Barrett

Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.

Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.

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Landslide Blocks within Miocene Sedimentary Rocks of Papago Park

Description

Papago Park in Tempe, Arizona (USA) is host to several buttes composed of landslide breccias. The focus of this thesis is a butte called “Contact Hill,” which is composed of metarhyolitic debris flows, granitic debris flows, and Barnes Butte Breccia. The Barnes Butte Breccia can be broken down into several…

Papago Park in Tempe, Arizona (USA) is host to several buttes composed of landslide breccias. The focus of this thesis is a butte called “Contact Hill,” which is composed of metarhyolitic debris flows, granitic debris flows, and Barnes Butte Breccia. The Barnes Butte Breccia can be broken down into several different compositional categories that can be dated based on their relative ages. The depositional timeline of these rocks is explored through their mineral and physical properties. The rhyolitic debris flow is massively bedded and dips at 26° to the southeast. The granitic debris flow is not bedded and exhibits a mixture of granite clasts of different grain sizes. In thin section analysis, five mineral types were identified: opaque inclusions, white quartz, anhedral and subhedral biotite, yellow stained K-feldspar, and gray plagioclase. It is hypothesized that regional stretching and compression of the crust, accompanied with magmatism, helped bring the metarhyolite and granite to the surface. Domino-like fault blocks caused large brecciation, and collapse of a nearby quartzite and granite mountain helped create the Barnes Butte Breccia: a combination of quartzite, metarhyolite, and granite clasts. Evidence of Papago Park’s ancient terrestrial history is seen in metarhyolite clasts containing sand grains. These geologic events, in addition to erosion, are responsible for Papago Park’s unique appearance today.
ContributorsScheller, Jessica Rose (Author) / Reynolds, Stephen (Thesis director) / Johnson, Julia (Committee member) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05

Cloud Piercers: Mountains and Adventure in Western North America

Description
The mountains of western North America are spectacular and diverse, from sheer walls of crumbling black limestone in the Canadian Rockies, to smooth glacially polished granite in the Wind River Range, to gargantuan ice-clad volcanoes in the Cascades. These great bastions of rock, snow, and ice, still very much wild…

The mountains of western North America are spectacular and diverse, from sheer walls of crumbling black limestone in the Canadian Rockies, to smooth glacially polished granite in the Wind River Range, to gargantuan ice-clad volcanoes in the Cascades. These great bastions of rock, snow, and ice, still very much wild and untamed, provide an incredible arena for adventure, exploration, and challenge. Over the past three years, I have devoted thousands of hours to exploring these vast wild places, climbing high peaks, steep cliffs, and frozen waterfalls. In doing so, I studied the rich geologic history of the mountains. This thesis project is a compilation of stories and images from those adventures, along with the stories of the mountains themselves: how the rocks were formed, thrust skyward, and sculpted over the ages into their present, glorious form. The photographic and detailed narrative of the geology and adventures is on a new website called Cloud Piercers, which currently features three geologically diverse mountain massifs: (1) Mount Rainier, an active volcano in the Cascade Range of Washington; (2) Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, within a terrain of folded Paleozoic sedimentary rocks; and (3) the Wind River Range of Wyoming, composed mostly of Archean metamorphic and granitic rocks. This website will be expanded in the future as the geologic studies and adventures continue.
ContributorsSteadman, Dane Kyle (Author) / Reynolds, Stephen (Thesis director) / Johnson, Julia (Committee member) / Heimsath, Arjun (Committee member) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05