Student Research Grants
The Central Oregon Geoscience Society offers student research grants for undergraduate and graduate students. Grants are intended to support research in any field generally related to the geosciences, with a focus on central Oregon. Grant funds may be used to support analytical costs, travel costs, field expenses, and other costs associated with research projects.
Application Deadline: March 1, 2024
Javaria Aziz Grant amount: $1,000 awarded April 2023 Project: Magma evolution and eruptive history of Three Fingered Jack, a mafic composite volcano in the central High Cascades of Oregon Madelyn Cook Grant amount: $1,000 awarded April 2023 Project: Rejuvenation of magma mush preceding the eruption of the Rhyolite of Separation Creek, Three Sisters Volcanic Complex, central Oregon Cascades Alex Newsom Grant amount: $1,000 awarded April 2023 Project: Dacite petrogenesis at Middle Sister in the Three Sisters (Klah Klahnee) Volcanic Complex, central Oregon Kyle Nunley Grant amount: $747 awarded April 2023 Project: Argon geochronology on basalt and hosted sunstones in eastern Oregon Dylan Quinn Grant amount: $1,000 awarded April 2023 Project: Laboratory burning to explore wildfire effects on soil physical and hydraulic properties Alyssa Smith Grant amount: $1,000 awarded April 2023 Project: Genesis of mafic lavas of the central to northern Oregon Cascade RangeScott Toney Grant amount: $428 awarded April 2023 Project: Sunstones: A gemstone formed by a magmatic or hydrothermal process?
Cheyenne Yost Grant amount: $413 awarded April 2023 Project: Copper and lithium diffusion analysis of eastern Oregon sunstones |
Emma Calvert Grant amount: $593.30 awarded March 2022 Project: Understanding magma genesis and potential reservoir interconnectivity between two contemporaneous volcanoes during onset of cone-building activity Julian Cohen Grant amount: $950 awarded March 2022 Project: Climate change in Oregon: Volcanic glass as a proxy for ancient water to track climate through time Andrew Dunning Portland State University, Masters Project Grant amount: $1,083 awarded April 2022 Project: Evaluation of slip history and Holocene activity on faults in the Strawberry Mountains, Grant County, Oregon Sean Halstead Grant amount: $593.30 awarded March 2022 Project: Flipping the switch: An investigation of contemporaneous basaltic andesites to understand a shift in volcanic activity from South Sister to Middle Sister, central Oregon Adrian Jimenez Grant amount: $1,000 awarded March 2022 Project: Spatiotemporal variations in stable isotopes of precipitation: Insights into the present and future hydrology of Oregon Jennifer McLeod Oregon State University, PhD Project Grant amount: $1100 awarded March 2022 Project: Insight into regional tectonics revealed by oxygen isotope analysis of high silica rocks of the Tumalo Volcanic Center, central OregonJames Peale Grant amount: $593.30 awarded March 2022 Project: Using two coeval andesites from Middle and South Sisters, Oregon, as clues to understanding alternating periods of activity at adjacent stratovolcanoesMichal Tutka Grant amount: $691.06 awarded March 2022 Project: Geometry- and submergence dependent roughness of large wood |
Andrew Dunning
Grant amount: $1,083 awarded March 2021
Project: Evaluation of slip history and Holocene activity on faults in the Strawberry Mountains, Grant County, Oregon This project will determine how long ago an earthquake occurred on this recently-discovered fault in the Strawberry Mountains using carbon-14 in charcoal trapped within deposits along the fault. We will also use glacial deposits and volcanic rock stratigraphy to determine how long this fault structure has been active. Most importantly, this project will create data for faults and glaciers where very little currently exists. These faults in the Strawberry Mountains could pose a notable seismic hazard to the residents of the John Day Valley. Michelle Simone Jordan
Grant amount: $489 awarded March 2021
Project: Explosive volcanism in the Bend area of central Oregon: Unraveling the path of pyroclastic flows and location of source vents using anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility In
this project, the focus will be mainly on the magnetic properties of
the Desert Springs Tuff, the Tumalo Tuff, and the Shevlin Park Tuff,
three pyroclastic flow deposits from the Tumalo Volcanic Center in
central Oregon near Bend and Sisters. It is intended to use the
orientation of magnetic minerals to understand the flow directions of
the pyroclastic flows. When high temperature pyroclastic flows deposit
and cool, magnetic minerals record the flow direction. This is a
technique known as Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility (AMS) and will
be used to infer a source vent(s) and indicate flow and transport
direction of the pyroclastic flow deposits by evaluating the magnetic
minerals locked inside and their magnetic orientations. Charles Tyler Lewis
Grant amount: $1,000 awarded March 2021
Project: Volatile contents of Newberry Volcano rhyolitic magmas and implications for explosive eruptions
Newberry
Volcano located near Bend, Oregon has a history of eruptions
characterized by rhyolite (high-silica) magma. To understand the history
and how it may play out in the future we need to understand why these
eruptions occur. It is well known that high volatile contents (water,
carbon dioxide) in magmas can fuel such eruptions. So, understanding the
production and budget of volatiles in the rhyolite magmas will assist
in hazard assessment by broadening our understanding of the explosivity
and subsurface processes that lead to eruption. Geochemical analysis of
rocks and their constituent minerals will be combined to reveal what the
volatile budgets of the magmas were, and how this influences the
eruptive behavior of Newberry. This study will contribute to a better
understanding of the eruptive behavior and hazards of the Newberry
volcanic system. Ellen K. Olsen
Grant amount: $1,158 awarded March 2021
Project: Improving paleoclimate interpretations: Kinetic isotope effects in calcite from saline, alkaline lakes of southern central Oregon
Some minerals, such as calcite, record trace element and isotopic information that can be a window into past climates and environments. The equilibrium isotopic partitioning of oxygen between the mineral calcite and the water it grows from reflects the temperature of the water. However, natural calcite often grows too quickly to achieve equilibrium partitioning and will record kinetic isotopic effects that depend on environmental variables such as growth rate, lake pH, or lake composition. I will treat five closed-basin saline, alkaline lakes in Central Oregon as natural laboratories in which to grow calcite in the near-surface lake water while measuring environmental conditions, in addition to sampling past calcite deposits along the lakeshores. Quantifying disequilibrium isotopic effects recorded in calcite under known conditions will help me interpret isotopic signatures, and consequently, paleoclimate and paleoenvironment signals recorded in the ancient lake calcite. Ana Mercedes Colón Umpierre
Grant amount: $1,000 awarded March 2021
Project: Ice, ice, baby! Understanding ice-magma interactions in the Oregon Cascades
Central Oregon has a wide range of glaciovolcanic deposits (meaning, volcanic deposits showing interaction with ice). Studying these deposits provides a unique opportunity to not only constrain a portion of Oregon’s rich volcanic history, but its glacial history as well. The goal of my project is to understand how the presence of ice affects the emplacement of magma, and to constrain the local paleo-ice conditions in the Cascades using these deposits. To address these objectives, I am proposing conducting fieldwork on two subglacial volcanoes, or tuyas, in the Cascades, with the goal of characterizing the geometry and emplacement history of deposits of intermediate compositions in a subduction arc setting, where most ice-covered volcanoes occur. |