MESSAGES FROM THE FACULTY
"Sabbatical Serendipity"
After receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in December 1994, I have been on an all-time high! Now in my fourth year at Colgate, I am enjoying a pursuit of stromatolites (check your Geology 115 and 315 notes if, by chance, you've forgotten what these are!) while on a year's sabbatical. Last summer, sleuthing for stromatolites took me "down under" to Australia, the magnificent red continent where modern and ancient stromatolites abound (not to mention kangaroos, koalas, crocodiles, etc., whose memorable faces and behaviors I plan to illustrate in slide shows in Geology 215 next fall). I visited the world's most spectacular living stromatolites at Shark Bay in Western Australia and enjoyed the company of an international panoply of other stromatolite trackers while on a field trip to study Devonian rocks in the Canning Basin. The presentation I gave at a geology conference in Sydney helped to explain why observations of the Australian stromatolites aid in interpreting the ancient microbial deposits I've been investigating in Alaska for the past several years.
On the way back to Colgate, I had the wonderful opportunity to study modern reefs and carbonate platforms near Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora in French Polynesia--all of which relates to my ongoing research in Alaska on organisms that in the deep, dark past colonized offshore oceanic islands like those today in the southwestern Pacific. Once back in Hamilton, I broke out my Russian language tapes in preparation for my trip to Syktyvkar, Russia, last September to begin a research collaboration with a paleontologist there. We are investigating Silurian stromatolites from Alaska and the Ural Mountains that, despite being separated by thousands of miles, are remarkably similar in fossil composition, biofabric, and paleoecology. We believe our research nullifies the claim that the Alexander terrane of Alaska is a far-traveled crustal fragment and provides the first definitive evidence that the Alexander terrane was located near Laurentia (and not Australia, for example) millions of years before its accretion to North America. Thanks to all the Colgate students who worked with me in Alaska and have helped compile this important evidence!
Needless to say, I acquired lots of great invertebrate specimens from the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans and from Russia for the Paleo lab--some of you may remember your old friends Tridacna ("killer clam"), Cliona (boring sponge), Belemnites (cigar-shaped squid part!), among others. Come visit us on your next trip to Colgate!