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Meet the team
of researchers whose expertise and efforts are integral to the success
of the Denver Basin Project:
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Rick
Arnold, USGS, Branch of Water Resources, Hydrologist
Richard S. Barclay
Department of Geological Sciences and Florida Museum of Natural
History, University of Florida
Tim Farnham, University of Colorado,
Graduate Student (geology, paleontology)
Farley Fleming, Palynologist
Jaelyn J. Eberle, Research Scientist
(Paleobiology)
Jason Hicks, Magnetostratigrapher
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Kirk
Johnson, Denver Museum
of Nature and Science, Principal Investigator (paleontology)
Shari Kelley, New Mexico Tech,
Fission Track Researcher
Mary Kraus, University of Colorado,
Geologist, Graduate Student Supervisor
Laura Lapey, Colorado State University,
Graduate Student (hydrology)
Bob Raynolds, Denver Museum of
Nature and Science, Principal Investigator (geology)
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Stan
Robson, USGS, Branch of Water Resources, Principal Investigator
(hydrology)
Bill Sanford, Colorado State University,
Hydrologist, Graduate Student Supervisor
Virgil (Buck) Sharpton, University of Alaska, Neutron
Activation Researcher
Lisa Tauxe, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Magnetostratigraphy
Lab Supervisor
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Name:
Kirk R. Johnson
Title/Organization: Curator of paleontology, Department
of Earth and Space Sciences, Denver Museum of Nature and Science
Education: B.A. (1982), Amherst College; M.S. (1985),
University of Pennsylvania; M. Phil. (1987) and Ph.D. in geology
and paleobotany (1989), Yale University
Work History: Johnson has published many popular and
scientific articles on topics ranging from fossil plants and
modern rainforests, to the ecology of whales and walruses. He
is best known for his research on fossil plants, which is widely
accepted as some of the most convincing support for the theory
that an asteroid impact caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.
His recent research focuses on the fossil plants of the Denver
Basin, and he has supervised excavations at more than 50 Denver
area fossil sites, including Denver International Airport, Coors
Field, and the Castle Rock Rainforest. He is coauthor with DMNS
Chief Curator Richard K. Stucky of the book, Prehistoric
Journey: A History of Life on Earth.
Motivation/Goals: The Denver Basin Project, which is
based on a multitude of surface observations as well as the
fossil sites tied to the core, will provide information on dinosaur
extinction and fossil rainforests. By studying the bedrock aquifers
that provide water for the population of one of the fastest-growing
urban areas in the country, researchers will be able to provide
much-needed data about our local water supply and quality.
Contact Information: Denver Museum of Nature and Science,
Department of Earth and Space Sciences, 2001 Colorado Boulevard,
Denver, CO 80205-5798, phone: 303-370-6448, e-mail: [email protected]
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Name:
Bob Raynolds
Title/Organization: Consulting geologist and research
associate, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Denver Museum
of Nature and Science
Education: Ph.D 1981 Dartmouth College, MS 1976 Stanford
University, BA 1973 Dartmouth College.
Work History: Raynolds has lived in Denver for about
10 years. About five years ago, he started leading field trips
for the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists to look at
the synorogenic sediments of the Denver Basin.
Motivation/Goals: Raynolds has been interested in synorogenic
sediments (those sediments that accumulate at the foot of actively
deforming mountains, literally synchronous with orogeny) since
doing his dissertation on these kinds of strata in the foothills
of the Himalaya in the early 1980s. Raynolds is most interested
in the control exerted on facies architecture (distribution
of kinds of rock bodies, their shapes and dimensions) by the
growth of a mountain and on the rates at which the mountains
form and the sediments accumulate. How did the Rockies uplift,
how fast, and in what manner? These are some of the questions
that the multidisciplinary research being conducted by the Museum
will clarify.
Contact Information: e-mail: [email protected]
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Name:
Richard S. Barclay
Title/Organization: Graduate student, Department of
Geological Sciences and Florida Museum of Natural History,
University of Florida
Education: B.S. (1996), Western Washington University
Work History: Primarily Rich has been a student, a
student for life, and a student of life, both present and
ancient. While completing a Bachelors degree at Western Washington
University, he ventured into the real world during his summer
"vacations." He created internships for himself
with paleontologists, intent of finding the coolest type of
paleontology to pursue. He has collected trilobites in Caliente,
Nevada,
and studied corals in Montana and mollusks in Maryland. The
match was lit on a summer internship with the USGS in Tucson
studying modern and fossil plants. "How can so many plants
live in a desert?" he pondered, and the race was on to
find out. A fated conversation with Kirk Johnson led him to
become an intern on the Denver Basin Project at the Denver
Museum of Nature and Science. Graduate school aspirations
temporarily stole him from the Denver Basin Project to become
a teaching assistant in the Geological Sciences Department
at the University of Florida. His thesis topic has returned
him to the Denver Basin Project fold as he researches the
effects of the K-T boundary extinction on plants in the Denver
Basin.
Motivation/Goals:
Fossil plants are amazing treasures. Denver Basin
fossil plants may play a key role in understanding the dynamics
of the
K-T boundary extinction for the interior of the United States.
The
Denver Basin sediments and their entrapped fossils provide
a unique
window onto the landscape during this exciting interval of
massive
extinction 65.5 million years ago. Rich's ongoing research
tries to
uncover how the Denver Basin plant ecosystems fared in this
global
biological catastrophe.
Contact Information: Florida Museum of Natural History, Paleobotany
Lab, University of Florida, P.O. Box 117800, Gainesville,
FL 32611-7800, e-mail: [email protected]
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Name:
Stanley G. Robson
Title/Organization: Hydrologist, United States Geological
Survey
Education: B.S. in mathematics (1963)
Work History: Hydrologist, USGS, 1963-present
Motivation/Goals: A better understanding of the geohydrology
of the Denver Basin aquifers is important for better management
and effective use of the groundwater resources of the basin.
The Kiowa core hole provides a unique opportunity to learn more
about the water-yielding character of the deep aquifers in the
central part of the basin where few deep wells have been drilled.
Results of the hydrologic analyses of the core samples may indicate
that additional sources of groundwater are present at depth,
or that less water is at depth than we anticipated.
Contact Information: e-mail: sgrobson@usgs/gov
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Name:
Rick Arnold
Title/Organization: Hydrologist, United States Geological
Survey
Education: B.S. in geology and geophysics (1992), Kansas
State University
Work History: Arnold has worked in the field of geotechnical
engineering doing site evaluations for construction and environmental
projects. He joined the USGS in 1996 and worked there while
he was completing his professional degree in hydrogeology at
the Colorado School of Mines. He is now a hydrologist with the
USGS where he works on the Denver Basin Project and other projects
in the state.
Motivation/Goals: Arnold hopes to gather hydrogeological
information from the aquifers in the Denver Basin in an area
where little is known about the aquifer parameters. Recently,
Rick found a rare fossil turtle skull in the Fox Hills Formation
while he was mapping the Laramie-Fox Hills aquifer at its surface
exposure on the east side of the Denver Basin. The Denver Basin
Project is making paleontologists out of hydrologists and hydrologists
out of paleontologists.
Contact Information: e-mail: [email protected]
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Name:
William E. Sanford
Title/Organization: Assistant professor, Department of
Earth Resources, Colorado State University
Education: B.S. in geology (1983) from Beloit College,
Beloit, Wisconsin; M.S. in geophysics (1986) and Ph.D. in soil
and water engineering (1992) from Cornell University, Ithaca,
New York
Work History: Assistant professor of hydrogeology, Department
of Earth Resources, CSU, 1996-present; research associate, Oak
Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 1992-1996
Motivation/Goals: The Denver area is one of the fastest
growing population centers in the United States today. The aquifers
that underlie the Denver Basin are becoming relied upon in an
ever increasing fashion to supply water for the growing population.
Goals of this research project include improving our understanding
of the availability of water resources from the aquifers of
the Denver Basin through measurements of hydrogeological parameters
measured on samples of the core and correlation of these parameters
across the basin; and developing the framework of a detailed
groundwater model based on these results that can be used to
improve our ability to plan for future water use from the aquifers.
Contact Information: Department of Earth Resources, 322
Natural Resources Building, Colorado State University, Fort
Collins, CO 80523-1482; phone: 970-491-5929; fax: 970-491-6307;
e-mail: [email protected]
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Name:
Shari A. Kelley
Title/Organization: Adjunct faculty, Department of Earth
and Environmental Science, New Mexico Institute of Mining and
Technology, Socorro, New Mexico
Education: B.S. in geological sciences (1979), New Mexico
State University; Ph.D. in geophysics (1984), Southern Methodist
University
Work History: Adjunct assistant professor, Department
of Earth and Environmental Science, New Mexico Institute of
Mining and Technology, January 1995-present; consulting geoscientist,
fission-track analysis for ARCO and Mobil, geothermal resource
evaluation, seismic data interpretation, September 1984-present;
adjunct assistant professor of geological sciences, Southern
Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, January 1987-December 1994;
part-time instructor, physical and historical geology, Richland
Community College, Dallas, Texas, September 1985-May 1986 and
September 1988-December 1994
Motivation/Goals: Kelley plans to contribute apatite
and zircon fission-track analyses of the Late Cretaceous to
Eocene synorogenic sedimentary rocks encountered in both the
Kiowa and Castle Pines drill cores. This information will nicely
complement the work that Chuck Chapin (New Mexico Bureau of
Mines and Mineral Resources) and Kelley have done on the uplift
and erosional history of the Front Range. The apatite fission-track
(AFT) data should provide further insights into the unroofing
history of the Front Range, with older AFT ages preserved in
the older sedimentary rocks and increasing numbers of Laramide
AFT ages preserved up-section. In addition, Dave Blackwell (Southern
Methodist University) and Kelley hope to measure a high-precision,
equilibrium temperature log in the drill hole. This type of
log is very useful in determining lateral and vertical fluid
movement in drill holes. Temperature and heat flow data for
the Denver Basin are rare; a temperature log from this drill
hole will offer a unique opportunity to add to this important
database.
Contact Information: e-mail: [email protected],
phone: 505-661-6171
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Name:
R. Farley Fleming
Title/Organization: Research associate, Department of
Earth and Space Sciences, Denver Museum of Nature and Science
Education: B.S. in zoology, Texas Tech University; Ph.D.
in geology, University of Colorado at Boulder; LL.M., University
of Denver College of Law
Work History: Palynological work for several major and
independent oil companies; research on Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary
at U.S. Geological Survey (study area in Raton Basin of southern
Colorado and northern New Mexico-basis for doctoral dissertation);
research on dinosaur trackways in western North America and
South Korea while at CU-Denver; palynological studies of Pliocene
climate at U.S. Geological Survey (study areas throughout western
North America and in Antarctica)
Motivation/Goals: For Fleming's graduate research at
the CU-Boulder, he examined the palynological (fossil pollen
and spores) record across the K-T boundary in the Raton Basin
of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. This research
focused on several aspects of the plant microfossil record,
including the extinction horizon, the "fern spike"
(an unusual abundance of fern spores immediately above the K-T
boundary), and the recovery of terrestrial vegetation following
the K-T boundary event. The Denver Basin Project allows Fleming
to extend this work into the Denver Basin and perhaps develop
a more complete picture of the plant world in Colorado during
this interesting interval in Earth's history.
Contact Information: e-mail: [email protected]
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Name:
Laura Lapey
Title/Organization: graduate student, Colorado State
University, Fort Collins, Colorado
Education: B.A. in geology and environmental science
and policy (1996), Hartwick College, Oneonta, New York
Work History: Graduate teaching assistantship at CSU
for sedimentary petrology and geochemistry, fall 1998; Heindel
& Noyes: Environmental Consulting Firm, Burlington, Vermont,
January 1997-June 1998; naturalist at Allegany State Park, New
York, summers 1992-96
Motivation/Goals: Lapey is motivated by the people and
the variety of disciplines involved in the Denver Basin Project.
She is pleased that the public will be able to visit the drilling
site or Web site to be exposed to this multifaceted research
project. Lapey's goals include gaining a thorough understanding
of the geology and hydrogeology of the Denver Basin and helping
Denver Basin regulators with challenging water issues by providing
them with detailed aquifer parameters.
Contact Information: e-mail: [email protected]
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Name:
Mary J. Kraus
Title/Organization: Geology professor, University of
Colorado at Boulder
Education: B.S. in biology (1973), Yale University; M.S.
in geology (1979), University of Wyoming; Ph.D. in geology (1983),
CU-Boulder
Work History: Professor, CU-Boulder, 1998; associate
professor, CU-Boulder, 1989; assistant professor, CU-Boulder,
1983-89
Motivation/Goals: Kraus is a clastic sedimentary geologist,
and her research interest is using floodplain paleosols to understand
the processes by which ancient river floodplains were constructed,
to reconstruct ancient landscapes, and to interpret ancient
climates. She is especially interested in paleosols that formed
during late Paleocene and early Eocene because a major global
warming trend occurred during that time. The most extensive
record of the paleoclimatic events that occurred across this
interval come from marine strata, and little is known about
how the global climatic change influenced the continental sedimentary
record. A paleosol that appears to have formed during this time
period is present in the Denver Basin, and it provides an excellent
opportunity to examine the effects of the climate change on
the continents. Because the paleosol is exposed at different
localities and in two cores, it can also be used to examine
the competing effects of global climate change and local factors
in shaping paleosol characteristics.
Contact Information: e-mail: [email protected]
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Name:
Tim Farnham
Title/Organization: Graduate student, Department of Geological
Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder; research assistant,
Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Denver Museum of Nature
and Science
Education: B.S. in geology (1996) and B.A. in history
(1996), Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts
Work History: Research assistant for DMNS, June 1998-present;
master's candidate in geology, CU-Boulder, August 1998-present;
internship with Kirk Johnson at the DMNS, August 1997-June 1998
Motivation/Goals: The environment we live and work in
has changed dramatically through time. Animals, plants, and
even land surfaces leave important clues that allow researchers
and scientists to reconstruct ancient climates. Fossil leaves
and soils in the Denver Basin provide information about ancient
temperatures and rainfall. Farnham's research focuses on climate
change in the Denver area from about 58 to 45 million years
ago, long after the last dinosaur walked on Earth. By looking
at fossil leaves and soils in the Denver Basin, researchers
hope to reconstruct the climate for this area during the last
great period of global warming, when Denver was a tropical rainforest.
Contact information: e-mail: [email protected]
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Name:
Jason F. Hicks
Title/Organization: Research associate (pending), Department
of Earth and Space Sciences, Denver Museum of Nature and Science
Education: B.A. (1984), Oxford University; Ph.D. (1993),
Yale University
Work History: Environmental technician, Denver, October
1998-present; research geologist, Scripps Institution of Oceanography,
summer 1998; adjunct lecturer, Colorado College, 1998; lecturer,
University of New Haven, 1996; associate professor, Yale University,
1995; visiting scientist, Smithsonian Institution, 1993-95;
laboratory technician, Enviromed Services, 1992-95; consultant
geologist, Hawley Research Group, 1987-88.
Motivation/Goals: Hicks specializes in dating layers
of sedimentary rock from around the world. This little known
subdiscipline of geology called chronostratigraphy will be an
important part of the project. It is possible to work out the
age of a rock any number of ways. Museum staff will measure
the rock magnetism of many of the fossil sites that have been
found in recent years in short road cuts, excavations, gully
washes, and hillsides around Denver. By matching magnetic directions
to a reference timescale from the core, researchers can determine
when they were deposited, usually to within a half million years
or so.
Contact Information: Denver Museum of Nature and Science,
Department of Earth and Space Sciences, 2001 Colorado Boulevard,
Denver, CO 80205-5798; e-mail: [email protected]
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Name:
Lisa Tauxe
Title/Organization: Professor of geophysics, Scripps
Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California
Education: B.S. (1978), Yale University; M.A. (1980),
M.Phil. (1982), and Ph.D. (1983), Columbia University
Work History: Professor of geophysics, 1996-present
Motivation/Goals: Tauxe has a long-term interest in the
magneto-bio timescale. This project represents a unique opportunity
to piece together the record in a key area.
Contact Information: Scripps Institution of Oceanography,
La Jolla, California; phone: 619-534-6084; fax: 619-534-0784
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Name:
Jaelyn J. Eberle, Ph.D.
Title/Organization: Research Scientist-Paleobiology
Canadian Museum of Nature
Education: B. Sc. Honours (1991), University of Saskatchewan;
Ph.D. (1996), University of Wyoming
Work History: Research scientist, Canadian Museum of
Nature, 2000-present; curator of paleontology, Houston Museum
of Natural Science, 1998-99; postdoctoral researcher and lecturer,
Rice University, 1997-99
Motivation/Goals: Jaelyn Eberle's research focuses on
the mammalian world in the wake of dinosaur extinction 65 million
years ago, and mammals that lived in a warm, subtropical high
Arctic 40 to 55 million years ago.
Contact Information: PO Box 3443 STN D, Ottawa ON K1P
6P4, Canada; phone: 613-364-4145; fax: 613-364-4027; email:
[email protected]
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