We are most pleased to welcome Kevin Uno ’01 back to the Carleton Geology Department for fall term – Kevin will be teaching Introductory Geology.

Kevin’s Carleton comps project was entitled "Upper Cretaceous Paleomagnetism from Umbria, Italy: ‘Anchored’ poles set proposed True Polar Wander event adrift."  From that platform he launched himself into the graduate school of the University of Utah where he completed a masters degree in 2008.  His masters research was on the use of geochemical tracers in ice to identify subglacial processes at Storglaciären, Sweden.  For his dissertation, Kevin is using stable isotopes to study past and present climates.  This includes paleoenvironmental reconstructions in East Africa using carbon and oxygen isotopes in fossil tooth enamel, and using isotopes from modern elephant  tusks as a proxy for climate and life history.

One of Kevin’s recent papers is Uno, K.T., Cerling, T.E., Nakaya, H., Nakatsukasa, M., Kunimatsu, Y., (2008), Stable carbon and oxygen isotope ratios of fossil tooth enamel from the Nakali and Namurungule Formations, Kenya: Capturing the C3-C4 transition in East African equid diet at ~9.6 Ma, J. of Vert. Paleontology, 28, 3: 155A.

Kevin’s teaching experience is equally wide-ranging, with his student groups spanning the age range from elementary school to college. 

Welcome Kevin!

Mark Kanazawa is betting that today’s college students are more interested in studying the environment than ever.

Beginning this fall, Carleton College will offer an Environmental Studies major. While six students have already changed to the new major, environmental studies grads aren’t expected until spring 2011.

Kanazawa, the college’s director of environmental studies, has spent years planning and preparing for the program, which until now was offered as a concentration. But with the number of concentrators growing, the school agreed to consider a major. Final approval came in March.

Ordovicious, the Geology Department’s Intramural Frisbee team, suffered a close loss (12-13) to Bloodhue (4th Goodhue) on May 29 in an epic battle for the title of IM Champions in the soft core division spring term.

The sun shone on patchy grass and colorful freezy-pops dotted the field on game day when Ordovicious arrived to defend last year’s championship.