Research
Here is a compilation of the research projects I have done throughout my education. This image is of the Teton Mountain Range located in Wyoming. As a kid, we always went here and enjoyed it's splendor. Sometimes we can't see the mountain top until we are almost there. Research is kind of like that...
Ceramic Petrographic Analysis of the Intermountain wards of early Shoshone People
Archaeologic ceramics are fundamentally geological samples with two primary components, the clay paste and mineralogical temper, which are diagnostic of a geologic source area. Clay geochemistry can be obtained with Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) and the temper categorized with petrographic analysis. Data sets such as this are critical in providing clues to geological source areas. In the interior of western North America, pottery is rare among hunting and gathering societies due to the high investment requirements of producing pottery. Therefore source analysis of ceramics provide insights into mobility and trade patterns, assuming that source areas are geographically and geologically defined. This study builds on recent provenance analysis of 50 Intermountain Ware pottery sherds from four archaeological sites in western Wyoming’s Greater Yellowstone Area (Finley et al., 2018).
That study found meaningful geographic differences in pottery found based on regional distinctions in geology. While promising, the petrographic results were preliminary and based primarily on qualitative attributes. My study provides robust quantitative petrographic data (i.e., point counts, QFL diagrams, and mineralogical descriptions) of pottery thin sections that complements the qualitative data.
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Temperature Reconstruction: Analysis of Kaibab Formation colour alteration to laboratory testing and heat exposure from the 2020 Mangum Fire, Arizona
The June 2020 high-severity Mangum fire ignited 71,000 acres of Ponderosa Pine forest on the Kaibab Plateau, near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The rock formation dominantly affected by the fire was the Permian Kaibab Formation, specifically the Harrisburg Member which is composed of varying units of marine evaporites, chert and siliciclastics. This research is designed to experimentally determine the degree of thermal rock-colour alterations in response to controlled exposures of heat and duration to stimulate various intensities of wildfire conditions. Results will be used on rock samples collected within the Mangum Fire burn areas to testify that thermally altered rock colouration can be used to determine wildfire intensity as a metric of interest to assess recent amplified fire regimes across the western United States.
Field Guid of Winton, Wyoming and Fossilized Wood Explained
A reconstruction of the Late Cretaceous, Campanian age, environment and fauna of the Rock Springs Formation in southwestern Wyoming was done based on fossil biota and stratigraphy of the surrounding area gained by field work and literature review. The emphasis of this paper is the fossilized wood located in the abandoned town of Winton, Wyoming.