Spring Break
The Daily OrangeInto the wild
Love for outdoors took Semple around the world
By Julianne Pepitone
Posted: 2/14/08, 12:07 AM EST Section: Feature
But the National Science Foundation was willing to pay one student to study a fault plane in the Mongolian desert, and when SU Earth Sciences professor Laura Webb was asked to choose, it was obvious. Ian had taken the necessary courses and received glowing reviews. He was one of few people so enamored with the outdoors that he could handle spending a month in the desert.
"Ian was a rock star," Webb said. "He totally embraced the experience, from the heat to the geology. He has a terrific sense of humor - a bonus when you have a group working closely together for a month."
The trio took a 16-hour flight to Ulaanbaatar, where 97 percent of Mongolians reside. The suburbs were not houses, but "gers:" tents made of felt, which are the homes of the last nomadic people on the planet. The group spent two days packing backpacks filled with food and tools: a rock hammer, geology compass, carbon-dating acid and chisels.
They set out for the desert less than 48 hours after their plane landed, and hired two drivers for the green vans that careened across pothole-ridden roads and dusty animal skulls. They walked across dried lakes, avoided hungry vultures and met a monk who performed a blessing ceremony. They traced broken shale across hundreds of miles of desert from July 26 to Aug. 26, tracking a major fault's location, embarking on a chase Ian seemed born to run.
* * *
Ian seemed to be born into a future as a trailblazing, bug-eating, desert-braving geologist.
In 1979, Ian's mother Judy returned to her home in Sewickley for a Fourth of July party to visit her parents; she had spent months living with a 104-year-old Navajo Indian woman as a high school capstone project. The 18-year-old Judy laid eyes on Harton Semple, 28, and it was love at first sight.
"I was a wild child," Judy, now 52, said. "I told him I wanted to do something crazy."
And crazy it was. After a whirlwind two-week courtship, the new couple went hiking in Yosemite National Park. Judy and Harton married in 1982 and embarked on a yearlong honeymoon, traveling to 70 countries.
"Ian was a rock star," Webb said. "He totally embraced the experience, from the heat to the geology. He has a terrific sense of humor - a bonus when you have a group working closely together for a month."
The trio took a 16-hour flight to Ulaanbaatar, where 97 percent of Mongolians reside. The suburbs were not houses, but "gers:" tents made of felt, which are the homes of the last nomadic people on the planet. The group spent two days packing backpacks filled with food and tools: a rock hammer, geology compass, carbon-dating acid and chisels.
They set out for the desert less than 48 hours after their plane landed, and hired two drivers for the green vans that careened across pothole-ridden roads and dusty animal skulls. They walked across dried lakes, avoided hungry vultures and met a monk who performed a blessing ceremony. They traced broken shale across hundreds of miles of desert from July 26 to Aug. 26, tracking a major fault's location, embarking on a chase Ian seemed born to run.
* * *
Ian seemed to be born into a future as a trailblazing, bug-eating, desert-braving geologist.
In 1979, Ian's mother Judy returned to her home in Sewickley for a Fourth of July party to visit her parents; she had spent months living with a 104-year-old Navajo Indian woman as a high school capstone project. The 18-year-old Judy laid eyes on Harton Semple, 28, and it was love at first sight.
"I was a wild child," Judy, now 52, said. "I told him I wanted to do something crazy."
And crazy it was. After a whirlwind two-week courtship, the new couple went hiking in Yosemite National Park. Judy and Harton married in 1982 and embarked on a yearlong honeymoon, traveling to 70 countries.
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