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Evelynn Mitchell
St. Marys University
Dr. Evelynn Mitchell is a Professor of Environmental Sciences at St. Mary's University and Chair of the Department of Environmental Science and Sustainability. She has an avid interest in exploring and studying cave systems. In the San Antonio area, caves and karst are an active link to the local water supply, so her work supports local efforts to protect the water source for 5 million people in South Central Texas. Dr. Mitchell teaches electives in geophysics and hydrogeology to undergraduate students and has 15 years experience teaching and working on research with students at the undergraduate level. Her work has also included biological studies in area caves, studies in carbon dioxide isotopes in cave atmospheres and collaborating on development of a field deployable mass spectrometer.
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Activity (1)
Karst Study Using Geophysics at Bracken Bat Cave Preserve part of CUREnet:Institutes:Ad-Hoc CURE Institutes:Examples
South Central Texas depends on deep seated aquifers to maintain a water supply for over 5 million people. Much of this water supply is recharged through karst features in the Texas Hill Country. Understanding the features on a property helps determine the appropriate level of development, but geophysical methods have limitations on interpreting feature size. Students in this project built on previous work to examine the error of two common geophysical methods when detecting humanly accessible shallow karst features. They gained skills in site analysis using spatial software and high-resolution GPS collection, field work planning, data collection and analysis.
