The Sunnyvale Sun

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SJSU honors a thesis on geology

By JASON GOLDMAN-HALL

Most people would call camping for two months in Yosemite National Park's Tuolomne Meadows a great vacation.

But Sunnyvale resident LeAnne Teruya called it work.

Teruya was named one of the 2006 Outstanding Graduates at San José State University after earning her second master's degree, this time in geology.

"Now when I go to work, I'm outside. My office has fresh air and a great view," she said.

The former English teacher, mother of two young boys and now a lecturer at SJSU, earned the degree and honor for her thesis: "Magmatic Fabric Relationships at Two Contacts in the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite."

She spent two months in Yosemite studying the "fabric" of rock formations, in particular two separate lines of minerals that formed when the rock was still magma.

"The big picture is that we want to know how the Sierra Nevadas developed, how they got there," she said.

The first molehills of interest in geology were born in Teruya's college days in Southern California, when she needed one unit of science credit to graduate and her friends told her to take geology because it was easy.

But the science--and its relative lack of math--caught her attention and held it until seven years ago, when she decided to pursue it in earnest.

"It's a good science for someone who was in English because it's a very descriptive science," Teruya said.

She jokes her thesis wouldn't have taken as long if it hadn't been for the birth of Eric, 5, and Marty, 3, who make sure her summer vacation is filled with Thunderbirds reruns and Dora the Explorer.

Her geology background has also given her interesting insight into home selection. Wherever she has lived, Teruya said she has paid attention to nearby fault lines and earthquake risks.

She said one of the reasons she and her husband--a San José dentist--chose Sunnyvale was because it didn't have any major fault lines running through it, although there are a number in the South Bay.