Contact Info

195 Rankin Science
572 Rivers Street
Boone, NC
28608
(828) 262-3049
FAX: (828) 262-6503

Chairperson:
Dr. Johnny A. Waters
watersja@appstate.edu

General Questions:
Geology Webmaster

Katherine M. Scharer Assistant Professor of Geology (828) 262-6739 scharerkm@appstate.edu

Dr. Scharer is new to the southeastern U.S. After completing high school in Madison, Wisconsin and then exploring her interest in the culinary arts in Providence, Rhode Island and New Orleans, she earned a B.S. in Geological Sciences with a minor in Latin American Studies. After graduating, she worked for an environmental consulting firm, Woodward-Clyde, in Phoenix Arizona for three years, studying groundwater and storm water contamination. To escape the heat, she returned to the northwest for her doctoral work, and continued her research on the San Andreas fault in a post-doctoral position. She is interested in understanding how the brittle crust ­ expressed in the topography around us ­ conserves the slow and continuous motions of tectonic plates. To answer this question, she investigates regions of the earth that are undergoing active geologic change, such as the San Andreas fault or the mountains of Central Asia, mapping “young” geologic features, from 100’s of years to a million years old and tries to untie the sequence of events that created what we see today. Combined with absolute and relative dating, these studies determine the rate and style of deformation in the crust. Much of her research is directed toward improving our understanding of how and where earthquakes occur, ultimately for mitigation of earthquake hazards.

• Education
  • B.S., University of Washington in Seattle
  • Ph.D., University of Oregon
    

• Courses Taught
  • GLY-3150 - Principles of Structural Geology and Tectonics

Dr. Scharer's Personal Web Page