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2009 NewsletterOF THE

Department of Geology and Geological EngineeringVOLUME 19 DECEMBER, 2009

Chevron folds in Carboniferous strata as a result of Variscan/Hercynian Orogeny, North Dublin Coast, Ireland

Greetings from Berthoud Hall!

The Department extends to you our most sincere greetings and warmest wishes. It gives us great pleasure to publish and distribute the 2009 Newsletter of the Department of Geology and Geological Engineering. This is our opportunity to share with you the activities of our highly active and engaged faculty, students, and staff. Despite the challenges presented by the global economic downturn, Mines continues to be a highly sought-after university for education and research.

The Department continues to grow, with record-high student numbers. We currently have enrolled nearly an equal number of undergraduate majors and graduate students. We had the largest-ever incoming graduate class this Fall, with 40 new graduate students joining us. This brings to 140 the total number of graduate students. Our undergraduate majors in the

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sophomore, junior, and senior years total about 143. These are big numbers for us and Berthoud Hall is bursting at the seams! Consider that we had nearly 40 students at field camp this past summer, and the challenges that a class that large brings with it!

The interest in the Department, and in the geosciences and geoengineering in general, is likely the result of increased awareness of just how important the Earth and its resources are for today’s globally integrated society. Colorado School of Mines is strategically positioned to answer society’s call for rational scientific analysis and politically and socially adroit engineering solutions. Of course, the School’s focus areas of Earth, Energy, and Environment place Geology and Geological Engineering at the forefront of the School’s efforts.

In the Fall of 2008, the Department had its first programmatic review by its Visiting Committee since 2004. We greatly appreciate the dedication and hard work put in by the Committee, which is made up of professionals from academia, industry, and governmental agencies. It is gratifying to note that, while of course we face some challenges, the Committee sees the Department as “strong and vibrant”. They also noted their pleasure at how far the Department had come since the 2004 review.

The Department faculty and staff continue to work to make Geology and Geological Engineering at CSM a pillar of excellence. Research funding for the Department experienced a major increase for the year, with awards of over $5.5M (up from about $2.3M the previous year). Analytical capabilities were expanded with the addition of a source-rock analyzer for organic carbon content and a water analyzer for the stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen.

Faculty numbers have remained relatively stable over the past year. Graham Closs has moved to a transitional retirement position, joining Eileen Poeter and Eric Nelson also already on transitional appointments. Because of difficulties in Colorado higher education funding, an anticipated search for a new geological engineering faculty position was put on hold. However, we have been given approval to begin a tenure-line faculty search for a position in structural geology and tectonics for a Fall 2010 starting date.

As for me, I continue on as Department Head and am now in my fourth year in this position. I was one of only 50 educators worldwide (and the only one from the US) to be invited to participate in an Energy and Education workshop sponsored by the French energy company Total in March. Believe me, I didn’t mind taking part in an all-expenses-paid trip for a week in Paris! You’ll read more in this issue about my travels this past year, including three trips to Kazakhstan. The integrated field trip that we led in Kazakhstan this summer was a truly memorable experience. I also helped out leading a field trip to Ireland in May, along with Murray Hitzman and David Pyles, where we led a group of petroleum and mineral deposits students toward an understanding of each others’ fields.

The Department is strong and sound and, as you’ll read in this issue, many exciting developments are underway.

Please accept my best wishes to you and your families for a safe, healthy, and prosperous New Year. Please also continue to maintain your ties with the Department – we love to hear what our alums are up to! Feel free to visit us when you can. All the best from all of us at the Department of Geology and Geological Engineering.

John D. HumphreyDepartment Head

Contents

Department News 2Research Activities 16 Faculty News and Activities 22Alumni News 23Field Camp 24Student News and Activities 28

Department NewsiTunesUby Chris Shorey

Colorado School of Mines is now on iTunesU, and its presence is slowly growing. Currently, CSM on iTunesU is host to programming from both the Earth and Environmental Systems course and the Biological Systems course. So far most content is in audio format, but the Earth and Environmental Systems video series is already in production and is approaching the publication stage. Over the past few months of operation, the server has had between 1,000 and 2,000 downloads per week. The increase in downloads prior to exams in the respective courses reflects its use by our students, but correspondence has also demonstrated the outreach potential of this service. Student evaluations often note the usefulness of this material to students. Repetition is the mother of learning, of course, and this resource is another avenue for students to be presented with, or review, concepts central to course goals. It is hoped that more CSM content will appear over the next year as server management issues are resolved so that the faculty at large can be made more aware of this resource.

Check it out: http://inside.mines.edu/~cshorey/pages/sygn.html

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Ireland Field Trip and Seminar

Dr. David Pyles presents hierarchy of bedding and appreciation for lateral reservoir variability in the middle Ross Sandstone at Loop Head

Above: Load structures at the base of a bed in the middle part of the Gu! Island FormationRight: Load structures at the base of a bed in the middle part of the Gu! Island Formation

Above: Karstified Visean sha!ow-water carbonates of the Burren, Gaelic for “stony place”, ice age exposed Visean carbonates

By Sophie Hancock and Alexandra Fleming

This past spring, 15 petroleum and minerals graduate and undergraduate students participated in the Ireland field class, and with it, a chance to learn about carbonate and clastic-basin fill successions, sediment-hosted mineral deposits, and outcrop analogs for oil and gas fields. Through the Carboniferous geology of Ireland, we learned fundamental concepts that we can apply in our classes, theses and future careers, concepts that are applicable worldwide.

Faculty and students presented during spring semester seminar classes as segue to our Irish field trip. Each student was assigned a specific topic to present to the class, ranging from the tectonic history of Ireland to carbonate turbidites. At the end of the semester, our special topic papers were compiled to create our Ireland Field Guide for the field trip. In early May, we departed Golden on a

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two-week field trip with our field guides, compasses, and rain gear to experience the geology of Ireland. Our fearless, left-side-of-road–driving leaders were Professors David Pyles, Murray Hitzman, and John Humphrey, who collectively have over 25 years of experience in Irish Geology. We began our trip on the southwest coast of Ireland, where David Pyles led us through outcrops of the Carboniferous Shannon Basin. The basin contains a shallowing-upward basin succession containing sandy submarine-fan strata overlain by muddy unstable slope strata, which are in turn overlain by fluvial-deltaic cyclothems. These strata overlie Visean turbidites in the axis of the basin and shallow-water carbonates on the basin margins. We visited several outcrops and completed exercises that focused on hierarchy (bed, bedsets, elements), channel types (serrate margin vs. master erosion surface), aspect ratio of elements (width:height), co-genetic debrite-turbidites at the basin margin, and the vertical changes in stratigraphic architecture through the basin-fill succession. One afternoon we spent aboard a dolphin spotting boat, floating past outcrops of channel margins types, attempting to sketch the cliff section. The outcrops were very impressive, and included the Cliffs of Moher (shelf channel

deposits) that were dubbed the ‘Cliffs of Insanity’ in the film Princess Bride.The second half of the trip focused on a carbonate basin-fill succession

which hosts Pb-Zn minerals (Irish Pb-Zn ore district). We were privileged to access quarries, active exploration sites, historical core, underground modern mines and their core yards in our quest to unravel the mineralization story. The most significant mineralization is found as stratiform pods of Pb-Zn ore consisting of dolomite gangue, fine-grained sphalerite and coarse-grained galena. We discussed carbonate production style, focusing on the mud mounds and undolomitized micrites and grainstone host carbonates, and structural control of the stratiform lenses along ENE trending normal faults. Key alteration types examined included pre-mineralization (regional) dolomitization and hydrothermal dolomitization and silicification host rock preparation that enhanced sulfide mineralization and along strike silica-hematite alteration and replacement. Exploration techniques utilized to locating the deposits now being mined included shallow Zn and Pb soil geochemistry and geophysics, primarily induced polarization. Throughout these tours we were encouraged to question the accepted basic mineralization model. Group discussions helped us consider new exploration vectors and where areas for new discovery potential might be.

Cultural activities were an integral part of the trip itinerary, with frequent stops on country lanes between outcrops to peer over a stone wall to discover a stone fort or a ring fort, or to visit better known archaeological sites such as the Neolithic portal tombs on the Burren, a bleak and karstified upland. The final evening of the trip was

Teck Exploration Site - CSM students huddle around “the outcrop” of Waulsortian. Can you see it?

Core &om Tynagh historic mine - Iron Formation - hematic alteration is a key exploration vector

Lisheen underground mine visit and core shed

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Le': Sand volcanoes on the upper surface of the Ross Slump at Bridges of Ross.

Right: Slumps in the lower part of the Tu!ig Cyclothem

Cultural roundup of our time in between driving rain, Guinness and slippery cliff climbs!

spent dining at Bunratty Castle, including our very own Akira who was thrown into the jail and had to sing for his freedom during dinner with the Lord and Lady.

The group was able to fully experience Ireland in the sun, rain, and continuous damp drizzle euphemistically known as ‘soft gray days’. When the weather got too much the group took pit stops to sample pub fare, wonderful fresh seafood, and a variety of Irish beer. One afternoon after looking over some historic core in the driving rain, we were treated to a ‘high afternoon tea’ at the Philcox residence, a little piece of England served up: tea in bone china cups, cucumber and assorted sandwiches, and large quantities of cake.

We were fortunate enough to be joined for various parts of the trip by two experts on Carboniferous Ireland – Dr. Michael Philcox, geological consultant, and Prof. George Sevastopulo, from Trinity College Dublin. We were also made welcome by the following mining companies: Teck Cominco (exploration site), AngloAmerican (Lisheen mine), New Boliden Group (Navan mine), and the Lundin Group (Galmoy Mine). We thank all that contributed to the smooth running and quality of the trip.

Through the rocks of Ireland, we learned about the similarities and differences of the petroleum and mineral industry tool kits. Our integrated toolkit includes data sources for petroleum (outcrop, well logs, seismic and facies models), with minerals (drill core, outcrop, soil geochemistry and geophysics). Common to both are the importance of understanding basin evolution and structures and stratigraphic architecture, fluid flow and diagenetic history. The potential availability of both economic products depends on the time-dependent presence of a source, pathway, trap and seal.

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Update on the MuseumBy Bruce Ge!er

Work continues at a rapid clip in our Geology Museum. My second year on the job has brought about further changes. Once again, our success came from the hard work of our: Advisory Council, Student Aids, donors, volunteers, specimen loaners, visitors, visiting researchers, CSM faculty, staff, administrators, and students who support us in so many ways.

Our Advisory Council (including Bryan Lees [GE 1985]) has continued to meet monthly to steer our Museum. It chose a Museum logo, tagline, brochure design, ratified our new donation form, developed a policy for public contracting of our X-Ray Fluorescence unit, and allowed me to create and fill a Collections Manager position.

Of our 12 Student Aids working a total of 90 hours a week this semester, seven are GE majors and four are women! I met monthly with our Student Aids. John Bristow (GE ’11) was responsible for our Self-guided Tour brochure.

Some projects completed since my last communication included the printing of 1100 new specimen display labels, ten thousand colorful brochures, frequent restocking of our Gift shop, upgrading our website, and the redesign of our lighting fixtures. We also applied

for and received a grant from the Golden Civic Foundation, held a successful Garage Sale, hosted numerous receptions, identified many specimens, lent specimens for a collaboration with Pb isotope investigators (Ed DeWitt and Terry Klein) from the USGS, and collaborated with the Denver Art Museum on a study of Indian bronze sculptures. We received several major donated collections this year from Glenn Scott, Dick Taylor, Revell Phillips, Constellation Copper Company, Tom Steven, Father Forstall from Regis University, Dorothy Atlee from Colorado Springs, and the Popish family from Aspen.

The Advisory Council has sanctioned the creation of a “Friends of the CSM Geology Museum” for people interested in joining a broad network of dedicated Museum enthusiasts. Members may attend special lectures, workshops, tours, trips, and social events; receive 20% discounts when visiting our Gift Shop, and an e-mail newsletter. Membership dues are $10 for students, $30 for individuals, and $50 for families.

The new exhibits debuting in our Museum this year include the Climax mining district, highlights from John Marshall’s pyromorphite collection, a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Colorado gold rush, an explanation of the Colorado Mineral Belt, and cave

formations from the Clear Creek cave – discovered a few miles from campus in 1988. Loaned displays feature trilobites from Dan Unruh and Cripple Creek specimens and stock certificates from Ed Raines.

As for coming attractions, we will be offering a 2010 mineral calendar that will feature the Allison-Boettcher Au/Ag collection from the Arthur Lakes Library safe, and our second Museum Book Sale occurred February 15-19th (the same days and hours as the CSM library book sale, but in the Museum building, in the room across the hall from the Museum entrance). Speaking of 2010, the Denver Gem and Mineral Show theme will be the Creede mining district in southwest Colorado. Plan on attending our symposium dedicated to that district the week before the show. Let me know if you’d like to be on our mailing list.

We are proud to announce that we were awarded a long-term loan of an Apollo 15 lunar basalt specimen from NASA with the help of one of our professors, Angel Abbud-Madrid, from the Center for Space Resources. The specimen will not arrive on campus until early 2010 probably, but we are very excited about creating a new exhibit to compare lunar and terrestrial basalts, with the help of GE senior lecturer Joel Duncan, and two geophysics professors.

Generous thanks go to our trip organizers, and to the following sources of funding for enabling the Ireland field trip:

AnadarkoApacheBaytex Energy TrustBill BarrettChevron Center of Research ExcellenceChevron University Partnership ProgramDREGS Jim DavisNexenRichard NielsenSEG Student Chapter

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In conclusion, I wish to invite you to visit our Museum. We are located two blocks north of Berthoud Hall at 1310 Maple Street. Our hours are: Monday – Saturday 9 A.M. to 4 P.M., Sundays 1 P.M. – 4 P.M., except for certain legal and school holidays. Admission to our Museum is free; however, donations are greatly appreciated. Free on-street parking is

sometimes available and free parking passes are issued to visitors who use our parking lot west of our building (enter the lot via 13th Street). Further information is available on our website, or phone me at 303-273-3823. You may not have heard this, but “Great Universities have Great Museums!”

March 12, 2009, Marilyn Schwinger turned 70. The Department threw a birthday party for her in the main office. It was supposed to be a surprise, and was until she made an appointment to take her 96 year-old father to the doctor at the same time we had scheduled her event. We had to tell her so she would be present for her own party. Even though it wasn’t a surprise, it was fun.

Chris Shorey went through the old yearbooks and photo albums, scanned photos of Marilyn in various activities (one very comprising photo with a man without a shirt…), pasted them onto a poster board, and invited people to sign it. There was much discussion and stories about the photos and how young all the people in the photos were. Former students called her. Retirees came in to join the celebration. Friends from around campus also came to the party.

Marilyn began her 37th year with Mines January 1, 2009. She spent the first three years at Mines in the Registrar’s Office. She came to the Department in 1975 and has been here ever since. Her historical knowledge of the School, the students, and the Department, are phenomenal. She could possibly blackmail some folks. She plans to try for 40 years

before retiring. You go girl! Department Head John Humphrey says, "Marilyn is a rock. She can always be counted on to help students, faculty, and staff, not only in this Department, but also folks from across campus."

70 years and still typing....

John Warme giving a big birthday hug

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With great appreciation, we acknowledge contributions from our Friends and Supporters. These contributions provide the majority of funding on which the Department operates. We benefitted from high levels of giving from corporations and alums.

The Enhancement Committee efforts also helped bring increased levels of funding again this year.

The Department is fortunate to also have access to a number of endowed

funding sources that provide fellowships, thesis support, student stipends, lab maintenance, and general discretionary funds. The economic downturn cut into these funds drastically. We rely even more on the donations from our supporters.

All of the student field trip costs including vehicle rental, fuel, lodging, airfare, etc., are paid for by contribu-tions. Equipment, lab supplies, class-room supplies, equipment maintenance,

software – all are purchased with donations. Most of the fellowships awarded to our students are donated. Needless to say, we couldn’t operate without the generous contributions we receive. Many of our supporters enhanced their giving by using their companies’ matching gift programs. We can’t express our appreciation enough to all who have helped us this past year.

Friends of the Department

• Anadarko Petroleum• Donna S. Anderson• Mr. and Mrs. William J.

Barrett• David A. Baska• BP• Keri H. Brill• James G. Brophy• Brunton Trust• William S. Calkin• L. Michael Cheeseman• Chevron Corporation• James S. and Jacqueline

D. Classen• Graham Closs• Michael D. Cola• ConocoPhillips• Mr. and Mrs. Marshall C.

Crouch, III• James R. Daniels• Frank DeFilippo• Kim deRubertis• Devon Energy

Corporation• Charles W. Dimmick• Kim Doupe• Eric E. Eckberg• Hope Eiseman and

Robert Grusky• El Paso Energy Service

Co.• Mr. and Mrs. James J.

Emme• Encana Oil and Gas• EOG Resources• Jane Estes-Jackson• ExxonMobil Corporation

• Hershal C. Ferguson, Jr.• James R. Gallagher• Henry J. George• Halliburton Energy

Services• Halliburton Foundation,

Inc.• Travis S. Hammond• Dr. and Mrs. John Haun• Megan L. Hesse• Murray Hitzman and

Maeve Boland• Craig F. Horlacher• Mr. and Mrs. Francis T.

Humble• John and Michelle

Humphrey• Donlon O. Hurtubise• Thomas J. Jacaruso• John Karachewski• Steven G. Kirkwood• E. Dean B. Laudeman• Cheryl D. Leighton• Eleanor V. Leonard• Mr. and Mrs. Mark

Levorson• John and Erika Lockridge• Logan MacMillan• Anthony J. Mancini• Pria Maraj• Marathon Oil Company• Karen E. Miller• Craig E. Moore• Howard W. Musgrove• Noble Energy• Occidental Oil & Gas

Corporation

• Chris A. Oglesby• Carl K. Okpattah• Thomas W. Olsen• Mr. and Mrs. Arthur J.

Pansze• Suzanne Paschke• Sandra L. Perry• Phillips Petroleum

Company• Ronald W. Pritchett• Mr. and Mrs. James E.

Riley• John W. Robinson• Matthew A. Sares• Herman T. and Ruth

Schassberger• Joan and Joseph

Schindler• Robert A. Schwering• Mark E. Shaffer• Shell Oil Company• Mr. and Mrs. Robert E.

Smith• Joan V. Stratton• Bond Tabor• Lise D. Thieme• Chris Valorose• Jennifer A. Van Dinter• Scott R. Walker• Maureen Wan• Ward Petroleum

Corporation• Robert and Ruth Weimer• Janet N. Wille• Mark R. Williams• Stevens Zucker

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Economic Geologyby Murray Hitzman & Thomas Monecke

The biggest news of 2009 for economic geology at Mines was the formation of the Center for Innovation in Earth Resources Science and Engineering (CIERSE) at the Colorado School of Mines involving a number of departments on campus but with significant involvement of the economic geology program in the Geology and Geological Engineering Department. Dr. M. Stephen Enders, formerly Senior Vice President Worldwide Exploration with Newmont, will lead the new center, which will be housed in Mining Engineering. The center has already received a significant (approximately $1 million USD) contribution from Newmont and will be seeking additional funding in the year ahead. This center should aid significantly in drawing together the incredibly diverse talent on campus to focus on major research problems of interest to the mining and exploration industry.

The economic geology program had a busy year. Our new Assistant Professor Thomas Monecke jumped in with a field course to the Abitibi in May. Field trip participants visited several world-class deposits including the Dome and Kidd Creek mines and conducted extensive practical exercises in surface mapping, underground mapping, and drill core logging. Murray Hitzman co-taught a joint class/field trip to Ireland with CSM’s Research Professor David Pyles and Department Head John Humphrey. This trip focused on clastic and carbonate sedimentology and stratigraphy and how they influence both hydrocarbon accumulations and zinc-lead mineral deposits. The trip allowed students to better understand the complex carboniferous marine transgression, structural control of sedimentation, and the importance of sedimentary architecture for later subsurface fluid flow. A final field trip was held in September and was a mini-trip to southern Arizona organized by the CSM Society of Economic Geologists (SEG) Student Chapter in conjunction with the University of Arizona SEG Student Chapter.

At the end of the year, the Department advertised for a new structural geologist to replace Dr. Eric Nelson, who is moving to transitional retirement. We are hoping the new faculty member will fill Eric’s big shoes in relation to structural understanding of ore deposits and careful field analysis of geological structures.

The economic geology group at CSM (Graham Closs, Murray Hitzman, Karin Hoal, Nigel Kelly, Thomas Monecke, Eric Nelson, and Richard Wendlandt) have a number of joint research projects moving forward. In addition to the normal work with MS and PhD students, the year saw the completion of a major project in the southern Cloncurry district of Australia by post-doctoral student Dr. Robert Duncan, under the supervision of Hitzman and Nelson. We are working on developing a new research project with Rob involving U-Au-PGE deposits worldwide. The economic geology team is also working to upgrade our laboratory capabilities including the rock crushing and milling facilities, clay mineralogy sample preparation, and heavy mineral separation facilities. The group was working at year’s end on a proposal to the National Science Foundation for a new electron microprobe system.

But students are at the center of our program. 2009 saw the largest group of undergraduates in mineral exploration in over twelve years. We also maintained a large group of graduate students studying ore deposits. These are:• Jefferey Edelen (MS) – Geology of the Cerro Jumil gold skarn,

Mexico (Monecke)• John Gibbons (MS) – Mineralogical and geochemical vectors to

ore in the Hoyle Pond deposit, Timmins, Ontario (Monecke)• Garth Graham (PhD) – Geology of the Sheep Creek Cu deposit,

Montana (Hitzman) • Sophie Hancock (PhD) – Hydrogeology of the Lost Creek

uranium deposit, Wyoming (Hitzman)• Elizabeth Haynes (PhD) – Geology of intrusive-type gold

deposits, central Alaska (Goldfarb – Hitzman)• Elizabeth Holley (PhD) – Geology of the Veladero high-

sulfidation deposit, Argentina (Monecke)• Michael Kirschbaum (MS) – Geology of the Guelb Moghrein

Visit to Kidd Creek Mata!urgical Site in Timmins, Ontario

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Above: Jack Gibbons mapping Porcupine Assemblage meta-sedimentary rocks in Timmins, Ontario

Right and below: Looking at outcrops during the Abitibi fieldtrip

Cu-Au deposit, Mauritania (Hitzman)• Julie Leibold (PhD) – Mineralogical and geochemical vectors to uranium roll-front mineralization (Monecke)• Brandon Lewis (MS) – Geology of the Toboggan Au-Te prospect, Idaho (Hitzman)• Jessica Matthews (PhD) – Trace element transport in the continental crust during anatexis: the role of accessory

minerals (Kelly)• Jeannette McGill (PhD) – Geology and economics of the eastern limb of the Bushveld Complex, South Africa

(Hitzman)• Tom Meuzelaar (PhD) – Thermodynamic behavior of CO2 in mineralizing hydrothermal systems (Monecke)• Robert Nowak (MS) – Predicting indicator mineral compositions in metamorphosed ore deposit alteration halos using

calculated phase equilibria (Kelly)• Elizabeth Pesce (MS) – Geology of the Otjikoto gold deposit, Namibia (Hitzman)• Jocelyn Ross (MS) – Geometallurgy at Bingham Canyon, Utah (Hoal – Hitzman)• Danielle Schmandt (MS) – Geology of the Kamoa deposit, DRC (Hitzman)• Ho Cheol Shin (MS) – Kharmagtai porphyry Cu-Au, Mongolia (Hitzman)• Chris Siron (MS) – Geology of the Little White Man Zn-Pb-Ag prospect, eastern Alaska (Hitzman)• Mike Tedeschi (MS) – Iron oxide-Cu-Au mineralization at Cerro Verde, Sonora (Hitzman)• Kelsey Zabrusky (MS) – topic still being determined – will deal with Martian geology (Andrews-Hanna, Geophysics,

and Hitzman)In addition, three of Hitzman’s PhD students are in the process of final write-up: David Brougton (Stratigraphy of the

Zambian Copperbelt), Gloria Lopez (El Espino IOCG system, Chile), and Jon Woodhead (Iterative modeling of geological and geophysical data for a new understanding of the African Copperbelt).

We currently have three students in the professional masters program: Younus Afzail, Rebecca Klein, and Tayfun Kurt.

A number of the students were successful with grants during the year. The SEG Foundation awarded research grants to Jack Gibbons, Julie Leibold, Brandon Lewis, Mike Kirschbaum, and Chris Siron. SEG fellowships were awarded to Jeffrey Edelen, Jack Gibbons, Brandon Lewis, and Kelsey Zabrusky. Tom Meuzelaar is a 2009 Geosciences BC Scholarship Recipient. Sophie Hancock was awarded an IOM3 scholarship.

We have begun to regularly organize short courses by teaming up with the Society of Economic Geologists. The first short course was on Dec. 11 focusing on Gold in Metamorphic Terrains, held by Howard Poulsen (filling in for Benoît Dubé who was not able to travel) and Richard Goldfarb. The second short course will be presented by Jeff Hedenquist and Antonio Arribas on Epithermal Precious Metal Deposits on March 11-12, 2010.

To find out what is happening in the economic geology program at Mines go to: http://geology.mines.edu/econgeol/index.html.

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The engineering geology and geotechnics section of the Department consists of three full-time faculty members (Drs. Jerry Higgins, Paul Santi, and Wendy Zhou), one Emeritus member (Dr. Keith Turner), one Research member (Dr. Meghan Morrissey) and 20 graduate students (four Ph.D., ten M.S. and six M.E. candidates in Geological Engineering).

The program faculty and graduate students’ research covers a wide spectrum of topics. Dr. Higgins is working with students on: rockfall simulation (Ryan Bartingale), characterization of Oregon coast landslides (Sarah Rickard) and the Dowds No. 1 landslide (Travis Pickering), relationship of Colorado landslides to short and long-term climate events (Steven Otto), and aggregate resources maps for Native American lands in northern New Mexico (Rex Whistler).

Dr. Santi is working with students on debris flow sediment sources (Holly Brunkal and Derrick Schimming), prediction and planning (Joe Gartner), initiation (Jon McKenna), and sediment analysis (Nathan Swanson), as well as landslide stabilization with horizontal wick drains (Kevin Mininger).

Dr. Zhou is working with graduate students on GIS-based water resource analysis for oil shale development (Matt Minnick and Elif Acikalin). These projects have been funded by a variety of sources: the U.S. Geological Survey, Colorado Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Education GAANN Program, Blackhawk Geologic Hazards Abatement District, U.S. Department of Energy, Yeh and Associates, and U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Our students are active in professional societies and research. We took nine students (six graduate and three undergraduate) to the national Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists (AEG) meeting in South Lake Tahoe this fall (five of whom delivered presentations or posters), and three presented at the national GSA meeting in Portland, Oregon. Student support for all of this travel came from Department funds (much of which came from donations by our alums) and from funded research projects secured by our faculty. CSM Geological Engineering students Ryan Bartingale (M.S.) and Holly Brunkal (Ph.D.) were selected for the “Top Student Presentation” awards at the AEG annual meeting.

We have also been able to support field trips in undergraduate and graduate classes through Department funds and your donations, including trips for Site Investigation, Engineering Geology and Geotechnics, Engineering Geology Design, Advanced Engineering Geology, and Landslides: Analysis and Mitigation.

Dr. Santi published a book "Debris-Flow Erosion Control Treatments After Wildfire," with M.S. graduate Victor deWolfe as the primary author. During the year, he also prepared a chapter entitled "Wildfire and Landscape

Change" for a 25-volume treatise on geomorphology to be published by Elsevier.

Dr. Higgins is finishing up his chapter contributions to a Transportation Research Board (TRB) book on rockfall, currently serves as the chair of the AEG Landslides committee, and is an active member of the TRB Rockfall and Engineering Geology committees. He also serves as chairman of the Department Geological Engineering Program Committee, which is re-evaluating the under-graduate curriculum.

Dr. Wendy Zhou and her graduate students are working on a DOE project on GIS- and Web-based water resources geospatial infrastructure for oil shale development (a $1.4 million multi-year project). Her collaborators include Dr. Jerry Boak, Dr. Dave Benson, and Dr. John McCray at CSM as well as professors and scientists from University of Texas at San Antonio and Idaho National Lab. Dr. Zhou and her co-authors received a “Best Paper Award” for “GIS-Based Approaches to Earthquake-Induced Landslide Hazard Zonation” during the 2009 International Symposium on Rock Mechanics. She also contributed a book chapter on “An Outlook of GIS Applications In Mineral Resource Estimation” in the book entitled “Gold Mining: Formation and Resource Estimation, Economics and Environmental Impact”.

Dr. Turner continued his editing and writing tasks for the new Transportation Research Board (TRB) book on Rockfall Evaluation and Control; 10 chapters have been completed and the remaining 8 chapters are in preparation. He also co-authored a 115-page TRB Circular documenting the full-scale field tests of rockfall attenuator systems conducted by the Colorado Department of Transportation last year. He is engaged with several research projects; one concerns evaluation of LiDAR scans of rock slopes by 8 state

Students in the graduate Case Histories class obviously have more curiosity than obedience

Engineering Geology and Geotechnics

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transportation agencies, while another is developing specifications for web-based collaborations for environmental studies supported by the Department of Energy. Interactions with the British Geological Survey concerning 3D geological framework modeling and groundwater research approaches resulted in a week-long visit to CSM by a BGS staff-member and discussions with BGS-teams at the GSA and AGU annual meetings. In addition, Dr. Turner serves on numerous TRB panels, including chairing a TRB Expert Group overseeing a 2-year $3.6-million research program developing new methods for locating subsurface utilities. He also chairs national and international education committees for the AEG and IAEG that are assessing geo-engineering education and professional qualifications.

Integrated CSM-KazNTU Field School, Summer 2009

As was reported last year, CSM has entered an exchange and working relationship with the Kazakh National Technical University (KazNTU), located in Almaty, Kazakhstan. To truly put the relationship to the test, we designed and carried out a field school in the Karatau region of south-central Kazakhstan with students and faculty from both CSM and KazNTU. Funding and significant logistical support was supplied by Chevron.

Both CSM and KazNTU are members of Chevron’s University Partnership Program, an educational program that enhances student experiences in the selected program schools. The idea for a joint field school was conceived in March 2008, during a visit to KazNTU by John Humphrey and the Head of Petroleum Engineering at CSM, Dr. Ramona Graves. Immeasurable hard work, effort, and time by all three institutions made the field school a reality for Summer 2009.

The field program had a number of objectives and goals. Principal among them was to integrate Earth sciences and petroleum engineering in the field by studying world-class geological outcrops of economic importance. Secondly, it was our intention to share educational styles with faculty and students from both institutions in a truly cross-cultural environment. Importantly, we wanted to learn, make lasting friendships, and have fun! Based on these objectives and goals, the field school was a resounding success.

Participating in the field school from CSM were Drs. Humphrey and Graves and ten graduate students (five from Geology, three from Petroleum Engineering, and two from Geophysics). From KazNTU were five faculty members from the Geology Institute, five third-year students from the Oil & Gas Institute, and eight second-year students from the Geology

Institute. In addition, four professional geologists from Tengizchevroil (a Chevron joint venture operating the massive Tengiz oil field in the Caspian basin) participated in the course. The field site chosen was in the low mountains of the western region of the Tian Shan range, which is an extension of the Himalayas. Both the Greater and Lesser Karatau (Bolshoi and Malyi Karatau) ranges expose Devonian through Carboniferous strata in outcrop that are in part equivalent to the platform carbonates that form the world-class giant reservoirs of Tengiz, Karachaganak, and Kashagan in northwest Kazakhstan. We spent seven days in the field learning the stratigraphy of the Malyi Karatau region. It was extremely gratifying to watch the graduate students from Geology and Geological Engineering work closely with the Kazakh students. Indeed, we formed learning teams, with each team being led by one of the five GE grad students. Be assured that the teaching and learning in this environment was significantly different than what the Kazakh students (and faculty!) have been used to in their system.

Hiking into Charyn Canyon, Kazakhstan's "Grand Canyon"

Group photo. Thanks, Chevron!

by John Humphrey

PAGE 13

Team Dawn discussing outcrop in the low hi!s of Malyi Karatau.

Above: Recapping the day’s observations back at camp

Although there was a great deal of uncertainty going into the trip from both the KazNTU and CSM sides, I believe we met and exceeded the goals for the trip. Fantastic outcrops were studied, cross-cultural friendships were forged, and a great time was had by all participants. For 2010, we are planning on bringing a group of students and faculty from KazNTU to Colorado to embark on a two-week trip studying classic outcrops of the American West.

Our sincerest appreciation goes out to Chevron and the University Partnership Program that made this trip a success!

Petroleum Group Activities

Right: Team Nikki!

Steve Sonnenberg

Steve Sonnenberg’s research includes sequence stratigraphy, tectonic influence on sedimentation, and unconventional petroleum systems. His current research focuses on the Bakken Petroleum System in the Williston Basin. The project will focus on the stratigraphy, structure, diagenesis, burial history, mineralogical distribution and petrophysical properties of the Bakken Petroleum System. The research is funded by a NETL grant and a 15-company consortium. Geology students on the Bakken project are: Becky Kowalski, Andrea Simenson, John Stroud, James Vickery, Alan Gantyno, Steve Angster, Adrian Almanza, Cosima Theloy, and Hui Jin.

M.S. students working on international projects include Komon Pinyo (Thailand project) and Rzger Abdulla (Iraq project). M.S. students working on other unconventional reservoirs include Steve Montoya (Mowry, Powder River Basin), Jon Jay Charzynski (Niobrara, North Park Basin), Russell Lewis (Niobrara, Park Basins), and Adam Anderson (Codell Sandstone, northern Denver Basin).

Steve was General Technical Program chair for the 2009 Annual AAPG meeting that was held in Denver. Steve is currently on the AAPG Executive Committee and serves as Chairman of the House of Delegates for AAPG. He also is a councilor for the Colorado Section of AIPG.

PAGE 14

Flame Ionization Detector (S1 and S2)

Source Rock Analyzer Software

SRA Autosampler with Crucibles

SRA IR Detector (S3 and S4)

Sample Transferring Pedestal

The Source Rock Analyzer (SRA) quantitatively determines the amount of &ee hydrocarbons (S1) and the amount of hydrocarbons generated through thermal cracking of nonvolatile organic matter (S2) using a Flame Ionization Detector (FID). The amount of CO2 produced during pyrolysis of kerogen (S3) is determined in using an IR detector. The SRA also determines the temperature at which the maximum release of hydrocarbons &om cracking of kerogen occurs during pyrolysis (Tmax) and Total Organic Carbon (TOC). Hui Jin loads samples for analysis.

Current Research

Jen Aschoff’s research group (CSM Applied Stratigraphy and Tectonics Group), is focused on disentangling the local, regional and mega-regional tectonic/structural controls on sedimentary basins and their fill. Her research group specializes in four main areas: (1) Regional to Mega-regional Sequence-stratigraphic Analysis, (2) Tectono-stratigraphic Reconstruction Using Growth Strata and other Tectonic Signatures, (3)Tectonic, Eustatic and Climatic Controls on Clastic Wedge Development, and (4) Applied Stratigraphy in Complexly Deformed Areas for Efficient Exploration/Production of Natural Resources.

The "Applied Stratigraphy and Tectonics Group" currently consists of 6 graduate students and an undergraduate research assistant. Five core projects are currently underway, and a sixth nascent project is set to begin in the next few months. Current projects include:

a. “Stratigraphic controls on higher-than-average permeability zones in tight-gas sands, Piceance Basin, CO” [funded by RPSEA grant to Aschoff 2009-2011]

- Sarah Edwards, MS Aspirant, Expected, 2011- Phylicia Saner, Undergraduate Research Assistantb. “Regional sequence-stratigraphic framework and facies distribution of the upper Mesaverde Group, Uinta basin,

UT” [funded by Uinta Basin Joint Industry Consortium grant to Aschoff 2009-2011] - Raju Sitaula, PhD Aspirant, Expected 2012c. “Growth strata analysis and tectono-stratigraphic development of the Southern Provo Salient, UT: Insights into

thrust-belt plays and analog for the Covenant Field” [funded by a USGS grant to Aschoff 2009-2010]- Parker Valora, MS Candidate, Expected May 2010!!

Jennifer Aschoff

PAGE 15

d. “Basin-scale stratigraphic model and high-resolution unroofing volumes of a low-accommodation clastic wedge” [partially funded by the CSM Basin Modeling Initiative and in collaboration with IFP]

- Jared Rountree, MS Candidate, Expected 2011e. “Regional sequence-stratigraphic framework the the Farrer and Tuscher Formations, Uinta basin, UT” [funded by a

Utah Geological Survey grant to Aschoff 2008-2009] Results in review.

New Graduate CourseJen’s new course, “Tectonics and Sedimentation”, was recently approved by the Graduate Council and will be offered

alternate years. The goals of the course are to: (1) provide students with a historical perspective on the evolution of tectonics and sedimentation as a subdiscipline and (2) teach students to interpret the interaction between tectonics and sedimentation using a range of techniques (e.g., growth strata analysis, detrital composition, paleocurrents, facies patterns, large-scale stratigraphic architecture and thinning trends). The hybrid, lecture-discussion format allows students to examine and discuss different styles of deformation, and the response of sedimentary systems to these styles through lectures and critical discussion of the primary literature. Students attend 3 field trips to practice applying “tectonic signatures”, with a key focus on growth-strata analysis. Trip 1: Growth Strata, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO; Trip 2: Onion Creek Salt Diapir, Paradox Basin, Moab, UT; and Trip 3: Valley of Fire State Park and Las Vegas Valley Shear Zone, Las Vegas, NV. By the end of the course, students are exposed to a wide range of structural styles, and have a better sense of how these structures develop and influence sedimentation in 3 dimensions - skills that are critical for developing new exploration strategies.

Graduate students evaluate clast-counting methods in the Cretaceous Overton Conglomerate, Las Vegas, NV

Onion Creek Salt Diapir, Paradox Basin, Moab, UT - CSM graduate students and faculty (Drs. Aschoff and Trudgi!) at the Va!ey of Fire State Park, Las Vegas, NV

CSM graduate students discuss growth-strata geometries at the USAFA, Colorado Springs, CO

PAGE 16

ResearchNick Harris

Nick’s research focused on three areas: sedimentology and geochemistry of organic-rich shales; petrology and diagenesis in tight gas sand reservoirs; and geochemistry of natural gas in tight gas reservoirs as a tool for understanding migration mechanisms.

Organic-rich shales: Nick supervised research on two organic-rich shales, the Ostracode Zone (Lower Cretaceous), Alberta Basin, and the Woodford Shale (Upper Devonian), Permian Basin, west Texas, which focused on sedimento-logical, stratigraphic and geochemical models for shales and how these models relate to the deposition of organic carbon. Two M.S. students under Nick’s direction graduated in May: Whitney Wheeler and Cheryl Mnich. A third M.S. student, Khodir Aoudia in Petroleum Engineering, was also supported by the Woodford Shale Consortium; his work related shale geochemistry to petrophysical properties, and he completed his studies at the end of the summer. Highlights of the research included recognition of 2nd and 3rd order sequences in basinal shales, documentation of varying biogenic silica and clay content related to the sequence stratigraphy, and complex controls by sea level on organic matter content and type.

Tight gas sand petrology and diagenesis: Two students completed M.S. theses under Nick’s direction that provide a fundamental data base on the composition and petrology of reservoir sandstones in two major Rocky Mountain tight gas sand fields. Trevor Stroker studied the Mesaverde sandstones at Rulison and Parachute Fields in the Piceance Basin; a significant result of his study was obtaining K-Ar age dates on illites from the sandstones, one of the rare instances when a ‘hard’ date can be put on a diagenetic event. His data also suggested that substantial amounts of potassium must move in the subsurface in order to form the illite. Andrew Govert completed a study of the Lance Formation at Pinedale Field in the Green River Basin, Wyoming. His work used a technique called SEM-CL to identify multiple generations of quartz cement, and he pinpointed a specific sandstone composition that leads to the best reservoir porosity.

Tight gas reservoir geochemistry: This work, funded by a major grant from RPSEA, uses the bulk hydrocarbon, isotopic and trace gas composition of natural gas in three large tight gas sand fields to develop models for how gas migrates into these reservoirs. Lucy Ko’s M.S. thesis research is funded under this project. Collaborating institutions on this project include the US Geological Survey, University of Oklahoma and University of Manchester. We are also working with Fluid Inclusion Technology Inc. and Permedia Inc. In the winter, spring and summer, major sampling efforts were undertaken in the southern Piceance Basin, Colorado and at Jonah Field, Wyoming. We have now documented significant vertical and lateral variation in the composition of gases in these fields that probably relate to gas derived from different source rocks, combined with fractionation of gas during migration.

Nick Harris is using copper tube to co!ect the noble gas samples &om we!head in Piceance Basin

PAGE 17

Donna Anderson and Mary Carr

Donna Anderson, Mary Carr, and Jennifer Miskimins (Petroleum Engineering) were awarded a contract through ITF of Aberdeen, Scotland to perform an integrated geologic and hydraulic fracture modeling study of a 3-D fluvial outcrop in the lower Mesaverde Group near Rangely, CO. The study, which runs through 2010, is based on extensive field mapping of fluvial geobodies and their internal facies. Utilizing spatial data (GPS) of the geobodies and correlative surfaces, a deterministic geocellular model of geobodies was constructed preserving the geometries and facies distributions observed in the field. The model can then be used to evaluate the affects of internal sandstone body geometry and facies architecture on the propagation of induced hydraulic fractures in a tight gas-sand reservoir. The model is populated with “conventional” rock properties such as permeability and porosity, in addition to rock mechanical properties, which also show a strong correlation to depositional facies, are being measured and modeled as part of the study. Measurement of outcrop rock properties to date, show the same range of values as do those from the subsurface. Establishing a relationship between outcrop and subsurface rock properties will provide a transform for surface to subsurface data sets. Two graduate students, Jeffrey Thompson from Geology and Ronnie Busaba from Petroleum Engineering, are being partially to fully supported by the project. For more information on this project please visit http://petroleum.mines.edu/research/3DTIGHT

White box indicates location of point bar in multiple cross-section view of 3D geoce!ular facies model of point bars and splay bodies in fine grained non-reservoir facies.

David Benson is now doing research on the fundamental nature of chemical reactions in porous media. The classical mathematical models for chemical transport and reaction have a built-in assumption of complete mixing. Therefore, the choices used to solve the equations bear directly on the ultimate solution. This is important when designing systems that eliminate toxic solutes through reactions with injected reactants. In a 2008 paper in Water Resources Research, along with coauthor Mark Meerschaert (Michigan State U.), he designed a computer algorithm to simulate chemical reactions when the reactants have any degree of mixing. He found that reactions follow a well-mixed regime until late in the reactions, when the rate is slowed considerably by diffusion-limited migration. Owing to poor mixing, some reactants may make long-distance forays into “enemy territory” rich in another reactant. These phenomena are often observed but are difficult to accurately simulate.

Dave Benson

!

Plot of reaction rates for we!-mixed (solid black line) versus diffusion-limited particle algorithm. The slowed reactions are due to spatial organization (inset).

PAGE 18

by Mason Dykstra

Submarine landslides can deposit large masses of sediment on the seafloor, commonly on the continental slope or proximal abyssal plain. The areal extent of common submarine landslide deposits on the modern seafloor ranges from a few square km to over 5000 km2. Because the sediment in submarine landslides becomes deformed as it moves down the continental slope, the upper surface of the resultant deposit often exhibits significant topography, which can exceed several hundred meters of relief over large lateral spatial scales (tens to hundreds of km). This topography can have a significant impact on processes on the seafloor, helping to control the distribution and efficiency of turbidity currents, contour currents, and internal tidal currents. Because near seafloor processes are commonly the dominant processes involved in the movement of sediment on the seafloor, the spatial variation in the supra submarine landslide topography is an important factor in the final distribution of preserved lithologies in the subsurface, and has a significant impact on the distribution of oil and gas reservoir rocks. The aim of this work is to determine whether there are regular patterns to the spacing and relief of this topography, and how that might relate to the mechanical properties of the sediment involved in the submarine landslide. These questions are being addressed through careful examination of outcrop data, through mathematical modeling of the processes, and through spectral analysis of some of the deposits on the modern seafloor. This contribution presents some of the spectral analysis work on the spatial distribution of topography on a modern submarine landslide deposit. The following figures present an example from a submarine landslide deposit in the western Gulf of Mexico. The bathymetric data of the slide first has to have the trend of the continental slope removed, then the Fourier Transform of the data is taken, which bins the data according to the spatial frequencies. What is clear from the figures is that there are a number of spatial frequencies that are common, indicating that the spatial distribution of the topography is indeed relatively regular, and the Fourier

Transform and the Power Spectrum describe this quite well. Future work will look at other deposits in other settings to see how the spectra differ depending on setting, characteristics of the sediment involved, aspect of the continental slope, etc.

Figure 1 -- A contour bathymetry map of the East Breaks Submarine Landslide, western Gulf of Mexico. Bathymetry varies &om about 300 m depth (red colors) to 1200 m depth (blue colors). The contours inside the submarine landslide area show clearly the amount of topography on the seafloor above the slide relative to the smoother topography outside the slide.

Figure 2 -- A contour bathymetry map of the same area as the previous figure with the trend of continental slope removed using a linear filter. You can now see that there is no clear deep to sha!ow trend, an essential step before spectral analysis.

Figure 3 -- Two-dimensional Fourier Transform of the bathy-metric data a'er the trend of the continental slope has been removed, where it can be seen that the data is not in fact uniformly distributed. This uneven spatial distribution of the Fourier Transform indicates that there are spatial &equencies common to the original bathymetric data.

Using Spectral Analysis to Determine the Regularity or Irregularity of Seafloor Topography

PAGE 19

Chevron Center of Research Excellenceby Matthew Hoffman, Amy Moss-Russell, Jeremiah Moody, Charlie Rourke

Five Master’s theses were completed at the Chevron Center of Research Excellence (CoRE) in 2009 that are part of an ongoing research project on the Eocene deepwater and deltaic deposits of the Ainsa Basin in the Spanish Pyrenees. Student research focused on questions that have direct implications on the prediction of reservoir-quality in analogous basins. Students were advised by CoRE researchers Dr. David Pyles and Dr. Renaud Bouroullec and worked closely with numerous Chevron and CSM researchers.

Students Amy Moss-Russell and Henri Silalahi studied the Sobrarbe Formation, a well-exposed, prograding shelf-slope-basin system that records the final stages of Ainsa Basin fill. Amy measured architectural elements and depositional facies from the shelf to upper slope in a shelf-margin delta system. Henri focused on architectural elements from the upper to lower slope with an emphasis on the evolution of subaqueous channels. Combined, their work documents the distribution and dimensions of architectural elements and depositional facies along the physiographic profile in a coeval fluvial-deltaic to deepwater system.

Students Prianto Setiawan and Jeremiah Moody studied the Morillo stratigraphic unit, a channelized deepwater turbidite system that exhibits influence from syn-depositional structural growth on basin-bounding structures. Prianto focused on changes in stratigraphic architecture and facies from basin axis to basin margin. Jeremiah studied the impact of growing structures on depositional facies, facies distribution, and channel architecture within the channelized turbidites of the Morillo 1 sub-system. Results from this work have already been used by Chevron geologists to reduce uncertainty in subsurface modeling and interpretation in the deepwater deposits of offshore Angola.

Student Matthew Hoffman constructed a 3-D model of the Ainsa Basin syn-tectonic deepwater fill and utilized stratigraphic growth indicators to constrain the timing of structural growth on basin bounding structures. This research examined the relationship between the distribution

of reservoir-quality sands and paleo-depocenters within Ainsa Basin, a concept applicable to offshore slope mini-basins being actively explored and produced.

The results of the Ainsa Basin research were the subject of multiple presentations and posters at the 2009 AAPG annual convention in Denver. Journal articles are currently being completed that cover the wide range of topics addressed by the students’ research.

The CoRE team is composed of one Research Professor (David Pyles), a Program Manager (Charlie Rourke), new Ph.D. candidates (Jeremiah Moody, Greg Gordon), and MS student (Alexandra Fleming). Jeremiah Moody’s project addresses quantifying channel clustering and reservoir connectivity in fluvial reservoirs; Greg Gordon’s research will look at reservoir distribution in distal and basin margin settings; and Alexandra Flemings’ study will focus on reservoir architecture in non-channelized deepwater reservoirs. The CoRE program continues to be strong in all four areas of concentration: Research, Education, Training, and Recruiting.

Figure 4 -- Side-on view of a two-dimensional plot of the surface of the power spectrum of the bathymetric data a'er the trend of the continental slope has been removed, where it can clearly be seen that there are many peaks in the power spectrum, which indicates there is in fact some regularity to the spacing of the topographic relief on the surface of the submarine landslide.

Setiawan, Pyles, Silalahi, Moss-Russe!, Bourou!ec, Hoffman, and Moody. Break in fieldwork, Samitier Castle, Ainsa Basin, Spain

PAGE 20

COSTAR Geoscience Team Developing Integrated Framework for Oil ShaleBy Jerry Boak

The Center for Oil Shale Technology and Research (COSTAR) finished its first year with a significant ramp up in participants and research activity. The team added post-doctoral researcher Kati Tanavsuu-Milkeviciene, students Suriamin and Alan Gantyno, and COSTAR Librarian Julie Carmen.

The Geology and Stratigraphy team logged several months in the field, including a field trip representing all participant organizations (Mines, the University of Wisconsin, and Binghamton University) in July and a field review with Member representatives (from Total, Shell, and ExxonMobil) in September and October. Kati Tanavsuu-Milkeviciene completed preliminary sections in Yellow Creek and the Roan Cliffs in the Piceance Basin. The fieldwork led to preparation of a new suite of interpretive cross sections of the Green River Formation (GRF), presented at the 29th Oil Shale Symposium at Mines in October. Both large group field trips led to increased interest in the importance of spring waters, some potentially warm, in the geochemical evolution of the GRF. In addition, in preparation for a proposal for Phase II of the COSTAR consortium, the Center has developed the concept of reference sections, some from outcrop, others from cores, to which a wide suite of analytical tools will be applied to support an integrated model of lacustrine sedimentation in the Green River Formation.

The Geochemistry team hosted a one-day workshop in Houston to evaluate the need for a revision of the traditional measure of oil shale richness, the Fischer Assay. In the next six months, the project hopes to begin work using the new Source Rock Analyzer instrument (which COSTAR helped acquire) to evaluate the reference cross sections.

The Oil Shale Information Office has ramped up its efforts to provide an integrated, geographically referenced

database of oil shale materials. COSTAR received permission to publish to the Web all issues of the Synthetic Fuels Quarterly and the Second Edition of the Synthetic Fuels Handbook. These technical documents have been, or are being digitized and will be made available on the Web in the course of the next few months. The geographically referenced database development continues, with the objective of opening up the website to general access within the next six months. Cataloguing of the large body of oil shale data in the Tell Ertl Oil Shale Repository continues under the supervision of Julie Carmen.

COSTAR provides field support to Suriamin and Alan Gantyno.

29th Oil Shale Symposium Highlights Water Issue and Technology Advancesby Jerry Boak

The opening session of the 29th Oil Shale Symposium at the Colorado School of Mines on Oct. 19, 2009, again highlighted strongly different view points on the appropriate pace of development of oil shale from the states with the largest potential resources, Utah and Colorado. President M.W. “Bill” Scoggins introduced Bob Randall, Assistant Director for Land and Minerals at the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, and Alan Walker, Technology Outreach Director for the USTAR (Utah Science, Technology, and Research) initiative, who presented the guarded restraint of the Colorado approach and the energetic support for all energy alternatives of the Utah program.

Also in the opening plenary session, Sandor Liive, CEO of Eesti Energia, the Estonian national energy company, raised a series of questions about why the U.S. program of oil shale development was not proceeding, and attributed it to a matter of political will, rather than any clear technical or environmental impediment, or lack of strong economic incentives to proceed. The theme was echoed in one of the

closing sessions by Anton Dammer, of Red Leaf Resources, who called for a Strategic Unconventional Fuels Program for the U. S.

ExxonMobil presented field test results indicating that their advanced technological approach, using an electrically conductive proppant to turn large scale fractures into electrodes, describing it as an “underground toaster.” Shell indicated that the centerpiece of their current experiments, a freeze wall being prepared to demonstrate isolation of ground water, was nearly ready. AMSO, partnered with Total, presented their plans for a technology test to begin in 2010. Representing Utah, Red Leaf Resources presented results of the first field test of their EcoShale technology, and OSEC (partnering with Petrobras) provided a summary of their plans for surface processing of oil shale.

Water resources and CO2 emissions were hot-button issues at the Symposium, with a variety of discussions of the potential impacts of oil shale development, and the framework in which those impacts would be evaluated. Current understanding has advanced beyond the simplistic mythology of recent headlines, but emissions and availability of water will still certainly be a challenge for oil shale development, as it will for many alternative energy resources, including renewable resources.

The Oil Shale Symposium is the premier international conference on the development of oil shale, which could potentially add another three trillion barrels of oil to global resources. More than 280 delegates from 15 countries and 24 states in the U.S. attended the two and one-half days of sessions on science, engineering, environmental, socioeconomic and policy issues relating to potential production of oil from oil shale. For more information, see the symposium program at http://mines.conference-services.net/programme.asp?conferenceID=1729&language=en-uk

PAGE 21

The group is standing at the Ouray Overlook at the mouth of Box Canyon with the Sneffles horst in the background during the required Saturday field trip.

Students attending field camp the past few years don’t realize how easy they have it. The group shown above camped for the whole 6 weeks of camp. They camped at Arches National Park, UT, rather than staying at The Lazy Lizard in Moab. They camped at Durango rather than staying in the dorms at Ft. Lewis College. And it

rained every night that year! The same group of professors stayed with them for 5 weeks, and some of that same group of professors supervised the 6th week problems - no respite for the students! The Department had its own fleet of (undependable) vehicles that transported all the equipment to, during, and from camp when they weren’t broken down. Hutch (Bob Hutchinson) used an ancient Department trailer while he was out there. It was rumored to smell overwhelmingly like cigars, fish, and Bob himself.

The faculty members shown on the right of the photo are: Bob Hutchinson (between 8 and 10), Keenan Lee (to the right of 11), Greg Holden (to the right of Keenan), and Sam Romberger (to the right of Greg). Dr. Hutchinson passed away in 1999. The other faculty members are all retired, but still come into the office fairly regularly. Todd Hamer had an assistant, sitting behind him, who helped him maneuver through the full 6 weeks.

PAGE 22

Faculty News and ActivitiesResearch Professor Maeve Boland, the 2009-10 American Geophysical Union Congressional Science Fellow, has

accepted a position on the personal staff of Senator Byron Dorgan (D - North Dakota). Sen. Dorgan chairs the Energy Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee and is chair of the Water and Science Subcommittee of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Boland will work with both Appropriations and Senate Energy Committee staff on energy and climate change issues during the next year.

John Curtis was recognized as “Outstanding Professor” by graduating seniors and graduate students for May 2009.Nicholas Harris was awarded the Jules Braunstein Memorial Award by the Rocky Mountain Section of AAPG. The

award will be presented at the AAPG annual meeting in New Orleans in April 2010.Chuck Kluth and coauthors Jay Lilligraven and Art Snoke, of the University of Wyoming, and Ned Stern, of Petrohunt,

won an award as one of the Top Ten Poster Presentations for their poster "Triangle zones at the front of basement-cored uplifts in the Rocky Mountains: Implications for new exploration" at the AAPG Annual Meeting. Chuck has a new paper out with Harvey DuChene as a coauthor entitled "Late Pennsylvanian and Early Permian Structural Geology and Tectonic History of the Paradox Basin and Uncompaghre Uplift, Colorado and Utah”. The paper is in the RMAG Symposium Volume on the Paradox Basin.

David Pyles was awarded the Wallace E. Pratt Memorial Award and the J.C. “Cam” Sproule Memorial Award by the Rocky Mountain Section of AAPG for his paper titled “Architectural elements in a ponded submarine fan, Ross Sandstone, Ireland”. The award will be presented at the AAPG annual meeting in New Orleans in April 2010.

Wendy Zhou received the best paper award for a paper entitled "GIS-Based Approaches to Earthquake-induced Landslide Hazard Zonation" during the 2009 International Symposium on Rock Mechanics (http://www.hku.hk/sinorock/).

News from Rocky Mountain PTTC (Petroleum Technology Transfer Council)by Mary Carr

It has been another successful year for the Rocky Mountain region of PTTC. We put on 21 workshops and had approximately 850 participants. We have been from Billings, Montana, and Minot, North Dakota, to Farmington, New Mexico. We have also co-sponsored events with Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, Minot State University and Montana Geological Society.

Once again PTTC has received funding from the Department of Energy to continue our work providing low-cost workshops to the small oil and gas producer. Unlike previous DOE awards we will only receive funding on a per-event basis rather than a lump sum. This provides a nice incentive to put on plenty of workshops in the Rocky Mountain region.

The Futures in Energy program was very well attended this year in Golden. We had the opportunity to educate 17 high school juniors and seniors and 20 high school science teachers on the Oil and Gas industry. As always, the big hit for most participants was getting to go to a couple of actively drilling rigs in the Wattenberg Field. Thanks again to the companies that support this worthwhile program: Marathon Oil Company, Black Hills Exploration & Production, BTA Oil Producers, Breck Energy Corporation, Denver Earth Science Project, Delta Petroleum Corp., El Paso Corporation, EnerPlus Resources (USA) Corp., Ensign Drilling, Forest Oil Corporation, Halliburton, Jensco Pipe and Equipment Inc., Marathon Oil Co., NICO Resources LLC, Questar Exploration, RMS-AAPG Foundation, Schlumberger Oil Field Services, Shell Exploration & Production Co., SPE Young Professionals, St. Mary Land & Exploration Co., USBank Corporation, White Eagle Exploration, Whiting Petroleum Corp., Questar Corporation, and Venoco. For 2010, we are planning to conduct the program only in Pinedale, Wyoming, centered on the Pinedale Field.

Thank you for your support and we hope to see many of you in the coming year. Check out upcoming courses at www.pttcrockies.org. Futures in Energy students at Ensign

dri!ing rig in Wattenberg field.

PAGE 23

The following information was sent to us by our alums since the last Newsletter.

David A. Baska, B.Sc. ’84 – I have been selected as one of 12 Senior Consultants within Terracon – a geotechnical, environmental, and construction materials testing firm of 2,500 employees across the U.S. in 90 offices. My specialty is engineering seismology and earthquake engineering. I will also be teaching the under-graduate Foundation Design class at the University of Washington for the third consecutive year.

Don Bennett, Geol. Eng., ‘63 - North Idaho CSM Alumni Section Coordinator. I served as a civil engineer with the USDA Forest Service for 25 years and retired as VP of MOR Manufacturing after 17 years. I am now a volunteer Entrepreneur’s Coach with the Idaho Small Business Development Center in Post Falls. My heart has strong ties to Mines and my many friends made there along with a host of memorable experiences. We have a great core group of alumni here in North Idaho and Eastern Washington and we enjoy getting together and sharing memories and keeping in touch with our alma mater.

Dan Karig, Geol. Eng. ’59, M.Sc. ’64 – I retired from teaching various

courses in geology and geophysics at Cornell University about 10 years ago but didn’t resign myself to the golf course or TV. To keep the body functioning I got back into cross country skiing on a competitive level at age 50 and got maniacal when I retired. After taking every clinic I could and training up to 600 hrs/year I finally won some national masters championships, and at age 70 was a silver medalist at the World Masters Championships. Sure beats golf, but I’m sure those are fighting words! I also took up flat water canoe racing in the summers and won some national championships there also. I know; it sounds loopy but it does keep me healthy, except for sports injuries.

Because my geological interests at Cornell centered on marine structural geology and tectonics I couldn’t easily pursue those in retirement in upstate New York, so I got into various aspects of environmental and glacial geology, which required a brand new learning process. On a volunteer basis I’ve worked on stream channel behavior (We live along the stream that is Ithaca’s water supply.) and some ground water pollution projects. At present I’m mapping the glacial geology of our valley, which is leading to some quite controversial conclusions, but that makes for interesting “discussions”.

We live on an old farm and raise most of our own vegetables. The deer get some of them but we get even with them – a few end up in the freezer. In

short, we don’t see the bright city lights too often, but life in the sticks has been basically enjoyable.

Donna Messer, Geol. Eng. ’73 – Working as operations/wellsite consulting geologist, mostly in Alaska (North Slope) and deepwater GoM. This is my second time living in Houston – came to Houston after graduation, then moved to Anchorage, AK; then Maracaibo, Venezuela; then Vera Cruz, Mexico, then Dallas, TX; and now back in Houston. Have become an avid scuba diver, still enjoy snow skiing and volunteer for multiple organizations.

Brad Sinex, III, Prof. M.Sc. ‘06 - I hope all is well in Golden. I think about my time there often. I noticed the requests for up-to-date information from Alumni in back of the Geology newsletter. I am currently, still, working for Chevron as a Gulf of Mexico Shelf Asset Development Geologist in Covington, LA. My wife, Katherine, and I are living in New Orleans. She is an Asset Development Engineer for Deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

Timothy MacIntyre, M.Sc. ’06 – I am doing copper exploration for Ivanhoe Nickel and Platinum in Southern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Alumni News

This paper was co-authored with her former Ph. D. student and a former colleague (Huang). The symposium have only accepted 200 papers from the more than 500 abstracts that were submitted. The papers cover the broad spectrum of progress that has been developed in geo-engineering in recent years. Only two papers were awarded as best paper (2/500+ < 4%). She also is solo author on a book chapter entitled "An Outlook of GIS Applications In Mineral Resource Estimation" in the book entitled Gold Mining: Formation and Resource Estimation, Economics and Environmental Impact (https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=9535 ). The book is now available to purchase.

PAGE 24

Another Field Camp StoryBy Jessica Grainger

And so another field camp story began on May 10, 2009, as the geological engineering class of ’09 loaded up cars, trucks, and RVs and set out for Moab, UT. We had explicit instructions to report to Dr. Bruce Trudgill at the lodge in Moab, which we would call our home for the next week of our lives. As a combination of Geological Engineering juniors and seniors, we had taken a field mapping methods course the semester prior with Dr. Nigel Kelly who prepared us for the surprises and challenges we might face in the field, but none of us really knew what to expect for the first 6 weeks of so-called summer vacation. We had been given packing lists from professors, a “field camp essentials” list from the graduate student TA, and “how to survive field camp” guides from previous years’ students. I was given a field camp survival package which contained sunscreen, bug spray, blister band aides, new markers, a pocket-knife, hand and foot warmers, and camp chair.

The class arrived in Moab on Sunday afternoon to meet the first round of teachers and receive our first project on salt tectonics. Our field area was the region around Delicate Arch in the Arches National Monument just outside of Moab. As we looked at the mapping area and what presentables were due in just 5 days, reality struck that our field session was not a walk in the park. A mere uttering of the word “Mancos Shale” brought a series of groans, a reflection of how hot and miserable hiking the Mancos formation was. Although only the second week in May, this week was the hottest weather we would experience on the trip. By midweek, we were ready

for the traditional Wednesday BBQ before wrapping up the final maps and cross sections for Friday’s judgment day.

After saying goodbye to the teachers Friday afternoon, we were ready for a swim in the river and a good night’s sleep.

After a much needed weekend, we all trekked to Durango, Colorado, where we would stay in the Fort Lewis dormitories and examine the glacial geology. In our bright orange vests, Dr. Jerry Higgins led our class throughout the downtown and the surrounding area correlating glacial events. The change of pace from desolate desert to urban geology was quite the shock, but we embraced the idea of a

college-town nightlife. A memorable week undoubtedly included Professor Santi picking up a snake, causing a student to cry. The week went by fast with another successful BBQ and project wrap-up session on Friday afternoon, and soon we were headed to Salida.

Salida will be remembered as a cold, muddy and hail-ridden 3rd week. No one really knew what we were getting into that week as we arrived to meet Dr. Ric Wendlandt for our assignment. After a few hours of assembling our tent city, we convened for our introduction to the geology, the beautiful, rugged mountains we would be mapping. The week included steep, slippery slope hikes, great epidote, garnet and wollastonite collecting, and of course cold, wet weather. By Wednesday, the steak and pork fajita dinner was just what we needed to keep our spirits up. The week ended as we packed up soggy tents and clothes, and loaded our cars heading for the closest laundry mat.

We reported to Saguache, just southeast of Gunnison to continue another rainy 4th week examining San Juan Volcanic field. Led by Dr. Nigel Kelly, we knew we were in for a long

Field Camp

Karl Graham and Bob Beach examine their maps in Moab

Dr. Bruce Trudgi! gives a sma! lecture on channel sandstones in Moab

PAGE 25

week with many miles, extensive, complex terrain and unforgettable stories. This week was more individually oriented since the large mapping area was split into a north and south region, therefore limiting help to only half of the teaching staff. Midweek we braved a severe thunderstorm, rendering our class pretty terrified. However, the barbequed chicken at the Wednesday night dinner made up for it. The week culminated with stories of snakes, fording the swampy river, and braving the lightening. As we left for a much-needed weekend, the horror stories of the 5th week problem loomed on the horizon.

We reported to Silverton for our last week of camping and to undertake the infamous Lake Molas problem. A smiling Dr. John Humphrey met us there eager to see how we had progressed as mappers throughout our first 4 weeks. Monday and Tuesday were beautiful, sunny alpine days, but Wednesday we awoke to snow on the ground and the Lake Molas pass closed. So Wednesday was spent at the Silverton public library where Dr. John Humphrey lectured us on dolomitization and fossil progressions seen in the area. The juicy steaks and salmon for the Wednesday BBQ, the after dinner campfire, and a frigid swim by a few students lightened the atmosphere of the week. Thursday and Friday were spent back in the field where we played catch up for the day we had missed. The purple quartzite in the area and the breathtaking views of the San Juan Mountains made up for the chilly weather. As we said goodbye to professors and the students not in our 6th week problem, it was a bittersweet thought to be headed to our last week of field camp.

These five weeks camping, mapping, and living with your peers really created a strong sense of class unity. Along with learning to map diverse geological areas in little time, create geological chronologies, and solve engineering problems, we less experienced campers also learned to adapt to braving the elements, unpleasant living conditions, and outdoor survival. We also learned 50 uses of a rock

hammer which include: 1) chair, 2) air guitar, 3) beer bottle opener, 4) ice pick, 5) snake defense, and 6) back scratcher.

Now that field camp is over, we look back at the mis-adventures turned great stories. Sara Post recalls, "The most amazing single day was probably Wednesday in Moab, when we went up to Delicate Arch. We'd gotten used to how hot it was, and even though we got lost and came around to the Arch the wrong way, eating lunch and looking out at that and the views of the valley was amazing!" Another classmate, Chris Harper, tried to assess the value of field session with “scribe $10, rock hammer $30, 64 pack of colored pencils $20, compass $75, getting Derailed in Durango and getting picked up by Santi in the school van at 5pm....priceless”. And we never will forget the slogan our TA Thomas Hearon coined, "May your strikes be true when you're copin’ a ‘tud.”

Students examine an outcrop in Sagauache

The whole class at the Silverton Library for our snowday lecture

The guys proudly display their weekend catch at Blue Mesa Reservoir

Chris Harper and Loren Bongirno take a dip in chi!y Silverton

PAGE 26

We would like to give a big thank you to Dr. Bruce Trudgill, Dr. Jennifer Aschoff, Dr. Jerry Higgins, Dr. Paul Santi, Dr. Ric Wendlandt, Dr. Nick Harris, Dr. Wendy Zhou, Dr. John Humphrey, and Dr. Steve Sonnenberg, for their mentoring and directing the exercises. Additionally, we give thanks to the TA’s that suffered through all our questions and for their guidance. We greatly appreciate all the donations and support from the Alumni for helping us be able to fund a successful field camp! And may we wish good luck to the class of 2010 field camp.

Students stop for a lunch break in Moab

Jessie Grainger embraces the wildlife

Below: Group Photo Week 3. This shot was taken near Salida. The view is toward the west across the Upper Arkansas River Va!ey with the Co!egiate Range in the background. During that field problem, the students are mapping Paleozoic sedimentary rocks along the contact of the Whitehorn stock, with a few structural complexities thrown in for good measure.

PAGE 27

Week 6 Geotechnical Problem

By Tony Monasterio

By the time the sixth week rolled around, most of us were exhausted and desperately craving daily showers. As luck would have it, the sixth week was held near the town of Silverton, Colorado, where we stayed in a quaint hotel. We were all ecstatic to have some of life’s little luxuries returned to us, such as electricity and a real bed to sleep in. We spent most of the week studying surficial deposits a few miles outside town, but took Friday to enjoy a dam tour near Durango.

Upstream of Silverton on the Animas River, we distinguished the many alluvial and colluvial deposits. Some differences were easily recognized, while others, such as slightly fewer boulders in one unit, were much more subtle. A specific surficial deposit mapping method was used called the GLQ system.

This classification scheme uses three tiers of labels: Genesis, Lithology, and Qualifier (hence the acronym). Each map unit is designated with a capital letter which describes its depositional means (genesis), followed by a couple letters identifying the primary grain sizes (Lithology), usually trailed by an abbreviated subcategory of deposition (qualifier). This system makes creating a surficial map and gleaning general information from it easier than the classical method which involves looking up the characteristics of every individual unit in a map explanation. Glacial tills, alluvial fans, rock slides, avalanche chutes, floodplain silty clays and river gravels were just some of the units mapped using this system.

The mapping area, and all the land surrounding Silverton for that matter, was beautiful. The valley walls were very steep, lined with decrepit mining buildings and the occasional tailing pile. The increased sediment load in the Animas choked it, changing what was once a meandering and eroding stream into a braided river. We walked up an old mining road into an adjacent valley to find two captivating waterfalls over a hundred foot cliff.

We left for Durango Friday morning to tour the US Bureau of Reclamation Facility nearby. The Ridges Basin Dam and the Durango pumping facility nearly a mile away will be one of the last projects Reclamation will build due to increasing expense and environmental concerns. We were shown the maps resulting from years of in-depth geotechnical research and their influence on the design and construction processes.

To say that the we had fun this week would be a colossal understatement. However, the geotechnical module of field camp taught us many techniques which cannot be learned from a classical geology perspective. These skills would not necessarily be useful to an individual who maps bedrock for a living, which emphasizes the specialized educational value of a separated sixth week.

Chris Harper posing on the edge of a magnificent landscape

An ore processing facility upstream &om Silverton, CO, constructed around 1885

PAGE 28

AAPG Student Chapter Happeningsby Dawn Jobe, President

The CSM Student Chapter of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists has had a very eventful year. We’ve had some wonderful opportunities for academic enrichment through lectures, short courses and field trips. As always we would like to extend our appreciation to all the industry sponsors who have generously supported the chapter’s members and activities. The student chapter officers would also like to acknowledge and thank our faculty sponsor, Dr. John Curtis, for his continued dedication and support.

Last spring was jam packed with activities for the student chapter. We were excited to welcome three lecturers to our AAPG student chapter luncheon series, including an AAPG Distinguished Lecturer, Marjorie Levy (Chevron) as well as Ron Hill (Marathon) and Kyle Straub (Tulane University). The chapter also welcomed Fred Schroeder (ExxonMobil Upstream Research) from the visiting geoscientist program to teach a one-day short course entitled “Geology and Geophysics Applied to Industry”. Students developed basic prospecting skills and were taught basic structural and stratigraphic analysis using seismic data.

After months of preparation, the chapter was proud to support the members of our Imperial Barrel Award (IBA) Program Team. The team members participating in the 2009 competition were Jon Charzynski, TingWei (Lucy) Ko, Allauddin (Allan) Gantyno and Teresa Johnson. The team worked hard to prepare a data set from the Barents Sea between northern Norway and western Russia. The IBA program has been in existence for over 30 years and has become an annual prospect/exploration evaluation competition for university teams to win scholarship funds, experience with real exploration data, and a bit of prestige.

The spring semester also included some fun social activities such as a Super Bowl party and the AAPG Cheesy Geology Movie Night. Members enjoyed cinematic excitement as we transformed Berthoud’s largest lecture hall for a one night showing of “The Land Before Time” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth”. A few members from our chapter also participated in Boy Scout Day at Dinosaur

Ridge. It was an opportunity for members to interact with the community

and share geologic knowledge to help scouts earn merit badges.

The chapter was deeply impacted this summer by the unexpected and tragic loss of our beloved chapter president Nikki Hemmesch. Nikki was an integral part in the recent revitalization of our chapter; she worked hard to engage chapter members and to provide both academic and social networking opportunities. Because of Nikki’s hard work, along with the other officers, the chapter was awarded Outstanding Student Chapter Honorable Mention for 2009.

Nikki was a dear friend and colleague whose legacy will live long with this chapter.

This fall, we were privileged to have two AAPG Distinguished Lecturers, Harris Cander (BP) and Martin

Students observing grain size, angularity and sorting of actively saltating sand grains at The Great Sand Dunes National Park

Chapter members perched high atop the dunes observing grain flow processes in action

Student News and Activities

PAGE 29

By Michele Weichman, President

The Association of Geoscience Students (AGS) brings students together who are interested in Earth Science. Our members bring unique perspectives from various departments including Geology & Geological Engineering, Geophysics, and Mining Engineering. Our activities range from academic lectures from top professors at Mines to getting down and dirty while climbing through Colorado cave systems.

We have had the chance to learn about a variety of topics ranging from global geological issues from Murray Hitzman to CSM’s partnership with the Kazakh National Technical University. With lectures scheduled on a monthly basis, AGS is continuing to provide the CSM community with the chance to learn about various aspects of Mines’ geosciences.

AGS strives to provide our members with fun geology related activities. Some of our memorable trips this last year included a caving trip near

Cañon City where we were able to spend a day exploring a privately owned cave system, a trip up to the Dreamtime Mine for sample collecting which resulted in our members finding extraordinary samples of quartz and fluorite, and a visit to the Denver Gem and Mineral Show to view impressive collections from around the world. AGS continues to plan future activities including an upcoming field trip with Steve Sonnenberg to learn about the geology of the Front Range and another caving trip.

In addition to organizing trips, AGS coordinates with other organizations to increase the activities available to our members. This past Fall, AGS partnered with the American Association of Petroleum Geologists to organize a weekend trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve to learn

about eolian dune formation and sedimentation processes. AGS is also involved in many department activities including the Geology Department’s annual Christmas party and End of the Year Banquet.

AGS will continue to bring CSM many great activities and intellectual lectures throughout the coming months, so don’t blink or you might miss out.

Perlmutter (Chevron), as well as Larry Rasmussen (Whiting Oil and Gas). Each presented lectures at the AAPG student chapter luncheon series where students were invited to ask questions and engage in academic discussion.

After weeks of planning and a postponement due to snow, the chapter was finally able to make a field trip to Great Sand Dunes National Park. The trip was originally scheduled for April, but in October 2009, 15 brave chapter members embarked on an unforgettable weekend. After a Friday night arrival, hot dogs, and hot chocolate, students awoke bright and early Saturday and were treated to a lecture by the park geologist Andre Valdez. The rest of the morning was spent happily in the field where students enjoyed the opportunity to observe active aeolian processes, understand dune morphology and evolution of the surrounding landscape. We also had the added benefit of an afternoon hike to Zapata Falls that provided a great overlook of the entire dune field. Sunday morning brought a chilly end to our trip as a lovely dusting of snow capped the dune crests. Special thanks go out to Mary Carr, Ria Brunhart-Lupo and Dr. John Lupo for leading our trip.

This fall we voted on a new set of bylaws that includes community involvement as part of our purpose. In October we adopted a part of the track at Dinosaur Ridge; a stretch

along I-70 that provides valuable teaching aids for many classes in the Geology Department. In November, we joined with other geologic societies on campus and participated in the CSM Castle of Cans competition; a food drive that benefited the local Mines and Jefferson County Communities. This December we collected toys from chapter members for the Jefferson County Center for Mental Health.

All in all, it has been a very successful year for our student chapter and we very much look forward to the upcoming semesters. Future plans for our chapter include regular monthly meetings and our luncheon series. We are also planning a variety of community and social events. Highlighting our spring calendar is the annual “Bowling for Oil” Event, which is a fun team-building activity focused on promoting a more unified chapter. We are also in the works of planning our next big adventure, a field trip that will take place in early May. If you would like to contact the student chapter, please visit our website via the CSM Geology website or our bulletin board located at the bottom of the central staircase in Berthoud Hall. You can also email any of the executive committee directly: Tiffany Jobe, President, tjobe@mines.edu; Matthew Nobles, Vice-President, mnobles@mines.edu; Alexandra Fleming, Secretary, alflemin@mines.edu; Karl Graham, Treasurer,

Association of Geoscience Students

Halloween at The Great Sand Dunes National Park

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2009 Events and Activities of CSM SEG Student Chapter

By Sophie Hancock, President

The student chapter of SEG has had a busy 2009 with plenty of presentations over lunch, short courses, conferences, and of course field trips.

We had some wonderful presentations throughout the year, including a lot of interest and support from mining and finance companies whom we would like to recognize and thank, including International Royalty Corporation, Goldfields Exploration, La Canada Mining, International Nuclear, Esperanza, Royal Gold, Lafarge, Colorado Geological Survey, AMIRA, Deluth Metals, Geological Survey of Northern Ireland, and individuals Warren Andrews and Mike Sullivan.

Kicking off the spring 2009 semester, eight student chapter members (Jack Gibbons, Sophie Hancock, Mike Kirschbaum, Brandon Lewis, Jeannette McGill, Elizabeth Pesce, Chris Siron, and Mike Tedeschi) traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia as part of a Business of Economic Geology course, lead by CSM faculty Drs. Murray Hitzman and Thomas Monecke. Most of us remained in Vancouver following the course to attend the Mineral Exploration Roundup 2009 meeting – see the photo of us visiting the junior TSX-V exchange. As part of the class, industry representatives were invited to present on a topic of their choice pertaining to the business side of the mineral exploration industry. These evening presentations were open to the public and even attracted several former CSM student chapter members!

While in Vancouver, we were lucky to be hosted by a variety of mineral exploration companies including BHP Billiton, Mansfield Minerals, North American Tungsten, Hunter Dickenson, Peregrine Diamonds, and Canaccord Adams. We learnt from experts about stock issuance, discounted-cash flow models, and the benefit of royalty vs. equity ownership of mineral projects, giving us all an introduction to the business aspects of economic geology. The meetings were fantastic, real opportunities to quiz seasoned professionals on the current state of the financial markets during a turbulent January.

In May, two two-week field trips ran simultaneously. Firstly, five SEG students went to Ireland as part of a larger student group with Drs. Murray Hitzman, John Humphrey and David Pyles (Sophie Hancock, Chris Siron, Mike Tedeschi, Elizabeth Wachel, and Jaron Lucero) – see separate article in this Newsletter – to look at both petroleum and Pb-Zn minerals systems in confined clastic and carbonate sediments.

Secondly, a trip to Abitibi greenstone belt of Ontario and Quebec was led by Mark Hannington (University of Ottawa) and Thomas Monecke (CSM), taking several students including two SEG students (Julie Leibold and Jack Gibbons) to study the geology of Abitibi’s world-class mining camps including Cobalt Lake, Kirkland Lake, Timmins-Porcupine, and Noranda) through underground mapping, drill core and volcanology mapping. Both trips were enhanced greatly by the contributions of many mine geologists and regional experts. A huge thank you to everyone who helped make the trips a success, including Prof. George Sevastopulo, Dr. Mike Philcox, Phil Redmond, Paul Gordon, Paul McDermott, John Guven, John Ashton, Harold Gibson, Howard Poulson, Gerhard Meyer, Erik Barr, Alain Manville, Dave Gamble, Patrick Mercier-Langevin, and Jean Goutier.

More recently, the SEG chapters from CSM and University of Arizona co-operated to organize and attend a copper porphyry field trip around Tucson, Arizona. During the brief trip, we were fortunate enough to tour both the historic Copper Queen deposit and the active Silver Bell mine. The final day, organized by John Alden (Mine Engineering Manager) and led by Dr. Spencer Titley (U. of A.), was a visit to see the supergene oxidation at Silver Bell, was unanimously regarded as the highlight of the trip. Participating students were fortunate enough to be invited to socialize with U. of A. students at a barbeque hosted by Dr. Eric Seedorff (U. of A.). We look forward to returning the favor by hosting the U. of A. students in the fall of 2010, potentially pre-SEG 2010, for a visit to a few Colorado deposits.

In December 2008 and December 2009, the CSM chapter has hosted ore short courses in association with the national chapter of SEG, firstly closing 2008 with Dr. John L. Lufkin who ran a very popular four-day ore microscopy short course covering examples of most of the major ore mineral deposit types and suites. The 2009 two-day event also

PAGE 31

Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists (AEG)

by Ho!y Brunkal, President

The Colorado School of Mines Student chapter of AEG continues to be active and grow. This year we have hosted many exceptional lunch meetings with guest speakers from industry and a successful student night with students presenting their research. The fall of 2009 saw the election of new officers: Holly Brunkal, President; Nathan Swanson, Vice-President; Kevin Mininger, Secretary/Treasurer (second term); Elliot Matthews, Events/Speaker Coordinator (second term); and Derrick Schimming, Web Master (new position). Student members continue to be active with the Rocky Mountain Section of AEG (AEG-RMS) and many attended and presented research at the 52nd annual meeting.

Our membership is strong with 31 active student members, up from 22 at this time last year. Our bi-weekly lunch meetings are well attended with an average of 24 students coming to see the wide diversity of talks given by our guest speakers. We truly appreciate the time that these professionals volunteer to our organization, and the knowledge that they are willing to share with us. We will continue to host our lunchtime meetings in 2010, for which we have a great list of speakers lined up.

Our annual student night, held in the spring semester and planned in conjunction with the monthly meeting of AEG-RMS and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT), was once again a huge success. CSM students Derrick Schimming, Kevin Mininger, Sarah Rickard and Sophie Hancock presented posters, as well as two students from SDSMT. This year’s first place award, a Brunton compass, was given to one of the SDSMT students. This event is also a silent auction to raise money for our

organization. We were very successful in gathering excellent items for the auction, including a beautiful Colorado topaz expertly cut by one of our members, Matt Minnick. We raised proceeds, well exceeding expectations, to help fund our chapter. We will, of course be hosting this event again in March of 2010.

The CSM student chapter of AEG was well represented at the 52nd annual meeting of AEG held in South Lake Tahoe. Holly Brunkal, Matt Minnick, and recent graduate Ryan

managed to attract significant sign up with Benoît Dubé and Richard Goldfarb leading the course, which focused on metamorphic gold terrains. Both courses were partly held on campus and were able to attract students from CSM and further afield, and industry professionals alike.

Our student chapter has also been active with technical presentations including two posters from Mike Tedeschi and Sophie Hancock at AMEBC Roundup 2009 in Vancouver, and again at SGA 2009 with posters and presentations from both Rob Duncan and Melissa Gregory and a poster presentation from Sophie Hancock.

To support and enable participation in all of these professionally enriching experiences, our SEG student chapter committee has worked hard this year to obtain funding from SEG national chapter awards, our ACSCM student government, and company and individual donations. We have been successful in our ambitions due to the support and encouragement we have received. Generous thanks go to our chapter donors, including Esperanza, DREGS, and Jim Davis.

Outside these great work opportunities we have also managed to have a lot of fun socials, including joint events with SME on campus and a Christmas dinner to celebrate the end of the semester – see photos. Another recent social event was the Castle of Cans food appeal, supported by the four campus geo-societies jointly including SEG, held to benefit local families within the CSM and Jefferson County communities. All our dried foods and tins went in to make a pseudo-castle which we named ‘Pangaea, Rebuilt’. We didn’t win any prizes, which was criminal but it was good to take a break and give back a little. With all these good things it’s been a great year for us and we have some other ideas in the pipeline including field trips for 2010, and plans to bring part of SEG 2010 conference to campus next fall, and to take a lead in the student part of that event. We look forward to seeing some of you through 2010.

CSM-AEG student chapter members (back) Travis Pickering, Alec Anderson, Kevin Mininger, Evan Lindenbach, (&ont)Tyler Benton and Derrick Schimming enjoy the Lake Tahoe environment while at the 2009 AEG annual meeting

PAGE 32

Bartingale gave oral presentations, and Derrick Schimming and Kevin Mininger presented posters. Students Travis Pickering, Sara Post, Tyler Benton, Evan Lindenbach and Alec Anderson also attended the meeting. Holly Brunkal and Ryan Bartingale were presented with outstanding student presentation awards, and Kevin Mininger was recognized as a Lemke Scholar for his poster presentation. The CSM student chapter of AEG will

continue to be involved in the AEG-RMS and AEG national organizations.

In the upcoming year, we are expecting continued success within our student ranks. We are looking forward to the spring semester’s lunch meetings, student night, and our second annual professional panel discussion and résumé review night to help students prepare for the CSM career fair. This event was well received last year and

we project even greater attendance this year. Undergraduate and graduate students alike benefit from being involved with the student chapter of AEG which provides opportunities to meet many professionals, gain valuable contacts, and stay informed on recent projects and technologies. For more information on the activities of the CSM AEG chapter look for department emails, posted flyers, or contact Holly Brunkal at hbrunkal@mines.edu.

Nikki Theresa Hemmesch, a Ph.D. student in Geology and Geological Engineering, died suddenly and unexpectedly on July 10, 2009, in Frankfurt, Germany. She had collapsed three days earlier while returning from Kazakhstan on a CSM field trip. The cause of death was deep vein thrombosis, resulting in irrecoverable brain damage.

Nikki enrolled at CSM in January 2007 and, in the fall of 2007, began her dissertation research on the Woodford Shale in the Permian Basin, west Texas. She immediately impressed everyone in the Mines community, students, faculty and visiting professional geologists with her energy, focus and drive. One expert on the Woodford Shale described her as ‘relentless’; everyone who knew her understood that. Her energy was underpinned by enthusiasm and good cheer; as a result, she became a role model and inspiration for many in the GE graduate student community.

Nikki’s research focused on the question, “what is the expression of stratigraphic sequences in basinal shales?” Interpretation of sequence stratigraphic sequences is an approach primarily applied to continental margins where changes in sea level have dramatic impact on the spatial distribution of sedimentary facies. The impact of sea level changes in deep parts of sedimentary basins is clearly more subtle than in shallower parts of the basin, but rigorous analysis of deep basinal patterns has rarely been done. Nikki’s study focused on the Woodford Shale, an Upper Devonian black shale, in the Permian Basin, west Texas. At the time of her death, she had already made significant progress in her research, recognizing depositional processes that transported shallow water sediment from the basin margin several tens of kilometers into the basin and identifying cyclicity in sedimentary facies at multiple stratigraphic scales, based on occurrences of beds of allochthonous sediment. This cyclicity is clearly related to sea level changes at different time scales.

Nikki’s research on the Woodford Shale was recognized by receiving 2010 Jules Braunstein Award for her poster (co-authored with her advisor, Nick Harris) at the AAPG national meeting in Denver in June 2009. She will receive the award posthumously at the AAPG national meeting in New Orleans in 2010.

The Nikki Hemmesch Memorial Fund has been established to provide fellowships for GE students. Out of great tragedy, this fund will provide future students with financial assistance that will make attaining their educational goals a little easier. Donations to this fund can be sent to the Colorado School of Mines Foundation.

IN MEMORIAM - NIKKI HEMMESCH

PAGE 33

Student Support

We gratefully acknowledge all the support provided to our students. They receive financial support from a variety of agencies, companies, private citizens, and alums to pay for tuition costs and stipends. They also receive support in the form of software, data, and field and laboratory expenses, among other things. Following are names of our students and the sources of their support.

Elif Acikalin – Department teaching assistant funds, NETL, DOE

Adrian Almanza – RPSEA projectAdam Anderson – Encana Oil &

Gas fellowshipSteve Angster – Bakken projectBob Beach – Department work

study fundsMatthew Billingsly – Department

teaching assistant fundsLoren Bongirno – Bolin scholar-

ship, Gardner scholarship, Monahan scholarship

Mary Bubb – BP fellowshipRia Brunhart-Lupo – John S.

Phillips fellowship, John D. Haun and Robert J. Weimer Graduate Fellowship in Geology, Department teaching assistant funds

Holly Brunkal – Department teaching assistant funds. U.S. Dept. of Education GANN Fellowship

Olivia Buchan – Stratigraphic Development of Continental Slopes Consortium, Phase II

Peter Bucknam – Yates PetroleumJon Charzynski – ConocoPhillips

fellowshipJohan Claringbould – StatoilEd Coalson – Devon Energy

fellowshipElizabeth Conover – NoblisDiana Cook – Department work

study fundsRyan Davidson – Department work

study fundsMichael Doe – RPSEA project

Elisabeth Easley – Department teaching assistant funds

Sarah Edwards – Department teaching assistant funds, RPSEA project

Jufang Feng – Chevron Corporation

Alexandra Fleming – Chevron Center of Research Excellence, SIPES Scholarship, Encana Oil & Gas

Joseph Gartner – U.S. Geological Survey

Jack Gibbons – John Steven Cone Memorial Fellowship, Goldcorp, Camiro, Department teaching assistant funds

Judd Goldberg – SamsonGreg Gordon – Chevron Center of

Research ExcellenceAndrew Govert – Newfield,

Questar, Shell Oil CompanyPeter Graham – Department

teaching assistant fundsSophie Hancock – UR Energy, Sam

Goldich Travel SupportMichael Halsema – John S. Phillips

fellowship, Questar fellowshipThomas Hearon – BP fellowshipErich Heydweiller - Department

teaching assistant fundsMatthew Hoffman – Chevron

Center of Research ExcellenceElizabeth Holley – Department

teaching assistant funds, BarrickChristina Huenink – John and Lois

Haun fellowshipJoAnne Huie - Department

teaching assistant fundsHui Jin – Chevron CorporationRebecca Johnson – Department

teaching assistant fundsMichael Kirschbaum – Department

teaching assistant fundsLucy Ko – RPSEA projectBecky Kowalski – ConocoPhillips

fellowshipJulie Leibold – Cameco Brandon Lewis - Department

teaching assistant fundsEvan Lindenbach – Department

teaching assistant funds

Ben Lowry – Graduate School fellowship, Department teaching assistant funds

Jaron Lucero – Department work study funds

Elizabeth Major – NSFJessica Matthews – Department

teaching assistant fundsLaura Mauro – Devon Energy

fellowshipSteven Meyerhoff – Department

teaching assistant funds, NSFNickolas Miller – Chevron Basin

Modeling InitiativeStephen Miller - John S. Phillips

fellowship, Horvath fellowshipKevin Mininger – Department

teaching assistant funds, Blackhawk Geologic Hazards Abatement District, Gillen Company, Van Tuyl fellowship

Matthew Minnick – NETL, DOE, Department teaching assistant funds

Cheryl Mnich – Woodford Consortium

Anthony Monasterio - John S. Phillips fellowship, Horvath scholarship

Jeremiah Moody – Chevron Center of Research Excellence, GS travel grant

Steve Montoya - Department teaching assistant funds

Amy Moss-Russell – Chevron Center of Research Excellence

Tom Muezelaar – Geosciences BC, Camiro

Daniel Nihiser - John S. Phillips fellowship

Daniel Nolansnyder - John S. Phillips fellowship, Andrews fellowship, Greater Denver Gem & Mineral scholarship

Travis Pickering – Jack R. & Mary D. Weber fellowship, Department teaching assistant funds

Sheven Poole – Encana Oil & Gas fellowship, Woodford Consortium

Bruno Protti – Department teaching assistant funds

Sarah Rickard – U.S. Geological Survey, Department fellowship funds, Department teaching assistant funds

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Jared Rountree – Department teaching assistant funds, Chevron Corporation

Phylicia Saner – RPSEA projectDerrick Schimming – Department

fellowshipDanielle Schmandt - Department

teaching assistant fundsSophia Seo – IGWMC Prianto Setiawan – Chevron

CorporationHenri Silalhi – Chevron

CorporationErica Siirila – DOE Raju Sitaula – Department teaching

assistant funds, Uinta Basin Joint Industry Consortium

Timothy Stockhausen - John S. Phillips fellowship, Greater Denver Gem & Mineral scholarship, Questar fellowship

Cristina Story - Department teaching assistant funds

Trevor Stroker – RCPJohn Stroud – RPSEA project Mike Tedeschi – John S. Phillips

fellowship, Fogarty fellowshipJeffrey Thompson – Anadarko

Fellowship, ITFParker Valora – Anadarko

Fellowship, USGS, Utah Geological Survey

Rebecca Vasil – Robert and Ruth Weimer Fund for Sedimentary Geology

James Vickery – Marathon fellowship, John S. Phillips fellowship

Whitney Wheeler – Apache Corporation

Rex Whistler – BIA John Williams – DOE

COMPLETED THESES - 2009

AMERMAN, ROBERT PH.D. – GEOLOGYDeepwater Mass-Transport Deposits: Structure, Stratigraphy, and Implications for Basin Evolution (Adv. Drs. Nelson/Trudgill)

BARTINGALE, RYANM.SC. – GEOLOGICAL ENGINEERINGCalibration of Colorado Rockfall Simulation Program (CRSP) Version 5.0 (Adv. Dr. Higgins)

BLAKE, BRITTNEY M.SC. – GEOLOGYFracture Heterogeneity in the Natih E Formation, Jebel Madar, Oman (Adv. Drs. Sarg/Trudgill)

BRIGGS, MARTIN A. M.SC. – HYDROLOGYPartitioning Surface and Hyporhic Transient Storage throughout a Coastal Stream Network (Adv. Dr. Gooseff)

CARNEY, CLINTON P. M.SC. HYDROLOGY (NON-THESIS) (Adv. Dr. Poeter)

CASALEGGIO, STEPHEN E. M.SC. – GEOLOGYDolomite-Cemented Shelf-Slope Deposits in the Prairie Canyon Member of the Upper Cretaceous Mancos Shale, Green River, Utah (Adv. Dr. Humphrey)

COOK, DIANA ILYA PH.D. – GEOLOGICAL ENGINEERINGImprovements in Horizontal Drain Design (Adv. Drs. Higgins/Santi)

DAVIDSON, RYAN M.SC. – GEOLOGICAL ENGINEERINGThe Application of GIS to Test the Efficacy of a Model for Predicting Debris Flow Runout (Adv. Dr. Santi)

FORMOLO, SCOTT D. –M.SC. – HYDROLOGY (NON-THESIS) (Adv. Dr. Poeter)

GARCIA-WONG, WALTER VALERYM.SC. – GEOLOGYGeology of the Milagros Project, Alto Chicama District, La Libertad, Peru (Adv. Drs. Hitzman/Hedenquist)

GOVERT, ANDREWM.SC. – GEOLOGYVariations in porosity, cement, and clay in the Lance Formation, Pinedale

Anticline, Sublette County, Wyoming (Adv. Dr. Harris)

GRANDA, DANIEL A. MASTER OF ENGINEERING (NON-THESIS) (Adv. Dr. Higgins)

GREEN, ALLISON CRAWFORDM.SC. – GEOLOGYShelf Margin Facies of the Kookfontein Formation: Impact of Process Regime Changes and Delta Position Relative to the Shelf Edge (Adv. Dr. Plink-Bjorklund)

HUENINK, CHRISTINA M.SC. – GEOLOGYQuantitative Analysis of Controls on Relay Ramp Parameters and Evolution (Adv. Dr.Trudgill)

HOFFMAN, MATTHEW R.M.SC. – GEOLOGYTectono-stratigraphic Analysis of a Deepwater Growth Basin, Ainsa Basin, Northern Spain (Adv. Dr. Bouroullec)

HUIE, JOANNE YUET-LINGM.SC. HYDROLOGY (NON-THESIS) (Adv. Dr. Benson)

KUZNIAK, KATARZYNA M.M.SC. – GEOLOGYNew Stratigraphic Interpretations, Geochemistry, and Petrophysics of the Lower Mancos Group, Douglas Creek Arch, Northwestern, Colorado USA (Adv. Dr. Sonnenberg)

MACELELLO, STEVENM.SC. – GEOCHEMISTRYDiagenesis of a Carboniferous Isolated Carbonate Platform from the Subsurface of the Precaspian Basin, Kazakhstan (Adv. Dr. Humphrey)

MNICH, CHERYL M.SC. – GEOLOGYGeochemical Signatures of Stratigraphic Sequences and Sea-Level Change in the Woodford Shale, Permian Basin (Adv. Dr. Harris)

MORANDA, LUCA MASTER OF ENGINEERING (NON-THESIS) (Adv. Dr. Higgins)

PAGE 35

MOSS-RUSSEL, AMY C.M.SC. – GEOLOGYThe Stratigraphic Architecture of a Prograding Shelf-Margin Delta in Outcrop, the Sobrabre Formation, Ainsa Basin, Spain (Adv. Dr. Pyles)

OTTO, STEVEN ALEXANDERMASTER OF ENGINEERING (GEOLOGICAL ENGINEER)(NON-THESIS) (Adv. Dr. Higgins)

PAYN, ROBERT A. PH.D. – HYDROLOGYStream Hydrologic Characterizations across Time and Space (Adv. Dr. Gooseff)

REVIELLE, JORDAN K. M.SC. – HYDROLOGYConditioning Operator-scaling Fractional Brownian Motion and its Effect on Solute Transport (Adv. Dr. Benson)

SETIAWAN, PRIANTOM.SC – GEOLOGYArchitectural Elements and Facies Distribution along an Actively Growing Deepwater Basin Margin, Eocene Morillo Stratigraphic Unit, Ainsa Basin, Spain (Adv. Drs. Bouroullec/Pyles)

SILALAHI, HENRI SAHAT MIAN PARULIAN M.SC. – GEOLOGYStratigraphic Architecture of Slope Deposits Associated with Prograding Margins, Sobrarbe Formation: Ainsa Basin, Spain (Adv. Dr. Pyles)

SKINNER, JAY P.M.SC. – GEOLOGYDifferentiating River-Dominated and Wave-Dominated Proximal Delta Fronts of the Chimney Rock Tongue, Flaming Gorge Reservoir Area, Utah (Adv. Dr. Plink-Bjorklund)

STORY, CRISTINA M.SC. – HYDROLOGY Surface and Hyporheic Zone Water Toxicity to Benthic Macro-invertebrates in a First-Order Alpine Stream, Clear Creek County, Colorado (Adv. Dr. Poeter)

STRATTON, MELISSA SARAHM.SC. HYDROLOGY (NON-THESIS) (Adv. Dr. Benson)

STROKER, TREVOR M.SC. – GEOCHEMISTRYK-Ar Dating of Authigenic Illites: Integrating the Diagenetic History of the Fluvial Williams Fork Formation, Mesaverde Group, Piceance Basin, NW Colorado (Adv. Dr. Harris)

WHEELER, WHITNEY M.SC. – GEOCHEMISTRYSource Rock Characterization of the Lower Cretaceous Ostracode Zone, Southern Grant Lands, Alberta, Canada (Advs. Drs. Harris/Curtis)

Keenan Lee

Marge and Sam Romberger

Le': Eric Nelson and Marilyn Schwinger

Eileen Poeter and Marilyn Schwinger

February 23, 2009 - We honored our recent retirees. Unfortunately, Greg Holden wasn’t present. Right photo: John Humphrey addresses the gathering.

PAGE 36

Fall 2009 “Welcome to the new school year” picnic

Seniors “Boots” Mi!er, Barrett Levergne, Loren Bongirno, Tim Stockhausen

Cosima Theloy, Adrian Almanza, background: Thom Fisher

Hui Jin and guest, Vasilisa Nekhorosheva, background: Dean Fe!er, Jufang Feng

Dave Benson, background: Mason Dykstra, Thomas Monecke, Dave Pyles, Chuck Kluth

Jane Stammer, John Humphrey, background: Jerry Boak, Dave Benson

PAGE 37

The Newsletter is compiled once a year for alumni and friends of the Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines.

Editor: D. Cockburn

Department Head: John D. Humphrey

Faculty: J.L. Aschoff, D.A. Benson, J.B. Curtis, J. Duncan, J.D. Higgins, M.W. Hitzman, N. Kelly, K. Mandernack, R.M. Maxwell, T. Monecke, P. Plink-Björklund, P.M. Santi, C.V. Shorey, S.A. Sonnenberg, B.D. Trudgill, R.F. Wendlandt, W. Zhou

Research Faculty: D. Anderson, S. Appleby, J. Boak, M. Boland, R. Bouroullec, M. Carr, R. Duncan, M. Dykstra, I. Ferguson, M. Gregory, M. Gooseff, N. Harris, K. Hoal, C. Kluth, C. Moore, S. Moqbel, M. Morrissey, D. Pyles, R. Sarg, J. Stammer, K. Tanavsuu-Milkeviciene

Emeritus Faculty: L.G. Closs, T.L.T. Grose, J.D. Haun, G.S. Holden, N.F. Hurley, R.W. Hutchinson, K. Lee, E.P. Nelson, E.P. Poeter, S.B. Romberger, A.K. Turner, J.E. Warme, R.J. Weimer

Support Staff: D. Cockburn, L. D’Epagnier, C. Rourke, M. Schwinger, J. Skok

Students Enrolled as Department Majors

Undergraduates 156Graduate Students M.Sc. 90 Ph.D. 48 Professional Masters 12

0

40

80

120

160

200

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Total Undergraduate StudentsMale Undergrad StudentsFemale Undergrad Students

PAGE 38

Colorado School of MinesDepartment of Geology and Geological Engineering

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PAGE 39

Dear Alumni and Friends: We would like to hear from you, learn what you’re doing, and share that information with other alumni and friends of the Department. Please take a minute from your busy schedule and complete the information requested below. Then mail it to us. Or, feel free to email news and information to Debbie Cockburn at dcockbur@mines.edu. This ensures we have current information about you. We hope you will provide a synopsis of your current activities, news about your family, and interesting and important things you’ve done. We will include your news in the next Newsletter. Thanks. We look forward to hearing from you!

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