Category: Uncategorized

The Minnesota River has begun a slow return to its regular channel.  This photo of the Highway 99 bridge in St. Peter was taken just after it was closed to traffic on March 19.  Note the crests of water at the base of the bridge, and a large tree stump lodged upright against the bridge…

Six geology students and Professor Jim Welsh left St. Peter on Friday for a week-long trip to Big Bend and Carlsbad Caverns National Parks in southern Texas.  They will see the easternmost parts of the Basin and Range Province, some nice volcanic rocks, and will surely have some tales to tell.  Above is a photo…

Twelve students in the J-Term class “Paleolimnology” spent Wednesday on Lake Hallett in St. Peter collecting sediment cores.  Taking full advantage of a heat wave (high of 10 deg F), and assisted by experts from the University of Minnesota’s Limnological Research Center, they got mud from three locations in the lake.  Over the next few…

Chester Johnson, who founded the Gustavus Geology Department in 1940, died December 8 at age 96.  He retired from teaching in 1978, but continued working for the college until 2001.  Here is a brief excerpt from a letter written by Joe Carlson, also Prof. Emeritus in Geology: “…Chet was my biggest hero.  He was perhaps…

Prof. Mark Johnson, who taught at GAC for many years before moving to Sweden in 2005, was back for a quick visit last Monday.  He spoke about his recent research on Icelandic glaciers, and showed some amazing photos of recently exposed glacial terrain.

This fall, Prof. Laura Triplett took the Geomorph class up to our annual stream-gauging site on the Rush River.  As usual, water levels were very low, so it was a challenge to visualize what the river looks like at bankfull or flood stage.  In this photo three Environmental Studies majors – Ali O’Neal, Brittany Stewart…

This fall, Prof. Jim Welsh and his FTS: Hawaii class visited Interstate State Park along the St. Croix River, Minnesota, to see rocks virtually identical to those being created on Hawaii today.  The basalt lava flows in Minnesota occurred 1.1 billion years ago when this continent temporarily began to split apart and lava surged up…