Monthly Archives: May 2025

GSW Spring Field Trip!: June 28, Rock Creek Park

We are pleased to invite you to the Spring Geological Society of Washington Field Trip on Saturday, June 28th to Rock Creek Park!  This engaging trip will be led by Callan Bentley, former GSW president and Associate Professor of Geology at Piedmont Virginia Community College.

Photo: National Park Service

The event will include an approximately 3-hour walking tour of the National Zoo lower region and Rock Creek Park area. Geologic themes of the trip will include Paleozoic tectonic history of the DC region with sites including the Rock Creek Shear Zone, Darton Fault and more!

Trip Details:

Location: Rock Creek Park and National Zoo lower region

Duration: Approximately 3-hour walking tour

Date: June 28th, 2025

Time: 8:00am to 11am-ish

Meeting point: Lower (Beach Drive) entrance to the Zoo (Right across the street from Harvard Towers which are located at 1845 Harvard St NW, Washington DC 20009)

Parking options: We are starting the trip bright early hoping to avoid DC parking issues around the zoo. Please see this information from NPS Parking – Rock Creek Park (U.S. National Park Service)

Public Transportation options: Nearest metro stations are Columbia Heights (green line) and Woodley Park (red line). And there are also Capital Bike Share rack there. We may also organize a carpool or metro group for any Northern Virginia/Reston/USGS participants who may want travel as a group.

*Please note the trip will involve approximately 2.5 miles of walking and standing on sidewalks and unpaved forest trails. Please dress accordingly and plan to bring snacks and water.

Register by emailing Alan Pitts at pitts.alan@gmail.com

We look forward to exploring DC bedrock geology with you!

Draft minutes from May 14th meeting (1611th GSW)

The draft minutes of our last meeting, on 14 May 2025, are attached for members to evaluate. If you have any additions or corrections please email them to our meeting secretary, Jessie Bersson, at BerssonJ[at]si.edu.

Draft minutes from April 30th meeting (1610th GSW)

The draft minutes of our last meeting, on 30 April 2025, are attached for members to evaluate. If you have any additions or corrections please email them to our meeting secretary, Jessie Bersson, at BerssonJ[at]si.edu.

May 14 – GSW in-person meeting at Cosmos Club

Theme of the event: Ancient Earth

IOAN LASCU, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History – Magnetofossils: Relicts of Deep Time?

CECELIA SANDERS, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History – Relating Paleoecology and Phosphorite Formation across Deep Time

DANIEL SEGESSENMAN, George Mason University – Geology’s Greatest Hits: The North American Rock Record Remastered

Refreshments at 7:30 p.m., formal program at 8:00 p.m., John Wesley Powell Auditorium, 2170 Florida Avenue NW, Washington D.C.

If anyone has announcements or informal communications they would like to share with the society, please e-mail Vedran Lekic (ved@umd.edu) ahead of time.