The Tobacco Root Geological Society

"Promoting the study of the geology of the Northern Rocky Mountain Province"


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Through 2011, the TRGS is proud to have awarded $34,500 in scholarships to students from more than 20 schools.
Recipients are strongly encouraged to present their results at TRGS Field Conferences.

Mort Larsen's project examines reactivation of Laramide structures by the 1959 Hebgen Lake quake.

Laura Neser's field area, along the Beartooth front.

Mesoproterozoic stratigraphy in Death Valley area - Robert Mahon's project.

Jill Sotendahl is working on a skarn deposit near Silver Star, MT.

Warren Grice presented his TRGS-supported work as a poster.
Emily Geraghty shared her supported research on two field trips.
Part of Eric Stewart's field area.
Setting for Zachary Coppa's project.
Map of part of Cara Harwood's California field area.
Map of part of Warren Roe's field area.

2011 ($3500)

  • Neal Auchter (Michael Thompson Foster Scholarship) U. of Montana: Analysis of incised channels in the Late Cretaceous Eagle Formation, south-central Montana
  • Whitney G. Bausch (TRGS Scholarship) U. of Montana: Structural and thermochronological analysis of a lithologically-varied dike swarm, southwest MT
  • Eduardo Francisco Guerrero (TRGS Scholarship) Oregon State University: Quantification of the landscape evolution over a mantle hot spot: deconvolving the uplift and geomorphic history of the Shoshone River drainage and the Yellowstone Crescent of High Terrain over the past 2 Ma.
  • Victor Guevara (Harrison Scholarship) U. of Montana: Constraints on the Structural and Thermal Evolution of the Clearwater Metamorphic Core Complex, ID
  • William Thomas Jackson, Junior (TRGS Scholarship) U. of Memphis: Paleoseismites of the Elk Basin anticline: Indicators to early-formed joint development and fold growth during paleoseismic events
  • Samantha Kaster (Michael Thompson Foster Scholarship) U. of Montana: Analysis of a marine transgression in the Cretaceous Eagle Formation in south-central Montana
  • Lauren Kay (TRGS Scholarship) Montana State University: Tectonic deformation as a taphonomic process: using dinosaur bones as strain indicators
  • Anita Moore-Nall (Michael Thompson Foster Scholarship) Montana State University: Physical and chemical characterization of brecciation and U-V mineralization in the Madison Limestone and adjacent units, Big Pryor Mountain mining district, Montana -Little Mountain mining district, Wyoming
  • Laura Neser (TRGS Scholarship) U. of North Carolina: The timing of Laramide deformation in northwestern Wyoming
  • Daniel L. Ross (Michael Thompson Foster Scholarship) Montana State University: Structural Geology of the North-Half of the Swift Reservoir Culmination, Northern Sawtooth Range, Montana

2010 ($7600)

  • Janice Brahney (TRGS Scholarship) U. of Colorado: Influence of historical dust and N deposition on the biogeochemistry of alpine lakes in the western USA
  • Ryan Carter (Michael Thompson Foster Scholarship) U. of Montana: An architectural analysis of a laterally accreting paleoform for reservoir fluid modeling in the Cretaceous Eagle Formation sandstone, south-central Montana
  • Skye Cooley (TRGS) Utah State: Co-evolution of the Pleistocene Bear River and Pluvial Lake Bonneville
  • Evan Gearity (Michael Thompson Foster Scholarship) Montana State: Geology of the Marysville mining district
  • Matt Haacker (Harrison Scholarship) U. of Montana: Petrogenesis and age of meta-anorthosites in the northern Cordillera of western Montana
  • Austin S. Hart (TRGS) Western Washington U.: Sedimentology, magneto-stratigraphy, and stable isotope stratigraphy of Rocky Mountain synorogenic deposits: Unroofing of the Beartooth Plateau
  • Gordon Hicks (Harrison) U of Tennessee, Knoxville: The Curecanti pluton - an unusual Proterozoic intrusive body in context
  • Adam Johnson (TRGS) U. of Montana: Testing the Bulge: Use of Neogene Bedrock Paleo-valleys to Test Models of the Yellowstone Thermal Dome and Related Deformation
  • Kera A. Judy (TRGS) U. of Memphis: Layer parallel shortening: a mechanism for determining deformation timing in the Little Water Syncline of the Tendoy thrust sheet of the Cordilleran fold-thrust belt, southwestern Montana
  • Mort Larsen (TRGS) Montana State: Reactivation(?) of Laramide structures by the 1959 Ms7.5 Hebgen Lake-Red Canyon earthquake sequence, Montana
  • Kevin Lielke (TRGS) U. of Montana: Paleogeographic, stratigraphic and paleoclimatic reconstruction of the Paleogene Renova formation of Southwestern Montana
  • Helen Lynn (TRGS) Montana State: Hydrocarbon and CO2 entrapment in the Stewart Peak culmination, northern Salt River Range, Wyoming: migration pathways and reservoir characterization
  • Robert C. Mahon (Harrison) Idaho State: Geologic Map of the Saddle Peak Hills 7.5' Quadrangle and Sedimentology and Age Constraints of the Meso-Neoproterozoic Pahrump Group, Death Valley, California
  • Laura Neser (TRGS) U. of North Carolina: The timing of Laramide deformation in northwestern Wyoming
  • David Reioux (Harrison) U. of Montana: Metamorphic evolution of the southern Highland Mountains, Montana, and implications for the reconstruction of Laurentia
  • Jill Sotendahl (Michael Thompson Foster Scholarship) Montana Tech: Economic geology of the Madison Gold copper-gold skarn deposit, Silver Star, Montana
  • Eleanor Spangler (Michael Thompson Foster Scholarship) U, of Montana: Evaluation of a Massive Sandstone Unit in the Upper Cretaceous Eagle Formation in South Central Montana
  • Liane Stevens (TRGS) U. of Montana: The Priest River Metamorphic Core Complex: Addressing a Gap in the Understanding of the Origin and Exhumation of Cordilleran Metamorphic Core Complexes
  • Whitney Treadway (TRGS) Montana State: Geologic Characterization of Modern CO2 Accumulations in Parts of the Idaho-Wyoming Fold-and-Thrust Belt
  • Zackary S. Wall (TRGS) U. of Montana: Tracking the uplift of Yellowstone's thermal dome in SW Montana

2009 ($2500)

  • Laura Neser (TRGS) Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Changes in Shortening Directions during the Laramide Orogeny in Northwestern Wyoming
  • Jennifer N. Gifford (Harrison) University of Florida: A New View into the Lower Crust and Upper Mantle of the Great Falls Tectonic Zone
  • Jennifer Rothfuss (TRGS) Univ. of Alabama: Cenozoic landscape evolution of a post-compressional orogenic wedge: Intermontane basin development and sediment dispersal patterns, Renova Formation, southwest Montana
  • Warren Roe (TRGS) U. of Montana: Tertiary Paleogeography and Sedimentology of the Big Hole Basin, Southwestern Montana
  • Jennifer L. Manion (TRGS) Washington State U.: The Older Epithermal System in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
  • Chelsea Carmichael (TRGS) Loma Linda Univ.: Evaluation of Newly Discovered Stromatolites and Associated Microbial Carbonates Occurring in Springs Near Brisco, British Columbia

2008 ($4,350)

  • Eric Stewart (TRGS) Idaho State University: Geologic mapping in the Allan Mountain Quadrangle, east-central Idaho
  • Timothy Nesheim (Harrison) Univ. of Iowa: Are 1.1 Ga deformational fabrics present in metasedimentary rocks of the Belt Supergroup, northern Idaho?
  • Richard M. Gaschnig (General Assistance) Washington State Univ.: Zeroing in on basement terrane boundaries in central Idaho using inherited zircons from the Idaho batholith
  • Cara Harwood (Harrison) University of California at Davis: Stromatolites and microbial bioherms from the Neoproterozoic Beck Spring Dolomite of southern California
  • K.D. Gray (TRGS) Univ. of Idaho: Post-accretionary modification of the ocean-continent isotropic boundary in the northern Rocky Mountains, and the implications of superposed shear zones
  • Brady Z. Foreman (TRGS) Univ. of Wyoming: Fluvial response to abrupt climate change at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary: Bighorn and Piceance Creek Basins
  • Eric E. Baar (General Assistance) Washington State Univ.: Regional-scale detrital zircon provenance study of the Middle to Late Ordovician Eureka Quartzite, east-central Idaho
  • James F. Glover III (General Assistance) Washington State Univ.: Detrital zircon geochronology of Bonneville Flood deposits along the Snake River, Idaho: Implications for sediment dispersal patterns of megafloods
  • Zachary J. Coppa (TRGS) Washington State Univ.: Differentiating the Bonneville Flood deposits from the Missoula Flood deposits using U-Pb geochronology and mineralogical analysis from Lewiston, Idaho, to Wallula Gap, Oregon
  • Nigel Davies (TRGS) Western Washington Univ.: The Holocene glacial history of the Upper Green River Basin, Wind River Range, Wyoming
  • Bailey Elkins (General Assistance) Univ. of Montana: Mapping of kinematics within the Lewis and Clark Line using GPS geodesy
  • Michael R. Johnson (General Assistance) Univ. of Wyoming: Paleoclimate reconstruction through stable isotope analysis of soil carbonates in the southwestern Wyoming Washakie Basin

2007 ($3000)

  • Kevin Lielke, University of Montana, Paleoenvironmental and tectonic reconstruction of Tertiary lake deposits in the Ruby and Madison basins of southwestern Montana (TRGS)
  • Daniel Rybczynski, Utah State University, CORRELATION, PALEOGEOGRAPHY, AND PROVENANCE OF THE EASTERN UINTA MOUNTAIN GROUP, GOSLIN MOUNTAIN AREA, NORTHEASTERN UTAH (Harrison)
  • Abigail E. Stephens, Oregon State University, The Lights Creek Stock copper deposits: porphyry Cu or evaporitic-source Cu Fe-oxide mineralization? (Michael Thompson Foster Scholarship)
  • James F. Glover, III, Washington State University, Detrital zircon geochronology and mineralogy of Bonneville Flood deposits along the Snake River, Idaho: Provenance and sediment dispersal patterns of megafloods (TRGS)
  • Jennifer L. McHarge, University of Wyoming, Origins of Amalgamated Channel Sand Bodies in the Lance Formation, Bighorn Basin, Wyoming (TRGS)
  • Daniel Jones, University of Wyoming, Mapping of the Big Creek Gneiss, Southern Sierra Madre, Wyoming (Harrison)

2006

  • Julian G. McCune, University of Montana, Cenozoic Sedimentary Basin Evolution and Hydrostratigraphic Assessment of the Upper Blackfoot River Basin, Western Montana (TRGS)
  • Erin Haney, University of Montana, P-T Paths of Metamorphic Pelitic Rocks in the Anaconda Metamorphic Core Complex (TRGS)
  • Brandon Mijal, Western Washington University, Holocene glacial chronology for the Sawtooth Range, Idaho (TRGS)
  • Heather M. Henry, University of Montana, Mapping of the Rocky Mountain Front Triangle Zone, Montana (Michael Thompson Foster Scholarship)
  • John MacLean, University of Montana, Stratigraphic analyses to test the Siberia-Laurentia connection (Harrison)
  • Amy Kelly, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Using biomarkers to analyze biogeochemical changes across the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary (Harrison)

2005 ($1500)

  • Joshua Richards, University of Florida, Age and isotopic composition of Precambrian mafic dikes in the Wyoming Province: Window into the evolution of subcontinental lithosphere (TRGS)
  • Kelly Probst, University of Florida, Assessing Precambrian crust through a geochemical investigation of Mesozoic plutons in the northwestern Cordillera: Implications for continental reconstruction (Michael Thompson Foster Scholarship)
  • Andy Brehm, Utah State University, Geologic mapping of the Neoproterozoic Uinta Mountain Group, Uinta Mountains, Utah (Harrison)

2004 ($2000)

  • Emily Geraghty, University of Montana (Michael Thompson Foster Scholarship) - Jurassic-aged fractures and grikes in Mississippian carbonate: Implications for fractured hydrocarbon reservoirs, Rocky Mountain Thrust Front
  • Nancy E. Oyer, Montana Tech (Harrison) - Precambrian talc and quartz in upper amphibolite facies marbles of Archean age in the Gravelly and Ruby Ranges, Montana
  • Quintin Overocker,University of Tennessee (Harrison) - Origin of breccias in the Wallace Formation, Mesoproterozoic Belt Supergroup, Montana and Idaho
  • Warren Grice, University of Florida (TRGS) - Late Cretaceous to Eocene exhumation of the Anaconda metamorphic core complex, southwest Montana

2003 ($500)

  • Matthew Hoffer, University of Idaho (TRGS) - Geologic mapping of the Careywood 7.5’ quadrangle, northern Idaho

2002 ($1500)

  • Rebecca Kunz, University of Montana (TRGS) - The shonkinite intrusions of Garrison, Montana: A possible extension of the Adel Mountains Volcanics
  • Grant S. Sha, Washington State University (Michael Thompson Foster Scholarship) - Anorthosites, medium to high-grade metamorphic rocks, and localized shear bands: A strain gradient profile map of Monumental Buttes/Goat mountain, St. Joe National Forest, northern Idaho
  • Eric Burtis, University of Montana (Harrison) - The geochemistry and geochronology of a Neoproterozic sill complex in northwestern Montana: Implications for the Belt Basin

2001

  • Mark Pollack, University of Tennessee, (Harrison) - Morphological variation in “molar-tooth” carbonate: Implications for genesis and substrate rheology
  • Julie Kickham, Utah State University (TRGS) - Temporal and kinematic evolution of intrabasinal extensional folds in Grasshopper basin, southwest Montana
  • Matthew Buoniconti, University of Miami (Michael Thompson Foster Scholarship) - Sequence stratigraphic distribution of reservoir and source rock facies in Mississippian ramp-to-basin carbonates, Idaho

2000

  • Robert Houston, Oregon State University (Michael Thompson Foster Scholarship) - Is the Butte ore deposit tilted or not? A field geology study designed to resolve models of 5-12 degrees vs. >25 degrees of post-ore tilting
  • Cal Ruleman, Montana State University, Bozeman - Late Quaternary Slip Rates on Range-bounding Normal Faults, North Arm of the Yellowstone Tectonic Parabola, Southwest Montana

1999

  • Julia Murphy, University of Florida (TRGS) - Geochronology of synkinematic plutons in the Sevier fold-and-thrust belt, southwest Montana
  • James D. Bigger, Eastern Washington University (Michael Thompson Foster Scholarship) - Waulsortian mounds, carbonates, and geologic mapping of the Green Ashley Gulch quadrangle, Big Snowy Mountains, central Montana
  • Sam Coyner, University of Florida (TRGS) - The role of partial melting and magmatism during late orogenic extension, Bitterroot Metamorphic Core Complex, Montana/Idaho

1998

  • Robert A. Houston, Oregon State University (TRGS) - Is the Butte ore deposit tilted or not? A field geology study designed to resolve models of 5-12 degrees vs. >25 degrees of post-ore tilting
  • Joshua T. Goodman, University of Montana (Harrison) - Detailed geologic mapping of Belt rocks in the SW and SE Missoula quadrangles

1997

  • Thomas Kalakay, University of Wyoming (TRGS) - Structural and thermochronologic study of the Pioneer batholith, southwest Montana: A test of the critical taper wedge model in the Sevier Orogen of southwest Montana
  • Brian Collins, University of Montana (Harrison) - Stratigraphy of the Wallace Formation near Superior

1996

  • Steve Porder, University of Montana (Harrison) - Kinematic test of thrust rotation for the Lewis—Hoadley—Eldorado Plate near Wolf Creek

1995

  • Casey Kipf, Montana State University (TRGS) - Thrust faulting in the Beaverhead Mountains:--is the basement fundamentally or incidentally involved?