Earth Sciences
By virtue of our outstanding location in the scenic and rugged mountains of southwest Montana, Earth Science students have many opportunities to participate in field trips that will facilitate the study of earth processes, earth resources, earth history, and environments that people have modified. These field trips are an integral part of many courses, as well as extracurricular activities sponsored by the department. Fieldwork is a very important component of our instructional programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.Because of the research conducted by faculty in the department, an undergraduate student may have the opportunity to work on active research projects. In particular, we offer the opportunity to do a "Senior Thesis" to our top students in each senior class. The senior thesis enables a student to work on an actual research project under the supervision of a faculty member, write a research report (a mini-thesis), and present the results at a professional conference. This is excellent preparation for graduate school and/or the workplace. Our Master's theses frequently involve field-testing of state-of-the-art hypotheses proposed elsewhere, as well as formulation of the next generation of hypotheses, which will shape our disciplines in the decades to come. Most Master's thesis work in the Department is published in the peer-reviewed professional literature after presentation at regional or national professional meetings.
Collections in this community
Recent Submissions
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The egg-thief architect: experimental oviraptorosaur nesting physiology, the possibility of adult-mediated incubation, and the feasibility of indirect contact incubation
(Cambridge University Press, 2023-08)Numerous, high-quality reproduction-related oviraptorosaur fossils have been described. However, oviraptorosaur-style nests are unknown among extant animals, and their curious construction makes nesting behavior difficult ... -
Chthonic severance: dinosaur eggs of the Mesozoic, the significance of partially buried eggs and contact incubation precursors
(The Royal Society, 2023-07)For most dinosaurs, clutches consisted of a single layer of spherical to sub-spherical, highly porous eggs that were probably fully buried. Both eggs and clutch form change drastically with pennaraptoran theropods, the ... -
Public Water System Governance in Rural Montana, USA: A ‘Slow drip’ on Community Resilience
(Informa UK Limited, 2023-05)Recent waves of U.S. federal waterworks investments aim to repair material as well as socioeconomic deficits. Yet a growing recognition of the central role of local capacity in successful water resources and infrastructure ... -
Using High‐Resolution Satellite Imagery and Deep Learning to Track Dynamic Seasonality in Small Water Bodies
(American Geophysical Union, 2023-04)Small water bodies (i.e., ponds; <0.01 km2) play an important role in Earth System processes, including carbon cycling and emissions of methane. Detection and monitoring of ponds using satellite imagery has been extremely ... -
Are We Recording? Putting Embayment Speedometry to the Test Using High Pressure‐Temperature Decompression Experiments
(American Geophysical Union, 2023-06)Despite its increasing application to estimate magma decompression rates for explosive eruptions, the embayment speedometer has long awaited critical experimental evaluation. We present the first experimental results on ... -
Pre-eruptive rhyolite magma ascent rate is rapid and independent of eruption size: a case study from Ōkataina Volcanic Centre, Aotearoa New Zealand
(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2023-03)Volatile measurements in mineral-hosted sealed melt inclusions, and open-ended embayments, have previously been used to study magma ascent dynamics in large rhyolitic eruptions. However, despite occurring more frequently, ... -
Perceptions Among Backcountry Skiers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Avalanche Safety and Backcountry Habits of New and Established Skiers
(Elsevier BV, 2022-12)Introduction.The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic impacted the ski industry worldwide by closing or limiting access to ski resorts. Subsequently, anecdotal reports of increased backcountry use emerged in the ... -
Aquatic Ecosystem Services Survey: Round Two Results
(Montana State University, 2022-05)Wetlands, streams, and floodplains (hereafter called aquatic systems) are an important resource for social and ecological wellbeing. Since the early 1990s, Federal policy has required a no overall net loss (NNL) of wetland ... -
Aquatic Ecosystem Services Survey: Round One Results
(Montana State University, 2021-04)Wetlands, streams, and floodplains (hereafter called aquatic systems) are an important resource for social and ecological wellbeing. Since the early 1990s, Federal policy has required a no overall net loss (NNL) of wetland ... -
Microstructural and crystallographic evolution of palaeognath (Aves) eggshells
(eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd, 2023-01)The avian palaeognath phylogeny has been recently revised significantly due to the advancement of genome-wide comparative analyses and provides the opportunity to trace the evolution of the microstructure and crystallography ... -
A transitional species of Daspletosaurus Russell, 1970 from the Judith River Formation of eastern Montana
(PeerJ, 2022-11)Here we describe a new derived tyrannosaurine, Daspletosaurus wilsoni sp. nov., from Judithian strata (~76.5 Ma) intermediate in age between either of the previously described species of this genus. D. wilsoni displays a ... -
Biogeochemical Responses to Mixing of Glacial Meltwater and Hot Spring Discharge in the Mount St. Helens Crater
(Wiley, 2022-09)Environments where geothermal waters and glacier meltwater mix are common on Earth yet little is known about the biogeochemical processes that occur when hot, reduced geothermal water mixes with cold, oxidized glacial ... -
Capturing the complexity of soil evolution: Heterogeneities in rock cover and chemical weathering in Montana's Rocky Mountains
(Elsevier BV, 2022-05)We investigate the relationship between chemical weathering, persistence of soil cover, and topography in two neighboring mountain ranges in the northern Rockies of western Montana, USA. We augment existing tools for ... -
The most complete amiid fish from the Coal Creek Member of the Eocene Kishenehn Formation in northwestern Montana
(Acta Palaeontol, 2022-02)The larger-bodied fish fauna of the Kishenehn Formation’s Coal Creek Member (Eocene, 43.5 Ma), northwestern Montana, is understudied because of a sampling bias towards small specimens. Small specimens (<10 cm length) of ... -
Outgassing through magmatic fractures enables effusive eruption of silicic magma
(Elsevier BV, 2022-10)Several mechanisms have been proposed to allow highly viscous silicic magma to outgas efficiently enough to erupt effusively. There is increasing evidence that challenges the classic foam-collapse model in which gas escapes ... -
Perceptions Among Backcountry Skiers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Avalanche Safety and Backcountry Habits of New and Established Skiers
(Elsevier BV, 2022-12)Introduction. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic impacted the ski industry worldwide by closing or limiting access to ski resorts. Subsequently, anecdotal reports of increased backcountry use emerged in the ... -
“In Montana, you're only a week away from a drought”: Ranchers’ perspectives on flood irrigation and beaver mimicry as drought mitigation strategies
(Elsevier BV, 2022-08)The concept of natural water storage has gained traction as an alternative to traditional dams that can potentially mitigate the impacts of changing precipitation patterns by slowing runoff and increasing aquifer recharge. ... -
Satellite detection of snow avalanches using Sentinel-1 in a transitional snow climate
(Elsevier BV, 2022-07)Snow avalanches endanger lives and infrastructure in mountainous regions worldwide. Consistent and accurate datasets of avalanche events are critical for improving hazard forecasting and understanding the spatial and ... -
Evolutionary Divergence of Marinobacter Strains in Cryopeg Brines as Revealed by Pangenomics
(Frontiers Media SA, 2022-06)Marinobacter spp. are cosmopolitan in saline environments, displaying a diverse set of metabolisms that allow them to competitively occupy these environments, some of which can be extreme in both salinity and temperature. ... -
The dynamic floor of Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming, USA: The last 14 k.y. of hydrothermal explosions, venting, doming, and faulting
(Geological Society of America, 2022-06)Hydrothermal explosions are significant potential hazards in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA. The northern Yellowstone Lake area hosts the three largest hydrothermal explosion craters known on Earth empowered by ...
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