U of M Geosciences

Alumni Update - Meg Doolittle (BS 2008)

2011-11-03T10:10:00.001-06:00

Meg is heading into her fourth winter in Baker City, Oregon, where she is employed as a geologist for the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. She is currently working with gold miners in the area. She says there are both placer (in gravels or free gold) and lode (underground) operations in the forest, and they have over 800 unpatented claims! Her job includes working with mineral laws and determining if operations in an area are reasonable or if there might be gold. “Lots of miners are looking to hit it big with gold prices over $1,500/oz.” Meg says the geology is quite interesting--everything from CRBs to accreted terrain. They even had an icthyosaur fossil pulled out of a formation in the forest in the 1980’s, and Meg has conducted some research on this fossil. Meg frequently returns to Missoula and is considering graduate schools to further her education after being a government employee for the last five years.

Alumni Update - Kevin Connors (B.S. 2009)

2011-11-03T10:05:00.000-06:00

Kevin now lives in Bismarck, North Dakota, and currently works as a geologist for the state of North Dakota’s Department of Mineral Resources Oil and Gas Division. He and his wife Julie have two children, Donny (2) and Faith (4 months). They have moved around quite a bit since leaving Missoula, and Bismarck now feels like their final destination (for awhile). Kevin spent the last two years working in the oil fields in northwestern North Dakota. They even lived in Williston, North Dakota, the center of the oil boom for a year. He started out as a mudlogger/wellsite geologist drilling horizontal Middle Bakken Formation wells. After a year of living on a drilling rig and rarely seeing his family, he was given an opportunity with the state of North Dakota as a petroleum engineer. This was a great experience for him and more importantly, he was able to be home every night with his wife and children. This last July Kevin was promoted within the department, and his position is both challenging and exciting. He is currently revising the North Dakota Administrative code while working with the EPA to meet federal requirements for carbon sequestration. Carbon capture and storage is on the fringe of project development after years of research. Kevin feels blessed to have been given this opportunity. “As far as I am concerned this is a dream job.” Kevin says his education at the University of Montana made all of this possible. He is grateful for the opportunity to support his family and to be with them on a daily basis while at the same working in the field of geology.

Alumni Update - Ken Wells

2011-10-18T10:46:00.015-06:00

Kenneth Wells (BA 1984/MS 1989)

Ken completed his master's degree with Steve Sheriff. Right after he defended his thesis in March of 1989, he went to Anchorage to work for BP. He is still with BP and has worked for them in Alaska, London and Aberdeen in the UK, Kuwait and Egypt, and now in Houston on the Atlantis field in the Gulf of Mexico. In May of this year Ken was invited on a BP deepwater sedimentology and stratigraphy field course to the Karoo basin of South Africa. The trip was led by Dr. Steve Flint from Liverpool University. They spent eight days looking at Permian age basin floor fan and shelf/slope channel outcrops. “Great trip!” Attached are a few photos of the trip: A basin floor fan lobe outcrop; Ken (in the orange shirt) pointing at an amalgamation surface (Flint is the tall guy in the dark jacket); Ken in his UM hat riding in a truck; and some non-native wildlife they saw at a rehab facility. Ken says he really needs to get up and visit sometime. Ken, we’d love to have you visit and hope you are able to do so soon!

Sad News: Eric Braun (Ph.D. 1989)

2011-04-25T10:24:00.003-06:00

We just heard more sad news about alumni Eric Braun, Ph.D. 1989. Emeritus Professor Ian Lange sent us a note about Eric, who died unexpectedly April 9th. Here is the note from Ian that sums up all our thoughts:

Sadly, I just found out this AM from Sissy, Eric's wife, that he

passed away unexpectedly Saturday Night.

I just don't know what to say as I believe we all feel so badly about

this. Eric was such a great, happy, positive person, excellent geologist,

parent of two great boys as well as a fine athlete and a good friend to many

of us.

Let's have a MAGMA remembrance for him in early May.

There will be an obituary sometime soon in the Missoulian.

Stay well or as Eric would say, Salud,

Ian

Here is the link to the obituary on the Missoulian website:

http://missoulian.com/news/local/obituaries/article_f033c1aa-6e92-11e0-9216-001cc4c03286.html

Sad News: Jon Hoffman (MS 1980)

2011-04-13T11:40:00.007-06:00

We have received some very sad news:

Jon Hoffman (M.S. 1980) was killed by an avalanche while skiing in the Sierra Nevada mountains on March 31st. For those alumni that knew Jon during the 80s, you will remember his love of life and skiing! He is purported to have skied 100 days a season at Snowbowl while working on his M.S.! A memorial will be held in May. Donations can be made to the Rex Foundation, Sugar Bowl Ski Patrol or Tahoe Nordic Search & Rescue.

You can read a thoughtful and uplifting summary of Jon's life on the San Francisco Chronicle website: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/03/MNHOFFMANJ15.DTL.

Peter Dea: Horseback Safari

2010-11-04T13:57:00.004-06:00

Masai Mara, Kenya and Mountain Gorilla Trek, Rwanda

September, 2010

Safaris Unlimited, Gordon Church

Excerpts from a Journal by Peter Dea, UM, MS ‘81

Kenya: The baboons bid us adieu at dawn as we ride out on a 25 mile horse ride – the second day of our nine day horseback journey across the Masai Mara in Kenya. A “Big Bird" Ostrich greeted us on the savannah followed by a family of giraffe, zebra, impala and gazelle as elephants looked on from afar. The golden knee deep grass glowed in early morning light for miles. Then a cheetah popped up out of the grass as we nearly rode into her and two kittens. Rising on the high open savannah we found ourselves in the midst of a wildebeest migration. Several thousand of these funny looking creatures extended as far as the eye can see, as part of the 1.5 million head herd that move north and south from Masai Mara land to the Serengeti. They stampede us in sinuous fluid lines of kicking hooves and swirling tails. Zebra and impala fold in with a lonely Masai cattle herder on foot in typical red robe. We trot alongside a giraffe family – their long legs striding in a deceiving slow motion gait. Then we open it up into a full tilt cantor filling us with adrenalin with animals everywhere. We arrive in camp at dusk for a cold Tuskers beer with wildebeest just outside our tent door. What a way to spend Cathy and my 9th anniversary on the ride of our lives. As night approached, a leopard napped in a small fold in the earth prior to his dinner prowl. He kept looking up to the adjacent hillside - something had his attention – two lionesses and five kittens.

Then the orange full moon rose as green hills stole into darkness and ten vultures on a tall tree became silhouettes before the moon.

Days later we try to cross the Mara River yet two dozen hippos drape their blubbery bodies on the sandy bank. Our horses spooked them into the river where they joined a similar number, now 50 hippos in the middle of our river crossing. At the Siria Escarpment we ascend the normally up-faulted Pre-Cambrian granite to our lofty camp on a cap of young basalt. Above the rifted grabens our horses now feel quite geologically grounded, standing atop a horst! The next day a herd of 20 elephants and their young nearly ambushed us as we surprised them in a grove of trees. A new camp on the Mara River offered a Happy Hour with Tuskers ale in hand, our feet draped over the 6' high river bank as more hippos entertained us in the river.

What a privilege to ride horses through a special part of planet earth, where the wildest of animals co-exist with the simple life of the Masai, much as native Americans shared the plains and mountain valleys of America with the buffalo and grizzly bear before white man nearly wiped out or totally re-arranged them and destroyed forever their co-existence. Kenya offers a reflection on our past as much as it offers an adventurous experience into the daily lives of such an amazing ecosystem.

Rwanda: Hiking through rows and rows of potato plantings, amidst a tidy collection of mud walled, thatch roofed homes of a typical hilly Rwandan farming community, from which emerge slender women, dressed smartly in dresses and wraps of explosively colorful patterns to hoe the rich soil, we pass through an old mossy stone wall of vugular basalt and enter a bamboo forest. The wall keeps the buffalo from raiding the villages and marks the boundary to Virunga Volcanoes National Park.

After ascending 2,400’ vertical feet of mountainous jungle, we hook up with two trackers, armed with AK-47 machine guns for protection against anti-poachers. The jungle is so thick that by the time we find “his” family, suddenly there he is sitting tall and majestic - a proud 450 pound 24 year old Silverback Mountain Gorilla staring right at me 20' away. We pause as 20 gorillas snack on the conical bamboo shoots. The inherent juices contain alcohol and sugars so after a few they act like that had a few - and I don't mean shoots but shots. We edge around a bush and 15' from us sits a mother gorilla cuddling a five month old baby. The youngster rolls his head toward us with big open brown eyes.

I exchange eye contact with my long lost uncle. His massive head exudes respect. Between his highbrow and large flat nose, empathetic eyes seem to unintentionally reach out for compassion. A mesmerizing hour passes and we bid our good-byes and thank them for sharing their magical world.

Such is traveling in the third world - so many differences; so many similarities. We humans strive to survive and advance - as much as our random geographic birthplaces and familial setting allow us to. And the Mountain Gorillas and other wonderful creatures around the world continue to unite us. Protecting the Mountain Gorilla is as much about preserving them as it is our own humanity.

Dave Hlebichuk (Class of 1980): A Fast Look at Salt Lake Sediments!

2010-09-27T14:33:00.006-06:00

Dave Hlebichuk is living in the fast lane! Dave is semi-retired from Geology, in Conroe, Texas, but comes to the Bonneville Slat Flats each year to race his ZR1 Corvette during "Speed Week". This year he just missed the record of 230.5 mph for his class, running 227 mph. Dave says of this year's event, "And like last year, we learned just enough to make us go back next year." Photos are of Dave and his ZR1 standing still and at higher speed and under the chute on the salt.

Orin Pilkey (M.S. 1959): Sedimentology & Coastal Science in Action

2010-09-27T14:20:00.006-06:00

Orrin Pilkey is a research professor, James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of Earth & Ocean Sciences, and Director Emeritus of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines (PSDS) within the Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences in the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University. Orin received his M.S. here at UM Geology in 1959, after a B.S. at Washington State. After UM he went on to Florida State for his Ph.D. As all you sedimentologists know, Orin has been a tremendous contributor to the understanding of shoreline and continental shelf sedimentation and shoreline processes and policy. Orin has published more than 250 papers in his long career and authored/edited/coauthored over 39 books. One of his most important contributions is the "Living with the Shore" series, published by Duke University Press. Another recent, enjoyable and illuminating read is "Useless Arithmetic", about the limitations of complex models in science and policy decisions based on models. Fifty-one years after graduating from UM, Orin Pilkey is still a powerhouse!

Welcome to Alumni News

2010-09-23T12:09:00.001-06:00

This portion of our web site is dedicated to the University of Montana Department of Geosciences Alumni. As we receive information from alumni we will post it here. So, please submit a brief update on your whereabouts and activities with a picture or two. We will then post it on this site in hopes of getting both feedback from your classmates and new posts from them.Should be lots of fun!

Cheers,

Johnnie Moore