Dixie State University’s weekly lecture series, “Dixie Forum: A Window on the World,” will get underway for the spring semester with the presentation “Behind the Landscapes: Geological Perspectives on the Navajo Sandstone” by DSU Field Institute director Dr. Gerald Bryant. Bryant will offer his lecture from noon to 12:50 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 19, at the Dunford Auditorium in the Browning Resource Center on the DSU campus. The event is free and open to the public.
The Navajo Sandstone is the scenic focus of many southwestern landscapes, including those featured in Snow Canyon State Park and Zion National Park. Beyond its modern visual appeal, however, this rock unit provides surprisingly detailed insights into a lost Jurassic world dominated by desert dunes. This Dixie Forum presentation will illustrate processes of outcrop interpretation by highlighting some of the most remarkable features that Bryant has encountered in more than two decades of research among these rocks.
Bryant earned a bachelor’s degree from Utah State University, a master’s from Loma Linda University, and a doctorate from the University of Toronto in geology. He has conducted various pilot programs for DSU’s Field Institute, including the development of an ongoing research and teaching collaboration with Swansea University faculty that provided undergraduate research experiences. Additionally, he has supervised graduate field research projects, provided field training, and led multiple field excursions on the Colorado Plateau.
In addition to publishing multiple titles on topics ranging from early Jurassic Navajo Sandstone to field education in the geosciences, Bryant is involved with the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Geological Society of America, the International Association of Sedimentologists, and the SEPM Society for Sedimentary Geology.
Dixie Forum is a weekly lecture series designed to introduce the St. George community and DSU students, faculty and staff to diverse ideas and personalities while widening their worldviews via a 50-minute presentation.
Next week, Dixie Forum will team up with DSU’s Celebrity Concert Series to host the musical quintet Presidio Brass as they present “Sounds of the Cinema.” This special forum will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 27, at noon in the Zion Room on the fifth floor of the Holland Centennial Commons on the DSU campus.
For more information on DSU’s Dixie Forum series, please contact DSU forum coordinator John Burns at (435) 879-4712 or burns@dixie.edu, or visit dixie.edu/humanities/dixie_forum.php. Stay up-to-date on the forums by liking the Dixie Forum Facebook page or following @dixieforum on Twitter.
