Grand Valley State University senior Geology major Mark Schoonover traveled to Southwest Oklahoma last summer searching for a research topic for this academic year.
Mark started this project on his own by visiting the Meers Fault and collecting samples last summer, explains, Patricia Videtich, GVSU Geology professor and project sponsor. He had to rent a backhoe to get the samples he needed, so you could say he is a pretty determined scientist!
The project, A History in Rock deals with determining the timing of a fault in Oklahoma. One of the practical applications of the project is trying to figure out earth history, so geologists can better determine where oil might be found, which is important in an oil-rich state like Oklahoma.
There is a possibility that a pretty strong earthquake hit that area of the United States, explains Schoonover. That area of Oklahoma used to be down by the equator and was a tropical marine environment similar to today's Caribbean.
This summer, Schoonover will participate in an undergraduate research project through GVSU and do some dating of rocks in a Purdue University lab. He will also be doing some fieldwork in Montana for six weeks as well.
Schoonover plans to attend a graduate school in geology and eventually become a college professor and carry out research at a university.
