Potential Talks by Faculty from Auburn University
Department of Geology and Geography

The following presentations may be available for your institution or organization. Contact speakers directly using the e-mail addresses provided.

Geography

Toni Alexander (alexato@auburn.edu), PhD, LSU, Cultural and Historical Geography, Migrant Populations and Belonging.

1) "Welcome to Old Times" - Inserting the Okie Past into California's San Joaquin Valley Present
Collective, or social memory describes how societies draw upon the events of the past to make sense of contemporary circumstances. Because collective memory is both temporal and spatial, it tethers the past to place and recognizes that as social circumstances change, collective memory is subject to reinterpretation as the needs of society change. In this presentation, I explore how the Okie migrant heritage has been incorporated within the collective memory of California and the San Joaquin Valley.

2) Between Inclusion and Exclusion: Understanding Citizenship for Domestic Migrants
Throughout the twentieth century difficult economic circumstances have often resulted in strained relationships between migrant populations and host societies.  While much research has focused upon how this situation impacts foreign immigrants, in this presentation I use two brief case studies to explore how domestic migrants often face similar challenges that result in a questioning of their rights as native-born citizens.

 Phil Chaney (chanepl@auburn.edu), PhD, LSU, Geography of Natural Hazards

1) Local resident responses during the Super Tuesday Tornado Disaster at Lafayette, TN
On February 5-6, 2008, a weather system passing over the Mid-South and Tennessee Valley regions of the U.S. produced 87 tornadoes across nine states. This event is known as the Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak in reference to the Presidential primary elections held at the time. Fifty-seven tornado-related fatalities were reported after the event, and 36 (63%) occurred in mobile homes. One of the hardest hit communities was Lafayette, TN. This paper reports the findings of a post-disaster survey conducted immediately after the event, with special attention paid to differences between residents of mobile homes and permanent homes.

2) Coastal development issues at Dauphin Island, AL, after Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina caused significant damage to buildings and infrastructure along the Mississippi-Alabama Coast when it made landfall in August, 2006. The excessive amount of damage in this region can largely be attributed to questionable landuse decisions that led to development of flood-prone areas. These decisions seem even more questionable when considering the damage Hurricane Camille inflicted on the region in 1969 and Hurricane Frederic in 1979. Although some people are rebuilding in a way that suggests that they learned their lesson from the recent disaster, others seem to have learned little or nothing. This paper investigates development issues at Dauphin Island with a focus on the influence of the National Flood Insurance Program and federal government recovery funds.

Joshua F.J. Inwood (jfi0001@auburn.edu),  PhD, Georgia, Cultural Geography

1) Searching for the Promised Land: Examining Dr. Martin Luther King's Concept of the Beloved Community
April 4, 2008 marked the 40th anniversary of Dr. King's assassination in Memphis, Tennessee.  Since his murder we have seen Dr. King's message of social justice, the growing threat of militarism, the threat the burgeoning U.S. empire posed, and his goal of ending injustice boiled down to a few words spoken in Washington, DC when he declared his dream to see his children grow up in a society free of race prejudice.  This paper engages with Dr. King's work and presents a more geographically sophisticated understanding of King's legacy than the oft repeated Washington speech.  Through an analysis of Dr. King's concept of the Beloved Community, I argue that Dr. King's work stems from the experiences of the Black Atlantic World.  Consequently we should see Dr. King's social theory as part of a larger anti-colonial struggle which sought to integrate African American and Western notions of community, which holds contemporary importance as a counterpoint to current neoliberal conceptions of community. 

2) Sweet Auburn: Constructing Auburn Avenue as a Heritage Tourist Destination
Utilizing redevelopment plans created by Central Atlanta Progress, this paper explores the process of constructing a heritage tourist landscape on Auburn Avenue.  Once home to the wealthiest African American community in the United States, Auburn Avenue went through a period of economic decline in the 1970’s and 1980’s.  In 2000, planners for the City of Atlanta focused on redeveloping the Auburn Avenue corridor.  At that time Central Atlanta Progress began to update plans to turn Auburn Avenue into the United States’ premiere African American tourist destination.  Utilizing those plans, this paper argues that the city’s redevelopment vision ties into particular aspects of African American identity that link with neoliberal economic policies in an effort to turn Auburn Avenue into a “culturetainment” district.  This vision is juxtaposed against the reaction of members of the community who seek an alternative redevelopment vision.

Luke Marzen (marzelj@auburn.edu) PhD, Kansas State Univ., Water Resources, Biogeography, Remote Sensing

1) Close Range Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Water Quality
Marzen discusses a project that uses a relatively inexpensive hand-held radiometer to estimate water quality of Lake Martin. RS observations are compared to field observations with ideal results in initial analysis.

2) Remote Sensing of Invasive Species
In this talk, Marzen addresses the remote sensing of invasive species with a focus on Cogongrass in Alabama. New technologies are discussed and compared in the ability to map invasive species.

Geology

Willis E. (Bill) Hames (hameswe@auburn.edu), PhD,  Virginia Tech, Metamorphic Petrology, Geocochronology

1) Laser 40Ar/39Ar Studies of Metallogeny and Magmatism in the Early Yellowstone hotspot

2) Laser 40Ar/39Ar Studies of Detrital Muscovite in Appalachian and Himalayan Basin

3) Flood Basalts of the Southeastern USA and Their Relationship to Pangea

David T. King, Jr. (kingdat@auburn.edu) PhD, U. Missouri- Columbia) Stratigraphy and Planetary/Impact Geology

1) Cosmic impact at Wetumpka, Alabama
A 7-km cosmic impact structure at Wetumpka, Alabama, is the result of a Late Cretaceous meteoritic collision in the northern reaches of the Gulf of Mexico.  This event was Alabama’s greatest natural disaster and is today one of the most puzzling parts of Alabama’s geology.  The impact, which was attended by a catastrophic return of displaced sea water, involved the Upper Cretaceous stratigraphic section and the underlying crystalline basement rocks.  Core drilling in 1998 and 2009 has revealed hidden aspects of the impact structure’s fill that shed light on rapid succession of events in this small but violent sedimentary basin.

2) Stratigraphy of Belize, north of the 17th parallel
This is a general review of stratigraphy in an area that, unlike the U.S., has no formal stratigraphy, few maps, many unknown formations, and an ill-defined geological history.

Ming-Kuo Lee (leeming@auburn.edu), PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Hydrogeology, Groundwater Geochemistry

1) Arsenic in Groundwater: A Geologic and Environmental Health Perspective
Widespread natural groundwater As contamination has been identified in Holocene alluvial aquifers.  Such As-contaminated groundwater is being used for drinking, cooking, or irrigation at a number of populated places around the world, often with tragic human health consequences.  In this presentation, Lee describes the geologic occurrence and biogeochemical controls on transport and mobilization of arsenic in alluvial aquifers, and the potential mitigation measures for human health impacts of groundwater As.

2) Groundwater and microbial processes of Alabama coastal plain aquifers
Chemical composition of groundwater evolves by various geochemical and microbial processes as it moves deeper into the subsurface. Using coastal plain aquifers in Alabama as an example, Lee demonstrates how microbial-mediated reactions and cation exchange processes form several discrete hydrochemical zones containing sequential peaks of major ions and trace elements along groundwater flow paths.  Isotope data and computer models reveal the source of salinity, the nature of fluid mixing, and residence time of groundwater in Alabama coastal plain aquifers.

Ron Lewis (lewisrd@auburn.edu) PhD, U. Texas-Austin, Invertebrate paleontology Systematics, Taphonomy, and Paleoecology

1)  Distribution and Taphonomy of Recent Benthic Foraminifera on an Isolated Carbonate Platform, San Salvador, Bahamas
Current models of the distribution of present-day, living benthic foraminifera from shoreline to shelf-edge across carbonate platforms emphasize the larger, symbiont-bearing species and pay little attention to agglutinated taxa or to attached (encrusting) species. This presentation summarizes the research done by Lewis and his students over the last decade with particular emphasis on the long-neglected platform margin, home to a distinctive assemblage of "wall forams" that include a new genus, a species previously not reported in the western hemisphere, and some encrusting forms over 5 cm in diameter.  

2) Rudolf Richter and Today's Actualistic Paleontology
In this history-of-geology presentation, Lewis addresses the life of an important German paleontologist, Rudolf Richter (1881-1957), based on translations of original text and conversations with his contemporaries. Richter established a research station on the North Sea 1928 and proposed the discipline of Aktuopaläontologie for the work done there on modern-day organisms in areas known to us as taphonomy, ichnology, and biofacies studies. The story of why this discipline did not catch on in the U.S. traces Richter's life through both world wars, his tenure as Director of the Senckenberg museum, and the rise of the U.S. oil and gas industry.

Charles E. (Chuck) Savrda (savrdce@auburn.edu), PhD,  University of Southern California (Sedimentology, Ichnology, Paleontology)

1) Compact Fossil-Lagerstätten- Prospecting for Petite Packages with Preciously Preserved Paleobiotas
A thin, laterally restricted clay lens—informally known as the Ingersoll shale—in the Upper Cretaceous (Santonian) Eutaw Formation, eastern Alabama, contains a diverse paleoflora, amber with biologic inclusions, and fossil feathers. In this presentation, Savrda describes this extraordinary terrestrial biota, the paleoenvironmental conditions that resulted in exception preservation, and the potential for finding comparable compact fossil-Lagerstätten in other marginal marine successions.

2) Trace Fossils in Tempestites: Implications for Understanding Storm Processes and Fair-Weather Conditions
In this talk, Savrda addresses the character of ichnofossils and ichnofabrics in storm-generated beds within ancient shallow marine sequences. Using examples from Eocene and Cretaceous sequences in the eastern Gulf coastal plain and Western Interior, he exemplifies how ichnofossils can aid in interpreting storm depositional processes, organism responses to storm events, and fair-weather benthic conditions.

 James A. Saunders (saundja@auburn.edu), PhD, Colorado School of Mines, Geochemistry and Economic Geology

1) 75 million years of magmatism  and ore genesis, western USA: Laramide to present
The distribution of porphyry and epithermal ores systems in the western USA are explored in space and time, and a new geochemical/geotectonic model is proposed.

2) Do super volcanoes make super gold deposits?
Saunders, Hames (AU) , Brueseke (KSU) and Kemenov (U-FL) recent research has shown a genetic connection between bonanza epithermal ore deposits in NV-ID and the initial emergence of the Yellowstone Hotspot, 16 million years ago.

3) Geomicrobiology and geochemistry of metal(loids)s in groundwater systems
Natural water-rock-organic carbon  reactons are catalyzed by bacteria leading to groundwater pollution in the case of As, U, Se etc. and point the way for smart ways to bioremediate metal(loids) and radionuclides.

Mark G. Steltenpohl (steltmg@auburn.edu), PhD, University of North Carolina, Structure and Tectonics.

1) Geology of the Pine Mountain window, Alabama and Georgia: Implications for southern Appalachian tectonic evolution
The Pine Mountain window is the Appalachian’s most southern and internal Grenville basement massif that retains its primary miogeoclinal cover, and its tectonic history has fed both classic and contentious debates. This tectonic window lies only 80 km north of the Gondwanan Suwannee terrane, which is buried beneath Mesozoic-Tertiary sediments of the Gulf Coastal Plain. The Suwannee terrane figured prominently in J. Tuzo Wilson’s 1966 article in Nature – Did the Atlantic close and reopen? – which led Kevin Burke to later coin the term ‘Wilson Cycle’.  This orphaned proto-African crustal block sandwiches peri-Gondwanan arcs of the Carolina superterrane between it and Laurentian basement in the Pine Mountain window.  The window and its flanking terranes, therefore, preserve a record of multiple Wilson Cycles, and I emphasize the latest one, starting with the rifting of Rodinia and ending with the opening of the modern Atlantic Ocean.

2) Tectonic transect across the Arctic Caledonian orogen, Norway and East Greenland
This presentation highlights nearly 30 years of tectonic studies done by the speaker and his colleagues on a classic orogenic transect that crosses both conjugate sides of the Caledonian orogen.  It traverses from east to west, beginning in the Swedish foreland (69oN latitude), crossing an external Baltic basement dome, a tremendous stack of Caledonian terranes, the ancient A-type (continent-continent) subduction zone boundary, and into a coastal internal basement window that exposes the deeply subducted (eclogitized) Baltic continental root. We then travel to East Greenland (72oN), with a quick stop in Iceland to view the mid-Atlantic Ridge that tore Norway apart from Greenland, to continue our transect into the upper plate of this spectacular Siluro-Devonian collisional zone.

 3) Comparing and contrasting tectonic evolution in the southern (AL and GA) and northern (Norway and East Greenland) extremities of the Appalachian-Caledonian mountain system
This presentation highlights similarities and differences in styles of tectonic studies and evolution between the two extreme exposures of the ancient Pangaea-spanning Appalachian-Caledonian mountain belt, in Alabama and arctic Norway, respectively. The talk is designed for an audience with general knowledge of the Appalachian orogen and builds on relating classic features of its tectonic evolution to that of a conjugate segment of the same orogen where most folks in the SE USA have less familarity.  Among some of the topics are: Are Taconic (Laurentian) relics left ‘orphaned’ behind in north Norway? Why are eclogites preserved in continental basement in Norway and not in Appalachian basement? How does the spectacular record for tectonic inheritance along the ancient rifted Laurentian margin (Appalachians) compare to the ancient Baltic margin (Caledonides)? And, Why do the Appalachians pale in comparison to the extreme magnitude and rapid extension of the continental lithosphere recorded in rocks of coastal Norway?

Ashraf Uddin (uddinas@auburn.edu) PhD, Florida State University, Sedimentary Geology, Basin Analysis.

1) Basin-wide stratigraphy of the Bengal basin
The extremely rapid uplift in the Himalayas, combined with very brief sediment transport times for the Bengal basin strata, means that detrital-grain age distributions can provide tight age constraints for stratigraphic horizons.  Detrital geochronological data along with petrographic studies and seismic reflection profiles reveal effective combination to develop stratigraphic correlation.

2) Tectonics and sedimentation history of Assam and Bengal basins
Although the Paleogene source areas of Assam basin have been recognized as the orogenic terranes in the eastern Himalayas and the Indo-Burman ranges, the provenance history of Paleogene sediments of the Bengal basin is still debatable. This presentation illustrates tectonic and sedimentation history of these two basins throughout the Cenozoic.

Lorraine Wolf (wolflor@auburn.edu), PhD, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Geophysics, Seismology.

1) Uncovering evidence for large prehistoric earthquakes in the New Madrid seismic zone
In this talk, Wolf discusses the use of earthquake-liquefaction features to estimate the earthquake chronology in the central U.S.  A possible recurrence of the 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquake sequence (M >7) poses a severe threat to people and property in this region, particularly those living near the metropolitan areas of St. Louis and Memphis. In this talk, Wolf describes how archeology, geophysics and geology unite to tackle the question of earthquake recurrence in the stable continental interior.

2) Noise to Signal: The use of microtremors for seismic hazard studies
The response of deep alluvial sediments to seismic wave energy from large earthquakes represents a long-standing concern to communities located in sedimentary basins and alluvial fans. Historical examples of devastating effects from amplified ground motions in soft sediments include such notable events as the 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquakes, the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the 1995 Kobe earthquake, and the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake.  Several studies suggest that ambient noise, or microtremors, can be used to identify areas susceptible to high strains from earthquake ground motions in advance of earthquake occurrence. This talk takes a close look at the use of microtremors in seismic hazard analyses and examines their success as well as their failure to predict ground vulnerability.

Haibo Zou (hzz0006@auburn.edu), PhD, FSU, Petrology and Geochemistry of Igneous Rocks

1) Time scales of magma storage estimated from zircon U-Th ages
This talk presents an overview of the recent development and application of zircon uranium-thorium disequilibrium method to the study of residence times of young evolved magmas in the crust. The ages of young (<350 ka, thousand years) zircons are measured in-situ by secondary ion mass spectrometry using an ion microprobe. I will also present my new results of zircon ages and formation temperatures from the Tianchi eruption (over the China and North Korean border) and the Tengchong volcanism from SE Tibet, respectively. The Tianchi eruption is one of the two largest explosive eruptions on the Earth in the last two thousand years. The new studies provide unique insights into the pre-eruption history and conditions.

2) U-Th isotope disequilibrium constraints on melt generation and melting
This talk presents an overview of the application of uranium-series disequilibrium to study melt generation in mid-ocean ridges, subduction zones, hotspots, and continental volcanism from W USA. I will also present my U-Th disequilibrium studies of continental basalts from the newly discovered Hainan plume (SE China), and the diffuse igneous province in northeast China, including the Wudaianch