From Wooster to Iceland…
Although the bulk of my research is based in Utah, I have had the opportunity to explore other interests in recent years. I will mention a few of these interests below:
Educational Outreach / Experiential Learning
My students in my structural geology classes and I formed a partnership with Wooster Campus Grounds that led to an experiential learning project. Campus Grounds was interested in the competency of several of their sidewalks and parking lots across campus. Students in my classes tested the strength of the asphalt, concrete, and brick pavers at over 30 different locations across campus. A different suite of students, who were virtual research assistants during the coronavirus pandemic, helped with the data analysis.
Iceland Tuff Cone Structural Discontinuities
During the summer 2019, I had the fortunate experience to travel to Iceland with my colleague, Meagen Pollock, and several Wooster students. Meagen regularly conducts field work in Iceland, and during that summer, we met up with Ben Edwards (Dickinson College) and some of his students. We traveled to several places and gathered data for research projects for the team. One locality definitely piqued my interest, because it contained structural discontinuities called deformation bands. I gathered fracture and deformation band orientation data at a tuff cone and am working on the analysis.