GSW: 1970
MEETING MINUTES
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF
January 14,
1970
The
927th meeting of the Society was held in the John Wesley Powell Auditorium,
January 14, 1970, at 7:57 p. m. with President Frank C. Whitmore, Jr.
presiding.
The
President welcomed all present and thanked the membership for their kind
response to the Chair's and Secretary's activity on the podium which indicated
the meeting was about to start. A three-minute early start of the meeting
"broke all earlier precedents.
A
call for introduction of visitors revealed that the following guests were
present:
Professor
Paula Han-Weinheimer,
The
minutes of the 926th meeting were read, corrected and approved.
The
Secretary announced that the Council of the Society had, that day, elected the
following people to memberships: Marsha Tillman, USGS, Washington, D. C.; Tomas
Feininger, Smithsonian Inst., Washington, D. C.; Roger Hekinian, Smithsonian
Inst., Washington, D. C.; John S. White, Jr., Nat. Museum of Natural History,
Washington, D. C.; Harold Banks, Nat. Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.
C.
The
Chair announced a proposal by Dutro, Berdan, and Cohee to delete the reading of
the rough minutes at the conclusion of the Annual Meeting, as required in Art.
V, Sec. 10 of the By laws. The membership is required to vote on this
recommendation at the next regular meeting.
The
Chair then announced that Dr. Lee A. DuBridge, Science Advisor to the
President, will speak in the Powell Auditorium at 8:15 p. m. on Thursday,
January 15, 1970. The subject of his presentation is "The Problems of
Federal Support for Science."
The
Secretary announced that the "National Register of Scientific and
Technical Personnel" will be issued by AGI for NSF on February 2, 1970. A
letter from J. R. Jackson, AGI was read which urged scientists to make careful
and prompt response to this request.
A
call by the Chair for informal communications brought Ellis Yochelson, Chairman
of the Communications Committee to the podium. Two blank and somewhat hairy
slides along with Yochelson's urgent plea from half bent knee indicated the
need for talks of this type.
The
regular meeting followed after a reminder by the Chair to the speakers that a
two-minute warning to end papers would be given by the Secretary's return to
the podium.
Odette
B. James, USGS—Petrology of unshocked igneous and metamorphic lunar
rocks—clearly showed with excellent photomicrographs that plagioclase,
pyroxene and ilmenite were the dominant rock-forming minerals found in Apollo
11 samples and that textures were ophitic, intersertal and hornfelsic. Comments
by B. French, V. McKelvey, W. Herz.
Stephen
E. Haggerty, Geophysical Laboratory—A reflection microscopy examination of the
Apollo 11 lunar material—also with excellent photomicrographs described the
distribution of Cr, Ti, and Fe in lunar samples as indicative of reducing
conditions. Comment by N. Herz (for the second time).
E.
C. T. Chao, J. A. Minkin, and J. A. Boreman, USGS— Shock features, glasses, and
a new mineral from the Apollo 11 samples--graphically portrayed many
"shocking" features of the lunar samples as seen in photomicrographs.
Three stages of shock were noted from minor fracturing of minerals to complete
formation of glass and devitrification, as well, at the other extreme. Comments
by Boyd, Guild, Birn, McKelvey, Tanner, Zen, Harbour, Brokaw, Herz (third time)
and Oden.
The
President thanked the speakers for their highly successful "Symposium on
the Rocks from the
The
meeting adjourned at 9:23 p.m. Attendence: 183.
William
D. Carter
Acting
Meetings Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF
January 28,
1970
The
928th meeting of the Society was held in the John Wesley Powell auditorium,
January 28th, 1970, at 8:00 p.m., with President Frank C. Whitmore, Jr.
presiding. The minutes of the 927th
meeting were read, corrected (trivially) and approved.
The
President announced that efforts were being made to organize a Regional Section
of the AAPG in the
No
one was willing to admit to being a visitor.
The
Chair then called for a vote on the amendment to Article V of the Bylaws of the
Society, previously proposed by Dutro, Cohee and Berdan, which would delete
Item 10: the required reading of the rough minutes of the Annual Meeting. The
amendment was approved by an overwhelming majority, much to the relief of the
Secretary, who was forthwith commanded to expunge the offending item.
Two
informal communications were presented.
Roy Clarke, U. S. National Museum, discussed the Prairie Network, a
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory project to obtain orbital data and
recovery of meteorites. Recovery of the
The
regular meeting followed:
Joshua
I. Tracey, Jr., U.S.G.S. - "Stratigraphic section across the central
equatorial Pacific: Leg 8, Glomar Challenger"; a brief visit to the South
Seas with interesting comparisons of marine stratigraphy as revealed by
deep-sea drilling and whale abundance data. Discussed by Frank Whitmore,
Charles Warren, V. E. McKelvey,
Donald
R. Mullineaux, U.S.G.S., Denver - "Volcanic hazards at Mount Rainier,
Washington, and Lassen Peak, California"; a spectacular description of
volcanic disasters of the recent past, designed to curb complacency in casual
Cascade campers. Discussed by nameless questioner No. 1, Don Peterson, and
Lloyd Henbest.
M.
Gordon Wolman,
The
meeting adjourned at 9:59 p.m. Attendance: 155
Daniel
E. Appleman
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF
February 11,
1970
The
929th meeting of the Society was held in the John Wesley Powell auditorium,
February 11, 1970, at 8:03 P.M., with President Frank C. Whitmore, Jr. in the
Chair. The minutes of the 928th meeting
were read, corrected and approved. The Secretary announced that the Council of
the Society, on February 10, 1970, had elected the following persons to
membership:
Douglas
Rumble, Geophysical Laboratory; Peter Blau, A.G.I.; George F. Pinder, Albert E.
Roberts, Richard C. Fuhrman, and Richard Goldsmith, U.S.G.S., all of
Washington, D. C. The Secretary also
announced a Caucus of, AAPG members to take place after the meeting to discuss
the proposed formation of an Eastern Section.
The
following guests were introduced: Russel Dorr, introduced by Jack Dorr;
Thorndyke Saville and Mike Field of the CERC, introduced by Cyril Galvin; and
Ian Campbell, a member who reminded the Chair, who introduced him, that he was
in fact no longer State Geologist of California.
A
memorial tribute to the late G. William Holmes was read by Eugene Robertson.
The memorial included the playing of one of Bill's best-remembered Pick and
Hammer Show songs.
The
informal communication of the evening was presented by Charles Milton, of
The
regular meeting consisted of three papers dealing with various aspects of
barrier islands off the East Coast of the
Cyril
J. Galvin, CERC - "Barrier island offset at inlets." The speaker was
complimented by the Chair on his unusual ability to use the subsequent
speaker's slides. Discussed by Jack Dorr,
J.
W. Pierce, NMNH, and D. J. Colquhoun,
Robert
L. Mairs, NAVOCEANO - "Oceanographic and sedimentologic interpretation of
Apollo IX space photography," dealing with photographs of the barrier
islands. Discussed by Felscher, Galvin,
Pierce, Dorr, Lloyd, Henbest, Kinney and Stanley.
The
meeting adjourned at 9:51 P.M. Attendance: 94
Daniel
E. Appleman
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF
February 25,
1970
The
930th meeting of the Society was held in the John Wesley Powell auditorium on February
25, 1970. President Frank C. Whitmore,
Jr. called the meeting to order at 8:07 P.M. Two U.S.G.S.-type visitors were
introduced by John Hack: Wally Hanson from
Program
Chairman Ellis Yochelson presented the Chair with a new illuminated pointer for
the use of speakers. The bold arrow of
light which it threw onto the screen was clearly visible from the first two or
even three rows, after no more than 30 seconds of searching. Yochelson then introduced Robert Sikora,
winner of seven commendations for his Science project on a regressive cycle of
the sea in the
The
Chair introduced the regular program, which consisted of four talks by members
of the Maryland Geological Survey describing a sample of the broad range of
activities which that organization performs. Director Kenneth Weaver began with
a discussion of "The Maryland Survey: progress, problems and
prophecy," stressing the fashionably environmental orientation of much of
the work. Discussed by Charles
Denny. Emery Cleaves spoke on
"Geochemical balance of a small watershed." Discussion was by
Feininger, Hanshaw,
The
meeting adjourned at.9:38 P.M Attendance
90.
Daniel
E. Appleman
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF
March 11,
1970
The
931st meeting of the Society war, held in the John Wesley Powell auditorium on
March 11, 1970. President Frank C.
Whitmore, Jr. opened the meeting at 8:03 P.M.
A visitor, Dr. Kazuaki Nakamura, Earthquake Research Institute of the
John
H. Fergus, Jr., AFTAC/VELA Seismological Center,
Lester
J. Steenblock, Jr., Naval Scientific and
Dr.
Gordon Everett and John Horton, Dept. of the Interior,
John
Maddox, editor of Nature Magazine, temporarily in
George
H. Chase and Jonathan P. Glasby,
Prof.
Walter Elsasser, Physics Dept.,
Karin
L. Friis, Defense Dept.,
The
Chair announced that Paul Keller,
An
informal communication by C. Ervin Brown concerned bulge structures in the
The
regular program mercifully followed.
Tomas Feininger, Smithsonian Institution, spoke on "Chemical
weathering and glacial erosion of crystalline rocks and the origin of till.
Discussion was by Toulmin (twice), Whitmore, Sato, Warren, Robertson,
Rabchevsky, and the customary unnamed questioner. Elizabeth R. King presented a paper,
co-authored by Isidore Zietz, titled "The midcontinent gravity high;
Keweenawan tectonics and a possible ancestral global rift system." The
Secretary could not refrain from mentioning that her slides were clearly
legible. Robertson, Hucker, Herz and unnamed questioner No. 1 discussed the
paper. George Rabchevsky, Allied Research Associates, Inc., closed the meeting
with a presentation of "Terrestrial features observed by the NIMBUS
meteorological satellite," with questions from unidentified questioner No.
1, joined by unidentified questioner No. 2.
The
meeting; adjourned at 9:57 P.M. Attendance:
80.
Daniel
E. Appleman
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF
March 25,
1970
The
932nd meeting of the Society was held in the John Wesley Powell auditorium on
March 25, 1970. President Frank C.
Whitmore, Jr. opened the meeting at 8:02 P.M.
No visitors, other than the speakers, were present. The minutes of the 931st meeting were read
and approved.
William
E. Davis announced that the meeting of the Virginia Academy of Sciences would
be held in
The
regular program followed. H.-U. Schmincke,
J.
W. Head, III, Bellcom, Inc.:
"Scientific objectives of the Apollo 13 Lunar Landing
Mission," discussed by Whitmore, Roedder, Flanagan, Rabchevsky, and Lampiris.
K.
Nakamura,
The
meeting adjourned at 9:40 P.M. Attendance: 110
Daniel
E. Appleman
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF
April 8,
1970
The
933rd meeting of the Society was called to order by Vice President Eugene
Roseboom at 8:06 P.M., April 8, 1970, in the John Wesley Powell auditorium. Two
visitors were present: Donald Hull,
Public
Service Committee Chairman Paul Keller asked for volunteers to help in judging
local Science Fairs. The regular meeting
followed, styled "Pennsylvania Geological Survey Night."
Arthur
A. Socolow, Director of the Pennsylvania Geological Survey, spoke on "The
Pennsylvania Survey: a program of geology serving people." Discussion was
by Kohout, McKelvey, Guild and Chase. After this general paper, Donald M.
Hoskins presented a paper on "Structural features in the Valley and
Samuel
I. Root then gave a paper titled "Tectonics along the
The
Chair eventually adjourned the meeting at 10:20 P.M. Attendance: 120.
Daniel
E. Appleman
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF
April 29,
1970
The
934th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was held on April 29,
1970 in the John Wesley Powell auditorium.
President Frank C. Whitmore, Jr. called the meeting to order at 8:02
PM. There were no visitors present.
The
minutes of the 933rd meeting or read an approved. As there were no informal communications, the
regular program followed. Nicholas
Lampiris, US Geological Survey, spoke on "Paleoenvironments of the Bloomsbury
age rocks,
The
meeting adjourned at 9:37 PM.
Attendance: 125.
Daniel
B. Appleman
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF
May 13, 1970
The
935th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was held in the John
Wesley Powell auditorium on May 13, 1970.
The meeting was called to order at 8:03 PM by President Frank C. Whitmore,
Jr. There were no visitors present
except for the speaker.
The
minutes of the 934th meeting room in an approved. The secretary announced the following people
have been elected to membership in the society: Michael E. Taylor, P. and S.
Branch, USGS, Washington; Michael E. Field, Geology Branch,
E-an
Zen presented an informal communication on metamorphism of the
The
regular meeting followed. It consisted
of a single talk, entitled "Hayden and Dawes; Hague and Vest -- geologists
and politicians in
The
meeting adjourned at 9:38 PM.
Attendance: 75.
Daniel
E. Appleman
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF
October 14, 1970
The 936th meeting of the Geological Society of
Washington took place in the John Wesley Powell auditorium on October 14, 1970.
President Frank C. Whitmore, Jr. called the meeting to order at 8:00 P.M. and
announced the deaths of three members of the Society: J. Frank Schairer, Garn
A. Rynearson, and Siemon W. Muller.
There were no guests present.
The minutes of the 935th meeting were read and
approved. The Secretary reported that
the Council had elected the following new members: John D. Bremsteller,
Since there were no informal communications, the
regular program began immediately with a paper titled "Correlation of
uranium, thorium and potassium with aeroradioactivity over a high thorium
pluton in the Berea area, Salem Church quadrangle, Commonwealth of
Virginia" by Sherman K. Neuschel, U. S. Geological Survey, Discussion by
Whitmore, Hatch, Emery, Peck and Gabelman centered on the thickness of sediment
required to blanket the effect.
The second paper, by Martin F. Kane, U. S. Geological
Survey, was on "Gravity studies in
The third and final paper of the evening,
"Magnetic anomalies from satellite magnetometer," by Isidore Zietz
and Gordon E. Andreasen, U. S. Geological Survey, and J. C. Cain, NASA, was presented
by Zietz and discussed principally by Rabchevsky, mostly with respect to the
methods used to get from the data for many successive orbits of the satellite
to the single map shown by the speaker.
The meeting adjourned at 9:36 P.M. Attendance: 60.
Daniel E. Appleman
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF
November 17,
1970
The
937th meeting of the Society was held in the John Wesley Powell Auditorium on
October 28, 1970. The meeting was called
to order at 8:02 P.M. by President Frank C. Whitmore, Jr., and the following
visitors were introduced: Bob Davis, U.S.G.S.,
The
second speaker discussed new techniques, ably assisted by the first speaker as
projectionist. The third speaker, M. B.
Scher, Coordinator for Federal Mapping, outlined procedures for cooperation
between various Federal mapping agencies - he used no slides at all. The
evening was a financial success as the Society was spared the cost of a
projectionist. The meeting adjourned at
9:42 P.M. Attendance: 48.
Daniel
E. Appleman
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF
November 18,
1970
The
938th meeting of the Society was held in the John Wesley Powell Auditorium on
November 18, 1970, with Vice-President Eugene Roseboom presiding. The meeting was called to order at 8:05 p.m.,
and the minutes of the 937th meeting were read, corrected and approved. The Secretary announced that the following
had been elected to membership in the Society: Douglas Smith, Donald M. Burt
and John S. Dickey, Geophysical Laboratory, Washington; S. Jeff Williams,
The
following visitors were introduced: A. E. Bence, of the State University of New
York, Stony Brook, by Ben Morgan; and James Belz, from Tuscon, Arizona, by Leo
Heindl.
Allen
deWall, of the Coastal Engineering Research Center, presented a short informal
communication on the use of jetting to drive pipe markers into beaches. The regular program began with a paper by
Douglas Smith, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, entitled
"Conversion of Sedimentary Rock to Granophyre at Sierra Ancha, Arizona:
One End-Member Example of Granite-Forming Processes."
The
second paper, by Richard H. Benson, Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian
Institution, was on "Deep-Sea Ostracods and the Death of the Tethys
Ocean". The paper was discussed by
Wendell Woodring. The final paper,
"Sand Size Distribution Along and Across Three New Jersey Beaches",
was given by Michael D. Ramsey, of the Coastal Engineering Research Center. Vice-President Roseboom brought the meeting
to a triumphant conclusion at 9:45 p.m.
Attendance:
93.
Daniel
E, Appleman
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON SECRETARY'S REPORT
December 9,
1970.
The
939th meeting of the Society was held in the John Wesley Powell Auditorium on
December 9, 1970. First Vice-President
Eugene Roseboom called the meeting to order at 8:05 p.m. The minutes of the 938th meeting were read,
but approval was delayed at the insistence of Wendell Woodring, who demanded
that the minutes record the fact that he had questioned one of the
speakers. The correction was duly agreed
to by the soon-to-be-lame-duck Secretary and approval was secured.
The
Secretary announced that the following new members were elected at the Council
Meeting, Dec. 9, 1970: Mrs. Anna Mae Orellana, Mrs. Helen P. Withers, Jane M.
Graham and Joseph J. Kohut, U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, D. C.; John
Gurney, University of Cape Town, South Africa, a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the
Smithsonian Institution; Bruce M. Hall, Advanced Technology Branch, Dept. of
the Army; and Sgt. James Hedges, U.S.M.C., Washington (a reinstatement).
The
Chair then called for the introduction of visitors. Lew Shapiro, South Dakota School of Mines,
was introduced by Carter; and Dr. Robert Lindsay, Colgate University, with
seven anonymous students, were introduced by Yochelson.
As
the high point of the evening approached, tension mounted while Vice-President
Roseboom introduced the featured (and only) speaker- President Frank C.
Whitmore, Jr., to give his long-awaited Presidential Address on "The
Whale!" This thoroughly fascinating
ramble through the order Cetacea was summed up in a moment of anticlimax by a
faceless geochemist as "-much more about whales than I ever thought I
could happily sit through!"
The
meeting adjourned at 8:55 p.m. to prepare the inner man for the annual meeting
to follow. A record-breaking crowd of
219 attended.
Daniel
E. Appleman
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON SECRETARY'S REPORT
78th Annual
Meeting, Dec. 9, 1970
The
78th Annual Meeting of the Society was held in the John Wesley Powell
Auditorium on Wednesday, December 9; 1970. President Frank C. Whitmore, Jr.,
began the festivities at 9:15 PM by reciting the abstract to the Presidential
Address in cetaceous verse form - "The Whale", by G.D. Robinson.
Having thus softened up the audience for the rigors to follow, he ordered
Meetings Secretary Appleman to read the Minutes of the 77th Annual Meeting,
which were duly approved. The Annual Report of the Secretaries was also read
by Secretary Appleman.
The
Treasurer's Report as of December 9, 1970, was presented by Treasurer Wilna
Wright. Total receipts from all sources for 1970; plus the cash balance of
$124.99, add up to $3,814.99; total 1970 expenditures were $3,668.69; the net
cash balance on December 9 was $146.30.
The Endowment Fund stood at $3,072.8l, so the total net assets were
$3,219.11, a net increase of $168.54 over 1969. The Chair called for a vote of
thanks to retiring Treasurer Wilna Wright for the fine job she had done as
Treasurer of GSW since 1968, and the audience responded with a vigorous round
of applause.
George
Cohee, Chairman of the Auditing Committee, reported that he and Bob Bates had
examined the Treasurer's books and records and found them to be correct and in
order in every detail. He also expressed the Society's gratitude for the fine
job Wilna Wright had done.
The
Public Service Committee and Finance Committee reports were not given, but the
ad hoc Committee on Field Trips reported, via Bill Melson, that a successful
Field Trip to the South Mountain area had been held, primarily for area school
teachers; and that more trips were planned for the coming year.
In
the absence of Chairman Gil Corwin, the report of the Best Paper Awards
Committee was read by Secretary Appleman. The Great Dane Award, for the best
informal communication of the year, was presented to C. Ervin Brown for his
brief talk "Buckle Structures in the Potsdam Sandstone – A new Geologic
Wrinkle". First Prize winner for the best scheduled paper was Tomas
Feininger, for his talk "Chemical Weathering and Glacial Erosion of Crystalline Rocks and the Origin of
Till" -- which the Committee felt was controversial and stimulating. Second Prize winner was Don Mullineaux for
his beautifully illustrated presentation on 'Volcanic Hazards at Mount Rainier,
Washington and Lassen Peak, California".
When
the Secretary had finally retired from the podium, the Chair introduced the
"anonymous" Chairman of the Sleeping Bear Award Committee, who turned
out to be -- of all people -- E-an Zen. Bolstered - if that is the right word -
by his cohorts Dave Harwood and Herb Shaw, Zen fearlessly exposed such eminent
colleagues as Rupe Southard ("It's gone past the embryonic stage, but it's
not yet conceived") and Gene Roseboom, who referred to the cumulative size
distribution curve of a New Jersey beach sand as "a mean sum of a
beach". Masterfully underplaying his hand, Zen actually had Roseboom
halfway to his feet to accept the award, at which point Zen presented it to
Ellis Yochelson. Program Chairman
Yochelson, in an informal communication, had shown two blank slides (the second
upside down), and then announced that you didn't have to have more than that to
say in order to give an informal communication to the Society.
As
the riotous laughter subsided, the Chair proceeded to the election of officers
and councilors of the Society. Always quick off the mark, Rankin moved that the
nominations be closed, and the slate proposed by the Nominating Committee was
unanimously elected. The President introduced the new officers to the Society,
and thanked the Council, the Program Chairman, and especially Wilna Wright for
all of their efforts. The ceremony concluded with the customary transfer of
gavels, and the meeting adjourned at 10:07 PM. Attendance was 219.
Daniel
E. Appleman
Secretary