G e o l o g y D e p a r t m e n t

N e w s l e t t e r

Depar tmen t News

W e s t e r n I l l i n o i s U n i v e r s i t y

G e o l o g y D e p a r t m e n t

1 U n i v e r s i t y C i r c l e

M a c o m b , I L 6 1 4 5 5 - 1 3 9 0

2 0 0 7 -2 0 0 8

Greetings once again from the WIU Department of Geology! I hope the past year has been a good one for you both personally and professionally.

So, what news of note has occurred in the Geology Department since the last newsletter? The most important change in the Department has been the addition of a new faculty member. Dr. Amy Brock joined us last August after completing her Ph.D. at The University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV). She is currently teaching Introduction to the Earth, and Geomorphology, and will re-institute Glacial Geol-ogy during the Spring 2009 semester. In addition, Dr. Brock has taken over the role of faculty advi-sor for our Geology Club and we are all fortunate beneficiaries of her enthusiasm about her new po-sition.

As you’ll note from looking through this newsletter, the Geology Department continues to encourage field experiences, whether as part of a class, as part of an undergraduate research project, in conjunction with a geologic field confer-ence, or simply for fun! The generous donations of you, our alumni, has al-lowed us to continue our strong commitment to experiencing geology as it was meant to be experienced — outside. In fact, Dr. Brock is in the process of re-instituting optional geologic fieldtrips for students in our introductory geology courses. Such trips have not been conducted in many years and we are excited about the opportunity to “convert” some of our students to geology majors (or minors).

I don’t have a section on alumni news in this newsletter because it seems that email has fi-nally killed the need for updates in a print form. We receive a lot of email from our alumni, but most of them are for individual

faculty members or the Geology Department as a whole. The good news is, most of our alumni get news from their old classmates through email, no need to wait for a year to get the next alumni newsletter. That said, if you would like to get in contact with an old classmate and need help we at the Geology Department would be happy to facilitate re-connecting old friendships. As always, I welcome your input regarding the content and quality of this newsletter. (I have a thick skin so let me know what you really think!) On behalf of the WIU Geology Depart-ment faculty let me wish each of you the best of fortunes in the com-ing year. Take care and keep in touch.

Steve Bennett (SW-Bennett1@wiu.edu) —Alumni Newsletter Editor

Dr. Amy Brock, newest

member of the Geology

Department faculty.

Geology faculty and students at our annual Bonding Night

held at Aurelio’s Pizza (Photo by Bob Johnson)

Trailer-mounted drilling machine

recently purchased by the Geology

Department (Photo from Giddings

Machine Company website,

www.soilsample.com )

G e o l o g y D e p a r t m e n t N e w s l e t t e r P a g e 2

Les l ie Mel im

This has been a full year of teaching, research, and working on my house…pretty much the

usual. Teaching has been chugging along as usual but my research got a big shot in the arm

when National Science Foundation agreed to fund our work on cave pool speleothems. It

only took three failed tries at another agency and three tries with NSF (for those counting,

yes, that was six tries). I guess I am just too stubborn to give up. I will admit, my colleague

Diana Northup and I were making plans last summer on how to get what we needed with-

out any money…then in August we got the good news.

Our first field expedition was over Thanksgiving break…but waking up to snow on

Thanksgiving Day and freezing rain the day after was less than thrilling. The sound of

freezing rain on a tent can ruin your day before you even get out of your sleeping bag! For-

tunately, the caves were a balmy 60˚F and we saw lots of cool stuff. But next year…

Thanksgiving is NOT going to be in the field!

As usual, I spent part of my summer working on the house. This year it was painting…as in painting the outside. I borrowed some

scaffolding and slowly scrapped, sanded, primed, caulked and painted my way around the house. Fortunately it is not a very big

house but what with my usual travels it took from May into late September to get it all done. It would have been faster if I wasn’t a

bit of a wimp—I only painted in cool weather or early mornings. Given summer in Macomb, this was hardly 8 hour days! So I’d

paint until it got hot then come into WIU and work in air-conditioned comfort. The nice thing about working for yourself is no one

complains if you go slow.

I have two students working on cave-related projects right now. Adam Rawe is looking a cave pearls from the Quincy Limestone

Mine and Randi Liescheidt is just starting on the small pool fingers from Cottonwood Cave, NM. I always love to hear about for-

mer students, too, so keep in touch!

Grants and Talks:

Melim, L.A., Northup, Diana E., Spilde, Michael, Crossey, Laura, and Boston, Penelope J., 2007, Collaborative Re-

search: RUI: Biogenic cave carbonates: Identifying surface carbon input to subsurface ecosystems, National Science

Foundation funded $250,000 ($72,533 to WIU) for three years.

Melim, L.A., Northup, Diana E., Spilde, Michael, Queen, J.M., and Boston, P.J., 2007, A Biomarker Suite From Cave

Pool Precipitates, Cottonwood Cave, New Mexico, GSA Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 39, No. 6, p. 127.

Bob Johnson

The Ichthyosaur project continues. The Styrofoam body has been contoured and the

flippers are built and near ready for installation. The head is progressing nicely, and a

few problems have been resolved. An e-mail exchange with Dr. Ryosuke Motani helped

answer questions about the teeth. Dr. Motani is an expert on Ichthyosaurs and even has

a web site that offers a great overview of these fascinating reptiles.

www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/people/motani/ichthyo/ Around 200 teeth were cast and have

now been cemented in place. The eyes proved to be a challenge, but finding the right

casting resin and tweaking the method has proved successful. I hope to have the head

complete by summer.

It would seem that for now progress is stalled as I climb the ladder in the pre-

cision aerobatic model airplane circle, I again finished third at 2007 Heart of Illinois

Stunt Championships. The fall floods on the Illinois River caused the contest to be

moved to higher ground and north to the Davenport Airport. Not a bad location except

for the lack of shade. The weather was great and so was the flying.

P a g e 3

Amy Brock Hello everyone! I’m Amy

Brock and I am a new addi-

tion to the Geology depart-

ment, the WIU community,

and even Illinois. I moved

here from the HOT and busy

Las Vegas and must say that

I am enjoying the western

Illinois area. I’m getting

used to the green again and

it’s nice to see flowing wa-

ter.

I consider myself a desert

rat and most of my research

has been conducted in de-

serts (Mojave, Chihuahuan,

Atacama). I also look forward to conducting research here in the local and regional area. I am a soil-geomorphologist and I enjoy

investigating the development of ancient soils and the landscapes that are preserved on Earth’s surface because of these old soils.

I also investigate paleosols in the rock record. I especially enjoy applying micromorphology as a tool in my research (see photo).

I spent my holiday break in Las Vegas and in northern Arizona doing field work and data collection as well as spending time with

my family and friends.

Have a great year!

Scanning electron microprobe image of an al-

tered ash deposit

Kris t i e Pa rk ins

Hello to all of our friends and alumni. It’s hard to believe a year has gone by already since I

started as secretary here. I’ve loved every minute, and appreciate what a wonderful group of

faculty and students that I work with daily.

This has been a busy year on many fronts. I have been taking classes while working full-

time in an attempt to get a second bachelor’s in Special Education. Of course, the faculty

usually keep me busy here also. At home, my daughter Paige is now in 3rd grade and is en-

joying her first year of competitive tumbling. Drew is in 1st grade and is in wrestling, foot-

ball and Cub Scouts. My youngest, Kaiden, is quickly turning from a baby into a toddler

and reminding me why they call it the “terrible two’s!” He is my sweetheart, and tries to do

everything that the other two do. My “fourth child,” Todd also works here at the University

and is taking classes to finish out his BOT degree.

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by, called, emailed or donated to the Geology Scholar-

ship fund. We appreciate your support more than you can imagine. Keep in touch!

G e o l o g y D e p a r t m e n t N e w s l e t t e r

G e o l o g y D e p a r t m e n t N e w s l e t t e r P a g e 4

Pe te r Ca lengas Greetings to all. I hope that this past year has been a healthful and productive one for you. I

would like to thank you for your continued support of the Geology Department. Thanks to

your support, we have been able to increase the number and amount of scholarship support for

our field camp and entering freshman and transfer students while maintaining support for our

many in-class field trips.

We were able to fill Dr. Caspall’s position with Dr. Amy Brock, geomorphologist from UNLV.

As Macomb is not Las Vegas, it might take some time for Amy to get used to our weather. We

welcome her enthusiasm and eagerness to be involved in the Department and the local commu-

nity schools.

I continue to teach GEOL 113 (Energy and Earth Resources) in the Fall and intersession at the

Quad Cities campus, plus GEOL 375 (Environmental Geology) in the Spring on campus and

for ISP (Independent Study).

I also continue to serve as a consultant to the Industrial Mineral community. We are presently

continuing our work with the borescope evaluation of roof conditions for ground control in

underground mines and evaluation of industrial mineral prospects.

Best wishes to everyone, and if you are ever in the region, please stop in and say hello!

Hello WIU Geology Alumni,

It was an excellent year here at WIU and as usual I had a great time teaching and

conducting research with our current undergraduates. For Mineralogy I have tried

to change the way the students were studying the minerals during lab. In addition

to examining the minerals in the drawers, I now have the students answer specific

questions regarding the physical properties of a few minerals I set aside for each

mineral group. I hope that the students will rely less on the more easily visible

physical properties and start to really examine all of the mineral’s properties. For

Petrology I have continued to add problem sets that help the students understand

the concepts presented in lecture. As usual we had a combined Petrology/Structure

field trip. This year we went to SE Missouri.

On the research front, I had four students complete projects based on my research in Nain and Greenland. The projects by Jason

Warren and Andy Wemhoener were presented at the WIU Undergraduate Research Day. I’m continuing to work on the project

Jason started where we were trying to use compositions of cumulate minerals from the Giant Dikes in southern Greenland to con-

strain the composition of their parental liquids. This is requiring significant modification and calibration of the computer program

I have written for this modeling. It is very exciting work and could become a useful tool for petrogenetic analysis. But first, I

have to get it to work. I also gave a presentation this year at GSA in Denver on the evidence of magma mixing events in one of the

Nain dike suites.

On the personal front, Christina has started college. She is now a freshman at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. Mari and I

have been very impressed by the school and Christina has enjoyed it. Mari is busy with all kinds of home improvement projects.

This past year we remodeled (with help from our contractor/brother-in-law) our bedroom, the dining room, and both upstairs and

downstairs bathrooms. I’m still playing disc golf. This past summer I played in the Amateur World Championships and managed

to finish 16th out of 89 in the Masters division (40-50 years olds).

I hope that all is going well for you. Please send me an email, I would love to hear how everyone is doing (KR-

Mayborn@wiu.edu).

Kyle Mayborn

P a g e 5

Howdy, Y’all,

Some of you may recall my perennial brag of having only missed two lectures in 31 years,

right? Well, I should have kept my #@!%& trap shut, because I missed the entire month of

February, 2008, because of a run-in with a staircase. My bragging rights are now in the

dumper! Back in January, I lost my footing on the top step and fell all the way to the bot-

tom, head-first and belly-up. When I impacted the concrete below, I broke my pelvis in two

places and received a concussion to the head. (Like they say, it ain’t the fall that gets you;

it’s that sudden “stop” at the end!) I spent the next two and a half weeks flat on my back in

the hospital, during which time I contracted pneumonia, doubling my misery. Take my

advice, gang: stay out of hospitals! You got people dying in there and stuff!

During my absence, our official departmental “good buddy”, Bob Johnson, generously

stepped in and taught the lectures and labs for both Geology 112, History of the Earth; and

Geology 330, Paleontology. Many thanks, Bob!!

As weeks passed, I was finally able to mobilize myself with the aid of a walker. But then, five days after being released from the

hospital, I tripped on my walker, did a header, and impacted on my right shoulder. Though mangled and bruised, no bones were

broken. You know, those dang walkers are plumb dangerous! When I finally graduated from my walker, I had to learn to walk all

over again -- tottering and uncertain steps at first just like an infant. Although my orthopedist suggested I transition from walker

to a cane before going it alone, I decided against it (I figured I would probably trip over that too!)

I’m happy to say that I’m mending very well and can propel myself in the normal way without any mechanical assistance. I re-

turned to my teaching duties the week before Spring Break, and I expect to finish the semester successfully.

What else have I been doing besides doing harm to myself? During the Summer of 2007, I was interviewed by the National Geo-

graphic Society who decided to include a blurb on my Spinosaurus research in their “Big Bad Bizarre Dinosaurs” story appearing

in the December, 2007 issue. It seems my “hump-back” (instead of “sail-back”) interpretation of elongated neural spines in sev-

eral dinosaurs (including Spinosaurus) is beginning to get some traction. In a paper published back in 1997, I argued that tall neu-

ral spines that are broad-beamed in shape were probably for the attachment of huge muscle masses used to cantilever the business

end (head and front limbs) as well as the tail instead being used as supports for a purported “sail”. But this would mean that many

tall-spined dinosaurs were far more robust and heavy-bodied than is shown in most popular dinosaur art produced since the

1970’s. Several noted dinosaur paleontologists, including Hans-Dieter Sues, the head honcho at the National Museum of Natural

History (Smithsonian Institution) are now on board with my views.

In a roundabout way, “Dakota”, the much-publicized dinosaur mummy of the duckbilled Edmontosaurus from the Cretaceous of

North Dakota discovered in 2004, chimes in with my conclusions. Although the neural spines of Dakota are only moderately

elongated, Phillip Manning of the University of Manchester (UK) was stunned to note that the soft-tissue traces of the mummy

show the mass of the body and tail to be at least 25 percent greater than previously thought! Who knows? If this keeps up, the

tubby dinosaurs in the paleontological art of the 1920’s through 1950’s may be far closer to the truth than the newer stuff.

On the invertebrate front, I’m continuing my research on solemyid and myalinid bi-

valves from the Pennsylvanian Mazon Creek fauna of Illinois, and I am co-authoring

a new study on Mississippian bivalves from the Mauch Chunk Formation of West

Virginia.

I’ll leave all you nice folks with some tidbits of country wisdom from my beloved

homeland back in the hills and hollers of old Kentucky:

“Life is simpler if you plow around the stumps.”

“Don’t skinny-dip with snapping turtles.”

“Don’t corner something meaner than you.”

Jack Ba i ley

G e o l o g y D e p a r t m e n t N e w s l e t t e r

G e o l o g y D e p a r t m e n t N e w s l e t t e r P a g e 6

Steve Benne t t

Hello everyone. Just this morning my sons, ages 7 and 9,

were commenting on how fast this school year has gone

by. They noted that time goes by faster and faster as they

get older. Kids must be growing up quicker these days

because, while I agree that the years pass more quickly

every year, I sure didn't’ feel that way when I was a

child!

I continue to teach Hydrogeology, Introduction to the

Earth, Introduction to Environmental Studies, and a sum-

mer Oceanography course. After Dr. Caspall’s retire-

ment, I have taken over teaching our Geologic Field

Methods course. I taught it for the first time last fall and

I’m sure I learned even more than the students. I’ve in-

troduced GPS data collection to the course and hope to

incorporate some simple GIS mapping in the future.

Since I love collecting and analyzing field data, this

course is a real pleasure to teach.

You’ll see some photos in the newsletter taken during the

Bi-Annual Sigma Gamma Epsilon Convention. I took

four students to the convention, which was hosted by my undergraduate alma mater, The University of Northern

Iowa. Aside from the host chapter, we had the largest student contingent at the meeting. It was nice to put a face

to the national officers with which I correspond. I also plan on bringing some students to the next Sigma Gamma

Epsilon convention in 2009 because it turns out the chapter at my graduate school alma mater, Indiana Univer-

sity, is planning on hosting the event! Maybe our WIU chapter needs to host the convention in 2011? Hmmm..

Hopefully you noticed the photo of the Giddings drilling machine on the front cover of the newsletter. This ma-

chine just arrived at the beginning of the Fall 2007 semester and its first big project will be the installation of

some monitoring wells on WIU’s Vishnu Springs property. The Institute for Environmental Studies is working

towards establishing this site, and another that has recently been donated to WIU, as an outdoor lab for interdis-

ciplinary research. It is an exciting time and I’m looking forward to partnering with other College of Arts and

Sciences faculty on professional, graduate, and undergraduate research at this site. It is a good thing I don’t be-

lieve in ghosts since this site is reportedly haunted. Don’t believe me? Google Vishnu Springs and see what you

get!

Best wishes and keep in touch,

Steve

I’m standing next an early Native American mound at

Pike’s Peak State Park in Iowa. That low hill behind me is

the midsection of the bear so I’m standing below his belly.

Okay, I guess Bear Mound isn’t that impressive from

ground view….

Geology major Athena Klotz stands next to a

beautiful exposure exhibiting columnar joint-

ing that was visited for the first time during the

Spring 2007 Missouri field trip led by Dr.

Mayborn (photo by Kyle Mayborn).

Last fall Dr. Bennett and four students attended the Bi-Annual Convention of Sigma

Gamma Epsilon, the National Honorary Society for the Earth Sciences. We visited

Backbone and Pikes Peak State Parks, a wildlife center, and even ventured into a

corn maze. The University of Northern Iowa were great hosts, with one exception.

While we were enjoying our dinner following the field trip they gave us continual

updates on the pounding that the UNI football team was putting on our Leathernecks

down in Macomb!

P a g e 7

2007 Graduates

Robert Beard

Josh Bitner

Christina Forbes

Jake Geiger

Phil Kaminski

Athena Klotz

Jason Warren

Nathan Webb

Mitch Weller

Andy Wemhoener

Sigma Gamma Epsilon Convention

Chapter president Phil Kaminski is brave

enough to enter a small passage developed

in the Silurian dolomite at Backbone State

Park.

The whole group after a hike at Backbone

State Park. It has a wonderful exposure of the

Silurian escarpment surrounded by an en-

trenched meander of the Maquoketa River.

Chapter delegates stand with National Secre-

tary-Treasurer Dr. Charles Mankin and his

secretary Betty Bellis as they are presented

with certificates thanking them for their

many, many years of service.

SGE members enjoy the view from behind the

waterfall at Pikes Peak State Park. It’s noth-

ing like the waterfalls of Yosemite National

Park, but it isn’t bad for Iowa.

G e o l o g y D e p a r t m e n t N e w s l e t t e r

P a g e 8

20 Years Later: Field Camp 1988

Left to Right — Tom Fisher-Keller, Lori Garland, Anna Durdle, Dave Groutage, Brian Efnor, Rafael

Rodriguez

Recognize this spot? Here’s a hint. If the person who took this photo were to look up the slope to their

left they would see some big, green dinosaurs!

Sorry we don’t have a closer group shot from this year but this is all we have. In fact, if you have a

better group shot from the 1988 Field Camp we’d love to have a copy of it. We keep these photos on

the wall in the department office and refer to them quite a bit. They help us to remember which stu-

dents were here during different time periods, since time has a way of mixing together our memories

of past students. (Editors Note: That last comment was mine alone. I’m sure my colleagues have better

recall than I do!)

Just as they did in 1988, our students this summer will be taken to Dinosaur Park for their first intro-

duction to the rocks of the Black Hills. The dead tree was cut down about ten years ago but you can

still see where it was. Unfortunately, the outcrop pictured below is now private property so we need to

go up the slope to get a good look at the cross-bedding that is so well-developed in the Lakota Forma-

tion (you remember all that, right?)

G e o l o g y D e p a r t m e n t N e w s l e t t e r

P a g e 9

AT&T Foundation (matching

Terry Gordon)

Timothy Aten

Thomas Bartels

Michael Bernstein

Jeffrey Durant

EOG Resources (matching

Kim Perez)

ExxonMobil Foundation

(matching William Jardine)

Terry Gordon

Todd Hall

Donations The Geology Department would like to thank the individuals and organizations listed below for their donations. Your

generous gifts have allowed us to provide scholarships, defray student costs of field trips, purchase scientific

equipment for use in undergraduate research, and cover registration fees and travel expenses of students presenting

research at geologic conferences. Again, thank you!

Cmdr. David Higgins

Alden Holmes

Margaret Holmes

William Jardine

Robert Johnson

William Johnson

Timothy King

Robert Kirkham

Marvin Klusman

Scott Koza

Marathon Oil Company

(matching Scott Koza)

Kim Maxeiner

Matthew & Mary Mlot

Northrup Grumman

Foundation (matching

Alden Holmes)

Devon Pavlek

Kim Perez

Harry Petersen

Harley Ponsler

Spencer Quam

Brian Rice

Shell Oil Company Foundation

(matching Kristen Woody)

Will Sparks

Dr. Holly Stein

Craig Stevens

Tim Tessendorf

Eric Tyrrell

Kristen Woody

Dr. David Wronkiewicz

The WIU Geology Club remains a vibrant group. While they continue to sell rock and mineral bags, go on field trips,

and support both the annual Christmas Party and Spring Picnic, they have recently added a few more outreach activi-

ties. Geology Club members put together a display at the Departmental Organization Fair (left photo) and are in the

process of sorting through samples that have been collecting dust in the Tillman Hall basement for use in teaching sets

of rocks and minerals that will be donated to local schools (right photo, both photos taken by Amy Brock).

Geology Club Activities

G e o l o g y D e p a r t m e n t N e w s l e t t e r

Check out our website

HTTP://WWW.WIU.EDU/GEOLOGY/

Phone: 309-298-1151

Fax: 309-298-3399

Email: Geology@wiu.edu

Western Illinois University

Geology Department

1 University Circle

Non-Profit Organization

U.S. POSTAGE

P A I D

Recent Field Trips

Disregarding litter, the two most common items to see near a

road cut in Illinois are dead possums and geology students. This

photo shows the latter studying the rocks as part of Dr. Melim’s

Stratigraphy and Sedimentology class. (Photo from Leslie

Melim)

Dr. Mayborn’s Petrology/Structural Geology spring field trips

to Missouri are always popular. Here a geology major Josh

Bitner puts his life at risk between two boulders. (Photo from

Kyle Mayborn)