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October 2025
Our Trace Metals in Wisconsin Cambrian Strata Keck Project funded through the Keck Geology Consortium (NSF 2050697) presented four posters at GSA in San Antonio! All of the students did an amazing job!
Ali et al. Magnetic Susceptibility Stratigraphy of the Cambrian Lone Rock Formation, Wisconsin, U.S.A.
de Montigny et al. Trace-Metal Bearing Sulfides and Oxides Constrain Mississippi Valley Type Mineralization in the Cambrian St. Lawrence Formation, Western Wisconsin
Dirks et al. New Implications for Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction of the Eau Claire Formation in its Type Area
Durbin et al. Trace Metal Geochemistry and Mineralogy of Diagenesis in the Cambrian Jordan Formation, Western Wisconsin
July-August 2025
Our Trace Metals in Wisconsin Cambrian Strata Keck Project funded through the Keck Geology Consortium (NSF 2050697) was a huge success! Twelve students from across the country joined Jay Zambito and Jim Rougvie at Beloit College to study the occurrence of trace metal-bearing sulfides and sulfide weathering products in sandstones from southwestern Wisconsin. This work is significant because these strata are a regional groundwater aquifer and source of industrial sand that is mined throughout the area; trace metal-bearing sulfides are therefore potential sources of groundwater contamination.
Conducting field work in Western Wisconsin.
Sulfide nodule weathering to iron oxide (hammer tip in upper right for scale).
Measuring and sampling drill core at the WGNHS.
Drilling microsamples from sulfide nodules for elemental and mineralogical analysis.
May 2025
Beloit Paleo Lab members and other Beloit students participated in a Field Excursion course to learn about the effects of climate change on the environments and people of Puerto Rico. We studied a number of localities where rising sea level and human changes to the shoreline were leading to coastal erosion. You can read more about our trip here:
https://www.beloit.edu/live/news/6878-puerto-rico-field-excursion
March 2025
Beloit Paleo Lab member Kelsey Engelke presented her senior thesis work at the NE-NC GSA Meeting in Erie, PA! You can read more about her work here: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2025NE/webprogram/Paper407849.html
August 2024
The results of our Michigan Basin Devonian Project funded through the Keck Geology Consortium (NSF 2050697) are now available online as Keck Short Contributions (scroll down to the bottom of the page). Congratulations to all of the student authors!
July 2024
Students and Staff from Beloit Memorial High School spent a few weeks working in the Beloit Paleo Lab learning how to collect fossils and curate fossil collections. This exciting opportunity was funded by the Paleontological Society Education and Outreach Grants (project entitled, “Pre-College Student and Science Educator Engagement with the Beloit College Paleontological Collection”).
Beloit Memorial High School and Beloit College students collecting fossils at a local quarry.
Beloit Memorial High School and Beloit College students curating fossils in the Paleontological Collection at Beloit College.
June 2024
Beloit Paleo Lab members presented a poster at the North American Paleontological Convention (NAPC) in Ann Arbor, MI on the "Current Status of the Paleontological Collection at Beloit College."
May 2024
The Beloit Geology Field Excursion course spent ~2 weeks traveling Upstate New York and visiting classic paleontological and geologic sites!
Collecting Middle Devonian fossils.
Gastropod fossil from the Middle Devonian Solsville Member, Oatka Creek Formation.
Group photo at Artists Rock, Catskill Escarpment.
Herkimer Diamonds.
May 2024
Congratulations to Beloit Paleo Lab members Isabel Johnson, Gabe DuRussel, Geneva Helland, and Jack Collier who successfully completed their Senior Theses and graduated this Spring!
Isabel Johnson will start her MS degree at UT-Austin and the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) this coming fall!
April 2024
Our Michigan Basin Devonian Project group funded through the Keck Geology Consortium (NSF 2050697) presented 7 posters at NC-SC GSA in Springfield, MO!
Wiesner et al. An Analysis of Stratigraphic and Paleoecologic Variability in the “Squaw Bay Formation,” Michigan Basin
O'Bryan et al. Diagenesis of a pyritized contact at the Middle to Late Devonian transition from carbonate to black shale in the Michigan Basin
Barker-Edwards et al. Magnetic susceptibility of the Late Devonian Antrim Shale of the Michigan Basin
Johnson et al. Characterizing the Ellsworth Formation of the Michigan Basin using lithostratigraphy and chemostratigraphy
Truong et al. Preliminary geologic maps of Alpena County, Michigan
OCTOBER 2023
Beloit Paleo Lab member Jack Collier undertook fieldwork in west-central Wisconsin for his senior thesis on the provenance of Paleo-Indian artifacts made from Hixton silicified sandstone in collaboration with the Logan Museum of Anthropology.
AUGUST 2023
Students Simone de Montigny and Kelsey Engelke joined Jay Zambito and colleagues Pat McLaughlin and Joe Devera of the Illinois State Geological Survey in southern Illinois and eastern Missouri to collect samples for a new project on the Devonian Bushberg/Sylamore Sandstone and overlying shales.
JULY-AUGUST 2023
Our Michigan Basin Devonian Project funded through the Keck Geology Consortium (NSF 2050697) was a huge success! Nine students from across the country joined Jay Zambito and co-PI Peter Voice (Western Michigan University) to study the stratigraphy and paleoenvironments of the Middle-Late Devonian carbonate to black shale transition in the Michigan Basin. As part of this project we also presented at the International Subcommission on Devonian Stratigraphy meeting and studied Devonian outcrops across western New York State.
Image below adapted from USGS I-2781.
Michigan Basin lecture at MGRRE.
Measuring and sampling drill core at MGRRE.
Measuring and sampling drill core at MGRRE.
Visiting the Schmaltz Geology Museum and Dinosaur Park.
Hiking at Panama Rocks Scenic Park.
Collecting Devonian Hamilton Group fossils at Penn Dixie.
Presenting at the International Subcommission on Devonian Stratigraphy meeting.
Shipping rocks back home.
MAY 2023
Lots of exciting news about Anna Weldon: She graduated this Spring, will spend the summer at the Illinois Geological Survey as part of the Paul Edwin Potter Internship Program, and this fall she will begin graduate school at the University of Kansas!
MAY 2023
Congratulations to Beloit Paleo Lab members Olivia Farbarik, Daniel Bolin, and Emma May who successfully completed their Senior Theses and graduated this Spring!
MAY 2023
Jay Zambito presented at the North Central Geological Society of America Meeting in Grand Rapids, MI. The talk was entitled, "Stratigraphy of the Devonian Antrim Shale on the Southeastern Margin of the Michigan Basin" and focused on breaking down 'State-Line Stratigraphy' problems for the Devonian succession in southeast Michigan, northern Indiana, and northwest Ohio. Acknowledgement is made to the donors of the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund for partial support of this research.
October 2022
Beloit Paleo Lab member Anna Weldon presented at the Geological Society of America National Meeting in Denver, CO. Her talk was entitled "Chemostratigraphy of the Middle-Upper Devonian Blocher Member (lowermost New Albany Shale) at Gallatin, Tennessee". Acknowledgement is made to the donors of the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund for support of this research.
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