GSW: 2011 MEETING MINUTES

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1448th Meeting

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

President Rowan called the 78 attendees of the 1448th meeting of the Geological Society to order at 8:02. The minutes from the 1447th meeting were read and approved with no corrections.

There were nine guests, several of whose names I actually heard:  Robin Rohrback, Erik Sanchez, Benji Suarez and Bethy Thompson, all of NVCC; Christa Jackson from Humboldt State; Jeremy Caves (AGU Intern); Dana Thomas (AGI); Anthony Chappaz (UC Riverside); Jocelyn  ? 

Three new members were announced:  Jessie Holland (J.J. Geologic Contracting LLC), Stephanie Devlin (NRC), and Nicholas Pyenson (Smithsonian)

There were three announcements:

1. The secretary, on behalf of Charna Meth, announced the need for science fair judges at several upcoming fairs.  

2. Ester Stzein (NAS)- Announced a session at the now past AAAS meeting, entitled the “Practice of Science Diplomacy” on Sunday Feb 20th

3. Edie Alison/Jeff Eppic announced that they were co-chairing the Eastern Section Annual Meeting of the AAPG in Crystal City September 25-27, 2011, which is being hosted by GSW.

Callan Bentley (NVCC) delivered an informal communication about a spectacular cake, er, I mean outcrop in Baked AK, which had recently been excavated and exposed.  Never have so many geologic features been found in one outcrop. One can only imagine the amount of time and effort it took to interpret the geologic history of this region, and the attendees enthusiastically thanked Callan for his time and effort documenting and describing it for us. If you missed Callan’s interpretation of this exceptional outcrop, I direct your attention to the January 24 post on his blog, The Mountain Beltway, which is hosted by AGU blogosphere.

The president then announced the commencement of the official program, which she noted, according to the bylaws, consists of presentation of papers, discussion, and exhibition of specimens”. She then noted that there were no specimens offered for the informal communication, and expressed the hope that there would be specimens for the first talk, entitled: Geology and Wine – The Science of Good Taste by Larry Meinert, AAAS GSA/USGS Congressional Fellow — Start Time: 8:20 End Time 8:48.

Dr. Meinert took us on a virtual wine tasting tour of three locations;  WA state, CA, and Bordeaux and Burgundy, two regions in France to illustrate his findings that there are correlations between wine quality and the underlying soil and rock units. We began the tour with a thought experiment: Grape A and Grape B are neighbors, and grow in the same climate, receive the same amount of sunshine, and the same rainfall, however Grape A made an outstanding wine, while Grape B was just ordinary. “Why” you may ask? Well, as Dr Meinert indicated, Grape A was grown atop glacial outwash sediments while Grape B was not, and grapes grown atop gravel and alluvial fans are correlated to outstanding wines.   I’m afraid we had to take his word for it, as there were no specimens.

There were 6 Questions for Dr. Meinert: Brooks Hanson (Science), Hendrick van Oss  (USGS), Callan Bentley (NVCC), Shawn Goldman (NASA), Bill Burton (USGS) and Andrew  ? ( spectator)  

Our second talk of the evening (also sans specimens but for good reason) was by Jonathan O’Neil, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington — A glimpse of Earth’s primitive crust: The Nuvuaggittuq greenstone belt as a vestige of mafic Hadean crust. Start Time:  21:02 End Time 21:24   

After a lesson on pronunciation (New Vuag-a-tuck) and a translation (Inuit for porpoise) we learned that the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt in northern Quebec formed shortly after Earth’s formation, and may represent the oldest preserved rocks on Earth. At 4.28 BYO, it is 250 million years more ancient than any previously discovered formation.  These dates were determined using Neodymium-142 which is typically used for dating meteorites. The Nuvvaguatuq GS Belt is dominated by mafic rocks interpreted to be ancient volcanic deposits, termed “faux amphibolites.” so named because the Inuit name is nearly unpronounceable.  Dr O’Neil reminded us that studying the early earth, when conditions on earth were changing quickly and specimens are sparse can be very challenging, which is why there were no specimens.

There were 3 questions by: Liz Cottrell (Smithsonian), Ester Stzein (NAS), Bill Burton (USGS)

The third talk, which really did not lend itself well to specimens at all, was by David Shelly, Long Valley and Yellowstone Volcano Observatories U.S.G.S. — Tremor, slow slip, and earthquakes:  Interacting modes of fault slip. Start Time: 21:33 End Time 21:56  

After publicly admitting he was a (gasp!) geophysicist, David Shelly went on to discuss tremor, which was recognized only about 10 years ago. Initially tremor was dismissed as noise, but has since been observed and measured in several locations. Tremor is different from earthquake seismic signals in that the signals do not include P- and S-wave.  Since its discovery, tremor has intrigued seismologists because it is often associated with a type of silent, slow slip along a fault occurring in subduction zones. Non-volcanic tremor has also been detected in the Cascadia subduction zone and under the San Andreas Fault. Although tremor hasn’t been studied very well yet, the data so far indicate that it may help reveal how faults are moving.

There were 8 questions for Dr. O’Neil: Liz Cottrell (Smithsonian), Dick Fiske (Smithsonian), George Helz (UMD ret), 2 by Linda Rowan (AGI), Brooks Hanson (Science), Stephanie Devlin (NRC) and Sandy Neuzil (USGS)

The 1448thth meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at 22:09 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Michelle Arsenault

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1449th Meeting

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

President Rowan called the 66 attendees of the 1449th meeting of the Geological Society to order at 7:59 pm. The minutes from the 1448th meeting were read and approved with minor corrections.

Much to my chagrin, there were oh so many guests, 14! 

Dave Ahmestad(UMD), Matthew Abbot(UMD), Amanda Bender (UMD), James Kean (UMD), Katherine Watter (UMD),

Jared Fortner (Radford University), Jared’s friend Eli (Radford University), Wilson Vadum (AGI), Steve Baedke (James Madison University), James Anderson (NMNH), Rick Aster (NM Tech), Dean Torilla (?) (Penn State), John Price, Nevada School of Mines, and his wife Beth

Two new members were announced:  Christa Jackson who is an intern at the Smithsonian NMNH with Liz Cottrell and

Dana Thomas who is an intern at AGI American Geological Institute Intern

There were two announcements:  The president announced the passing of GSW member Robert (Bob) Fudali of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and asked that the members observe a moment of silence. The secretary, on behalf of Charna Meth, announced the continued need for Science Fair judges.

There were two informal communications:  Roz Helz updated the group on the latest news about the eruptions at Kilauea volcano with a dramatic video which elicited a collective “gasp” from the audience.  The really cool video footage, recorded on March 5th of this year by the Hawaii Volcanoes Observatory, showed the collapse of the floor of the Pu’u O’O crater which dropped about 377 feet! 

Callan Bentley delivered the second informal communication in the form of a clip from a NOVA documentary entitled The Mystery of the MegaFlood. The video tells the story of J Harlan Bretz and his flood hypothesis for the channeled scablands of WA. In the overly dramatic video there is a “reenactment” of the 423rd meeting of the GSW, where Bretz presented his hypothesis; and geologists, many in bowties, could be heard muttering phrases like, “I know where his water came from”, and “That’s preposterous!”

    Not wearing a bow tie, and not eliciting collective gasps or remarks like “that’s preposterous!” was our first speaker,

John C. Brock, of the USGS, Reston with a talk entitled Coastal science applications of an airborne research LIDAR.

After self-identifying as a remote sensing geek, Dr. Brock introduced us to LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging,) which is an optical remote sensing technology which can be used for such things as mapping coral reef ecosystems, shorelines and coastal changes, and vegetation.  The USGS is employing LIDAR to conduct simple Coastal Vulnerability Surveys which are critical for Coastal communities for resource management and urban planning purposes.   Start  20:33   End 20:48. There were two questions: Sandy Neuzil, USGS, Charles Meade,  Carnegie Institution.

Our second talk was by Elizabeth (Liz) Johnson, James Madison University entitled Making a mantle out of Mole Hill: Petrologic and geochemical clues to what lies beneath the Shenandoah Valley, VA.  Liz began her talk by noting that she brought specimens(!) in reference to the 1448th meeting, at which there was an obvious lack of specimens.

Liz showed us Eocene-aged volcanics in three regions in Western VA and Eastern WV including a location known as Mole Hill, which is likely the weathered remains of a violent volcanic eruption that occurred nearly 50 million years ago.  It’s an interesting geological area because it is much younger than the rest of the Appalachians, but Mole Hill is not the only geological structure in the Shenandoah Valley region created by magma breaching the Earth's surface. Similar, smaller bodies of igneous rocks are scattered throughout the region providing many opportunities for future student projects!   Start : 20:54   End : 21:20

There were three Questions: Jared Fortner, Radford University, Larry Meinert, AAAS GSA/USGS Congressional Fellow, and Madelyn Blondis, USGS

Our third talk of the evening was by Wenlu Zhu, University of Maryland -- Microtomography of partially molten mantle peridotite: 3-dimensional melt distribution.  Wenlu confessed, as had a speaker at the previous GSW meeting, that she too was a geophysicist. And even worse, an experimental geophysicist.   Wenlu has produced the first non-destructive images of 3D melt distribution to try to understand fluid transport processes in the Earth’s crust and mantle, and their geologic implications.  Prior studies utilized 2D structures which resulted in divergent melt distribution models. By using 3D microtomography she is able to better understand the relationship between permeability and pore structure and what role that plays in melt distribution and transport under mid-ocean ridges. 

Start: 21:25  End : 21:49. There were three questions: Charles Meade (Carnegie Institution), Liz Johnson (James Madison University), Dan Doctor (USGS)

The 1449thth meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at 21:56 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Michelle Arsenault

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1450th Meeting

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

President Rowan called the 80 attendees of the 1450th (AKA, All Smithsonian, all the time) meeting of the Geological Society to order at 8:01 pm. The minutes from the 1449th meeting were read and approved with far too many corrections.

Again, much to my chagrin, there were 15 guests: Kenneth Brown (SI), Ryan Nell (SI), Lynn Barclay (SI), Ben Gunnell (SI), Jodi Hillman (SI), Matt Tocheri (SI), Kris Helgen (SI), Lauren Helgen (SI), Nathan Judd (UMD), Cindy Loy (UC Berkeley), Katherine Watter (UMD), James Kean (UMD), Matt Abbott (UMD), Amanda Bender (UMD), Benjamin Breeden (UMD)

There were no new members to announce this week, so the first of five announcements was a plea by the president to encourage people to join, and after they joined they should donate to the beer fund (AKA, the General Fund). The second announcement pertained to the fact that GSW is sponsoring the AAPG meeting in Crystal City September 24-29, 2011. Abstracts are due April 4th. The third announcement was a request that was received by Dave Applegate, our webmaster, from a father with a geologically curious son, who wanted to know if someone from the GSW would be willing to identify the rocks that his son had collected. Liz Cottrell volunteered Serena Sorenson for the job. Phil Justus, of the Rockville Science Center announced an event at Montgomery College April 5th from noon to 5:00. Sandy Neuzil announced that on April 21st Kathy Anamoto, a GSW member, will give a talk at the Potomac Geophysical Society.

   There was one informal communication by Matt Carrano, Curator at NMNH, who highlighted the multi-year effort by the Smithsonian on “Deep time”.  Can Paleontology (help to) save the world? The Deep time Initiative at the Smithsonian is a multi-disciplinary approach to study deep time and past climate change in an effort to inform future climate change.

There were several questions: George Helz, Callan Bentley, Dave Daensler, Linda Rowan, and Bill Burton

The first talk was by our informal communicator (is this a precedent?) Matt Carrano, National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), Smithsonian Institution entitled Dinosaur diversity and the Mesozoic fossil record.  When asked if he brought any specimens he said he was not aware that it was an option. (Note to self, ask council about encouraging speakers to bring specimens.) Matt’s research focuses on the fossil record of the Mesozoic which he admitted is not great.  The fossil record, not his research. Ultimately his goal is to better understand dinosaur diversity. Start time: 20:39, End time 20:45

There were lots of questions: Chris Swezey, Brooks Hanson, Bill Burton, Dan Milton, Dave Daensler, Dan Doctor, Mary Hill French, and John Repetsky.

Our second talk of the evening was by Bill DiMichele, (pronounced Di MICHAEL but I prefer Michelle), also of the SI, entitled The response of tropical vegetation to the onset of an ice age at the Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary.  The Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary was a time of globally cool climates and a long period of glaciation. Bill and his team have documented patterns of change in the composition of fossil plant assemblages found in TX and New Mexico, which indicate that the vegetation oscillated from wet to dry species with short term glacial retreats and advances, and over time, dry vegetation types became dominant over large areas for long periods of time. Start: 20:56  End 21:17

There was one question by Brooks Hanson of Science.

The final talk of the evening was by Scott Wing, NMNH, entitled A deep time perturbation of carbon cycle and climate with implications for the future. Scott is studying the fossil plant assemblages present during the Carbon Isotope excursion that occurred during the PETM (Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum), which is a geologically short period of rapid climate change and extreme change in ecosystems, which is the best geological analogue we have to present-day global warming.  Scott mentioned that one of his proudest accomplishments is that the holes he and his team dig in the Bighorn Basin in WY are big enough to be seen on Google Earth. Start: 21:19  End 21:42

There were questions by Charles Meade (Carnegie), Mack Ross (USGS retired), Bevan French (Smithsonian), Liz Cottrell, (Smithsonian), Dan Doctor (USGS), Jeremy Caves (AGU), and Linda Rowan (AGI)

The 1450th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at 10:02 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Michelle Arsenault

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1451st Meeting

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

President Rowan called the 49 attendees of the 1451th meeting of the Geological Society to order at 20:03. The minutes from the 1450th meeting were read and approved without (hooray!) corrections.

There were 5 guests announced: Krista Jackson announced a geodude whose name I missed, Samantha Smith, Nicole Linney, Emily Herd, and James Anderson

Two new members were announced: Wilson Bonner (AGI) and Matt Ampleman (EPA)  

There were two announcements:  concerning the BaF and the BYOBc.

The BaF or the Bring a Friend to GSW is a new recruitment idea and will occur on October 5th, 2011.

BYOBC is the “bring your own beer contribution”; an idea to help fund happy hour, because it was noted that the number of beers consumed has been exceeding the number of attendees. You can either donate to the general fund, or to the president, who will take cold hard cash.

Our first speaker was Dr. Chris Herd, from the University of Alberta -- Organic matter in the Tagish Lake meteorite. Chris told us about research he’s doing on a unique meteorite that fell to earth in January 2000 in a cold, remote area in British Columbia and may provide insight into the beginnings of our solar system. The meteorite was determined to be a carbonaceous chondrite, which is rare to begin with, and was found to contain organic species such as C, H, O, N, and S, indicating the presence of amino acids! This meteorite is providing us great insight into meteorite parent bodies, as well as the early earth.

Questions: Liz Cottrell, Charles Meade, Bevin French, Dan Doctor, Jeremy Caves, Matt Ampleman, Mark McBride, and Linda Rowan (3)

Our second talk of the evening Soils and climate was given by Dr. Chuck Rice, who graciously stepped in to give his talk earlier than expected, due to technical difficulties with the second speakers talk.  The malfunction begged the question…How many GSW members does it take to provide tech support?

Dr. Rice highlighted the intimate link between soils, climate change and humanity. Since soils contain most of the carbon in the carbon cycle, small changes in the soil can alter the Carbon in the atmosphere. For example, as the planet warms, we see an increase in microorganisms, which eat more organic carbon and release more CO2 into the atmosphere. Dr. Rice assured is it’s not all gloom and doom though, we can increase the amount of carbon stored in soil by changing our agricultural practices such as using different crop rotations, using cover crops and doing less tillage or stirring of the soil.

There were many questions for Dr. Rice: Charles Meade (Carnegie), 2 questions by James Anderson (SI), Jeremy Caves (AGU), Sandy Neuzil (USGS), Christian Miller (DTM), Liz Cottrell (SI), Mary Hill French (Retired), Ester Stzein (NAS), Dana Thomas (AGI), and Sandra Herbert.  

Our last talk for the evening was by Alicia Karspeck, National Center for Atmospheric Research entitled Reconstructions of historic sea surface temperatures. Alicia did a terrific job despite the fact that none of her images would project. Alicia presented us with an overview of Sea Surface Temperature reconstructions, highlighting the fact that the data used to make the reconstructions are sparse and often introduce large errors. It’s important that we care about such things because we are creating simulations based on disparate information to inform us about climate change.  In an effort to understand how we go about creating homogeneous maps from sparse data, Alicia is employing an emerging research discipline known as uncertainty estimation.

There were two questions for Alicia, Liz Cottrell (SI) and Charles Meade (Carnegie)

The 1451st meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at 22:06.

Respectfully submitted,

Michelle Arsenault

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1452nd Meeting

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

President Rowan called the 75 rowdy attendees of the 1452nd meeting of the Geological Society to order at 20:03. Perhaps this was pre-summer vacation rowdiness as this was the last meeting until the fall. The minutes from the 1451st meeting were read and approved with minor corrections.

There were three guests:  Professor Bernardo Cesare, Dipartimento di Geoscienze, Universita' di Padova, Chris Seagal (post doc at SI), and Matthew Abbot (UMD).

Two new members were announced: Debbie Smith, Senior Scientist Dept of Geology and geophysics at WHOI and formerly NSF James Anderson, science writing intern at the Smithsonian.

There were several announcements: BaF (bring a friend to GSW) on October 5th to encourage new membership; BYOBC  (Bring Your Own Beer Contribution) which you can donate to either Linda Rowan or Alex Speer; and Charna Meth announced the winners of the regional science fairs: Addi Giffin and Frederick Xu of Montgomery County, Cameron Gould of Prince George's County, Jared Cochuela of Fairfax County, and Elizabeth Hoerauf of Loudoun County. Each winner presented their poster to the GSW members this evening and was presented with gifts donated by the USGS and AGI. Charna thanked all of the members who were judges this year.

 

       Delivering the Bradley lecture, our sole speaker for the evening was David Walker, a solid earth geochemist from Columbia University, with a talk entitled “What could make the Earth’s Core leak?”  Dr. Walker suggested we ask ourselves an even more fundamental question than _what_ could make the core leak:  “_Does_ the Core leak?”, and “if so, what could or would drive such a process? “. The punch line is that we still don’t really know _if_ the core leaks, but there are several potential processes that could drive it.

Upon noticing the beer-can gavel, Dr. Walker complimented the members of GSW for not taking ourselves too seriously, and in light of that, and in true geologist fashion, suggested that now that dinner in the Cosmos Club was now over perhaps he could remove his tie soon.

Studying the core poses unique challenges, because of course, we can’t go there. You can’t even send grad students there. Most of what we know about the core comes from seismology, but Dr. Walker uses high pressure chemistry experiments with fancy double anvil diamond lasers to study various possible processes that might explain if and how the core is leaking. For example, by studying the “footprint” that the core has left on the crust and mantle in the form of plume basalts found in places like HI and Siberia,  Dr. Walker has identified an Osmium anomaly that may be indicative of the geochemistry of the core (A core flavored plume if you will). Of course, it’s much more complex than that and may involve multiple processes. Dr Walker has looked at other processes such as Oxygen solubility at high pressures which is very hard to measure, hence the double anvil diamond laser. It turns out that Oxygen solubility at 1/2 a megabar (or halfway to the core mantle boundary) is probably not high enough to be a factor in core melting, so they are striving to reach 1 Mbar. Investigations continue. His tie was not removed.

Dr. Walker concluded by offering the GSW some sage advice about lessons he’s learned over the years…”Four years in the lab can save you one hour at the library” and “play nice with others and share” (or sometimes it’s useful to work as a team rather than working in a bubble”. 

There were questions by: Charles Meade (Carnegie), Brooks Hanson (Science Magazine), Linda Rowan (El Presidente), Liz Cottrell (SI), Chris Segal (SI), Bernardo Cesare (Universita' di Padova), geo-dude sitting in the back right, Dick Fiske (SI), Jamie Allen (NSF), and Steve Lynton (SI)

The 1452nd meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at 21:39.

Respectfully submitted,

Michelle Arsenault

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1453rd Meeting

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

President Rowan called the 93! attendees of the 1453rd meeting of the Geological Society to order at 20:02. The theme for this evening was “All USGS all the time”. The minutes from the 1452nd meeting were read and approved with NO corrections!

 

There were many many guests: 

Lukas Zurcher (USGS, Denver & Tucson)

Mark Mihalasky (USGS, Spokane)

Dick Yeager (Ithaca)

Steve Smith (part time NOVA student)

Doug Rissing (recent Geo Graduate of Mary Washington)

Chris Houten-NRC

Rick Gaschnig post doc at UMD and, Washington State Univ

Andrew Beck-(Smithsonian Institution)

Maureen Moses (AMS)

Madelyn Gunther

Michael Tuttle

Four new members were announced: 

Katherine Watter: Graduate student at University of Maryland

Janet Baran (NOAA)

Kori Newman (Raytheon BBN Technologies)

Charles Meade (Carnegie)

There were several announcements: BaF (bring a friend or frenemy to GSW) on October 5th to encourage new membership; BYOBC  (Bring Your Own Beer Contribution) which you can donate to either Linda Rowan or Alex Speer; and the AAPG Eastern Section meeting is being held at the Crystal City Hiatt Sept 25 through the 27th and is being hosted by the GSW. Please attend!

          We had three informal communications: The first from David Applegate (USGS) about the August 2011 VA earthquake and its aftermath. David had some very interesting insights about the earthquake: it was felt by more people and in a much broader area than any other earthquake in American history; it was a great opportunity for DC residents to demonstrate their general lack of earthquake preparedness skills; and that our area contains a lot of FPRs (Future Piles of Rubble)

There was one question by Fred Simon.

Informal communication 2a was from Chris Swezey (USGS) who presented personal photos of the earthquake damage he experienced. Living quite close to the epicenter Chris had significant damage to his home and brick chimneys, or as they are now known, PRs (piles of rubble). He also felt a series of hundreds of aftershocks, and said that it appears that the damage occurred in two narrow bands striking NE and NW.

Informal Communication 2b (also by Chris Swezey, still with the USGS) was about the recent discovery (and commercial use) of natural gas in North Carolina. Chris showed us a Triassic-aged rift basin (called the Sanford Basin) which may be the “birthplace of the petroleum industry in NC”. So far the well that was installed produced enough gas to roast a pig, but stay tuned as the USGS continues their assessment of the area and its potential. There will be more information presented at the AAPG meeting in Crystal City. There were no questions.

Continuing with our theme of all USGS all the time, our first speaker was Robert C. Burruss, Isotope reversals and rollovers:  The last gasp of shale gas? Dr. Burruss is looking at unusual aspects of stable isotopes and the implications for natural gas geochemistry in the Utica Shale in the Appalachian basin. Through the geochemistry he has a better understanding of gas migrations, and may have stumbled upon new tools to look at fluid inclusions. As for the unconventional gas resources, they may be limited, and indeed may be considered “the last gasp”. Start time: 20:36, End time: 20:58

Questions were asked by Chris Swezey (USGS), Mack Ross (USGS retired), Inga somebody

Our second USGS talk was by Sandra G. Neuzil, entitled Intrigue, alchemy, and reality of oil shale resources. Start: 21:05 End: 21:25

Intrigue: the US is fascinated by oil shale because we have a lot of reserves with a very large amount of oil in the Green River Fm. Alchemy: oil shale formed geologically and actually has no oil in it. It has organic matter called kerogens which are not thermally mature.  If you heat it you can produce shale oil. Reality: Where in time and space do we find oil shale? All over the world, but US has most of the reserves, and half of it comes from the Eocene-aged Green River Fm

There were questions by Jamie Allan (NSF), Linda Rowan (AGI), Sarah Peek, Victor Zabielski (NOVA), Alan Tenner (USGS ret), Jared Fortner (Radford University), Michelle Arsenault (NOAA).

The last USGS talk of the evening was delivered by Peter D. Warwick, Geologic carbon dioxide sequestration and enhanced oil recovery. Start: 21:33 End: 21:54.

The USGS was tasked with doing an assessment to look at storage capacity of potential locations around the country for carbon capture and storage. The initial assessment focuses on injection of CO2 at depths between 3,000 and 13, 000 feet: the depth at which CO2 is liquid and buoyant. The final report on this assessment is due in 2013. The next steps involve EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery), which in addition to recovering “stranded oil”, also serves to capture carbon but at a much lower capacity than just CO2 sequestration. Also, EOR is driven by economic factors as well as drilling and production patterns whereas carbon sequestration is driven by the location of the appropriate rock types. Carbon dioxide sequestration and enhanced oil recovery are both geologically and mechanically feasible but is it economically feasible? The USGS has to consider both economic and regulatory conditions, as well as new research and field expertise to define Residual Oil Zones (ROZ).

There were questions from: Chris Neuzil, Linda Rowan (AGI), Linda Rowan (AGI), Jane Hammarstrom, Lenny Conacka (USGS), Mack Ross (USGS ret), Linda Rowan (AGI)

The president announced that the next meeting on October 5, 2011 would be BaF and the theme for the evening would be “All volcanoes all the time”.

The 1453rd meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at 22:04

Respectfully submitted,

Michelle Arsenault              

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1454th Meeting

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

President Rowan called the 85.001 attendees of the 1454th meeting of the Geological Society to order at 20:01. The 0.001 represents the youngest member of the audience, based on his current age rounded to the nearest month (1) and the average life expectancy of a male born in the US (75.6 years). The theme for this evening was “All Volcanoes All the Time”. The minutes from the 1453rd meeting were read and approved with minor corrections.

BaF (bring a friend to GSW) was a resounding success as there were 18 guests!!

Paul Kidot: Norway

Jim Brey: AMS

Celeste Lehrer Teacher, Watkins Elementary, Washington D.C

Dale Stevenson, the aforementioned youngest guest ever?

Brent Grocholski Smithsonian

Kimberly Corum (SI)

Marge Viterny (SI)

Michael Mobilia (EIA)

Saimira Roberts (NVCC Manassas)

Heather Saburova (NVCC Manassas)

Tomaya Suzuki (NVCC Manassas)

Samira (World Resources Institute)

Sarah (World Resources Institute)

Robin (NVCC)

Angel (NVCC)

Eric (NVCC)

Abby Siegler (AGI)

April Durham (AGI)

Four new members were announced (75 % of whom were from UMD): 

Richard Gaschnig, post doc University of MD

Kristy Long, Grad student University of MD

Palma Botterell, PhD candidate, University of MD

Maureen Moses, AMS

There were two announcements: BYOBC  (Bring Your Own Beer Contributions are always welcome. And as Jamie Allen of NSF noted, one can contribute as part of their dues renewal, which then makes your donation tax deductable. The president announced the death of a long time GSW member, Paul D. Lowman Jr, who was a retired NASA Goddard employee, and who gave numerous talks at GSW over the years beginning in 1967.

We had one informal communication from the triumvirate comprised of Edie Alison, Jeff Eppink and Jamie Allen: An update of the recent AAPG meeting in Crystal City, which was hosted by the GSW. Apparently the GSW hosted the AAPG one other time, but as the triumvirate noted, it was so long ago, none of them could remember when. One of the members shouted out “82”, to which another member asked, “Nineteen…?”.  Not an unreasonable question, given the age of the society. Laughter ensued. They thanked the members of GSW who participated in the AAPG, noted that there was a money surplus which was generously donated to the GSW, and pointed out the left over schwag.

Our first speaker for all Volcanoes All the Time… was Diana Roman, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington with a talk entitled The secret life of 'quiescent' volcanoes.  Diana is studying an underappreciated problem in volcanology:  the processes that drive volcanic seismic unrest and non-eruptive sequences, which may signal changes in a volcano’s behavior.  Diana presented several examples of volcanoes that displayed varying behavior. For example, Iliamna Volcano in AK which has shown a ramp up or sustained seismicity but no eruption while Soufriere Hills volcano on Montserrat displayed subtle changes in stress fields that led up to changes in  volcanic activity. Big questions include: what can these non eruptive sequences tell us about long term eruptions, if anything? What physical processes are responsible for these sequences? And can we distinguish between eruptive and non eruptive episodes, and use them to forecast hazards?

There were questions from: Jamie Allan (NSF), Brooks Hanson (Science), Linda Rowan (AGI), Roz Helz (USGS retired), Pete Toulmin (USGS), and Jeff Standish (ACS)

Our second volcano talk was by Benjamin Andrews, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, entitled Laboratory insights into pyroclastic flow dynamics.  Pyroclastic density currents are fast moving, thick, roiling clouds of rock, ash and gas that have temps of 500C or more, and can cause substantial damage. In order to study pyroclastic flows, one could look at active eruptions, study the depositional record of sediments, use numerical models, or build a really cool experimental flume at Berkeley and video tape the experiments like Ben did. The parameters used for the experiments include mass discharge, flow duration, particle size, density, temperature, and topography. The experiments are then analyzed for current thickness, runout length, buoyant liftoff position, and particle concentration as a function of position and time. The goal is to learn about volcanic processes and predict how future eruptions are likely to behave.

There were questions from  Jamie Allan (NSF), Dick Fiske (SI), Brent Grocholski (SI), Linda Rowan (AGI), Linda Rowan (AGI), Jeff Eppink (), and Glenn Chinery (EPA)

The last volcano talk of the evening was by Tobias Fischer, University of New Mexico entitled Messengers from depth: Volcanoes and the carbon cycle.  Tobias told us about Oldoinyo Lengai, a volcano that sits high above the floor of the Rift Valley in Tanzania. Oldoinyo Lengai is unique in that it spews forth carbon dioxide-laden lavas called carbonatites: an act that Tobias and team caught on video in 2005. While sampling mantle volatiles the volcano started erupting, which allowed them to sample fresh carbonatite lavas. Unlike most lavas which contain about 14% CO2, carbonatites contain ~30%.  He also noted that there was no gas smell, as no one passed out. The gases reveal that the carbon dioxide comes directly from the upper mantle, just below the East African Rift and allows them to infer the carbon content, which is about 300 parts per million, a concentration virtually identical to that measured below mid-ocean ridges.

There were questions from: Glenn Chinery (EPA), Brooks Hanson (Science), Jamie Allan (NSF), Alan Linde (Carnegie), Mack Ross (USGS Retired), Jeff Standish (ACS), Carter Hearn (SI and USGS retired), Dave Freeman (Professor emeritus UMD)

The 1454th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at the very late hour of 22:14

Respectfully submitted,

Michelle Arsenault

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1455th Meeting

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

President Rowan called the 79 attendees of the 1455th meeting of the Geological Society to order at 20:10. The themes for this evening were “eclecticism” and “brevity”. The talks ranged from mineralogy, to geomorphology, to volcanology and mass extinction. And each of the speakers kept their talks to 20 minutes or less! The minutes from the 1454th meeting were read and approved with no corrections.

There were 7 guests:

David Nanney (retired)

Leslie Nanney (retired)

Ngochti Dang (NOVA) (Knock tee)

Linh Huynh (NOVA) (Huh win)

Frances Jarrod (Carnegie-DTM)

Emma Bullock (SI-minerals division)

Rob Bennen (SI intern)

Five new members were announced: 

James  Brey, American Meteorological Society, Director of the Education Program

Celeste Lehrer, Current Position – First Grade Teacher, Watkins Elementary, Washington D.C.

Loren Petruny, Current Position – Smithsonian Inst. NMNH, Dept. of Paleobiology

Nicole Lunning,  (UCDavis) Current Position – Smithsonian Inst, Division of Meteorites

Brent Grocholski, Current Position – Smithsonian (Peter Buck Fellowship 2011)

There were several announcements: Please do not park in the Cosmos Club parking lot or they will charge us.

With regard to the adult beverages: It seems we have been drinking a lot of beer, and they are expensive, so it was suggested that we donate extra or observe temperance, or our own personal prohibition.

Julie Nord announced an opening for a tenure track position at George Mason University and that they would be reviewing apps in November.

We had one informal communication by Dan Milton involving a mystery surrounding the mineral Calaverite, which is a gold telluride.  At the 542nd meeting of the GSW (in 1936), Tunell and Ksanda gave a talk about Calaverite, which at the time had a crystal structure that was not well understood. Until now.  The discovery that Calaverite is a quasi-crystal with broken symmetry, that is there are regular patterns in the structure, but never repeating, has garnered a Nobel Prize in chemistry for Daniel Shechtman. Calavarite now has a space supergroup in 6 dimensions, to call its very own, and it only took a mere 75 years.

Andrew (Andy) Cyr, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park - Alluvial fan records of climatically driven hillslope erosion rates, Providence Mountains, Eastern Mojave Desert, California. (20 minutes)

It’s a rare GSW talk that invokes geomorphology. This made the secretary very happy. Andy uses cosmogenic nuclides to investigate the links between climate change and the resulting landscape response, in an effort to determine how climate affects erosion rates. Cosmogenic nuclides are “primary galactic cosmic rays”, and 10Be and 26Al in quartz are commonly analyzed. Generally a high concentration of cosmogenic nuclides is associated with slow erosion and a low concentration is associated with fast erosion. This works great when looking at erosion rates of rocks, but it gets more complicated when looking at entire watersheds.

To test links between climate and erosion, Andy is studying alluvial fans in a dry, steep sloped, tectonically quiet area in the Eastern Mojave Desert, CA as well as a more humid, lower sloped environment in the Shenandoah. Generally, erosion in the West is quicker and is controlled by climate, which is characterized by high intensity, short duration storms, with less vegetation to strengthen to soils, while the Eastern US experiences slower rates of erosion mainly due to vegetation cover.  

Questions by Sandy Neuzil (USGS), Chris Swezey (USGS)

Brent Grocholski, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution - The surprising appearance of highly metastable silica in Martian meteorites. (16 minutes). Let it be noted that Brent brought specimens!

Have you ever sat through a talk and realized that you weren’t nearly as smart as you thought you were? Brent confessed that he doesn’t really study meteorites and he only put that in his title so as to suck us in. It worked. He is in reality a physicist (gasp!) studying minerals and mantle conditions. Specifically he discovered some unusual properties of the mineral seifertite which is the densest polymorph of quartz and is found in meteorites such as the Shergotty meteorite. Typically seifertire is stable at lower mantle pressure and depths, but through high-pressure diamond anvil cell experiments Brent discovered that seifertite was metastable @ 130 GPascals.

Questions by Liz Cottrell (SI), Dan Milton (USGS), Linda Rowan (AGI), Michelle Arsenault (NOAA).

Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington - The Siberian flood basalts and the end-Permian extinction: Coincidence or causality? (18 minutes).

Lindy and her large multi-disciplinary team (28 scientists from 8 different countries) are investigating the relationship between earth and life on earth, by studying the end Permian Extinction, which wiped out 90-95% of ocean species, as well as lots of land species. Could it be a coincidence that the Siberian Flood Basalts occurred at the same time as the extinction event? Probably not. So far they have found supporting evidence that the flood basalts could have drastically altered the composition of the atmosphere and ocean. In Siberia they found evidence of explosive plumes that are interpreted as the transport mechanism of chemicals to the upper atmosphere, evidence for high amounts of chlorofluorocarbons, which in our modern world are responsible for the ozone hole, and modified pollen that indicates ozone depletion.

Questions by Barbara Am Ende, Dick Fiske (SI), Linda Rowan (AGI), Linda Rowan (AGI), Pete Toulmin (USGS ret), Chris Swezey (USGS), Linda Rowan (AGI), Linda Rowan (AGI), Bill McDonough (UMD) Linda Rowan (AGI), Geo dude that asked about komatiites, Linda Rowan (AGI), Sandy Neuzil (USGS), Linda Rowan (AGI). 

The secretary noted that the president seems to be making a move to win the title of “most questions asked”. 

The 1455th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at 21:49

Respectfully submitted,

Michelle Arsenault

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1456th Meeting

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

President Rowan called the 59 attendees of the 1456th meeting of the Geological Society to order at 20:12. The minutes from the 1455th meeting were read and approved with minor corrections. Kudos to all three speakers, who all, like the previous meetings’ speakers, kept their talks to 20 minutes or less.

There were 4 guests.

Paul Haird (DOE)

Mike Cooperburg ? (DOE)

Bill Burgos (Penn State) and one of our speakers

Nebiyu D. Tiruneh (NRC) Mark McBride

Two new members were announced: 

Ben Andrews, SI Department of Mineral Sciences

Stephen Smith, Lafarge North America

There were several announcements: A reminder to please not park in the Cosmos Club parking lot or they will charge us. If you would like to contribute to the beverage fund please see either Linda Rowan or Alex Speer. Lastly, the list of GSW 2012 Officers was presented.          

We had one informal communication by Jamie Allen. Jamie, turned math professor, clutching a beer, led us through a calculation for determining how much money one could add to their membership renewel to offset their beer consumption. For example, if you drink 2 beers per meeting, x 10 meetings a year x $7.00/beer one could potentially add a minimum of 140.00 to their membership renewal to cover that.   

Our first speaker was Bill Burgos of Penn State University with a talk entitled “Linking surface hydrodynamics to subsurface geochemistry”. Bill then proceeded to link surface hydrodynamics to subsurface geochemistry. He and his team are investigating acid mine drainage in PA and potential natural remediation techniques. AMD is the number one environmental problem in this region, and the streams in this area are characterized by high acidity, low pH (3 or lower), and high concentrations of heavy metals.  They have studied this problem in part by adding thousands of gallons of fresh water into a stream then measuring the electrical resistivity along transects across the stream. Using these techniques they have determined that there are distinct zones: some oxic, some reducing, which will help inform remediation strategies.  start 20:30 end 20:49 (19 minutes)

Questions were asked by Liz Cottrell (SI), Dan Doctor (USGS), Linda Rowan (AGI), Wilson Bonner (AGI), Cara Santelli (SI), and Linda Rowan (AGI).

The next talk was by Ryan Gold of the Geologic Hazards Science Center at the USGS entitled “temporal variations in slip fault rate in the northern Walker Lane-implications for seismic hazard”

Ryan uses geomorphologic features to determine Earthquake displacement which he then uses to calculate average slip rates over time.  One of the areas he is currently studying is the Northern Walker Lane; an area that straddles the CA-NV border north of Reno. One of the features of interest is the Fort Sage Alluvial Fan, which was offset 85 meters by the Warm Springs Valley fault. Ultimately he is using these data to fill in sparse data sets for this complex shear zone where little or no slip-rate information is available, and to provide critical information about seismic risk posed by a series of active faults near Reno. Start 20:57 end 21:18 (20 minutes)

Questions were asked by Ben Andrews (SI), Brooks Hanson (Science), Linda Rowan (AGI), Ari Hartman (Enviro____), and Linda Rowan (AGI). There was some question among the members about whether or not she actually asked 4 questions, not one.

Our last talk for the evening was a bit of a departure for the GSW. Roger Brissenden of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics presented “the Chandra X-Ray Observatory-Observing the high energy universe”. Our current understanding of the Universe it is composed of 21%  dark matter, 75% dark energy, and 4% normal matter. Dr Brissenden admitted embarrassment at the fact that we don’t know what most of the universe is made of. The Chandra X-Ray Observatory was launched in 1999, and like the Mars Rovers has far outlived in lifespan. When it was launched it was state of the art and had far better resolution than optical telescopes, which was beautifully illustrated in the talk. So far the observatory has provided scientists with information about colliding galaxies, the existence of dark matter, and dark energy. Start 21:29 end 21:49 (20 minutes)

There were so many questions: Linda Rowan (AGI), Mark McBride (NRC), Jeff Standish (ACS), Michelle Arsenault (NOAA), George Helz , 3 questions by Dan Doctor (USGS), Mack Ross (USGS ret), Mark Zerniak (), 2 questions by Liz Cottrell (SI), Brent Grocholski (SI), and Jamie Allan (NSF)

The 1456th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at 22:10

Respectfully submitted,

Michelle Arsenault

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1457th Meeting

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

Presidential address

President Rowan called the 70 attendees of the 1457th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington to order at 20:02. The minutes from the 1456th meeting were read and approved with minor corrections.

There were 4 guests;

Fred Davis, a PhD student at the UMinn

Dongbo Wang, NIST

Callie Raulfs-Wang, USAID

Wayne Pennington: not a “real” guest but actually a member and the president of AGI

4 new members were announced: 

Mark Fuhrmann: Geologist, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)

Marcia McNutt: Director, USGS 

Sean G. Kennedy: CEO and Managing Director, Summit International Relations, INC   

Marisol Ortiz: Most recent Affiliation is Environmental Resources Management

There were three announcements: The president announced that “real” guests can become “real” members by joining the GSW. President Rowan thanked Odette for bringing to our attention a letter from PRI (Paleontological Research Institute) regarding the J. Thomas Dutro Doctoral Student Paleontological Research Scholarship.  Tom passed away on June 13, 2010, at the age of 87. He was retired from the U.S. Geological Survey and was a dedicated, long time member of GSW.

The second announcement was also by President Rowan who announced that Chris Swezey, the incoming GSW president, would announce her talk.

Chris Swezey then proceeded to introduce Linda Rowan of the American Geosciences Institute delivering the  presidential address entitled "Geosciences to the Rescue: Informing Policy to Benefit Society and Planet Earth".  Start time 8:15 End time 8:58

Heroes.  Society seems to be seeking heroes as evidenced by the recent slate of superhero movies, but perhaps what we actually need are real life heroes. President Rowan offered us several examples of real life geo-heroes who informed policy and made significant contributions to the world.

Geo-hero # 1: John Wesley Powell, the very person for whom the auditorium we are sitting in was named. JWP had a very distinguished career that led him from a self-educated teacher to professor to war hero to famous geologist to policy maker. In 1878 Powell wrote a report on the arid regions of the US that included policy about agricultural practices, which led to the creation of the USGS.  As director of the Survey he increased appropriations, mapped the entire US and was able to initiate an irrigation survey for the western United States, which although never fully realized, lead to the establishment of river gauging stations and preliminary work toward storage and utilization of river water for irrigation and prevention of floods and overflows.

Geo-hero # 2: Claire Cameron Patterson. Dr. Patterson was a chemist and geochemist who studied the age of the earth and was involved in the Manhattan Project. He was also considered kind of crazy…he was an outspoken contrarian who liked to yell and scream and cuss, but he was also an advocate for the public good. President Rowan made a disparaging (or was it complimentary?) remark about Patterson’s behavior and the fact that he worked at CalTech, so maybe his behavior wasn’t that odd. Patterson entered the policy realm when he was funded by the American Petroleum Institute to research lead contamination. The results he found were detrimental to the petroleum companies, and in an effort to inform the public he wrote a 17-page editorial about lead contamination.

These are but two examples of past geo-heroes, but President Rowan argued that we need a modern day Geoscientist or geoscientists to the rescue! AGI has undertaken a project to define the role of the geosciences for issues facing society in the 21st century. They have identified 7 critical issues:

1)      Energy and Climate

2)      Water

3)      Waste Treatment and Disposal

4)      Natural Hazards

5)      Infrastructure Modernization

6)      Raw Materials

7)      Geoscience Workforce and Modernization

So, instead of movies starring superheroes created by Marvel Comics, how about some movies with real life geo-heroes, like John Wesley Powell (perhaps played by Tom Hanks) or Clair Patterson (with Daniel Day Lewis cast as the crazy chemist).

As tradition there are no questions after the address, which was the sole reason the GSW president (A.K.A the Grand Inquisitor for 2011) couldn’t monopolize the questions this evening. 

The 1457th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at 22:10

Respectfully submitted,

Michelle Arsenault

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 119th Annual Meeting

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

President Rowan called the 119th annual meeting of the Geological Society of Washington to order at 21:00

There were 46 attendees.

The meeting began with the reading of the minutes from the 118th annual meeting, delivered by the meeting secretary in absence of the council secretary. The minutes were approved with no corrections.

This was followed by the reading of the annual report by the meeting secretary. Of note, there were only two alcohol related talks; an informal communication about beer and a formal talk about wine and geology. The highest meeting attendance occurred in September, the first meeting after the magnitude 5.8 VA earthquake in August. The Grand Inquisitor award was given to our current president, Linda Rowan, for a grand total of 28 questions.

The treasurer’s report was delivered by Odette James and after one question about recruitment of new members, was approved and accepted.

The auditing committee’s report was delivered by Liz Cottrell, as all two of the auditing committee members (Tim Mock and John Slack) were ill and not in attendance. The audit uncovered no discrepancies.

Membership report

Haiku by Sandy Neuzil

Most entertaining

Key points from membership report:

1. Although higher in the past, membership has been hovering around 327 for the past five years

2. Most of our members and most of our dues income is from Metro area members

3. All members have the power to entice colleagues to join GSW

There was no Public Service Committee Report although the president mentioned that Charna Meth chaired the committee and several members did indeed participate in local Science Fairs and the GSW hosted the winners at the 1452nd meeting (April 27th, 2011) meeting.

 The committee on the Bradley prizes for the two best papers and the Great Dane prize for best informal communication was comprised of Dan Doctor, Dick Fiske, Jeff Standish and Victor Zabielski. They presented

First Best Paper to Ben Andrews of the Smithsonian for his presentation of “Lab insights into pyroclastic flow dynamics.  Second Best Paper went to Chris Heard of the University of Alberta for his presentation “Organic matter in the Tagish Lake meteorite.”  The Great Dane award for Best Informal Communication was presented to David Applegate of the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program for his succinct and informative report on the scientific results of the earthquake less than three weeks after the event. Honorable mention went to Chris Swezey who provided a very personal account of the earthquake that hit close to home for him.

The Sleeping Bear Award was given to Dale Stevenson (aka: infant Cottrell) for being the “cause of unrehearsed spontaneous humor,” at the 1454th meeting held on October 5, 2011.

There was no new business.

President Rowan announced the new slate of officers and then transferred possession of the gavel and the copy of Robert’s Rules of Order to the incoming president Chris Swezey.

Chris Swezey adjourned the 119th annual meeting of the Geological Society of Washington at 21:52

Respectfully submitted,

Michelle Arsenault