The 2024-25 Earth Sciences Department Annual Report

We are pleased to announce the Earth Sciences Departmental Annual Report for 2024-25. Special thanks to Nat McCoy and Dr. Pollock for their hard work on the document.
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Keck (SEAK25) Week 2: Dendrochronological Methods

Dendrochronological methods are a key part to our research team’s success. While analyzing and drawing conclusions from data is essential, it is equally as important to ensure the proper collection, preparation, and handling of samples and extraction of ring measurements. … Continue reading
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The Southeast Alaska Keck Team of 2025 Begins Work on the Dendrochronology of Red Cedars

Guest Blogger: Lynnsey Delio, The Keck Geology 2025 team has been working in the Wooster dendrochronology lab for the first week of research. The team cored the oak tree in front of Scovel on day 1 for some practice coring. … Continue reading
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Investigation of a Ring Width Yellow Cedar (Cupressus nootkatensis) Series as a Record of Coolings Associated with Volcanic Eruptions

Figure 1. Title page of Amanda’s thesis including one of the key figures. Amanda Flory (class of 2025) completed a thesis that investigated the interplay between the pace of the ocean-atmosphere climate in the Northeast Pacific that is dominated by … Continue reading
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Logic with Nonlinear Maps

In 1999, Bryan Prusha ’98 and I wrote an article for Physics Letters A illustrating why logic requires nonlinearity. Recently, with Bill Ditto, I revisited this theme by demonstrating how to encode all 16 binary boolean (true-false) functions in single … Continue reading
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Barred Warped Wobbly Spiral

Advances in astronomy can rewrite even introductory astronomy textbooks. Although no spacecraft have yet exited our Milky Way galaxy to image it from the outside, the Gaia astrometry space telescope recently completed a dozen years of accurately measuring the positions, … Continue reading
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Browns Lake Study by Grace Neuman

Guest Blogger Grace Neuman: From mossy bogs to forgotten fields, the landscape of Northeastern Ohio holds buried stories. My Independent study, examines how two centuries of post-settlement human activity have altered the region’s ecosystems, and how we can still see … Continue reading
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Weak Prime Number Theorem

As a child, I was inspired by Arthur C. Clarke‘s 1956 science fiction novel The City and the Stars to search for patterns in prime numbers. Chapter 6 begins: Jeserac sat motionless within a whirlpool of numbers. The first thousand … Continue reading
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The geomorphology of Mount Eagle, Virginia, and the Civil War

Alexandria, Virginia — This is my second post about my new home in the Mid Atlantic. I retired from The College of Wooster in August of 2024, and just three weeks ago my wife and I moved from Wooster, Ohio, … Continue reading
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Wooster Geologist in northern Virginia

Alexandria, Virginia —Last August I retired from The College of Wooster after 43 years of service. It was difficult to detach from the wonderful Earth Sciences department after planting such deep roots in this extraordinary community of teacher/scholars. Then two … Continue reading
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