Geosciences

Dr. Johanna M. Kieniewicz

Affiliation	Faculty
Title	Assistant Professor
Office	Olin Room 307
Email	kieniewiczj@denison.edu
Phone	740-587-6487
Fax	740-587-6774

B.S. in Geological Sciences from University of California, Santa Barbara, 2001
A.M. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis, 2004
Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis, 2007

Welcome

I’m incredibly excited to be joining the Department of Geosciences at Denison University. I received my PhD in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Washington University, St. Louis, where I worked on the paleoenvironmental reconstruction of Mid-Pleistocene humid periods in the Western Desert of Egypt. My B.S. in Geological Sciences is from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where I made an early foray into geoarchaeology by studying volcanic ash in Mayan pottery. I mostly grew up in Houston TX, but now go ‘home’ to the hills around Aberdeen, Scotland.

Teaching

As I’m new to Denison, this is definitely a work in progress. I believe that in the classroom setting, students should be engaged in the material, not simply passive receptacles for information. I encourage discussion, debate, and critical thinking about geologic processes. Especially in introductory courses, I believe in making the material relevant to students, emphasizing recent events/discoveries and processes of local/current relevance. I am interested in imparting knowledge that students can take with them not only to a career in the earth sciences, but also simply that information they will need to make responsible decisions as voters or legislators with respect to environmental and geologic issues. I look forward to teaching a variety of courses here at Denison associated with my background in paleoclimate/paleohydrology, Quaternary geology, GIS, and planetary geology.

Geosciences 111: Planet Earth [doc]

Research Interests:

Very broadly speaking, I am interested in paleoenvironmental reconstruction and the tools that we use to infer past environmental conditions.As such, I find arid environments to be of particular interest due to their extreme sensitivity to environmental change. One especially spectacular example of this sort of environmental change is the humid (or pluvial) phases that North Africa has experienced during the Quaternary. Questions that I am involved in investigating include:

-Timing (when did rain fall on the Western Desert of Egypt?)

-Magnitude (How much did it rain?)

-Seasonality (What times of the year did it rain, what climatic systems are we talking about?)

-Spatial Synchroneity (Was it wet across North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean at the same time… was it wetter to the south?)

-What implications do these periods of humidity have for early human/hominid groups?

To address these questions, I have worked with lake sediments [jpg] from Kharga and Dakhleh Oases [tif]. In so doing, I have worked with archaeologists of the Dakhleh Oasis Project, an international archaeological project dedicated to reconstructing human/environment interaction in Dakhleh Oasis from prehistoric to Roman to modern times. My work on lake sediments from Dakhleh Oasis has led to my involvement of the reconstruction of a possible meteorite impact event into the area, indicated by the Dakhleh Glass.

In addition to work in the Western Desert, I am interested in the development of terrestrial paleoclimate proxies, such as lacustrine carbonates and tufas. I am specifically interested the use of stable isotopes and minor elements in lacustrine carbonates, calcretes, and tufas for interpreting changes in climate and hydrology.

If you are a Denison student interested in pursuing some independent research, particularly using GIS or geochemistry, along the above-described lines (or maybe have some ideas of your own), come talk to me! I’m looking forward to working with you!!

Conference Presentations/Abstracts:

Kieniewicz, J.M., Smith, J.R., 2006 Mid-Pleistocene palaeolakes of the Western Desert of Egypt:Palaeoclimate records, palaeoenvironments, and implications , EOS Transactions 87 (52).

Kieniewicz, J.M., Smith, J.R., Kleindienst, M.R., Churcher, C.S, 2006, Paleoenvironmental reconstruction of a mid-Pleistoncene pluvial environment, Dakhleh Oasis, Western DesertEgypt, GSA Abstracts with programs

Smith, J.R., Kieniewicz, J.M., Adelsberger, K. A., Heil-Chapdeleine, V., 2006, Reconstructing pluvial phase environments, Western Desert, Egypt, from the geochemistry of authigenic water-lain deposits, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, V. 70, n 18, Suppl. 1, Page A599

Smith, J.R., Kleindienst, M.R., Churcher, C.S., Schwarcz, H., Haldemann, A.F.C., Osinski, G., Kieniewicz, J.M., 2006, Evidence for a local impact event during Middle Stone Age occupation, Dakhleh Oasis, Western Desert, Egypt, GSA Abstracts with programs.

Kleindienst, M.R., McDonald, M.M.A., Wiseman, M.F., Hawkins, A.L., Smith, J.R., Kieniewicz, JM., Adelsberger, K.A., 2006, Walking in the footsteps of Gertrude Caton-Thompson and Elinor W. Gardner: Surveys by the Kharga Oasis Prehistory Project (KOPP), Society of Africanist Archaeologists Abstracts

Kieniewicz, J.M., and Smith, J.R., 2005, Paleohydrology of a small Pleistocene pluvial lake, Western Desert, Egypt, EOS transactions 86 (52).

Kieniewicz, J.M., and Smith, J.R., 2005, Paleogeography, Sedimentology, and Geochemistry of Pleistocene Paleolakes in Dakhleh Oasis, Western Desert, Egypt, GSA Abstracts with Programs, v. 37, 210-7

Kieniewicz, J. M., and Smith, J.R., 2004, Seasonality during the ~130 ka pluvial event in the Western Desert of Egypt, as inferred from stable isotope and minor element profiles of the freshwater gastropod, Melanoides tuberculata, GSA Abstracts with Programs

Kieniewicz, J.M., J.E. Chappelow, V.L. Sharpton, 2000, Properties of Martian Surfaces from the morphology of small impact craters, EOS Transactions 81 (48), Fall Meeting Supplement

Chappelow, J.E., J.M. Kieniewicz, V.L. Sharpton, 2000, Calculation of Crater depths from shadows of arbitrary width, EOS Transactions 81 (48), Fall Meeting Supplement

Dissertation Kieniewicz, J.M., 2007, Pleistocene pluvial lakes in the Western Desert of Egypt: Palaeoclimate, palaeohydrology, and palaeolandscape reconstruction, PhD Dissertation, Washington University in St Louis

Publications

Kieniewicz, J.M., and Smith, J.R., 2007. Hydrologic and climatic implications of stable isotope and minor element analyses of authigenic calcite silts and gastropod shells from a Mid-Pleistocene pluvial lake, Western Desert, Egypt. . Quaternary Research. v. 68 p. 431-44

Arvidson, R.F. Seelos, K. Deal, W. Koeppen, N. Snider, J. Kieniewicz, B. Hynek, M. Mellon, and J. Garvin, 2003. Mantled and Exhumed Terrains in Terra Meridiani, Mars., . J. Geophys. Res., . v. 108 no. E12 p. 14-1:14-20