GSW: 2012 MEETING MINUTES

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1458th Meeting

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

President Swezey called the 93 attendees of the 1458th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington to order at 20:02. The minutes from the 1457th meeting were read, and despite the President’s attempt to push the minutes through without a vote, the minutes were unanimously approved with no corrections.

To the chagrin of the new secretary, there were twelve guests announced: 

Timothy Brown (U of Iowa)

Matthew Marcord (Naval researcher)

Aaron Camp (AGI Government Affairs intern)

Aaron Rodriguez (AGI Government Affairs intern)

Julie Harrot (Smithsonian Institution intern)

(last name) Aljawahiri (student at NOVA)

Tomoya Suzuki (student at NOVA)

Dawn Sweeney (grad student at U of Buffalo)

Katarina Doctor (PhD student of geographical information science at GMU)

Ara Alexanian (UC Berkley student)

Pat Carr (after a 7 year hiatus from GSW is now working at NGA)

Henry Throop (Planetary Science Institute)

One new member was announced: 

Andrew Beck: Post-doctoral Fellow, Smithsonian Institution

There were several announcements:  President Swezey began his term by filling the members’ social schedules with more meetings.  He announced the Paleontological Society of Washington meeting featuring a talk by Jocelyn Sessa (SI), a meeting of the Potomac Geophysical Society with a talk by Cathy Enomoto (USGS), and the Capital Science Conference sponsored by the Washington Academy of Sciences.  Ester Sztein announced that applications are now being accepted for student and early career scientist travel grants for the 34th International Geological Congress in Brisbane, Australia.   President Swezey also announced that GSW needs volunteers for science fairs around the region, where you too can become part of “science in action”.

Less than two, but certainly more than one, informal communications were presented by Callan Bentley.  He began by mentioning the latest Google doodle that celebrated the 374th birthday of Nicholas Steno, the originator of some of the founding principles of geology and stratigraphy.  Callan then wowed the audience with photos from his recent trip to South Africa.  He spent three weeks there tracking down the Seapoint Migmatite, traveling on roads built on the Cape Granite Intrusion, snapping photos of primary sedimentary structures in the Table Mountain Sandstone, and even had time to fit in a honeymoon.

Ved Lekic of the University of Maryland started off the evening with his talk entitled Imaging the bottom of tectonic plates. (21 minutes)  He first outlined the history of deformation in the western United States beginning with regional extension that occurred 18 million years ago.  Ved then posed several questions.  Can we image the bottom of tectonic plates from seismic reflection, and can we map variations in lithospheric thickness on a scale small enough to demonstrate the history of deformation in southern California?  He demonstrated that these questions can be answered through the technique of Sp and Ps seismic receiver functions, where S waves are converted to P waves across a lithosphere/asthenosphere interface and vice versa.  Ved concluded that the bottom of the plates are, indeed, being imaged through this technique and that the lithospheric thinning observed rules out block rotation in the Inner Borderland region, and overprints late Neogene extension and volcanism in the area of the Salton Trough.

Questions by Dan Doctor (USGS) and Bill Burton (USGS)

Andrew Beck of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institute, gave the second talk of the night with Petrology of Diogenite meteorites and Implications for the Geology of Asteroid 4 Vesta. (17 minutes)  Andrew opened with an explanation of meteorite classification.  He explained that the meteorites from Vesta are achondrites, which are meteorites from differentiated bodies, but are specifically diogenites, which are rich in orthopyroxenes, indicating an origin of the lower crust of Vesta.  Andrew pointed out that Vesta became geologically dead early in its history, and that by studying Vesta we can get a better understanding of Earth’s early history.  He further explained that the unusual geochemical composition observed in the Vesta diogenites can be explained by a scenario of multiple parent magmas.  Andrew concluded that the Vesta diogenites are composed of at least two different lithologies that have been brecciated and mixed together, and that finding areas on Vesta where the lower crust is exposed is the next step to testing the hypothesis.

Questions by Madalyn Blondes (USGS), Liz Cotrell (SI), and Sandy Neuzil (USGS)

Our final speaker for the evening was Sean Solomon of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institute, with his talk The Geology, Geochemistry, and Geophysics of the Planet Mercury: Latest findings from MESSENGER. (20 minutes)  Sean jumped into our tour of Mercury by discussing the magnesium rich basalts found on the surface as evidenced by the diagnostic solar x-ray spectrums produced.  This was followed by a ‘laptop malfunction’ which rendered the slideshow presentation inoperable.  Some members used this as an exit plan, while those that remained tried in vain to offer their tech support skills.  In a desperate stall for time, President Swezey attempted to pacify the mob with a joke about Heisenberg and Descarte walking into a bar.  Well, we’ve all heard that one.  Seven minutes, and perhaps several beers, later we were back up and running.  Sean went on to explain that the surface of Mercury is not substantially depleted in species thought to be volatile such as Potassium and Sulfur.  He then concluded his talk by stating that conventional models of the mantle do not fit observations of Mercury, and that the magnetic field at the magnetic south pole of Mercury is much stronger than that of the magnetic north pole.

Questions by Bill McDonough (UMD), Chris Swezey (USGS), Dan Doctor (USGS), Bill Burton (USGS), Christian Miller (DTM), and Brent Grocholski (SI)

The 1458th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at 22:00.

Respectfully submitted,

Colin Doolan

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1459th Meeting

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

President Swezey, commanding the Budweiser gavel, summoned the 89 attendees of the 1459th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington to order at 20:04. The minutes from the 1458th meeting were read and approved without corrections.

There were eighteen potential members introduced:

Kathy Domning

Jorge Velez-Juarbe (grad student, Howard U)

Miranda Armour-Chelu (faculty member, Howard U)

Greg Polley (student, UMD)

Austin Green (student, UMD)

Laura Diedrich(environmental policy student, UMD)

Joanne Stokowski (Langley Children’s Center)

Marc Buursink (USGS)

Aaron Barth (student, GMU)

Stephanie Strother (student, GMU)

Alan Pitts (student, GMU)

Joe Maloney (student, GMU)

Glen Fountain (project manager, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory)

Henry Throop (Planetary Science Institute)

Heidi Hattenbach (State Dept.)

Tom Doody (student, UMD)

Catarina Doctor (PhD student, GMU)

Max Bernstein (NASA)

One new member was announced: 

Ara Alexanian, student member, UC Berkley

There were three informal communications.  The first of which was given by Alex Speer who explained that the Geological Society of Washington plans to form a Nominations Committee in order to establish the 2013 officers ballot, and that there is currently a call for volunteers.  This prompted questions and murmurings from the crowd, but was ultimately deemed to be beneficial and within the guidelines set forth in the Society’s Grey Book.  Next, President Swezey, on behalf of Charne Meth, reiterated that volunteers are needed to judge science fairs throughout the region.  Finally, once the government firewall was circumvented on Sandy Neuzil’s laptop, President Swezey presented an inspirational four minute video produced by the University of Texas at Austin designed to get middle school and high school student excited about entering the field of geoscience.  The video is available on the internet and is free for anyone to use.

The first formal presenter of the evening was Daryl Domning of Howard University with a talk entitled Recent studies on Miocene Sirenians of Libya. (17 minutes)  What are Sirenians, you ask?  Daryl explained that they are an order of tropical, marine herbivores whose living members include the three species of manatee and the dugong.  His research focuses on the Early Miocene, Mediterranean community of Sirenians which brought him to Jabal Zaltan, an important vertebrate fossil locality in Libya.  At this site Daryl and his colleagues uncovered fossil remains of a Sirenian species that was adapted for feeding off of the fibrous rhizomes of sea grasses through the use of large, self-sharpening tusks that were dragged through the substrate.  He went on to describe the adaptations to the skull architecture required to support such feeding habits.  Daryl concluded his talk by pointing out his most unexpected find at Jabal Zaltan which turned out to be a parking spot in the shade.

Questions were asked by Callan Bentley (NOVA), Max Bernstein (NASA), John Repetski (USGS), and George Helz (UMD).

Dan Doctor of the US Geological Survey delivered the evening’s second talk, Carbon dioxide outgassing from streams:  Carbon isotope fractionation and significance for the global carbon cycle. (20 minutes)  After thoroughly hydrating himself, Dan opened his talk with an explanation of where flow in streams comes from.  He explained that base flow is derived primarily from preferential groundwater flow paths in the saturated riparian zone, while peak flow comes primarily from catchment storage.  Dan demonstrated that δ13C values, the ratio of inorganic carbon isotopes 13C to 12C, tend to be enriched in ground water and depleted in water in the soil zone, and that these values can be used to determine the source of flow during peak flow events.  After observing significant enrichment of δ13C values in the stream waters at the downstream end, he hypothesized that CO2 outgassing was the likely cause for this change in isotopic ratios.  Dan points out that previous studies that attempted to trace the sources of atmospheric CO2 using isotopic composition did not take into account stream outgassing, and through recent studies, he showed that the estimated annual release of CO2 from streams is about half of a gigaton.  This is equivalent to about 13% of what is estimated to be the annual amount of atmospheric CO2 released from anthropogenic sources.

Questions by Victor Zabielski (NOVA), Mac Ross (retired USGS), Bill Burton (USGS), Ved Lekic (UMD), and Linda Rowan (AGI)

Our final talk for the evening was launched by Henry Throop of the Planetary Science Institute with NASA’s New Horizons Mission to the Planet Pluto. (19 minutes)  Henry first transports us back to the distant time of 1925 and the search for Planet X.  From here, he brought us through the history of what we know about the Planet Pluto, from its discovery in 1930, to rough surface maps in 1993 when its moon, Charon, passed in front of the surface.  Henry explained that we have now reached the limit of what we can learn about Pluto from the surface of the Earth.  Thus, the New Horizons Mission was born.  The 700 million dollar, piano-sized spacecraft was launched in 2006 on a straight-shot fly-by of Pluto set to occur in 2015.  In a humbling comparison of technology, Henry revealed that the latest Apple iPhone has a better camera and about the same amount of storage space, but the New Horizons spacecraft was shown to really excel with its 80 million year battery half-life.

Questions by Bill Burton (USGS), Brent Grocholski (SI), Ved Lekic (UMD), Victor Zabielski (NOVA), Pete Toulmin (retired USGS), and John Jens (Army Geospatial Center)

The 1459th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at 21:59.

Respectfully submitted,

Colin Doolan

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1460th Meeting

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

President Swezey commanded the 78 attendees of the 1460th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington to order promptly at 20:00. The minutes from the 1459th meeting were read and approved with corrections.

Ten guests were announced: 

Marion LeVoyer (Smithsonian post-doc)

Cameron Pal (student, SUNY Fredonia)

Elizabeth (from Nevada)

John Price (Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology)

James Faulds (Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology)

Dawn Sweeney (SUNY Fredonia)

Murray Hitsman (Colorado School of Mines)

Ben Schurr

Austin Green (UMD)

Laura Diederich (UMD)

There were eight new members announced: 

Vedran Lekic (UMD)

Pierre Caron (Array Info Tech)

Heather Saburova (NOVA)

Mitchell Schulte (NASA)

Michael Mobilia (DoE)

Richard Blessing IV (Gall Zeidler Consultants)

Adriana Ocampo (NASA)

Richard Tosdal (PicachoEx LLC)

President Swezey announced the passing of Phil Bethke.  Jane Hammerstrom of the USGS said a few words about Phil’s life and career with the USGS.  Phil gave four talks at GSW and held a number of positions within the society.  A moment of silence was observed in Phil’s honor.

Nine additional announcements were made.  Jeff Eppink announced that the 2011 AAPG Eastern Section Meeting in Crystal City hosted by the Geological Society of Washington exceeded expectations in terms of attendance and revenue, and was an overall success.  President Swezey noted that the 2012 AAPG Eastern Section Meeting will be held in Cleveland, OH in September and that abstracts are due April 6th.  Three more announcements were made by President Swezey.  First, the Geological Society of Washington has agreed to sponsor a James Madison University student chapter of AAPG in hopes of snaring some JMU student members for GSW.  Second, President Swezey, quoting GSW bylaws, reiterated that there will be no change in procedure with the formation of a Nominating Committee and announced that Marilyn Suiter of the National Science Foundation has been chosen to chair this committee.  Marilyn then introduced the members of the newly formed Nominating Committee and emphasized that recommendations for candidates are welcomed.  Third, President Swezey announced that Jeff Plescia will be the GSW delegate to The Washington Academy of Sciences, a position previously vacant for over four decades.  Linda Rowan announced that the Roger Revelle Lecture at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History is by Eddie Bernard on the topic of tsunamis, and that AGU is to hold their first science policy meeting in Washington DC.  Bill Burton announced the GSW spring field trip led by Jack Sharp focused on the springs of Washington DC.  And finally, Sandy Neuzil announced an upcoming meeting of the National Academy of Sciences on the science of science communication.

Basil Tikoff of the University of Wisconsin-Madison started off the formal presentations with his talk, Life and times of the western Idaho shear zone, US Cordillera.  (20 minutes)  Basil went to the western Idaho shear zone hoping to explain how magmas intrude into a thrust system but instead ended up working on an understanding of the geologic history for the region.  The shear zone, it was explained, is a three kilometer wide zone of highly foliated gneisses separating terrains that are unambiguously North American to the east and unambiguously exotic to North America to the west.  Using the Columbia River Basalts, the youngest rocks in the study area, Basil was able to reconstruct that the sense of shear within the shear zone was straight vertical shear rather than reverse faulting as previously thought.  From the basalts, the gradient of strontium isotope ratios from 0.705 through 0.707 indicate that there was a tremendous amount of transpressional shear in the western Idaho Shear Zone in which a roughly 80 kilometer wide arc of rock was compressed into a zone of 5 kilometers.  Basil concluded that 100 million years ago subduction of the oceanic crust caused a collision between insular terrains originally located in present day Oregon and North America forming the western Idaho shear zone.

Questions were asked by Ved Lekic (UMD), Bill Burton (USGS), Brooks Hanson (Science), and Carl Henry-Geschwind.

The second presentation of the evening was by Karen C. Rice of the US Geological Survey with a talk entitled, The planet needs a Rolaid. (20 minutes)  Karen begins by showing vivid images illustrating the onset of the Anthropocene, an epoch defined by humans’ massive impact on the planet Earth.  Karen stated that every human activity, from mining to food production, results in acidification.  She then went on to point out that these are all oxidation reactions focused on the elements carbon, sulfur, nitrogen and iron that result in either weak or strong acids.  It was noted that CO2 from global energy production creates weak acids at a rate that exceeds the oceans’ buffering capacity, leading to the acidification of the oceans.  Additionally, mining, food production and emissions produce strong acids in the form of nitric and sulfuric which effect all parts of the atmosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere.  Karen concluded that the product of population increase, economic affluence, and technological advancement will equal greater human impact in the form of environmental acidification, particularly in countries such as China, India, and the US.

There were questions by John Repetski (USGS), Mac Ross (USGS retired), Bill Burton (USGS), and Fred Simon.

The final talk was given by Benjamin Zaitchik of Johns Hopkins University with, The evolving water balance of the Nile River Basin. (19 minutes)  Ben admits that this is not a new research topic.  Rather, it has been studied for thousands of years.  He explains that though the Nile is the longest river in the world it’s not very big, having about two and a half times the discharge of the Susquehanna River.  This is due to the fact that the Nile River is an evaporation dominated system where the lower two thirds of the Nile have to flow through some of the harshest desert environments on Earth, and for every 100 drops of rain that fall in the basin 86 evaporate before reaching the sea.  Ben also adds that there is no comprehensive water sharing agreement among the 11 countries that lie within the Nile River Basin.  He then identified four current challenges for understanding and maintaining water balance within the Nile River system:  Evaporation, Sediment Control, Climate Change, and Trust on the part of affected countries.  Through climate projection models, Ben and his colleagues were able to make steps towards the development of a monitoring and early warning system for drought events in specific areas.

Questions by Victor Zabielski (NOVA) and Dick Smith (USGS).

President Swezey announced the Bradley lecture talk for the 1461st meeting, and with that the 1460th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at 21:51.

Respectfully submitted,

Colin Doolan

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1461st Meeting

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

President Swezey coaxed the 74 attendees of the 1461st meeting of the Geological Society of Washington to order at 20:01. The minutes from the 1460th meeting were read and approved after some corrections.

Twelve guests were present:

Steve Leslie (JMU)

From the University of Maryland:

CJ Cottrell

Gregory Polley

Austin Green

Laura Diedrich

Abby Seadler (American Geosciences Institute)

From Northern Virginia Community College:

         Kirsten Weinert

         Ken Crider

For the final time, Katarina Doctor (GMU)

Peter Heaney (Penn State University)

Claire Alexanian

Karine Renaud (USGS)

There were two new members announced: 

Aaron Rodriguez (American Geosciences Institute)

Lindsey Harriman (GeoEye)

President Swezey asked everyone to stand for a moment of silence in honor of Frank Clifford Whitmore Jr. who passed away on March, 11th 2012.  Frank had a full career as a vertebrate paleontologist with the USGS and held numerous offices within GSW.

Several announcements were made.  President Swezey announced the GSW spring field trip on the springs of Washington DC lead by Jack Sharp, and the upcoming fall field trip focused on wines and geology of the Blue Ridge, which garnered murmurs of approval from the audience.  Ester Sztein forwarded an announcement about a meeting at the Large Lakes Observatory at the University of Minnesota, Duluth called Teaching Climate Change:  Insight from Large Lakes.

Two informal communications were given.  First, Bill Leith of the USGS spoke about shale gas exploration, hydraulic fracturing, and induced earthquakes.  Bill explained how fluid injection into deep formations through waste water disposal wells is the primary cause of induced earthquakes rather than the hydro-fracking itself, and that this waste water injection increases both the magnitude and frequency of earthquakes in certain areas.  He then sited examples of recent triggered earthquakes in Youngstown, OH, Arkansas and West Virginia.  Questions were asked by Mac Ross (USGS, retired), Pete Toulmin (USGS, retired), and Sandy Neuzil (USGS).

Next, Steve Leslie gave a surprise informal communication about a recent honor bestowed upon John Repetski of the USGS.  John had the privilege of having a new species of trilobite named after him.  Chasbellus repetskii, to be specific.  Using eerily accurate visual aids, Steve notes that this particular trilobite is fit to bear John’s name, due to its having a cranidium of at least moderate size, as one would expect, as well as a moderate sized pygidium, which is typical among runners such as John.

The 5th annual Bradley Lecture was delivered by J. Donald Rimstidt of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University with the title, Mineral stability in the weathering environment.   Don began by promising to stick to a discussion of the geologic processes that control mineral stability in the natural environment, avoiding discussion of rigorous chemical reactions, activation energies and such.  Don focused on mineral stability and durability during transport in the surficial environment and identified that while mineral grains are in transport they come to be destroyed primarily by comminution, abrasion, and dissolution.  He then examined the Mineral Stability Series in Weathering diagram of Goldich, 1938 and identified two components to the model; thermodynamic stability, related to the formation temperatures of minerals, and dissolution Rate, a function of abrasion pH.  Assuming a pH of 5.5 and a temperature of 25 degrees C, Don applied a shrinking particle model to derive mineral durabilities where grains are assumed to be perfect spheres with decreasing diameters as dissolution occurs.  This model agrees relatively well with Goldich’s original diagram with the exception of certain minerals such as apatite and calcite, suggesting that there must also be a thermodynamic component to dissolution of these minerals.  Don concludes that some mineral durabilities are driven by thermodynamics while others are driven by dissolution rates, and that field rates of dissolution are a combination of three types; minerals that are dissolving, such as feldspars, minerals that are in equilibrium, like quartz, and those that are growing, such as clay minerals.

Questions were asked by Dan Doctor (USGS), Chris Swezey (USGS) whose question Don anticipated and responded to with a prepared statement about the role of microbes in weathering rates, Rick Wunderman (SI) with a three part question, and Cara Santelli (SI)

President Swezey announced the talks for the May 9th meeting, and at 21:40 the 1461st meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Colin Doolan

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1462nd Meeting

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

President Swezey seized the attention of the 73 attendees and called to order the 1462nd meeting of the Geological Society of Washington at exactly 20:06. He opened the meeting by inviting Charna Meth to say a few words about the Science Fair winners and acknowledge the Science Fair judges who volunteered.  Charna Meth and President Swezey then introduced the winners and presented awards to Eric Weismiller, Stephen Yuan, Nihar Gupte, Hannah Endrias, Miro Furtado, Kaili Gregory, and Jacob McCarthy.  The students were met with an enthusiastic round of applause.  Following the announcement of the Science Fair winners, the minutes from the 1461st meeting were read and approved without corrections.

There were seven guests: 

The three UMD regulars:

         Laura Diedrich

         Austin Green

         Gregory Polley

Joanne Stokowski (Langley Children’s Center)

Reggie Spiller (DOE, retired)

Mike Enomoto (Virginia Geological Survey)

Frank Dulong (USGS)

Eight new members were announced:

Dongbo Wang (NIST)

Abigail Seadler (AGI)

Katarina Doctor (GMU)

Julie Herrick (Smithsonian)

Marion LeVoyer (Smithsonian/Carnegie)

Karine Renaud (Hopkins/USGS)

Huan Cui (UMD)

John Haynes (JMU)

There were three announcements.  First, Jurate Landwehr introduced herself and Jeff Plescia as the GSW alternate deligate and primary deligate respectively to the Washington Academy of Sciences.  She explained that there is a long history of interaction between WAS and the Geological Society of Washington, and that WAS is interested in reestablishing those linkages.  Next, President Swezey announced a behind-the-scenes tour of the Smithsonian’s Geology and Mineral Sciences Department of Natural History led by Callan Bentley.  Callan then quickly explained that the tour was set up for resident associates and wasn’t really open to outside people.  This exchange was followed by a minute or two of awkward apologies and back-pedaling.  Finally, President Swezey announced that GSW member Ted Engle, who is a hydrologist with the US National Guard, had just been posted to Afghanistan and that he plans to send to GSW periodic photo updates of hydrologic and geologic interest.

An informal communication was delivered by Bill Burton regarding the GSW spring field trip to The Springs of Washington, DC led by Jack Sharp.  Bill showed maps and photos from the field trip that led them to the sites of historic springs throughout the DC area, notably the still existing spring adjacent to the US Capitol Building and Silver Spring, from which the Maryland city got its name.  During the field trip, Jack explained that the network of streams and headwater springs that crisscrossed the DC area before urbanization is mostly still present under the surface and these active springs have been largely overlooked or forgotten.  Bill concluded by mentioning that the guidebook will be available through the Washington Academy of Sciences and announced that the fall GSW field trip will be Wine and Geology.

Ted Maxwell of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum kicked-off the formal presentations with his talk Plio-Pleistocene lakes of North Africa – The Egypt connection. (20 minutes)  Ted noted that recently many of the suspected Pleistocene lakes in North Africa have very recently grown in size and he warned that they are poised to take over the continent.  His study focused on the Egyptian megalake, which he believes was fed by a southward flowing Wadi Quena, evidenced by a 30 meter thick sand sheet on the top of escarpments that is not seen along the Nile River to the north, and north flowing tributaries from the Selima Sand Sheet during the dry conditions following the Miocene.  Further evidence includes Nile Perch fossils found 400 kilometers west of the Nile River at Tarfawi that happen to be at the same elevation as the terminations of the Selima drainage.  From this evidence, Ted concluded that there had to be a huge lake here sometime in the mid-Pleistocene between the south drainage through Wadi Quena and north drainage from south of Tarfawi and the area of the Selima Sand Sheet.

Questions were asked by Ester Sztein (NAS), George Helz (UMD), and Chris Swezey (USGS) who asked two questions

The second talk of the evening, Geology and public policy – Offshore drilling, uranium mining, and the Marcellus Shale in Virginia, was delivered by David Spears of the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy. (23 minutes)  David began by explaining the concept of public policy and the means by which the government chooses to take action or not take action when a particular issue arises.  He then illustrated the way in which Virginia public policy has been shaped by outlining government response to the issues of offshore drilling, uranium mining, shale gas production, and the recent earthquake.  David demonstrated that changes in administration and changes in public perception will often spur change in public policy, as was the case in lifting the offshore Virginia oil exploration ban and the banning of horizontal drilling in National Forrest respectively.  He concluded with the statement that geologists are uniquely qualified to contribute to policy making and that the consideration of science is required in the name of good government.

Questions followed by Brent Grocholski (SI), Jurate Landwehr (USGS), Bill Burton (USGS), and Callan Bentley (NOVA)

David Harbor of Washington and Lee University gave the third and final talk entitled Do river profiles reveal the recent history of the central Appalachians? (22 minutes)  David stressed the difficulty in studying the history of something that is no longer there.  That being said, David dove into methods for determining the geologic history of erosion in the Appalachians through thermochronology and studies of the offshore sedimentary record.  He developed a conceptual model for the development of the Central Appalachian landscape in which the James and Roanoke Rivers are the latest to capture Valley and Ridge drainage and move the drainage divide back to the west.  This lead David to ask the question, “If the James River was captured, can we see it in the river profiles?”  His answer:  A definite maybe.  He explained that profile deviations are caused primarily by rock type changes, but can also be attributed to tectonic events or changes in base level.  By calculating the migration rates of knickpoints in the tributaries of the James River, David concluded that changes in rock type are not enough to account for deviations seen in the river profiles.  Instead, it is likely that a change in base level caused upstream waves of erosion that began millions of years ago and are still actively being transmitted upstream to the headwaters.

Questions from Bill Burton (USGS), Callan Bentley (NOVA), Brent Grocholski (SI), Victor Zabielski (NOVA), and Chris Swezey (USGS)

The 1462nd meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at 22:06.

Respectfully submitted,

Colin Doolan

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1463rd Meeting

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

Eighty-one people realized that summer had finally ended and shuffled into the 1463rd meeting of the Geological Society of Washington.  President Swezey sounded the beer can and called the meeting to order at 20:01. The minutes from the 1462nd meeting were read and approved with only one correction.

The inundated secretary tallied 33 guests.  Beginning with the President’s entourage, they were:

George Deike III (Consulting Geologist and father-in-law of President Swezey)

Mickey Deike (George’s wife)

Selene Deike (their daughter and GSW First Lady)

Shelley Fulleborn (their other daughter)

Gustave Fulleborn (Shelley’s husband)

Wendy Kelly (granddaughter who happens to work at the VA Geological Survey)

Jonathan Vacanti (Wendy Kelly’s boyfriend)

Sue Ann Gething (Mickey Deike’s cousin)

Sue Ann’s two guests:  Dan and his mother Wendy

Additional guests included:

         Malcom Field (EPA)

         Dorothy Vesper (WVU)

                     Dorothy’s husband Mike

         Louise Neu and Roxanne Shively (DC Grotto)

                     One other DC Grotto member whose name escaped the secretary

         Tom Shifflett and Nathan Farrar (Butler Cave Conservation Society)

                     Lauren (Nathan’s girlfriend)

         Chris Woodley (Virginia Speliological Survey)

         Glen Fountain (Johns Hopkins)

         Erica Ragland (ECS, Ltd.)

         Catherine Rothaker (AGU intern)

         Kathryn Kynett (AGI intern)

         Dave Bolton (MD Geological Survey)

         Christina Boak (USGS intern)

         Nancy Price (Free agent from the University of Maine)

         Jack Hinkey (NOAA)

         Hilary Christensen (Carnegie)

         John Kenedy (Caelum Corp and NOAA)

         Finally, Ann Vroom, Jim Hurley and Ashley Yang (Visitors at large)

One new member was announced:

Stephen Leslie (JMU)

President Swezey regrettably announced the death of three GSW members.

Dr. Maurice Jean Grolier died on Nov. 3rd, 2011 in Clermont-Ferrand, France.  After receiving a PhD from Johns Hopkins University, the majority of his career was with the USGS astrogeology office in Flagstaff, AZ.  He gave talks at GSW in 1969 and 1973.

Wallace deWitt Jr. died on Aug. 7th, 2012 in Mt. Airy, MD at the age of 91.  He was a USGS employee from 1943 to 1990 and was well known for his work on Appalachian Devonian strata and petroleum geology.  He gave a GSW talk in 1959.

Motoaki Sato died Sept. 9th, 2012 in Reston, VA at the age of 82.  He was a well published geochemist with the USGS focusing on oxygen fugacity of igneous rocks.  Moto gave a GSW talk in 1969, was a GSW councilor in the ‘70s, 2nd vice president in the ‘80s, treasurer in the ‘90s, and held the title of Grand Inquisitor a total of seven times.

A moment of silence for each was observed.

Three announcements were made.  First, President Swezey announced that Marilyn Suiter has been elected as a councilor to the Geological Society of America.  Her four year term began in July 2012.  Swezey then announced that after many years of maintaining the GSW website David Applegate has grown weary of this task and invites another member to take it over.  Those interested can contact Swezey or David directly.  Finally, Bill Burton announced the GSW fall field trip Geology and Wines of Northern Virginia on Oct. 27th.  He explained that the trip will be chauffeured and, therefore, will have a space limit of 25 people.  One vineyard will be in carbonate rocks and one will be in igneous and metamorphic rocks.

          

George H. Deike III, a consulting geologist and cave enthusiast, started off the karst themed formal program with his talk, Passage morphology of Cass Cave, Pocahontas County, West Virginia: Where did all of the water go?  (21 minutes)  George’s discovery of a back entrance to Cass Cave led him to question the controls of passage morphology within the cave.  He explained that passages typically form along limestone bedding planes and cut narrow canyons through the limestone as the passages develop over time.  In the case of Cass Cave, water from several sources flowed through passages in the Greenbrier Limestone following the structure above impermeable shale layers and following bedding planes within the limestone below the shales down dip from where the water has breached the impermeable layers.  George concluded that vertical passage profiles above the shale are controlled by N/NE-trending joints and that the horizontal passage profiles observed below the shale are controlled primarily by bedding planes.

Underwater surveying services were offered to George by Barbara Am Ende (Aerospace Corporation), followed by questions from Rich Gaschnig (UMD), Carl-Henry Geschwind, David Dantzler, and Bob Burruss (USGS).

The second talk of the evening, Recently developed solute-transport models for karst aquifers, was given by Malcolm S. Field of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  (15 minutes)  Malcolm focused on the environmental aspects of karst aquifers noting that there is often no access to the karst systems below the water table, leaving only knowledge of the upstream and downstream aspects of the systems.  He explained that dye tracer breakthrough curves from many of these karst systems are often erratic, multi-peaked curves that may be indicative of multiple channels with individual flow velocities.  Malcolm attempted to decode these multi-peak tracer breakthrough curves through experimental models involving dual conduit flow and single conduit flow with tracer detention and waterfall features.  He concluded that a number of different subsurface flow patterns can produce multiple peak tracer results and that there must be a continued pursuit of experimental models to better understand subsurface effects and mathematical models to better assess flow parameters.

Questions were asked by Nick Geboy (USGS), Carl-Henry Geschwind, Barbara Am Ende (Aerospace Corporation) with another offer of surveying services, Dan Doctor (USGS), and Mark Zerniak.

Dorothy J. Vesper of West Virginia University delivered the final talk entitled The vulnerability of karst aquifers – is the paradigm true?  (24 minutes)  Dorothy focused on explaining how contaminates move through karst systems and what this means for the vulnerability of karst aquifers.  She used Quarles Spring in Kentucky as an example of how little is known about contaminant storage and transport in karst systems by the fact that contamination does not appear in the spring from nearby contamination at Fort Campbell Army Airfield, even though tracers appear days to weeks later along the same flow path.  Dorothy developed a conceptual model in which light non-aqueous phase liquids and dense non-aqueous phase liquids are trapped in the aquifer by pooling above and below the main flow path of the groundwater.  She further explained that these stored contaminants may be released slowly over time or in pulses from storm events and that current research seeks to model flow paths statistically.  She concluded that the paradigm that karst aquifers are highly vulnerable is not always true, but a better understanding of contaminant storage and trapping is needed.

Questions by Bob Burruss (USGS), Victor Zabielski (NOVA), Carl-Henry Geschwind, and Sandy Neuzil (USGS), with additional comments by Malcolm Field (EPA), and Bob Burruss (USGS)

President Swezey announced the speakers for the next meeting and the 1463rd meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at 22:00.

Respectfully submitted,

Colin Doolan

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1464th Meeting

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

Sixty-six devotees got their priorities straight, skipping the terrible presidential debates in order to enlighten themselves at the 1464th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington.  President Swezey, who is not running for a second term, wrangled the crowd to order at 20:02. The minutes from the 1463rd meeting were read and approved with one correction.

There were twelve guests: 

         Fred Davis and Christoph Popp (SI post-docs)

         Stephanie Grocke (SI pre-doctoral fellow)

         Michelle Beck (biology post-doc at VA Tech)

         Melanie Szulczewski (University of Mary Washington)

         William Adgate (University of Georgia)

         Lauren DeNinno (USGS)

         Peggy Appleman (former GSW Treasurer)

         Sujata Kaushal (sister of 2nd speaker Sujay Kaushal)

Sujata’s husband David Lund and their baby Ameya Lund

         Ashley Yang (NOVA student)

        

Five new members entered the fold:

         Sujay S. Kaushal (UMD)

         John F. Kennedy (Caelum Corp and NOAA)

         George H. Deike III (retired consulting geologist)

         Wendy Harrison (NSF)

         Nancy Price (PhD graduate of the University of Maine with no current affiliation)

President Swezey read the obituary for Motoaki Sato whose death was announced at the September 12th meeting.  He then recounted the numerous positions Moto held within GSW over the last five decades.

Four announcements were made.  Bill Burton, once again, pushed the GSW fall field trip Geology and Wines of Northern Virginia on October 27th, revealing that there are still spaces available.  Sarah Penniston-Dorland announced that the University of Maryland ADVANCE Program managed to snare USGS director Marcia McNutt amid her busy schedule to give a talk on October 12th about Building a Career in Science.  Willson Bonner pawned off some Earth Science Kits from AGI for teachers to distribute during the up-coming Earth Science Week.  Finally, First Vice President Bob Burruss pleaded for a Program Chair for next year.  Bill Burton tried to sweeten the deal, mentioning that with this position one gets to eat at the Cosmos Club, which was quickly put into perspective by Liz Cottrell who pointed out that this is no free dinner. 

An informal communication was given by Rich Gaschnig who offered the audience exotic photos of his recent, month-long trip to China.  He showed photos of neoprotorozoic glacial tillites he was studying, the Three Rivers Gorge and massive dam structure, and stunning photos of the towering Devonian sandstone pillars at Zhangjiajie.

The first formal presentation, Anatomy of a global warming event:  The Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (55 Ma), was given by Timothy J. Bralower of The Pennsylvania State University. (17 minutes)  Timothy sought to understand the impacts of current climate change by studying the morphology and isotopic composition of fossilized calcareous phytoplankton from the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum.  A massive input of greenhouse gases and increased ocean acidification led to extinction of benthic species and transient morphological shifts in planktonic species closer to the surface.  Timothy concluded that the isotopic and morphologic signals of warming migrated slowly from the ocean surface downward and that preserved sequences containing the thermal maximum show us that calcareous plankton are both highly sensitive and resilient to sharp climate change.

Questions asked by Mac Ross (USGS retired), Willson Bonner (AGI), Barbara Am Ende (Aerospace Corporation), Victor Zabielski (NOVA), Dan Doctor (USGS), John Repetski (USGS), again Mac Ross (USGS retired), and Bill McDonough (UMD).

Next, Sujay S. Kaushal of the University of Maryland presented Land use, climate change, and contaminants:  Implications for drinking water. (18 minutes)  Sujay explained how increasing urbanization and climate variability impacts the salinity and levels of contaminates found in existing drinking water supplies.  He showed that there is a long-term shift from fresh to saline waters across the northeastern U.S. from increasing urbanization, road construction, and subsequent road salting during colder months.  Sujay also demonstrated that land use and climate shifts amplify pulses of sediment and contaminants such as phosphorous, nitrogen, and PAHs, and he concluded that long-term stream and river warming increases contaminant transport from sediments to water.

Questions by Jane Hammarstrom (USGS), Liz Cottrell (SI), Dan Doctor (USGS), Carl-Henry Geschwind, and Sandy Neuzil (USGS).

Robert J. Bodnar of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University delivered the third and final talk of the evening, The debate over uranium mining and milling in Virginia:  Separating fact from fiction. (22 minutes)  Robert first let it be known that he expects to receive an invitation from GSW to give a talk in the year 2045, noting that it took GSW 33 years to invite him back after his 1979 talk.  A lack of knowledge on the part of the general public about uranium mining, and the nuclear industry led Robert to dispel some of the myths surrounding these issues, and used the Coles Hill uranium deposit in Virginia as an example.  He explained that concerns about contamination and excessive draw-down in nearby drinking and irrigation wells from mining activity and the release of tailings from a direct hit by a hurricane are unfounded based on the nature of the pumping activities and the design of the below-grade tailings cells.  Robert asserted that the Coles Hill deposit is a significant energy resource that could bring long-term economic benefits to southern Virginia, given that extensive scientific and engineering studies are performed to understand the potential risks involved.

Eighteen minutes of Q and A followed with questions from Bill McDonough (UMD) with a two part question, Wilson Bonner (AGI), Carl-Henry Geschwind with a three part question, Barbara Am Ende (Aerospace Corporation), Jim Hayes, Dan Doctor (USGS), Bill Burton (USGS), and Victor Zabielski (NOVA).

After the announcement of the speakers for the October 17th meeting the 1464th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at 22:18.

Respectfully submitted,

Colin Doolan

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1465th Meeting

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

 

Speakers

 

Stratigraphic controls on karst development and drainage in Silurian limestones, southern Highland County, Virginia

Haynes, John T.

James Madison University

 

The Maryland Geological Survey: Adaptation in a changing world

Halka, Jeffrey P.

Maryland Geological Survey

 

Storing anthropogenic CO2 in the western Illinois Basin: The FutureGen 2.0 Project

Sullivan, Charlotte

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

 

President Swezey summoned the 61 attendees of the 1465th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington to order at 20:04. The minutes from the 1464th meeting were approved as read.

 

President Swezey began by noting that the archivist, Bill Burton, seemed to be chronologically impaired, as evidenced by the graphic describing past GSW meeting activities in February.  Sandy Neuzil stood up for Bill and said that his excuse was a lack of past meetings close to this date.  The Secretary overheard someone murmur, “Does anybody actually read those things?”  John Repetski then mentioned that one of the items was also a duplicate from the previous meeting, thereby answering the question that yes, some people actually read those things.

 

Six guests were introduced: 

            Denise Thompson (Washington State HS science teacher and Einstein Fellow)

            Kate Ramsayer (AGU)

            Matt Preusch (student at Lewis and Clark Law School working with the Dept. of Justice)

            Jim Hurley (organizational consultant and geology enthusiast)

            Lydia Stepanek (management consultant and geology enthusiast)

            Ashley Yang (NOVA student)

 

Two new members were announced: 

            Kathryn Kynett (AGI)

            Christina Boak (USGS)

 

Seven announcements were made.  President Swezey announced that the current week was Earth Science Week organized by AGI and the theme this year was Discovering Careers in Earth Sciences.  He also announced that Friday was Geologic Map Day, reminding people to proudly display their geologic maps.  President Swezey mentioned that Thursday was also the Great Shake-out and asked David Applegate to give an informal exhortation on this event.  David announced that at 10:18 am on October 18th over 13 million people, including many in the Washington DC area, were participating in the Great Shake-out, a drill intended to prepare people in the event of an earthquake.  President Swezey made the final announcement for the GSW fall field trip Geology and Wines of Northern Virginia, saying that there were still a few spaces available.  As if the week were not already overbooked, John Repetski announced that the current day was National Fossil Day and that he participated on the National Mall, answering the public’s urgent paleontological questions.  Jamie Allan asked the audience to give generously to the General Fund for the beverages, and announced that the AAPG Eastern Section is seeking a treasurer.  Finally President Swezey announced the slate of candidates for the GSW Council.  The candidates announced were:

            First Vice President - Tim Mock (Carnegie)

            Second Vice President - Nora Nofkke (Old Dominion University)

            Secretary - Meg Coleman (EIA)

            Treasurer - Odette James (USGS retired)

            Council Member-at Large - Stephanie Devlin (NRC), Dan Doctor (USGS), and Cara Santelli (SI)

           

One informal communication was presented.  Dick Fiske demonstrated that there is now proof positive that something is crooked in Washington, DC.  He explained that due to poor soil conditions, the Washington Monument was built slightly southeast of the point on the Mall’s axis that L’Enfant envisioned.  This lead Dick to the discovery that the axis of the Mall is crooked, deviating from true east-west, and with it the Museum of Natural History building.  His conclusion?  The Mall and the entire Smithsonian is revealed to be crooked.

 

             

The first formal presentation of the evening was delivered by John T. Haynes of James Madison University entitled, Stratigraphic controls on karst development and drainage along Bullpasture Mountain, Highland County, Virginia.  (22 minutes)  John and his army of students headed out to Bullpasture Mountain to tease out the stratigraphy of the Silurian Limestones along route 250 and further south.  Through thin-section analysis of sandstone units, he demonstrated that karst systems in the area of Bullpasture Mountain are formed within the limestone units of both the Keyser and Tonoloway Formations and not solely in the Limestone members of the Keyser as was previously believed.  John concluded that caves on the east side of Bullpasture Mountain are confined at the bottom by the Williamsport sandstone and at the top by sandstones of the Tonoloway and the Clifton Forge Sandstone, and that the Williamsport and Oriskany Sandstones respectively mark the lower and upper speleogenic boundaries.

There were questions from Jamie Allan (NSF), Brooks Hanson (Science), and Christopher Swezey (USGS).

 

Jeffrey P. Halka of the Maryland Geological Survey gave the second presentation, The Maryland Geological Survey:   Adaptation in a changing world.  (26 minutes)  Jeffrey began by taking the audience through a history of the Maryland Geological Survey from its establishment in 1896, through its various activities over the decades, to its incorporation within the Department of Natural Resources in 1969.  He explained that today the Maryland Geological Survey is divided into three functional areas:  Coastal and estuarine geology that covers shore erosion and bottom habitat mapping, environmental geology that involves geologic hazards and watershed contaminant studies, and hydrogeology and hydrology that encompasses studies of surface and groundwater quality and availability.  Jeffrey finished by saying that the adaptive approach of the Maryland Geological Survey is to provide effective scientific studies for identified customers that draw from long-term comprehensive databases.

Questions were asked by Carl-Henry Geschwind, Nick Geboy (USGS), Richard Walker (UMD), and Mac Ross (USGS retired).

 

The third and final talk was given by E. Charlotte Sullivan from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory who presented, Storing anthropogenic CO2 in the western Illinois Basin:  The FutureGen 2.0 Project.  (22 minutes)  Charlotte explained the background of the FutureGen project, a non-profit of energy producers and the DOE that intends to safely store CO2 from a coal-based power plant in a deep saline aquifer.  The Mt. Simon Sandstone in the Illinois Basin was selected as the target sequestration formation based on the depth at approximately 4,000 feet, the proximity of a power plant suitable for refurbishing, and favorable geologic conditions for the injection of CO2, such as a lack of major faults, seismicity, and dipping beds.  Charlotte emphasized that the goal of the project is to begin a DOE demonstration in which 1.1 million metric tons of CO2 per year will be injected over 56 months, followed by commercial injection for the remainder of 30 years.

Questions by Brooks Hanson (Science), George Helz (UMD), Dan Milton (USGS retired), Michael Max with a question/diatribe, Mac Ross (USGS retired), and Peter Warwick (USGS) with a two part question.

 

The 1465th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at 22:16.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Colin Doolan

 

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1466th Meeting

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

 

Speakers

 

Age and origin of the Idaho batholith, U.S. Cordillera

Gaschnig, Richard M.

University of Maryland

 

One hundred years of contamination: Impacts of acid mine drainage on a Virginia ecosystem

Szulczewski, Melanie D.

University of Mary Washington

 

The magnitude 5.8 Virginia earthquake: What are we learning?

Horton, J. Wright

USGS

 

The 69 attendees of the 1466th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington were marshaled by President Swezey at 20:02. The minutes from the 1465th meeting were read and approved with one correction.

 

There were seven potential members introduced: 

            Jared Marske (Carnegie)

            Kyle Lynch and Ashley Yang (NOVA students)

            John Hodgen (geologist with the US Securities and Exchange Commission)

            John Singleton (GMU)

            Matt Larken (husband of the 2nd speaker Melanie Szulczewski)

            Beverly Horton (wife of the 3rd speaker Wright Horton)

 

Three new members were announced: 

            Fred Davis (SI)

            Jeffrey Halka (MD Geological Survey)

            Shellie Rose (Army Corps of Engineers)

 

There were three announcements.  First, President Swezey showed pictures from the GSW fall field trip Wines and Geology of Northern Virginia.  The field trip included stops at the Hume Vineyard, grown on granite, and North Mountain Vineyard, grown on limestone, where participants, through repeated experiments, learned to distinguish the subtle differences between these wines.  Next, President Swezey announced the GSW Officer’s Slate for 2013 and asked the candidates for election that were in attendance to stand.  Finally, Nick Geboy reminded the audience to continue to renew their GSW memberships for 2013.

 

One informal communication was given by Katarina Doctor.  Via her top-secret Naval Research Laboratory laptop, Katarina presented slides of her hydrogeomorphology fieldwork amongst the parabolic dunes at Freshwater Beach, Australia.  Of particular interest were the creeks that flowed across the beach following ancient rip-channels, pictures of fresh water sheet flow at periods of low tide, and light and dark sand layers that reveal a succession of past storm events.

             

First up for the formal presentations was Richard M. Gaschnig of the University of Maryland with his talk Age and origin of the Idaho batholith, U.S. Cordillera.  (23 minutes)  Rich’s work focused on pinning down age ranges for the major phases of the Idaho Batholith, which included dating zircon xenocrysts and determining the geochemistry and origin of the magmas that formed the batholith.  From U-Pb zircon geochronology as well as Sr, Nd, Hf, and O isotope analysis, he was able to determine that the batholith reveals two cycles, one of low volume metaluminous magmatism from approximately 100 to 70 million years ago followed by voluminous, compositionally restricted peraluminous magmatism from approximately 70 to 54 million years ago.  Rich concluded that the Idaho batholith represents a magmatic system constructed over 55 million years in the Archean and Proterozoic, and that periods of crustal growth lead to large amounts of crustal reworking with varying compositions.

Questions were asked by Nancy Price (unaffiliated), Jamie Allan (NSF), and Jared Marske (Carnegie).

 

Melanie D. Szulczewski of the University of Mary Washington gave the second talk of the evening entitled One hundred years of contamination:  Impacts of acid mine drainage on a Virginia ecosystem.  (22 minutes)  After a brief overview of the chemistry and effects of acid mine drainage, Melanie introduced her study site at Contrary Creek in Louisa County, VA.  She and her students analyzed water, soil, sediment, macroinvertebrate and plant samples from both upstream and downstream of the mine site at Contrary Creek.  They found that downstream pH and biodiversity was lower while soil, water, and bioaccumulation concentrations of metals such as aluminum and iron were much higher, though they noted that heavy metal concentrations considered to be contaminated were present throughout the site.  Melanie identified that there is a lot of future work that will need to be done at Contrary Creek, and that future remediation will have to be tied to local awareness, especially in light of plans to build an 18 hole golf course that straddles the creek.

Questions followed by Carl-Henry Geschwind, John Repetski (USGS),  Dick Smith (USGS), Mac Ross (USGS retired), and Nick Wigginton (Science), along with an offer of residential well water samples from President Swezey.

 

The final presentation was delivered by J. Wright Horton of the U.S. Geological Survey with The magnitude 5.8 Virginia earthquake:  What are we learning?  (19 minutes)  Wright explained that prior to the 2011 magnitude 5.8 Virginia quake, earthquakes in the Cenral Virginia Seizmic Zone could not be linked to specific faults, and that this latest quake occurred in a gap in detailed geologic map coverage.  For the first time in the eastern U.S., the causative fault for a major earthquake was imaged from the recorded aftershock sequence following the magnitude 5.8 quake.  However, with no simple interpretation to tie the event to the known Paleozoic faults, airborne Lidar, magnetic, gravity, and radiometric surveys along with detailed surface mapping are being employed to better understand the fault systems in the area around the epicenter.  Wright concluded by saying that the impacts could have been much worse if the earthquake were centered under an urban area such as Richmond, citing the recent event at Christchurch, New Zealand as an analog.

Questions from Jamie Allan (NSF), Chris Swezey (USGS), Katarina Doctor (GMU), Nancy Price (unaffiliated), Carl-Henry Geschwind, and Bob Burruss (USGS).

 

The next meeting’s Presidential Address and the following 120th GSW Annual Meeting were announced, and with that the 1466th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at 22:00.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Colin Doolan

 

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes from the 1467th Meeting

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

 

Presidential Address

 

Quaternary eolian dunes and paleoclimates of the southeastern U.S.

Swezey, Christopher S.

USGS

 

President Swezey called the 69 attendees of the 1467th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington to order at 20:01. The minutes from the 1466th meeting were read and approved without corrections.

 

There were three guests introduced: 

            Bob Ryder (USGS retired)

            Brian Toeneboehn

            Kevin Toeneboehn

 

President Swezey slipped in an announcement about parking at the Cosmos Club, reminding members not to use the valet parking because GSW gets stuck with the bill.  The Secretary then gently reminded him that there was a new member to announce.  President Swezey then told the audience to disregard the previous announcement.

 

One new member was announced: 

            Glen Fountain (Hopkins/Applied Physics Lab)

 

Next, President Swezey announced that attendees should not use the valet parking at the Cosmos Club.

 

President Swezey introduced Bob Burruss as the person who will introduce the evening’s speaker.  Incoming President, Bob Burruss then came forward to introduce President Chris Swezey of the U.S. Geological Survey who delivered his Presidential Address entitled Quaternary eolian dunes and paleoclimates of the southeastern U.S. (28 minutes)  It was at this point that Dave Stuart was heard saying, “Remind me to wake up.”

             

President Swezey first thanked the members of the Society for the opportunity to serve as President and thanked the Officers and Councilors for their hard work over the past year.  He then began his address with a brief history of eolian thought, from early concerns about how to avoid getting a Model T Ford stuck in Libyan sands to breakthroughs in dating and imaging eolian deposits through luminescence dating and LiDAR mapping.  Next, he introduced his study area in Jasper County Georgia on the boarder of South Carolina where he spent a lot of time chasing down vegetated, relict eolian dunes along the Savannah River.  The thick vegetation and lack of significant relief on the river terraces in the study area made field mapping difficult.  Luckily, changes in vegetation proved useful for delineating the more recent eolian deposits on top of the older Pliocene strata.  Although it is difficult to conclusively identify the vegetated sand hills as eolian in the field due to the absence of primary sedimentary structures, LiDAR surveys of the study area revealed the parabolic shapes of these features, identifying them as eolian deposits.  Luminescence dates for the majority of the dunes place the time of deposition between 30K and 17K years ago at the time of the last glacial maximum, and the winds were from west to east, based on orientation, at an average velocity of about 4 meters per second, based on grain sizes.  President Swezey concluded that the eolian deposits in the Southeastern U.S. were deposited in a much dryer climate than present with much greater average wind velocities, and that the synchronicity of these dunes with dune fields elsewhere in the northern hemisphere  suggests larger-scale climate shifts.

 

In keeping with tradition, there were no questions following the Presidential Address.

 

President Swezey announced the speakers for the January 9th, 2013 meeting and asked the attendees to reconvene in 10 minutes after a beer for the 120th GSW annual meeting.  The 1467th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington was adjourned at 20:45.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Colin Doolan