Geology & Geological Engineering

The Department of Geology & Geological Engineering at South Dakota Mines explores the Earth from its core processes to its surface environments. Our programs combine field-based discovery, advanced laboratory research, and engineering principles to prepare students for impactful careers in energy, resources, environmental science, and beyond.

The geology and paleontology of the Black Hills and adjacent Great Plains provide us with an extraordinary natural classroom and laboratory. Geologists from around the world travel to South Dakota to study in our backyard, so whether you are an undergraduate or graduate student, expect hands-on learning out of doors, in our labs, or in affiliated facilities including the Sanford Underground Research Facility (a former gold mine that's now home to cutting-edge neutrino research), South Dakota Mines' Engineering Mining Experiment Station, Mining Hub, James E. Martin Paleontology Laboratory, and Museum of Geology.

We also operate the Black Hills Natural Sciences Field Station, one of the largest summer field camp stations in the United States, with opportunities for study in the Black Hills, California, Montana, Utah, Arizona, Hawaii, Turkey, France, Spain, Nepal, Iceland, New Zealand, Morocco, and Andes-Ecuador.

Meet our Faculty and Staff

The Amazing Geology of the Black Hills

View our Black Hills Story Map to learn more about the complex geology of the Black Hills region - just one example of research being done in this department. Find more presentations in the Online Exhibits section of the Museum of Geology page, which also showcases faculty and student research.

The Department of Geology and Geological Engineering integrates earth science and engineering to study the planet’s materials, resources, and processes. Students gain hands-on experience through fieldwork, laboratory research, and industry-focused learning opportunities.

Student Organizations

Paleontology Club

The Paleontology Club is an educational, scientific, and non-profit organization dedicated to promoting paleontology in the community. Membership is open to all students with an interest in paleontology and its related fields. The club sponsors monthly meetings, guest lecturers, field trips, and outreach activities at the Museum of Geology and in community classrooms.

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Darrin Pagnac (Darrin.Pagnac@sdsmt.edu)

Student President: Issac Gagner Isaac.Gagner@mines.sdsmt.edu

Society of Economic Geologists Student Chapter

The Society of Economic Geologists (SEG) Student Chapter at South Dakota Mines aims to provide its members with a variety of fun and service-oriented activities that promote knowledge of mineral deposits and mineral resources, and to help students develop professional knowledge and ethics in preparation for careers in economic geology. The chapter plans field trips to regional mines and other localities, visits schools to interest students in geology careers, raises funds for member activities, and sponsors the refreshments at the Friday seminars.

Faculty Advisors: Dr. Colin Paterson (Colin.Paterson@sdsmt.edu) and Dr. Kelli McCormick (Kelli.McCormick@sdsmt.edu)

Student President: Riley Kortenbusch (Riley.Kortenbusch@mines.sdsmt.edu)

National Society: https://www.segweb.org/

Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration/Drill & Crucible Student Chapter

The Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME) is a national organization comprised of individuals representing companies involved in mining, metallurgy, and exploration. The student chapter of SME at Mines is organized through the Department of Mining Engineering and Management.

Faculty Advisors: Dr. Rudrajit Mitra (Rudrajit.Mitra@sdsmt.edu) and Dr. Brett Carlson (Brett.Carlson@sdsmt.edu)

Student President: Grayson Caricofe (Grayson.Caricofe@mines.sdsmt.edu)

National Society: Home - Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration

Society of Petroleum Engineering Student Chapter

The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Student Chapter links Mines students to a global organization of petroleum engineering professionals involved in numerous aspects of the industry. Student activities include field trips to active drill sites and production facilities in the Williston and Powder River basins and informational seminars presented by professionals in exploration, drilling, and production engineering.

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Zhi Ye (Zhi.Ye@sdsmt.edu)

Student President: Nolan Rodgers (Nolan.Rodgers@mines.sdsmt.edu)

National Society: https://www.spe.org/en/

Seminars and Meetings

GGE Seminars

Announcements

All department seminars are on Fridays at 4 p.m. local time, unless otherwise noted. Announcements for each talk are emailed to the South Dakota Mines campus community.

If you are off campus, please subscribe to GGE_SEMINAR-L to get announcements and updates.

Seminar Coordinator: Dr. Sarah Keenan

Grad Lunch & Learn

Coordinated by the department's graduate representatives, lunch and learn meetings are held on Mondays at noon.

Contact: Dr. Trevor Waldien (Trevor.Waldien@sdsmt.edu)

GEOE/GEOL/PALE Advisory Board Meetings

Next meeting: TBA

Contact: Dr. Robert Hall (Robert.Hall@sdsmt.edu)

Professional GIS Workshops Offered by South Dakota Mines

Upcoming Workshops

Workshops are held in December/January and May/June. Daily schedule is 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mountain Time, with an hour lunch break.

*Online attendance is supported with Zoom (except for Field Data Collection workshop).

◊Receive a discount by registering for both Intro to ArcGIS I and II workshops in one week.

Note: If you do not receive a GIS Workshop confirmation email within a day or two of registering, please email Victoria.Karnes@sdsmt.edu to inquire.

Workshop Descriptions

Intro to ArcGIS I: Mapping with GIS

Instructor: Victoria Karnes
Cost: $549

This workshop is designed for people with no previous GIS experience. It covers the basics on how ArcGIS stores and manages map data and introduces participants to making maps and working with GIS data sets and data tables. GIS data storage, creating maps, publishing map layouts, and working with tables are all covered. It also includes an overview of commonly used sources of GIS data and how to adapt them for your own use. (Tuition includes license for Mastering ArcGIS or Mastering ArcGIS Pro e-textbook)

Background required: Familiarity with Windows and Internet browsers

Intro to ArcGIS II: GIS Analysis

Instructor: Victoria Karnes
Cost: $425

This workshop is designed for people who want an introduction to the types of spatial analysis possible with GIS data. It introduces many key GIS techniques, including how to conduct a suitability study based on multiple criteria, analyze spatial relationships between layers, work with topographic data, interpolate values from point data, and solve problems using distance and neighborhood factors. (Tuition includes license for Mastering ArcGIS or Mastering ArcGIS Pro e-textbook)

Background required: Intro to ArcGIS I workshop or equivalent experience

Field Data Collection with ArcGIS

Instructor: Victoria Karnes
Cost: $250

This workshop is designed for people who need to learn how to prepare GIS data for field collection projects, collect spatially enabled data in the field, and integrate the collected data back into the geodatabase. The course includes a brief overview of geodetic fundamentals and geo-location technologies, as well as hands-on practice with ArcGIS Online hosted technology (Survey123, QuickCapture, and Collector) using students' personal devices. (BYOD: Bring Your Own Device)

Background required: Familiarity with the ArcGIS platform recommended but not required.

Equipment: Bad Elf handheld GPS units (provided with assistance from the South Dakota Space Grant Consortium) will be used to collect data. However, participants must bring their own phone or tablet (iOS or Android). See ArcGIS Collector System Requirements.

About the Instructors

Victoria Karnes is the geospatial technology instructor in the Department of Geology and Geological Engineering at South Dakota Mines. She joined the South Dakota Mines faculty in 2022 after completing her master's degree in space and planetary science at the University of Arkansas. She oversees both the geospatial technology minor and certificate programs at Mines and is responsible for ArcGIS licensing for all South Dakota universities. She also serves as a board member for the Black Hills Digital Mapping Association and enjoys assisting other professors in various research projects across campus. She earned her bachelor's degree in geology from South Dakota Mines in 2019 and specialized in ESRI products, QGIS, and ENVI.

Maribeth Price, PhD, earned her doctorate degree in geosciences from Princeton University and is currently a professor of geology at South Dakota Mines. She has been using and teaching GIS for more than 20 years, has consulted on GIS in both industry and government, and has supervised undergraduate and graduate research projects involving GIS. She is the author of Mastering ArcGIS and Mastering ArcGIS Pro (McGraw-Hill Higher Education), introductory GIS textbooks used by both college students and professionals in developing their GIS knowledge and skills, as well as Switching to ArcGIS Pro (Esri Press). Since 2000, she has conducted over 100 workshops, reaching more than 1,200 participants.

Attendee Feedback

The instructor was very knowledgeable and presented the class clearly.
The workshop helped me with understanding the general concepts.
The class project aspect for each day helped.
The organization was great. The instructor's ability to respond to questions real-time was very useful.

South Dakota Mines GIS Workshops is a proud sponsor of Black Hills Digital Mapping Association.

GIS Data Sources

Helpful Resources for Beginners

If you are new to GIS and GIS data, check out the following articles and data sources to start exploring:

Mapping and Geographic Information Systems: A beginner's guide to GIS
Joseph Kerski's Top 10 list of data portals (plus honorable mentions)

ArcGIS Online

A great deal of data and other content exists on ArcGIS Online; however, since anyone can post data without review, some of it is of low quality or lacks documentation. Some layers that look useful for analysis, such as imagery layers or tiled layers (image map services), are only pictures – not downloadable data. To find downloadable data, try adding the text "type:layer" or "type:raster" to your search text (without the quotes). If in Pro, click the Living Atlas button. (ArcGIS Pro has a new portal search capability with filters that make this easier.) If you are using arcgis.com, click the box for authoritative data and toggle the button to look outside of your organization, if you are part of one. Always verify your data, ensuring it comes from authoritative sources and includes documentation, as this will give you the most accurate and best quality data. For more information, visit ArcGIS Online Help: advanced search.

US Data and Other Reputable Sources

While this is not a complete list of all reputable data sources for the United States, the following sites provide valuable information for those seeking data. There are many other data sources for other countries (and planets!) that you can find on the internet as well. If you are looking for GIS data for a specific state, you can often find it by visiting that state's official website and searching for GIS data, or by searching the United States Geological Survey (USGS) website for the relevant state.

Geospatial One-Stop (data.gov)
The National Map (USGS)
USDA GIS Data Gateway
National Weather Service - NWS WCM weather event data: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/wcm/
PRISM Climate Data - Grids of climate data, such as annual precipitation, average temperatures, etc.
Extensive list of government GIS data services - https://mappingsupport.com/p/surf_gis/list-federal-state-county-city-GIS-servers.pdf
South Dakota Open Data site
South Dakota Geological Survey - GIS databases
PAD-US (Protected Area Database) - Useful for delineating potential ("available") land for site suitability models

If you are a faculty member, staff member, or student at South Dakota Mines and would like to access our ESRI License-specific data files, contact Victoria Karnes (victoria.karnes@sdsmt.edu) for more information.

Alumni Newsletters

General Information and Room Scheduling

Cleo Heenan
Department Secretary
Phone: (605) 394-2461
Cleo.Heenan@sdsmt.edu

Geology Undergraduates

Dr. Timothy Masterlark
Professor
Phone: (605) 394-2461
Timothy.Masterlark@sdsmt.edu

Geological Engineering Undergraduates

Dr. Kurt Katzenstein
Associate Professor
Phone: (605) 394-2461
Kurt.Katzenstein@sdsmt.edu

Graduate Programs

Dr. Trevor Waldien
Assistant Professor
Phone: (605) 394-2461
Trevor.Waldien@sdsmt.edu

Non-thesis Graduate Students (Paleontology)

Dr. Darrin Pagnac
Professor
Phone: (605) 394-2469
Darrin.Pagnac@sdsmt.edu

Non-thesis Graduate Students (Geological Engineering/Geology)

Dr. Timothy Masterlark
Professor
Phone: (605) 394-2461
Timothy.Masterlark@sdsmt.edu

Student Co-op Registration (GEOL and GEOE)

Dr. Liangping Li
Associate Professor
Phone: (605) 394-2461
Liangping.Li@sdsmt.edu

Field Camp Programs through BH Natural Sciences Field Station

Website: http://geologyfieldcamp.sdsmt.edu/
Dr. Nuri Uzunlar
Professor and BHNSFS Director
Phone: (605) 394-2494
Nuri.Uzunlar@sdsmt.edu

Have more questions?

Department Head:
Dr. Robert Hall

Visit Our Facebook

(605) 394-1973

Robert.Hall@sdsmt.edu