Geology faculty and students will be presenting papers and posters this spring at the annual AAG and regional GSA meetings. Click on the names below to read abstracts...

North of Asheville, NC, the western Blue Ridge thrust complex consists of a series of thrust sheets NW of the Burnsville fault that are separated by thick, greenschist-facies Alleghanian shear zones. Trupe et al. (2004) suggested that the Sams Gap-Pigeonroost (SGPR) fault, exposed near the TN-NC border, splays off the Fries fault west of the Grandfather Mountain window, and that the Fries fault therefore lies between the Burnsville fault and the SGPR fault. Near the Grandfather Mountain window, the Fries fault is a thick greenschist-facies mylonite zone. Our previous mapping suggested that the Fries fault should extend into the Sams Gap and Mars Hill quadrangles. Merschat (1977) mapped a stratigraphic discontinuity in the Mars Hill quadrangle, and suggested that it was either a fault or an unconformity. This study was undertaken to locate the Fries fault in the Bald Creek, Sams Gap, and Mars Hill quadrangles, and to determine if Merschat's discontinuity is equivalent to the Fries fault. Basement rocks between the Burnsville fault and the SGPR fault consist of intensely folded, locally migmatitic biotite-hornblende gneiss, biotite gneiss, amphibolite, and calc-silicate rock, intruded by mafic rocks of the Bakersville Intrusive Suite. These mafic rocks contain amphibolite-facies assemblages, with local occurrences of granulite-facies assemblages near the Burnsville fault. Mafic dikes below the SGPR fault are slightly lower grade. Our geologic mapping and petrographic analysis suggests that the Fries and the SGPR faults are equivalent, and that metamorphic grade in mafic dikes is consistent between the Burnsville fault and the SGPR. We did not find a greenschist-facies mylonite zone along Merschat's mapped discontinuity, and suggest that this feature may reflect deformation associated with the Burnsville fault.

Keith Bosak - Georgia Southern University

Abstract:
The local Bhotiya people of the Niti valley have experienced dramatic changes in their livelihood options over the last fifty years. Prior to 1962, the Bhotiya practiced transhumance and trade with Tibet. When the border with Tibet was closed in 1962, the Bhotiya continued to practice transhumance in a more limited geographic area. In 1974, Nanda Devi was opened to western mountaineers and the Bhotiya began earning money as porters and guides for expeditions. Unfortunately, the mountain was closed to all people in 1982 following serious concerns of environmental degradation from too many visitors. The Bhotiya had to return to farming and grazing animals. In 2001, after almost twenty years of economic and cultural decline, the Bhotiya began an ecotourism initiative with the goal of providing a livelihood option that would promote conservation and equity while providing an income for local people. This project explores the way in which the Bhotiya have operated within and across scale and constructed scale in order to adapt to the changes brought about by globalization.

Optional field trips are an effective way to give students personalized attention and hands-on experience in large introductory oceanography classes without labs, thereby increasing student learning, participation, and interest in the subject matter.

A particularly successful field trip experience took place in Georgia Southern University's Principles of Oceanography course in the spring of 2005. Funding for educational ship time on board the R/V Savannah, out of the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, was awarded by the Georgia Sea Grant College Program. The most frequent beneficial effects cited by students on trip evaluations were: (1) improved understanding of information discussed in class; (2) seeing science in action through shipboard observation along with the opportunity to collect real data with oceanographic equipment; (3) increased interest in the subject of oceanography; (4) a chance to experience something unique and fun - at no cost to student; (5) the opportunity to get to know classmates and the professor better. In addition, the attendance, class participation and enthusiasm of the participants noticeably improved following the trip, and this in turn had a positive influence on the behavior of many of their classmates.

Factors believed to be important for successful incorporation of this or other similar optional field trips into a large class include using the trip as an incentive for students to do well on graded activities, carefully designing assignments both before and after the trip to allow for peer-teaching and involvement of all students in the class, and scheduling the trip about a month into the semester. The latter allows sufficient time to introduce students to field trip activities, build enthusiasm and encourage participation, yet is early enough that late-semester demands on student time are not a factor and the beneficial effects described above impact the majority of the semester.

This investigation seeks to determine whether structural controls are affecting the movement of ground water and surface water along a tidally-influenced river on the southeastern Coastal Plain in Georgia. The study site is located 56 river kilometers from the coast on a floodplain at the confluence of the Ogeechee and Canoochee rivers. Field mapping shows that tributaries draining the tidally-influenced wetlands at the confluence of the two rivers exhibit a strong rectangular drainage pattern. Also, clearly visible on aerial photographs of the site is a 1.1 kilometer long lineament running through the forested wetlands. This lineament also happens to coincide with an unusually straight segment of the Canoochee River; behind which is what appears to be a series of compressed meanders. Based on the rectangular drainage pattern, lineament, and compressed meanders it is hypothesized that surface and ground water at the site is structurally controlled.

Currently, a series of shallow monitoring wells are being installed in a transect across the lineament in order to try and detect possible changes in ground water chemistry or hydraulic head that may indicate structural influence. Head data will collected hourly using data loggers whereas water samples will be collected monthly and analyzed for general chemistry in a lab via ion chromatography. Temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and electrical conductivity of the samples will be measured in the field.

We are describing the collaboration between a College of Science and Technology faculty member and a College of Education faculty member in a Middle Grades Science Methods course. Through the use of lectures, demonstrations, hands on activities, and field trips the two faculty members use their individual backgrounds to improve the teaching of science in the public school classroom. Since the Middle Grades curriculum at Georgia Southern University is an interdisciplinary, many non-science majors are required to take the science methods course. As result these students are exposed to scientific concepts, history and applications that can be used in their classrooms. A byproduct of this collaboration is the demonstration of a team teaching. All materials and projects in this course must meet the State of Georgia Department of Education Performance Standards.

Abstract:
This paper will begin by outlining the history of the American theological movement known as premillennial dispensationalism, including its basic tenets. The paper will then introduce the series of books known as the "Left Behind" series, a bestselling narrative of the Endtimes as interpreted by the authors, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. These books enact a particular kind of geographic imaginary, which is rooted in an emphasis on the particular over the universal. This results from several places on the Earth's surface being elevated in geopolitical importance because of the prophetic value associated with them. Conversely, attempts to construct global identities are thwarted by associations with evil and the Antichrist. The paper concludes with a discussion of connections between the American Evangelical movement and policy makers, and thus the connections between popular geopolitics and practical geopolitics.

In attempting to convey the amount of evidence in support of evolution, scientists and educators often focus on case studies that exemplify the best of available evidence. The evolution of Cetacea is one such case study. Extant species exhibit obvious adaptations to aquatic environments, yet they are also mammals, which originated on land. Thus the theory of evolution predicts that the fossil record should yield many extinct species with anatomies that are intermediate between living cetaceans and their terrestrial ancestors, a prediction that has been marvelously fulfilled. Fossil evidence documents the change from four-limbed locomotion on land to hindlimb-powered movement in water to aquatic locomotion via tail flukes. Step-wise movement of the bony nose opening from a position at the tip of the snout to the top of the head is even better demonstrated, and the evidence is repeated because much of this evolutionary transition occurred separately in baleen and toothed whales. Some of the earliest whales are so intermediate in their anatomy that they blur the distinction between cetaceans and other mammals that appears so clear when considering only living species.

Evolutionary trees based on the anatomy of living and extinct species and those based on sequences of DNA agree in many respects. Comparing the structure of evolutionary trees with the distribution of species through time shows how complete the fossil record is, and more importantly, how the degree of completeness has improved as new fossils are discovered and published. One of the greatest advantages, and simultaneously one of the greatest challenges, to using cetaceans for the education of evolution is that many cetacean fossils remain unstudied in museum collections, primarily because of the small number of qualified scientists. As those fossils, and others discovered by ongoing expeditions, are published, our knowledge of whale evolution will continually improve. Unfortunately, this rapid growth in our knowledge has out-dated some educational resources for whale evolution. In addition to presenting an overview of cetacean evolution, educational resources for whale evolution will be reviewed in this presentation for accuracy and currency of content.

It has been shown that there is significant mineralogical variation with certain asteroid taxonomic classes. Gaffey et al. (1993, Icarus 106, 573-602) quantified the mineralogical variation within the populous S-class revealing at least seven different subclasses. Compositional variations have been suggested for the unusual M-class asteroids (Rivkin et al. 1995, Icarus 117, 90-100), and work is being done to quantify the mineralogical variations in this class as well (Hardersen et al. 2005, Icarus 175, 141-158). Spectral variations resulting from differences in mineralogy are present even within the rare E-class asteroids (Gaffey and Kelley 2004, LPSC XXXV, 1812). Based on this mounting experience, it seems reasonable to assume that spectral and mineralogical variations will be identified within each asteroid taxonomic class. It is generally accepted that taxonomically homogeneous asteroid families are real. Asteroids within the orbital element space of a family that do not match the taxonomic class majority are usually considered to be interlopers. Considering the mineralogical variation being identified above, taxonomic homogeneity does not guarantee origin within a common parent body. At the same time, taxonomic heterogeneity should not immediately rule out a common origin. We have been observing members of asteroid families that contain mixed and/or uncommon taxonomic classes. Our goal is to determine whether a compositional pattern exists within the taxonomic family majority and to test the mismatched minority is mineralogically compatible with the rest of the family. M-class asteroid 872 Holda is a member of the Eugenia family, which also contains C-, F-, and S-class asteroids. Until recently, the VNIR spectra of most M-class asteroids appeared to be featureless. Using medium-resolution SpeX data, Hardersen et al. (2005) have identified silicate absorption features in several M-class asteroids, which facilitate mineralogical interpretations of the objects. We have identified similar characteristics in a low-resolution (52-channel double CVF) spectrum of 872 Holda. Combined with previous data, this will allow us to begin testing the genetic reality of the Eugenia asteroid family.

Fisheries biologists in Georgia have hypothesized that sturgeon congregate in deep scour pools in coastal rivers during the summer months due to the presence of artesian springs. It's believed that springs create zones of lower temperature or low salinity that the fish seek during periods of stress in the summer months. An investigation was carried out to determine whether a chemical or temperature signature could be found that would indicate the presence of artesian springs in two scour pools where sturgeon are known to congregate. Here, physical and general chemistry data were obtained from discrete samples collected along the streambed.

Early data showed strong chemical anomalies in the two scour pools that suggested artesian groundwater was mixing with surface water. However, the pools in question, located near the confluence of the Ogeechee and Canoochee rivers, are 56 river kilometers from the coast and remain tidally influenced. Therefore, additional samples were collected to test a second hypothesis that the anomalies are merely the result of tidal mixing at the confluence of the two rivers. The additional data supports this later hypothesis. However, the dataset at low tide still shows a chemical anomaly in one of the pools that is difficult to explain by tidal mixing, thus may still be explained by the presence of a groundwater spring. The location of this potential spring also happens to coincide with a lineament that runs through the forested wetlands adjacent to the river and where small tributaries exhibit a rectangular drainage pattern. A new investigation is currently underway to determine if the observed chemical anomaly in the scour pool is related to the lineament and rectangular drainage pattern.

Demographic analysis of the Geological Society of America's (GSA) membership reveals significant differences among the regional sections and the membership as a whole.

The Northeast (NE), Southeast (SE), and North Central (NC) Sections have age / gender distributions typical of growing populations. In contrast, South Central (SC), Rocky Mountain (RM), and Cordilleran (C) Sections have decreasing membership in younger age-cohorts indicating a future decrease in numbers if current trends continue.

A comparison between the members in each section and the total GSA membership based on the cohorts born prior to 1950 provides an index of the relative age of each section. The RM Section has the oldest group of members (6.1% more than the percent of members nationally in the over-50 cohorts) and the NC Section is the youngest (6.5% fewer of its members in the older cohorts). The mean age for all female GSA members is 38 (born 1968), while the mean age for males is 51 (1955). The mean age for all members of the SE is 49 (b 1959) and the mean age of the total membership of GSA is 48 (b 1958). The SE Section has a total age distribution almost identical to that of the entire organization. Additional female members account for much of the growth in the SE over the last 15 years.

The geographical distribution of geology degree programs reveals significant regional differences. American colleges and universities offer about 850 degree programs comprised of 150 doctoral programs, 250 at the masters level, and 450 undergraduate programs. The Northeast Section includes largest number of programs (213) and the Rocky Mountain Section has the least (76). The Southeast Section has 129 programs. Part of the range of these numbers is a direct result of the vastly different populations in the states comprising the regional sections. The U.S. as a whole has about 2.96 geoscience degree programs / million population. Because of its small population (12.8 million), the RM Section has the most programs with 5.90 / million population. In the SE, the most populous section (66.5 million), has 1.94 programs / million population. This apparently significant difference may be accounted for by the low level of funding for higher education in the southeast and the lack of historically important mineral and energy resources.

Neogene sedimentary rocks in the vicinity of Statesboro, GA consist of clastic rocks of the Miocene Coosawhatchie formation. The rocks of the study area are weakly consolidated, fine to coarse grained, locally conglomeratic, clayey sandstones with interbedded mudstone and siltstone, interpreted to have been deposited near sea level. The presence of ghost shrimp burrows (Ophiomorpha nodosa) indicates that at least some of the Coosawhatchie formation was deposited in an intertidal or shallow marine environment. A study was undertaken to record morphology, lithology, and the relative ages of the ubiquitous systematic joint sets throughout the study area. A data set of 854 joint measurements was analyzed using rose diagrams displaying two dominant joint set orientations; I) 000°-180° +/-20° and II) 070°-250° +/-20°. Three minor joint set orientations are III) 035°-215° +/-15°, IV) 105°-285° +/-15°, and V) 140°-320° +/- 15°. The joint orientations in this study are consistent with those noted by previous workers. The presence of systematic joint sets throughout sedimentary rocks of the Georgia Coastal Plain suggests fracturing in response to regional tectonic stresses, rather than localized deformation associated with discrete structures. The stream net in the Southeast Georgia area includes reaches with preferred alignments in a few directions. Reaches displaying a rectangular drainage pattern are apparent at a variety of scales and are reminiscent of well documented fracture orientations. A rose diagram of stream segment orientation frequencies was created utilizing digital elevation models processed into 30 meter segments using GIS software. The rose diagrams showed a nonrandom distribution with identifiable trends NE/SW, NW/SE, and E/W. The strike frequencies of stream segment orientation correspond well with the dominant trends in fracture orientation. This suggests that the drainage patterns reflect both structure and the influence of a southeasterly regional drainage gradient. The orientations of stream segments can therefore serve as a proxy for fracture orientation.

Wei Tu - Georgia Southern University

Abstract:
Despite the increasing recognition of and recent preliminary studies on plan level strategic environmental assessment (PLSEA) on urban and regional planning, neither methodological frameworks nor case studies are sufficient in the practice of SEA. In this paper, we attempted to develop a new methodological framework for PLSEA by integrating a system dynamics (SD) approach into the practice of PLSEA. Our new methodological framework was further tested in simulating and assessing the environmental consequences of three land use planning scenarios for the city of Shanghai. First, a SD model, LUP_SEA was developed and calibrated according to the historical land use data. Second, three scenarios of land use plan between 1997 and 2020 were developed and simulated based on the base run model. Third, an environment indicator system was formulated to assess the potential environmental impacts of three simulated land use plans. It is found that the LUP_SEA model is an efficient tool for SEA practitioners, urban planners and managers, and decision-makers to implement PLSEA at a verity of temporal and geographic scales. This case study is also helpful to the long-term sustainable development of Shanghai by providing valuable insights about the complex relationship among development paths, land use economic development, and environment.

Pleistocene sea level dropped and rose in response to glacial and interglacial intervals, causing patterns of coastal erosion and deposition that we are only beginning to understand. Along the Georgia coast these sea level fluctuations resulted in deposition and erosion of a seaward dipping veneer of Pleistocene sediment arranged in a series of barrier island sequences that are younger to the east. The deposition of coastal terraces or barrier island ridges (Wicomico, ~29-30 m; Penholloway, ~23 m; Talbot, ~12-14 m; Pamlico, ~8 m; Princess Anne, ~4.5m; Silver Bluff, ~1.5 m; and Holocene) in Georgia form a continuous veneer of Pleistocene sediment of varying thickness and lithology. Understanding Georgia sea level changes demands accommodation of known data that constrain models and resultant sedimentologic effects on shoreline position and elevation. The height of maximum seal level rise in Georgia is equivalent to the elevation of the highest coastal deposits of the Wicomico Shoreline, or terrace. Although the array of preserved Pleistocene shoreline deposits or terraces provides evidence of progressive lowering of sequential sea level highstands, it says little about the levels of sea level low stands during glacial stages. Vertebrate fossils and archaeological artifacts from the continental shelf allow partial reconstruction of low stands. Differential elevations of ancient barrier island or shoreline complexes and structural evidence suggest that tectonic as well as eustatic controls have been in effect. Superimposed upon these eustatic and tectonic effects are sedimentologic pulses produced by Pleistocene climate changes and evolving physical conditions influenced by possible coastal plain stream capture and "jumping" inlets and sounds along the Georgia coast. Correlation and comparison of disparate data on St. Catherines Island permits the testing of sea level models by integration of ground truthing with field data. This process, although it might occasionally assault our individual hypotheses, can be expected to lead to a better understanding of the history of Pleistocene and Holocene sea levels in Georgia. A Georgia sea level curve is constructed as a model for discussion in this Theme Session.

Mark R Welford - Georgia Southern University

Abstract:
Since the early 1980s, money has flowed into the Nono-Mindo-Tandayapa region of northwestern Ecuador, largely through a rapid expansion of bird-related ecotourism. Recently, several informal and formal alliances have developed among residents and ecolodge owners within the area, intent on confronting two national economic development projects: (1) the recent construction of the Trans-Andean oil pipeline following Nono-Mindo road from the top of the Tandayapa Valley to Mindo; and (2) the on-going attempt by the City of Quito to extend its eminent domain to include the Tandayapa Valley, where it has proposed to build up to seven dams to gain more drinking water. These projects threaten not only the local bird populations but also the lifestyles and livelihoods of residents and ecolodge owners in the area. Utilizing interviews with NGO representatives, ecolodge managers, and many employees, as well as ten years worth of oral history interviews with local and expatriate residents, this paper examines shifting power relations, employment strategies, and land use practices in the Nono-Mindo and Tandayapa Valley region, while also linking these changes to national and global transformations.

Robert Yarbrough - Georgia Southern University

Abstract:
In March 2006, while the U.S. Congress debated immigration reform, the state legislature of Georgia passed arguably the most punitive and comprehensive state law intended to curb illegal immigration in recent history. Supporters of the legislation drew upon a popular, national discourse of "border security" in arguing for the implementation of Georgia state bill 529 (SB 529). Through a discourse analysis of coverage of the debates surrounding the bill in Georgia's largest newspaper The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, I argue that proponents of SB 529 were actively engaged in scaling down the issue/problem of illegal immigration and effectively promoting their legislation through an appeal to securing and protecting the state of Georgia. In addition, enforcement of the newly-signed law promotes (perhaps even necessitates) racial profiling of non-whites and non-blacks in Georgia, the majority of whom are Latino/Hispanic. This law, therefore, contributes to the racialization of dark-skinned, Spanish-speaking residents of the state by constructing undocumented immigrant status (illegal and/or alien) as integral to "Latino/Hispanic" identity in Georgia. This analysis demonstrates that the debates surrounding this state law appealed to a national discourse of "border security" and scaled it down to garner popular support, while one result of the law is to perpetuate a racialized discourse that increasingly places illegal status at the center of Latino/Hispanic group identity.