Alan Bartlett

Not Your Typical Tropics: Sedimentology and Stratigraphy of Mississippian (Osagean–Meramecian) Shallow-Water Carbonates in Kansas

Diversity of Petrology and Eruption Initiation Mechanisms Between Mt. Shasta’s Misery Hill and Hotlum Cone-Building Episodes

ASU Field Geology II

Effect of Forced Convection on Heat Loss in Basaltic vs. Rhyolitic Lava Flows

Not Your Typical Tropics: Sedimentology and Stratigraphy of Mississippian (Osagean–Meramecian) Shallow-Water Carbonates in Kansas

Summer Internship at Kansas Geological Survey (2025)

I worked under Dr. Diana Ortega-Ariza at the Kansas Geological Survey analyzing 22 Mississippian limestone cores from west-central Kansas. I recorded detailed, systematic notes of lithology and sedimentary structures for several cores; I also adapted prior core logs into this consistent style. I used these columns to correlate sequence boundaries and (when possible) lithology using sequence stratigraphy.

I identified three depositional sequences which exhibit a successive restricting-upwards trends capped by subaerial exposure horizons. The facies are dominantly bioclastic packstone/grainstones and wackestones composed of heterozoan fossil grains, with local siliciclastics and chert. Depositional environments on the inner- to mid-ramp ranged from normal marine to restricted to evaporitic, fluctuating between sabkhas, tidal flats, lagoons, shoals.

I will be presenting a poster on this research at GSA Connects 2025, in Session T193.

GSA Connects 2025 poster for this project, presented in session T193. Click image for higher quality preview.

Diversity of Petrology and Eruption Initiation Mechanisms Between Mt. Shasta’s Misery Hill and Hotlum Cone-Building Episodes

Undergraduate Honors Thesis at ASU (2024)

Under the guidance of Dr. Christy Till with the EPIC Lab, I completed petrographic analysis of Mt. Shasta andesites with the intention to understand their petrologic origins and the likely mechanism that instigated past eruptions. We also utilized bulk rock geochemistry to supplement my petrographic observations.

I observed numerous indicators of magma mixing throughout, such as glomerocrysts, reversely zoned plagioclase crystals, quenched magmatic inclusions, and zoned phenocrysts of clinopyroxene, hornblende, and biotite. I interpreted that mafic recharge (the injection of a fresher mafic magma into a felsic magma reservoir) is the most likely eruption initiation mechanism for the Misery Hill and Hotlum cone-building episodes.

I presented a poster for this project under Session T34 at GSA Connects 2024 in Anaheim, CA. A copy of my written thesis can be found here.

Thesis GSA poster_CT_to print.pdf

ASU Field Geology II

Summer Field Camp (2024)

I completed a three-week geology field camp near Payson, AZ, where we mapped Paleozoic sedimentary strata and Proterozoic basement. We were located in the Transition Zone between the Colorado Plateau and the Basin & Range physiographic provinces. Our responsibilities included unit identification and description, field mapping using Strabospot for the iPad, constructing geologic maps using ArcGIS Pro, writing reports with interpretations of depositional and structural history, and creating cross-sectional diagrams and stratigraphic columns using Adobe Illustrator. A sample report and geologic map are included below.

Layout1.pdf

Sector 1 Report.pdf

Effect of Forced Convection on Heat Loss in Basaltic vs. Rhyolitic Lava Flows

Summer Internship at University of Texas at San Antonio (2023)

I worked with Dr. Alan Whittington in the Heat & Mass Transfer and Experimental Rheology (HAMsTER) Lab at UTSA. Our project involved testing the effects of free vs. forced atmospheric convection on the cooling patterns of basaltic and rhyolitic lava flows. We heated several samples to 500°C, observed their cooling with a FLIR infrared camera, and calculated the heat transfer coefficient h with respect to the thermodynamic equation for convective heat loss. I developed many new skills this summer, including writing Python scripts to extract data from FLIR photos to Excel; preparing samples using rock saws and shaker boxes; and experimentally determining properties like density through gas pycnometry, thermal diffusivity, and heat capacity through calorimetry.

I presented a poster on this project at GSA Connects 2023, under Session T175. My summer research is also contributing to a larger project of UTSA PhD student Lauren Schwartz, who is giving an oral presentation at GSA Connects 2025 under Session T163 (10/22/2025).

GSA poster session.pdf