Awardees

2006 Internship Awards

Kristen Marra

Kristen Marra, University of Oklahoma

Kristen’s project will examine the origin, composition, and depositional history of sediment fill within Unaweep Canyon, CO in order to help constrain the canyon’s unresolved genesis. The fill from the inner canyon includes a thick lacustrine section that will provide a high resolution climate record for an upland setting for the early and mid Pleistocene. Sedimentological and geochemical analyses will be conducted on core collected from the canyon’s inner gorge in June, 2004. Her faculty sponsors are Dr. Michael J. Soreghan and Dr. G.S. (Lynn) Soreghan.

Kristen in the late afternoon sun of Oklahoma.

Brandon Mijal

Brandon Mijal, Western Washington University

Brandon is studying Holocene glaciation of central Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains. His study involves intensive glacial mapping and alpine lake sediment coring throughout the Redfish Lake drainage. By linking outwash sediments to moraine sequences, lake core sediments can provide a proxy record of glacial fluctuations of the range. Lake sediment stratigraphy, ¹⁴C AMS radiocarbon, and tephra analysis from each core will outline glacial fluctuations throughout the area, leading to the first detailed Holocene glacial chronology for the range. His faculty sponsor is Dr. Douglas Clark.

Brandon at Abel Peak

Kulpecz Submit1

Andrew Kulpecz, Rutgers University

Andrew’s study will evaluate the post-impact stratigraphic evolution of the late Eocene Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure using integrated sequence stratigraphy. Lithologic, Sr-isotopic, and biostratigraphic analyses will be used to establish temporal hiatuses and determine sequence distribution within the crater. One-dimensional backstripping will be used to quantify in-crater tectonics and allow for an evaluation of the processes that control sequence distribution (eustasy, tectonics, sediment supply) across the mid-Atlantic coastal plain. This study will use core from the DOSECC/USGS/ICDP Eyreville-1 corehole, the USGS Langley and Exmore coreholes, and regional geophysical logs. His faculty sponsor is Dr. Kenneth G. Miller.

Andy rockin’ the Springsteen tee (and a really big hammer.)

2005 Internship Awards

Sarah Draper, Utah State University

Sarah’s project will study the lithological and deformation characteristics of core from Phases 1 and 2 of the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD). The analysis of these cores is an important step in the analysis of fault processes and will contribute to planning coring for Phase 3 of the project. Sarah’s faculty sponsor is DOSECC Board Member Dr. James Evans.

Sarah measures up to the drill pipe at SAFOD, August 2005 (photo courtesy of USGS)

Sylvia Nordfjord, University of Texas at Austin

Sylvia’s project is a study of the paleohydrodynamic and paleoenvironmental history of incised valleys on the outer New Jersey shelf that have been the focus of UTIG investigations under ONR sponsorship since the late 1980’s. It involves the use of very high-resolution chirp data which was collected abord the R/V Endeavor in 2001, coupled with cores collected using DOSECC’s AHC 800 drilling rig from the R/V Knorr in 2002, in order to understand the complicated pattern of high-frequency sea-level fluctuations. The faculty sponsors are Drs. James Austin, Jr. and John Goff.

Jason Flaum, Northwestern University

Jason’s study will evaluate the sources and fluxes of the nutrient phosphorus (P) to the Cretaceous Western Interior Basin (KWIB) of North America and determine how they may have modulated primary productivity during the deposition of organic carbon and carbonate-rich facies of Cenomanian - Campanian age. The study will use archived samples from core holes distributed throughout the western US. Jason’s faculty sponsor is Dr. Bradley Sagemen.

2004 Internship Awards

Angela Isaacs, Utah State University

Angela’s project involved characterizing brittle deformation and damage parameters in fault zones: Insights from drillhole data from the Chelungpu and Mozumi fault zones. Her faculty sponsor is DOSECC Board Member Dr. James Evans.

Presentation by Angela Isaacs given at the 2005 Annual DOSECC Workshop.

Angela (left) having fun at the drillsite in Taiwan with Taiwanese PhD student Li-Wei (photo by Keegan Fengler-Opp)

Anna Leigh Wagner, University of Colorado

Anna performed in-depth grain size and diatom analysis on a sub-annual scale from Iceland core to about 7,000 BP from climatic changes. Her sponsor is Dr. Gifford Miller.

Anna writes: I am entering into my fifth year at the University of Colorado. I have completed a degree in environmental studies and am finishing up my geology degree. I have started to look into graduate programs involving paleoclimate research. I am also beginning some follow up research to my already completed honors thesis which was done on stratigraphy of varved sediment from a proglacial lake in Iceland. Thanks again for the internship and inviting me to the annual DOSECC meeting, I really thought that was great.

Presentation by Anna Leigh Wagner given at the 2005 Annual DOSECC Workshop.

Anna rests upon cross bedded Navajo sandstone

in Canyonlands, Utah, March 2005.

Jason Ressler, University of Rhode Island.

Evaluation and comparison of piston core geotechnical qualities using controlled rate of strain consolidation testing. His sponsor is Dr. Kate Moran.

Jason writes: I was a former intern at DOSECC, and had done a study on sample disturbance, due to sampling proceedures. After and during my time working on that project, I have worked on many others, all at or afilliated with URI, including:

(1) Evaluation of Formation Strength from Geophysical Well Logs, Using Neural Networks (my master's thesis),
(2) Two spin off projects from that, same concept using well logs, but applied to marine clays and shales, and also using inovative algorithms to improve the depth resolution of measurements made on cores. One is published in GeoCongress 2006 and another is going to be published at the OTC, this coming spring/summer.
(3) A study on the prediction of porosity and acoustic properties of surficial sediments, based on multibeam backscatter intensity.

Since the time I was an intern, I have also graduated the URI with a master's in Ocean Engineering. I now work at a a geotechnical engineering consulting firm, GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc., in Vernon, CT. Although we do not generally design for marine structures, my experiences with projects at URI, such as the DOSECC internship, have helped me to gain insight into what it takes to see a project through to the end and realize a professional level of involvement.

Although I have graduated the URI, and am not a recearch engineer anymore, I am constantly looking for new ideas for papers and research. Upcoming topics may include an addendum to the sample disturbance study I completed with DOSECC, yet focusing on the length of each core barrel drive into the sediment as a basis for determining a disturbance index. I am also looking into researching innovative techniques of local and spatial mapping of subsurface strata using neural networks and/or expert systems techniques.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to update the scientific community on my research.

Thank you, Jason Ressler

Presentation by Jason Ressler for the 2005 Annual DOSECC Workshop.

2002 Internship Awards

John Solum, University of Michigan

John’s internship explored insights into fault mechanics from the San Andreas pilot hole: the role of mineral transformations. His sponsor was Dr. Ben A. van der Pluijm, Professor of Geology, University of Michigan. John is currently a Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow at the USGS in Menlo Park, CA working on the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) project.

Presentation given at the 2003 DOSECC Workshop

John’s website: http://geology.usgs.gov/postdoc/profiles/solum.html

John writes: I was a 2002 DOSECC intern. My internship was very helpful in furthering my career since both as an intern and at present, I'm working on the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD). During my internship I worked on characterizing the mineralogy of samples from the SAFOD Pilot Hole. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 2005, and am currently working as a Mendenhall Fellow with the Earthquake Hazards Team of the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California. I'm currently working on the SAFOD Main Hole, which was drilled in the summers of 2004 and 2005, and successfully crossed the active San Andreas fault (as well as a number of other interesting fault zones). I'm characterizing the mineral assemblages of the major faults that were encountered during drilling, and collaborating with other groups who are measuring frictional behavior and constraining fault zone properties (fluid sources and abundances, for example).

Greg Balco, University of Washington. Dating and correlating early and middle Pleistocene glacial sediment sequences using cosmogenic 26Al and 10Be. His sponsor is Dr. John Stone, faculty member at University of Washington’s Department of Earth and Space Sciences.
Presentation by Greg Balco given at the 2003 Annual DOSECC Workshop .

Debbie Balch, University of Arizona. A detailed paleoclimatic study of the northeastern Great Basin using GLAD800 core GSL-004. Her sponsor is Dr. Andy Cohen, Professor at the University of Arizona Geology Department and DOSECC Board Member.
Presentation by Debbie Balch given at the 2003 Annual DOSECC Workshop .

Holly Godsey, University of Utah. The history of Lake Bonneville through AMS dating of hand-picked charcoal from GLAD800 sediment core GSL00-1C. Her sponsor is Dr. Marjorie Chan, Professor at the University of Utah, Department of Geology and Geophysics.

2001 Internship Awards

Richard Heermance, Utah State University. His study analyzed core obtained from the Chelungpu fault, Taiwan, along with seismic and surface date to study fault properties. He spoke at the 2002 Workshop in Hilo. His sponsors are Dr. Zoe Shipton and Dr. James Evans, Professors of Geology at Utah State University.

Amy Gaffney, University of Washington. Her study is entitled "A geochemical investigation of the role of recycled crust in Hawaiian magmatism." Her sponsor is Dr. Bruce Nelson, University of Washington.

Rebecca Carey, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Her study in entitled "Magnetostratigraphy of the Koolau Volcanic Series, Oahu, Hawaii" and provided a poster showing her results at the 2002 Workshop. Her sponsor is Dr. Michael Garcia, University of Hawaii.

2000 Internship Award
Angelique´ Emerson, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

Congratulations to all of our Awardees!

Interns are encouraged to submit a photo and an update...we’d love to know what you’re up to these days! And a little self-promotion never hurts!

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