Finding Faults In Our Evolving San Diego Landscape - September 14th Meeting

Phil Stoffer has worn a number of career hats, working as a geology field mapper, a science librarian, a high school earth science teacher and college instructor, and as a musician. He grew up on a farm in Cincinnati, Ohio often hunting fossils in the local creek beds. (Cincinnati is known as “The Fossil Capital of the World") In the early 1980s finished a BA and MS in geology at Miami University, and then moved on to earn an MA in Librarianship at the University of Denver. He worked as a geology librarian at University of Kentucky and Brooklyn College, then moved on to teaching in a NYC high school. This allow him to take advantage of summers to travel extensively to photograph geology in the West (including +100 national parks). He finished a PhD in Earth & Environmental Sciences from City University of New York. His research focused on paleoclimatology of the Late Cretaceous and the K/T boundary in the Badlands NP region. He worked for the US Geological Survey, first as a research librarian, then moved onto geologic mapping projects on the Colorado Plateau, Mojave region, and Southern California. He also worked with the USGS Earthquake Hazards and the Geology of National Parks programs. He retired from the USGS and currently teaches oceanography and physical geology classes at MiraCosta College. He also plays piano/keyboards solo and with a couple bands (classic “rock” music mostly).

Phil’s teaching website is https://gotbooks.miracosta.edu - this website includes free online textbooks in geology and oceanography. It also hosts information about geology field-trip destinations in San Diego County, regional geology of North America, weather & water resources, and more.