GSW: 1971
MEETING MINUTES
Geological Society of
January 13,
1971
The
940th meeting of the Society was called to order by President White at 8:04
P.M. Three visitors were introduced: E. S. Grew, U.S.G.S. Postdoctoral fellow;
Prof. C. S. Hutchison, University of Malaya,
The
President announced the existence of the Sedimentology-Marine Geology Group of
The
regular program followed.
1)
The Carolina Continental Rise and Hatteras Canyon System, Michael E. Field,
Coastal Engineering Res. Ctr., discussed by the chair, Felsher, Stanley and
Osborne.
2)
The California Borderland, Murray Felsher, CSGS, American Geological Institute,
discussed by Field.
3)
A Deep Basin in the Western Mediterranean: an example of modern flysch sedimentation,
Daniel J. Stanley, Div. of Sedimentology, Smithsonian Institution, discussed by
Douglass, Field, Fisk, Standoff, White, and an unknown gentlemen in the far
right.
The
Meeting was adjourned at 9:45.
Attendance:
65 (including the bar man and the projectionist).
Weather:
horrible (but it did pay dividends in beer availability).
Respectfully
submitted,
William
A. Oliver, Jr.
Acting
acting Secretary
Geological
Society of
January 27,
1971
941st
meeting of the Society, held in the JWP Auditorium, was called to order by
President Walter White at exactly 8:00 PM.
No visitors were introduced, but the Chair noted a rare appearance by
Balsley. The Secretary read the minutes
of the previous meeting, kindly prepared for him by William Oliver, and after a
few moments of procedural confusion, the minutes were approved. The election of
new members was announced: Victor M. Seiders, Branch of Atlantic Environmental
Geology, USGS; Robert L. Beckwith, American Geological institute; and Eric
Dowty, Research Associate, Exptl. Geochem. and Mineralogy Branch, USGS. It was also announced that John B. McIntyre
had been reinstated.
Tom
Dutro presented a brief, yet profusely illustrated informal communication
entitled "A Happening in Alaska Last Summer," describing a research
station on
Ernst
Cloos, of The Johns Hopkins Univ., presented the first paper, Triassic Overlap
West of York, Pennsylvania. Although he
demanded an extra minute to correct the missprint [sic] in the program card, he
finished well within the alloted [sic] time.
Cloos described a deep drillhole that was expected to penetrate mineable
Lower Paleozoic carbonates, yet encountered only Triassic sediments. To a mining engineer's query, "a
fault?" he suggested the universal reply, "it could happen to
anyone." Questions were posed by White, Thayer, Melson, and Hack.
Charles
B. Hunt, also of Johns Hopkins, closely followed the winding path of the
Colorado River from its headwaters in
Meeting
adjourned 9:28
Attendance
186 Total
J.
Stephen Huebner
Secretary
Geological
Society of
February 10,
1971
The
942nd meeting of the Society, held in the John Wesley Powell Auditorium, began
several minutes earlier than expected when the bar filled the pitchers with
beer before the meeting. The President
abstained, and somehow managed to prevail upon the Secretary, who had just
filled two mugs and was about to carry them forward. The President called the meeting to order at
8:05 PM. Louis Conant introduced Mrs. Nair
Goncalves of the Brazilian Geological Survey.
The Secretary read the minutes of the previous meeting, and after a
moment of dead silence, the President asked that the minutes be approved, and
they were. The election of five new
members was announced: Edward S. Grew and James R. Fisher, both of the EG and M
Branch of the USGS; L. W. Ward of the P and S Branch, USGS; J. Weidner of the
Dept. of Agronomy, Univ. of Maryland; and Suzanne Bershad, National
Oceanographic Data Center. Gordon Lill,
of the National Ocean Survey, who has recently returned to the area, was
reinstated.
Dean
Kleinkopf, USGS, presented a brief briefing on "A Happening in Los Angeles
Yesterday", a report on the February 9, 1971, earthquake. Of particular interest was a slide showing numerous
epicenters with Richter magnitude 6 to 7 recorded during the last 50 years in
southern
Jesse
Whitlow, USGS, presented the first scheduled talk, "A Glimpse ,at the
Geology of Arabia" in which he showed with slides some of the difficulties
of mapping a 4° by 6° area of desert.
During the talk, the President crept about the stage looking, he said
later, for a microphone socket. But in
fact the prowling looked so good that Past President Whitmore came forward to
join in the fun.
George
Ericksen, USGS, described the "Geologic Events Associated with the May 31,
1970 Peru Earthquake.” This disaster, the greatest yet recorded in the
President
White appealed to the members to act as local science fair judges and adjourned
the meeting at 9:48.
Attendance:
160 + an invisible projectionist.
J. Stephen Huebner
Secretary
Geological
Society of
February 24,
1971
President
White called the 943rd meeting of the Society to order at 8:04 PM in the John
Wesley Powell Auditorium. The President
announced the deaths of two of the Society's senior members, Donnel Foster
Hewett and Arthur R. Campbell. Then, in
a lighter vein, he announced that Vice President David Stewart was about to
depart to
Charles
R. Warren, USGS, presented a well organized and illustrated talk,
"Pre-Wisconsin Stream Diversion Near West Cornwall, Connecticut." Ice
and till caused multiple diversion of the
Richard
S. Fiske, the speaker, and Everett D. Jackson, USGS, used slides and a movie in
their entertaining discussion of the "Orientation and Growth of Hawaiian
Volcanic Rifts: Regional Structure vs. the Edifice Effect". They proposed that topographically isolated
volcanic rifts parallel the regional structure and build a topographic high or
edifice. Then by injecting fluids into gelatin models that bore resemblances to
both volcanic and human form, they showed that the orientation of adjacent
(but later) rift volcanoes is influenced by the earlier-formed edifice. After a modeling experiment, the gelatin
could be reused or eaten. Eleven
questioners (ten were identified) rose to query the speaker.
President
White adjourned the meeting at 9:36 PM.
Attendance:
145
J.
Stephen Huebner
Secretary
Geological
Society of
March 10,
1971
The
944th meeting of the Society, held in the John Wesley Powell Auditorium, was
called to order by President Walter White at 8:05 PM. George Ericksen introduced Helmuth Wedow, of
the USGS in
The
election of four new members was announced: Norman Whitaker, Photogrammetry
Section, National Ocean Survey; Mary Woodruff, Experimental Geochemistry and
Mineralogy Branch, USGS; David R. Budge, predoctoral fellow, Smithsonian
Institution; and George Doumani, Library of Congress.
Ken
Lohman read a memorial honoring Foster Hewett; President Walter White similarly
paid respects to Arthur Campbell.
Past
President Ralph Miller presented an untitled informal communication telling of
a meeting of geologists interested in Central American Geology. The meeting had two purposes: to honor the
contributions of Wendell Woodring (who suddenly turned three shades redder than
usual), and to announce publication of a geologic map of
John
Huddle, USGS, presented a G-rated talk, "Pander's Legacy: A study of
confusion." Taking care not to prostitute his science, he reviewed the
early work on Conodonts by Christian Pander and George Hinde. He then told us more about the present
classification than most of us wanted to know, but carefully avoided saying
what Conodonts really were. In response
to questions by Ericksen, Woodring, G. Helz, and Guild, Huddle produced his
final slide showing an unidentified
Odette
James, USGS, described "Lunar Sample 12013: A Thermally Metamorphosed,
Granite-bearing Impact Breccia." This four billion year old rock is
composed of several kinds of aggregate bound by a fine-grained matrix. During the talk, the President was heard to
sigh and remark that James' excellent thin section and photographic techniques
should be applied to shales. Questions
were posed by the President, J. Hadley, a bearded individual (whose voice the
President recognized as belonging to Robert Bryson), Woo, Sellers, and Mason.
The
third speaker was G. Michel Lafon, from
The
President adjourned the meeting at 9:50.
Attendance 152, including the gentleman behind the bar who,
miraculously, arrived at the same number.
J. Stephen Huebner,
Secretary
Geological
Society of
March 24,
1971
The
945th meeting of the Society was held in the John Wesley Powell Auditorium on a
chilly but clear night. President Walter
White called the meeting to order at 8:04 PM by pounding the gavel upon the
table, which was covered with white cloth and no fewer than three bowls of
chrysanthemums and ferns. The Secretary read the minutes of the previous meeting,
and they were approved. The President appealed for members to volunteer service
as judges at the April 24th D. C. Science Fair.
Douglas
Rumble, Geophysical Laboratory, described the "Regional Metamorphic
Geology of Western New Hampshire," specifically the Mount Cube Quadrangle.
Anti- and synclinoria trend NE, forming a complicated outcrop pattern. From a
detailed study of the age relations, Rumble concluded that overturning or
thrusting must have predated Silurian metamorphism. He continued his talk for
ten minutes, answering the questions posed by E-an Zen, White, Robertson, and
J. Hadley (who remarked that his old thesis area looked different now.
President
White next interrupted the proceedings to present a bronze chrysanthemum to
Past President Harry Ladd, who WAS about to leave for the Pacific.
The
P and S Branch of the Survey (or perhaps it was just part of the P and S
Branch) talked about "Permian Paleogeography of the
Ian
Gibson,
The
President adjourned the meeting at 9:35 PM.
The
attendance was 86, surprisingly poor considering the varied interests of the
speakers and the clement weather.
J.
Stephen Huebner
Secretary
Geological
Society of
April 7,
1971
The
946th meeting of the Society, held in the John Wesley Powell Auditorium, was
called to order by President Walter White at 8:05 PM. The secretary read the
minutes and announced the election of two new members: David Virgo, of the
Geophysical Laboratory; and Richard Warner, NASA-Greenbelt.
Isidore
Zeitz, USGS, described the psychedelic new Minnesota Aeromagnetic Map in an
informal communication that indicated the advantages of using color patterns to
show changes in the magnetic anomaly.
Harry
Klemic reported on the Prince Georges County Science Fair, where he and George Helz
acted as judges March 27th. Klemic noted fewer earth science exhibits this year
than in previous years, and that exhibits in chemistry were better. In the Junior Division, the First Prize
Certificate and Book was awarded to Ann Marie Herzog, a ninth grader at Lord
Baltimore Jr. High School, for her exhibit, Southern Maryland Fossil
Correlates, Three Certificates were awarded to budding crystal growers: James
D. Carey of Glenridge Jr. High; Dale S. Gabersek from Northwestern Senior High
School; and Ann Frazer of La Reine High School.
The
first regular talk was Dean Kleinkopf's second chance to tell of "The
February 9, 1971, San Fernando Earthquake". He presented many kodachromes showing damage
to land and to structures. Disaster paid no attention to building codes.
Kleinkopf concluded by stating the obvious, that things are on the move in
David
James, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, talked on "Plate Tectonics
and the evolution of the
Wendell
Duffield, USGS, gave his own version in a talk titled "Hawaiian Volcano
Observatory Plate Tectonics of the Crust on an Active Lava Column." He
drew an analogy between the behavior of a thin crust on molten lava and the
motion of great oceanic plates. A movie of recent vent activity showed
incandescent rises, transform faults, and sinks. Surely, the paleontologists
cannot play the game of Plate Tectonics here. Questions by
Robert
Citron, of the Smithsonian's Center for Short Lived Phenomena, reported briefly
on recent volcanic events. Karua in the
The
meeting was adjourned at 9:54. The attendance was back up to a respectable
166.
J.
Stephen Huebner,
Secretary
Geological
Society of
April 28,
1971
The
947th meeting of the Society was called to order by President White in the John
Wesley Powell Auditorium at 8:11 PM. The
Chair noted that the meeting had been delayed for several minutes by
difficulties with the 35 mm projector. No visitors were introduced (although
Joe Chernosky was present). The
Secretary read the minutes of the previous meeting. The President announced that the Cosmos Club
had double booked the next meeting date and that arrangements had been made to
meet at the University Club instead. In
response to a question from the floor, he tried to make the parking problem
vanish.
The
President announced the death of Lee McGuiness, groundwater geologist with the
USGS who had served the Society as Insurance advisor. Members stood silently
for a few moments.
William
G. Melson, Smithsonian Institution, presented "Results of preliminary
examination of rocks from Apollo 14".
He compared the Apollo 14 samples to those from Apollo 11 and 12 and
from the earth. Only two igneous rocks
were collected; one, the plagioclase-rich 14310, will undoubtedly be intensely
studied. The audience proved to be
particularly interested, for it asked questions about lunar sample chemistry,
dating methods, outcrops, and NASA sample processing: Oliver (twice), Thayer,
Sellers, Simkin, Chayes, Ben Zen, Roedder, and Bodenlos.
John
Allingham, USGS, was so eager to begin his talk that the President never had
the chance to announce its title. The
speaker showed the sample density distribution of rock units, and the magnetic,
gravity, and radioactivity anomalies of a part of the Maryland Piedmont SW of
Baltimore. At one point the speaker feared that he put the projectionist to
sleep, but such was not the case. Allingham concluded, or perhaps speculated,
that the Baltimore Gabbro has something for everyone, being alpine in character
to the north and south, and stratiform in the
Brian
Upton, Geophysical Laboratory, warmed up for a Petrologists Club talk the
following week by relating "Keewenawan Volcanism in South Greenland"
to similar igneous events on
The
meeting was adjourned at 9:35. The
attendance was a disappointing 86, unusually low considering the glorious
weather of the evening.
J.
Stephen Huebner
Secretary
Geological
Society of
May 12, 1971
The
948th meeting of the Society, called to order by President White at 8:12 PM,
was held not in the John Wesley Powell Auditorium, as has been the recent
custom, but in Room C, University Club, 1135 l6th Street NW. There were no visitors, and for that matter
very few members present. The Secretary
read the minutes of the previous meeting; Doug Kinney corrected the Secretary
by pointing out that Lee McGuiness served the Society as an insurance, not
financial, advisor.
The
President announced that Alan Mara Bateman, member of long standing, emeritus
Professor of Geology at Yale, and emeritus editor of Economic Geology, passed
away the previous day.
The
election of ten new members was announced, this time by the President: Eric G.
Hoffman, U.S. Bureau of Mines; Charles R. Meissner, Jr., and Anny B. Coury,
both of the Organic Fuel and Chemical Resources Branch, USGS; Charles Faust,
Water Resources Division, USGS; Joel Arem, Department of Mineral Sciences,
Smithsonian Institution; Patsy Beckstead Smith, P and S Branch, USGS; George
Helz, Chemistry Department, University of Maryland; Richard H. Ragle, Arctic
Institute of North America; David Frank, Geologic Division, USGS; and John
Troxell, Director of Land Operations, Tri County Conservancy of the Brandywine,
Inc.
The
President also announced that Treasurer M. H. Appleman and Council Secretary D.
E. Appleman represented the Society at the D. C. Science Fair held April 24,
1971. There were 15 Earth Science
exhibits. Joseph Donald Rishel of
The
President concluded his announcements by mentioning that Roy Lindholm would
lead a group of local science teachers on a field trip to the Great Valley.
Roderick
A. Carr, NRL, talked about "Factors Controlling the Distribution of Iron
and Manganese in the Potomac/Chesapeake Estuary." Surface water samples were collected at night
from the bow of a moving vessel, and analyzed for soluble and total Mn and Fe. Carr appealed for a graduate student to sit
on the bottom of the estuary and collect samples, to appraise the input from
the bottom sediments. He concluded that
much of the soluble Mn and Fe input is from the bottom sediments; that
insoluble Mn and Fe is from surface runoff; and that the Eh indicates the
District of Columbia to be in a state of reduction. Questions by G. Helz, McKelvey, Kinney, and
Whitmore.
The
President announced for Bill Prinz that the Pick and Hammer Show needs actors
and set crew. Whitmore asked if it was
permissible to discuss an announcement, then called for volunteers for the
chorus line in the show.
Alfred
G. Fischer, Princeton University, asked
"Timor - a Trench Revealed - Question Mark" He described the stratigraphy and structure of
the island of Timor which lies in the trench of the same name, between
Australia and the Bandor Sea. To solve
the problem of how the island got where it is, he dismissed the concept of
"roller coaster tectonics" and proposed that the entire island is allocthonous
(from the north or the south). The
trench fill, or olistrostrone, squirted up through the island as diapirs. The President remarked that he learned a new
word - "roller coaster tectonics," (The Secretary admits that he
learned many new words.) Discussion by Douglas, McKelvey (the President went
for a beer and returned during the question), Kinney - who suggested the
alternative title, "a trench concealed", Bell, Robertson, and
McKelvey again. E-an Zen had been
unusually silent, so the President suggested that he ask a question, which he
did; isn't "paratocthon", used for the basement beneath the island, a
loaded term?
The
meeting was adjourned at 9:40. Perhaps
the appeal of a wine tasting and an unexpurgated version of King Kong on
television that night was too much; not even the election of ten members
boosted the attendance beyond 43.
J. Stephen Huebner
Secretary
Geological
Society of Washington
October 13,
1971
The
949th meeting of the Society returned to the John Wesley Powell Auditorium,
newly carpeted and guaranteed absorbant.
Vice President David B. Stewart
called the meeting to order at 8:03 PM, explaining that the President's absence
was rumored to be necessitated by the preparation of his forthcoming
Presidential Address. The only
"visitor" present was the Chair, recently returned from Zurich. The Secretary read the minutes of the
previous meeting, and announced that the Society had undertaken publication of
two GSA Annual Meeting fieldtrip guidebooks: within a green cover, William E.
Davies, "Historical Engineering Geology of the Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal", and in yellow, Ciolkosz, Clark, Hack, Sigafoos, and Williams,
"Slope stability and denudational processes: Central Appalachians.” The
Chair announced that an anonymous donor presented the Society with a gift of
$1000 in honor of Hugh D. Miser and Marcus Goldman. This was followed by an appeal for dues
payment by once and twice delinquent members.
The
Vice President announced that during the summer, three members had passed away:
Helen Duncan, a paleontologist with the USGS; Joel Swartz, a retired USGS
geophysicist; and Leonard Fernow, of the Agronomy Dept., Univ. of Maryland.
Past
President Whitmore announced the forthcoming annual GSA meeting in Washington
and appealed for advance registration.
Linn Hoover gave the pre-registration figures as of the afternoon.
The
Hanshaws and Avery Drake arrived, so the main part of the meeting could begin.
An
informal communication was promptly offered by Douglas Rankin, of the Branch of
Atlantic Environmental Geology, USGS, who inquired about the possible precedent
set by President White during the last meeting, and couldn't he, Rankin, also
obtain refreshment while the meeting was in progress. Never one to waste time on mere words,
Roedder promptly filled his glass.
Jack
Oliver, Cornell University, presented the first formal talk, "New Horizons
in Seismology." He showed that the world could be mapped on the basis of
seismic" transmission efficiency: efficient and inefficient. Hot mantle and crustal discontinuities
attenuate the seismic waves, particularly the high frequency, very high
amplitude waves. There is good seismic
propagation across the eastern coast of the U.S., indicating that at present
there is no discontinuity at this continental margin. Oliver was questioned by Stewart, Kinney,
Sato, Barton, Doan (who described himself as a “babe in the woods"),
Roedder, and Zen. Rankin missed his
chance to refill his glass, and now had to endure the next talk, scheduled for
a longer than usual 25 minutes.
Felix
Chayes, Geophysical Laboratory, did his best to prove the old adage, "God
created integers and all else is the work of man," by describing
"Retrieval and reduction of rock analysis data; a pilot study."
Chayes has created a computer-stored file of 11,000 chemical analyses of
Cenozoic volcanic rocks. He anticipates
creation of a public data file and retrieval system: a SORT routine will access
the data bank and generate a data file to be operated upon by data reduction
programs. The question period was
dominated by Stewart - who cited Martha Washington's Tables, Robertson, Herb
Shaw - who achieved immortality - this time with a comment, not a question, Toulmin,
Jones, Dan Appleman - who noted that the speaker was reputed to be dictatorial
and strong willed, Thompson, LeMaitre- who said his file had 16,000 analyses,
Stewart - who asked if this wasn't the end of useful analytical work, and
Rankin - still with an empty glass.
Robert
I. Tilling, USGS, used a mere 300 chemical analyses plus isotopic data in
addressing himself to the question: "Boulder Batholith, Montana: Where two
magma series of the same age meet?" He divided the batholith rocks into
two series, with the more sodic series to the south and southwest. He closed by asking whether or not the Butte
batholith grades into the Idaho batholith.
In turn, the speaker was questioned by George Helz, E-an Zen, and Herb
Shaw.
The
Chair closed the meeting at 9:48 by giving plugs for two rival organizations,
The Petrologists Club, meeting October 19 with beer, and Paleontological
Society, meeting the following Wednesday without beer. (What do you expect for 50 cents a year?)
Attendance 103.
J. Stephen Huebner
Secretary
Geological
Society of Washington
October 27,
1971
The
950th meeting of the society was called to order at 8:02 PM by President Walter
S. White. No visitors were introduced. The Secretary read the lengthy minutes
of the previous meeting and announced the election of seven new members:
Kenneth A. Sylvester, Branch of Atlantic Environmental Geology, USGS; Helen
Louise McGuiness, assistant to her geologist-husband; Norman A. Buckley,
Organic Fuel and Chemical Resources Branch, USGS; and Jagannadham Akella,
Robert W. Thompson, Bas J. Hensen, and Ikuo Kushiro, all of the Geophysical
Laboratory. Next, Past President Miller,
announced the GSA Welcoming Party and the availability of tickets. Rankin had a
beer. Donald Duncan mentioned the forthcoming AAPG Eastern Section Meeting with
the theme, "Gas Supply in the Appalachians." The Chair read the text
of a proposed constitutional amendment, submitted by Present and Past
Presidents Walter S. White, George V. Cohee and Frank C. Whitmore, to be voted
upon at the Society's next annual meeting. The text of the amendment is as
follows:
Amend
the first paragraph (of Article IV, Officers) by adding the underlined phrase
so that the amended paragraph reads as follows:
"The
officers of the Society shall be a President, a First Vice-President who
shall also be the President-Elect, a Second Vice-President, two
Secretaries, and a Treasurer."
Amend
third paragraph by deleting "President" (second word) and adding the
underlined words so that the amended paragraph reads as follows:
"The
First Vice-President (President-Elect), second Vice-President, and
Treasurer shall be elected annually. The
First Vice-President (President-Elect) of the prior year shall be President.
There
were two very informal communications. Douglas Rankin again attempted to
communicate about refilling his beer mug. And an unidentified gentleman in a
powder blue jacket rose and drew attention to a recently published book on the
San Francisco earthquake; he later eluded the Secretary's attempt to identify
him by departing before the end of the meeting, taking the book with him.
Perhaps he is its author.
O.A.
Wise and Ellis Yochelson coauthored the first paper, "Stratigraphy and
Fossils at Smithville, Arkansas - a Bad Day at Black Rock." In this
hilarious excursion through poison ivy trees and unidentified fossils -
reminiscent of Panders' Conodonts - a true stratigraphic problem was solved.
The final population score stood: Smithville, 74; Black Rock, 554; questions,
zero, spontaneous or otherwise.
Rosalind
Helz discussed "Melt compositions produced by partial melting of basaltic
rocks at pH2O = 5 kb and the origin of the Calc-alkaline rock
series." By heating natural basalts at 5 kb water pressure she showed that
neither equilibrium partial melting nor equilibrium crystallization of tholeiite
yields a series of liquid compositions like that of the calc-alkaline
series. The only question was asked by
Toulmin.
James
G. Moore discussed "Lava beneath the sea: underwater movie of the Mauna
Ulu eruption." Glowing magma enters water without the development of
steam, and quickly forms an insulating crust. Lava issues through cracks in the
crust, forming pillows. Moore dispelled the notion that pillows are always
reliable top and bottom and deformation, indicators by showing slides of
pillows of varying primary orientation and shape. Breccias found beneath the
water are due to wave erosion rather than explosive eruption; submarine
basaltic eruptions may be so quiet as to go undetected at the surface.
Questions by Simkin, White, Newman, Tracey, Hadley, Thayer, and Dutro - who
commented that this meeting was indeed a symposium on Black Rocks. The meeting
was adjourned at 9:51 PM. Attendance
J.
Stephen Huebner
Secretary
Geological
Society of Washington
November 10,
1971
The
951st meeting of the Society, held in the John Wesley Powell Auditorium, vas
called to order by President White at 8:03 PM. Bill Oliver introduced the only
visitor, Dr. Julia Hubbard from Kings College, London. The Secretary read the
minutes of the previous meeting and announced the election of two new members,
William G. Perry and Norman L. Weaver, both of the Branch of Mineral
Classification, USGS. The President announced the deaths of Kenneth C. Heald,
retired Vice-president of Gulf Oil Co. and a founder of the AAPG, and Paul
Vogeli, of the USGS Water Resources Division in Denver. Next, the Chair
attempted to announce the individuals nominated to be officers of the Society,
but found that the list of names had been mislaid. Hatch, seemingly in the hope
that his name might be included in the resulting confusion, futilely insisted
that the list be read. The President and the two secretaries hastily decided
which names were to be included and the list was read.
The
first speaker was Douglas Rankin, but before he could begin Stewart asked if he
couldn't get a beer during the talk. Rankin described "Late Pre-cambrian
volcanism in the Blue Ridge", then asked if the gneissic anticlinal core
of Sourtown Mountain was not "...evidence for an early episode of rifting?"
The President produced a loud bell to signal the end of the talk. There were
numerous questions, some penetrating, by White, Jim Clark, Hadley Chayes,
Toulmin (twice), Guild (thrice), Stewart (again and again - I lost count), and
Zen, who asked the forbidden question, couldn't it all be explained without
resorting to plate tectonics?
Roger
LeMaitre, petrologist-gone-astray, talked about "Chemical variations in
common rock types." He first informed the Secretary that the correct
number of analyses on his tape was 16,145, then revealed the peculiarities
in the usage of rock names and analysis totals (7% incorrect). He plotted the
analyses in 9-dimensional space and found that three Eigenvectors accounted
for 90% of the variability in the analyses, permitting use of a 3-dimensional
diagram to put chemical limitations on rock name usage. Questions by White,
Wones, Chayes, Stewart, Dowty, Chayes again ("no one would want the system
to work, anyway"), Wright, and Toulmin.
Presidential
nominee Stewart set the precedent for next year's meetings by refilling his
glass. Rankin was silent.
Joan
Clark, Daniel Appleman, and Joel Arem presented "Geology in 3D:
Stereoscopy in the Earth Sciences." Attendees donned polaroid glasses, and
instead of following cowboys and Indians, listened to Clark explain the value
of viewing crystal structures in three dimensions, watched Arem show
tetrahedral phase diagrams, and saw Appleman project low angle oblique ground
and aerial photographs taken by Bill Hall (Univ. of Idaho), Zen, and Huebner.
Thayer, Leo, Roedder, Kinney, Guild, and Hadley asked questions.
The
meeting was adjourned at 10:00 PM. Attendance 98.
J.
Stephen Huebner
Secretary
Geological
Society of Washington
December 8,
1971
The
952nd meeting of the Society was called to order by President Walter S. White
at 8:01 PM in the John Wesley Powell Auditorium. The President announced that
he dared not let Vice-president Stewart preside at this meeting, thus he would
have to both introduce the speaker and be introduced as the speaker. E-an Zen
introduced the only recognized visitor, John Rosenfeld, of UCLA and Harvard.
The Secretary read the minutes of the previous meeting; after Rankin corrected
the Secretary on a minor point ("Sour-town", rather than
"Sour" Mountain), the minutes were approved. (Later two not-so-minor
corrections were made by individuals more bashful than Rankin.) The Secretary
announced the election of five new members: Thomas O. Wright, Timothy R.
Cullen, Steven W. Mitchell, Miriam Weissman, and John F. Lewis, all of George
Washington University.
The
Presidential Address, rumored to have been written in the Keweenawan
flood-basalt province, itself, was delivered by President White. In the Lake
Superior region, basins or troughs are related to an en-echelon arrangement of
gravity highs along the mid-continent gravity high. The President proposed that
the basins are tension fractures formed by right lateral displacement of two
plates of continental crust. Basaltic lavas erupted into the gradually
subsiding basins, counteracting the subsidence and maintaining low values of
the topographic paleoslope.
The
meeting was adjourned at 8:48 PM, for refreshments and the Annual Meeting.
Because custom permits no questions of the President after his Address, the
Secretary did not have time to count heads. We must accept the figure of a
gentleman who has proven his merit not only by serving the beer, but by
regularly counting the number of individuals present. 178.
J.
Stephen Huebner
Secretary
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
OF WASHINGTON
Annual
Meeting, December 8, 1971
The
79th Annual Meeting of the Society, held in the John Wesley Powell Auditorium,
was called to order by President White at 9:15PM. Meetings Secretary Huebner
read the minutes of the 78th Annual Meeting, prepared by previous Secretary,
Appleman; although the President did not open these minutes to discussion and
approval, nobody objected to their contents. Next, Secretary Huebner read the
Annual Report of the Secretaries - prepared by Huebner, for the meetings, and
Appleman for the Council. In an abrupt departure from tradition, the report was
illustrated with a slide that showed both the number of members and the meeting
attendance to be in a declining trend for the past several years. The society's
extinction was predicted for about 1984.
Peggy
Appleman presented the Annual Report of the Treasurer for Income consisted of
$3,507.00 in dues and $116.00 from the sale of 1971 G.S.A. Annual Meeting
guidebooks published by the Society. Disbursements for auditorium rental and
projectionist, refreshments, guest speakers, programs, billing, prizes, and
guidebooks, totaled $3890.12. Income still collectable totaled $752, augmented
by a stack of still-unsold guidebooks. The Treasurer closed her report with an
appeal for prompt dues payments; 91 members were in arrears for 197l, and the
22 members in arrears for both 1970 and 1971 had just been dropped from the
Society's membership.
The
Auditing Committee, Robert G. Bates and Ralph P. Christian, was represented by
Christian who reported that the checking and savings accounts had been audited
and found to be in order.
Malcolm
Ross, Finance Committee Chairman, represented his committee of Toulmin, Bethke,
George Cohee and Treasurer Appleman in reporting the cash balances of the
Society. On December 8, 1971, the
checking account contained $438.18, opposed to $146. 30 on December 9 of the
previous year. The Society received $1000 in memory of Marcus Goldman and Hugh
Miser; the sum has been added to the endowment fund. Six hundred dollars was withdrawn from the
endowment fund to cover the cost of printing the GSA meeting guidebooks.
Daniel
Appleman reported that the Public Service Committee continued its training program
for area elementary and secondary school teachers by planning and executing the
following fieldtrips: Lindholm to the Great Valley; Wright and Appleman to
Harper's Ferry; and Appleman and Bethke to Catoctin Mountain. Klemic and George
Helz officiated at the Prince Georges County Science Fair; both Applemans
judged at the District Science Fair.
The
Awards Committee consisted of Harwood, Huebner, Kleinkopf, Tina Zen, and Fiske,
who graciously decided to give someone else a chance to hold the cup by accepting
chairmanship of the committee. (Smart move, Whitey!) Only four informal communications were
presented in 1971, and the committee had no trouble deciding that Isidore Zeitz
should receive the Great Dane award for his description of the psychedelic new
Minnesota Aeromagnetic Map. Competition for the Best Paper Award, however, was
somewhat stiffer. The Committee easily singled out five outstanding papers by
Ericksen, Duffield, Stanley, Moore, and Fischer, but only after lengthy
deliberation decided to award the Second Best Paper award to George Ericksen
for his talk, "Geologic Events Associated with the May 31, 1970, Peru
Earthquake," and the Best Paper Award to Wendell Duffield, who talked
about "Hawaiian Volcanic Observatory Plate Tectonics of the Crust on an
Active Lava Column."
Next
came what was billed as “The moment most of you came here for,” the Report of
the Sleeping Bear Committee. Chairman Rankin represented his committee of Dan
Appleman and Blair Jones in this last act before another long hibernation.
Rankin noted that Ellis Yochelson had duly returned the cup, accompanied by an
opinion that the Sleeping Bear is really Thalarctos
maritimus, alias "Cookie", inhabitant of the National Zoo.
The
Committee examined all cases of humor, good humor, lack of good humor, and
otherwise bearish behavior displayed during the year. In the search, three
individuals were rejected as being too much a part of the formal program.
Rosalind Helz, who attempted to keep the meeting informal by confusing the audience,
or "how many angels can fit on the head of a pin?" The Secretary. And
Ellis Yochelson, for his paper with Dutro describing the poison ivy at Black
Rock. Dismissal of Yochelson meant that the committee did not have to decide
whether or not the two-time winner would retire the cup.
Richard
Fiske was deemed as deserving of something, having eliminated himself from his
usual source of income, the Best Paper Award. However, jello was found to be
too shaky an edifice to hold up any bear, sleeping or not. Tom Wright was
considered for increasing the number of sleeping bears by permitting beer to be
served before the meetings. Michael Field was considered for neatly
puncturing the armor of objective research by asking Murray Felsher: "Your
grading looks sort of subjective. Is there anything in the laboratory
technique that would do it?"
The
Committee then found an individual who exhibited informal bearish
behavior and good humor. This individual acted informally in dispensing with
meeting minutes, omitting the reading of lists of nominees, announcing the
Treasurer's birthday, wandering about in the darkness behind the lectern, and
helping himself to refreshments during the question period. The coveted
sleeping bear cup was awarded to President Walter S. White. But how could the
Committee know that his greatest performance was yet to come!
President
White attempted to steer the meeting back to serious business when he read a
proposed Constitutional Amendment, proposed by George Cohee, Frank Whitmore,
and himself.
Amend
first paragraph by adding the underlined phrase so that the amended paragraph
reads as follows:
"The
officers of the Society shall be a President, a First Vice-President who
shall also be the President-Elect, a Second Vice-President, two Secretaries,
and a Treasurer."
Amend
third paragraph by deleting "President" (second word) and adding the
underlined words so that the amended paragraph reads as follows:
"The
First Vice-President (President-Elect), second Vice-President and
Treasurer shall "be elected annually. The First Vice-President
(President-Elect) of the prior year shall be President. But quickly, before
Whitey could take control of the situation and the procedure, Wendell Woodring
arose to ask whether the amendment was ever announced (it was) and promptly
moved to reject the amendment; Art Baker seconded the motion. Rankin, Ross, and
Appleman, only moments behind, spoke in support of the amendment and the
continuity it would bring to the Council. Confusion reigned, but Wendell
Woodrule's move to reject the amendment was rejected. Toulmin seconded the
amendment as originally read by President White. Kinney then wanted to know if
this amendment would have the effect of removing future presidents from the
Sleeping Bear competition on the grounds that they, the presidents, would have
an extra year of preparation. George Helz put the issue back on track by proposing
a rider, to make the amendment effective at the END of this Annual Meeting.
President White and Council Secretary Appleman deliberated; Appleman read from
the Bylaws, and the President called for a vote on, it turned out after much
discussion of the proper order of things, accepting Helz's rider. The rider,
that the proposed constitutional amendment become effective at the END of the annual
meeting, carried by a great majority. The second vote, on the constitutional
amendment with its now-attached rider, also carried (seven nays against
everyone else present).
There
was no new business.
The
President collected his wits and announced the election of new officers by
reading the list of nominees proposed by the Council and Nominating Committee.
Woodring, as quickly as before jumped to his feet and moved that the
nominations be closed; the move was seconded, and so voted. Whitmore proposed that
the Secretary be instructed to record a unanimous ballot in favor of the
proposed slate, and the proposal was so voted. The New officers were asked to
come to the stage; Stewart, Hoover, and Stifel did so, and were introduced to
the membership (as if they all needed introduction).
The
President thanked the Program Chairman, Officers, and Councilors, and
transferred the Ceremonial gavel to Dave Stewart.
The
Meeting was adjourned at 10:25, at which time the new constitutional amendment
went into effect.
Attendance:
178
Respectfully
submitted,
J.
Stephen Huebner, Secretary