Faculty Profile
Ben Edwards
(he/him/his)Professor of Geosciences; Moraine Chair in Arctic Studies (2002)
Contact Information
on sabbatical 2024-25
Kaufman Hall Room 142
717-254-8934
http://blogs.dickinson.edu/edwardsb/
Bio
His research foci are interactions between volcanoes and glaciers (glaciovolcanism), Arctic and Alpine climate change (including directing the Dickinson College Arctic and Alpine Climate Change Research Experience AACCRE), UAV (a.k.a. drones) science, and the impacts of volcanic ash on plants. Volcano studies include the formation of pillow lava and cooling joints, large-scale lava-ice experiments at the Syracuse Lava Lab (http://lavaproject.syr.edu), petrological imaging of lithospheric stratigraphy (using xenoliths from Neogene to Recent volcanoes in the North American Cordillera), applications of theoretical models for understanding the formation of cooling fractures in lavas, and the formation of deposits during volcano-ice interactions. His other interests include soil-forming processes, mineralogy, environmental hazards, the history of science, the history of Arctic exploration, and the influence of plate tectonics on almost everything. His current research involves taking students to places like Alaska (Gates of the Arctic), Iceland (2010 Eyjafjallajokull eruption), Greenland, the Canadian Arctic (Nunavut), British Columbia, Chile (2015 Villarrica eruption) and Peru to study volcanic stratigraphy, glaciers and climate change.
Education
- B.A., Carleton College, 1989
- M.S., University of Wyoming, 1993
- Ph.D., University of British Columbia, 1997
2024-2025 Academic Year
Fall 2024
GEOS 205 Introduction to Soil Science
This course focuses on giving students a basic understanding of soil formation processes and field/laboratory characterization of soils. Emphasis in the first part of the course will be on soil formation processes, while the second part of the course will focus on students conducting experiments relevant to soil formation. Weather permitting most labs will have an out-of-doors component. This course is an elective for the Earth Sciences major, and will be useful to students interested in the food studies certificate program, agricultural science, archeology, environmental science, forensic science, planetary science, and solid state chemistry and physics.Three hours classroom and three hours laboratory a week. Prerequisie: one introductory lab science or permission of instructor.
GEOS 250 Introduction to Arctic Studies
This course is designed to give a broad introduction to the physical/social geography, geology and ecology of the Arctic region of earth particularly through the lens of global climate change. Students will use a variety of media (lectures, readings, videos, blogs) to build knowledge about this critical region of earth to serve as a basis for individual and group projects on a specific Arctic region (e.g., Siberia, Svalbard, Greenland, Iceland, Nunavut, Alaska) and topic (e.g., climate change, Arctic tourism, Arctic flora/fauna species, Arctic archeology, Arctic exploration). Learning goals include: i) exposure to spatial analysis and Geographic Information Systems, ii) foundational knowledge of the Arctic cryosphere and its response to climate change, geological history, human geography and ecological systems, and iii) mastery of Arctic geography. Course meetings will include student presentations, fieldtrips and basic GIS instruction.