Welcome! Dr. John Buchanan's place on the Web (when I'm not underground)...

Havin' fun at Yellowstone N.P.

That's me, climbing out the eighty-foot entrance pitch of Bighorn Cavern, Montana... Gotta get to class!

About Me:

I'm a professor of geology, specializing in hydrogeology and sedimentology, and have been here since 1984. I have also taken on the task of the Director of the Environmental Science Program at EWU.

A recent faculty profile was published about me and my work in the Perspective, a publication distributed to alumni and friends of Eastern Washington University. When I'm not out in the field you can probably find me in my office in the Science Building (room 120), generally being excited about all things geological. I'm mostly interested in applied physical hydrogeology, clastic sedimentology and alluvial stratigraphy, and speleology. I'm also a registered geologist and hydrogeologist in Washington state, and engage in a wide variety of consulting projects outside the university.

What's Here:

As this page evolves and expands, I'll go into more detail about my research interests and projects that my graduate students are working on. I'll also post my course syllabi and more course-related materials in the future. This is what's available right now:

Course-Related Stuff

General information on my summer 2007 field class to the Snake River Plain and Yellowstone National Park.
My GEOL 100 course syllabus used in my Discovering Geology class for non-majors.
My GEOL 121 course syllabus used in my Surficial Processes class.
My GEOL 360 course syllabus used in my Geologic Hazards class.
My GEOL 411 course syllabus used in my Stratigraphy class.
My GEOL 470 course syllabus used in my Hydrogeology class.
The GEOL 532 course syllabus used in the Sedimentary Processes class.
My GEOL 554 course syllabus used in my Fluvial Geomorphology class.
My GEOL 585 course syllabus used in my Contaminant Fate and Transport class.
Join me on a virtual geology field trip!
The GEOL 100 Virtual Classroom. Provides a general peek at the course material covered in this class. Note: if you are a student enrolled in a section of GEOL 100 that I teach, you will access your coursework through this web gateway.

Research Stuff

Web pages devoted to my long-term groundwater monitoring project in the Castle Valley sole source aquifer (Utah.)
An abstract related to my work on fossilized crayfish burrows in the Chinle Formation of southern Utah.
Recent abstracts related to my hydrogeologic research.
A link to the Spokane Aquifer Atlas that includes a lot of my research.
A description of my work in large cave systems (with some pictures).
Several graphics related to my groundwater modeling research.
A brief description of recent seismic reflection profiling work and its application to aquifer mapping.
Listen to past interviews on KEWU about some of my recent caving expeditions to Central America and on the Spokane aquifer (you'll need the free RealPlayer plugin for your browser).

Miscellaneous Stuff

Here is a link to the Lance Hill Observatory, my home-built astronomical observatory. You won't believe the cool images I've made of the Moon, the brighter planets, and distant deep space objects.
Interested in bats? My wife, Donna Hensley, is a bat biologist - check out her bat conservation projects. Meet our small colony of Mexican free-tail bats (Bee Bee, Cindy, Larry and Corncob) we maintain for educational presentations. Also, listen and learn the fascinating truth about bats! (you'll need the free RealPlayer plugin for your browser).
Here is a short article on the Spokane aquifer written for The Inlander, a local newspaper.

Contact Me

GO TO:

The EWU Home Page or to the EWU College of Science, Health and Engineering.

Here is the official home page for the Department of Geology.