• Arts & Sciences
• The Charles Center
• Honors Program
• Completed Honors Projects
• Geology

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

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 Late Cretaccous 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)
  James kaste + 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