Two New Geologists Join Cart/GIS—Rachel Wearne and Katie Ryan
NBMG welcomes two new cartographers, Rachel Wearne and Katie Ryan, to its Cartographic/GIS group. Both positions are funded entirely on grants and contracts. The Cartography and GIS lab is a specialty group within NBMG. They are a campus and community resource that specializes in producing geologic maps and other publications, as well as data management. They primarily work on NBMG projects, but are available for projects from other departments at UNR, other universities and state agencies, and industry.
Rachel Wearne is a newly hired Cartographic/Graphics Technician III and joins NBMG on September 15, 2014. Rachel received her Bachelor of Science in Geology from the University of Nevada, Reno in May of 2010. She began working for the Nevada Division of Minerals as a Geologist and GIS Specialist on the Abandoned Mine Lands program shortly before graduation. She has spent the past four years assisting in inventorying and securing abandoned mine land features throughout the state, planning for field work with contractors, staff, and summer interns, and working towards maximizing field data collection methods. Rachel has been very active in the Nevada Mining Association’s Education Committee and has taught classes at teacher workshops in both Las Vegas and Reno since April of 2011. She has taught sessions on rocks and minerals in many elementary school classrooms in the Reno/Carson City area. She enjoys educating the public about geology and earth processes, looking at and creating maps, and spending time outdoors.
Katie Ryan was hired as a Cartographic/Graphics Technician I on July 1, 2014. Katie received her Bachelor of Science in Geology at the University of Nevada, Reno in 2010. Katie worked as a Jr. Exploration Geologist out of Elko, Nevada. After her graduation from the University, she worked in areas such as Long Canyon in the eastern Pequop Mountains, Northumberland Mine in the Toquima Range, Stevens Basin in Eureka County, and Cortez Hills Mine at Horse Canyon. Upon returning to Reno in 2011, Katie began working with the cartography group at the Bureau on a temporary basis. Along with processing samples in the Mineral Separates Lab, and working on a few short geothermal exploration drill programs, she has since helped to produce a compilation of all of the digital geologic maps of Nevada to the OneGeology Portal (onegeology.org), helped to create interactive geologic and geothermal maps from previously published data, and currently helps to maintain server data and geothermal data produced by Nevada and other states.