Kenna Wilkie

PhD student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA, USA

I began my MSc in Earth Sciences at SFU in September 2003. I first arrived out in beautiful BC in April of 2003 after completing my BSc (Environmental Earth Sciences) in Edmonton at the University of Alberta. The award of an NSERC USRA during the summer of 2003 allowed me to participate in numerous research projects including work on Holocene lake level fluctuations in Kluane Lake, Yukon, Quaternary stratigraphy of the Peace River/ Ft. St. John area and a 2-week geology field trip through California.

My interest in Quaternary environments and paleoenvironmental change began after pursuing two years of an undergraduate degree in genetics. I became involved in research in the Canadian High Arctic documenting the northwestern extent of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) under Dr. John England and decided to switch programs. Prior to my last year of my BSc (summer 2002), I spent 5 weeks on Melville Island, Nunavut (photo) investigating glacial landforms and marine sediments in an attempt to clarify the chronology of former ice shelves of the LIS on the southeastern coast.

My MSc research will involve the examination of Neoglacial aggradation and degradation within the Nostetuko River Valley, southern B.C., and its relation to Holocene climatic variability. In particular, research will focus on the response of channel planform to Little Ice Age climate fluctuations and episodic outbursts from a moraine-dammed lake (Nostetuko Lake, B.C.; photo).

Education

B.Sc.(Environmental Earth Science), Earth and Atmospheric Sciences 2003 University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB

To read Kenna's thesis abstract, please click here