Author Archives: Daniel Doctor

October 30th, GSW meeting 1605 at the Cosmos Club

This will be an IN-PERSON meeting only. Three excellent talks will be presented:

ANDY CAMPBELL, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (retired) – Geochemistry of hydrothermal vents in the Gulf of California

CHRISTINA DEVERA, U.S. Geological Survey – USGS Geoheritage Sites of the Nation Inventory: Connecting geologic mapping and societal values to reach a broad audience

RYAN MCALEER, U.S. Geological Survey – Microtextures and microchemistry in retrograde shear zones and their implications for geochronology, deformation mechanisms, and rock strength

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

FALL FIELD TRIP NOVEMBER 17 – Save the date!

The GSW fall field trip will be held Sunday, Nov. 17 on the geology of Rock Creek Park led by Callan Bentley. Check back here for updates and details.

October 9th GSW meeting, Bradley Lecture presented by Dr. Isabel Montañez

The 1603rd meeting of the Geological Society of Washington will take place at the Cosmos Club on October 9. We are honored to host Dr. Isabel P. Montañez of the University of California, Davis as our Bradley Lecturer this year with the presentation: “Paleo-CO2 Revisited — New insight into the Earth System of the Deep Past“.

Dr. Montañez is the Director of the UC Davis Institute of the Environment, and is the current Chair of the National Academies of Sciences Board on Earth Sciences and Resources. Learn more about Dr. Montañez and her distinguished career at her website: https://eps.ucdavis.edu/people/faculty/montanez

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

September 4th, GSW Meeting 1602 at the Cosmos Club

This will be an IN-PERSON meeting only. Three excellent talks will be presented:

JANE HAMMARSTROM, U.S. Geological Survey – Critical minerals in the U.S.: Past, present, and potential

TOMMASO MANDOLINI, University of Maryland – 3D microstructure, porosity and permeability in and out of the fault in deformed sandstones.

JOSHUA MARTIN, Geological Society of America – Geoscience’s Role in Shaping Policy Decisions

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

May 8th, GSW meeting at the Cosmos Club

This will be an IN-PERSON meeting only. Three excellent talks will be presented:

ELI MOORE, U.S. Geological Survey: Subsurface Metaproteomics Reveals Diverse Active Microbial Metabolisms in the Antrim Shale

ROBERTA RUDNICK, University of California – Santa Barbara: Metapelites in the lower crust beneath the Potrillo Volcanic Field provide insights into the mysterious 1.4 Ga Picuris Orogeny

ADAM WALLACE, University of Delaware: Reassessment of the Roles of Ion Hydration and Dehydration on the Reactivity of the Calcite-Water Interface

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

April 24: 1600th GSW Meeting and Early-Career Showcase at Carnegie EPL

The 1600th meeting of the Society 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

This will be a special event, highlighting the work of early-career scientists. Ahead of the formal program, we will hold an informal gathering with food, beverages, and poster presentations by students, post-docs and other early-career workers. We welcome poster presentation contributions: please email Dan Doctor (dhdoctor@usgs.gov) if you have a poster to present!

Hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be served beginning at 6:30 p.m., during the poster presentations

***This will be a hybrid meeting***

If you wish to join the virtual Zoom webcast, please email geosocwash@gmail.com by Tuesday, April 23 for the information to join the webcast.

Formal program begins at 8:00 p.m, with the following speakers:

Emmanuel Codillo, Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory — Tracking carbon-rich magmas in the upper mantle using electrical conductivity

Vasilije Dobrosavljevic, Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory — Probing materials at Earth’s enigmatic core-mantle boundary landscape

Jennifer Kasbohm, Yale University/Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory — Calibrating timescales and measuring pCO2 to test the role of Columbia River Basalt volcanism in the Miocene Climate Optimum

GSW Spring Field Trip!

The field trip was a great success! Special thanks to Rebecca Kavage Adams (Maryland Geological Survey) for leading the trip.

The GSW spring field trip will be held Saturday, March 30, 2024 in Patapsco Valley State Park: The Potomac terrane, Baltimore terrane, and Baltimore Mafic Complex, led by Rebecca Adams, Maryland Geological Survey

Meet at 9am in the Woodstock parking area of Patapsco Valley State Park, Maryland

Tentative itinerary:

  • Baltimore Gneiss w/pegmatite 9:00-10:00am
  • Patapsco Valley State Park, McKeldin Area:
    •  Setters Quartzite 10:15-11:00am
    •  Baltimore Gneiss at McKeldin Rapids 11-12:00pm
    •  Lunch (bring your own): at shelter (Setters Quartzite)
    •  Cockeysville Marble & Loch Raven Schist 12:15-1:15pm
    •  Marriottsville Rd #2 Talc mines 1:30-2:15pm
  • Soldiers Delight Natural Area, Serpentinite, Choate chromite mine & overlook 2:30-3:30pm
  • Last stop: Howard County Western Regional Park, Sykesville Formation, near field #10 4:00-5:00pm

March 27, GSW meeting at Cosmos Club

This will be an IN-PERSON meeting only. Three excellent talks will be presented:

ISABELLE COZZARELLI (U.S. Geological Survey) – Evolution of geochemical process understanding gained from long-term investigations of the Bemidji, Minnesota, terrestrial crude oil spill

GEOFFREY GILLEAUDEAU (George Mason University) – Perspectives on Neoproterozoic continental weathering and ocean oxygenation and its effect on the evolving biosphere

BEN KLIGMAN (Smithsonian Institution) – Searching for the hidden origins of living tetrapods in Triassic equatorial Pangaea

Come at 7:30 PM to socialize and imbibe, the meeting begins at 8 PM, and ends by 10 PM. Speaker bios and talk abstracts are available here.

March 6th, GSW meeting at Cosmos Club

This will be an IN-PERSON meeting only. Three excellent talks will be presented:

WILL FOX (Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory) – Bringing celestial plasmas to the laboratory

GENEVIEVE MARICLE (U.S. Agency for International Development) – International climate policy: multilateral cooperation and society-wide action

DOUG WICKS (U.S. Department of Energy) – Addressing the Mineral Abyss for the Energy Transition

Come at 7:30 PM to socialize and imbibe, the meeting begins at 8 PM, and ends by 10 PM. Speaker bios and talk abstracts are available here.

Jan 24 draft meeting minutes

The draft meeting minutes from Jan. 24 can be found at the link below. Please send any changes to Mike Purucker.