2018 Department Newsletter Colorado School of Mines

Earth Resources and Environmental Programs

Department of Geology and Geological Engineering

Message from our Department Head,

Dr. M. Stephen Enders

Welcome to our 2018 Departmental Newsletter. This issue again has a bit of some-thing for everybody with news over the past year on faculty, students, honors & achievements, updates on various programs and student organizations in the Depart-ment. To the right, we have included an index for reference so you can easily find your favorite program or topic.

I’d like to highlight four major activities that we’ve been deeply involved with during this past year: 1) we hosted the GE Department Visiting Committee in April, 2) we

initiated a search for the next GE Department Head, 3) we hosted the ABET Review Team in October, and 4) we had a good year in fund raising that was kicked off by a successful #idigmines campaign. As a result, the Department is healthy, strong and very much looking forward to the future.

Visiting Committee

President Paul Johnson charged a four-person Visiting Committee (VC) with the task of evaluating the Depart-ment based on six criteria: 1) differentiating the Department from its competition, 2) leveraging other depart-ments/programs at Mines, 3) increasing undergraduate success, 4) growing the graduate program, 5) align-ment with institutional mission, and 6) connecting with companies and national labs to enhance impact and reputation. The VC members were: Craig Benson - University of Virginia, Beth McMillan - University of Ar-kansas, Little Rock, Larry Meinert - USGS (retired), and Lisa Park Boush - University of Connecticut. Overall, they were very complimentary about Mines and the GE Department. In particular, they were quite impressed with the energy and enthusiasm of our junior faculty, which they considered impressive and bodes well for the future of our Department. The VC provided several recommendations, many of which have been underway already, to further improve the performance and reputation of the Department. Most importantly, they em-phasized that the selection of the next GE Department Head will be pivotal for our future.

Department Head Search

We kicked off a search for the next Department Head in Spring 2018 and accepted applications over the sum-mer. The Search Committee consisted of eight people including five GE faculty, the head of another Mines department, and an undergraduate and graduate student representative. They reviewed 21 applications for the position and ultimately narrowed down the list to five people, four of whom were chosen for campus inter-views. All four candidates were quite impressive and well qualified to be the next leader of the Department consistent with the VC’s view of what is needed. At the close of the Fall 2018 Semester, we are awaiting final confirmation that one of the candidates has accepted our offer to join the Department. Stay tuned for more information in early 2019.

ABET

The Department had its hexennial (yes, that’s a real word!) ABET accreditation review in October and came through with flying colors. The purpose of the review is to provide feedback on our curriculum, the quality and effectiveness of our undergraduate education, and the diligence of our assessment and continuous course im-provement efforts. It is a huge effort involving all of our faculty; but it is helpful to get a critical, outside per-spective on our undergraduate program. Part of our tracking includes feedback from various constituency groups, like yourselves, on our curriculum and on the capabilities of our graduates, so your feedback is encour-aged and welcomed!

Fund Raising

The most important event happening early this semester is the one-day, #idigmines giving event on Thursday, February 7th https://idig.mines.edu/campaigns/geology-and-geological-engineering. Last year, with your help our Department raised a total of $24,924 from 536 individual donors. Including the bonus of $8,218 for winning with the highest number of donors, our total take-away from #idigmines 2018 was $33,142. These funds were a huge help and used to support our students and field camp last summer:

$20,000 to help cover faculty salaries for Field Camp 2018

$13,000 for travel expenses for both student TAs and faculty during Field Camp 2018

The use of donations from the 2018 idigmines campaign in this way gave us leverage to use other more restrict-ed accounts for other student-centered purposes. Thank you so much to those of you who donated last year. Please follow the link above or go to page 38 to learn more about this year’s #idigmines campaign.

As I enter my last semester as Department Head, I want to take a moment to thank all of our Faculty & Staff, Students, Alumni, Families and Friends for your support of me personally, and for your dedication to providing and supporting a great GE Department and Mines expe-rience. It has been quite an honor and privilege to serve as Department Head. Thank You!

My education and engagement at Mines has had a profound positive impact on my life. I trust that our alumni and students have been able to enjoy a similar experience. Cheers, Steve

2018 GE Newsletter Index

Page 2: General News and High-

lights

Page 3: New Faculty Welcome

Page 4: 2018 Faculty Awards

Page 5: 2018 Student Awards

Page 6: Student Spotlight

Page 7: Fulbright Spotlight

Page 8: Field Trip Spotlight

Page 9: Future Center Plans

Pages 10 & 11: IGWMC Center

Update

Page 12: PTTC Center Update

Pages 13 & 14: Hydrology Pro-

gram Update

Pages 15-19: Economic Geology

Program Update

Page 20: Engineering Geology

Program Update

Page 21: SAND Consortia Up-

date

Page 22: MUDTOC Consortia

Update

Pages 23-26: Summer 2018

Field Camp

Page 27: GE/GP Student Re-

search Fair

Pages 28-30: AAPG Student

Chapter Update

Page 31: AEG Student Chapter

Update

Page 32: SEG Student Chapter

Update

Pages 33 & 34: Publications

Pages 35-37: Theses and Disser-

tations

Page 38: #idigmines

GENERAL NEWS AND HIGHLIGHTS

New Research Center Update:

The Center for Advanced Subsurface Earth Resource Models (CASERM) held its first meeting with industry and federal agency members on Nov. 8-9, 2018. This inaugural meeting was attended by ~45 participants, including representatives from 7 member organizations, Newcrest, Lundin, Skeena, USGS, Corescan, Seequent, and TerraCore, and about an equal number of prospective member companies.

CASERM is a partnership among Mines, Virginia Tech, the National Science Foundation, and center member organizations. Each university will receive $750,000 through NSF’s Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRC) program, which represents the National Science Foundation’s primary mechanism to support industry-driven, pre-competitive applied research. The grant will pay for costs related to managing the center during its first five years of operation while company and agency memberships will fund research.

CASERM will conduct research that transforms the way geoscience data is used to locate and characterize subsurface earth resource and that provides high-impact solutions to help mining companies minimize exploration costs and increase exploration success. The development of 3D subsurface mod-els will integrate diverse geoscience data to inform decision making and minimize geological risk, beginning with locating and mining subsurface earth resources and continuing through mine closure and environmental remediation.

Mines is the lead institute in CASERM, which involves more than 30 faculty members from the two schools’ geology, geophysics, applied math and sta-tistics, mining, and computer science departments. From Geology and Geological Engineering, participants include Ric Wendlandt (Center Direc-tor), Thomas Monecke (Site Director), Wendy J. Harrison (Director of Out-reach and Education), Mary Carr (Center Manager), Zhaoshan Chang, M. Stephen Enders, Alexander Gysi, David Leach, Rael Lipson, and Katharina Pfaff. Other participants include Yaoguo Li, Andrei Swidinsky, and Whitney Trainor-Guitton from Geophysics, Luis Tenorio, Mahadevan Ganesh, and Soutir Bandyopadhyay from Applied Math and Statistics, Eliza-beth Holley from Mining Engineering, and Hua Wang from Computer Science.

New Course Updates:

Richard Palin introduced two new courses: GEOL498A Introduction to Plate Tectonics (which will soon shift to a 200-level course), and GEOL498A Planetary Geology. The latter is part of the new “Space Resources” graduate degree program that has begun campus-wide.

GEOL498A - Introduction to Plate Tectonics

Introduction to the theory of plate tectonics as a first-order framework with which the evolution of the Earth’s lithosphere in space and time may be described and understood. Key topics include the mechanisms of mountain building, crustal growth and destruct- tion, volcanism and seismicity in intraplate and plate-margin settings, and secular changes in plate tectonic processes and prod- ucts over geological time. Laboratory exercises will involve qualitative and quantitative analysis of geophysical, geochemical, geo chronological, and petrological datasets that constrain the large-scale dynamics of the Earth

GEOL498A - Planetary Geology

Introduction to the geology of planets, moons, and other bodies within and beyond our solar system, focusing on topics such as (a) the origin and composition of our solar system and its constituent materials, (b) geologic processes occurring on planetary surfaces (e.g. cra tering) and shallow and deep interiors (e.g. volcanism, mantle convection), (c) methods of solar system exploration, and potential for resource discovery and utilization on near-neighbors and asteroids, and (d) comparative planetology (thermal histo- ries, evidence for plate tectonics, origin and retention of atmospheres, exobiology).

Alexei Milkov introduced one new course:

GEOL565 Risks and Volumes Assessment for Conventional and Unconventional Prospects and Plays.

Students learn to translate geological knowledge into sound and realistic numbers and ranges for consistent risk and volume as- sessment of exploration prospects

Van Tuyl Lecture Series 2018:

In 2018, we hosted 23 Van Tuyl Lecture Series speakers as well as the Weimer Distinguished Lecture with speaker Kevin Bohacs from KMBohacs Geoconsulting. These Thursday lectures are invaluable to the faculty and often act as an extra class (with free pizza) for the stu-dents. Some of the lectures we hosted in 2018 included: Charles Werner with Gamma Remote Sensing AG Gümligen Switzerland, Wolfgang Maier from Cardiff University, Faouziya Haissen from Universite Hassan II de Casablanca, and Darcy Lecturer: Masaki Hayashi from Uni-versity of Calgary, to mention a few. For our Spring 2019 Van Tuyl lecture series, we’re hosting: Dmitrii Kulik from the Paul Scherrer Insti-tute Switzerland, Julie Mitchell from NASA, Joe Macquaker from ExxonMobil, and 10 others. Visit https://geology.mines.edu/events-calendar/lectures/ to learn more!

Donation Request: The department has an increasing need for research grade optical (transmitted and especially reflected light) microscopes. We would grate-fully accept donations of such microscopes. If you have any, please contact Dorie Chen, dchen1@mines.edu.

Product from Jae Erickson’s Thin Section Lab—more updates

from this lab in the following pages. Photomicrograph of

garnet-mica-schist, cross-polarized transmitted light.

WELCOME TO OUR NEWEST FACULTY MEMBER:

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DR. DANICA ROTH

Danica is a quantitative process geomorphologist with bachelors degrees in Physics and Astro-physics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in Earth Science from the Univer-sity of California, Santa Cruz. Her research interests involve understanding the coupling of Earth surface processes with climate, biology and anthropogenic influences, particularly over spatiotemporal scales relevant to humans. Danica’s Ph.D. work advanced the growing field of Environmental Seismology by developing the use of seismometers for real-time monitoring of active surface processes such as sediment transport in rivers. Her more recent research exam-ines the effects of topographic roughness and heterogeneity (e.g., vegetation or its removal due to wildfire) on long distance sediment transport on steep hillslopes. In addition to her research, Danica is also deeply committed to increasing diversity and inclusion in STEM fields. She looks forward to collaborating with future colleagues while contributing her passion for STEM accessibility and education to the Mines community.

2018 FACULTY AWARDS

Mary Carr received an Honorary Membership Award from the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists in

recognition of her years of contribution to the continuing education of the membership of the Association.

Marsha French was the 2018 AAPG J. Ben Carsey Distinguished Lecturer and completed a North American Tour

this past February. Dr. French also received a patent for “Method for Predicting Occurrence of Microquartz in a

Basin” patent number US 9,869,797 B2 and was the RMAG/DWLS Fall Symposium Speaker.

Zane Jobe was the 2018 Siliciclastics Theme Chair for the AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in Salt Lake

City.

Reed Maxwell (pictured) received the Certificate of Appreciation from Boussinesq Center for Hydrology of the

Netherlands and Belgium. Dr. Maxwell was the 15th Boussinesq Lecturer, “Scientific discoveries through computa-

tional hydrology: Elucidating connections between groundwater flow and transpiration partitioning.”

Kamini Singha was awarded Mines Faculty Senate’s Distinguished Lecturer Award as is a 2018 Geological Society

of America Fellow.

Alexis Sitchler was awarded the Mines Research Council’s Top Researcher Award and well as receiving promo-

tion and tenure as Associate Professor.

Bruce Trudgill was awarded a Mines Undergraduate Honor Society’s Outstanding Faculty Award.

Richard Wendlandt was awarded an Academic Affairs Undergraduate Faculty Award.

Wendy Zhou was the recipient of the Outstanding Editorial Board Member award from the Journal of Applied

Remote Sensing.

Reed Maxwell (right) receiving the Certificate of Appreciation from

the Boussinesq Center for Hydrology of the Netherlands and Bel-

gium

2018 STUDENT AWARDS

Sebastian Cardona (PhD student) received an

Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) award to

complete research on Leg 363.

Hannah Cayes (MS student) received a Geological

Society of America Graduate Student Research Grant

as well as an award from the Colorado Scientific Soci-

ety (Snyder Fund).

Megan Doughty (MS student—pictured) Geological

Society of America Graduate Student Research Grant

& Geological Society of America Robert K.

Fahnestock Award (2018).

Garrett Gissler (PhD student) received a Geologi-

cal Society of America Graduate Student Research

Grant.

Andrew Graber (PhD student) received The Roy G.

Shlemon Scholarship, Geological Society of America

(Environmental and Engineering Geology Division),

the Memorial Fund Research Grant, Colorado Scientific Society, and the J. David Love Field Geology Scholarship, Wyoming

Geological Association.

David Hernandez-Uribe (PhD student) received a Geological Society of America Graduate Student Research Grant

(the Bruce L. "Biff" Reed Scholarship Award) as well as an award from the Colorado Scientific Society.

Pengfei Hou (PhD student) received a Geological Society of America Research Grant.

Kara Marsac (PhD HSE) has run a Girls in STEM class at Deer Creek Middle School for the past three years. The class is part

of the Deer Creek Middle School elective curriculum and Kara works with two teachers there and reaches approximately 70 mid-

dle school girls per year with this program. She runs on a budget of ~$600 per year and is currently in the process of trying to

pull funding from other sources as her current source is no longer an option due to lack of funding.

Lauren Miller (BS student) received a Geological Society of America Rocky Mountain Section Undergraduate Student Re-

search Grant.

Zachary Palmer (MS student) received a Geological Society of America Graduate Student Research Grant, a Rocky Mountain

Association of Geologists scholarship, and an award from the Colorado Scientific Society (Snyder Fund).

Kyle Radach (MS student) received the Geoscientist-in-the-Parks internship, Geological Society of America and National Park

Service.

Tatjana Scherschel (BS student) received the Beardsley-Kuper Field Camp Scholarship, Association of Environmental and

Engineering Geologists.

Stephen Semmens (PhD student) received the Marliave Scholarship, Association of Environmental and Engineering Geolo-

gists.

Allison Severson (PhD student) received a Geological Society of America Graduate Student Research Grant.

David Rey (PhD student) Consortium for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences (CUAHSI) Pathfinder Fellow (2018).

Caleb Ring (BS student) received the Martin L. Stout Scholarship, Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists.

Wylie Walker (MS student) received an award from the West Texas Geological Survey as well as an award from the American

Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Luke Weidner (MS student) received the West-Gray Scholarship, Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists.

Leiaka Welcome (PhD student) received an award from the National Association of Black Geologists as well as an award from

the John and Erika Lockridge AAPG Grants in Aid.

Megan Doughty accepting her GSA award at this year’s conference

GE STUDENT SPOTLIGHT:

KYLE RADACH (MS STUDENT, PAUL SANTI)

My name is Kyle Radach and I am a second year graduate student studying Geological Engineering under Dr. Paul Santi. During

spring semester in 2018 I started working on a research project for the park Service in Badlands National Park, South Dakota, with

the goal of helping them manage the Cedar Pass Landslide Complex located in the North Unit of the park. The main reason for this

project is that these landslides continuously cause damage to the highway which serves as the main route through the park. While

there have been other studied conducted on these landslides, detailed field mapping to determine their extent and an evaluation of

slope stability has not been completed. The outcome of this project is to provide the Park Service with a detailed map of the existing

landslides that are impacting the road, an analysis of the factors driving movement and a stability analysis for each landslide identi-

fied and an evaluation of possible remedial measures the park can implement.

As part of this project, I was provided with the opportunity to spend part of my summer up in the park conducting my fieldwork

through the Geological Society of America, Geoscientists-in-the-Parks program. Between May and August, I divided my time be-

tween the Badlands and the computer lab at Mines. While I was at the park, I spent most of the time in the field mapping but I also

collected samples and topographic profiles. Most of the time I was by myself and away from roads and trails but I greatly enjoyed

interacting with tourists and answering any of their questions when I came across them.

My supervisor Dr. Rachel Benton was able to provide me with a place to stay in park housing which was greatly appreciated as dur-

ing my first night at the park a series of severe thunderstorms dropped several inches of rain accompanied by strong wind, hail and

nearly continuous lightning. Having grown up in Western Washington, I had never really experienced thunderstorms of that mag-

nitude before. As I grew to realize over the course of the summer that severe thunderstorms are not that uncommon, I was extraor-

dinarily grateful to be spared from having to suffer through those storms in a tent outside in a nearly treeless campground. In addi-

tion to thunderstorms, temperatures often reached 100 degrees during the day. The heat was especially apparent in the afternoons

when I found myself down in windless, shadeless ravines attempting to hammer metal sampling tubes into the extremely hard rock

and soil. Mapping the landslides also had its challenges as evidence of ground movement was present in some locations and not

others where I might have expected to see it. Some areas were dominated by the ruggedness that defines badland topography which

made them either extremely difficult or impossible to map. In addition, the piping of fine materials by groundwater has created an

abundance of impressive sinkhole and channel features some of which were tens of feet deep and so narrow that the bottoms were

hidden in darkness. Many of those holes seemed ready to swallow up an unsuspecting visitor such as myself. One last challenge to

add to the equation was my constant worry of snakes. I spent almost my entire time walking amongst the tall grasses, shrubs and

rock outcropping and fortunately only had two snake encounters, only one of which was of the poisonous variety.

Overall, I had a great experience and the challenges I faced, while frustrating at times, only helped improve by abilities as a scientist

and provided me with invaluable experience. Lastly, Ellen Starck and Dr. Rachel Benton were incredibly helpful and accommodat-

ing throughout the summer. They, as well as all of the other park staff I interacted with, were incredibly friendly and helped make

my time at the park rewarding and enjoyable.

Kyle Radach getting an early morning start on topographic profiling.

July 2018

Visiting Fulbright Professor: Faouziya Haissen

Faouziya Haissen, Professor at the University of Hassan II, Casa-

blanca, Morocco, visited the Colorado School of Mines August-

October 2018 on a Fulbright scholarship, to work with Yvette Kui-

per. Faouziya’s work is concentrated in the geology of Morocco,

while part of Yvette’s research focuses on the geology of the New

England Appalachians. At the time of Pangea, the two were joined,

and we have been trying to make cross-Atlantic connections between

terranes and other crustal fragments, and structures. During Faouzi-

ya’s visit, we also discussed connections with Iberia, wrote and In-

ternational Geoscience Programme (IGCP) proposal and planned a

meeting in Granada, Spain in December 2018, and field work in the

Moroccon Sahara in March 2019 together with Fernando Bea and

Pilar Montero (University of Granada), and the Moroccan Office

National of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM).

The IGCP proposal, written by Haissen, Kuiper, Montero (Pilar Montero,

Granada University, Spain) and Barr (Sandra Barr; Acadia University,

Wolfville NS, Canada), is titled “Pre-Atlantic geological connections among Northwest Africa, Iberia and eastern North America:

Implications for continental configurations and economic resources”. The aim is to bring together geoscientists from Morocco,

Spain, Portugal, United Kingdom, France, Germany, USA, Canada, China, Argentina and other African and European countries,

who are working on crustal fragments of ”Northwest African origin” that are now located in North America and Iberia. If funded,

the project will form a platform for all participants to compile, discuss and correlate the various types of data available (especially

age data) to investigate all the possible connections between North America, Northwest Africa and Iberia during the Paleozoic

(~540 to 250 million years ago). Parts of Iberia and eastern North America may have broken away from NW Africa and accreted to

parts of Europe and North America in the early and middle Paleozoic. During the late Paleozoic, supercontinent Pangea formed.

During the breakup, part of Northwest Africa was left behind in North America.

This project will benefit different generations of scientists from all participating countries. The field trips and conferences sessions

in key regions planned during this project will be a great opportunity for knowledge and technology transfer and also for interaction

between young geoscientists, especially those from developing countries (especially Morocco and other African countries) with ex-

perts from globally leading universities.

During her visit, and especially after her Van Tuyl talk on the geology of Morocco on September 13, Faouziya interacted actively

with students and professors inside and outside the department. She was invited to the African students association meeting, she

attended nearly all Van Tuyl lectures, and also a meeting of the Colorado Scientific Society. She has also discussed other projects on

Morocco with other professors. On that front, Faouziya is planning a field trip in Morocco for Lesli Wood and her students in Janu-

ary 2019.

The Fulbright grant was an excellent opportunity for Faouziya and for department professors and students to exchange scientific,

cultural and human experiences, and to initiate collaborative relationships for the future.

FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR SPOTLIGHT:

VISITING SCHOLAR FROM MOROCCO: FAOUZIYA HAISSEN WRITTEN BY YVETTE KUIPER

Yvette Kuiper (left) and Faouziya Haissen (right)

San Diego Field Trip Report

Graduate Students in the Geology and Geological Engineering Department

This October, the Colorado School of Mines Applied Stratigraphy graduate class had a field trip to La Jolla, Califor-

nia. This locality gave us hands-on experience observing and measuring world class deepwater sedimentary out-

crops, which are visited by researchers and students from around the world. Previously, class field areas had been

local to our Golden, Colorado area, and exhibited onshore and shallow water depositional environments. The La

Jolla outcrops provided a superb example of deepwater slope-channel systems, with more seaward deposits than

what we had observed before. The main goal of our graduate class is to gain advanced, professional scientific skills to

make observations and interpretations of a large variety of sedimentary systems. We examine these systems in the

contexts of tectonics, architecture, source to sink, and reservoir/seal properties. The La Jolla cliffs in Southern Cali-

fornia were an ideal destination for achieving these goals.

The sedimentary rocks around the La Jolla area are a unique example of a nearly complete shallow to deep marine

succession. Visiting this area provided an excellent opportunity to make valuable hands-on outcrop observations.

This allowed us to tie together the depositional models of shelf to slope sedimentary systems that we studied in class

to real world outcrop examples. In addition, speculation is ongoing as to the formation of the sediments that make

up the cliffs. We studied two competing depositional models, and our observations allowed us to form our own opin-

ions on which model exhibited a more realistic portrayal of the depositional system. In doing so, we gained excellent

experience examining problems similar to those we could encounter as professionals. The classroom provides a good

place to study models and learn what to look for in outcrops, but reality is often much more complicated! Firsthand

experience in the field has no substitute in providing valuable real world perspective. This highlights the importance

of fieldwork in both understanding complex geological systems, and in becoming an effective professional geologist.

A big thank you to Antero Resources for sponsoring the trip! On a graduate student budget, it was a huge relief to

hear that the costs were significantly reduced. Field experience is a vital experience for all geology students, and

Antero’s sponsorship made this trip accessible to all students in the course. Thank you for making us all better geol-

ogists!

FIELD TRIP SPOTLIGHT: GEOL501: APPLIED STRATIGRAPHY WRITTEN BY PHD STUDENTS, DAAN BEELEN, AND THOMAS MARTIN,

AND MS STUDENT, SONIA ELLISON

We’ve got Core Values!!

Update on the Future Core Research & Learning Center

Over 46 years ago, at the request of Cecil and Ida Green, Dr. Bob Weimer (professor emeritus) established a subsurface core collection in

the basement of the Green Center for the purpose of interdisciplinary teaching and stratigraphic research. The core collection has grown

to over 3130 boxes from 414 wells and has been used extensively by geoscience and engineering graduate & undergraduate students,

faculty and industry representatives studying sedimentary basins in the greater Rocky Mountain area and beyond.

Fast forward to the much-needed renovation of the Green Center which began earlier this year and effectively displaced the core collec-

tion into smaller temporary storage behind the GRL-A building. Only about 25% of the collection is currently available with no firm plan

to relocate the cores back to the Green Center once renovations are completed (possibly by Fall 2019).

This dilemma has become an opportunity as part of the Mines @ 150 Vision! A new core facility with expanded space is being considered

as an integral part of the new Mines Innovation Hub. This summer VP/Dean Ramona Graves commissioned an interdepartmental plan-

ning committee under the guidance of Priscilla Nelson, Mining Dept. Head, to envision Earth Resources’ role in the Mines Innovation

Hub with the following caveats:

Build “hands-on” creator & learning spaces to engage both undergraduate and graduate students

Encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, innovation & entrepreneurship

Enable public outreach & environmental stewardship

The result of that planning effort was a comprehensive recommendation to establish the “Earth & Space Resources Innovation

Hub” (ESRIH) which would include four common labs and several specialized labs. The Core/Earth Materials Research & Learning Cen-

ter would be one of the foundational common labs along with the new Earth Materials Lab (EMI), Total Testing Lab and Big Data/

Computational/Remote Sensing and Visualization Lab.

Ramona Graves has given her enthusiastic support to the ESRIH concept which is now being integrated into the overall Mines Innova-

tion Hub plan. The Core Facility is envisaged to be upwards of 16,000 square feet with storage capacity for 20,000+ boxes of cores as

well as rock and soil samples. This would be a state-of-the-art facility for storage, digitalization, viewing, teaching & research which

builds on Mines’ existing ‘core values’! Dr. Stephen Enders would also like to build a collection of hard rock, economic geology cores

which are representative of various mineral deposits to supplement the legacy sedimentary core collection.

So, what’s next!? The dialogue has shifted from conceptual approval to integration of the Core Center into the Innovation Hub plan. We

are hoping to receive specific guidance from the President’s leadership team in the coming months and will keep you posted on our pro-

gress!

A NOTE ON THE FUTURE

CORE RESEARCH & LEARNING CENTER WRITTEN BY JIM EMME AND STEPHEN SONNENBERG

A NOTE FROM THE INTEGRATED GROUDWATER MODELING

CENTER (IGWMC)

REED MAXWELL , DIRECTOR

WRITTEN BY LISA GALLAGER,

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, EDUCATION AND OUTREACH SPECIALIST

The Integrated GroundWater Modeling Center (IGWMC) supports faculty and students who participate in developing and leading commu-

nity education and outreach events throughout the year, both on campus and off. We started 2018 off right, collaborating with Dr. Kamini

Singha to host the Mining for Talent event on March 14th at CSM. This event provides high school students the opportunity to tour CSM

campus, visit labs, and participate in experiments to learn about the geosciences. We had student volunteers from Geology, Hydrology,

Civil & Environmental Engineering and the CSM chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. About 40 students from Ala-

meda International High School attended and had a great time.

On March 21 to 23 IGWMC hosted a workshop on ParFlow, sponsored by the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydro-

logic Science (CUAHSI). This course offered students and professionals the opportunity to learn ParFlow, an integrated hydrology model

that simulates surface and subsurface flow, as well as land surface processes. The course was taught by IGWMC director Reed Maxwell,

along with Laura Condon (Assistant Professor, University of Arizona) and Nick Engdahl (Assistant Professor, Washington State Universi-

ty).

As a part of our community engagement mission, IGWMC students and faculty participated in science and engineering nights, classroom

lessons and science fairs at local elementary and middle schools in the region. These events are well-attended and allow students and par-

ents to learn about hydrology using engaging, hands-on activities. These events are fun for all participants, including undergraduate and

graduate students, who can hone their communication and teaching skills. Volunteers are always welcome, so if this sounds like fun to you

please contact Lisa Gallagher (lgallagher@mines.edu). Our events this year impacted 27 schools and about 1500 students.

2018 ParFlow short course attendees.

A NOTE FROM THE INTEGRATED GROUDWATER MODELING

CENTER (IGWMC)

CONT’D

Last, but certainly not least, the IGWMC organized a weekend workshop for K-12 teachers focused on bark beetle infestation and the

impacts to water quantity and quality in Colorado. This workshop was hosted at Windy Peak Outdoor Lab, which provides opportuni-

ties for Jefferson County, CO 6th grade students to explore and experience lessons in earth sciences in an outdoor mountain setting.

The teacher workshop hosted 18 teachers that represented 7 districts in Colorado, spanning grades 2 through 12. Participants learned

about the impacts of bark beetle infestation, including the causes of infestation, the impact of carbon and metal release on water sys-

tems, and the social science implications surrounding beetle infestation. The associated lessons have been formalized and will be

made available to all JeffCo teachers online.

As we look ahead to 2019, we are very excited to once again host the MODFLOW and More conference at CSM. The theme for 2019 is

MODFLOW and More: Groundwater Modeling and Beyond. This exciting conference draws about 250 domestic and international

attendees who come to enjoy presentations and discussion on innovative hydrological modeling methods and codes. The conference

brings together top-notch participants in an intimate setting, encouraging productive and rewarding interactions. Students and facul-

ty are highly encouraged to attend and any students who volunteer their time during the conference can offset registration cost. For

more information contact igwmc@mines.edu.

We are continually developing our education and outreach program at the IGWMC. Come check us out on Facebook

(www.facebook.com/igwmc/) or Twitter (@IGWMC).

IGWMC students Rachel Corrigan and Sarah Trutner show off

some hands-on hydrogeology activities for Gilpin County Ele-

mentary students.

IGWMC Director Reed Maxwell discusses the mountain pine

beetle’s impacts to water at Windy Peak Outdoor Lab.

A NOTE FROM THE PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

COUNCIL (PTTC) WRITTEN BY MARY CARR

PTTC is still here at Mines and still putting on high-quality low-cost workshops. The

industry has been on an upswing and so has PTTC. We have seen an increased interest

in training and increase in attendance at our monthly workshops. In January, I am

branching out a bit and working with our Ore Deposits Group here at Mines putting on

five day school: Geology of Hydrothermal Ore Deposits. This is in cooperation with

Denver Region Exploration Geologists’ Society, SEG and Society for Geology Applied

to Mineral Deposits.

PTTC Rocky Mountain Region has been fortunate to secure several sponsorships over

the past year (listed below). Most have been undesignated donations to the organiza-

tion; two of the donations have targeted helping the oil and gas community. The Rocky

Mountain Section of AAPG Foundation gave a generous donation to provide half-price

registration to unemployed professionals. White Eagle Exploration made half-price

registration available to a number of students. To learn more about becoming a sus-

taining sponsor of PTTC, please go to our national website at www.pttc.org/sponsor.

Rocky Mountain PTTC 2018 Sponsors

Rocky Mountain PTTC 2018 Sponsors

RMS AAPG Foundation

White Eagle Exploration

SPE 4Corners

Digital Formation

A NOTE FROM THE HYDROLOGY GROUP

The Maxwell Group has had a busy year, including several trips abroad

and graduating seven students in four months. Joe Beisman finished

his PhD this spring, with work focusing on hydrogeochemical model

development applied to pyrite weathering in alpine hillslopes. He is

now a postdoc at Los Alamos National Lab.

Lauren Foster completed her PhD this summer, which focused on

modeling climate change impacts to Rocky Mountain headwater hy-

drology, and how model resolution impacts climate model predictions.

She is now working with Neptune and Company, a small environmental

consulting firm that mixes statistical techniques with physically-based

modeling to address uncertainty in environmental decision making.

Annette Hein graduated with her Master’s degree this spring. Her

research used ParFlow-CLM to study environmental perturbations that

can induce dust-bowl conditions. She worked over the summer with the

Colorado Division of Water Resources and Colorado Water Conserva-

tion Board, and is currently looking for her next adventure as a hydrol-

ogist in water conservation.

Danielle Tijerina completed her Master’s degree this spring as well,

and accepted a positon as a hydrologist with CUAHSI (Consortium of

Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science). She organizes the National Water Center Innovators Program Summer

Institute, and helps CUAHSI develop better hydrologic research infrastructure, improve data accessibility, and model information.

Danielle’s Master’s research compared the ParFlow-CLM CONUS model to the National Water Model.

Anna Ryken is now a PhD candidate in the group after finishing her Master’s this spring. Her research continues to focus on the

East River catchment, and how to improve water availability predictions in mountainous regions by improving snow models. She

uses sensitivity analysis and model development of energy flux representation using comparisons of model simulations and field ob-

servations. Anna also spent the summer working with Dr. Dave Gochis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in

Boulder.

Lauren Thatch completed her Master’s degree in August and spent the summer

working for the US Bureau of Reclamation. Currently she is starting the first year of

her PhD, studying the impacts of water management and the vulnerabilities of the

food-energy-water nexus system in the California Central Valley using the fully inte-

grated hydrologic model ParFlow in combination with remote sensing products.

Her research is part of a new collaborative project between US and Chinese teams

recently funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NSF China. In Octo-

ber, the US Team, including Dr. Reed Maxwell, Dr. Laura Condon (University of

Arizona), Dr. Lisa Gallagher, and Lauren Thatch traveled to SUSTech University in

Shenzhen, China to meet the Chinese team, share data, and learn more about the

Heihe river basin.

Lauren Foster defending her PhD this summer.

Anna Ryken installing an eddy covariance tower in the East River catchment, in Crested Butte, CO. This instru-ment will provide important energy flux data to better inform hydrologic models.

A NOTE FROM THE HYDROLOGY GROUP

CONT’D

Mary Michael Forrester’s PhD work this year has focused on land-atmosphere interactions with groundwater, with a specific

interest in atmospheric models that incorporate advanced representations of terrestrial hydrology in their predictions. She published

a paper in August 2018, in the Journal of Geophysical Research, Atmospheres, entitled Forest disturbance feedbacks from bedrock to

atmosphere using coupled hydrometeorological simulations over the Rocky Mountain Headwaters. This work focused on subsurface

moisture (particularly lateral flow below the water table) controls on land-atmosphere coupling during widespread forest mortality

by the mountain pine beetle. Her current research focuses on modern, continental-scale groundwater storage changes, and the im-

pact that annual and subannual storage anomalies have on the surface turbulent fluxes. She was able to present some of these topics

at conferences abroad, including the European Geophysical Union Annual Meeting, and Computational Methods in Water Re-

sources.

Rachel Corrigan spent the summer working on her Master’s research, which focuses on improving subsurface representation in

the continental scale ParFlow CONUS model, and how catchment geomorphology can be used to infer hydraulic conductivity. This

summer she also received a scholarship from the Colorado Groundwater Association for her work.

Sarah Trutner spent the summer working on their Master’s research on the East River catchment. They are building a 5-meter

resolution model of a meadow in the catchment to better understand plant water use in alpine environments.

We are excited for another year of scientific discoveries and hydrologic adventures here in Colorado!

Most of the group from this spring at graduation: (L to R) Dr. Maxwell, Dr. Joe Beisman, Cait Collins, Anna Ryken, Mary Michael Forrester, Danielle Tijerina, Rachel Corrigan, Liz Gallo (Hogue group), and Annette Hein. Not pictured, Lauren Thatch, Lauren Foster, Sarah Trutner, and Lisa Gallagher.

A NOTE FROM THE ECONOMIC GEOLOGY GROUP

General News and Welcome:

We are a very active group of Faculty and staff whose interest is to advance our understanding of our planet Earth from early evolu-

tion and mechanisms of plate tectonics to the formation of mineral deposits using a wide variety of approaches from field work to

analytical techniques at various scales.

Currently, we advise over 50 graduate students and, if you are interested in our students, our work or if you would like to work with

us, please visit us in the Department to see what we are up to. 2018 was a very exciting year.

Following several years of hard work by the Mines leadership team, with help from Wendy Harrison, Thomas Monecke, and Ric

Wendlandt, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and Mines President Paul C. Johnson signed a long-term partnership agree-

ment between both the U.S. Geological Survey and Mines on October 22, 2018. The partnership will allow physical co-location of the

Mineral Resources Program and its laboratories on Mines campus where government scientists and Mines faculty and students will

work together in a new state-of-the-art facility. At the same time, both institutions have formed a joint research center, the Center for

Mineral Resources Science (CMRS), which brings together a world-class team of scientists conducting ore deposit research through

the integration of field studies, state-of-the-art laboratory investigations, and thermodynamic and laboratory modeling. With ap-

proximately 40 faculty, scientists and staff the CMRS is a global leader in mineral resources research. Thomas Monecke serves as the

Mines co-director of this new research center. Details on the new center are available at cmrs.mines.edu.

A group of faculty members (Ric Wendlandt, Wendy Harrison, and Thomas Monecke spearheading this effort) have been relentlessly

working over the course of the last 4 years to secure funding from NSF to establish an Industry/University Cooperative Research

Center. Funding ($750k over 5 years) was awarded in late summer of 2018. The newly formed Center for Advanced Subsurface Earth

Resource Models (CASERM) represents a collaborative venture between Mines and Virginia Tech and is supported through an active

membership of exploration, mining, and service companies as well as government agencies. Following a meeting with the member-

ship in November, we are excited to start working on our first projects on January 1st, 2019.

We welcome Zhaoshan Chang to the Economic Geology / Hard Rock group. Zhaoshan joined us in Spring 2018 and is our Charles

F. Fogarty Endowed Chair in Economic Geology. Zhaoshan hit the ground running and is currently working on establishing a LA-ICP

-MS laboratory, which will be available in Spring 2019. Welcome Zhaoshan!

Katharina Pfaff is happy to announce that, starting in January, we will be expanding our analytical capabilities significantly as we

are entering a partnership with Bruker to create

research infrastructure dedicated to connecting

academia, industry, and Bruker’s geology focused

technology. Thomas Monecke and Katharina Pfaff

have been working on expanding our department’s

state-of-the-art analytical capabilities over the

course of the last few years and this recent devel-

opment is a step-changer for the Department of

Geology and Geological Engineering. Bruker’s

initial investment into this newly established la-

boratory is just over $1 M dollars and will include

a Hitachi FlexSEM 1000 with Bruker Detectors

and Bruker’s automated mineralogy solution,

AMICS, a micro XRF system (M4 Tornado) and

Bruker’s Handheld XRF analyzer. If you are inter-

ested in getting access to our newly available instrumentation, please contact Katharina Pfaff.

Image from Bruker.com

A NOTE FROM THE ECONOMIC GEOLOGY GROUP

CONT’D

As in previous years, our faculty members have been very active and travelled the world to present short courses, supervise students in

the field and to represent us at conferences:

- Zhaoshan Chang co-chaired 2 sessions at international conferences (PDAC and IAGOD), taught 5 short courses in Argentina, Pe-

ru, Australia, and the US (Anchorage and Denver) with 186 participants on topics including skarn deposits and exploration tools for

skarn, porphyry, epithermal and IOCG deposits, served as a judge of student posters at the SEG 2018 Conference, and delivered 7 key-

note and invited presentations at international conferences (Gordon Research Conference, PDAC, and MLYB conference) and various

research institutions, plus one regular talk at IAGOD. His students also gave 6 oral and poster presentations at the SEG and IAGOD

conferences. Two of his PhD students graduated this year, one on the giant Antamina skarn in Peru and one on the Mt Carlton high-

sulfidation epithermal deposit in NE Queensland, Australia. He published 6 papers and 7 conference abstracts so far in 2018 together

with his students, postdocs and colleagues. His group is also working on a special issue in Economic Geology on mineral deposits in

northern Queensland. Zhaoshan is also co-editing a SEG Special Publication volume on Minerals Deposits in China. In terms of fund-

ing, Zhaoshan secured the support for the first year (2019) of a four year project from the NSF-industry founded Industry-University

Collaborative Research Center (IU CRC), CASERM; the funding of the IU CRC is decided year by year. The project is entitled Distal

Signatures and Vectors of Hydrothermal Systems in Carbonates. His current students continue working on porphyry, skarn, epither-

mal and pegmatite-greisen deposits. Zhaoshan has also been working on the setup of a LA-ICP-MS (Laser Ablation – Inductively Cou-

pled Plasma – Mass Spectrometry) lab; it is expected to be up and running in spring, 2019. The lab will have capacities to do U-Pb

dating and to analyze the trace element composition of minerals and other solid material. Zhaoshan is also working together with the

hard rock group to convert some existing courses and set up new courses in block mode so as to make it easier for industry profession-

als to take the Professional Master’s degree without leaving their jobs, or take their favorite course(s) for professional development

without a degree. Zhaoshan has taken up the Academic Advisor role of the SEG Student Chapter at CSM, and participated in the field

trip to Montana this October. Zhaoshan continues serving as an Associate Editor for Economic Geology, Mineralium Deposita, and

Acta Geologica Sinica (English Edition). He is also an Adjunct Professor of James Cook University, Australia, a Guest Research Profes-

sor of the Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, the Chair of the IAGOD Working Group on Skarn Deposits,

and a member of the SEG Publication Board (to September 2018).

- In addition to his duties as Department Head, Steve Enders served as the Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the Society of

Economic Geologists’ quadrennial Keystone Conference in September. The theme of the conference was “Metals, Minerals and Socie-

ty” and included a wide variety of short courses, field trips and technical sessions. The conference was devoted to communicating the

state of understanding Precious Metals, Base Metals, Infrastructure Metals, and Technology & Energy Metals, and included a very

popular three-day session on Integrating Petroleum and Minerals Systems Approaches to Sedimentary Basins. Steve currently advis-

es three graduate students and teaches GEGN 401 – Mineral Deposits, GEGN 403 – Mineral Exploration Design, and GEOL 514 –

Business of Economic Geology.

-The experimental crustal fluid-rock interaction laboratory led by Alexander Gysi has produced breakthrough research on the parti-

tioning behavior of REE between fluids and minerals in ore deposits. His research group has published 4 peer-reviewed articles in-

cluding Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Geofluids and Ore Geology Reviews, and his students gave oral presentations at Gold-

schmidt in Boston and posters at the SEG conference in Keystone. We also convened the session “Geochemical Vectors to Ore: How

to Link Fundamental Understanding of Ore-Forming Processes to Mineral Exploration” and organized a 2 days workshop at Gold-

schmidt entitled “Metasomatism and ore deposits in the Earth’s crust: experimental and modeling methods”. In December, we are

going to organize a 2-day workshop at the University of Iceland on numerical modeling of fluid-rock interaction in crustal systems,

continuing outreach and development of our in-house MINES thermodynamic database and tutorials series (http://tdb.mines.edu).

Further, we have organized a special issue in Geofluids entitled “Advances in numerical simulations of hydrothermal ore forming pro-

cesses”.

A NOTE FROM THE ECONOMIC GEOLOGY GROUP

CONT’D

-Elizabeth Holley continues to be based in the Mining Engineering Department, bridging the gap between economic geology and

mining in her research and teaching. She taught the geology curriculum for mining engineering students, including four field trips

focused on open-ended geology questions at quarries and mines in the area. Last spring in her graduate Mining Geology course, the

students formed interdisciplinary teams of geologists, mining engineers, metallurgists, and mineral economists to examine how geo-

logical uncertainty affects mine design. The students used an industry dataset from a world class gold mine to build 3D geologic mod-

els in the software Leapfrog Geo, and then they designed tests to examine how various geological assumptions impacted the block

model and resource estimate. In research, Elizabeth received a National Science Foundation CAREER award for her work on Carlin-

type gold deposits in Nevada. For the outreach component, her team is collaborating with Relay Graduate School of Education to

bring inner city K-12 teachers to attend the Colorado Mining Association’s “All About Mining” teacher education program. The active

projects and students in Elizabeth’s interdisciplinary Mining Geology research group are listed below:

NSF CAREER: Did Carlin-Type Gold Come from Magmas?

Justin Lowe, MS graduate; Dante Huff, PhD Candidate; 2nd PhD position available in 2019

NSF PIRE: Promoting Healthy Communities and Sustainable Gold Supply Chains

Alejandro Delgado, PhD student; 2nd PhD position available in 2019

CDC NIOSH Capacity Building: Mitigation of Groundfall Hazards

Meriel Young, MS graduate; Carlos Contreras, MS Student; Lukas Fahle, PhD Student

GATES Foundation: Managing Social & Environmental Risk through Collaborative Mine Design

Ben Teschner, PhD Candidate

NSF EAGER: Exploratory Research on Rock Damage from Geologic & Induced Thermal Loading

Marion Nicco, PhD candidate

USGS: Robotic and Hyperspectral Geological Mapping

John Meyer, PhD Candidate

-Yvette Kuiper had the pleasure to be on sabbatical during the 2018-2019 academic year. One of the main goals was to learn about

the geology of Morocco, in order to make cross-Atlantic correlations between rocks and structures in the Appalachians and Morocco.

She spent a month in the field in Morocco, with new collaborators, including Drs. Abderrahmane Soulaimani and Hassan Ouanaimi

(Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, Morocco) and Dr. Faouziya Haissen (Université Hassan II de Casablanca, Morocco). Dr. Haissen

visited CSM August-October 2018 on a Fulbirght fellowship to further our collaboration. With two collaborators in Spain and Canada

we wrote an International Geoscience Programme (IGCP) proposal to have three field-based meetings in Morocco in 2020, in Iberia

(Spain and Portugal) in 2021 an in eastern Canada/USA in 2020 (see article elsewhere in this Newsletter). Kuiper also had an NSF

grant funded to test whether the southeastern-most part of New England may have been derived from NW Africa (Morocco) during

the breakup of Pangea. If so, then this is the only location along the Atlantic Ocean where the Pangean suture zone lies on land.

-Thomas Monecke took our graduate students to the Abitibi greenstone belt in Ontario and Quebec in May introducing them to

Archean tectonics and metallogenesis. The field course focused on the geology of volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits and orogenic

gold deposits. Thomas also taught his course in hydrothermal geochemistry in spring and a new introduction to economic geology

course for graduate students in fall. He presented five short courses on epithermal and volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits in the

US, Peru, and Ethiopia. He was an invited speaker at the XIX Geological Congress of Peru in Lima in September. He and his graduate

students continued their research on hydrothermal systems located in arc environments. Amongst several publications, he authored a

milestone paper detailing how quartz stockworks in porphyry copper deposits are formed. The Society of Economic Geologists meet-

ing in Keystone represented a highlight at which his group of students presented a number of talks and posters. Thomas continues to

serve on the editorial board of Mineralium Deposita and as a reviewer for the National Science Foundation.

A NOTE FROM THE ECONOMIC GEOLOGY GROUP

CONT’D

-Richard Palin’s research group continued to make headway in a variety of field-based research projects located in the east-central

Colorado Front Range, the Colorado Plateau, and the Penokean orogenic belt in Wisconsin. He introduced two new graduate courses

in this calendar year: ‘Introduction to Plate Tectonics’ in Spring 2018 and ‘Planetary Geology’ in Fall 2019. He published ten papers

with students and colleagues at Mines and other institutions worldwide, including three high-impact articles in Ore Geology Reviews,

Journal of Petrology, and GSA Bulletin. Two of his PhD students attended the international conferences AGU and GSA, where the

results of current research were presented.

-Katharina Pfaff has had a successful year. Katharina oversees the Mineral Characterization Laboratory in the department and is

still active in methods development, including but not limited to automated mineralogy techniques. The laboratory expansion and the

newly established partnership with Bruker will be a game changer not only for Katharina’s research and her group but also for the

department. In early summer of 2018, Katharina was invited to serve on a committee for the National Academies due to her expertise

in establishing, growing and overseeing a nationally renowned Mineral Characterization Laboratory that is known for its high quality

data and best practices. Katharina taught two graduate classes in 2018 (‘Reflected Light and Electron Microscopy’ and ‘Advanced Ig-

neous Petrology’) and graduated MS student Alyssa Smith. Research conducted by Katharina and her students focuses on mineralogi-

cal questions in the fields of igneous petrology and economic geology. Katharina is especially excited about the opportunity to start

working on one of the selected projects for the NSF funded Center for Advanced Subsurface Earth Resource Models (co-PIs are Mo-

necke and Pfaff) this upcoming year. Katharina continues to serve on the editorial board of the Mineralogical Magazine and as a re-

viewer for the German Science Foundation and will continue to be actively engaged in the aforementioned economic geology / hard

rock group and departmental endeavors.

Moreover, we have made great advances improving our existing laboratory infrastructure:

Jae Erickson, hired in March 2016, has been able to transform the old sample prepara-

tion laboratory into a state-of-the-art thin section facility. Major investments include two

rock saws, a polishing and a lapping and polishing machine (total investment:

~$330,000), which allowed Jae to increase his thin section production from about 1,000

thin sections per year in 2017 to more than 2,500 thin section per year in 2018.

With the addition of a new Logitech LP-50 Precision Lapping Machine in Spring, the lab is

on track to produce its highest annual throughput ever! This new machine replaced a 40-

year-old piece of equipment and has doubled the lab's daily output. Thank you again to

Tim Bartshe, Erica Lockridge, Bill and Julie Gibbs, Tom Dimelow, Rod Eichler, Damian

Friend, Al Geyer, Alexander Paul, Michael Peffer, John Robinson, and all donors who gen-

erously gave to this crucial upgrade, as well as Tom Boyd, Wendy Harrison, and Gretchen

Gilliland for making it all happen. A special thanks as well to the student employees in the

Thin Section Lab, Chase Daniels, Emmaline Kim, John Pugh, Tyler Zudans, Spencer Aer-

tker, and Zach Palmer, for your tireless efforts towards making the perfect thin section. We

wouldn't have been nearly as successful without your quality work this year.

The Thin Section Laboratory has added a few new services this year, including the ability

to produce doubly-polished thick sections of opaque minerals for infrared investigation,

grain mounts of aggregate material, and improved techniques for epoxy impregnating

and staining shale samples. As 2019 approaches, we are continuing our extensive ex-

perimentation with polishing media to continuously improve the overall quality of our

thin sections. The changes we've implemented so far this year have streamlined the

polishing process and drastically improved the polish quality of hard minerals. We hope to continue to progress in the new year in our

never-ending pursuit of thin section perfection. More information on the Thin Section Laboratory can be found online at https://

geology.mines.edu/laboratories/thin-section-laboratory/.

GE undergraduate student work, Tyler Zudans,

operating the Logitech LP-50 Precision Lapping

Machine

Susann Stolze was hired in March 2016 to re-establish the stable isotope laboratory in the Geology department. Following the move

of the laboratory to a new space, a thorough service and repair of the instrumentation and acquisition of state-of-the-art vacuum

pump and freeze drying systems through TechFee grants, the stable isotope and environmental laboratory (SIEL) is now capable of

performing a wide array of analyses relevant to geosciences and (paleo)environmental studies. SIEL comprises a clean laboratory that

houses the stable isotope ratio mass spectrometer and a sample preparation space where drilling and grinding of solid samples can be

performed. With an IsoPrime Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer (IRMS) interfaced with an Eurovector elemental analyzer, SIEL rou-

tinely analyzes stable isotope ratios of carbon (12C/13C, δ13C), nitrogen (15N/14N, δ 15N), and sulfur (34S/32S, δ 34S). The facility

also performs loss-on-ignition determinations and pollen analyses. For more information, please visit https://geology.mines.edu/

laboratories/stable-isotope-environmental-laboratory/. More stable isotope methods including C, O, and H analyses of liquids and

carbonates will come online as time and funding becomes for laboratory upgrades available. We are excited to have our stable isotope

laboratory up and running again and are looking forward to a fruitful collaboration.

The mineral characterization laboratory, overseen by Katharina Pfaff, the cathodoluminescence and fluid inclusion laboratory,

overseen by Thomas Monecke, and the X-ray diffraction laboratory, overseen by Ric Wendlandt are continuing to support a large vari-

ety of research activities in the department, across campus, nation- and world-wide. All of our students get hands-on training on our

equipment and are actively involved in research using these state-of-the-art techniques. We are excited to announce that we will in-

stall a new color cathodoluminescence detector on our scanning electron microscope in the next couple months. The new detector is

funded through a successful proposal to the National Science Foundation by Thomas Monecke, Katharina Pfaff, and Yvette Kuiper.

If you would like to make a difference for our undergraduate and graduate students in the Geology program, we are currently actively

seeking high quality research grade microscopes with or without a camera that can be used for student training and research.

A NOTE FROM THE ECONOMIC GEOLOGY GROUP

CONT’D

We are delighted with our excellent cadre of graduate students and the range of research they are conducting. This is one of the

biggest groups we’ve had, and our program is going very strong, with excellent job placement and scholarly contributions. Here

are a few of the things the faculty are doing.

Paul Santi continues to teach field camp, Site Investigation, Engineering Terrain Analysis, and variety of grad classes. This

year, he took over Engineering Geology Design following Jerry Higgins’ full retirement. His students have been involved in a

variety of landslide and debris flow studies throughout the West. PhD student Omid Arabnia is unraveling the timing history of

large debris slides in the vicinity of the West Salt Creek Landslide near Grand Junction that killed three men in 2014 (funded by

the Colorado Geological Survey). PhD student Andrew Graber is using lichenometry (study of lichen size and growth rates) to

date rockfall in Glenwood Canyon and develop rockfall recurrence intervals (funded by CDOT). MS student Kyle Radach is map-

ping and analyzing the Cedar Pass Landslide Complex that is destroying the main road in Badlands National Park, providing the

Park service with approaches to managing this large and convoluted area (funded by NPS/GSA Geologist in the Parks pro-

gram). MS student Cory Wallace is developing methods to predict when and where dangerous long runout landslides will occur,

as opposed to those that only travel short distances. MS student Troy Duron is identifying causes of debris flow avulsion on allu-

vial fans, so that locations for avulsion can be better modeled with software that predicts runout and inundation zones. MS stu-

dent Sam Rumel is our resident flamethrower expert, using a 3-inch diameter propane torch to burn soils, then measuring the

change in apparent grain size (and therefore the erodibility following wildfire) and the recovery of the soil to original conditions

after exposure to weathering.

Gabe Walton continues to teach Engineering Geology & Geotechnics, Geological Data Management, and Applied Numerical

Modeling for Geomechanics. His research group has grown significantly over the past two years, and currently studies a wide

range of topics from numerical modeling of mine stability to real-time monitoring of slope hazards. Postdoc Ryan Kromer and

undergraduate researcher Brian Gray have developed a novel low-cost photogrammetry system that is currently being tested to

monitor for rockfall occurrence on I-70 just west of Idaho Springs (funded by CDOT). PhD student Lane Boyd is developing

techniques to combine geologist knowledge and geostatistics to better quantify uncertainty in geological models for tunneling

projects. PhD student Deepanshu Shirole is using high resolution Digital Image Correlation and Ultrasonic testing to advance

our understanding of brittle rock damage processes. PhD student Sankhaneel Sinha is developing novel numerical modeling

approaches to better allow for prediction of potentially hazard ground conditions in underground mines (funded by CDC/

NIOSH). MS student John Hinton has developed an approach using borehole GPR to image fracture systems ahead of tunnel

boring machine to predict water ingress and inform grouting actions (funded by industry). MS student Carlos Contreras Inga is

examining the influence of grain shape on mechanical behavior of rocks and its implications for grain-scale numerical models of

rock. MS student Rami Abousleiman is studying the mechanics of flat-roofed excavations in layered sedimentary rock to opti-

mize ground support designs and better understand load transfer processes within the ground. MS student Luke Weidner is us-

ing machine learning to automate the classification and interpretation of slope deformation monitoring results obtained using

LiDAR and photogrammetry. MS student Heather Schovanec is using a massive database of slope monitoring data collected at

various sites along I-70 since 2016 to study temporal and geologically controlled variations in rockfall occurrence.

Wendy Zhou has continued to balance two jobs, as the Graduate Dean for Mines in addition to her role in Geological Engineer-

ing. She currently has 6 PhD and 2 MS students working on a variety of research related to 1) GIS and remote sensing applica-

tions in geohazard assessment, environmental studies, and natural resource management; 2) InSAR and PSInSAR applications

in ground subsidence, and landslide deformation studies; 3) Rock mass characterization; and 4) Analytic or numerical modeling

for groundwater contamination, ground thermal regime and stress-strain distribution in the rock or soil mass. She is currently

receiving research funding as part of a large, multi-year University Transportation Center for Underground Transportation In-

frastructure (UTC-UTI), funded by the US DOT.

We are also thrilled to welcome Danica Roth (reference to page 3 of this newsletter) in January 2019, whose expertise in geo-

morphology will add a powerful skill to our group. Her research interests include nonlocal sediment transport models, use of

geophysical instruments to characterize active Earth surface processes, high resolution topographic analysis, quantitative terrain

analysis theory development, and geomorphic process response to climate and other perturbations.

A NOTE FROM THE ENGINEERING GROUP

My year and my students’ year have been very busy. I currently have 13 great graduate students. Graduated four MS students in May;

Alex Cheney (now with Anadarko), Mimi Do (now with XTO), Uju Obijuana (now working on the movie Switch ON! With Scott

Tinker down in Austin, TX) and Xuoxia Zhu (now working with PetroChina), and plan to graduate two more MS students in Decem-

ber this year; Matt Huels (going to XTO) and Matt Steidtman (going to SM Energy in Denver). My PhD students are moving for-

ward. Sebastian Cardona has published his first manuscript on the sealing capacity of and nature of Miocene-age subaqueous land-

slide deposits in New Zealand. The work that Sebastian is doing is going to really impact deepwater exploration around the world. I

have added two new doctoral students; Forrest McFarln, looking at sublacustrine landslide deposits which are so important in basin

fills of China, Brazil, and all rift basin settings, and Daan Beelen, who is gearing up for field work with me in Morocco, where we will

do a detailed study of one of the few outcrops in the world that seems to be definitely Miocene-age deep ocean contourite deposits.

These types of deposits have been an interest of mine for many years and now are factoring in to discoveries in Mozambique and off-

shore east African, Senegal and other areas around the world. Not to mention, what these deposits can tell us about ocean circulation

patterns through time! I’m pretty excited to get on these outcrops and Daan is looking great. Super inquisitive guy who backs it up

with lots of great work.

Personally it has been a good year. I spent time in Houston visiting ExxonMobil, BHPBilliton, bp and Repsol. Traveled to Spain to see

Repsol. Traveled to Colombia to give a talk to ANH. In August I traveled to Quebec City to present an invited Keynote Address to a

Lacustrine Systems session at the International Sedimentologic Congress, which was very well received. I have been asked to present

the keynote luncheon address at the AAPG meeting in San Antonio May 2019, so I am likewise excited to do that. Prior to 2019 AAPG

in San Antonio, I will travel to Norway to spend three weeks at the University of Bergen at the invitation of my friend and collaborator,

Dr. Robert Gawthorpe.

Rob and SAND collaborate on a number of research projects around the world. He participated in our 2018 Consortium Meeting in

Utah, I and my student will be over there in April-May, and we will continue to collaborate for several years to come. In addition, Rob

may join us in Morocco in January as we work in collaboration with OHNYM and Dr. Faouziya Haissen in a field campaign to work the

deep water contourites and drift deposits of northern Morocco.

In addition, to our globe-trotting science we continue to be very active in the Western Interior Cretaceous Seaway deposits. I continue

to work on the entire Cretaceous age section of the San Juan Basin in New Mexico, we are also working the modern and near modern

deposits of the Rio Grande Rift in New Mexico and I have students finishing up work in incised valleys of the Parkman Sandstone of

the Powder River Basin. Our 2018 Consortium field course looked at the Aberdeen Sandstone, to Hatch Mesa to Manco B transect and

we are working across the U.S. in places like the Illinois Basin and the Ouachita thrust fronts! I will teach a spring course in deepwater

systems that will include a big field component trip to the Source-to-Sink Pennsylvanian age deposits of the Jackfork and Atoka Sand-

stones. Students will work with outcrop, logs and core from the Gulf of Mexico Wilcox to recognize the facies and facies associations of

deepwater systems and tie them together into an exploration model. Lots happening!

I hope that if any of you are remotely close to Golden that you will stop in and visit. I plan to have lunch with Bob in November, if he

has time in his schedule! On a final note, I am still playing music with Gabe Walton on standup bass, as Walton and Wood. We will

offer up our Christmas Sets at the upcoming Department Christmas Party, and we continue to play up the mountain at The Well in

Conifer. For those of you who always ask, I am pretty sure we will be reprising the Geo-band event on Tuesday night at AAPG in San

Antonio. Rick Fritz is the “promoter” and “manager” of that gig. Drop by, as we are always having an amazingly fun time!

Thank you so much for your generosity and ongoing support of all the CSM programs. A special thanks to you for empowering me to

have such a great time as I work with incredible people in this amazing setting that is the geologic world!

A NOTE FROM THE ROBERT J. WEIMER CHAIR AND

DIRECTOR OF THE SEDIMENTARY ANALOGS DATABASE (SAND)

CONSORTIA WRITTEN BY LESLI WOOD

Steve Sonnenberg’s research focuses on unconventional petroleum systems (from the micro-pore to outcrop scales). He runs the

MUDTOC research consortium. This project is multi-faceted (geology, geophysics, engineering) and industry supported. Monies from

industry are used for tuition, fees, and stipends for students and laboratory analyses as needed. Studies include the following North

America areas: Bakken (Williston Basin); Niobrara (Rockies region); Mowry (Rockies area); Skull Creek Shale (Rockies area); Sharon

Springs Member of Pierre Shale (Rockies region); Halo plays in the Powder River Basin (Frontier/Turner; Sussex, Shannon, Teapot,

Teckla, Parkman); Marcellus and Utica (Appalachian Basin); Haynesville Shale (Gulf Coast); Wolfcamp, Avalon, Bone Springs, Dean

Formations (Permian Basin). Kathy Emme works as the research manager for the consortium.

Current Students Supervised MUDTOC:

Torell Stewart (Niobrara project), Walter Nelson (Niobrara project), Cankut Kondakci (Niobrara project), Alexa Socianu

(Mowry project), Jeromie McChesney (Frontier Sandstone project), Joe Dellenbach (Frontier Sandstone project), John Mor-

gan (Skull Creek Shale project), Jingqui Xu (Bakken project), Ellen Fehrs (Bakken thesis), Jack Tidholm (Microbial carbonate

thesis, Bakken), Carolina Mayorga (Haynesville project), Jenny Blake (Permian Basin project), April Bievenour (Permian Basin

project), Jacquie Colborne (Permian Basin project), Chris Matson (Scoop and Stack project), Andrew Wood (Marcellus pro-

ject), Jason Eliassen (Marcellus project), Josh Shaw (Marcellus project), Sy Luke (Marcellus project), Pablo Benitez (Vaca

Muerta project), Corey Milar (Turner Sandstone thesis), Courtney Bone (Turner Sandstone thesis), Brian Hankins (Mowry-

Muddy-Skull Creek thesis), Rebekah Parks (Shannon thesis), Zach Hollon (Frontier-Turner thesis), Lisa Reeves (Parkman the-

sis)

Students Graduated 2017:

Elvan Aydin (Niobrara thesis), Michael Harty (Juana Lopez thesis), Julia Wood (Fort Hays Limestone thesis), James Frie-

drich (Bakken Three Forks thesis), Dan Brugioni (Niobrara thesis), Steve Crouch (Codell Sandstone thesis), Evan Allred

(Sharon Springs thesis), Moath Al-Qaod (Najmah thesis, Kuwait), Caleb Garbus (Niobrara thesis), Josh Payne (Frontier Sand-

stone thesis), Matt Bauer (Pronghorn thesis), Blake Herber (Cottonwood Canyon thesis), Alyssa Charsky (Bakken thesis),

Dipanwita Nandy (Bakken thesis), Jessica Franklin (Vaca Muerta thesis)

Students Graduated 2018:

Lauren Bane (Niobrara), Brittany Abbuhl (Dean Sandstone, Permian Basin), Daniel Halford (Helium thesis), Allison Keator

(Haynesville thesis), Shawn Lopez (Niobrara thesis), Kira Timm (Florence Canon City thesis)

A NOTE FROM THE CHARLES BOETTCHER CHAIR AND

DIRECTOR OF THE MUDROCKS AND TIGHT OIL CHARACTERI-

ZATION (MUDTOC) CONSORTIA WRITTEN BY STEPHEN SONNENBERG

Sed features we commonly see in mudrocks.

Introduction:

Before leaving for field camp, I wrote an essay for a scholarship committee wherein I discussed the idea that someplace,

somewhere during field camp students are transformed into true geologists. However, I was unsure about the nature of this change:

“I like to imagine at some point there is a transformative moment, when suddenly in the middle of the desert and your exhaustion,

the clouds part and a voice says: “Congratulations you are now a geologist.” Whether or not this happens, I cannot say, but students

who work in the field are turned into strange people who can speak to rocks and who call themselves geological engineers.”

I can now confirm that the “transformative moment” is a real phenomenon. But it did not happen during the desert weeks.

Conversely, it was during Week 5 at Molas Lake, high in the San Juan Mountains, that I realized I was a geologist at heart.

Ash was falling from the sky. I do not exaggerate. Wildfires had been relentless in their pursuit of our poor field camp since

Week 2 when Paul [Santi] had elaborated about the dangers of debris flows in fire country and forget to knock on wood. All day we had

been doing our best to map the area around the campground despite being immersed in a grey, foggy cloud of smoke. They said that

one could see the 14ners in the distance on a clear day, but forget those distant peaks, I could hardly to see the grey dolostone outcrops

four hundred meters from me in this haze. At least the burning wood smell would mask our sweaty, musky odor when we piled into the

vans at the end of the day. One must always look on the bright side of things, after all.

And then it happened. Somebody laughed, “Well, they did warn us that it might snow in Molas.” And for a moment, I thought

it was snow. Delicate white flakes fell lazily from above. Flipping and turning, they traced out patterns in the grey sky. I am a dramatic

person and thus could not help but think of Pompeii.

“Ash,” I said to myself, half mesmerized and half disbelieving. But the spell only lasted for a moment: I had a map to com-

plete. “It will be fine,” I told my mapping partner. “It’s just being carried in on the wind.” And we marched together through the grey

haze to the next outcrop, which we deduced to be of the Ouray formation. Carefully I pulled my map board out to record the strike and

dip, when I noticed with annoyance that the ash was getting on my map. Irritated, I tried to brush it off only to get thin trails of char-

coal streaked across my work. This was not cool! Yes, it was a field map, but this was Week 5, and I had hoped that this map might

present neater than my previous ones and perhaps have less whiteout on it.

And then it hit me. I really was a geologist. A regular person would have considered the state of her field map the least of her

concerns. Others would have been worried about the air quality or the fact that a large, unpredictable, uncontained wildfire was

breathing down their necks. But not me. I was no regular person, no sireee, I was a geologist who took pride in her work and cared

about her maps. So while the clouds didn’t part, I did have my transformative moment.

Tatjana Scherschel, BS Class of 2019

2018 GE FIELD CAMP WEEK 1-5 SYPNOSES WRITTEN BY BS STUDENT, JULIA PAYNE.

INTRODUCTION, CONCLUSION, AND WEEK 6 SYNOPSIS BY BS STUDENT, TATJANA SCHERSCHEL

Week 1: Moab, Utah

As a student, this was the most intense week. It was the first week of field session and we’ve only been given horror stories from the

upper classmen about how intense it would be. Truth be told, we would work from 8 am to at least 10 pm every day to turn our maps in

on time. Besides the heat and constant sunburns, this week was one of my favorites. It was exhilarating getting to stand on the ledges

of cliffs to see all the geology below, something a normal tourist would never experience.

Week 2: Durango, Colorado

As Mine’s geological students who had rarely completed surficial mapping, this week was interesting. The suburban areas made it ex-

tremely difficult to accurately map glacial deposits, because Paul [Santi] informed us that we were not allowed to trespass. Road ways

periodically had what we called ‘fake moraines’ that were used to cover up eyesores from construction, and to stabilize slopes. Person-

ally, my favorite part of this week was getting picked up by the TAs in the black SUVs. We just had to make one phone call and we had

‘door to door’ service, courtesy of the TAs.

2018 GE FIELD CAMP WRITTEN BY BS STUDENT, JULIA PAYNE

Tatjana Scherschel mapping in the Mill Canyon Area

The class next to a debris rack by Lemon Dam. It was constructed after a fire substantially increased

the potential for debris flows.

Week 3: White Mesa, New Mexico

This was the first week of camping, which also meant the first week of ‘baby wipe

showers’ and bathing in a stream. This week was the most dangerous week of the

six, due to the number of rattlesnakes seen throughout the area. Although the

thought of death by rattlesnake was a constant thought at the back of many of our

heads, we persevered as Mine’s students always do. During this week we also found

out how small the world really is. There was another school’s geological group there,

and their professors both knew Paul Santi, either from work or from school. This

was also the first week our group was affected by the wildfires. The result was us

getting kicked out of the national forest and having to stay at a KOA. I didn’t hear

any complaints though, because there were showers there.

Week 4: Rattlesnake Canyon, New Mexico

This week was also a camping week. By this time of field session, tension was

high. After being around each other for this long, it was bound to happen. For

this week, groups were assigned. One exploration student was paired with two engi-

neering students. This area was highly metamorphic. Almost every person (TAs and

Professors included) brought home garnets or stauralites. No one could beat Yvette

[Kuiper] though; if she ever went missing you just needed to follow the sound of a

hammer on rock, and there she would be, excavating a mountain side.

Week 5: Molas Lake, Colorado

Week 5 ended abruptly due to fire concerns. From our campsite, we could see the

smoke plume, and occasionally ash would fall from the sky. Despite this, Molas was

by far the prettiest camp site we had. We had fossil finding competitions in the shale

units nearby, which required us to take a break from staring at our maps. Plus, the

group BBQ this week was far superior to other weeks.

2018 GE FIELD CAMP WRITTEN BY BS STUDENT, JULIA PAYNE

CONT’D

Thank you, ConocoPhillips for helping us feed our Field Camp students! Pictured

from left: Hannah Thomas, Tchiza Madialanda, Julia Payne, Tatjana Scherschel,

Stephen Piurkowsky

A view of the interior of the main anticline in the map-

ping area and of the Quaternary travertine deposit in its

center.

A fold with compression/folding on one side and

extension/boudinage on the other

Week 6: Petroleum Engineering in Utah and Wyoming. Written by Tatjana Scherschel

Week 6 was admittedly more of an extended field trip than the hard core, individual mapping projects of

the first five weeks. For once, I got to work with my class (or a third of it as the others went to different

Week 6 options) as a group instead of just having one partner. It was nice to be in a sort of big, happy

team.

Starting in Vernal, Utah and spending nights in Evanston and Rocksprings, Wyoming we studied world

class petroleum outcrops courtesy of Anadarko who allowed us on their lands. We measured several sec-

tions and discussed various trapping mechanisms and the types of oil and gas fields found in the area.

There were outcrops of incised valleys, tidal environments, and entire marine systems from foreshore to

deep marine back up to beach. I believe I recognized more hummocks that week than I did in all the pre-

vious weeks combined. We did a core project and touched up our contouring skills as well.

Furthermore, Steve Sonnenberg took us to Dinosaur National Monument to, yes, talk about aeolian

sands, but also to see the bones. Being an engineering school and requiring all the physics and calculus classes, there isn’t room in the

schedule for us to have a paleontology course. So we were all over our heads, but seeing the old bone quarry was certainly a neat and

different experience.

We usually finished our work at around seven each night, so we were free to spend some time with one another and go out for actual

food instead of having yet another can of tuna. We talked about geology and how we couldn’t believe that field camp was coming to a

close and how strange it was that it was all almost over. But what an experience it had been! And I am certainly a thousand times bet-

ter off than I would have been had I not spent those six weeks in the field. It is a long time, and it definitely changes you into a better

geologist.

Week 6: Geological Hazard Mapping in Silverton, Colorado. Written by Julia Payne

For week six, there were three separate options we could choose from. I attended the geological hazard mapping in Silverton with Paul

Santi. Since this was the final week of field session, and the groups were smaller, the atmosphere was a lot calmer. Here we stayed in

the Triangle Motel and worked in an old house that belonged to a Silverton Librarian who was nice enough to make us cookies. After

turning in our maps, a few of us went moose watching. It was a success! The final day of field session, we took the long way home so

that Paul could take us on a few miniature fieldtrips.

Week 6: Underground Mine Mapping at the Edgar Mine, Idaho Springs, Colorado. Written by

M. Stephen Enders

Eight of the students chose to learn how to map geology underground during Week 6 working

with Professors Chris Shorey and Steve Enders. This was quite a different way to map than they

had learned in the other five weeks of field camp. We had to wear hard hats, safety glasses, steel

toed boots and other personal protective equipment like a self-rescue breathing device in case of

fire or smoke. And mapping was done in the dark using only mine lamps; and involved stretch-

ing a tape along the drift and mapping at a scale of 1” = 20’. One day, we all had to evacuate the

mine during lunch so the mine could set off a blast for experimental purposes!

The Edgar Mine is the Colorado School of Mines’ Experimental Mine and is located in the Front Range Mineral Belt. So, the students

were able to sleep in their own beds instead of camping that week. The mine produced high-grade silver, gold, lead and copper in the

1870’s, but today is an underground laboratory for future engineers who get valuable experience and training to find, develop and pro-

cess the world’s mineral resources. In addition to learning about the geology of the Idaho Springs and Central City mining districts,

the students learned how to map the orientation and composition of mineralized veins and associated alteration minerals along with

lithology and structure. Their goal was to recommend targets for further exploration, not that Mines has any intention of doing so!

During Week 6, the class also took tours of two operating mines. We had an all-day tour of Freeport’s Henderson underground molyb-

denum mine near Empire, Colorado, which is the world’s largest primary molybdenum producer where we learned how a big mine

does mapping and uses geology. After driving past Albert Fri & Son’s Walstrum Rock Quarry near Idaho Springs every day, we decided

to invite ourselves for a tour and were treated to a fascinating operation that produces much of the aggregate and crushed rock used in

the Denver area (see photo below). We had a very good Week 6 of Field Camp.

Conclusion by Tatjana Scherschel:

My immeasurable thanks to everyone involved in this year’s field camp. I hope my writing shows just how meaningful this experience

was to me and how much work and learning went into the past month and a half. One just doesn’t learn geology without actually going

out and doing it, experiencing it, and struggling through it themselves.

2018 GE FIELD CAMP WEEK 6 AND CONCLUSION WRITTEN BY BS STUDENTS, TATJANA SCHERSCHEL AND JULIA

PAYNE, WITH THE MAPPING WEEK BY M. STEPHEN ENDERS

Some beautiful hummocks and swales

Frei & Sons Waltrum Rock Quarry, Idaho Springs, CO

GE Department: Student Research Fair

With Geophysics

Sponsored by ConocoPhillips

The 2018 Student Research Fair held February 22, 2018, was another huge success thanks in a large part to Cono-

coPhillips continued sponsorship. We had 57 participants that ranged from undergraduates to PhD candidates. This

year we had participation from both the Geology and Geological Engineering department as well as Geophysics.

Awards were given in eight categories with the grand prize of $500 and a Van Tuyl presentation by the best PhD

candidate. This year the award went to Lauren Foster for her poster on “When Does Uncertainty Matter While

Modeling Climate Change in Mountain Headwaters? Contrasting model resolution and complexity under a changing

climate in an alpine catchment.” This event is also a success because of all the professional geologists and engineers

that volunteer as judges each year. This provides students the opportunity for valuable feedback and interaction

with the wider scientific world.

We are looking to the 2019 Student Research Fair being held on Thursday February 21, 2019 in the Ben Parker Stu-

dent Center Grand Ballroom. Come join us as a judge or just to experience our excellent student research. For infor-

mation on how to volunteer contact Mary Carr (mcarr@mines.edu).

GE STUDENT RESEARCH FAIR WRITTEN BY MARY CARR

Undergraduate Research Winner, Ali Downard

AAPG 2018 Chapter Goals Summary

The Colorado School of Mines American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) strives to be the most active

organization on campus through the execution of consistent events in which our members can serve, be served and

benefit from interaction with their peers and exposure to the oil and gas industry. Our core activities consist of 1)

weekly lunch and learn series 2) technical workshops 3) service events 4) field trips 5) distinguished lectures/

seminars and 6) social events. Another notable activity of the chapter is the annual Imperial Barrel Award Competi-

tion. This year, the IBA competition team placed 2nd in the Rocky Mountain Region; continuing the tradition of

success that we are extremely proud of as a chapter.

Sponsors

2018 AAPG Chapter Events, Achievements

and Progress:

Imperial Barrel Award-2nd

Place Rocky Mountain Region

Team Members: Torell Stewart, Jennifer

Blake, Pablo Benitez, April Bievenour

& Jack Tidholm

Guadalupe Mountains Field Trip-Permian Sequence Stratigraphy and Sedimentation in a Mixed Siliciclastic-

Carbonate Evaporite System

Rick Sarg, Zane Jobe and Mary Carr March 24-29th, 2018

The three day field trip will introduce participants to a series of some of the finest outcrop exposures of carbonate

and deepwater siliciclastic rocks in the world. Two principal themes of the trip are: (1) to observe sequence strati-

graphic architecture at seismic scale (2) to observe the characteristics of a wide variety of sedimentary environments

and lithofacies in the Permian section of the Permian basin, including examples of conventional and unconventional

siliciclastic and carbonate reservoirs, and organic-rich mudrocks; and (3) to observe reservoir flow unit architec-

ture. Continuous outcrops in West Texas and New Mexico expose the majority of the Paleozoic rocks which are pro-

ducing both conventional and unconventional hydrocarbons in the Permian basin of West Texas.

AAPG STUDENT CHAPTER WRITTEN BY MS STUDENT AND AAPG PRESIDENT, JACK TIDHOLM

Rig Tour

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation

April 27th, 2018

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation reached out to

the AAPG Student Chapter at CSM and gave some

of the students a tour of some of their facilities

and operators in the DJ Basin. This field trip in-

cluded stops at the Anadarko field office in Platte-

ville Colorado, where a safety orientation and a

geology/geophysics overview of the Wattenberg

Field and operations. After that a Bradenhead/

separator cutaway explanation and display was

given followed by a tour of active completions

(hydraulic fracture stimulation) and a drilling rig.

Habitat for Humanity Restore

April 28th, 2018

Continuing on the annual trend, Colorado School of Mines’ AAPG

Student Chapter partnered with Habitat for Humanity Restore to

assist with tasks around the Restore. Eleven members, from both the

AAPG and SPE student chapters spent five hours at the Restore help-

ing the employees with tasks that included, restocking shelves, mov-

ing furniture, rearranging shelves and other various tasks. This

served to bond our members of AAPG and the members of SPE to-

gether while providing service to our surrounding community.

Mudbug Masquerade

AAPG Student Chapter, AADE Student Chapter and SPE Student Chapter

March 22nd, 2018

On March 22nd the AAPG Student Chapter held our 3rd annual Crawfish boil (Mudbug Masquerade). This year we partnered

with the AADE and SPE student chapters at CSM. There were around 500 pounds of crawfish, chicken, potatoes, onions, corn

and sausage cooked and ready for the people that attended the event. This was the biggest crawfish boil that the AAPG student

chapter has had thus far, it was a great event for the student chapters to mingle and come together to create an amazing 5 hour

event. Many fellow geologists and alumni working and living in the Denver area also attended the event to eat some amazing

crawfish and socialize with the student chapters.

AAPG STUDENT CHAPTER CONT’D

AAPG Year End Report 2018-2019, 8/25/18

Bob Weimer Geology Trail Clean Up

On August 25th, the AAPG Student Chapter did our annual Bob Weimer Geology Trail Cleanup, with Bob Weimer himself. During this

community service event the club painted the benches located along the trail, picked up any litter as well as made sure the path was

walkable for the Geology Trail tour that occured the following Thursday. This is a great event that the club enjoys doing every year to

make sure the trail is in the best shape possible!

Introduction to AAPG L&L, 8/28/18

The officers discussed what AAPG is primarily about. Lunch and Learns, Field Trips, Workshops, Philanthropy, and Social and Net-

working Events. The members were also polled about their interests in the types of events and speakers that they would like to see

throughout the year.

Anadarko L&L, 9/4/18

Craig Markey from Anadarko Petroleum Corporation came and gave an exciting technical talk about the Greater Colombian Basin.

Markey discussed how the Greater Colombian Basin is one of the last unexplored offshore sedimentary basins in the world. The majority

of the historical exploration wells have been drilled on the shelf and have resulted in dry holes. Since entering the Colombia Basin Ana-

darko has made a few discoveries and is in pursuit of a variety of other prospects. His talk walked through the petroleum system ele-

ments and discussed the inferences made as well as the uncertainties left to be tested.

Encana L&L, 10/09/18

Matthew Davis from Encana came and gave an amazing technical talk covering the Insights into the Evolution of an Intracratonic Fore-

land Basin: A Regional Assessment of the Duvernay Formation. Matt is the current Geoscience Manager of Reservoir Characterization

for the Permian Basin. He manages a team of scientists that interpret subsurface geology, study interactions between structural fabric

and completions as well as help predict long term well performance. Matt received his Bachelor’s of Science in Earth Sciences with an

Emphasis in Geology from Tennessee Technological University in 2000 and his masters of science in Sedimentary and Structural Geolo-

gy from the University of Texas at Austin in 2005.

The details of Matt’s talk included information on regional maturity and porosity trends that reflected thermal and structural history

that provides important context towards the cratonic evolution of Western Canada. The porosity in the Duvernay Shale is almost entire-

ly due to kerogen conversion which ultimately helps when analyzing the reservoir quality. By looking at a large amount of different types

of data as well as looking at the complex thermal and structural history of the intracratonic foreland basin, an integrated model is pre-

sented to explain the complexities of this formation.

QEP L&L, 10/23/18

William “Bill” Drake, a geologist with QEP in Denver, CO. discussed: “Regional Mapping of Organic Matter-Hosted Porosity: A Novel

Exploration Methodology for Source-Rock Reservoirs”. Bill

Saudi Aramco Dinner and Learn, 10/23/18

Sa’id Al-Hajri from Saudi Aramco came to give a talk to our AAPG Student chapter as well as many other curious faculty and non-

petroleum geologists. Sa’id Al-Hajri is the Manager of Saudi Aramco’s Geological Operations Department. He is a Board Member of

Luksar, a joint venture between Lukoil Overseas and Saudi Aramco. A past president of AAPG’s Middle East Region and Past President

of Dhahran Geoscience Society. Sa’id holds an MSc from Penn State University and an MBA from Hull University, in addition to a num-

ber of Leadership Certifications. During his 30 plus years of service with Saudi Aramco, Sa’id has held several Management positions in

Exploration, including Chief Geologist of Regional Mapping, Chief Geologist of Geological R&D, Administrator of Exploration Data

Management, Chief Explorationist for Eastern Area Exploration, and Manager for Upstream Ventures Department.

Sa’id discussed the geologic setting of the Middle East with an emphasis on Saudi Arabia. The history of Saudi Arabian hydrocarbon

production and exploration was then discussed in broad strokes, finally culminating with the current status of worldwide energy re-

serves and trends. It is always great to be exposed to geology and industry from the other side of the world. A very successful topic and

talk, from an industry professional extremely well versed in Saudi E&P.

AAPG STUDENT CHAPTER CONT’D

Spring 2018:

AEG had bi-monthly presentations. Food and refreshments were supplied, and a person from a geological engineer-

ing business gave a speech on their current/past projects.

Hike for help was the volunteer event

Fall 2018:

AEG is continuing the lunch time presentations. We were a part of the M-Climb, where we had Freshmen spin a

spinner to determine how soaked they would get in return for a piece of candy. For Celebration of Mines, AEG had a

table present, and officers/members gave out cookies and encouraged students to sign up. AEG has also participated

in the Mitchell Elementary Science Night, where officers taught kids about fock fall nets and demonstrated how HCl

reacts with carbonate rocks. In the near future, AEG is planning a camping trip to Salida, where Paul Santi will pre-

sent on the debris flows in the area.

AEG STUDENT CHAPTER WRITTEN BY BS STUDENT AND AEG PRESIDENT, JULIA PAYNE

Society of Economic Geologists (SEG)

2018 Student Chapter Summary

The SEG student chapter here at CSM has been hard at

work providing weekly Lunch and Learns, planning

trips and workshops for students of the department.

The organization is comprised of nearly 50 active stu-

dents ranging from undergraduates to PhD students.

Our main goals for this year have been to increase un-

dergraduate members and social media presence.

During spring break, 13 students and an industry pro-

fessional, Quinton Hennigh, traversed across Northern

Peru studying various precious and base metal deposits.

The group visited two core facilities, four precious met-

als mines, Salinas De Maras and Machu Picchu. Over-

all, this was an excellent opportunity for our members

to visit a variety of deposit styles and cultural history of

a wonderful South American country.

Over the recent fall break, a group of 12 students and professors embarked on a trip to Montana to visit several active mines. Zhaoshan

Chang, the new Charles Fogarty Chair in Economic Geology, was able to accompany us on the trip and provide valuable insight for each of

the deposits. The highlight of the trip was an underground tour of the Stillwater mine, owned by Sibanye-Stillwater, in Nye County, Mon-

tana. Stillwater is the 3rd largest PGM (Platinum Group Metals) pro-

ducing mine in the world, behind the Bushveld Complex in South Afri-

ca and Noril’sk in Russia. Kyle Gilbert, a CSM alumni and Production

Engineer on site, was gracious enough to coordinate and plan our un-

derground tour at the site. A true privilege as the last time students

had an underground tour was in 2004. The group also visited Barricks’

Golden Sunlight Mine, an open pit Au-Ag-Te Mine, in which we were

given a chance to tour the open pit and collect samples. An RC drill bit

from this site can be seen in our display case on the second floor. Kaleb

Scarberry from the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology presented

his recent work on the Boulder Batholith and it’s relation to the Butte

mining district. The trip concluded with a mine site and mill facility

tour at the Montana Resources owned Continental Pit, a Cu porphyry

deposit. Students were able to view different vein types, supergene

enrichment textures, and collect textbook porphyry-style samples.

Overall, this trip was a major success and we are looking forward to

planning our American Southwest trip in March. To finance this trip,

we were awarded funds from the Stewart Wallace Funding, given to

student chapters to promote field-based activities.

To date, we have had nine Lunch and Learn lectures so far this semester with four more planned. Our talks have ranged from a resume

building workshop to graduate students presenting their work to industry professionals presenting on current projects. Future talks on the

geology of Peru and Chile and calcrete uranium deposits are in the works. This has been an excellent time for students to learn about topics

outside of normal curriculum. We have seen an increase in the amount of undergraduate students attending which has been a goal we have

been striving to achieve.

Our group is excited to provide workshops in the future for students and professionals!

SEG STUDENT CHAPTER WRITTEN BY MS STUDENT AND SEG PRESIDENT, ZACHARY PALMER

Students overlooking Newmont’s Yanacocha Mine, South America’s largest

gold mine.

Our SEG group of students and professor pose underground in an area

known as “The Ballroom” at the Stillwater Mine with Kyle Gilbert, far left.

PUBLICATIONS 2018

Donna Anderson, Affiliate Faculty:

Anderson, D.S. and Longman, M.W., 2018,

Subsurface reinterpretation of Ordovician

and Devonian strata in southwest Wyo-

ming with implications for upwarping

across the Transcontinenal Arch: Moun-

tain Geologist, v. 55, p. 91-118.

Pyles, D.R., Fleming, A.E.P., and Ander-

son, D.S., 2017, Hierarchical organization

and spatial variations of lobes in distribu-

tive submarine fans: Outcrop study of the

Point Loma Formation, California, USA, in

From the Mountains to the Abyss: The

California borderland as an archive of

Southern California geologic evolution,

SEPM Special Publication #110 (online).

Alexander Gysi, Assistant Professor:

Gysi A.P., Harlov D., Miron, D. (2018) The

solubility of monazite (CePO4), SmPO4,

and GdPO4 in aqueous solutions from 100

to 250 °C. Geochimica et Cosmochimica

Acta 242, 143-164. https://

doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2018.08.038

Perry* E., Gysi A.P. (2018) Rare Earth

Elements in Mineral Deposits: Speciation

in Hydrothermal Fluids and Partitioning

in Calcite. Geofluids 89, 581-596. https://

doi. org/10.1155/2018/5382480

Pierre* S., Gysi A.P., Monecke, T. (2018)

Fluid chemistry of mid-ocean ridge hydro-

thermal vents: A comparison between nu-

merical modeling and vent geochemical

data. Geofluids 2018. https://

doi.org/10.1155/2018/1389379

Hurtig N., Hanley J., Gysi A.P. (2018) The

role of hydrocarbons in Pillara Mississippi

Valley-Type Zn-Pb ore formation, Canning

Basin, Western Australia. Ore Geology

Reviews 102, 875-893. https://

doi.org/10.1016/j.oregeorev.2018.09.012

Zane Jobe, Research Professor:

First author pubs

Jobe, Z.R., Howes, N.C., Romans, B.R.,

Covault, J.A., 2018, Volumes and frequen-

cies of submarine fan-building turbidity

currents. The Depositional Record.

https://doi.org/10.1002/dep2.42

Student pubs

Pettinga, L.A., Jobe, Z.R., Shumaker, L.E.,

and Howes, N.C., 2018, Morphometric

scaling relationships in submarine channel

–lobe systems. Geology, https://

doi.org/10.1130/G45142.1

Fryer, R.C. and Jobe, Z.R., in review,

Quantification of the Bed-scale Architec-

ture of Submarine Depositional Environ-

ments and Application to Lobe Deposits of

the Point Loma Formation, California.

https://doi.org/10.31223/osf.io/dxyqg

Other pubs from CoRE research group

Shumaker, L.E., Jobe, Z.R., Johnstone,

S.A., Pettinga, L.A., Cai, D.X., and Moody,

J.D., 2018, Controls on submarine channel

-modifying processes identified through

morphometric scaling relationships. Geo-

sphere, https:// doi.org/10.1130/

GES01674.1.

Pubs from external collaborations:

Malkowski, M.A., Jobe, Z.R., Sharman,

G.R., Graham, S.A., 2018, Down-slope

facies variability within deep-water chan-

nel systems: Insights from the Upper Cre-

taceous Cerro Toro Formation, southern

Patagonia. Sedimentology, doi: 10.1111/

sed.12452.

Yvette Kuiper, Associate Professor:

Hall, W.S., Hitzman, M.W., Kuiper, Y.D.,

Kylander-Clark, A.R.C., Holm-Denoma,

C.S., Moscati, R.J., Plink-Bjorklund, P.,

Enders, M.S., 2018. Igneous and detrital

zircon U-Pb geochronology and Lu-Hf

isotope geochemistry of the late Meso- to

Neoproterozoic northwest Botswana rift:

Implications for the timing of deposition

and provenance of the Ghanzi Basin

(Kalahari Copperbelt) in eastern Namibia

and northwestern Botswana. Precambrian

Research, Precambrian Research 318, 133

–155.

Tavares Nassif, M., Kuiper, Y.D., Goldfarb,

R., Monecke, T., Holm-Denoma, C., 2018.

Structural evolution of and age constraint

on a gold-bearing transtensional zone

within the Archean Porcupine-Destor de-

formation zone, southern Abitibi green-

stone belt, eastern Ontario, Canada. Jour-

nal of Structural Geology 117, 203–218.

Kuiper, Y.D., Wakabayashi, J., 2018. A

comparison between mid-Paleozoic New

England, USA, and the modern western

USA: subduction of an oceanic ridge-

transform fault system. Tectonophysics 75,

278–292.

Alexei Milkov, Professor:

Milkov, A.V. and G. Etiope (2018) Revised

genetic diagrams for natural gases based

on a global dataset of >20,000 samples.

Organic Geochemistry, v. 125, pp. 109-120.

Milkov A.V. (2018) Secondary microbial

gas. In: Wilkes H. (eds) Hydrocarbons,

Oils and Lipids: Diversity, Origin, Chemis-

try and Fate. Handbook of Hydrocarbon

and Lipid Microbiology. Springer, Cham,

pp. 1-10.

Zhu, G., A.V. Milkov, F. Chen, N. Weng, Z.

Zhang, H. Yang, K. Liu, Y. Zhu (2018) Non

-cracked oil in ultra-deep high-

temperature reservoirs in the Tarim basin,

China. Marine and Petroleum Geology, v.

89, pp. 252-262.

Richard Palin, Assistant Professor:

Forshaw, J., Waters, D.J., Pattison,

D.R.M., Palin, R.M., Gopon, P., 2018. A

comparison of observed and thermody-

namically predicted phase equilibria and

mineral compositions in mafic granulites.

Journal of Metamorphic Geology, in press,

doi: 10.1111/jmg.12454

Monecke, T., Monecke, J., Reynolds, T.J.,

Tsuruoka, S., Bennett, M.M., Skewes,

W.B., Palin, R.M., 2018. Quartz solubility

in the H2O–NaCl system: a framework for

understanding vein formation in porphyry

copper deposits. Economic Geology, v. 113,

p.1007–1046, doi: 10.5382/

econgeo.2018.4580

Palin, R.M., Treloar, P.J., Searle, M.P.,

Wald, T., White, R.W., Mertz-Kraus, R.,

2018. U–Pb monazite ages from the Paki-

stan Himalaya record pre-Himalayan Or-

dovician orogeny and Permian continental

break-up. Geological Society of America:

Bulletin, doi: 10.1130/B31943.1, in press

Palin, R.M., Sayed, A.B., White, R.W.,

Mertz-Kraus, R., 2018. Origin, age, and

significance of deep-seated granulite-facies

migmatites in the Barrow zones of Scot-

land, Cairn Leuchan, Glen Muick area.

Journal of Metamorphic Geology, v. 36,

p. 1071–1096, doi: 10.1111/jmg.12428

Palin, R.M., Dyck, B., 2018. Metamor-

phic consequences of secular changes in

oceanic crust composition and implica-

tions for uniformitarianism in the geo-

logical record. In: Palin, R.M. and Spen-

cer, C.J. (Eds) "Secular Change in Earth

Processes"; Geoscience Frontiers, v. 9,

p. 1009–1019, doi: 10.1016/

j.gsf.2018.04.004

Palin, R.M., Spencer, C.J., 2018. Secular

Change in Earth Processes: Preface.

Geoscience Frontiers, v. 9, p. 965–966,

doi: 10.1016/j.gsf.2018.05.001

Yves, F., White, R.W., Palin, R.M.,

Johnson, T.E., 2018. New constraints

on granulite-facies metamorphism and

melt production in the Lewisian Com-

plex, northwest Scotland. Journal of

Metamorphic Geology, v. 36, p. 799–

819, doi: 10.1111/jmg.12311

Paul Santi, Professor:

Wolicki, J.L., Santi, P.M., Haugen, B.D.,

Hagberry, J.A., Faber, E.J., Semmens,

S.N., and Brown, H.E., 2018, Develop-

ment of a Rapid System to Diagnose

Ground Settlement, Environmental

and Engineering Geoscience Vol, 24,

No. 3, pp. 281-291, doi: 10.2113/EEG-

1979.

Santi, P., 2018, Landslide Analysis with

Incomplete Data: Examples from Colo-

rado and Wyoming, Rocky Mountain

Geo-Conference 2018, ASCE Geotech-

nical Practice Publication No. 10, 12 p.

Kamini Singha, Professor (*=students):

Sherman, T.*, Foster, A.*, Bolster, D.

and Singha, K. (in press). Predicting

experimental downstream concentra-

tion histories from upstream data in

column experiments. Water Resources

Research.

Sparacino, M.*, Rathburn, S., Covino,

T., Singha, K., Ronayne, M. (in press).

Form-based river restoration decreases

wetland hyporheic exchange: lessons

learned from the Upper Colorado River.

Earth Surface Processes and Land-

forms.

Herzog, S.P.*, Higgins, C.P., Singha, K.,

and McCray, J.E. (2018). Performance

of engineered streambeds for inducing

hyporheic transient storage and attenu-

ation of resazurin. Environmental Sci-

ence & Technology, doi: 10.1021/

acs.est.8b01145, 10 p.

Briggs, M.A., Day-Lewis, F.D.,

Mahmood Poor Dehkordy, F.*, Hamp-

ton, T.*. Zarnetske, J.P., Scruggs, C.+,

Singha, K., Harvey, J.W., Lane, J.W.

(2018). Direct observations of hydro-

logic exchange occurring with less-

mobile porosity and the development of

anoxic microzones in sandy lakebed

sediments. Water Resources Research,

doi: 10.1029/2018WR022823, 16 p.

Foks, S.S.*, Stets, E.G., Singha, K. and

Clow, D.W. (2018). Influence of climate

on alpine stream chemistry and water

sources. Hydrological Processes, 1-16,

doi: 10.1002/hyp.13124, 16 p.

Rice, A.K.*, McCray, J.E., and Singha,

K. (2018). Methane leakage from hy-

drocarbon wellbores into overlying

groundwater: Numerical investigation

of the multiphase flow processes gov-

erning migration. Water Resources Re-

search, doi: 10.1002/2017WR021365,

17 p.

Rice, A.K.*, Lackey, G.*, Proctor, J.+,

and Singha, K. (2018). Groundwater

quality hazards of methane leakage

from hydrocarbon wells: A review of

observational and numerical studies

and four testable hypotheses. Wiley

Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs) Wa-

ter, doi: 10.1002/wat2.1283, 18 p.

Stephen Sonnenberg, Professor:

Sonnenberg, S.A., 2018, The Niobrara

Formation in the Southern Powder Riv-

er Basin, an Emerging Giant Continu-

ous Petroleum Accumulation: Urtec

Paper 2901558, 15 p.

Thul, D.J., S.A. Sonnenberg, 2018, Ex-

pressions of the Colorado Mineral Belt

in Upper Cretaceous Niobrara For-

mation Source Rock Maturity from the

Denver Basin: The Mountain Geolo-

gists, V. 55, no. 1, P. 19-52.

Sonnenberg, S.A., C. Theloy, H. Jin,

2017, The giant continuous oil accumu-

lation in the Bakken Petroleum System,

U.S. Williston Basin, in R.K. Merrill and

C.A. Sternbach, eds., Giant fields of the

decade 2000-2010: AAPG Memoir 113,

p. 91-120.

Sonnenberg, S.A., 2017, Sequence Stra-

tigraphy of the Bakken and Three Forks

Formations, Williston Basin, USA:

GCSEPM Volume, p. 122-140

Sonnenberg, S.A., H. Durkee, C. Kaiser,

2017, The Graneros-Greenhorn petrole-

um system: a possible new resource

play, Rocky Mountain region, USA:

First Break, Volume 35, p. 59-67.

Sonnenberg, S.A., 2017, Keys to Nio-

brara and Codell Production, East Po-

ny/Redtail Area, Denver Basin, Colora-

do: URTeC Paper 2666237, 14 p.

Xu, J., and S.A. Sonnenberg, 2017, An

SEM study of porosity in the organic-

rich Lower Bakken Member and Prong-

horn Member, Bakken Formation, Wil-

liston Basin: URTeC Paper 2697215, 13

p.

H. Jin, M. Lewan, and S.A. Sonnenberg,

2017, Oil-generation kinetics for oil-

prone Bakken Shales and its implica-

tion: URTec Paper 2671492, 14 p.

Charsky, A., D. Pyles, S. Sonnenberg,

2017, Process sedimentology and Geo-

mechanics for development of a me-

chanical stratigraphy model of the

Bakken Formation: URTec paper

2690354, 17 p.

Susann Stolze, Research Associate:

Dillon, J.S., Stolze, S., Larsen, A.K.

(2018) Late Pleistocene pollen and

plant macrofossils from a buried wet-

land deposit in the Platte River valley,

south-central Nebraska. Great Plains

Research 28: 173-183.

PUBLICATIONS 2018

CONT’D

THESES AND DISSERTATIONS FROM 2018

ABBUHL, BRITTANY – M.SC. – GEOLO-

GY

An Analysis of the Stratigraphy, Sedimen-

tology and Reservoir Quality of the Dean

Sandstone Within Borden and Dawson

Counties, Midland Basin, West Texas (Dr.

Sonnenberg)

BATBAYAR, KHERLEN – M.SC. – GEOL-

OGY

Source Rock Quality and Subsurface Depo-

sitional and Geochemical Characterization

of the Khoot Basin in Mongolia (Adv. Dr.

Milkov/Co-adv. Dr. Wood)

BEISMAN, JAMES – PH.D. - HYDROLO-

GY

Physical Heterogeneity Control On Miner-

al Dissolution Rates: From Pore to Contin-

uum Scale Over Geologic Time (Adv. Dr.

Maxwell/ Co-adv. Dr. Sitchler)

COLLINS, CAITLIN – M.SC. – HYDROL-

OGY

Using an Integrated Hydrology Model to

Elucidate Plant Water Use in a Headwaters

Research Catchment (Adv. Dr. Maxwell)

CONE, KIM – M.SC. – GEOLOGY

Investigation of Crystallization Kinetics of

the 1783-1784 Laki, Iceland Fissure Erup-

tions through Crystal Size Distributions

Using Manual Methods and Automated

Mineralogy (Adv. Dr. Wendlandt)

FRIEMAN, BEN – PH.D. – GEOLOGY

U-Pb and Lu-Hf LA-ICP-MS Detrital Zir-

con and Structural Investigations in the

Abitibi Subprovince, Canada, with Impli-

cations for Archean Geodynamic Processes

and Deformation Behavior Along Gold-

Bearing, Crustal-Scale Faults (Adv. Dr.

Kuiper)

GENTRY, EMILIE – M.SC. – GEOLOGY

Characterizing the Southwestern Extent of

the Norumbega Fault System, A Mid-

Paleozoic Crustal-Scale Strike-Slip Fault

System in the New England Appalachians

(Adv. Dr. Kuiper)

GORDON, ANDREW – M.SC. – GEOLO-

GY

Rock Property Characteristics and Correla-

tion from Outcrop to Wireline Logs of the

Green River Formation, Red Wash Field,

Eastern Uinta Basin (Adv. Dr. Sarg)

HEIN, ANNETTE – M.SC. – HYDROLO-

GY

Drought on the North American High

Plains: Modeling Effects of Vegetation,

Temperature and Rainfall Perturbations

on Regional Hydrology (Adv. Dr. Maxwell)

HENRY, RICHARD – PH.D. – GEO-

CHEMISTRY

Low Temperature Aqueous Solubility of

Fluorite at 5, 25, and 50C and Ionic

Strengths Up to 0.72M (Adv. Dr. Harrison)

KEATOR, ALLISON – M.SC. – GEOLOGY

Geologic Characterization and Reservoir

Properties of the Upper Smackover For-

mation, Haynesville Shale, and Lower

Bossier Shale, Thorn Lake Field, Red River

Parish, Louisiana, USA (Adv. Dr. Sonnen-

berg)

KRAMER, SHAWN – M.SC. – GEOLOGY

Tectonostratigraphic Evolution of the

Reinga Basin, Offshore Northwestern New

Zealand (Adv. Dr. Trudgill)

LAPORTE, DAVID – M.SC. – GEOLGICAL

ENGINEERING

Evaluating Landslide Risk Management in

Guatemala City through a Study of Risk

Perception and Behavior Changes (Adv.

Dr. Santi)

LOPEZ, SHAWN – M.SC. - GEOLOGY

Peloid Characterization and Diagenesis of

the A Chalk, Niobrara Formation, Denver

Basin, CO (Adv. Dr. Sonnenberg)

PODZORSKI, HANNAH – M.SC. – HY-

DROLOGY

Expression of Geochemical Controls on

Water Quality using Concentration-

Discharge Relationships in Loch Vale,

Rocky Mountain National Park (Adv. Dr.

Sitchler)

POMMER, MAXWELL – PH.D. – GEOLO-

GY

Production Trend Analytics of the Prong-

horn Member of the Bakken Formation,

North Dakota, Williston Basin (Adv. Dr.

Sarg)

RICE, AMY – PH.D. - HYDROLOGY

Groundwater-Quality Implications of Me-

thane Leakage from Hydrocarbon Well-

bores (Adv. Dr. Singha)

RYKEN, ANNA – M.SC. – HYDROLOGY

Sensitivity and Model Reduction of Simu-

lated Snow Processes: Contrasting Obser-

vational and Parameter Uncertainty to

Improve Prediction (Adv. Dr. Maxwell)

SCOTT, PATRICK – MP – MINERAL EX-

PLORATION

(Adv. Dr. Monecke)

SIEGEL, MATTHEW – MP – MINERAL

EXPLORATION

(Adv. Dr. Monecke)

STACEY, JON – MP – MINERAL EXPLO-

RATION

(Adv. Dr. Monecke)

THATCH, LAUREN – M.SC. – HYDROL-

OGY

Untangling Water Management and

Groundwater Extraction Signals in the

California Central Valley: An Integrated

Hydrologic Model and Remote Sensing

Synthesis Approach (Adv. Dr. Maxwell)

TIJERINA, DANIELLE – M.SC. – HY-

DROLOGY

Improving US National Water Modeling:

An Intercomparison of Two High-

resolution, Continental Scale Models, Par

Flow-CONUS and the National Water

Model v1.2 Configuration of WRF-

Hydro. (Adv. Dr. Maxwell)

VAZQUEZ-GARCIA, OSCAR – M.SC. –

GEOLOGY

Tectonic Evolution of the Deepwater Lam-

prea Fold Belt, Offshore Burgos Basin,

Western Gulf of Mexico (Adv. Dr. Trudgill)

WANG, JIANQIAO – PH.D. – GEOLOGY

Fluvial Megafans, their Facies, Architec-

ture, and Implications to Subsurface Res-

ervoir Prediction (Adv. Dr. Plink-

Bjorklund)

ALFORD, LEE – M.SC. – GEOLOGY

Hydrothermal Evolution of Au-Bearing

Pyrite-Quartz Veins and their Association

to Base Metal Veins in Central City, Colo-

rado (Adv. Dr. Gysi)

BANE, LAUREN – M.SC. – GEOLOGY

Integrated Analysis, Reservoir Characteri-

zation, and Resource Potential of the Nio-

brara Formation: Lowry Bombing Range,

Arapahoe and Adams County, CO (Adv.

Dr. Sonnenberg)

BULGUROGLU, MUHAMMED – M.Sc. –

GEOLOGY

Influence of Dolerites on Coal Rank, Ma-

turity and Total Gas Content in Coal Bed

Methane Play, Botswana (Adv. Dr .Milkov)

COLEMAN, ROBERT – M.SC. – GEOLO-

GY

The Tectonic Evolution of Taranaki Basin,

Offshore New Zealand (Adv. Dr. Trudgill)

CORRAL, EMMANUEL - MP – PETROLE-

UM RESERVOIR SYSTEMS

(Adv. Dr. Sonnenberg)

FOSTER, LAUREN – PH.D. – HYDROLO-

GY

Modeling Climate Change Impacts to

Rocky Mountain Headwater Hydrology

(Adv. Dr. Maxwell)

FRYER, ROSEMARIE – M.SC. – GEOLO-

GY

Quantification of the Bed-Scale Architec-

ture of Submarine Lobes and Comparison

to other Submarine Depositional Environ-

ments (Adv. Dr. Jobe)

HALFORD, DANIEL – M.SC. – GEOLOGY

Isotopic Analyses of Helium from Wells

Located in the Four Corners Area, South-

western, US (Adv. Dr. Sonnenberg)

HEIL, ELANOR – PH.D.- HYDROLOGY

Identifying and Quantifying Mountain

Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus Ponderosae)

Induced Watershed Scale Changes to Met-

al Input, Storage, and Export, Rocky

Mountains, USA (Adv. Dr Sitchler/ Co-

adv. Dr. Wanty)

HINTON, JOHN – M.SC. – UNDER-

GROUND CONSTRUCTION AND TUN-

NELING ENGINEERING

The Use of a Look-Ahead Geophysical

Method to Delineate Structural Features

Ahead of a Tunnel Boring Machine (Adv.

Dr .Walton)

HUELS, MATTHEW – M.SC. – GEOLOGY

New Opportunities in the Mature Fields of

the Central Illinois Basin: A Case Study of

the Mode Field, Shelby County, Illinois,

USA (Adv. Dr. Wood)

LOCKYEAR, RUSSELL – M.SC. – GEO-

LOGICAL ENGINEERING

Identification of Parameters for Predicting

Long-Runout in the Western United States

(Adv. Dr. Santi)

LOWE, JUSTIN – M.SC. – GEOLOGY

A Petrographic, Geochemical, and Geo-

chronological Investigation of Gold Miner-

alization at the Lone Tree Gold Mine, Bat-

tle Mountain, Nevada (Adv. Dr. Holley)

PAULY, CAROLYN – M.SC. – GEOLOGY

Mineralogy and Petrogenesis of the Cali-

fornia Blue Mine Aquamarine- And Topaz-

Bearing Pegmatite Deposit, San Bernardi-

no County, California (Adv. Dr. Gysi)

SAMS, BONNIE – M.SC. – HYDROLOGY

Contact Metamorphism of the Mancos

Shale: Impacts on Solute Release and

Weatherability in the East River Valley,

Gothic, CO (Adv. Dr. Sitchler)

SMITH, ALYSSA – M.SC. – GEOCHEMIS-

TRY

Tracing the Magmatic to Hydrothermal

Evolution of the Mount Rosa Complex,

Colorado Using Zircon (Adv. Dr. Pfaff)

STEIDTMANN, MATTHEW – M.SC. –

GEOLOGY

Incised Valleys in the Parkman Sandstone

at Teapot Dome, Wyoming: A Comprehen-

sive Outcrop Analysis (Adv. Dr. Wood)

SWIFT BIRD, KENNETH – M.SC. – HY-

DROLOGY

Hydrogeochemical Controls of Uranium

and Arsenic Mobility in Groundwater of

the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota

(Adv. Dr. Singha)

THESES AND DISSERTATIONS FROM 2018

CONT’D

TIMM, KIRA – PH.D. – GEOLOGY

Geological And Geochemical Assessment

Of The Sharon Springs Member Of The

Pierre Shale And The Niobrara Formation

Within The Canon City Embayment, South

-Central Colorado (Adv. Dr. Sonnenberg)

TWIGG, HELEN – M.SC. – GEOLOGY

The Geology of Kakanda, D.R.C. – Impli-

cations for Lithological and Structural

Controls of Cu-Co Mineralization of The

Roan Group (Adv. Dr. Enders/ Co-adv. Dr.

Hitzman)

YOUNG, MERIEL – M.SC. – GEOLOGI-

CAL ENGINEERING

Factors Predictive of Roof Instability in

Addition to the Existing Criteria at Two

Case Study Coal Mines (Adv. Dr. Walton)

ZEECK, LAUREN – M.SC. – GEOLOGY

The Role of Flashing in the Formation Of

High-Grade Low-Sulfidation Epithermal

Deposits: A Case Study from the Omu

Camp in Hokkaido, Japan (Adv. Dr. Mo-

necke)

THESES AND DISSERTATIONS FROM 2018

CONT’D

The Department of Geology and Geological Engineering (GE) is uniquely focused on the discovery and dissemination of knowledge for society through compelling research, excellence in teaching, and engaging outreach by creating a vibrant community that cultivates criti-cal thinking, intellectual curiosity, and integrity.

Our world-class teaching and laboratory facilities and field sites provide students with hands-on, real-world experience. We take educa-tion seriously and expect our students to become some of the world's future leaders in engineering solutions to the most pressing natural resource problems and opportunities.

Your gifts will support field trips like you’ve seen within these pages.

The Credit Union of Colorado and Mines’ Family Chairs want to challenge the community a bit this year – they’re putting up a collective $35,000 to be unlocked if 2,500 people make a gift for the campaign. That money, once unlocked, will then be divided proportionately amongst the causes based on their number of overall donors (just like last year). So, if Geology gets 25% of the overall donor count, we would get $8,750.

Thank you so much to the 439 donors who showed their Mines love for Geology and Geological Engineering during the second 24-hour #idigmines Giving Day last February!

Mines graduates highly value their field experiences!

Therefore, your 2019 gifts will mainly support:

Field Trips and Field Camp

Keep our department strong. With your #idigmines gift:

$25 could help pay for field camp scholarships

$100+ would support field trips, both domestic and international

Bonus funding this year will once again be spent on enhancing the student field trip experience to fulfill our mission of training students to be expert stewards of earth’s natural resources.

#IDIGMINES CAMPAIGN

LOCATION:

Location

We are located in Berthoud Hall on the Colorado School of Mines campus. The building is

at 1516 Illinois Street at the intersection of 16th Street and Illinois Street in Golden, Colo-

rado. Click here for a printable campus map and directions to campus on Google Maps.

Directions

From Denver International Airport: It is most convenient to take the shuttle or to rent a

car (car rentals: Avis, Budget, Enterprise, and Hertz). Take I-70 west, exit Highway 58 to

Golden. Exit Washington Street and turn left to enter into downtown Golden. Turn right

on 13th Street and left on Maple to enter campus.

From Denver: Take 6th Avenue and head west into Golden. Turn right on 19th Street.

Turn left on Elm Street to enter campus.

From Boulder: Take Highway 93 into Golden. Turn left onto 19th Street. Turn left on Elm

Street to enter campus.

Department of Geology and Geological

Engineering

Colorado School of Mines

Berthoud Hall

1516 Illinois Street

Golden, CO 80401

Phone: 303-273-3800

Fax: 303-273-3859

E-mail: dchen1@mines.com

SU18 Field Camp: walking though the moonscape that is the Todilto

Formation (mostly gypsum)