GSW: 1991 MEETING MINUTES

 

MINUTES OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

1207th Meeting, January 9, 1991

     President Barton called the meeting to order at 8:05 p.m. The minutes of the 1206th meeting were approved after changing Brace Wardlaw's "respectively submitted" to "respectfully submitted". Three guests were introduced: Gayle and Jane McColloch of the West Virginia Geological Survey and Chuck Drevo, University of Maryland. The McCollochs kindly approached the secretary with an offer of their business cards at the end of the meeting, thus ensuring that their names are properly recorded in the annals of the Society, a practice the new secretary encourages the members to suggest to their guests. E-an Zen announced the Second Hutton Symposium on the origin of granites and related rocks to be held in Canberra September 23 to 28 of this year. The symposium will be preceded by a one week field excursion across the Lachlan fold belt to examine type localities for I- and S-type granites. E-an has the meeting announcement and call for papers. Bill Burton informed us of NASA's light show, a barium release to create an artificial aurora to study earth's magnetosphere, scheduled for the evening of January 10.

     As one his fast official acts, President Barton tested the audience's alertness by introducing the first speaker with the biographical background of the third speaker. The puzzled audience immediately brought the error to the President's attention, and Bob Fudali, Smithsonian Institution, was introduced with his background intact. In his talk, "My summers on the South Polar Plateau: an overview of the U.S. Antarctic Meteorite Program", Bob described the systematic collection of meteorites on polar ice, an ongoing program since the discovery of meteorites there in 1971. Hundreds of meteorites have been found along the Transantarctic Mountain area. Bob concentrated on the Allan Hills and Beardmore Glacier icefields, where a remote field camp was operated in 1983-1984. He showed us that between tanning sessions and volleyball games, scientists collect meteorites using skidoos, 5 or 6 abreast moving systematically over the ice; meteorites can also be found in moraines on foot, but it's easier to spot them on ice because if you see something and it isn't ice or snow, it's a meteorite. Each find is surveyed in, tagged and photographed, touched only with tongs, and kept frozen all the way back to Houston to preserve it in it's Antarctic state. The hypothesis presented to explain the mechanism of meteorite concentration on icefields is that the meteorites are caught up in the ice like raisins in a cake. When the flowing ice encounters bedrock, ice movement becomes vertical and the meteorites are left stranded. By taking gravity readings on outcrops and ice, and considering elevation differences, significant rises in bedrock, on the order of 400 to 800 meters, are identified under icefields. The talk ran over (25 minutes), as did the nose of the fellow shown taking gravity measurements, who was used to illustrate effects of the Antarctic wind chill factor. Questions by Kirk Dodd, George Helz, Pete Toulmin, Gone Robertson, Peggy Appleman, Peter Stifel, Janet Johnstone, Roy Clark, and Mac Ross.

     Roz Helz, USGS, presented "What happens when mushes move? Observations from Kilauea Iki lava lake.  Her answer was based on observations of textures from drill core KI79-1, the bottom of which bounced up and down on its own due to backfilling by crystal-rich mush. Redrilling in the hole revealed ferrodiabasic segregation veins, vertical olivine-rich pipes, and crystal rich mush that moved up the borehole and segregated melt as it moved. Roz documented textures showing melt spot formation and aggregation of groundmass minerals around olivine; large and continuous melt channels wrap up the side of drill core acting as chimneys that allow melt and vapor to rise, moving up through crystalline mush. Melt spot formation and movement in a partly crystalline mush may be a significant process by which melts segregate and move through mushes. The talk lasted 20 minutes, followed by questions by Stifel, Zen (3), one of which Hansen thought of also but Zen asked, Toulmin, and Burton.

     Ted Maxwell, Smithsonian, concluded the program with "The surface of Venus: a report on Magellan's new views". We were shown the dramatic improvement in resolution of the Venutian surface features, such as recognition of 70km wide impact craters with internal structures, volcanic features including collapse craters, volcanic plains, and low relief ridges similar to graben and compression-related features on the moon, faults, and perhaps even layered deposits. Magellan images 27 to 40 km wide swaths, then stops and to transmits data back to earth; in four months Magellan has returned more data than all other planetary missions. Questions by Barton, Zen, and the speaker himself, who asked how does one get the data, and answered by telling us that the primary data will be released on CD Roms.

     Attendance was 75±5 (the uncertainty reflects the highly mobile nature of the crowd, particularly the last few rows). The meeting was adjourned at 9:49 p.m.

     Respectfully submitted,

     [signed Jane Maria Hammarstrom]

 

MINUTES OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

1208th Meeting, January 23, 1991

     President Barton called the 1208th meeting of the Society to order at 8:04 p.m. The minutes of the 1207th meeting were read and approved. Six visitors were introduced: Mario Jardine, Grace Haggetty, Heidi Cruz, Caroline Purdy, Tracy Schwarz, and Eirik Krogstad.  Seventeen newly elected members were announced. President Barton announced the death of Preston Cloud. Treasurer Fred Simon informed us that only 519 responses had been obtained out of 800 dues bill mailed. Fred then cheered us up by offering the "good news" that many members who had paid made donations above and beyond their required $14. John Slack presented an informal communication, on the first documented occurrence of berthierine in volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits. Chlorite is commonly present in the mineral assemblages of these deposits and studies have examined the chlorite composition, namely Fe/Mg ratios, as an indicator of fluid chemistry. John probed chlorites from the Kidd Creek, Ontario deposit and found both iron-rich and iron-poor chlorites in the same deposit. His x-ray study showed that the iron- rich chlorites are really berthierine, a 7 ÅFe-Al serpentine which cannot be uniquely identified by probe, but can be identified by the lack of 14 Å chlorite peak in an x-ray diffraction pattern. Thus, much of what has been previously reported as chlorite in volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits may actually be berthierine. Questions by Robertson, Toulmin, Zen, and Hammarstrom.

     George Helz, University of Maryland, started the formal program with a talk, coauthored by Caroline and Alice Mignerey, on "Accelerators and aquifers: dating the ground water of Maryland's coastal. plain". George described the analytical methods and mass spectrometer problems encountered in working with 36Cl, the main sources of which are the atmosphere and nuclear weapons testing. 36Cl has a 300,000 year half-life. A study of the Aquia aquifer in southern Maryland showed an unexpected rise in 36Cl down dip with distance from the edge of the aquifer. A number of possible explanations for this phenomenon were ruled out, leaving ion filtration through clay layers and decreased water recharge during the Pleistocene due to lower rainfall or increased transpiration as possibilities. George showed that a minimum in stable chloride content correlated with a sea level drop because the Atlantic coast was farther from the recharge area than it is today. The estimate of the age of the sea level drop, 18000 years, correlated well with a 14C date of 19000 years. A model was proposed for dating groundwater by calculating initial 36Cl /total Cl ratios and fitting a curve for the data through the initial values, conveniently excluding the anomalous points as bomb-pulse signals. George kept himself honest by asking if his approach actually dates water or is simply consistent with what is already decided about the age? He concluded that 36Cl is not reliable as a routine tool for dating groundwater but is a useful research tool for studying Pleistocene to Cenozoic - here comes the key word - climate- variations. The talk ran 24 minutes and 55 seconds, but most of the "overtime" was due to mechanical problems with slides, no fault of the speaker. Questions by Grace Haburd, Peter Stifel, and Meyer Rubin.

     Jeff Ryan, DTM, spoke on "Boron and beryllium in Kurile arc lavas, or, how melts are made in a convergent margin. Jeff used the geochemistry of  Be and B in samples across the Kurile island arc to examine mechanisms of addition of subducted components to mantle. B is a sensitive tracer of slab addition whereas Be and other elements are more sensitive to partial melting. The Kurile arc rocks have high B/Be ratios at the front of the arc; ratios drop off and look like uncontaminated mantle at the rear arc. Rear arc samples are higher in K and Ba than front arc samples and are characteristic of derivation from smaller degrees of partial melting. Melting alone cannot account for the B/Be behavior, and there appears to be a causal relationship between slab addition and extent of melting. The talk ran a mere 11 seconds over 20 minutes. Questions by Dan Milton and Paul Barton.

     E-an Zen, University of Maryland, wrapped up the program with his talk on "Magma genesis of the Pioneer Batholith: a modeler tamed by reality". E-an examined the genesis of the granitic magmas of the Pioneer batholith of southwestern Montana, a complex of post-Laramide plutons ranging from quartz diorite to 2 mica granite, by partial fusion of crust based on computer modeling constrained by field, chemical, petrographic, and isotopic data. Initial strontium data constrain the source to old crust; lead data suggest a source age younger than exposed Archean basement but consistent with gneisses in the area. The model lead age is permissive for the nearby Boulder batholith as well, but the Boulder has lower initial strontium values. E-an considered crustal extension, crustal thickening, magma mixing, and mantle upwelling as mechanisms for getting heat into the lower crust. Timing constraints rule out observed thrusting as the triggering mechanism for anatexsis. Consideration of volume of melts produced as a function of depth to thermal input and shallow subduction models showed that some scenarios were too hot, and some were too cold, and by process of elimination, upwelling of a mantle "hot spot" as a heat source for crustal melting was just right. Knowing that Gene Robertson was in the audience, E-an wound up his talk in 17 minutes and forty seconds, leaving ample time for questions, two of which were duly asked by Mike Brown, others by Moto Sato, Sorena Sorensen, Kevin Burke, Brooks Hanson, and Gene Robertson.

     President Barton adjourned the crowd of 96 at 9:49 p.m.

     Respectfully submitted,

     [signed Jane Maria Hammarstrom]

 

MINUTES OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

1209th Meeting, February 6, 1991

     Second Vice President Phil Candela called the 1209th meeting of the Society to order at 8:03 p.m.. President Paul Barton and First Vice President Steve Huebner were both out of town resulting in the unusual (possibly unprecedented in the annals of the Society?) situation wherein the Second Vice President actually had something to do. The minutes of the 1208th meeting were read and approved. Visitors Tom Ahlbrandt and Peter Warwick were introduced and three new members were announced: Mario Giaramita, Smithsonian Department of Mineral Sciences; Harvey Beaulieu, Oosterbaan Assoc.; and Peter Warwick, U.S.G.S. Branch of Coal Geology. Acting president Candela announced the death of longtime member and past president Walter White. Laurel Muehlhausen made two announcements on behalf of AWG. Laurel told us about an upcoming dinner talk by Dr. Alexandra Tolstoy entitled "Underwater acoustics and the hunt for Red October" which will take place on Tuesday, April 2 at 7 p.m, at George Mason University and she also announced that the Penelope Hanshaw Scholarship, an award presented by the Potomac Area Chapter of AWG to an outstanding local female geoscience major, is accepting donations and nominations.

     Patricia J. Loferski, U.S.G.S., presented the fast talk of the evening, entitled "Evidence for liquid immiscibility in the Stillwater Complex from melt inclusions in plagioclase". Patti showed us that melt inclusions can provide unique petrographic information on Stillwater anorthosites and insights about the nature of parent liquids. Melt inclusions occur in many plutonic and volcanic rocks, but they are difficult to identify in plutonic rocks where they have crystallized as mineral inclusions - in volcanics they are more obvious because they are preserved as glass. The typical anorthosite has a cumulate texture with a framework of plagioclase cemented by intercumulus pyroxene, ilmenite, and apatite. Melt inclusions in plagioclase in anorthosite are rounded, 40 to 100 micron in diameter, clinopyroxene grains that enclose apatite and ilmenite. The inclusions have constant mineralogy, modal proportions, and are randomly distributed - all of which suggest that they probably crystallized from a liquid. This liquid was not the parent of the anorthosite, nor was it trapped residual liquid, but rather a liquid having a peculiar bulk composition enriched in REE, Ca, Ti, Mg, P, Zr, and Fe, a suite of elements that partitioned into a depolymerized mafic immiscible liquid that exsolved as droplets that were trapped in plagioclase and subsequently crystallized to the observed mineral assemblage. The talk lasted 20 minutes and 30 seconds. Questions by Dan Milton, George Helz, Bill Greenwood (2), Pete Toulmin, Roz Helz, Brooks Hansen, and Bruce Lipin.

     Dan Appleman, Smithsonian, gave us an informative account of the life of "James Dwight Dana, geologist volcanologist, and mineralogist". We learned that contrary to popular belief, Dana was more of a volcanologist than mineralogist. Dana sent his eyewitness account of a Vesuvius eruption, which he saw because he was teaching math for the Navy on a Mediterranean cruise, to his Yale professor who published it in AJS. In 1837 he published the 1st edition of the System of Mineralogy based on a system similar to that used by biologists rather than on chemistry. The book brought him renown and in 1838 he joined an expedition to chart unknown seas of interest to the U.S., which enabled him to conduct studies throughout the Pacific, including Australia, Fiji, Hawaii, and the Cascades. These studies included geologic mapping, detailed geologic observations of volcanoes noting differences between shield volcanoes and cinder cones, alignment and age progressions of volcanic islands, fossil descriptions, observation of landslides, and correct interpretation of the origin of atolls by growth around volcanoes followed by subsidence - a concept that Darwin apparently could not grasp. Dana's map synthesis of Pacific geology looks a lot like a recent plate tectonic map of the Pacific, and his contributions, all published in volume 10 of the expedition constitute a veritable textbook of Pacific geology. The talk ran a timely 19 minutes and 50 seconds. Questions by Lipin and Galvin.

     The program concluded with Thomas S. Ahlbrandt, U.S.G.S., speaking on "Sand seas of the midcontinent: their chronology and implications for desertification". Many of us (well, I and at least one other person I spoke to) Were surprised to learn of the extent of these eolion deposits, which cover about 100,000 km2 in Nebraska, eastern Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Texas. Tom's talk concentrated on the Wyoming dunes where sand transport studies were used to measure drift rates and belts of dune migration were identified. Some of the highest wind energy in the world is recorded in SW Wyoming dunes, and these terranes are potentially susceptible to climactic changes. Carbon 14 dating of dune artifacts identified 4 major pulses of eolian activity in the last 11,000 years, the most recent about 1,000 years ago. In the Nebraska Sand Hills, sprinklers are emplaced for stabilization, but dune blow-outs can interfere with roads and have profound effects on agriculture. Wind erosion in the area exceeds water erosion affecting soils, 97% of the area is highly erodable, and 66 % of the high plains aquifers are in the Sand Hills area. The talk ran a 17 second tad over 20 minutes. Questions by Sato, Buster, Houser, Rye, Kinney, Krohn, and Bruce Lipin, in his third (yes Bruce, we're counting) question of the evening, who simply could not resist asking the origin of the name of the Killpecker Dunes although the speaker had previously touched upon this delicate subject while Bruce was no doubt busy with chairmanly duties in the back of the room.

     The meeting, attended by 76±3, was adjourned at 9:39 p.m.

     Respectfully submitted,

     [signed Jane Maria Hammarstrom]

 

MINUTES OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

1210th Meeting, February 27, 1991

     President Paul Barton called the meeting to order at 8:01 p.m.. The minutes of the 1209th meeting were read; and the secretary's comment on the possibly unprecedented situation of having the second vice president run the previous meeting was discussed at length by Dutro, Lipin, and Zen - who all remembered various past occasions when our chain-of-command had been put to even more stringent tests. The secretary will check the historical records of the Society to get this straight as soon as the Minutes book is passed on by the previous secretary, which I understand will probably be about next December, if tradition holds. The minutes were not exactly formally amended, and I can't remember if they were formally approved, although I do remember Paul saying "That's not in Roberts anywhere".

     Visitors Doug Crowe, an NRC postdoc; Paul Stone, U.S.G.S. Office of Regional Geology; and Herman Roberson, NSF were introduced. Judy Ehlen announced the start of science fair season and called for volunteer judges. There were no informal communications.

     Scheduled first speaker Peter McCabe was bogged down with an illness, so we did not get to hear about being "bogged down in the mire - organic control on the architecture of shoreface deposits. Howard Evans, U.S.G.S., very graciously filled in at the last minute, and spoke on "Crystal chemical studies of iodate minerals in the evaporite deposits of northern Chile". Howard described his collaborative studies with George Erickson and Mary Mrose on the strange minerals that occur in evaporite settings, called salars, in northern Chile. This is one of the driest regions in the world, and salars are essentially nitrate deposits created by rain effluent from the Andes into basins. The main mineral of these deposits is soda nitre, with lesser amounts of halides, gypsum, sulfates such as thenardite, iodates, chromates, and borates. Howard described the difficulties of solving the crystal structure of hectorfloresite, a sodium-iodate-sulfate mineral that was collected from the sodium sulfate zone that overlies the nitrate zone in one of the salars. The hexagonal prisms presented some problems because the assumption of a twinned monoclinic cell could not reconcile the prominent hexagonal lattice with extra spots on the precession photos. It turned out that a monoclinic cell could he isolated from the complex twin and the structure was solved by projecting along the pseudohexagonal axis for floresite. At high temperatures, by which Howard meant above 30ºC, one of every 5 SO4 groups of the sodium sulfate floresite is replaced by iodate, resulting in the disordered structure of hectorfloresite. The talk ran a precise 20 minutes. Questions by Peggy Appleman, Tom Haring, Ken Towe, Bill Back, E-an Zen, and 2 by Paul Barton.

     The second speaker was Dan Miller of the American Heritage Foundation, who talked about "The Anaconda Collection: 90 years of geological, geophysical, and geochemical data and how you can gain access". Dan described the history of the Anaconda Mining Company and the influence of Reno Sales, its chief geologist for 50 years, on the organization of their worldwide exploration efforts. Sales set rigorous policies for record keeping, which has made it easy to index the entire Anaconda records collection on computer. The state of Wyoming acquired the collection from ARCO, the company that bought out and then dissolved Anaconda. The University of Wyoming houses the Anaconda Geological Document Collection as well as other geologic and petroleum data collections, and makes the data available to industry and other interested parties by a "country club membership" type of system. The collection consists of 54 tons of information on 110 countries. The talk ran 20 minutes. Questions by Lipin, Towe, Simon, former Anaconda employee Doug Crowe, Wardlaw, Back, Zen, and Houser.

     Bob Seal, U.S.G.S., concluded the program with a talk on "A fluid inclusion perspective on oxygen isotope exchange between quartz and water, and some geologic applications". Bob examined the problems encountered in using kinetic rate constants based on experiments al temperatures greater than 350°C to extrapolate isotope fractionation factors to lower temperatures. Bob analysed O and H in fluid inclusions in quartz from 14 samples ranging in age from 10 million years to 2.5 billion years. Bob examined the salinity-temperature-time relations of his data and found that the oldest, hottest, and most saline samples had exchanged the most. His results show the low temperatures rate constants normally used are too fast, and these data can be used to revise exchange constants. Two applications of oxygen isotope studies that are affected by this study are the use of d18O from sediments to study quartz provenance and the use of the isotopic composition of marine cherts as paleotemperature indicators. Published rates say that a chert sitting at 25°C will be reset in a year; the revised rates from this study show that it takes close to 100 million years to entirely reset the system, so to use chert as a paleotemperature indicator, you have to know the diagenetic history. Questions by Herman (1 didn't get a last name) of NSF, George Helz, Mike Palin, Ken Towe, and Sylvia Nersbacher.

President Barton adjourned the somewhat sparse turnout of 59 members at 9:46 p.m.

     Respectfully submitted,

     [signed Jane Maria Hammarstrom]

 

MINUTES OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

1211th Meeting, March 13, 1991

     President Barton called the meeting to order at 8:06 p.m. Minutes of the previous meeting were approved and one visitor, Jack Credlin, NRC, was introduced. The election of four new members was announced: Herman Roberson, Karen Prestergaard, Tom Ahlbrandt, and Bill Luth. Judy Ehlen elevated her previous "request" for science fair judges to "begging" status and announced that she was "desperate" for judges for April 13 and 23. Then we had another visitor announced, Dr. Z. Chen, who is at the Smithsonian for two years and has something to do with the Yangtze delta. Our slightly disorderly meeting, which was attended by a daring 65 devotees who braved the threat of a spring snow, continued with Jeff Grossman's update on the 1993 centennial of the Society.

     Gene Robertson is the chairperson of the centennial committee and special meetings are being planned, as well as publication of a volume describing the history of the society and biographies of our founders. Jeff alerted us to the mystery of the missing minutes, which he described as a "Rosemary Woods" gap in the annals of the Society for the years 1904 to 1925. During this time, abstracts of talks were published by the Washington Academy of Science and by Science, but the actual minutes recorded by the secretary (which we all know truly capture the spirit of the organization) are unavailable. The committee needs help organizing the archives of the Society and setting the record straight and seeks volunteers.

     Lynn Walter, University of Michigan, spoke for 20 minutes and 10 seconds on "Syndepositional dissolution and recrystallization of modern carbonates: Adventures in Club Mud". Lynn pointed out that there is a big gap in our knowledge of sedimentary geochemistry between modem reefs and ancient rock environments. Lynn works in the Florida Keys (where she is better known as the "mud queen") bemuse the area is alive - a shallow water environment characterized by rapid production of sediments, rapid burrowing of the upper 60 cm of sediments by shrimp, and reactive sediments. Lynn focused on the question of the whether or not reactive sediments in such environments are dissolving and looked to pore water chemistry for evidence. Organic matter decay produces CO2, the saturation state of pore water is lowered with respect to CO2, oxygen is lost, but burrowing shrimp stir the sediments enough that SO4 reduction is not significant. Lynn's modeling shows that about 400 micromoles of CO3 per cm per yr are dissolving. The point is that the whole carbonate production of the biota is much greater than what is preserved and the difference is from dissolution. Carbon isotope data for carbonate sediments from Buzzard's Bay and from Florida Bay never get very negative despite organic decay suggesting that there could be buffering as well as dissolution. Incubation experiments on sediments show that both carbon and oxygen isotopes evolve to heavier values relative to living specimens. Questions by Sorensen, Shanks, Prestegaard, and Barton.

     Pat Shanks, U.S.G.S., was the second speaker with a talk entitled "Alvin dives, black smokers, and sea-floor massive sulfide deposits." There are now about 30 known sea floor hydrothermal vents. Pat concentrated on his work on the Escanaba Trough deposit on S. Gorda Ridge, just north of the Mendocino fracture zone off the Oregon coast. This deposit lies within the EEZ and has been studied by the U.S.G.S. since 1985. Pat described a 1 km long hill on the sea floor on top of a volcanic edifice that is nearly continuously covered with sulfides and includes three vents - a 218° white smoker, a 108° vent, and a 18° vent. Estimates of the size of this deposit range from 500,000 tons of sulfides to 10 million tons, depending on the thickness of the deposit, and if the three areas are connected they could represent as much as 100 million tons of ore, so not all sea floor deposits are tiny. Pat then asked what these would look like in the rock record, and showed that the geologic ingredients and scale of the Ducktown deposit are similar to the deposits of the Escanaba Trough, including the pyrrhotite-rich character of the ores, and sulfur isotopes. The presence of sediments in the stratigraphic column has a decided effect on trapping sulfides and controlling the redox state of these deposits. The talk ran a slightly long 21 minutes and 13 seconds. Questions by Hammarstrom, Palin, Brett, George Helz, Rye, Hemley, and Burke.

     Gordon Brown of Stanford spoke on "Mineral surfaces and interfaces, the next frontier in geochemistry". Gordon defined the terms sorption, precipitate, and adsorption and showed us how new atomic scale techniques can be used to study reaction mechanisms at surfaces. We saw images of hematite from a scanning tunneling micro- scope showing nanometer scale lumps and defects that represent reactive surfaces and images of galena in water where apparent pits may be defects where sulfate formed. Atomic force microscope images are produced by scanning across surfaces with a laser that measures deflections from a plane or surface, and this technique can be used to study surfaces in water, air, or a vacuum. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy can identify the type of atom on a surface. The talk ran a long 22 minutes and 56 seconds. Questions by Walter, Barton, Toulmin, Nersbacher, and Peggy Appleman.

     The meeting was adjourned at 9:50 p.m.

     Respectfully submitted,

     [signed Jane Maria Hammarstrom]

 

MINUTES OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

1212th Meeting, March 27, 1991

     President Barton called the meeting to order at 8:01 p.m. Four visitors were introduced: Grace Haggerry, Mary Louise Callas, Farley Rockwell, and Jim Luhr. Two new members were announced: Farley Rockwell and Alex Nerkoweiz. The secretary's official GSW inquiry as of 2 p.m. today on the status of the Sorensen-Grossman "future new member effort" revealed no change in status, but the father-to-be quipped "Triplets with more coming" would make a more interesting announcement. This has not been verified by mother-to-be. Dan Milton announced plans for a spring field trip to the Robertson River Complex of Virginia, a Late Proterozoic peralkaline complex. The trip will be led by Dick Tollo, who recently ran a similar trip (for a considerable fee, as a member pointed out) for the GSA section meeting in Baltimore. The trip was announced for Saturday, April 27th, but the secretary has noted announcements papering the freshly painted "Russian white" walls of the U.S.G.S. announcing the same trip for May 11, so she predicts we will be hearing more about this. President Barton announced that our April 24th meeting will be a joint meeting with the Paleontological Society devoted to global change, and that the Washington area seminar series topic for Tuesday, April 2, would be global change.

     Barry Finkelman, U.S.G.S. presented an informal communication on a geologic explanation for a weird kidney disease in eastern Europe. A 1983 article entitled "Death along the Danube" mentioned that about 100,000 people living in villages built on the alluvial plains along the Danube River, in Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Romania have died from Balkan endemic entropathy (nephropathy). Numerous theories such as virus, genetic causes, excess lead or cadmium, and selenium deficiency have been suggested, but none can account for the distribution of the disease which hits clusters of villages where about 10% of the people in some villages are affected and other nearby villages have no incidence. There appears to be a relationship between the endemic villages and Pliocene lignite deposits; some villages obtain water from shallow wells in alluvium in contact with lignite, and the water contains many compounds which are related to degradation of low rank coals and also related to known carcinogens. Barry addressed the issue of why this diseases is limited to the Balkan countries when Pliocene lignite deposits are known elsewhere? He suggested that because the symptoms of the disease do not strike until the victim is 40 to 60 years old, the low life expectancy of some populations may mask the disease and in many more developed countries the water supply comes from other sources. Thus in Yugoslavia, it is the combination of the general good health and longevity of the population, the water source, and the presence of Pliocene lignite basins that accounts for the incidence of the disease. Questions by Toulmin and Stewart.  I didn't get the exact rifle, but in a comment afterwards, President Barton suggested the subtitle "A macabre prospecting tool for lignite".

     Larry Drew, U.S.G.S., started off the formal program with a talk on "Quantitative mineral resource assessment: Why we do it and how". Larry reminded us of the comment in the paper a few weeks back, that "government scientists are welfare queens in white lab coats" and that government scientists are being reminded lately that science is paid for by the taxpayers (and I for one will be contributing to my salary by midnight on Monday), that they must "be relevant" and provide the public with predictions and options, "nice" options. Mineral production creates wealth and society has forgotten that we use raw mineral materials. Piecemeal decisions are being made to reduce mineral production, and government has to provide options to policy makers. Larry Drew a few hisses from the audience with his comment "There's nothing more passionate than a vegetarian or an environmentalist". He described a mineral resource assessment of the 26,472 square mile Tongass National Forest of SE Alaska as the creation of one such option. The purpose of the study was to estimate undiscovered mineral resources for the U.S. Forest Service to be used for congressionally mandated land use planning. The study identified 125 permissive tracts that involved 32 different types of mineral deposits. Larry used the example of criteria developed for a low F, Mo deposit type. Criteria for a tract to be permissive for this deposit type in the Tongass include the presence of evolved granites, Tertiary age, depth of erosion of the pluton, and geochemical anomalies. After tracts are delineated, estimates of numbers of undiscovered deposits of a given type are made und a computer simulation is used to show the probability of occurrence of deposits of certain sizes and grades, based on existing grade and tonnage models for individual deposit types. The talk lasted 19 minutes and 36 seconds. Questions by Brett Milton, Simons, comments by Menzie, more questions by Zen, Dutro, and Robertson.

     Paul Weiblen, University of Minnesota, spoke on "A new kimberlite(?) occurrence in the old gneiss terrane of Minnesota". Paul described rocks from outcrops in the Minnesota River Valley that had been mapped in 1935 as "ultramafic peridotite", quite unlike the gneisses around them. The outcrops were ignored for 35 years until a student expressed interest in doing a field project on mantle rocks. Three types of rocks are noted: massive, serpentinized peridotite, highly altered, possibly brecciated peridotite with pseudomorphs of olivine or enstatite (now chlorite), and a kaolinized tuff(?), composed of 90% kaolinite with pisolitic features that is possibly related to a Cretaceous siltstone that overlies the 1500 MA Sioux quartzite, which in turn overlies the gneisses. The area is seismically active, and Paul suggested the possibility of an intracratonic example of diamond-bearing rocks cutting through younger rocks. Near Franklin, where 3.5 b.y old gneiss is quarried for road ballast, Cretaceous siltsone and glacial deposits overlie a circular feature which appears to be a central diatreme-like peridotite facies surrounded by the breccia unit, which is surrounded by the tuff. Mineral chemistry was used to compare the relict minerals in the Minnesota River Valley rocks with mineral chemistry of known kimberlites. The Minnesota rocks contain forsteritic olivine with chromian spinel inclusions, but not quite as Fo rich as typical for kimberlites. Also, diopsidic pyroxene with opx exosolution, Mg-ilmenite, apatite, futile, and one definitive phase in support of kimberlite, phlogopite. In terms of major element chemistry the Minnesota rocks fall within fields for weathered and contaminated kimberlites. The detailed mineral chemistry study has created a new perspective on the origin of these rocks, and there may he more such occurrences in Archean terranes covered by glacial deposits. Questions by Schulz, Robertson, Slack, Stewart, and French. (22.00 minutes).

     Robert Park, University of Maryland and American Physical Society, concluded the formal program with "Do politicians ever listen to scientists?" Under new federal budget rules, money belongs to domestic, foreign, or military programs and the boundaries are inviolate. You can increase a program in one area only if you decrease that same program in another. The trouble comes in when new programs are added to a "no growth" fiscal diet. Dr. Park gave us examples of some price tags of the future, such as the $38 billion dollar space station and the $17 billion earth observing satellite, which hasn't even been designed yet so will undoubtedly cost more, which results in possibly $70 billion for big projects that would all reach peak expenditure at the same time. Dr. Park redeemed himself for (a) being a physicist and (b) using overheads by showing us his schematic of the science advisory structure, showing where projects are initiated within the administration. The President's Advisory Council on Science and Technology actually meets with the President Every other group, such as the Office of Science and Technology Policy which sits higher up the food chain than NSF, DOD, DOE, all sit underneath OMB, which theoretically has access to the President who is surrounded on all sides by the impenetrable ring of Sununu. Park took us through the space station as an example of a big program wending its way through government. The space station has been descoped, not just redesigned from its original configuration. A staffer wrote in the design, and the project has been stretched out over a longer period of time to fit into the budget better. NASA and NSF fall under the same appropriations subcommittee, along with other agencies which are quite dissimilar in their functions. And so, the space station has always been in competition with NSF for funding. The redesigned space station configuration is to be revealed in April, but by now everybody knows what's in it, and what's not, which is mainly the science that was its selling point in the Reagan years. But it has a lot of national image appeal to the administration, so no, in this case, politicians did not listen to scientists. The 20 minute, 35 second talk was followed by discussion by Dan Appleman, French, Robertson, and Weiblen.

     The particularly lively meeting, attended by 77, was adjourned at 10:03 p.m.

     Respectfully submitted,

     [signed Jane Maria Hammarstrom]

 

MINUTES OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

1213th meeting, April 10, 1991

     The 1213th meeting of the Society was promptly called to order by President Barton at 8 p.m. The (in retrospect) overly lengthy minutes of the 1212th meeting were read and approved. Visitors Jerry Burgess and Dr. Nikolai Pokonekov were introduced. Election of new members Bob Seal, Jim Luhr, and Jerry Burgess was announced. Kevin Burke announced that he has an address for hospitalized GSA President Doris Curtis, if friends wish to contact her. President Barton announced that the spring field trip has been rescheduled for Saturday, May 11, rain date May 12. Judy Ehlen pleaded for science fair judges for the upcoming weekend and for April 27.

     Cy Galvin presented an informal communication on heavy mineral variation along rivers, inspired by a study of major Virginia river tributaries by Darby, which showed that the detrital ilmenite composition remained unchanged despite addition of ilmenite of different composition from side streams. Cy presented an equation to evaluate the relative contribution of tributaries to discharge of heavies downstream from the mouth of the tributary and showed that the key factor is to define the rate at which the heavy mineral weathers relative to quartz.

     Doug Crowe, U.S.G.S., spoke on Laser microprobe stable isotope analysis: Applications to geology. The advantages of the laser approach over conventional isotope analysis include the high spatial resolution possible, high precision and accuracy, rapidity of analysis and elimination of most contaminants. Doug described applications of the technique to sulfur isotope geothermometry of chalcopyrite-pyrrhotite pairs from black smoker deposits, demonstrated that sphalerite and galena in the Polaris MVT deposit of Canada are not in isotopic equilibrium, and showed core to rim isotopic zoning in concretionary pyrite in Chattanooga shale. The technique can also be used to look at oxygen isotopes in silicates, and carbon and oxygen in different generations of carbonate cements.  And yes, a laser will blow up an objective lens on a microscope. Questions by George Helz, Brooks Hansen, mystery man #1, Bruce Doe, Robin Brett and Doug Rumble.

     John Badding, Geophysical Lab, examined the issue of "High pressure crystal chemistry of iron hydride: Implications for the Earth's core". Iron hydride had previously been proposed as a component of the core, but prior to this study little was known about its properties because it is unstable at ambient pressure. John used a diamond anvil cell to make iron hydride by reacting iron and hydrogen fluid at high pressures and studied the reaction optically and by x-my as it went. At 27 kbars, nothing happened, but at 60 kbars, iron expanded suddenly, presumably due to a chemical reaction taking place. Synchotron diffraction was used to confirm the change. Switching units from kilobars to gigapascals to keep the audience alert (this, no doubt, after an equation in the informal communication was what drove several members to drink), John illustrated the change in x-ray pattern with increasing pressure that showed that the 3 bcc iron peaks disappear and all iron has gone to FeH by 9.5 GPa; Fell persists to 62 GPa. He repeated the experiment with excess iron, demonstrated that FeH is stoichiometric, and suggested that the reaction of water with iron to produce iron hydride and FeO could have occurred druing the formation of the earth, and that if FeH is stable to high pressures it could have sunk to the core. The talk ended with 39 seconds to spare. Questions by Mike Palin, Phil Candela, Robin Brett, Gene Robertson, and mystery man #2 (in a t-shirt, which distinguished him from #1 in a red shirt).

     Hal Gluskoter, U.S.G.S., discussed "Coal: Past, present, and future (?)". Hal noted that the answer to the question of when is coal going to make a comeback is that it doesn't have to because it never went away. Currently coal produces 57% of all the electricity in this country. From 1945 to 1969 the price of coal was relatively constant at $4.5 to $5 a ton; prices jumped in the 1970's and have now dropped to pre-1970's levels (adjusted for inflation).  U.S. energy consumption has leveled off, but world consumption has increased dramatically. Short term predictions for coal use are possible, but for the long term there must be a shift from coal to a new generation of fuels in the next 30 to 300 years. The advantages of coal are that it is available, technologies for use are well-developed, and although it is hard to arrive at a precise figure for the resource, the U.S. is among the top three coal countries along with the USSR and China. Environmental concerns are a negative factor that may shorten the future of coal as a fuel - a reasonable estimate of the average ash content of coal is 10%, so 100 million tons of waste are produced from burning a billion tons of coal. Economics, public perceptions, and politics all affect coal use and coal scientists, but Hal expects another a synfuels swing which will increase demands for coal studies. Questions by Burke, George Helz, speaking on behalf of bacteria, Doe, Krohn, Zen, Van Oss, Lipin, and the guy in the t-shirt again, who rather reluctantly admitted that his name was Bob Downs when doggedly tracked down by the secretary after the meeting.

     Attendance was about 80. The meeting was adjourned at 9:59 p.m.

     Respectfully submitted,

     [signed Jane Maria Hammarstrom]

 

MINUTES OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

1214th Meeting, April 24, 1991

     President Barton called the 1214th meeting of the Society to order at 8 p.m. In a departure from our regular routine, the 1214th meeting was held jointly with the Paleontological Society of Washington and the entire evening was devoted to global change. President Barton introduced PSW president John Repetski, who spent a few minutes on their business, which the GSW secretary chose to ignore as she spent the time fruitfully counting the crowd which numbered a high 106. Nine visitors were introduced - David Wicksam, Julie Lewis, Grace Haggerty, an Alex, Damian Hotkinson, Carmen Garcia, Glen Sandford, Jessica Stevenson, and Nancy Budd. Eight new members were announced - Julie Lewis (already counted as a visitor), Smithsonian, Kevin Kivimaki, Smithsonian, Barbara Bittner, Paul VI High School, Jack Parrotto NRC, Jane McDudd, St. Agnes School, Stacie Kreitman, Fair- fax City schools, Elizabeth J. Palmer, Pittsville Middle School, and Mary S. Myers, Henrico County schools. Dick Tollo reminded us about the May 11 field trip. There was a brief announcement about the upcoming Centennial meeting and the book that is being prepared in honor of the occasion. A show of hands indicated that about 35 members would buy the book (this must be wrong since there were 100 people at the meeting - although in light of our somewhat disastrous T-shirt extravaganza a few years back, sounds about right). The final announcement of the evening was the long-awaited arrival of Joel Grossman.

     Scott Wing, Smithsonian, took us beck to the Eocene at the start of the formal program, with his talk on "Global warming and terrestrial vegetation in the early Eocene". We learned that the early Eocene was a time for which we have overwhelming evidence that earth was warmer than today. Scott suggested that the rock and fossil record can be used to examine past climates and to look for responses to climate change to see how ecosystems respond to force factors. Eocene floras from the continental interior include species such as palms and tree ferns which are extremely intolerant of cold weather. These and other paleobotanic data indicate minimum Eocene temperatures of 0, not -3 degrees as predicted by computer climate simulation and are broadly consistent with foraminifera temperatures. Questions by E-an Zen (2), Tom Cronin, Bill Houser, Frank Whitmore, Peter Warwick, Dennis Krohn, Lee Broadhurst, and Kevin Burke.

     Harry Dowsett, U.S.G.S., presented the second talk with coauthors Tom Cronin, Richard Poore, and Robert Thompson on "Paleoclimatic reconstruction of the Pliocene North Atlantic region". Harry described the PRISM projects (Pliocene Research, Interpretation, and Synoptic Mapping) which deal with oceans, ocean margins, and continents. CO2 increased from 315 ppm in 1959 to 352 ppm in 1989 which suggests a global warming of about 3 degrees. Doubling of CO2 would affect sea level and ocean circulation so improved predictive methods are needed. The Pliocene is a good time for warm earth reconstructions because the mid-Pliocene was warmer than today, global geography was similar, near modem floras and faunas existed, marine and continental records are available and chronology is well-established. Ocean margin reconstructions based on ostracods, which are highly sensitive to temperature and salinity show an Early Pliocene warming followed by cooling. This is consistent with data for oceans from planktonic forams. Fresh water diatoms, plant fossils, and pollen temperatures are used to establish the climate data record for continents. Data show that the west coast was drier and inland areas wetter than today. The talk ran 3 seconds short. Questions by Wing, Burke, Whitmore, Huber, Kathy Krohn, and Rubin.

     Alan Robock, University of Maryland, ended the evening on a futuristic note with his talk on "Climate change in the next century: sun bathing at Point Barrow in 2050?" Alan discussed global change in terms of the climate system and the greenhouse effect and emphasized that many things can cause climate to change, so models need to consider land surface interactions with climate, such as soft moisture, the albedo, etc. All the greenhouse gases - CH4, CO2, N2O - change over time and increase due to human activity - and even if they step increasing they will be around for awhile. The US produces 21% of the greenhouse gases - Europe 14%, India 4% - and the question that arises is: how can the rest of the world develop without an increase in greenhouse gases? Although global warming can be demonstrated, three of the highest resolution global change models are contradictory for regional warming. Questions by George Helz, Dick Fiske, Ann Dorr, Susan Sherwood, Mark McBride, Ken Towe, and a guy in a yellow sweater. The meeting was adjourned at 10:20 p.m.

     Respectfully submitted,

 

MINUTES OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

1215th Meeting, September 25, 1991

     The 1215th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was delayed by the arrival of the Apocalypse, or more precisely, by a quasi-religious movie about environmental disasters as possible forerunners of the same. When loyal members of GSW showed up at 7:30 for the usual beer and good fellowship, the Powell Auditorium was full of other, much dressier people. We waited outside, but come 7:45 it was still full, and likewise at 8:00 p.m. To make matters worse, it was raining in nontrivial amounts, so that our beer was being seriously diluted: an environmental disaster unprecedented in the annals of the Society. After some discussion, a representative of the Cosmos Club allowed the soggy and disgruntled geologists into the Club's outermost reception room and supplied free beer, on condition that we not stray into other, more sacred precincts. Eventually, at 8:20 or thereabouts, the cinematic Apocalypse came to an end, and GSW members were informed that they could go to the Auditorium. The Cosmos Club management evidently intended us to go out and get wet again, as some consternation was evident when a large fraction of us, including your stand-in secretary, walked through the dining room instead.

     As we streamed in, we encountered the dressy folks, still milling around, chatting and greeting each other, and evidently in no great concern to move on until they noticed the arrival of a large group of wet, beer-swilling geologists. After that they cleared out of OUR auditorium with commendable speed. A mere 10 more minutes and the auditorium was set up for us, and President Barton was able to call the meeting to order at 8:32 pm.

     An abbreviated version of the minutes of the 1214th meeting was read, and more or less approved. President Barton, reading from an overly detailed agenda, thanked Jane for reading them. The membership stood for a moment of silence in memory of Paul Averitt and Juergen Reinhardt, former members who had died recently. Two guests were introduced: Leonid Popov, of the All-Union institute for Geological Research, St. Petersburg, introduced by Bob Newmann, and Catharine McMullen, introduced by Kevin Burke. The acting secretary then read the names of seven new GSW members: Dorothy Burch, Nancy Gardner, Eileen Molino, Barbara Mertens, Eileen Steinkraus, James Schmidt and Hengameh Mirzai.

     Next Dan Milton announced the GSW fall field trip, a visit to the dinosaur footprint locality at the Culpepper quarry, would be held on November 16, and Leanne Milton announced that there would be a parent-child workshop on overcoming fear of Science Fair projects, or somesuch, on October 13. The president then moved on to the big item on a very crowded agenda: the need for a dues increase to pay for the high cost of meeting at the Cosmos Club. Though it was a somewhat inauspicious evening to bring the subject up, Treasurer Fred Simon gave a brief but compelling presentation of our rising tide of red ink, and Steve Huebner, as Chair of the Finance Committee, presented the membership with options for changing the dues structure. President Barton then presented the audience with several proposed amendments to the GSW bylaws. These included (1) changing the GSW fiscal year to end June 30, to make the fiscal year close-out easier (2) having a second dues notice go out to non-payers four months after the first notice, (3) eliminating the 2-year grace period, so that nonpayers would be dropped form GSW membership and the mailing lists as soon as it was clear that they had ignored the second dues notice, (4) raising the dues for all categories of members, but establishing a new student-member category, at a relatively low dues rate, (5) eliminating the retired-member category as a separate class of membership, with retired geologists to be either regular members or corresponding members (their choice). The President told the audience to mull things over, and we proceeded, at last, to the formal program.

     The first speaker, David Grandstaff of Temple University, spoke on the topic "Nuclear waste disposal: A comparison between granite, tuff and basalt", or would have, if he'd had more time. Most of his twenty minutes was consumed introducing the idea that nuclear wastes were difficult to dispose of, as they tend to heat up, attack their containers, and whatnot. He then described some experimental work of his own, in which various geologic materials (tuff and basalt were reacted with aqueous solutions, at hydrothermal conditions, and the products examined. The compositions of the clays formed and the final chemistry of the solution was found to depend on the composition of the starting rock powder and the composition of the starting solution. It seems that more work is indicated although probably you could store radioactive waste in either tuff or basalt, if you had to. There were questions from George Helz, anonymous, and Gene Robertson.

     Next, Frank Ireton of AGU spoke on "Volcano Speleology of the Snake River Plain". This well-illustrated talk gave us a tour of the extensive lava tubes that formed within basalt flows of the Snake River Plain. The tubes contain a variety of interesting features, including lava drips and piles that closely resemble the stalactites and stalagmites of limestone caves. These features even attract the same kind of greedy vandals who deface other unprotected caves, leading to the need for barriers at entrances and monitoring of access. Nonvolcanic remains found in the caves included the mummified carcass of a grizzly bear. Ireton suggested that the bear slid into the cave on a snow ramp and bedded down for the winter, only to find the snow ramp gone and himself stranded, come spring time. Alas, it seems that there are occasions when a bear would be well-advised NOT to sleep through the winter... Questions by Bruce Lipin, Tom Simkin, Bill Lee, and Kevin Burke.

     The last speaker, Walter Stewart of NIH, addressed the Society on what has become known as "The Baltimore Case", after Dr. Baltimore of MIT, who has become embroiled in a case of apparent scientific fraud carried out by a subordinate in his laboratory. Speaking without slides or notes, Stewart summarized the history of his involvement with the investigation, which began when a post-doc in the MIT biochemical lab, Dr. Margot O'Toole, found she could not duplicate some results reported in an earlier paper by Dr. Imanishi-Kari, Dr. Baltimore, and others. When she looked at the original laboratory notes that supposedly were the basis for the paper, she found (she says) that the original results did not support the paper either: in fact, they were the opposite of what should have been observed. She headed straight for Dr. Baltimore, whose name was on the paper largely because the work had been done in his lab, to report that there was a serious problem with the paper, and that the results could not be reproduced. Apparently the suggestion did not go down well, she was fired, and many years of bitter controversy have followed. The NIH investigators were involved partly because the work had been funded by NIH, and partly because they were among the few willing to believe in the possibility that it was a fraud case. After much grief, Dr. Baltimore has conceded that there was a problem of some sort, but the only person to be seriously hurt by the process was the whistleblower, Dr. O'Toole. Despite the lateness of the hour, the presentation generated consider- able discussion, with questions by anonymous, Bruce Doe, John Slack, Dan Milton, anonymous, anonymous, Bruce Lipin, Mac Ross, Catherine McMullen, Tom Simkin, Kevin Burke and Steve Huebner.

     President Barton then announced the program for October 9, and adjourned the meeting at 10:25 p.m.  Attendance was approximately 75-80 for the first talk, and 65 later, but the audience was more than usually restless, so the number is a little uncertain.

     Respectfully (not respectively!) submitted

     Rosalind Helz, Substituting for Jane Hammarstrom

 

MINUTES OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

1216th Meeting, October 9, 1991

     President Barton called the 1216th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington to order at 8:00 p.m. The minutes of the 1215th meeting were read and approved, without mishap. Barton then called for a moment of silence in memory of John Philip Schafer and of Ralph Miller, both former members of the U.S.G.S. and of G.S.W.  Several guests were introduced, including: Lynn Claflin of the Joint Oceanographic Institute, Janet Norton of the Pacific Marine Branch, U.S.G.S., Dave Smith of the Branch of Chemistry, U.S.G.S., Lars Holmer of Uppsala University, Lorraine Wolfe, Tim Appenzeller and Brad Blase.

     Barton then read an announcement about the upcoming Dinosaur Stomp field trip, to be held on November 16, and read the slate of nominees for officers of G.S .W., as required by the bylaws. Next Steve Huebner gave a repeat presentation of the need for a substantial dues increase. This generated much discussion by the membership, with comments from Tom Dutro, Peggy Appleman, E-an Zen, Dick Fiske, Dallas Peck, and Bruce Doe, among others. Among the suggestions that flew back and forth was that new U.S.G.S. geologists would be inspired to attend G.S.W. more regularly if Peck and other, lesser Big Enchiladas graced the meetings with their presence more often. President Barton cut off discussion of this perennial favorite topic at 8:40 and moved on to the formal program.

     The first talk of the evening, by Nathalie Valerie-Silver and Paul Silver, was on the topic "What is the relationship between the behavior of geysers and the occurrence of large earthquakes?" Using a long-term eruption record (1973 to present) compiled by a local woman, the Silvers had determined that there is an increase in the time interval between eruptions of the Calistoga "Old Faithful" geyser just before and after major earthquakes in the region. The effect of major rainstorms is the opposite: the geyser erupts more frequently when there's more water in the ground. So far the data set includes three major quakes: the Oroville, Morgan Hill, and Loma Prieta quakes.  The Silvers argued that even though the number of large quakes in the time interval studied was small, that the correlations were significant. If so, then monitoring the eruption interval of this geyser would provide 1-2 days warning that a major quake was imminent somewhere in northern California. The talk generated an extended discussion from Moto Sato, with questions from Bruce Lipin, Bruce Doe, Dan Milton, and Gene Robertson.

     Robert Ridky, of the University of Maryland, spoke next, on the subject "Did subglacial melting cause massive flooding in the Finger Lakes region: Evidence from glacial land forms." The heavily-glaciated Finger Lakes region contains, in addition to the famous lakes, several enormous drumlin fields. The speaker has made a study of the orientation of over 1500 drumlins in the area, and has concluded that their formation and orientations were produced during steady-state ice flow, rather than being the result of catastrophic flooding. There were questions by Jeff Macnamara and E-an Zen.

     The final presentation of the evening was by Gabriele Paone, of the Department of the Interior, who addressed the Society on the subject "Proposed new ethics rules for Federal employees and their effect on professional societies such as G.S.W."  Paone came with copies of a handout that summarized both the existing rules and statutes, and crucial sections of the proposed new regulations. The speaker led us through the bad news, prefacing his discussion by saying that normal reasonableness and logic were not useful guides to what is permitted and what is not. The effect of the new regulations will indeed make it extremely difficult for G.S.W. to soldier on. There was extensive discussion, with contributions and questions from Greg Sohn, Steve Huebner, E-an Zen, Margot Kingston, Nathalie Valette-Silver, anonymous in blue sweater, Anne Don:, Greg Sohn, Kathy Krohn, Peggy Appleman, Bruce Lipin, Moro Sato, Mike Brown and others.

     President Barton announced the program for the next meeting, and adjourned the society at 10:30 p.m.  Attendance was 82.

     Respectfully submitted,

     Rosalind Helz, acting for Jane Hammarstrom

 

MINUTES OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

1217th Meeting, November 6, 1991

     President Barton called the 1217th meeting of the Society to order at 8:12 p.m. on Wednesday, November 6, 1991. The 12 minute delay was mused by microphone problems which were dealt with by no less than 6 of our officers and front row members. Minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved. New members Tom Blackburn, Lorraine Wolf, and Kathleen McMullen were introduced. Visitors included Ed Young, Wayne Purcey, Tony Stassi, Ton Blackburn, and a Juan (I'm sorry I missed your last name) of University of Grenada visiting U.S.G.S.. Dan Milton announced the November 16 field trip to see dinosaur footprints. E-an Zen made an announcement about the results of an October 22 hearing on the proposed rules by the Office of Government Ethics where witnesses representing government and professional societies spoke. The next item of business was a vote to change the by-laws to raise dues and change the fiscal year to end on June 30. The actual voting was preceded by an in-depth discussion of important concerns. Jingle Rupert objected to the omission of the s in the word "he" in the by-laws - that's "s" before "h", as in she-he-it - to which President Barton, in keeping with the mood of the times responded by appointing Jingle as chairman of a committee to unsex society matters - and, so rattled, almost forgot to get an actual vote on the issue. One of the Bruces moved for approval of the fiscal year date change, which was seconded by several members all speaking at once, and unanimously approved by the 100 members in attendance that evening. On the matter of the dues change, Bill Melson wondered if a dues increase would restore pretzels and Ray Rye wondered flit would get us a coat rack. George Helz mercifully moved in favor of the dues increase, resoundingly seconded, and all approved.

     Brenda Bohlke, of Parsons Brinkerhoff, spoke on "Engineering geology of the world's largest tunnel for sewage effluent, Boston Harbor". In her enlightening talk, we learned that there is a role for geology in sewage. Massachusetts has to clean up the harbor by 1999, and so an aggressive program is underway to construct conveyance tunnels and treatment facilities to turn primary sewage to sludge and fertilizer pellets and discharge it offshore on the sea floor via a 24' TBM tunnel with vertical risers and diffusers at the end. To design the project, an extensive boring program was accompanied by detailed geophysics, including standard seismic reflection to define surface sediments, marine clays over till, and differentiate where bedrock, the Cambridge argillite started. Critical factors in the diffuser design include the anchor drag of ships and, a what proved to be a popular item during discussion, concern about greaseballs. The talk ran a precise 20 minutes. Questions by George Helz, Kevin Burke, the guy sitting next to Kevin Burke in a blue shirt, Dan Milton, Steve Huebner, E-an Zen, and Gene Robertson.

     Jim Luhr, Smithsonian, spoke on "Experimenal plagioclase-glass equilibria and estimation of magmatic water contents". Jim presented a new model using plagioclase and coexisting melt to estimate water contents of magmas just before eruption, an important thing to know because water can influence the physical properties of magmas, such as viscosity. The model uses equilibrium exchange reactions of albite in plagioclase and melt, experimental data on El Chichon magmas, and a regular solution model for the silicate. To use the method, one needs chemistry on plagioclase and melt, and an independent estimate of temperature. Jim applied the model to Mount St. Helen's, El Chichon, and Pinatubo and noted complexities that arise from calcic rims on plagioclase. Jim spoke for 19 minutes. Questions by Toulmin, Hammarstrom, Sato, and Nershacher.

     Stewart Eldridge, ANU, concluded the formal program with "A SHRIMP's eyeview of diamonds and the mantle". The ANU SHRIMP makes spots that are 30 microns across by 3 microns deep that produce data on U/Pb in zircon, REE data and S isotopes, among other things. Stewart described a SHRIMP study of zircons from African kimberlite pipes to corroborate a 250 Ma Rb/Sr age. He found a population with this age, but also found evidence of earlier, 2-3 By ages. Zircons are not a standard phase in the mantle, so these older ages could reflect an earlier kimberlite event. The zircons are less fractionated in HREE than granite zircons, so they are not crustal zircons fallen into kimberlites. For sulfide inclusions in diamonds, you usually get meteoritic sulfur isotope values, but some of the kimberlite pipes have much higher d34S values. Pb/Pb data on the diamonds gives ages from 2 b.y. to the future. All this led Stewart to suggest, in overtime, that diamonds grow in the mantle over a considerable period of time and subduction processes, carrying in sedimentary sulfides and such, may play a role in the location of diamond occurrences. Questions by Barton, Lipin, Tollo, Zen, Sorensen, Boyd, and Melson. The meeting was adjourned at 10 p.m.

     Respectfully submitted,

 

MINUTES OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

1218th Meeting, November 20, 1991

     President Barton culled the hard-to-count crowd of somewhere between 61 and 71 of us to order at 8:01 pan. Guests Leonid Brooke and Brendan Shane were introduced. The November 16th field trip to Culpepper Quarry was pronounced a success - 80 to 90 attended. Is there any relation between a standard deviation ±5 GSW members at a gathering and the number of people that comfortably fit around a keg of beer? A moment of silence was observed in memory of member John Hosterman. E-an Zen presented an informal communication on potholes at Great Falls. Having exhausted most of the disciplines of geology, E-an has apparently overcome his fear of water and has taken to wandering around staring at rivers until he sees something new that he can give a talk about. In fact, he sees 2 kinds of potholes exposed in old river channels - floor-types have circular bottoms with vertical walls and lateral types are segments of circles with overhangs. The 2 types formed in different parts of the old channel and by different processes and study of their distribution and size may hold clues to paleoflow regimes.  Questions by Toulmin, Huebner, Rubin, Galvin, Hearn, and Jerry Barton.

     In a slight deviation from normal procedures, the informal communication was followed by the introduction of 7 new members: James D. Bennett, Raquel Frenk, Celia Barteau, Lynn Johnson, Suzanne Weedman, Chris- line Schneider, and Brendan Shane.

     J.K. Bohlke, U.S.G.S., kicked off the formal program with "Halogens and noble gases in fluid inclusions: indicators of fluid sources and reactions in the Earth's crust". J.K. described a new microanalytical method using irradiation and mass spec analysis of noble gas isotopes to determine compositions of aqueous fluids in inclusions.  Br/Cl and I/Cl ratios in mineral districts can vary by three orders of magnitude relative to seawater and can vary within a given vein system providing clues to processes of vein evolution. He applied the methods to field studies of the Mother Lode gold veins in California, where he showed that the observed spectrum of fluid inclusions which range from high T, high CO2 to low T, CH4-bearing represent mixing of two fluids rather than evolution of a single fluid and to the Hansonburg, New Mexico MVT Pb-F deposits, where the low Br/Cl ratios in the homogeneous fluid inclusion population in fluorite and excess radiogenic argon may result from evaporite dissolution. The talk ran a 1 minutes and 30 second tad over the allotted time. Comment by Barton, and questions by George Helz and unidentified.

     Arlin Krueger, NASA, spoke on "The dispersion of the Mt. Pinatubo plume". A fringe benefit of Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometry (or TOMS), the technology used to monitor ozone, is that you can also monitor SO2 because the wavelength range in the near-ultraviolet for ozone shows SO2 well enough to discriminate. This gives us a neat way to directly determine volcanic output compared with previous methods which rely on ice core data and petrology. Arlin showed a series of images that tracked the progress of the Pinatubo plume from June 15 to June 23 as it drifted westward across the S China Sea and spread out across Africa. Whereas the El Chichon cloud stayed in the northern hemisphere for about 9 months, the bulk of the Pinatubo cloud is still in the southern hemisphere and may have a larger effect on climate. The estimate of an initial 18 million tons of SO2 from Pinatubo dwarfs the 7 million tons from El Chichon. Questions by Helz (George), Simkin, Doe, McClellan, and Lipin.

     Elaine McGee, U.S.G.S., ended the program with "The combined effects of acid precipitation and urban pollution on the Washington monuments". Elaine described 2 types of deterioration that contribute to the crumbling of our capitol city as a result of our pH that falls in the range 4.2 to 4.4, where anything below 5.6 is considered acid rain - dissolution and alteration. All that black stuff on buildings that isn't organic is gypsum which forms crusts in areas sheltered from regular washing and eventually spalls off. Elaine described a study of 5 monitor sites that include urban, rural and suburban areas to monitor weather and pollution effects and evaluate the contributions of various species such as H+, SO4, and NO3 to dissolution. Dissolution effects limestone more than marble, and urban SO4 accumulation is 16 times greater than in suburban and rural areas. With a minute and 45 seconds to spare, Elaine answered questions from Appleman (Dan), Doe, Galvin, Zen, Huebner, Stewart, Simkin, and Sato.

     The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 p.m.

     Respectfully submitted,

 

MINUTES OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

1219th Meeting, December 4, 1991

     President Barton ended his reign by calling the 1219th meeting of the Society to order at 8:06 p.m. - a tad late, but otherwise without incidence. Minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved. The members observed a moment of silence in honor of past president and long-time member Norm Hatch. Two new members, Jack Reale and Ron McGregor were introduced, as were two guests, Vladimir Burger and Ian Carmichael. President Barton announced the program for the January 8 meeting. There were no informal communications.

     Paul Barton, U.S.G.S., gave his Presidential address on "Mineral textures: New frontiers in old territory".  Paul described how mineral textures constitute an integral part of geologic mapping by providing microscopic field data that can help interpret macroscopic field data and vice versa. The "old" techniques of ore microscopy and petrography concentrated on identification of minerals or sequences of mineral deposition using classic criteria of superposition. New techniques include the use of microprobes, fluid inclusion studies, and phase diagrams for sampling and interpreting observed mineral textures. Paul illustrated his talk with spectacular photomicrographs of ore and gangue textures in epithermal and volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits and showed textures indicative of relative degrees of supersaturation and selective etching during crystal growth. The degree of silica saturation affects sulfide deposition, so silica textures are important in studies of sulfide deposits.

     After 45 minutes or so (the secretary wasn't timing), Paul departed the stage to enjoy his just dessert and the 90 meeting attendees retired to the back of the room to refuel for the annual meeting.

     Respectfully submitted,

 

Minutes of the 99th Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of Washington

December 4, 1991

     The 99th Annual meeting of the Society was convened at 9:21 p.m. Tom Dutro, dubbing for absent Council Secretary Brace Wardlaw who was off in Pakistan drawing fire instead of being here drawing fire, read the minutes of the previous annual meeting which were duly approved. I read the report of the meetings secretary, also approved, and Dutro resumed the Wardlaw role to give the Council secretary's report, which was approved after some perceptive soul noted that Van Driel and Tollo were not mentioned as the auditing committee.

     Treasurer Fred Simon reported a healthy Bradley Fund balance of $17,022 and a sickly (but not quite dead yet) General Fund which owed $1700 to the Bradley and Endowment Funds.

President Barton read Tollo and Van Driel' s auditing committee report which showed the books to be correct and verifiable; the report was approved.

     Kathy Krohn gave us an in-depth membership committee report, complete with zip- coded pie charts which showed that 62 % of dues paying members live in the Washington metropolitan area. The significance of this escaped entry in the secretary' s notes. We gained 56 new members in 1991; 670 out of 1000 on the rolls paid dues, we had a 15% drop out rate; the field trip and AAPG Explorer ads brought in a few; and all of the deceased members had paid dues.

     Judy Ehlen gave the Public Service Committee report, noting that 16 members judged 10 area science fairs, she also thanked Dan Milton for organizing successful field trips, and made her by now routine pleas for more member participation in science fairs - as judges that is. Then she gave out her phone number and said something about "For a good tune call Judy".

     Gene Robertson restored propriety with has report on the Centennial Committee's progress. Gene announced the Feb. 24, 1993 banquet meeting - to capture the true 1890's scientific spirit wear your tuxedo, the March 10 commemorative scientific meeting, and mentioned highlights of the imminent Centennial commemorative book about the Society.

     President Barton thanked Bruce Lipin for doing such a good job as program chair, and Liz Koozmin for the her superb work on our new newsletter, Outcrops.

     George Helz, as chair of the Best Paper committee, gave us an entertaining account of the science covered in 1991 meetings. The Great Dane award for best informal communication went to Barry Finkelman for briefing us on Balkan endemic nephropathy. The committee noted 4 talks for honorable mention, Doug Crowe on laser microprobe stable isotope applications, Elaine McGee on acid ram effects on Washington monuments, E-an Zen on producing the Pioneer batholith, and Roz Helz on moving mushes. The money, however, went to Stu Eldridge for the second best paper award for his talk on SHRIMPing diamonds and the big winner was Dan Appleman for his remarkable account of the remarkable scientific career of James Dwight Dana.

     Dan then emerged as the Sleeping Bear chair, and awarded the coveted cup to Brenda Bohlke, who during the course of her talk, gave us a quantitative assessment of the large amounts of sewage being dumped into Boston Harbor with her remark, and I quote Brenda here, "That's a lot of shit!"

     Bevan French, nominating committee chair announced the slate for the election and the proposed new officers for the Society were elected by acclamation and the meeting was adjourned without further ado.