Geosciences Of University Research Articles

Major Milestones in the Development of Sigma Gamma Epsilon's Core Traditions

The Society of Sigma Gamma Epsilon (SGE) is now more than 95 years old, making it one of the oldest, currently active geological societies in North America; the Geological Society of America was founded in 1888 and the Paleontological Society dates to1908. Among discipline-specific honor societies in the sciences, it is also one of the oldest (Table 1). At the national level SGE is strong, with over seventy active chapters within college and university geoscience departments across the country (Table 2). The primary mission of Sigma Gamma Epsilon has been to recognize academic excellence and promote the professional growth of students of the Earth sciences. The various chapters also play an important role in contributing to the social life and collegiality of their home department and many chapters provide valuable outreach and service to their campus and community. This was very evident in the chapter reports presented at the Society"s 41st National Convention (March 26-28, 2010). Table 3 provides basic information about all of SGE"s national conventions. As a student organization, the national conventions have served a vital role in shaping the Society"s core traditions and most of the organizational innovations and “firsts” discussed below were enacted by student delegates at the national conventions. It is my belief that membership in any professional organization is enhanced by a basic understanding and appreciation of the organization"s history. A comprehensive history of Sigma Gamma Epsilon"s first fifty years (1915-1960) was prepared by SGE member Patricia Daniel (1996a,b) and published in The Compass. More recently, Don Steinker (2002) provided a historical overview of the efforts to admit women into Sigma Gamma Epsilon. The purpose of this communication is to update and abstract some important milestones from these previous works, in celebration of The Compass becoming an electronic journal with this issue [v. 84(1)]. In addition, Tables 2 and 3 serve to update chronological listings of chapters and national conventions previously published in print-based issues of The Compass (Steinker, 1981; Merriam, 1991). My secondary goal is to begin collecting and synthesizing information for a comprehensive history of SGE"s second fifty years; our centennial in 2015 is fast approaching.

Atlantic Universities Geoscience Conference 2011: 61st Annual Conference, October 20-22, 2011

Atlantic Universities Geoscience Conference 2011: 61st Annual Conference, October 20-22, 2011

When There isn't a Right Answer: Interpretation and reasoning, key skills for twenty‐first century geoscience

A key challenge in university geoscience teaching is to give students the skills to cope with uncertainty. Professional geoscientists can rarely be certain of the ‘right answer’ to problems posed by most geological datasets, and reasoning through this uncertainty, being intelligently flexible in interpreting data which are limited in resolution and spatial distribution, is an important skill for students to learn. Understanding how interpretative and reasoning skills are, or might better be, developed alongside foundational geological concepts and techniques is crucial for the effective training of our future geoscientists. In the study presented here, a seismic interpretation exercise was undertaken by 36 geoscientists ranging in experience from novice to expert. During the exercise, observations were made of the approaches taken by the participants, what we term the interpretational process, and an evaluation was made of what they actually accomplished, what we term the final interpretational outcomes. From a comparison of the different experience cohorts, we show that even as a novice it is important to develop geological reasoning skills to enhance the interpretation of datasets where there is indeed no ‘right answer’.

Challenges Facing Atmospheric, Earth, and Space Science Departments in Higher Education

In final form 14 June 2007 © 2007 American Meteorological Society he 15th biennial meeting of the heads and chairs of programs in atmospheric, oceanic, hydrologic, and related sciences was held in the fall of 2006. The intent of these meetings is to provide a forum for heads and chairs to come together to share and discuss experiences, concerns, and trends of broad relevance to university geoscience programs. The 2006 meeting was held jointly between the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and American Geophysical Union (AGU), with sponsorship from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). The meeting addressed several contemporary departmental issues and challenges with presentations and breakout sessions. Science presentations provided heads and chairs with a look at new directions in the geosciences. Archives of the meeting presentations are available on the UCAR Web site (online at www.ucar.edu/governance/meetings/ oct06/followup/ams.html). Rick Anthes (incoming AMS President and UCAR President) welcomed meeting attendees and encouraged everyone, especially those representing minority-serving institutions, to become academic affiliates of UCAR and active members of the community. Anthes also informed attendees that the National Research Council (NRC) decadal study Earth science and applications from space: Urgent needs and opportunities to serve the nation was complete. Recommendations from an interim report were incorporated and the final report was released in December 2005. Gene Bierly of AGU described AGU’s work in building stronger partners outside of science via their involvement in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellows Program and Congressional Science Fellowship. Outgoing AMS President Franco Einaudi [National Challenges Facing Atmospheric, Earth, and Space Science Departments in Higher Education

A Professional Engineering Degree in Petroleum Geoscience to Satisfy Caribbean Industry

Faced with industrial growth but an aging community of petroleum geoscientists, the petroleum industry in Trinidad and Tobago needs an injection of locally-grown graduates trained to the highest international standards to fill professional positions. To address this requirement, an undergraduate program in Petroleum Geoscience was introduced into the Faculty of Engineering at the University of the West Indies' Trinidad Campus in September 2001. This was done at the request of the Geological Society of Trinidad and Tobago (GSTT), the Government, and the major upstream petroleum companies, all of whom assisted in the development of the unique, 3-year program by forming an industry advisory committee (the JIAAC). The program was taken through all its committee stages during May–July 2001. Subsequent progress has been phenomenal. All student intakes (limited to about 15 and comprising local citizens) have had excellent qualifications and have included some of the best science-based school performers. Industry has already assimilated three cohorts of students, totalling 43 graduates. Some have either been posted abroad by their companies for career development, or are abroad for further study, often sponsored by their company. A further 46 are currently progressing through the program.This paper describes this undergraduate program in petroleum geoscience and engineering. It is one of the few university geoscience programs worldwide that (a) was created through a partnership of academia, government and industry, (b) focuses on the Petroleum Sector, and (c) has the potential to be recognized globally as an ideal setting for the recruitment of quality geoscientists for petroleum exploration, development and engineering. The partnership between industry, higher education, government, and professional bodies provides for prime development of human resources, which is the key investment in developing the next generation of local professionals.

Tackling strategies for thriving geoscience departments

Special sessions on thriving geosciences departments and on cyberinfrastructure in the geosciences highlighted the recent 5th AGU Meeting of Heads and Chairs of Earth and Space Science Departments. The meeting was held in conjunction with the 14th meeting of the Heads and Chairs of Programs in Atmospheric, Oceanic, Hydrologic and Related Sciences, sponsored by the American Meteorological Society (AMS),and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR).“From Surviving to Thriving: Strategies for Advancing University Geoscience Programs in Times of Change” was a topic that drew intense interest. This panel discussion, led by Don Wuebbles (University of Illinois), included panelists Eric Betterton (University of Arizona), Judy Curry (Georgia Institute of Technology), Heather MacDonald (College of William and Mary), and Jim Kirkpatrick (University of Illinois).

Discover our Earth: An Earth Science Information System for undergraduate education

In many scientific disciplines, there are currently several large‐scale efforts to build comprehensive information management systems. Cornell University's Geoscience Information Systems Project (http://atlas.geo.cornell.edu/) is one of the larger efforts designed to build such a system for geoscience research [Seber et al., 1997; Seber et al., 2000]. Utilizing this resource in education activities has great potential for improving the quality of Earth science education. This article summarizes our work on developing education applications, and discusses issues related to building interactive information systems for education purposes.

The Permian–Triassic boundary in the continental series of Eurasia

The most important Eurasian sections, where the transitional Permian/Triassic boundary beds are characterized palaeontologically, are found in the Germanic Basin (West European platform), Moscow Basin (East European platform), Tungusska Basin (Siberian platform), Jimsar Basin, Dalongkou area (Tianshan Mountains), and Noyan Somon depression (Mongolia). Usually the Permian and Triassic continental formations formed under distinct palaeogeographic (especially climatic) and palaeotectonic conditions, so the lithological and sedimentological differences between them are pronounced. Difficult problems appear in those regions where the sedimentation at this level proceeded under very similar conditions (Tungusska Basin, Jimsar Basin) across the Permo–Triassic boundary (PTB). Among palaeontological data, the most important for correlation of these continental beds is the tetrapod fauna. Broad interchange between the tetrapod fauna of the Old World continents resulted in the wide distribution during the Late Permian and Early Triassic of common or closely related forms, which enables distant correlations. The PTB is marked by the change of the Late Permian tetrapod communities, dominated by the large herbivore Dicynodon (or closely allied forms), to assemblages that include Lystrosaurus as the most common form. This is recorded in Lower Triassic beds of Eastern Europe, China, Mongolia, India and Siberia. The Upper Permian sporomorph associations (sa) are dominated by striate bissacate pollen, whereas the early Lower Triassic ones are distinguished by the very important role of spores, primarily by cavate trilete ( Lundbladispora, Densoisporites) and also by non-striate dissacate ( Klausipollenites) and teniate pollen ( Lunatisporites). In the oldest horizons of the Triassic, very distinctive species of conchostracans ( Falsisca eotriassica Kozur or the closely related form F. verhojanica Molin) appear. The PTB is within a normal polarity zone, formerly considered the lowest palaeomagnetic zone of the Triassic. The boundary beds of two sections (Moscow Basin and Jimsar Basin) may be equally worthy as candidates for the PTB GSSP in the continental series. The preference should be given to the section better characterized and internationally accessible to scientists. The PTB generally accepted for the continental series coincides more or less with the base of the Otoceras concavum ammonite zone of the Boreal province, and with the base of the boundary clay in Tethys. At the same time, it lies clearly below the traditionally adopted PTB in marine sequences at the base of the Otoceras woodwardi zone and also below the First Appearance Datum (FAD) of I. parva in the Meishan section, proposed now as the PTB GSSP (Yin, 1996, The Palaeozoic–Mesozoic Boundary Candidate of Global Stratotype Section and Point of the Permian–Triassic Boundary, China University Geoscience Press, Wuhan, 137 pp.). This demonstrates that the FAD of I. parva can be asynchronous (see Baud, 1996, Albertiana 18, pp. 6–9). That is why in the choice of the PTB GSSP in the marine series it is necessary to take into consideration the generally accepted point of view on the position of PTB in the continental series.