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 2004
Numerical Modeling of Terraces with River Longitudinal Profiles, C. Scott Coppinger
How do Channel Width and Channel Slope Vary Across Differing Lithologies in Rock Bed Rivers?, William Howard Craddock
Influences of Historical Land-use Change on Chesapeake Bay, Reconstructed from Environmentally Sensative Benthic Ostracodes, Amy L. Edwards
Effects ofUrbanization on First-Order Streams in WIlliamsburg, Virginia, Diana G. Gibson
Geology of the Roundtop Mountain Area, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, Laura A. Goldenbaum
Fates of Particulate Phosphorus in Freshwater Streams Discharging to Lake Matoaka, Karla Hunt
Geochemistry of Massibe and Gneissic Varities of the Montpelier Anorthosite, Goochland Terrane, Virginia, and Comparisons with Other Alkalic Anorthosites, Kristen Iriarte
Factors affecting sedimentation patterns of a tidal salt marsh in Plum Island Sound Estuary, Massachusetts, W. McDonald Lee
The affects of weathering on erosion and channel geometry in bedrock rivers, James River Basin, Virginia, Meredith McCool
The Structural Geometry of the Mechum River Belt in Rappahannock County, Blue Ridge Province, Virginia, John Morton
Land Use Impacts on Storm Hydrographs and the Effectiveness of Best Management Practices, Coastal Plain, Virginia, John Twohy Murray
Determining the Incorporation of NaCl into Ice VII by Raman Spectroscopy and Synchrotron Radiation, Claire Elizabeth Runge
Sedimentation from the Waipaoa River, North Island, New Zealand, Josiah Chilton Schiavone
The Maidens Gneiss, Goochland Terrane, Virginia: An investigation of the timing of high-grade metamorphism, protolith rock-type, and history of deformation, Catherine Shirvell
Abundance and paleoecology of gastropods in the Sunken Meadow Member, Yorktown Formation (pliocene) of Southeastern Virginia, Amy C. Tolcin
Terrace Studies and Landscape Disquilibrium in Eastern James River Basin Virginia Piedmont, John L. Turcotte
Taphonomic bias in Chesapeake Bay mollusks: pattern of shell damage, Lauren Work
Geology Senior Theses from 2003
Does Abundance Promote Survivorship During Background Extinction Intervals? A Case Study Using Bivalve Species from the Yorktown Formation, Heather L. Baugh
Estimating Stream and Groundwater Contributions to Lake Matoaka: A water balance apprcoach, Sara Bottenfield
Mineralogical and Geochemical COnstraints of the Moseley felsic gneiss, Goochland Terrane, Virginia, Kimberly A. Burnett
Structural Geometry of the Lynchburg Group and Contact Relations in the Eastern Blue Ridge, Nelson County, Virginia, James Benjamin Chapman V
Fluvial Terrace Studies and Knickzone Characterization on the James River, Virginia Piedmont, Jonathan Joseph Felis
Systemtic and phylogenetic reconstruction of the bivalve genus Pitar, Jayme Mills
Sedimentation pattern changes subsequent to channel dredging in an ebb tide delta, Cape Fear River, North Carolina, Joel Neubaurer
Millennial-scale changes of thermocline depth in the Early Pliocene: Evidence from the western equatorial Atlantic Ocean, Matthew D. Niemitz
A palentologic and geochemical analysis of mixed-salinity environment faunas in the upper Yorktown Formation (Late Pliocene), Williamsburg, Virginia, Matthew James ODonnell
A Survey of the Underlying Geology of the Queen Anne's Revenge Wreck Site, Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina, J Roland Roberson
Reexamining the Relationship of Beryllium-7 Adsorption to Grain Size in the York River, Virginia, Becky Roper
Evaluation of the Extent of Neoproterozoic Magmatism in the Western Goochland Terrane, Piedmont Province, Virginia, Matthew Rossi
The effects of the Chesapeake Bay impact on calcareous nannofossils, Jessica Shelton
A Reconnaissance and Petrogrpahic Investigation of Graitoids in the Eastern Slate Belt of Virginia, Andrew Solomon
Structural and Fluvial History of the Fish Lake Basin, High Plateaus, Central Utah, Caroline E. Webber
Field, Mineralogical, and Geochemical Characteristics of a Small Granitic Pluton in the Raleigh Terrane, Virginia, Christina M. Znidarsic
Geology Senior Theses from 2002
Geology of the Genito Creek Drainage area in the Goochlad Terrane: The extent of a previously unmapped body of Neoproterozic Granite within the State Farm, Nicholas Brockway
Effects of lad-use on sediment yield in drainage basins, Williamsburg, Virginia, Armistead Page Brooker III
Distribution, Mineralogy and Geologic History of the Travertine-Marl deposits along Falling Spring Road, Verona, Virginia, Chris Carroll
Diversity between Heavy Mineral Suites in the York and James Rivers, Virginia: Local Anomaly or Persistent Trend?, Nikki Dattoli
Channel Geometry Chnages in Response to Development in Williamsburg, VA, Gabrielle David
Seabed Conditions in the Estuarine Turbidity Maximum Region of the Chesapeake Bay, Lynsey Erin Ellis
Efficacy of Pleistocene Periglacial Weathering in the Central Appalachians, Matthew L. Kirwan
The Structural Geometry of the Columbia-Quantico synform, Piedmont Province, Virginia, Christopher Koteas
Field, Mineralogical, and Geochemical Coonstraints on the Origin and Significance of Ultramafic Rocks, Goochland Terrane, VA, Jonathan MacCarthy
Factors that Control Trail Conditions in the College Woods, Ryan Scott McKinney
Field, Mineralogical, and Geochemical Constraints on the Origin of an Amphibole-rich Metapyroxenite, Central Piedmont Province, Virginia, Jeffery D. Murray
pH and Organic Material Dependent Sorption of Octylphenol to an Artifical Soil, Jason Oliver
Regional Geochemical Constraints on the Petrogenesis of Kyanite Quartzites in the Piedmont Province of Virginia and an Evaluation of Anomalous Ga/Al Values, Mathhew Adam Pasek
Geology of the Chopawamsic Formation; Columbia 7.5' Quadrangle, central Virginia Piedmont, J. A. Relyea
