By Nailah Johnson ’24 Last summer I worked with a team of William & Mary undergraduate students to study the geology of central Virginia. In particular, my research focused on a suite of enigmatic metamorphosed rocks in the Smith River Allochthon, which is a controversial piece of geologic real estate in the southwestern Virginia Piedmont. Previous…

By Chuck Bailey Scientists like their acronyms, and in some fields the more acronyms the better. Earlier this year I received a GSA AGeS-DiGS grant – whoa, that is a lot of acronym! When decoded this stands for a Geological Society of America’s Geochronology Division’s Award for Geochronology Student Research – Diversity in GeoSciences. I’m…

By Meara Carlin ’22, Morgan Sanders ’22, and Chuck Bailey As summer runs ever onward the Structural Geology & Tectonics Research Group continues to work on its various research and outreach efforts. We’ve been making movies on location in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Our intention is to make a collection of educational and fun videos…

By Morgan Sanders ’22 In 2007, I made my first trip to Highland as a curious six-year-old. Now 15 years later, I have returned as an even more curious 21-year-old. If only six-year-old me knew that I would be studying Highland as a college senior. I will be graduating from W&M in December as a…

By Chuck Bailey It’s summertime and the Geology department is a happening place as our research efforts are in full swing. We’ve got a pile of undergraduate students working in-house on independent projects. This year’s Structural Geology & Tectonics research team decided they’d collectively be known as B to the 7th (B7) – it’s a…

By Chuck Bailey Saturday, Feb. 26th was a day like no other. I participated in both a William & Mary departmental field trip while simultaneously ‘hosting’ an episode of the Bachelor as we rolled across the Blue Ridge foothills in central Virginia. The Geology department runs a field trip every semester that is open to…

Meara Carlin ’23 There is an interesting grey area when dealing with planetary geology. The first thing someone usually thinks of when geology is mentioned is rocks. However, in the case of planetary geology a lot of times (not all), rock samples are not part of the science. So, what is geology without rocks? It’s…

Katie Cullen ’22 There’s a certain something about the ritual of putting on a record that makes the entire experience more delightful than just popping in some airpods and streaming your playlist. It’s the process, the steps, the sounds that makes it so soothing, so unique, such an experience. So, let the lead-in groove begin…

By Chuck Bailey Last Saturday began with a celebratory Homecoming reception in the Geology department and finished twelve hours later, and 2,400 miles to the northwest in Portland, Oregon at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting. I went coast to coast with the Schuyler Sisters to attend a scientific meeting, in person, for the…

This summer, four brave undergraduates and one faculty advisor are dedicated to both geologic research and honoring the sensational Broadway musical Hamilton. You may be wondering what roads led to such an interesting intersection. The answer is simple as the William & Mary Structural Geology & Tectonics research group has a grant from the U.S.…

by Jerry Hu ’21 Earlier this academic year, my friend Gabe Mojica ’21 wrote about his research on soapstone bodies near Schuyler, Virginia. Gabe’s not the only member of the William & Mary Structural Geology & Tectonics Research Group studying soapstone as my thesis research is focused on veins and faults that cut the soapstone.…

By Chuck Bailey Mid-day on Sunday (May 2nd, 2021), I crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains along U.S. Route 250. As I traveled up the mountain, just to the west of the Albemarle-Nelson county line, I noticed a modest pile of rock debris and tilted trees on the uphill side of the highway. A small mass…

By Olivia Pearson ’21 Some 550 to 500 million years ago, in what would become central Virginia, a suite of sediments was deposited in the newly formed Iapetus Ocean whose waters washed onto the southeastern shore of ancestral North America (aka Laurentia). Geologically speaking, ocean basins don’t last forever as tectonic collision and subduction lead…

By Kelly Thigpen ’21 Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains are underlain by old rocks, some of which formed more than a billion years ago. These old rocks have stories to tell – they bear witness to a long and complex history that includes episodes of continental collision/ mountain building as well as rifting, continental break-up, and…

By Katie Lang ’18 A new trail has opened in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains — in late November, after years of work, Nelson County opened the Blue Ridge Tunnel, a mid-19th century railroad tunnel as a trail for the public to enjoy. Before this rail trail opened to the public, the William & Mary Structural…