Geological Society of Washington

Minutes for the 1514^th meeting

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

John Wesley Powell Auditorium,

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

 

 

2^nd Vice President, Carl-Henry Geschwind called the 1514^th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington to order at 20:00 with 49 members and 1 guest in attendance.

 

The minutes of the 1513^th meeting were approved at 20:01 with no corrections.

 

No guests were introduced. The following new members were announced:

 

Nikolaus Deems – Catholic University of America

Michael Toomey – USGS

Steven Olson – Legend Gold Corporation

Ottaviano Ruesch – NASA Goddard

Gustaz Raggambi – AECOM

Ian Saginor – FBI

 

2^nd Vice President Carl-Henry Geschwind announced the unfortunate passings of Drs. Alta Walker and William Melson on August 1^st, 2015 and October 7^th, 2016, respectively. Dr. Walker was a member of GSW from 1983 until 2005. Dr. Melson was a member of GSW from 1964 to 2016. Members observed a moment of silence.

 

GSW member Pete Toulmin also announced the passings of Gene Rosenbaum and Skip Cunningham.

 

There were no informal communications.

 

Graham Lederer of the USGS gave a presentation titled “Resource Nationalism in Indonesia”. Indonesia’s setting in a tropical island arc allows for its economy to rely heavily on its abundance of metal ores, including Cu, Ni, Fe-ores, and bauxite. In 2009, the country passed Law #4, which provided stipulations that effectively banned the export of unprocessed ores by 2014. Due to the lack of infrastructure of refining and smelting in the country, the effective ban resulted in a severe economic downturn for Indonesia.

 

Questions were asked by an unidentified inquisitor in the 2^nd row, Steve Olson of Legend Gold Corporation, President Emeritus Jamie Allan of the NSF, Bill Burton of the USGS, and Caitlin Chazen of NOVA and GWU.

 

Andrea Mundl of the University of Maryland gave a talk titled “¹⁸²W heterogeneities in modern ocean island basalts”. ¹⁸²Hf decays to ¹⁸²W, with a relatively short half-life of ~9 Ma. Additionally Hf is a lithophile element while W is relatively siderophile. The short half-life and difference in affinities allows for the study of short time-scale mantle processes. Mundl and her colleagues studied the Hf/W in OIB from HI, Samoa, and Iceland and found no correlation with long-lived isotopic systems (e.g. U-Th-Pb), yet a moderate negative correlation with ³He/⁴He. The results suggest mixing between one or more mantle sources, as well as the formation of a ¹⁸²Hf reservoir while ¹⁸²Hf was extant (< 60 Ma).

 

Questions were asked by President Emeritus Jamie Allan of the NSF, Steven Shirey of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Brooks Hansen of AGU, and Dan Doctor of the USGS.

 

Thomas Olszewski of Texas A&M University gave a talk titled “Using dead clams to trace sediment burial and recycling pathways in coastal depositional systems”. Olszewski and his colleagues studied the use of dead freshwater clams (not fossils) as a real-time, short-term tracer for sediment transport and deposition, as the use of ¹⁴C can be costly to measure in a population and impractical on a human time-scale. They achieved dating by the use of a process called racemization, a process by which chimera amino acid molecules spontaneously switch from left- to right-handed in organic matter. In core data, the shells show a wide distribution in correlation between age and depth of deposition, as well as two distinct populations. The group explains their data by the presence of autochthonous and allochthonous shells; i.e. the active exhumation and redeposition of shells downstream in an active prograding deltaic environment.

 

Questions were posed by Caitlin Chazen of NOVA and GWU, John Repetski of the USGS, Michael Toomey of the USGS, Brooks Hansen of AGU, 2^nd Vice President Carl-Henry Geschwind, Bill Burton of the USGS, and Dan Doctor of the USGS.

 

2^nd Vice President Carl-Henry Geschwind adjourned the 1514^th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington at 21:40.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Nikolaus Deems, GSW Meeting Secretary

 

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes for the 1515^th meeting

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

John Wesley Powell Auditorium,

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

 

 

President Callan Bentley called the approximately 50 attendees of the 1515^th meeting of the Geological Society to order at 20:01 EDT.

 

The minutes of the 1514^th meeting was approved at 20:03 with three corrections.

 

One guest, David Smallwood, was introduced.

 

There were no new members.

 

Announcements:

 

President Callan Bentley formally acknowledged the passings of Drs. Charles “Skip” Cunningham and Eugene Roseboom, which were mentioned briefly by Pete Toulmin during the 1514^th meeting. Dr. Cunningham is recognized as having authored and coi-authored more than 250 publications during his tenure at the USGS; he joined GSW in 1984 but was last a member soon after that. Dr. Roseboom may be most well known for his pioneering work in radioactive waste disposal, as well as the discovery of djurleite. He was a member of GSW from 1957 until 2012. Members observed a moment of silence.

 

President Callan Bentley announced the March for Science, a science awareness rally to be held in Washington, DC on April 22, 2017. More information can be found at www.marchforscience.com.

 

Dan Doctor announced the annual spring field trip to Sugarloaf Mt. on March 26, 2017.

 

Kori Newman announced local science fairs and called for volunteers to act as judges

 

Informal communications:

 

Bill Burton of the USGS gave an informal communication regarding a recent series of eruptions of the Bogoslof Volcano in the Aleutian Island Arc.

 

On December 20^th, 2016, an explosive eruption of the Bogoslof Volcano was reported, with ash clouds rising to elevations of ~34,000 ft. Seismic, as well as ultrasound, and lightning detector data show that several prior eruptions went unnoticed because nearest seismometers are situated more than 50 km from the island. More than 27 total eruptions were recorded, with the most dramatic occurring on January 31^st. Burton stressed the importance of keeping abreast of Aleutian Island arc eruptions, as the arc lies along a highly travelled Pacific flyway, and ash plumes can have serious and detrimental impact on commercial flights.

 

Formal program (20:21):

 

Raj Moulik of the University of MD gave a talk titled, “Signatures of chemical heterogeneity in the lowermost mantle from full-spectrum seismic tomography”.

Geochemical differences in basalts have long been interpreted as indicating the presence of a chemically heterogeneous mantle (i.e. existence of separate reservoirs for OIB, MORB, etc.). After a brief background on seismic wave analyses with respect to the earth’s interior, Moulik showed that differences in seismic wave velocities are best explained by thermo-chemical variations in the mantle, rather than thermal or density perturbations alone.

 

One question was asked by Carl-Henry Geschwind, retired, independent researcher.

 

 

Steven Olson of the Legend Gold Corporation gave a talk titled, “2 billion and 20 years in 20 minutes – Proterozoic evolution of Africa”. Olson gave a condensed version of the geologic evolution of Africa, encompassing the Late Archean and Cambrian-Ordovician boundary. Accretion of the four major African cratons led to Andean style continental margins during the Late Archean to Proterozoic, and ending with extensive granitic magmatism of the so-called Pan-African Event in the Cambrian to Ordovician. The talk was enhanced with photographs of some spectacular views of African landscape, and stories of travelling the continent during the 1980s and 1990s.

 

Questions were asked by Jamie Allen of NSF, Bill Burton of USGS, and Carl-Henry Geschwind, retired, independent researcher.

 

Following questions, President Bentley announced the 1516^th meeting program, and adjourned the 1515^th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington at 21:37.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Nikolaus Deems

Meeting Secretary

 

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes for the 1516^th meeting

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

John Wesley Powell Auditorium,

Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

 

President Callan Bentley called the 58 attendees of the 1516^th meeting of the Geological Society of Washington to order at 20:04 EDT.

 

The minutes of the 1515^th meeting were approved, with 4 corrections, at 20:06

 

Seven guests were introduced:

Lindsay Krall

Wanda Pedulla

Hunter Hughs

Daniel Ford

Ansarullah Haidari

Frederick Vahlund

Galen Fontain

 

Three new members were announced:

John Sullivan of Ultra High Materials, Inc.

Quanchang Huang of University of Maryland

Peter Jacobs of George Mason University

 

Announcements:

 

Kori Newman announced upcoming local science fairs as well as called for volunteers for judges.

 

President Bentley announced the annual spring field trip. This year we will explore Sugarloaf Mtn. in Maryland, and the trip will be led by Chris Corey.

 

President Bentley also announced the 125^th anniversary of our esteemed society on February 21, 2018. President Bentley asked for suggestions and feedback for celebratory options. An informal vote was held to determine whether festivities should be held on a Wednesday or Friday. Friday won by an overwhelming landslide.

 

Formal Program:

 

The formal program began at 20:16 with the first talk from Paul Nadeau of the University of Stavenger, Norway, titled “The US shale oil/gas revolution: A vision for America’s energy.”

 

With the advent of recent extraction technology and techniques (e.g. horizontal drilling, multi-stage fracking, propane gel), estimates of recoverable shale oil/gas in the continental US now exceed 1 trillion barrels; an amount roughly equal to 50% of global conventional oil, or the total world production over the last century. Current production of US shale deposits since the turn of the 21^st century is twice that of other leading oil producing countries.

 

Utilization of nascent and existing technologies, with proper development of new infrastructure (such as a proposed North American-European pipeline) could generate $100 billion in revenue for the US, as well as eliminating the need to import petroleum. Such influx of wealth in the US economy could be used to eliminate debt, fund public health, education, infrastructure, and environmental stewardship, barring certain obvious roadblocks to such lofty and morally noble goals.

 

Questions were put forth by Jamie Allen of the NSF, George Helz of UMD, Doug Duncan of the USGS, Carl-Henry Geschwind, retired independent researcher, Bridges Kervlaski of Northern VA Community College, and Brad Mandler of AGI.

 

 

The second talk of the evening, titled “Responding to alternative facts in a post-truth world” was given by John Cook of George Mason University and skepticalscience.com.

 

Given recent tendencies of the public to eschew certain aspects of science due to propagation of misinformation, there is a growing need to confront and address such misinformation so that the public can make better-informed conclusions.

 

In their study, Cook and colleagues found that the best way to combat misinformation was through “inoculation”, or presenting misinformation with additional facts.

 

An oft cited statistic presented in the media is the well known quote, “97% of scientists agree human-induced climate change is real” (though this quote is often presented this way, it would be more appropriate to state that 97% of published scientific research, which take a position on the cause of climate change, state that the primary culprit is human activity). Climate science opponents often rebut the above consensus by citing the OISM petition, signed by 31,000 scientists, 9,000 of whom hold PhDs. In their study, this misinformation was shown to negate the perception of real facts by a factor of 2. However, when “inoculated”, by being presented with the facts that none of the scientists who signed the OIM petition were climate scientists, nor did the PhDs hold doctorates in climate science or earth science, and that many signatures were indeed fake, participants in the study were far less likely to believe the misinformation. A useful acronym, proposed by Cook, to identify misinformation is FLICC, which stands for: Fake experts, Logical Fallacies, Impossible Expectations, Cherry Picking, and Conspiracy Theories.

 

Questions were posed by Jamie Allen of the NSF, Erik Hanken of AGU, Hunter Hughs of NOVA, Lyndsay McLellan of the NPS (ret.), Ben Mandler of AGI, Brooks Hansen of AGU, and Paul Nadeau of the University of Stavenger.

 

Following questions, President Bentley announced the program for the 1517^th meeting, and adjourned the 1516^th meeting at 21:34.

 

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes for the 1517^th meeting

Wednesday, March 8^th, 2017

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, D.C.

 

President Bentley called the 67 attendees of the 1517^th meeting to order at 20:03 EDT.

The minutes of the 1516^th meeting were approved, with 2 corrections, at 20:04

 

Eleven guests were in attendance:

 

Sarah Ruvito (affiliation not given)

Dhruvin Savani of NVCC

Syed Usama of NVCC

Kumar Desai of NVCC

Tom Pratt of USGS

Roxanne Shively (affiliation not given)

Héléne Le Mével of Carnegie DTM

Brad Peters of Carnegie DTM

Jonathan Tucker of Carnegie DTM

Kai Shimizu of Carnegie DTM

Adam Blankenbicker of AGI

 

Four new members were announced:

 

Gareth Morgan of the Smithsonian Institution

Glenn Chinnery of the EPA

Paul Nadeau of University of Stavenger

Lauryn Nemeth of NVCC

 

Following the introduction of new members, President Bentley announced the passing of Dr. Tim Cohn on February 20^th, 2017. Dr. Cohn was a well-known and respected hydrologist for the USGS. Dr. Cohn had the distinction of serving as the USGS Science Advisor for Hazards, as an AAAS Congressional Science Fellow in the office of Sen. Bill Bradley, and as a member of the Governing Board for the American Institute of Physics. For his outstanding service, Dr. Cohn was granted the highest honor of the Dept. of Interior; the Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Cohn was a GSW member from 2000-2009. Members observed a moment of silence.

 

Announcements:

 

Kori Newman again announced local science fairs to be held in the upcoming months in the local D.C., MD, VA area.

 

Dan Doctor announced the Spring Field Trip to Sugarloaf Mountain to be held on March 26^th, and included nebulous directions, which, if followed correctly, will bring you through hills and dales, and a whitish gate to the East View Parking Area.

 

Informal Communications:

 

A recent role-play of the Incredible Hulk with the Society Gavel by the Society’s First Son provided the impetus for our esteemed President to look into the history of said Gavel.

 

The Gavel, dubbed the “special Budweiser gavel”, was introduced more than 51 years ago, as of the writing of these minutes, at the 73^rd Annual Meeting and came about as a result of a Special Gavel Committee, represented by C. Ervin Brown, to be sure that we are "sadder but wiser (Budweiser)". It is believed that The Gavel made its first appearance in regular meetings at the 1131^st meeting. At this time, Former President, Pete Toulmin, interjected to make note that, during his presidency his predecessor, Doug Rankin, had absconded with The Gavel. When asked by President Bentley how he called meetings to order absent a gavel, Former President Toulmin triumphantly raised his prosthetic left hand and said “See this!?” The amount of laughter suggested this moment may be the leading contender to date for the 2017 Sleeping Bear award.

 

 

Formal Program 20:15

 

The first talk of the evening, titled "Uplift and erosion of the Eastern Cordillera, northwestern Argentina: a view from the foreland basin" was given by Jeff Rahl of Washington and Lee University.

 

Foreland basin sediments in northwestern Argentina preserve a record of the eastward propagation, uplift and erosion of the eastern margin of the high topography of the Puna plateau and Eastern Cordillera. The presentation focused on new geochronologic data from Neogene sediments to reveal the timing and effects of growth of the modern plateau margin. Detrital zircon U-Pb age distributions preserve statistically-robust signatures that track changes in sediment source. Growth of the modern plateau edge commenced between 12 and 7 Ma and erected a topographic barrier that cut off the supply of sediment from more westerly sources. Erosion of this rising block has progressively dissected a cover of early Paleozoic sediments, leading to deep incision into the pre-Cambrian units that continues today. Apatite and zircon fission-track data from the both the Orán Group and modern streams document erosion of the frontal block at a rate of about 0.6 mm/a.

 

Questions asked by Brooks Hansen of AGU, 2^nd VP Carl-Henry Geschwind, Bill Burton of USGS, Dan Doctor of USGS, and John Repetski USGS

 

The second talk of the evening, titled “How to communicate with the public about science”, was given by Laura Helmuth of the Washington Post.

 

After brief explanation as to the justification of the Post’s new death metal inspired tagline, “Democracy Dies in Darkness”, Dr. Helmuth provided many useful tips on how we, as scientists, can better communicate our craft(s) to the public. First and foremost, Dr. Helmuth made it clear that we should leak to her. Other examples included being a voice on social media to help improve the signal to noise ratio, join reddit.com and hold an AMA (ask me anything) on the New Reddit Journal of Science, write an opinion piece, start a blog, and lastly, defend your science. The last example can best be exemplified by the defense of the study of anatidae reproductive organs by Patricia Brennan.

 

Questions were asked by Bill Burton of the USGS, 2^nd VP Carl-Henry Geschwind, Adam Blankenbicker of AGI, Ben Mandler of AGI, John Repetski of USGS, and Mark Fuhrmann, retired

 

The final talk of the evening, titled “The Atlantic Coastal Plain strata under Washington, DC, and its effect on damage during the 2011 earthquake” was given by Tom Pratt of the USGS.

 

During the 2011 Mw5.8 Mineral, VA earthquake, many buildings sustained damage despite being 130 km from the epicenter. The surprisingly large amount of damage from weak ground motions raises questions of how much the southeast-thickening sedimentary strata of the Atlantic Coastal Plain (ACP) strata beneath the city amplify and trap seismic energy. Partially consolidated ACP marine sedimentary strata overlie crystalline or indurated sedimentary rocks throughout coastal regions of the eastern U.S., extending more than 200 km inland from the coast. The strata taper landward from as much as 1 km near the coast to pinching out in the Washington, DC area. Shallow sedimentary strata are known to amplify earthquake ground motions due to low seismic impedance and strong reverberations. Between November 2014 and August 2015, the researchers used 27 seismometers to measure ground motions across Washington, DC, using four sites on crystalline rocks as reference sites. They also used data from continental-scale seismic experiments that span the ACP to examine the influence of the broader ACP strata on earthquake ground motions. Recordings of teleseisms and regional earthquakes provided data with sufficiently high signal-to-noise for computing amplitude ratios relative to the bedrock sites. Amplifications of 10 or greater are found in the Washington, DC area due to the ACP strata, with the peak amplifications occurring near the estimated resonant frequencies of buildings throughout the city. Amplitudes decrease as the strata thicken, but even coastal sites on 600 m of ACP strata show amplification factors as great as 5. They used the frequency of the resonance peaks to invert for an average velocity function within the ACP strata. This work indicates that amplification of short-period ground motions by thin ACP strata contributed to the damage in Washington, DC, during the 2011 earthquake, and documents longer-period amplifications that could affect larger structures beneath coastal regions of the eastern U.S. during earthquakes.

 

Questions were asked by George Helz of UMD, Former President Pete Toulmin, Percy (surname and affiliation unidentified), Bill Burton of USGS, Dan Doctor of USGS, and 2^nd VP Carl-Henry Geschwind.

 

Following questions, President Bentley announced the program for the 1518^th meeting on March 29^th, and adjourned the 1517^th meeting at 21:51 EDT.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Nik Deems, Meeting Secretary

 

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes for the 1518^th meeting

Wednesday, March 29^th, 2017

John Wesley Powell Auditorium

Cosmos Club, Washington, D.C.

 

 

The 62 ladies, gentlemen, and geologists in attendance of the 1518^th meeting ignored President Bentley’s call to order at 20:01 EDT. At the behest of Former President Toulmin, President Bentley called forth the power of Odin and laid down the Special Gavel with the force of 1000 mighty Viking warriors, at which point, the attendees shuffled to their seats, beers in hand.

 

The minutes of the 1517^th meeting were accepted with one correction.

 

Five guests were not intimidated by President Bentley’s forceful blow, and remained:

 

Catherine Thompson (affiliation unidentified)

Nicholas Mecholsky of Catholic University of America’s Vitreous State Laboratory

David Smallwood

Robert Smith, formerly of the EPA and USGS

Jennifer Mayo of NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center

 

One new member was announced:

 

Walter Guidroz of the USGS

 

President Bentley assumed the somber duty of announcing the passing of Robert G. Luedke. Robert was a talented geologist, dedicating his work to mineral resources and volcanic rocks of the Colorado Plateau. In 1966, he co-authored a GSW talk with Wilbur Sweat Burbank, a talk that subsequently won Best Paper of the Year. Mr. Luedke devoted more than 60 years of his life to the USGS, from the early 1950’s, past his retirement in 1995, and as emeritus until 2015. Mr. Luedke was a GSW member from 1955 until 1997 and passed away on March 21^st, 2017.

 

Members observed a moment of silence.

 

Announcements:

 

Kori Newman was not in attendance this week to solicit judges for local science fairs.

 

President Bentley announced the Annual Bradley Lecture will be rescheduled for November 8^th. This year’s speaker is Iain Stewart, possibly the only geologist to have his own IMDB page.

 

President Bentley announced the National Association of Geoscience Teachers Eastern Section meeting to be held June 8-11, 2017 in Catonsville, Maryland. Flyers were available on the back table.

 

Informal Communications:

 

Member Jim Hayes spoke briefly regarding Holocene temperature variations. Mr. Hayes presented temperature curves from eight sources (listed in a handout provided by Mr. Hayes) recording temperature variability throughout the Holocene on a multi-centennial scale. Because of limitations of data sampling, the chart cannot resolve temperature fluctuations faster than ~300 years. Due to the resolution, it is impossible to know if other, short-term temperature fluctuations have occurred and only time, or better resolution data, will tell.

 

Dr. Dan Doctor gave a brief synopsis about the Spring Field Trip to Sugarloaf Mountain, MD. Sixteen attendees managed to make it to the East View Parking Area, thanks to Dr. Doctor’s excellent directions given during the previous meeting. The hikers enjoyed a brisk, cloudy day exploring the mysterious geology of Sugarloaf Mountain, an overturned anticlinal fold of pre-Cambrian quartzose sandstone and quartzite, thrust from the Blue Ridge, eastward, overtop of the younger rocks of the Piedmont by the Martic fault.

 

Formal Program:

 

 

Jean-Arthur Olive of Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory gave a talk titled “What’s Shaping the Ocean Floor?”

 

In his talk, Dr. Olive presented simple models that relate the texture of the ocean floor (abyssal hill spacing and amplitude) to magmatic and tectonic activity at the mid-ocean ridge where it formed. These models were used to assess the bathymetric expression of spatio-temporal variability in mid-ocean ridge magma supply, and better understand the deep and shallow processes that may affect this variability. Essentially, the amplitude and spacing (wavelength), are directly proportional to the spreading rate, and therefore, magma supply, of the associated spreading center.

 

Questions were asked by Ved Lekic of UMD, Past President Jamie Allen (NSF), An unidentified gentleman in a yellow shirt and tie next to Laura Helmuth, Kevin Marvel of the American Astronomical Society, and Pete Toulmin (USGS, retired).

 

 

Carrie M. Anderson gave a talk titled “Organic Inventory at Titan’s poles Inferred from nearly 15 years of Cassini Observations”.

 

Titan possesses high amounts of organic aerosol particles in the atmosphere, which creates abundant smog. Dr. Anderson explained that these aerosol particles are important for nucleation sites for organic ice clouds, which form successive ice layers as particles descend in the atmosphere. Abundances and chemical compositions of the clouds in north and south winter polar stratospheric ices are different. These differences may be due to 1) Reversal of meridional circulation, 2) differences in relative organic abundances, or 3) temperature differentials. Regardless of season, however, Titan’s aerosol ices precipitate and settle giving observed soil conditions.

 

One question was asked by Pete Toulmin (USGS, retired).

 

Michael Ackerson gave a talk titled “New Perspectives on an Age-Old Question: How do granites form?”

 

In his talk, Dr. Ackerson discussed novel analytical and experimental techniques, which allowed him to investigate the thermal and chemical evolution of granite formation. Using the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite from the Sierra Nevada Batholith as a case study, Dr. Ackerson demonstrated that granitic rocks can crystallize at temperatures hundreds of degrees below the traditional wet solidus. These observations are helping to re-evaluate long-held petrologic models for granite formation and the relationships between plutonic and volcanic rocks.

 

Questions were asked by 2^nd VP Carl-Henry Geschwind, Jane Hammerstrom of the USGS, an unidentified gentleman in blue denim, Past President Pete Toulmin, Laura Waters of the Smithsonian Institution, and Dan Doctor of the USGS.

 

Following the final question, President Bentley announced the program for the 1519^th meeting on April 12^th and adjourned the 1518^th meeting at 2155 EDT.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Nik Deems, Meeting Secretary

 

 

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes for the 1519^th meeting

Wednesday, April 12^th, 2017

John Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club, Washington, D.C.

 

 

 

President Bentley called to order the 43 attendees of the 1519^th meeting to order at 20:03 EDT.

 

The minutes of the 1518^th meeting were approved with 4 corrections.

 

Several guests were in attendance. The Society was very pleased to have in attendance Liz Baker, who does not have a scientific affiliation, but was in attendance purely because of her interest in Earth Science. In addition to Ms. Baker, Member, Ben Mandler, brought along a raucous entourage from AGI, which included Danielle Woodring, Jeremiah Bernau, and Annora Borden. Also in attendance were Janet Liles and Glenn Chinney.

 

There were no new members to announce. It was at this time President Bentley gently reminded some members, including long-time esteemed members, that they may soon become members emeriti.

 

Announcements:

Kori Newman announced that science fair season was over, and that there would be no overt more solicitation of judges until next year. Kori and attendees thanked the volunteer men and women for the gift of their time. It was announced that science fair winners are   attending the 1520^th meeting, and it is recommended members and attendees wear badges, tags, or other material, which identify their affiliation. These may be work IDs or other identifying badges from previously attended conferences or workshops. Students will be introduced during refreshments, and will have an opportunity to discuss their research topics with members prior to the meeting. Students will be invited to stay to enrich their earth science education during the forma program.

 

Karen Prestegaard and Brooks Hanson announced the March for Science (MfS) to be held on April 22^nd, 2017. Many scientific organizations, including AGU, AAAS, ACS, GSA and more than 100 others, officially endorsed the MfS. At the latest Council Meeting of GSW, council members decided it was not within the best interest of GSW to officially endorse the MfS.

 

Formal Program 20:13

 

The first talk was titled: EclipseMob: A Citizen Science Radiowave Ionosphere Experiment during the Aug. 21^st, 2017 solar eclipse.

Laura Lukes and Bill Liles

 

Our current understanding of the ionosphere is limited, but it impacts humans by profoundly affecting the ground spatially resolved distances in GPS devices, long distance communication radio waves, and other satellite signals.  EclipseMob is a crowdsourced effort to conduct the largest-ever low-frequency radio wave propagation experiment during the 2017 solar eclipse to better understand the ionization and deionization rates of the ionosphere during solar events.

 

Questions were posed by Stewart Wills of the Optical Society, Janet Liles, Thomas Olszewski of Texas A&M, 2^nd Vice President Carl-Henry Geschwind, President Bentley, Bill Burton of USGS, and Ben Mandler of AGI.

 

 

The 2^nd talk was titled: Implicit Bias in Scholarly Publishing: Women are Smarter! But can be smarter still?

Brooks Hanson

 

The persisting stereotypical image of a scientist is that of a man in a lab coat with unkempt hair, though this image is gradually changing as more and more women become involved in STEM. Using the extensive AGU membership and publishing database, Dr. Hanson and colleagues dove into the literature to determine if there is a persisting implicit bias toward female scientific authors. As it turns out, women do indeed publish slightly less than men as 1^st authors; however, women show almost equal acceptance rate, and slightly higher submissions as 1^st author, as a group, and as co-author networks. In the peer-review process, however, women do not participate as much as men, likely due to author and editor suggestions, as well as a higher decline rate.

 

Questions were posed by Lucy Edwards of the USGS, 2^nd Vice President Carl-Henry Geschwind, Bill Burton of USGS, Liz Crawford of Geologic, and Ben Mandler of AGI.

 

The 3^rd talk was titles: The Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater: Tales from a Paleontologist

Lucy Edwards

 

Dr. Edwards provided a quick overview of the second largest known crater in the US, complete with discussion of the mixed ages of the fossil dinoflagellate cyst assemblages and the impact taphonomy of these fossils. Then she focused on various measures of the “diameter” of a crater, noting the dangers of oversimplification. Finally she discussed current work on the Bayside core holes and conflicting hypotheses for the granitic rock at the bottom of the recovered core.

 

Questions were posed by Bill Burton of USGS, Josh Benton of James Madison University, Victor Zabielski of NOVA, Glenn Chinney (affiliation unknown), Brooks Hanson of AGU, and Liz Crafford of Geologic Research.

 

After questions, President Bentley thanked the speakers, announced the program for the 1520^th meeting, and adjourned the 1519^th meeting at 21:39 EDT.

 

Respectfuly submitted,

Nik Deems, Meeting Secretary

 

 

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes for the 1520^th meeting

Wednesday, May 3^rd, 2017

John Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club, Washington, D.C.

 

President Bentley gently asked the 68 attendees of the 1520^th meeting to please take their seats at 20:02 EDT.

 

As the first order of business, President Bentley surveyed the members as to who read the minutes. Five people raised their hands, including the President and meeting secretary, and no one found the Easter egg hidden by the meeting secretary. The minutes were approved as posted.

 

Thirteen guests were in attendance:

Earl and Ester Saxon, Rodrigo Oyole Zepete, Carl Seastrum, Adam Smith, Linda Gustafson, Mouloud Mendalim, Sarah Caplan, Dennis Askew, Daniel Ford, Tim Sain, Lany Ried, and Michelle (science fair winner, secretary failed to catch her surname).

 

Announcements

 

Mark Tyra thanked those who were in attendance of the March for Science the previous week, and their efforts to push for the liberal agenda of scientists worldwide.

 

Two esteemed guests, Lany Ried and Michelle (surname needed), were in attendance to celebrate their achievement of winning local science fairs. President Bentley took this time to honor them and their achievements and gave a sweeping monologue extolling geology and earth sciences. At this time, President Bentley awarded the two young scientists with a goody bag and a choice of one rock from a selection displayed on the stage. Legend has it that one of the rocks bestows special scientific powers to who possesses it. Only time will tell if either Lany or Michelle chose wisely.

 

Formal Program 20:18

 

Hannah Wakeford of NASA Goddard

Exploring alien Earths in the Trappist-1 system

 

The recent discovery of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting the small star TRAPPIST-1, has presented astronomers with a goldmine of worlds to explore. For the first time planets the same size as the Earth with desirable characteristics for atmospheric investigations are within the reach of our technology. These seven planets include three in the stars liquid water zone, which hosts the highest potential for life as we understand it, possibly similar to that here on Earth. Hannah will talk about preliminary studies being carried out with the Hubble Space Telescope and the potential future observations, which will occur following the launch of the James Webb Space telescope at the end of 2018.

 

Questions were posed by Steve Olson of the Legend Gold Corp., Victor of NOVA, Kevin Marble of the Astronomical Society, President Bentley, and Brooks Hansen of AGU.

 

Derek Lampkin of UMD

Fuel Injecting a Greenland Glacier

 

Conventional theory suggests slow ice-sheet adjustment. Goals of Dr. Lampkin’s team were to ascertain if there is a threshold by measuring ice-sheet melting and movement, understand the root cause of the change, and construct predictive models on future ice-sheet behavior. Dynamic behavior of surface melt rates along the margins of the Greenland Ice Sheet have sped production of water, consequently resulting in increased melt infiltration to the bedrock/ice interface. Negative feedback loop results, thus encouraging rapid melting and overall negative mass balance. Accelerated infiltration is facilitated through drainage of surpaglacial lakes, through fractures and through crevasses as well as moulins. Their aim is to improve our understanding of the ever-evolving supraglacial environment. Their work has quantified the spatial clustering distribution of lakes and linked it to variability in melt production, drainage rates and other components of the supraglacial hydrology. The team also established the impact of subglacial topography on the distribution of lakes and quantified the relationships between lake distributions and ice flow dominated by internal deformation versus basal sliding.

 

Questions were put forth by Kevin Marble of the Astronomical Society, and 2^nd VP Carl-Henry Geschwind

 

Miriam Jones

Rapid carbon loss and slow recovery following permafrost thaw in boreal peatlands

 

Permafrost peatlands store one-third of the total carbon (C) in the atmosphere and are increasingly vulnerable to thaw as high-latitude temperatures warm. Large uncertainties remain about C dynamics following permafrost thaw in boreal peatlands. A chronosequence approach was used to measure C stocks in forested permafrost plateaus (forest) and thawed permafrost bogs, ranging in thaw age from young (<10 years) to old (>100 years) from two interior Alaska chronosequences. Permafrost originally aggraded simultaneously with peat accumulation (syngenetic permafrost) at both sites. Upon thaw, C loss of the forest peat C is equivalent to ~30% of the initial forest C stock and is directly proportional to the prethaw C stocks. Model results indicate that permafrost thaw turned these peatlands into net C sources to the atmosphere for a decade following thaw, after which post-thaw bog peat accumulation returned sites to net C sinks. It can take multiple centuries to millennia for a site to recover its prethaw C stocks; the amount of time needed for them to regain their prethaw C stocks is governed by the amount of C that accumulated prior to thaw. Consequently, these findings show that older peatlands will take longer to recover prethaw C stocks, whereas younger peatlands will exceed prethaw stocks in a matter of centuries. We conclude that the loss of sporadic and discontinuous permafrost by 2100 could result in a loss of up to 24 Pg of deep C from permafrost peatlands.

 

Inquisitive minds were 2^nd VP Carl-Henry Geschwind, Victor of NOVA, Earl Saxon of the Forest Inform Party, Ben Mandler of AGI, Jim Hayes, and Sandy Neuzil

 

Closing

 

At this time, President Bentley announced that due to scheduled renovations of the Cosmos Club in the Fall, the September 13^th meeting was to be held in an alternative location. Unfortunately, no one seemed to want to deign their organizations by allowing 50 to 60 beer-swilling geologists to debase their property, so the meeting is canceled.

 

President Bentley announced the program for the 1521^st meeting to be held on October 4^th, 2017, and adjourned the 1520^th meeting at 21:59 EDT.

 

 

Respectfully submitted

Nikolaus J. Deems

Meeting Secretary

 

 

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes for the 1521^st meeting

Wednesday, October 4^th, 2017

John Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club, Washington, D.C.

 

President Bentley called to order the 49 attendees of the 1520^th meeting to order at 20:02 EDT with all the vigor befitting a man carrying a Budweiser gavel.

 

The minutes of the 1520^th meeting were approved with no corrections having been read by an overwhelming minority of attending members. Again, no one uncovered the hidden Easter egg.

 

Guests, new members, deaths

 

Several guests were in attendance. The Society was honored with the presence of Rob Wallace – affiliation unknown, Amiga Thompson – NASA, Natalie Irwin – AGU, Robert Cohen – affiliation unknown, Megan Holycrus – NMNH, Arya Udry – UNLV (Go Rebels!), and David Smallwood, who still has not signed up for membership – DC Grotto.

 

There were five new members to announce. The Society was honored to have the following join the ranks: Barbara Cohen – NASA Goddard, Robert Wasserman – Environmental Chemical Corp., Bobbie Marcoux – NOVA Community College, Joseph Kanney – US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and Adriana Potra – University of Arkansas.

 

After naming the new members, President Bentley assumed the somber duty of announcing the passing of former members, John Pojeta and Chuck Rice. President Bentley asked for a moment of silence, which the members observed.

 

Announcements and informal communications

 

There were no announcements or informal communications and President Bentley called to order the formal program.

 

Formal Program

 

The first presentation of the evening was given by Michael Ryan of the Magma Physics Project, Hilo, Hawaii, titled, “Columnar Jointing Mechanics in Three Dimensions”.

 

Inter-crystalline glass is ubiquitous in basalt, the common volcanic rock of earth’s ocean basins and oceanic islands. In Hawaii, eruption temperatures are in the 1190 – 1150 °C range and the solidus is reached at about 1000 – 980 °C. Inter-crystalline super cooled melt reaches the glass transition, Tg, at 750 °C, and subsequent cooling occurs in a high temperature mix of crystals and glass: a rheological, ‘sand-and-molasses’ mixture. Strong temperature gradients and ‘zero-displacement’ lateral boundary conditions conspire to set up thermal stresses in the cooling mass. The result is stress relief via elastic-plastic crack growth that is incremental and cyclic in time and space. This cyclic fatigue fracture is defined by abrupt elastic crack growth increments in the crystal + glass domain, and plastic crack tip blunting in the crystal + super cooled melt domain. The overall increment is preserved on the crack face as a fatigue striation. As the crack advances orthogonal to the isotherms, it (and neighboring cracks) collectively define polygonal columns in three dimensions. Under conditions of maximum local equilibrium, such polygons are hexagonal in plan form with faces meeting at 120 degree triple junctions. In forming the polygons, nature strikes a balance between the maximum reduction in the thermally-induced elastic strain energy per unit volume and the creation of the minimum fracture surface area per unit volume. This (thermodynamic) balance occurs via cyclic fatigue fracture at the elastic-plastic interface.

 

Inquisitive minds, who stepped forward were Carl-Henry Geschwind – independent researcher, Rosalind Helz – USGS emeritus, Jamie Allan – NSF, Bill Burton – USGS, Pete Toulmin, and Dan Milton.

 

The second talk of the evening was given by Christopher “Chuck” Bailey from the College of William and Mary titled “Normal faulting and graben development as catalysts for late Cenozoic landscape change, Fish Lake Plateau, Utah.”

 

Sparked by the difference in summer time dew points, Dr. Bailey has long conducted field research in the western U.S. His recent work has focused on the Fish Lake Plateau. The Fish Lake Plateau forms a distinctive highland between the elevated Colorado Plateau, and the extended Basin & Range province in south-central Utah. Suites of normal faults and graben cut the Cenozoic to Mesozoic bedrock, and disrupt/modify regional to local drainage networks. Some faults are long-lived and deeply-rooted structures, whereas other faults and graben are shallow localized structures.  In this talk, Chuck examined the links between deformation and landscape change during the late Cenozoic.

 

Questions were put forth by Carl-Henry Geschwind – 2^nd VP and independent researcher, Bill Burton – USGS, Caitlin Chazen – affiliation unknown, Karen Prestegaard, Victor Zabielski – NOVA

 

The final talk of the evening was orated by Elizabeth McClellan from Radford University titled “Evolution of a Neoproterozoic Intracontinental Rift: New Insights from Provenance Analysis of Conglomerates in the Mount Rogers Formation, southwestern Virginia.”

 

Neoproterozoic volcano-sedimentary strata of the Mt. Rogers (MR) area in southwest Virginia formed during a continental rifting phase of breakup of the Rodinia supercontinent. Geochronological analyses of igneous clasts in MR conglomerates reveal details of a more protracted history of this phase than previously understood.

 

Questions were asked by Bill Burton – USGS, Patrick Carr, Graham Lederer – USGS, Barbara Cohen – NASA, Chuck Bailey - UWM, and then Bill Burton, and then Chuck Bailey…

 

Upon the cessation of the back and forth between Bill and Chuck, President Bentley announced the program for the 1522^nd meeting, and requested that members cajole friends and family to join them.

 

President Bentley adjourned the 1521^st meeting of the Geological Society of Washington at 21:42 EDT.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Nik Deems

Meeting Secretary

 

 

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes for the 1522^nd meeting

Wednesday, October 25^th, 2017

John Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club, Washington, D.C.

 

President Bentley called to order the 39 attendees of the 1522nd meeting of the Geological Society of Washington at 20:02 EDT (by best estimation of the secretary who was busy chatting and opening his second beer).

 

As is tradition, the first order of business was approval of the minutes of the preceding meeting. Last minute Executive Order decreed by President Bentley demanded the minutes be read aloud. Whether this will be a permanent, or temporary, 90 day, ban on strictly web based draft minutes is yet to be determined.

 

The minutes were duly read aloud by the Meeting Secretary, after minor struggle with the e-mail on his cell phone.

 

Minutes were approved after reading with two corrections.

 

Guests and New Members

 

Several guests were sweet-talked by their peers in attending, and one who simply came out of geological interest (yay!). They were Alan Kelley of UNCC, Patrick Wheatley of National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, Andreza Eufrasio of CUA, and Luwan Sehagl of Children’s Hospital.

 

There were two new members to announce. They were Madeline Shaffer of UC, Santa Barbara and Charles Grymes of GMU.

 

Announcement and Informal Communications

 

There were no announcements or informal communications, and President Bentley called to order the formal program.

 

Formal Program

 

The 1st talk of the evening was given by Libby Stern of the FBI titled, “Probabilistic Geographic Attribution of Forensic Soils”

 

Forensic soil examinations can be used to narrow the likely geographic source to aid law enforcement investigations; relative likelihood applied to multiple GIS maps based on examination results can generate a probable source map. This approach was applied to a previously issued report of examination. Somewhere along a 5000 km route, emplacement of a clandestine grave resulted in < 1 g of soil on digging tools. Examination led to a provenance estimation to prioritize searches.  The actual gravesite, when eventually located, agreed with the issued report and the probabilistic models.

 

Questions were posed by Caitlin Chazen of NOVA and GWU, John Repetski of USGS, Mark Tyra of NIST, another by John Repetski, Carl-Henry Geschwind – independent researcher, and Victor Zabielski of NOVA.

 

The 2nd talk of the evening was orated by Anna Normand of the American Geosciences Institute titled, “Peatland Composition and Global Greenhouse Gas Production”

Peatlands are critical ecosystems for climate mitigation as their soils store the equivalent of two thirds of the earth’s atmospheric carbon; however, the carbon stored in peatlands is at risk due to land-use changes that can potentially increase microbial production of carbon dioxide. We found that the chemical composition of soil organic matter is key to regulating the amount of carbon loss from peatlands following disturbance. Further, soil organic matter composition varied among global peatlands based on site characteristics. A stability index developed from global peat organic matter composition can differentiate the potential carbon loss among peatland ecosystems and aid global carbon models to improve estimates of greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Inquisitive minds were Carl-Henry Geschwind – independent researcher, Joe Kenney of the NRC, President Bentley, Earl Saxon of Forest Inform, Karen Prestegaard of UMD, and Sandy Neuzil of USGS.

 

After conclusion of the questions, President Bentley announced the program of the 1523rd meeting, the Bradley Lecture, with speaker Iain Stewart. President Bentley adjourned the 1522nd meeting of the Geological Society of Washington at 21:26 EDT.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Nik Deems – Meeting Secretary.

 

 

 

Geological Society of Washington

Minutes for the 1523^rd meeting

Wednesday, November 8^th, 2017

John Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club, Washington, D.C.

 

 President Bentley called the 77 attendees to order (with some difficulty)

 

The “Minutes minute” were read aloud for the first time (they were more than a minute).

Minutes were approved

There were no new members, but 18 free loaders attended.

 

6 announcements:

FBI needs volunteers

someone’s Beamer got hit

Geocare is an alternative to Obamacare

We need people to deign themselves to host speakers at the Cosmos Club

The 125^th Anniversary celebration will be at the Cosmos club

The slate of officers for 2018 was announced

 

Formal Program:

Annual Bradley Lecture given by Dr. Iain Stewart

 

After extolling many of his really cool exploits, Dr. Stewart told us scientists to ditch the facts and tell stories (with facts of course).

 

12 inquisitors

 

Callan adjourned the meeting at 2215 EDT.

 

Somewhat Flippantly but mostly respectfully submitted,

Nik Deems

Meeting Secretary

 

Geological Society of Washington

Draft Minutes for the 1524^th meeting

and

125^th Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of Washington

Wednesday, December 7^th, 2017

John Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club, Washington, D.C.

 

Annual Meeting:

 

President Bentley called to order the 36 attendees of the annual meeting at 21:46 EST.

 

Ben Mandler gave Meeting Secretary Nik Deems’ report of attendance, questions, and topics of the meetings and their talks. Carl-Henry Geschwind was announced as the Grand Inquistor of 2017, having asked 16 questions over the course of the year.

 

President Bentley gave Council Secretary Pat Carr’s report of the council meetings in April and October.

 

Carl-Henry Geschwind gave Treasurer Odette James’ report of the financial state of the society:

-          We are generally in good financial shape. However, member and dues income are starting to decline and costs per meeting are increasing (especially due to increases in Cosmos Club room and beverage costs).

-          We can probably keep dues as they are and keep having 12 meetings per year, but if the markets collapse, we lose lots of members, or our costs keep increasing, we will need to make changes.

-          Dues now make up only roughly half of our expenses, which is quite low for a society like ours. Contributions will continue to be an important part of our income to meet our fiscal needs – contributions can be made to both the general fund and the Bradley fund – the latter is particularly important for bring in speakers from further afield.

-          Odette is retiring as treasurer after 11 years and thanks her colleagues for their work in keeping GSW fiscally sound (her colleagues also thank her for her many years of exceptional service).

 

Bill Burton gave the report of the auditing committee – no problems had been identified.

 

Erik Hankin gave the membership report. In recent years, there has been a continued trend of steadily decreasing membership. There were nine fewer members this year than previous year, though there were more new members (22 in 2017 compared to 19 in 2016).

 

Kori Newman gave the public service committee report:

-          GSW visited 7 regional science fairs and awarded 25 ribbons and 34 certificates to 30 projects. Thanks were expressed to the judges and organizations that donated prizes.

-          Two of the science fair winners came to GSW in May to present their posters and be honored by the society.

-          We received some very nice letters from the winners of the science fairs.

 

Mark ? gave the report of the awards committee:

-          The 2017 Great Dane award for best informal communication went to Bill Burton for his informal communication on rapidly evolving volcanic activity on an island in the Aleutians

-          The 2017 Bradley Award runner up was Chuck Bailey for his talk, “Normal faulting and graben development as catalysts for Late Cenozoic landscape change, Fish Lake Plateau, Utah.”

-          The 2017 Bradley Award winner was Hannah Wakeford for her talk, “Exploring alien Earths in the Trappist-1 system.”

-          The 2017 Sleeping Bear award for spontaneous humor went to Steven Olson for his account of some rather interesting travels in Africa.

 

New business:

-          George Helz introduced a motion that the society commend Odette James for 11 years as treasurer. This was seconded and passed unanimously by all present.

 

Elections:

-          The slate of officers for 2018 was voted on as an entire slate and passed unanimously.

-          The new officers are as follows:

o        President: Karen Prestegaard (University of Maryland)

o        1st Vice President: Michael Purucker (NASA)

o        2nd Vice President: Ester Sztein (The National Academies)

o        Treasurer: Carl-Henry Geschwind (Independent Scholar)

o        Meeting Secretary: Victor Zabielski (Northern Virginia Community College)

o        Council Secretary: Pat Carr (National Geospatial Intelligence Agency)

o        Council Members (2018-2019): Laura Helmuth (The Washington Post), Libby Stern (federal government), Mark McBride (Nuclear Regulatory Commission)

 

Now Past-President Bentley handed over the gavel to President Prestegaard, who concluded the meeting at 22:10 EST.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Ben Mandler (Program Chair), substituting for Nik Deems

(now past-) Meeting Secretary