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Hold the Elevator: Another Oberlin Student to Present at Geology Conference
By Marci Janas
Abstracts of the Students' Presentations:
APRIL 6, 2000--A February 28 Oberlin Online article about Karla Parsons-Hubbard, assistant professor of geology, reported that three of her students will be making presentations at the 34th annual meeting of the Geology Society of America's North Central Section in Indianapolis April 6-7. Oberlin Online has recently learned that--besides Christopher Nytch, Rebecca Lincoln, and Andrew Madof--Melissa Berke will also be a featured presenter at the meeting.
Berke, a senior from Gahanna, Ohio, studies with Bruce Simonson, professor of geology, whose 1995 discovery of impact spherules in South Africa have provided Berke with the material for her conference presentation on planetary geology. Berke's research into these sphere-shaped samples--the after-effects of the earth's collision with a meteor-- also forms the subject of her honors thesis.
"This [extraterrestrial] impact caused a melting of the impacted material, which was then thrown out as ejecta," says Berke. "These formerly molten bits form spheres--hence their name--about the size of sand as they are travelling and before they cool to form glass. Later change causes the glass to develop into a mineral."
Berke has spent the year studying the spherules' internal textures to learn, among other things, about their original composition and information about their cooling history.
About 700 geoscientists are expected to attend the meeting, which is hosted, in part, by geologists at the Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, the Center for Earth and Environmental Science, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and the U. S. Geological Survey.
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