Hogan鈥檚 research is multifaceted. He needs to take into consideration the weather patterns on Mars. As the frozen formations deteriorate, dust is released from the ancient ice into the thin, carbon dioxide atmosphere.

鈥淭his ice has a lot of dust trapped in it,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like a glacier, but it doesn鈥檛 flow. It鈥檚 been there for millions, potentially billions, of years. There are colored bands on the outside of the ice, and each one of these bands contains different types of dust. That dust is released, and it鈥檚 interacting with the surrounding environment and spreading across the surface of the planet.鈥�

Hogan鈥檚 interest in this research began in high school when he saw images of the cliffs on Mars. The geosciences faculty at 杨贵妃传媒视频 gave him the opportunity to dig deeper into this interest. The research idea came together when he was participating in a project with Jeff Clark, professor of geosciences, tracking the progression of cliffs along Lake Michigan. He realized the drone imagery he and other students were taking of the cliffs resembled the images he had seen of the deterioration on Mars.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 realize I would have the time or ability to work on something like this, but through different classes in the Geosciences Department, my interest in those questions grew,鈥� Hogan said. 鈥淭he approach to learning in the Geosciences Department is very commendable. We鈥檙e kind of all in it together, and you get to ask really interesting questions.鈥�

Hogan said he鈥檚 gaining valuable skills via this research project, and he鈥檒l take those into his next endeavors. After his time at 杨贵妃传媒视频, Hogan plans to continue his education in space sciences with a postgraduate program, and then work toward earning a Ph.D.聽

鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of skills I鈥檝e gained from this in terms of structuring my research questions and planning, and thinking about how I use my funding,鈥� he said.聽

Knudsen, whose academic interests include environmental mineralogy and low-temperature geochemistry, has been on the 杨贵妃传媒视频 faculty since 2003. He received a bachelor鈥檚 degree from Hamilton College and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Idaho.

We caught up with him to talk about interests in and out of the classroom.

In the classroom

Inside info:聽What鈥檚 one thing you want every student coming into your classes to know about you?

I am in constant awe of this incredible planet that we call home. Not only do we reside on, but we are also a fundamental part of Earth. I consider myself incredibly lucky to spend my career striving to better understand Earth and our relationship with it. That I get to share this passion with my students is just awesome.

Getting energized:聽What work have you done or will you be doing at 杨贵妃传媒视频 that gets you the most excited?

Easy! My study of banded iron formations (BIF) gets me really excited. To start, these are eye-catchingly beautiful rocks with their stripes of steely grays and deep reds. In studying these ancient rocks, I have focused on the stories they tell about the evolution of our atmosphere as oxygen became more prevalent in the air some 2 billion years ago as photosynthetic organisms reshaped our planet. Not only that, but here in Wisconsin, these rocks are preserved as the backbone of the Penokee Hills, remnants of an ancient, massive mountain range that stood as tall as the Alps billions of years ago. To make it even more exciting, these mountains formed as plates collided in an important step in the assembly of our continent. Finally, these rocks, forming a long and tough ridgeline running east-west across northern Wisconsin, impacted the flow of the glaciers more recently (geologically speaking), playing a part in the giant sheets of ice carving out Lake Superior and the landscape of Wisconsin. So, the BIF in Wisconsin connects to the air we breathe, the land below our feet, and the shape of the water in our region. Amazing!聽I carry a small piece of BIF in my pocket to remind me of the amazing stories the rocks can share with us. Perhaps the best part of all, is that I get to take a group of students up to the Penokee Hills each fall to share these incredible stories with them.

Going places:聽Is there an example of somewhere your career has taken you (either a physical space or something more intellectual, emotional, or spiritual) that took you by surprise?

Yes! That place is a sandy beach on the shores of Lake Superior at the mouth of the Bad River, sitting with my class by a fire of driftwood collected on the beach, listening to the stories of Mike Wiggins Jr., a tribal elder and leader of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe. The Bad River (or Mashkiiziibii-Medicine River, in Ojibwe) has its headwaters in the Penokee Hills, then flows to Lake Superior. My students and I visit with Mike the day after we visit the incredible rocks of the Penokee Hills. Mike鈥檚 stories help weave humans into the rich geological and ecological story of this incredible place.

Out of the classroom

This or that:聽If you weren鈥檛 teaching for a living, what would you be doing?聽聽

I would probably be spending as much time in my canoe on some lake up north. But I鈥檇 still be looking at rocks and talking about geology until my family and my dog couldn鈥檛 take it anymore. So, it鈥檚 probably best that I get to teach at 杨贵妃传媒视频!

Right at home:聽Whether for work, relaxation or reflection, what鈥檚 your favorite spot on campus?

I really enjoy spending time by the river. The flow of the water is calming and centering for me.

One book, one recording, one film:聽Name one of each that speaks to your soul? Or you would recommend to a friend? Or both?

There are so many incredible books. I am going to go with Gathering Moss by Robin Wall-Kimmerer. It is a simply wonderful book about moss, the beautiful and humble places that moss grows, and also her incredible story of being a scientist, indigenous woman, and a mother. Moss, not unlike rocks, is quite beautiful and amazing, but often overlooked, and it asks that you be willing to get down on your hands and knees with a hand lens to your eye to fully appreciate their beauty. Her writing is truly incredible!

Greg Brown is a singer-songwriter from southern Iowa. I love all his works, but he has a live album, The Live One, that is incredible. This recording captures his humor, story-telling, and incredible poetry. His deep and gravely baritone voice paints images of beautiful yet humble landscapes: a trout stream in the U.P., a small, wooded farm in southern Iowa, or the hills of the Driftless region. His lyrics and storytelling get at what it means to be a human in relation with other humans and the land around us. He sings about his grandmother鈥檚 canned goods still having the taste of summer in them, asking her to pass 鈥渟ome more potatoes and a thunderstorm.鈥� I love that imagery.聽

The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes is a wonderfully campy short film produced by the National Film Board of Canada from 1969. It follows a bearded, flannel-clad traveler as he paddles his wood-canvas canoe through geologic history, comically experiencing the formation of the Great Lakes. What could be more riveting. Add in a delightful square dance tune summarizing the geologic history of the Great Lakes and you have a true classic.

In the end, she found value in telling her story, from growing up in western Wisconsin, to her trials and tribulations in becoming a geology scholar, to how her drive to learn and share all she can about our planet infused all aspects of her life, including parenthood, friendships, and her research and teaching since joining the 杨贵妃传媒视频 faculty in 1995.

鈥淚n my earlier books, I had incorporated short personal anecdotes as entry points into geologic concepts, but nothing really autobiographical,鈥� she said.聽鈥淚 finally realized that I could use the arc of my own life鈥攕pecifically, my deepening understanding of the earth over my career鈥攁s a way to ease people into a geologic worldview. With this book, I’m trusting readers to stick with me through some scientific concepts that are more subtle than those I’ve talked聽about in my previous books.聽People may not realize it, but we are currently in a golden age for the geosciences, in which we finally have the conceptual frameworks, instrumentation, and computational capacity to grapple with the immense complexity聽of the Earth system in four dimensions, including time.鈥�

, featured online and in the Sept. 2 edition of its print magazine.

鈥淚n its pages, what Bjornerud has learned serves to illuminate what she already knew: each of the book鈥檚 ten chapters is structured around a variety of rock that provides the context for a particular era of her life, from childhood to the present day,鈥� the review reads. 鈥淭he result is one of the more unusual memoirs of recent memory, combining personal history with a detailed account of the building blocks of the planet. What the two halves of this tale share is an interest in the evolution of existence鈥攊n the forces, both quotidian and cosmic, that shape us.鈥�

In the book鈥檚 prologue, Bjornerud speaks to her relationship with geology that has grown from her time as an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota and a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She calls the book an invitation into her 鈥済eo-centric鈥� worldview, in which we have much to learn from the rocks.

鈥淚f my initial relationship with geology was purely intellectual, it has become over time a philosophical and even spiritual worldview, imbuing my life with meaning,鈥� she writes.聽鈥淢y work as a field geologist has led to unlikely connections with people from across the world鈥攆riendships rooted in a shared sense of humility and wonder in the presence of nature. I also have a feeling of amity with rocks, after spending such a large fraction of my waking hours with them over many years, immersed in their narratives.鈥�

“I finally realized that I could use the arc of my own life鈥攕pecifically, my deepening understanding of the earth over my career鈥攁s a way to ease people into a geologic worldview.”
– Marcia Bjornerud

In addition to her four books, Bjornerud鈥檚 storytelling has been showcased frequently in the pages of The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, and other publications.

When Timefulness was released six years ago, it drew notable honors. It was named to the 2019 Phi Beta Kappa Book Awards Short List; selected as a finalist in the Science and Technology category for the 2018 Los Angeles Times Book Prize; given a PROSE Award from the American Association of Publishers in the category of popular science and mathematics; and long-listed for the PEN America Awards, among the nation鈥檚 most prestigious literary awards.

In addition to The New Yorker review, Turning to Stone has already drawn praise from other outlets. Publisher鈥檚 Weekly calls it a 鈥渞emarkably human take on the geological world.鈥� Science News calls it 鈥減art memoir, part geology explainer, part meditation on science and society.鈥澛�

鈥淏jornerud鈥檚 life scaffolds each chapter; the rocks set the scene,鈥� the Science News review reads. 鈥淭he book is largely chronological, from Bjornerud鈥檚 childhood to the present day. Each chapter features a titular rock type that holds some significance to her life.鈥�

Bjornerud hopes blending her 鈥渟mall human story鈥� with those of the rocks will allow readers to see themselves as being part of Earth鈥檚 ecosystem.

鈥淭he absence of rigorous geoscience classes in schools means that most people spend their entire lives on Earth like bad tourists, enjoying the planet’s hospitality without ever learning much about its language and history,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hile not everyone can or should become a geologist, I believe that geologic habits of mind鈥攁n instinct for Earth鈥檚 rhythms, a feeling for our place in its story鈥攁re essential to the physical and psychic well-being of humankind.鈥�

Others, though, end up on crash courses with the larger bodies that outlived them, and some of these tear through Earth鈥檚 atmosphere as meteors. Hurtling in from space, most meteors experience violent ends when they strike Earth鈥檚 surface or, in the case of the Gibeon, explode while still airborne. Once they hit the ground, these messengers from the early solar system are deemed meteorites: keepers of geologic stories older than any found on Earth.

When the meteorite fragment reached me, I felt not only awe of these hidden stories, but also surprise. One side of the sample had a spectacular cross-hatched pattern on it, reflecting the crystallization of molten iron-nickel alloy deep in the interior of an ancient ill-fated planet. This was the side to look at for those stories of deep time we were to explore in that course. But I flipped it over before sending it on to the next person, and was greeted with another surprise in the form of a damaged label sticker:

鈥淢UKEROP/ (Amalia-Goamus)/ Ger. S. W. Africa, Off./ Finest Oct., F鈥檇 19[XX], [X]OO[X鈥鈥�

I wasn鈥檛 expecting this little record-keeper to bear signs of a literally legible story. But this is where my other major comes into play. Being a student of German as well as geoscience, I have learned much about the German Empire鈥檚 colonial exploits in Africa, from the 鈥淪cramble for Africa鈥� in the 1880s through Germany鈥檚 forced ceding of its colonies at the conclusion of World War I. I recognized instantly that this piece, in having its place of discovery named, doubtlessly had some sort of ties to German colonialism in Namibia (once known as German Southwest Africa). But how did this chunk of cosmic metal make its way from a former German colony to a university some 8,000 miles away?

I pondered this as Professor Bjornerud told us a story about how she rediscovered the meteorite samples we handled. In 1998, prior to the construction of Steitz Hall, the building then at that site, Stephenson Hall鈥攖he long-time home of the Geology Department鈥攈ad to be emptied and demolished. Moving everything in the department, including a century鈥檚 worth of rocks, books, and equipment, was a formidable task. Just a week prior to the wrecking machines鈥� arrival, however, a forgotten subbasement under Stephenson was found hidden behind a display case, filled to the ceiling with crates of more rock samples.

Professor Bjornerud, then still fairly new to 杨贵妃传媒视频, knew that it would be impossible to save everything, and decided to focus on identifying and rescuing unique or noteworthy samples. In searching through the basement, a further odd discovery was made: a locked metal box. With a few hits from a rock hammer, the box was opened, and inside was a collection of meteorites. Had that box not been cracked in time, had that basement not been rediscovered in time, these time-traveling artifacts would have been lost forever. To think that all that separated billions of years of storytelling from being lost to us was a matter of days鈥�

This fascinating story again begged the same question: how did this meteorite end up here? And beyond that, how and why was it forgotten about? How many other stories might be hidden within the patterns dancing on the surface of this little piece of metal?

These were the questions I sought to uncover in my senior capstone project, using research resources here at 杨贵妃传媒视频. Though my majors may seem to be largely discrete fields of study, this is not so. Earlier in my junior year, I wasn鈥檛 quite sure if I could find an interdisciplinary capstone project involving German and geoscience. In first meeting this meteorite, I knew I鈥檇 found at least one solid connection.

These connections only grew in number with the more scholarly research I鈥檇 uncovered online. Using resources including the Mudd Library鈥檚 online scholarly search tools, I discovered that German-speaking scientists made fundamental contributions to the study of meteorites. In fact, it was a German scientist, Ernst Chladni, who in 1794, was the first in modern Western science to suggest that meteorites had an extraterrestrial origin. Another German scientist, E. Wiechert, was in 1897 the first to suggest that iron-nickel meteorites originated in the cores of ancient planetoids, a bold statement considering this predated the confirmation of Earth having a metallic core by some three decades.

Beyond connections such as these, my work on the meteorite鈥檚 鈥渂iography鈥� was also united by the analytical approaches of my two disciplines. In the German department, an approach commonly used in classes is New Historicism, which entails interpreting works or artifacts of any medium as texts that in association with each other also speak to the cultural contexts they are developed within. In the Geosciences Department, similarly, we see rocks as complex texts.聽 Professor Bjornerud calls this 鈥渞eading the rocks鈥濃�攍earning the ways in which various events and processes leave their signatures in rock. I realized that my two majors, as dissimilar as they seem, ultimately employ quite similar methods of analysis. By bringing both together in a reading of this meteorite and texts surrounding the larger Gibeon Meteorite, I鈥檝e been able to compile a much more holistic version of the story than would otherwise have been possible.

That brings us back to the 杨贵妃传媒视频 connections. What do known documents say about how a piece of the Gibeon meteorite ended up here?

Though a definitive answer was ultimately not uncovered during my project (though one may exist out there somewhere!), the deep dives I took into 杨贵妃传媒视频’s archives, with the help of archivist Claire Cannell, did聽suggest a likely chain of events. The incomplete label no longer lists a full year (19[XX]), but based on tiny flecks of ink that remain, it can be reasonably interpreted that the third number is a 1. Based on when the German colony of German Southwest Africa existed, that narrows it down slightly further to 1910 to about 1918. The names 鈥淢ukerop (Amalia-Goamus)鈥� on the label indicates it was found on one of the neighboring colonial-era farmsteads of Amalia and Goamus, near where a sacred rock formation known as the Mukurob, or Mukerop, stood. Though not part of the meteorite itself and unrelated beyond the name, the Mukurob also had its place as an important piece of geological history in Namibia. Several variations of myths surround the former sandstone finger jutting into the sky, fittingly named 鈥淕od鈥檚 Finger鈥� in the language of the local Nama people. One such story states that once the formation fell, the reign of white colonial control in the country would come to an end. And it did鈥攐nly about a year after the Mukurob fell following heavy rains in 1988, Namibia achieved independence from South Africa.

The Gibeon meteorite, found in the same region, has also been an important part of Nama culture.聽 For centuries Nama artisans have used meteoritic iron to craft spearheads and other objects and the meteorite fragments are considered national treasures with strict legal protections. Today, even searching for remaining meteorite pieces is illegal. These regulations represent a reaction to exploitation during colonial times, when settlers (largely white Europeans, especially Germans pre-WWI) collected literal tons of Gibeon material to be shipped back to Europe. This fostered a substantial amount of geologic research to be done, but at a great cost: the plundering of resources, including minerals and meteorites, was part of a larger humanitarian crisis that culminated with the genocide of the native Nama and Herero under German rule from 1904 to 1908.

鈥� But back to 杨贵妃传媒视频.

I spent many hours in the Mudd Library鈥檚 archives, with guidance from Cannell, poring over the entire documented history they have on the Geology (and since 2019, Geoscience) Department at 杨贵妃传媒视频. Going through about 100 years鈥� worth of documents is no small task. Where does one even start? Armed with a trusty notebook and pencil, I went through folder by folder, box by box, taking notes on each document that might yield clues as to how this meteorite piece got to 杨贵妃传媒视频. That brought me to this most likely chain of events:

“Going through about 100 years鈥� worth of documents is no small task. Where does one even start? Armed with a trusty notebook and pencil, I went through folder by folder, box by box, taking notes on each document that might yield clues as to how this meteorite piece got to 杨贵妃传媒视频.”
– Hal M. Delong ’24

In the 1940s, several students in the geology department were destined to go on to adventurous international careers in mineral exploration. Among these students was Harry Abendroth 鈥�49, a prot茅g茅 of Professor William (Bill) Read (1941-81), an avid researcher and collector of North American meteorites. The locked box from the Stephenson Hall subbasement included several other meteorites鈥攁ll from North America鈥攁nd notes written by Read. But the sole Namibian sample is a definite outlier. A possible clue to how it ended up in his collection appears in an article in The Lawrentian from Jan. 20, 1956. The article describes a visit from alumnus Abendroth in late 1955, in which he gave a presentation to students and faculty of the Geology Department: 鈥淎bendroth recently returned from several years of field work on chrome deposits in the Transvaal [South Africa]. 鈥� The geologist illustrated his remarks with colored slides showing methods of mapping and diamond drilling, as well as with pictures of rock types encountered and general views of the terrain. A suite of specimens, also used to illustrate the lecture, was left by Abendroth to be added to the 杨贵妃传媒视频 minerals collection.鈥�

Although the article does not mention the specific nature of these specimens, it鈥檚 entirely likely that the Gibeon fragment was among them. Given the geographic proximity of South Africa to Namibia and Abendroth鈥檚 interest in metals, it鈥檚 possible that the Gibeon sample may have been picked up somewhere along his travels in southern Africa and given as a gift to his old mentor, Professor Read, during this visit.

Reading the rocks doesn鈥檛 always mean reading word-for-word. Sometimes, reasonable interpretations have to be made in the face of some uncertainty. While there is no means to verify the story beyond any doubt, we now have a general sense of the journey that this ancient metallic globetrotter (and space-trotter!) took from the depths of the solar system to southern Africa to a 杨贵妃传媒视频 subbasement and back into the classroom.

There is history that is yet to be written, too. In the interest of repatriating this piece, given that it was collected during colonial times under ethically dubious circumstances, I contacted the National Earth Science Museum in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, to see if they would be interested in receiving this piece. They said yes! The next leg of its journey is now on the horizon, returning it to the land it rightfully belongs to after all this time.

The process of building spectrometers requires multiple skill sets, including soldering, 3D printing, electronic wiring, and programming. Each member of the team brings an essential skill to the project, and all three are learning something new鈥擟losson brought experience in 3D printing; McClain had experience in soldering, for example.

鈥淪ydney and I hadn鈥檛 soldered before,鈥� Clark said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e kind of learning this as we go, which is fun, to learn new skills.鈥�

The skills being developed will be useful long after this project concludes.

鈥淎ll the skills we鈥檙e learning here, whether it鈥檚 soldering, learning how to troubleshoot, or coding鈥攖hey鈥檙e applicable across a lot of different fields, and it鈥檚 going to be helpful in the future,鈥� Closson said.

McClain has been a student in the Clark-led classes where these updated spectrometers will now be used.聽

鈥淎nd I did the drone research project over the summer,鈥� she said.

McClain said working on the construction of the spectrometers gives her greater insight into the technology involved.

Clark, a member of the 杨贵妃传媒视频 faculty since 1998, has been聽leading students in field research projects using drones, GIS, and GPS to map changes in the Earth鈥檚 surface. His research has explored changes in land cover and crop phenology and the rate of bluff retreat along the Lake Michigan shoreline. His research also has helped inform renewable energy infrastructure at Bj枚rklunden.

Building their own spectrometers, though, is new territory. It鈥檚 required a lot of stopping and starting.

鈥淚 had a lot of fun troubleshooting,鈥� Clark said. 鈥淛ust trying to devise ways of testing that the connections were good.鈥�

It remains a work in progress. Once they nail down the process of building the devices, Clark expects each unit to take 10 to 12 hours to complete.

This isn鈥檛 the first time Closson and McClain have benefited from WSGC funding. A year ago, Closson was the recipient of WSGC鈥檚 highly competitive statewide scholarship. This year that scholarship was awarded to McClain. The scholarship, separate from the grant awarded to Clark, assists individual students in their undergraduate studies.

The highly competitive selection process includes applicants from the entire state. Closson is proud to be supported by an organization she admires.

鈥淚鈥檇 love to work at NASA one day,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a well-funded program with lots of brilliant people. That鈥檚 the dream; to work with brilliant people and have the funding to do research.鈥�

In addition to the $2,000 award, Closson was invited to the 34th Annual Wisconsin Space Conference.

Closson鈥檚 application expressed her interest in comparing the geology of the earth to geology of other rocky bodies.

Closson said one of the biggest ideas in geoscience is learning how to read the rocks. Although the rules for how to do this differ from planet to planet, she wants to read the rocks of other rocky bodies to understand where we came from and where we might end up.

聽鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to figure out how and why things formed the way they did, and how that might play into the bigger question of life forming,鈥� Closson said.

She finds meteorites to be particularly interesting, especially in their relation to life. Recent studies have shown the building blocks of DNA and RNA present in meteorites. While abroad in London next year, Closson plans to study the extensive collection of meteorites and meteorite fragments at the Natural History Museum.

鈥淢eteorites are the beginning of the solar system,鈥� Closson said. 鈥淭hey can tell us what the early solar system looked like, what that dust cloud we came out of looked like, and how fast it all happened.鈥�

Closson adores the Geosciences Department at 杨贵妃传媒视频.

鈥淚t is the best,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 so much fun and you learn so much. The people are incredible, the professors are incredible.鈥�

Closson said she loves the hands-on approach the department has and has cherished memories from the trips she鈥檚 done with her classes.

After 杨贵妃传媒视频, she plans to continue her education in meteoritics or planetary studies.

鈥淪he has a good intuitive feel for the geosciences,鈥� Clark said. 鈥淲e deal with really long timescales鈥nd she has a great sense of that.鈥�

Taylor and Newman concurred that seeing so many people interested in the same topic at the conference was eye-opening as they consider career paths in the sciences. It was an opportunity to network and learn more about the field from the numerous graduate students and post-secondary faculty who attended the conference.

Presenting as researchers was also a huge confidence booster.

鈥淚t鈥檚 easy to forget we鈥檙e scientists,鈥� Taylor said. 鈥淕oing to AGU helped us realize we are doing science, we are doing experiments, and have been for a very long time. We absolutely have the skills to consider ourselves scientists.鈥�

In addition to the AGU conference, the duo鈥檚 research has been presented at a LURF gathering and the Mid-states Research Consortium. Newman and Taylor said the other conferences gave them confidence going into the AGU conference, and Ribbons provided valuable feedback.

鈥淚 love the geoscience faculty,鈥� Taylor said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e a smaller department, but they鈥檙e very supportive. I鈥檝e interacted with all of them in some way.鈥�

Newman agreed: 鈥淭hey care about seeing you do well, even outside of being a student.鈥�

Ribbons said the students were meticulous in developing and executing their research procedures.

鈥淢adeline and Amber were consistently hard-working students and together we worked on getting these hydroponics set-ups consistently producing microgreens,鈥� Ribbons said.

The research began by repurposing an existing PVC-pipe system, and then growing the project to include other hydroponic set-ups. They tracked the growth of the plants for a number of weeks, and then took DNA samples by scraping the film off the plants鈥� roots. They performed a process called qPCR, or quantitative polymerase chain reactions, which quantified the number of bacteria and fungi in the samples. The isolated DNA was then sent to UW-Madison, where it is being sequenced to identify the precise species of microbes the plants carry. The next step in their research will be to perform statistical analysis of the results to determine if the microbial composition is significant or simply by chance.

By exploring the microbial makeup of these microgreens, Taylor and Newman are hoping to identify plants with high levels of nitrifying bacteria, which are bacteria that turn ammonia into nitrate for energy.

鈥淏acteria like that is really beneficial for plant growth,鈥� Taylor said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of hope that the next big thing in agriculture will be bio-fertilizers, instead of harmful chemical fertilizers.鈥�

Taylor and Newman are hopeful their research will help build a strong foundation of knowledge that will lead to effective and widespread bio-fertilizers.

鈥淭he environment and nature have always been at the forefront of my life,鈥� Newman said. 鈥淏eing able to go to school and study both music and environmental science, which are two of my core values, is really cool.鈥�

Taylor said she initially planned to be an English major. She said , the Walter Schober Professor of Environmental Studies and professor of geosciences and author of Reading the Rocks:聽The Autobiography of the Earth; Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World;聽and聽Geopedia: A Brief Compendium of Geologic Curiosities, inspired her to explore the sciences.

鈥淚 took an environmental science class and realized it wasn鈥檛 that I didn鈥檛 like science or was bad at science, I just wasn鈥檛 experiencing it in the right way,鈥� she said.

Going places:聽Is there an example of somewhere your career has taken you (either a physical space or something more intellectual, emotional or spiritual) that took you by surprise?

I am always surprised and often in awe of the natural beauty of landscapes. I鈥檝e been fortunate enough to have done a fair bit of traveling. My top three awe-inspiring places are the Dolomites in Italy, the Grand Canyon, which I鈥檝e hiked and rafted, and Mauna Loa in Hawaii, which I鈥檝e summited twice. I鈥檓 privileged to have a job and a discipline that affords me these opportunities.聽

Out of the classroom

This or that:聽If you weren鈥檛 teaching for a living, what would you be doing?聽

I鈥檇 like to say I鈥檇 be a baker or a pro poker player, but more likely I鈥檇 be a consultant or work for the USGS or state geological survey.

Right at home:聽Whether for work, relaxation or reflection, what鈥檚 your favorite spot on campus?

Oh, the wooded trail behind Sage/Trever. I鈥檓 glad they didn鈥檛 pave that over and put in lights. We need some spaces on campus that are quiet, undeveloped, and even dark.

One book, one recording, one film:聽Name one of each that speaks to your soul? Or you would recommend to a friend? Or both?

I found Karl Ove Knausgaard鈥檚 six-volume series, My Struggle, spoke to me on many levels. His writing demands that you put the book down every dozen pages and just think. It is a very slow read. Probably book No. 1 is the best; if you don鈥檛 want to wade through 3,000 pages.

I prefer live music over recordings. Listening to live music nearly always gives me shivers鈥擨 don鈥檛 get that with recordings, even live ones, because they lack the presence and atmosphere of a performance. If I have to choose a recording, I would choose Pink Floyd鈥檚 Time. The things they wrote about are relevant to middle-aged me and yet they were very young when composing. I think most artists are possessed with that keen sort of insight and can almost transport themselves and their audience through time and space.

Film: I am strangely attracted to historically based war movies. Saving Private Ryan keeps me wondering what I would do in those stressful, sometimes ambiguous situations. And I don鈥檛 really know. I don鈥檛 think any of us do unless we are faced with those choices in that setting. I sincerely hope to never have to be in that situation, but I imagine you鈥檇 learn quite a lot about yourself.

We鈥檒l start our tour far back in the mists of the geologic past, with the beautiful stone panels around the fireplace in the 4th floor lounge of Hiett Hall. This is the Morton Gneiss, a high-temperature metamorphic rock quarried in southwestern Minnesota, part of an ancient continental fragment exposed in the Minnesota River Valley. The Morton Gneiss is famous to geologists because it once held the record as the oldest known rock in the world. The oldest parts of this rock formed 3.5 billion years ago, during the Archean eon of Precambrian time, long before the dinosaurs, in fact before there were any plants and animals on land, or oxygen in the atmosphere鈥攁nd probably even before Earth had settled into the habit of plate tectonics.

Morton Gneiss was a popular building stone in the first decades of the 20th century, and many buildings throughout the U.S., including the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, were clad in this venerable rock. The panels in the Hiett fireplace once served as the facing stone of the J.C. Penney building in downtown Appleton. When that building was demolished in 2002鈥攖he same year Hiett Hall was under construction鈥攆aculty in the Geology (now Geosciences) Department asked the owner of the building to donate the polished stone to the university. The slabs were recut and incorporated into the impressive fireplace.

Even from the few panels here, one can infer a significant amount about the early geologic history of the North American continent. Using a basic geologic concept called the 鈥減rinciple of cross cutting relationships鈥� (the idea that if feature A is cut by another feature B, A must be older than B), it is possible to 鈥渞ead鈥� the sequence of events that formed this rock. Look for inclusions (isolated bits of older rock engulfed by younger igneous rock), foliations (layering defined by aligned minerals), veins (planar intrusions), pegmatite masses (partially remelted areas with large crystals), and boudins (pulled-apart blocks).

If you don鈥檛 want to think that hard, you can just enjoy the rock aesthetically!

Stop 2: The Rock, on Main Hall Green

A 杨贵妃传媒视频 icon, The Rock was originally brought to campus in 1895 by geology students from a field trip in the New London area鈥攁n incredible feat, given that the boulder weighs more than two tons. It inspired equally ambitious pranks and hijinks by many subsequent generations of students who repeatedly moved, buried, painted, and hid it鈥攗ntil 1998, when it finally disappeared from campus altogether. Its whereabouts were unknown for almost 20 years until expert sleuthing by students Sarah Axtell 鈥�17 and Jon Hanrahan 鈥�16 led to the rediscovery of The Rock on a local family farm that was home to two brothers who were students at the time of the 鈥渞ocknapping.鈥� The family agreed that The Rock belonged back on campus, and it was installed at its current site in 2018. Axtell and Hanrahan told the full story of The Rock鈥檚 odyssey in their podcast, No Stone Unturned.

At the time of its homecoming, The Rock was cleaned of the many layers of paint it had accrued, and for a few weeks its natural granitic exterior was exposed for the first time in decades. Geoscience faculty fortunately examined the boulder before it was painted again and noted its similarity to rocks in Waupaca, Shawano, and Menominee counties that are part of the 鈥淲olf River Batholith,鈥� a complex of mainly granitic intrusions that represent subterranean magma chambers that fed a chain of volcanoes in Wisconsin 1.45 billion years ago. Granites of this same age probably occur in the deep subsurface beneath Appleton and the 杨贵妃传媒视频 campus (below the layered sedimentary rocks described at the next stop). Long after those granites had crystallized, and the volcanoes above them had eroded away, a Pleistocene glacier must have picked up a chunk and left it near New London, where it caught the eye of members of the class of 1895. For now, we hope, The Rock has no further travel plans.

For more information about the The Rock, read here

Stop 3: Main Hall exterior

Dedicated in 1854, Main Hall is 杨贵妃传媒视频鈥檚 oldest surviving building and was the first building in Appleton to be added to the National Register of Historic Places (in 1974). The rock used for its distinctive exterior鈥攊vory-colored dolostone, a cousin of limestone鈥攊s of course far older, though its origins are somewhat elusive.

A 1953 article in the 杨贵妃传媒视频 alumni magazine marking the centennial of Main Hall stated that the stone had been quarried from the riverbed immediately below campus, an assertion that also appears in Marguerite Schumann鈥檚 1957 history of 杨贵妃传媒视频, Creation of a Campus. This was questioned, however, by 杨贵妃传媒视频 history professor Charles Breunig in his 1995 book, A Great and Good Work: A History of 杨贵妃传媒视频. Breunig cited documents indicating that the university had paid laborers in the early spring of 1853 to 鈥渨ork at a stone quarry鈥� and 鈥渞epair the road to the quarry,鈥� suggesting a source away from campus.

University archivist Claire Cannell recently located the original stone mason鈥檚 handwritten contract, which . It does not mention the origin of the stone.

Breunig speculated that the stone may have come from quarries at what is now High Cliff State Park on the northeast shore of Lake Winnebago, but the rock there is Silurian dolostone, part of the Niagara series, which tends to be more massive, uniform, and barren of fossils (as you will see at Stop 4). In contrast, the stone on the exterior of Main Hall鈥攁s well as Brokaw鈥攊s flaggy, slightly clayey, and commonly quite fossil-rich.

A variety of fossils can be seen if one examines the rocks closely. Most of the stones in the building were laid with their bedding in horizontal position, so that beds are seen in cross section, and in these stones, it is difficult to discern fossils. Look for larger blocks in which the flat bedding planes face outward; on many of these surfaces, fossils of marine organisms can be found. These include brachiopods (also called lamp shells), stems of crinoids (stalked organisms related to starfish), bryozoa (branching, coral-like creatures) and rare trilobites (extinct arthropods鈥攁nd Wisconsin鈥檚 official state fossil). 鈥淭race fossils鈥濃�攂urrows and crawling tracks鈥攃an also be observed on many of these blocks. This particular assemblage of fossils is typical of rocks of Ordovician age (ca. 450 million years old), which form the bedrock in the Fox Cities area. Similar stone is excavated today at two quarries that were operational in the 19th century: one near the town of Mackville north of Appleton and one near the Fox River in Kaukauna, downstream from the city. It is possible that the Main Hall stone came from one of these, or from a smaller, now-forgotten quarry closer to campus.

A free online guide to fossils in Wisconsin鈥檚 bedrock鈥攊ncluding some seen in the walls of Main Hall鈥�. A bedrock geologic map of Wisconsin is available at:聽聽(On this map, the Ordovician rocks used in Main Hall鈥擲innippee Group鈥攁re shown in green, and the Silurian dolostones of the Niagaran Escarpment are in gray).

Stop 4: Science Atrium

The Atrium connecting Steitz and Youngchild halls hosts a number of geologic features spanning a billion years of geologic time.

The walls display the classic look of Silurian dolostone from the Niagara Escarpment, about 400 million-years-old, a bit younger than Main Hall鈥檚 rocks. These rocks probably came from quarries in the area between Fond du Lac and Milwaukee. Silurian dolostone is used on the exteriors of many other campus buildings including Briggs, Memorial, and Kohler Halls, Mudd Library, the Quad buildings, and the Warch Campus Center. Rocks at 杨贵妃传媒视频鈥檚 Bj枚rklunden campus are approximately the same age but were deposited close to an ancient reef complex on the Silurian sea floor and contain abundant fossils, especially corals.

The floor of the atrium is made of feldspar-rich gabbro, a coarse-grained igneous rock, in both polished and unpolished slabs. Although we have not been able to locate records of its source, such stone is quarried in northeastern Minnesota, where, 1 billion years ago, magmas welled up in a great tear in the Earth鈥檚 crust known as the Midcontinent Rift. Some of that magma erupted at Earth鈥檚 surface and formed a thick sequence of lava flows that are exposed today on the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota, at Copper Falls State Park in Wisconsin, and in the Porcupine Mountains and Keweenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The high density of the gabbros and lavas caused the crust in the region to sag, creating the topographic basin that forms Lake Superior, which holds 10% of all of the planet鈥檚 fresh water.

A sculpture in the southeast corner of the Atrium is labeled 鈥淭ennessee Marble,鈥� though it is technically just a black, organic-rich limestone. This distinctive rock has been quarried at Clinch Mountain northeast of Knoxville and is of middle Cambrian age (ca. 500 million years), making it a bit older than the stone of Main Hall (and about the same age as sandstones at Wisconsin Dells and elsewhere around this state).

Finally, pay respects to the two cycad plants in the northwest and northeast corners. This gymnosperm species has changed little since the Cretaceous Period 80 million years ago and would have been a favorite snack of herbivorous dinosaurs. The LU campus also hosts at least one representative of another Cretaceous species鈥攁 ginkgo tree that stands between Raymond House and Kohler Hall.

Stop 5: Hurvis Crossing

The stone sculptures on either side of the footbridge over Lawe Street are examples of the Shona artistic tradition of Zimbabwe, which has roots as far back as 1200 AD and experienced a renaissance in the 20th century. Geologically, Zimbabwe is a sister to the Lake Superior region鈥攑art of an ancient continental shield with rocks dating from the Archean eon. Although we do not know the exact locations where the stones for these sculptures were quarried, the rocks are probably older than 2.5 billion years. Both pieces were carved from varieties of basalt (although the plaque near the sculpture of the woman with long hair says it is serpeninite).

Stop 6: Warch Campus Center

As you enter the campus center, say hello to more Silurian dolostone on the exterior of the building, and perhaps add a word of gratitude to all dolostones and limestones鈥攃arbonate rocks鈥攆or storing 99% of the carbon dioxide ever exhaled by Earth鈥檚 volcanoes over geologic time. The precipitation of carbonate rocks in shallow ocean environments, most of it by marine organisms, is the planet鈥檚 long-term carbon sequestration scheme. Organisms ranging from scallops, clams, and corals to tiny zooplankton combine calcium ions in seawater with a dissolved form of carbon dioxide to form calcite (CaCO3), thereby locking the gas away in mineral form over geologic timescales. If not for this biogeochemical service, Earth would be a runaway greenhouse planet like its sister Venus. Unfortunately, the process is far too slow to keep up with human-generated CO2 emissions. But we should all thank carbonate rocks for making Earth such a hospitable place for hundreds of millions of years.

We can use the main Campus Center stairway as an analog geologic time scale. If the entry level is the present day, and the base of the stairs outside the Commons represents the formation of the Earth 4.56 billion years ago, then each step represents about 80 million years. So, as your foot leaves the top step, you鈥檝e already passed the beginning of the Ice Age, 3 million years ago. One step down, you are in the middle Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era (80 million years ago), when dinosaurs munched on cycads and ginkgoes. Just before you reach the first landing, you are in the Devonian Period of the Paleozoic Era (360 million years ago) when the Appalachians were newly formed. On the landing (step #5), you are in the Silurian (400 million years ago) when the dolostone of the Niagara Escarpment was formed and a coral reef thrived near what is now Bj枚rklunden.

Another step down (#6) takes you to the Ordovician (450 million years ago) when the dolostone of Main Hall was deposited, the seafloor teamed with marine organisms, and the first plants began to colonize the land. One more step (#7) and you have passed through the Cambrian (which began 543 million years ago) when black limestone was deposited in Tennessee and golden sandstones in Wisconsin鈥攁nd animal life burst on the scene in the event called the Cambrian Explosion.

Five more steps down (#12), you have reached 1 billion years ago, in the Middle Proterozoic Era of the Precambrian, when what is now the Lake Superior basin was a seething sea of lava and the rocks of the Science Hall Atrium floor were formed.

Pass the second landing (#24) and go seven more steps (#31); you are now at 2.5 billion years ago, in the Early Proterozoic Era, at the time of the Great Oxygenation Event when free oxygen first arose in the atmosphere (thanks to photosynthesizing microorganisms).

Thirteen more steps down (#44) you are at 3.5 billion years ago, when the Morton Gneiss in the Hiett Hall fireplace formed.

At the base of the steps, you have reached the time of the formation of Earth. Pause for a moment to recover from that journey, and return to the present day. Exit through the doors outside Andrew Commons and descend to the path along the river.

Stop 7: River path

As you start down the path, look left at the hillside behind the metal steps that exit from Somerset Room. As a way to control erosion, the slope has been covered with glacially-transported cobbles (they may be partly covered by vegetation in summer but are nicely visible in spring and fall). The variety of rock types reflects the geologic diversity along the path of the Green Bay ice lobe as it flowed down from Ontario, through the Upper Peninsula and into eastern Wisconsin. See if you can identify rocks encountered earlier on this tour: dolostones, granites, gabbros, and gneisses.

Now walk eastward along the river path. This natural terrace鈥攊t continues west of Lawe Street to the campus garden, the ground level of Briggs Hall and the LU tennis courts鈥攊s the flood plain of the Fox River. In general, it is not a good idea to build on a flood plain, which rivers use as 鈥渙verflow valves鈥� during times of high water. The lower Fox, however, is a highly controlled river, with two dams upstream from campus, one at its outlet from Lake Winnebago in Menasha and the second at Olde Oneida Street.

Following the path downstream (east) you will encounter informational plaques on 鈥淓arly people of the Fox River鈥� and 鈥淭he River in Time,鈥� highlighting the long natural and human history of the river. The Fox鈥檚 geologic evolution shaped human settlement in two important ways. First, by glacial happenstance, the headwaters of the Fox River near Portage lie within only a mile or so of a stretch of the lower Wisconsin River, a major tributary of the Mississippi. This means that the Fox River provides a connection between the Great Lakes and the entire Mississippi watershed, which includes 40% of the area of the continental United States. Long before Europeans arrived in North America, First Nations peoples used the Fox as a route for trade. In the 1840s, a canal was built at Portage making it possible for steamships to travel all the way from New Orleans to Menasha.

The second extraordinary attribute of the Fox is its longitudinal profile鈥攖he change in elevation with distance downstream. Most rivers are steepest in their upstream reaches, and their gradients, or slopes, become gentler toward their mouths. The Fox is the opposite: between Portage and Lake Winnebago, it is a lazy, slow-moving river that drops only 36 feet in 110 miles, for a gradient of 0.33 ft/mile or 0.06m/km. But the Lower Fox from Lake Winnebago to Lake Michigan at Green Bay falls 169 in just 39 miles, a gradient of 4.33 ft/mile or 0.83 m/km. The extraordinary water power of the Lower Fox is what first attracted Amos 杨贵妃传媒视频, from a Massachusetts textile milling family, to the area.

The reason for the Fox鈥檚 unusual profile is that the lower part of the river is a relatively recent addition. Until about 10,000 years ago, at the end of the Ice Age, the Appleton area was under the bed of a great meltwater lake known as Glacial Lake Oshkosh, which was impounded by ice. As the last ice melted and the lake drained, the channel of the modern river was established, and the river began to cut down through the clayey lake sediments to the level of Lake Michigan. The elevation difference between Main Hall Green and the river path represents the erosive work done by the river over the past 10,000 years.

During this same time, small tributaries to the Fox did their best to keep up with the downcutting done by the main river. In Appleton, many of these creeks have now been rerouted underground, and their valleys are used as public green spaces including Peabody, Jones, and Arbutus parks. 杨贵妃传媒视频鈥檚 Banta Bowl occupies the channel of one of these 鈥渓ost tributaries.鈥�

Now retrace your steps and return west on the river path, carefully crossing Lawe Street. Stop to visit SLUG, the Sustainable 杨贵妃传媒视频 Garden鈥攁 model for sustainable agriculture, which uses compost from the dining halls to nourish the soil, in a closed loop system that mimics natural biogeochemical cycles. Geoscience students have also used the garden as a test site for a carbon dioxide sequestration strategy in which crushed basalt, a common volcanic rock, is added to soils. Calcium-bearing minerals in the basalt react with CO2 in the atmosphere to form calcite, mimicking the geologic carbon cycle (see Stop #5), and other elements in the basalt help to provide nutrients for plants.

Continue past the back of the Wellness Center to the steps east of Briggs Hall. At the top of these steps, turn right, then immediately left to the mulched area between Sampson House and Youngchild Hall.

Stop 8: Rock pile and geoscience department

Next to the exterior wall of Youngchild, you will find a treasure trove of rocks from all over North America and beyond鈥攕amples collected and studied by geoscience students and faculty but no longer needed. Feel free to take anything that catches your eye鈥攁nd then stop into the second floor of Youngchild Hall to see if any resident geoscientists are on hand to help identify your rocks.

Coming at a time when climate change crises are heightening the urgency in understanding the earth, Geopedia adds to an impressive volume of work from Bjornerud that makes her a sought-after voice in geology, tectonics, and related areas of study. It doesn鈥檛 come with the scope or weight of her critically lauded 2019 book, , also from Princeton University Press, but it offers yet another opportunity for readers to better understand the planet鈥攊ts history and its future.

With a mix of wit and insight, the book delves into interesting and evocative geologic terms used to describe everything from rock formations to the study of geologic time. With each entry, Bjornerud weaves an essay that is both fun and informative, creating a travel companion of sorts for anyone wanting to explore the planet. Princeton University Press describes its pocket-sized Pedia Series as 鈥渆ncyclopedic in nature and miniature in form.鈥�

A frequent contributing writer to The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, and other publications and a popular guest on podcasts, Bjornerud began writing Geopedia during the first year of the Covid pandemic. It was a bit of an escape at a time when everything had gone remote, she said, and it was another chance to make the geosciences more accessible.

鈥淚鈥檓 a collector of words and have always been interested in etymologies鈥攊nteresting words with interesting stories behind them that collectively could tell a bigger story,鈥� Bjornerud said. 鈥淵ou can either treat it as a chocolate box where you open it randomly and pick out one and take a bite; or if you do actually read the whole book, and it doesn鈥檛 have to be read in any order, I think you鈥檒l come away with some sense of the intellectual experience of the geosciences. And a fair amount of geology, too.鈥�

鈥淭he geosciences had and still has this musty old reputation, and as a consequence almost nobody who lives on Earth knows anything about the way the planet works.鈥�
– Marcia Bjornerud

Bjornerud, the Walter Schober Professor of Environmental Studies and professor of geology, has been teaching at 杨贵妃传媒视频 since 1995. Her 2005 book, Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth, and 2019鈥檚 Timefulness drew wide praise. Timefulness, which puts a fresh focus on the relationship between humans and natural history, was named to the 2019 Phi Beta Kappa Awards Short List and was selected as a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Science and Technology.

Bjornerud, who said she frequently hears from colleagues at other institutions who use her books in their teaching, is the founding director of 杨贵妃传媒视频鈥檚 degree-granting program in environmental studies and played a key role in the creation of the environmental science major.

She said she鈥檚 buoyed by the growing number of people interested in a deeper understanding of natural history and what it can tell us about the perilous days ahead. Feedback from her books and her essays tell her there鈥檚 a hunger for that, even as many of the world鈥檚 leaders fail to respond to the urgency. Her writing has earned her frequent invitations over the past three years to be a guest on podcasts that typically don鈥檛 focus on science鈥攅verything from psychology to history to philosophy.

鈥淚鈥檓 writing because I think we urgently need a re-conception of our relationship with the natural world,鈥� Bjornerud said.

There was a time in the early to mid-19th century when the geosciences were revered. But that fell off for more than a century, and while physics and chemistry ascended, geology and related studies took a back seat, often viewed as less rigorous and unworthy of intellectual investment, Bjornerud said. That has been particularly damaging at the high school level. It鈥檚 changing now amid the growing climate crises, but the damage has been done.

鈥淭he geosciences had and still has this musty old reputation, and as a consequence almost nobody who lives on Earth knows anything about the way the planet works,鈥� Bjornerud said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not in high school curricula in any rigorous way, and that sends a strong message to smart students that, oh, this is not a sophisticated science, it doesn鈥檛 require rigor or understanding. The consequences of that are being seen in crises all around us. We are just rampantly illiterate.鈥�

Bjornerud hopes her writing, including the newly released Geopedia, and her teaching can play a role in improving that literacy. Like many of the students she sees today, she came to college with little understanding of what natural history can teach us. An intro geoscience class at the University of Minnesota lit a fire and started her on her path.

鈥淭hese are not new insights, but delving into some of this vocabulary, I am reminded of how geology got this wonderful early start when people first realized how old the earth was and began to codify how to decipher the rock record,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd then for a variety of reasons, the discipline just kind of stumbled and got stuck.鈥�

But she sees a heightened passion in 杨贵妃传媒视频 students who are studying geosciences, environmental studies, environmental science. Her writing, including in Geopedia, reflects that.

鈥淐limate change motivates my own work鈥攖rying to unshackle the geosciences from this reputation,鈥� Bjornerud said. 鈥淭he geosciences are now in a new golden age. I try to convey that in this little book.鈥�