Dr. Thom Wilch is a Quaternary geologist who specializes in glacial geology, physical volcanology, and paleoclimate history.  Two current research projects focus on using volcanic records to reconstruct the history of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.   He is on the international science team of the ANDRILL McMurdo Ice Shelf project, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and federal science agencies from New Zealand, Italy, and Germany.  He participated in ANDRILL core characterization  during 2007 drilling and is continuing to work with Albion College geology research students on drill core samples.  Thom is the Principal Investigator of "Collaborative Research: Late Cenozoic Volcanism and Glaciation at Minna Bluff, Antarctica:  Implications for Antarctic Cryosphere History", funded by the NSF.  Paul Roberts '07 and Meagan Bosket '08 accompanied Thom as student researchers on recent research expeditions to Minna Bluff.   In addition to his Antarctic research, Thom has also been active recently in field-based fluvial geomorphology and glacial geology research projects in south-central Michigan.  To see specific research pages, click here. 

Spring 2008 Schedule

Courses

• Geo 101  Introduction to Geology (lecture and lab)

• Geo 106  Geological Hazards (lecture)

• Geo 208  Geomorphology (lecture and lab)

• Geo 212  Volcanology (lecture and lab)

• Geo 306  Glaciers and Climate Change (lecture and lab)

• Geo 314  Geological Field Methods

• HSP 131  Great Issues in Science:  Global Climate Change (honors seminar)

• LA 101     Explorers, Global Warming, Natural Disasters (first-year seminars)

Education 

• Ph.D. Geology, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, 1997

• M.S. Quaternary Studies, University of Maine, 1991

• B.A. (highest Honors) Geology, Macalester College, 1987

Career

• 2008-           Chair, Dept. of Geological Sciences, Albion College

• 2003-           Associate Professor, Dept. of Geological Sciences, Albion College

• 1998-2002    Assistant Professor, Dept. of Geological Sciences, Albion College

• 1997-98       Visiting Assistant Professor, Dept of Earth and Enviro. Science, NM Tech

• 1997-98        Postdoctoral Res. Assoc., New Mexico Bureau of Geology, Socorro, NM

Externally Funded Grants

• 2006-09.  Principal Investigator: Collaborative Research: Late Cenozoic Volcanism and Glaciation at Minna Bluff, Antarctica:  Implications for Antarctic Cryosphere History, submitted to the Office of Polar Program, National Science Foundation,  June 2, 2005.  (award: $345,558 total; $111,889 to Albion College).  Project Website.

• 2006-08. Co-investigator:  Volcaniclastic Lithofacies of the McMurdo Ice Shelf (MIS) ANDRILL Core.  Subaward to NSF-funded Antarctic Geological Drilling (ANDRILL) initiative (University of Nebraska, awardee).  Albion subaward amount:  $34,027 May 31, 2006-7, 12 month extension granted;  subaward supplement, $19,258, funded 8/30/07.  (Total award $53,285.). (Project Website)

• 2001-03.  Principal Investigator for contractual services through Calhoun Conservation District:  Rice Creek Watershed Project, ($122,920  over 2 years; $67,000 to Albion College) Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Watershed Planning Project 319 funds, Co-principal investigators:  Tim Lincoln, Doug White, Ellen Wilch, Luti Erbeznik. 

• 1998-2002. Principal Investigator: Paleo-ice-level elevations of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet at Mt. Takahe, ($167,000 over 2 years; $114,000 to Albion College) National Science Foundation: Polar Programs, Glaciology Division.  Co-principal investigators:  Bill McIntosh and Nelia Dunbar, New Mexico Tech.

• 1999.  Principal Investigator: Glacial geologic mapping near Dowling, Michigan, Barry County, Michigan, ($4,620 to Albion College) Pierce-Cedar Creek Institute, co-principal investigators:  Kyle Roslund and Katie Pritchard, Albion College (students).

Selected Recent Publications

• Wilch, T. I., and McIntosh, W. C., 2007, Miocene-Pliocene ice-volcano interactions at monogenetic volcanoes near Hobbs Coast, Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica, in Antarctica: A Keystone in a Changing World-- Online Proceedings of the 10th ISAES, edited by A. K. Cooper and C. R. Raymond, USGS Open-File Report 2007-1047, Short Research Paper 074, 7 p.  (http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1047/srp/srp074/of2007-1047srp074.pdf).  

• Dunbar, G., Niessen, F., Vogel, S., Tulaczyk, S., Mandernack, K., Krissek, L., Carter, L., Cowan, E., Wilch, T., Peng, C., Strong, C.P., Scherer, R., Sjunneskog, C., Winter, D., McKay, R., Talarico, F., Pompilio, M., and the MIS Science Team, in press 2007, Late Pleistocene to Holocene strata from soft-sediment coring at the AND-1B Site, ANDRILL McMurdo Ice Shelf Project, Antarctica: Terra Antarctica, v. 14 (2) 14 p.

• Krissek, L.A., Browne, G.H., Carter, L., Cowan, E.A., Dunbar, G.B., McKay, R.M., Naish, T., Powell, R.D., Reed, J., Wilch, T.I., the ANDRILL-MIS Science Team., in press 2007, Sedimentology and Stratigraphy of the AND-1B core, ANDRILL McMurdo Ice Shelf Project, Terra Antarctica, v. 14 (2) 38 p. 

• Pompilio, M., Dunbar, N., Gebhardt, C., Helling, D., Kuhn, G., Kyle, P., McKay, R., Talarico, F., Tulaczyk, S., Vogel, S.W., and Wilch, T., in press 2007, Petrology and geochemistry of the AND-1B core, ANDRILL McMurdo Ice Shelf Project, Antarctica: Terra Antarctica, v. 14(2), 34 p.

• Wilch, T. I., and McIntosh, W. C., 2002, Lithofacies analysis and ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology of ice-volcano interactions at Mt. Murphy and the Crary Mountains, Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica:  implications for Late Miocene ice-sheet history in West Antarctica, in Smellie, J. L., and Chapman, M. R., eds., Ice-volcano Interaction on Earth and Mars: London, U.K., Geological Society of London,  p. 237-253.

• Wilch, T.I., and McIntosh, W.C., 2000, Eocene and Oligocene volcanism at Mt. Petras, Marie Byrd Land: implications for middle Cenozoic ice-sheet reconstructions in West Antarctica: Antarctic Science, Cambridge University Press. v. 12, p. 477-491.

• Panter, K.S., Hart, S.R., Kyle, P.R., Blusztanjn, J., and Wilch, T.I., 2000, Geochemistry of late Cenozoic basalts from the Crary Mountains: characterization of mantle sources in eastern Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica: Chemical Geology, v. 165, p. 215-241.

• Wilch, T.I., McIntosh, W.C., and Dunbar, N.W., 1999, Late Quaternary volcanic activity in Marie Byrd Land:  potential ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar -dated time horizons in future West Antarctic ice and marine cores: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 111, p. 1563- 1580.

Selected Recent Meeting Presentations/Abstracts

• Wilch, T.I.; McIntosh, W.C.; Smellie, J.L.; Dunbar, N.W.; Fargo, A.; Scanlan, M.K.; Roberts, P.D.; Panter, K.S., 2007, Late Miocene volcanism and glaciation at Minna Bluff, Antarctica,  Online Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Science, Santa Barbara CA.

• Dunbar, N.W., McIntosh, W.C., Wilch, T.I. 2007 Integrated tephrochonology of the West Antarctic region- Implications for a potential tephra record in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide Ice Core, 10^th International Antarctic Earth Science meeting, Santa Barbara, California, August 2007, Extended Abstract 179,  4p.

• Krissek, L.A., G. Browne, L. Carter, E. Cowan, G. Dunbar, R. McKay, T. Naish, R. Powell, J. Reed, T. Wilch, and the ANDRILL-MIS Science Team 2007, Sedimentology and stratigraphy of the ANDRILL McMurdo Ice Shelf (AND-1B) core, in Antarctica: A Keystone in a Changing World – Online Proceedings of the 10th ISAES, edited by A.K. Cooper and C.R. Raymond et al., USGS Open-File Report 2007, Extended Abstract 148, 4 p.

• Pompilio, M., P. Kyle, T. Wilch, N. Dunbar and MIS ANDRILL SCIENCE TEAM 2007, The volcanic record in the ANDRILL McMurdo Ice Shelf AND-1B drill core. in Antarctica: A Keystone in a Changing World – Online Proceedings of the 10th ISAES, edited by A. K.Cooper and C. R. Raymond et al., USGS Open-File Report 2007-1047, Extended Abstract 199, 1-4.  

• Powell, R.D., Naish, T.R., Krissek, L.A., Browne, G.H., Carter, L., Cowan, E.A., Dunbar, G.B., McKay, R.M., Wilch, T.I., and the ANDRILL-MIS Science Team., 2007, Antarctic Ice Sheet dynamics through the Neogene from evidence in the ANDRILL–McMurdo Ice Shelf Project drillcore (AND-1B), 10^th International Antarctic Earth Science meeting, Santa Barbara, California, August 2007, Extended Abstract 201, 4 p. 

• Wilch, T.I., 2007, Volcanic stratigraphy of the ANDRILL MIS Core, McMurdo Ice Shelf project post-drilling workshop, May 1-4, 2007, Antarctic Core Repository, Florida State University, Tallahassee.

• Linoln, B.Z., Bartels, W.S., Linoln, T.N., Menold, C., Wilch, T.I., Van de Ven, C., 2007, Research experiences for first and second year students at Albion College, Geological Society of America annual meeting: Denver, CO,  USA.

• Panter, K.S. and Wilch, T.I., 2006, Potential use of Cenozoic volcanic-glacial records from the upper Scott Glacier to interpret Antarctic cryosphere history and constrain mantle source and geodynamic evolution in the southern Transantarctic Mountains, Transantarctic Mountains Workshop: New opportunities for multi-disciplinary work, Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

• Roberts, P.D. and Wilch, T.I., 2005, Diel cycles in stream stage and turbidity in a small Midwestern agricultural stream:  Implications for water quality assessment, Geological Society of America annual meeting: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

• Wilson, T.J., Paulsen, T., and Wilch, T.I., 2003, Structural control on Neogene-Quaternary volcanism in the Transantarctic Mountains, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica, EGS-AGU-EUG 2003 Joint Assembly, Volume 5: Nice, France, p. 14357.

• Wilch, T. I., 2002, Spatial and temporal patterns of Neogene basaltic volcanism in the Transantarctic Mountains, Southern Victoria Land, Geological Society of America annual meeting: Denver, Colorado, USA.

• Morse, J.T., Anderson, S.M., and Wilch, T. I., 2002 , Developing a management plan for a small, rural watershed in south-central Michigan through monitoring of stream flow, turbidity, and temperature, Geological Society of America annual meeting: Denver, Colorado, USA.