Special to the Times Vedette
Dr. Kata McCarville
- June 9 – Iowa Rocks!
- July 21 – Extinctions
- 14 – Soils
Iowa’s geology is varied and interesting but is sometimes overlooked because of the perception that Iowa is flat and there is nothing to see but corn and soybeans. Nothing could be further from the truth. Iowa’s bedrock contains many phenomenal fossils, evidence of meteor impacts, and a record of much of the geological past. Glacial deposits conceal older bedrock across much of the state, and those deposits include rocks transported from Canada and Minnesota, including rhyolite, basalt, greenstone, banded iron formation and stunning Lake Superior agates.
We’ll take a quick tour of Iowa’s geologic history and the rocks that record the story, with a particular focus on Whiterock Conservancy and the surrounding area.
Katherine McCarville (Kata) got started with Iowa geology in 2005 when she joined the faculty at Upper Iowa University in Fayette. Born at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, she is a river rat. She’s spent time on and along many Iowa rivers, as well as the Colorado, Green, Platte, Snake and Mississippi.
Kata has roots in the Midwest but grew up in California. She studied geology at UCLA as an undergraduate and worked as a uranium miner in Wyoming after graduation. She earned a master’s degree in geology Colorado School of Mines, working on uranium deposits in the Red Desert basin of Wyoming, and then worked for a number of years in computing and networking at universities and for engineering consulting firms. As a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow, she did her doctoral work in avian paleontology of Fossil Lake, Oregon, at the South Dakota School of Mines. Her work resulted in an innovative interpretation for the locality, as a volcanic maar.
Kata’s interests span the earth and environmental sciences and often cross disciplinary boundaries. Her current research centers on the origins of the Iowan Erosion Surface, soil health and soil organisms, and the role of disturbance in prairie ecosystems.
These programs are free and open to the public. Call the Whiterock Conservancy office at 712-790-8221 x2 or email guestinfo@whiterockconservancy.org for questions or more information.