Williamstown – Markes E. Johnson, the Charles L. MacMillan Professor of Natural Sciences at Williams College, has been awarded a Petroleum Research Fund grant for $50,000 by the American Chemical Society.
The grant is the eighth award Johnson has received through the American Chemical Society since 1979. The Petroleum Research Fund, which promotes research participation in geology and chemistry on both the undergraduate and graduate levels, has enabled more than 50 Williams students to accompany Johnson on his frequent excursions to the Baja California Peninsula of Mexico since 1990.
The current grant will support research on his project, "Paleography and Correlation of Pliocene Basins in the Gulf of California." The project is aimed at understanding the development of one of the planet's youngest seas, also known as the Sea of Cortez. Expansion of the Gulf over the last five million years is being traced by Johnson and his students along former shorelines uplifted by as much as 650 ft. above sea level.
Johnson has been at Williams since 1977, and has taught courses in historical geology, paleobiology, and stratigraphy.
He is the author of "Discovering the Geology of Baja California – Six Hikes on the Southern Gulf Coast" (University of Arizona Press, 2002) and co-editor of "Pliocene Carbonates and Related Facies Flanking the Gulf of California" (Geological Society of America Special Paper, 1997), among works most closely related to ongoing field studies in Mexico.
Previous awards include a Class of 1945 World Fellowship for his project, "Island Ecology Through Geologic Time" and grant support from the National Geographic Society for research on former shorelines in Western Australia, Siberia, and China's Inner Mongolia.
Johnson is a fellow of the Geological Society of America and a member of the Paleontological Society, among other professional groups. He received his B.A. from the University of Iowa in 1971 and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1977.
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Pittsfield Road Cut Moratorium
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city's annual city road cut moratorium will be in effect from Nov. 29, 2024 to March 15, 2025.
The road cut moratorium is implemented annually, as a precautionary measure, to ensure roads are kept clear of construction work during snow events and to limit the cuts in roads that are filled with temporary patches while material is unavailable.
During this period, steel plates are not to be used to cover open excavations in roads. Also, the Department of Public Services and Utilities will not be issuing the following permits:
• General Permit
• Sewer Public Utility Connection Permit
• Stormwater Public Utility Connection Permit
• Water Public Utility Connection Permit
• Trench Permit
Limited exceptions will be made for emergency work that is determined to be an immediate threat to the health or safety of a property or its occupants.
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