Department News and Events 2005

Research - ...Kirkland leans toward a theory developed by Celina and Marina Suarez, twins who are geology graduate students at Temple University in Philadelphia. Their research on carbonate-rich sediments in which the dinosaurs were buried suggests the area was near or in a spring, and that there were at least two mass die-offs. That raises the possibility the dinosaurs were drawn repeatedly to the site by water or an attractive food source – perhaps plants growing around the spring – and then the spring occasionally would poison the animals with toxic gas or water...More

Lecture - Real-time Earthquake Information on the Internet: Past, Present & Future Wednesday, February 23, 4:30 PM, Science Lecture Hall (Reception and refreshments in Marrs McLean Lobby at 4:00 )

Recent technological advances in computer and communication technology, as well as developments in seismic networks in the United States , have allowed seismologists to rapidly respond to earthquakes in revolutionary ways. Rather than limiting post-earthquake information to simply location and magnitude, we can now rapidly provide maps of the intensity of shaking over the region affected by a damaging earthquake.

One system, called ShakeMap, relies on shaking levels recorded at seismic stations to map out the distribution of shaking, pointing to the areas most shaken and likely to have experienced damage. These maps now provide the basis for emergency response coordination, estimation of damage and losses, and information for the public and the media.

The second system, the Community Internet Intensity Maps (more commonly referred to as "Did You Feel it?") is a unique approach to Citizen Science. By collecting reports of what was felt and observed earthquake effects through the World Wide Web immediately after the shaking subsides, we can rapidly map out the extent and distribution of shaking and damage in any area of the country. To date, we have logged over 350,000 individual entries to our questionnaire nationwide. This includes entries from all 50 states, plus the US Territories, indicating that the earthquake problem is indeed nationwide!

The USGS is currently developing a third system called PAGER (Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes Rapidly), which will do for the rest of the world what ShakeMap has done for the U.S.

Lisa received her B.S. in Geology from Trinity in 1984. She was a geophysicist in the Pasadena , CA USGS Office for 15 years, and has been in the Golden, CO office since 2002. She is the Chief Outreach & Education Officer for the USGS Earthquake Hazards Team.

New Faculty -The geosciences faculty is delighted to announce that Dr. Kathleen Surpless will be joining us as an Assistant Professor in Geosciences in August 2004.  Dr. Surpless earned a Bachelor's degree, majoring in geology, from Amherst College in 1996 ( Magma cum Laude ).  Her senior honors thesis, an outcome from her participation on a Keck Geology consortium project, was on Archean amphibolites of the Tobacco Root Mountains in southwestern Montana.  After graduation from Amherst, Dr. Surpless attended Stanford University where she earned a Ph.D. in Geological and Environmental Sciences (GES) in 2001.  Her dissertation was on forearc basin evolution and provenance, including detrital zircon studies of the Great Valley Group of California and the Methow Basin of Washington state.  Since completing her doctorate, Dr. Surpless has held the position of Lecturer and Undergraduate Program Coordinator in the GES Department at Stanford.  Dr. Surpless' research involves a multi-methodological approach to document tectonic and magmatic events recorded in sedimentary rocks, and to reconstruct paleogeology by determining how sediment moves through both ancient and modern environments.  In addition to her work in the Great Valley and Methow basins, she has studied the Miocene Monterey Formation exposed along the Santa Barbara coast.

We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Surpless to Trinity University.

Administrative Promotions and Changes- Congratulations to Dr. Diane Smith on her appointment to the position of Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs: Budget and Research, effective June 1, 2004. Dr. Smith has served as Department Chair since spring 1998. She will continue to teach one course each semester and willl remain involved in departmental affairs.

Dr. Glenn Kroeger has agreed to take over the position of Department Chair upon Dr. Smith's departure in June. Congratulations, Dr. Kroeger!

New Equipment - A generous multi-year grant is funding the acquisition of new equipment for introductory laboratories. New binocular stereo and binocular petrographic scopes have been purchased. New Trimble GeoXT GPS receivers, a new Leica TCR405 total station and a WindowsCE based data collector have also been added. Beginning this spring, we will buy computers for the introductory labs. The current plan is to acquire TabletPCs which can be used in the lab and in the field. The lab will be outfitted with 802.11g wireless networking to support these machines. Lab projects involving the use of GIS to study earthquakes, and remote sensing will be added to the Exploring Earth course.