All of our faculty work closely with students on research that leads to publications in top-tier journals. The Earth and Climate Sciences Department at Middlebury is ranked among the top liberal arts colleges in student-faculty publications.

Below you will find Middlebury student-faculty coauthored publications (peer-reviewed articles or chapters). Middlebury students and alumni are listed in bold


Johnson, S. A., West, D. P., & Peterman, E. M. (2024). Geochronology, geochemistry, and tectonic setting of Ordovician metavolcanic rocks in the Liberty–Orrington belt, Maine: implications for the evolution of peri-Gondwanan arcs in the northern Appalachians. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 61(2), 205–222. 

Pucker I, McCauley M, Fox K, Jacobel A. (2022) Residents of Hawaiʻi’s Climate Decisions to Remain or Migrate. Ecopsychology

Dillon EM, Pier JQ, Smith JA, Raja NB, Dimitrijević D, Austin EL, … Mychajliw AM et al. (2022) What is conservation paleobiology? Tracking 20 years of research and development. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 10

Ryan PC, Alvarado GE, McCanta M, Barca MK, Davis G, Hurtado de Mendoza L (2022) The importance of overbank deposits and paleosol analyses for comprehensive volcanic hazard evaluation: The case of Holocene volcanism at Miravalles Volcano, Costa Rica. Natural Hazards.

Belanger BK, Amidon WH, Laabs BJC, Munroe JS, Quirk BJ (2021) Modelling climate constraints on the formation of pluvial Lake Bonneville in the Great Basin, United States. Journal of Quaternary Science.

Brencher G, Handwerger AL, Munroe JS (2021)  InSAR-based characterization of rock glacier movement in the Uinta Mountains, Utah, USA. The Cryosphere 15 (10), 4823-4844.

Munroe JS, Bigl MF, Silverman AE, Laabs BJC (2021). Records of late Quaternary environmental change from high-elevation lakes in the Ruby Mountains and East Humboldt Range, Nevada. Geological Society of America Special Paper 536, 33 pp.

Munroe JS, Kimble K, Spötl C, Marks GS, McGee D, Herron D (2021) Cryogenic cave carbonate and implications for thawing permafrost at Winter Wonderland Cave, Utah, USA. Scientific Reports 11 (1), 1-9.

West DP, Peterman EM, Chen J (2021) Silurian-Devonian tectonic evolution of mid-coastal Maine, USA: Details of polyphase orogenic processes. American Journal of Science 321 (4), 458-489.

Munroe JS, Ryan PC, A Proctor (2021) Pedogenic clay formation from allochthonous parent materials in a periglacial alpine critical zone. Catena 203, 105324.

Munroe JS, McElroy R, O’Keefe S, Peters A, Wasson L (2021) Holocene records of eolian dust deposition from high‐elevation lakes in the Uinta Mountains, Utah, USA. Journal of Quaternary Science 36 (1), 66-75.

Ryan PC, Huertas FJ, Pincus LN, Painter W (2020) Arsenic-bearing serpentine group minerals: Mineral synthesis with insights for the arsenic cycle. Clays and Clay Minerals 67, 488-506.

Munroe JS, Walcott CK, Amidon WH, JD Landis (2020) A top-to-bottom luminescence-based chronology for the post-LGM regression of a Great Basin pluvial Lake. Quaternary 3 (2), 11.

Hollyday AE, Leiter SH, Walowski KJ (2020) Pre-eruptive storage, evolution, and ascent timescales of a high-Mg basaltic andesite in the southern Cascade Arc. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 175 (9), 1-21.

Munroe JS, Norris ED, Olson PM, Ryan PC, Tappa MJ, Beard BL (2020) Quantifying the contribution of dust to alpine soils in the periglacial zone of the Uinta Mountains, Utah, USA. Geoderma 378, 114631.

Munroe JS, Walcott CK, Amidon WH, Landis JD (2020) A top-to-bottom luminescence-based chronology for the post-LGM regression of a Great Basin pluvial Lake. Quaternary 3 (2), 11.

Cartwright SFA, West DP Jr, Amidon WH (2019) Depositional constraints from detrital zircon geochronology of strata from multiple lithotectonic belts in south-central Maine, USA. Atlantic Geology 55, 93-136.

Speth GT, Amos CB, Amidon WH, Balco G, Meigs AJ, Graf S (2019) Glacial chronology and slip rate on the west Klamath Lake fault zone, Oregon. GSA Bulletin 131 (3-4), 444-460.

Munroe JS, Norris ED, Carling GT, Beard BL, Satkoski AM, Liu L (2019) Isotope fingerprinting reveals western North American sources of modern dust in the Uinta Mountains, Utah, USA. Aeolian Research 38, 39-47.

Van Hoesen J, Arriaza B, Ryan PC, Grady CM (2018) A multi-analytical approach for identifying a manganese source for the black pigment of the Chinchorro mortuary palette. Geoarcheology DOI:10.1002/gea.21713.

JS Munroe, O’Keefe SS, Gorin AL (2018) Chronology, stable isotopes, and glaciochemistry of perennial ice in Strickler Cavern, Idaho, USA. GSA Bulletin 130, 175-192.

Munroe JS, Gorin AL, Stone NN, Amidon WH (2017) Properties, age, and significance of dunes near snow water lake, Elko County, Nevada. Quaternary Research 87 (1), 24-36.

Amidon WH, Luna LV, Fisher GB, Burbank DW, Kylander‐Clark ARC, Alonso R (2017) Provenance and tectonic implications of Orán Group foreland basin sediments, Río Iruya canyon, NW Argentina (23° S). Basin Research 29, 96-112.

Pincus LN, Ryan PC, Huertas FJ, Alvarado GE (2017) The influence of soil age and regional climate on clay mineralogy and cation exchange capacity of moist tropical soils: A case study from Late Quaternary chronosequences in Costa Rica. Geoderma 308, 130-148.

Amidon WH, Fisher GB, Burbank DW, Ciccioli PL, Alonso RN, Gorin AL, Silverhart PH et al. (2017) Mio-Pliocene aridity in the south-central Andes associated with Southern Hemisphere cold periods. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114 (25), 6474-6479.

Ryan PC, Huertas FJ, Hobbs FC, Pincus LN (2016) Kaolinite and halloysite derived from sequential transformation of pedogenic smectite and kaolinite-smectite in a 120 ka tropical soil chronosequence. Clays and Clay Minerals 64, 488–516.

Kim JJ, Comstock J, Ryan PC, Heindel C, Koenigsberger S (2016) Denitrification and dilution along fracture flowpaths influence the recovery of a bedrock aquifer from nitrate contamination. Science of the Total Environment 569–570, 450–468.

Coish R, Kim J, Twelker E, Zolkos S, Walsh G (2015) Geochemistry and origin of metamorphosed mafic rocks from the Lower Paleozoic Moretown and Cram Hill Formations of North-Central Vermont: Delamination magmatism in the western New England Appalachians. American Journal of Science 315, 809-845.

Munroe JS, Perzan ZM, Amidon WH (2016) Cave sediments constrain the latest Pleistocene advance of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in the Champlain Valley, Vermont, USA. Journal of Quaternary Science 31 (8), 893-904.

Ryan PC, West DP Jr, Hattori K, Studwell S, Allen DN, Kim J (2015) The influence of metamorphic grade on arsenic in metasedimentary bedrock aquifers: A case study from Western New England, USA. Science of the Total Environment 505, 1320-1330.

Cherniak DJ, Amidon WH, Hobbs D, Watson EB (2015) Diffusion of helium in carbonates: Effects of mineral structure and composition. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 165, 449-465.

Amidon WH, Clark AC (2015) Interaction of outburst floods with basaltic aquifers on the Snake River Plain: Implications for Martian canyons. GSA Bulletin 127 (5-6), 688-701.

Munroe JS, Attwood EC, O’Keefe SS, Quackenbush PJM (2015) Eolian deposition in the alpine zone of the Uinta Mountains, Utah, USA. Catena 124, 119-129.

Amidon WH, Hobbs D, SA Hynek (2015) Retention of cosmogenic 3He in calcite. Quaternary Geochronology 27, 172-184.

Johnson JE, West DP Jr, Condit CB, Mahan KH (2014) Strain localization in the Spanish Creek mylonite, Northern Madison Range, southwest Montana, USA. Rocky Mountain Geology 49 (2), 91-114.

Kim JJ, Ryan PC, Klepeis K, Gleeson T, North K, Bean J, Davis L, Filoon J (2014) Tectonic evolution of a Paleozoic thrust fault influences the hydrogeology of a fractured rock aquifer, northeastern Appalachian foreland. Geofluids 14, 266-290.

Macdonald FA, Ryan-Davis J, Coish RA, Crowley L, Karabinos P (2014) A newly identified Gondwanan terrane in the northern Appalachian Mountains: Implications for the Taconic orogeny and closure of the Iapetus Ocean. Geology 42, 539-542.

Ryan PC, Kim JJ, Mango H, Hattori K, Thompson A (2013) Arsenic in a fractured slate aquifer system, New England (USA): Influence of bedrock geochemistry, groundwater flow paths, redox and ion exchange. Applied Geochemistry 39, 181-192.

Munroe JS, Crocker TA, Giesche AM, Rahlson LE, Duran LT, Bigl MF, Laabs BJC (2012) A lacustrine-based Neoglacial record for Glacier National Park, Montana, USA. Quaternary Science Reviews 53, 39-54.

Coish RA, Kim J, Morris N, Johnson D (2012) Late stage rifting of the Laurentian continent: evidence from the geochemistry of greenstone and amphibolite in the central Vermont Appalachians. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 49, 43-58.