Departmental Research

Research Facilities
Hydrogeology Lab: William Simpkins
Stable Isotope Lab: Alan Wanamaker
Fluid Inclusion Facility: Paul Spry
Geomorphology Lab: Neal Iverson
Organic Geochemistry Lab:
Shallow Geophysics Laboratory: Igor Beresnev
Virtual Reality Cave: Chris Harding
Wet Chemistry Lab
Sedimentary Geology Lab
Paleoclimatology Lab

Research Field Sites
Australia - Broken Hill Pb-Zn-Ag deposits: Adriana Heimann & Paul Spry
Canada: Neal Iverson
Ethiopia - Lake Turkana homonids: Mark Mathison
Fiji: Paul Spry
Norway - Svartisen Ice Cap: Jason Thomason & Neal Iverson
USA - Missouri: Mike Chen & William Simpkins
USA - Mojave Desert: Carl Jacobson & Jane Pederick-Dawson
US A - Great Lakes: Alessandro Zanazzi & German Mora
USA - Wisconsin: Matt Graesch & Neal Iverson

Research Groups
Climate and Quaternary Research

• Regional and global climate simulations and the role of atmospheric dynamics, convention, clouds and surface processes in climate change: Chen, Gutowski, Wu and Takle
• Field laboratory and modeling studies and ancient global processes: Iverson
• Hydrogeologic and geotechnical properties of glaciogenic deposits: Simpkins and Iverson
• Paleoclimate reconstruction of continental and coastal marine Quaternary climate in the Americas and Europe: Simpkins
• Abrupt climate changes during the 15,000 years in the Mediterranean region and how they may relate to the onset of agriculture: Cervato

Mesoscale/Microscale Meteorology
Our group's research efforts concentrate on better understanding and forecasting of small-scale atmospheric phenomena, particularly those affecting cloud, precipitation and biosphere/atmosphere interaction processes. Particular research topics include:

• Mesoscale convective systems including their internal dynamics: Gallus and Todey
• Improved representation of convention and clouds: Gallus and Wu
• Improved simulation/prediction of their rainfall using both mesoscale and cloud-resolving models: Gallus, Wu and Arritt
• Association with love-level jets: Arritt and Chen
• Land-surface interaction with the atmosphere affecting fronts: Gallus, Arritt and Segal
• Warm season convective systems: Gallus and Segal
• Modifying surface fluxes of heat, momentum and moisture through seasonally varying vegetation: Takle and Arritt
• Winter weather phenomena affecting transportation including roadway frost: Takle, Gallus and Bartlett
• Tornado and thunderstorm wind flow including numerical and laboratory simulations of impacts on built structures: Gallus and Haan
• Turbulent flow through vegetation and its impact on the ability of agricultural shelterbelts to modify microclimates: Takle

Environmental Geoscience: Our group's research efforts concentrate on improving our understanding of processes that control the hydrosphere, pedosphere, and biosphere, and the effects of human activities on altering these natural processes. Particular research top ices include:

• Biogeochemistry of soils: Thompson and Burras
• Hydrogeology of till: Simpkins
• Groundwater quality in agricultural areas: Simpkins and Burkart
• Lake-groundwater interaction: Simpkins
• Oceanography: Wanamaker
• Inorganic geochemistry including the effects of deterioration of highways by corrosive deicing salts: Spry

Geoscience Education: Recent and ongoing research projects focus on the development and use of innovative technological tools to improve both K-12 and undergraduate/graduate education in geology and meteorology. These include:

• Development of web-based writing assignments for large geoscience classes: Cervato
• Electronic portfolios and educational material on global change: Takle and Gutowski
• Computer animations of Earth and atmospheric processes: Windom, Gallus and Cervato
• Virtual reality supercell thunderstorm with tornado: Gallus, Cervato, Cruz-Neira

Solid Earth Processes: The mission of the Solid Earth Processes group is to investigate physical and chemical processes of Earth's subsurface. Research efforts involve:

• Petrology and Mineralogy of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic terrains ranging in ages from Archean to the Recent: Jacobson, Spry and Windom
• Structure and Tectonics with emphasis on structural geology, tectonics, metamorphic petrology and radiometric age dating to understanding the Late Cretaceous through Tertiary tectonic evolution of the southwestern United States: Jacobson
• Geophysics including earthquake seismology and ground motions, applied geophysics, wave propagation and data processing: Beresnev
• Economic geology which incorporates studies of the origin of and exploration for base metal and precious metals in orogenic terrains: Spry