Author Archives: Daniel Doctor

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!

**The meeting will be preceded by a poster session for early career participants, starting at 6:30 pm.** Formal talks will be broadcast via Zoom and will start at 8 pm and be 20 minutes each with questions to follow. To attend virtually, please register for the Zoom meeting at this link by 4:00 pm April 30th:

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/mYvoeQilSRWYRNPtFBRmfQ

If you plan on presenting a poster, please let us know via this form: https://forms.gle/juaxpa7dtMUemjpt6

Theme of the event: M³ -Moon, Mars, Mercury

JACLYN CLARK, University of Maryland, College Park – The Moon Has its Faults

ANDREW STEELE, Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory – Martian Organic Geochemistry: A Tale of Meteorites, Curiosity, and Perseverance

SANDER GOOSSENS, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center –
Mercury, Moon, and Mars: from Crust to Core

Carnegie Institution for Science
Earth and Planets Laboratory, Greenewalt Building
5241 Broad Branch Rd, NW, Washington D.C.
(free parking plentiful)

Theme of the event: Earth’s Mantle

VAL FINLAYSON, University of Maryland, College Park –A High Field Strength Perspective on Tungsten-182 Variability in Ocean Island Basalts

GIACOMO CRINITI, Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory – Mineral Physics Constraints on the Composition of the Lower Mantle

JINGCHUAN WANG, University of Maryland, College Park – Tracking Ancient Intraoceanic Subduction in the Deep Mantle: Insights from the Southeast Pacific

***THIS IS AN IN-PERSON MEETING ONLY***

Refreshments at 7:30 p.m., formal program at 8:00 p.m.

John Wesley Powell Auditorium, 2170 Florida Avenue NW, Washington D.C.

Apologies for the late notice, but the worsening forecast for tomorrow has forced us to cancel the in-person meeting on Feb 12th. We will be in touch with more information about rescheduling. 

***This meeting will be rescheduled*** : Theme of the event: M³ – Moon, Mars, Mercury

JACLYN CLARK, University of Maryland, College Park – The Moon Has its Faults

ANDREW STEELE, Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory – Martian Organic Geochemistry: A Tale of Meteorites, Curiosity, and Perseverance

SANDER GOOSSENS, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center – Mercury, Moon, and Mars: from Crust to Core

***This meeting will be rescheduled***

Theme of the event: Ice

ELIZABETH TURTLE, Johns Hopkins University (JHU) APL — Exploring the Ocean Worlds Europa and Titan with Europa Clipper and Dragonfly

SINEAD FARRELL, University of Maryland (UMD) — Pole to Pole: Earth’s Declining Sea Ice

MARC NEVEU, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / UMD — How depressurization during cryovolcanic eruption affects relative abundances of amino and fatty acids sought as biosignatures on ocean worlds

Come at 7:30 PM to socialize and imbibe, the meeting begins at 8 PM, and ends by 10 PM.

The meeting will be held in the Greenewalt Building, Tuve Hall at the Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory, Broad Branch Road Campus. Directions are here: https://epl.carnegiescience.edu/about/our-campus/directions-to-epl

Parking is free on the campus, or on-street in the vicinity

Dear members:

We are in the process of updating our membership management services and dues renewal process. If you received an email message on Dec. 23 asking you to renew your dues by going to a WordPress website, please ignore the request as it was simply a test that was sent out by mistake.

An email reminding members to renew dues will be sent in late January, 2025 using the same process as in the past via the PayPal service. If you need your membership number in order to renew, please contact Ann Benbow at MSA via the Membership tab on the home page.

In mid-2025, we intend move to a more secure membership management system for which each member can establish an individual account and manage their access to membership more directly. Thank you for your continued support of the Geological Society of Washington while we make this transition!