Lindsay McCollough Walker – 2005 Wilson Memorial Scholarship

LindsayWalker05Biography and MS Research Topic: Lindsay completed her Bachelor of Science in Geology at Wittenberg University in 2003. After taking time off to travel, she returned to school and finished her Master of Science in Geosciences at Mississippi State University in 2006. Lindsay currently resides in Canmore, Alberta in the Canadian Rockies where she runs a successful business with her husband. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre as Vice President of Geoscience and works part-time as a cave guide for Canmore Caverns, leading wild cave tours into nearby Rat’s Nest Cave. In her spare time she enjoys hiking, climbing, caving, cross-country skiing, biking, and snowshoeing. Lindsay’s present research involves mapping and documenting the karst of the Burstall Pass area of Alberta.

Thesis Title:  Walker, L.N., 2006, The caves, karst, and geology of Abaco Island, Bahamas [Master’s Thesis]: Mississippi State University, 241 p.

Thesis Abstract:Abaco Island is located on Little Bahama Bank at the northwestern extent of the Bahamian Archipelago. Karst features on Abaco include: flank margin caves, karren, blue holes, pit caves, banana holes, and cone karst. As part of this study all known flank margin caves on Abaco were GPS located and surveyed. The presence and locations of the other karst features were recorded as part of the karst inventory of Abaco. The cone karst is of particular interest because cone karst has not been documented on other Bahamian islands. These cones form from the dissection of an eolianite ridge due to karst, fire, and vegetative processes. Tafoni-like recesses, originally believed to be high flank margin caves, were formed during cliffing of an eolianite ridge during the OIS 5e highstand. The geologic evolution of representative depositional sequences on Abaco fits within the accepted Bahamin stratigraphy.