Bucknell Geology and Environmental Geosciences

Geology & Environmental Geoscience Reunion: 10:30 to 11:30 TOMORROW 30 May 2026!

Celebrate your return to campus with our department at an open house! Drop in to the O'Leary Center and catch up with members of the department, explore our teaching areas, see some rocks, minerals and fossils, and operate geophysical equipment. Whether you were a major and spent time in either O'Leary or Carnegie, you took a class in our department, or just want to see what we do in the geosciences, we look forward to catching up with you. We will be on the first and second floors of O'Leary when you can stop by!

Geology & Environmental Geoscience Reunion: 10:30 to 11:30 on 30 May 2026!

Celebrate your return to campus with our department at an open house! Drop in to the O'Leary Center and catch up with members of the department, explore our teaching areas, see some rocks, minerals and fossils, and operate geophysical equipment. Whether you were a major and spent time in either O'Leary or Carnegie, you took a class in our department, or just want to see what we do in the geosciences, we look forward to catching up with you. We will be on the first and second floors of O'Leary when you can stop by!

Congratulations to our Bucknell Geology class of 2026! We all wish you the best of luck with everything that the future has in store for you all!

Front, left to right: Juliette VanLuven, Thandeka Bango, Cooper Sentz
Back, left to right: Prof. Mary Beth Gray, Prof. Rob Jacob, Prof. Lorelei Curtin, Kira Leclercq, Kenny Truong, Michael Harmon, Austin Bennett, Nathan Stamford, Prof. Jeff Trop, Prof. Ellen Chamberlin.

Can you dig it?? Mark your calendars for our annual Community Fossil Dig with the TOMORROW Saturday April 18th, 10am-3pm over at the Spring Township shale pit and find some great 390 million year old fossils! Bucknell Geology students and faculty will be there to answer questions and help identify fossils! We'll also have folks from the Merrill E. Lynn Land & Water Conservancy and the PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources there to talk to folks about the work they do to help preserve our natural spaces in Central PA!

Congrats to Geology major Michael Harman (’26), who recently presented his thesis research at the Northeastern Section meeting of the Geological Society of America over the weekend! Michael shared new data on sedimentology, paleontology, and trace fossils from northern Pennsylvania to reconstruct coastal environments from the Upper Devonian Period, around 360 million years ago. His research helps resolve previously undocumented relative sea-level fluctuations, and reveal the deepest vertically penetrating tree roots recorded to date from the Devonian Period.

Michael collaborated with Drs. Jeff Trop (advisor), Steve Hasiotis (University of Kansas), Dave Broussard (Lycoming College), and Pierre Zippi (Southern Methodist University). The Steven E. Boyer, '72 Geosciences Summer Fellowship and the Marchand Fund supported Michael’s research.

Congrats to Department Alum Sonja Schmoyer ('23) on being awarded a very selective grant through the National Geographic Society's American Keystones Initiative! This initiative was launched with the idea of supporting conservation research into the iconic keystone species of the United States to celebrate our 250th birthday.

Now at University of Tennessee, Sonja's working on using drones and AI for early detection of invasive pests that are damaging Tennessee's hemlock forests.

Read more about the American Keystones Initiative below, and congrats again Sonja!

https://news.nationalgeographic.org/american-keystones-initiative/

Can you dig it?? Mark your calendars for our annual Community Fossil Dig with the Saturday April 18th, 10am-3pm over at the Spring Township shale pit and find some great 390 million year old fossils! Bucknell Geology students and faculty will be there to answer questions and help identify fossils! We'll also have folks from the Merrill E. Lynn Land & Water Conservancy and the PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources there to talk to folks about the work they do to help preserve our natural spaces in Central PA!

We have our first field labs of the semester! Prof. Mary Beth Gray took our Geology For Engineers course took a slightly snowy trip over to an active limestone quarry to see how local economic geology is done here in Central PA! Thanks as always to Meckley's Limestone Products Inc. for allowing our students to learn from your great staff!

"I like that boulder! That is a nice boulder!"

Come see Dr. Julia Carr, Post-Doctoral Researcher at Franklin & Marshall College, talk about how boulders are formed and how they get moved around the environment. Tomorrow (2/19) from noon-1pm in the Gardner Lecture Hall in the Dana Engineering building.