Research and Scholarly Activities
As an environmental / Earth Systems geoscientist my interests include Quaternary geology and many aspects of environmental geology. The overall objective of these efforts is to investigate how to balance human needs with natural resources and the needs of the present generation with the needs of future generations. I bridge the gap between geology and other disciplines with my interests in global environmental change, polar and other resources, geomorphology of drastically disturbed landscapes, glacial landforms and glacier caves, Earth's carrying capacity, and sustainability of humans. Recent graduate students investigated the mineralogy of Wisconsinan tills for provenance and diamond indicators, Quaternary geology of unglaciated Ohio, use of remote sensing in glacial mapping in Ohio, and post-mining reclamation recovery of a fluvial system. Current field research includes glacial mapping and history of the Wrangell-St.Elias area for correlation with an ice core from Mt. Bona. Also, numerous senior theses have been completed on geomorphic and environmental topics. Potential future projects include Quaternary geomorphic change related to climatic records from ice cores, analogs of sub-glacial landscapes, ice-marginal history of SE Greenland, recovery of surface-mined lands, and improving both geoscience education and Earth systems education.
