GSW: 1977
MEETING MINUTES
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF
Jan. 12, 1977
1017th
Meeting
The
1017th meeting of the Society was brought to order by Pres. Boyd at 8:07 P.M.
in the John Wesley Powell Auditorium. There
was some minor mechanical problem with the beer dispensary, after which the
minutes of the 1016th meeting were approved as amended. The following guests were introduced: Walter Farham,
President
Boyd announced the following committee chairmen: Blair F. Jones, Program
Committee; David B. Stewart, Nominating Committee; J. Stephen Huebner, Finance
Committee; Mary E. Mrose, Membership Committee; and
Bruce R. Lipin, Public Service
Committee. It appears that the
paleontologists have been overwhelmed by the faceless geochemists.
There
being no informal communications, Byron D. Stone, U.S.G.S., Reston, presented
his paper, "Soft sediment deformation structures in glacial
deposits." In a well illustrated talk, Stone demonstrated that penecontemporaneous deformation is a common feature in
sediments accumulating in shallow water near glacial activity. We were exposed to fault related fracture
cleavage, horst and graben structure, normal
faulting, ductile deformation adjacent to fault breccia, reversed faults in
down-dropped beds, development of symmetric and asymmetric folds with lineations parallel to the fold hinge, dikes, ptygmatic folds, pull apart structures, and
"flame" structures related to dewatering. Ending with a photo of the testicle
formation, the audience was asked, "How many deformations do you
see?" Questions by Zen, Freeborn, Boyd, Fiske, French, and Epstein forced
Stone to reveal that glacial stratigraphy established that this deformation
took place under eighty feet of water and that "Ice melts every day
without an earthquake” A warning from this talk:
Ten minutes
of Stone's peroration:
An exhibit of
soft deformation
Young folds
and a fault
Could bring
to a halt
Long years of
hard rock speculation.
After
revealing that he admired Thomas Mann as the author of Der
Zauberberg, four petrologists,
two of whom were in the audience, and Leon Trotsky, John Hower,
N.S.F., delivered a paper, "Back to Van Hise:
metamorphism of pelitic rocks at lower grades than J.
B. Thompson ever thought of." This admirable delivery demonstrated that
these pelites are metamorphosed through the general
reaction: Smectite + K-feldspar (K-mica) = illite +
chlorite + quartz + water. Through a
careful analysis of well washed well cuttings, Hower
showed how this reaction manifested itself through the loss of H2O,
Ca, CO2, and Na from the sediments, an increase in the amount of illite in the sediments, a loss of K-feldspar in the
sediments, an increase in the chlorite content, an irregular loss of calcite
that is related to grain size, and changes in the mineralogy and composition of
the less than one micron fraction of the sample. All of these changes take place with depth
and are closely related to increases in temperature and fluid pressure. The latter changes from near hydrostatic to
slightly less than lithostatic through step increases
which correspond to the mineralogical changes observed at depth. Oxygen isotopes of the several minerals
equilibrate at temperatures above 100°C.
The K/Ar age dating method yield lower ages
with depth and record the time of metamorphisrn
rather than either the time of deposition or formation of the clays. The reactions to form clays, and the
formation of hydrocarbons from organic material are both kinetically
controlled and are dependent on temperature.
The metamorphism of the sediments is a major factor in the production of
commercial deposits of petroleum.
Questioned by Wones, Thompson, K. Y. Lee,
Peck, Ross, Robertson, Stewart, Zen, Casadevall
(twice), Towe and Force, Hower
revealed methods of clay preparation, the identification of the second
petrologist whom he admired, and when Robin Brett asked if a new clay mineral
would be called a Trotskyite, D. B. Stewart replied, "Only the Common
form." To summarize:
Shale's often
converted to phyllite
As smectite's converted to illite
Near Der Zauberberg lies
Jim Thompson,
Van Hise
Who delight
in the phyllite of illite.
The
final speaker of the evening, J. B. Thompson, Harvard University, Cambridge,
MA, told the society about "Biopyroboles: polysomes and polytypes,"
Thompson, laboring under the three jolts of 1) a thirty minute time limit, 2)
an admonition to only use familiar words and 3) the title of the previous talk,
explained that biopyroboles was a term coined by
Albert Johannsen for students who could not identify
pyroxene, amphibole, and biotite in the field. Polytypes of these
minerals are the forms resulting from simple geometric arrangements of the
elemental structural units, whereas polysomes are the
results of changes in both composition and geometry. Thompson led the society on a vicarious
excursion through strips of biotite and pyroxene,
which, when combined, make amphibole.
Various other minerals have been predicted, have been found, and have
been reported on at the 1976 Annual G.S.A. Meeting by David Veblen of
Harvard. Thompson provided elegant
methods for showing the compositional relations between biopyroboles
in easily visualized graphical methods.
Using a long-necked duck as a motif, Thompson finished with a suggestion
that arnphiboles may have more complications than
John Hower ever thought of. Questions by Wones,
Hazen, Zen, Hower, Ross, Sato, Robertson, French and
Toulmin were answered by Thompson in a multichannel
voice reminiscent of early Les Paul records.
Thompson adroitly ducked Wones' suggestion
that the motif was a goose. As one could
wish:
Polysomes, Polytypes play a role
In producing
a new amphibole.
To try some
new twists
And find it
exists
Is the Cantabridgian's goal.
President
Boyd adjourned the meeting at 10:10 P.M.
Attendance: 110.
Respectfully
submitted,
David
R. Wones,
Secretary
GEOLOGIC
SOCIETY OF
January 26,
1977
1018th
Meeting
The
1018th meeting of the Society was brought to order by Pres. Boyd at 8:00 P.M.
in the John Wesley Powell Auditorium.
Robert Morris, U.S.G.S.,
Using
a computer printout, reportedly to be from the Honeywell Multics
System and supposedly containing a large number of testimonials, Tina Zen again
urged the members and guests of the Society to buy the invaluable Guidebooks
published by the Society.
E-an
Zen noted that George Cohee is retiring from the
President
Boyd announced that the members of the Program Committee are Blair Jones,
Chairman, Dan Appleman, Robin Brett, Bruce Hanshaw,
John Hower, and Ken Towe.
There
being no informal communications, George E. Ericksen,
U.S.G.S., Reston, led the Society on a tour of the Salars
in southwestern Bolivia by means of his talk "Lithium-rich Brines in
Southwestern Bolivia." Touting the Salar de Uyuni as the largest (7000 km2) flat area on the
earth, Ericksen admitted that it was actually only
part of an ellipsoidal surface with but 2 mm relief and decorated with dessication polyhedra. This Salar is the
final accumulation of a Pleistocene lake.
The potential need for lithium in future energy storage and conversion
systems prompted Ericksen and his co-workers to work
with the Bolivian government in this exploration enterprise. An adapted gasoline powered hand drill
equipped with a 50 cm core sampled the brines found within the interstices of
the salt crust. These contain more than
300 mg Li per liter. Presumably the Li
content of the lacustrine sediments beneath the brine
will be higher. Of potentially greater
importance is the high potassium contents of the salars,
which increase the world's potash resources which are important to
agriculture. Questions by Boyd, Chayes, Howard, Sato, Arth, and
Tracey, provided Ericksen with"the
opportunity-to describe distince layering in the
salts, to indicate that the Li and K were derived from local volcanic rocks,
and that exploitation would be relatively easy.
Thayer and Villalobos both commented that Ericksen's
experience in
'Neath
Ericksen drilled into
the salar.
The reserves
are not puny
Li, K, from Uyuni
Will energize
you and your car.
Nicholas
T. Arndt, Geophysical Laboratory, gave the society an introduction into komatiites, the ultramafic lava
flows characterized by the so called spinifex
texture. The texture of these flows is
dominated by dendritic olivine crystals, similar in
appearance to the spinifex grass of
These olivine
rich lava flows
They deny N.
L. Bowen's prose
With rocks spinifexed
Arndt can now
spin a text
Of Archean
and older heat flows.
"World
Energy Trends" was delivered by Philip H. Abelson,
using a mixture of graphs, tables and oral rhetoric. Commenting on how all major cities of the
world have similar quantities of cars and air pollution, and citing
We're
depleting our oil and our gas
Fusion power
may ne'er come to pass
Coal could be
a mess
Atomic no
less
Phil tells us
to use biomass.
President
Boyd adjourned the meeting at 10:00 p.m.
Attendance: 104
Respectfully
submitted.
David
R. Wones
Meeting
Secretary
GEOLOGIC
SOCIETY OF
February 9,
1977
1019th
Meeting
President
Boyd called the meeting to order at 8:00 p.m. with some difficulty. Bill Abbott, South Carolina Geol. Survey, and
David Schindel,
The
first informal communication of the year was made by Roy Clarke of the U.S.
National Museum on "The Louisville Meteorite." This observed fall
occurred at 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 31, 1977.
Fragments of the meteorite were found by a roofer repairing damage to a
house. Other fragments damaged a car and
warehouse. Graham Hunt,
An explosion
went off in the air,
The professor
just shrugged in his chair.
He was very
lucky
To be in
And see the
chondrite on the air.
Ellis
Yochelson, on the 50th anniversary of the death of
the Geological Society of Washington's first president, presented his paper,
"C. D. Walcott, Mar. 8, 1850, to Feb. 9, 1927: First President of Geol.
Soc. of
Excellent
Fossil collections
Unraveled
Cambrian sections
From Canadian
Creek
To
Walcott gave
us directions.
Continuing
the Walcott story, F. J. Collier of the Smithsonian provided the Society with a
look at "Walcott's Burgess shale fauna: Old and New Assessments."
Using original photographs of Walcott's assault on the Burgess shale locality,
as well as contemporary photographs from both land and air, Collier gave us a
real appreciation of the remarkable accomplishment Walcott's collection
represents. The shale is an aerobic
deposit preserved between two submarine fans.
We were shown the contrast between old and new methods of fossil
preparation, and the unique information on soft parts of fauna that would have
been unknown, save for this remarkable locality. Collier arranged for specimens of the Burgess
shale to be exhibited during the meeting, an action much appreciated by those
who were present. Discussion by Nelson, Yochelson, and McKelvey.
George Helz asked if any chemistry had been done on this material by
geochemists, to which Collier replied, "We wouldn't let geo-chemists touch
them!"
Walcott's
urges uncovered the Burgess
Where surges,
the sediment merges
A tale in the
shale
Assailed on
the trail
Of the
scourges of annelid purges.
Citing
C. D. Walcott as an example of the scientific method, E. C. Robertson explained
to the Society "Earthquake forecasting from laboratory speculation."
Showing graphic evidence of the need for better earthquake forecasts, Robertson
summarized the methods based on seismic wave propagation. Early Russian work had demonstrated a
decrease followed by an abrupt increase in the ratio of compressive velocity to
shear velocity of seismic waves in rocks adjacent to faults preceding
earthquakes. Laboratory measurements of
stress-strain relationships have led to models based on dilatancy
due to the development of microcracks and dialtancy due to abnormal fluid pressure. Robertson favors a two failure model. Rocks along the fault can deform by creep
until an irregularity in the fault surface causes an increase in stress, which
leads to brittle fracture. When creep
does not take place, the cracks remain sealed, and eventually fracture
occurs. Robertson urges the observation
of changes in the confining pressure for small areas along active faults. Questions by Peck (2), and Wentworth (2), Jacobeen, and Reed.
Gene changed Vp and Vs
By squeezing
rocks in a press.
The opening
of cracks
Fit in with
the facts
Of strain
related to stress.
President
Boyd adjourned the meeting at 9:50 p.m.
Attendance 88. Beer collection
$41.05.
Respectfully
submitted,
David
R. Wones
Meeting
Secretary
GEOLOGIC
SOCIETY OF
February 23,
1977
1020th
Meeting
President
Boyd called the meeting to order at 8:10 p.m., sans microphone. Alexander McBirney
and Dave Tushantz were introduced as guests. The minutes of the 1019th meeting were
approved as amended. Steven Atkin, Pembroke Hart, Tim Ungrady
and Issac Winograd have
been elected members of the Society.
Doug Kinney announced the AAPG meeting and distributed circulars, also
pleading for volunteers.
Tina
Zen, carrying an armload of C&O canal guidebooks, gave an informal communciation "Development of Peat in Dade County,
Florida." Zen and Altschuler are investigating
the correlation of peat with habitat in the northern everglades. Working with cores and a microscope they have
developed a section across Southern Florida in which basement is defined as the
Miami oolite.
Saw grass marshes contrast against the ponds and sloughs. Calcium carbonate precipitation by algae
leads to the development of marl, which tends to be mixed with the peat. Questions by George Helz, Hower,
Peck, Toulinin, Jones, Hewitt revealed that marl
deposits are sporadic and do not form in all ponds. President Boyd asked whether the peats showed lower temperatures than John Hower's gulf coast shales. Zen replied, "Buy a Guidebook".
Marshes greet
sloughs and ponds in the heat
Tina's feet
are found there in the peat.
With a long
enough rope
And a good
microscope
She'll
complete the formation of peat.
Carl
Koteff, USGS, Reston, presented the first formal talk
of the evening, "Post glacial uplift in the northeastern United
States". The detailed stratigraphy
of glacial lake sediments provides a determination of the water level within
glacial lakes. Careful leveling of this
horizon in the present day permits estimates of differential uplift after the
Wisconsin glaciation in the New England states.
Comparisons with areas in arctic Canada and the Baltic reveals that the
rate of rebounding is slower in New England.
At least one hundred twenty meters of uplift have occurred and along
Lake Champlair 75 cm/km have been measured. Although the glacial lakes lay across major
tectonic boundaries in the New England bedrock, no hinge lines have been detected
in the New England area. Koteff hoped it had been an uplifting experience for the
Society. Questions by Hatch, Rumble,
Stewart, Peck, Zen, Dinny, and Boyd.
Where
Wisconsin ice came to a halt
Carl leveled,
on beds, an assault
No sign of a
hinge
Where deltas
impinge
On an ancient
plate boundary fault.
"Oxygen
and hydrogen isotope studies of the Cordilleran batholiths in western North
America" was presented by Mordecai Margaritz,
D.T.M. Using these isotopes, Margaritz and his colleague at C.I.T., Hugh Taylor, investigated
the amount of exchange between meteoric waters and the rocks of these
batholiths. Regional isotopic variations
in rain water are reflected in the rocks of the batholiths. Tertiary intrusives
have acted as heat sources to drive convective systems tens of kilometers in
diameter. Isotopic exchange takes place
during convection. Hydrogen exchange in biotite and hornblende is a faster process than the
exchange phenomenon. Questions by Hower, Davis, Hewitt, E-an Zen (2), Helz, Roedder, Peck, Hemley, Jones and Rumble revealed that batholiths lying
below the zone of permeability remain unaffected and that Vancouver Island
remains a major anomalous region. Rumble
suggested that the Karmudsen Volcanics on Vancouver
Island had exchanged with sea water.
Isotopic
determinations
By Margaritz sought the locations
In
Cordilleran mountains
Where
tertiary fountains
Promoted H/D
variations.
The
final talk of the evening, "Trace elements in suspended phases in water: implications
for sample handling procedures" was given by Sally Harrison, N.B.S. Ms. Harrison explained the many problems in
obtaining a sample of natural polluted water which was not altered by the
collection or storage procedures. Using teflon coated devices during all sampling procedures,
residues of freeze dried samples are analyzed by instrumental neutron
activation. By running blanks during the
analysis, Harrison has demonstrated that trace elements in water often occur
absorbed on particles which pass through a .45 μm
filter. Giving rational explanations
such as incoming tides to explain most of her data, Harrison left the audience
to ponder on an anomalously low Cl value collected in Laurel, Maryland. Questions by Hewitt, Hemley,
French, Jones (3), Roedder, Boyd, and Hower left a
strong impression that E.P.A. should ask Harrison to give a seminar on problems
of water analysis.
By using a
neutron reaction
To measure a
freeze dried extraction
Sally found
that the tide
Could not be
denied
Or e'en the particulate fraction.
The
Meeting was adjourned at 10:08.
Attendance: 64.
David
R. Wones
Meeting
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON
1021st
Meeting
March 9,
1977
President
Boyd brought the meeting to order at 8:01 P.M.
Even with a relatively small crowd, presumably due to the siege of the IslamicCenter up the street, there was some difficulty
bringing the meeting to order. Fred
Larsen, Norwich Univ., and Dan Milton, U.S.G.S., Menlo Park were introduced as
guests. The minutes of the 1020th meeting
required significant revision by Boyd and Koteff. Dan Appleman requested higher standards of
verse. President Boyd announced the
forthcoming society field trips. Tina
Zen did not push the sale of Guidebooks.
Bruce
Hanshaw presented the opening talk of the evening,
"Paleoclimatic Implications of subglacially precipitated calcites from Glacier National
Park." After thinking, and introducing his family of field assistants, Hanshaw credited his coworkers, Bernard Hallet
and Tyler Copeland, for their cooperation in the field and laboratory
work. He showed a photograph of stromatolites on which could be seen both a calcite
precipitate and a faceless poleontologist. Hanshaw at this
point regaled the society:
"Paleontologists
in their museums palacial
Give no
samples to geochemists nonfacial
They think
all is organic
They surely
will panic
When they
find that the calcite's subglacial.
Taking
the meeting on a worldwide tour of glaciers which had flowed over bedrock rich in
calcium, Hanshaw showed the remarkable encrustations
of fluted calcite which Hallet had demonstrated
formed by precipitation of freezing water under the sole of the glacier. The Hanshaw family
mounted an expedition to Glacier National Park where they collected ice,
calcite, and bedrock. Oxygen isotopic
analysis coupled with mass balance demonstrated that the calcite formed from subglacial water.
Extrapolating these results to the forams of
the pleistocene Hanshaw
suggested that the variations in oxygen isotope composition of forams, so carefully demonstrated by Emiliani,
are not a function of a temperature change in seawater, but rather reflect the
change in the isotopic composition of sea water due to the storage of light
oxygen in the glaciers. Questions by
Tracey (3), E-an Zen (3), Hover, C. S. Zen (2), Dutro (2), Boyd (2), Krohn, Hatch, Deike, Koteff, Toulmin, were mainly on the causes of the fluting
of the calcites.
"High up
the Hanshaws all go
Where
glaciers o'er carbonates flow,
The sole
water freezes
Forms calcite
which eases
The climates
in which forams grow.
John
Ferry, Geophysical Laboratory, demonstrated how postmagmatic
interaction between granitic plutons near Augusta,
Maine, and regional fluids created isograds common to
the plutons and their surrounding country rocks. His paper, "Fluid interaction between
granite and sediment during metamorphism" applied the principle of Le Chatelier to the reactions:
Calcite
+ anorthite + water = zoisite + CO2
anorthite
+ microcline + H2O = muscovite + zoisite +
quartz
anorthite
+ microcline + H2O + CO2 = muscovite + calcite + quartz
Ferry
demonstrated that the use of the two feldspar geothermometer
yielded 420°C and coincided well with the intersection of the several reactions
at 3500 bars and 425°C. Ferry concluded
that the local fluids were all consumed at this temperature. He then postulated the circulation of fluids
during the metamorphism and cooling of the plutons. Questions by Freeborn, Wones
(2), Toulmin (2), E-an Zen (2), Hower, Jones, Boyd,
and Wright revealed that the presence of clay minerals in granites may be a
metamorphic rather than weathering event.
"The
maxim of Le Chatelier
Was brought,
by Ferry, to weight
On the
transfer of gasses
Through
igneous masses
And the
reactions that ended in clay
The
final talk of the evening, "Complex Chemistry of transition elements in
manganese nodules," was presented by Roger Burns of M.I.T. Burns brought a miniexhibit
of these nodules and after giving a general review of their location and distribution,
showed the society the difficulties of working on the crystal chemistry of
transition metals in such minerals as todorokite, birnessite, δ-MnO2, "ferrihydrates," geothite. A combination of electron microscopy, x-ray
diffraction and chemical bond theory suggest that these nodules are
combinations of several manganese and iron oxides with substituted cobalt,
copper, and nickel. The transition
metals are bonded to chelates and through oxidation
of the organic molecule by ferric iron complexes, are then precipitated and
incorporated into the nodule. Burns
reported that the growth rates of the nodules are about 1 mm per million years,
and that they grow at the sediment water interface with the growth on the lower
side. Activity by benthonic organisms
turns them over periodically. Burns
finished his talk with a discussion of the ramifications of mining these
nodules which would involve complex technical, legal, environ mental, and
political problems. In his final slides
Burns suggested that man may wish to return to conventional methods of
recovering copper and nickel from the earth.
Questions by Hower (4), Roedder, Fleischer
(2), Boyd, Callender, Hazen, Jones, and Helz provided
a spirited discussion of the method of precipitation and incorporation of the
transition metals into the nodules.
"Roger
showed us some rocks from the sea
Rich in C-u,
M-n, and F-e
At amazingly
slow rates
They form
from some chelates
By methods
not obvious to me.
The
meeting was adjourned at 10:22.
Attendance: 67. Beer Money:
$28.97
Respectfully
submitted, David R. Wones
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON
1022nd Meeting
March 23, 1977
President
Boyd brought the meeting to order at 8:00 p.m.
Janet Pitman, U.S.G.S., Denver, was the only introduced guest of the
evening. The minutes of the 1021st
meeting were approved as read. Boyd,
Davidson and Callendar discussed the motives behind
the overturing of nodules by benthonic
organisms. Bruce Lipin announced the
Field Trip on April 2. Pres. Boyd
requested the members of the society to return their glassware to the back of
the hall at the end of each meeting.
"Mineral
alteration in the Edwards limestone aquifer of Texas" was presented by
Ruth Deike.
Showing the geologic setting with both maps and cross-sections Deike pointed out how the water from this aquifer is
divided into a region of good water and region of sulfur rich brine or
"bad water." Two test holes were drilled into the aquifer at Selma
(good water) and Randolph (bad water).
Lack of core recovery in stratigraphic horizons in the Selma well are
matched by dolomite, celestite, and organic rich
horizons in the Randolph well.
Petrographic and mineralogic data amplified
the differences between the two localities.
Using the Glen Rose formation as a marker, Deike
determined a mass balance between the two sections. This indicated that dolomite in the Randolph
well is replaced by calcite and void space in the Selma well. Finishing with a photograph of the Orion
"horsehead," Deike
hoped it was not a nebulous talk. Questions
by Margaritz (2) and Davidson revealed the definition
of "grainstone."
"Aquifers
near San Anton'
Are formed in
carbonate stone
'The
Randolph,' says Ruth,
'Has minerals
uncouth,
Where the
Selma has calcite alone?’"
Continuing
the saga of the Edwards aquifer, F. J. Pearson, U.S.G.S,, Reston, in his paper,
"Geochemical Evolution of Waters in the Edwards Limestone of Texas,"
presented hydrologic maps and the variations in the chemistry of the water from
the good and bad zones. Using carbon
isotopes and dissolved ionic species, Pearson suggested that the bad water
contained more chloride, no tritium and C14 as compared to the fresh
water. Intermediate waters could form
either by mixing the two extreme waters or by a reaction of fresh water with the
Edwards limestone. Pearson demonstrated
that the actual data support the reaction model. This suggests that the boundary between the
two waters should migrate south and east with time as fresh waters invade the
aquifer. Questions by Hower, Wones, Davidson, E-an Zen,
Lipin, and Sellers produced statements concerning San Antonio's water supply
and a definition of "cattle water."
In the
Edwards, according to Joe
Both good and
bad waters flow
The models
need fixing
Reaction, not
mixing
Is the way in
which aquifers grow.
George
Wetherill presented the final talk of the evening
"Initial temperature of the earth," a topic of interest because the
initial temperature of the accreting earth dominates the thermal history of
that body. Lunar studies have shown that
the earth's satellite differentiated early, and the earth must also have had a
high initial temperature. The relations
between the mass of the earth, its sectional area, its density, and the
relative velocities of fragments within the nebula constrain the time of
accretion to about one hundred million years.
Chamberlain in 1904 showed that a body accreting in that period of time
would cool by radiation. Recent
proposals by Ringwood and Cameron require a thousand years, which is too short
a time. Barrell,
in 1917, and Safronov, in 1969, suggested
accumulation by impact of large bodies which accords with the rate, and as the
heat of impact in burial within the larger body, this process avoids radiant
heat loss. Wetherill
reviewed Safronov's treatment of the dual accretion
of two bodies, the so called runaway accretion model. Wetherill then
reviewed his variation of this process, the attritional remnant model, which
differs from Safronov in the ratio between the escape
velocity of the larger fragment and the relative velocity of the
fragments. The earth will be heated more
than the moon, both will be heated heterogeneously, and will have heterogeneous
initial compositions. Some of the
primordial chemical variations could be preserved. Questions by Peck, Helz, and Norton, Boyd,
Lipin, and Arth, reinforced Wetherill's
position that the earth is complicated and that "God does not favor petrologists."
Safronov and Wetherill savor
Planetesimial modes of
behavior
Heating rates
skew
The
chemistry, too,
"God
does not, petrologists, favor."
Attendance:
57
Beer
Money: $29.40
Respectfully
submitted,
David
R. Wones
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON
1023rd
Meeting
April 13,
1977
President
Boyd brought the meeting to order at 8:09 P.M.
Maurice Wells, Univ. of London, J. W. Gruner,
Univ. of Minn., Larry Woodford, West Va. Geological Survey, and C. L. Drake,
Dartmouth, were all introduced as guests.
The minutes of the 1022nd meeting were approved as read. Pres. Boyd informed the society of the deaths
of three members, James Benn, Paul Bower, and Raymond Whitla. New members elected to by the Council are
Mary-Hill French and Andy Corcoran.
Bruce Lipin announced the May 7th field trip, and was asked by Jacobeen if this was a comment from on high. Pres. Boyd announced the forthcoming field
trip for Earth Science teachers, and asked if anyone know whether or not the
Society had ever been incorporated. Jacobeen requested judges for talks at the A.A.P.G. annual
meeting
.Walter
Parham presented the first paper of the evening, "Geologic limitations on
Developing Countries." In a series of world maps and appropriate graphs,
Parham indicated that the dominant population in the world, and the greatest
increase in population is taking place in those parts of the world where the
high rates of rainfall in both recent and Tertiary times have depleted the
soils and left a residue of kaolinite, halloysite, allophane, and imogolite. Decaying
vegetation supplies most of the nutrients required for farming. Agricultural processes of slash and burn,
and the use of forest materials as fuel has left broad regions of unreplenished soil.
The cross-over of world food supplies and world food demand has been
predicted for 1984. Questions by Yochelson, Boyd, Jones, Lipin, Tracey, and Sheldon revealed
that political processes move slowly and that only now are the various planning
agencies such as AID beginning to make some progress toward implementation of
agricultural methods which are planned around the total environment.
"Equatorial
foodstuffs, says Parham,
Are a cause
for world wide alarum
More rain
than is needed
Leaves soils
depleted
Unlike the midwestern far-m."
"Oceanic
basement drilling: technical and scientific achievements" was the title of
a paper by W. G. Melson in which he attempted to show the problems as well as
the results of deep oceanic drilling.
The remarkable correlations between the geophysical observations with
the oceanic stratigraphy have been done in spite of core recovery that is about
twenty percent per hole. Sowing results
from the Famous region, Melson indicated how coherent models of the genesis and
differentiation of oceanic basaltic magmas are being constructed. Questions by Thayer, Drake, Boyd (2), Helz,
Tracey and Jones discussed correlations with
"Melson
showed us how all kinds of motion
Make deep
drilling tough in the ocean.
We need to
have more
Recovery of
core
For a notion
of sea floor commotion."
The
visiting president of A.A.P.G., John Moody, presented in his paper, "Some
New Tectonic Patterns," a discussion of shear faults, and how their intersections
are expressed in the geology of the planet Earth. Beginning with a catalogue of types of fault
intersections, and examples of each, Moody proceeded on a tour of famous
sedimentary basins around the world.
Small basins in the western U.S., were compared to larger basins on a
continental scale, which culminated in a comparison between the Western Pacific
and Western Atlantic margins. Moody,
after showing the similarities in topology and scale, admitted, "I don't
know what this means.” Boyd, Drake, Mamula, and Dix
discussed problems of intersections of defined plate boundaries with the linears described by Moody.
The
collections of Moody's directions
Are
selections of fault intersections
It's simply
terrific
The Western
Pacific
Has
reflections of Atlantic complexions.
The
meeting adjourned at 10:12 P.M.
Attendance:
87
Beer
Money:
Respectfully
submitted
David
R. Wones
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, INC.
1024th
Meeting
April 27,
1977
President
Boyd brought the meeting to order at 8:07 p.m.
John Rodgers, Yale Univ., Pete Robinson, U. Mass., were formally
introduced as guests. Rolfe Stanley, U.
Vermont, Nick Ratcliffe, CUNY, and R. E. Zartman, U.S.G.S., Denver, arrived late and missed their
introductions. Boyd asked for a musical
rendition of the limericks and the secretary obliged, singing them to the tune
of "In China they never eat chile." The
minutes were approved as sung (and read).
President Boyd announced that the Society had become incorporated as of
Friday, April 22, 1977. This was
necessary to protect officers and members from legal harassament
in the case of any incidents related to Society functions. Boyd extended the Society's thanks to Jack
Reed and Bob Sigafoos for the Earth Science Field
Trip for teachers which they led for the Society. President Boyd announced the May 7 field trip
on the Environmental Geology of Fairfax County.
The A.A.P.G. needs volunteers to judge sessions at the A.A.P.G. annual
meeting.
D.
G. Thorsterson, the scheduled speaker was taken ill,
and the talk "Geochemistry of the Fox Hills aquifer in western North
Dakota lignite region" was cancelled.
L.
W. Finger presented a paper by himself and R. M. Hazen, "High pressure
crystallography: mantle-type phases in the diamond cell." The internal ordering
of pyroxenes from Kakanui, New Zealand was used to
reconstitute the thermal history of the mantle under New Zealand. This work, done at one atmosphere would be
even more powerful if done at high pressure.
The diamond cell, developed by Von Valkenburg
and coworkers at NBS, was refined by Bassett at Univ. of Rochester, and further
refined by Finger, Hazen and Bell at the Geophysical Lab to study crystal
structures at high pressures. The
diamond anvils are supported by a steel ring with conical bores to accommodate
x-ray diffraction. A ruby chip is used
as a barometer. After showing x-ray
diffraction patterns at one atmosphere and 27 Kb, Finger summarized the oxides
and silicates that have been studied at high pressure. He reviewed Hazen and Prewitt's work on a
generalized equation of state, and showed how that interpretation was over
simplified. In summary, the work proves
1) crystal structures can be determined at high pressures, 2) fundamental
studies such as low quartz are now under study, 3) anisotropic compressibility
can be determined, and 4) structures are more regular at high pressures. Questions by Hower
(3), Zen (2), Boyd (2), Robertson (2), Chayes and
Clarke demonstrated that we now have better and more compressibility data, but
the resolution of mantle mineralogy is not yet accomplished. Appleman suggested that, in order to obtain
better diamords, they should "cultivate rich
ladies, not N.S.F...."
Pressure
studies by Finger and Hazen
In a diamond
are truly amazin’
The way
minerals squeeze
Is
accomplished with ease
Rubies
measure how much with some lasin’.
Hans
P. Eugster presented the final paper of the evening,
"The Green River formation of the Fossil Syncline, Wyoming." Eugster felt that his friends Boyd, Jones, and Wones have conspired to break his record of twenty years of
avoiding G.S.W. talks. He urged us to
study the surface of the earth as it has more importance to our future than
either the surface of the moon or the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. Using the Geol. Map of Wyoming, Eugster indicated the geographic location and geological
relations of the Fossil Syncline with paleolake
deposits of the Uinta and Green River basins.
Using a combination of sedimentology,
geomorphology, mineralogy and chemistry, Eugster
interpreted the Green River shales to result from low
sedimentation rates in a carbonate dominated terrain. A voice from the projection booth suggested
that the Absaroka Volcanic field could have provided the sodium. An earlier model interpreted the basin as the
result of seasonal changes in CO2 content as a function of algal
growth in a chemically stratified lake.
However, the presence of bottom living fish, mud cracks, bird tracks and
coprolites, lead to a model of a broad mud flat with a central lake for the
Uinta and Green River basins, whereas the Fossil Syncline area contained deeper
water and did not have the large algal growths of the other two. Fossil roots and regions of bioturbation support this model.
At Johns
Hopkins, Hans Eugster, the Swiss,
Found buffers
in bombs were remiss
His heart
went aquiver
When he saw
the Green River
And in Field Geochem he found bliss.
Come
along, all, and listen to my tale,
About
Hans Eugster and the Green River shale
Come-a-ti-yi-yippee-yippee-yay-yippee-yay
Come-a-ti-yi-yippee-yippee-yay
It
started out in nineteen fifty nine
With
Charlie Milton and the Green River brine
……………..
Then
he teamed up with a Bradly named Bill
Cyclic
sediments formed the basin fill
……………..
Had
to support all that vegetation
In
the midst of precipitation.
……………..
Then
out west the problems came
All
the basins were't the same.
……………..
Hans
has had a might fine time
Checkin"
out the fossil syncline.
……………..
He
found the tracks of the flamingo
Where
cocepods and another thing grow.
……………..
He
used all these sedimentary features
And
a bunch of fossil creatures
……………..
So Eugster says, “It’s no mistake
The
basin had a perennial lake.”
……………..
This
forty minute talk went very fast
Unlike
a twenty minute one four weeks past.
Attendance:
62
Beer
money:
Respectfully
submitted,
David
R. Wones
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON,' INC
1025th
Meeting
May 11, 1977
President
Boyd brought the meeting to order at 8:05 p.m.
Bruce Chappell, ANU, Russell Tiswess, USGS,
and Dr, Federovsky, PAS were introduced as
guests. Pres. Boyd announced that the
Society was Incorporated in the District of Columbia as of April 20, 1977. Pleas from Mary Hill French and Mary Mrose concerning payment of dues were made. Jacobeen requested
more volunteers to act as judges at the A.A.P.G. annual meeting. Neuman announced a
symposium "Land Use Decisions" which would follow the A.A,P,G.
meetings on June 16. Bruce Lipin thanked
Froelich and Obermayer for
their field trip through Fairfax County In the fall a trip will be made to the
Baltimore Gabbro by Crowley, Morgan and Lipin.
John
Pojeta, U.SG.S., presented a paper, "The Origin
and Early Diversification of Pelecypods" or
"How to get a Bivalve from a Univalve". The Society was shown how muse le scars and
dentition serve to guide the way from univalve to bivalve in the early
Paleozoic. The story required
contributions from Siberia, France, Australia, Antarctica, the Himalaya,
Estonia, and has permitted the paleontologist to reconstruct this history
without recourse to a "Black Box".
Questions by Boyd, Mary Hill French, Sellers, Dan Appleman (2), Jones, Deike, Towe (2) and Yochelson revealed that the dentition of the molluscs were used as filters, not chewers, that the
structure of the soft filaments influence the shape of the dentition, that the
ornamentation is related to the environment, and that the gap in Triassic
diversity appears to be real,
Diversity
shown on a graph-
More names
than a poor scribe can quaff
Pojeta's rendition
Of fossil
dentition
Filtered
bivalves, not wheat, from the chaff.
William
C. Luth of Stanford and E.R.D.A., demonstrated the
difficulty of establishing crystal stratigraphy within igneous rocks front the
study of thin section by mean of Ms talk, A Heretic's View of Volcanic
Textures". In a series of
photomicrographs of minerals crystallized from synthetic melts at controlled
cooling rates, Luth showed that hornblende and
plagioclase form as hopper crystals which entrap melt which may then crystallize
to yield inclusions of quartz, plagioclase, and K-feldspar within the earlier
crystal giving the impression that such crystals predated tbe
earlier one. Questions by Luce, Lipin, Wones, Appleman, Robertson, Towe,
Force, Nord, and Boyd established that Luth indeed
felt these studies were applicable to natural occurrences with very slow
cooling rates, and that H2O was not essential to the phenomenon.
The order of
crystallization
Results from
a rationalization.
Bill's
crystals that hop-
Will they
make us stop
Defining
devitrification?
The
final paper of the evening, "Uranium Solution-mineral equilibria,
a disciple's new view" was given by Donald Langmuir of Penn State
Univ. Starting with the declaration that
Uraninite, coffinite, and carnotite are the most common uranium minerals, Langmuir
indicated that a better knowledge of the solubility of uranium complexes would
aid uranium prospecting processing and solution mining. As uranyl and uranous complexing involve
changes in oxidation state, Eh and pH diagrams, coupled with the activity of
silica, pCO2, and activity of phosphate will resolve most problems,
Carbonate and phosphate complexes can greatly enhance the solubility of uranium
in ground water. Under more acid
conditions fluoride complexes appear to be more soluble than had been
previously recognized. Solubility
measurements of complex minerals such as autunite and
tyuyamunite will enhance our understanding of Uranium
transport. Langmuir concluded that the
diagrams he had shown were qualitative aids in understanding the fundamental
calculations that required computers for their solution. Questions by Hemley
(2) Lipin, Peck, Jones, Appleman, Towe, Bevan French,
Luce, and Freeborn (answered by Nord) revealed that much of the solubility work
was Russian in origin, and that Vanadium is a useful prospecting aid,
Don's
computer plotted pH
Of uraninite versus Eh.
Will Tyuyamunite
Replace bituminite
Or will we be
colder than H——?
The
meeting was adjourned at 9:58 P,M, Attendance: 86, 76, and 70,
Respectfully
submitted,
David
R. Wones
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, INC
1026th
Meeting
Oct. 12,
1977
The
meeting was called to order by Vice-Pres. Dutro at 8:05 P.M. Desmond McConnell, Cambridge Univ., Roger Strens,
Newcastle-on-Tyne, Peter Timofeez, Charles Onash, Univ. of Maryland, and Chris Onash,
N.A.S.A. were' introduced as guests. The
minutes of the previous meeting were approved as read. The following were elected to memberships:
Sharon
Alshouse, Daniel Milton, Gordon Nord, Len Harris,
Robert Rowland, William VanHorn, Frances Cisna, James Neiheisel, Thomas Holocek, Wendy Harrison, Shiv
Sharma, Frank Spear, James Hoover, Charles Lawson, Brent Fabbi,
and John Morgan.
Bruce
Lipin reaffirmed the forthcoming trip to the Baltimore Gabbro on Nov. 19.
The
society observed the deaths of Ray Oilman, Jesse B. Warr,
Jr., Janet Hoffman and R.W. Schnabel.
An
informal communication by John Reed, Jr. "Enigmatic Clay Balls along
Reston Ave" exposed the Society to the ephemeral road cuts in Fairfax County,
Virginia, where Triassic conglomerates have been temporarily exposed. The clay balls occur 1 to 2 meters below the
ground surface, also occur within the phyllites of
the piedmont, and contain quartz pebbles set in a brown clay matrix. Quartzite pebbles are observed to transect
the boundary between the clay ball and the red sandstone matrix of the
Triassic. Reed described the phenomenon
without any explanation, telling the Society, "You now know as much as I
do". Stewart observed that this was
a new approach to "No working hypothesis".
Jack, found,
on the road within
Some
spheroids truly arrestin’.
The clay
balls and quartz
His intellect
thwarts
Now, ours,
our colleague is testin’.
Curt
Henderson informally communicated that an ad hoc group, called the Geostat Committee, had met to discuss supplementary sensors
for the Landsat satellites. He suggested that the synoptic, worldwide
perspective permitted the construction of better base maps, better exploration
strategies, and enhanced geologic interpretations. To be added to the new Landsat
satellites will be 10-20 meter resolution, geologically sensitive band imagery,
side-looking radar and thermal infrared imagery. The group requests additional suggestions
from the geologic community,
From Geostat Curt brought the word
Now, by NASA,
we all can be heard
With
instruments optic
A viewpoint
synoptic
We now can
all share with the bird.
Nell
Plummer, U.S.G.S. present a talk, "Mechanism of calcite dissolutions in CO2-water
systems", summarizing his joint work with David Parkhurst
and Tom Wigley, Plummer demonstrated how the rate of
dissolution of calcite is dependent on pH, CO2, pressure and
stirring rate, The complex relationships can be analysed by three reactions
involving l) calcium carbonate and hydrogen ion, 2) calcium carbonate and
carbonic acid, and 3) a back reaction forming an absorbed layer of calcium
carbonate. An unidentified gentlemen
asked about agitation rates and was informed that the experiments were all
performed at a high rate of agitation.
The Vice-president, apparently thinking he was at a G.S.A. meeting
brought the embryonic question period to a close,
A geochemist
named Neil
Claimed that
back reactions were real
The rate at
which calcite
Dissolved,
called for insight,
Two forward,
one back, is the deal,
The
second talk of the evening "Geothermal resource potential in the eastern
U.S.” was presented by John K, Costain,
V.P.I.&S.U. Costain
indicated how a combination of geologic, work headed by Lynn Glover III,
geochemical work headed up by A. K. Sinha and
geophysical work headed up by himself were evaluating the potential of
geothermal waters warmed by the radioactive heating of plutons
insulated under the Atlantic Coastal Plain sediments. Twelve drill holes have been drilled, but
only three had been completed for heat flow studies at the time of the
talk. The slope of heatflow
as a function of heat production is linear and identical to that observed for
New England. However, the total heat
flow for New England is larger. There
appear to be realistic prospects under the coastal plain. Questions by Cox Lipin, Stewart (2), Brett,
Rubin, Salisbury, Robertson, Zen and an unidentified gentleman, revealed that
the problems of economics, ownership, and energy tradeoffs were under study by
ERDA that Ocean City's convention hall is heated by 103°C water from a 7800'
drill hole, that 68°C is the highest temperature observed by Costain's group and that without judicious use, it might
not be a renewable resource.
In the piedmont
John Costain will show
That granites
make hot waters flow,
In the broad
coastal plain
He'll drill
down again
Will our
sources of energy grow?
Bevan
French, NASA, presented a summary of the accomplishments of the Lunar program
in the final talk of the evening, "What's New on the Moon?" The 843
pounds of returned material includes lunar basalts, anorthositic highlands
material, and lunar soil (or regolith).
Lunar basalts lack the H2O and high K and Na values of
terrestrial basalts, and formed at lower oxygen fugacities.
Although the lunar highlands material is referred to as anorthosite,
it is actually a mixture of gabbro, norite and diorites as well as anorthosite. The
brecciated soil forms as a result of multiple meteorite impacts of sizes
ranging from micron to several hundred kilometers. 3 meters of soil represent
1.5 billion years of time, therefore making the moon a valuable probe for
changes in solar radiation with time.
The moon's interior is layered, but quite different from the earth. As he described the proposed lunar polar
orbiter experiment, French reminded us of the Frank Schairer
dictum "The rocks remember". A
question by Robertson revealed that the ALSEP had been turned off after eight
years of operation,
Apollonian
trips to the moon
For science
provided, a boon
The
astronauts' toil,
Brought back
rocks and soil
Bevan hopes
we can return soon.
The
meeting was adjourned at 9:55 P.M.
Attendance 84,
Respectfully
submitted,
David
R. Wones,
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, INC
1027th
Meeting
Oct. 26,
1977
Pres.
Boyd opened the meeting at 8:11 P.M.
Although no visitors were announced at the usual time, it happened that
Don Mabey, Frank Frischknecht,
Bill Hanna, and Ken Watson, all of the U.S.G.S., Denver, were in the audience,
along with Dr. Moritani of the Geological Survey of
Japan, Jean-Guy Schilling of the Univ. of Rhode Island, and Bill White of
D.T.M.
The
minutes were approved as read.
Pres.
Boyd announced that a speakers fund was being set up from the extra
contributions from the members. This
fund will be at the discretion of the Program Chairman.
Pres. Boyd announced the following slate prepared
by the nominating committee:
Vice
Pres. and Pres. Elect: Daniel Appleman
2nd Vice President: Douglas Rankin
Secretary
(Meetings): Bruce Lipin
Secretary
(Council): Bill Davies
Treasurer:
Peter Lyttle
Councilor:
Norman Hatch, John Hower, Cristina Zen
Tina
Zen reported the joke about jokes at a prison, then yelled out "No.2"
and displayed the Society's Guidebooks, copies of which are still for sale.
Bruce
Lipin announced that a field trip to the Baltimore Gabbro would take place on
Nov. 19 led by Bill Crowley, Ben Morgan, and Bruce Lipin.
Lucy
Force attempted to sound out the Society on the possibility of holding meetings
nearer her residence, Reston, Va. A
straw vote indicated that 20 of the 75 present would not go to Virginia for a
meeting, and that 25 of the 75 present would go to Virginia for a meeting. Counting the seven guests, it appears that 23
members present were uncommitted, or perhaps uncertain as to the nature of the
proceedings.
Mary
Mrose, chairman of the membership committee, asked if
anyone knew of any basis on which a member in Texas claimed life membership. No
one had ever heard of such a policy.
Mary stated that "Don't anyone else try it" Stewart asked if
the individual in question was named Powell.
The
secretary announced that Carl Thornber, Kevin Bond,
Charles M. Onasch, Gerald Richard, John Burney, Gall Fenster, Christine Onasch, and
Lindsay Maness had been elected to membership by council on Oct. 26, 1977.
D.
Kirk Nordstrom, Univ. of Virginia, presented the first paper of the evening,
"The great California acid trip: weathering of sulfide ores in Shasta
County", admonishing the society that, in spite of the title, the were no
samples. Showing pictures of California
creeks that contain some water, algae, and a lot of bacteria in multicolored
hues, Nordstrom, by means of geologic maps and cross sections, coupled with
laboratory experiments and thermodynamic calculations, demonstrated that water
Rowing through massive sulfide deposits contains large amounts of H2SO4,
Fe2+, Zn, Cd, Al, and SiO2. The water is so polluted that "anyone
can walk on it". Reaction rates are
rapid between Fe3+ and FeS2. The Bacteria, thiobacillus ferrioxodans, is the catalyst that
converts Fe2+ to Fe3+.
The silica geothermometer appears to work to
about 40°C, and the unusual Ca to Mg ratios are explained by sulfate equilibria.
Questions by Hemley, Boyd, Barton, Zen,
Schilling, Patterson, Toulmin, Lee, and Pearson revealed that the supergene profile was described in company files and was
unreliable, the bacteria live wherever the pH is less than 4, it will continue
to weather for 1000 to 2500 years, the country rocks are Na-rich rhyolite, and that an H2O balance had not been
calculated.
At Shasta
ground waters flow through
Ores once
mined for F-e-S-2;
The oxidans slime
Grows larger
with time
As they chew
on the iron plus two.
David
Bell, an Oxfordian visiting at Washington and Lee
Univ., presented an entertaining account of the "Geology of Ascension
Island, South Atlantic". After
explaining that the Island had been originally named Concepcion, it was lost to
Maritime records - a "spontaneous abortion" only to be relocated on
Ascension Day, 1501. An early pirate,
Dampier, had located the only fresh water spring, Dampier's draft. This spring, improved by American forces
using dynamite, no longer exists. Called
a battleship by the British, and an aircraft carrier by the Americans,
Ascension Island's water supplies are British catchment
basins and American desalinization plants.
Trachyte is readily differentiated from trachyandesite by the nests of the wide-awake tern. Using a geologic map, variation diagrams,
histograms, and aerial photography, Bell indicated that the volcanic material
is essentially bimodal in composition, and contains bimodal plutonic
blocks. Strontium isotopic studies
suggest a primitive source for the nearby oceanic tholeiite,
as well as the alkalic suite on the Island. Because the island represents only 1% of the
volcanic edifice, volume calculations for the trachyandesite
and trachyte are speculative. Bell concluded his wit-filled presentation
with a riposte at the secretary (Whose name was pronounced incorrectly):
This eminent
fellow named Wones
A poetic
talent he owns
His rhyming
is agile
But his
scansion is fragile
Perhaps he
should stick to his stones.
Questions
by Hazen, Stewart, E-an Zen (2), White, Simkin, and Hower revealed that trace element studies are under way,
that there is no expectation of an imminent eruption, that the question of a
residual silicic crust is not resolved, and that
World War II aviators remarked:
"If
I miss Ascencion
My
wife gets a pension”
On
Ascension's everything's right
A Pub crowns
the cinder cone's height
From the wide
awake terns
The Oxfordian learns [corrected in pencil to “Oxonian”]
That andesite differs from trachyte.
The
final paper of the evening, "Permian biogeography: the north vs. the
south", delivered by Bruce Runnegar, Univ. of
New England, proposed that the conflicts between proposed configurations of the
continental crust as established by paleomagnetic
studies and biogeographic pole determinations could
be resolved by using cluster analysis or diversity gradients in order to redetermine the geographic poles in the Permian. As this requires a great deal of work from a
great many paleontologists, Runnegar suggested that
the assignment of climate points to given fossil species could establish warm
versus cold localities. Using brachipods, fusilinids, and molluscs, a value of +13 was established for West Texas and
one of -7 for Tasmania. The conflict
between pole positions remains. A
suggested solution is to shrink the earth to 75% of its present size during the
Permian. Questions by Lucy Force (2),
Lipin, French, Hower (2), Whitmore, Hazen, Toulmin,
Zen, and Stewart revealed a great concern within the Society over physical
mechanisms which could produce a shrunken earth, and a statement, by the
speaker that he doesn't believe it happened, so he does not have a mechanism.
Runnegar hoped to
unravel
with fossiles, how continents travel.
A boolean scheme
makes all taxa seem
more
convincing than Permian gravel.
[unsigned]
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, INC.
1028th
Meeting
Nov. 30,
1977
Pres.
Boyd opened the meeting at 8:05 P.M. Bob
Hatcher, Fred Abert, Floyd Satins, and Helene Walsh
were all introduced as guests.
The
minutes were approved as corrected.
Frank Whitmore kindly reminded the Secretary, that no matter what it did
to fragile scansion, people from Oxford were Oxonians,
not Oxfordians.
The
Society remembered J. W. Greig and Glenn Bartle, two members who have died recently.
Pres.
Boyd announced the Annual Meeting for Dec. 14, 1977.
Greg
Sohn presented the first informal communication of
the evening. After a lengthy
introduction involving the population and publication statistics of those who
work on ostracods, Sohn
gave a history of Washington in which he showed that ostracods
have been found in several public basins fed by the D.C. water supply. Questions and comments by Rankin, Warren, and
Appleman revealed that ostracods are alive and well
in the nation's capitol.
The ostacodologist, Sohn
Finds life,
on the mall, is full blown
Where the
"tempos" once stood
Bug finding
is good
In our water supply, they have grown.
The
second informal presentation was given by Frank Whitmore, who revealed to us what
recent Japanese trawlers had dredged up out of the ocean. The rotting carcass, thought by a Japanese
scholar to be a plesiosaur, was shown by Whitmore to have been most likely the
partially decomposed carcass of a basking shark.
The vertebratologist, Frank
Showed a
rotting carcass that stank
A Japanese
chorus
Cried:
"Plesiosaurus"
Like the
shark, their theory is rank.
Charles
Smith of the U.S. Geological Survey, presented his paper "Calcareous Nannoplankton: a little on a few of the small.” After reviewing the morphology and the life
history of the coccoliths, Smith demonstrated that
the technology required to perform definitive studies involves electron
microscopy as these creatures are survived by particles from 0.25 to l0μ
in diameter. The coccoliths
have shown large variations in their diversity with time. A well known group, the discoasters,
evolved from the Paleocene to the Pliocene with a great increase in the
effective surface area of their star shaped coccoliths,
only to die out in the Pleistocene.
Several suggested species are actually the same form in different parts
of its life cycle. Finishing with a
description of preparation procedures, Smith reminded the Society that 1 cc
contains roughly 3 × 109 coccoliths (in
chalk). Questions, by George Helz and
Boyd revealed that pentagonal symmetry is common, and that the fossil remains
of these creatures can be carried around
the world four times before they dissolve.
The plates on
a coccolith ball
Were shown,
by Smith, to be small.
Although a
disaster
O'ertook Discoaster
Nannoplankton, by the
billions, still fall.
Jim
Hercer, U.S. Geological Survey, presented a paper by
himself and his coauthor, Charles Faust, "Application of a finite
difference reservoir model, to geothermal steam production at Wairakei, New Zealand". Mercer clearly established the assumptions he
and Faust had made in preparing their models, such as a pure water medium of
high porosity, D'Arcy's equations, and vertical equilibrium. Maintaining mass balance, momentum, and
energy, they developed the evolution of this geothermal field from its first
well to the year 2000. The program, has
successfully described the historic field, even to the prediction of two phase
production of (water plus steam occurrences).
There is a requirement for leakage into the system from the underlying Wairakei ignimbrite of hot water. Robertson, Conant, Schneider, Doan, Zen, and Sohn revealed that there are pressure dropoffs
of 300 to 350 psi, that temperature measurements are
made at depth in closed wells, and that steam is increasing with
production. The expected lifetime of the
field is a function of extraction rate.
Questions by Doan revealed that the original assumptions concerning
boundary flow seem to have little effect on the models
In computer
programs are housed
The problems
of Mercer and Faust
Wairakei will flow
The turbines
will flow
No matter how
boundaries are dou(w)sed.
The
final talk of the evening "Subaerieal alteration
of the late Cenozoic Sediments in the Middle Atlantic States" was
presented by Jim Owens in behalf of his co-authors, M. M. Hess, E. J. Dwornik, and C. S. Denny, all of the U. S. Geological
Survey. By careful examination of the
soil sections and mineralogy from New Jersey to central Virginia, Owens
demonstrated that the mineralogy changes from feldspar and mica, through halloysite to gibbslte and
goethite in the upper levels. West of
Chesapeake Bay these profiles are no longer preserved and are presumed to have
been eroded away. Questions by Tracey,
Force (2), Newell, and Helz revealed that they had carefully used similar
sediments of differing ages, and that chlorite was most likely to be detrital rather than a weathering product.
On the shores
of Chesapeake Bay
Feldspar's
transformed into clay
The profiles
are best
On the east,
not the west
Jim says
"They're eroded away".
The
meeting was adjourned at 10:l2 P.M.
Attendance 93.
Respectfully
submitted,
David
R. Wones,
Secretary.
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, INC
1029th
Meeting
December 14,
1977
Vice-president
Dutro called the meeting to order at 8:05 p.m.
The minutes of the 1028th Meeting were read by acting secretary Dan
Appleman. Mrose
corrected the minutes by pointing out that the list of new members, elected by
council since the last meeting, had been omitted. They are: Nabil Z. Boctor, Douglas G. Mose, John L,
Berry, Donald H. Alexander, Jr., Diane C. Schnabel, David R. McQueen and George
Farlekas. The
following were elected to membership on Dec. 14, 1977: Gennaro
G. Marino, Paul C. Lyons, and David H. Speidel.
Dutro
then introduced President F. R. Boyd, who presented his presidential address:
"Kimberlites and the Mantle Sample". Kimberlite
occurrences in Lesotho and elsewhere contain a wide variety of ultramafic nodules which may represent samples of mantle
rocks. The wide variety of rock types
present indicates great heterogeneity in the upper mantle: Eclogites,
dunites (frequently mistaken for basalt), spinel
& garnet peridotites, pyroxenites, etc. all are
represented. Certain nodule types have
characteristic mineral assemblages which are particularly useful for estimating
equilibration conditions, especially garnet lherzolites. These appear to have equilibrated in the
upper mantle at temperatures from 900°-1400° C and depths of 100-200 km. They plot on depth vs. Temperature plots on a
trend which may represent a segment of a fossil goetherm. An inflection in the curve to higher
temperatures at the deep end was previously interpreted as reflecting
stress-heating from plate movements during the break-up of Gondwanaland.
Deeper
samples are intensely sheared. Rock
mechanics studies indicate stresses of the order of 1 kb. The time for eruption may be 4-6 hours, at a
speed of about 50 km/m. Recent studies by
others have cost some doubts on the interpretation of the inflection, but
disagreement apparently remains between petrology and geophysics. The same inflection exists at the Premier
mine (Pre- ) whereas Lesotho is only 60-90 m.y.
old. Silurian kimberlite
data from Udachmaya does not show the inflection, but
sticks to the classic geotherm. Solomon Island data, on the other hand, is
inflected at a shallows depth and agrees with the low-velocity zone
interpretation. Applications to
prediction of diamond deposits are a possible result of these studies. The meeting adjourned to prepare for the
Annual Meeting to follow at 9:10 p.m.; Attendance;152.
Kimberlites
A
POEM
To
Lesotho went the Geochemists’ quest
Not
for mere diamonds, but for pyroxene
Silicates
make quick the heartbeat in the breast
Especially
when garnet there fulfills the dream
Once
made in Boyd and England's famous press
The
claret mineral casts its spell on enstatite
When
found with augite in threefold caress
On
mantle P and T it sheds it light
Down
deep beneath Lesotho lies the source
Whence
eclogites were ripped and brought to view
Boyd
and the Nixon, Peter, set a course
To
yield a geotherm they think is true
Subcontinental like, until a steep deflection
Marks
how this Africa has shifted its direction
[minutes
unsigned, written by Dan Appleman]
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, INC
Annual
Meeting
The
85th Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of Washington, Inc., was called
to order by President F. R. Boyd, Jr., at 9:30 P.M., Wednesday, December 14,
1977, in the Powell Auditorium. Council
Secretary William Davies attempted to read the minutes of the 84th Annual
Meeting. Amid rude remarks by Hanshaw (Bruce) and much merry ha ha,
fueled no doubt by the previous brief intermission, the minutes were approved
as read. Moving right along, Davies
recited the Council Secretary's report.
Highlights of the year, as he saw it, were (1) the near-extinction of
Council Meetings (3 were held); (2) the switching of membership services from
AGU to the triple-threat team of Bevan and Mary Hill French and International
Graphics, saving the Society $1,200; and (3) the incorporation of the Society,
making it eligible for tax-exempt donations.
As the remainder of Davies' statistics were themselves subject to large
standard deviations, they will be suppressed here.
Well-known
ringer Dan Appleman then read the Report of the absconding Meetings Secretary Wones: chiefly remarkable for the information that Wones had composed and delivered 43 limericks and one poem
in heroic couplets, sung to the tune of "Chisholm Trail". Attendance ranged from 62 to 110, averaging
77 for all 12 meetings. 35 papers and 6
informal communications were given; with an average of 8 discussants per paper.
Treasurer
Bevan French restored some semblance of dignity to the meeting with his
meticulous report on the Society's financial status. This was quite satisfactory; operating
expenses of $6,791 were almost completely offset by operating income of
$6,232 plus interest on savings of $306,
leaving a small total deficit of $274. A
special $2,000 contribution to the Society from AAPG was added to our Savings
Account. Increased membership
contributions made it possible to establish a fund to help bring in outside
speakers. The new, cheaper and more
efficient arrangement for handling the Society's business and membership
affairs was described; a large saving to the members is expected.
Michael
Fleischer, Chairman of the Auditing Committee which also included F. J.
Flanagan, reported that the Treasurer's Report and records gave a complete and
accurate statement of the Society's financial condition. He complimented the Treasurer on his
outstanding performance.
President
Boyd read the report of the Public Service Committee for absent chairman Bruce
Lipin. Highlights included 3 membership
field trips, 3 special field trips for school teachers, a seminar at the NAGT
annual meetings, and Science Fair awards.
Lipin was congratulated for his vigorous and successful program.
Mary
Mrose then presented the report of the Membership
Committee, replete with statistics, correcting those announced earlier by the
unfortunate Council Secretary. Beginning
the year with 1035 members, the Society at present had been reduced to 936 for
a net loss of 99. However, these 936
were all alive, a statement which could not be made about the previous
membership list. Mary was given a
rousing vote of thanks for her hard work on the membership rolls.
The
tedious but necessary business of the evening having been completed, Bob Neuman arose to present the report of the Awards Committee,
which included Richard Hamburger, Juergen Reinhardt
and/or Peter Lyttle, Bob Schneider and Pete
Toulmin. Neuman
began with fulsome praise for Secretary Wones, noting
that "his cogent summaries did more for some papers than their authors
did". The committee felt that this
might have been the year of the Great Leap Backward in the geological sciences;
when we were offered the "no working hypothesis" method, the
"untenable conclusion" conclusion, and contemplation (of computer
output) as a substitute for observation.
Withal, they found much to praise in Frank Whitmore's classic informal
communication on the untimely demise of the last sea serpent, awarded the Great
Dane Prize.
From
the 35 papers presented during the year, the committee singled out David Bell's
talk on the volcanic rocks and public houses of Ascension Island for special
commendation. Second prize went to Hans Eugster for his reconstruction of the sedimentary
environment of the Green River Formation.
First Prize was captured by George Wetherill
for his talk on planetary origins.
At
last, the long-awaited moment had arrived, and Dallas Peck arose to present the
coveted Sleeping Bear Award. Masterfully
recalling past sins, he tried in turn Tina Silber,
Dan Appleman, Dave Stewart and Lucy Force -- all were found wanting. Finally, inevitably, he zeroed in on none
other than the Bard of Blacksburg, Dave Wones. Neatly skewering the absent Secretary with
his own pen, he recited:
[blank
space]
(Secretary's
note: this universally admired limerick is presently lost in the wilds of
Southside Virginia. When and if it is
retrieved, it will be inserted here for posterity. Thank you.)
There
being no new business, the meeting proceeded with the election of officers and councillors for the coming year. The nominating committee, consisting of Bob
Hazen, Bill Oliver and chairman Dave Stewart presented the following slate:
President, Tom Dutro; 1st Vice-President, Dan Appleman; 2nd Vice-President,
Doug Rankin; Meeting Secretary, Bruce Lipin; Council Secretary, Bill Davies;
Treasurer, Peter Lyttle; New Councillors,
Norm Hatch, Tina Silber, John Mower. The carry-over councillors
were Moto Sato, Doug Rumble and Ken Towe. No further
nominations were received. The
committee's slate was unanimously elected on a voice vote. The gavel was then ceremoniously turned over
to incoming President Tom Dutro. After
thanking Joe Boyd for his excellent presidential address, and Dave Wones for his unique minutes, Dutro struck terror into the
hearts of the multitude by unleashing his ultimate weapon for the coming year
-- a huge, accurate Time Clock which he vowed to use ruthlessly. On this cheery note the meeting adjourned;
attendance 152.
Respectfully
submitted,
Daniel
E. Appleman
Temporary
acting secretary