Geology
In its Honors Program the Geology Department awards Honors or High Honors to student research projects. The projects listed below have been defended successfully, and a copy of the thesis deposited in Swem Library.
Key:
- Student, "Thesis" (Honors level)
Committee Chair + Other Committee Members
2023-2024
- Jialu Tao, "A 35-year lake ice phenology record reveals climate change impacts on High Arctic" (Honors)
Nicholas Balascio + Dom Ciruzzi, Joanmarie Del Vecchio, Shannon White
2022-2023
- Heather Nicole Christensen, "Radon Risk Mapping Using Uranium Series Geochemistry and Social Vulnerability in the North Carolina Coastal Plain" (Honors) James Kaste + Rowan Lockwood, John Lombardini
- Selwyn Swift Heminway, "Modeled Changes in Foredune Morphology Influenced by Storm Intensity, Sea-level Rise, and Mitigation Strategies" (High Honors)
Christopher Hein + Dom Ciruzzi, Randy Chambers, Nicholas Cohn
- Vera Caitlin Soltes, "The Effect of Varying Soil and hydrologic conditions on GPR interpretations to detect unmarked graves in Colonial Williamsburg" (Honors)
Dom Ciruzzi + Brent Owens, Eric Schweickart
- Hannah Seibel Tebbens, "The Age and Origin of Nelsonite in the Central Virginia Blue Ridge" (Honors)
Christopher Bailey + Clementine Hamelin, Lisa Landino
- Olivia Marie Wachob, "From the Iapetus to the Atlantic: Geology, Geochronology, and Petrology of the eastern Blue Ridge cover sequence, central Virginia" (Honors)
Christopher Bailey + Brent Owens, Sara Bon-Harper
2021-2022
- Cole Cochran, "Honey as a Biomonitor for Air Pollutant Deposition in the Eastern United States using Ion Chromatography and Scanning Electron Microscopy" (Honors)
James Kaste + Nick Balascio, John Swaddle - Juliet Liscomb, "Age and Origin of the Albemarle-Nelson Mafic-Ultramafic Complex in Virginia's Eastern Blue Ridge: Rift Related Differentiated Sills?" (Honors)
Christopher Bailey + Brent Owens, Dorothy Ibes - Kathleen Chellman, "Geologic Controls on 137Cs Cycling by Terrestrial Vegetation in the Eastern U.S." (Honors)
James Kaste + Chuck Bailey, Randy Chambers - Rachel Parthasarthy, "Developing a Comprehensive 300-year Record of Contaminant Shifts in Lake Matoaka, Virginia" (Honors)
James Kaste + Nick Balascio, Randy Chambers
2020-2021
- Timothy Terlizzi, "Three Centuries of Vegetation Change in the William & Mary College Woods reconstructed using Phytoliths" (Honors)
Nicholas Balascio + Abigail Buffington, James Kaste - Terri Zach, "Structural Analysis of the Shores Mélange at the Seven Islands, central Virginia Piedmont" (Honors)
Christopher M. Bailey + Brent E. Owens, Annie Blazer
2019-2020
- Peyton Evans, "The effects of climate change and megafaunal extinction on the body size and diet of the hispid pocket mouse (Chaetodipus hispidus) over the late Quaternary" (Honors)
Rowan Lockwood + Nick Balascio, John Swaddle, Felisa Smith - Megan Gillen, "Vulnerability and Resilience of Tidal Marshes along an Estuarine Salinity Gradient" (High Honors)
Matthew Kirwan + Chuck Bailey, Greg Hancock, Shannon White - Evan Laughlin, "Deposition and Deformation of Marbles at the Blue Ridge - Piedmont Transition, Central Virginia" (Honors)
Chuck Bailey + Brent Owens, Rob Leventhal - Paul Volante, "The Advantages of 241Am as a Dating Tool in Sedimentary Systems" (Honors)
James Kaste + Nick Balascio, Nathan Kidwell - Ryan Walter, "Unmasking a Terrane Triple Point in Central Virginia" (High Honors)
James Kaste + Brent Owens, Matteo Cantarello
2018-19
- Caroline Abbott, "The Dimetrodon dilemma: Reassessing posture in sphenacodontians and related non-mammalian synapsids"
Rowan Lockwood + Chuck Bailey, John Swaddle, Hans-Dieter Sues - Kayla Cahoon, "Spheroidal Carbonaceous Particles in a Virginia Mill Pond Provide a Record of Local and Regional Coal Combustion"
Nicholas Balascio + Rowan Lockwood, Danielle Moretti-Langholtz - Hope Duke, "U/Pb Zircon Evidence for a Cryptic Suture in the Goochland Terrane, Virginia"
Christopher Bailey + Brent Owens, Drew Stelljes - Joanne Ensley, "How Effective are Retention Ponds at Mitigating the Effects of Urban Runoff?"
Greg Hancock + James Kaste, Rob Rose - Emily Mushlitz, "An 8000-year record of climate and environmental change from Lake Sandsvatn, Faroe Islands"
Nicholas Balascio + Heather Macdonald, Chris Hein
2017-18
- Joshua Himmelstein, "The Mechanisms of Pond Expansion in the Marshes of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, Maryland" (High Honors)
Matthew Kirwan + Gregory Hancock, Becky Jiron, Randolph Chambers - Katherine Lang, "Kinematics of Brittle and Ductile Deformation in the Catoctin Formation near Rockfish Gap, Virginia" (Honors)
Christopher Bailey + Martin Gallivan, Rebecca Jiron - Genevieve Pugsley, "Lacustrine Records of Holocene Climate History and Human-Driven Landscape Evolution in the Lofoten Islands, Norway" (High Honors)
Nicholas Balascio + William D'Andrea, Christopher Hein, Rowan Lockwood - Catherine Valery, "Eclogitization and Shear Zone Kinematics in the Lofoten Islands, Northern Norway" (Honors)
Christopher Bailey + Brent Owens, Jordan Walk
2016-17
- McNeill Bauer, "Factors Regulating Enhanced Atmospheric Deposition Across High Elevation Thresholds" (Honors)
James Kaste + Greg Hancock, Randy Chambers
- Yingchi Cheng, "Argillic Horizon Development and its Controls on Radium Redistribution in Coastal Plain, VA" (Honors)
James Kaste + Gregory Hancock, Robert Pike
- Jacqueline Huettenmoser, "A Comparison of Bare-bedrock Erosion Rates and Rock Properties at Drainage Margins: Implications for Bedrock Weathering in the Blue Ridge, VA" (Honors)
Gregory Hancock + James Kaste, Randy Chambers, Missy Eppes
- Jessica Raff, "Thresholds of Barrier Island Change: A Case Study of Parramore Island, Virginia Eastern Shore" (High Honors)
Christopher Hein + Nicholas Balascio, Heather Macdonald, James Perry
- Joshua Zimmt, "Exploring the Calvert Cliffs: Interpreting Classic Miocene Sequences through the Application of Strontium Isotope Stratigraphy and Paleoecology" (High Honors)
Rowan Lockwood + Christopher Bailey, Paul Heideman
2015-16
- John Christoph, "Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Low Shield Volcanoes in Ceraunius Fossae, Mars" (Honors)
Brent Owens + Chuck Bailey, Brent Garry, Mark Hinders - Claire Goydan, "Development of Cosmogenic 22Na as a Tool to Measure Young Water Age in Multiple Watersheds" (Honors)
Randy Chambers + Greg Hancock, Jim Kaste - Nahan Keithline, "Paleomagnetic Analysis of the Scottsville Mesozoic Rift Basin, Virginia: Implications for Regional Geologic History" (High Honors)
Christopher Bailey + Nicholas Balascio, Mainak Patel - Karin Lehnigk, "The Formation of Fluvial Valleys on Alba Mons, Mars" (High Honors)
Chuck Bailey + Brent Garry, Greg Hancock, Ross Iaci - Justin Shawler, "Multi-proxy Records of Anthropogenic Impacts on Fluvial Sediment Discharge at Joppa Flats, Massachusetts" (Honors)
Christopher Hein + James Kaste, Heather Macdonald, Elizabeth Canuel
2014-15
- Megan Flansburg, "Priming for Supereruption: the Hot Pre-Peach Spring Tuff Lavas and Peach Spring Tuff Magmatic Enclaves, Black Mountains, Arizona" (High Honors)
Christopher Bailey + Brent Owens and Doug DeBerry - Michelle Hoon-Starr, "Knickpoints and Disequilibrium in an Ancient Orogen: A Study of Central Appalachian Channel Profiles Around Crabtree Falls,
Virgina " (Honors)
Greg Hancock + Jakes Kaste and Marco Millones - Ciara Mills, "A Petrologic and Structural Analysis of Metavolcanic Rocks in the Western Piedmont and Eastern Blue Ridge Provinces, Central Virginia" (Honors)
Christopher Bailey + Brent Owens and Marylou Zapf
2013-14
- Hanna Bartram, "The Geometry, Kinematics, and History of the Thousand Lake Fault System, Central Utah" (Honors)
Christopher M. Bailey + Brent E. Owens, Frederick H. Smith - William Brightly, "Olfactory Ratio as a Potential Proxy for Behavior in Theropoda" (Honors)
Rowan Lockwood + John Swaddle, Christopher Bailey, Jon Allen - Ariel Deutsch, "Investigating Water Ice in Persistently Shadowed Craters in Mercury's North Polar Region" (High Honors)
Christopher Bailey + Joel Levine, Heather Macdonald, Eugene Tracy - Jeffrey Knox, "Study of Oil-Mineral Interactions by Atomic Force Spectroscopy" (Honors)
Hannes C. Schniepp + Christopher M. Bailey, Brent E. Owens - Charles Shobe, "Spatially Variable Rock Erodibility Related to the Interaction Between Erosion Rate and Weathering in Bedrock-Floored Channels, Great Falls Area, Virginia" (High Honors)
Greg Hancock + Jim Kaste, Randy Chambers - Monica Stone, "An Assessment of the Frequency and Cause of Concentrated Flow on Agricultural Fields in the Virginia Coastal Plain Portion of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed" (Honors)
Gregory Hancock + Stuart Hamilton, James Kaste
2012-13
- Maxwell Cunningham, "Characterizing Rock Erodibility and Channel Geometry Along the Longitudinal Profile of a Bedrock-Floored River" (Honors)
Greg Hancock + James Kaste, Mark Hinders
2011-12
- Emma Caverly, "Ephemeral Organic Carbon Fluxes to the Chesapeake Bay from Agricultural Runoff on the Virginia Coastal Plain" (Honors)
James Kaste + Randolph Chambers, Gregory Hancock - Lyndsey Funkhouser, "Using GIS to Quantify Riparian Buffer Bypassing in the Coastal Plain of Virginia within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed" (Honors)
Randolph Chambers + Stuart Hamilton, Gregory Hancock, James Kaste - Kevin Quinlan, "Structural Geology of the Scottsville Mesozoic Basin, Virginia" (Honors)
Christopher Bailey + R. Heather Macdonald, Jes Therkelsen - Matthew Sparacino, "Variability of Erodibility in Bedrock-floored Channels Produced by Differential Weathering" (Honors)
Gregory Hancock + Mark Hinders, James Kaste
2010-11
- Chelsea Jenkins, "Dating Deformation: Thermochronology and chemical and mineralogical changes in the Blue Ridge basement complex in Virginia" (Honors)
Christopher Bailey + Brent Owens, Deborah Bebout - Sean Moren, "The Taphonomy, Palcoccology, and Depositional Environment of
Vertebrete Microfossil Bonebeds from the LateCretaccous Hell Creek Formation in Garfield County, Montana" (Honors)
Rowan Lockwood + Matthew Carrano, Christopher Bailey, John Swaddle - Bradley Peters, "Mineralogical and Geochemical Constraints on the Origin of Ferruginous Quartzites in the Chopawamsie Terrane, Piedmont Province, Virginia" (Honors)
Brent Owens + R. Heather Macdonald, Robert Pike - Judith Sclafani, "A Morphological and Phylogenetic Examination of the Miocene and Pliocene Bivalve Genus Chesapecten" (Honors)
Rowan Lockwood + Heather Macdonald, John Swaddle
2009-10
- Guy Evans, "Timing and Magnitude of Soil Erosion in Owens Valley, California: A Combined 137Cs and 210Pbex Approach" (High Honors)
Jameskaste + Gregory Hancock, Carey Bagdassarian - Jonathon Garber, "Using In Situ 10Be Soil Profiles to Date Fluvial Terraces of the South Fork, Shenandoah River, VA" (High Honors)
Gregory Hancock + James Kaste, Stuart Hamilton - Andrew Laskowski, "3D Restoration of the Sugar Hollow Rift Basin, Blue Ridge, Virginia" (High Honors)
Christopher Bailey + Ryan Thigpen, Mike Kordosky - Brendan Murphy, "
Spatially variable erodibility in bedrock channels produced by weathering" (High Honors)
Gregory Hancock + James Kaste, Clay Clemens - Alexandra Snell, "Constraining the Deformational Geometry of the Yavapai-Mazatzal Orogeny Using Three
Dimentional Strain Analysis In Proterozoic Vallecito Conglomerate, Needle Mountains, Southwestern Colorado" (Honors)
Christopher Bailey + Ryan Thigpen, Stuart Hamilton
2008-09
- Nathan Burgess, "Combining Field Data and Computer Modeling to Improve Designs for Two Wet Detention Ponds in James City County, VA" (High Honors)
Greg Hancock + James Kaste, Randy Chambers, Richard Phillips - Adam Gattuso, "Tectonic Significance of the Late Neoproterozoic Swift Run Formation and Basement-Cover Unconformity in the Virginia Blue Ridge" (High Honors)
Christopher Bailey + Brent Owens, Stuart Hamilton, Scott Southworth - Graham Lederer, "Geology and Structural History of the Blue Ridge Basement Complex, Albemarle County, Virginia" (High Honors)
Christopher Bailey + Brent Owens, David Thompson, Scott Southworth - Ethan Theuerkauf, "Alongshore Variations in Foreshore Morphology,
grain Size, and Wave Dissipation at a SHoreline Erosional Hotspot" (High Honors)
Jesse McNinch+ Brent Owens, Christopher Bailey, Stuart Hamilton - Jennifer Whitten, "Bare Bedrock Erosion Rates in the Central
Appalachian , Virginia" (High Honors)
Greg Hancock + Christopher Bailey, James Kaste, Carey Bagdassarian
2007-08
- Ari Hartmann, "Newly Discovered Mesozoic Rift Basins in the Virginia Blue Ridge: Sedimentology, Provenance, Structure, and Tectonics" (High Honors)
Christopher Bailey + Heather Macdonald, Greg Capelli, Scott Southworth - Karl Lang, "Lithologic and Structural Control on the Evolution of a
Knickzone on the James River, Central Virginia Piedmont" (High Honors)
Gregory Hancock + Christopher Bailey, Brent Owens, Sarah Stafford - Lauren Parker, "Evidence for Knickzone Generation and Landscape Disequilibrium Through Surficial Studies of the James River, Central Virginia Piedmont" (Honors)
Gregory Hancock + Christopher Bailey, Heather Macdonald, Evan Feldman - Charles Plummer, "Searching for Tectonic Moments: Geochemical Tracers in Young Anatolian Basalts, Sivas, Turkey" (High Honors)
Brent Owens + Christopher Bailey, Robert Pike, Tanya Furman (Penn State Geoscience) - Austin Pryor, "Examination of the abundance and geographic range of rare taxa: survivorship patterns of Miocene-Pliocene marine invertebrate fauna of the Virginia Coastal Plain" (High Honors)
Rowan Lockwood and Karen Layou + Christopher Bailey, Chris Funk
2006-07
- Jessica Ball, "Geology and Geochemistry of the Osiris Trachyte, Fish Lake Plateau,
Utal " (Highest Honors)
Chuck Bailey + Brent Owens, Carey Bagdassarian - Christopher Bowles, "Structural Geometry and Deformation History of the Eastern Fish Lake Plateau, Utah" (Highest Honors)
Chuck Bailey + Greg Hancock, John Swaddle - Erin Fenlon, "Quantifying the Morphology and Reconstructing the Phylogeny of Venericard Bivalves along the Gulf Coastal Plain during the Paleocene and Eocene" (High Honors)
Rowan Lockwood + Heather Macdonald, Rochelle Seitz, Linda Ivany (Syracuse) - Eric Haug, "Surficial Geology of the UM Creek Drainage Basin, Fish Lake Plateau, Utah: Glaciation, Tectonics, and Mass Wasting" (High Honors)
Chuck Bailey + Greg Hancock, James Allegro - Matthew Oreska, "Paleoecology of the Cloverly Formation (Lower Cretaceous) Vertebrate Fauna from Microvertebrate Sites in the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming" (High Honors)
Rowan Lockwood + Heather Macdonald, John Swaddle, Matt Carrano (Smithsonian)
2005-06
- Laura Buchanan, "Kinematic and strain analysis of mylonites from the Suizo Mountains, Santa Catalina metamorphic core complex, Arizona USA" (High Honors)
Christopher Bailey + Brent Owens, Brian Holloway - Sarah Kolbe, "Morphological Variability, Body Size, and Survivorship in Veneroid Bivalves During the Plio-Pleistocene Extinction in Florida" (Highest Honors)
Rowan Lockwood + Heather Macdonald, George Gilchrist, Gene Hunt
2004-05
- Adam Forte
Christopher Bailey + Brent Owens, Todd Averett - Andrea Philippoff
Christopher Bailey + Greg Hancock, Ann Reed - Elizabeth Tennant
Steven Kuehl + Katherine Farnsworth, Brent Owens, Michael Tierney - Kathleen Wooton
Christopher Bailey + Brent Owens, J.C. Poutsma
