Monica Galvez earned a degree in informatics in May, but she still harbored an interest in a previous major: environmental science. After a Potter Internship with the IGWS this summer, she thinks she may have found her true love: hydrogeology, especially the intersection of karst and watersheds.

IGWS Potter Interns Class of 2024: Micah Beachy, Allison Faulkner, Monica Galvez, Alec Siurek.

Students Galvez, Micah Beachy, Allison Faulkner, and Alec Siurek worked as paid Potter Interns alongside IGWS staff between May and August. Established in 2021, the Paul Edwin Potter Trust granted $1 million each to the geological surveys of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky to create summer internships for students to work on geological problems linked to their states.

All four students received mentorship and professional experiences to propel them forward in their studies and careers.

Read more...

Three new projects have been published to Vol. 6 of the Indiana Journal of Earth Sciences (IJES) since late June:

Geologic Map of the Indiana Portions of the 30- by 60-minute Jasper and Tell City Quadrangles

This map displays the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian bedrock and the overlying Quaternary units distributed over five physiographic provinces and eight counties within south-central Indiana. Detailed descriptions of mapped units, along with an explanation of methodology and links to digital records, are included in an accompanying pamphlet. A composite spatial data set is also available for download. Coauthors, all from the IGWS, are Don Tripp, Valerie Beckham-Feller, Dr. Jose Luis Antinao, Dr. Henry Loope, Robin Rupp, and Kilauren Driscoll. This project was funded in part through the STATEMAP program supported by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Read the publication at this link.

Ichnotaxonomic Revisions to Trace Fossils in Echinoderm Substrata from the Silurian Massie Formation of Southern Indiana

This paper by Dr. James Thomka and Shannon Smullen (SUNY-Plattsburgh, NY) describes new insights into crinoid and trace fossils in Ripley County, correcting misidentifications and amending the taxonomy from this geologic formation.

Read it at this link.

Highway Landslide Hazards in Indiana--Construction and Analysis of a Landslide Inventory

Read the paper at this link.

COMING SOON to IJES:

• "Quaternary Geology of the Bloomington 30- by 60-minute Quadrangle, Indiana" (map, pamphlet, database) by Loope and others

• "Updated Stratigraphic Framework for Late Pleistocene Glacial Deposits of the Saginaw Lobe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, Indiana" by Antinao and others

In addition to a newly published study on highway landslides in Indiana, more attention is being drawn to the state's landslide risks:

• Grant funding of $45,439 is coming to the IGWS to study landslide hazards in an 11,000-square-kilometer area of southeast-central Indiana. Research Geologist Victoria Leffel wrote the successful application to the USGS Cooperative Landslide Hazard Mapping and Assessment Program and will be the primary person responsible for the work. One outcome of the project will be developing state park landslide maps to support park management and educational outreach. The project will cover the Louisville, Madison, Greensburg, Cincinnati, and Falmouth USGS 100,000-scale quadrangles (including parts of Clark, Dearborn, Decatur, Floyd, Franklin, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Johnson, Ripley, Rush, Shelby, Scott, Switzerland, and Washington Counties) and is expected to take place between Sept. 1, 2024, and Aug. 31, 2025.

• New panels about the IGWS's landslide research were hung in the tunnels of the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis in late July. They will remain until Sept. 26. (See photo below.)

Sixty-four participants from 27 state geological surveys and the U.S. Geological Survey attended the semiannual AASG/NGGDPP Data Preservation Workshop Aug. 6-8 on the IU-Bloomington campus. This was the first the IGWS had hosted since 2009.

Many agencies present are participating in the USGS's National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program, and attendees reported on their projects and challenges. "There was a lot of sharing of best practices, like 'What kind of boxes are you using?' and 'Where'd you get that shelving?' We're all tackling the same problems," said Polly Sturgeon, who worked with IGWS Collections Manager Jenna Lanman to organize local logistics.

The workshop group included a mix of data preservation specialists, geoscientists, and state geologists.

Six IGWS staff members gave talks: Madeline Griem on pest management for various types of collections; Nick Angelos on digitizing legacy data; Henry Loope on using historic gamma logs as a geologist; Kristen Wilkins on successfully photographing core; and Don Tripp and Valerie Beckham-Feller on using historic maps to support modern mapping.

Lanman and Griem led participants in a hands-on session on how to repair books and maps; Sturgeon gave tours of the Learning Lab. "No state geological survey has a space like this, so we talked about, what are some ways this concept can translate?" Sturgeon said.

"I think it was good to have the researchers in the room, too, to see what is possible with the data they're creating out in the field," Lanman added.

The McCalla School, four blocks east of the IGWS, hosted most of the sessions. Workshop organizers offered McCalla staff a big thanks. "They're a collaborative space for all University Collections, and they went above and beyond to have us feel welcome and give us all the tech we needed--and it was free," Sturgeon said.

• IGWS Research Geologist Dr. Bei Liu earned the 2024 AAPG J. C. "Cam" Sproule Memorial Award for a paper published in the AAPG Bulletin in 2023, "Petrophysical Property Variations in Overmature Marcellus Shale: Implications for Gas Storage and Producibility." The award recognizes younger authors of papers applicable to petroleum geology. IGWS colleague Dr. Maria Mastalerz was the second author of that manuscript.

• Garrett Marietta moved into a full-time research geologist role in June. He started with the IGWS in May 2021 as a field and collections technician after earning a bachelor's degree in earth science from IU. In May 2022, he began working as a technician in the IGWS Quaternary Stratigraphy and Geochronology Lab while studying for a master's degree in Quaternary geology, which he finished in May 2024 (thesis in review). In his new role with the IGWS Center for Energy, Marietta will be researching Indiana's natural resources, carbon sequestration potential, and chemostratigraphy.

• Russell Boulding has joined the IGWS as a volunteer research affiliate focusing on surficial geology. Boulding spent most of his career working as a freelance environmental consultant, and after retiring in 2017, began indulging his "passion for glacial geology." He has been working on several mapping and research projects with IGWS coauthors, including his father-in-law, IGWS alumnus Henry Gray.

• Marloes Krabbe joined the IGWS staff as an hourly geological archivist assistant on Aug. 5. She holds a bachelor's degree in anthropology and art history from College of Wooster, and earned master's degrees in art history and library science from IU-Bloomington in May. She will be working on data preservation projects, digitizing decades' worth of coal logs so that they can become more accessible to researchers and to the public.

• Liv Myers has begun working part-time in the Learning Lab. Having earned a bachelor's degree in environmental biology from DePauw University, she is a first-year master's degree student studying environmental policy and natural resource management at IU-Bloomington. Working in the Learning Lab, she'll have opportunities to grow her skills in facilitating science programming for younger learners.

• Dr. Henry Loope has marked 10 years at the IGWS. Loope was hired as a surficial research geologist and is still working in that lane, publishing multiple pieces of research about the state's glacial deposits every year; two more will be published in IJES later this month.

• Education and Outreach Coordinator Polly Sturgeon has marked 10 years with the IGWS. After working in the IGWS unconsolidated lab and finishing her master's degree in geoscience education, she was hired as outreach assistant, mostly working with the Quake Cottage. When the outreach coordinator left, Sturgeon took over, developing materials and programs to explain earth science concepts to children and other non-geologist audiences.

• Collections Assistant Madeline Griem's last day with the IGWS will be Aug. 27; she is moving out of state. She joined the staff in May 2023.

• Project Manager Kaitlyn Burress's last day with the IGWS was July 26; she is returning to school to pursue a master's of business administration from the IU Kelley School of Business. She joined the IGWS staff in December 2022.

• Eighteen IGWS staff members became certified in First Aid, CPR, and the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED) by completing training on July 23.

• Two new Learning Lab events, Pokemon Play Days and Shark Week, attracted "a huge amount of new visitors" to the IGWS in July. Shark Week (see photo below) was "by far the busiest week we've had in our two years of (the Learning Lab) being open," said Polly Sturgeon, IGWS education and outreach coordinator. Kids enjoyed learning about the fossil inspirations behind their favorite Pokemon characters, handling marine fossils, and participating in themed scavenger hunts. Pokemon fans even brought their card collections and played the game, "which I know is out of the science wheelhouse, but it allowed people to have fun and collaborate," Sturgeon said. Several people who visited for the first time at one of those events have already been back to the Learning Lab to explore its other offerings. More Pokemon Play Days will be scheduled later this year; check the "events" section of the IGWS website.

• The IGWS Advisory Council met remotely on July 17. Director and State Geologist Dr. Todd Thompson updated the council on IGWS budget, facilities, staffing, outreach and publications. The council continued to express concerns with the Survey's stagnant budget and inadequate core facility.

• The Indiana Board for the Licensure of Professional Geologists met in Bloomington on July 18. Twelve professional geologists were licensed, including IGWS Research Geologist Victoria Leffel.

• Director Thompson attended the National Conference of State Legislators in Louisville, Ky., in early August. He represented the nation's state geological surveys as a member of the Association of American State Geologists (see photo at right). Thompson was accompanied by the executive director of the American Institute of Professional Geologists, Aaron Johnson, and the director of geoscience profession and higher education at the American Geosciences Institute, Christopher Keane.

• The Indiana Geological & Water Survey fall plant event will take place Tuesday, Sept. 3 between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., in Conference Room 2022 of the IGWS/Geology Building. House plants like shamrocks, jade, burro's tail sedum, kalanchoe, and begonias; and landscaping plants like black-eyed Susan, great blue lobelia, autumn joy sedum, and more will be available for purchase. Money generated helps support the IGWS Graduate Research Scholarship Fund. To donate plants or cuttings, label and bring them to Room 2022 on Friday, Aug. 30, between 1 and 2 p.m., or Tuesday, Sept. 3 between 8 and 9 a.m.

IGWS alumnus Roger L. Purcell, 90, died July 31, 2024, in Bloomington.

Purcell worked as a cartographer-draftsman at the IGWS in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, following an earlier career with Texaco.

"Roger Purcell was an extremely professional and meticulous cartographer with a wry sense of humor," remembered coworker Nancy Hasenmueller. "He drafted several of the Indiana Geological and Water Survey's most popular miscellaneous maps, including the Bedrock Geologic Map of Indiana (1987), and assisted by Lori A. Zinn, the Quaternary Geologic Map of Indiana (1989)."

His cartographic career spanned the period of rapid technological advance in the creation of maps, from hand-scribing to computer-aided drafting. Barb Hill, retired IGWS draftsman and photographer, recalled in a 2021 interview that during the earlier days, "we did everything by hand. Roger Purcell used to do negative scribing. He'd take a coated, acetate-backed piece of substrate and used to take a scribing tool, a little blade like an X-Acto knife, and cut in and pull it, and it would swivel and follow where the roads would be. My job would be to put a photographic image on the piece of stuff he was going to scribe, and then he'd follow the lines."

IGWS alumnus Rick Hill remembered one bedrock map that Purcell worked on taking 1,200 hours to complete. The IGWS was a relatively early adopter of computers in the 1990s, so cartographic practices evolved with those abilities, shortening those thousands of hours to a matter of weeks.

Purcell retired in 1999 as senior geologic draftsman for the IGWS.

Read his obituary here.

Indiana Geological Survey Drafting Section coffee break showing, from left to right: Roger Purcell (senior geologic draftsman), William H. Moran (head geologic draftsman), Richard T. Hill (geologic draftsman), Charles Miller (instrument maker), and John R. Hill (glacial geologist), circa 1975 on the sixth floor of the IGWS building. | IGWS Digital Collections