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

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

The International Year of Planet Earth may have declared a list of "the Earth's ten most spectacular places." At least that's what they're saying at the Discovery Channel's new Discovery Earth site, where they have a rundown of all ten (with photos). (No mention of it at the IYPE site, though: It may be that the Discovery Channel is just highlighting ten of the many, many U.N. World Heritage sites... their language is unclear as to who decided on these particular ten.)

Regardless, the photos will whet your appetite. With my visits in bold, they are:

• The Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland (posts on NOVA Geoblog)
• Wadi Al-Hitan (Valley of the Whales), Egypt (Eric's been posting on this recently)
• Lake Baikal, Siberia (deep, big)
• Komodo National Park, Indonesia (big monitor lizards; my friend Kenny has been)
• Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA (posts on NOVA Geoblog)
• Ilulissat Icefjord, Denmark (glacial beauty)
• Wulingyuan, China (quartzite pillars and indigenous fauna)
• Surtsey, Iceland (46 years old this year)
• Central Amazon, Brazil
• Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Labels: antrim coast, asia, australia, china, fossils, giants causeway, glaciation, grand canyon, ice, reefs, south america, travel, water resources

NPR ran a story this morning about the destruction of Oculina deep-water coral reefs off of Florida. Thanks to a bunch (~70,000) photographs taken of the reefs in the 1970s, we can compare before and after imagery of the strange deep-water ecosystem. John Reed, of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, published a study on the reefs' destruction in the Bulletin of Marine Science. The area was trawled heavily for shrimp in the interim, and most of the coral structures have been smashed to pieces. Listen to the full story here.

Labels: corals, reefs