2022
April 2021: Six COA students: Hallie Arno, Ben Capuano, Adam Feher, MHD Mustafa Khorzom, Ludwin Moran Sosa, and Lenka Slamova presented independent study projects at the virtual Geological Society of Maine Spring Meeting! Well done all!
March 2021: Five COA students presented independent study projects at the Maine Sustainability and Water Conference in Augusta. See photos of their presentations here and copies of posters here. Congrats to Lenka Slamova ('24) for being awarded Honorable Mention for Best Undergraduate Poster!
2021
December 2021: Many thanks to: MDI participants and to current COA students, Kristin Zunino and Jennifer McNamara for assisting with the private well water sampling event this month. Funding for this project comes from the National Institute of Health SEPA funding program. We sampled 95 private wells on MDI adding to our local spatial well water quality dataset! Stay tuned for results and check out student presentations featuring aspects of the full dataset here.
November 2021: Free private well water sampling for MDI residents, Nov 29-Dec 13! Read about it at MDIBL news and in the Islander.
November 2021: Come see the Rocks and Minerals 2021 student collections on display at the Dorr Museum of Natural History, Friday Nov 19, 3:30-5pm. All samples were collected from sites around Maine during the fall term.
September 2021: We are in the new building! Check out the new geoscience teaching space in the Center for Human Ecology (CHE) room 210! There is also new rock storage and student research space in CHE 200b.
August 2021: Breaking News: The most geomorphologically exciting thing to happen on MDI in the last decade: Beaver dam rupture debris flow in Breakneck Brook Watershed! Check out the hydrograph of the downstream gage (at Rt.3) for July 21 following an intense rainfall event! Water levels rose over 4' in a minute as the flood passed the gage! Stay tuned for more info as we map the flow features this fall.
August 2021: Congrats Adam and Lenka for excellent presentations at the MDIBL Summer Student Syposium following the NIH SEPA internship with the All About Arsenic project: Posters here.
July 2021: Congrats to co-authors in the All About Arsenic project of a new publication, including current COA student, Isi Muñoz Segovia ('22), for their new publication in Journal of STEM Outreach.
June 2021: Welcome 2021 summer interns in the All About Arsenic Project, hosted at MDIBL: Adam Feher and Lenka Slamova!
Apr 2021: Maine Sustainability and Water Conference! Isi and Gaby and I present our All About Arsenic work along with others in a session dedicated to the project!
Apr 2021: GSA Northeast Meeting: I gave a talk featuring the work of many students, especially Gab Moroz, on the Spatial and Temporal patterns of well water quality in the area of MDI.
Jan 2021: I'M ON SABBATICAL!!! Due to COVID I won't be traveling, rather I'll be working on the many writing projects that have been on the back-burner during the last year or two!
2020
Nov 2020: Sahra Gibson ('20) and other steering committe members are invited to a Maine-based radio show, WERU Talk of the Town with Ron Beard, to talk about the aspiring Coastal Maine Geopark.
Nov 2020: Students in the fall Climate and Weather class showcase some of their greatest weather phenmena hits caught on camera during the spring term - check out the class photo contest blog!
Oct 2020: COA students Gaby Moroz ('21) and Isi Munoz Segovia ('22) present their internship work at both the MDIBL Summer Science Symposium (Aug) and the Geological Society of America meeting. See their presentations here!
August 2020: With the GSM summer field trip cancelled due to COVID, members celebrated summer field adventures with a photo contest and zoom gathering to swap field stories! Check out some cool geology photos at the contest blog!
June 2020: COA students Gaby Moroz ('21) and Isi Muñoz Segovia ('22) begin their MDIBL SEPA internships. During the summer Isi wil work to build an All About Arsenic Advocacy Toolkit and Gaby will help establish a contact-free monthly sampling event associated with the Arsenic in All Seasons project.
June 2020: Students in the spring Climate and Weather class showcase some of their greatest weather phenomena hits caught on camera during the spring term - check out the class photo contest blog!
Mar 2020: Work study students, Gaby Moroz ('21) and Sara Löwgren ('20) help prepare materials for the All About Arsenic SEPA workshop including a StoryMap and curricular materials for high school students.
Jan 2020: Arsenic in groundwater project, in the news! Watch an MDIBL Science Cafe talk on the project: Spatial Patterns in Well Water Quality: A View from MDI.
Jan 2020: COA Senior, Sahra Gibson, takes on a proposal for a Geopark in Downeast Maine for her Senior Project after completing her residency during fall 2019 in which she studied geoparks in Iceland and Scotland. She formed the Aspiring Coastal Maine Geopark steering coommittee: Sahra Gibson ('20 COA), Sarah Hall (COA), Dr. Joe Kelley (UMaine), and Dr. Don Hudson (Chewonki, IAT).
2019
Dec 2019: With collaborators at Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory (MDIBL), we recieved an NIH-SEPA supplement grant to continue studying the groundwater quality of the MDI area. Building on the initial NIH-SEPA funded project his new study, Arsenic in All Seasons, will focus on identifying any changes to water quality due to seasonality.
Dec 2019: The new Maine Mineral and Gem Museum in Bethel, ME is now officially open! Read about the opening here.
Nov 2019: Dorr Museum Opening! Students from Rocks and Minerals class display their collections at the Dorr Museum! See pictures of the event and an example collection here!
July 2019: Another wonderful Geological Society of Maine summer field trip! This year we visited southwestern Maine to visit multiple pegmatite localities and to learn about the suficial deposits of the Ellis River valley.
Apr 2019: Two current COA students, Sahra Gibson and Gaby Moroz, as well as one recent COA grad, Patricio (Pato) Garcia Gallardo Freire, presented posters at the Geological Society of Maine Spring Meeting held at UMPI. Sahra Gibson was awarded the Outstanding Student Poster Presentation award! Sahra's poster is on display in the Dorr Museum. Great job, students!
Mar 2019: Three current COA students, Mafe Aragon, Sahra Gibson and Gaby Moroz as well as one recent COA grad, Patricio (Pato) Garcia Gallardo Freire ('18), presented posters at the Northeastern Geological Society of America spring meeting in Portland, ME. Pato also presented his work at the Maine Sustainability and Water Conference in Augusta, ME. Nice work, all!
Jan-Feb 2019: Current COA junior, Gaby Moroz leads in the planning and conducting of a local private well water sampling event focused on northern MDI. Gaby will present her findings at regional conferences this spring and to the MDI through future community forums and workshops connected to the broader Mt. Desert Island Biological Labroatory All About Arsenic project. Exciting stuff!
2018
Dec 2018: Recent alum, Alba Mar Rodriguez Padilla (’18), now a graduate student at UC Davis, presented both her summer internship work on the eastern Quebec Seismic Zone as well as her senior project work on the faults of southern Peru at the Fall American Geophysical Union meeting in D.C. Congrats Alba!
Nov 2018: Multiple COA students associated with the ESTEM Professional Development Seminar and a class focused on Acadia National Park (Prof Ken Cline) helped organized the annual Acadia National Park Science Symposium (ANPSS), this year held at COA, where researchers from around the region presented their work. Many students also presented their local projects. Excellent job!
Nov 2018: ESTEM Professional Development Program students, Ashley Foster, Sahra Gibson, Stephanie Jiron, Gabriela Moroz, and Alba Mar Rodriguez Padilla prepared and presented a poster at the Geological Society of America Fall Meeting about their experience in the summer field methods course. Nice work!
July 2018: This year, the Geological Society of Maine summer field trip was to northwestern Maine. University of Maine, Presque Isle professor, Dr. Chunzeng Wang, instructed the group on the structural geology of this beautiful region.
July-Sept 2018: COA students Vanessa Taylor and Celeste Crowley were selected as the Friends of Acadia summer interns. The students assisted with regular stream monitoring around MDI as well as collected water quality samples and mapped stream segments with Acadia National Park personnel. Vanessa and Celeste will present some of the results of this study at the ANPSS held at COA in Nov.
Apr-June 2018: Seniors, Gemma Venuti and Alba Mar Rodriguez Padilla presented their senior project work at the Borns Symposium, Climate Change Institute, UMaine as well as to the COA Trustees! Senior Patricio Gallardo Garcia Freire presented his senior project work at the Maine Sustainability and Water Conference in Augusta. All three students presented their projects at the Geological Society of Maine Student Meeting held at Unity College.
Feb 2018: COA senior, Gemma Venuti, was awarded research funds from the Walter Anderson Fund of the Geological Society of Maine for her paleoecology project on Great Duck Island.
2017
Dec 2017: Seniors Alba Mar Rodriguez Padilla and Gemma Venuti traveled to southern Peru along with Peruvian geologists to complete field work on multiple surface-breaking faults. Some of this work will provide the basis for Alba’s senior project. Peruvian colleagues, Carlos Benavente, Lorena, and Briant completed a paleoseismic study of the Purgatorio Fault while Gemma and I worked on terrace stratigraphy to reconstruct the ~Holocene El Niño record for the region.
Nov 2017: Senior Alba Mar Rodriguez Padilla presented her summer internship research project, in collaboration with researchers at McGill University, at the Geological Society of America Fall Meeting. Well done!
Nov 2017: Multiple COA students associated with the ESTEM Professional Development Seminar organized a mini-Acadia National Park Science Symposium held at COA where researchers from around the region presented their work. Excellent job!
July 2017: This year, Henry Berry led Geological Society of Maine members on a two-day field trip to coastal southern Maine. We visited many sites featured in Dr. Art Hussey's new Guide to the Geology of Wouthwestern Maine - get a copy here.
July-Sept 2017: COA student Patricio (Pato) Gallardo Garcia Freire was selected as the Friends of Acadia summer intern. Pato assisted with regular stream monitoring in 5 watersheds on MDI as well as collected water quality samples and mapped stream segments with Acadia National Park personnel. Pato presented on some of the results of his work at the ANPSS held at COA in Nov.
Apr 2017: Spencer Gray III presented his geoscience project involving the mapping and dating of local granites at the Geological Society of Maine spring meeting at Bates College. Spencer received an “Honorable Mention” for an excellent poster presentation.
Mar 2017: COA senior, Spencer Gray III gave a wonderful talk about his geological work on local islands at the joint Northeast-Central Geological Society of America Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. He was one of the only undergraduates to give a talk at this meeting! Spencer also just received funding through the Stephen Pollock Undergraduate Research Program to enable him to continue this work through summer 2017. Excellent work, Spencer!
2016
Nov 2016: COA junior, Maxim Lowe (with help from classmate Alba Mar Rodriguez Padilla and editor Donna Gold), prepared a beautiful synopsis of the geologic history of MDI in graphic novel form for this fall’s edition of the COA Magazine. See the work here: COA Magazine F2016 - GeoMDI. Well done, Maxim!
Oct 2016: COA students present at the Acadia National Park Science Symposium held at Schoodic Institute. Two COA geoscience posters were featured: Spencer Gray III presented his work involving field and remote mapping, geochemistry, and geochronology of Great Duck Island and Mt Desert Rock; preliminary data from the stream discharge monitoring stations set up by COA grad, Will Minogue (’16), was also presented. Both posters are be available through the IRMA website.
July 2016: Together with Becca Walker (Mt.SAC), Calla Schmidt (USF), and John Paul (USF), I completed recon field work for the Summer 2017 and 2018 ESTEM field course in the Eastern Sierra Nevada of CA! Students stay tuned for the course application coming this fall...
June 2016: Book Announcement! Duane and Ruth Braun, retired geologists living on MDI have published a Guide to the Geology of Mt. Desert Island! Duane has been working to update the bedrock and surficial geologic maps of MDI for the last few years. This new guide is complete with excellent figures and maps. You can acquire a copy of the book here. Thank you, Duane and Ruth!
June 2016: COA senior, William Minogue, presents his senior project “Installation of Stream Discharge Monitoring Sites On Mount Desert Island, Maine” at the Acadia National Park brown-bag talk series! Will received equipment donations from the USGS Water Science Center, Florida and funding from Maine Space Grant Consortium and Friends of Acadia. Congrats, Will!
Apr 2016: COA students, Gemma Venuti, Alba Mar Rodriguez Padilla were awarded outstanding undergraduate student poster presentation at the Northeast Geological Society of America Meeting (NESGA) Annual Meeting AND best undergraduate poster presentation at the regional Geological Society of Maine (GSM) Spring Meeting. Excellent! Vey well done!
Mar 2016: COA students: Gemma Venuti, Alba Mar Rodriguez Padilla, Ian Medeiros, and Spencer Gray present posters at the Northeast Geological Society of America (NEGSA) meeting in Albany, NY! Read about it here: COA News
2015
Nov 2015: Congrats Dr. Melanie Michalak, collaborator and current professor at Humboldt State University, on her new publication in Lithosphere!
Nov 2015: Museum Opening! Students from Rocks and Minerals class display their collections at the Dorr Museum! See pictures of the event and an example collection here!
Oct 2015: Congrats Audrey Margirier, graduate student and collaborator at ISTerre, Grenoble, France, on her new publication in Geology!
Oct 2015: Two geoscience talks in the COA Student Science Symposium, Oct 13, 2015, 6:30-8:30 pm, Gates: Spencer Gray and Alba Mar Rodriguez Padilla
Sept 2015: Geology of MDI exhibit produced by current COA student Connor O’Brien now open in the Dorr Natural History Museum. Check it out!
April-June 2015: Seminar on Climate Change Speaker Series at COA!
Jan 2015: COA students will collect and contribute data from the COA Cox Protectorate to the Maine Cooperative Snow Survey Program. This year, student David Niemann will collect the data as well as conduct a high resolution snow survey of the site during the winter months.
Feb 2015: Congrats to COA student Ian Medeiros - recent publication in Madrono on gabbro soils!
2014
Dec 2014: COA student Natasha Krell presents her summer REU work at the annual fall AGU meeting!
June 2014: COA student Will Minogue begins a USGS internship focused on groundwater management in Florida.
June 2014: COA student Natasha Krell begins a summer REU in the Watershed Management and Ecohydrology research group at the University of Arizona!
April 2014: COA Students Tyler Prest, Miranda Galey, and Jane Strader prepared and presented a poster at the Acadia National Park Science Symposium: Assembling a teaching collection at COA: outcrop, hand-sample, and thin-section analysis of rocks from Mt. Desert Island and Mt. Desert Rock. Come by the Dorr Museum to check out the COA rock and mineral collection.
April 2014: Marc-Antoine Fortin finished his M.Sc. at McGill University and has been accepted into a Ph.D. program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to work with Dr. E. Bruce Watson beginning Fall 2014!
April 2014: Kasparas Spokas completed his B.Sc. at McGill University and has been accepted into a Ph.D. program at Princeton University to work with Catherine Peters in the Environmental Engineering department where he will be studying environmental hazards associated with fracking beginning in Fall 2014!
March 2014: COA student Ian Medeiros is named a 2014 Barry Goldwater Scholar! Congrats, Ian!
January 2014: Geology TA and recent COA graduate, Jane Strader, has been accepted to the Tetons Science School to begin Fall 2014. Great job, Jane!
2013
Oct 2013: COA Geology students attend the New England Intercollegiate Geology Conference at Baxter State Park!
June 2013: COA student, Miranda Galey begins a summer REU at the Critical Zone Observatory in Arizona, part of the Biosphere 2 project.
June 2013: First trip to the Cordillera Blanca with COA Students as part of the South American Earth Science course: Emily Hollyday, Ben Moniz, and Zabet NeuCollins! Check out our photos here! We were joined by USF faculty member, Calla Schmidt!
April 2013: Keith Hodson accepted into a Ph.D. program to work with Juliet Crider at the University of Washington beginning Fall 2013.
2012
December 2012: Keith Hodson successfully completed his M.Sc. thesis at McGill University! Title: Morphology, exhumation, and Holocene erosion rates from a tropical glaciated mountain range: the Cordillera Blanca, Peru, available for download here. Great Job, Keith!
December 2012: Grad students Keith Hodson (McGill) and Melanie Michalak (UCSC) presented their work in Peru at the Annual American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco.
August 2012: I’ve moved! I am now a Geoscience Professor at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, ME!
July 2012: Another successful field season in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru completed! This year’s field team consisted of Keith Hodson (MSc2, McGill), Tyler Doane (MSc1, McGill), Kasparas Spokas (U2, McGill), and Melanie Michalak (UCSC, PhD Candidate).
June 2012: Current graduate student, Tyler Doane, was accepted at Vanderbilt University to continue research with Dr. David Furbish towards his PhD in Environmental Science.
April 2012: Current U3, Marc-Antoine Fortin was accepted to continue his work at McGill University as a graduate student in pursuit of an M.Sc. Marc will work with Don Baker starting in the Fall 2013.
April 2012: Recent EPS alum, Phil Greene (’11), was accepted to graduate school at the University of Toronto! He will continue his Earth Science studies in pursuit of a M.Sc.
March 2012: Undergraduate student Kasparas Spokas (U1) received an NSERC scholarship for summer support to work on his independent research project in the Cordillera Blanca!
Feb 2012: Undergraduate students Marc-Antoine Fortin (U3) and Kasparas Spokas (U1) received GEOTOP scholarships for independent research projects in the Cordillera Blanca!
Jan 2012: Undergraduate students Kasparas Spokas (U1) and Miriam Aczel (U2) joined our group! Both will be completing semester-long independent study projects.
2011
Dec 2011: Keith Hodson, MSc2 student, presented his Cordillera Blanca erosion rates project at the Fall AGU Annual Meeting in San Francisco!
Oct 2011: McGill Tectonics students, Tyler Doane, Phil Greene, Keith Hodson, Ben Melosh, and Tim Sherry, attended and presented their projects at the Canadian Tectonics Group meeting in Charlevoix.
Oct 2011: McGill BSc student, Marc-Antoine Fortin, presented his paleoclimate study of the Cordillera Blanca, Peru at the McGill Undergraduate Research Conference. Great job!
Sep 2011: New MSc1 student, Tyler Doane, joined our group! Tyler will be developing a project based in southern Quebec.
July 2011: Students Keith Hodson, Marc-Antoine Fortin, and Phil Greene completed a three-week field season in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru.