On March 7, 1997, Emeritus Professor Freeman Foote passed away at the age of 88 after a relatively brief illness. Some of us have known Freeman longer than others, but we all have witnessed Freeman's abiding presence in Clark Hall over the many years following his retirement from teaching. It was a rare occasion, indeed, when Freeman failed to appear for one of our many guest lectures. Whatever the topic, he consistently asked our visitors insightful questions that demonstrated his lucid interest in all that comes under the discipline of geology. We are proud to have Freeman's name associated with our annual prize for the best-presented senior honors thesis. From 1986 through the spring term 1996, Freeman regularly attended the thesis presentations made by our honors students and assisted in the judging. Twelve seniors have now been awarded the "Freeman Foote Award." By observing Freeman frequently amongst us, our students witnessed how learning about geology is a life-time affair that yields unending wonder and delight. Professor Reinhard A. Wobus and Emeritus Professor William T. Fox represented the department at Freeman's graveside service in Old Lyme, Connecticut, on April 11, 1997.
After 8 years of dedicated service as departmental chairman ending with the Spring Term 1996, Professor R.A. "Bud" Wobus took a year-long sabbatical and was succeeded as chairman by Professor Markes E. Johnson. Fortunately, Bud was never far away when called upon for frequent advice during the transition. He was, however, able to escape on an alumni trip to Switzerland in September. The Building and Grounds Department apparently determined that the changing of the guard was an appropriate time to address a structural problem affecting the Main-Street entrance to Clark Hall. In the aftermath of repairs, the foyer and hallways of Clark Hall received some much needed fresh paint and refurbishment. A new bulletin board calling attention to alumni achievements was added and bulletin boards featuring student and faculty research were redesigned. Geological maps of Massachusetts and other New England states are repositioned in the foyer, with the largest wall space given over to a composite, topographic-relief map of the northeastern United States. Intellectually, a new tradition was ushered into the department with the installation of a faculty seminar series designed to bring faculty, emeritus faculty, and research associates together to share their interest in new or ongoing research on topics that impact our curriculum.
By the end of summer 1996, eight incoming seniors in our department completed field studies entitling them to commence work for formal credit as honors-thesis students. Although the same number of students undertook geology theses in 1993-94 and 1994-95, the current group sets a new departmental record for the highest percentage of students from the senior class of geosciences majors engaged in thesis work (73%). Six of the eight thesis students this year gained valuable experience presenting the results of their research at various geological conferences (see details below).
October 28-31, 1996, four faculty members (Cox, Dethier, Karabinos, and Wobus) attended the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver, Colorado. A near-record 24 Williams alumni also attended this conference and presented the results of their active research. Among this group, six are poised to complete their Ph.D. studies or have recently done so. Unquestionably, the highlight of the Denver meeting was the ceremony at which Paul Bierman `85 received the Donath Medal. This prestigious award is presented by the Geological Society of America annually to the outstanding young scientist in the profession. Paul is a member of the faculty at the University of Vermont, and he retains close ties with our department. His current research is focused on the use of cosmogenic isotopes to help determine rates of weathering and erosion in arid regions.
On November 16, 1996, students in the geosciences were able to participate in the Environmental/Geology Panel organized as Science Matters III by the Williams Office of Career Counseling. It was a pleasure to welcome back to campus several of our alumni, including Clive K. (Hulick) Tucceri `75 (Science Chair, East Hampton Public Schools, Connecticut), Blake Martin `84 (District Manager, Ground Water Associates), Helen Mango `85 (Associate Professor in Geology at Castleton State College, Vermont), and Marshall Hayes `92 (Sea Grant Legislative Fellow, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.).
During the January Winter Study Period, new links with the Biology Department were forged through the joint offering of a field course on geology and botany in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Led by Markes Johnson, Hank Art (Williams Biology), and Jorge Ledesma-Vazquez (Universidad Autonoma de Baja California), this course allowed a small group of Williams and UABC students to undertake scientific field work at Punta Chivato on the Gulf of California. Students also experienced a vanishing way of life at remote San Nicolas village, where solar power is beginning to impact the local pattern of life in a tropical paradise. Senior Patrick S. Russell and junior Lauren B. Interess took part in the trip. Back on campus, Professor David Dethier continued his periodic practice of warding off the winter precipitation normally expected in the northern Berkshires by offering a course on Snow. In addition to the course on The Ocean Floor given by Visiting Professor Mark Brandriss, a course on the Science of Jurassic Park was taught by Research Associate Gudveig Baarli. Both courses involved field trips (respectively, to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute on Cape Cod and to the American Museum of Natural History in New York); both courses attracted a dedicated group of students.
During Spring Break, Assistant Professor Rónadh Cox organized a field trip to Arizona and southern California in conjunction with a field course from the University of Illinois. Williams students participating were seniors William H. Crane and Clare D. McLellan and juniors Matthew S. Jeffers and Eliza S. Nemser. Visiting Professor Mark Brandriss also took part in the project. The trip featured visits to the San Francisco Volcanic Field near Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon, the Basin and Range Province, and the Mazatzal Mountains.
March and April were especially busy times for the department, as various faculty-student groups prepared for major conferences where their research was afforded a public forum. March 20-21, 1997, senior Molly B. Barrett attended a joint meeting of the South-Central and Rocky Mountain sections sponsored by the Geological Society of America in El Paso, Texas. In collaboration with Lecturer David J. DeSimone, Robert J. Carson (Whitman College), and Thomas W. Gardner (Trinity University), Molly presented a poster on "Sackung on Dead Indian Hill, Park County, Wyoming." Molly's attendance at this meeting was made possible through the Freeman Foote Fund. Also in March, Patrick S. Russell attended the 28th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas, where he presented a poster based on research with Gary Lofgren (Johnson Space Center) regarding chondrite meteorites from NASA's Antarctic meteorite collection. Patrick's involvement on this project was initiated through a 10-week internship with the Lunar and Planetary Institute during the summer of 1996.
April 5-9, 1997, seniors Alison H. Kopelman, Jonathan L. Payne, and Patrick S. Russell joined Professor Markes Johnson to attend the Fourth International Meeting on the Geology of the Baja California Peninsula in Ensenada, Mexico. This gathering of Mexican and U.S. geologists featured over 60 presentations on a wide range of geological topics related to Mexico's two "frontier states." Alison, who won the award for the best student presentation at the meeting, gave a talk on "Evidence of Seasonality and Climatic Cycles From the Upper Cretaceous El Gallo Formation of Baja California." Jon spoke on "Dynamic Coastal Facies of the Alisitos Formation at Punta San Isidro, Baja California," and Patrick presented the results of his work on "Pliocene to Recent Carbonate Dunes at Punta Chivato, Baja California Sur." Professor Johnson presented a paper on: "Abandoned Rocky Shoals From the Pleistocene Gulf of California, Baja California Sur, Mexico." Their research was funded under a grant to Professor Johnson from the Petroleum Research Fund (American Chemical Society). The McAleenan Fund supported student attendance at the Ensenada meeting.
April 9-13, 1997, six students and four faculty, attended the 10th Annual Keck Undergraduate Research Symposium in Geology at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. The Keck Symposium permits approximately 120 students and faculty from more than 20 undergraduate geology departments to share information about collaborative research. Williams seniors making presentations were Molly B. Barrett on "Sackung on Dead Indian Hill, Park County, Wyoming"; Robin A. Beebee on "Depositional Environments of the Cambrian Flathead Sandstone, Park County, Wyoming"; and Martha J. Folley on "Geochemistry and Tectonic Setting of Proterozoic Amphibolites, Southern Front Range and Northern Wet Mountains, Colorado."
Juniors making presentations at the Keck meeting were Mac Harman (with Jake Sewall of Washington and Lee University) on "The Dead Horse Creek Catchment Basin: Effects of Logging and Forest Fires on the Eutrophication of Big Payette Lake, Idaho"; Matt Jeffers (with Spiro Givaris of Franklin and Marshall College) on "Structural Controls on Valley and Ridge Orientation on the Southeastern Flank of Mount Greylock, Massachusetts"; and Kate Wearn (with Dan Core of the College of Wooster) on "Geochemical Characterization of Tourmaline across Pegmatite-Country Rock Boundaries in the Southwestern Main Pegmatite Field."
Faculty members making presentations at the Keck meeting were Professor Paul Karabinos and Assistant Professor Rónadh Cox on "Carbonate Fault Slivers Control the Orientation and Location of Valleys in the Greylock Massif, Berkshire County, Massachusetts"; and Professor R.A. Wobus (with Jeff Noblett and Chris Siddoway of Colorado College) on "Precambrian Geology of Central Colorado." Participation by faculty and students in the Wooster meeting was made possible through funding from the W.M Keck Foundation to the Keck Geology Consortium.
A grant of $900,000 from the W.M. Keck Foundation for continued funding of the Keck Geology Consortium for the next two years was announced at the end of 1996. Three Williams students will be funded by the Keck grant this summer. Junior Katherine M. Wearn applied for and was awarded a place on the "Colorado Proterozoic" project co-directed by Professor R.A. Wobus. Sophomores Ethan D. Gutmann and Martin Wong will participate in Keck projects on "Ferric Iron Partitioning in the Adirondack Mountains" and "Volcanism and Tectonics on Earth, Venus, and Mars: a Planetological Approach" (offered on campus at Washington and Lee University), respectively. Professor Wobus, likewise, will serve as the Williams sponsor of these projects.
Several other juniors will initiate field work this summer in anticipation of the senior honors program. Matthew S. Jeffers will accompany Assistant Professor Rónadh Cox to Madagascar on a project supported, in part, by the Sperry Fund. Eliza S. Nemser will work with Professor Paul Karabinos on a project concerning the structural geology of the Mount Greylock massif (also supported, in part, by the Sperry Fund). Three students are planning to work with Professor David Dethier on a project concerning the Late Cenozoic evolution of the Rio Grande in the SW Española Basin of New Mexico. Catherine A. Riihimaki won a prestigious SUR (Summer Undergraduate Research) fellowship through the Council on Undergraduate Research in support of her work on Quaternary aspects of this project. Andrew D. Fagenholz and Stephanie K. Kampf will work on Pliocene aspects of the project with Professor Dethier, supported by a grant from the U.S.G.S.
As during the past many years, the Yellowstone-Bighorn Research Association's summer field camp at Red Lodge, Montana (operated by the University of Pennsylvania) is the facility of choice for training geology students in field methods. Six juniors, including Andrew D. Fagenholz, Ethan D. Gutmann, Lauren B. Interess, Seth C. Low, Eliza S. Nemser, and Catherine A. Riihimaki will attend one of two 1997 summer sessions. All were awarded partial scholarships from the David Major Fund in support of this activity.
Jonathan L. Payne was the winner of the Mineralogical Society of America award this year for his outstanding scholastic record in the Williams mineralogy course. At our final colloquium in May, Alison Kopelman also received the Freeman Foote Prize for giving the best oral presentation of her senior thesis results. During class-day ceremonies, Molly Barrett was awarded the David Major Award, presented each year to an outstanding geology major in memory of David N. Major `81. Over the commencement weekend, Robin Beebee, Jo Holbert, Jon Payne, and Patrick Russell were inducted into Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society; Jo Holbert, Jon Payne, and Patrick Russell were inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.
Research Associate Gudveig Baarli participated in activities associated with the 2nd International Symposium on the Silurian System in July and August, 1996. She is the principal author of three sections in a guidebook on "Sedimentary Environments of Silurian Taconia" published as Studies in Geology 26 by the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Tennessee. The guidebook was prepared for the pre-conference field trip that took place July 22 through August 3, 1996, and covered localities stretching from Birmingham, Alabama, to Rochester, New York. She also presented a poster on "Silurian Cycles, Tempestite Deposits, and Proximality Analysis" on August 4 as part of the symposium subsequently held at the University of Rochester. An article based on her poster presentation will be published in Bulletin 491 of the New York State Museum devoted to the theme of "Silurian cycles." This was also the topic of her departmental seminar. In January, 1997, Gudveig offered a successful course on the Science of Jurassic Park as part of the Winter Study Program. During the spring term, she participated in the CES-sponsored, faculty seminar on biodiversity. April 24, 1997, Gudveig gave a public lecture at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield on "Tyranosaurus rex." Her talk coincided with the museum's exhibit of a life-size, origami model of T. rex. Gudveig's commentary on "Sedimentological Changes Across the Ordovician-Silurian Boundary in Hadeland..." was published in the Norsk Geologistk Tidsskrift during the last quarter of 1996.
Mark Brandriss came to the Department of Geosciences in January, 1997, as a visiting assistant professor, teaching a winter study course titled The Ocean Floor and teaching Mineralogy and Geochemistry during the spring (filling in for Bud Wobus, who was on sabbatical). The Winter Study course was highlighted by a three-day field trip to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Marine Biological Laboratory, and U.S. Geological Survey on Cape Cod, where the scientific staffs treated students to a behind-the-scenes tour of facilities and research in marine biology and geology, paleoclimatology, submersible engineering, radiocarbon dating, nearshore environmental studies, and geophysical remote sensing of the ocean floor.
Brandriss arrived in December from the University of Michigan, where he was conducting experimental studies of the oxygen isotope characteristics of diatoms (a type of algae whose fossil remains preserve isotopic records of ancient climates). He presented the results of his research at the Geological Society of America meeting in Denver last October, in a paper titled "Temperature Dependence of the Oxygen Isotope Fractionation Between Diatomaceous Silica and Water." Petrological research that he carried out in Greenland and South Africa also appeared in print during the past year, including papers titled "Dehydration, Partial Melting and Assimilation of Metabasaltic Xenoliths in Gabbros of the Kap Edvard Holm Complex, East Greenland" (published in The American Journal of Science) and "Formation of Anorthosite and Leucotonalite During Magma Hybridization in the Koperberg Suite of Namaqualand, South Africa" (published in the South African Journal of Geology).
Brandriss will continue to work in the Department of Geosciences as a Research Associate starting this summer. He will spend July of 1997 in Alaska as an instructor in the Juneau Ice Fields Program, an ongoing educational and research project administered by the Foundation for Glacier and Environmental Research.
Rónadh Cox joined the Department of Geosciences in July, 1996. She instructed a sophomore Keck project during the month of August, mapping in the Greylock massif, along with Paul Karabinos (director) and John Leftwich (Old Dominion). At the conclusion of the project, she went to Trivandrum, India, where she participated in a symposium and field workshop on the "Proterozoic Continental Crust of Southern India," in association with the International Geological Correlation Project (IGCP). At the meeting, she presented results of work that she has been doing in Madagascar over the past few years in a paper titled "The Geology of the Itremo Group, Central Madagascar: Deformed Remnant of a Proterozoic Continental Shelf Sequence."
During the fall semester, Cox revamped and expanded the Geosciences website and developed a home page for GEOS 103, Environmental Geology and the Earth's Surface. She also worked on the evolution of mudrock geochemistry through earth history and attended the Geological Society of America meeting in Denver, where she presented a paper titled "Trends in Mudrock Chemistry Through Time: Implications for the Evolution of Continental Crust." Eliza Nemser `98 became involved in this project as an independent study student, and the outcome of this effort is being written up as a joint-authored research article.
Concentration on teaching was the focus this spring. In addition to developing lectures and labs, Cox guided Robin Beebee `97 through data collection and writing up of her senior thesis. During Spring Break, she and Mark Brandriss took a group of Geoscience majors (Will Crane `97, Clare McClellan `97, Eliza Nemser `98, and Matt Jeffers `98) to the desert southwest for a joint Williams College-University of Illinois field trip. The mixed group of faculty, undergraduates, and graduate students spent ten days examining the geology and tectonics of the Basin and Range, the San Andreas Fault, and the Colorado Plateau. Cox is on the scientific committee for the IGCP symposium "Geology and Mineral Resources of Madagascar," to be held in Antananarivo this August, and she is compiling and editing the abstracts volume for the meeting. The final "field trip" of the academic year was a faculty-student outing to watch the movie "Volcano," sponsored by the CUL. This summer she will spend two months doing field work in central Madagascar. Matt Jeffers `98 will work with her there, mapping structures in the Itremo Group. At the end of the summer, Cox will participate in the IGCP symposium and lead field trips associated with the meeting.
David Dethier continued mapping of late Pleistocene glacial deposits in the San Juan Islands of Washington as part of his research about the climatic, sea-level, and isostatic processes that resulted in rapid retreat of continental ice from the area about 13,100 years ago. Supported by a grant from the Petroleum Research Fund, Will Crane `97 and Joanna Holbert `97 worked in the field with Professor Dethier studying thick deposits of glacial sediment on land and beneath marine waters, using seismic reflection techniques. Both students completed senior honors theses in Geosciences and were co-authors of a paper presented by Dethier at the Geological Society of America (GSA) National Meeting in Denver in October, 1996. Dethier also presented results of their joint research as a faculty lecture entitled "Chasing Vanished Ice" in February, 1997.
Dethier continued his fieldwork studying landslides, flood deposits, and late Pleistocene climate change along the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico, supported by the U.S. Geological Survey. The slides have moved repeatedly during wet periods in late Pleistocene time, temporarily damming the Rio Grande and forming extensive lakes that record the timing of climate change with considerable precision. Dethier will continue field studies during the summer of 1997 in northern New Mexico with three thesis students in a project funded by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Council on Undergraduate Research.
Dethier continued to serve as Director of Research for Hopkins Memorial Forest, helping to coordinate ongoing collection of weather, streamflow, precipitation chemistry, and other environmental data from the Forest and their analysis in the Bronfman Science Center.
Professor Markes Johnson brought to a close an active sabbatical year as one of two conveners for the 2nd International Symposium on the Silurian System. The symposium was held at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY, August 4-9, 1996, under the primary sponsorship of the Subcommission on Silurian Stratigraphy (a subdivision of the International Commission on Stratigraphy under the International Union of Geological Sciences). During the Subcommission's biennial business meeting, Markes was reconfirmed as chairman for a second four-year term of office. The conference, which was named in honor of James Hall (prominent 19th-century geologist and paleontologist from New York State), attracted 75 participants from 16 countries representing all continents where Silurian strata are extensively exposed. The program began with 20 poster exhibits and a workshop on "Silurian Cycles: Linkages of Dynamic Processes in Atmosphere and Oceans." Global sea-level changes, glacial episodes, geochemical cycles, extinction events, and changes in faunal diversity were discussed and their possible connections debated during these sessions. In cooperation with colleagues from China and the United Kingdom, Markes presented a poster on "Calibrating Silurian Eustasy Against the Erosion and Burial of Coastal Paleotopography." A paper based on his poster is now accepted for publication in Bulletin 491 of the New York State Museum, which will include many of the papers from the session.
As part of the symposium, 20 keynote speakers presented detailed analyses of continental-scale paleogeography in sessions devoted to the topic of "Silurian Lands and Shelf Margins." The regions covered by these sessions were Laurentia (North America), Avalonia, Baltica, southern Europe, Siberia, and Gondwanan Australia, India, North Africa, and South America. Professor Johnson is currently editing the papers from this session for another publication sponsored by the New York State Museum.
The James Hall Meeting was preceded on July 22 to August 3, 1996, by a field trip traversing the Appalachian Basin from Birmingham, Alabama, to Rochester, NY. Markes coordinated the publication of a 230-page guidebook tracking nearshore environments of Silurian Taconia through eight states of the eastern U.S. expressly for this excursion (see more above, under Baarli).
During the summer, Professor Johnson assumed the chairmanship of the Geosciences Department. On September 18, 1996, he gave the inaugural Departmental Faculty Seminar on the topic of "Anomalous Eastern Boundary Currents." In celebration of the Earth's 6,000th birthday on August 23, 1996, [according to the calculations of Bishop Ussher], Markes gave a departmental colloquium on "Silurian Carbonates of Arctic Siberia: Fighting Floods, Mosquitoes, and Eustasy" based on his 1995 experiences in Russia. During the January Winter Study Period, he joined Hank Art from the Biology Department in leading a geology-botany field excursion to Punta Chivato, Baja California Sur, Mexico. During the Spring Term, he participated in the CES-sponsored, faculty seminar on biodiversity. April 6-9, 1997, Markes attended the 4th International Meeting on the Geology of the Baja California Peninsula in Ensenada, Mexico, where he presented a paper on "Abandoned Rocky Shoals From the Pleistocene Gulf of California, Baja California Sur, Mexico." He was accompanied by his three honors students: Alison Kopelman, Jon Payne, and Patrick Russell. All made excellent presentations based on their thesis research in Baja California.
In June, 1997, the Geological Society of America published Special Paper 318 on "Pliocene Carbonates and Related Facies Flanking the Gulf of California, Baja, California, Mexico" edited by Markes Johnson and Jorge Ledesma-Vazquez (Universidad Autonoma de Baja California). The volume contains four articles co-authored by Markes and various colleagues, including former students Mark Mayall `93 and Max Simian `95. Other research papers published in 1996-97 appeared as chapters in books on Paleontological Events -Stratigraphic, Ecological, and Evolutionary Implications (Columbia University Press) and the Geological Society of America Special Paper 306 on "Paleozoic Sequence Stratigraphy, as well as in the Journal of Coastal Research (two papers co-authored with Laura Libbey `95) and the Journal of Geoscience Education (another paper co-authored with Max Simian `95).
Professor Paul Karabinos continued his research on the timing and kinematics of the Taconian orogeny in western New England and began working on the tectonics of the Alleghenian orogeny in the Appalachians. In October, 1996, he attended the Geological Society of America Meeting in Denver, Colorado, where he presented a talk entitled "Evidence for Contemporaneous Movement on Multiple Thrusts From Footwall Slivers Between Hanging-Wall Imbricates." In March, 1997, he went to the Northeastern Section Meeting of the Geological Society of America in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and presented a talk "Does the Northern Termination of the Alleghanian Fold and Thrust Belt Record a Reversal in Subduction Polarity?." In April, 1997, he participated in the Tenth Annual Keck Research Symposium in Geology in Wooster, Ohio, and gave a talk with Rónadh Cox and John Leftwich entitled "Carbonate Fault Slivers Control the Orientation and Location of Valleys on the Greylock Massif, Berkshire County, Massachusetts."
Karabinos used a grant jointly sponsored by the Keck Foundation and the National Science Foundation for a project entitled "Structural Geomorphology of Northern Berkshire County." This was the second year this project has been run. The $52,100 grant supported three faculty and ten students during August, 1996, examining possible structural controls over the topography of the Williamstown area. Rónadh Cox from Williams College and John Leftwich from Old Dominion University, Virginia, were the other faculty members on the project. Matt Jeffers `98 from Williams College also joined the project. The student participants presented their results in posters at the Tenth Annual Keck Research Symposium in Geology in Wooster, Ohio. During the summer of 1997, Karabinos will work with Eliza Nemser `98 on the deformation and metamorphism of rocks on Mount Greylock.
Prof. Bud Wobus enjoyed his first year away from the chairman's office with a full year's sabbatical during 1996-97. He began his leave in Colorado during the summer of 1996 by co-directing a month-long Keck Geology Consortium research project studying the most ancient igneous and metamorphic rocks of the northern Wet Mountains and southern Front Range. Interpretation of the metamorphic and tectonic history and of the nature of the volcanic activity in those regions 1700 million years ago will further our understanding of how the North American continent grew so rapidly during that period. The field work led into the senior honors thesis of Martha Folley `97, whose work he advised during his leave; he was also a co-advisor for two Smith seniors on the Colorado project and for Kate Wearn `98, who studied the mineralogy and chemistry of tourmaline from pegmatites in Maine as part of another Keck project. While in Colorado, he led a weekend seminar for the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument and a day-long field trip for Williams alumni from the Denver area and Colorado Springs, in addition to lecturing at the Colorado Outdoor Education Center.
Back in New England he gave an illustrated talk for the Appalachian Mountain Club at their Pinkham Notch Center at the base of Mt. Washington, NH, in August. During the fall he led a day-long program on Mt. Greylock for high school students from Briarcliff, NY, and was the faculty leader of a week-long Williams alumni trip to Switzerland, offering several evening programs as well as providing geological commentary during the daily trips in the Alps. He was a member of the review panel for the Geology Department at Colby College for three days in October after which he represented Williams at the meeting of the advisory board of the Twelve-College Keck Geology Consortium, held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver. During the winter he attended the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco and the annual meeting of the Committee on Membership of the Geological Society of America in Boulder, CO. With the successful renewal (moving into the second decade) of the grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to sustain the national twelve-college Keck Geology Consortium, he was the Williams representative in the selection of student participants for the coming year's research projects and in planning for future fund-raising for the consortium.
In the spring he was co-author of a paper presented at the Rocky Mountain Section meeting of the Geological Society of America entitled "Structural Geology of Mid-Proterozoic Gneisses and Granitic Rocks East of the Ilse Fault, Wet Mountains, Colorado." In April he attended, with six Williams students and three other faculty members, the 10th annual Keck Research Symposium in Geology at the College of Wooster, Ohio, where he was co-author of a paper, "Precambrian Geology of Central Colorado," presented by Prof. Jeff Noblett of Colorado College.
This summer he will be the Williams faculty leader of an alumni trip to Yellowstone and the Beartooth Mountains of Montana in late June. In July and August he will co-direct a continuation of last year's Keck research project in central Colorado, where Kate Wearn `98 will begin her senior thesis work. He will also be the advisor for two members of the class of `99 on other Keck projects: Ethan Gutmann ("Ferric Iron Partitioning in Rocks of the Adirondacks") and Martin Wong ("Volcanism and Tectonics on Earth, Venus, and Mars-A Planetological Approach").