FYI, locals:
18th Annual NVMC Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show at GMU in Fairfax
November 21 2009 - November 22 2009
Saturday 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM, Sunday 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Labels: meetings, minerals

Last night, four Honors students and I (and Lily) went to the meeting of the Paleontological Society of Washington for Richard Bambach's talk on Charles Darwin's geological perspective.

One thing I liked about the talk was the suggestion by Darwin that "The tree of life should perhaps be called the coral of life, base of branches dead; so that passages cannot be seen." (Notebook B, page 25). This strikes me as quite apt: trees are alive not only at the tips of their branches, but also all along the branches, down to the trunk and the roots. Corals, on the other hand, grow atop a pile of dead material, representing those individuals and species which are in the past. I like it.

PS - While I was Googling up the exact quote, I came across this intriguing looking article about the history of the "tree of life" analogy. Wish I had time to read it...

Labels: analogies, corals, evolution, meetings

I'm excited about next March's combined northeastern/southeastern GSA meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. The combination of (1) it being a joint meeting (with hopefully robust attendance) and (2) being reasonably close to NOVA means that this looks like an awesome meeting. The abstract deadline is coming up on December 8, so now is the time to act if you want to share some insights at the meeting. I'm going to submit an abstract called "State of the Geoblogosphere," to share the results of Lutz Geissler and Robert Huber's recent geoblog survey. (I had originally intended to do this at AGU, but I can't make the travel to AGU work out with some more important priorities, so it's going to be NE/SE GSA, instead.)

I should also note that I'm eagerly anticipating the post-meeting field trip called "A Traverse of Proterozoic to Paleozoic Laurentia, Virginia Blue Ridge and Valley and Ridge."

Here's the list of sessions and symposia as they stand now (note that they just added one about last week's storm that flooded many low-lying coastal regions of the mid-Atlantic states):

A. It All Starts in the Field: In Honor of Wallace A. Bothner. Jo Laird, University of New Hampshire; Steven Whitmeyer, James Madison University; Stephen Allard, Winona State University.
This session will highlight field-based research and education by geoscientists influenced by Wally Bothner. Topics include New England geology, Appalachian tectonics, and the cross-disciplinary nature of geoscience research and education associated with fieldwork and mapping.

B. The New Bedrock Geologic Map of Vermont: New Answers, New Problems, and New Uses of Bedrock Geologic Data. Nicholas M. Ratcliffe, U.S. Geological Survey; Marjie Gale, Vermont Geological Survey; Peter Thompson, University of New Hampshire.
The forthcoming bedrock geologic map of Vermont represents a 20-year effort by numerous geologists from federal, state, and academic institutions. This session will focus on new aspects and questions associated with the geology of Vermont.

C. Asbestos: Past, Present, and Future. Cosponsored by GSA's Geology and Health Division. Catherine Skinner, Yale University; Mickey Gunter, University of Idaho
This session will discuss and overview asbestos minerals, including problems of identification for researchers and regulators, as well as common perceptions. Get up-to-date scientific information useful for mineralogists/geologists, as well as individuals responsible for community decisions who know this as an expensive hazard.

1. The Iapetan Rifted Margin and Rift History of Eastern Laurentia. William A. Thomas, University of Kentucky; Denis Lavoie, Geological Survey of Canada.
The Appalachians have long been the model for understanding orogenic belts, and this session will explore the pre-Appalachian Iapetan rifted margin of Laurentia as a foundation and framework for understanding the evolution of the Appalachian orogen.

2. Laurentian-Gondwanan Interactions in the Paleozoic. Jim Hibbard, North Carolina State University; Cees van Staal, Geological Survey of Canada; Sandra Barr, Acadia University; William A. Thomas, University of Kentucky–Lexington.
The post-Middle Ordovician evolution of the Appalachian orogen is principally governed by the interactions of eastern Laurentia with peri-Gondwanan elements. This session focuses on the similarities and contrasts in middle to late Paleozoic Laurentian-Gondwanan interactions along the length of the Appalachians.

3. Tectonic Significance of Buried Terranes of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains. Wright Horton, U.S. Geological Survey; Paul Mueller, University of Florida.
Buried "basement" terranes are one of the last frontiers of eastern North American geology. We welcome contributions defining the boundaries, geologic histories and tectonic evolution (including supercontinent cycles), early Mesozoic rifting, and influence on coastal-plain structures, neotectonics, groundwater, and hydrocarbons.

4. Strike-slip and Transpressional Tectonics in the Appalachians and Beyond. Chuck Trupe, Georgia Southern University; Kevin Stewart, University of North Carolina; David West, Middlebury College.
The Appalachian orogen experienced multiple strike-slip and transpressional tectonic events during the Paleozoic. This session will explore the timing and significance of these events along the strike of the Appalachians.

5. Vorticity and Strain in Shear Zones. Ryan Thigpen, Virginia Tech; Micah Jessup, University of Tennessee.
The role vorticity variation plays in high-strain zones has become the focus of many kinematic studies. This session will examine the various aspects of applied and theoretical vorticity and strain studies in the context of shear zone evolution.

6. Geologic Maps, Geophysical Maps, and Derivatives from Geologic and Geophysical Maps (Poster Session). Michael W. Higgins, Geologic Mapping Institute; Ralph F. Crawford, Geologic Mapping Institute.
Almost all geoscience research is based on geologic maps. This session highlights innovations in geologic mapping, data management, 4-D interpretations, applications in water and land management, and using geophysical maps to interpret crustal features.

7. Landscape Evolution in the Appalachians: Rates, Dates, and Models. Greg Hancock, College of William & Mary; Paul Bierman, University of Vermont.
The Appalachians have a long history of groundbreaking landscape evolution studies. In this light, this session seeks contributions from field, empirical, and theoretical studies examining the style and pace of Appalachian landscape evolution. We encourage submissions on studies utilizing new quantitative techniques to obtain rates and dates.

8. Recent Advances in Understanding the Geomorphology and Quaternary History of the Appalachian Region and Adjacent Regions. Todd Grote, Allegheny College; J. Steven Kite, West Virginia University.
This session will focus on advancing our understanding of the Appalachians and adjacent geologically linked regions. Recent research into terrestrial surficial processes and paleoenvironmental archives from glacial and nonglacial settings is invited. Interdisciplinary research themes are highly encouraged.

9. Evolution of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts from Rift Margin to Passive Margin. Amy Weislogel, University of Alabama; Delores Robinson, University of Alabama.
This session encourages all investigations relating to the break-up and rifting of Pangea to evolution of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico spreading centers and ultimate formation of the modern passive continental margins.

10. The Integration of Marine and Non-Marine Subsurface Sediments to the Interpretation of the Stratigraphic Record of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Jesse Thornburg, Temple University; Stephen Peterson, Temple University.
Analysis of subsurface sediments is vital for a more complete record of the evolution of the Atlantic coastal plain. This session highlights uses and applications and the interrelationship of marine and non-marine subsurface sediments.

11. Stratigraphy, Correlation, Depositional Environments, and Paleontology of Pliocene to Pleistocene MIS 5 Deposits of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Kelvin W. Ramsey, Delaware Geological Survey; John F. Wehmiller, University of Delaware.
This session will bring together stratigraphers, paleontologists, sedimentologists, and geochronologists studying the Plio-Pleistocene evolution of the U.S. Atlantic coastal plain. Emphasis will be on correlation of coastal plain units or landforms over broad parts of the region and with isotopic records of ice volume change.

12. The Impact of Climate Change on Barrier Island-Backbarrier Systems. Cosponsored by Eastern Section, SEPM. Michael S. Fenster, Randolph-Macon College; Duncan M. Fitzgerald, Boston University.
This session encourages papers that discuss how, if at all, climate change has altered the magnitude and/or frequency of coastal processes and/or how barrier-tidal inlet-backbarrier systems have responded to process changes over a variety of spatial and temporal scales.

13. Measuring and Modeling Coastal Morphodynamics: Beaches and Shelves. Art Trembanis, University of Delaware; Adam Skarke, University of Delaware.
This session seeks to bring together researchers in coastal morphodynamics pursuing observational and modeling studies, particularly those examining bedforms from ripples to shoals and those aimed at advancing our understanding of transport processes at the coast and on the inner continental shelf.

14. Coastal and Nearshore Processes Affecting Our National Parks. Courtney Schupp, National Park Service; Mark Borrelli, Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies.
Our coastal national parks provide opportunities to experience, understand, and protect these special areas. This session welcomes contributions pertaining to coastal and nearshore processes, geomorphology, or geology within and around national parks.

15. Estuarine Sediment Dynamics. Cindy Palinkas, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
This session focuses on the dynamic sedimentary processes that occur in estuaries, including impacts on benthic organisms. Processes such as sediment transport, deposition, and erosion are considered, as well as their preservation in the stratigraphic record.

16. Connecting Continent and Sea: Paleoecologic Studies of the Eastern North American Continental Margin from Coastal Plain to Abyss. Neil E. Tibert, University of Mary Washington; H. Allen Curran, Smith College.
The continental margin of eastern North America includes terrestrial and marine deposits. This session will include a broad range of paleoecologic studies from these strata that facilitate our understanding of margin development and evolution.

17. Insights from Microfossils: From Geoarchaeology and Pollution Remediation to Climate and Sea-level Change. Miriam Katz, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Francine McCarthy, Brock University; Ellen Thomas, Yale University.
This session will highlight a broad spectrum of innovative microfossil applications to research issues in terrestrial and marine environments, such as geoarchaeology, pollution remediation, sea-level reconstruction, Holocene climate change, and studies of anthropogenic impact and eutrophication.

18. Eastern Ichnology: Advances in Paleoenvironmental Applications of Trace Fossils. Cosponsored by Eastern Section, SEPM. Jacob Benner, Tufts University; Ilya Buynevich, Temple University.
This session focuses on research in eastern North America, including new work in the cradle of ichnology, New England. Paleontologists working with trace fossils or carrying out neoichnological experimentation and sedimentologists utilizing trace fossils in paleoenvironmental interpretation are invited to submit.

19. Geologic and Paleoenvironmental History of the Chesapeake Bay. Rowan Lockwood, College of William & Mary; Thomas Cronin, U.S. Geological Survey.
The Chesapeake Bay provides an ideal system for exploring how coastal ecosystems respond to threats, including human activity, climate change, and sea-level rise. This session focuses on the sedimentary record of the bay, from fossils to biomarkers, and its use for paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic reconstruction.

20. Energy Resources in the Eastern United States and Associated Environmental Effects. Devin Castendyk, State University of New York, College at Oneonta; Joseph Graney, Binghamton University.
The demand for local energy production has never been greater. This session explores traditional and alternative energy resources in the eastern United States, and potential environmental impacts associated with development of these resources. Topics include nuclear, coal, natural gas, hydropower, geothermal, biofuels, wind, and solar.

21. Case Histories in Engineering Geology, Eastern United States. James T. Kirkland, Professional Consulting Corporation; Page Herbert.
The eastern United States, with its long history and intensity of development, offers a large and varied array of geological engineering problems. This session will highlight some of geo-engineering problems and the contributions geologists have made to their solutions.

22. Selenium as an Essential Micronutrient: Geologic and Geographic Sources and Efficacy. Michalann HartHill, GHI Inc.
This session outlines selenium bioavailability in several geological environments, focusing on soils where Se concentration is often critical for transfer to humans. While Se can be considered toxic in high amounts, global patterns of Se bioavailability indicate Se deficiency might contribute to other and widespread diseases

23. Mercury in the Environment: From Maine to Florida. Julia L. Barringer, U.S. Geological Survey; Zoltan Szabo, U.S. Geological Survey; John Reinfelder, Rutgers University.
This session focuses on studies related to mercury's interactions with microbes (methylation, demethylation, reduction) and organic and inorganic constituents, mobility in different media, and atmospheric inputs in diverse East Coast environmental systems.

24. Hydrogeology of Wetlands and Watershed Processes. Timothy Callahan, College of Charleston; Vijay Vulava, College of Charleston.
This session invites contributions that demonstrate the role of the geologic framework in hydrology and water quality of individual wetlands or at the watershed scale, in both coastal and terrestrial environments, including depression and river-associated wetland systems.

25. Cave and Karst Deposits in the Eastern United States: Archives of Paleoclimates and Paleoenvironments. Russell W. Graham, Pennsylvania State University; Blaine Schubert, East Tennessee State University.
This session will focus on a wide variety of interdisciplinary records of paleoclimate and paleoenvironment preserved in cave and karst deposits in the eastern United States.

26. Interaction between Shallow and Deep Karst: Geologic, Hydrologic, Geochemical, and Biologic Indicators. Dan Doctor, U.S. Geological Survey; Bruce Lindsey, U.S. Geological Survey.
Mixing between shallow and deeper karst aquifer components has impacts on water quality, karst ecosystems, and the processes of karstification. We invite submissions that address the importance of interactions between deep and shallow components of groundwater flow in karst.

27. Ancient and Modern Carbonates of Eastern North America. Cosponsored by Eastern Section, SEPM. Bosiljka Glumac, Smith College; Sara Pruss, Smith College.
This session will be an opportunity for carbonate sedimentologists and stratigraphers to exchange ideas about differences and similarities and about prospects and challenges that various carbonate deposits of eastern North America provide.

28. Faculty and Student Perspectives on Undergraduate Research: Models, Challenges, and Best Practices. Dori Farthing, SUNY-Geneseo; Peter Sak, Dickinson College; Jeffrey Ryan, University of South Florida.
This session will highlight exemplary aspects of undergraduate-driven research. It will include models for mentoring, professional development, logistics, and strategies. Students and student/faculty teams will also present specific examples of undergraduate-driven research.

29. Innovations in Teaching Earth-System Science for the K–12 Classroom.Guertin, Pennsylvania State University-Brandwine; Tanya Furman, Pennsylvania State University.
Earth system science allows for a course of study where students learn about the connections and applications of science, technology, and society on our planet. Climate change, sustainability, and energy issues are certainly "hot topics" that require our students to have a strong background in understanding how the Earth works as a system. The systems approach enhances student learning even when SOLs focus on content and concepts from discrete subfields (e.g., geology, atmospheric science). We encourage K–12 teachers to submit their best practices for engaging students in Earth system science content.

30. The November Nor'easter of 2009 - A Preliminary Discussion of the Effects Throughout the Atlantic Coast Region.Art Trembanis, University of Delaware; Katie Farnsworth, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
During the second week in November of 2009 a historic Nor'easter, the remains of Hurricane Ida, blasted the East Coast with torrential rains, pounding surf, and strong winds causing severe flooding and erosion both at the coast, within estuaries, and on inland rivers along much of the Atlantic coast. This session will bring together scientists actively working on understanding the effect of the large November 2009 Nor'easter along the central Atlantic Region. We welcome submissions spanning effects along the entire Eastern seaboard ranging from the upper watershed down to the coast and out onto the shelf. The goal is to provide a forum for researchers to illustrate and share the characteristics of the storm (winds, rainfall, surge, erosion, etc.) from a broad suite of both remote and in situ observational systems (i.e. buoys, mooring, stream gages, satellites, post-storm surveys, etc.) together with model simulations of the storm.

Labels: maryland, meetings

Eleanor Science Cafe tomorrow at the Eleanor Rooevelt High School cafeteria in Greenbelt, MD:

Evaluation of Potential Deep Sediment Methane Hydrate Deposits
Dr. Rick Coffin from Naval Research Laboratory Marine Biogeochemistry Section
5-7pm

Methane hydrates are recognized to exist in high concentrations in coastal oceans around the world. The Japanese are exploring the potential for hydrates in the Nankai Trough, off the coast of Tokyo Japan, for development as a dominant national energy source. This investigation has lead to Arctic tundra hydrate energy evaluation in the Mackenzie Delta and Prudhoe Bay by international governments, universities and industry. Exploration of for the hydrates depends on data from seismic profiling and deep sediment drilling. This approach to hydrate exploration is expensive. Recent studies have combined seismic profiles, shallow sediment geochemistry, heatflow and controlled source electromagnetics to predict deep sediment hydrate deposits. This approach provides a more thorough, less expensive, investigation prior to deep sediment drilling.

NRL has been involved in methane hydrate exploration of the coasts of New Zealand, Chile, Canada and in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, there are current plans to survey sediment hydrate deposits off the northern coast of Alaska in the Beaufort Sea. These studies have shown a wide variation in the prediction of deep sediment methane hydrate deposits within and between the locations. General findings of these studies are the need for a thorough geochemical evaluation. Strong seismic blanking indicative of high vertical methane migration off the coast of Chile was observed to have a low vertical methane flux through the deep sediment. High vertical methane migration on Atwater Valley in the Gulf of Mexico was observed to be coupled with a high vertical chloride flux in the porewaters, which suggests deep sediment salt diapirs caused unstable sediment methane hydrate deposits. Bottom simulating reflection, coupled with seismic blanking were believe to indicate high vertical methane fluxes on the Hikurangi Margin off the coast of New Zealand. However, shallow sediment geochemical data taken through this region suggested very low deep sediment hydrate deposits.

This presentation will provide an overview of predicted methane hydrate deposits in different coastal regions and the advantages of combining different parameters in the evaluation. Work will include data from expeditions in the Gulf of Mexico at Atwater Valley and Alaminos Canyon, on the mid Chilean Margin, west of Concepion, and on the Hikurangi Margin, northeast of New Zealand. Data may be included from a September expedition on the Beaufort Sea. The approach will provide an overview of the benefits and issues with the interpretation of deep sediment hydrate deposits using different approaches for the field survey. This presentation supports combining a variety of parameters for these surveys.

Labels: maryland, meetings, oceans

Last night, Lily and I went down the street to the Carnegie Institution to catch a guest lecture by climatologist Wally Broecker of Columbia University. Broecker won the Balzan Prize last year, and this was 'the Balzan Lecture.'

Broecker was introduced by the Swiss and Italian ambassadors to the United States, as well as another man whose title was not made explicit, but who had the most pronounced eyebrows I have ever seen on a non-cartoon character.

Broecker's PowerPoint was written in all capital letters, and all Helvetica. It was a bold font for a man who has a reputation for boldness. He was blunt in his assessment of the climate crisis: "The problem is huge, and I wish I could live for fifty more years to see how it all plays out," he said. He pointed out that we are currently at "390" parts per million carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, up over a third from pre-industrial levels of ~280 ppm. "We're going up by two per year," he said, and that means that we will be at 450 ppm within 30 years. "If we want to stop at 450 ppm, we're going to have to go on a World War II footing."

He estimated that about 80% of humanity's energy comes from carbon, and stated "We must cut back to zero net emissions." However, he acknowledged that it is unlikely that we will be able to do this in the time we have (~30 years, see above), so he has come to the conclusion that the only way we're going to be able to avoid a doubling of CO2 is to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequester it somewhere.

He showed both Keeling curves: Dave Keeling's CO2 data from Mauna Loa, and Dave's son Ralph Keeling's CO2 data and O2 data from La Jolla. (I've reported before on how compelling this oxygen data is: it's definitive information that shows the rise in atmospheric CO2 must be coming from the combustion of fossil fuels, a process which consumes oxygen by bonding it in an exothermic reaction to fossil fuel carbon.) Broecker then predicted that we are going to at least double CO2, triggering a rise in temperature of about 3.5 degrees C. He said, "This will not be a total catastrophe, but it's going to be a huge mess." He discussed ecological changes which will likely result - species shifting poleward or towards higher elevations, but able to migrate at different rates, which will be rough in terms of keeping ecosystems coherent and functional.

He said that water vapor is actually the biggest contributor to the greenhouse effect, and that it amplifies the warming caused by CO2. The partial pressure of water vapor over the oceans goes up by about 7% with each degree of warming: this means that a degree of warmth caused by CO2 would trigger a triple warming because of its effect on water vapor. He discussed uncertainties in our understanding of the climate system: the role of aerosols, the role of clouds. "We're perturbing climate," he said, "on a planet where we don't understand the whole thing."

He discussed his Columbia colleague Klaus Lackner, who has developed a plastic compound that can capture carbon from the air. Lackner has proposed a facility using filters of this compound, and estimates each facility, about the size of a shipping container, could remove 1 ton of CO2 per day, about the equivalent of 20 U.S. automobiles' emissions. Each facillity costs about as much as a car, so Broecker proposed paying for them by tacking a 5% surcharge onto automobile sales. They also cost money to maintain, and the calculation suggested that if we added a tax of 25 cents per gallon, we could generate enough income to maintain these carbon-capturing facilities.

The grants that Lackner got to develop this technology totaled about $6 million. Broecker pointed out that we pay (Yankee) baseball pitchers about $6 million per year, and that it's a shock and a shame that so very, very little is being invested in solving the problem of accumulating carbon emissions. He said, "That is peanuts compared to the amount of money that is being spent on any other serious problem on this planet."

Norway's 13-year record of success in storing captured carbon in deep sea sandstone reservoirs was his next topic, and he went on to suggest that we should try trial experiments where we inject CO2 directly into the deep sea's water, given that it has a ~1000-year circulation time. Below 3500 m depth, liquid CO2 is more dense than seawater, and would either sink or form clathrate slush. Broecker suggested it's quite possible it could be stable down there, and we need to figure out if in fact it is before it's time to actually start injecting it. Greenpeace opposes this idea, and Broecker said, "environmentalists are their own worse enemies." In Iceland, an experiment is being done where the small amount of CO2 that comes up in geothermal water is being re-injected into basalt. He pointed out that Iceland is investing MUCH more per capita in carbon capture and sequestration experiments, and lamented that the rest of the world was being so lackadaisical with its funding.

Finally, he discussed the 'geoengineering' solution of pumping SO2 into the stratosphere to filter out some incoming solar radiation (as happened naturally in the aftermath of Mount Pinatubo's 1984 eruption). Broecker and colleagues did a paper back then to calculate how much SO2 we would need in the stratosphere to counteract the warming effect of CO2 + H2O vapor, and found it to be about 30 million tons of SO2 per year. He calculated that you could deliver it with 747 aircraft, but you would need 250 of them, flying around the clock, year-round, to do it. The cost would be about $15 billion. Whether he advocated this approach was unclear to me, but that's where we ended up. The end.

Applause, more "hosting" from Mr. Eyebrow (who tried to inject a positive note into the grim discussion: "It will be okay. We're so smart; we will figure it out!"), and some audience questions. A walk home for Callan and Lily, followed by a gin and tonic.

Labels: awards, climate change, CO2, dc, global warming, meetings, new york

Wednesday, December 9, 2009: 1437th Meeting


Refreshments start at 7:30 p.m. The formal program starts at 8:00 p.m.
Meetings are held at the John Wesley Powell Auditorium
2170 Florida Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. (directions)

Labels: appalachians, dc, gsw, meetings, plate tectonics

Wallace Broecker

Columbia University Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

What Can We Do About Fossil Fuel CO2?

Reversing the rise of atmospheric CO2 will be a monumental task. Despite our best efforts to conserve energy, to substitute non-fossil fuel sources, and to capture CO2 produced in power plants, the level of CO2 will almost certainly reach double its pre-industrial value. Halting the CO2 buildup will require direct capture of CO2 from the atmosphere. Once the CO2 level has stabilized, there will almost certainly be a drive to reduce it. Fortunately, it appears that CO2 capture can be achieved at an acceptable cost. If we fail to act aggressively, however, we will be faced with risky remedial measures.

Co-hosted with the Embassies of Italy and Switzerland
Thursday, November 12, 2009 6:45 PM
This program is free and open to the public and is held at the Carnegie Institution, located at 1530 P Street, NW (corner of 16th and P Streets)

For more information, visit http://www.ciw.edu/events/lectures, call 202-328-6988 or e-mail CapitalScienceInfo@ciw.edu

Labels: climate change, dc, global warming, meetings

Here's the group photo from the field trip to the Boring Volcanic Field (before GSA in Portland, Oregon, this year). Credits: Diane Johnson-Cornelius (photographer) and Bill Leeman (camera).

Labels: meetings, oregon, volcano

Upcoming Paleontological Society of Washington meeting:

Darwin's Geological Perspective and the Origin of The Origin of Species

Richard Bambach
Professor Emeritus of Paleontology, Virginia Tech
Research Associate, Department of Paleobiology,
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History

Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009
7:00 p.m., in the Cooper Room, National Museum of Natural History
10th St. & Constitution Ave.
Non-Smithsonian visitors will be escorted
to the Cooper Room at 6:30 and 6:55 p.m.
Meet in the Constitution Avenue lobby at 5:00 p.m. to join us for dinner at "Elephant and Castle." Latecomers can meet directly at the restaurant at the NW corner of 12th & Penn. Ave., NW

In honor of the 150^th anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species (published November 24, 1859), Bambach will talk about how Charles Darwin's geological experience especially his following Lyell's approach to geology, influenced his early development of his theory of descent with variation. Bambach got interested in Darwin's geological connections when he realized that the only professional title Darwin ever used in publications was "Secretary to the Geological Society". While Darwin's geological work has recently been well studied (an excellent book by Sandra Herbert, Charles Darwin, Geologist was published by Cornell Univ. Press in 2005) the connections between Darwin's geological perspective and his early work developing his theory in the late 1830s and early 1840s have not been directly publicized yet by anyone. Geologists and paleontologists can take pride in the roll geology played in Darwin's development of his ideas.

Bambach is Professor Emeritus of Paleontology at Virginia Tech and is currently a Research Associate in the Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History and also an Associate of the Harvard Herbaria, Harvard University. He has a B. A. in biological sciences from Johns Hopkins and a Ph. D. from Yale in geology. He has been awarded the R. C. Moore Medal (for Excellence in Paleontology) by the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM) and the Paleontological Society Medal from the Paleontological Society.

Labels: evolution, geology, meetings, psw

Science Seminar, presented by the Math, Science, and Engineering Division, Annandale Campus and also supported by Lyceum

"The Scientific Basis of Music"
Herbert A. Smith, Director Jazz Studies, Northern Virginia Community College.
Friday, November 20, 2009, CE Forum, 12 noon - 1pm

This presentation will focus on music and its essential relationship to science. It will explore areas, aspects and elements of music that most reasonably could be termed the science of music. The talk will also illuminate unique principles, concepts and procedures shared within the sciences as well as music. It will highlight the benefits of music study and practice in the intellectual and philosophical development of the educated and enlightened individual.

Professor Smith has taught at NOVA since 1976 and has performed with notable local and internationally known jazz musicians throughout his long career in music. He has taught a variety of courses including Jazz Improvisation, History of Music, Music Theory, Composition and Music Appreciation. Before he joined the faculty at NOVA he taught at Howard University and Southern Illinois University, hosted two radio jazz shows and was in the US Air Force band for three years. Herb Smith has a passionate interest in history, politics, economics, philosophy and the study of world cultures.

All students, staff, and faculty are cordially invited.

Labels: meetings, music, nova

On the day before the GSA meeting began, I participated in a field trip to the Boring Volcanic Field, a zone of anomalously-located volcanic vents around Portland, Oregon. The field is named for the Boring Hills, adjacent to the town of Boring, Oregon, which is named for a dude named "Boring." Kim Kastens noted this funny name on the Earth and Mind blog recently. The USGS maintains an information page on the field here.

Today, some photos...

Atop Rocky Butte, field trip leaders Rick Conrey (WSU) and Russ Evarts (USGS Menlo Park) orient the group with a map highlighting the various units comprising the Boring Volcanic Field:


Mount Hood hides its peak in the clouds:


At our first outcrop stop, the field trip participants get out and look at the Boring rocks:


Here, a Boring lava flow overlies Troutdale Formation fluvial gravels:


Annotated version for the untrained eye:


In places, a "baked" zone of contact metamorphism can be seen in the Troutdale as it got scorched by the lava that flowed on top of it (bright red), but the characteristic red color was missing underneath one spot, the central overhang in this photo:

Weird, huh? Maybe the metamorphosed sediments need a certain amount of rain-mediated chemical weathering before they "blush"?

Well-rounded clast from the Troutdale: vesicular basalt from the Columbia River Plateau:


Another nice Columbia River flood basalt boulder, this one with phenocrysts of plagioclase, and a concentric zonation of texture (massive in the center, vesicular towards the edges):


Plus, you can find cobbles derived from further afield: gneiss (from Idaho?), quartzite (Belt rock?), etc:


Between cobbles of the Troutdale, you can see hyaloclastic sand (immature sand with lots of hydrated basaltic glass fragments, apparently produced by interactions of magma and water in the source area, upstream):


More hyaloclastic sand:


Oooh! A "crack panel" on the side of some cooling columns at another stop! These horizontal slats are produced in individual fracture-propagation events, and each one concludes with a little ridge called an arrest line.


Mafic pyroclastics that underlie the lava flows at this second stop:


More mafic pyroclastics, on a cinder cone in Mount Tabor Park.


This is a pretty neat outcrop: you can see normal faults cutting these angle-of-repose inclined volcanic strata, presumably forming in slumping events.


Annotated version of this same photo, highlighting a marker layer and its offset along the fault:


The weather was pretty grim for this trip, so that was a bummer. But it's Portland, right? What did we really expect? Anyhow, I enjoyed being introduced to this suite of rocks -- boring out of context, but interesting given their location well west of the main axis of Cascade volcanism. Unfortunately, the field trip didn't really address why the Boring rocks are there. I was expecting some sort of detailed discussion of the possibilities: an evaluation of different models for their generation and passage to the surface... but that really didn't happen in any substantive way. So it wasn't the most amazing field trip I've ever gone on, but it was a nice day of checking out a cool suite of rocks.

Labels: meetings, oregon, pleistocene, pliocene, sediment, volcano

Here's a photo of 18 of the 19 geobloggers who assembled on Monday night in Portland:



I had to do some photoshopping, as you might have deduced. Not everybody was in the same place at the same time: herding geobloggers is worse than herding cats! So... I've had to be creative to get them all in the same jpg space.

In alphabetical order, those pictured are:

• Andrew Alden, About.com
• Jessica Ball, Magma Cum Laude
• Callan Bentley, NOVA Geoblog
• "Silver Fox," Looking for Detachment
• Steve Gough, Riparian Rap
• Anne Jefferson, Highly Allochthonous
• Kim Hannula, All My Faults Are Stress Related
• Kyle House, Geologic Froth(ings)
• Erik Klemetti, Eruptions
• Jim Lehane (younger of the two Jims), Dino Jim's Musings
• Chuck Magee, Lounge of the Lab Lemming
• Marcella, Pooh's Thoughts
• Mary, a geo-Twitterer
• Jim Repka (older of the two Jims), Active Margin
• Brian Romans, Clastic Detritus
• Ron Schott, Ron Schott's Geology Home Companion Blog
• Peter Selkin, Oblate Spheroid
• David Williams, Stories In Stone

MAK was there too, but for some reason I don't have him in any of my photos... Sorry!

Labels: blogs, meetings, oregon

My final day at GSA was fruitful. I started off in the "Earth, et al." session hosted by ODU's Nora Noffke. It was devoted to the Precambrian, and had some interesting talks about fluctuating oxygen levels, mineral evolution, microbially-induced sedimentary structures, and Neoproterozoic glaciation. This last one was most interesting to me: UMD's Jay Kaufman talked about field work he conducted in Siberia last summer, documenting a diamictite unit between Ediacaran strata and Cambrian strata. There's even a carbon isotope excursion to match up with it! Cool... literally.

I had lunch with my friend David Dantzler, who I hadn't even realized was at the conference, until I saw him come in to one of the Darwin-focused sessions. In the afternoon, I attended another eight talks, including some on greenstone belts in South Africa, some on geological education, and a couple about the evolution of orogens, with an emphasis on South America. (One of these was an excellent talk by Brian Romans about his field area in Patagonia.) I finished up with Kim Hannula's talk about the geoblogosphere's role in supporting women geoscientists. Then it was time to bug out: back to the hotel, then to the airport, then to Los Angeles, then to Dulles, where I arrived this morning at 6:30am. On the flight, I took an Advil PM, put in earplugs and wore one of those little eye-masks so I could get some decent amount of sleep... Mixed success on that front. Once I got to Dulles, I got some coffee, and headed straight to work! It's good to be back in the familiar environs of my office and lab again. Thanks for a great conference, everyone!

Also: GSA is maintaining a webpage summarizing the various posts from registered geobloggers. It's incomplete, but a useful idea: a repository for all the stuff being said about the conference from the various attending geobloggers.

Labels: archean, blogs, geology, hadean, meetings, oregon, patagonia, proterozoic, snowball earth

Whew! A busy day at the Geological Society of America meeting in Portland, Oregon. I started off the day in the two-year-college session, culminating (for me, anyhow) in my talk about the role that field trips play in my geology classes at NOVA. I believe in spirited presentations, so I moved away from the lecturn and spoke extemporaneously about my images and data, and the talk was well-received by the audience -- or at least that portion that chose to tell me what they thought. After the talk, I was really tired out (I hadn't realized I was stressing about the talk, but apparently I must have been.) I went back to the hotel and took a shower, dealt with some mortgage stuff (I'm buying a condo in DC), and then semi-refreshed, headed back to the fray at the Convention Center.

I've met another several geobloggers: Brian Romans and Kim Hannula. Geoblogger Lockwood Dewitt sent me a rock (natrolite in calcite! likely from a pillow basalt!) via roaming geoblogger "Silver Fox." Cool. I dig it. I had some people come up to me out of the blue and tell me that they read this blog, and that is super cool to hear. Thanks!

In the afternoon, I went to a few sessions about volcanism and the end-Permian extinction, history-of-geology, and I forget what else.

In the late afternoon, the beer began flowing. I started off at the W.W. Norton publishing company's beer bash, where I brushed shoulders with Walter Alvarez, met the author of my Physical Geology textbook, Steve Marshak, and chatted at length with Bob Lillie of Oregon State University about getting the National Park Service better educated about their geological resources. Then it was off to the AGI reception, where I won a bottle of wine and got to chat with David Williams, author of Stories In Stone. Meg Sever, the editor of EARTH, with whom I've e-mailed a zillion times, but never met. Turns out Meg went to William & Mary, like me (and Jessica Ball, also at the AGI reception), so the three of us trooped upstairs to the William & Mary alumni reception. It was good to see Brent Owens, Heather McDonald, and Chuck Bailey there, as well as other W&M geology grads (including Graham, who reads this blog! Hi Graham!).

The evening's final event was the much-ballyhooed geoblogger's meet-up. At 8pm, about fifteen of us assembled at Tugboat Brewing Company, a cozy, charming little pub in downtown Portland. Every time someone walked through the door, a rousing, "Yeeeaaaahhh!!!" cheer went up. And every time someone left, they got booed! It was terrific fun meeting everyone that I've had these online geoblogging relationships with over the past ~1.5 years, and I think a good time was had by all. I'll put some photos up later... [Other online reminiscences about the meetup: Chuck and Jessica.]

Labels: books, geology, meetings, national parks, nova, oregon

The Sunday afternoon sessions were not as diverse for me as the morning sessions, but there was some fun stuff in there.

I started off with the "digital advances" session co-sponsored by geobloggers Kyle House and Ron Schott. Working with several other organizers, Ron and Kyle put on quite a show. Kyle gave his "Get with it, Luddites!" spiel, Ian Jackson evangelized about OneGeology (a global geologic map), geoblogger Lee Allison talked about geoblogging and geotweeting (and featured the blog title banners of several GSA-attending geobloggers, including mine), and Declan De Paor (from Virginia's own Old Dominion University) showed off many of the myriad very cool digital techniques he is using. He began his talk by putting his iPhone number up on the screen and then encouraging the audience to text him their questions as he spoke, so he could read them off the iPhone propped there on the lecturn and answer them as a seamless part of his talk. Then Ron demonstrated a virtual field trip that integrated Google Earth with Giganpan imagery. When it worked, this really awed the crowd. Unfortunately, Google Earth crashed repeatedly during the demo -- which must have been frustrating for Ron. Then the talks stopped an the informal demonstrations and playing around with the technologies began on the edges of the room. Milling around in the crowd, I met for the first time fellow geobloggers Jim Repka and "Silver Fox," and chatted a bit with Kyle and Lee.

(I should also mention that I ran into Bryan of In Terra Veritas and Andrew Alden earlier in the day: geobloggers galore!)

Then I went to see Bob Hazen talk about how mineral surfaces could have provided a template for organizing biomolecules as a prelude to the origins of life. It was cool, but more of an overview talk rather than a presentation of new research.

I went to a couple of very well-attended but lackluster presentations on Sierran uplift, and then closed out the day in the structural geology session, which included an interesting study about detrital zircon populations presenting skewed age populations if the basin from which they were derived had experienced landslides. Finally, Doug Burbank of UCSB gave an invited lecture and the feedbacks between geomorphology, climate, and mountain building. I checked out a few dozen posters, and then called it a day.

Labels: geology, meetings, oregon

The Annual meeting of the Geological Society of America is underway!

I enjoyed a nice field trip yesterday, investigating some anomalous igneous rocks around Portland; more on that in a later (illustrated) post.

Last night, I had dinner at the Deschutes Brewpub with Michelle Arsenault of NSF, volcanological blogger Erik Klemetti and his wife, and a fan of NOVA Geoblog, Dennis M. This was a fun and eclectic group of people, with all sorts of unexpected connections! And the Obsidian Stout was lovely...

Today the meeting proper began, and I have been delighted to attend talks on topics as diverse as geoscience education, the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake, biomarkers (chemical "fossils"), uplift of the Teton range, oxidation of the shallow ocean before the "Great Oxidation Event," and the recently-much-hullabalooed plumbing system beneath a Permian "supervolcano" in Italy. Wow! Such interesting topics, such skilled speakers, such inspiring scientists. I heard one geologist tell firsthand about his experiences living through the Hebgen Lake quake, and another put forward the suggestion that Ediacaran fossils are lichens, not animals. Several workers presented evidence that there was a substantial land biota in the Neoproterozoic. When ideas like that are being batted around, it's hard not to catch the excitement. More later... Now it's time for me to head off for another round of talks!

Labels: geology, meetings, oregon

Last night on my flight from DC to Portland, there were five GSW members ... About one-twelfth of the population of Wednesday's meeting! Plus I ran into the geologist from Blue Ridge Community College and a grad student from Virginia Tech. Cool!

Labels: gsw, meetings, oregon

I'm in the office this morning, taking care of a bunch of last minute details before I depart this afternoon for the Geological Society of America's annual meeting. It's held this year in Portland, Oregon, and I'm pleased to be going in spite of the many responsibilities I'm temporarily putting on hold back here in DC and NOVA. Meetings like this are a great opportunity for professional scientists to catch up on the latest ideas both inside and outside their specialties. I'm also going to be participating in a field trip to the awesomely-named Boring Volcanic Field tomorrow, and maybe doing a little self-guided tour of Portland's geology on my own. I will be presenting a paper of my own (on the role field trips play in geology education*) on Monday. I'm looking forward to meeting many of my fellow geology bloggers Monday night, and not looking forward to the red-eye flight back to DC Tuesday night/Wednesday morning... and then going straight back to work. Fortunately I think I've got all my stuff set for next week, so it should be "plug and play" upon my return... but I've got a hunch I'm going to be pretty tired, regardless.

So... take a deep breath, Bentley... here we go!
______________________________________
* subject of my MSSE capstone research project.

Labels: meetings, oregon, travel

Steve Fetter, former dean of public policy at the University of Maryland, came to NOVA to speak at our first annual Climate Change Symposium in 2008. He was our "headliner" act. Now, I learn from the University of Maryland alumni magazine Terp that Steve is now an assistant director in the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy. Congratulations Steve!

Labels: climate change, maryland, meetings, politics

Returning now to some of the stuff I saw when I was out in Bishop, California for the GSA Field Forum I attended in September. One of the cool little spots we visited was "the flipping fault," a location on the Volcanic Tableland north of Bishop where an east-dipping fault scarp dies out and a west-dipping fault scarp starts up. Check it out:


Here, try one with annotations:


Here's a Google Map of the location, as seen from the perspective of a passing turkey vulture:

Notice how the road, Casa Diablo Road, goes right through the notch where the two meet. Complicating the picture a wee bit is a Pleistocene drainage channel which uses the same route between the two scarps (and diverges from the road in the lower-left).

Another view, further back and higher up:


And of course we must annotate that one too:


Recall that these are normal faults busting through the Bishop Tuff's upper welded layer, the "Ig2." In the annotations, I've sketched in the approximate position of the "hanging-wall cutoff" (lower boundary of each scarp) and the "foot-wall cutoff" (upper boundary of each scarp).

There are roughly equal numbers of east-dipping and west-dipping faults on the Volcanic Tableland. Originally, some creative structural geologists wanted to interpret this feature as an overall "propeller" shaped fracture: a so-called "flipping" fault (as in, it's one single fault that flips its dip direction in the middle). However, this was not the interpretation of our workshop leaders, who suggested that it was simply two faults that started independently and then propagated towards one another.

Taking a fresh look at these images now, almost a month after I visited the outcrop, I find that I agree with them. One thing that seems obvious to me now is how the east-dipping fault truncates on the face of the west-dipping fault scarp. My annotations reflect this interpretation. What do you think?

Labels: california, conferences, meetings, structure

In case anyone has not been following the thread at the old post on this topic, here's the plan for geology bloggers who want to meet up and quaff some ale at the GSA meeting in Portland the week after next: let's meet up 8pm at Tugboat (link to map) on Monday night, October 19.

If anyone is around on Friday Saturday, I'll also be at the Deschutes Brewery (link to map) on Friday night, October 16, at 8:30pm: A fan of NOVA Geoblog invited me out for a beer! (Why don't the rest of you do that?) You're welcome to join us: The more, the merrier.

Saturday night and Sunday night are wide open for me. Give a shout if you want to make a plan.

Labels: blogs, meetings, oregon

Friday, October 23, 2009, CE Forum
12 noon - 1pm

"Community-Based Environmental Action"

Chris Bright, President and Co-Founder of the Earth Sangha, a non-profit environmental group

The Earth Sangha is a Buddhist environmental group based in Fairfax County co-founded by Chris and his wife, Lisa Bright, to work with volunteers on ecologically significant restoration projects in natural areas. Every year over 500 volunteers donate more than 10,000 hours of their time to the Sangha's restoration projects throughout northern Virginia. Volunteers have built the Sangha's Wild Plant Nursery, DC region's most comprehensive local-ecotype native-plant propagation center. (Local ecotypes are local, wild native-plant populations; the use of local ecotypes is a standard best practice in restoration because that helps to conserve the genetic diversity and local adaptation in the species planted.) The Earth Sangha is also a kind of low-tech innovator in the control of invasive alien plants; such plants are a major threat to local natural areas. In 2006, the Sangha transplanted a version of its community-nursery approach to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. The Sangha's Tree Bank / Hispaniola program works along a portion of the Dominican Republic - Haiti border, where it helps impoverished farmers improve their incomes and restore patches of native forest on their lands.

Chris Bright will describe the Earth Sangha's work, the rationale behind it, and its implications for the conservation agenda. Before founding the Earth Sangha, Chris was a Senior Researcher at the Worldwatch Institute, a think tank that tracks global environmental and social trends. He is the author of numerous articles and one book, Life Out of Bounds: Bioinvasion in a Borderless World, the first global, interdisciplinary study of biological invasion written for a general audience.

Labels: action, environmental, meetings, nova

"Heresy at Cambridge: Paleomagnetism before Vine and Matthews"

Gregory A. Good, Ph.D.
Director, Center for History of Physics
American Institute of Physics

Potomac Geophysical Society Meeting, October 15, 2009

The story of Fred Vine, Drummond Matthews, and sea-floor spreading is a well known part of the acceptance of plate tectonics in the 1960s. Vine and Matthews published their famous paper "Magnetic Anomalies over Oceanic Ridges" in Nature in 1963, but interest in paleomagnetism and continental drift in England started to rise as early as 1950 among a group of physicists and cosmologists there. These interlopers in geology -- Patrick Blackett, Teddy Bullard, and Keith Runcorn -- all had started in particle physics and cosmic ray research. How they ended up providing a basis for discovery in earth science traces an interesting tale of interdisciplinary research in the mid-20th century.

Greg is a historian of science who currently writes mostly about the history of geophysics and especially the history of geomagnetic research. He has degrees in both physics and in history of science and he taught in the History Department at West Virginia University from 1983 until 2008. He has been on the History Committee of the AGU since 1989 and is a member of GSA, the International Commission for the History of the Geological Sciences, and the History of Science Society. He has published many articles and two books, one on the geosciences at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the other an encyclopedia of the history of the earth sciences. He edited the journal Earth Sciences History for the History of the Earth Sciences Society for six years. He was named a Fellow of the GSA this year, having received the Mary C. Rabbitt Award of the GSA Historical Division in 2008.

More information at the PGS website.

Labels: magnetism, meetings, pgs, plate tectonics

Richard Dawkins is on a speaking tour in promotion of his new book on the evidence for evolution, which I just got yesterday. He's not coming to DC, but the closest speeches he'll be giving are in Charlottesville, at UVA (Oct.16), and then in Philadelphia, at the library (Oct.22).

Labels: evolution, meetings, pennsylvania, virginia

WHAT: Earth Science in the Spotlight: Engaging the Public

WHEN: Tuesday, Oct. 6, 5:30-8:00 PM; program begins at 6:15 PM.

WHERE: The Front Page Restaurant, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA, Located near Ballston Metro on the ground floor of the NSF building. Parking is available under the NSF building or at Ballston Common Mall.

WHO: Ann E. Benbow, Ph.D., Director of Education, Outreach and Development, American Geological Institute

HOW: Special 1/2 price burgers start at 5:30 PM. Please come early to order table service and socialize. Short presentation begins at 6:15 PM, followed by Q&A. No science background required- only an interest! Cafe Scientifique is free and open to the public. Register online here.

ABOUT THE TOPIC: The news media routinely sound alarms about natural disasters, climate change, and the energy crisis. But who helps the public make sense of these issues? More and more, scientists are stepping up to help ordinary people, from school children to policy makers, understand the earth science behind the headlines. Earth science, after all, encompasses virtually all the sciences, from biology to chemistry to physics. Learn how AGI, an association of 45 member societies across the geosciences, is tapping the expertise of professional geologists, oceanographers, meteorologists, and other scientists to improve education and promote public awareness on such timely topics. Join us for a brief discussion, exciting video and hands-on activities showing how you can play a vital part.

COMING NEXT MONTH: November 3, Mario J. Molina, Ph.D., Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1995 will speak on ozone depletion in the atmosphere.

Labels: meetings, science and society, teaching

Kim already gave GSA a shout-out about this, but in the unlikely event any Portland-meeting-attending geobloggers see this first, go register your blog at their "dynamic blogroll."

Labels: meetings, oregon

If you haven't seen this yet, please watch it. Nice work, Mr. Balog!

Labels: art, climate change, glaciation, global warming, ice, meetings

The first of our monthly science seminar series is coming up at the end of the month:

"Cameras we cannot picture"
Dr. Ravi Athale, Senior Principal Scientist, The MITRE Corporation
Monday, September 28, 2009, Ernst Center Forum, 12 noon - 1pm

Abstract: The world of imaging has evolved from its humble origins as a pinhole camera to its current incarnations of very large (Hubble Space Telescope) and very small (pill cameras that one swallows). Last 10 years, in particular, has seen more rapid growth in our ability to record static and moving images than anytime in human history. This has been enabled by replacing film with semiconductor devices for recording imagers. Dr. Athale argues that as dramatic as this progress has been, the future will bring even more startling and unimaginable changes due to the integration of imaging with equally spectacular progress in computing, communications and storage technologies.

Ravi Athale is Senior Principal Scientist and Department Head, Emerging Technology office at the MITRE Corporation. Over past 30 years he has worked as a scientist, educator and manager in government, academic and industrial institutions. In 2007, he received Leadership Award of the Optical Society of America and Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service. In addition, he is a co-author of a high school engineering textbook published by Prentice-Hall and is a co-founder of company that develops consumer products based on computer generated holograms.

Please join us, if you can!

Labels: art, meetings, nova, science and society, tech

The September meeting of the Potomac Geophysical Society will be held September 17th at the Fort Myer Officers' Club in Arlington, VA in the Campaign Room. This month's talk will be: North Korean Nuclear Test of May 25 2009: Similarities and Differences With Respect to the Initial October 9, 2006 Test, by Jack Murphy (SAIC, McLean, VA).

Abstract:
On May 25, 2009 North Korea announced that it had conducted its second nuclear weapons test. As with the first test, this second explosion was well-detected by the seismic stations of the International Monitoring System (IMS), as well as numerous other international stations operated by the USGS and other organizations. The best relative seismic location for this explosion places it within 2 km of the ground truth location of the initial 2006 test in a mountainous region of northeastern North Korea. Comparisons of the seismic data recorded at common stations from these two tests indicate that the second was approximately four times larger than the first, having an estimated yield in the range from about 2 to 5 kt. While there are many similarities in the observations from the two tests, there are several notable differences. Perhaps the most surprising of these is that there were no reported detections from any of the IMS radionuclide stations. The report of a noble gas (Xe¹³³) detection in Canada tentatively associated with the October 2006 test had led to some optimism that the more complete network of stations operating in 2009 might provide powerful detection capability with respect to clandestine underground nuclear tests. While analyses are continuing, the absence of detections from the May 2009 test has tempered that optimism to some extent. Another unusual aspect of the May 2009 test was the observation of anomalously large long-period surface waves. While the surface waves from the October 2006 were also somewhat larger than expected, the surface wave Ms magnitude value for the May 2009 test places it in the earthquake population on the Ms:Mb discriminant plot, and there has been no convincing explanation offered for this to date. Thus, despite the many years of experience with nuclear test monitoring, there continue to be unanticipated surprises that require in-depth analyses and assessments.

Reception at 6:30. Dinner at 7:30. Talk at 8:30 PM. Allow 15 minutes for security entering Ft. Myer as all civilian vehicles are searched. To ensure access to and from Fort Myer use the Hatfield Gate, open 24 hours a day. If you wish to attend dinner ($25), please make reservations with Joydeep Bhattacharyya at 703-676-4373 or via e-mail. If you wish, please feel free to attend the talk without dinner. Non-members and guests are welcome. Visit the PGS web site at for new meeting announcements, etc.

Labels: earthquakes, korea, meetings, pgs

PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

Maryland in the Miocene: Paleoenvironmental History of the Calvert Cliffs
Susan Kidwell, Williams Rainey Harper Professor of Geology
Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago

Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009
7:00 p.m., in the Cooper Room, National Museum of Natural History (10th St. and Constitution Ave. in NW Washington, DC)

Meet in the Constitution Avenue lobby at 5:00 p.m. if you wish to join the PSW members for dinner at the "Elephant and Castle," NW corner of 12th & Penna. Ave., NW

Non-Smithsonian visitors will be escorted to the Cooper Room at 6:30 and 6:55 p.m.

Labels: dc, fossils, maryland, meetings, miocene, psw, smithsonian

The fall edition of Walkingtown, DC again features my walking tour of DC geology, "History Before History: the Geologic Saga of Washington, DC." It will be on Sunday, September 20, and is free (but reservations are required; sign up with Cultural Tourism DC, the sponsors of the event). Hope you can join us.

Labels: dc, geology, meetings, piedmont

Hello to the other geobloggers who read this blog!

I'm making my plans for GSA (Portland, Oregon) this week, and wondering if when we should get together for libations, conviviality, and rocks (and perhaps recording a podClast?). My talk is Monday morning, and I think I'll come out for a field trip the Saturday before the meeting. And of course the big digital innovations session is Tuesday. I may have to leave after that though... remains to be seen whether I can get people here to proctor an exam in my absence.

Anyone know a good pub in Portland? Anybody have field trip recommendations?

Labels: meetings, oregon

Nora Noffke of Old Dominion University would like to draw your attention to this SEPM field conference on microbial mats in siliciclastic deposits. The conference presents an important and novel review on microbial mats and the sedimentary structures they form in siliciclastic settings through Earth history, from the early Archean to the present. The meeting is organized by Nora and Henry Chafetz, and brings together the expertise and knowledge of an international panel of leading researchers to provide a state-of-the art overview of the field. The participants will give and get a timely review of the current and most topical areas of research, essential for all scientists interested in this rapidly growing field.

Labels: archean, meetings, stromatolites

WHAT: Top Ten Things You Should Know About Climate Change

WHEN: Tuesday, August 4, 5:30-8:00 PM; program begins at 6:15 PM.

WHERE: The Front Page Restaurant, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA, Located near Ballston Metro on the ground floor of the NSF building. Parking is available under the NSF building or at Ballston Common Mall.

WHO: Keith Dixon, Research Meteorologist and Climate Modeler, NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Joe Witte, Meteorologist, Newschannel 8

HOW: Special 1/2 price burgers start at 5:30 PM. Please come early to order table service and socialize. Short presentation begins at 6:15 PM, followed by Q&A. No science background required—only an interest!

Cafe Scientifique is free and open to the public. Register online here.

ABOUT THE TOPIC: In the coming decades, scientists expect climate change to have an increasing impact on human and natural systems. In a warmer world, accessibility to food, water, raw materials, and energy are likely to change. Climate change will also affect our weather, human health, biodiversity, economic stability, and national security. Come learn the top ten things you should know to know about climate change.

SUPPORT THIS CAFE: The Ballston Science and Technology Alliance, a nonprofit organization, is the sponsor of Cafe Scientifique Arlington. Since April 2006, the goal of Cafe Scientifique has been to make science more accessible and accountable by featuring speakers whose expertise spans the sciences and who can talk in plain English. Cafe is held each month on first Tuesdays at the Front Page in Arlington. Please go to www.arlingtonvirginiausa.com/bsta and contribute. Help keep Cafe open and free to all!

COMING NEXT MONTH: September 1, BioDiversity: How Special We Are! Dave Harrelson and Susan Jewel, Biologists, Endangered Species Program, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service SPECIAL BSTA PROGRAM: August 25, 4:15 PM at Room 110 NSF, Climate Change Communication 2.0, Ed Maibach, Director of George Mason University's Center for Climate Change Communication. Register online here.

For more information contact Kaye Breen, ballstonscience@yahoo.com, visit www.arlingtonvirginiausa.com/bsta or join us on twitter: http://twitter.com/sciencecafeva or facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ballston-Science-and-Technology-Alliance/116954825970.

Labels: climate change, dc, meetings, nova

There's a brief blurb (with a few photos) on the first few pages of this week's Intercom about the NAGT meeting last month on the Loudoun campus, and Ken Rasmussen's award.

Labels: geologists, meetings, nova

An impressive talk, and the film he alludes to was released yesterday, for free.

The movie HOME is available now, for free download. Enjoy!

Labels: environmental, meetings, movies, websites

I saw Ray Stanford, an enthusiastic amateur paleontologist, speak last month at a meeting of the Paleontological Society of Washington.

It was my first PSW meeting, and I got a warm welcome from PSW president and University of Maryland paleontologist Tom Holtz, who gave a specific shout-out to NOVA Geoblog, encouraging the ~30 attendees to check it out. (If you're arriving as a consequnce of that endorsement, welcome!) Four of my Honors students joined me for the talk. Just getting to go behind the scenes at the Smithsonian is a treat in itself. From the Easter Island moai in the Constitution Avenue lobby of the museum, we were escorted through labyrinthine passageways to the Cooper Room. Our route brought us past immense fossil collections, cossetted away in row after row of cabinets. It was enticing, and made me resolve to arrange a special tour there sometime for the Honors students.

The point of the talk was Stanford's immense collection of fossil dinosaur tracks (and at least one apparent mammal track which is quite large: raccoon-sized at least, with apparent dinosaur skin impressions right next to it). It used to be thought that Maryland only had Triassic/Jurassic fossil tracks, from the Newark Supergroup rift valleys that opened up during the breakup of Pangea / opening of the Atlantic Ocean. Stanford has made a real scientific breakthrough by demonstrating that there are early Cretaceous-aged tracks in the area too.

None of his Cretaceous-aged tracks are collected in situ. Instead, he finds them all as "float" (weathered-out loose blocks) in streams draining exposures of (what I infer to be) the Patuxent Formation. (He didn't specifically mention source formations that I heard during the talk.)

He's found a ton of stuff! Actually,if I'm being literal, he's found tonS of stuff! And he stores it all in his living room! He recently had the foundations of his house reinforced because he has so much STUFF. Hundreds of tracks, and other fossils, too. Whoa! This guy does not play by the same rules as most folks.

There were a lot of coprolites mentioned, including:

• a 98-pound coprolite (!)
• a coprolite with a dinosaur footprint in it
• a dinosaur footprint with a coprolite in it

He also shared what he claimed were skin textures preserved in tracks. Some were self-evident, and I readily accepted them as valid. However, others weren't visible to the naked eye, and he only "demonstrated" them with Photoshopped images wherein the contrast dial was turned up to 11 -- I think this "technique" generated patterns that resembled skin impressions, but when I looked at the fossil itself, they were nowhere to be seen. I am dubious about this particular claim.

The talk gave me lots to think about, but not so much about dinosaur lifestyles or anatomy so much as the role of amateurs in science. Here's a guy with boundless enthusiasm, and he's finding stuff that the books literally said didn't exist. His efforts have resulting in expanding Maryland's Mesozoic paleontological record into the Cretaceous, and he's found all sorts of stuff that's super-duper interesting, like that mammal track.

Stanford was profiled last year in Geotimes magazine, before it switched its name to EARTH. Discovery News also ran a story about his findings. Interestingly, when Googling his name for this blog post, I also came across some other wacky stuff he's involved in, including UFO's. This definitely jibes with the lack of scientific rigor that I perceived in his presentation. (Quote from the interviewer: "In the 1970s, Stanford was the moving force behind the Association for the Understanding of Man (AUM) and Project Starlight. The former an attempt to decipher the UFO enigma by psychic means, the latter using advanced scientific instruments.")

So, having learned this, what do I make of his paleontological data? The best I can come up with is to trust my own eyes and view his claims open-mindedly but with the traditional scientific filter of skepticism. I accept the coprolite data; I found it self-evidently convincing. The skin-texture data? Not so much. The UFO stuff? Don't get me started...

Labels: coastal plain, cretaceous, culpeper basin, fossils, maryland, meetings, mesozoic, museums, psw, science and society, smithsonian

Whew!

Sorry I haven't posted much here in the past week. I've been swamped.

The good news is that my biggest task is now off my plate (just turned in the first draft of my MSSE capstone to my advisor), and that means I've got some spare attention left for the blog.

I thought I would take the opportunity to share some images from this past weekend's NAGT (National Association of Geoscience Teachers) Eastern Section conference, held at the NOVA Loudoun campus. On Saturday, I led a version of my "Bedrock Geology of Washington, DC" trip for a group of eight conference attendees.

All these photos are from Randy Newcomer, Director of Training and Services for Complete Safety Solutions of Lititz, Pennsylvania, and are posted with his permission... and my annotations!















If you're interested in seeing (most of) these rocks, join next Sunday's Walkingtown, DC tour!

Labels: conferences, dc, field trips, meetings, msse, nova, piedmont

PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

Confessions of a Dinosaur Hunter
by Richard Thompson
American Institute of Physics / AAAS Congressional Science Fellow

Wednesday, May 20, 2009 7:00 p.m., in the Cooper Room, National Museum of Natural History 10th St. & Constitution Ave.

Meet in the Constitution Avenue lobby at 5p.m. if you wish to join us for dinner, at the "Elephant and Castle," NW corner of 12th & Penna. Ave., NW

Non-Smithsonian visitors will be escorted to the Cooper Room at 6:30 and 6:55 p.m.

Last Meeting of the Season: See you in September!

Labels: dinosaurs, fossils, meetings, psw, smithsonian

Just a heads-up for DC-area readers: The spring 'edition' of Walkingtown, DC is coming up, and once again I'll be leading my "History Before History" tour. This three-hour walking tour of Adams-Morgan, the Zoo, and Rock Creek Park covers the geologic saga which formed the bedrock of the nation's capital city. We'll look at the Rock Creek Shear Zone, Cretaceous-aged river gravels, a faulted unconformity, and the Georgetown Intrusive Suite. It's free and open to the public. More information is on the Walkingtown website. Please join us!

Labels: dc, geology, meetings

"Climate Change in the American Mind"

Tuesday, April 28th, 10am

National Science Foundation
Arlington, VA
Room 1235

Anthony Leiserowitz
Yale Project on Climate Change

Report here

Labels: climate change, meetings, science and society

Bonnie Bassler, whose TED talk I featured here on Sunday, will be speaking Thursday evening at the Carnegie Institution in northwest DC, as part of their "Capitol Science" lecture series. As in the TED talk, she will be discussing "Cell-to-Cell Communication in Bacteria." The talk begins at 6:45pm. Enjoy!
Hat tip to Diego H. for letting me know about this!

Labels: dc, meetings, microbes

On Wednesday, April 1, the U.S. Geological Survey will kick off a new public lecture series at their national headquarters facility in Reston, Virginia.

The USGS "Science in Action" public lecture series will be held the first Wednesday of every month. These evening events are free to the public and intended for a general audience to familiarize them with science issues that are meaningful to our daily lives. The USGS speakers are selected for their ability and enthusiasm to share their expertise with an audience that may be unfamiliar with the topic.

The first one: From 7-8pm, Dr. John Jones, an expert in remote sensing, will discuss several projects in the Shenandoah National Park and the Everglades. Learn how science from satellites can help decision-makers address issues related to climate change, water resources, and habitat conditions.

Upcoming lectures will be about climate change, hurricanes, energy, glaciers, and a fascinating expedition down the Congo River.

Lectures are held at the USGS building located at 12201 Sunrise Valley Dr., Reston, Va.
For more information on the next three talks - speakers and abstracts - visit the USGS Public Lecture Web site or call 703-648-4748.

Hat tip to Dave Schumaker's Geology News blog.

Labels: meetings, virginia

The Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists is having NOVA adjunct geology instructor Steve Stokowski talk at their meeting on Thursday. His topic blends petrology (the study of rocks) with applied science.

Sexy Pictures, Busted Bridges, Broken Buildings, and Messed-Up Monuments: A Petrographic Odyssey

Microscopic analyses and geologic understanding are essential for the correct diagnosis and corrective actions necessary when rock, brick, concrete and similar building materials deteriorate, as these four case histories illustrate. The first case history is of the deteriorated brownstone loggia at the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall, North Easton, MA. The second case history is of a total replacement failure of a large memorial to WWII veterans in the Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery, Exeter, RI. The third case history concerns the use of defective, cracked, and residually expansive brick to construct the Prospect Mountain High School, Alton, New Hampshire. The final case history concerns deterioration of the 1930's Fore River Bridge between Quincy and Weymouth, Massachusetts. It can be expensive to correct the effects of the deterioration of common building materials!

Pulcinella's Restaurant
6852 Old Dominion Drive
McLean, VA 22101

AEG members, guests $30.00
Students $10.00

6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Social Hour and Section Business
7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Dinner
8 p.m. Presentation
9 p.m. Closing Statements

Labels: geology, meetings, minerals, science and society

Geological Society of Washington: Meeting 1432
Wednesday March 25, 2009

• Andrew Todd, US Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado - Abandoned Mines and Trout: The Interaction of Geochemistry, Metal Bioavailability, and Stream Ecology.
  
• Ian G. Macintyre, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC - The Almost Total Loss of Acropora palmata from Shallow Waters off Barbados, West Indies, Initiated by Catastrophic Destruction of a Major Bank-Barrier Reef off the Southeast Coast.
  
• Thomas J. Casadevall, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado - Lusi: Long-lived Mud Eruption near Surabaya, Indonesia.

John Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club
2170 Florida Ave NW
Washington, D.C.

Refreshments 7:30 pm; Meeting 8:00

Future meetings 2009: April 22 (Bradley Lecture); Sept. 23; Oct. 14; Nov. 4; Dec. 9.

Labels: environmental, fish, gsw, meetings, mining, reefs, volcano

Sorry for the late notice... this is for today at lunchtime.



Abstract: The Silver Hill Mine in Davidson County, North Carolina was the first important underground silver mine in America. Discovered in 1838, it produced significant quantities of silver and lead into the mid-1840's. As the oxidized ores were depleted, abundant, rich, lead-zinc sulfide ores were encountered. These complex primary ores presented the mine operators with difficult metallurgical problems. Mine development and production slowed. Nearly a decade passed as the owners experimented with new processing and smelting technologies. These efforts were largely unsuccessful and the mine closed in the early 1850's. The Civil War created an urgent need for lead to supply Southern troops. The Confederate government operated the Silver Hill Mine to provide an alternate source of lead in case the mines at Austinville, Virginia should fall into Northern hands. Lead concentrates with high silver values were shipped from Silver Hill to the newly constructed Confederate smelter in Petersburg, Virginia. After the War, the mine continued to operate for several years but the problems of the refractory sulfide ores were not solved and the mine closed again. For more than a century after production stopped, the Silver Hill Mine was the repeated target of both mining companies and stock promoters.

Where: Pier 7 Restaurant, 650 Water Street, SW, Washington, DC (within walking distance of the Waterfront Metro on the Green Line) Free parking with validation from Pier 7 Restaurant.

11:30 - Social 12:00 - Lunch 12:30 - Speaker

Meeting cost: $20.00 for Washington, DC Section SME members $25.00 for non-members

Contact Steve Stokowski with questions

Labels: dc, history, meetings, minerals, mining, north carolina

The National Academies' Ocean Studies Board would like to announce that Dr. Paul G. Falkowski, Board of Governors' Professor at Rutgers University, will be the speaker for the tenth annual Roger Revelle Commemorative Lecture, scheduled for Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at 5:30pm. It will be held in the Baird Auditorium in the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History (10th Street and Constitution Avenue). Dr. Falkowski's talk is entitled:


The ocean has been a feature of Earth's surface for at least 4 of the past 4.5 billion years, and has provided the primary environment for the evolution of microbes that drive the biogeochemical cycles on Earth. Over this long period of time, the ocean has witnessed extreme changes, ranging from complete coverage with ice to extensive periods when there was no ice at all; periods of extraordinary extinction of animal life, to periods of dramatic evolutionary radiation of animals. Throughout all of Earth's history, the ocean has served as the primary backbone of life on the planet; and the core metabolic processes have been successfully transferred across vast stretches of geological time. Humans, in contrast, evolved only about 200,000 years ago, and in that short period of time have come to successfully outcompete and plunder many of Earth's living resources. Over the past 100 years, in particular, we have increasingly altered the trophic structure of the ocean as well as its physical circulation and chemical properties. While human impacts will surely alter ecosystem functions the core metabolism of the ocean will go on. Rather, ironically, humans are the fragile species that will lose capabilities of using the ocean as a source of food and novel molecules. Our future is intimately tied to that of the ocean. We have to begin viewing the oceans as a key component of the Earth system; one that we cannot live without.

This event is free and open to the public. For planning purposes, please complete this brief registration form. You are encouraged to post the event flyer or to forward it to your colleagues. For more information, contact Pamela Lewis.

Please visit Roger Revelle Lecture Series for information on Roger Revelle and on previous lectures.

Labels: dc, meetings, oceans, smithsonian

Sam Love, one of the original national staff members of the first Earth Day, will speak on April 22 on the impact of changing our environmental culture. The event will be at 12:30 p.m. in the CE Forum on the Annandale Campus. Free & open to the public.

In his Earth Day 2009 presentation, Love will review some of the early fantasies based on cheap abundant energy. He then lays out some operating rules for a sustainable future and why there is reason for hope.

More information on p. 11 of last week's Intercom.

Labels: environmental, meetings, nova

Even if you don't have iTunes, the NOVA-Annandale Science Seminar series will be televised...

Check at our new webpage: http://www.nvcc.edu/annandale/scienceseminar/

Specific video: Dick Pellerin on math's many uses; Me on my western roadtrip.

Labels: geology, meetings, nova, science and society, travel

GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON : Meeting 1430

John Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club, 2170 Florida Ave N.W., Washington, D.C.

Wednesday, 25 February 2009; Refreshments 7:30 pm; Meeting 8:00 pm
_____________________________________________________

Julie O'Leary, Carnegie Institution (DTM): Water storage and transport in the mantle: constraints from the H isotopic composition of ocean-island basalts

Jeff Pigati, US Geological Survey (Denver): Snails, cienegas, and the science of wetland deposits in the American Southwest

Barbara Anne am Ende, The Aerospace Corporation: Is thermal imaging practicable for finding caves and abandoned mines?

Labels: gsw, meetings

Enjoy!

Labels: meetings, nova, tech

Science Seminar: The Tropical Reefs of Roatan

Friday February 20, 2009
CE Forum 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm

Jill Caporale, NOVA Faculty
Dianne Heath & Robert Schreiner, NOVA Students

Join Professor Jill Caporale and her students Dianne Heath and Robert Schreiner as they discuss the reefs, dolphins and mangroves of Roatan, Honduras. Jill Caporale believes that getting students out in the field is the best way to for students to learn and rekindle their "natural sense of wonder."

Jill Caporale has taught Biology and Natural Science at Northern Virginia Community College as an adjunct and full-time faculty since 1988. She has taken students to the rainforests of Costa Rica and the Reefs of Honduras. This year she will be returning with students to investigate the tropical waters off the coast of Roatan, Honduras. So, if you have ever wanted to snorkel coral reefs and swim with dolphins come listen to their talk, or better yet, sign up to go this summer.

Sponsored by the Lyceum and the Math, Science Engineering Division

Labels: meetings, nova, reefs

It was announced at Wednesday's Geological Society of Washington meeting that this year's Bradley Lecture will be delivered by Paul Hoffman, Emeritus Professor of Geology at Harvard University. The lecture is scheduled for the evening of April 22, starting at 8pm at the Cosmos Club.

Dr. Hoffman is best known for his work promoting the "Snowball Earth" hypothesis. It ought to be an exciting evening of geology!

Labels: geology, gsw, meetings, snowball earth

The February meeting of the Potomac Geophysical Society will be held February 19th at the Fort Myer Officers' Club in Arlington, VA in the Campaign Room. This month's talk will be: Listening to a Melting Arctic Ocean - Singing the Blues?, by Peter N. Mikhalevsky, SAIC, VA.

Abstract:
The waters of the Arctic Ocean have been warming since the mid 1990's. Average maximum temperatures have risen by more than 1°C. In the last 20 years submarine measurements of sea ice draft have shown a 40% reduction in average sea ice thickness while satellite remote sensing has shown a 14% reduction in sea-ice extent over the same period decreasing at a rate of 3-5%/decade (thicker multi-year ice at 7-10%/decade). Forecasts indicate that if these trends continue the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free, "A Blue Arctic Ocean" before the end of this century. Significant effort is needed to expand our observational capabilities in the Arctic Ocean to support better modeling, forecasting and improve our understanding of this critical ocean and the linkages to global climate. One technique - acoustic thermometry - has been shown to be a very effective for monitoring average heat content and average temperature in the Arctic Ocean and in particular in the Arctic Intermediate Water (AIW) layer. Two experiments conducted in 1994 and 1999 measured the warming and demonstrated the feasibility of long term observations. Plans are in process to incorporate acoustic thermometry and tomography in in-situ Arctic Ocean observatories.

Dinner Menu
Chicken Marsala (House salad & vegetables, rolls and butter)
Tira Mi Su
Coffee / tea
A vegetarian meal can be substituted by request.

Reception at 6:30. Dinner at 7:30. Talk at 8:30 PM. Allow 15 minutes for security entering Ft. Myer as all civilian vehicles are searched. To ensure access to and from Fort Myer use the Hatfield Gate, open 24 hours a day (https://webmail-1.nvcc.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.fmmcmwr.com/directionsmyer.htm). If you wish to attend dinner ($25), please make reservations with Joydeep Bhattacharyya at 703-676-4373 or via E-mail at Joydeep.bhattacharyya@saic.com. If you wish, please feel free to attend the talk without dinner. Non-members and guests are welcome. Visit the PGS web site at https://webmail-1.nvcc.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.potomacgeophysical.com%2520/ for new meeting announcements, etc.

Labels: climate change, global warming, meetings, oceans, pgs

PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

Institutional Memories: The Paleo Art of National Geographic and the Smithsonian Institution
by Angela Botzer (National Geographic) and Mary Parrish (Scientific Illustrator, Dept. of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution)

Paleo art has been an important part of the dissemination of the science of paleontology for two important Washington, DC institutions and their audiences for more than 150 years. The presenters will detail fascinating histories of paleo art via the material housed in the collections of their respective organizations.

Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009
7:00 p.m., in the Cooper Room, National Museum of Natural History
10th St. & Constitution Ave. Meet in the Constitution Avenue lobby at 5:00 p.m. if you wish to join some fun paleontologists for dinner, at the "Elephant and Castle," NW corner of 12th & Penna. Ave., NW. Non-Smithsonian visitors will be escorted to the Cooper Room at 6:30 and 6:55 p.m.

Remaining Dates for 2008-2009 Season: March 18, April 15, May 13

Labels: art, dc, fossils, meetings, psw, smithsonian

Wednesday 11 February 2009; Refreshments 7:30 pm; Meeting 8:00 pm;

the John Wesley Powell Auditorium

2170 Florida Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20008

Featured speakers:

Laurent G. J. Montesi, University of Maryland College Park - Cutting through the plate: rift interaction at the Galapagos triple junction

Marianne Guffanti, U.S. Geological Survey (Reston) - Volcano Hazards Revealed: Three Decades of Nature's Lessons for Applied Volcanology Cheryl Lewis Ames, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History - Species composition and distribution of shrimps at cold, methane-bearing, hydrocarbon seeps in the northern Gulf of Mexico

Andrew Johnston, Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum - Talking about the science of climate change with general audiences

Labels: gsw, meetings

As noted everywhere, next Thursday is the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth. We've got fun plans at NOVA (and you're invited), but you might also opt for this symposium at the National Museum of Natural History downtown:

Thursday, February 12, 2009
Darwin Anniversary Symposium
Baird Auditorium, 12:00 noon to 3:00 pm

February 12, 2009 marks the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin and the 150th year since the publication of his influential work, On the Origin of Species. To recognize Darwin's scientific accomplishments, including his observations on plant and animal life, the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, in conjunction with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, offers a day of discussions with distinguished panelists that will focus on a variety of topics from historical perspectives of Darwin to evolution and medicine.

Labels: evolution, meetings, smithsonian

No need to hear me say it... Get it straight from the source:

Library of Congress Hosts Lecture By Sandra Herbert, Feb. 18

The Science, Technology and Business Division of the Library of Congress will celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth with a lecture by Sandra Herbert, one of the world’s leading authorities on Darwin. She will discuss her book Charles Darwin, Geologist, which explores how geology changed Darwin and how Darwin changed science.

Herbert will lecture at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 18, in the Pickford Theater on the third floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. A book-signing will follow the lecture, and the science reference staff will display Darwin items from the Library's collections. The event is free and open to the public; tickets or reservations are not needed.

In "Charles Darwin, Geologist," Herbert provides a fresh perspective on the life and accomplishments of Darwin, who was born on Feb. 12, 1809 (the same day as Abraham Lincoln) and whose thoughts and theories about the natural world hold true today - 150 years after the publication of his "On the Origins of Species by Means of Natural Selection" (London, J. Murray, 1859).

While Darwin is best known for his voyage on the HMS Beagle, his study of finches on the Galapagos, and his theory of evolution, he had wider interests in the field of science, including geology. According to Herbert, "In the 19th century, geology attracted persons of imagination, like Darwin, because of its promise of knowledge of the distant past." Herbert shows how Darwin's study of geology and his developing ideas about geological systems profoundly shaped his creative insight and scientific methods as he worked toward an understanding of evolution and natural selection.

Charles Darwin, Geologist, written largely at the Library of Congress, won the Geological Society of America's Mary C. Rabbitt Award, the American Historical Association's George L. Mosse Prize and the History of Science Society's Levinson Prize for Historical Work in the Life Sciences as well as the Albion Book Prize given by the North American Conference on British Studies.

Herbert recently retired as director of the program "the Human Context of Science and Technology" and professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is also editor of the Red Notebook of Charles Darwin (1979) and Charles Darwin's Notebooks, 1836-1844: Geology, Transmutation of Species, Metaphysical Enquiries (1987).

As a Distinguished Visiting Scholar for 2006-2007 at Christ's College in Cambridge, Herbert assisted the university with its plans to celebrate Darwin's bicentennial. Herbert first saw the Charles Darwin Archives at Christ College when she was a graduate student at Brandeis University. The archives contain Darwin's notebooks, papers and correspondence, and when she discovered the material she remembers thinking "It was like finding out Shakespeare had left unpublished plays behind."

The Library of Congress maintains one of the largest and most diverse collections of scientific and technical information in the world. The Science, Technology and Business Division provides reference and bibliographic services and develops the general collections of the Library in all areas of science, technology, business and economics, with the exception of clinical medicine and technical agriculture, which are the subject specialties of the National Library of Medicine and the National Agricultural Library. For more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech.

Labels: evolution, history, meetings

As promised, here's some details for the event I mentioned the other day:

2:15- 4:45 Lisa Williams: Various displays of models, samples, artifacts, posters.
2:15 - 2:25 Bill Stanclift: Piano
2:25 -2:30 Reva Savkar : welcome and introduction of first speaker
2:30 - 2:45 Ralph Eckerlin: "Review of Darwin's life and accomplishments"
2:50- 3:10 Tom Macke: "Lincoln"
3:15 - 3:30 Karla Henthorn: "Common Misconceptions About Darwin"
3:35- 3:50 Jill Caporale: "The poetry in Darwin"
3:55 - 4:05 Nan Peck: "fun Lincoln-Darwin game"
4:10- 4:25 Bill Gorham: "Thomas Henry Huxley: Bulldog"
4:30 - 4:45 Callan Bentley: "Charles Darwin, Geologist"

200th Birth Anniversary of Lincoln and Darwin Celebration: The event will be held in the Ernst Community Cultural Center Forum on the Annandale campus of NOVA, Feb 12, 2009, starting at 2:15pm.

Labels: evolution, history, meetings, nova

My clever & creative colleague Reva Savkar (chemistry) is putting together a celebration of the 200th birthday of two important individuals in the history of the world: Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, both born on February 12, 1809. The event will be held in the Ernst Community Cultural Center Forum on the Annandale campus, starting at 2:15pm.

The details are still being organized, but the event will feature short talks, music, and activities both from NOVA faculty and outside guests. Confirmed so far are: Bill Stanclift, Reva Savkar, Ralph Eckerlin, Tom Macke, Karla Henthorn, Jill Caporale, Nan Peck, and Bill Gorham.

I'll be presenting a 15-minute talk, starting at 4:30pm entitled "Charles Darwin, Geologist."

The event is free & open to the public. Join us!

Labels: evolution, geology, history, meetings, nova

American Meteorological Society's Environmental Science Seminar Series

Coming to Grips with Sustainable Practices: Where Do We Go from Here?

What are the forces that shaped consumer culture in the U.S.? How does per capita consumption in the U.S. compare with that of other countries, especially in the realm of energy usage? What impact has consumerism had on resources and living standards in the U.S. and elsewhere? What are the implications of maintaining our present level of consumption? What are the implications of other countries aspiring to levels of per capita consumption on a par with ours? How might our society begin to identify and embrace more sustainable habits and practices, and what might such practices be? What policy steps might the new Administration and Congress consider codifying in the interest of promoting a more sustainable lifestyle and economy?

Public Invited

Monday, January 26, 2009
New Time: 12:00 noon - 2:00 pm
Russell Senate Office Building, Room 253 Washington, DC

Buffet Reception Following

Moderator:
Dr. Anthony Socci, Senior Science and Communication Fellow, American Meteorological Society

Speakers:
Dr. Juliet B. Schor, Professor of Sociology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA

Betsy Taylor, Consultant, Breakthrough Strategies & Solutions, Strategic & Philanthropic Consulting on Climate Solutions & Sustainable Development, Takoma Park, MD

Program Summary

Sustainability, Consumption and the Path Forward At the center of the US ecological dilemma lies consumption. We have been a consumer nation for more than a century, having made a directed choice in the 1930s toward that path. Today, in the midst of the simultaneous crises of the economy and the environment, we are again faced with choices about how to move forward. Although it has gotten far less attention, business-as-usual spending is as problematic as BAU energy use. The US ecological footprint, which is twice the level of comparably rich European countries, exceeds the equitable global sustainability level by a factor of 5. Rising per capita consumption underlies the ecological overshoot of the world economy, which now exceeds biological capacity by 40%. In the United States, inflated-adjusted personal consumption expenditures increased 88% from1973 to 2003, which resulted in a 37% rise in our ecological footprint. This is important because it has accompanied decades of attempts to save energy and de-materialize production, all of which have proved inadequate. Fortunately, there is increasing awareness of these issues, and a grassroots movement to transform consumer patterns and habits is underway. However, it has had virtually no legislative presence to date.

In Dr. Schor's presentation, the issue of consumption will be placed into its historical and comparative context. New data will be presented on the magnitude of the 'cheap import' boom in material (and therefore ecological terms) over the last 15 years. Underlying economic factors such as labor market policies and the distribution of income affect the path of consumption and ecological impact. A medium term consumption path will be sketched out, which yields high levels of human well-being, is becoming broadly popular, and is ecologically sustainable.

Ms. Taylor will discuss an array of policy instruments that could promote a more sustainable standard of living and more sustainable consumerism. In the lead-up to address climate change through cap & trade or carbon fees, it would serve our collective interests to simultaneously address the root causes of ecological degradation and collapse. Ms. Taylor will also call for a rekindled debate on policies and programs that might steer our economy and culture in a more sustainable and durable direction.

Labels: climate change, energy, environmental, meetings

A friendly reminder about tonight's meeting of the Geological Society of Washington:

Labels: gsw, meetings

Following the success of last year's Climate Change Symposium, this year NOVA will host Mike Tidwell, the dynamic director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, for a talk on global warming and what college campuses can do about it. Mr. Tidwell has a reputation as a terrific speaker, so I'm really looking forward to his talk.

He will be speaking at 11am on Thursday, February 5, in the Ernst Community Cultural Center Theater (CE building) on the Annandale campus of Northern Virginia Community College. The event is free and open to the public. I encourage you to attend if you're in town. A booksigning will follow in the Theater lobby.

Labels: climate change, global warming, maryland, meetings, nova

The January meeting of the Potomac Geophysical Society will be held January 15th at the Fort Myer Officers' Club in Arlington, VA in the Campaign Room.

This month's talk will be: How Deep Was That Earthquake?, by Jack Murphy, SAIC, McLean, VA.

Abstract:
Less than 100 years ago, seismologists were still actively debating whether deep earthquakes existed, and it wasn't until the 1920s that Turner in England and Wadati in Japan confirmed that some earthquakes do indeed occur at great depths below the surface of the Earth. We now know that, while the majority of earthquakes are shallow and confined to the Earth's crust, there are numerous earthquakes every year that occur at depths of hundreds of kilometers below the Earth's surface. Moreover, these deep earthquakes have played an important role in the development of our understanding of plate tectonics in that they mostly are confined to restricted zones along convergent plate boundaries, where their locations as functions of depth map out the trajectories of the descending slabs. However, despite the many improvements in computing power and analysis capability that have been introduced into earthquake location studies in recent years, it is still a challenge in many cases to accurately estimate the depth of an earthquake using commonly available seismological arrival time data. In this talk, the history of earthquake depth determination will be briefly reviewed and some recent research that has led to new approaches designed to address limitations of existing standard analysis procedures will be discussed.

Biographical Information:
Mr. Murphy is the Deputy Division Manager of the Monitoring Research Division of SAIC where he is responsible for managing research contracts with a variety of government agencies. He has had more than 40 years experience as a research seismologist and is an internationally recognized expert in the modeling and analysis of seismic signals produced by explosion and earthquake sources.

Labels: meetings, pgs

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
1428th Meeting of the Geological Society of Washington

Robert Gagosian, Consortium for Ocean Leadership: A new paradigm for geosciences research funding.

Elizabeth Eide, Board on Earth Sciences and Resources, The National Academy of Sciences:
Geology, energy, and environmental policy at the coastal margins of the northern North Atlantic.

James Day, University of Maryland, College Park: Evidence for evolved crust formation in the early solar system.

Refreshments start at 7:30 p.m. The formal program starts at 8:00 p.m.
Meetings are held at the John Wesley Powell Auditorium 2170 Florida Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.

Labels: gsw, meetings

Note - this event is cancelled due to the lousy weather today.

PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

Movers & Shakers in 20th Century Paleontology: Role of the Smithsonian Community
Tom Dutro, U.S. Geological Survey (retired) and Research Associate, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

7:00 p.m., in the Cooper Room, National Museum of Natural History
10th St. & Constitution Ave. Meet in the Constitution Avenue lobby at 5:00 p.m. if you wish to join us for dinner, at the Elephant and Castle, NW corner of 12th & Penna. Ave., NW

Non-Smithsonian visitors will be escorted to the Cooper Room at 6:30 and 6:55 p.m.

Remaining Dates for 2008-2009 Season: Feb. 18, March 18, April 15, May 13

Labels: meetings, psw

A high-definition eruption video is giving clues to how volcanoes work, as reported by WIRED magazine staff attending last week's AGU meeting. Turns out WIRED actually had a big AGU coverage site, which I only just noticed. Some good stuff there, though. Check it out.

Labels: agu, meetings, movies, volcano, websites

As I mentioned yesterday, the Virginia Department of Geology and Mineral Resources has an excellent rock garden outside their office in Charlottesville, displaying a diverse suite of large rock samples from across the state's five physiographic provinces.

Here's Rick Diecchio (George Mason University) providing a sense of scale for the rock garden:


Here's a few of the samples that caught my eye, with my shoe providing a sense of scale (size 12, specifically) in each image...

Aquia Formation sandstone with Turitella fossils (Paleocene); King George County:


Balls Bluff Siltstone with mudcracks (Triassic); Culpeper County:


Conococheague Formation collapse breccia (Cambrian); Augusta County:


Cranberry Gneiss (?) showing well-developed lineation (Mesoproterozoic); Grayson County:


Kyanite quartzite (probably Ordovician metamorphic age); Prince Edward County:


Fossil Sigillaria tree trunk from the Wise Formation (Pennsylvanian); Wise County:


Unakite, the state rock of Virginia according to some (Mesoproterozoic); Rockbridge County:


Here's a link to the PDF (1.82 MB) with all the details about all the rocks in the garden, an impressive achievement just like the symposium.

Labels: conferences, fossils, igneous, meetings, metamorphism, primary structures, sediment, virginia

I spent this past Friday (12/12) at a symposium put on by the Virginia Division of Geology and Mineral Resources, in Charlottesville, Virginia. This excellent branch of our state government just had their budget disproportionately slashed, but they aren't letting it bring them down. In fact, they're breaking new ground in their unparalleled service to the geological public. In honor of the groundbreaking Virginia geologist Tom Gathright (who was in attendance), they organized a day of scholarship and conversation about recent advances in the geology of the Blue Ridge and Valley & Ridge physiographic provinces.

Rick Diecchio (of George Mason University) and I drove down together, getting up at the unholy hour of 5am in order to get there on time. Once there, we trundled past their excellent outdoor rock garden (about which I will post tomorrow), and inside to join the gaggle of more than a hundred geologists from the USGS, Virginia universities and community colleges, transportation agencies, environmental agencies, and the DGMR itself.

The morning session consisted of a series of talks about the Blue Ridge. We heard from Bob Millici (USGS), Scott Southworth (USGS), Chuck Bailey (W&M), Mark Carter (DGMR), Bill Henika (Virginia Tech), and Karen Rice (USGS). I won't post any of the juicy data details we heard, for fear of spilling any unpublished beans, but there was some cool stuff we learned about. There was also a poster session in the well-appointed library. Pete Berquist (Thomas Nelson Community College) and I had lunch out in the rock garden, where I chatted with three undergrads from our alma mater.

The afternoon session was given over the the Valley & Ridge province. We heard from Scott Eaton (JMU), Steve Whitmeyer (JMU), Dave Weary (USGS), Randy Orndorff (USGS), Joel Maynard (Virginia Department of Environmental Quality), and Wil Orndorff (Virginia Department of Conservation & Recreation, Division of Natural Heritage).

My favorite part of the day, though was a break-out session to discuss unresolved issues. There were three break-out groups: one for water issues, one for the Valley & Ridge, and one for the Blue Ridge. I went to the Blue Ridge one, and really enjoyed this unique setting. I mean, here I am in a room with a bunch of people who spend the majority of their professional time trying to understand how the Blue Ridge got put together, and we're just brainstorming together, thinking about big unknowns, big gaps in our understanding. The DGMR staff is compiling these results, and once they're distributed out to the participants, I'll post them here on NOVA Geoblog. We've been asked to share the results. Since there were two geobloggers in the room (me and Chuck), we reckoned that's a quick way to disseminate some of our ideas.

I'd like to thank the DGMR for putting on such a great meeting, in particular during such lean and uncertain times. The day was positive, affirming, and valuable on many levels. Readers, remember that you (yes, you) can still write to the governor and other state officials to protest the crippling 75% reduction in the DGMR staff.

Labels: blue ridge, conferences, geologists, meetings, valley and ridge, virginia

PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

Climatic Cooling and Body Size Evolution in Deep-sea Ostracodes
by Gene Hunt
Curator of Ostracoda, Department of Paleobiology
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

7:00 p.m., in the Cooper Room, National Museum of Natural History
10th St. & Constitution Ave.
Meet in the Constitution Avenue lobby at 5:00 p.m. if you wish to join dinner at the "Elephant and Castle," NW corner of 12th & Penna. Ave., NW

Non-Smithsonian visitors will be escorted
to the Cooper Room at 6:30 and 6:55 p.m.

Labels: meetings, psw, smithsonian

Starting this month and going into January, Arlington County, Virginia is hosting a series of free workshops designed to help citizens make more environmentally-sustainable choices in their homes and workplaces.


For more information, click here.

Labels: environmental, meetings, nova, virginia

Labels: maryland, meetings

I was reminded this morning to update the list of activities for the coming week, including the Billy Goat Trail hike scheduled for Friday:

Wednesday evening: GSW. Free and open to the public.

Thursday: James Ussher's "birthday of the Earth." How will you be celebrating?

Friday afternoon: I'll be leading a public geology hike along the Billy Goat Trail, starting from the Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center (C&O Canal NHP) at 12:30pm, going til 4:30pm or so. Maybe 5pm. Free and open to the public.

Saturday: GSW Fall Field trip: "Tidewater Geomorphology at George Washington's Birthplace National Monument, Westmoreland County, VA." RSVP.

Labels: coastal plain, field trips, gsw, meetings, piedmont

Today's science seminar went well. There was a reasonably full house (maybe 150 or 200 people?) and most of them looked reasonably awake all through it. Afterwards, I had some new folks express interest in my Rockies field course for next summer. Additionally, a bunch of the audience stuck around to look at some rock and fossil specimens I had brought along. When I got back to my office, there was a nice note in my in-box from the provost, who had attended and complimented the talk. And then I got a free lunch with three of my colleagues! Chinese food... makes me sleepy, but dang, it was good.

Here's the slideshow I gave, via SlideShare.net (The embedded version below doesn't seem to be working for me, so here's a direct link to the PPT on SlideShare):

Labels: food, fossils, geology, grand canyon, meetings, travel

A reminder to NOVA students, faculty, and interested area geophiles: I'll be giving a talk entitled "Two Months of Rock and Road: A North American geological road trip" today at noon as part of the Science Seminar series. It's in the CE Forum on the Annandale campus. Free and open to the public; light refreshments served.

McCain and Obama having fun: After all the rancor, this makes me happy.

If you're planning on going on the GSW Fall Field trip, let them know ASAP. They need a headcount.

The slate of speakers has been announced for next week's GSW meeting: Leonard Konikow, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston: "Ground-water depletion: National assessment and global implications;" Dionysis Foustoukos, Carnegie Institution of Washington Geophysical Laboratory "Energy sources in dark abyssal waters;" and Igor Puchtel, University of Maryland, College Park "Re-Os isotope systematics and HSE abundances of the 3.5 Ga Schapenburg komatiites, South Africa." 8pm next Wednesday at the Cosmos Club. Free and open to the public; refreshing beverages served starting at 7:30pm.

Virginia's a swing state... unbelievable and amazing.

Radioactive granite countertops cartoon caption contest reminder.

JPL has launched a new climate site:

...And congratulations to Walter Alvarez for being awarded the Vetlesen Prize.

That's all I've got. Have a good Friday!

Labels: field trips, gsw, meetings, news, politics, travel

This spring, I mentioned reading Kirk Johnson and Ray Troll's book Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway, and then stopping in and visiting with Kirk in Denver one evening on my summer road trip.

Now, my friend Michelle (who both loaned me the book and introduced me to Kirk) has forwarded me an announcement: Ray and Kirk are coming east!

Labels: dinosaurs, fossils, humor, meetings

Geo-bloggers: It's your last chance to sign up for Science Online '09.

Chris Rowan and I are both planning on attending. Hopefully some other geo-bloggers too?

Got this today from the conference organizers:
"Registration is almost full! We are already at 196 registrants - and the capacity is 200. Counting on some people to unregister or not show up, we will cap at 230, but we expect to get there within the next day or two - so it is the last chance to register right now. If something comes up later, you can unregister easily...."

Labels: blogs, conferences, meetings

Would you like a little geoblogosphere with your coffee this morning?

There's some great stuff out there today...

Andrew Alden (Geology.About.com) showcases the Fransiscan melange on a trip to Shell Beach.

Watch Perito Moreno glacier do some AWESOME calving at En Morrenas (Spanish-language geoblog). Watch the whole thing for perspective (3 minutes), but the really spectacular collapse occurs at ~2 minutes into the video. Watch the splash and watch the huge chunks of ice go zinging off into the surrounding air. Wild!

Dave Petley (Dave's Landslide Blog) reviews the dangers of a collapse of a volcanic flank in the Canary Islands, and what it means for Atlantic Ocean tsunami risk.

And for the geobloggers in the house, Chris proposes getting together in January at a science blogging conference in North Carolina. I think this could be cool. I just signed up.

Time for another cup of coffee... Good morning!

Labels: blogs, california, geology, glaciation, landslide, meetings, north carolina, south america

Capital Science Lectures upcoming at the Carnegie Institution in northwest DC:

Thursday 10/16/2008 - 6:45pm
Cooperation and Collective Behavior, from Bacteria to the Global Commons
Simon Levin, Princeton University,
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Center for BioComplexity
A sustainable future for humanity will require finding a way to share our complex environment. Learn about the evolution of cooperation in non-human populations, and what must change in our own behaviors if we are to have a common future.

Wednesday 11/12/2008 - 6:45pm
Geysers of the Solar System
Susan Kieffer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
Center for Advanced Studies, Department of Geology
What would Old Faithful look like if it erupted on Io, the hot moon of Jupiter, or on Enceladus, the frigid moon of Saturn? What can the towering geysers on Io and Enceladus tell us about the interiors of these moons?

Labels: dc, meetings

FYI, all you DC-metro-area-geophysicist types:

The October meeting of the Potomac Geophysical Society will be held October 16th at the Fort Myer Officers' Club in Arlington, Virginia in the Campaign Room. This month's talk will be: Infrasonic studies in the atmosphere using gravity wave models and a study of the 1988 PEPCON chemical explosion, by Dr. David Norris of Applied Physical Sciences.

Reception at 6:30. Dinner at 7:30. Talk at 8:30 PM. Allow 15 minutes for security entering Ft. Myer as all civilian vehicles are searched. To ensure access to and from Fort Myer use the Hatfield Gate. If you wish to attend dinner ($25), please make reservations with Joydeep Bhattacharyya at 703-284-1219 or via e-mail at jbhattac@bbn.com. If you wish, please feel free to attend the talk without dinner. Non-members and guests are welcome. Visit the PGS web site for new meeting announcements, etc.

Labels: meetings, pgs, virginia

Here's two events you might be interested in, if you live in the DC area and are into the Earth sciences...

1) I'll be giving next week's Science Seminar at NOVA Annandale. I'll be discussing my geological experiences out west this summer in a talk called "Two Months of Rock and Road." It starts at 12noon on Friday, October 17 in the CE Building Forum, and will conclude by 1pm. Light refreshments served starting at 11:45am. Free and open to the public.

2) American Meteorological Society Environmental Science Seminar Series: "Ecosystem Health in a Climatically-Altered World: Is 'Species Rescue' Part of the Prognosis for the Future?" by Dr. Camille Parmesan, University of Texas, Austin, Texas. Friday, October 10, 2008; New Time - 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM, in the Russell Senate Office Building, Room 253 Washington, DC. Free and open to the public.

What sorts of climate-related and compound stresses are various wild ecosystems encountering? What impact are these stresses having on these various ecosystems? How might one characterize the resilience, or lack thereof, of these ecosystems to these stresses. For those with the capacity to do so, how are ecosystems adapting to changes brought about by climate change and other stresses such as development? What is happening to those ecosystems that are showing signs of being incapable of either adapting in place or moving elsewhere? How do the rates of climate change and other stresses affect the odds that certain ecosystems will adjust and ultimately, survive? Are there ecosystems that now require, or will require, special human interventions in order to prevent their collapse and/or demise? What would these interventions look like and are they governed by existing national policy?

Buffet Reception Following; More information online at http://www.ametsoc.org/seminar

Labels: dc, meetings, nova

• "Once I graduated from Graduate school it was tough to really hang out with an entire group of people who like to talk about geology...the geoblogosphere is like a group of friends who like to talk geology...I just wish there was such thing as cyber-beer to go along with the blog-o-sphere ."
• "It's an expanding, welcoming community. You get to experience all sorts of fieldtrips and research through the eyes of other geologists."
• "I have met many professionals in the process of blogging who have given me lots of great help and advice. It has served as a great introduction to specialists I wouldn't otherwise be in touch with."
• "The geoblogosphere connects together a community that otherwise only gets together at a meeting or two per year."

• "It has grown so much and so fast. It is difficult to keep up."
• "Another issue which may arise is priority of ideas. There are now written records of what, in the past, would have been "debates over a beer". Will this lead to debates about who originated an idea, or who has priority on a description?"

As for why geobloggers bother with blogging, the most common response was that they wanted to share information and perspectives with others, followed closely by the sense of connecting with other interested individuals and public outreach. A significant minority also mentioned the pleasure they take in the act of writing, or a desire to practice/improve their writing skills. Some comments from the survey on why geobloggers blog:

• "Narcissism"
• "It's a good outlet for my geological musings, and can really help to jumpstart a day of geo-thinkin'..."
• "An increasingly effective method of public outreach, which is part of my responsibilities as a publicly funded researcher; a way of clarifying my own thoughts on geological topics and issues."
• "Stop mom from emailing me for news all the time"
• "Cogito Ergo Blogo"
• "I like to share what I think is interesting but don't like 'bothering' people. I see blogging as the modern equivalent of the person who tacks magazine/newspaper articles outside their office, but with a much bigger/wider audience."

Labels: blogs, gsw, meetings

What're you doing on Friday? There are two excellent-sounding earth science seminars inside the Beltway: The University of Maryland Geology Department's weekly seminar, and the American Meteorological Society's monthly seminar for policy makers. Both events are free and open to the public. AMS is at 10am, UMD at 11am. You can't do both -- you must choose...

AMS: Friday, September 26, 2008New Time - 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room G50 Washington, DC

Accelerating Atmospheric CO2 Growth from Economic Activity, Carbon Intensity, and Efficiency of Natural Carbon Sinks

What is the relationship between economic activity and CO2 growth? What is carbon intensity and how does it relate to economic activity? What are the trends in CO2 growth, carbon intensity, and changes in the efficiency of natural reservoirs to store carbon? How does the growth in CO2 compare to the various estimates of CO2 growth contained in the most recent IPCC assessment of climate change? What is permafrost and what is the extent of permafrost thaw in the Arctic? Is permafrost thaw a response to global warming and if so, what is the future likely to hold? Will permafrost thaw result in the release of additional CO2 into the atmosphere from Arctic soils? If so, what is the impact likely to be on global warming? How much carbon is stored in Arctic soils? Assuming that the Arctic continues to warm well above the global average, what is the likely fate of that soil carbon and how might it influence climate in the future?

Public Invited; Buffet Reception Following

Moderator: Dr. Anthony Socci, Senior Science Fellow, American Meteorological Society

Speakers:

• Dr. Josep (Pep) Canadell, Executive Director, Global Carbon Project, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Marine and Atmospheric Research, Canberra, Australia
• Dr. Vladimir Romanovsky, Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, A
• Dr. Howard E. Epstein, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

Program Summary

How Fast is Atmospheric CO2 Growing and Why, and Does it Suggest Ways to Mitigate Climate Change?

The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is the single largest human perturbation of the climate system. Its rate of change reflects the balance between human-driven carbon emissions and the dynamics of a number of terrestrial and ocean processes that remove or emit CO2. It is the long term evolution of this balance that will determine to a large extent the speed and magnitude of climate change and the mitigation requirements to stabilize atmospheric CO2 concentrations at any given level. Dr. Canadell will present the most recent trends in global carbon sources and sinks, updated for the first time to the year 2007, with particularly focus on major shifts occurring since 2000. Dr. Canadell’s research indicates that the underlying drivers of changes in atmospheric CO2 growth include: i) increased human-induced carbon emissions, ii) stagnation of the carbon intensity of the global economy, and iii) decreased efficiency of natural carbon sinks.

New Estimates of Carbon Storage in Arctic Soils and Implications in a Changing Environment

The Arctic represents approximately 13% of the total land area of the Earth, and arctic tundra occupies roughly 5 million square kilometers. Arctic tundra soils represent a major storage pool for dead organic carbon, largely due to cold temperatures and saturated soils in many locations that prevent its decomposition. Prior estimates of carbon stored in tundra soils range from 20-29 kg of soil organic carbon (SOC) per square meter. These estimates however, were based on data collected from only the top 20-40 cm of soil, and were sometimes extrapolated to 100 cm. It is our understanding that large quantities of SOC are stored at greater depths, through the annual freezing and thawing motion of the soils (cryoturbation), and potentially frozen in the permafrost.

Recent detailed analysis of Arctic soils by Dr. Epstein and his colleagues found that soil organic carbon values averaged 34.8 kg per square meter, representing an increase of approximately 40% over the prior estimates. Additionally, 38% of the total soil organic carbon was found in the permafrost.

A total of 98.2 gigatonnes (1015 grams) of carbon is estimated to be stored in the soils of the North American Arctic tundra. An area-based estimate for the entire Arctic suggests the presence of approximately 160 gigatonnes of carbon. The annual increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide is roughly 2% of this amount, so small changes in Arctic carbon storage could have substantive impacts on atmospheric CO2. The future of this stored carbon is, however, largely uncertain in the face of a changing Arctic environment. Climate change and resulting increasing temperatures in much of the Arctic could increase the decomposition rates of soil organic carbon (producing atmospheric CO2), and increase permafrost thaw, which would expose more soil organic carbon for decomposition. On the other hand, increasing temperatures could also lead to greater sequestration of atmospheric CO2 by tundra vegetation. Actual changes will be the result of complex interactions between processes that sequester carbon and those that release it.

Past, Present and Future Changes in Permafrost and Implications for a Changing Carbon Budget

Presence of permafrost is one of the major factors that turn northern ecosystems into an efficient natural carbon sink. Moreover, a significant amount of carbon is sequestered in the upper several meters to several tens of meters of permafrost. Because of that, the appearance and disappearance of permafrost within the northern landscapes have a direct impact on the efficiency of northern ecosystems to sequester carbon in soil, both near the ground surface and in deeper soil layers. Recent changes in permafrost may potentially transform the northern ecosystems from an effective carbon sink to a significant source of carbon for the Earth’s atmosphere. Additional emissions of carbon from thawing permafrost may be in the form of CO2 or methane depending upon specific local conditions.

Dr. Romanovsky will present information on changes in terrestrial and subsea permafrost in the past during the last glacial-interglacial cycle and on the most recent trends in permafrost in the Northern Hemisphere. He will further discuss the potential impact of these changes in permafrost (including a short discussion on potential changes in methane gas clathrates) on the global carbon cycle. Dr. Romanovsky’s research suggests that permafrost in North America and Northern Eurasia shows a substantial warming during the last 20 to 30 years. The magnitude of warming varied with location, but was typically from 0.5 to 2°C at 15 meters depth. Thawing of the Little Ice Age permafrost is on-going at many locations. There are some indications that the late-Holocene permafrost started to thaw at some specific undisturbed locations in the European Northeast, in the Northwest and East Siberia, and in Alaska. Future projections of possible changes in permafrost during the current century, based on the application of calibrated permafrost models, will be also presented.

The next seminar is tentatively scheduled for October 10, 2008.
Topic: Ecosystem Health in a Rapidly Changing Climate

Please see the AMS web site for seminar summaries, presentations and future
events: http://www.ametsoc.org/seminar

For more information please contact:
Anthony D. Socci, Ph.D. Tel. (202) 737-9006, ext. 412 socci@ametsoc.org

UMD: 11:00am - 12:00pm at 1121 Computer Science Instructional Center

Internal flow and extrusion of the Greater Himalayan Slab, Mount Everest Massif: a tour of the world's highest rocks
Dr. Rick Law from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

If you are interested in meeting with Dr. Law please sign up online. You also may delete an appointment from this page. Please join the faculty and students for refreshments in the Geology Building foyer at 10:30 am.

Seminar series web page for UMD-College Park Geology.

Labels: climate change, CO2, geology, global warming, maryland, meetings

Geological Society of Washington
Meeting 1424
Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Sarah Penniston-Dorland, University of Maryland, College Park - "Multiple sulfur isotopes reveal a magmatic origin for the Platreef PGE deposit, Bushveld Complex, South Africa"

Callan Bentley (me!), Northern Virginia Community College - "Rise of the geoblogosphere"

Matthew Jackson, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism (Carnegie Institution) - "The fate of subducted continental crust in the Earth's mantle"

*********************************
Refreshments start at 7:30 p.m. The formal program starts at 8:00 p.m.
Free and open to the public.

Meetings are held at the John Wesley Powell Auditorium (go in via the fenced-in parking lot on the corner of Florida Ave and Massachusetts Ave, NW) of the Cosmos Club, 2170 Florida Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.

GSW Web Site address: http://www.gswweb.org/
Future meetings: Oct. 22, Nov.12, and Dec. 10

Labels: blogs, dc, geology, gsw, meetings

Labels: fossils, mammals, meetings, oceans, psw, smithsonian

Last night I attended my first meeting of the Potomac Geophysical Society (PGS). The PGS meets on Thursday nights, and I usually can't make it because I teach on Thursday nights. (I do however attend meetings of the Geological Society of Washington quite regularly, but those are on Wednesday nights.) Now that the semester is over, I was able to make it to the final PGS meeting of the spring.

The meeting was held at Fort Meyer Officer's Club. It's on a military base adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery, and before entering, my Prius had to be searched for bombs (as did all other civilian vehicles). The Officer's Club was about what you would expect, I guess -- kind of 1950's decor, elegant once. I noticed they had compact fluorescent light bulbs in all the sockets, which pleased me. PGS meetings consist of: (1) beer downstairs in the lounge, (2) dinner upstairs in the "Campaign Room," (3) business details, and (4) a talk by a guest speaker.

Last night's speaker was Bill Burton, from the USGS's volcano hazards and monitoring program. Bill's office will be launching a comprehensive new volcano website later this year, and he gave us a brief preview of its features in last night's talk. If you'd like a look for yourself, they have a beta version of the site online now.

Labels: gsw, meetings, pgs, volcano, websites

Here's a photo of one of the cool things that my Honors students and I got to see on our recent trip up to Buffalo, New York (for the northeastern section meeting of GSA ):

That's an original, signed edition of the William Smith geologic map, brought to the meeting courtesy of the Buffalo Library. It is one of only two in the United States; the other is at the Library of Congress. The map found a home in Buffalo (of all places!) thanks to Chauncey Hamlin, the head of the Buffalo Museum of Science (then called the Buffalo Society of Natural Science) from 1920 to 1948. During his tenure, he assembled a collection of first editions of many seminal scientific works. First editions of Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology and Herbert Hoover's* translation of Agricola's De Re Metallica were also on display at the conference.

* Yes, that Herbert Hoover, at least according to Wikipedia.

Labels: geology, history, maps, meetings, nova

A few more photos from the Buffalo trip last week... All of these were taken by Victoria, my Honors student.

Here's some malachite in the sandstone of the Whirlpool Formation: the field trip leader suggested this was due to brine flow through these rocks during the Alleghanian ("Alleghenian") Orogeny:

Herringbone structure ("reverse cross bedding") in the Gasport Formation, overlying the DeCew Formation, which appears flat-lying and calm in this photo, but just below this shows disrupted bedding suggestive of seismic activity:

I showcase a sample too big to lug back to the van (ripple marks):

Watch where you stand! In the Niagara Gorge, we see some evidence that the Gorge is widening through mass wasting processes. Here's a small gap / scarp opening up as a block of rock to the right slumps down into the Gorge:

Lastly, on the trip home, we had an obligatory getting-stuck-in-the-mud moment:

Eventually, we got unstuck and headed back down the road!

Labels: geologists, mass wasting, meetings, nova, primary structures, sediment, teaching, travel

On Wednesday, two students and I participated in an excellent field trip examining the sequence stratigraphy of the Niagara region. We saw uppermost Ordovician rocks (the Queenston Formation) and then a dozen Silurian formations, some of them only 3 meters thick, stacked atop on another in a stereotypical layer cake fashion.

The trip was led by Carl Brett, who did a great job. I wanted to showcase here a few of the photos I took that day. Here's Carl showing us Arthophycus trace fossils (interpreted to be the burrows of polycheate worms):

At Outwater Park, we found fossil stromatoporoid reefs. Stromatoporoids were primitive, layered sponges. These ones show glacial striations across their surface, a result of the outcrop being scraped by glaciers during the recent Ice Ages:

At another stop (on Lockport Junction Road) , there was a Leperditia ostracode-rich layer. Ostracodes are small arthopods, kind of like krill, but with bean-shaped shells.

At Pekin Hill, we looked at the Goat Island Formation, which showed ripped-up stromatoporoids deposited within it.

Here's a stromatoporoid that tumbled loose from the slope. I'm bringing this one back to Annandale to use as a teaching specimen. Note the upward-bulging dome of the stromatoporoid's internal layers.

One of our most amazing stops was hiking up into the Niagara Gorge. This is at the downstream end of the Niagara Escarpment, where the Falls once were. The adjacent town is Lewiston.

Here's Laura and Victoria in the Gorge, overlooking the Niagara River:

Now for some fossils from the Rochester Shale and other units exposed in the Gorge. Carl brought these out to show us what we might find. Here's a mouthwatering slab showing Dalmanites trilobites:

And a golf-ball sized cystoid (relative of crinoids, blastoids, and other echinoderms):

He had some Lingula dwelling traces, too. Lingula is a common inarticulate brachiopod that dwells / dwelled in vertical burrows beneath the seafloor mud:

Here's a shot of a crinoidal grainstone. This limestone is almost entirely made up of "sand" generated by broken up crinoid skeletons:

Some spectacular trace fossils (ichno-genus unknown) on a slab that was catching the rays of the sun just right:

And a close-up of the same slab:

And lastly, a nice slab showing tool marks:

It was really a great trip -- perfect weather, fascinating rocks, good company, and I felt nice and tired at the end of the day.

Labels: fossils, meetings, new york, nova, primary structures, sediment, silurian

On Tuesday afternoon, four students and I drove from Annandale, VA, up to Buffalo, NY, for the NE section meeting of the Geological Society of America. On the way, we crossed the Pennsylvanian Appalachians, and pulled over to examine some beautiful redbed exposures on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I think these are in the Hampshire Formation, but I could easily be wrong about that, considering I've never been here before. Here's a few photos. First, some beautifully rhythmic alternations between sand and mud, now preserved as alternating layers of sandstone and mudstone:

Then, some nice "ball and pillow" structures, as heavy sand sank downward into squishy mud. In places, the mud skooshes upward in "flames":

And lastly and most amazingly (for me), some awesome exposures of flute casts. These are erosional scours into a layer of sediment by a current, which then fills in the scours (called "flutes") with sand, making these flute casts on the underside of the overlying layer of sand:

The flutes "point" upstream, and open up (and shallow) in the downstream direction. More later!

Labels: appalachians, meetings, nova, pennsylvania, primary structures, sediment, teaching

Cool folds (in metamorphic foliation) in this sample:

Here's the real prize: a big chunk of peridotite (upper right) that's partly surrounded in a crinkly foliated matrix of chlorite schist (lower left):

I'm off to Buffalo, NY today with four Honors students to attend the northeastern section meeting of the Geological Society of America. If anyone from the geoblogosphere happens to be up there, I hope you'll say "howdy." Posting may be sporadic over the next few days... we'll see what the Internet connectivity issue is like up there.

Labels: appalachians, iapetus, meetings, nova, piedmont

The Northeastern section meeting of the Geological Society of America will be held March 27-29 in Buffalo, New York. I plan on attending it, and I can provide transportation for NOVA students up to the meeting and back. I think it would be awesome to get a whole van-full of people (Honors students and interested others) to take a little roadtrip up there and go to the meeting. The cost for students to attend the 3-day meeting is $45 if you are already a GSA member, or $55 if not. That's a great deal. Other costs: lodging and food. (I'm planning on staying in the hotel where the conference is being held, but there are undoubtedly cheaper options nearby...) I've reserved a NOVA van for us to drive up in, so transportation costs would potentially be zero.

I plan to go up one day "early" for the March 26 field trip to look at the rocks of the field trip: "Silurian - Early Devonian Sequence Stratigraphy, Events, and Paleoenvironments of the Niagara Peninsula Area of New York and Adjacent Ontario, Canada." (Full-day trip, Wed., 26 March. Cost is an additional $30 for students. Lunch provided. Participants must have passports to cross into Canada.)

More information on the meeting is here: http://www.geosociety.org/sectdiv/northe/08mtg/. If you are a NOVA student, let me know as soon as possible whether you want to go up for this meeting/trip. I think it'll be a lot of fun.

Labels: geology, meetings