GeoNews

The western burrowing owl is North America’s only owl that lives underground. They typically use ground squirrel burrows but may also occupy larger burrows made by mammals such as foxes or badgers. I’ve been fortunate to watch burrowing owls during their recent nesting season in open fields near Three Forks, Montana. Not only are the owls and their owlets fascinating to watch, I’m also interested…

This is a winter of limited snowpack for Yellowstone Park’s northern tier landscapes. We will certainly come to rue this lack of usual winter weather next summer, but it’s made travel from the park’s north entrance near Gardiner, Montana, to Cooke City, Montana, easy to do. Consequently, I’ve been able to readily explore Mammoth’s hot spring systems and to watch park animals in their winter…

Grizzly bears are sometimes encountered while doing fieldwork in the Greater Yellowstone area. The 2025 field season’s work is coming to a close. Most work during this season has been focused on Tertiary continental deposits in southwestern Montana, but some projects were directed at locatable and salable minerals – and even one dealing with “vintage” mining mill equipment. Wildlife encounters…

  It is not too late to register for the webinar on “Toxic Exposure and Women’s Health”. An underestimated issue we learn more and more about. Let’s come together to raise awareness and drive change. From Pure Earth on LinkedIn: “One week away! RSVP for next week’s webinar: Toxic Exposures and Women’s Health: Emerging Research and Global Solutions. The webinar, hosted in honor of International…

Mammal burrow complex in Eocene strata, SW Montana. Field work from last summer focused on late Eocene nodules and concretions in SW Montana terrestrial strata.  We found that most concretions and nodules are actually burrow complexes in paleosols. Many of these paleosols are developed in massive to blocky mudstone that contain pedogenic features characteristic of Inceptisols but there are also…

Paleogene tuff in Jefferson Valley, southwestern Montana I am currently part of a project focusing on western USA regional Cenozoic unconformities. We presented some of our results at the 2023 Geological Society of America (GSA Connects 2023) meeting held in Pittsburgh, PA 10/15-18, 2023, but I thought I’d post a brief recap of our presentation below. Our study area lies within western Montana.…

Eocene-Oligocene Geology and Vertebrate Paleontology of the Northern Jefferson Valley, Southwest Montana Field Trip Sponsored by the Montana Geological Society Field Trip Information: Saturday July 8th, 2023 Trip Leaders: Deb Hanneman (Whitehall GeoGroup Inc., Whitehall, MT) Don Lofgren (Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, Claremont, CA) On this field trip we will visit: – Late Eocene outcrops…

Photos needed: for the Pardee Session Spotlight on Positive, Diverse Female Role Models   GSA and AWG are looking for photos of women working in the field as part of their Pardee Keynote Symposia “P2. Spotlight on Positive and Diverse Female Role Models” which will be held at the GSA Connects 2023 Meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, 17 October, from 1:30 PM through 5:30 PM. Our goal…

The Association for Women Geoscientists (AWG) is starting a new Distinguished Lecturer series on April 5, 5 pm Mountain time. The first lecturer is Dr. Kathrin Schilling from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. AWG recommends that anyone interested for Dr. Schilling’s talk to register for it using either the QR code or the website link given above in the featured image graphic or…

Snow caps on boulders in YNP’s northeastern area make for interesting natural snow animal features! Being in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) in winter is always amazing. It’s a good time to watch animal behavior – minus the confusion of the many human interactions that one normally runs into during the summer season! It’s also a prime time to observe animal tracks in the snow and get insight into…

Association for Women Geoscientists and Brunton Sponsor Two Student Awards

The Association for Women Geoscientists (AWG) Brunton Award and Brunton Field Project Award promote the future of field mapping and data acquisition for the upcoming generation of people whose gender identity has been historically underrepresented in the geosciences. Applicants should have a passion for and exceptional experience with field work, including internships, field camp, coursework with…

Late Eocene-early Oligocene Travertine Deposits and their Correlation with High-Elevation Tertiary Strata, Gravelly Range-Greater Yellowstone Region, Southwest Montana

My field work in the Gravelly Range of southwest Montana has been on-going for a few years. Each field season there usually are field crews from the Alf Museum/Webb Schools headed up by Don Lofgren, along with many other earth scientists from a variety of places working together in the Gravelly Range. We base our field camp at the US Forest Service’s Black Butte Cabin for part of July and…

Yellowstone Flood Damage Update – Lamar Valley to Cooke City Road Reopens

Figure 1. The Lamar Valley to Cooke City road segment that reopened 10/15/2022 – months after the June 2022 flood event. Map cropped from: https://tinyurl.com/2p8wda8f The historic Yellowstone flood of early June 2022 dramatically changed the fluvial geomorphology in the northern part of Yellowstone National Park (YNP). According to the National Weather Service Billings, Montana, the Beartooth…

Association For Women Geoscientists - New Website! #AWG

The Association For Women Geoscientists (AWG) has migrated over to a new website! There are lots of new website features that will be rolling out over the next few months. Plus – we still have the standard AWG offerings listed on the new website such as awards/scholarships opportunities, job listings, resume review services, and mentoring connections. Link to the new website here: awg.org.…

Priabonian, late Eocene chronostratigraphy, depositional environment, and paleosol-trace fossil associations, Pipestone Springs, southwest Montana, USA

Ischyromys articulated skeleton from late Eocene strata, Pipestone locality, southwest Montana. Finally – the work done by myself and my co-authors, Don Lofgren, Steve Hasiotis, and Bill McIntosh, is published in the new issue of Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 67 (1): 5–20. Our work combines chronostratigraphy with depositional environment interpretations and paleosol-trace fossil associations for…