GSW: 1984 MEETING MINUTES

 

Geological-Society of Washington -- 1117th Meeting

January 11, 1984

     President Towe called the 1117th meeting of the Society to order at 8:03 p.m. -- also at 8:04 and 8:05. The minutes of the 1116th meeting were approved as read. The names of newly elected members Martha Power, USGS Reston; William E. Houser, retired chemical engineer; and Peter Michael, a post-doc in Mineral Sciences at the Smithsonian, were announced; a couple of the new members attended the meeting and were duly applauded.

     There being no informal communications, Kenneth Goettel (Geophysical Lab) began the first talk of the evening, "Present constraints on the bulk composition of Mars" at 8:10. In an astonishing display of good luck and good timing, the speaker's second slide got stuck, allowing President Towe to leap to the platform as the lights came on and ask if any visitors were present. At least 7 were: Chuck O'Carroll, University of Maryland; Scott Wing, USGS; Andy Colb, American Chemical Society; Jeff Severinghaus, who is new to the area; a student at Howard University whose name I missed; a student at Colgate whose name I missed; and finally someone who is listed in my notes only as 2 question marks. If any of you showed up again tonight, please see me after the meeting and I'll try to get your name right. (And I thought the hardest part of this job would be paying attention to all the talks!) Fred Simon, Membership Committee chair, then gave a quick plug for joining the Society, and at that moment the slide got unstuck, the lights went off, and the talk continued. The "present constraints" referred to in the title are the mean density and the moment of inertia factor; using these data and a lot of computer time, Goettel concluded that the fayalite content of olivine on Mars is about 15%, or approximately twice the fayalite content of Earth. This conclusion drew questions from Michael, Severinghaus, Zen, and 4 anonymous arguers who looked a lot like Dean Presnall and ex­-Presidents Robertson, Toulmin, and Boyd. We may be starting a new trend, here; instead of faceless geochemists, the Society is being overrun by nameless petrologists.

     Henry Roehler (USGS Denver) made an early bid for "Longest Title of the Year Award" with his talk "The Pintail coal bed: an example of a barrier plain coal in the Late Cretaceous Almond Formation, Rock Springs Coal Fields, Wyoming." In fact, the title contains everything I was going to put into the summary except perhaps a verb. Questions by Galvin, Cecil, Peggy Appleman, Hatch, and Stifel twice.

     The last talk of the evening, "A model for mantle dynamics of the Red Sea-Arabian Plate system", was given by Mark Gettings (USGS, Reston), a self-described "reformed theoretical physicist." His model, which was supported by some extremely pretty magnetic and gravity data, shows the Arabian Peninsula as a tilted block pushed upward at the Red Sea rift by rising hot oceanic asthenosphere which cools as it moves away from the rift causing the peninsula to sink beneath the Zagros Mountains. Questions by Presnall and Boyd.

     The meeting was adjourned at the astonishing hour of 9:32, a record unbeaten since 1976. Attendance was 82.

     [signed Kathleen Krafft]

 

Geological Society of Washington -- 1118th Meeting

January 25, 1984

     The 1118th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was called to order at 8:01 p.m., catching many members by surprise. The minutes of the 1117th meeting were approved as read. Seven visitors were introduced (or introduced themselves): Kate Freeman, by Marilyn Estep; Nancy Anderson, National Science Foundation; Jeff Severinghaus, who promised he would join soon; Margaret Mangan, USGS Reston; A1 Truesdell, a lapsed member of the Society; Josette Crayton, University of Maryland; and Scott Edwards, Harvard University. Philip Candela announced a lecture by a well-known creationist to be given at the University of Maryland. I read the names of three newly elected members: Brian Branch-Price, a student at Howard University; Andrew Colb, American Chemical Society; and Laurel Woodruff, USGS.

     For the first talk of the evening, Roz Helz spoke on "Diverse olivine populations in lavas of the 1959 eruption of Kilauea volcano, Hawaii, and their significance". Although, or perhaps because, Roz's parents would not let her watch the 1959 eruption, she has been studying the lava lake from that eruption to try and figure out where these very unusual picritic magmas came from. Roz concluded that the 1959 magma was faster and hotter than most and that it came quite directly from the mantle; a possible model is that it moved upward in the form of tadpoles, which left their tails behind as olivine crystals on the conduit walls. The crystals then were scooped up and deformed by the next tadpoles to come along; this does not sound like what I learned in high school biology. Questions by Brett and Severinghaus, who will both be turned into tadpoles if they don't start giving their names, and by Buntin, Presnall, and Zen (who announced that Presnall had asked most of his question but that he would continue anyway; he's probably trying to keep his average up), and a comment by Stifel.

     Timothy Rowe, of the Smithsonian, in his talk "Effects of classification on biologic history," posed two questions as much philosophical as geologic: How can we discriminate between the problems Nature sets us and those we create for ourselves? and How do we set up classification systems that don't obscure as much as they reveal? Using examples that ranged from the mass extinction at the Permian-Triassic boundary to contemporary arguments about where we got the bones in our inner ear (I always thought the stork brought them), Rowe concluded that it is very difficult to tell a natural question from a man-made one. Despite his conclusion, there were questions --­from Cronin, Burton, Estep, and Colbath.

     Elaine Padovani, NSF, gave a brief tour of "Hot rocks from Nature's oven: arrested textures from the lower crust." These rocks were erupted from the Rio Grande Rift along Precambrian shear zones; they picked up bits of older rocks on their way up, so there is a great range in the textures seen. The moral of Elaine's story seemed to be that you have to be careful what you're looking at when you try to describe the lower crust… Questions by one gray sweater [Boyd], one gray suit [Robertson], one striped sweater [Stewart], Zen, and Severinghaus.

     97 members attended the meeting, which was adjourned at 9:55 p.m.

     [signed Kathleen Krafft]

 

Geological Society of Washington -- 1119th Meeting

February 8, 1984

     President Towe gaveled the 1119th meeting of the Society to order at 8:04 p.m. The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as read. Seven visitors were present: Glen McPherson, a new member of the Mineral Sciences Department at the Smithsonian; Pete Vitros, who announced hopefully that he has come back to D.C. to look for work; Liz Knapp, of the Smithsonian; Dave Buden, from NASA; Arnie Tanner, of the Minerals Management Service; Sandy Zelen, visiting from Boston; and Susan Sherwood, of the National Park Service. President Towe announced that Nancy Hardin is seeking volunteers to judge at local science fairs and that the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man at SMU is holding a conference about computers. I read the names of the five new members elected by the Council: James I. Marlowe, of Dewberry and Davis; Richard F. Langell, of Langell and Associates; Marianne C. Guffanti, U.S. Geological Survey; William C. Burton, U.S. Geological Survey; and Jeff Severinghaus (at last). There were no informal communications, despite a voice from the audience reminding us that the Great Dane is waiting.

     John Slack, USGS Reston, gave the first talk of the evening, on "Stratiform tourmalinites in metamorphic terranes and their geologic significance." Many of the tourmalinites show very delicate graded bedding and numerous growth zones; using this and other evidence, Slack concluded that the tourmalinites are probably formed by authigenesis of boron-rich clays. Questions by Hatch, George Helz, Rankin, Severinghaus, Rumble, Warren, Robertson, Towe, Zen, and Smoot.

     "Cooperative seismological research in China" was discussed by David Russ, USGS Reston. The United States and China have been working together since the early 1970s in a program that emphasizes earthquake prediction; currently, three areas in China are being studied intensively in the hope of catching an earthquake in the act and identifying the significant precursors. China, with its 2500-year history of large intraplate earthquakes, offers the U.S. a chance to learn some lessons before our next quake. Questions by Brett, Tilling, Dan Milton, Krohn, Zen, and Penny Hanshaw.

     Richard Phipps, USGS Reston, finished up the evening with his talk "Tree-growth response to acid rain." Perhaps a better title would have been "Congressional response to acid rain"; Phipps pointed out in his summary that Congress, responding to the public, will assign funds regardless of whether scientists find any connection between tree growth and acid rain. Not a very inspiring conclusion, perhaps, but I find it hard to resist a talk sprinkled with one-liners like "what do the trees see?" and "the wheels come off the whole thing." Questions by Nord, George Helz, Dan Milton twice, Simon, Matorazzo, Rye, Sherwood, Toulmin, Peggy Appleman, Pribyl, Towe, and, of course, Zen.

     Attendance was one hundred; the meeting was adjourned at 9:58.

     [signed Kathleen Krafft]

 

Geological Society of Washington -- 1120th Meeting

February 22, 1984

     At 8:05 p.m., President Towe uttered the impassioned cry "Will the meeting please come to order before all the beer's gone!" The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as read. Two visitors were pres­ent: Julie Donnelly-Nolan, USGS Menlo Park, and Jim Cobb, Kentucky Geological Survey. President Towe announced that GSW member Paul Barton is the 1984 Roebling Medallist of the Mineralogical Society of America. I announced the names of five newly elected members: William G. Murray, Rockville, Md.; Glenn MacPherson, Smithsonian; Leonard Konikow, USGS; Stefana Matarazza, McLean, Va.; and Peter Wieczorowski, Washington, DC.

     Bob Newman gave an extremely informal communication on a possible method for reducing earthquakes in the Gobi desert, involving equipping the population of the Indian subcontinent with paddles and telling them to row south; Newman suggested that the technique could perhaps be mech­anized for use along the San Andreas fault.  Newman's attempt to sneak off the platform before answering questions was foiled by our vigilant President; there was a question from Stewart and a comment from Yochelson that Newman should buy a pair of reading glasses.

     William Campbell, USGS Tacoma, Washington, gave an audiovisual presentation entitled "A new look at sea ice on space ship Earth" that would have made Walt Disney proud. As strains from Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite drifted into the room, we watched polynyas growing and shrinking and waves of ice sweeping across the screen, all faithfully recorded by an Electronically Scanning Microwave Radiometer that shows ice of dif­ferent ages as different colors. In fact, the whole presentation was so pretty that I forgave Campbell's use of the pseudoverb "parameterize." Questions by Stewart, Cecil, and Robertson.

     Owing to a involved set of extenuating circumstances, Doug Morton's talk was on "Debris and mudflows in southern California" rather than the previously announced title. (He tried to convince us that questions would not be permitted because the subject was so far outside his field; Doug should know that that's only allowed if you are the GSW Presi­dent.) Big, spectacular landslides have been studied, but they are quantitatively less important than smaller slides that only fill up a backyard or two. To reduce the chances of saturation and consequent ground failure, people have tried draping hillsides in plastic to keep the rain off, but, according to Morton, that only helps the hardware stores. Questions by Cecil, Hatch, Cobb, Campbell, and Tilling.

     Charles Mankin, Oklahoma Geological Survey, began his talk "Energy policy issues -- an Oklahoma perspective" by reminding us of some eco­nomic and geologic facts of life: although the U.S. has a surplus of coal and natural gas, our energy economy depends heavily on the internal combustion engine, which uses oil, and we have little ability to switch fuels. Geologists should become more active in the policymaking process, not just leave it all to attorneys, economists, and environ­mentalists. Questions by Campbell, Toulmin, Ann Dorr, Cobb, and Cecil.

     Attendance was 99; the meeting was adjourned at 9:58 p.m.

     [signed Kathleen Krafft]

 

Geological Society of Washington -- 1121st Meeting

March 14, 1984

     President Towe called the meeting to order at 8:05 p.m. The min­utes of the previous meeting were approved as read. I announced the names of 7 newly elected members: Arnold Tanner, Vienna, Va.; Laura Killen, Laurel, Md.; James Cobb, Kentucky Geological Survey; and Floyd Brown, Philip Aruscavage, Jean Kane, and William d'Angelo, all from the USGS. Six visitors were welcomed: Chuck Lawson, USGS Reston; Chuck Pillmore, USGS Denver, who brought greetings from the Colorado Scien­tific Society; Dr. Frihi, Egyptian Coastal Protection Laboratory; Patty Waterson, a geology major at the University of Maryland; Debra Forester, from Columbia, Md.; and Susan Dolgin, of ICF, Inc. President Towe, for­getting that curiosity killed the cat, asked what the initials ICF stood for; it turns out they don't stand for anything. So much for the search for meaning in our modern society.

     There were no informal communications, despite a reminder from President Towe that Bob Newman will win the Great Dane award by default if someone doesn't do something.

     The "Evidence for a proto-Susquehanna River in southern Maryland", by Lucy McCartan, the speaker, and Virginia Gonzales, is that the large sheets of gravel covering the Maryland and Virginia Coastal Plain were deposited by two different rivers. Gravels from the proto-Susquehanna, the northern river, have less than 12% quartzite clasts and show tex­tures, structures, and pebble shapes very different from those deposited by the southern river, the Potomac. The two drainage basins were kept separate by the activity of the Stafford and Brandywine fault zones. Questions from Sohn, Rye, Doan, Hardin, Stanley (have you figured out how to pronounce "eustacy" yet, Dan?), Altschuler, and Segovia, who tried but failed to get Lucy's independent, unbiased opinion of some work by Jim Owens, her husband.

     Kent Colbath's title, "Composition and fossilization of Polychaeta jaws," was probably the most intimidating part of the whole talk, unless you get nervous hearing about hairy worms 6 meters long. He very kindly translated all his Latin polysyllables into words that even geochemists can remember: grabbers, stabbers, trappers, rippers, and raspers. Worm jaws are unevenly distributed in the fossil record. By leaving the jaws in KOH to simulate bacterial action, Kent found that trappers and grabbers dissolve very easily, rippers and raspers are damaged but often identifiable, and stabbers don't decay at all. Questions from Altschuler, Severinghaus, Rye, Zen, Huggins, Towe, and Sohn.

     Dean Presnall, substituting for Frank Senftle, wound up the evening with a discussion of "Analytical and experimental uncertainties and the problem of the composition and depth of origin of primary mid-ocean ridge basalts". Although the analytical and experimental data are in good agreement, they have been interpreted in two ways. One camp believes that the primary magmas for mid-ocean ridge basalts are picritic, form at 15-30 kbar, and fractionate to the compositions seen at the surface; the other believes that the fractionation we see in mid­ocean ridge basalts is all that exists, that the primary basalts are not picritic, and that they form at lower pressures. Dean concluded that you don't need to invoke high pressure or picrites; all mid-ocean ridge basalt compositions can be explained by an array of parental melts at 7­-11 kbar. Questions from Severinghaus, Michael (twice), and Broadhurst.

     The meeting was attended by 79 people and was adjourned at 9:44 p.m.

     [Signed Kathleen Krafft]

 

Geological Society of Washington - 1122nd Meeting

March 28, 1984

     President Towe called the meeting to order at 8:02 p.m. The minutes were approved as read. Seven visitors were welcomed: Ponder Henley, U.S. Army Engineer Topographic Lab; Bob Criss, USGS; Anne Hofmeister, Geophysical Lab; Pablo Yanez and Cynthia Post, University of Maryland; Mark Baganz, George Washington University; and Mike Haseltine, Defense Mapping Agency. I announced the names of newly elected members Chuck Lawson and Skip [C.G.] Cun­ningham, both USGS, and Donald Ziehl, of Vienna, Va.

     Informal communications came "not single spies, But in battalions". First E-an Zen dis­cussed two threats to pre-college science education. One is in Texas, where the State school board has decided that science texts must bear a disclaimer stating that evolution is just one of many theories explaining the origin of human life. The other is closer to home, in the fourth edition of the text Investigating the Earth, which, although no longer published through AGI, still bears both the AGI imprint and the infamous disclaimer. E-an urged GSW members to write the Executive Director of AGI expressing their opinion of this situation. Tom Dutro appended a brief explanation of AGI's position.

     Bruce Wardlaw, the second communicant, gave a brief but very clear discussion of the differences between conodonts and the three local conodont workers. I was so stunned by the quality of Bruce's slides that I didn't get the names of any of the questioners.

     Bob Tilling celebrated the second anniversary of the eruption of El Chichon by briefly comparing that eruption, the worst in Mexican history, with the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, the worst in U.S. history. The two produced about the same volume of tephra, but most of the stuff from El Chichon was smaller and went straight up into the stratosphere, where it's still hanging around. The St. Helens blast was mostly lateral and hasn't caused nearly as many long-term problems. Questions from Zen, Dan Milton, and Toulmin.

     The first titled talk of the evening was by speaker Patty Loferski and Bruce Lipin, on "Exsolution in chromite from Red Lodge, Montana." They have found 3 types of exsolution, which are texturally and compositionally distinctive and which outline a tunnel-shaped miscibility gap in the spinel prism; these types can potentially be used to identify the probable cooling history of the host rock. Questions from Lawson, an anonymous gray suit, and Zen.

     Alta Walker supplied an antidote to the kind of weather we've been having lately with a short travelogue on "Deserts in China." About 24% of China is arid or semiarid. The new Desert Research Center has been quite successful in stabilizing the dunes in some areas; in other places the Chinese have managed to turn the desert into vineyards. Now that's a goal worth struggling for. Questions from Milton, G. Helz, Tilling, and Sato.

     Dick Henley confessed that he didn't know what he was going to say till his first slide showed up, but it appeared after a tension-filled moment and he launched into "Plate collision hot springs - Analogues for Archean gold veins." Dick has found that where continental plates are converging, such as the Cook Range in New Zealand, uplift and erosion rates are so high that hot rocks are very close to the surface, and meteoric water can reach temperatures of 300° C at depths of only a few kilometers. These amagmatic geothermal systems may well produce the kinds of gold deposits we see at Motherlode or Kalgoorlie; the rapid erosion can produce the thick gravel sequences that have been the sites of famous gold rushes all around the Pacific. Questions from G. Helz, Sato (several), Michael, Zen, Hemley, Rye, and Wright.

     One hundred and four people attended the meeting, which was adjourned at 10:02 p.m.

     [Signed Kathleen Krafft]

 

Geological Society of Washington - 1123rd Meeting

April 11, 1984

     The 1123rd meeting was called to order at 8:02 p.m. The minutes were approved as read. Three visitors were introduced: Ben Burton, National Bureau of Standards; Chris Newhall, Cascades Volcano Observatory [USGS]; and Dave Brew, USGS Menlo Park. Penny Hanshaw announced a reception by the Association for Women Geoscientists. I hope lots of you attended, so you're all feeling extremely mellow by now. A second call for announcements produced Paul Seaber, who said he might be a visitor. We applauded despite his uncertainty; this society applauds just about anyone who can stand up. I read the names of newly elected members Pat (Wayne C.) Shanks, USGS; Pablo Yanez, of Bethesda; Michael Haseltine, also of Bethesda; and Ponder Henley, U.S. Army Engineer Topographic Laboratory. There were no informal communications, unless you count President Towe's introduction of the first speaker...

     Dick Krushensky discussed "Puerto Rico: A translated terrane exotic to the Caribbean"; I had always thought the Caribbean was exotic all by itself. Dick and his co-workers used paleomagnetic analyses of basalt samples to study how much Puerto Rico has been rotated; several before-and-after slides showed us that cleaning your basalt samples makes them much more useful. (Some of us should try that technique on our offices.) All usable analyses indicated 100° of clockwise rotation of Puerto Rico after deposition in Cretaceous and Tertiary time; the proto-Greater Antilles probably formed as an island-arc west of South America and got to its present position through left-lateral movement and rotation, driven by the East Pacific plate. Questions from Severinghaus, Hatch, Brew, Zen, Rye, and Stanley (whose innocent question produced a classic Freudian slip concerning Doug Rankin's activities in the Virgins. I just wonder how these projects get funded).

     Douglas Rumble wrenched us from the Caribbean to New Hampshire for a look at "Graphite vein deposits" along the Merrimack Synclinorium. The deposits are usually localized along faults or plutonic contacts and show a variety of interesting concentric structures. The δ13C PDB values, whatever that stands for, indicate that the veins are formed neither directly from carbonates nor from reduced organic matter; Doug's hypothesis, which involved a carbon-oxygen-hydrogen phase diagram in which I got completely lost, is that the graphite formed by a combined hydration-graphitization process. Questions from Stewart, who is setting a terrible example by never giving his name, Sato, who snuck in two short lectures before getting to his question, Dan Milton, and Zen, and a comment by Towe.

     The title of Frederic Siegel's talk, "Suspended mineral matter in Appalachian geochemical prospecting", was a bit misleading; the mineral matter is actually suspended in streams, not in geochemical prospecting. Prospectors have in the past used everything from size fractions to moose scat; suspended sediment is one of the best guides to mineral deposits in a region, but carrying those 40-liter water samples can be very tricky unless you have a lot of field assistants named Charles Atlas. For those of you whose assistants are all standing in line to work with Doug Rankin, Siegel's technique is to filter those 40 liters in situ and study the filter paper, which is much easier to carry back to the lab. Questions from G. Helz, Severinghaus, an unidentified guitarist from the University of Maryland [Segovia], and Seaber.

     94 people attended the meeting, which was adjourned at 9:44 p.m.

     [Signed Kathleen Krafft]

 

Geological Society of Washington --- 1124th Meeting

April 25, 1984

     President Towe called the meeting to order at 8:05 p.m.; the late start enabled the Presi­dent and me to get refills on beer. This should have been the first clue that it would be a long meeting. The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as read, despite the President's plea for corrections. Three visitors were introduced: Dan Schulze, Geophysical Lab; Jeff Wynn, USGS, who was a speaker as well as a visitor; and Bill Silberman, USGS Denver. Nancy Hardin, Public Service Committee chair, announced the upcoming spring field trip. President Towe announced the deaths of Erling Dorf and Helmut Wedow. I read the names of the two newly elected members, Ben Burton, National Bureau of Standards, and Dave Brew, USGS Menlo.

     Mac Ross gave the first of the evening's many informal communications; he described the beginnings of a 10-year study of the effects of acid rain on the Salem Limestone and the Shel­burne Marble. The National Cathedral and the Jefferson Memorial are built of these rocks, and they are already disintegrating, perhaps owing to acid rain, but also perhaps because of "in­herent vice" (defined as pyrite inclusions) in the stone. We will expect a follow-up report in 1994. Questions from Simon, Toulmin, and Zen, and a comment from Sherwood.

     Jim Clarke, USGS, was informal communicator No. 2, with a proposed explanation for a mystery plume seen emerging from Bennett Island, a U.S.S.R. possession north of Siberia. The plume is cold (wouldn't you be, at those latitudes?) and contains very fine clay particles; Jim's hypothesis is that at the last glacial minimum, Bennett Island was 350 km inland and was cov­ered with permafrost. As the sea transgressed, the permafrost became unstable and rose adiabatically, carrying water droplets and fine clay particles, which then burst forth in these spectacular plumes. Questions from Dutro, Hatch, Toulmin, Hardin, and Simon.

     Our last informal communication was a Toulmin-Zen double feature on the activities of the committee on pre-college science education. Pete and E-an have energetically ferreted out the interested local teachers and some interesting things for them to do. President Towe didn't allow questions, expressing the fear that we'd be there all night. Good heavens. Anyone would think he didn't really enjoy these meetings.

     Anne Hofmeister, Geophysical Lab, gave a very clear explanation of the beautiful blue to green color found in amazonite. This feldspar is usually one of the last phases to crystallize and has high concentrations of trace elements, including lead; the more lead present, the greener the amazonite. This is because lead distorts the lattice, turning blue triclinic microcline to green monoclinic orthoclase. Structurally bound water and radiation are the other two require­ments for the model; the irradiated water transforms nearby Pb2+, which does not produce color, into Pb3+, which does. Question from Toulmin.

     Jeff Wynn, USGS, extolled the virtues of self-potential, which sounds like some method for getting yourself together and taking over the world but in fact turns out to be nothing more than measuring the natural electrical voltage in the ground. The technique has been used for half a century to look for ore bodies; Wynn uses it in archeological mapping to look for buried stone and metal and disturbed soils. It's cheap, requiring only wire, electrodes, a trowel, and a notebook; it's not noisy; and it isn't bothered by vegetation. What more could you ask? Questions from Rosemary Vidale Buden, Robertson, Yeandl, and Zen.

     Karen Wenrich, USGS, discussed "Uranium-silver mineralization of breccia pipes in Ari­zona". These pipes are 200 million years old and are not associated with volcanic activity. They extend across Grand Canyon National Park from Grand Wash Cliffs on the west to Echo Cliffs on the east; they formed by solution collapse of the Redwall Limestone and stoping of the overlying strata. Not all the pipes are mineralized, but those that are have some of the richest uranium deposits ever found, as well as significant amounts of copper, silver, lead, and zinc. Questions from Severinghaus, Buden, Houser, Gize, Kingston, Zen, Podwysocki, Towe, and Clarke.

     82 people attended the meeting, which was adjourned at 10:06 p.m.

     [Signed Kathleen Krafft]

 

Geological Society of Washington -- 1125th Meeting

May 9, 1984

     Vice-President Hatch, somewhat uneasy under the unaccustomed responsibility, sort of called the meeting to order at 8:02 p.m. The minutes of the previous meeting were approved after one correction from the ever-vigilant Tom Dutro, nemesis of the sloppy secretary. We had lots of visitors: Phil Gans, of Stanford University; Chris Duarte, NIH; Jeff Post and Sorena Sorensen, both new at the Smithsonian; Kent Sprague, University of Georgia; and Nancy Hardin's parents, Bob and Jeanne Singel, who show that it is possible to be both married and Singel... E-an Zen made two long announcements (or short informal communications, depending on your definitions). The Texas Board of Education has rescinded its requirement that textbooks contain an evolution disclaimer; this rescission and other pressures have prompted Houghton Mifflin to remove the disclaimer from the AGI earth science text "as soon as possible". E-an also described a new newsletter for Friends of Granites (acronym FrOGs); it is edited by Sue Kieffer and John Clemens, who warn that if no material has been received by the next deadline, Dec. 3, there will be no FrOGs in the spring!

     Nancy Hardin began with her own personal disclaimer: the day she agreed to give this talk, several months ago, her doctor warned her that she had a screw loose. It was good of her to tell us; usually the audience just is left to wonder about our speakers. The Continental Slope of the western Gulf of Mexico, Nancy's study area, is of great interest both scientifically and economically, which is what pays for some of the science. The sediments there are in transit from the continent to the deep ocean basins; the topography is irregular and there is a lot of diapiric movement at varying rates, so sediment often ponds on the upper slope and then is transported by mass movement -- slides, which can be divided into slumps and glides. These things can be as much as 150 m thick and cover an area of 35 by 50 km; I'm glad I'm not trying to drill there. Questions from Kranz, Tracey, Fiske, and Severinghaus.

     Tom Cronin has used ostracodes to study the relationship between evolution and climatic change. He found that speciation is caused neither by the formation of geographic barriers (for example the Isthmus of Panama) nor by short-term oscillations in sea level and temperature. Only events lasting several million years, such as the ice ages in the Pliocene, will do the trick. The descendant species probably develop in less than 500,000 years, but then need more time to establish reproductive isolation. Questions from Kranz and Pribyl.

     Tom O. Wright, NSF, showed some spectacular slides of deformed rocks in the Meguma terrane, Nova Scotia, to demonstrate that deformation occurred in the stages of a single cycle. First comes layer-parallel shortening, in response to horizontal compression; as the stress continues, the rocks buckle and layers flow differentially; finally, after the limbs are as tight as possible, the limbs shorten and cleavage is formed. Questions from Robertson (twice), Zen, who has been unusually unquestioning lately, and a tan windbreaker in the back of the room.

     Attendance was 87; the meeting was adjourned at 9:45 p.m.

     [Signed Kathleen Krafft]

 

Geological Society of Washington - 1126th Meeting

May 23, 1984

     Long, long ago, President Towe called the 1126th meeting to order; it was 8:05 p.m. The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as read. Various visitors were introduced: Bethany Milton of Vienna, Virginia, who proved to be an active and vocal participant in the meeting, in the fine tradition set by her parents Dan and Leanne; Donn Gorsline, University of Southern California; Marianne Del Marmol, Johns Hopkins; Laurie Dwyer, introduced by Judy Ehlen; Edward Erlich, introduced by Tom Simkin; Rick Groshong, University of Alabama, introduced by Tom O. Wright; Lois Campbell, University of Kentucky; and Giovanni Flores, a geological consultant in Florence, Italy. I announced the names of newly elected members Bruce Lantrip and Paul Seaber, both of WRD of the USGS; Bob Criss, Geologic Division of the USGS; and Anne Hofmeister, Geophysical Laboratory. The upcoming GSW field trip was announced, as were the elections of Charles Bartlett and Juergen Reinhardt to the AAPG House of Representatives. President Towe announced the deaths of two members of the geologic community: Dick Cifelli, of the Department of Paleobiology at the Smithsonian, and Jack Stark, a professor at Northwestern University. Rob Robinson presented the award for the Best College Paper to Karen Grove Provine, of the University of Maryland.

     President Towe did not introduce the next speaker, a clue that this was going to be a really informal communication. Tom L. Wright showed some lovely slides of the recent eruptions of Mauna Loa. They began as a very photogenic en-echelon curtain of fire; the lava spread downhill very rapidly, moving along a front 100-200 m wide as much as several km per day, and following the same pattern as the 1942 and 1852 eruptions. An intricate system of diversion channels prevented the flow from reaching Hilo, but it got close enough to make some people very nervous.

     President Towe then took the floor to announce, not the next speaker, but the fact that his house was on fire and he wanted to go home. The meeting acceded graciously to his wish (in fact, several people were heard to wonder why he hadn't left earlier), and Second Vice President George Helz took over. (Later historical note: the house was fine, suffering no damage at all.) Andy Gize gave the first formal talk, entitled "A tale of 2 bitumens", and sprinkled with Shakespearean references (I guess he figured Dickens wasn't as recognizable). After a brief discussion of how to pronounce the word, he introduced us to the stuff itself. It's pretty boring under crossed polars, and it has no X-ray diffraction pattern - things were looking black for a while. Studying deposits at Nanisivik and Konigsberg, however, he found that the aromatics had coalesced to form liquid crystals at the vein edges, suggesting that order can be created thermally. These blobs can also achieve order lyotropically. The first question was from Andy himself, who asked if this was perhaps Much Ado about Nothing? No, it's not, he replied. Other, questions from Severinghaus and G. Helz.

     Tom Holzer spoke next, on "Historical surface faulting in the Houston subsidence area." These faults are aseismic, so they haven't really hit the press, but they've been busily subsiding since the 1940s. There are about 86 active faults, whose cumulative length is 240 km, and they are moving by the slow, steady creep method at 4-27 mm per year. The center of the subsidence, which is right around Gilley's, has sunk more than 2.5 m. Faulting is greatest during the summer and is related to ground-water withdrawal, which seems to have triggered a strain release; this mechanism was unexpected because the sediments are soft. Questions from Robertson, Flores, Sutter, Tilling, Lipin, Segovia, and two from Zen - obviously trying to keep his average up.

     Margaret Mangan and Tom L. Wright jointly gave the last talk, on regional flow correlation in the Grande Ronde basalt. Tom gave us some background , including some information published in 1926 - haven't we learned anything since then? The Grande Ronde basalt is about 75% by volume of the Columbia River basalt field; by using magnetic and geochemical data, they were able to divide it into chemically coherent units 300-400 m thick. The flows came from linear vent systems in the southeastern part of the province; some flows were quite small and stayed home in the east, but 7 were sheet floods that covered the whole plateau and ponded against the rising Cascade Mountains. As a result, the eastern section is thinner but more complex, with many small intercalated flows. Questions from Wood, Flores, Lipin, Severinghaus (2), Zen, Sutter, Ayuso (2), and Yaendl.

     91 members attended the meeting, which was adjourned at 10:00 p.m. on the nose.

     [Signed Kathleen Krafft]

 

Geological Society of Washington - 1127th Meeting

October 10, 1984

     President Towe called the meeting to order at 8:04 p.m.; the small but noisy crowd finally settled down (or at least sat down) and approved the minutes of the previous meeting as read. Two visitors were introduced: Eileen McLellan, a structural geologist at the University of Maryland, and Ed Evensen, visiting from Lehigh University. President Towe announced the fall GSW field trip, to the Triassic-Jurassic Culpeper basin (led by Joe Smoot) and the publication of a new geologic map of Louisiana, in 28 glowing colors, and read a heartfelt statement from Treasurer Nick Van Driel that "contributions as always are especially welcome." He also announced the death this past summer of Ruth Todd, a long-time paleontologist for the USGS. I read the names of the ten newly elected members: Alan Bradford, of Environ Corporation; Marianne Del Marmol, Johns Hopkins: Jean-Paul Malingreau, NASA Goddard; Jane Jenness, Joan Fitzpatrick, and David Sherman, all at the USGS; and Sorena Sorensen, Jeffrey Post, Jamie Allan, and Sid Hallor, all at the Smithsonian. There were no informal communications - it must have been a very dull summer.

     Anita Harris discussed "Tectonic implications of early Paleozoic conodonts from the Talladega slate belt, Alabama". Her work was complicated by the absence of fossils in most of the section and the general crumminess of the ones that they eventually found - the brachiopods, for example, are usually out of focus, and the conodonts were deformed and corroded, with no redeeming social value. Anita et al. managed to draw some conclusions anyway: This belt had previously been thought to be a suspect terrane; thanks to the conodonts, it was cleared of all suspicious aspects. The Talladega area was a passive margin in the late Precambrian to early Ordovician; it became more active in the mid-Ordovician when it rose up, then collapsed and accumulated a thick volcanic sequence. Questions from Zen and a nameless, beardless, Rankin.

     Gerald Feder spoke on the relationship between the natural geochemical environment and regional patterns in human health. Data on deaths from cardiovascular disease show a fourfold difference depending on where you live: the longevity area, in the High Plains, has generally hard water that's high in everything, whereas the reduced longevity area, the Southeast Coastal Plain, has soft water. Please note that it was a colleague reviewer, not an editor, who wouldn't let him coin the word "shortgevity" -we're not the only spoilsports around. Questions from Ross, D. Milton, Severinghaus, Keith, G. Helz, Back, Towe, and Simkin, who showed where his mind had been by asking if Feder knew of any high-Mg beer.

     Lucy Edwards closed the formal program with her discussion of "Graphic correlation using various kinds of data." Graphic, correlation is most useful when correlating data such as electric logs; I like it because it features my alltime favorite unit of measure, the elastic foot. When used in conjunction with other ways of correlating data, this method permits increased resolution, more geologically reasonable answers, and the ability to quickly verify possible correlations. There being no questions, President Towe snuck in a few more business items: he read the slate proposed by the Nominating Committee and announced that despite what the meeting notices say, GSW will meet in March.

     96 people attended the meeting, which was adjourned at 9:36.

     [Signed Kathleen Krafft]

 

Geological Society of Washington - 1128th Meeting

October 24, 1984

     President Towe called the meeting to order at the unusually late hour of 8:08 p.m., with the stern admonition to "take your seats and leave some beer!" The minutes of the previous meeting were finally approved more or less as read, after I foiled Lucy Edwards's attempt to correct my grammar but had to admit to leaving out one announcement. Good golly. If I'd realized people out there were keeping track, I'd have been much more scrupulous in my note taking. Cyril Galvin announced a visitor: Joyce Miley, of his Coastal Engineering Company. Treasurer Nick Van Driel came to the podium to present a short financial report: each meeting costs the Society about $500 ($340 for rent and beer, and $160 for printing and mailing the cards). 282 members have not paid their dues this year; if they don't pay up by the Annual Meeting on Dec. 15, Nick promised to turn their names over to the King Kong Collection Agen­cy!! A voice from the audience pointed out that dues are tax deductible, for those of you in a tax bracket to care about such things. I read the names of the 6 newly elected members: James McNeal, Glenn Allcott, and Thomas Ovenshine, of the USGS, and Eileen McLellan, Kath­leen Wehnes, and Winston Riley, of the University of Maryland. There were once again no informal communications. Let me remind you that we have had only 6 informal communications so far this year, not counting Bob Neuman's and Bruce Wardlaw's thinly disguised attempts at the Sleeping Bear award. Isn't anyone out there doing something short and interesting that he or she would like to talk about?

     Kay Behrensmeyer spoke on "Bones as sedimentary particles". Most bones start off hung together as skeletons, but they soon fall apart (this happens even before death, for some of us). To find out how bones are transported by moving water, Kay started by working with skulls in flumes in the laboratory and then graduated to throwing marked bones into rivers and seeing how far they traveled. In general, the bones are very mobile and ended up scattered along the river; average movement was from 25 to 463 meters per year, but some bones moved as much as 1 km downstream in a single season. Kay did find that different body parts move differently; I could have told her that just from watching joggers on the Mall. Questions from Kranz, Zen, Smoot, and Severinghaus. President Towe's remark about having no more bones to pick should not be considered for the Sleeping Bear award; he had 2 weeks to think that one up.

     Howard Pohn was next, with a talk on "Disturbed zones, lateral ramps, and the structure of the central Appalachians". His thesis is that in most of the Valley and Ridge, faulting precedes folding and thus the frequency of faults controls the wavelength of folds. In Pennsylvania he found short, nonclustering disturbed zones with wide folds, whereas to the south in Maryland and West Va. he found long, clustered, continuous zones of disturbance with narrow folds. (Right about then, everyone's watch started beeping because it was 9:00. Don't those high-tech things have mufflers?) This change in pattern is due to the rise in the master decollement, which is nearer the surface in Maryland and W. Va., so the splay faults coming off it are much more likely to reach the surface and affect the folding pattern. These ramping thrust faults are associated with igneous intrusions and with earthquake epicenters, and are probably loci of mineralized zones. There being no questions at first, Howard gave us a further armwave - the major ramps may be connected to transform faults. We finally got one question, from Joe Smoot.

     The final talk of the evening was "a duet by a trio", in President Towe’s felicitous phrase, on the geology and hydrology of the Great Dismal Swamp. The Coastal Plain east of the swamp is a series of terraces, each representing a single marine transgression and a single formation, separated by scarps. Where the coarse basal lag deposits of these formations are connected, groundwater moves freely downslope to the east; where a lag dead-ends into an impermeable layer, the water emerges as springs that feed the swamp. Questions from Deike, Pohn, Steinkampf, and Danny Milton, who wanted to know the point of the talk. This is a dangerous man; he's asked that question twice in the three years I've been a member.

     President Towe announced a change in the program for the next meeting, reminded the members of the fall GSW field trip to be held Nov. 17, and adjourned the meeting at 9:39. Attendance was 97.

     [Signed Kathleen Krafft]

 

Geological Society of Washington - 1129th Meeting

November 14, 1984

     President Towe called the meeting to order at 8:05 p.m., explaining to the reluctant audience that that meant "Sit down." The minutes were approved as read. Dennis Krohn gave the names of two visitors, Steve Altaner and Norma Vargo; also visiting were Russ Hemley, Geophysical Lab, and Christopher Wnuk, USGS Reston. Norm Hatch announced the GSW field trip to be held that Saturday if it wasn't too wet; people who couldn't tell if it was raining Saturday morning were to call Joe Smoot to find out. Norm also announced a proposed solution to the slide focus problem; judging by the way the slides looked that night, I think we need another solution. President Towe couldn't decide whether this was an announcement or not, but he wanted to let the members know that, contrary to the wording on our meeting cards, the Presidential candidate for next year is not Normal, but Norman. He really didn't need to tell us - most of us knew it already. I read the names of newly elected members Marshall Reed, U.S. Dept. of Energy, David Freeman, University of Maryland, Laura Dwyer, U.S. Army Topographic Lab., and Jerry Feder and William Moore, USGS. President Towe announced the death of Dave Wones.

     E-an Zen's informal communication was a question: when trying to determine the evolution of sialic crust, how can we estimate the thickness at a specific time and place? When he asked this question at the recent GSA meeting, he got three answers: (1) What a stupid question, (2) assume the same thickness as now, and (3) use the topographic relief to calculate it isostatically. He found these answers unsatisfactory, but he got neither questions nor answers from the GSW crowd.

     Gene Robertson also answered the call for informal communications with a report on his summer field work. As those of you who came to last year's Presidential address know, Gene has found that in hard rocks, the thickness of gouge and breccia along a fault correlate with the amount of movement along the fault. His summer work in coal mines in southern Illinois indicates that the relationship holds in soft rocks too. Question from B. French.

     Bob Criss began the formal talks with a discussion of fossil hydrothermal systems in Idaho. All rocks in his study area are pervasively hydrothermally altered, but contour maps of delta 18O values can distinguish the presence of Tertiary stocks - toward these stocks, delta 18O values decrease sharply from normal values of about 10 ‰ to minus 8. An interesting but so far unexplained observation is that the precious-metal mines in the area almost all plot along the sharp delta 18O boundary that defines the stocks. Bob concluded that you needed a LOT of water in the top 20 km of crust to get this much alteration. Questions from Halsor, Leo, Severinghaus, and Zen elicited the information that these were normal old rocks, nothing special, just the average garbage rock...

     Don Anderson, fresh off the Red-eye Special from California, gave us a taste of recent results in seismic tomography and their pertinence to a variety of other sciences. Basically, if I understood the very colorful slides, you can use this stuff to tell what is hot or even partially melted and what is cold down to the core-mantle boundary. You can also use information on velocities to model the composition of the mantle; Don's favorite mixture has a lot more clinopyroxene and garnet than most recipes!  Questions from G. Helz, Stewart, Brett, Silver, and Robertson.

     Glenn McPherson took us even farther into the big picture, back to the beginnings of the solar system as seen through a carbonaceous chondrite. The Allende meteorite is the most famous of these extraterrestrial visitors; it is a very heterogeneous aggregate of olivine-rich spheroids, irregularly shaped blobs of Ca, Al, Mg, and Ti oxides and silicates, and fine-grained carbonaceous matrix. Much of this stuff predates our nebular cloud.  Looking at the phase relations, Glenn and friends have calculated the temperature of the surrounding nebular gases to get a cooling rate for the blobs. Their answer, that the gas and chondrules were at the same temperature, seemed unlikely; the probable explanation is local hot, dense pockets of gas that cooled at 1-30°/hour, faster than your average nebula. Questions from Brett, Huebner, and Anderson.

     105 people attended the meeting, which was adjourned unusually late at 9:58 p.m.

     [Signed Kathleen Krafft]

 

Geological Society of Washington - 1130th Meeting

November 28, 1984

     Vice-President Hatch called the meeting to order at 8:05 p.m. The minutes of the pre­vious meeting were approved as read. Several visitors had braved the elements: Estella Nkwate, Elliott Atekwana, and Oliver Jones, of Harvard University; Dave Fenelli, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Ginger Wandless, USGS, and Joe Smoot, introduced as a "prodigal son of GSW." I hope Membership Chairman Fred Simon has gotten him back on the rolls - with payment of back dues. The ugly specter of late meeting notices reared its head after a long absence; one member has gotten only 1 notice so far this season, and others receive them as much as 2 weeks late. This problem is caused by individual post offices, and there's nothing GSW can do about it. The other announcement, which concerned possible parking problems for tonight, has no archival value, and I am leaving it out of the minutes on purpose. I read the names of our newly elected members: Sherol Smith, U.S. Bureau of Land Management; Gregory Krehbiel, Mark Zeigler, and Davis Greenan, all University of Maryland; Christopher Wnuk, Susan Bartsch­-Winkler, Gary Winkler, and John Aaron, all USGS; and Paul Lupo, NSGA.  I still don't know what that stands for.

     Mel Podwysocki introduced us to the Landsat Thematic Mapper, a new tool for mapping hydrothermally altered rocks. The TM has three advantages over its predecessor, the Multispectral Scanner: it has increased spatial resolution (30 m, rather than 80); increased radiometric resolution (distinguishing 256 levels of gray, rather than 64); and increased spectral resolution (adding a band in the blue part of the visible spectrum and 2 water-absorption bands in the near IR). These water-absorption bands enable it to see Al-OH and C-O3 bonds, which are usually good indicators of hydrothermally altered, and therefore possibly mineralized, rocks. The system is so sensitive that it found some building roofs that had been painted with calcium carbonate cement, so you have to be careful how you interpret its findings. There are a few other problems - you can't tell vegetation from hematitic altered rocks, and the higher spectral and spatial resolution of the TM gives them so much data that they get logjams in their, data processing. Questions from G. Helz, Smoot, and Oberg produced a nice bit of philosophy: Life is a compromise.

     David Anastasio and Frederick Diegel tried to cram 2 20-minute papers into 10 minutes each and left me gasping in their wakes. Anastasio deserves a medal for bravery under fire, as during his talk the slides acted up and the arrow kept appearing and disappearing; he also had to stop in the middle to put on a mike. The only thing I learned from his part of the talk is that the Pyrenees are a fabulously beautiful area to do field work in. Diegel brought us back to reality, the poorly exposed southern Blue Ridge, to demonstrate that even if you can't see the rocks, you can tell a lot about the order of stacking and the thickness of units simply from the map pattern. I got lost somewhere between the leading and trailing branches. Question from Robertson.

     Declan de Paor has come up with a new way to analyze thrust belts and draw cross sec­tions; his technique makes the computer do the hard work of trying different solutions. Your average structural geologist is not going to draw more than two possible-cross sections, because he gets tired of it; computers, on the other hand, will stay up all night till they get a best solution. Declan uses an orthographic net to calculate the amount of strain; if you do this for many points in an area that has been folded and strained to varying degrees, you can integrate (or you can make the computer integrate) between the points to get a strain field for the whole structure. With this knowledge, you can more accurately unstretch and unrotate the section to see what it looked like before, and therefore draw better cross sections. Questions from Robertson and Smoot.

     76 people waded through the downpour to attend the meeting, which was adjourned at 9:47.

     [signed Kathleen Krafft]

 

Geological Society of Washington- 1131st Meeting

December 12, 1984

     President Towe called the meeting to order for the last time at 8:03 p.m., using the special Budweiser gavel, which appears only at Annual Meeting time. The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as read. The low point of the meeting was reached early on, when your humble (humble now, anyway) outgoing secretary tried to make an announcement without relying on her notes. This was a bad idea; fortunately a voice from the audience rescued her before she fell apart altogether. Condensed and edited, the announcement stated that the USGS is holding a public meeting, entitled "USGS Research on Mineral Resources - 1985", this coming February 6-7 in Denver. This is the first of an annual series, called the V. E. McKelvey Forum on Mineral and Energy Resources, to present results of USGS research to the industrial and academic communities in a timely manner. A call for visitors produced Antonio Arribas, University of Salamanca; Charles Summerson, Ohio State; Dan Merriam, of Wichita State University, introduced by Ellis Yochelson; and Scott Hassler of Bethesda, introduced by Jeff Severinghaus. All other business was waived, leaving the battlefield clear for the Presidential Address by Kenneth M. Towe.

     Ken's starting point was a 1953 paper by Miller and May on DNA; this paper was the first to propose that the "building blocks" for life are made up of C, H, O, and N, combined in what has been called the primordial soup. Ken gave us the five major arguments against the existence of free O in the primordial atmosphere and then announced he didn't believe them. The arguments are (1) Experiments to produce these building blocks fail in the presence of free O; (2) There was no way to generate O before photosynthesis; (3) Organic matter would have been oxidized before it could turn into life; (4) Oxygen is toxic to primitive anaerobes; and (5) Precambrian banded iron formations couldn't have formed if free O were present. These sounded pretty convincing to me, but fortunately I stuck around to hear the counterarguments. The foremost is that a screen of atmospheric ozone was needed to keep the little nucleic acids from frying in the high UV radiation that young stars put out. Specific counterattacks were that (1) the early building blocks may have arrived on earth prepackaged, in carbonaceous chondrites or as part of cometary nuclei; (2) O can be derived by breaking up water vapor in the upper atmosphere - it does not require production by photosynthesis; (3) ferrous iron trapped the O before it could zap the organic matter; (4) O is not all that toxic to early anaerobes; some of them have a protective enzyme that enables them to withstand several days of exposure to much higher O levels than were found in the early atmosphere. Point 5, the banded iron formation argument, caused Ken to invoke the Missing Carbon Problem: he thinks we need a new model for iron formations, because the old model, that they formed from organic matter, leaves the earth short of about 2,000 billion tons of used organic matter.

     Having demolished those arguments so neatly, Ken did not allow any more questions but adjourned the meeting at 8:51. Attendance was probably somewhere around 175.

     [signed Kathleen Krafft]

 

Minutes of Geological Society of Washington Annual Meeting

December 12, 1984

     Soon-to-be-ex-President Towe called the Annual Meeting to order (or as close to order as this meeting ever gets) at 9:09 p.m. Tom Dutro attempted to find out what number this annual meeting was, but was temporarily squelched because nobody knew. At the call for the minutes of the 1983 Annual Meeting, I rose to announce, that they were on the other side of the globe, in New Zealand with our errant Council Secretary. Next order of business was my report as Meetings Secretary; President Towe for some inexplicable reason moved to delete those lovingly prepared minutes, but before anyone woke up enough to second the motion, Dave Stewart moved to accept them as read. Tom Wright, Council Secretary, was absent, so I got to stand up again to read a summary of Council's activities during the year. Treasurer Nick Van Driel came forward, breaking up Act I of the Ken and Kathy Show, to present his annual report. The good news was that if all members had paid their dues we would have been in the black; the bad news was that more than 25% of the members were in arrears. This is really disgusting; I hope Klaus has better news of you this year. The report of the Audit Committee was presented by Peter Lyttle for the absent Bruce Lipin (the rumor was that he was being worked over by our collection agency for nonpayment of dues); this report was a model of clarity and brevity, which could hardly have been improved even if it had been through TRU...It was three words long: "The books balance." (Information acquired during 1985 indicates that the report should perhaps have delved a little farther into the subject, but the language was impeccable.) Fred Simon, Membership Chair, and Nancy Hardin, Public Service Chair, were both absent so guess who read their reports (by this time I was beginning to wonder why I was the only person dumb enough to be up there). Finally we all got a reprieve -- Gene Robertson gave Harvey Belkin's report on the College Student Award committee and, amazing but true, Pete Toulmin gave his own report on Pre-College Earth Science Education.

     Now to the nitty-gritty: reports from Peggy Appleman's Awards Committee and Tom Dutro's Sleeping Bear Committee. A general note -- you both should consider attending the Lipin-Lyttle School for Report Writing. Peggy thanked Program Chair Penny Hanshaw, for the excellent programs, and her husband Dan, for staying home to babysit all year. She then very helpfully gave the criteria for evaluating papers, scattered some Honorable Mentions around, and landed suddenly at the awards: the Great Dane to Mac Ross, for his informal communication on acid rain, and the Bradley to Dick Henley, for his talk on hot springs and Archean gold. Bob Criss was runner up for his talk on fossil hydrothermal systems in Idaho. The next "thing" on the agenda was Tom Dutro, who, perhaps under the impression that he was being paid by the minute, began his Sleeping Bear award report with a special Defective Electronic Timer Award to President Towe for the most disorganized year. Seems to me that Tom's sense of humor may have conquered his sense of accuracy... He then proceeded to get back at geochemists and their nasty little triangles by quantifying all the humor overheard during the year (a job requiring many giga-seconds of work) and plotting it on a hexagon -- a diagram composed of six triangles. After extensive explanations of symbols, abbrevi­ations, trends, and the Sato factor (unexplained low levels of geochemical humor), Dutro finally awarded the Society's most coveted prize to E-an Zen, for his "whole body of work." E-an announced that he didn't remember saying that, but obviously wasn't going to give up the prize for such a minor quibble.

     Ken Towe, coming into the home stretch, read the slate for 1985; it was moved and seconded to close the slate, but my notes don't record whether we actually voted the slate in... Nonetheless, Ken handed the gavel over to new President Norm Hatch with the brief but sincere words "It's all yours, buddy." Norm quickly announced the new Program Chair, Dan Milton, and the program scheduled for the next meeting, and adjourned the Annual Meeting at 10:22 p.m.