Stories

To celebrate Earth Week, TCU’s Department of Geological Sciences has planned a fun event and open house in the Sid Richardson Atrium on April 20 from 2 – 5 p.m. featuring giveaways, interactive demonstrations, and food trucks.

TCU geology professor John Holbrook was published in the latest issue of Sedimentology for his groundbreaking research in the analysis of the origins of the Dockum Group strata, which make up the rocks of Texas’s Palo Duro Canyon. The paper, worked on in collaboration with his master’s student Sam Walker, highlights the role mega monsoonal flash floods play in creating this strata and why these rocks are vast sources to find early Mesozoic vertebrates.

Many Texans don’t realize that within the past century, there have been more than 100 earthquakes in our state that have been large enough to be felt. Five of these earthquakes have had magnitudes between 5 and 6, making them large enough to be felt over a wide area and produce significant damage. While Texas has many fault lines, Helge Alsleben, associate professor of geology at TCU, explains why our earthquake hazard is small in comparison to other states and how seismic activity is monitored.

Omar Harvey understands the benefits of service learning for his students. Through the opportunities he presents, they learn more about the community and themselves while fulfilling a local need and meeting classroom or degree requirements. Harvey believes that service learning is important because it connects what is taught in the classroom with real-world experiences and instills the habit of performing a service for others.

Amy Hoover, author, backcountry pilot, and professor at Central Washington University in Ellensburg was named 2022 National Certified Flight Instructor of the Year. The award is given by the FAA and the General Aviation Awards Industry Board. Of the more than 30 years she’s been flying, for the past 19 she has been teaching at CWU. Today Hoover serves as a flight check instructor and assistant chief ground instructor.