Staley Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Jack F. Schindler
Mr. Timothy R. McHargue
Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Rayl
Mr. and Mrs. David K. Baumann
Dr. and Mrs. Richard Bishop
Mr. and Mrs. Jack D. Burgess
Mrs. John F. Burst
Mr. and Mrs. Paul E. Gerdemann
Mr. James R. Frank
Mr. and Mrs. Harold E. Johnson III
Mr. and Mrs. Andy Kemmer
Ms. Amy C. (Patterson) King
Mr. and Mrs. Ernie Knirk
Mr. and Mrs. Larry M. Knox
Mr. Andrew Kugler Jr.
Ms. Jane Espy Meyer
Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Miles
Mr. Gary C. Mitchell
Mr. and Mrs. Stephen T. Phillips
Mr. and Mrs. Gene W. Schmidt
Mr. and Mrs. Robert K. Sylvester
Dr. M. Ray Thomasson and Ms. Merrill Shields
Mr. Tom Ware

30
Henry W. Allen
Michael J. Bernthal
Larry C. Birkes
Alice and John Blount
Erna T. Brown
Wayne F. Canis,
George T. Cardwell
Anna Cruse
J. Torrey Curtis
Ruth Davies
John G. Elliott
Stanley C. Fagerlin
Robert L. Foster
James R. Frank
Thomas J. Freeman, Jr.
Leland C. Fuerst
Richard J. Gentile
Martha George
William Hoag
Richard Hoare
Glen Himmelberg
Bruce E. Hunter
Arthur Kasey
Robert M. Kick
David King
Larry Knox
Roger Kussow
Thomas J. Laughlin
Qingsong Li
Stuart A. Maier
Olav Malvik
Timothy McHargue
Earle McBride
DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
CONTRIBUTIONS
Jeffrey L. McManus
Jim P. Miller
John C. Miller
Thomas R. Moore
William J. Neal
Dennis R. Ojakangas
Richard W. Ojakangas
John Opich
Henry Ott
G. L. Parman
Stephen T. Phillips
Michael W. Quearry
Scott Raymond
John Repetski
Carl B. Rexroad
Lloyd J. Schmaltz
Gene W. Schmidt
Eugene Schweig
Marjorie C. Smith
Craig A. Stewart
Lawrence Tedesco
Richard A. Tudor
Marjorie Unklesbay
Kay N. Werner
Ed Williamson
Tom Zychinski
BHP Billiton
ChevronTexaco Corporation
Chevron USA Inc.
Doe Run Company
Exxon Mobil Foundation
Newfield Exploration Company

DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
ENDOWMENTS
William Burrows Allen Field Camp Scholarship
Mr. & Mrs. Richard G. Boyd Endowment Fund
John F. Burst Graduate Fellowship in
Industrial Minerals
David K. “Dai” Davies Memorial Scholarship Fund
Raymond Ethington Geology Student Scholarship Fund
Tom Freeman Geology Student Scholarhip Fund
Richard P. Frey Memorial Paleontology Fund
Donald S. Garvin Geology Field Camp Scholarship
Geology Student Support Fund
Leonard D. Harris Scholarship
Glen Himmelberg Geology Student Scholarship Fund
Wallace B. Howe Fellowship in Geology
William Johns Geology Student Scholarship Fund
Clayton H. Johnson Memorial Scholarship Fund
Hal and Ruth Johnson Fellowship Fund
Walter D. Keller Scholarship Fund
Craig Russell Knotts Scholarship Fund
Knox Family Geology Scholarship Fund
Maurice G. Mehl Memorial Scholarship in Field
Geology
Miles Family Geology Scholarship Fund
Mitchell Family Endowment Fund
James G. Mitchell Memorial Fund in Geology
Ernest J. Palmer Memorial Scholarship
Mrs. Pat Scholarship for Geology Students
Raymond E. Peck Undergraduate Scholarship
Raymond E. Peck Graduate Fellowship
Edmond A. & Mary L. Raymond Scholarship
Raymond Outstanding Achievement Fund
Carl B. Rexroad Geological Sciences Endowment
Pearl Todd Sando Geology Scholarship
Endowment Fund
Schmidt Undergraduate Scholarship Fund
Steyaert Family Geology Scholarship Fund
James H. Stitt Memorial Scholarship Fund
Fred Strothmann Perpetual Geology Scholarship
W.A. Tarr Scholarship
Dr. M. Ray Thomasson Graduate Fellowship Fund
John W. Tlapek Geology Student Scholarship Fund
George Viele Geology Student Scholarship Fund
George W. Viele Memorial Geology Field Camp
Scholarship Fund
Lily Marie Carter Endowed Geology Fund
Geology Endowment Fund
Walter D. Keller Opportunities for Excellence
Endowment in the Geological Sciences
John & Betty Marshall Opportunities for
Excellence Endowment in Geology
Gene & Thelma Schmidt Geology Endowment
Norman E. Smith Opportunities for Excellence in
the Department of Geological Sciences
Walter and Katherine Staley Fund in Geological
Sciences
31

32
DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
NEW FACULTY AWARDS
John M. Ware Memorial Geology Endowment
Williamson Family Geology Endowment
E.B. Branson Professorship
Camp Branson Endowment
Camp Branson Improvement Fund
Geology Faculty Enhancement Fund
Geology Faculty Rentention Award
Mitchell Family Camp Branson Fund
R.E. Peck Professorship
A.G. Unklesbay Travel Award
Robert J. Waldram Camp Branson Endowment
Blount Opportunities for Excellence in the
Department of Geological Sciences
Cache Creek Exploration Co. Scholarship Fund
Norman & Shirley Jeffries Graduate Fellowship
Robert W. Quearry Scholarship Fund
Carl R. Swartzlow Memorial Geological Sciences
Endowment Fund
Robert and Sue Weiser Bequest
Ed and Connie Williamson Bequest
John & Betty Marshall Opportunities for Excellence
in the Geological Sciences
Jack & Mildred Schindler Geological Sciences
Endowment Fund
Undergraduate students Nolan Walla and Kyle Brown (foreground) measuring foliations and bedding in the Archean Miner’s Delight Formation in South Pass, Wyoming during the advanced structural geology project in the sixth week of field camp.

DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
We are fortunate to have loyal alumni and friends who have supported many aspects of the academic mission of our department (e.g. student academic scholarships and Camp Branson). Our department is stronger than ever.
Our students’ lives have also been shaped by caring faculty mentors in the classroom, in the laboratory, and in the field. To continue this legacy, we ask you to help us recognize and maintain the high quality of the faculty of our department.
Toward this end, two new funds have been established through lead gifts from members of our Geology Development Board: (1) the Geology Faculty Enhancement Endowment and (2) the Geology Faculty Retention Awards
Fund.
It is possible to donate to either the principal or distribution side of these endowments. An advantage of a gift to the distribution is that your gift is available for immediate use. Additionally, this past year, the College of Arts and
Science provided matching funds for awards that we made from the distribution portions of these endowments, allowing us to increase the number of faculty who received awards. Part of these funds came from a gift by Arts and
Science alumnus Kent Kreh. We are extremely grateful for his support of the college and our department.
I am pleased to announce that this year, we were able to make awards from these funds to seven of our faculty members: Profs. Martin Appold, Paco Gomez, Mian Liu, Ken MacLeod, Eric Sandvol, James Schiffbauer and
Alan Whittington. We are proud of their accomplishments and we hope that they will remain at MU for many years to come.
We hope that alumni and friends will recognize the value of supporting our faculty and contribute to these funds.
33

34
DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
BOARD MEMBERS
Gary Mitchell, Chair
Consulting geologist
Highlands Ranch, Colorado
Michael W. Quearry, Vice Chair
Chevron
Houston, Texas
Savas Ceylan
University of Missouri
Mary S. Clark
Department of Natural Resources (retired)
Jefferson City, Missouri
David Fulton
Consulting geologist
Burke, Virginia
Martha George
WesternGeco
Midland, Texas
Bjorn Held
University of Missouri
Harold E. Johnson III
University of Missouri
Larry M. Knox
Southwestern Energy
Houston, Texas
Matthew M. Laughland
Nexen Petroleum
Plano, Texas
John H. Marshall Jr.
Marshall Energetics Inc.
Plano, Texas
Timothy R. McHargue
Chevron (retired)
San Ramon, California
John M. Opich
Chevron Energy Tech Co.
Houston, Texas
Scott Raymond
Marathon Oil Co. (retired)
Littleton, Colorado
Gene Schmidt
Consulting geologist
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Carey Bridges
Missouri Department of Natural Resources
Geological Survey Program
Rolla, Missouri
Ed Williamson
BP Amoco (retired)
Houston, Texas
Geology Development Board members Scott Raymond (left) and Gary
Mitchell (right) enjoy Lois Shelton’s hospitality at the spring 2013 board dinner at the Shelton home.

DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
FROM OUR BOARD CHAIR
This is the last letter of my two-year term as Board Chairman. It has been very enjoyable working with the Geology Development
Board members, the professors, the staff, the students and especially the spouses of all those mentioned previously. I certainly hope to remain on the Board as a “regular” member, if I can be “regular” at something.
The Board welcomes the newest member of the Department, Professor John Huntley. We look forward to getting to know John and indoctrinating him properly into the Mizzou geoscience community. It is always tough being the “new kid on the block”, especially with all of us “old” kids hanging around.
Although it seemed to be a somewhat quieter year for the Development Board than in the recent past, we were quite busy supporting the Department and have developed new plans for the future. We currently have eighteen members on the Development
Board, including two graduate student members. We continue to search for new members that can add to our expertise in expanding the ability of the Development Board to assist the Department in their continued excellent job of preparing geoscientists for the challenges of a much different world than what many of us knew in our university experiences. If you have an interest in participating on the Geology Development Board, please contact me or Kevin Shelton to learn more about the Board and how you can contribute your expertise and experience to the improvement of our efforts.
Our most recent projects at Camp Branson are complete and we now need to concentrate on replacing the automobile bridge that leads to camp. There have been recent fires in the canyon that could have been a disaster for Camp Branson if we had needed to get firefighting equipment into camp, as the current bridge cannot support modern fire trucks.
We have started the initial work of planning for the bridge and Forest Service approval. We have funds in hand for the planning stage, but we need to raise funds for bridge construction. We estimate that bridge construction may exceed $100,000, so we need to reach this monetary goal as soon as possible. Please consider making a donation to the Camp Branson Improvement Fund to support this effort.
Thanks to everyone for past and continued support for the Department of Geological Sciences. We continue to be a positive force within the University of Missouri and as a result, we are most proud of the Department of Geological Sciences, which continues to be a leader in the preparation of new, highly skilled geologists and geophysicists for finding resources and solving earth problems in our complex society. Because of the excellence of the leadership of Kevin Shelton, the professors, staff, students and alumni, we are becoming well known not only around the United States, but all around the world. We know what “the present is the key to the past” means, but we must develop a new saying, “the present is the key to the future” for the Department of Geological Sciences at
THE University of Missouri.
Tapadh leibh a h-uile duine a-rithist agus a h-uile beannachd duibh.
Thank you everyone again and every good blessing to you.
Best wishes to all,
Gary C. Mitchell
Chair
Letha Binel receives the 2012-13 Geology Development Board Outstanding Undergraduate
Award from board chair Gary Mitchell.
35

36
ALUMNI
NEWS
Christopher Adams (FC ’93, BS ’95) Back in late 2004 I switched gears and went full-time into Information Technology work, which I had done on the side for several years. I have worked for IDEOLITY, a small IT consulting firm, since
2007 as a network engineer. My wife, Sharon, and I live in Lee’s Summit, Mo., with three crazy cats. We are happy and content.
Hank Allen (FC ’49, BA ’48, MA ’49) Recently moved to Utah from Arizona. Recently revisited
Brice and Zion National Parks. At Zion on my
94th birthday I learned we are the same age!
Now living with son Bruce, a mining engineer graduate in early ‘80’s from Rolla, now plant
Manager of USG’s Siguard Plant.
Doug Babcock (FC ’78, BS ’78) Still semiretired, helping my brother with the family business in the morning and gentleman ranching in the afternoon and weekends. Became a first-time grandfather last October. Dana and I will celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary this summer. Life is good.
Clifford Balster (Grad student ’50-’51) I’m still alive and reasonably active for a 91 yr. old. Trying to emulate W.D. Keller.
Bill Berthold (FC ’84, BS ’85) Rita and Bill are happily married and want to volunteer at Camp
Branson when they retire.
Joseph Born, Jr.
(Masters student ’69-’70) Still living and consulting as a petroleum geologist in
Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ve been at this for more than
40 years and still enjoy the challenge of attempting to second-guess Mother Nature. I’m exploring in Oklahoma and S. Louisiana.
William Bridges (FC ’55, BA ’56, MA ’58) Doing fine.
Randy Cox (PhD ’95) Still in Memphis. Drive through Columbia every year on July 6th in the middle of the night, coming back from field camp.
Rev. Torrey Curtis (FC ’67) My wife Joyce died
July 25, 2012. My daughter Laurin Townsend is expecting my first grandchildren, twin girls in
July, 2013.
George Davis (FC ’86, MS ’89) 20 years with
MoDOT and still looking forward to work daily! Active in AMG, AIPG, AEG, GSA and review now for ASCE’s publication Journal of
Performance of Constructed Facilities. Last year involved in 3 biggest pipe ram jobs in the US as adviser or designer. Still publishing and enjoying that, too! Currently involved in rockfall analysis for safer Missouri highways!
Andrew Diefendorf (MA ’73) Spouse, Jinx, plans on retiring this summer. We will probably move to Cincinnati, where son, Aaron is a geology faculty member at University of Cincinnati. I have been helping Aaron build both organic biogeochemistry and stable isotope labs, playing lab rat and learning paleoclimatology.
Dennis Duewel (FC ’52, BA ’53, MA ’57) Enjoying retirement in Oregon. Good fishing and weather is good. It only rains about 32-36 inches a year in southern Oregon. I log onto Tribune sports to keep up with Tiger news.
John Elliott (FC ’74, BS ’73) I’m semi-retired now, but doing a bit of volunteer work with
USGS in post-wildfire debris-flow assessment.
Bike riding. XC skiing and chasing a young
Husky-Lab mix puts me on the move. Lynnie and I travel to Scotland this fall.
James Evans (FC ’56, BA ’59) Mostly retired professional photographer. Still married to Gale
(Block) Evans after 53 years. We have 2 daughters, 5 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.
Made the major (for me) change from 99% film to 99% digital. Still miss the darkroom after 67 years.
Stan Fagerlin (FC ’75, PhD ’80) Took a great trip down the Danube under the auspices of the
Missouri Alumni Association in 2012. This summer I took a 3+ week road trip to the northeast
US. I enjoyed the opportunity to visit Bruce
Hunter and to meet his wife Sandy after all these years. Also spent time in the Boston area visiting a former student and north of Philadelphia visiting friends from a trip to Iceland.
Robert Foster (FC ’60, MA ’62, PhD ’66) Mapping the Stonehenge Au-Mo prospect, Lander
Co., Nevada.
James Frank (FC ’75, BS ’76, MA ’79) All is well in Houston, Tex.
Alice Fuerst (MA ’80) Been teaching 16 years
(part-time) at the community colleges in Kansas

ALUMNI
NEWS
City, and I clearly stated that I would never teach after being a TA in graduate school.
Richard Gentile (FC ’56, BA ’56, MA ’58) A very successful year in retirement. Once again,
I taught a vertebrate fossil collecting class in the
Badlands, SD; received a $25,000 grant from the
Kemper Foundation to plan and supervise an exhibit on the Geology of the Kansas City area that was featured in the Box Gallery, Commerce Bank
Bldg, downtown KC March 1-May 31.
Lee Gordon (MA ’82) Carrie and I are continuing to enjoy life at the very fringe of St. Louis with room to have critters and enjoy the wildlife.
Have been with Parsons for 22 years and am getting the opportunity to work on some interesting projects. Looking forward to our younger son’s senior year of high school. Our older son and daughter are out of college and on their own and are doing well.
Richard Hagni (PhD ’62) Dick is retired from
Missouri University of Science and Technology (MS&T), but he continues to be active in research, publication, and oral presentation of professional papers. During the past year he presented three geological research papers. Two papers dealt with the occurrence and origin of platy galena crystals in the Viburnum Trend. The third paper dealt with field relationships of the fluorspar deposits in Namibia and was given at the
49th Annual Forum on the Geology of Industrial
Minerals in Kingston, Jamaica.
Stanley Harris Jr.
(Visiting Faculty ’48-’49)
Visiting Professor (associate) Geology 1948-49 thanks to Professor Unklesbay. My first University teaching experience; preparing me to establish
Geology major in (then) Department Geology and Geology at Southern Illinois University at
Carbondale.
Larry Heflin (FC ’59, BA ’59, MA ’61) Spending less time with geotechnical engineering and more time enjoying the Potomac River and the bordering C and O Canal Park.
Dana (Downs) Heimes (MS ’84) Still doing hydrogeology in northern Arizona (Flagstaff). Stop in and say hello if you are ever here or the Grand
Canyon.
Tom Hesemann (FC ’76, BS ’77, MA ’79) Alive and well in Erie, Colorado. My wife, Maryann, took a job with the Rockies. Two free tickets to every home game. Life is good!
William Hoag (MA ’57) The secret to life is to always inhale after you exhale! Also, he who has the most birthdays lives the longest! Isn’t it amazing what you can learn at the geriatric birthday card rack at the drug store. Vaya con
Dios, amigos.
F. D. Holland Jr.
(MA ’50) Retired 24 years; working (in desultory manner) on Cretaceous shark teeth in ND. Travel whenever possible.
Just returned from drive to Gulf of Mexico to see
Whooping Cranes in natural habitat.
Togwell Jackson (PhD ’68) “Retired” at end of 2010 but continuing to work full-time as a Scientist Emeritus. Mostly working on the publication of scientific papers based on as yet unpublished research data, mainly concerning biogeochemistry of mercury isotopes and effects of heavy metals on microbial communities.
Art Kasey (Grad student ’65-’70) Starting my
43rd year of teaching Earth-Geoscience and
Geology at Fox High School. I still love the challenge of teaching! I am very happy that our district is adopting the next generation of science standards (NGSS), which gives parity to the
Earth-Space Sciences (to that of Chemistry, Physics, and Biology) for Elementary, Middle and
High School!
George Kastler Still active in Association of Missouri Geologist and other professional organizations.
David King Jr.
(PhD ’80) I continue to work on impact structures and impact stratigraphy in the
US and central America. Have been working for some time on Mesozoic and Cenozoic Stratigraphy in Belize. New paper will come out this year on the Manganet Creek Formation of Belize.
Hello to all old friends.
Harold Levin (FC ’50, BA ’51, MA ’52) I retired in 2007 and returned to teach a course dealing with dinosaur paleontology for a few semesters. Just finished the tenth addition of “The
Earth Through Time”, and almost complete with a co-author of the tenth addition of a historical geology laboratory book. Fondly remember Pro-
37

38
ALUMNI
NEWS fessors Unklesbay, Keller, Peck, and Johnson.
Fred Lohrengel (MA ’64) All is well in Cedar
City. Still teaching and enjoying life!
Patrick McClung (FC ’93, BS ’94) Selling lots of safes and Carhartts. Dungarees.net is 80% of what I do and the rest of my time is split between the other companies and properties.
Arthur Merkle (PhD ’67) Fall semester is underway. Teaching 3 classes: Earth Science, Natural
Disasters and Physical Science. Been doing this at NWFSC for the past 14 years. Recovery from
9 hours of back surgery has not been an easy procedure. Walking 15 miles a week is good therapy.
Try it!
Bob Miles (FC ’74, BS ’75, MA ’77) Lisa and
I are doing great and enjoying Houston’s hot real estate market, driven by the energy industry.
Both our daughters live in the area and are doing well. All the best to the ’70’s gang and Geology
Dept. overall!
John Miller (FC ’65, MA ’68) Published a new novel “Dead Not Dead” in mid-summer. Available on Amazon. Trips this year include Machu
Picchu/Galapagos and long trip to west coast in travel trailer.
Arthur Moore (FC ’67, BS ’67, MA ’69) After
27 years in the oil and gas business and 9 years in the financial industry working with IRA’s and
401K’s in the Denver area, we have retired to the
Olympic Peninsula of Washington. We have the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other side. Mild temp and winters. Kayaking, hiking and working at the local radio station. Life is good.
Thomas Moore (MA ’81) Exco Resources is moving their technical staff to Dallas. I’m not going by choice, but right now I am not sure what comes next. Something different; perhaps something very different. I’ll let you know. Perhaps a short sabbatical first.
Amy Morrissey (BS ’09) I am in the process of writing my dissertation on Paleoclimate and Rift
Sedimentation. I hope to graduate in the spring.
Jim Muckler (FC ’02, BS ’03) University of
Georgia-Athens, M.S. in hydrogeology in 2010.
William Neal (MA ’64, PhD ’68) Our biggest news of past year is the birth of great grandchild
#4…a boy! Bill is still writing (see coastalcare.
org) and attending meetings- GSA Charlotte,
AAPG Pittsburgh, and regional GSA meetings in San Juan and Kalamazoo. In late August we vacationed in Alberta; Badlands & Rockies.
Richard Ojakangas (FC ’55, MA ’60) Long retired but busier than ever! Current main project is Archean glacial deposits of Dharwan Craton, south India.
Mark Petersen (FC ’74, MA ’77) Retired in west-central Missouri.
Mike Quearry (FC ’72, BS ’73, MA ’75) Yepstill at Chevron, working Latin America and west
Africa. Life is good in Houston! See you at the next Camp Branson reunion!
Scott Raymond (FC ’71, BS ’72, MS ’74) Lotsa changes going on, what with the adjustment to the SEC, the upcoming retirement of Brady
Deaton. The Geology Development Board keeps chugging along, trying to help the DOGS wherever possible. Keep the faith.
Arthur Reesman (FC ’59, BA ’59, MA ’61,
PhD ’66) It has been several years since my last check in! Still kicking but not so high. If in the
Nashville area, come on over.
Jason Rudolph (FC ’02) Teaching Geology and Environmental Science at Marquette High
School in St. Louis. Over the past years I have been enjoying fly fishing throughout the US.
Raymond Schneider (FC ’59, BA ’59, MA ’61)
Retired and enjoying it. Resource utilization is my prime interest. I live on a 20-acre lot, on the side of a drumlin.
Eugene (Buddy) Schweig (FC ’74, BS ’75)
Sequestration continues to be very painful and demoralizing, but our group is surviving. On the bright side, we and our 3 kids took a great trip to
Italy and we are still loving Colorado.
Cecil Slaughter (FC ’76, BS ’76) I am working for the office of surface mining in Washington
DC. Sara and I moved to the Washington DC area in May 2012. Housing is very, very expensive! Living and working in the DC area has been an experience.
Larry Trudell (FC ’52, BA ’56) I suffered a stroke in January 2012 from which I have recovered most of my abilities. I continue to swim and exercise at a moderate level. Don’t think I’ll travel any more. I still have the love of my family and friends.
Richard Tudor (FC ’62, BS ’64) I keep on keep-

ALUMNI
NEWS ing on – health is excellent – life is good!! Enjoying the ride on planet earth!
George Ulmo (FC ’78, MA ’79) I have been employed by SM Energy full time since 2011. Midland’s oil industry is booming with all the shale oil potential there is here in the Permian Basin. My family is doing great. My wife, Marjorie, and I are enjoying being grandparents with the birth of our first, Tristan, last year.
Pat Vezeau (FC ’78, BS ’80) Me: Finished tenure on the Examination Committee for the
American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial surgery after 7 years. Still practicing OMS in Sioux City/
Northwest Iowa. Continuing to do some publication and presentations in my specialty. Am a private pilot and flying with the Civil Air Patrol.
Daughter Anne: Graduating KU Med School in May 2013. She will be starting her internal medicine residency at the US Naval Hospital in
Portsmouth, Va., where I did my internship… and where she was born.
Daughter Grace: Junior in geological sciences at
Cornell University College of Engineering; emphasis area biochemistry. Seems that she would rather do their field camp on the Big Island of
Hawaii than at good old Camp Branson.
Son Neil: Freshman in microbiology/animal science at Iowa State… also a drum line guy like his dad. Pretty cool.
So each of the kids is, in some way, retracing some of my old steps. Debbie (my wife) and I can’t believe that the “kids at home” time is over!
However we are adjusting and getting a bit more spontaneous.
Robert “Bud” Weiser (FC ’57, BA ’58, MA ’60)
Sue and I are still living on Lake Norman, NC., north of Charlotte. We celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary in early September. We have 3 sons, 2 daughters and 3 grandsons. I have been in
49 countries and all 50 states.
James Williams (FC ’50, BA ’51, MA’ 52) Much time recently devoted to keeping the Missouri legislature from elimination of geologist registration. Several anti-geology and science legislature initiatives also harmful. Otherwise still working on Engineering Geology of Missouri draft.
Ed Williamson (MA ’73) Still living on the great plains of Katy, Texas and likely to remain here due to proximity of grandchildren. Still adding to my tektite collection, and Connie says hi to all the old library lurkers.
Jack Pennington (FC ’46, MA ’47), 92, of Houston, Tx. died April 12, 2013. Born in Dearborn,
Missouri, Jack served as a reconnaissance pilot during WWII and was awarded four bronze stars and a silver star. He worked as a petroleum geologist in New Orleans, New York, London, and finally Houston.
James S. Spencer (BS ’50), 86, an educator who oversaw the creation of a multi-campus community college district serving a 13-county region of southeastern Illinois, died May 30, 2012, in
Burien, Wash. After graduating from high school in 1943, 17-year old Spencer enlisted in the U.S.
Navy and served four years as a medic with the
5th Marines division in the south Pacific and
China. The GI Bill enabled him to enroll at the
University of Missouri. Armed with a new bachelor’s degree in geology, he landed a teaching and coaching job in Troy, Mo. Later, while coaching in the Missouri towns of Bloomfield and Sullivan, Spencer took classes at the university and, in 1955, earned a master’s degree in educational administration.
Grant H. Thompson (BS ’76) died August 16,
2012.
Department of Geological Sciences
101 Geological Sciences Building
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211-1380
You can call our main office at:
573-882-2040 or 573-882-6785
You can visit our website at: geology.missouri.edu
www.facebook.com/MUGeology
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Breaking News
Panoramic view of Laguna Miscanti, located inside the moat of La Pacana Caldera, Chile. The cone in the center foreground is Lascar; the pyramidal cone immediately to the left is Licancabur, the volcano that looms over the town of San Pedro de Atacama.
Miriam Barquero-Molina and Bob Bauer are set to lead twenty-three of our students to Chile in January 2014 as part of a study abroad class. The class is being taught as a “hybrid model” in which a significant portion of the instruction takes place this semester at MU where students are learning about Andean geology before venturing into the field.
The class will be in Chile for sixteen days, during which students and faculty will see a variety of geology including: world-class outcrops of magma-mixing; sheared outcrops representing the roots of the Andes; Jurassic and Cretaceous plutonic belts; Tertiary magmatic arcs; volcanic national parks; the Chuquicamata giant porphyry copper deposit; the Altiplano-Puna volcanic complex; and the El Tatio geyser field.
Visiting world-class geology localities in Chile will be an amazing opportunity for experience-based learning in a field setting for our students. In addition to tuition, students are required to pay for round-trip airfare from
St. Louis to Chile and for flights within Chile ($1,500 to $2,000). I am pleased to report that, through alumni gifts, we were able to provide more than $20,000 to assist students with these costs. Lots of pictures for next year’s Newsletter have been promised. Thank you for your support!
La Pacana Caldera is one of the largest silicic calderas in the Altiplano-Puna of Chile. The caldera-forming eruption (3.9Ma) was 2,500 km3, 2.5 times the size of the Lava Creek Tuff, which produced the present-day Yellowstone Caldera. The lonely rock pillar, as well as all the other solitary rock chunks around the moat are erosional remnants of the Toconao Ignimbrite, which filled most of the caldera. They resisted erosion because they acted as volatile vents during welding of the really hot and gas-filled ignimbrite. They are called “Monjes de la Pacana” (monks of the Pacana).