Geosciences at Virginia Tech

Volcanic rock? In Virginia?

Although Virginia no longer has volcanoes, hundreds of millions of years ago this place experienced intense volcanic activity. More than 500 million years ago, as the supercontinent Rodinia broke apart, lava spilled out between the tectonic plates and helped form the rock that composes the Blue Ridge Mountains today. This lava solidified into an igneous rock called basalt. Basalt crystalizes, forming hexagonal columns. Devil's Tower National Monument consists of the same material. You can see this crystal formation, known as columnar jointing, on the Compton Peak Trail (mile 10.4 on Skyline Drive) and a smaller example appears on the Limberlost Trail (mile 43). Deep burial underground once covered this rock, but tectonic plate collisions during the formation of Pangea pushed it up and shaped it into mountains.

You can still see the columns, but this rock no longer consists of basalt. Millions of years of heat and pressure buried the rock underground and transformed it into metabasalt, a type of metamorphic rock. Specifically, geologists call this metabasalt Catoctin Greenstone, which stretches as far north as Pennsylvania. Although basalt doesn't really exist here anymore, the columnar jointing reveals much about the geologic history of Shenandoah National Park.

Image: The underside of a large rock formation made of hexagonal green columns.

Congratulations to Emma Ives, BS, who graduated from our Geology concentration this spring! Emma commissioned into the US Navy and will be serving aboard the USS Decatur in Hawaii. What a fantastic first tour with a geoscience background!



Pictured: several photos of a smiling young woman with family and friends celebrating graduation

Our students are more than educated, they're prepared. Geoscience graduate students and faculty met for the MSHA (Mine Safety and Health Administration) annual refresher training this week. MSHA annual refresher training is given following the 40 hour miner certification course. Upon completion of one annual refresher, an individual will never need to complete the 40 hour certification again; lapsed training can from then on be renewed with annual refresher only.

Students working with John Hole (geophysics) use their MSHA certification for research using ground penetrating radar and seismic monitoring in salt, lime, and coal mines. MSHA certification is just one of the many practical qualifications that help our geoscience students stand out!



pictured: a small group of students and faculty in a classroom

Congratulations to Michael Loin, BS, in our Geology concentration!

Michael's advice to incoming students is, "Be interesting. If you find that you're doing the same thing as everyone else, then it's time to shake things up."

ConGRADtulations to Sofia Kryder, who just graduated from our paleontology track!

Sofia has presented her research at the prestigious Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in the United Kingdom and has participated in collections and outreach activities at the Museum of Geoscience.

This summer, Sofia is will be in Arizona as the Jones Scholar at Petrified Forest National Park. She is beginning a PhD program at University of Utah in the fall.

On Friday, the Department of Geosciences hosted the annual lunch for our graduating students. We are so proud of all of our new alumni and look forward to following their professional trajectories! ConGRADulations!

Follow us for our individual spotlights on on graduating students!



Pictured: a large gathering of happy people socializing and celebrating, taken from several angles.

Congratulations to our new PhD alumni! We are so proud of your mark on geoscience and look forward to watching your continuing journeys!

Missing from the photo are Prescott Vayda (who was the PhD graduate speaker), Elizabeth Curtiss, and Sean Bemis.



Pictured: a group of smiling, very happy graduates and faculty