Possible topics for presentations

Whatever you pick, make sure you emphasize the stratigraphic and geomorphic aspects of the matter!!

Below are a few examples from previous years. Also, I give a couple dozen possibilities. You needn’t choose any of the ones I list. If you wish, you could peruse a dozen or so recent issues of GSA Bulletin, Geology or another geological

journal, to see if any geomorphic/stratigraphic topic interests you.

Email me with your interests, so that I can make sure there is enough literature available to work from.

Examples from previous years:

The Pleistocene Dead Sea (Lake Lisan)The history of glacial Lake Agassiz, Canada

The Little Ice AgeThe history of Lake Lahontan, NevadaThe history of glacial Lake Missoula

The Channeled Scablands, compared to Scablands on Mars

Suggested topicsVolcanoes

The morphology and stratigraphy of sector collapses of large volcanoes

Sources: Moore et al., my book Big Island, Hawaii; recent paper on Canary Islands; Mt. St. Helens’ 1980 and prior, USGS Prof Paper 1250/1251; Mt. Shasta, Geology paper within past few years

The morphology and stratigraphy of lava domes, like the one forming in the center of Mount St. Helens Sources: Mt. St. Helens’ 1980 and prior, USGS Prof Paper 1250/1251

Some aspect of the eruptive history of Santorini or another volcano

Sources: Santorini guidebook (see me). August 2003 GSA Bulletin article on: Eruptive history and geochronology of the Mount Baker volcanic field, Washington

Glaciers and Pleistocene climateThe history of glacial Lake Agassiz and its implications for end-glacial climate changeAntarctic Ice Sheet. Paper in August 2003 GSA Bulletin, Neogene glacial record from the Sirius Group of the Shackleton Glacier region, … uses sedimentary characteristics of strata to infer history of the ice sheet and differences from present ice sheet.

Late Pleistocene climate variationsSources: Try a recent article in EOS, v 81,

no. 51, front page, or other recent papers on ice-core stratigraphy

Deglaciation historiesSources: Recent GSA Bulletin paper, Early

Holocene delevelling and deglaciation of the Cumberland Sound region, Baffin Island, Arctic Canada

The Stratigraphy and Chronology of the Little Ice Age, 1600-1860 AD

Aeolian processes, sediments and landforms

Loess, its origins, distributionThe late Pleistocene-Holocene history of the Sahara

LakesYellowstone Lake. Interesting paper in August 2003 GSA Bulletin on Hydrothermal and tectonic activity in northern Yellowstone Lake, uses high-res seismic reflection lines to interpret depositional and tectonic history.

The history of Lake Bonneville deformation and its implications for crustal deformation and mantle rheologySources: JGR paper by Bills et al.; Passey, 1984?; Gilbert 1890; etc.

The history of Lake Lahontan, Nevada

ReefsThe evolution of coral reefsRecent paper (July 2003 GSA Bulletin) on the facies and environmental relationships in the Florida Keys: Regional Quaternary submarine geomorphology in the Florida Keys

RiversSwitching of the Nile about AD 800 and its implications for an abandoned coastal communityLate Pleistocene evolution of the MississippiThe Channeled Scablands, Pacific Northwest

Latest Source: Number and size of last-glacial Missoula floods in the Columbia River valley between the Pasco Basin, … , Benito and O’Connor. GSA Bull., May 2003

River deltasRecent paper (April 2003 GSA Bulletin): Holocene

evolution of the western Orinoco Delta, Venezuela

TectonicsThe use of Holocene records to understand earthquake recurrence on San Andreas faultLarge earthquakes along the Oregon-Washington coast

Sources: Start with recent papers in GSA Bulletin: Great Cascadian earthquakes and tsunamis of the past 6700 years, Coquille River estuary, southern coastal Oregon (October 2003), or Evidence for earthquake-induced subsidence about 1100 yr ago in coastal marshes of southern Puget Sound, Washington (2002) Could focus on one of these, or one or more of the many older refs in their ref lists.

Earthquakes and tsunamis in the Puget Sound area from liquefaction evidence

Source: GSA Bulletin, April 2001, p. 482-494

Other paleoseismic stuffSources: McCalpin’s Paleoseismology book; chapter 8

through 12 in my textbook, The Geology of Earthquakes has many references

Fault-scarp geomorphologySources: See my textbook, The Geology of Earthquakes, Chapter 7

The tectonic geomorphology and stratigraphy of the Taiwan collision

Sources: Ask Bruce Shyu, see recent article in GSA Bulletin, October 2001 issue

Public PolicyThe influence of geologic knowledge on US Gov’t (FEMA) policy regarding natural hazard assessment and mitigation This would be a new topic for Ge 112. For example, you could focus on whether FEMA’s policies regarding mitigation of floodplain hazard makes sense from a geologic point of view. Similarly, you could look at hurricane hazard mitigation or potential, or volcanic hazard policy. I have no appropriate references. But you would want to make sure you explored the geologic aspects of the problem, not just the policy wonk stuff.

Coastal storms, tsunamisThe use of barrier beach/estuary stratigraphy to infer hurricane frequency.

Source: Recent paper in GSA Bulletin, 2001, v. 113, p 714-727

Tsunami depositsSources: Tsunamis, recent book by Edward Bryant; K-T impact, Goto;Bourgois; others; 2004 Aceh, …

Bradley Lake tsunami story GSA Bull July/Aug 2005

K-T impact tsunami deposits (Tada et al., Goto et al., Bourgois et al.)