Geology Department s Presence at National Exposition is Rock Solid

Several students and faculty members from the University of Cincinnati’s

Department of Geology

recently gave presentations at the Geological Society of America’s Annual Meeting & Exposition.

The society encourages the professional growth of earth scientists in the academic, governmental and commercial sectors; and promotes the geosciences in the service to humankind and stewardship of Earth.

The annual meeting

, which typically attracts around 6,000 attendees, was held Nov. 4-7 in Charlotte, N.C.

The presentations given, with names of

McMicken College of Arts & Sciences

students and faculty members in bold, were:

- “Optically Stimulated Luminescence Chronology of Terraces of the Lower Ohio River valley: Implications for Quaternary Climate Change and Neotectonic Deformation,”

Ron Counts

,

Madhav Murari

and

Lewis Owen

- “Quantifying Decadal-scale Compositional Changes in Seagrass-associated Molluscan Assemblages Using Multi-year Census Data from Two Sites around St. Croix, USVI,”

Kelsey Feser

and

Arnold Miller

- “Geomorphic Response to Tectonic Activity within the Mecca Hills, California,”

Harrison Gray

,

Lewis Owen

,

Craig Dietsch

,

Richard Beck

and S. Mahan

- “Origins, Fransport, and Fate of Plant-derived Biomarkers in a Small River Catchment in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan,”

Sharmila Giri

,

Aaron Diefendorf

and

Thomas Lowell

- “Temporal Megabias: Latitudinal Controls on Time-averaging of Terrestrial Large Mammal Death Assemblages,”

Joshua Miller

- “Morphologic Variation as a Driver of Taxonomic Richness: Venerid Bivalves of the Indo-Pacific,”

Gary Motz

- “Development of a Silurian (Wenlock) Blastozoan-dominated Echinoderm Fauna in the Cincinnati Arch Region: Paleoenvironmental Control Over Faunal Anachronisms,”

James Thomka

,

Carlton Brett

, W.I. Ausich, C.D. Sumrall and

David Meyer

- “A New Eurypterid Lagerstätte from the Upper Silurian of Pennsylvania,”

Matthew Vrazo

,

Carlton Brett

and J.M. Trop

- “Laurentide Ice Sheet Behavior During the Younger Dryas: A Working Hypothesis and Implications,”

Kent Walters

,

Thomas Lowell

and A.E. Putnam

Doctoral student

Julia Wise

also organized Session 188, “Recent Advances in Geology & Health,” with Motomu Ibaraki.