Independent and original research is a valuable part of an undergraduate education as a Geology major, and all Geology majors complete a research project during their senior year. Senior research provides students the opportunity to explore a particular sub-discipline of geology in detail and to apply the research skills that they have mastered in their geology coursework to a specific research question they find fascinating.

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Geology Senior Theses are restricted to On-Campus Access Only.

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Geology Senior Theses from 2022

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Analyzing the Impact of Land-Use Changes on Sedimentation in Coastal Plain Mill Ponds, Charlie Altman

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Powering a sustainable future: How environmental review aids Dominion Energy's net-zero mission, Lindsey Call

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Structural Analysis of Blueschists and Eclogites at As Sifah, Oman, Nick Carpenter

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Unraveling the History of Pleistocene Sea-Level Change in Virginia: Insights from the Wachapreague Formation, Virginia Eastern Shore, Cameron Clarke

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Structural Geology of the Eastern Limb of the Blue Ridge Anticlinorium, in the Schuyler area, central Virginia, Katie Cullen

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Paleofire Proxies in a Lake Matoaka Sediment Core: Macroscopic Charcoal and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Lee DePue

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Growth rates and sclerochronology of modern Crassostrea virginica from the lower Chesapeake Bay (southeastern Virginia), Olivia Falb

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Reconstructing Storm Records from Pond Sediment in Virginia's Coastal Plain, Katherine Fosnight

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Improving the teaching of climate science in undergraduate geoscience laboratory lessons, Jordan Green

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Sifting through sediment: Evaluating zinc in the remote Gordon Creek Watershed, Virginia, Chrissy Hart

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Petrology, Structure, and Geochronology of the Oakville Metavolcanic Sequence: Implications for the Provenance of the Smith River Allochthon, Virginia, Matt Kortan

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Quantifying the Hydrological Impact of Tides & Precipitation on Jamestown Island, Virginia Wells from 2017-2020, Veronica Mantha

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Stratigraphy and Depositional Age of the Upper Lynchburg Group in the Schuyler 7.5’ Quadrangle, Virginia, Haley E. Meyrowitz

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Predicting and Communicating Newly-Identified Radon Hazards in the Virginia Coastal Plain, Dorian Miller

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National Fossil Day Event for Colonial National Historical Park (Southeastern Virginia), Kara Morien

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Petrogenesis of an Unusual Chlorite-Quartz-Garnet Rock, Chopawamsic Terrane, Virginia, Jonathan Peters

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The Consequences and Future of Mountaintop Removal Mining, Samuel Poth

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People, Plants, and Pastures: A Multi-Proxy Approach to Understanding Human-Environment Relationships in Holocene South Arabia, Neel Simpson

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An exploration of the relationship between sediments and mountain slopes on Venus, Elexis Speers

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Reconstructing Fire History in the Shenandoah Valley from an Ephemeral Sinkhole Pond, JaneAnne Stockton

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Quantifying Changes in Shell Morphology of Chesapecten (Bivalvia) Across the Mid-Pliocene Warm Period in Virginia, Meg Taylor

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Decline in marine invertebrate species richness across the Mid-Pliocene Warm Period in the Virginia Coastal Plain, Emily Topness

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Northern Norway paleofire records reveal prehistoric human impacts on fire activity, Rebecca Topness

Geology Senior Theses from 2021

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Colonial National Historical Park Paleontological Resource Inventory, Mackenzie Chriscoe

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Monitoring performance of shallow, subtidal restoration oyster reefs using advanced technologies: A case study on Felgates Creek reef (York River, VA), Kate Dean-McKinney

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The effects of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction on phylogenetic relationships in Crassatellidae (Mollusca, Bivalvia) from the U.S. Gulf Coastal Plain, Rosemary Guardado

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Hidden Levees: Efficacy of small-scale barriers to sea level driven marsh migration on rural coasts, Emily Hall

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Kinematics and Geochemistry of Fault Zones in Soapstone at the Dominion Quarry, Eastern Blue Ridge, Virginia, Junhao Hu

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Validation of the Derivative Radon-Risk Map of Williamsburg, VA, Heather Macdonald

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Numerical Modeling of Compounding Flooding During Hurricanes in the Charleston Harbor and Savannah River Watersheds, Breanna Maldonado

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Urbanization and Zinc Concentrations in the Lake Matoaka Watershed, Greta Mattheis

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Structural Geometry of Mafic/Ultramafic Bodies Near Schuyler in the Eastern Blue Ridge, Central Virginia, Gabriel Mojica

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A Holocene record of tephra deposition from lake Kirkjuvatn, Faroe Islands, Lindsay Moller

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Size and age structure of modern Crassostrea virginica in lower Chesapeake Bay, Colleen C. Norton

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Urban Runoff and Atmospheric Deposition as Zinc Sources in Two Distinct Watersheds, Chris Pardo

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Kinematic and vorticity analysis of quartzite from the Evington Group, eastern Blue Ridge, Virginia, Olivia Pearson

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Mapping and Analyzing Millpond Watersheds in Williamsburg, VA using Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing, Andrew Peck

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Developing a Fossil Exhibit at York River State Park (James City County, Virginia), Megan Sidlo

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Isolation basin records constrain late Holocene sea-level trends in northern Norway, Sarah Snipes

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Quantifying Morphological Variation in the Ornament and Shape of Dermal Scutes in Sturgeon (Acipenseridae), Chris Snyder

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The Importance of the Sedimentology of Dunes in the Protection from Sea Level Rise, Melanie Strik

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Tectonic Inversion in the Sherando 7.5' Quadrangle, Blue Ridge Province, Virginia, Kelly Thigpen

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The Origin and Significance of Metamorphosed Ultramafic Rocks in the Chopawamsic Terrane, Buckner Quadrangle, Virginia, Nicholas Vaka

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HOLOCENE TRENDS IN BIOGENIC SILICA REVEALED BY FTIR SPECTROSCOPY APPLIED TO A LAKE SEDIMENT RECORD FROM NORTHERN NORWAY, Caitlin Walker