15 minute read
Exploring the World One Fault at a Time
EXPLORING THE WORLD ONE BITTERROOT FAULT AT A TIME
By Susan Barth
Dr. Yann Gavillot is truly a citizen of the world—or more accurately, a geologist of the world. He has lived and worked in such disparate places as Arizona, California, Oregon, France, India, Iran, Morocco, Thailand, Myanmar, and New Zealand, and he’s not done exploring yet. For now, he’s very happy to be exploring Montana.
Yann was born on the small French island of La Réunion, off the coast of Madagascar. His French father was a doctor, and his American mother taught English. They met in North Africa, and settled to raise their family in Réunion. Yann first became interested in geology at eight years old, when one of his science teachers took the class on a field trip to the nearby active volcano. From then on, combined with his interest in the outdoors, Yann knew what he wanted to study.
When Yann was eleven, the family moved to the south of France, and lived there for several years. Unfortunately, when Yann was sixteen, his father passed away—and his mother took the family to live near Phoenix, Arizona. It was quite a culture shock. Yann did not speak much English, and he was used to a small village with a Mediterranean climate, far from the desert heat and sprawling population of Arizona. It was a struggle to adjust. The saving grace was access to the outdoor recreation and spectacular geology that Yann could investigate. He chose to attend the University of Arizona in Tucson for its strong geology program, and thrived there.
“When you study geology,” Yann said, “one of the capstone courses is to take a geology field camp. The one at U of A wasn’t offered during my senior year, so my professor suggested I go to Indiana University’s geology field camp…which is held in Montana. The field station is right there by Cardwell and Whitehall. I really loved it. When you come to Montana in the summertime, everything is just magical.”
He met his wife, Joanna, at that field camp. Joanna is originally from Poland and attended Indiana University, also studying geology, and later got a Master’s degree in Art History. They fell in love in Montana.
Yann had decided that he wanted to be a structural geologist and field mapper, spending as much time out in the field as possible. After graduation he went to UCLA to get his Master’s, and he and Joanna were married while living in Los Angeles. He also set out on his first major international project, in the High Zagros Mountains in Iran. “I like traveling,” Yann said, “and I like going to places that are not as well understood, and off the beaten path.”
Zagros is famous for its whaleback anticlines, landforms that resemble the shape of a whale, created by compression and folding of bedrock strata. Yann studied the structure and tectonics of the region, using various techniques including lowtemperature thermochronology. He made two trips there, the first with colleagues and the second on his own, as American citizens couldn’t get permission to reenter. Yann is a dual citizen, and could go with his French passport, so he ended up leading the project. He wrote his Master’s thesis on the Zagros project in 2008.
Yann then got into the PhD program at Oregon State University, in Corvallis. “It was a big change, again,” Yann said. “UCLA was multicultural, within a huge and diverse city, and fun in many ways. In contrast, Corvallis is a small college town. Food choices were more limited. But we realized we had the proximity of the outdoors all around us without the traffic—it was so green, and everyone values outdoor activity. And the people were so friendly. I’m really glad we went there.”
Yann also wasn’t done with international projects yet. For his PhD program, he was offered the opportunity to do research on Himalayan tectonics in Pakistan. This research was spurred by the major 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, which killed over 100,000 people, and made 3.5 million homeless. The geology and earthquake hazards were not well understood. Yann switched his disciplines from tectonics and structural geology to an earthquake hazard-focused study, using neotectonics and tectonic geomorphology to determine the age, fault geometry, and deformation rates to better understand earthquake potential. He also learned how to navigate in challenging intercultural situations, often by himself.
—Dr. Yann Gavillot
The political situation in Pakistan became too dangerous, so the project was moved to just over the border in the Kashmir region of India, with nearly identical geological features. Again, Yann went twice, once with other colleagues in 2008 and then alone in 2010, for about six weeks each time. He was looking at active tectonics and earthquake history of the thrust belt in the Himalaya, and needed to walk the remote countryside to map and collect samples for age dating. In order to get permission, he’d often need to visit the village headman and explain his requests over a meal or tea. “You have to connect with the villagers,” Yann said. “You’re walking through their land, through their homes.”
He did get arrested at least once, when locals saw his laptop and thought he was a spy.
“It made the project really interesting,” Yann said. “But there’s a plus side—if you want to trench somewhere, you can often talk to the villagers and negotiate directly with them, while getting to know the local people. In the U.S., you have to go through more bureaucratic processes, permitting, and reviews and that takes a lot longer.” After the last trip, Yann was finishing up his PhD, with about a year to go, when he saw a job he couldn’t resist, at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at the Headquarters office in Paris. The Young Professionals Programme recruits talented people in different fields from all of the UN member countries. Yann applied for the Earth Sciences program, working on collaborative projects in geohazards, Earth Sciences, geoheritage, and sustainable development for UNESCO.
In many senses, it was a dream job. He was back in France, facilitating projects promoting geological heritage and outdoor recreation, working with all sorts of people all over the world. He loved a lot about it. But there were a few problems. One, he’d intended to finish his PhD while there, but he didn’t have time. He ended up taking a year’s sabbatical from the job, going back to Oregon, and finishing his PhD. Two, he really missed handson geology, fieldwork, and leading research projects. Three, he and Joanna had their first child in Paris, and she was expecting their second…and they really wanted to raise their family back in Oregon, not in Paris.
In a bold move, Yann left his extremely secure, high-benefits job in 2015, to go back to Oregon. At first, he questioned that decision.
He applied for several postdoc grants as a courtesy faculty at Oregon State University, and started to develop and teach various international geology field camps in Morocco, the French Alps, and New Zealand. He was awarded postdoc funding in 2017, working on a project collaborating with the USGS in California studying earthquake hazards in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. During this time he also helped to instruct international field schools in earthquake geology in southeast Asia, continuing his exploration of different cultures. But he was always looking for a permanent geology position.
Then he saw the position at the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, only 30 miles away from the place he had enjoyed so much as an undergraduate almost 18 years before. The MBMG was looking for a structural geologist, with an emphasis on geohazards, and a requirement to spend part of the time in the field mapping. It was like it had been made for Yann. “It is a dream job,” he said. “This job allows me to do a lot of fieldwork, and I get paid to map! It is perfect in many ways.”
Yann was hired in September 2020, and has quickly made the position his own. He’s been successful in getting grants from the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program, which is funded by the USGS. His most interesting project so far has been one similar to what he was doing in Northern California, except on the Bitterroot Fault in Southwest Montana. The MBMG is working with the USGS and the Bureau of Reclamation to investigate the fault and earthquake history in the Bitterroot Valley, particularly near Lake Como. Some of the tools used with this project include the use of drones, trenching, SONAR, and LiDAR, among other techniques, to profile the faults, to find out fault and earthquake history of the Bitterroot Fault. It’s early in the research, but they suspect the fault crosses the lake, and that there’s evidence of recent earthquake activity in the geologic record. This research is critically important to assess the hazards of earthquakes, as well as flooding management.
Yann also is working with students on a project to create a landslide hazard susceptibility map, and fault and landslide maps for various counties in Montana. There’s no end to the hazards projects he sees in the future, helping to keep Montana safer.
But in the end, he’s thrilled to get his boots back on the ground mapping soon too. After all, he’s still got a lot of Montana to explore.
ENDOWMENTS THE GIFTS THAT KEEP ON GIVING
An endowment is a forever gift, a way to ensure that your support for the places and organizations you care about most, like Montana Tech, lives on forever. When you establish an endowment, or contribute to an existing one, you create a lasting legacy that reflects your values. Through an endowment, you can ensure your annual support of Tech continues and we are always able to meet our mission of changing lives through education.
How an Endowment Works
When you make an endowed gift, only a portion of your gift will be spent each year. The balance is invested, allowing the gift to grow and to live on in perpetuity. Endowments offer a stability of funding that is critical to our ability to help students achieve their educational goals. An endowment at Tech can be established with gifts totaling $25,000, a goal that can be met over time.
Funding Your Endowment
Many donors don’t realize that an endowment is within their reach and how satisfying it can be to establish an endowed fund, watch it grow over time, and experience its impact. There are many ways to fund your endowment without using cash. Some allow you to establish your gift now, while others won’t go into effect until after your lifetime.
Appreciated assets. Using an appreciated asset like stock that you have owned for more than one year may allow you to eliminate capital gains tax on the asset’s appreciation.
Donor advised funds. Many families have chosen to establish a donor advised fund to better plan their charitable giving. A grant to us from your donor advised fund can be used to build an endowment.
Life insurance. Name the Montana Technological University Foundation as the beneficiary of your life insurance policy, or make us the owner of a policy you no longer need.
Retirement plan assets. Consider naming the Montana Technological University Foundation as the beneficiary of your retirement plan assets. After your lifetime, the funds will go to establishing your endowment.
A gift in your will or living trust. Your gift can be a specific amount or a percentage of your residuary estate. Your company’s match. Your endowed fund can be built using matching funds that may be available to you as an employee or retiree.
Time Is on Your Side
Whichever approach you choose, we will work with you to meet you and your family’s philanthropic goals through a solution that offers the best fit. Endowments can be built over several years.
Help Students Achieve Their Dreams
You can change lives and help Tech students achieve their dreams. How? By establishing an endowed scholarship or contributing to an existing scholarship fund. Please see the story by Bob Edwards ’79 about his experience setting up a new endowed fund with several classmates.
Even with our remarkable value and return on investment, the dream of earning a degree can move out of reach for deserving students. A scholarship can help ease the financial barriers students face and put a degree back within their reach.
Flexibility Is Important
As an institution, our goal is to offer the appropriate level of financial aid for any student who wants a Tech education. This aid comes in many forms, including support for tuition, fees, and room and board. Our priority is to generate greater levels of support that can meet a student’s need in any of these areas and that we can offer aid to any student pursuing any of our degree programs.
A Heartfelt Gift
When you want a gift to reflect the admiration and respect you have for the recipient, material objects just don’t measure up. Creating a named endowment for your loved one is the perfect way to honor the person far into the future.
Make Us a Part of Your Legacy
Ensure your support for our mission lives on for generations to come. For more information about setting up an endowment or any of these giving vehicles, contact Michael Barth, Executive Director of the Montana Technological University Foundation, at 406-496-4233 or mbarth@mtech.edu.
The information in this publication is not intended as legal or tax advice. For such advice, please consult an attorney or tax advisor. Figures cited in any examples are for illustrative purposes only. References to tax rates include federal taxes only and are subject to change. State law may further impact your individual results.
Endowed Funds Established Since the Spring ’21 MNews
Thank you to the donors who established these new endowments.
Al Winters Mining & Geological Engineering Endowed Scholarship
Eastern Montana Engineering Endowed Scholarship
’97–’99 Men’s Basketball Scholarship
Haley Beaudry Engineering Scholarship Fund
Rod and Mary Lee James Endowed Scholarship
Ernest Charles “Chuck” & Estella Richards Memorial Nursing Endowed Scholarship
Kyle Fadness Endowed Scholarship
Metallurgical & Materials Engineering Department Endowment
Class of ’04 Endowment
Dan & Paula Riley Endowed Scholarship
Make a gift any time. Foundation.mtech.edu/give
Endowments Receiving the Greatest Number of Gifts in 2021
Butte Endowed Scholarship Fund
Haley Beaudry Engineering Scholarship Fund
Montana Tech Natural Resources Golf Tournament Endowed Scholarship
Houston Alumni Chapter Endowed Scholarship
John ‘Jocko’ & Gaye Evans Endowed Scholarship
40th Anniversary Environmental Engineering Endowed Scholarship
Class of ’04 Endowment
Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department Endowment
Dr. Tom Finch Endowed Memorial Scholarship
Tyler Kniepkamp Endowment Fund
The Genesis of the New “Eastern Montana Engineering Endowed Scholarship” (EMEES)
By Bob Edwards ‘79
We hear and read about it all the time. No other schools in Montana, and not many in the country, can make the claim (and honestly back it up). But Tech does, year in and year out.
What am I talking about? The best value Montana university. Having often heard about the claim, I recently did my own due diligence, and sure enough, after an hourlong Google search, I convinced myself that it’s true. Tech ranks with the best.
After graduating in Environmental Engineering in 1979, I went to work for Exxon (hadn’t merged with Mobil yet), for their coal mining affiliate in Gillette, WY. I retired 33 years later, after additional stops in Australia, Illinois, and Canada. “Enjoying the ride” (most of the time…) included over 15 different assignments, from engineering, to operations, project management, Total Quality Management, Human Resources, and more.
I credit Montana Tech and Exxon for allowing me to retire when I chose to. But to be honest, I didn’t recognize Tech’s contribution so much early on. After all, our paychecks were coming from Exxon. My contributions to Tech were haphazard. It wasn’t until retirement that I began giving regularly and more generously. And it wasn’t until more recently that it sank in what an incredible impact my four years in Butte had on my and my family’s lives.
So…it was time to give our annual Tech contribution for 2020, and what do you know, an idea sprung forth! I had become a regular Tech contributor, and had learned a bit about endowed scholarships, through giving to both the Thomas Finch Memorial and the Waring-JamesAppleman Excellence in Environmental Engineering scholarships.
The actual idea was to create an endowed scholarship for engineering students from eastern Montana. I’m from Miles City originally, and have several Tech graduate relatives and friends, also from the eastern half of the State. A few years previous, I’d met Luke Meyer, who works for the Tech Foundation. Luke was able to educate me on how to go about the process of setting up a new endowed scholarship.
It was time to reach out to my relatives and friends who are Tech alumni, to see what they thought of this whole idea. Most expressed interest, and many decided to commit financially immediately, as part of the founding funders of this new scholarship. Having received their permission, I want to publicly thank Tom Peterson, Mark Shumway, Steve Curry, Doug Hardesty, Larry Jannsen, and Ron Dickson for making this idea become a reality. We collectively are happy to report that we’ve committed $45,000 over the next five years. We’re hoping others living in eastern Montana, originally from eastern Montana, or who just like the idea of it, will be motivated to consider this new scholarship when you make your future contributions to Tech.
When you’re retired, you have to identify meaningful ways to spend your time. Working on this new endowed scholarship is one of the most fun and rewarding ways I’ve found to spend my time so far! Greetings to any and all friends from Tech who might read this article. As we all know, it’s hard to stay in touch with everyone we’d like to. Please reach out to me if you are motivated to do so.
If you are interested in helping students from eastern Montana pursue a Montana Tech education, please consider a gift to the EMEES today. You can support online at https://foundation.mtech. edu/give/ and choose “Designation:
Eastern Montana Engineering Endowed
Scholarship” or send a check to the
Montana Technological University Foundation, 1300 W. Park St., Butte, MT
59701, memo: EMEES.
