Renee L Love

What do students and industry professionals need from academia most? To receive and utilize feedback on what is needed for their careers. In the face of changing energy-water systems and resources that are becoming scarcer and more difficult to extract, academic programs need to be dynamically responsive to industry and societal needs. The Earth and Spatial Sciences Department at the University of Idaho has created five new programs in the last three years in response to requests and feedback from students and industry professionals. These programs include BS degrees in Climate Change and Solutions, Sustainable Mining and Earth Resource Management, Energy Resiliency, Engineering Geology, and an online MS in Geographic Information Systems with seven options to choose from such as Remote Sensing, Natural Hazards and Emergency Planning, Geotechnical Skills, and Geospatial Intelligence. Each of our BS geology degrees meet the requirements for ASBOG Fundamentals of Geology licensing exam and we provide a Geology Licensing and Workforce Preparation course for our undergraduates as well. In serving as a mentor at GSA for over ten years, frequently asked questions from students have been incorporated into this preparation course. Further, our classes are focused on assessing real-world scenarios using leading industry software such as Schlumberger's Petrel E & P Platform for hydrocarbon studies, Seequent Leapfrog Geo for mining exploration, ESRI ArcGIS and QGIS for geographic information science and spatial imaging. Here I provide 1) examples of applicable class projects using these programs to prepare students for jobs outside of academia, 2) how key learnings from industry professionals have been incorporated into our programs, and 3) other ways we further prepare our students for the workforce.

BISON PRISCUS, THE STEPPE BISON, FROM SODA SPRINGS IDAHO Jean Allen, Ian B. Spendlove, and Renee L. Love Among other ice age megabeasts, bison were endemic on the North American mainland continent during the late Pleistocene to early Holocene. While several bison species (Bison bison, Bison priscus, Bison antiquus, and Bison occidentalis) all lived in North America, there were major differences in size and range. We examined the skeletal remains of a bison excavated from southeastern Idaho in 1966 to provide insight into its species, gender, and relative age in which it lived. The horn core length, bur to tip, and the horn core shape were key indicators of gender and species. The partial horn of the specimen measured 370 mm, which already exceeded the maximum horn length of Bison antiquus, Bison occidentalis, and Bison bison (at 364 mm, 350mm, and 270 mm, respectively). Furthermore, this measurement also exceeded the maximum Bison priscus female horn length, at 245 mm, indicating that it was a male. The skeletal remains of the Soda Springs, Idaho bison were preserved in an ancient hot spring deposit stratigraphically above the skeletal remains of a Jeffersonian Mammoth (Mammuthus jeffersonii) in a nearby pit, which was radiometrically dated at 13,700 cal BP. Bison priscus went extinct at the end of the last ice age approximately 10,000 years ago. This provides us with a relative age of the deposits, between the Bolling-Allerod Interstadial warming event and the Younger Dryas. Both these megabeasts lived during a time of major climatic fluctuations and changing biomes. This bison may have represented one of the last Bison priscus specimens recovered in mainland North America before the species' ultimate extinction. Future work will provide more assessment into the taphonomy and a more complete inventory of the skeletal remains.

Sedimentary deposits north of the western Snake River Plain host Idaho's first and only producing oil and gas field. They consist of the lower to middle Miocene Payette Formation, the middle to upper Miocene Poison Creek and Chalk Hills Formations, and the Pliocene to lower Pleistocene Glenns Ferry Formation. Using new geochronology, palynomorph biostratigraphy, and geologic mapping, we connect updip surface features to subsurface petroleum play elements. The Payette Formation is a likely main source of the hydrocarbons, and acts as one of the reservoirs in the unnamed basin. Here, we redefine the Payette Formation as 0 to approximately 3,500 ft (0 to approximately 1,000 m) of mudstone, with lesser amounts of sandstone overlying and interbedded with the Columbia River Basalt Group and Weiser volcanic field. Index palynomorphs, including Liquidambar and Pterocarya, present in Idaho during and immediately after the middle Miocene climatic optimum, and new U-Pb ages of 16.39 and 15.88 Ma, help establish the thickness and extent of the formation. For the first time, these biostratigraphic markers have been defined for the oil and gas wells. The Poison Creek Formation is sandstone interbedded with mudstone that is approximately 800-1,800 ft (250-550 m) thick. The Chalk Hills Formation is a tuffaceous siltstone, claystone, and sandstone that is as much as approximately 4,200 ft (1,280 m) thick. New U-Pb ages are 10.1, 9.04, and 9.00 for the Poison Creek Formation, along with maximum depositional ages of 10.7 to 9.9 Ma for four samples from the Poison Creek Formation. A single U-Pb age of 7.78 Ma was determined from pumice low in the Chalk Hills Formation. Like the Payette Formation, the Poison Creek Formation can be a reservoir, whereas the Chalk Hills Formation acts as a sealing mudstone facies. The overlying sandstone, siltstone, and conglomerate of the Glenns Ferry Formation act as the overburden to the petroleum system in the subsurface, and were important for burial and hydrocarbon maturation. The Glenns Ferry Formation is up to 500 ft (150 m) thick in the study area, as much has been eroded. Whereas the Payette and Poison Creek Formations were deposited during the mid-Miocene climatic optimum amongst and above volcanic flows, the Chalk Hills and Glenns Ferry Formations were deposited within ancient Lake Idaho during an overall increase in aridity and cooling after the mid-Miocene climatic optimum.

16 million years ago, ancient Lake Clarkia formed when the Columbia River Flood Basalts dammed the St. Maries River near Clarkia, Idaho. The world-famous Clarkia Fossil Beds contain exceptionally preserved fish, plants, and palynomorph fossils that record the high temperatures of the Mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum. While the P-33 and P-37 localities of Lake Clarkia have been extensively studied, little has been done with the P-40 locality due to poor access to the site. This study uses physiognomic characteristics of the fossil flora to determine paleoclimate estimates for the P-40 locality of the Clarkia Fossil Beds. Climate-Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program (CLAMP), leaf area analysis, and leaf margin analysis were used to look at mean annual temperatures (MAT), mean annual precipitation (MAP), growing season length, and other climate proxies. Preliminary estimates suggest the P-40 locality had 8-9 degrees C MAT and MAP of 70-80 cm a year. These estimates are in line with other Clarkia fossil localities during the Mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum. Micro- and macrofossil assemblages corroborate these estimates using nearest living relative techniques. Each of these localities provide insight into paleoclimate variability during the warmest time in the past 30 million years.

Only two Jeffersonian mammoths (Mammuthus jeffersonii) have been confirmed in the northwestern United States. This study focuses on the specimen excavated in 1966 in Conda, ID. The mammoth was radiocarbon dated to 13,500 cal yr BP, during the Bolling-Allerod interstadial period, a time of intense climatic warming and environmental change. While research shows that Jeffersonian mammoths in the Midwest were common in mesic environments and consumed C4 grasses and shrubs (Saunders et al., 2010), little is known about the dietary patterns of Jeffersonian mammoths in the western US. This study utilizes stable isotope ratios of C and O from molar enamel to determine the diet and migration patterns of the mammoth.
Using known growth rates of Columbian mammoth molars, the tooth was sampled at 1.2 cm intervals to create a 13-year timeline of delta (super 13) C and delta (super 18) O values. Each of the 13 samples represents a yearly average. delta (super 13) C (VPDB) values of the molar enamel varied from -7.7 per mille to -10.2 per mille, indicating that the mammoth was consuming a diet that was primarily dominated by C3 vegetation. The youngest sample showed that the mammoth consumed a diet with 34.0% C4 vegetation, while the oldest is only 15.6%. This indicates that either a lack of food sources led to an expanded diet, or the mammoth migrated to a place with more C (sub 4) grasses. delta (super 18) O (VSMOW) values ranged from 16.4 per mille to 19.6 per mille. After calibrating the oxygen enamel values to drinking water, delta (super 18) O values varied between -13.4 per mille and -16.6 per mille. This 3.2 per mille range indicates that the mammoth was consuming water with relatively consistent delta (super 18) O values, supporting the interpretation that the mammoth likely had to expand its diet, rather than migrate to find food.