When I came to Missouri from West Texas, I expected to find boring, layer-cake geology.
But I was so excited to find that that is not the case.
I was blown away by the St. Francois Mountains
They are a gorgeous place to find exposures
of 1.4 billion year old rhyolites.
And they have old mines in them and they host iron deposits.
And for that reason they became my home.
While earning my masters at Missouri S&T
I was able to take a wide range of classes including
Granites and Rhyolites
Mining Economics and Electron Microscopy.
Once I began graduate school at Missouri S&T
I had two great internships,
One with Doe Run Mining Company, a world-class lead deposit,
and the second with Missouri Geological Survey,
where I eventually began my career.
In order to understand complex geologic structures like the folds you see behind me,
Dr. Eckert and I created a structure and geomechanics task force.
This task force brings together diverse groups of
scientists and engineers. Each with their own expertise.
The geologists coming out into the field and collecting the structural data
that they need to model
with sophisticated numerical models on the computer.
And the engineers doing this modeling get together with
the structural geologists, and we can
understand the origin of these folds.
Missouri S&T also has a long tradition
in the field of paleontology, which is my specialty.
In 1914, Josiah Bridge, who was then a
professor at Missouri School of Mines,
Introduced the field of micropaleontology to academia
for the first time.
That tradition continues today.
Paleontology and sedimentology
bringing a lot of bearing and information to
every other aspect of geology.
Even more option. Correct.
The geophysics group at Missouri S&T
emphasizes the combination of geology, physics, mathematics
and computer science to explore the earth.
We image the structure of the earth's deep interior
using elastic waves produced by earthquakes
and artificial sources
and conduct research projects and offer courses in
the area of exploration and theoretical geophysics.
We apply geophysical techniques for locating
oil, gas and minerals as well as
finding objects or substances to protect the environment.
