Oberlin College Geology  

Bill Skinner

  

Emeritus Professor of Geology

On the Oberlin College faculty since 1966.

Areas of Interest

  • igneous and metamorphic petrology
  • meteorites and the origin of the solar system

Educational Background

  • B.S., University of Texas, 1953
  • Ph. D., Columbia University, 1966

Courses taught in previous years:

  • "Planets, Moons, and Meteorites" (GEOL / ASTR 118)
  • "Environmental Geology" Lab (GEOL 162)
  • "Geology in Our National Parks" (GEOL 121)
  • "Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology" (GEOL 361)
  • "Advanced Seminar: Geology of Transform Plate Margins" (GEOL 425)
  • "Advanced Seminar: Convergent Plate Margins" (GEOL 425)

Research Interests

In recent years I have been interested in the origin and evolution of the ordinary and carbonaceous chondrites. These are very primitive meteorites that contain millimeter-sized spherules known as chondules. I have considered the origin of these objects in the solar nebula and have worked on the size sorting of these objects before they were included into the parent bodies (asteroids) from which meteorites are derived. I have also worked on the problem of how aggregates of these chondrules were converted into solid rock, a project that led me into some very interesting aspects of sedimentology, diagenesis, and structural geology.

Biographical Notes

I was born and raised in Tampa, Florida. After graduation from Plant High School, I attended The University of Florida and later transferred to The University of Texas where I obtained a Bachelor of Science in geology. After two years in the U.S. Army (yes, I was drafted!), I returned to Tampa and worked with Pittsburgh Testing Laboratories (an engineering inspection firm), met and married my wife Susan, had the first of four children, and decided to return to a career in geology. We moved to New York City where I studied under Dr. Arie Poldervaart at Columbia University. I also taught courses in igneous and metamorphic petrology while at Columbia University and received the Ph.D. in geology (thesis: Ultramafic Rocks of the Highline Trails Area, Beartooth Mtns., Montana and Wyoming) there.

I came to Oberlin College in 1966 and have been here ever since. I worked in the Beartooth Mountains for several years and have published papers on the structure and evolution of the Archean gneisses, geochemistry of the Alpinotype ultramafic rocks within the gneisses, and the geochemistry and petrology of the Stillwater Igneous Complex that is exposed along the northeastern front of the range.

I have also done field work in Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales. After fourteen years as chair of the Geology Department, I took a sabbatical leave at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville to study meteorites. I have continued with an interest in these primitive objects and in what they can tell us about the origin and evolution of the solar system.

  

The most recent update was Tuesday, 04/01/2003