GSW: 2008 MEETING MINUTES
Geological Society of Washington
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1417th Meeting,
Wednesday, January 24, 2008
John Wesley Powell Auditorium,
Cosmos Club, Washington, D.C.
At 8:00 PM President Craig Schiffries promptly and cleanly called to order the 70 attendees.
Jeff Grossman of the USGS, possibly confused as to the current year, read the minutes from the 783rd meeting to much laughter and exultation, then reminded the audience that minutes from historical GSW meetings can be found on the Society’s website.
The minutes of the 1416th meeting were read with significant patience from the audience. The minutes were accepted although John Slack provided some post hoc corrections.
To the pleasure of the audience and to the chagrin to the secretary’s note-taking hand, a deluge of guests were introduced: Dave Mittlefehldt (Johnson Space Center), Jason Murray (NOVA CC), Michelle Arsenault (NSF), Joseph Colgan (USGS), Jessica Wall (AGI), Rachel Shannon (SS Papadopolous & Associates), and Ashley Nichols (NOVA CC).
The election of two new members was announced: Manik Talwani of the International Ocean Drilling Program – Management International and Lisa Schleicher of the University of Maryland. Shockingly, both members were present and stood without hesitation when their names were called.
President Schiffries then asked the audience to hold a moment of silence for the recent passing of Marty Toulmin. This was followed by a call for GSW members to volunteer for local area science fairs. Lastly, Callan Bentley announced that NOVA CC is holding a Climate Change Symposium on February 1st.
The first formal talk of the evening was given by Derek Schutt of the National Science Foundation who discussed the Yellowstone hotspot and “how it got that way.” The presentation initially focused on the shaky and traumatizing childhood of this oft misunderstood geologic feature. Using evidence of Rayleigh wave velocity variation with depth and estimates of excess temperature, Derek suggested that the Yellowstone hotspot is a “bottom-driven” detached plume rather than a “top-driven” adiabatic upwelling. He went on to speculate that the hotspot may have formed as a result of the subducting Farallon slab. Questions were asked by Sash Hier-Majumder (U of Maryland), Jamie Allen (NSF), and Bill Leeman (NSF).
The second formal talk of the evening was given by Eloise Gaillou of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum who discussed the causes of color in gem opals. In this visually spectacular presentation, Eloise demonstrated that the various colors in opals were a result of inclusions of minerals and/or were associated with relatively high concentrations of various elements and organic constituents. She also went on to discuss that the play-in-color of opals results from light diffraction in samples exhibiting an ordered nanostructure of well-sorted spheres. Questions were asked one each by Jamie Allan (NSF), Linda Rowan (AGI), George Helz (U of Maryland), Liz Cottrell (Smithsonian), and Rick Wunderman, (Smithsonian) and 2 each by Dan Milton and Mac Ross (both USGS – retired).
The final talk of the evening, “Isotopic evidence for natural and synthetic perchlorate in groundwater,” was given by J.K. Bohlke of the USGS. J.K. presented data demonstrating that natural sources of perchlorate, such as fertilizer from the Atacama desert, are 37Cl depleted and 18O enriched relative to synthetic sources, and contain a large excess of 17O. Using data from field sites of on-going research, he was then able to show that these isotopic differences allow for determination of sources and processes involving perchlorate in groundwater systems. Questions were asked one each by Rich Walker (University of Maryland) and Doug Rumble (Geophysical Lab) and 2 by George Helz (University of Maryland)
After the cessation of the talks, special recognition was given to Linda Rowan of AGI for her hard work as GSW program chair. The audience was reminded that Tim Mock of the Carnegie Institution is the new program chair and his information can be found on the GSW website.
President Schiffries announced the upcoming slate of speakers and their talk titles, and called the meeting to close at 9:30 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Mark A. Engle
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1418th Meeting,
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
John Wesley Powell Auditorium,
Cosmos Club, Washington, D.C.
At 8:02 PM President Craig Schiffries called to order the unruly 43 attendees who continued to produce a noticeable ruckus well into the reading of the minutes of the 1417th meeting. Three corrections to the minutes were offered and noted.
The following guests were announced: Dominic Papineau (Geophysical Lab), Paul Craddock (WHOI), Jodi Gaeman (U of Maryland), Elena Chung (U of Maryland), Eugenia Leone (U of Maryland), Garrett Mitchell (U of Maryland), Carolyn Gramling (AGI – Geotimes), James Day (U of Maryland), and Jessica Warren (DTM).
President Schiffries then asked the audience to stand and hold a moment of silence for the recent passing of William Back (USGS-retired), a 56-year member of GSW. Charna Meth, the GSW Public Service Committee Chair, encouraged audience to volunteer as judges at the upcoming local area science fairs. Jessica Ball (AGI) announced the release of a DVD entitled “Why Earth Science” which consists of a short presentation intended to highlight the importance of earth science in K12 education. President Schiffries then announced the 1st ever Bradley lecture on April 9th, 2008, which will be given by Sean Solomon, Director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism (DTM) and Principal Investigator for the MESSENGER mission to Mercury. The topic of the lecture will be MESSENGER's recent flyby of Mercury and what their observations are revealing about the geology of the innermost planet.
This was followed by a observation that the meeting minutes had not been approved. The minutes were immediately approved with liberal and excited use of the gavel by President Schiffries.
No informal communications were given.
As usual, three formal talks were presented at the meeting. The speakers apparently took it amongst themselves to perform an act of rebellion by exceeding the 20-minute presentation time, in one case by nearly 3 minutes. As punishment, descriptions of their respective talks are limited to 20 words or less, in the following minutes.
The first formal talk of the evening was given by Aaron J. Martin of the University of Maryland who compared models of a bulldozer pushing sand and of a tube of toothpaste being squeezed as mechanisms for Himalayan tectonics.
A single question was asked by Nick Woodward (DOE).
The second formal talk of the evening, “ Recovery of the ozone layer,” was given by Darryn Waugh of Johns Hopkins University. Darryn presented data showing that stratospheric ozone concentrations are just starting to recover as a result of the Montreal Protocol.
Questions were asked one each by Glenn Chinery (EPA), Doug Rumble (Geophysical Lab), Naomi Lubick (ES&T), Roz Helz (USGS – retired), George Helz (U of Maryland), Mark Engle (USGS), Craig Schiffries (GSA), and 2 by Mack Ross (USGS – retired).
In final talk of the evening, “bugs” was the answer to Bradley de Gregorio’s (Naval Research Lab) talk entitled “Bugs or gunk? Novel approaches for assessing the biogenicity of Earth’s oldest microfossils.”
Questions were asked one each by George Helz (U of Maryland - retired), Brooks Hanson (Science), Dominic Papineau (Geophysical Lab) and 2 by James Day (U of Maryland)
Following the talks, recognition was given to Tim Mock of the Carnegie Institution for setting up the evening’s program. President Schiffries announced the upcoming slate of speakers and their talk titles, and called the meeting to close at 9:42 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Jamie Allan for Mark A. Engle
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1419th Meeting
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
At 8:06 PM, President Craig Schiffries called to order 76 well-behaved attendees, after a brief delay to ensure the projector was working. One important correction to the minutes of the 1418th meeting was offered and noted. The meeting minutes were then approved.
The names of no less than 10 new members were read, an apparent record for new membership announced at a single meeting in recent memory. Controversy regarding this announcement erupted in two ways. First, it was clarified that it was a record only because half of them weren’t announced at the previous meeting. The Acting Secretary further confused matters (and also showed his rookie status), by miscounting the number of new members as 12. In any event, this is great news for the Society, with 22 new members this year (since October 1).
The new members are:
Rachel Shannon, S.S. Papadopulos & Associates
Dave Freeman, University of Maryland, Emeritus
Michelle Arsenault, National Science Foundation
Jessica Ball, American Geological Institute
Laurent Montesi, University of Maryland
Wen-lu Zhu, University of Maryland
Stephen Self, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and The Open University
James Day, University of Maryland
David Simpson, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology
Raymond Willemann, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology
The following guests were announced: Carol Simpson of Old Dominion University, Cat Smith of the Australian Embassy, and Maggie Wedner, from the German Embassy. A fourth unannounced guest was also present, Roger Smith of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
Bill Burton announced that the Geological Society of America is seeking a co-chairman for the 2010 Southeastern Section Meeting. He then announced a tentative field trip to Popes Creek to examine coastal erosion, with the field trip to be led by Wayne Newell of the USGS. Please contact Bill if you are interested in either chairing the meeting or the fieldtrip. President Schiffries then announced, on behalf of Charna Meth, that volunteer judges were still needed for local area science fairs. The Prince William County and Fairfax County science fairs still need one judge each, and 2 judges are needed for the Washington, DC and Prince George’s County science fairs. Please contact either Charna Meth of President Schiffries if you are interested.
No informal communications were given.
Three excellent talks were then presented at the meeting.
The first, entitled “Volcanoes are Geysers,” was given by John C. Eichelberger of the U.S. Geological Survey at Reston. John started his talk by noting his apprehension- this talk represented his “coming-out party” for moving to the “death star” of Washington, D.C. after living his professional career on the “fringes of civilized society” in Fairbanks, Alaska. John then proceeded to demonstrate that volcanoes are not only like geysers, they are also like an $8.95 Wal-Mart coffee maker. The key is to realize that magma erupting within a conduit represents a decompressing boiling liquid, with boiling and subsequent eruption emptying the conduit, thereby drawing up more liquid into the conduit from the magma reservoir below. Where the magma is gas charged, less viscous, and has good conduit connectivity to the magma reservoir, plinian eruptions may proceed. Other conditions lead to more episodic and less explosive eruptions, with conduit connectivity and magma viscosity important.
Questions were asked by Bill Burton of the USGS, Brooks Hansen of Science magazine, Joe Smoot of the USGS, Carol Simpson of Old Dominion University, Linda Rowan of AGI, George Helz of the University of Maryland, and Rick Wunderman of the Smithsonian Institution.
The second talk, given by Reto Gieré of the University of Freiburg, was entitled “Mineralogy of the Atmosphere: Assessing Environmental and Health Impacts of Airborne Particulate Matter.” Reto proceeded to scare the wits out of the audience by showing us what we are actually breathing in. A major problem with societal laws governing emission of particulates is that they focus simply on size, rather than on composition and shape. Work sampling coal fly ash emissions from a Purdue University power plant stack show the fly ash to be a veritable dog’s breakfast of materials, much of it toxic. Particularly interesting and frightening is that some particulate matter, because of size and composition, is almost impossible to remove from our lungs. A significant portion of it is from automobile tires.
Questions were asked by Mac Ross of the USGS (retired), Naomi Lubick of the Environmental Science and Technology Journal, Brooks Hansen of Science magazine, Bill Burton of the USGS, and Jamie Allan of NSF.
The third talk, given by Jessica Warren of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, was entitled “Sampling Mantle Heterogeneity at Ultra-Slow Spreading Ridges.” Jessica pointed out how difficult it was to study earth’s mantle due to lack of access, noting that geochemists like to draw simpler mantle cartoons than geodynamicists. Ultra-slow spreading centers, defined as spreading less then 2cm/year, are great places to study oceanic abyssal peridotites and therefore mantle processes, as the magma production rate from spreading ridge melting is so low as to cause erupting magma to be focused at central volcanoes, leaving much of the ridge crest floored by mantle rock. Despite abyssal peridotites often being grotty because of low temperature alteration, unaltered mineral cores provide isotopic and trace element compositional data crucial for modeling mantle melting, melt-wallrock interaction, and melt impregnation, even recording effects of passing mantle plume interaction with depleted mantle. Studied samples from the Southwest Indian and Gakkel Ridges indicate mantle compositional variation present at all length scales and greater than previously inferred. This heterogeneity does not result from simple component mixing between depleted mantle and recycled crust, but instead represents long-term heterogeneities with small scale heterogeneities representing recent melt-wallrock interaction.
Questions were asked by Bill Melson, Smithsonian Institution (retired), and Rich Walker of the University of Maryland.
President Schiffries announced the slate of speakers and their talk titles for the upcoming 1420th meeting, and then closed the meeting at 9:50 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Jamie Allan