Letter from the Chairman – Charlie Fitts
Greetings to all fellow USM geology buffs! This is my first
term as chairman, and it has been an eventful year in many
ways.
As many of you have heard or read in the newspapers, our program
is among 26 that are being evaluated because of the USM budget
crisis. The administration has asked us to present our case for
continuing the Geosciences degrees and for improving enrollments
and finances. We’ve been busy doing just that. The key
elements of our case are:
◦ Since revising our curriculum in 2005, our number of majors
has grown to 30, up from around 20.
◦ Our program is among the strongest university geology programs
in the northeast in terms of majors and
graduates.
◦ Our faculty are strong teachers, active researchers and
contribute to university and public service.
◦
Our majors are among the strongest students at USM and go on to
do well in consulting, regulatory agencies, graduate schools,
and teaching.
We submitted our case to the administration in April and expect
a decision from them in July. I feel confident that the
administration understands our case and will continue to support
and offer our program.
Although
justifying your existence can be interesting, a much more
satisfying angle of this work is seeing our majors continue to
grow and do well. This spring, many havebeen working on and
presenting their research at conferences such as GSA, Maine
Water Conference, and at USM’s Thinking Matters program. Our
graduates of 2007 also did well. Some found consulting jobs in
the Portland area and one went to U. Maine for graduate work
with a scholarship.
Wishing you
all well,
Charlie Fitts
REU Students Present at NEGSA
Students in
Professors Mark Swanson and Matthew Bampton’s National Science
Foundation-supported effort Research Experiences for
Undergraduates Program (REU), presented the results of last
year’s field efforts at the March 2008 Northeast Section
Geological Society of America Meeting in Buffalo, New York.
Students presented 7 abstracts/posters on the following topics:
the use of digital techniques for environmental analysis, data
structure for digital geologic mapping, topographic analysis of
glacially-modified landscapes to detect a change in local ice
flow directions, development of a digital kiosk for
dissemination of mapping results for Seguin Island, spatial
analysis and interpolation of detailed fold data from Seguin
Island in GIS, a description and analysis of the granite dike
intrusions at Damariscove Island and an analysis of the late
stage structural history of the largest granites and the role of
structure in influencing a small scale granite quarrying
operation at Damariscove Island.
Mark and
Matthew also presented a poster on their digital camera-pole
technique for detailed outcrop surface mapping which was used in
the REU program to map syntectonic granite intrusion patterns.
The latest improvements get the camera to just over 40 feet.
Poker chips included in the images and surveyed with RTK GPS
allows the images and mosaics to be georeferenced in GIS where
on-screen digitizing can then add to the developing map project.
Mark and Matthew, in collaboration with GIS Director Vinton
Valentine, have submitted an ambitious proposal for new mapping
equipment to NSF’s Major Research Instrumentation Program.
Decisions on funding are expected some time this summer.
Alumni Focus- Sandy Schumann, BA '96
As has been our practice since the inception of our department
newsletter, each issue contains information on one of our
graduates. In this issue we take the seemingly unusual approach
of highlighting a career of someone who chose not to pursue
Geology. Sandy Schumann’s journey took her away from Geology
into another fascinating direction. She provides some insight
into how the major helped out in her career path. It supports
our notion that a Geology major can amply contribute to many
unanticipated goals.
After graduating from the Geology program in 1996,
Sandy
immediately began studies in the Clinical Counseling program at
USM, and graduated in 2000 with a Master's degree. She began a
private psychotherapy practice and, at the same time, spent a
year as a Chaplain Resident in the CPE (Clinical Pastoral
Education) program at Maine Medical Center. While there, she
provided spiritual counseling to patients in the ER and
Oncology. After that, in addition to maintaining her private
practice, she also did in-home Family Therapy for Sweetser
Children and Family Services for several years. That involved
family therapy with children who were (for a variety of reasons)
at risk of removal from the home.
Sandy’s
counseling interests now center, predominately, on the
human-animal connection. That is, she enjoys counseling clients
who are grieving the loss of a companion animal, and she is
studying Animal-Assisted Therapy and Equine-Assisted Therapy.
Both therapies incorporate the clinician's companion animals
into the therapy session. Sandy has also been involved with the
Brunswick C.G. Jung Center for Analytical Psychology for a
number of years. The Center's main focus is providing to its
membership, and the community in general, programs and
discussion on Jungian topics. She is currently on the Board
there, and is the Chair of the Program Committee. (This is
strictly a volunteer position.)
Non-professionally, she and her husband have adopted a wonderful
Australian Shepherd - Nellie - and a great, little sorrel
Quarter Horse - Eddie. Nellie, a rescue dog, is a true joy, and
she has absolutely blossomed due to their play/work in Dog
Agility and Canine Freestyle (a.k.a. Dancing with your Dog.)
Edward (as she prefers to call him) provides them with a great
deal of mental and physical stimulation - and he is so totally
grounding. Sandy says: “Anyone who has ever had a relationship
with a horse knows: 1) they somehow connect with that wild and
spiritual part of the psyche, and 2) when you're working with a
1200 pound animal you can't afford to have a wandering mind.
Consequently, you have to be completely in the moment.”
Sandy added: “Even though I went on to a totally different
career, that career benefited tremendously from my Geology
education. My ability to think logically, rationally, and
scientifically - all of which were developed/sharpened in the
Geology program - bring another dimension to my counseling. I
can draw on both the feeling side and the logic side when I work
with clients - an extremely useful ability in the therapy
world.”
Alumni Notes
Dan Glaser - '00
Dan writes that he has many fond
memories of time spent at USM. He has worked for
hydroGEOPHYSICS, Inc (Geophysical Consulting) since 2004.
Currently, he is a project manager for their Missoula, MT
office. Since he was at USM he has
gotten
married (wife is Nicole, a native to Phoenix, AZ) and they have
two children, Gwyneth (age 3), and Grafton (5 months). Last
year, he submitted his thesis, and graduated with a Master's
Degree that he had started with Lee Slater at the University of
Missouri Kansas City, back in 2000. He and Nicole met while Dan
was in graduate school. Congratulations!
Justin L. Rich - ‘06
Justin is
an MS student (pending 2008) in the Geology Department at the
University at Buffalo. At USM he received his bachelor’s degree
and a Certificate in Applied Geographic Information Systems.
Currently he is working on a
North Slope, Alaska,
investigation of the permafrost table through multi-resolution
object oriented Fuzzy Analysis. At Buffalo he is a teaching and
research assistant.
Jim Perlow - ‘99
Jim and
his wife Nancy (they got married in January) have joined the
Peace Corps together and are in language training in South
Africa!! They have set up a blog for themselves to keep everyone
in the loop, but haven't been able to update it yet:
http://nancyandjim.blogspot.com/
They will be in the Zeerust region in South Africa, and as of
the week they left (around July 11, I think) they didn't really
know what their assignment was going to be, but that it was
probably in healthcare. Knowing Jim, he'll become the MacGuyver
of South Africa and fix every water pump system within 300 km.
Molly Zogby
-
‘05
Molly
started working in the Mining Unit at the DEP as a seasonal
employee in 2003 while she was still in school. She received a
full time position with the Mining Unit in the summer of 2005.
Her position
is field oriented and her primary responsibilities include the
investigation and inspection of mining facilities (gravel pits
and quarries) to ensure environmental compliance with applicable
statutes and rules. In addition, she processes and manages
permit applications to make sure that mining operations are
operated with minimal environmental impact and, in cases where
impacts have occurred, she carries out the appropriate
enforcement actions and oversees environmental restoration at
the site.
Molly gets to
look geology in the face every day that she is in the field and
understanding the geology of the area can help her to determine
what an operator's best plan of action may be at a particular
site. However, she says that she puts her geology knowledge,
particularly hydrogeology skills, to use most often when she is
reviewing applications to mine gravel or rock from below the
elevation of the water table. Sometimes operators will wet-mine
the material, but other times they need to pump the water out of
the area of excavation to extract the material. Either way,
Molly determines the possible water quantity and quality impacts
to adjacent natural resources and water supplies by
investigating the site and reviewing groundwater analysis
reports. Another skill she puts to use is aerial photograph
interpretation. She uses stereo pairs of older aerial
photographs to determine the jurisdictional area of gravel pits
and quarries as well as possible environmental impacts to
natural resources.
The Mining
Unit is a busy and important unit in the Maine DEP and we are
delighted to see one (two really – Mark Stebbins ‘84, is her
boss!) of our geology graduates there.
Collections Donated to the Department
John and Mary Kesseli of Gorham, Maine, donated a collection of
geodes that had been in their family for more than 40 years.
Helen Foss,
a USM employee at the Muskie School of Public Service, has been
an amateur rock hound for many years and is about to begin a new
adventure in her life. She donated a portion of her personal
collection of rocks and minerals collected mainly in the
southwestern states. Helen wrote and said; “Although it will
sadden me to part with them, I would like to send them to a good
home. The samples represent the things I enjoy doing most -
travel and rocks…”
We thank Helen and Mr. and Mrs. Kesseli for thinking of us!
CAS Scholarships & Awards
The following students received an award at the annual CAS
Student Recognition Day Scholarships and Awards Ceremony held on
April 22, 2008.
Luke Sturtevant-
Robert N. Miller Earth Science Scholarship.
Richard Silver-
James W. Pendleton Award.
Eric Wood-
Louis B. Woodward Award.
Faculty-Staff Notes
Charlie Fitts
Charlie is writing up a journal article about years of research
into groundwater flow simulation techniques for modeling complex
aquifer systems with heterogeneity, multiple layers, and leakage
between the layers. The mathematics can get pretty ugly, but
the resulting methods should be useful.
Charlie has
done occasional consulting work simulating the impacts of
pumping on sand and gravel aquifers in Maine. He presented his
work on the Fryeburg aquifer at the Maine Water Conference in
2007. It is clear that some smaller aquifers are near their
limits for sustainable rates of pumping. We’re not Arizona, but
some places are starting to feel the pinch!
During the
last couple of summers, the Fitts family built a small cabin up
in Bingham, Maine. This place is rustic: no electricity, wood
stove heat, and a composting toilet/outhouse. There is a
man-made perched sand aquifer located uphill of the cabin, so
gravity can supply running water, in theory. If this scheme
works well, it could be the basis for a journal article and
further research. Charlie and Claire now have one son beyond
college, one at USM, one at SMCC, and two at home. Time’s fun
when you’re having flies (anon. frog)!
Irwin Novak
This
is Irwin’s 37th
(yikes!) academic year at USM and he is still having a heckuva
time. He is particularly proud of the department’s graduating
students and the positions they have found at graduate schools,
consulting firms and in regulatory agencies. Those that wanted
to stay in Maine seem to have been lucky enough to be able to do
so. Though a relatively small department (though large by
comparison to other New England Geology departments), we have
been particularly successful in attracting bright and motivated
students, he says.
He and his
wife Mary Snell continue their Greek Odyssey with annual trips
and USM classes to the lovely island of Lesvos. There are now 4
grandchildren (with one due in September) – wow!
Steve Pollock
Doings this year included getting funding for two of our
students, Wyeth Bowdoin and Robert Treat, to do some mapping in
the China Lake 7.5’ quadrangle. Actually, the mapping involved
the entire quadrangle. With good outcrops and good weather we
were able to resolve the stratigraphy and structure with
confidence. The Silurian meta-shale – meta-sandstone units
displayed good metamorphic transitions from chlorite to
sillimanite zones. That was a pleasant surprise. Another one of
our students, Roland Charles, is studying thin sections of the
rocks to confirm and enhance our knowledge of the mineral
assemblages.
Wyeth used the GIS lab, and with the help of Michele Tranes (GIS
Lab Manager), produced a fully digitized version of the China
Lake quad. It looks really good! He and I presented at NE GSA
in Buffalo last March with a reprise and additional data
presented at the spring meeting of the Geological Society of
Maine at Bowdoin. Bowdoin at Bowdoin…a good match!! We hope to
get the map out as an open file map through the Maine Geological
Survey some time later this year or early next year.
While Wyeth and Robert were mapping in China Lake, I was two
quads over trying to figure out the structure and stratigraphic
sequences in the Liberty quad. With luck this will be finished
this summer.
Nate Hamilton, in Geography – Anthropology and Dick Boisvert,
with the New Hampshire Division of Historic Resources and I had
an article appear in Geoarchaeology in March. This paper deals
with the archaeological geology of a dike in New Hampshire
outside of the city of Berlin. I continue my interests in this
area.
My position as Secretary – Treasurer of the Northeastern
Section, Geological Society of America continues. The NE
Section is the second largest of the GSA divisions with slightly
more than 4100 members. I have been working with the Geological
Society of America Foundation on a five year long endowment
building project. At the end of fiscal 2008 (June 30) we should
be reasonably close to 20% of the $500,000 goal. The endowment
is primarily being built to support students in geology. A few
of you have been the recipients of NE GSA funds in the past.
Mark Swanson
Professor Swanson has been continuing his work in digital
mapping and structural analysis of parts of the Maine coast
under the NSF’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates
Program. His on-going project in conjunction with Matthew
Bampton (Geography/Anthropology) is funded by NSF through the
summer 2009 field season. The latest version of this REU Site
project is titled “Digital
Mapping, GIS Database Construction and Geospatial Analysis of
Regional Strike-slip Shear Zone Deformation”.
Last year’s crew mapped out on Seguin Island off of Georgetown
at the mouth of the Kennebec River and on Damariscove Island off
of Boothbay in mid-coast Maine.
Mark has continued his digital mapping efforts in Fall 2007 with
a “Digital Mapping Applications” course as a semester long
mapping effort at Wolf Neck Woods State Park. These efforts
have produced the first detailed shoreline maps of granite and
basalt dike intrusion patterns exposed along the southeast shore
of the park. The Spring 2008 “Digital Mapping” class has been
trained and is now putting things together in a mapping and
compilation study of Sohier Park in the town of York at the tip
of the Cape Neddick peninsula, host to the Cretaceous-age Cape
Neddick Gabbro intrusion with views of the historic Nubble
Lighthouse.
Margaret Vose
Margaret continues to teach introductory labs in Oceanography
and Geology and enjoys every minute. She has also been honing
her GIS skills, most recently taking classes in Remote Sensing
and Digital Mapping Applications. As a tangible result of her
efforts, she presented a poster she produced in Remote Sensing
at the biannual "State of Maine Beaches" conference at Southern
Maine Community College last summer. She continues her work as
a volunteer team leader with the Southern Maine Beach Profiling
Monitoring program, now in its tenth year. On a personal note,
Margaret has visited the Netherlands twice in the past year,
where 60 percent of
the country's population lives below sea level. The Dutch
recognize the importance of natural dunes to the existence of
their country, both as a barrier to rising sea levels and as a
source of fresh water. And if you think the ocean in Maine is
cold, try swimming in the North Sea.
The department encourages graduates to
get in touch and let us know what you are doing. Send
information to Irwin Novak at
Novak@usm.maine.edu
or by mail to the department.
Alumni and Friends - You Can Help
Reminders...1) you can make a
tax-deductible contribution to the Department through the USM
Annual Fund. 2) You can even designate that your donation be
targeted for a specific purpose (e.g. student scholarships;
field trip support; professional meeting attendance for
students; equipment; map, fossil, rock or mineral purchases;
etc.). 3) In-kind gifts are also appreciated. This could
be in the form of computer equipment or peripherals, software,
field equipment. If you already make a contribution to the USM
annual fund, please think about designating your donation to
Geosciences. If you do not currently contribute to the Annual
Fund perhaps you might consider doing so in the future. We
appreciate the help we get from alumni and friends.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
The Geoscience Newsletter is distributed to alumni, friends,
faculty, students and staff. Send requests for copies, changes
of address
and other communications to:
Irwin Novak, Editor
University of Southern Maine
Department of Geosciences
37 College Avenue
Gorham, Maine 04038
Phone: (207) 780-5025, FAX: (207) 228-8361, web:
www.usm.maine.edu/geos
