Ten Exercises for a Virtual Sed/Strat Class

I participated in a Zoom discussion last week (hosted by Brian Romans) about student learning outcomes for Sedimentology and Stratigraphy courses. It was a diverse group of folks on the call, including faculty from across the globe, and representing a variety of programs: undergraduate, graduate, industry-related, etc. After the meeting was over, I found myself […]

2019 GSA Conference Presentations

The 2019 GSA Conference in Phoenix, Arizona was an exciting time for the TTU sedimentary geology group! Students and alumni presented research posters, and Dr. Wolak co-led a workshop on Planetary Geologic Mapping for students. Presentations included: Bohanon, A.M.* and J.M. Wolak, 2019, Rocking and Rolling Downhill: A comparison of boulder distribution patterns on Martian […]

2019 TTU Student Research and Creative Inquiry Day

The Tennessee Tech Student Research and Creative Inquiry Day is held each spring semester in the Hooper Eblen Center. The event offers students an opportunity to present their research on campus. This year, six students from the Sedimentary Geology Research Group presented posters at research day. Stone McCoy won the Best Earth Sciences Student Poster […]

Field Trip to Flynn Creek Crater

The Flynn Creek impact structure is located less than 20 miles from Tennessee Tech in Jackson County, Tennessee. Students in the Spring 2019 Planetary Geoscience class visited the structure on April 6th for a half-day field trip with Dr. Richard Finch, a Department of Earth Sciences emeritus professor. Geologic stops focused on: (1) deposition of […]

2018 GSA Conference Presentations

In November 2018, the TTU Sedimentary Research Group attended the Geological Society of America conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. Presentations included: Blaylock, H.E.*, Robbins, N.N.*, Smith, S.S.* and J.M. Wolak, 2018, Geologic mapping of a terraced fan deposit in Dukhan Crater, Xanthe Terra, Mars. Geological Society of America Abstract with Programs, v. 50, no. 6, 1 […]

2018 SE GSA Conference Presentations

The 2017 Southeastern Geological Society of America meeting was held on April 12th and 13th at the Knoxville Convention Center. The TTU Sedimentary Group attended and had two presentations: Watson, Z.A.*, Winkle, G.T.*, Blaylock, H.E.*, Knox. L.W., and J.M. Wolak, 2018, Petrophysical characterization of the contact between the Fort Payne Formation and the Chattanooga Shale. […]

2017 GSA Conference Presentations

In October, the TTU Sedimentary Research Group attended the 2017 annual Geological Society of America Conference in Seattle, Washington. Students and faculty presented a poster highlighting recent work in the Mississippian Fort Payne Formation. Winkle, G.T*., Blaylock, H.E.* and J.M. Wolak, 2017, Petrophysical properties of the Fort Payne Formation (Mississippian), Tennessee and Kentucky, Geological Society […]

Geology Tools: How to make a Jacob staff

Tutorial prepared by Daniel G. Koehl, senior geology student in the Dept of Earth Sciences, TTU. One of the simplest and most useful tools in geology is the Jacob staff. More robust than a tape measure or meter stick, the Jacob staff is used to measure bed thicknesses on an outcrop. The staff is usually 1.0-1.5 m and […]

Students use dGB’s OpendTect software to interpret North Sea seismic data

Undergraduates in this semester’s Sedimentation and Stratigraphy course broke new ground in learning seismic sequence stratigraphy. Rather than using traditional 2D line exercises, the class utilized dGB’s OpendTect software package to interpret seismic data. This new educational approach is a product of collaboration between the TTU Earth Science Department, dGB OpendTect developers and geologists at […]

Field Trip: Foreland Basin Deposits of East Tennessee

On Saturday, Nov. 3rd, students in the Sedimentation and Stratigraphy class loaded up into vans to visit the Sevier Basin in east Tennessee. Deposits in the Sevier Basin are fascinating because they record the sedimentary response to one of the earliest episodes of mountain building in the eastern US. This mountain-building event is called the […]