2009 AWG Brunton Award
Sarah Nagorsen
AWG takes great pleasure in announcing Sarah Nagorsen as the 2009 AWG Brunton Award recipient. After receiving her BS in geology at Grand Valley State University in 2008, 
Sarah is working on her M.S. in geology at Central Washington University concentrating in active tectonics of the western Mina deflection in eastern California. She expects to complete her degree in 2010.
Sarah’s aptitude and passion for field work is expressed in her profile and career objective; ‘Near the end of my field experience, while looking over my compilation map, my sample map, and my field notebook, I realized I had exceeded my own expectations…I felt strong and accomplished for, not only collecting data efficiently, but also, weathering the desert elements in a remote location…I want to teach field skills and share my passion for fieldwork with future generations as my professors’ have with me.
Sarah’s research is a field-based study focused on quantifying Pliocene and Pleistocene fault slip across the western Mina deflection (Adobe Hills, California), an area of northeast-striking, left-lateral faults east of the Sierra Nevada. In the Adobe Hills, left-lateral faults offset welded and unwelded latite ignimbrites and basalt flows but not cinder cones that overlie basalt flows and faults. While in the field, Sarah created a detailed geologic field map of these units and collected basalt samples for geochronology. She will date samples from offset basalt flows and uncut cinder cones overlying fault scarps to constrain maximum and minimum ages of fault slip.
It should be noted that it was a difficult choice, as we received applications from four other extremely qualified young women. We would like to congratulate them all by offering them a one year membership in AWG in hopes that they will continue to be leaders in our field. The AWG Brunton Award promotes the future of field mapping and data acquisition for the upcoming generation of women geoscientists. It is awarded to a female geoscience student at the senior level or beginning their graduate studies who has been a summer intern, excelled at field camp, or performed field data collection that will lead to a senior or graduate thesis.
The AWG Brunton Award promotes the future of field mapping and data acquisition for the upcoming generation of women geoscientists. It is awarded to a female geoscience student at the senior level or beginning their graduate studies who has been a summer intern, excelled at field camp, or performed field data collection that will lead to a senior or graduate thesis.
The award is funded by:
