Some of our undergrad students who are deeply involved in research projects have presented their results at the 2023 Geological Society of America meeting held in Pittsburgh this past October. Below are their feedbacks.
Celine Mazzella (Senior, B.Sc Geology)
At this year’s annual GSA meeting I presented research of the Jackson Hole volcanics in Northwestern Wyoming, specially the Flat Creek Basalt area. The focus of this research was to constrain the lava flow to either being a local eruption or not, and if it occurred over one episode or multiple. The reason we looked at this area was because it is the first known instance of a basaltic eruption prior to the Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic System developing. After going out to the field site and confirming the presence of at least one dike we were able to determine that this lava was locally erupted and happened in a singular episode.
Quinton Mindrup (Senior, B.Sc Geology)
I had two poster presentations at the 2023 National GSA conference. The first one was over the “Impact of seawater alteration on Cu isotope composition of oceanic basalts along the South Atlantic Transect: IODP Exp 390/393” which I presented on the first day. The second was over “Lithium concentrations in Cenozoic rhyolite vitrophyres and quartz-hosted melt inclusions: implications for lithium deposits in the northern Great Basin (U.S.A.)” on the second day. I had a great time presenting both of these posters and had so many great conversations. I really enjoy connecting with others over similar work we have done or fun ideas on what the data may mean.