GSW: 2009 MEETING MINUTES
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1428th Meeting
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
Using his gavel more than any GSW president in recent memory, President Burton called the meeting to order at 8:03pm. There were 43 people in attendance. The minutes of the 1427th meeting were read and approved without corrections or additions. One new member was announced: Jillian Luchner, a student at Humboldt State University who has recently served as an AGI Intern. She was in attendance. Five visitors were announced: Candace Mejor, a program officer at the National Science Foundation, Robin Landis and Jason Von-Kundra, both geology Honors students at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), Bradley Perrow, a student at George Mason University, and Heather O’Donnell, from the American Institutes of Research.
There were three announcements. Callan Bentley announced an upcoming talk at NOVA by Mike Tidwell, the director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. Charna Meth made a call for volunteers to judge area science fairs. Bill Burton announced the need for a GSW member who is also an AAPG member to serve as a delegate to AAPG.
There was one informal communication by Bill Burton, which he offered as a “template for future informal communications.” He reminded GSW members that informal communications consist of a maximum of 10 slides and 5 minutes. He then read a science-related excerpt from the previous day’s Inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States, and showed some photographs of the crowds on the National Mall.
The first of three formal talks was by Robert Gagosian, from the Consortium for Ocean Leadership. It was titled, “A new paradigm for geosciences research funding.” Speaking in a dynamic style without visual aides, Robert gave a timely review of the state of science funding in light of the global economic recession and the new administration. The good news is that the new stimulus packages currently being considered by Congress will likely pump a lot of money into the sciences. The bad news is that it’s not a sustainable set-up. Building facilities but then not having the funding to maintain and staff them won’t work for the long term. Robert suggested an annual growth rate of 5% to 7% to be “ideal.” He suggested thinking outside the box, and considering applied research partnerships with non-traditional sources and non-monetary exchanges with other nations. Questions were asked, one apiece, by George Helz (University of Maryland), Dick Fiske (Smithsonian), Craig Schiffries (GSA), and Amelia Logan (Smithsonian).
The second talk was by Elizabeth Eide, from the National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Earth Sciences and Resources. Under the title “Geology, energy, and environmental policy at the coastal margins of the northern North Atlantic,” Elizabeth considered the case of Norway, a country that has managed to balance its high priority on natural beauty with a lucrative offshore oil and gas extraction program. She gave us a “very quick Norwegian field trip,” describing both the geology on land and in North and Barents Sea basins. The largest field is about one-quarter the size of Prudhoe Bay, but that doesn’t mean it gets to call all the shots. The Norwegian government, a Kyoto signatory, has mandated carbon sequestration as part of the site’s operating plan. It is the only storage facility in the world with large amounts of CO2 in the seabed. Elizabeth also mentioned that due to the strong Norwegian dependence on healthy fish stocks, cod migration areas are strictly off limits to oil and gas development. Questions were asked, one apiece, by Dan Milton (USGS), Amelia Logan (Smithsonian), and Roger Thomas (Franklin and Marshall College). Rick Wunderman (Smithsonian) asked two questions.
The evening’s final talk was a game-changer from James Day of the University of Maryland, College Park. James presented a talk entitled “Evidence for evolved crust formation in the early solar system.” He described the Antarctic discovery of two pieces of a new kind of meteorite with an andesitic composition. The meteorite has an age of 4.5 billion years, and oxygen isotopes plot far off the terrestrial fractionation trend. This sample of evolved crust is therefore not from the Earth or the Moon. James also ruled out Mercury and Venus as potential sources, and suggested that it may be a fragment of a parent body in the asteroid belt. Highly siderophile element patterns suggest that there was no core formation in the parent body, and James reported that pyroxene exsolution lamellae work by another group indicates a shallow depth of formation, on the order of 15-20 meters depth. Large amounts of Na-rich plagioclase suggest partial melting of 10-30% in the parent body. If crust evolved to andesitic compositions this early on non-planetary bodies, it really changes our understanding of early-formed materials in the solar system. Questions were asked, one apiece, by Callan Bentley (NOVA), Bill Burton (USGS), and Jamie Allen (NSF). Dan Milton (USGS) asked two questions.
President Burton called the meeting to a close at 9:58pm. The gavel came down once more.
Respectfully submitted,
Callan Bentley
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1429th Meeting
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
GSW President Bill Burton used three raps with the gavel to bring the meeting to order at 8:01pm. There were 69 people in attendance. The minutes of the 1428th meeting were read and, with another whack of the gavel, approved without corrections or additions.
A slew of visitors were announced: Corey Hanson, Jill Gribbin, and Nick Bauman, all geology Honors students at the University of Maryland; Robin Landis, Jason Von-Kundra, Jason Murray, and Hope Williamson, all geology Honors students at Northern Virginia Community College; Bradley Perrow and Nikolaus Deems, both students at George Mason University; Heather O’Donnell of the American Institutes of Research; Yaroslav Osipenko, a student at the Russian State Geological University; and Nick Schmerr of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism.
Two new members were announced: Candace Mejor, a program officer at the National Science Foundation, and Pedro Morales-Muñiz, a natural resource management specialist and environmental consultant currently working with the Department of Defense. Candace was present, but Pedro was absent.
There were four announcements. Charna Meth repeated her call for volunteers to judge area science fairs. John Repetski alerted the membership about an upcoming special on the “Animal Planet” channel focused on the late Ordovician mass extinction. Barbara Am Ende announced a new biography of the geologist Clarence King, profiled the previous day on the Diane Rehm show. The book is entitled “Passing Strange,” by Martha Sandweiss. Finally, President Burton announced that former GSW president David Applegate is now the proud father of twins, born the day before.
There was one informal communication, by John Eichelberger, USGS. John brought us up to date with the goings-on at Redoubt Volcano in Alaska, which has been showing increased seismicity since the previous GSW meeting. It has vented some steam and CO2, but so far there has been no eruption. Questions were asked by Pete Toulman (USGS, retired) and Fred Simon USGS.
The first of three talks was presented by Laurent Montesi of the University of Maryland, College Park. With the title of “Cutting through the plate: rift interaction at the Galapagos Triple Junction,” Laurent introduced us to tectonic triple junctions, and explained why only ridge-ridge-ridge (RRR) triple junctions in oceanic lithosphere are stable over the geological long-term. He then zoomed in on the Galapagos RRR triple junction, which upon closer inspection turns out to consist of two triple junctions, with a few microplates in between. Bathymetry shows older “extinct” rifts to the northeast of this odd arrangement. Using a computer model of stress conditions in the lithosphere, Laurent porposed a plausible model that would sustain the Galapagos situation over the long term, and explain the array of extinct rifts, too. According to this explanation, the current “incipient rift” at the northern end of the system is the latest in a long series of rifts whose position is maintained by the Cocos-Nazca ridge’s stress field. Questions were asked, one apiece, by Jessica Warren of DTM and Bill Burton of the USGS.
The second talk, entitled “Species composition and distribution of shrimps at cold, methane-bearing, hydrocarbon seeps in the northern Gulf of Mexico,” was presented by Cheryl Lewis Ames, a biologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Cheryl introduced the GSW audience to a series of methane-bearing cold seeps below offshore of Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. Cheryl described her experiences studying the shrimp populations at the sites on a sampling cruise and then under the microscope back at the Smithsonian. It turns out that they’re rather difficult to identify, as no one has yet written the Audubon Guide to the Deep Sea Shrimp of the Gulf of Mexico. Depending on which dichotomous key Cheryl used, she came up with as many as 4 different species identifications for the same shrimp! Fortunately, DNA fingerprints of the species led to their unmasking. 29% of previously-sampled species were again found on this 21-day cruise, which suggests high biodiversity. Ten species were caught exclusively in bottom trawls, while others showed significant daily vertical migration through the water column. Questions were asked, one apiece, by Dan Milton (USGS, retired), Amelia Logan (Smithsonian), John Repetski (USGS), and two apiece by Dan Wunderman (Smithsonian) and Barbara Am Ende (Aerospace Corporation).
The evening’s final talk came from Andrew Johnston, of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Center for Earth and Planetary Studies. His talk was entitled, “Talking about the science of climate change with general audiences.” Andrew modeled the sort of talk he gives to public audiences on the topic of climate change, pointing out along the way the sorts of pitfalls scientists frequently make while discussing such issues with laypeople. Andrew encouraged us to avoid assuming background knowledge about topics like the electromagnetic spectrum, and also to avoid value judgments. Another issue to be explicit about is detailed explanations of uncertainty. Questions were asked by Glen Chinery (EPA) and John Eichelberger (USGS). Mac Ross (USGS, retired) then took the podium and delivered a prepared statement suggesting that the climatic fluctuations observed in the present day are due to sunspot variations rather than anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Mac’s impassioned statement and Andrew’s response to it elicited further questions from John Repetski (USGS), Barbara Am Ende (Aerospace Corporation), Jim Hayes (private citizen), and several more from Mac Ross (USGS, retired). It was lively.
A little gavel action was clearly needed to end the hoopla, and that’s where President Burton stepped in, closing the meeting at 10:05pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Callan Bentley
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1430th Meeting
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
The 1430th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington began at 8:03pm with a game of charades. President Burton mimed smacking the podium with something, and though the 51 people in attendance were not able to guess what he was doing, it was soon revealed to be “air gavel.”
The minutes of the 1429th meeting were read and approved without corrections or additions. There were six visitors: Jill Gribbin and Nick Bauman, both geology Honors students at the University of Maryland; Steve Benzek from the US Army Corps of Engineers; Bejamin Lewis and Nikolaus Deems, both students at George Mason University; and Karina Cerovski-Darriau, American Geological Institute.
One new member was announced: Christopher Khourey, formerly of the EPA’s office in Ohio and now teaching geology as an adjunct instructor at Northern Virginia Community College. There was one announcement, by President Burton: GSW now has a Wikipedia page, thanks to Jeff Grossman.
There were two informal communications. First, Jeff Grossman of the USGS gave a brief history of questioning at GSW meetings, with data spanning GSW’s 116 year history. Discussion following formal talks takes time, Jeff pointed out, which is why 3 20-minute talks take 2 hours. Fifty years ago, a young geoscientist named E-an Zen attended his first GSW meeting, and the “modern era of questioning” began. E-an’s questions reached a peak of nearly one per talk in 1985, and continues to be a trend-setter into the present day. Jeff proposed an annual Grand Inquisitor award in E-an’s honor to recognize those who ask the most questions. There was one question asked after this presentation, but the presenter refused to answer it. Second, Rick Wunderman of the Smithsonian Institution showed some photographs of a pumice raft near Socorro Island, Mexico. There was no clear subaerial source for these grains, many of which showed rounded shapes. Questions were asked one apiece by Dan Milton, USGS (retired), Tom Dutro, Smithsonian (retired), and Bill Burton, USGS.
The first formal presentation was made by Julie O’Leary of Carnegie Institution (DTM). Under the title “Water storage and transport in the mantle: constraints from the hydrogen isotopic composition of ocean-island basalts,” Julie described her work on basalts from the Samoan Islands, a hotspot archipelago presumably caused by a mantle plume. Using these rocks as a probe of the lower mantle, Julie investigated how much water would have been present in that source area, an important issue because wet olivine flows at much lower temperatures than dry olivine. Fractionation of hydrogen isotopes in the mantle ranges to almost 100 ‰, and the Samoan lavas gave values of -80‰ to -37‰. This suggests that hydrogen is making it from subduction zones down to 250 km depth in the mantle. Questions were asked, one apiece, by Dan Doctor of the USGS and Dick Fiske of the Smithsonian.
The second talk was by Jeff Pigati, of the US Geological Survey (Denver). Jeff’s talk was titled “Snails, ciénegas, and the science of wetland deposits in the American Southwest.” In his presentation, Jeff introduced the audience to paleohydrology. He walked us through a case study in Arizona. Jeff’s task was to tease out evidence that would allow him to distinguish whether the Coro Marl was a deposit from paleolakes, groundwater discharge, in-stream wetlands, or speleothems. He used carbon dating of the shells of a group of snails which specifically avoid eating limestone to determine that the deposits were emplaced 50-15 ka. An overlying “black mat” layer, which overlies Clovis artifacts in the area, dates to 13-11 ka. The marl layer therefore records a wet cycle in the American southwest. Questions were asked, one apiece by George Helz, University of Maryland; Steve Self, Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Mac Ross, USGS (retired); Dan Doctor, USGS; Bill Burton, USGS; Dan Milton USGS (retired); Jay Kaufman, University of Maryland, and…. (dah dah dah!) E-an Zen, University of Maryland.
The evening’s final presentation was by Barbara Anne am Ende, of The Aerospace Corporation. Barbara asked the question, “Is Thermal Imaging Practicable for Finding Caves and Abandoned Mines?” and answered it with a qualified “yes.” Her well-acronymed project CAMPFIRE has been using a thermal imaging camera to take still images and video of various caves, overhangs, mine adits, and other holes in the ground under varying temperature conditions. The goal is to see if the resolution is sufficient to spot previously-unknown structures. Barbara found that when conditions between the cave and the surrounding ground temperature was sufficiently high contrast, they showed up well, but the signal could be blocked by even a bush. She suggested alternate monitoring platforms, including helicopters, hot air balloons, and unmanned “drones” like the Predator, and suggested that she be funded so she could try out some of these toys, too. Questions were asked by Jessica Warren of DTM; George Helz, University of Maryland; Mac Ross, USGS (retired); Dan Doctor, USGS; Dick Fiske of the Smithsonian; Bill Burton, USGS; Dan Milton USGS (retired); and…. (dah dah dah!) two questions from E-an Zen, University of Maryland. The Grand Inquisitor returns.
The upcoming slate of speakers was announced to be “to be announced.” Using the real (non-air) gavel, President Burton brought the meeting to a close at 9:59pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Callan Bentley
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1431st Meeting
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
The 1431st meeting of the Geological Society of Washington began at 8:00pm sharp with a loud smack of the gavel. Several GSW members were observed to jump out of their skins. As the adrenaline subsided, Acting President Jay Kaufman brought the 62 attendees to order.
The minutes of the 1430th meeting were read and approved with one correction. Seven visitors joined the audience for the evening’s festivities: Bryan Roberts, a student at Northern Virginia Community College; Jennifer Raptor and John Fitzgerald, students at George Mason University; Jill Gribben and Corey Hanson, geology Honors students at the University of Maryland; Brian Harms from the University of Oklahoma; Cheryl Ames of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History; and Maurice Warner, an unaffiliated citizen with an interest in the geosciences.
There were two announcements, both delivered by Acting President Kaufman. First, the GSW Spring Field Trip will be Sunday, May 17, examining the geology and ecology of the Potomac River Gorge. Second, the annual Roger Revelle memorial lecture in oceanography will be delivered Tuesday, March 17. There were three new members, all of whom were present: Colin Doolan, USGS; Stephen Benzek, US Army Corps of Engineers; and Susan Wacaster also of the USGS.
There was one informal communication, by Acting President Kaufman, detailing a new field technique: pressure-washing outcrops. Jay detailed a trip that he took with an undergraduate student and Callan Bentley of Northern Virginia Community College to power-wash a boulder showing the contact between the marble of the upper Fauquier Formation and the lowermost meta-basalts of the Catoctin Formation. Jay interpreted the sparkling-clean contact to show evidence of soft-sediment deformation.
The first talk was by Madalyn Blondes, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Maryland, College Park. Madalyn went out to the Owens Valley of California and sampled the Papoose Canyon sequence, a 760 thousand year old series of volcanic strata. There, she found extraordinarily magnesian olivine crystals, with forsterite values of 99.6 to 99.8%. In attempting to explain these crystals, Madalyn asked if they were “evidence of a hydrated mantle wedge, or a rare oxidation phenomenon?” Ruling out the incorporation of carbonate as well as serpentization reactions, she turned to oxidation as a culprit. Though there doesn’t seem to be anything extraordinary about the rocks containing the olivines, Madalyn suggested that high-Mg olivines may be more common than we think, and may simply be ditched as “outliers” when measured. Questions were asked by Carter Hearn (USGS, semi-retired), Jeff Grossman (USGS), Brooks Hansen (Science), Richard Walker (University of Maryland), Jay Kaufman (University of Maryland), Rosalyn Helz (USGS, retired), Susan Wacaster (USGS), and Linda Rowan (AGI), who asked an additional two follow-up questions.
The evening’s second talk was a glowing speech by Edie Widder of the Ocean Research and Conservation Association. And I mean literally glowing. Under the title “Exploring and protecting planet ocean,” Edie described her illuminating experiences exploring the deep sea in various submersibles. These experiences caused her to become addicted to bioluminescence. Edie shared three applications for bioluminescence: (1) a video transect of the ocean’s bioluminescence sources, mapping the distribution of animals in three dimensions, (2) the “Eye in the Sea,” an semi-permanent underwater array of sensors, including the world’s only deep sea webcam. Using luminescent lures to attract a variety of critters, this facility off of Monterey, California showcases how much we don’t know about the deep sea. Lastly (3), Edie described the ‘Kilroy’ network of sensors that will take measurements in a large array and use cell phone communications to report their data to the public. The highLIGHT of Edie’s presentation was when she dimmed the lights and shook up a bottle of plankton which emitted a lovely blue glow. Questions were asked by Mark McBride, NRC; E-an Zen, University of Maryland; Barbara am Ende, Aerospace Corporation; Richard Walker, University of Maryland; Madalyn Blondes, University of Maryland; Bryan Roberts, NOVA; Susan Wacaster, USGS; George Helz, University of Maryland; Jay Kaufman, University of Maryland; and two from Brooks Hansen, Science.
The evening’s final talk was by Paul Earle speaking on the acronymiferific topic of “NEIC response and the PAGER system.” Paul described the day-to-day operations of the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado. The facility provides the country with 24/7 earthquake monitoring, and has at least two staff on duty at all times. Using the example of the Wenchuan earthquake in China, Paul walked us through the NEIC’s minute-by-minute response to the event, include generating shake maps and exposure estimates for major population centers. Future iterations of PAGER will include an algorithm for estimating fatalities. Questions were asked by Phil Justus, NRC; Rick Wunderman, Smithsonian; Barbara am Ende, Aerospace Corporation; Jamie Allen, NSF; Steve Self, NRC; and Jane Hammerstrom, USGS.
The upcoming slate of speakers was announced, and the meeting was gaveled to a close at 9:58pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Callan Bentley
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1432nd Meeting
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
The 1432nd meeting of the Geological Society of Washington began at 8:00pm, despite technical difficulties. But President Bill Burton didn’t need PowerPoint to gavel the 60 attendees to order. The laptop and the projector weren’t talking to one another, but a technical representative from the Cosmos Club got things up and running during the minutes and whatnot. It appeared that the technical issues were completely resolved (pregnant pause)… That’s called “foreshadowing.”
The minutes of the 1431st meeting were read and approved with two corrections. There were several visitors: Ana Cuddihy and Bryan Roberts, students at Northern Virginia Community College; John Bradbury, a geophysicist and trout fisherman; Ester Sztein, from the National Academy of Science. One new member was announced: John Fitzgerald, an undergraduate geology major at George Mason University.
There were two announcements: Callan Bentley announced that Nora Noffke was featured in a television program called “Prehistoric Disasters,” to be aired the night after the meeting on the Discovery Channel. President Burton announced the details for the GSW Spring field trip to the Potomac Gorge.
There were two informal communications. The first, by Dan Doctor of the USGS, alerted the audience to white-nose syndrome, a condition in bats which circumstantial evidence suggests is spread by human caving enthusiasts. It is caused by a fungus, and Dan alerted us to a voluntary moratorium on caving in Virginia and West Virginia. The second informal communication was by Bill Burton, USGS, who shared the story of 7 straight nights working the night shift at the Alaska Volcano Observatory, monitoring Mount Redoubt. He shared some awesome imagery of the eruption, including lahars sloshing over the berm built to protect the Drift River Oil Terminal.
The first formal presentation was by Andrew Todd, of the USGS. Andrew discussed “Abandoned mines and trout.” He focused on a study area in Colorado, where acid mine drainage has increased metal solubility in waters that the Keystone Ski Resort uses to manufacture ‘snow.’ Andrew’s study used soluble zinc to treat captive trout populations, and he was about to show us some really cool data when KAPOW the projector bulb blew out. It was dramatic. Andrew spun his laptop around towards the audience and gamely continued, revealing that the biotic ligand model does the best job for predicting zinc toxicity in rainbow trout. Questions were asked by Naomi Lubick, freelance science writer; Brooks Hansen, Science; Dan Milton, USGS; Rick Wunderman, Smithsonian; and Jim Hayes (private citizen), and two from Amelia Logan of the Smithsonian.
The second talk, by Ian MacIntyre, had an impressively long title: “The almost total loss of Acropora palmata from shallow waters off Barbados, West Indies, initiated by catastrophic destruction of a major bank-barrier reef off the southeast coast.” Continuing with the evening’s star-crossed technical issues, Ian’s laser pointer failed at the outset of his talk. He discussed the reefs of coastal Barbados. These have been historically rare, with a few colonies were still alive in the 1960s. A. palmata has not been seen alive in any modern survey, though Ian detailed the other species seen on his dives. There’s a lot more A. palmata in drill cores; when there was a glacial meltwater pulse, A. palmata was slow to recover and left behind. Ian pointed out that in the 1600s, the forests of Barbados were stripped to grow sugar cane, this may have been the fatal straw which killed off those A. palmata which survived rapid sea level rise. Questions were asked, one apiece, by Amelia Logan, Smithsonian; Lindsey McLellan, National Park Service; Jim Rubenstone, Nuclear Regulatory Commission; and Chris Swezey, USGS.
The evening’s final talk was a hot and sticky affair. Tom Casadevall of the USGS Denver brought us up to date on Lusi, the mud volcano of Surabaya, Indonesia. While Ian’s talk may have had the longest title of the year, Tom’s almost certainly held the record for the most slides in a talk – somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 was my guess. This cavalcade of photos showed the inundation of neighborhoods and roads due to the eruption of 80-degree mud from the depths. This mud is coming from overpressured sediments of the Indonesian backarc basin, probably triggered by natural gas exploration drilling. Now 110,000 cubic meters of mud are erupting per day, with almost 100 million cubic meters total. 50,000 people have been affected, and the eruption may continue for decades. Questions were asked by Jamie Allen, National Science Foundation; Steve Self, NRC; Bill Burton, USGS; Dan Doctor, USGS; Naomi Lubick, freelance science journalist; and Callan Bentley, NOVA.
The upcoming Bradley Lecture speaker was announced, and the meeting was brought to a close at 10:07pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Callan Bentley
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1433rd Meeting
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
The 1433rd meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was called to order at 8:02pm by President Bill Burton. The minutes of the 1432nd meeting were read and semi-amended with a semi-contentious statement about whether or not cavers are actually the vectors of White Nose Syndrome in bats. The minutes were accordingly amended to be less than fully conclusive about this issue.
There were a slew of visitors, doubtless excited by the quality of the evening’s speaker as well as the last chance to get a free beer before the summer kicked in. Two students from George Mason University, Ben Lewis and Nikolaus Deems were introduced. Also joining the throng were Shubeyo Ono from the Geophysical Lab, Jim Mancillas, of the Southwest Research Institute, and Ali Morri, a AAAS Science Fellow. Northern Virginia Community College adjunct geology instructors Steve Stokowski and John Jens had a dual of sorts to see how many students they could bring from their respective campuses. John had five in tow from Manassas, but Steve had 6 from Annandale. Steve wins! None of the eleven students were named. We were also joined by 8 student science fair winners: Abigail and Nathan Collins, Conor Dancy, Alison Gerhard, Amanda Harbison, Tyler Jones, Jessica Marbourg, and Carola Purser.
The visit of these students to GSW is an annual highlight, and each displayed their projects in the back of the auditorium before the meeting, answering GSW member’s inquiries with ease. Each student was presented with a year-long subscription to EARTH magazine and a copy of the Geology of the C&O Canal National Historical Park by Scott Southworth, et al.
There were two announcements: It was noted that there would be a reception for the EarthScope program at the Top of the Hill Conference Center at 5:30pm on April 29, 2009. Annie Kammerer noted that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has an opening for a strong motion seismologist.
There was one informal communication, by Rick Wunderman. Rick shared the fact that Tom Simkin of the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program has esophageal cancer, and introduced the GSW membership to a website that allows patients in hospitals like Tom and their friends and family to communicate with one another.
The meeting was the annual Bradley lecture, and there was only one speaker… but what a speaker he was! Paul Hoffman, recently retired from being the Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology at Harvard. First vice president Jay Kauffman introduced Paul and his topic: “The Pleistocene glacial controversy and the discovery of climate warming and continental dynamics.”
Hoffman is renowned for several achievements, and he began his talk with a discussion of one of them: the Snowball Earth hypothesis, and his “underestimate of the resulting controversy.” This got him interested in the Pleistocene glacial controversy, especially considering that it occurred at the end of the “golden age” of geology. Paul’s approach to exploring the development of geologic thought regarding Ice Ages was to read the geologic literature from that time: about 150 papers, some in the original French, German, or Bantu. This proved to be a rich exercise, and Paul spoke extemporaneously of his new understanding, sans microphone, in a voice made hoarse by delivering the same talk earlier in the day at Yale University. A theme woven through the talk was the distinction between Historical Sciences, like psychology, cosmology, and evolutionary biology, and Physical Sciences, based on fixed laws. Paul argued that a scientific approach to unraveling past events was geology’s greatest contribution to human thought.
We learned new things about Louis Agassiz, whom Paul indicated was a multiple special creationist, a polygamist, and (worst of all) an ichthyologist. We learned about James Croll, the Scottish janitor who was the first one to suggest an ice/snow albedo feedback loop, and also the first to suggest an orbital theory for the waxing and waning of glacial cycles. We learned that, working off of Croll’s ideas, Milutin Milankovitch gave Alfred Wegener the credit for summer (not winter) orbital forcing being the critical variable for triggering a glacial advance. Paul wrapped up his discussion by quoting the final sentence of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, and again drawing the distinction between the insights offered by physical and historical sciences, concluding “We need both.”
There were dozens of questions, both by kind and responsible individuals who identified themselves, and a smaller number of thoughtless goons, who did not. Among the known questioners were: Sandra Herbert, Jim Rubenstone (NRC), Dan Doctor (USGS), Bill Burton (USGS), Brooks Hansen (Science), Mark McBride (NRC), Bevan French (Smithsonian), Sue Wacaster (USGS), Scott Southworth (USGS), and Glen Chinery (EPA).
The meeting and the spring season were concluded about 9:10pm by President Burton.
Respectfully submitted,
Callan Bentley
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1434th Meeting
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
The 1434th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was called to order at 8:00pm by President Bill Burton. The minutes of the 1433rd meeting were read by the secretary and approved by the 64 attendees.
Four guests were announced: Weifu Guo, a postdoc at the Geophysical Lab; Wayne and Laura Pennington, of USAID; and Maeve Boland, a Congressional Fellow at AGU.
There was one new member announced: Sara Peek, a graduate student at the University of Maryland.
There were several announcements, beginning with a somber list of six members of the society who passed away over the summer: Sam Altshuler, Luke Chang, Paul Silver, Bob Nixon, Tom Stern, and Tom Simkin. The Society observed a moment of silence in commemoration of their passing.
Linda Rowan then announced a series of upcoming events: (1) AGI’s Earth Science week, October 11-17; (2) the Association of Women Geoscientists “Women in Geoscience Day,” October 15; and (3) a DC-based group, the Coalition for the Public Understanding of Science, which is looking for GSW members to sign up with them and volunteer some time. Peg Kaye, from the Washington Academy of Sciences, then invited GSW members to contribute to the biennial meeting of that society by contributing a talk, panel, or whatever they want. This event will be held at NSF headquarters during the last weekend in March of 2010. The Washington Academy of Sciences will also be hosting a new lecture series, and a panel about science in murder mysteries.
The first talk of the evening was by Douglas Rumble of the Geophysical Lab. Doug’s talk was entitled “How the asteroid 2008 TC3 became the meteorite Alhamata Sitta.” Doug told an interesting story about an asteroid spotted in space, and calculated to hit Earth in 19 hours. Sure enough, it did, with a kiloton-yield explosion, and within a kilometer of where it was calculated to impact. Doug’s colleague Peter Jenniskens traveled to Sudan where he and a local colleague organized a search party in the Nubian Desert. They found a piece of the object, now classified as a meteorite by virtue of its location on the Earth’s surface, and brought it back for analysis. It appears to be a ureilite, with little carbon bodies added in for extra flavor. Doug was responsible for oxygen isotope work that confirmed the “ureilite” designation, and suggests it might be derived from asteroid 1998 KU2. The whole incident gave scientists an opportunity to compare what we measure remotely via telescope to what we can measure in-hand with a sample. There were questions from Pete Toulmin, USGS (retired); Dan Milton, USGS (retired); Clen Chinery, EPA,; Dick Fiske, Smithsonian; Sue Wacaster, USGS; Jeff Grossman, USGS; and Mark McBride, NRC.
The second talk was by Marci Robinson, of the USGS. Marci discussed “The Mid-Pliocene Warm Period: New insights into a near-perfect analogue for future climate.” Her team at the Survey, dubbed PRISM, looks at the mid-Pliocene because it is a period of geologic time that climate models cannot replicate very well: this misfit between expectations based on CO2 and actual temperature data suggests that we either don’t understand the Pliocene well, or our models have “issues.” So Marci and her team did some field work in Australia, looking at paleo-shorelines and foraminifera to get a better sense of Pliocene sea level and climate. Their results suggest that sea level was 25 to 40 meters higher then, a level which would require the melting of much of the Antarctic ice sheet. There were questions from Steve Skinner, USGS; Victor Zabielski, Northern Virginia Community College; and Dick Fiske, Smithsonian.
The evening’s final talk, “The U.S. Volcano Disaster Assistance Program's response to an energetic phase of the world's only erupting carbonititic volcano--Ol Doinyo Lengai (Tanzania),” was presented by Gari Mayberry of the USGS. Gari recounted getting a diplomatic cable on Christmas Eve last year, prompting her and two other geologists to deploy to Tanzania on a scientific-diplomatic mission. Ol Doinyo Lengai is an odd volcano, and the Tanzanian government wanted a sense of whether local villages were at risk. The most recent eruptive phase was in 2007-2008, a series of events which included lahars, pyroclastic flows, and lava flowing over the landscape with extremely low viscosity. There was also a 3 km tall eruption plume which dumped 4 cm of ash on a nearby village. Gari was honored to present her report and recommendations directly to the Tanzanian president, with a bonus lesson for him about why it’s not a good idea to fly one’s plane into an eruption column. There were questions from Jim Rubenstone of the NRC; Brooks Hansen, Science; Steve Self, NRC; Larry Jones, USGS (retired); Bill Burton, USGS; Rick Wunderman, Smithsonian; and Sue Wacaster, USGS.
The slate of speakers for the upcoming meeting was announced, and this meeting was concluded at 9:45pm by President Burton.
Respectfully submitted,
Callan Bentley