Erin Birsic of Allison Park Selected To Present Research at National Geological Conference

MEADVILLE, PA (09/21/2011)(readMedia)-- Erin Birsic, of Allison Park, Pa., is one of seven Allegheny College students who have been selected to present their research at the National Geological Society of America Conference in October in Minneapolis. Approximately 6,000 scientists are expected to attend the annual conference.

Birsic is presenting research that she performed in the Talkeetna Mountains of south-central Alaska with Professor of Geology Ron Cole and two other students. The title of their research is "Evolution of a Late Cretaceous-Early Tertiary Granitic Pluton and Associated Garnet-Bearing Dikes and Migmatite in a Collisional Terrane Suture Zone."

The students, who did fieldwork with Cole in Alaska during the summer, collected some of the first geological data from this region of Alaska, in the mountains between Fairbanks and Anchorage.

"Alaska is a frontier area for geology," said Cole. "We're exploring how south-central Alaska was assembled through its geologic past."

Because of the relative inaccessibility of the location, Birsic and her fellow researchers were often transported to their camps by bush plane or helicopter. In addition to the results of their research-which included working on a new model for a geologic phenomenon known as collisional magmatism and identifying sources of mineral deposits that have economic value-the students reported seeing bear, caribou, moose, lynx and other Alaskan wildlife.

Cole's research in Alaska, which he has been conducting since 1994, is supported in part by a National Science Foundation grant.