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.
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Recent Submissions
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Resetting Southern Tibet: The serious challenge of obtaining primary records of Paleoaltimetry
(2020-08)Over the last several decades a number of studies have attempted to reconstruct the rise of the Himalaya and Tibet since India-Asia collision began in the early Cenozoic, with rather contradictory results. Here, we evaluate ... -
Horseshoe crab trace fossils from the Upper Cretaceous Two Medicine Formation of Montana, USA, and a brief review of the xiphosurid ichnological record
(2020-05)A locality in the Upper Cretaceous Two Medicine Formation of Montana preserves abundant and variable horseshoe crab tracks and trails of the ichnotaxon Kouphichnium isp. These specimens span six morphologies differing in ... -
Insect trace fossils elucidate depositional environments and sedimentation at a dinosaur nesting site from the Cretaceous (Campanian) Two Medicine Formation of Montana
(2019-11)We describe the diversity and abundance of insect (specifically hymenopterans and coleopterans) pupation structures in the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Two Medicine Formation at the Egg Mountain locality, western Montana, ... -
New occurrence of Neurankylus sp. (Testudines: Paracryptodiria: Baenidae) in the Upper Cretaceous Frontier Formation of south western Montana (USA)
(2020-04)An incomplete specimen assigned to the genus Neurankylus sp. was collected from Coniacian deposits of the Frontier Formation of Montana (USA). The material consists of anterior plastron, a costal plate and neural plate ... -
Integrating Subjective and Objective Dimensions of Resilience in Fire-Prone Landscapes
(2019-05)Resilience has become a common goal for science-based natural resource management, particularly in the context of changing climate and disturbance regimes. Integrating varying perspectives and definitions of resilience is ... -
Engaging in Energy Communities: The role of the researcher
(Montana State University, 2020-06)This workbook / planning guide was designed to support researchers who are studying the social impacts of energy development and wish to better understand and mitigate “research fatigue,” a state in which citizens of a ... -
Re-evaluation of the taxonomic status of Vegaranina (Crustacea: Raninidae) from the Late Cretaceous of Cuba, with description of a new species
(2018-10)A new species of raninid crustacean, Vegaranina rivasi sp. nov, is described based on three specimens collected from a Late Cretaceous deposit in central Cuba. Previous studies assigned one of the specimens to Vegaranina ... -
Geology and paleontology of the Upper Cretaceous Kem Kem Group of eastern Morocco
(2020-01)The geological and paleoenvironmental setting and the vertebrate taxonomy of the fossiliferous, Cenomanian-age deltaic sediments in eastern Morocco, generally referred to as the "Kem Kem beds", are reviewed. These strata ... -
Quantifying seasonal cornice dynamics using a terrestrial laser scanner in Svalbard, Norway
(2020-02)Snow cornices develop along mountain ridges, edges of plateaus, and marked inflections in topography throughout regions with seasonal and permanent snow cover. Despite the recognized hazard posed by cornices in mountainous ... -
Using time lapse photography to document terrain preferences of backcountry skiers
(2020-04)Travel in avalanche terrain requires considered and careful selection of appropriate terrain to reduce exposure to avalanche danger. In many parts of the world, recreational backcountry skiers in avalanche terrain are aided ... -
The Ancestral Lhasa River: A Late Cretaceous trans-arc river that drained the proto-Tibetan Plateau
(2019-09-19)Late Cretaceous trench basin strata were deposited in the subduction zone that consumed Neo-Tethyan oceanic lithosphere along the southern margin of the proto–Tibetan Plateau. We conducted detrital zircon (DZ) U-Pb ... -
Detrital zircon U-Pb data reveal a Mississippian sediment dispersal network originating in the Appalachian orogen, traversing North America along its southern shelf, and reaching as far as the southwest United States
(2019-06-19)Recent detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology reveals an increasing proportion of Grenville-age (ca. 0.95–1.3 Ga) and ca. 300–480 Ma grains in late Paleozoic strata of the SW United States. These grain populations are interpreted ... -
Ontogenetic changes in the long bone microstructure in the nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus)
(2019-04)Analysis of ontogenetic changes in long bone microstructure aid in vertebrate life history reconstructions. Specifically, osteohistological examination of common fauna can be used to infer growth strategies of biologically ... -
Four-dimensional model of Cretaceous depositional geometry and sediment flux in the northern Great Valley forearc, California
(2018-12)The Great Valley forearc basin records Jurassic(?)-Eocene sedimentation along the western margin of North America during eastward subduction of the Farallon plate and development of the Sierra Nevada magmatic arc. The ... -
Avian tail ontogeny, pygostyle formation, and interpretation of juvenile Mesozoic specimens
(2018-06)The avian tail played a critical role in the evolutionary transition from long- to short-tailed birds, yet its ontogeny in extant birds has largely been ignored. This deficit has hampered efforts to effectively identify ... -
Ranching Sustainability in the Northern Great Plains: An Appraisal of Local Perspectives
(2018-06)In eight counties in Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska characterized by high levels of intact Northern Great Plains grassland habitat, ranchers observe the following sustainability challenges: Land prices and lack of ... -
Post-disaster agricultural transitions in Nepal
(2018-11)In Spring 2015, a series of earthquakes and aftershocks struck Nepal. The earthquakes caused significant changes in labor and land availability, cash income needs, and land quality. We examine how these post-earthquake ... -
Land Use Diversification and Intensification on Elk Winter Range in Greater Yellowstone: Framework and Agenda for Social-Ecological Research
(2018-03)Amenity migration describes the movement of peoples to rural landscapes and the transition toward tourism and recreation and away from production-oriented land uses (ranching, timber harvesting). The resulting mosaic of ... -
Recovery and adaptation after the 2015 Nepal earthquakes: a smallholder household perspective
(2018-06)Communities reliant on subsistence and small-scale production are typically more vulnerable than others to disasters such as earthquakes. We study the earthquakes that struck Nepal in the spring of 2015 to investigate their ... -
New records of Sphyraena (perciformes: sphyraenidae) for the Neogene of Cuba and Hispaniola
(2017-10)The study of an array of fossils of fishes from the tertiary of Cuba and the Hispaniola has allow us to identify several teeth of Sphyraena. This genus was previously recorded for the pliocene of western Cuba. Here we ...
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