Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences

Geology 318-The Azores By: Alex Brown (B.S. , May ‘10)

Having gone on the study abroad program, Semester at Sea, during the summer of 2008 prepared me for this once in a lifetime

trip to the Azores. I was already a savvy traveler since I had gone to nine countries. My trip to the Azores was one that will always stay dear to my heart. This was the definition of learning while in the field. The eight students on the trip were able to learn from Professor Bizimis, local geologist, Zilda França, and our geo tour guide, Pedro. We received an abundance of knowledge about the chain of nine islands. Zilda alone has written her own book on the islands. I can still remember the smell of freshness the second I stepped off the plane onto the island of Sao Miguel. We were in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on the Mid Atlantic Ridge and it was a concept that I had a hard time grasping during the entire trip. The air didn’t smell of salt water, but of a freshness that I had never experienced previously in my life.

Prior to the trip Professor Bizimis had given us a few lectures on the geology of the region. We had learned the two theories relating to the tectonics of the region. The first theory was that there was a hot spot creating this chain of islands. The second the-ory was that it was a leaky transform fault. There are, also, people who believe that it is a combination of the two. After seeing three of the islands, Faial, Pico, and Sao Miguel, it makes you wonder what is actually going on. We were able to see firsthand the effects from the 1957 submarine eruption in Faial. The area of newly formed land looked almost as if it were from another planet. Also, we were taken through an underground lava tube. As we were walking through the tube it was an incredible feeling to know that lava had been flowing through here several million years ago. Another amazing feature we were able to witness was a caldera. The group walked down from the top where the stratovolcano formerly was down to the lake where the stratovolcano once had an explosive eruption.

This is probably the most geology I have ever learned in such a short period of time. The information stuck with me rather eas-ily as well since I was able to learn with the geology right in front of me. The trip was fairly expensive, but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. I would recommend to anybody who can afford to take Geology 318 in the future to jump on the opportunity. I would, also, like to thank the Geology Department for helping offset some of our expenses. Finally, this unique trip would not have been possible without Professor Bizimis’ willingness to be our leader. Thank you! (see pictures on page 12)

Sao Miguel L-R – front: Stevie Henrick, Amanda Fabian, Erin Adams, and Chris Bruce – back: Walt Anderson, Mike Pettingell, and Alex Brown

University of South Carolina Spring 2010 Newsletter

Undergraduate Studies

Recipients of the 2010 Stephen Taber

Fellowship Awards:

Joseph C. Byrd, William C. Byrd, and Matthew Loveley

2010 Undergraduate Student Day Awards

Joseph R. LeConte Outstanding Senior Denise Bachmann

Joseph R. LeConte Outstanding Junior

Amanda Fabian

Stephen Taber Alexander Brown

Distinguished Academic Achievement

Alan Rickenbaker

My Undergraduate Experience By: Alex Brown (B.S., May ‘10)

I believe that I took full advantage of the opportunities that were

available as an undergrad geophysics major and as a student in gen-eral at the University of South Carolina. Many friends of mine who are not in the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences have told me they do not have a close relationship with a single professor. I feel like I got to know all of the professors who I took a class with very well. Even with some of the professors with whom I never took a class, I have developed close relationships. Most professors are very approachable and will make you feel at home. As a geophysicist, I feel like I am a very well rounded scientist. By following the old cur-riculum I took every geology class that geology majors were required to take other than one. In addition to that I took four 500 level geo-physics classes. Also, I have taken a plethora of math classes that will make me a better scientist in the end.

Following my freshmen year, I decided to switch majors from civil engineering to geology. Upon advisement I was placed in geophys-ics. Looking back on being placed immediately into geophysics, I do not think that is the best move for the department to make for the students. I had no idea what geophysics even meant when I was placed in the major. Although I am pleased that I ended up being a geophysics major, I feel a student should be required to take a year of geology before he declares if he wants to be a geophysics major. It is important that students get a feel for what they are getting them-selves into.

In the summer of 2008 I had a once in a lifetime opportunity to study abroad through Semester at Sea and was able to visit Norway, Russia, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Egypt, Greece, and Croa-tia. This program was not directly related to the department, but I always kept geology in mind everywhere I traveled. We were re-quired to write a final paper in our history class on any topic that com-pared three of the countries. I ended up writing about the differing geology of Norway, Egypt, and Greece and how it affected each country. Upon returning to the states I realized that geology was in-deed the perfect major for me because I want to travel all over the world.

Last summer I went out to Cañon City, Colorado for field camp that was combined with the University of Georgia. At this six week course I gained invaluable knowledge in order to become an excel-lent field geologist in the future. Being able to gain insight from a wider range of professors was important to me. I also made lifelong friendships with students from the University of Georgia and Georgia Southern. This year I have been working on my senior thesis. I wanted to do a senior thesis so I would know what to expect when I attend grad school next fall. In order to graduate with a geophysics degree, I had to either write a senior thesis or go to a field school. I thought it was important to be a well rounded and geologist and that is why I did both.

Overall, I have had a very rich experience as a geophysicist while at USC. I would like to thank all of the professors in the depart-ment for all the hard work they put forth on a daily basis. Many of you have had a positive influence on me one way or another.

May 2010 Graduates with Chairman, Venkat Lakshmi L-R: Alan Rickenbaker, Denise Bachmann, Venkat Lakshmi, Alex Brown

L-R: Dr. Gwen Geidel, Amanda Fabian, Denise Bachman, Alex Brown (in the back), and Alan Rickenbaker

Alan Rickenbaker is a quadruple major!

(Anthropology, Geography, Geology, and German)

Graduate Studies 2010

Departmental Awards Taber Award for Graduate Research Honorable

Mention: Andrea Hughes, Aimee Pusz, Hyunmee Park,

Obi Egbue, Gabrielle Munn, Sumanta Chatterjee, and Jason Walker

Taber Award for Outstanding Doctoral Research:

Antonio Cameron

Taber Award for Outstanding Masters Research: Joseph Anderson

Taber Award for Outstanding Teaching:

Melvin Fillerup

2010 Graduate Student Day Awards

First prize in Poster Competition: Aimee Pusz

First prize in Oral Competition:

Andrea Hughes

Third prize in Poster Competition: Joey Anderson

Third prize in Oral Competition:

Antonio Cameron

Recipients of the 2010

Departmental Travel Awards

Nirnimesh Kumar

Hassan Hassan

Ebenezer Nyadjro

Hyunmee Park

Life after Graduate School By: Emily Sekula Wood (Ph.D., August ‘10) I am currently in my first rotation at Exxonmobil working as a Senior Petro-leum Geologist in the U.S. Production Company. I am in the East TX group specifically examining shale gas potential in East TX and LA and identifying prospects for drilling. Being in the Production Company, my position entails identifying the "sweet spots" for drilling through mapping, seismic interpreta-tion, and scouting industry activity. I also monitor a well currently being drill-ing and have interactions with drilling, land and regulatory, and subsurface completions. Recently, I spent two days on site at a drilling rig to assist in open-hole logging of well. Interpretation of the logs, helps us to identify the landing point for the lateral portion of the well where gas production from the shale is maximized. I have found my project in unconventional resources incredibly exciting and it has already afforded me some unique opportunities within the company.

My Graduate Experience By: Antonio E. Cameron González (Ph.D., May ‘10)

My experience as a doctoral student at the University of South Carolina was nothing short of life-changing. Through my assistantship, internships, coursework, and interactions with students, staff, faculty, and peers, I was not only more than prepared for my first professional position within the oil industry (ExxonMobil), I quite literally came to understand my own self in a new light. Graduate school helped me leap past my own as-sumptions of what I knew to be true and what I was capable of learning, feeling, experiencing, and doing. Indeed, it gives me a unique opportunity to specifically explore my passion, while expanding on the foundation I obtained during my undergradu-ate experience at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaüez. I would not have traded my USC experience for any other. The ability to complete the program in four years was certainly chal-lenging, but allowed for an intense and fast-paced learning ex-perience. I enjoyed the classroom experience, where classes were shared with fellow Ph.D. candidates as well as the occa-sional undergrad. The variety of perspectives, experiences and learning levels added great value to my education. USC has consistently been ranked one of the top institutions in the coun-try, and the education I received here reflects this sentiment. Aside from its beautiful architecture, setting and traditions, the students, faculty and staff at USC made my Ph.D. experience unlike any other.

2010 Graduate Student Day Awards

First prize in Poster Competition: Aimee Pusz

First prize in Oral Competition:

Andrea Hughes

Third prize in Poster Competition: Joey Anderson

Third prize in Oral Competition:

Antonio Cameron

A Field Trip Through Time By: Amanda Savrda (M.S.)

For the vast majority of Americans, the phrase “field trip” is associated with memo-ries of a K-12 yesteryear: brown-bag lunches, school buses, and lines of students holding hands while carefully crossing the street. For those of us lucky enough to pursue educations and careers in Earth Science, however, field trips are not just a thing of the past. They are integral parts of our learning and teaching experiences. These geologic field trips still employ brown bag lunches, but the school buses have been replaced by fifteen-seater vans brimming with people and gear,

and the orderly lines of school children carefully crossing the street have given way to rock-obsessed, hand lens and Estwing-wielding 20-something-year-olds sprinting across 4-lane highways and medians to take a gander at dynamite blasted road cuts and the interesting geology therein.

Early this April, as a graduate student enrolled in GEOL 735 Re-gional Tectonics, I, along with my classmates, was able to partake in one such coveted fieldtrip opportunity. Instructed by Dr. Dave Barbeau, the course focuses primarily on the geology of regional-scale responses to plate tectonics with an emphasis on the sedimentary record of oro-genic belts. Conveniently, The University of South Carolina is nestled on the fall line between the Atlantic Coastal Plain and Piedmont, and is a perfect departure point for a geologic adventure to study regional tec-tonic processes in The Appalachian Mountains.

Late in the afternoon on April eighth, we left South Carolina’s cam-pus in a crammed (“strategically packed”) white Ford E-Series van for a five-day, four-night adventure that would take us from the Appalachian Plateau and Ancient Appalachian Foreland Basin in Ohio across the Appalachian orogen through the Valley and Ridge, Blue Ridge, and Piedmont in Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Caro-lina, and South Carolina. For this trek through the history of the ancient Appalachians, our van of five graduate students plus Dr. Barbeau met up with a group of mostly undergraduate students from Princeton Uni-versity led by Dr. Adam Maloof. This year marked the third year in which Drs. Barbeau and Maloof brought classes from their respective universi-ties together for a joint “Carolina-Princeton Appalachian fieldtrip” ven-ture.

We drove all the way to Ohio that first evening and slept beside the Ohio River as coal-burdened barges slipped slowly past our campsite throughout the night. We woke up bright and early on the morning of the ninth to encounter our first outcrop of the trip just across the river in Maysville, KY. Laden with bryozoans, brachiopods, crinoid ossicles, and trilobites, the ~455 million year old limestones and shales of the Kope and Clay’s Ferry Formations were quite a sight to behold, and we ex-plored the outcrop for several hours, making observations and discuss-ing our theories about its origins within the forebulge region of the an-cient Appalachian Basin during the first phase of Appalachian orogene-sis, the Taconic Orogeny.

The second stop near Ribolt, KY tells a fascinating story of basin subsidence out-pacing a climate-induced sea level fall within a foredeep setting. There, upper portions of the Ordovician Drakes Formation ma-rine shales comprise a well-developed paleosol, which is topped by cherty dolomites of the Silurian Brasfield Formation. Our third stop in Herron Hill consisted of the Silurian Bisher Dolomite and the well-known Silurian through Mississippian Ohio Shale. Oxidation at the top of the Bisher Formation is believed to indicate subaerial exposure related to a forebulge unconformity. Exposure of the Bisher Dolomite was followed by flooding and deposition of foredeep shales that are interbedded with layers of K-bentonites (volcanic ash), a clue that a volcanic arc was

active along the eastern margin of paleo-North America at the time of deposition during the Acadian phase of Appalachian orogenesis.

After a night of camping at Breaks Interstate Park, we spent most of our third day in the field measuring an immense section of strata at Pound Gap in Kentucky near the Virginia border. This impressive se-quence of rocks serves as a textbook of time for more than 100 million years of proto-North American history, and thus for much of the greatest phase of the formation of the Appalachians, the Alleghanian Orogeny. The section begins in the Ohio Shale, which interfingers with and gives way to the early Mississippian Grainger Formation. The Grainger Forma-tion consists of a spectacular series of fining upward sequences exhibit-ing flute casts and tool marks. Moving up section, these turbidite or Bouma sequences thicken, suggesting that over time, the locus of depo-sition becomes more proximal to the sediment source. Based upon roughly west-directed paleocurrent indicators, it would appear that the Ancient Appalachians themselves were sourcing these turbidite flows! Atop the Grainger Formation, an incredible sequence of interbedded carbonates and shales comprises the Newman Limestone. Portions of the limestone are beds of oolitic packstone. Further up section, ooid-rich erosive channels cut through laminated units, giving way to the interbed-ded sandstones and shales of the Pennington/Paragon Formations. With cross-bedded quartz arenites, organic shales, and wave-rippled sands, it would appear that that late Mississippian deposition in the region oc-curred in a shallow water setting, which is further confirmed by the pres-ence of several paleosols, some of which are topped by shales exhibit-ing beautifully preserved casts of dessication cracks.

On an overlook in Natural Tunnel State Park in Virginia, we re-hashed 150 million years of proto-North American history while watching a train chug slowly into a gaping hole in the base of 10s of meters of drift-phase carbonates beneath our feet. The limestones there are more than 500 million years old, and overlie portions of the younger rocks seen at our earlier stops. This anomalous juxtaposition of older, drift-phase rocks on top of younger, Appalachian foreland basin-related rocks was explained by our next stop, which was in the Smokey Mountains near a Virginia portion of the Appalachian Trail. At this stop, unmetamor-phosed Ordovician Knox Limestone is topped by 700 million year old quartzite via the Great Smoky Thrust. Remarkably, the age of metamor-phism of the quartzites above the thrust fault ranges from 470-300 mil-lion years old, with the peak of metamorphism around 325 million years ago during the Alleghanian Orogeny! One of the Princeton students celebrated the intriguing geology of this stop by jumping on top of the Princeton van and giving his best “Teen Wolf” impression.

The Kope and Clays Ferry Formations outcrop in Maysville, KY

The next day, the Princeton and Carolina groups parted ways, and

the Carolina crew continued their journey on through the Blue Ridge Mountains. Standing in the shade of an interstate overpass early in the morning on April eleventh, a shiver ran up my spine as I contemplated the lowest stratigraphic unit in the Appalachians—a 1.15 billion year old pegmatitic orthogneiss. These Grenville-aged rocks serve not only as the basement rock for everything east of Pound Gap, but as evidence for the existence of Pangea’s predecessor, Rodinia, as such rocks are found all over the world. Like the quartzites near the Great Smoky Thrust, the Grenville basement reached its peak metamorphism 450-300 million years ago. As we continued east, we encountered Eastern Blue Ridge schists, the Addie Ultramafic complex, and the Brevard Shear Zone. The Addie Ultramafic Complex and the Brevard Zone run from Alabama to Quebec at the core of the Appalachian orogen!

On our way back to campus on the twelfth, we made our final stop on Bald Rock at Caesar’s Head in South Carolina. From the top of the pluton, the Piedmont rolled out to our east, cloaked in the green and sunlight of springtime. There, in the vestiges of an immense mountain range that may have rivaled the heights of the Himalaya in their hey-day, we discussed depths of formation and metamorphosis for the migmatite below us. Over five days in the field, immersed in geology, we pieced together the history of the ancient Appalachian Mountains. Forget H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. Forget Back to the Future. If its time travel you want, just hop in a Ford E-series, head for the Appalachians, and go for a drive through geologic time.

Group photo courtesy of Dr. Adam Maloof - taken on an overlook at Natural Tunnel State Park in Virginia

Fossiliferous limestone of the Kope and Clays Ferry Formations in Maysville, KY. Dilute HCl bottle for scale.

Geologizing on Horseback in Tierra del Fuego By: Justin Davis (M.S.)

In mid-November 2009, Team Barbeau joined an international team of geoscientists and headed south to South America and Antarctica for an Inter-national Polar Year study primarily funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs. The project involved 2 months of geo-logic sample collection along the flanks of the northern Antarctic Peninsula and parts of Tierra del Fuego of southernmost Chile and Argentina. For the Antarctic leg of the trip, we boarded the Laur-ence M. Gould, sailed across the Drake Passage, and collected samples in regions of the James Ross Basin and the South Shetland Islands. For our second voyage, we joined the Northanger crew for an unbelievable journey to collect along the

Beagle Channel and other regions of Tierra del Fuego. Nearing the end of the trip we arrived at Estancia Yendegaia, a

small ranch with a wild-horse-taming gaucho. We were hoping to venture up to a very isolated glacial moraine for geologic observation and sample collection. What did we decide to do? Find some horses and take off up the valley! The following is a journal entry that I kept while on my travels. It re-cords what was truly one of the most amazing days of my life.

Estancia Yendegaia January 11, 2010 S 54 47.672’ W 68 59.634’

Today was quite possibly the most exciting and fun day yet. Our

aim was to grab some rocks along the edges of this glacial moraine pretty far inland. So to get up there, we bought some horses for the day and went geologizing on horseback! Well, now I can cross geol-ogy on horseback off my list. The weather today could not have been any more spectacular -- many days it rains, but today, no. Each of us geared up and became acquainted with our new four-legged friends.

I paired up with a dark brown and black horse, Comanche (a.k.a. “The One-Eyed Wonder”). One of our crewmembers, Magnus said laughingly, “Yeah, I’ve ridden him before. You might have to steer him a little bit, he tends to stray off to the right a little bit. And one other thing, he likes to go fast – just wait for the ride back.”

On the ride out, the horses were not as enthused about getting to the moraine as we were. For most of the ride, we walked and slowly trotted across streams, mud, and brush. It was a spectacular ride! The trip up the valley took us about three hours. Upon arrival at the rendezvous point, we secured the horses, grabbed a bite to eat, and then went rock hunting. It was truly an extraordinary place to be, and apparently no one had done geology there before, or at least they didn’t write about what they did.

The valley was clearly U-shaped and loaded with till of all grain sizes. The medial moraine was in close proximity to the glacier, and the lateral moraines were further out. Glacial flour-rich streams ap-peared cloudy and had a greenish tint. Walking toward the glacier, we found giant berg sized ice mounds completely covered with debris. As curious scientists, we ventured closer for a better look.

Then we began mining the ice for the freshest and best tasting water that I’ve ever had!

After several hours of searching for a coarsed-grained detrital sample, Gary and I finally spotted one, and then proceeded to climb up and collect it. After documenting the site with pictures and notes it was about time to exit the valley, meet the rest of the team, and find our rides.

As we made our way back to the spot, I began to notice that I my entire lower half was super sore. I was very eager to get back on the horse, but was nervous about finding the truth of what Magnus had told me. He reminded me again about their outrageous desire to get back home.

After about an hour and a half of holding on for dear life and honestly thinking I was suffering from internal bleeding, broken knees, and a potential inability to have children, we made it back to the ranch! I tried my damndest to enjoy every last second of it. It was a spectacular experience.

One time, while Greg and Magnus were in front of me, we were exiting the bush. As soon as Greg’s horse began sprinting, the others immediately followed suit. The only problem was that I wasn’t out of the woods yet. I wasn’t ready and there was a gigantic log about six feet from my forehead. Once I realized we were going into full gallop, I ducked as hard as I could to avoid disaster.

We also had our rocks on a runaway packhorse! We learned that the gaucho’s first stage of breaking a horse involved using him to carry equipment. Just before heading back down the trail, we loaded and strapped the collected rocks to the new packhorse. At some point after departure while I was riding Comanche, with about half of the trip left to go, I saw the packhorse in front of me. The bags on the horse had fallen off to the side. We eventually got to a stream cross-ing and tried to stop the horse to retie the bags, but, the horse is con-tinued to run, unwilling to cooperate. Finally, the gaucho showed up and took a shot at fixing the bags. He was successful, however, there was an extremely long delay between the time we arrived and the time the gaucho and packhorse arrived. The packhorse tried to run-away with our precious rocks! How crazy!

Throughout the ride, I kept trying to figure out how to better ride the horse without feeling like I was going to die. I kept imagining that I was an Indian roaming around the western US during the 19th century. Realizing that the ride was going to continue to give me a beating, I thought I would find out just how fast the horse would go.

So, I gave him a good kick and he took off! He was on a mission to blaze a trail, let me tell you. I quickly blew past Barbeau and Greg hollering and yelling all while hoping to catch up to Magnus and Frank who were far away and leading the pack. My goal was to be the first one back to the ranch. Once I got to Magnus, he realized what I was doing and he took the challenge. The three of us had a nice run for a minute, but eventually it came down to two horses – my horse and Magnus’. The final haul that both of us made back to the stables was such a rush! I think Magnus may have won by half a horse’s length, but we were neck and neck for the entire race and it was an absolute blast! Everyone was having the time of their life and loving it!

As for now, I’m writing this passage because I have the hugest smile right now and am filled with happiness. Unfortunately, my lower half does not feel that same way. I am going to be super-sore for the next few days.

After today, we have one final stop, and then it’s on to Puerto Williams and Ushuaia for rock packaging. What an amazing trip! People are not going to believe what I tell them when I get back. LIVE. LOVE. LIFE. AND HAVE FUN!

(see pictures on page 7)

Glacial Valley

El Captain Barbeau

Gaucho at Estancia Yendegaia

Giant boulders in the valley

Runaway packhorse

Barbeau y Caballo Ice that we harvested the water from

Recently tamed wild horses

Comanche

Inside the Alvin submersible on Dive 4599, L-R: Scott White, Pilot Sean Kelley, and high school teacher Buffy Cushman-Patz on the

way back to the surface

Following the longstanding tradition, Dr. White welcomes Tim McClinton back from his first Alvin dive by dousing him with a bucket of

Ice water

Julia Howell about to go inside Alvin for her first dive

Galápagos Rift Underwater Volcanic Eruptions Expedition

In March 2010, Dr. Scott White and his two graduate stu-

dents (Julia Howell, Ph.D. candidate and Tim McClinton, pursu-ing M.S.) traveled to the Galápagos for a 32-day research cruise on the R/V Atlantis with other investigators from universities in Hawaii, Minnesota, New York, and Iceland. The Galápagos hot-spot feeds extra magma to the Galápagos Rift, a seafloor spreading ridge located 200 km north of the islands, setting up a natural experiment on the effect of magma supply in ocean crust formation. Dr. White and his students were busy making geo-logical maps and collecting rock samples from 2000 meters deep to determine the size and frequency of eruptions on the Galápa-gos Rift. To work at these great depths, the submersible Alvin made 26 dives to make observations, map contacts between lava flows and collect rock samples. Both Julia and Tim had their first dives in Alvin on this cruise. The dives relied upon some of the highest resolution maps of any seafloor spreading ridge, made by the new autonomous robot submersible Sentry, operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and from 120 kHz side-scan sonar data collected by Dr. White during a cruise in 2006. For geologic mapping underwater, the Sentry bathymetry and side-scan sonar are the equivalent of topog-raphic quadrangles and aerial photographs on land. This cruise also collected photographic images of the seafloor using the WHOI TowCam towed by a fiber-optic cable from the ship. Back ashore, Dr. White has 3 years of funding from the National Sci-ence Foundation to analyze the data. Tim will be using the high-resolution bathymetry and side-scan sonar data to develop an automated classification of volcanic features for his master’s thesis. Julia will be using the high-resolution bathymetry data as part of her dissertation on the distribution and formation of sea-mounts.

More details on the cruise can be found at www.gruveecruise.org

The science team poses in front of DSV Alvin

USC Geophysical Society Explores for the Ashley River Fault, SC By: Antonio E. Cameron González, USC-Geophysical Society President Earlier this spring, ten intrepid members of the USC-Geophysical Society affiliated with the Society of Exploration Geophysicists embarked on a quest to locate and provide geophysical evidence for the Ashley River Fault, which was presumably active during the 1886 Charleston Earthquake. Under the guidance of Dr. Talwani, we braved the swamps of Magnolia Gardens, dodging alligators and off-roading in the Geology van to collect ground penetrating radar (GPR) and GPS data. After a few minor mishaps technical and otherwise (wheels to the cart would have been nice) and after becoming a fixture on the daily tour (no, we are not Archaeologists), we succeeded in collecting 4 GPR transects that crossed the inferred location of the fault. Preliminary interpretations of the GPR data look promis-ing and we plan to presents the final results in the next Symposium on the Application of Geophysics to Environ-mental and Engineering Problems (SAGEEP) sponsored by the Environmental and Engineering Geophysical Society to be held in Charleston, SC, next spring.

USC-Geophysical Society members that were involved with the GPR and GPS data acquisition at Magnolia Gardens. Member names from top and clockwise are: Alex Brown, Cal Easter, Dr. Bob Trenkamp, David

Heffner, Jose Manuel Bacale, Dr. Sumei Liu (visiting professor), Martins Akintunde, Helder Pereira, and hold-ing the GPR digital video logger is the society president Antonio Cameron.

GPR data collection in progress at Magnolia Gardens with antennae fre-quency of 100 MHz. Member names from right to left are Alex Brown hold-

ing the DVL, Jose Bacale and David Heffner moving the Transmitter-Receiver antennae, and Martins Akintunde

New USC-Geophysical Society officers for 2010-2011:

President: David Heffner

Vice-President: Olusoga Martins Akintunde

.

BABY corner Mel Fillerup (Ph.D.) and his spouse Nynke welcomed a baby boy, Mees (pronounced Mace) in February 2010 Michael Bizimis and spouse Erica welcomed a baby girl, Daphne Dimitra. Daphne was born in January 2010 Ipsita Gupta (Ph.D. ‘09) and her spouse Kanchan Maiti (Ph.D. ‘07) welcomed a baby boy, Adhrit (sanskrit for one who cannot be tied down with bounds) in November 2009 Drs. Camelia and Jim Knapp welcomed a baby girl, Emilie Angeline in July 2009

Rock stars

(FACULTY IN ALL CAPS)

DAVE BARBEAU has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure CLAUDIA BENITEZ-NELSON has been promoted to Professor. She was also elected as the new Director for the Marine Science Program, and rec-ognized as one of the “Rising Stars” at USC. The “Rising Stars” were se-lected for their contributions and commitment to research and scholarly pursuits as well as their passion for teaching and inquiry. MICHAEL BIZIMIS received a Promising Young Investigator Award (PIRA) from the Office of Research and Graduate Education. This Track I award titled "Assessing the Role of Submarine Groundwater Discharge as a Major Source of Mercury in Coastal Waters” will investigate the fluxes of mercury into coastal waters through a Southeastern salt marsh system. This work will also allow Bizimis to develop high precision mercury concentration and isotope analyses capabilities at the University of South Carolina. Michael also received the Keith Runcorn Travel Award for Non-Europeans to pre-sent his research on mantle Osmium systematics in the European Geo-science Union meeting to be help in Vienna, Austria May 02 - 07, 2010. SUBRA BULUSU has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure Tristan Childress (B.S.) was accepted to the National Science Exchange (NSE) program. Tristan will be studying for the next scholastic year at Northern Arizona University. Ipsita Gupta (Ph.D. ‘09) accepted a position with R&D Division of Chev-ron's Energy and Technology Company. VENKAT LAKSHMI was awarded the William Mong Visiting Research Fellowship by the University of Hong Kong. He was also elected to the Executive Committee of the American Geophysical Union Heads of Geo-sciences at US Universities Kanchan Maiti (Ph.D. ‘07) was offered a Tenure-Track position at LSU's Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences. BOB THUNELL was awarded the 2010 Carolina Trustee Professorship in the area of Public Health, Engineering, Medical Sciences, and Sciences. Bob was also awarded the distinction of AAAS Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. ALEXANDER YANKOVSKY, Invited Speaker, "Large-scale edge waves generated by wind- and tidal forcing". College of Earth, Ocean and Environ-ment, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, April 9, 2010.

Dissertations and

Theses Completed

Bacale J., Sediment Supply Effects on the Plio-Pleistocene Stratigraphic Evolution of the Douala Basin, West Africa. M.S., March 2010. Advisor: J. Knapp

Badger N., Testing the potential utility of S receiver function analysis for mapping seismic discontinuities in the Sierran lithosphere . M.S., January 2010. Advisor: T. Owens

Cameron A., New Approaches in Hydrogeophysical model predictions: Case studies from the P Reactor Area, Savannah River Site, South Caro-lina. Ph.D., April 2010. Advisor: C. Knapp

Kumar N., 3-D Modeling of Nearshore Circulation using ROMS-SWAN: Model Upgrades and Evaluation. M.S., March 2010. Advisor: G. Voulgaris

Park H., Stratigraphy and tectonics: Multi-disciplinary evaluation of tectonic models for the eastern and southern continental margins of North America. Ph.D., March 2010. Advisor: D. Barbeau

Publications

(FACULTY IN BOLD)

A. E. Cameron, Camelia C. Knapp, Michael G. Waddell, Adrian D. Addi-son, and John M. Shafer, Structural and Stratigraphic Control on the Migra-tion of a Contaminant Plume at the P Reactor Area, Savannah River Site, South Carolina, 2010, Environmental Geosciences, vol. 17, no. 2, p. 77-98

Yankovsky, A. E., G. M. Maze, and T. J. Weingartner, 2010: Offshore transport of the Alaska Coastal Current water induced by a cyclonic wind field. Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L03604, doi:10.1029/2009GL041939, 2010.

Dave is featured

in the summer addition of Garnet & Black

magazine

Claudia is

featured in the spring issue of

Breakthrough magazine

Distinguished Professor Emeritus Pradeep Talwani on CNN— Is

Charleston Prepared for an Earthquake?

L-R: Gabrielle Munn, Michael Bizimis, and Carl Frisby in the new trace metals lab.

gossip Corner

Miscellaneous

For more information about some of the items mentioned in this newsletter, copy and paste any of the below links in to your browser: • Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Columbia-SC/Department-of-Earth-and-Ocean-

Sciences/106803419352043?ref=search&sid=100000633204691.736888189..1 • Breakthrough Article on Claudia Benitez-Nelson: http://www.sc.edu/Breakthrough/Flash%20Page%20Flip-Breakthrough/

FlashPageFlip_BasicXmlVersion_WithSourceCode_Spring_2010/Basic_Xml_Version/Default.html • CNN Video featuring Pradeep Talwani: http://www2.counton2.com/cbd/news/local/article/is_charleston_prepared_for_an_earthquake/122520/ • Garnet & Black magazine article on Dave Barbeau: http://issuu.com/garnetandblack/docs/garnet_black_summer2010/41?

zoomed=&zoomPercent=&zoomX=&zoomY=&noteText=&noteX=&noteY=&viewMode=magazine • 2010 Graduate Student Presentations: http://gradschool.sc.edu/gsd/sched/index.asp • USC Times article on the Trace Metals Lab: http://www.sc.edu/usctimes/PDFs/2009/Nov_5_2009.pdf • YouTube: Comanche (a.k.a. the one-eyed wonder) :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en_De8AsN1E • Galápagos Rift Underwater Volcanic Eruptions Expedition: www.gruveecruise.org

Comanche (a.k.a. The One-Eyed Wonder) To see a video of Comanche, visit the link below http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en_De8AsN1E

…….pictures from the Azores

Find more pictures

from the Azores trip

on the EOS Facebook

page!

xenoliths

Pico

lava tube

Capelinho

Dear Friends of USC Earth and Ocean Sciences, As another academic year comes to a close, the USC Horseshoe is surprisingly quiet; there are no students sitting around the foun-tain in front of the Thomas Cooper Library; the Russell House does not have long lines at the checkout counters and it is easy to find park-ing. When we give pause to reflect on who we are, we the faculty and the staff would not be here if it were not for the students. Our re-search, teaching and service revolve around educating young minds and sharing knowledge with our students.

Therefore, quite fittingly, this newsletter will focus on our students as we showcase their scholarly achievements. We have an excellent group of undergraduate and graduate students who are not only academically very well qualified but they also know how to take advantage of opportuni-ties outside the classroom. As you can see from the student articles, they leave with fond memories of their time spent at the University of South Carolina.

We are very happy to announce the graduation of three outstanding undergraduate students: Alex Brown (Graduation with Distinction in Geo-physics), Denise Bachmann and Alan Rickenbaker (having completed four degrees, B.S. in Geology and Geography and B.A. in Anthropology and German. We graduated five students with a Masters degree in Geo-logical Sciences (Duke Brantley, Joe Bell, and Jose Bacale, Nickles Badger and Nirnimesh Kumar and six students with a PhD (Adrian Addi-son, Iva Mladenova, Alicia Newton, Ipsita Gupta, Antonio Cameron and Hyunmee Park. Congratulations to our graduates and best wishes to them in all their future endeavors.

2010 Earth and Ocean Sciences Undergraduate Award Winners: Joseph R. Leconte Outstanding Senior: Denise Bachmann, Joseph R. Leconte Outstanding Junior: Amanda Fabian, Stephen Taber Award: Alex Brown, and Distinguished Academic Achievement Award: Alan Ricken-baker.

2010 Earth and Ocean Sciences Graduate Award Winners: Taber Award for PhD Research - Antonio Cameron, Taber Award for Masters Research - Joey Anderson, USC Grad Day Oral Presentation Award - Andrea Hougham, and USC Grad Day Poster Award - Aimee Pusz.

You will find articles in this newsletter on the Spring Break trip to the

Azores as a part of GEOL 318, research experiences in Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica, a field trip for GEOL 735 for plate tectonics along the Appalachian Mountains, and a research cruise off the Galapagos Islands to retrieve data from underwater volcanoes. There is also a report by the USC Geophysical Society affiliated with SEG and USC experiences by undergraduate and graduate students.

In this past year (July 2009-present), alumni and friends contributed around $12,000 to our General Fund. This money was used in assisting students who went on the field trip to the Azores, to students who at-tended conferences, and bringing in speakers to our regular Thursday afternoon seminar series. I would like to thank you for your contributions as the research and field trip experiences would have been financially difficult on many students were it not for your generous contributions. In these economically difficult times, the students, faculty and I sincerely appreciate all your contributions.

I wish to thank our excellent office staff, Margee Zeigler who is also responsible for assembling this newsletter; Shelley Schlenk our under-graduate coordinator; Toni Bracey our graduate coordinator and the two business managers: Prischilla Ramsey and Charlene Profit-Wilson as well as our Information Technology coordinator Jaehoon Choe.

The graduate director Ray Torres and the undergraduate director Gwen Geidel are to be commended on our healthy graduate and under-graduate programs.

This newsletter also has another first. In addition to being an almost exclusive spotlight on students, this newsletter is “green”. It has been produced only electronically with no paper copies. This saves on printing and mailing costs for our department and USC.

I sincerely thank everyone who has contributed to these rich experi-ences of our excellent students.

And lastly, once again, my best wishes to the graduating students in their future service to the nation and the world.

Go Gamecocks!

Venkat Lakshmi, PhD, P.E., Professor and Chair

Greetings from the Chair

701 Sumter Street Earth and Water Science Building, 617 Columbia, South Carolina 29208 803-777-4535 www.geol.sc.edu Join us on Facebook!

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