Student Research and Theses
Many of our students conduct research either with one of the professors in the Department of Earth and Environmental Geoscience, the Keck Geology Consortium, or at other national labs and NSF REU programs. This research often leads to the writing of a thesis. Students conduct research during the summer, through independent studies during the year and through their theses. Students receiving funding assistance from the Provost's Office Summer Research Scholars Program, the R. Preston Hawkins IV Geology Award; the Samuel J. Kozak-Odell S. McGuire-Edgar W. Spencer-Frederick L. Schwab Award; the Edgar W. Spencer '53 Geology Field Research Award; the Provost's Office; and Johnson Opportunity Grants. Please see the Funding for Research page for more information on funding.
Recent Student Theses
Brendan Moehringer '23 Plastic Overprinting of Quartz Slickenfibers Along Thrust Faults in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains
Mickie Brown '21 Estimating soil carbon content of grazing lands in Rockbridge County, Virginia using statistical and machine learning techniques
Owen Hadden '21 Distinguishing Lake effects from other sources of seismic discontinuity in 3D seismic data, Arctic Alaska
Javier Peralta '21 Seismic interpretation and spectral decomposition analysis of the Upper Ellesmerian sequence in the North Slope
Chantal Iosso '20 Impacts of Low-Head Dam Construction and Removal with Little Channel Sediment Storage: Case Study from the Maury River, Virginia
Chris Messerich '20 Constraining the structure of the Sadlerochit Mountains, North east Alaska from high resolution photogrammetry
Ryan Monson '20 Evaluating the use of NDVI analysis in a Soil Matter study of grazed pastures, Rockbridge, VA
Iszak Morgan '20 Exploring Soil Organic Carbon Methodology and Variability in Rockbridge County Pastures
Recent Student Research Presented at Conferences
-Michael William Brown '21 presented at GSA Fall 2020
-Margaret Grace Roquemore '21 presented "Is the Acropora prolifera hybrid new? A case study from the Early Holocene Enriquillo Valley," research she conducted with Lisa Greer, at GSA 2019
-Chantal Iosso '20 presented "Low-Head Dam Removal with Little Sediment Release: Case Study from the Maury River, Virginia," research she conducted with David J Harbor and David Pfaff, at AGU 2020
-Michael William Brown '21 presented "Geodynamic modeling of the United States: Associations between gravitational potential energy, inherited structures, and modern tectonism," research with and Cassidy N Jay, at AGU 2020
- Keck Consortium Gateway Project students, Lisa Greer Co-instructor and Ginny Johnson '20 Peer Mentor, presented "Browning the Golden Tide: Impacts of Accumulated Sargassum on Sea Water Quality in Ambergris Caye, Belize," at AGU 2020
- Keck Consortium Project students, Lisa Greer Co-instructor and Ginny Johnson '20 Peer Mentor, presented "Living Spaces: Quantifying Morphological Differences in Acropora spp. Corals Using 3D Photogrammetry," at AGU 2020
- Keck Consortium Gateway Project students including AJ Mabaka, Lisa Greer Co-instructor and Ginny Johnson '20 Peer Mentor, presented "The Response of Algae and Herbivores to Acropora Cervicornis Coral Decline: A Case Study in Coral Gardens, Belize," at AGU 2020
- Javier Peralta '21 was scheduled to present "Is there really a "Good" buffer? Identifying nonreactive pH buffers for fungal manganese" at the American Chemical Society conference but the meeting was cancelled
- Chantal Iosso '20 presented "A high-resolution assessment of the impact of floating treatment wetlands on nutrient removal" at GSA 2018
- Liza Moore '21, presented her research associated with a Keck Consortium Gateway Project: "Using lake cores to analyze sediment transport and environmental change in Swiftcurrent Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana, USA" at GSA 2018
- Kameko R Landry, Ryan Monson, and David J Harbor presented "Hyporheic flow during plucking of fractured bedrock" at AGU 2018