Geography Blog

Author: averslui

  • Local mining for sand used in fracking

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    averslui

    The process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, uses pressurized fluids to fracture shale formations in order to extract natural gas or petroleum. Fossil fuel pumping using this technique has greatly accelerated since the early 2000’s. It allows fossil fuels that were formerly too difficult and expensive to extract to be mined, and has been an…

  • Geology and political affiliation

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    averslui

    An interesting blog post titled “How presidential elections are impacted by a 100 million year old coastline” is making waves. The Black Belt region of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia corresponds to a band of Cretaceous chalk deposited by a shallow sea over 65 million years ago. This chalk is the parent material for the region’s…

  • Lencho Bati to speak at Minnesota State

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    averslui

    Those of you who may have missed Prof. Bati’s excellent talk on Ethiopia last week at Gustavus have another chance! Geography Professor Lencho Bati will present “Africa After the Cold War” on Friday, November 9, at 3pm as part of Minnesota State University‘s Geography Department Colloquium (15 Armstrong Hall).

  • Mapping study abroad patterns

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    averslui

    Here’s an interesting website by UNESCO that maps the flows of students studying abroad. Where do most U.S. students go when they study abroad? Do the same countries send their students to study in the U.S.? What about students from Boliva–where do they go to study abroad? Who knew that a large percentage of Uganda’s…

  • Geography Department sponsors talk on Ethiopia, human rights, and US policy

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    averslui

    The Geography Department at Gustavus is pleased to announce a talk by Visiting Professor and East Africa expert Lencho Bati. The talk, “Human Rights in Ethiopia and U.S. Foreign Policy,” will take place at 3:00 pm on Friday, November 2, in Nobel Hall 105. The talk is free and open to the public.

  • Geography student travels to Alaska

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    averslui

    Gustavus student Cristian Raether is in Alaska for several weeks as part of his training to become a nurse. He spent several weeks at a hospital in Fairbanks and is now at “the top of the world” in Barrow. You can follow his adventures at his blog “Alaska, My Trip to the Last Frontier”: http://cristianalaska.blogspot.com/.

  • Geography celebrates 60 years at Gustavus

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    averslui

    The Geography Department at Gustavus celebrated its 60th anniversary with a reunion last Saturday. The celebration commemorated the retirement of Dr. Bob Douglas and the 50th year of Gustavus teaching by Dr. Bob Moline. Congratulations all around! Thank you to everyone who attended–despite a rainy homecoming Saturday. It was a delight to see you and…

  • Prof. Ryan Bergstrom wins prize

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    averslui

    Congratulations to Dr. Ryan Bergstrom whose paper, with Dr. Lisa Harrington, won first place in the 35th Applied Geography Conference‘s Student Papers Competition last week! The paper title and abstract are below. SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN THE GREATER YELLOWSTONE ECOSYSTEM: A CASE STUDY OF JACKSON, WYOMING To facilitate community objectives toward sustaining the natural environment,…

  • Students visit dairy farms

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    averslui

    As part of the course GEG/ENV-250 Nature and Society, students visited two dairies in Nicollet County, Minnesota, earlier this month. The students didn’t want to leave the calf barn!

  • Geography hosts philospher Kathleen Dean Moore

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    averslui

    Philosopher, environmental ethicist, and nature writer, Kathleen Dean Moore, was on campus earlier this week as part of the Nobel Conference 48: Our Global Ocean. Dr. Moore is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Oregon State University and author of numerous award-winning books. It was a great pleasure for me and two Gustavus students, Mary Patterson…