GSW: 2004
MEETING MINUTES
Geological
Society of
Minutes of the 1373rd Meeting,
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
John
Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club,
On
a frightfully, frigid night, President Grossman called the 37 huddled attendees
to order at 8:03 pm. The minutes of the
1372nd meeting were read and there were no corrections. Two guests braved the
cold to join our cozy group: Aliyeva Elmira and Jim Zimbelman’s spouse. Nine
new members were announced. President Grossman announced the passing of Nancy
G. Ryan and there was a moment of silence. Gordon Nord announced that GSW
judges are needed for 8 regional science fairs in March and April. More details
about the science fairs are available on the website, flyers and sign-up sheets displayed at the
meetings and an email announcement sent to members. You can also email Gordon
to get more details and to volunteer.
There
were no informal communications.
The
first talk by Christopher Keane from the American Geological Institute was
entitled “The Human and Real Economy of the Geosciences”. As of the end of
2000, 20% of geoscientists were employed in academia, 16% in government, 30% in the petroleum industry, 14% in the
environmental industry and 8% in mining. A bachelor of science degree is not
worth very much in the job market and the average starting salary has plummeted
to only $13,000. A master’s degree is
optimal if you have decided to study rocks for a living with a “show me the
money” attitude. The starting salaries range from $25,000 to $70,000. A
doctoral degree will fetch average starting salaries between $35,000 to $70,000.
The petroleum industry has increased the economic value of their
geoscientists, while the environmental industry has decreased the value of
their geoscientists. The estimated economic value of government and academic
geoscientists has not changed and is far below the values of other industries.
Chris encouraged government and academic geoscientists to show the funding
agencies their value, if they wanted the agencies to show them more money.
Questions by Brooks Hanson, E-an Zen, Margaret Baker and Jeff Grossman.
The
second talk by Dadash Huseynov from the Geology Institute of Azerbaijan was
entitled “Mud Volcanoes of the
The
third talk by Jim Zimbelman from the National Air and
President
Grossman announced that Linda Gunderson is the new program chair.
The
meeting was adjourned at 9:46 pm.
Respectfully
submitted,
Linda
Rowan
Geological
Society of
Minutes of the 1374th Meeting,
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
John
Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club,
On
a crisp and clear evening, President Grossman called the 56 attendees to order
at 8:02 pm. The minutes of the 1373rd
meeting were read and there were no corrections. Gordon Nord repeated his call
for volunteers for the metro-area science fairs in March and added a plea from
a local elementary school teacher for a geologist to help with their career day
event. There were three guests, Robert Chinery, Kalin Tatu and Wang Bing Bing.
There
were no informal communications, only light chatter from those at the back of
the room, closest to the cold brewskies.
The
first talk, by Katie Kelley from the Carnegie Institution of Washington, was
entitled “The Role of Water in the Formation of Subduction Zone Magmas”. Katie
focused on the measurements of water contents in melt inclusions trapped in
grains from the most primitive subduction zone magmas along the Mariana
volcanic arc. Each magma reservoir yielded a linear correlation between
water abundance and melt fraction. The
slope of this correlation varied depending on the location of the magmatic
source. Thus the different slopes can provide a method to estimate the pressure
and temperature conditions at the source using only the melt inclusions. There
were questions by Jim Rubenstone, Allan Halter,
E-an Zen, Joe Taylor, George Helz
and Jeff Ryan. The questions were equally divided over the fore arc and back
arc of the room, indicating that there is no correlation between closeness to the brewskies and the ability of
attendees to ask lucid questions. [20
minutes]
The
second talk, by Walt Snyder from
The
third talk, by Rhonda Stroud from the Naval Research Laboratory, was entitled
“A Physicist Gone Bad: Clues to Stellar Evolution from the Microscopy of
Stardust”. Meteorites contain materials from other stars, often called
stardust. Rhonda and her cohorts have developed a new method to extract
stardust from meteorites using the powerful Focused Ion Beam microscope or FIB.
When the FIB’s gallium ion source is set to run at a high current, they can sputter away material with a 10
nanometer ion beam. With this very fine slicer and dicer, they can extract 100
nanometer-thick sections of stardust grains with its surrounding matrix. Early
work on a few extracted sections are stellar. One extracted corundum grain
contained amorphous alumina which is consistent with infrared spectra of
oxygen-rich AGB stars, providing some ground truth for models of chemical
evolution in stars beyond the solar system. There were two questions by our
all-things-extraterrestrial expert, President Jeff Grossman. [22 minutes]
The
meeting was adjourned at 9:32 pm.
Respectfully
submitted,
Linda
Rowan
Geological
Society of
Minutes of the 1375th Meeting,
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
John
Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club,
On
a suspiciously chilly night, President Grossman called the 105 attendees (plus
or minus a few men in black) to order at 8:04 pm. The minutes of the 1374th meeting were read
and there was one correction. There were many guests, including Wen Lee, Prof.
James Stars, Lee Hardin, Horace Pritcher, Aron Beatty McCray and Joy
Fergatella. One new member was announced and we observed a moment of silence
for the passing of John Rogers, who was on the faculty of
There
was an informal communication, by Judy Ehlen, entitled “Demolition of the
Embrey Dam”. On February 23, 2004, an
Army dive team and an Air Force demolition team got together to blow a hole in
the Embrey Dam (circa 1855). The purpose was to create a pathway for spawning
fish, such as shad and striped bass, to return to the
The
first talk, by Maureen Bottrel from the Federal Bureau of Investigations was
entitled “Forensic Geology from the FBI”. Forensic geology is not a
particularly glamorous science because the focus is on the 3 “c”s: corrosion,
crap and crud and the three “d”s: dirt, dust and debris. Maureen described
three cases where they used color, texture, petrology, and chemical analysis of
“c”’s and “d”’s to solve the crimes.
Everybody in the audience minded their “p”’s and “q”’s and there was
only one question from Fred Simon [25 minutes]
The
second talk, by Bill Leith from the United States Geological Survey, was
entitled “History of military geology in the USGS and the hunt for bin Laden”
The USGS has been involved in military geology since World War 1. Military
geology includes mapping strategic terrain, locating enemies or the source of enemy
fire from rock outcrops, developing better ground penetration devices and verifying nuclear test ban treaty
compliance. Bill ended his sampler by
showing a still image of Ossama bin Laden from a videotape that showed a large outcrop of rock with no vegetation. Geologists, including Bill, were asked to
identify the location of the outcrop and hence bin Laden, based on the geology.
Jack Schroder from the
The
third talk, by Peter Chirico from the United States Geological Survey, was
entitled “Geomorphology of the Mesopotamian Plain: Implications for Military
Ops” Peter and his colleagues had to design a route for the Army and Marines to
get to Baghdad from the south during the Iraq War without getting caught in
brackish water, irrigation canals, marshes or other natural logistical
barriers. The alluvial and deltaic plain is bounded by the Euphrates and
The
meeting was adjourned at 9:51 pm.
Respectfully
submitted,
Linda
Rowan
Geological
Society of
Minutes of the 1376th Meeting,
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
John
Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club,
On
a rainy night, President Grossman called the 70 attendees to order at precisely
8:00 pm. The minutes of the 1375th
meeting were read and there were no corrections. There was one guest, Becky
Frederickson. Three new members were announced
and then President Grossman made three announcements. First, he encouraged everyone to go out and
recruit more new members because we need money. Everyone stayed in their seats,
quietly guzzling their brews. Second, he noted that the meeting
announcement postcards are expensive and
members should contact Alex Speer if they no longer need to receive these
postcards. Third he indicated that AAPG is accepting nominations for their
national and regional awards and GSW members are encouraged to nominate Jeff, I
mean their colleagues.
There
was one informal communication by Bevan French. He told us about a new website
at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the
The
first talk, by Steve Bohlen, President of the Joint Oceanographic Institutions,
was entitled “Ocean Drilling and Ocean Observing: Dealing with the Unknown
Majority of the Planet”. Although Earth’s surface is covered mostly by oceans,
we know little about the deep seas or how much damage we have done to
them. The damage we can see includes:
increases in toxic chemicals in fish, decreases in the number and size of fish,
increases in algal blooms, and increases
in the heat content that damage coral reefs. To reduce the damage, the Pew
Ocean Study recommends creating an independent oceans agency, re-organizing
government agencies, changing fisheries and developing sustainable
aquaculture. There were questions from
Linda Gunderson, Judy Ehlen, Mac Ross and Diane McDaniel [26 minutes]
The
second talk, by Jeff Plescia from
The
third talk, by John Grant from the Smithsonian Institution, was entitled “The
Mars Exploration Mission: A View from the Driver’s Seat” John described how the Mars Exploration Rover
teams that are driving the Spirit and
The
meeting was adjourned at 9:53 pm.
Respectfully
submitted,
Linda
Rowan
Geological
Society of
Minutes of the 1377th Meeting,
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
John
Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club,
President
Grossman called the 55 attendees to order at 8:03 p.m. and introduced the
acting secretary from the Precambrian (or somewhere in geologic time). The
minutes of the 1376th meeting were read, and there were no corrections. Hal
Gluskoter moved to approve; the motion was seconded and passed. Two guests were
introduced: Judy Harden, from the
On
May 18, NOAA and a number of non-governmental organizations [Ecological Society
of America, Society of American Foresters, etc.] are hosting the 26th Annual
Science Day Conference on “The Role of Scientific Research in Sustaining Our
Natural Resources.” There was some discussion on why no earth-science entities
were among the sponsors, presenters, collaborators, etc; E-an Zen announced
that GSA will be working with the group for next year to ensure better representation
from geology.
Gordon
Nord gave the 2004 Science Fair Report; 14 GSW members judged 5 fairs and chose
12 first-place winners, on topics from buffering quality of soil to
mathematical models of gastropod spirals. Gordon’s efforts in organizing this
important contribution to the local science community were warmly applauded.
The
Jim O’Connor memorial field trip guide, Building Stones and Geomorphology of
Washington, D.C., is now posted on the GSW website [at http://www.gswweb.org/oconnor-fieldtrip.pdf].
Finally,
Mark Zorniak announced the New York State Geological Association annual meeting
Sept. 17-19; more information is available at www.potsdam.edu/NYSGA
With
no informal communications, we plunged ahead to the formal program, beginning
with a discussion by Dorothy Hall, National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
of “Climate and the cryosphere: Glaciers,
sea ice, permafrost, and snow cover.” In other words: are the Earth’s snow and ice really melting
or does it just seem that way, and what
about sea level rise? The Earth has been warming for about the past 20,000
years. Glaciers have been receding since the end of the Little Ice Age in 1850
[or even before], and the rate has accelerated in the past 25 years. As the
shiny white snow and ice recede, the exposed land and sea absorb more solar
radiation. As the climate warms and the ice melts, sea level rises [complicated
by glacial rebound in some areas]; this will cause big problems in New Orleans,
70% of which is 2.4 m below sea level, and even bigger problems in Bangladesh,
where a 1-m rise would drown 17% of the countryside and displace 13 million people.
However, most of the world’s ice is locked up in Greenland and Antarctica, and
it would be useful to know just exactly how much is there. We have a good
handle on the areal extent, but ice volume is much more difficult to assess.
Airborne laser altimetry is building a picture of elevation change in the ice
sheets over time; parts of Greenland are losing ice, but other parts are
gaining in elevation. New satellite technologies are expected to provide better
measurements of the ice volume. There were questions from Pete Toulmin, Glen
Chinnery, Allan Tanner, Craig Schiffries, and Jeff Grossman.
Taking
us from cold and wet to hot and dry, Nick Lancaster, USGS Reston, covered
“Desert paleoenvironments: The dry end of the curve.” Roughly 30-40% of the
Earth’s surface is arid, and about 1 billion people live in these arid regions;
he noted that this is about the same as the number of dollars in the USGS
budget, but only one of those numbers is increasing… Field work and satellite
imagery in the western Sahara have demonstrated three generations of dunes,
linear but not fully aligned, that represent the different wind/climate regimes
of the three time periods. Sand was dated by old-fashioned stratigraphic
methods as well as by optically stimulated luminescence. Dunes from the last
glacial maximum were followed by a dune-building period during the Younger
Dryas, with generally north-northeasterly winds and no summer monsoon. The
third set of dunes, from the late Holocene, trends north-south and shows the
effects of summer monsoon seasons and trade winds. There were questions from
Glen Chinnery, Brooks Hanson, George Helz, and E-an Zen.
Brian
Huber, of the Smithsonian Institution, took us from the Sahara Desert to the
depths of the deep blue sea, with his talk “From icehouse to supergreenhouse:
Cretaceous climate change on long and short time scales.” The presence of
fossil wood and plesiosaurs on Seymour Island in the Antarctic, at a latitude
that today is really, really cold suggests the world was very different during
the Cretaceous. Benthic and planktic foraminifera from three locations (the
Blake Plateau off Florida, the Equator, and the Falkland Plateau) showed much
more climate variability than expected for oceans and atmosphere throughout the
Cretaceous. The late Cenomanian-early
Campanian was a “supergreenhouse” with deepwater temperatures at 15-20 degrees
C in areas that are now at 2 degrees C. The fossil record in these locations
also suggests several times for ice sheets, including the Aptian and early Maastrichtian,
though these findings are not supported by other data. It is clear that most
climate models underpredict ocean temperatures during the Cretaceous. There
were questions from Brooks Hanson, E-an Zen, Mac Ross, and Jeff Grossman.
President
Grossman announced the next meeting of the Society on May 12, whether you get
an email or not; this will be the final meeting till fall. The meeting was
adjourned at 9:49 p.m.
Respectfully
submitted,
Kathleen
Krafft Gohn, 1984 Meetings Secretary
Geological
Society of Washington
Minutes of the 1378th Meeting,
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
John
Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club, Washington DC
The
meeting was called to order at precisely 8:02 pm, although the 55 attendees
remained somewhat noisy and disorderly through at least the first half hour of
the meeting. The minutes of the 1377th
meeting were read and there was one correction. There was one guest, Allison
Deines, two attempts to introduce members as guests and two new members were announced, Jeff Plescia and
James L. Coleman.
There
was one informal communication by Jeff Plescia from the Applied Physics
Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University. He told us about the latest finds by
the Mars Exploration Rover mission. The Spirit rover has been trolling around
in Gusev crater checking out the ejecta
deposits from Bonneville crater,
dunes and wind scours. Now Spirit is heading toward the Columbia Hills.
The Opportunity rover landed right in Eagle crater and found some very
interesting outcrops and rocks without moving a wheel. In particular
Opportunity found hematite spherules called blueberries by the MER team. Jeff’s computer crashed at this point and
some hungry attendees started asking food for thought questions like shouldn’t
the blueberries be called cranberries and didn’t some features look like jello.
President Grossman quickly moved on to the main program.
The
first talk, by Julie Baldwin, University of Maryland, was entitled “U-Pb
Systematics of Monazite in High Pressure Granulites”. Julie used the isotopic
history of monazite grains in granulites from the Snowbird tectonic zone of the
northern Canadian shield to determine the history of metamorphism in the lower
crust. She was able to pinpoint a high pressure metamorphic event at about 1.9
billion years ago. There were questions from Dan Milton, E-an Zen and Al Kolter
[22 minutes]
The
second talk, by Tim Lowenstein from the State University of New
York-Binghampton, was entitled “Fluid Inclusions: Paleoseawater, Paleoclimate,
Ancient Life”. Tim led us through several examples of great uses for salt; that
is what fluid inclusions in halite can tell us about primordial water trapped
in meteorites, changes in seawater throughout the Phanerozoic and ancient
DNA. He spent most of his time
discussing a 250 million year old inclusion that purportedly contains
salt-tolerant ancient bacteria. There were questions from Brooks Hanson, Jeff
Grossman, Paul Olsen, Bob Burris, Blair Somebody, 2 questions from Joe Smoot
and three questions by Somebody Else.
Oddly enough, there were no questions about blueberries. [21 minutes]
The
third talk, by Paul Olsen from the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, was
entitled “Comparison Between the Stratigraphic Evolution of Early Mesozoic Rift
Basins on the Conjugate North American and Morrocan Magmas” About 240 million years ago Pangea began to
break up and several major rift basins formed in the Atlantic Ocean. Paul
compared the stratigraphy of 3 prominent
basins that formed as Africa separated from North America, the Newark and Fundy
Basins in North America and the Argana Basin in Morocco. Cycles of mudstones to
carbonates indicate the rise and fall of lake levels and lake cycles can be
correlated across what is now the Atlantic Ocean. There were questions from
E-an Zen and Joe Smoot [22 minutes]
The
meeting was adjourned at 9:52 pm.
Respectfully
submitted,
Linda
Rowan
Geological
Society of Washington
Minutes of the 1379th Meeting,
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
John
Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club, Washington DC
The
meeting was called to order at 8:05 pm, after some technical traumas with the
projection system were resolved by jumping up and down on the remote control.
The 53 attendees were relieved that there would be powerpoint presentations to
accompany our fine speakers. The minutes
of the 1378th meeting were read and there were no corrections. There were four
guests, Katie Matthews, Janice Flimesco, Lillie Greenwald and David Oldroyd, a
distinguished science historian from Australia and the author of several books,
including Thinking About the Earth: A History of Ideas in Geology. Two new members were announced, Randy Ordorf
and Karen Hagin. There were 4 announcements: First, GSW needs new members
because we need money, so please encourage your geocolleagues to join GSW.
Second, the November 10 meeting has been moved to November 3. On November 3,
GSW will have a special joint meeting with the Paleontologic Society of
Washington, so that Richard Fortey, a distinguished paleontologist from the
Natural History Museum, London, can present a one hour lecture about dead
critters and his new book, Earth An Intimate History. Third, Randy McBride from
George Mason University announced a faculty position at George Mason in the
spring of 2005 to teach structural geology and related courses. Fourth,
President Grossman announced the passing of Dr. Phil Abelson, a GSW member for
51 years and we observed a moment of silence. There will be a special memorial
program of GSW on January 26 in memory of Phil Abelson, Hap Yoder and Joe Boyd.
There
was one informal communication by Jane Hammarstrom from the USGS. She described
acid road drainage near Sky Top, Pennsylvania. Eleven roadcut piles enriched
with pyritic rock that contains highly soluble sulfate salts with traces of Zn,
Ni, Co, As, Cd and other toxic metals, have been leaching a highly acidic (pH
< 2) concoction into the Buffalo Run river, killing trout and reeking more
hazards on the ecological community than acid mine drainage. Local agencies are
now arguing about the best method to clean-up the unintended consequences of
what was considered to be typical cut and fill road development.
The
first talk, by Andrea Grottoli, University of Pennsylvania was entitled
“Paleoceanography using carbon isotopes in corals and sclerosponges”. Andrea explained
that corals and sclerosponges record
changes in the carbon isotopic composition of seawater by incorporating these
changes in their skeletal structure. Once you understand the metabolic function
of the corals and the sponges and how they incorporate, fractionate and use
carbon isotopes, you can extract the carbon isotopic record of the oceans,
which correlates with climate. The sponges have the potential to map seawater
changes and thus climate changes since 1850. There were questions from Hal
Glaskolter, E-an Zen, Brooks Hanson, George Helz, Jay Kaufmann and Jeff
Grossman [20 minutes]
The
second talk, by Randy McBride, George Mason University, was entitled: Geologic
signature and dynamics of a former tidal inlet system along the Outer Banks of
Virginia and North Carolina: the Old Currituck Inlet from pre-1585 to 1731.
This talk reminded me of the puzzle: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a
woodchuck could chuck wood? In Randy’s case, the Old Currituck could chuck
water through an inlet in the Outer Banks forming a well-preserved tidal delta
from 1585 to 1731. Around about 1713, however, the New Currituck inlet opened
south of the Old Currituck and eventually caused the Old Currituck to close up.
How much water the Old Currituck would have chucked if the New Currituck could
not chuck remains unknown. There were questions from Jane Hammarstrom, Bill
McDonough, Daniel Milton and Brooks Hanson. [22 minutes]
The
third talk, by Todd Hinkley, National Ice Core Laboratory, U.S. Geological Survey,
was entitled “Ice cores: A detailed
million-year record of Earth's climate and atmosphere.” Todd took us on a tour of the lab where
15,000 meters of ice representing 1.25 million years of history in Greenland
and 1 million years of history in Antarctica are stored. The cores are
primarily used to decipher climate change and a plot of ice core records shows
a stable climate for the past 10,000 years with a much more variable climate
over the next 100,000 years. The ice cores also preserve a record of trace
elements deposited from the atmosphere due to volcanism and industrial
activity. At the end of Todd’s talk, President Grossman commented that the talk
was very cool, which drove several attendees to drink more beer in the back.
There were questions from Bill McDonough, Jay Kaufmann, George Dumati, Daniel
Milton, Katie Matthews and Jeff Grossman. [22 minutes]
The
meeting was adjourned at 9:56 pm.
Respectfully
submitted,
Linda
Rowan
Geological
Society of Washington
Minutes of the 1380th Meeting,
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
John
Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club, Washington DC
The
meeting was called to order at 8:01 pm. The minutes of the 1379th meeting were
read and there were no corrections, but there were some objections to accepting
the minutes with the wood chuck analogy. There was one guest, Ann Blattan and
one new member was announced, Thomas Ireland. There were 2 announcements: The
November 17 meeting has been moved to November 3. On November 3, Richard
Fortey, will present a one hour lecture about dead critters and his new book,
Earth An Intimate History. The second announcement was about council actions.
Dues will remain the same and there is a new charge of $5 for program cards
that are mailed to members. An amendment to the by laws has been proposed by
the council and is posted on the website. The proposed amendment would retain
the past president as an officer.
There
was one informal communication by Jim Quick from the USGS. He described some of
the latest volcanic rumblings at Mt. St. Helens. Increased seismic activity
starting on September 23 and was followed by bulging, cracking and a small
eruption on October 1. A new dome started to grow within the caldera and a more
vigorous eruption occurred on October 5. Compared to the dome growth that
occurred from 1980 to 1986 after the catastrophic eruption, the dome growth in
2004, so far, is characterized by higher seismicity, higher magma flux and
lower rates of degassing. There were questions from Pete Toolman and Bill
McDonough.
The
first talk, by Rufus Chaney, U. S. Department of Agriculture was entitled “Phytomining of soil nickel: A new
opportunity for lower-cost metal”. Rufus works in the Animal Manure and
By-Products division of the Agricultural Research Service and he described an
agricultural method for producing high yields of extremely pure nickel metal.
The Alyssum plant species is a nickel hyper accumulator and was grown in
several experimental plots with standard farming equipment. The experimental
plots showed a profitable yield of 400 kilograms of pure nickel per hectare,
which is worth about $908 per hectare. The Alyssum plants require serpentine-rich
soils and semi-arid conditions. There were questions from Moto Sato, Hugh
Wilson, Jane Hammarstrom, Bill McDonough and Hal Rosmotel [19 minutes]
The
second talk, by Patrick Wyse Jackson, Dickinson College and Trinity College was
entitled: “Some Irish contributions to the age of the Earth debate”. He described
how some Irish scientists tried to estimate the age of the Earth. Archbishop
James Ussher, a 17th century scientist dated creation at 4004 BC, which became
famous because it was a footnote in the King James Bible. William Thomson (aka
Lord Kelvin) dated the Earth at about 20 to 40 million years old based on his
infamous cooling rate calculation, while Reverend Samuel Haughton, a
contemporary of Kelvin, provided the oldest Irish estimate by dating the Earth
at 2298 million years old based on good, old geologic data. There were
questions from George Helz, Rich Walker, Sandra Herbert, Cy Galvin and Hugh
Wilson. [21 minutes]
The
third talk, by Bob Finkelman, U.S. Geological Survey was entitled “My life as an Embassy Science
Fellow”. The Embassy Science Fellows
program was established by Madeline Albright and allows federal scientists to
provide scientific expertise to US embassies for 1 to 3 month periods. Bob went
to South Africa where he taught coal science and medical geology classes and
developed a coal quality database. He said that he worked harder as an Embassy
Fellow than he had at any other time during his career: a comment that elicited
a few chuckles from his colleagues. There was a question from Pete Toolman. [23
minutes]
The
meeting was adjourned at 9:45 pm.
Respectfully
submitted,
Linda
Rowan
Geological
Society of Washington
Minutes of the 1381st Meeting,
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
John
Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club, Washington DC
On
a miraculous evening with a lunar eclipse and a Red Sox World Series victory in
the offing, 74 attendees turned their undivided attention to President Grossman
as he called the meeting to order at precisely 8:01 pm. The minutes of the 1380th meeting were read
and there were no corrections. There were six guests, Kevin Pope, Roy Price,
Dr. Ivan Savoff, Anna Schuloff, Jeff First and Aaron Leans. There were no new
members, but plenty of announcements.
The new program chair is Pete Folger, there is a meeting on November 3, and the council has proposed a change to the
by-laws. E-an Zen announced that GSA is looking for a local member to be on a
steering committee for Science Day 2005. E-an also mentioned a website called
Books for Soldiers, where books can be donated for soldiers overseas. President Grossman announced the passing of
Josh Tracey, former president of GSW and a member for 68 years, the longest of
any member. We observed a moment of silence in his honor.
The
first talk, by Alison Shaw from the Carnegie Institution of Washington was
entitled “Volatile mass balance at
subduction zones: Insights from Central America and the Marianas Arc”. Alison measured the H, C, S, Fl and Cl
concentrations in melt inclusions trapped within olivine crystals of fresh
volcanic tephra from 3 volcanoes along the Marianas Arc to determine the source
and flux of water through this subduction zone. She found that 4 to 15% of the
CO2 is recycled along the arc and this requires a large flux of water. There
was a question from Jeff Ryan [25 minutes]
The
second talk, by Stephanie Prejean from the USGS-Alaska Volcano Observatory was
entitled “New techniques yield insight
into the processes driving volcanic unrest in the Long Valley Caldera”.
Stephanie described the substructure of Mammoth Mountain, a prime ski area for
Californians, based on a seismic swarm and related eruptions in 1989. A line of deep events mark a rapidly
intruding dike that flows into a shallower cone-like fracture and the events
propagate around the cone. Above the
cone, the events are randomly distributed and suggest an open system of
fractures. More recent eruptions and improved seismic data have confirmed this
basic structure. Mammoth Mountain remains a hazard today with significant CO2
degassing that has led to tree kills, animal deaths and possibly the demise of
one snowboarder who did a face plant in the wrong place at the wrong time.
There were questions from Alan Tanner, Ken Rubenstone, Moto Sato, Dallas Peck and Jeff Grossman. [18
minutes]
The
third talk, by James Quick from the USGS was entitled “Real time science, monitoring, and hazard
warning: Mount St. Helens 2004”. Jim described the growth of a new lava dome at
Mt. St. Helens during September and October. Early activity was characterized
by shallow high frequency earthquakes related to rock fracture followed by
longer period events related to fluid flow. The dome grew very rapidly in
October and is almost as big as the old dome. The lava consists of a 2 pyroxene
and hornblende dacite that suggests the magma is fresh and came up from a
relatively deep reservoir. All indications are that this is an open system with
a deep source that has reached a steady state flux and could be a prolonged
eruption. It will probably outlast the presidential election vote counting.
There were questions from E-an Zen, Rick Wunderman and Jeff Grossman. [18
minutes]
The
meeting was adjourned at 9:35 pm.
Respectfully
submitted,
Linda
Rowan
Geological
Society of Washington
Minutes of the 1382nd Meeting,
Wednesday, November 3, 2004
John
Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club, Washington DC
On
a fine evening, President Grossman called the 72 attendees to order at
precisely 8:00 pm. This GSW meeting was held jointly with the Paleontological
Society of Washington and the scheduled program was a one hour lecture by
Richard Fortey. The minutes of the 1381st meeting were read and there was one
correction. There were many guests including Forest Gone and his father-in-law,
Roger Thomas, Jack Hess, Bob Gannis, Jim Davis and Karen Mesly. Two new members
were announced and three announcements were made. First, the officer slate for
next year was unveiled, second, an amendment to the by-laws was announced again
and third, President Grossman said that there were no informal communications.
President Grossman then preceded to give an informal communication about how
GSW had hosted one hour lectures by many distinguished geologists in the past
and Fortey's lecture should not be considered an anomaly, but rather a rich
tradition of the society. He presented a slide of some of the previous speakers
including John Wesley Powell, G. K. Gilbert, Harold Jeffries and Harrison
Schmitt and he fielded several questions. A GSW member, who shall remain
nameless, told me later that GSW rules do not allow for questions after
informal communications and we have been breaking the rules all year long. But
nothing bad has happened so far.
A
one-hour lecture was presented by Richard Fortey, a distinguished
paleontologist from the Natural History Museum, London. His talk was entitled
"Earth: An Intimate History." Richard focused on explaining how
geologists could use a humanistic approach of telling a story to explain
geology to a general audience. He presented several examples from his new book,
entitled "Earth: An Intimate History" to show how he had try to
explain principles such as plate tectonics and structural geology. He
encouraged the attendees to send him any comments they might have about the
book and to get involved with explaining geology to the public. There were
questions from Ellis Yokelson, Pete Toulmin, Tom Dutro and some others.
The
meeting was adjourned at 9:33 pm
Respectfully
submitted,
Linda
Rowan
Geological
Society of Washington
Minutes of the 1383rd Meeting,
Wednesday, December 8, 2004
John
Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club, Washington DC
On
a calm and crisp evening, President Grossman called the 70 attendees to order
at 8:02 pm. The minutes of the 1382nd meeting were read and there were 2
corrections. Five new members were announced, suspiciously all associated with
the happy-go-lucky Smithsonian Institution. Two guests were introduced,
Carl-Henry Geschwind and Dr. Kun Lee Lau and there was one attempt to introduce
a new member, one of those smiling Smithsonians as a guest. Tom Dutro made one
announcement about the Paleontological Society of Washington's upcoming meeting
on December 12.
Regrettably
the passings of 2 more GSW members was announced. Tom Dutro paid tribute to
Jean Berdan, a stratigrapher and paleontologist who did not want to be cremated
because paleontologists like to leave bones. President Grossman paid tribute to
Tom Thayer an expert on ophiolites, who was described by a colleague as a
"giant and true gentleman".
There
was one additional order of business. President Grossman explained the changes
to the constitution and by-laws required to make the past president the
ex-officio chair of the financial committee and thus an officer of GSW. Because
of the perverse rules of GSW, the attendees needed to vote on accepting the
changes to the by-laws before the annual meeting where the changes to the
constitution could be considered. Sorena Sorenson, another smiling Smithsonian,
gleefully objected to President Grossman's request to vote on the by-laws,
until he clarified that these changes were contingent on later approval of the
constitutional amendment. Another provocateur then quipped that the past
president should be required to have some financial expertise. President
Grossman, already well versed in dealing with witty GSW members, deftly handled
both issues and nimbly gained swift approval of the by-laws contingent on
future constitutional amendment approval.
President
Jeffrey N. Grossman presented a one-hour presidential lecture, entitled
"Primordial Metamorphism". Chondritic meteorites are composed of
extraterrestrial debris that predates the formation of the planets and thus
could provide pristine primordial tracers of early solar system processes.
Unfortunately high pressure and temperature processes as well as water-rock
interactions altered most of these chondrites. Only a handful of the thousands
of chondrites are close to pristine with a limited amount of metamorphism.
Using thermal luminescence, Jeff determined the most primitive meteorites and
limited their metamorphism to heating by radiogenic isotopes, Al-26 and Fe-60
and impact heating about 4563 to 4561 million years ago. These most primitive
meteorites can be used to trace primordial processes with minor to negligible
corrections for the limited heating events.
The
meeting was adjourned at 9:15 pm.
Respectfully
submitted,
Linda
Rowan
Geological
Society of Washington
Minutes of the 112th Annual Meeting,
Wednesday, December 8, 2004
John
Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club, Washington DC
The
annual meeting was called to order at 9:30 pm with about 50 members in
attendance. Bill McDonough announced the
winners of the best talk, Andrea Grottoli and the best informal communication,
Jane Hammarstrom. Joe Smoot read the minutes of the 111th meeting and they were
approved. Henry Belkin presented the treasurer’s report and noted the serious
decline in membership from about 1000 members in 1985 to less than 400 members
in 2004. Because of declining membership, expenses exceed income by about
$2600. To reduce expenses, the Finance
Committee has suggested and gained approval for the following changes: charging
$5 for mailed meeting notices, reducing the number of meetings, and eliminating
salty snacks at the Cosmos club. The committee also suggested tying the GSW portfolio
to the MSA portfolio to get better rates. Several members made suggestions for
increasing membership, such as getting faculty to sponsor student members or
combining GSW meetings with other groups, like the Paleontologic Society of
Washington. Bill McDonough won the Sleeping Bear award for his comments about
sending an error report to Microsoft during one of the many computer
catastrophes during the year. President Grossman then attempted to forget
Jingle Ruppert’s Membership report, but she reminded him and she offered an
innovative approach to gaining more members. She suggested that GSW produce an
ex-presidents calendar that was tasteful and colorful. She envisioned President
Grossman on the cover with only a chondrite and said it would give a “new
definition of Grossman”. Somehow President Grossman allowed this report to be
approved. A constitutional amendment to make the Past President the ex-officio
chair of the financial committee was approved. The slate of new officers for
2005 was approved and the meeting was adjourned at 10:35 pm.
Respectfully
submitted,
Council
Secretary
Linda
Rowan