MONG-HAN HUANG, University of Maryland, College Park – A Novel Bayesian Near-Surface Geophysics Approach to Constrain Material Properties and their Links to Natural Hazards in Central Puerto Rico
KARIN LEHNIGK, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center – The Kakhovka Dam Break Flood: An Unprecedented View of Earth’s Most Powerful Floods
CALEB FASSETT, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab – Geomorphic Evolution of the Moon
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.
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Posted onMay 22, 2025byDaniel Doctor|Comments Off on 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)
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.
Posted onApril 11, 2025byDaniel Doctor|Comments Off on April 30th – GSW meeting at Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory
**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:
Theme of the event: Rock Deformation and Tectonics
RYAN McALEER, USGS – Microtextures and Microchemistry in Retrograde Shear Zones: Implications for Geochronology, Deformation Mechanisms, and Rock Strength
WENLU ZHU, University of Maryland, College Park – Effect of Partial Melt on Seismic Wave Velocity of Mantle Peridotite
EMILY MARTIN, National Air and Space Museum – Dione’s Tectonic History and Evidence for a Global Subsurface Ocean
***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.
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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.
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Posted onFebruary 5, 2025byDaniel Doctor|Comments Off on **CANCELED DUE TO WEATHER** February 12: 1608th GSW meeting at Cosmos Club
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***
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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.
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!
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Posted onNovember 17, 2024byDaniel Doctor|Comments Off on December 4th, GSW Annual meeting at American Geophysical Union (AGU) headquarters
The 132nd Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of Washington will take place on December 4th, 2024 in the auditorium of the American Geophysical Union headquarters, 2000 Florida Avenue, NW, Washington D.C.
This will be a HYBRID meeting. In order to participate via online attendance,please register at this link before 4:00 pm Eastern time on Dec. 4th.
Dr. DANIEL DOCTOR will deliver the Presidential Address entitled “The Allegory of the Cave, redux: perception and reality in karst science“
Annual awards will be announced, and election of the 2025 GSW slate of officers and councilors will also take place.
Slate of Officers for 2025:
President: Ved Lekić* (Univ. of Maryland)
1st VP & President Elect: Michael Ackerson* (Smithsonian)
2nd Vice President: Michael Walter (Carnegie EPL)
Past President: Dan Doctor* (USGS)
Treasurer: Andy Campbell** (NRC, retired)
Meeting Secretary: Jessica Bersson (Smithsonian)
Council Secretary: Beth Doyle* (NOVA Community College)
Councilors:
Linda Rowan (CRS)
Ross Salerno (USGS)
David Vanko (Towsen Univ., retired)
Pat Carr (Brooking Legislative Fellow, U.S. Congress)*
Mark Tyra (NIST)*
Anne Pommier (Carnegie EPL)*
*Officers and councilors carrying over from 2024
**Completing term of Treasurer Mark Fuhrmann
Please come at 7:30 p.m. to enjoy refreshments ahead of the meeting, which will begin at 8:00 pm.
FALL FIELD TRIP DECEMBER 7th to CORRIDOR H IN WEST VIRGINIA!
Please join us for fun half-day to full-day field trip along West Virginia Corridor H! We will delve into the fascinating Appalachian Paleozoic stratigraphy in the Valley and Ridge Province of Virginia and West Virginia. Our stops will provide the opportunity to explore the relations between the Paleozoic sedimentary rock record and the major tectonic events that shaped North America.
Trip Details:
Meeting Point: Haymarket Commuter Park and Ride, 14861 Heathcote Boulevard, Haymarket, VA 20169
Date: Saturday, December 7th
Meeting Time: 8:30 AM
We will meet as a group and encourage carpooling to facilitate a smoother trip, though parking at the stops will not be an issue.
Rough Itinerary:
Morning: Visits to key geological sites in Virginia and West Virginia.
Lunch: ~1:30pm A break in Moorefield, WV, where participants opting for the half-day can choose to depart.
Afternoon: Continued exploration of outcrops west of Moorefield for full-day attendees.
Hey GSW Members! You’re eligible for GeoCare insurance. GeoCare provides health, life and other insurance products to members of 10 geoscience societies, including GSW. From their home webpage (), just click on the GSW block to see your options.
Preserved footprints in Kenya appear to record two different species of ancient humans walking over the same muddy lakeshore, probably within days of each other.
