GSW: 2010 MEETING MINUTES
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1438th Meeting
Wednesday, January, 2010
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
The 1438th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington, the first of the New Year, was called to order at 8:01 pm by President Jay Kaufman. The minutes of the 1437th meeting were read by the relatively unknown secretary and approved with corrections by the 72 attendees. The rookie secretary’s pen was tested with the announcement of nine guests in quick succession: Min Wahn, Cal Tech; Ester Newman, GWU student; Mike Lance; Katie Matthews; Lamont Prior; NVCC student; Rebecca Pitcher, graduate student; and 3 students from the University of Maryland (I humbly ask for assistance with the names).
There were two new members announced and brought into the fold: Anastashia Cuddihy, a NVCC student working on her BA in Geology; and Catherine Carter, an intern at the Smithsonian with the Global Volcanoes program.
The communications started with an informal communication by Jeff Grossman, USGS and GSW archivist, about the MLK Day meteor. This fireball from Zeus was the closest to ever fall near Washington DC. One piece landed in a doctor’s office in Lorton and gave the attendees another reason to avoid their annual check-up. Questions about this unique occurrence followed.
A formal communication was given by Charne Meth, GSW Public Service and Science Fairs. She announced that GSW volunteers are needed for a science fair and that flyers were available in the back of the auditorium. A second communiqué followed in which Charne stated that volunteers were also needed for the National Ocean Science Bowl, specifically the local Chesapeake Bowl on March 6th.
Finally, Sandy Neuzil, USGS, had an informal communication of job openings at the USGS to work on carbon dioxide sequestration project.
The first talk of the evening was given by Robert D. Tucker, USGS, Reston. He presented “A new perspective of the Precambrian shield of Madagascar.” The story began were all good stories should begin, in the Precambrian. Roberts opening slides demonstrated that aside from that “France sucks”, that the work he was presenting challenges the current perspective of Madagascar in Gondwana and gives more insight on Archean craton formation. To achieve this, he focused on the Betsimisaraka Suture, which separates disparate two cratons, the central craton of the African provenance and the Eastern craton of the Indian provenance; and comprises oceanic rocks. He presented data from field mapping, remote sensing, and geochronology. The evidence demonstrated that the suture is not a suture and does not separate two different provenances, rather the suture represents incomplete rifting of the Precambrian shield of Madagascar. And that the concept of the Betsimisaraka Suture should be abandoned. There were questions from Bill Burton, USGS, Brice Nistle, Science, Mike Reynold, University of Maryland.
The second talk “Chemical interactions at the core-mantle boundary” was presented by Chris Seagle, Smithsonian Institution and Carnegie Institution for Science. A self-proclaimed experimentalist, Chris showed us the mathematical and mechanical toys needed to decipher the mysteries of the earth’s core, or more specifically the mysteries at the core mantle-boundary. The diamond anvil cell was the tool of choice to simulate core pressures. A question focused on was what is the fate of oxygen going into the top of the core. The magic of math demonstrated that a light stratified layer formed at the top of the core and a stable stratification inhibits mixing of the oxygen rich layer with the bulk of the core and is controlled by diffusion. The talk was ended with the message that the core-boundary is an interesting place, but there is a lot still not understood. There were questions from Jake Tossel, University of Maryland, Dan Doctor, USGS, Patrick Taylor, NASA Goddard, Dick Fisk, Smithsonian, and Calvin Alexander, University of Minnesota.
The third and final talk of the evening was presented by Calvin Alexander entitled, “The Log Den (Wisconsin) norovirus outbreak: Viral contamination in Niagra Dolomite Karst.” This was a heart warming-tale about how the American dream of restaurant ownership, as well as illness-free restaurant dining, can be ruined by a highly fractured karst landscape. Part geology, part CSI, Calvin lead us through the epidemiological, microbiological, and forensic investigation to determine the cause of the norovirus outbreak. Using fluorescent dyes, he demonstrated that the septic system in place failed and caused contamination of the water. This was in part because of the current technology of drain fields does not prevent aquifer contamination in a fractured carbonate karst aquifer. The talk ended by calming our fears and pointing out that waterborne disease outbreaks of this type are a problem on a regional and national scale. Questions followed: one notably suspicious question by Joe Smoot, USGS, which was an apparent plant because the speaker mysteriously had the slides ready to address Joe’s question, and a question by Bill Burton, USGS.
The meeting ended with the announcement of the program for the 1439th meeting at 9:45pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Christopher Bernhardt
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1439th Meeting
Wednesday, 17 February, 2010
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
President Kaufman ignited the beacon of hope in the aftermath of the “Snowmaggedon” at 8:00 pm. 55 survivors saw the light atop the John Wesley Powell Auditorium and trudged their way through snow-laden sidewalks for the 1439th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington. The minutes of the 1438th meeting were read and accepted with corrections. Several guests stumbled out of the wintery darkness, including: the fab five students from the University of Maryland (Jesse Dietderich, Brittany Jenner, Brian Connolly, Sarah Regen, and Benn Breeden); Morriene Moses, Carnegie Institution for Science; and Karin Louzada, science attaché at the Dutch Embassy.
Five new members were announced and brought into the warmth of GSW. William Ian Ridley, NSF-USGS; Nick Wiggington, Science; Rebecca Fischer, University of Maryland; Jeffrey D. Schuffert, U.S. Science Support Program, Consortium for Ocean Leadership; and Michael Purucker, NASA.
There were three announcements. Charna Meth, GSW Public Service chair, announced the need for volunteers and judges for the spring season of regional science fairs. Callan Bentley, NOVA, peddled his DC Geology Events blog and requested folks to contribute. Finally, the iconclast, President Kaufman proudly announced that a future meeting of GSW would not be convened on a Wednesday but rather a TUESDAY, and the attendees were silent with awe. GSW will be fortunate enough to host “Ardi Night” on March 30th.
There were no informal communications.
Mike Brown of the University of Maryland started the evening by warming the wintery crowd with metamorphic words and plots of temperature and pressure. His talk was entitled “the geological record of crustal metamorphism and geodynamic implications.” Looking at around 140 metamorphic belts grouped into 3 types he illustrated the relationship between metamorphic rocks in a tectonic setting. The work concluded that there were 2 regimes on Earth of crustal formation. There were questions by: Rich Walker, University of Maryland; Dan Milton, USGS; Rick Wunderman, Smithsonian; Meg Coleman; and Andrew Steele, Carnegie Institution.
The second talk by Dina M. Bower, Geophysical Lab, Carnegie Institution of Science. She revisited the 1.9 Ga Gunflint formation by investigating the nature and provenance of mineral and carbonaceous material in fossiliferous cherts. Using optical microscopy and micro-Raman spectroscopy, Dina displayed a series of micrographs mapping quartz and carbon peaks. The carbon was shown to have the same signature as microfossils but it was randomly distributed and not associated with any microfossils. The attendee’s were left with the burning question of what is the source of this other carbon if it is not from microfossils. Questions were by: Dan Milton, USGS; Rich Walker, University of Maryland; and Bob Burruss, USGS.
The final talk of the meeting by Mathieu Touboul, University of Maryland, addressed the age of the Moon and the lifetime of lunar magma ocean using Hf-W chronometry. His first Herculean task was to distil planetary creation into three slides. Well, done. He followed this with a tour through the basics of Hf-W chronometry and explaining why the solution to some dating issues was the use of W isotopes in lunar metals. Mathieu’s results determined earlier anomalies were cosmogenic in origin and that the moon was formed approximately 62 million years after the start of the solar system. Questions were by: Rich Walker, University of Maryland; Madalyn Blondes, University of Maryland.
The meeting ended with the announcement of the program for the 1440th meeting at 9:41pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Christopher Bernhardt
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1440th Meeting
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
Getting a jump on the clock, President Jay Kaufman called the 1440th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington to order at 7:59 pm. The minutes of the 1439th meeting were read by acting Meeting Secretary Callan Bentley, and approved with a dozen corrections offered by the most critical of the 65 attendees.
There were 9 visitors. Valery Terwilliger, Geophysical Lab; Marvourneen K. Dolor, Department of Transportation; Bill Rouse, USGS; Jack Sharpe, University of Texas; Michael Perfid, University of Florida; Jeffrey Wolcher; Angelique Kumar; Justin Olson and Sarah Hendrickson, two senior geology undergraduates at George Mason University. Somewhat syngeristically, there were also 9 new members to announce: Cathy Enomoto of the USGS Energy Resources team; Corina Ceruvski-Darriau of the American Geological Institute; Jesse Dietderich, Brian Connolly, Brittany Jenner, and Stanley Ohaka, all geology undergraduate students at the University of Maryland; Jeffrey Walter, a retired geologist new to the DC area; and Brian Harms and Nicholas Gava, both geology graduate students at UMD.
There was one announcement. President Kaufman announced the passing of M. Gordon “Reds” Wolman, a fluvial geomorphologist based at Johns Hopkins University. Over the course of his long career, Reds gave five talks at GSW and held several official positions in the society. Jay read from a heartfelt tribute authored by the president of Johns Hopkins, and moment of silence was observed in Reds’ honor.
The first formal talk was by Yoshi Tatsumi of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. Yoshi introduced us to the idea of the “anti-continent,” a residual mafic scum depleted by anatexis of all the andesitic-composition material which has gone on to make continental crust. Yoshi proposed that after intra-oceanic arcs distil continental crust from this mafic restite, it founders and sinks down to the base of the mantle. Estimates of volume of this anti-continent match the volume of the D” layer pretty well, and Yoshi suggested that anti-continent’s isotopic composition is expressing well by “EM1” mantle plumes. There were questions by Roberta Rudnick, University of Maryland; Mike Purrucker, NASA; Bill McDonough, University of Maryland; and Mike _____, (gray hair, kind of Larry-David-looking??).
George Helz then presented a talk on behalf of himself, former student Marvourneen Dolor, and Bill McDonough, all associated with the University of Maryland. Using a couple of sediment cores from Chesapeake Bay, George examined how their load of chalcophile elements has shifted over time. Using the 210Pb method to date the cores, George shared profiles that preserved in great detail the undulating concentrations of elements like lead, tin, and antimony. A pattern emerged: the chalcophile elements all correlated with one another in time, but that was surprising to George, considering that some were metals and others were metalloids. When plotted against the discharge of the Susquehanna River, however, it was shown that chalcophile peaks in 1940, 1965, and 1985 all corresponded with periods of relatively low discharge. Sediments retrieved from behind the Conowingo Dam showed the same profile as the Bay, suggesting that the Bay is getting its contaminants from the Susquehanna Basin on a schedule determined by a ~20-year climate cycle. There were questions from Dan Milton, USGS (retired); Pete Toulmin, USGS (retired); Dan Doctor, USGS; E-an Zen, UMD; Jack Sharpe, University of Texas; and two apiece from Meg Coleman and Brooks Hansen, Science.
The evening’s final talk was by Richard Fritz, Executive Director of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Richard discussed an enigmatic carbonate package in Oklahoma, the 8000’ feet thick Arbuckle Group, part of the Cambro-Ordovician “Great American Carbonate Bank.” Richard’s interest came from the fact that the Arbuckle offers a series of great petroleum reservoirs, but the sedimentary formations themselves are enigmatic. In reassessing the Arbuckle, Richard and his colleagues threw out the old nomenclature and started from scratch, building up their own understanding using sequence stratigraphy. They arrived at a series of intertidal - subtidal parasequences, offering multiple reservoirs. Richard concluded by reminding the audience that one’s perspective is really important when interpreting complicated rocks like the Arbuckle Group. There were questions from Mike Purrucker, NASA; Bill McDonough, UMD; Dan Doctor, USGS; Jay Kaufman, UMD; and E-an Zen, UMD.
President Kaufman then reminded GSW members of the upcoming “Ardi night,” scheduled for Tuesday March 30, and adjourned the meeting at 9:51 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Callan Bentley
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1441st Meeting
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
President Jay Kaufman kicked off a special Tuesday edition of the Geological Society of Washington at 8:02 pm. The 1441st meeting began with a gracious “thank you” extended to Jennifer Ludwig of the Cosmos Club on moving the date of the meeting, David Applegate for hosting the dinner, and Callan Bentley for acting as Secretary at the last meeting. The minutes of the 1440th meeting were read and approved with no corrections.
Out of the 127 attendees, there were an impressive number of guests announced, welcomed, and encouraged to become members. The guests include: Dr. Rob Oley, University of Maryland, Nebiyu Tireneh and Mark Ferens, Nuclear Regulatory Committee, Marc Bristol, the Samra Family (Katrina and her sons), the Saily Family (Sharon, George, and son, Danny), Palma Botterell and Mike Tappa, USGS, and a large contingent from the Smithsonian: Jamie Whitacre, Ann Kaupp, Valerie Free, Greta Hansen, Briana Pobiner, Maggie Dittemore, David Wrausermann, Matt Tocheri, and Danielle Vernon; Sandy Fredge, DC educator; and Mark Rensil, USGS.
Three new members were announced: Jack Sharp, University Texas/USGS; Erica Clities, National Academies; and Sarah Regen, University of Maryland.
President Kaufman announced the passing of Arthur Goldberg on March 21st. A moment of silence was observed in Arthur Goldberg’s honor.
Sandy Neuzil followed with a short report on the state of GSW membership. She pointed out that GSW can pay for nine of the ten meetings planned this year with member dues income. In spite of the recent uptick in membership, we all need to “encourage” our colleagues and new guests to join. President Kaufman chimed in and stated that current members could also help by “donating more and drinking less.”
An informal communication was given by Elizabeth Cottrell, NMNH. Elizabeth welcomed all to come and celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Museum of Natural History as well as the opening of the Hall of Human Origins.
The formal portion of the meeting began is a short Discovery Channel video clip on Ardi. This was followed by a presentation by Giday WoldeGabriel of the Middle Awash project. He began with an enticing description of the African Rift Valley. Giday said because of the extreme heat and active volcanoes, this area is one of the “nastiest” places to work. However, this nasty place has one of the most continuous records of human history. The two-pronged talk described the tectonic and paleoenvironmental environment of the African rift system. The tectonics of the rift basin created a favorable environment for hominid evolution because the uplifted basins helped regulate climate conditions; and, provided a constant sediment supply which and preserved a 6 million year continuous hominid record. He then described the varying environments recorded in the six million year fossil record of hominids in Middle Awash. He concluded by stating there were a paltry 165 publications in journals like Science and Nature resulting from work at this study site. The next step of the project is to extend the fossil record in Middle Awash beyond six million years. There were questions by: Chris Swezey, USGS; E-an Zen, USGS (Retired).
The second talk of the evening was by Ray Bernor, NSF and Howard University. He began his talk by summarizing the key anatomical features of Ardi that established it was not a chimpanzee. From the one-kilometer/ six million year stratgraphic section in Middle Awash, Ray stated that there were 262 hominid specimens and 17,455 vertebrate specimens recovered. It is from the vertebrate specimens a description of the ungulate fauna was described. Based on cusp shape and relief, Ray demonstrated how feeding behavior can be determined. His graduate student, Dominic Wolf was introduced, and his work discussed. Ray finished with a discussion on Miocene ape biogeography and whether the African ape human clade originates in Europe or Africa. There was one question by David Dansler, unaffiliated.
President Kaufman filled in for the last speaker, Jay Matternes. Unfortunately, during dinner, Jay’s wife had become ill and he took her to hospital. President Kaufman started by showing brief Discovery Channel video on how Jay “fleshed out” Ardi from just a few bones. President Kaufman proceeded with a power point presentation of the Jay’s drawings. The previous speaker, Ray Bernor, bravely jumped in to help with some of the more technical anatomical details, for example that Ardi was a “she” not a “he”. The more free flowing format of this talk allowed for questions between slides by: E-an Zen, USGS (retired); John Repetski, USGS; Sarah Peek, University of Maryland; and one unannounced. President Kaufman described how Jay was a self-taught anatomist and that Jay learned anatomy by doing dissections at zoos. Drawings shown focused on Ardi’s unique blend of anatomical features. Jay worked with 3D animators to bring Ardi to life for the Discovery Channel program. And we were left with a drawing that put Ardi with others of her species in a realistic woodland environment of that time. Questions followed: E-an Zen, USGS (retired); David Dansler, unaffiliated; and just Glenn, unaffiliated.
President Kaufman concluded the meeting by introducing the upcoming April 14th meeting and encouraging all the guests in attendance to join GSW. The meeting concluded at 10:05 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Christopher Bernhardt
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1442nd Meeting
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
The 1442nd meeting of the Geological Society of Washington began at 8:00 pm. The minutes of the 1441st meeting were read and approved.
There were 58 attendees, and 3 guests- Laura Pennington, wife of speaker Wayne Pennington, and Carol Plichta and Karen Anderson, friends of the Penningtons visiting from Michigan.
Five new members were announced: Elizabeth Seastrum of the Smithsonian Institution, William Rouse of the USGS, Benjamin Breeden III of the University of Maryland, Michael Landsman of Apex Environmental, Inc., and Bryn Kimball of the USGS.
President Jay Kaufman noted that Mrs. Jay Matternes, who fell ill at the previous meeting, was fine. Dr. Kaufman announced that the next GSW Council meeting will be held on April 28 from 3-5 pm in the Bradley Building, prior to the next meeting.
There were no informal communications.
The first talk of the meeting was given by Bruce Molnia of the US Geological Survey, entitled “Investigating and Monitoring the Glaciers of Afghanistan.” He and his team mapped and examined the dynamics of over 1000 glaciers in Afghanistan by satellite, air photo, and fieldwork. These occur at elevations ranging from 3,800 to over 7,000 m and exist primarily in the eastern portion of the country. None of the glaciers showed evidence for surging or advancing. Instead, most showed evidence for stagnation, shrinking and retreat, with thermokarst features present in most as well as extensive coverage on 30-40% of the glaciers by rock debris. Many empty cirques were mapped that contained evidence for recent glaciations, and many larger glaciers were now subdivided into numerous, disconnected smaller glaciers. Supra-glacial lakes are now a significant hazard for outburst floods, and the mapped glacial retreat carries significant concerns for long-term water supply. Questions were asked by Angeli Kumar, unaffiliated, Dick Fiske of the Smithsonian, Brooks Hansen of Science magazine, Callan Bentley of Northern Virginia Community College, Jay Kaufman of the University of Maryland, and Rick Wunderman of the Smithsonian.
The second talk was given by Deborah Smith of the National Science Foundation and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, entitled “The Galapagos Microplate Revealed.” Debbie gave an overview of the complex East Pacific Rise- Cocos-Nazca Ridge intersection area. Although initially mapped as a Ridge-Ridge-Ridge triple junction, it actually consists of two Ridge-Ridge triple junctions with active ridge propagation on the East Pacific Rise and the Cocos-Nazca spreading center and two short E-W and NE-SW ridge segments. These ridge segments, together with the East Pacific Rise and the amagmatic Dietz Deep, outline the Galapagos Microplate, containing Hess Deep at the tip of the Cocos-Nazca spreading center. Debbie showed how successive higher-resolution swath bathymetry mapping gave sequentially clearer picture of the regional tectonics. Recent mapping in 2008 showed that multiple transient rifts, formed by simple extensional cracking, were active to the north and south of the microplate location prior to 1 Ma. At about 1 Ma, rapid propagation of the Cocos-Nazca rift tip towards the East Pacific Rise led to rapid N-S ridge propagation on the East Pacific Rise, formation of the Deitz Deep and an adjacent large seamount, and subsequent creation of the Galapagos microplate. Questions were asked by Brooks Hansen of Science magazine, Callan Bentley of Northern Virginia Community College, and Jamie Allan of NSF.
The third talk was given by Wayne Pennington of US AID and Michigan Technological University, entitled “Seismological Aspects of the Haiti Earthquake: What We Know Now, and What We Can Do to Improve.” Until fairly recently, earthquake hazard assessment underestimated risk to Haiti. Better understanding of historic seismicity and the complex, oblique convergence by the Caribbean Plate underneath the North American Plate led to more recent (2008) prediction of the potential for a magnitude 7.2 earthquake on the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault in southwestern Haiti. Perhaps as an analogue to what could happen now, there was a concentration of seismicity and large, destructive earthquakes in the 1700s. The actual earthquake on the Enriquillo-Plantain fault was of magnitude 7.0, shallow, propagated westward after initial rupture west of Port-Au-Prince, and resulted in local uplift as measured by corals to 60 cm. No surface break has been mapped, though synthetic aperture radar does show uplift. Poor construction techniques and lack of understanding of seismic risk by city planners resulted in the greatest loss of life ever occurring for an earthquake of this relative magnitude (>200,000 deaths). With the earthquake, significant stress has been added to the east-west Septentrional fault that bounds northern Haiti; unfortunately, many services and institutions are being relocated to the vicinity of this dangerous fault. Questions were asked by Madelyn Blondes of the University of Maryland, Rick Wunderman of the Smithsonian, and Brooks Hansen of Science magazine.
President Kaufmann reminded the attendees that the next meeting is the Bradley Lecture, to be given by Bob Hazen with the title of “Mineralogical Coevolution of the Geosphere and Biosphere,” and then adjourned the meeting at 9:45 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Jamie Allan
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1443rd Meeting
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
The 1443rd meeting of the Geological Society of Washington got off to quite late start at 8:03 pm. The minutes of the 1442nd meeting were read and approved with corrections.
There were 89 attendees, and 3 guests- Nick Sucaliv, Russian Academy of Sciences, Margret Hindle Hansen, former historian at Carnegie, and Justin Olsen, GMU.
Only one new member was announced: Matt Larsen, AD for Water at the USGS.
There were three announcements. President Kaufman announced that a GSW council meeting was held earlier in the day, Roberta Rudnick was elected into the National Academy of Sciences, and that the Science Fair winners were present to receive their awards. President Kaufman and Charna Meth announced the winners are passed out awards to: Jorden Mandell in the 11th grade, Eric Kean 10th grade, Giovanni Santuse 9th grade, Gregory Shawcross 10th grade, and the Petaga Brothers 6th grade. The young scientists received a deserved round of applause.
The award presentation was followed by an informal communication by Liz Cottrell and Rick Wunderman. They discussed the April 14th eruption in Iceland that shut down most of European airspace. Interesting points included: it last erupted in 1823, this eruption actually started in February, and that Liz could actually pronounce the name of the volcano (not attempted here).
Dr. Kaufman introduced the 3rd Annual Bradley Lecture with a brief biography of its namesake. This was followed by an introduction of the evening’s speaker, Robert Hazen. Two interesting biographical pieces of trivia stand out: he has a mineral named after him and is professional trumpeter. Robert Hazen’s lecture, “Mineralogical Co-Evolution of the Geo- and Biospheres”, proposed a new way of thinking about mineralogy. Through the lens of evolution, the study of mineralogy would be more accessible to a new generation of geologists. He pointed out that minerals evolve through time in terms of diversity, abundance, composition, and grain size. However, it must be kept in mind that is not the same as Darwinian evolution. By focusing on mineral evolution at the near surface environment, mineralogy is made more accessible for study and is relevant for the biosphere as this is where minerals interact with living cells. Hazen then lead the audience through the evolution of minerals, starting with about 60 mineral species around 4.56 ga, to 350 species 4.5-4.0 ga (which is the end point on the moon), and eventually making it to the stage of Phanerozoic biomineralization and with greater than 4,400 mineral species. He finished with the implications of mineral evolution. Some of which were using this thinking to compare and contrast planets and moons, insight on evolution of complex systems, and maybe most importantly that this represents a new way to frame and teach mineralogy. In usual fashion, the lecture was followed by questions from: Liz Cottrell, Smithsonian; Bill Burton, USGS; Brooks Hansen, Science; Leonard Johnson, NSF; and Madeline Blondes, University of Maryland.
President Kaufman announced that there will be a meeting on September 22nd. He also thanked all the speakers from the Spring, and thanked Odette James and Madeline Blondes for all their hard work.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Christopher Bernhardt
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1444th Meeting
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
The 1444th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington began at 8:02 pm. Much to the secretary’s surprise the minutes of the 1443rd meeting were read and approved without corrections.
President Kaufman opened the meeting by thanking GWU Columbian College of Arts and Sciences Dean Peg Barratt for serving as host, and Madeline Blondes for serving as past program chair and Liz Cottrell for taking the role as new program chair.
There were 66 attendees, and 15 future members, I mean guests; Liz Cottrell brought an army of people from the Smithsonian: Darrin Lunde, Kris Helgen, Terry Erwin, Matt Carano, Matthew Oreska, Hallie Street, Jennifer Tafe, Cara Santelli; Pranoti Asher, NOVA/GMU; Tim O’Brien, geologist working on the Metrorail expansion to Dulles Airport; Maria-José Vinas, American Geophysical Union; Shawn Domagal-Goldman, NASA; John and Beth Price, Nevada State Geologist; Larry Austin;
One new member was announced: Matt Larsen, USGS.
A moment of silence was held for the passing of Tom Dutro and Elizabeth “Queenie” King. President Kaufman took some to time to share moments from their influential and interesting lives.
Other formal announcements by President Kaufman included that October 13th is National Fossil Day, and GSW is a partner. Jeff Grossman was stepping down from his position and a new Archivist for GSW was needed. And that Rosalind Helz, took on the position as the new liaison to the Cosmos Club in light of the passing of Tom Dutro.
One informal communication was given by Callan Bentley, NOVA. He informed the audience that in the spring, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, Eastern Section, awarded Bill Burton, USGS, the Digman Award for non-educators educating people in the geosciences.
Reinhard Boehler, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, began the epic journey that is a GSW meeting with trip to the center of the earth. Upon reaching our destination, we found that the Earth is not as hot of a place as advertised. His talk “The temperature in the Earth - Experimental and geophysical constraints” focused the how one determines the melting temperature of iron (which in turn is important for determining the temperature of the core). Techniques included looking for submicron changes in the material being melted to using x-ray diffraction and absorption. Major experimental conclusions included a lower than predicted core temperature, with a highly viscous outer core and a plastic-like solid inner core. And the satisfying conclusion that there are many unknowns. Questions by Dan Milton, USGS; Callan Bentley, NOVA; President Kaufman, University of Maryland; and Shawn Domagal-Goldman, NASA.
In the next communiqué, Kateryna Klotchko, from the Carnegie, convinced the captivated crowd of the fundamentals, frustrations, and future of boron isotopes pH proxies. Basically, bespeaking that boron is not boring; Kateryna conveyed its consequence as proxy to confront concerns like past concentrations of carbon dioxide. She focused much of the talk on the difficult task of calibrating this new proxy. And spoke of the problems such as isolating inorganic from vital effects on the isotopes. While more calibration studies are needed, the talk demonstrated the exciting potential of boron isotopes as a new proxy to address the question of past carbon dioxide concentrations and IPCC predictions. Questions followed: Jamie Allen, NSF; and Shawn Domagal-Goldman, NASA.
The final stop on our journey for the night, Nicholas D. Pyenson, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, kept us in the ocean with his talk “Return to the sea: the fossil record of marine tetrapods and their multiple evolutionary origins.” While pacing back and forth and tempting the audience with a beer in his hand, Nicholas discussed the many examples of tetrapods returning to water. For example, during the Mesozoic it happened at least 20 times. Examining how tetrapods returned to water gives us insight to at how forms evolve, for example how do feeding morphologies (crushing vs. sheering) evolve; what are the drivers diversity; and what we know about the modern world. For example, explaining grey whales migration as a result of hunters eliminating the ones who did not migrate. In the end there have been many different origins of marine tetrapods. Questions by: Liz Cottrell, Smithsonian; Bill Burton, USGS; Callan Bentley, NOVA; Shawn Domagal-Goldman, NASA;
The October 13th meeting was announced.
Meeting was adjourned at 9:58 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Christopher Bernhardt
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1445th Meeting
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
The 1445th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington began at 8:03 pm on an inauspicious day, October 13th. On this day in hallowed antiquity, a misunderstood actor, Nero, ascended to the Roman throne in 54 AD and in 1307, a Friday, hundreds of Templars were killed for heresy, giving rise to the tradition of fear and bad luck on Friday the 13th. Casting the specters of the past aside, President Kaufman bravely opened the meeting by thanking Roz Helz for hosting the dinner. The minutes of the 1444th meeting were read and approved without corrections.
There were 65 attendees, and 6 guests; Larry Meinert, GSA/USGS Congressional Fellow; Gabriela March, AGU and her father Chuck March; Jeff Standish, Woods Hole; Emma Bullick, Smithsonian; and Matthew Oreska, Smithsonian.
Two new members were announced: Timothy O’Brien, Dulles Metrorail Extension Project; and, Pranoti Asher, George Mason University/NOVA.
President Kaufman reminded everyone that GSW participated in National Fossil Day earlier that day; that the next GSW Council Meeting will be held November 10th at the AGU building on Florida Ave; and, that GSW was still looking for an Archivist.
Ben Bussey began the evening with his talk, “The lunar poles: An ideal site for human exploration?” He started with the old vision, perhaps the one vision Bush was correct about, and that was returning to the Moon. Ben stated the Moon is important because it holds history of the Sun, planetary processes, it is a platform to study the universe, and means to learn how to explore the universe. More importantly we can use as long-term outpost with an infrastructure, analogous to the polar base on Antarctica. With these in mind, the poles are important because of the access to near constant solar energy, near constant temperature (good for engineering), near lunar far side (good for radioastronomy). In short the Moon, could serve as a fueling station for further travel, like Mars. Questions by: Liz Cottrell, Smithsonian; Rich Walk, University of Maryland; Brooks Hanson, Science.
Anat Shahar, brought us back to earth, deep into the center of the earth, with her talk, “Isotope fractionation during planetary differentiation.” Anat started by bringing the audience up to speed on planetary differentiation and isotopic fractionation. There was a discussion core formation, and that due to its density there must be some light elements. The core is lighter than the mantle because of silicon’s affinity to iron. She demonstrated that experimentally we could get at this using high pressure and temperature experiments testing iron and silicon fractionation. Her conclusion was that the core 6 ± 2% by weight silicon. Questions by: Liz Cottrell, Smithsonian; Rich Walker, University of Maryland; George Helz, University of Maryland
Cara Santelli finished the evening with, “Biomineralization – Applications to the remediation of metal contaminated environments.” Being a Clevelander and extremely biased against the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, it was no surprise when Cara stated that Pennsylvanians allowed over 5000 km of or their rivers to be degraded through acid mine drainage. Surprisingly, Pennsylvanians are trying to remediate these streams. And so started the meat of Cara’s talk, remediation and biogenic manganese oxides. She discussed passive remediation, which involves raising the pH of runoff to produce iron oxidation in one spillage pond and another pond to oxidize Mn (II). Problem is Mn oxidation is slow so this technique is moderately effective. But microorganisms can increase it 5 orders of magnitude. Experiments showed that 90% of biomineralization is done by fungi. But it is not shear amount fungi, rather species specific that increase oxidation. Questions by: George Helz, University of Maryland; Dick Fiske, Smithsonian; Jane Hammarstrom, USGS; Ben Bussey, Johns Hopkins University; Brooks Hansen, Science; Pete Toulmin, USGS (Retired).
The November 10th program was announced.
Meeting was adjourned at 9:49 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Christopher Bernhardt
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1446th Meeting
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
On November 10th, 1793 AD, the French Convention proclaimed a goddess of reason, and at 8:00 pm, 217 years later, the president of reason, President Kaufman, proclaimed the beginning of the1446th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington. The minutes of the 1445th meeting were read and approved.
President Kaufmann thanked Russ Hemley for hosting dinner, and stated more hosts were needed.
There were 74 enlightened attendees, and 6 guests; Alison Levente, DOE; Mary Joe Growns, University Rhode Island; Ted Engle, US National Guard; Matt Ampleman, University of Washington St Louis; Kate Freeman and Father Dave, PSU. Actually there were 7 guests; making an appearance was the self-proclaimed unannounced guest, Jim Quick, Southern Methodist University.
The names of eight new members were poorly pronounced yet none the less announced: Cara Santelli, Smithsonian; Jeff Standish, Harvard; Matthew Oreska, Smithsonian; Ira May, ERT Inc., Alison LaBonte, AAAS Science and Technology Fellow at DOE; Larry Meinert, GSA/USGS Congressional Science Fellow; Jonathan Banker, University of Maryland; Ester Sztein, National Academy of Science.
A moment of silence was held for the passing of GSW member Henry H. Wilson.
President Kaufman announced that there was still need of a webmaster, and student volunteers for the upcoming AAPG; and he announced the slate of new officers for next year.
The first talk of the evening was given by Glenn Gaetani, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Phase equilibrium constraints on the depth of crystallization beneath the rift zones of Iceland: an experimental study of Borgarhraun lava. But why Iceland, it is not because everything has really cool and difficult names to pronounce. No, it is here that oceanic crust is exposed. After his overview of Icelandic volcanoes, Glenn discussed the Borgarhraun lava nodules and the two forms of mineral crystallization (low and high pressure). Experimentally he found that wehrlite crystallization begins at 12 kbar, or 40km in the mantle itself. Questions by Liz Cottrell, Smithsonian; Jim Quick, Southern Methodist University; Dick Fiske, Smithsonian; Jamie Allen, NSF; Roz Helz USGS (retired).
Greg Vaughan, a USGS Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow, then stepped to the podium and pulled satellite-sized thermometer out of his pocket in order to take the temperature of Yellowstone. His objective was to establish a means to detect changes in thermal patterns from the more than 10,000 thermal features in Yellowstone, and to test the thermal detection limits of satellites. Using ASTER and MODIS, he detected seasonal trends in temperature, but overall the park was thermally stable over the past 10 years; and he also created hot spot maps for the park. Questions by Brooks Hanson, Science; Dick Fiske, Smithsonian; Bill Burton, USGS; George Helz, University of Maryland; Liz Cottrell, Smithsonian; Jim Quick, Southern Methodist; Linda Rowan.
The final talk, by Naomi Levine, The Johns Hopkins University, was about Hippos, giraffes and reconstructing paleoaridity in East Africa. Levine started her climatic safari by guiding the audience through the savannah of the human and climate record of East Africa. Establishing that the environment became more arid during human evolution, she explored what oxygen isotopes from herbivore teeth (hippos and giraffes) could further tell us about the climate. She established a large modern dataset and generated an aridity index. In the end, she was not able to see trends in past climate; however, Levine was able to use her technique to see snapshots of past mesic and xeric conditions. Questions by: Jamie Allen, NSF; Kate Freeman, PSU; Jay Kaufman, University of Maryland; Brooks Hanson, Science; Bill Burton, USGS.
The night ended with a poetic call for renewing ones membership by President Kaufman. And he also announced the Annual meeting will be held December 8th.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:08 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Christopher Bernhardt
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 1447th Meeting
Wednesday, December 8th, 2010
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
The 1447th meeting of the Geological Society began at 8 pm sharp. The minutes from the 1446th were read and approved with corrections. President Kaufman thanked Doug Rankin for hosting the dinner.
Five guests were announced: Murna Justice, Bill Cradick (USGS), Jesse Trushan, Katherine Water (UMD), and a very special guest, President Kaufman’s wife Karen.
There were four new members: Gariella March, AGU; Ted Engle, National Guard; Angela Doherty, University of Messina; and Jillian Mallis, George Washington University.
President Kaufman held a moment of silence for the passing of two members: Edwin R. Landis and Claire Davidson.
Callan Bentley put out notice that NOVA is hiring.
December 8th… It is an illustrious day for Presidential addresses. In 1941, FDR gave his famous Presidential address to Congress where he marked the 7th of December as “a date which will live in infamy”, in 1953, Eisenhower gave his “Atoms for Peace” speech, and in 1993, President Clinton addressed the country after signing NAFTA into law. Following this December 8th tradition of influential Presidential addresses, President Jay Kaufman gave is his Presidential address to the Geological Society of Washington: “The Co-Evolution of Life and Environment.”
Spanning 25 years of fieldwork and traversing the globe, President Kaufman’s address was a lesson in “genetic possibility and environmental history.” The President started by explaining the finer points life and the environment modifying each other and cleverly leading into a pitch for new memberships. The Google Earth enhanced journey began with “a wiff of oxygen” in western Australia during the Neoarchean. He pointed out at this time, thanks to processes that make isotopes could tracers, that the surface ocean was being oxidized at this time but not the atmosphere. We then flew around and ended up in Ontario, Canada, and where he laid out an oxidative model of Paleoproterozoic climate change. Jumping across the pond to South Africa’s Duitschland Formation, he pointed out the Earth’s first carbon isotope excursion and showed that the atmosphere has become oxidizing. In northern Namibia snowball earth and the mechanisms to achieve that state were examined. And finally, we arrived in northern Siberia during the Ediacaran Period (the first period ratified since 1891), which was a time when the first animals start appearing. The glaciations at this time period helped open the doors for the Cambrian organisms. President Kaufman kindly thanked Odette James, the various hosts, the program chairs, and his wife and children.
As tradition, there were no questions for the Presidential address.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:20pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Christopher Bernhardt
Geological Society of Washington
Minutes from the 118th Annual Meeting
Wednesday, December 8th, 2010
John Wesley Powell Auditorium
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
The Annual Meeting was attended by 42 members. The meeting began with the secretary’s, Christopher Bernhardt, summary of the year. Of note, the Grand Inquisitor award was given to Brooks Hansen.
This was followed by Sandy Neuzil’s membership report and the Finance Committee report.
Fred Simon gave the audit report and said everything is in good order thanks to Odette James.
There was no Public Service Committee Report.
Awards:
Best Informal Communication (Great Dane): Liz Cottrell and Rick Wunderman. Grossman was runner-up. Best Paper (Bradley Award): Nicolas Peyenson. Runners-up: Jay Kaufman, Bruce Molnia. Sleeping Bear: Liz Cottrell
President Kaufman announced the new slate and then passed off the gavel and Robert’s Rules of Order.
The Annual Meeting adjourned at 10:15 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Christopher Bernhardt