Potholes – by Kim Shollenberger

Potholes in bedrock along the Susquehanna River near Falmouth, PA.  The river needs to be low to be able to view the hundreds of potholes formed by erosive eddies.  Note center dimple at bottom of large pothole at end of tape measure.

Kim Shollenberger is a retired Chief Master Sergeant in the Air Force who is in the final stages of completing his bachelor’s degree in geology at Kutztown University.

Crater Lake, OR

Photographer: Antonette (Toni) Markowski, P.G., is a Senior Geologic Scientist in the Economic Geology Division of DCNR’s Pennsylvania Geological Survey who has authored multiple publications and given talks to various organizations on coalbed methane in Pennsylvania — her favorite subject in geology.  After receiving a BS in Earth-Space Science Secondary Education from Shippensburg University, she transitioned into geology at Millersville University, then earned her MS at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale studying Geology and Petrology of Tertiary Lignites Adjacent to the Beartooth Mountain Front, Montana-Wyoming.  She’s worked as a geologist for 37 years now.

Valley of Fire, cross-bedding and weathering

Photographer: Jennifer O’Reilly, P.G., is currently a senior operations manager and principal hydrogeologist for Groundwater & Environmental Svcs., Inc. and is a past PCPG president and board member.  After earning her BA at SUNY Geneseo and her MSc at Texas Tech University studying Stable Isotope Geochemistry of the Caprock Caliche (she reconstructed paleoclimatic conditions of the Southern High Plains), she has worked as a geologist for 25 years, 23 of which have been with Groundwater & Environmental Services, Inc. [GES] in Exton.  She’s maintained her interest in isotope geochemistry and she cautions, “you can’t trust atoms; they make up everything!”

Seven Tubs, PA

Photographer: Liz Heness, G.I.T., is a freshly-minted geologist-in-training, earning her GIT license in December 2020.  She double majored in geology and environmental sciences for her BS at Kutztown University where she was a star student, then earned her MSc at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) studying Salt tectonic controls on facies and sequence stratigraphy of the Triassic Chinle Formation, Gypsum Valley Salt Wall, Colorado.  After working in Virginia for two years, she has returned home to Pennsylvania to work at Tetra Tech in Pittsburgh.  With four years of experience, she is looking forward to taking the final PG exam in the near future.  She’s long been interested in sedimentology, but has more recently become fascinated by karst hydrogeology.

Grand Canyon

Photographer: Stan Conti earned his BSc at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and started working in environmental engineering geology in 1971. He has worked in 21 states, including Alaska, and worked with the Navy doing residential sampling of tap water and groundwater in Naples, Italy. Stan’s been retired for the past few years, but is open for opportunities to apply his expertise.  Stan’s favorite topic in geology is deep mud rotary drilling supervision because the changes in lithology can be so striking, even in purely unconsolidated material.

Pisoids in the Ordovician Epler Formation

Pisoids in a boulder of Epler Fm excavated from a construction project that Geo-Technology Associates, Inc. (GTA) is consulting on in Cumberland County, near Dickinson, PA. Note the concretionary texture on the left side, where the rock has been fractured.

Photographer: Andrew J. Zmoda, P.G., P.E., works with Geo- Technology Associates, Inc. (GTA). He earned BS at SUNY Cortland, MS at UNC Chapel Hill in 1987. He earned his first PG license in 1991 in Virginia, second PG in 1995 in Pennsylvania, then his PE license in 2006 (Maryland and later in PA). His favorite geologic activities are field mapping and subsurface interpretation of strata.

Reverse fault and drag folding in the Pennsylvanian Llewellyn

Reverse fault with drag folding exposed during the excavation of material at the H&K Group, Inc., Hazleton Materials aggregate quarry. The fault plane that cuts through the Pennsylvanian Llewellyn Formation is highlighted here by the inclusion of coal from the folded and overturned Buck Mountain coal seam located in the footwall approximately 100’ below this elevation. This quarry is located one mile east of Eckley Miner’s Village, the downdip direction of the fault plane is approximately 170˚, and the photo coordinates are: 40.99607, -75.83986. Sadly, the gentleman at the top of the photo is drilling blast holes and the exposure shown here was gone within a week.

Photographers: Susan K. Brown, P.G., and Mark Eschbacher, P.G. Susan Brown earned her BS at Bloomsburg University, then worked 21 years in both geotechnical and quarry mining fields in Pennsylvania after earning her BS at Bloomsburg University. She loves the visual aesthetic and challenge of structural geology. Mark Eschbacher is a project geologist with H&K Group’s Engineering & Environmental Services Division with 40 years of experience after earning his BS at University of Missouri – Columbia (and State Fair Community College-Sedalia, Missouri). He credits Professor Rheta Smith at State Fair Community College as one of his inspirations for becoming a geologist. (Isn’t it great how we each can become inspirations for others simply by being interested and actively engaged?)

Anticline-syncline on Route 322

Anticline-syncline sequence in trace fossil-rich Lower Silurian sandstones exposed at a roadcut along Route 322 in Pennsyl- vania approximately 39 miles south of State College and ap- proximately two miles northwest of Arch Rock Road. The expo- sure overlooks the Juniata River near the village of Macedonia.

Photographer: Chris Mulry, P.G., currently works with Groundwa- ter & Environmental Services, Inc. He’s been practicing geology for 36 years after completing his BS at University of Delaware (including field camp in the Black Hills and parts of Wyoming and Montana) and then his MS at University of Maine doing field mapping and Appalachian structural synthesis. He likes both structural geology and geomorphology and yearns to return to Beartooth Pass southwest of Red Lodge in Montana.