Geology » Senior Thesis

Senior Thesis

Honors and Senior Thesis

Senior thesis study is undertaken voluntarily by students who wish to conduct original research in a close working relationship with one or more geology faculty members. (See also Honors in the Curriculum section of the Catalog). A 3.5 average upon completion of all courses in the major and the completed senior thesis chaired by a member of the geology faculty are both needed for the distinction of honors. The senior thesis course (Geology 489,490) may be taken regardless of a student’s average in the major if permission of a faculty member is obtained. Thesis work is expected to lead to a finished research project (thesis) for appropriate credit. The department wishes to encourage its students to consider a senior thesis as part of a capstone experience to their undergraduate program in geology. Senior thesis work should be undertaken only after careful discussion with faculty advisors in the department. Guidelines for the thesis are available from the department chair.

Some recent thesis titles

2009

Charles A. Harman - Aptian Platform—Interior Facies Stacking Patterns: Adriatic Platform, Croatia. Advisor: Husinec

Michael E. O’Connor - An Investigation of the Geochemistry and Groundwater Quality in St. Lawrence County. Advisor: Chiarenzelli

Rafferty J. Sweeney - Facies Cyclicity of Barremian Peritidal Deposits, Southern Adriatic Platform, Croatia Advisor: Husinec

Michael Trumbower - Adirondack Lake Chemistry Revisited: What Changes Can We Observe Over the Last 20 Years? Advisor: Chiarenzelli

2008

David M. Baker - Morphological Analyses of Mesas and Knobs in the Northwest Fretted Terrain: Deuteronilus Mensae Region, Mars

Evan J. Blumberg - Geochemical Characterization of Shale Samples from the Argillaceous Rock Atlas

Brian A. Congiu - An Investigation of the Water Quality of Lakes and Ponds in St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties in Northern New York State: Influence of Shoreline Development and Bedrock Geology

Anna S. Harrod - Geomorphic evidence of catastrophic flooding in northern New York

Wade Tyler Jones - Generation of skeletal sand and silt by bioerosion of bryozoan zoaria in the type Cincinnatian Series of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana

Maggie Jane Simmons - Fossil chironomids (Diptera) as proxies for Early Holocene paleotemperatures at Glovers Pond, New Jersey

Mathew J. Zabik - Inorganic Geochemistry and Drinking Water Quality of Groundwater in St. Lawrence County, New York

Katharine Zubin-Stathopoulos - Fossil chironomids (Diptera:Chironomidae) as paleo- environmental proxies describing the Allerød and Younger Dryas at Glovers Pond, New Jersey

2007

William Hackett - An examination of the changing geologic conditions in a valley of former solution brine mining fields - Tully Valley, New York. Advisor: Robinson

Kyle Littlefield - Darcy’s Law - an investigation into operating principals and modern derivation. Advisor: Robinson

Robert Menard - Postglacial drainage evolution of the Oswegatchie, Grass, Raquette, and St. Regis Rivers, St. Lawrence County, New York. Advisor: Erickson

2006

Bradley Bardon - Investigating Quaternary sedimentation in Adirondack lakes using ground penetrating radar. Advisor: Robinson

Kevin Emblidge - An investigation of Adirondack debris flows using GIS. Advisor: Burns

Benjamin Meade - Interpreting lacustrine sediments using ground penetrating radar in Black Lake, St. Lawrence County, New York. Advisor: Robinson

Noah Noyes - Analysis of microhabitats and their associated oribatid mite assemblages at Glover’s Pond, New Jersey. Advisor: Erickson

Camille Partin - Reconstruction of peatland succession from macrofossils in permafrost-affected peatlands in the Mackenzie River Valley, Canada. Advisor: Robinson

Stephanie Peek - Evaluating the effectiveness of Flinn’s K-value and Lode’s ratio using the synthetic data and field data collected from the Weverton Quartzite, Harper’s Ferry, WV. Advisor: Strine

Trisha Smrecak - A paleobotanical and biostratigraphic assessment of the eastern Hell Creek Formation, North Dakota. Advisor: Erickson

2005

Travis Aubry - Multivariate analysis of unionoid mussel distributions in St. Lawrence lowland drainages with emphasis on local geology. Advisor: Erickson

Matthew Burton-Kelly - An analysis of multiple trackways of Protichnites Owen, 1852, from the Potsdam sandstone (Late Cambrian) St. Lawrence Valley, New York. Advisor: Erickson

Joanne Cavallerano - Extension of the Dead Creek distributary of the Missisquoi River, Lake Champlain, Vermont. Advisor: Erickson

Jordan Davis - Subsurface investigation of the internal architecture of the Massawepie esker and possible geomorphic influences of the surrounding terrain. Advisor: Robinson

John Rupp - Subsurface investigation of the peat-mineral soil contact of the esker-mire complex at Massewepie, Gale, New York. Advisor: Robinson

Nathan Vogan - Palynological investigation of Massawepie mire, Gale, New York, as a climate proxy for the Holocene St. Lawrence Lowlands and Adirondack Highlands. Advisor: Robinson

2004

Lucas Buckingham - Relationship Between Climae and Tree-ring Width for Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea) on Whiteface Mountain, New York. Advisor: Robinson

Christopher W. Stevens - The Internal Structure of Relic Lacustrine Strandline Deposits, Northern New York. Advisor: Robinson

2003

Edward J. Cavallerano - Implications of eye position for the evolution of flight. Advisor: Erickson

Diana Odorczuk - Preliminary Hydrogeological Assessment of the Little River Drainage Basin on the Kip Tract, Canton, NY with a Comparison of Two Methods of Estimating Hydraulic Conductivity from Grain Size Analysis. Advisor: Robinson

Daniel J. Peppe - Fox Hills I, A New Upper Maastrichtian Megafloral Zone Within the Williston Basin of North Dakota Advisor: Erickson

Joshua P. Taylor - Origin and Subsequent Modification of K-Feldspar Megacrysts within the Gray’s School Body of the Hermon Gneiss, Adirondack Lowlands, New York. Advisor: Bursnall

2000

Carie V. Denesha - Petrological Analysis of a Conglomerate at Richvill, New York. Advisor: Owen

Richard (Booth) Platt - Fossil Oribatid Mites (Arthropoda: Acari) as Proxies for Paleo-Habitat Interpretation, Hiscock Site (Late Pleistocene), Byron, New York Advisor: Erickson