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.
Submit Your Geology Senior Thesis
Geology Senior Theses are restricted to On-Campus Access Only and not available by ILL.
Geology Senior Theses from 2008
Obtaining an Extended Recod of Hurricane Frequency in the North Atlantic, Nyssa Marie Perryman
Searching for Tectonic Moments:Geochemical Tracers in Young Anatolian Basalts Sivas, Turkey, Charles L. Plummer
Using sedimentary and lithologic analysis to examine the provenance and depositional processes of alluvial fans in the Farmville Basin, David Denton Hull Willis Jr.
Geology Senior Theses from 2007
Geology and Geochemistry of the Osiris Trachyte, Fish Lake Plateau, Utah, Jessica L. Ball
Structural Geology and Deformation History of the eastern Fish Lake Plateau, Utah, Christopher J. Bowles
Geochemistry of the Raleigh Gneiss in the Piedmont Province of Southeastern Virginia: Implications for the Nature of the Protolith, Leah C. Cheek
Quantifying the Morphology and Reconstructing the Phylogeny of Venericard Bivalves along the Gulf Coastal Plain during the Paleocene and Eocene, Erin E. Fenlon
The effect of sampling on the observed richness and evenness of molluscan assemblages in the Plio-Pleistocene shell beds of southwest Florida, Claire Flannagan
Petrology of the Elk Hill Complex in the Central Piedmont Province, VA, Phillip Gopon
Surficial Geology of the UM Creek drainage Basis, Fish Lake Plateau, Utah: Glaciation, Tectonics, and Mass Wasting, Eric W. Haug
Landscape Knickzones in the Virginia Piedmont: Evaluating Landscape Disequilbrium Through GIS-Based Morphometric Analysis, Marie J. Kurz
The Neoproterozoiv-Phanerozoic transition in the Western Blue Ridge Province, Southern Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, Meghan Lamoreaux
Investigation Into the Relationship Between Morphology and Tidal Flux In DItched and Non-DItched Salt Marsh Creek Systems, Rowley Massachusetts, Katherine Luciano
The Distribution, Morphology, and Chronology of Rusticle Growth on the Confederate Submarine H. L. Hunley, Jason L. Lunze
Paleoecology of the Colverly Formation (Lower Cretaceous) Vertebrate Fauna from Microvertebrate in the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, Matthew P. J. Oreska
Heavy Metal Concentrations in Lacustrone Sediments of Developed and Undeveloped Watersheds, WIlliamsburg, VA, Holly D. Packard
Impacts of Channel Incision on Water Table Elevation and Chemistry" Upper Chisel Run, James City County, VA, Laura R. Robertson
Ecological Effects of Miocene-Pliocene Cooling on Mollusks from the Eastover and Yorktown Formations, Southeastern Virginia, Emily M. Robinson
Distribution and Sub-bottom Features of Oyster Deposits in the York River, Virginia and the Rate of Degradation of Oyster Shell, Bethany Stackhouse
Structural Geology of the western Blue Ridge in Central Virginia: Blue Ridge Fault, Myth or Reality?, James E. Tadlock
Geochemical Constraints on the Origin of Chloritid-bearing Kyanite Quartzite at Hagers Mountain, NC and Comparisons with VA Occurences, Shelbi E. Wilson
Geology Senior Theses from 2006
Kinematic and Strain Analysis of Myonites from the Suizo Mountains, Santa Catalina Metamorphic Core Complex, Arizona, U.S.A., Laura Jane Buchanan
Structural History of the Cedarless Flat basin, High Plateaus, Central Utah, Timothy Dickson
Fracture Analysis and Slope Stability in Southern Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, Robert Joseph Fuscaldo.
Relationships among Weather, Glacial Ablation, and Fluvial Processes, Svalbard, Norway, Emily Slye Gercke
Holocene Trends Among Molluscan Assemblages of the Chesapeake Bay: Can We Measure the Effects of Human Disturbance?, Natasha Hunter
Effecticeness of Retention Ponds in the Management of Stormwater Runoff; A Case Study in James City County, VA, Robert Michael Jacobsen
Geometry and Kinematics of the Harris Cove Fault near Naked Creak, Page County, Virginia, Colleen Anne Kayser
Morphological Variability, Body Size, and Survivorship in Veneroid Bivalves During the Plio-Pleistocene Extinction in Florida, Sarah Elizabeth Kolbe
Waipaoa River: Physical & Chemical Analysis of an Active Margin River, Keith Moodhe
Abundance as a factor in background extinction: bivalves from the Choptank Formation (Miocene) of Maryland, Zachary Everett Pennington
Surficial Mapping and 3He Exposure ages of Glacial Deposits, Fish Lake, Utah, William Jack Weaver IV
Geology Senior Theses from 2005
Water Table Fluctuations in an Incised Stream in Williamsburg, VA, David Jason Bookbinder
The Porphytoclast Hyperbolic Distrivution Method of Kinematic Vorticity Analysis, Adam Matthew Forte
Kinematic and Temporal Significance of Fractures In the Western Blue Ridge Province, North-Central Virginia, Brain Andrew Hasty
Structural Geometry of the Eastern Blue Ridge in Greene and Madison Counties, Virginis: a geological and geophysical analysis, Margaret Emily Kroehler
The Neoproterozoic Unconformity in the north-central Virginia Blue Ridge, David B. Lasris
A Morphometric Analysis of te Venusian Nightingale Corona and a Portrayal of Three Distinct Orogenic Hypotheses for Artemis, Andrea Jean Philippoff
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Detention Ponds and Storm Water Management Programs in James City County, VA, Marshall B. Popkins
Accuracy of Extended Weather Forecasts: An Analysis of Weather Forecast Sources and their rspective Range of One to Six Day Forecasts, Charles Patrick Rowley
Late Quaternary Climate and Provenance Signals of the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta Plain, Bangladesh, Elizabeth J. Tennant
The Nature and Timing of Deformation in th Ble Ridge Province, Greeme County, Virginia, Kathleen M. Wooton
Geology Senior Theses from 2004
Phylogeny and systematics of the bivalve genus Callista, Kathleen Bleach
A Petrographic Analysis of Native American Ceramics in the James River Basin, Margaret Whiting Blome
Taphonomic Bias in Chesapeake Bay Mollusks: The effects on species composition, diversity, and abundance, Lisa R. Chastant
