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EES Newsletter
Fall 2014
Dear Temple Geology and Environmental
Science students, alumni, faculty, staff, and
friends, please join us for the
2014 Holiday Party
and
Retirement Potluck
for Dr. George H. Myer
at 5 pm, 12 December
Beury 3rd Floor
George requested
no presents, please.
If you would like to make
a gift to the Geology Field
Camp fund in his name,
please mail a check with
that designation to the
Department.
New PhD in Geosciences
The Department of Earth and Environmental Science at Temple
University is expanding our graduate program to include a PhD in
Geosciences. The department has added 5 faculty in recent years,
with additional growth expected.
We currently have research funding in the following specialties:
 karst hydrology
 Precambrian geology and impact studies
 structural geology and geomechanics, geothermal energy
 nanogeoscience
PhD candidates will be provided 4 years of financial support with
teaching and research assistantships. Applicants should hold a
bachelor’s or master’s degree in the geosciences or a related
discipline.
Now accepting applications for admission in the fall of 2015
Application deadline: 1 February 2015
2014 Rick Valentino TA Award
Nicholas Swartz was the
first recipient of the annual
Rick Valentino Graduate
Student Teaching Award.
Way to go, Nick!
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
Stephen Peterson
What’s in Philadelphia City Soils: Recent Master's student Stephen P. Peterson
(MS’14) has been examining the presence of lead and other potentially harmful heavy metals
in the soil in Fairmount Park—the largest inner-city park system in the U.S. and the site of
some urban agriculture.
Sampling twenty-four sites in parks across the city, Steve found lead in higher than expected
concentrations throughout the park system. 16% of soil samples were above the EPA soil
saturation limit for residential use of 400 ppm. This elevated lead concentration reflects
Philadelphia's long industrial history.
With the advent of Urban Gardening, this history needs to be addressed. Exposure to lead in
these gardens can come through the soil itself or food products. Testing of urban gardening
sites in the Park System revealed low concentrations. Steve’s research helped look at the
science of lead in the city, aiding our understanding of how to keep Philadelphia’s citizens
safe.
See the articles at:
Temple Today: http://news.temple.edu/news/2014-04-08/keeping-philadelphia’s-soil-safe
NPR Newsworks: http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/healthscience/66789-philly-parkshave-too-much-lead-in-soil-even-in-undisturbed-areas
NEW FACULTY
Dr. Bojeong Kim, Assistant Professor, Nanomaterials
Dr. Kim joined the department in the fall of 2013. Her research
focuses on the characterization of nanomaterials and nanoprocesses,
as well as the fields of ecotoxicology and electron microscopy
techniques. Her research interests also include risk assessment and
evaluation of contaminated sites, the development of a risk framework
for the emerging contaminants, and the development of in situ
remediation techniques. Kelley O’Neill, a first-year graduate student
in her group, is currently working on the nanotechnology-inspired, in
situ remediation technique for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in
Superfund sites in the Philadelphia area. Kelley posed with Chris Oest and
Stephen Peterson, current and former EES students, in this photo before
Dr. Sujith Ravi, Assistant Professor
Ecohydrology
Dr. Ravi’s research is at the intersection of hydrology, ecology and human dimensions. His
research has implications for issues related to land use change, food security, renewable
energy development, and the response of ecosystems to climate change. Specific research
topics include – biophysical feedbacks of land degradation, and implications of energy
development on land and water resources. The significance of this research stems from the
fact that a rapid progression of soil and water degradation in response to climatic changes
(e.g. warming, precipitation variability) and anthropogenic drivers (e.g. energy development,
urbanization), directly or indirectly impacts the livelihood and health of millions of humans.
Collectively, Dr. Ravi’s research addresses the challenge of managing scarce soil and water
resources in the context of multiple demands and multiple constraints associated with land
use change and disturbances, the core challenge facing the future of the world’s food security
and environmental quality. Through cross-disciplinary collaborations, Dr. Ravi’s research is
integrating biophysical and human dimensions of ecosystem degradation to better understand
and model the complexity of ecohydrological processes.
Dr. George Myer collaborated with EES faculty and students
on projects ranging from mineralogy of K/T successions along
the New Jersey Coastal Plain to glauconitic coatings on the
Baltic dune sand. His most recent student, Christian Obasi
(MS ‘08), is now a Geosteering Geologist for Schlumberger.
With a number of notable publications about Minoan Civilization
History, Dr. Myer enjoyed a long and distinguished career at
Temple. After more than 44 years in the department, he is
retiring at the end of the fall 2014 semester.
Please join us on 12 December
to celebrate his many achievements!
Dr. Alix Davatzes was awarded a National
Science Foundation CAREER grant for a fiveyear study of "Field Studies of Precambrian
Impacts and Implications for the Early Crust
and Environment". This project will take her and
graduate students back to western Australia
and South Africa to study the effects of meteor
impacts on the Archean environment and
implications for early life.
In 2013, she received a Dean’s Distinguished
Teaching Award. Congratulations, Alix!
She published a paper in the July 2014 issue
of Geology on the use of distal impact deposits to
model crustal compositions, and results of this
modeling suggests active plate tectonics over 3.24
billion years ago.
Eve Lalor (left) and Thao Lai (above) presented
undergraduate research projects, and Alix gave a talk
at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference last
March.
Dr. Ilya Buynevich continued collaborative research
along the Baltic Sea Coast, with a grant from the Temple
Internationalization Program. In the past 2 years he joined
interdisciplinary teams investigating the role of past storms
in coastal evolution along the coasts of southwest Florida
and the Bahamas. Ichnological and bio-geomorphological
projects ranged from Hurricane Sandy storm-surge
hindcasting (Irina Beal, MS’14) to georadar imaging of
turtle nests (featured in Temple News), with published
conference abstracts by the inaugural
2013 Geomorphology course students.
Two of Ilya’s recent MS students are pursuing their
doctorates at Baylor University (Logan Wiest) and
Western Michigan University (Andrew Bentley). In
2013-2014, Dr. Buynevich published several articles
and book chapters, served at a Keynote Speaker at
the 9th Baltic Sea Science Congress and received
one of the Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Awards.
Dr. Nick Davatzes was
awarded tenure this year. Congratulations, Nick!
This year he co-authored an article in the Journal of Environmental Engineering on air migration
during drilling a tight-gas shale well. In addition, with co-authors he published four articles in the
U.S. and Europe, on Enhanced Geothermal Systems projects, InSAR observations of surface
deformations and seismicity induced by pumping in geothermal reservoirs. Justin Roth (MS’14)
published his Masters Project on porosity measurement in fractures at the Geothermal Resources
Council in Las Vegas. In collaboration with John Ziagos and Nathanial Lindsay (LBNL), Nick was
invited to teach an international week-long short course on Geothermal Energy Assessment and
Development by Ilia State University in the country of Georgia that has kick-started an assessment
program there with a goal of developing the first geothermal power plant within the next five years.
Nick also hired a new postdoctoral fellow,
Dr. Martin Shoenball of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
(KIT) in Germany, supported through a new 5-year grant from
the USGS to study the geomechanics of the Coso geothermal
system and the dynamics in stress caused by pumping that
induce earthquakes. Nick is also part of two additional grants to
study coupled analysis of seismological, geodetic, and
hydrologic data, as well as for the assessment of geothermal
potential in Washington state using geomechanical constraints.
Dr. David Grandstaff
continues active research in geochemical and lithostratigraphic investigations of K/T boundary
sections in New Jersey. He co-authored a GSA presentation with an undergraduate student
Robert Horner, who recently joined a graduate program at Texas Christian University and
worked on dissolution kinetics of bioapatite with Alyssa Finlay (MS’12). Dr. Grandstaff received
one of the Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Awards in 2014.
Dr. Nyquist’s student, Lacey Pitman, will soon
defend her masters thesis based on work they
performed in collaboration with Dr. Laura Toran
and Dr. Henry Lin (Penn State) at the Shale Hills
Critical Zone observatory near State College, PA.
Lacey used a combination of dye tracer and
ground-penetrating radar to look at preferential
pathways that control shallow unsaturated flow.
Incoming MS student Paul Zarella will be working
with Dr. Nyquist and Dr. Toran on a new grant from
the EPA to study stormwater management. Paul will
be using 3D laser scanning to produce digital
elevation models with 1-cm level contours to examine
the effects of microtopography on infiltration and
runoff.
The newly acquired Trimble TX-5 terrestrial
scanner is an impressive instrument, collecting
millions of data points per minute. The figure
above shows a scan of the Temple Bell Tower
and the front of Paley Library. Every white dot is
an x, y, z data point precise to within millimeters.
It turns out the Bell Tower leans a bit!
Dr. Dennis Terry has been working on several projects over the past year, including the
conclusion of a research project with Badlands National Park to use rare earth element
fingerprinting of fossil bone as a means to mitigate fossil poaching. This was completed in
collaboration with Dr. Grandstaff and resulted in two of our undergraduates (Anthony Cerruti and
Eve Lalor) presenting the results of their research at the 10th Conference on Fossil Resources in
Rapid City, SD last May.
His recent student, Bill Lukens (MS’13) is continuing his PhD research at Baylor
University. Other projects include investigating the variability of Devonian
paleosols of the Catskill Wedge with current MS student, Chris Oest, and
completing a book on the geology and paleontology of the South Dakota
Badlands to be published by Indiana University Press in April of 2015 (left).
The most important accomplishment of the past year, though, has been the
arrival of his son, Emmett (above), who was born July 8.
Dr. Laura Toran continues to work on
stormwater monitoring in urban streams and
karst aquifers, with help from grants from
EPA, the William Penn Foundation, and NSF.
Much of the summer was spent learning new
data loggers, such as the nitrate logger
installed here on Pennypack Creek to map
diurnal nutrient cycles. A visit to karst springs
in central Pennsylvania was another summer
highlight. Look for a new app to use in field
monitoring, ScienceTap, designed with
students from computer science.
Dr. Allison Tumarkin-Deratzian
Since spring 2014 Dr. Allison has been working
with the Colbrookdale Railroad Preservation
Trust on design of educational and public
outreach materials on the geology and geologic
history of the "Secret Valley Line" between
Boyertown and Pottstown, PA. The newly
operational (fall 2014) tourist railroad cuts
through the Triassic Newark Basin and allows
views of the Brunswick Formation and diabase
outcrops. She took part in several ichnological
studies at Tyler State Park and will be representing
EES at the 2014 SVP conference in Berlin.
Dr. Gene C. Ulmer, professor emeritus, continues to publish on a variety of topics and
participate in the undergraduate jewelry scholarship sales. He serves as a volunteer to the
Earth & Environmental Cluster in the Franklin Medals Annual Science Awards Program at
the Franklin Institute. He will again manage the sale this year in the Tuttleman lobby 9am3pm on 1-3 Dec and will also have these materials available for purchase at the Holiday
Party and George Myer Potluck on 12 Dec @ 5PM.
In Memoriam
In November 2013, Rick Valentino, a Temple alumnus and a long-time instructor and member of
the department passed away. A teaching award was established in his honor and you can donate
online or by mailing a check using the gift code: Rick Valentino EO334.
In 2014, the department was saddened to learn of the death of former faculty member John
Adams in March. John was one of the first members of the department when it began in the
1960s and advised many students through the mid-90s when he retired.
RECENT THESES
Student
Irina Beal
Year
2014
Stephen
Peterson
2014
Logan Wiest
2014
Justin Roth
William
Lukens
Joseph
Frederickson
Andrew
Bentley
Michael
Swyer
2014
2013
2013
2013
2013
Amanda
Drewicz
2012
Alyssa Finlay
2012
C. Bryan
Narwich
David
O'Donnell
2012
2012
Thesis Title
Event sedimentology and hydrodynamic
hindcasting of storm surge deposits:
Hurricane Sandy, New Jersey
The Geologic, Geomorphic and
Geographic Influence on Lead and
Other Heavy Metals In the Soils of
Fairmount Park, Philadelphia
Ichnology of the K/Pg interval:
Endobenthic response to large-scale
environmental disturbance
Advisor
Ilya Buynevich
Investigating the volume and structure of
porosity in fractured and unfractured
rocks from the Newberry Volcano,
Oregon: An evaluation and comparison
of two- and three-dimensional methods
Nick Davatzes
Paleopedology and
paleogeomorphology of the early
Oligocene Orella and Whitney members,
Brule Formation, White River Group,
Toadstool Geologic Park, Nebraska
Craniofacial Ontogeny in Centrosaurus
apertus
Characterizing subsurface complexity of
aeolian morphotypes with GEORADAR
Evaluating the Role of the Rhyolite
Ridge Fault System in the Desert Peak
Geothermal Field, NV: Boundary
Element Modeling of Fracture Potential
in Proximity of Fault Slip
Quantifying Periods of Diffusion in
Marine and Nonmarine Vertebrates
Using Rare Earth Elements
Dissolution Kinetics of Bioapatite from
pH 2 to 8 at 4 to 38 C
Event Stratigraphy Based on
Geochemical Anomalies within a MixedSediment Backbarrier Sequence,
Southern New Jersey
Field and modeling study of the effects
of stream depth and ground water
discharge on hydrogeophysical
characterization of hyporheic zone in an
urban stream
Dennis Terry
Dennis Terry
Ilya Buynevich
Allison TumarkinDeratzian
Ilya Buynevich
Nick Davatzes
Dennis Terry
David Grandstaff
Ilya Buynevich
Laura Toran
We are grateful to all the staff, instructors, and
students for their support of Temple Geology,
with special thanks to
Shelah Cox
James Ladd
and Donald Deigh
for everyday help!
TEMPLE GEOLOGY RESEARCH
AROUND THE WORLD