Grad Students Win Research Funding from GSA and others
CWU Geology graduate students have been awarded funds to support their reseach by the Geological Society of America, the Sigma Xi Research Society and other organizations. Here's a quick run-down of the research and funding:
Brett Shurtleff will receive funding from GSA's Graduate Student Grants. He's working on "A geologic test of the slab-breakoff model for the northwest Himalaya: Low-temperature thermochronometry along the Zanskar normal fault, NW India."
Rachelle Warren will also receive GSA funds, plus funding from Sigma Xi and the University of California White Mountain Research Center. Rachelle's thesis is work on "Testing kinematic fault-slip models in the Eastern California Shear Zone–Walker Lane Belt: Field studies in southwestern Mina deflection, California–Nevada."
Ian Delaney has received funds from the Mount Baker Volcano Research Center for snow sampling to take place over the summer months. Analysis of the samples will provide additional information about the temporal variation of black carbon in the snowpack.
Kaitlyn Nelson will also receive funding from GSA in support of her thesis on "Constraining Timing and Source of Alkali-Enrichment at Mt. Etna, Sicily Using In Situ Clinopyroxene Data."
Brittany Fagin thesis is on "Exhumation rates for ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic rocks and tests of exhumation models, North Qaidam terrane, Western China." With the award from GSA, she will be using the electron microprobe at Washington State University to determine the elemental components of the mineral assemblages in my rock samples. From that data she will be calculating the rate at which rocks return to the surface from depths of ~100 km in order to test models of this process.
Brent Ritzinger also received funding from GSA in support of his thesis on "Paleomagnetic mapping of late Miocene-Pliocene basalt flows in the northwestern Basin and Range: Determining structural and topographic controls on the distribution of volcanic activity."