Department of Earth Sciences
For Â鶹ÊÓƵ Professor of Geology Abdul Shakoor, Ph.D., studying the stability of Mount Rushmore, visited by nearly three million people each year, was a lifelong dream.
So, in 2013, with the help of his graduate student, Lindsay Poluga, the two of them reached out to the National Park Service to develop a research project and write a grant proposal. The $25,000 grant was awarded this past summer and Shakoor and Poluga traveled to Mount Rushmore, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, to study the effect of vibrations on the sculptures associated with the annual Fourth of July fireworks exhibit.