GSW: 1974
MEETING MINUTES
Geological Society of
January 9,
1974
President
Zen called the 980th meeting of the Society to order at 8:06 P.M. in the John
Wesley Powell Auditorium. Tom Nolan introduced Harry Burgess of Kennecott-Copper.
Minutes of the 979th meeting were approved and the names of 8 new members were
announced. President Zen informally announced an informal drive for new
members. In another ploy to offset rising costs, he stated that the 1971 dues
notices will offer the membership, particularly the beer-drinking membership,
an opportunity for a tax-deductible donation. The Society's first field trip of
the year took place on January 6, with about 34 participants slogging through
the Watergate to Rosslyn Metro tunnel. Other field
trips are planned for the spring. The Chair concluded with an appeal for
speakers, either formal or informal.
The
formal program began with two overlapping talks by Robert F. Schmala of
Phil
Bethke, speaking for a USGS task force of Bethke, Barton, Steven, Roedder and
Tom
Wright, speaking for a smaller USGS task force of Wright, Swanson, and Helz
described the Geology of the Columbia River Basalts,
Douglas
W. Rankin
Secretary
Geological
Society of
January 23,
1974
The
98lst meeting of the Society vas called to order by President Zen at 8:03 p.m.
in the John Wesley Powell auditorium. Dr. Andres Maldnado
of the
The
regular program opened with a report "by Peter Ward, USGS,
Thomas
E. Krogh of the Geophysical Laboratory, who said he really should have had
Gordon Davis as a coauthor, discussed "The effects of regional metamorphism
(l b.y.) on U-Pb systems in
zircons and Rb-Sr whole-rock systems in Grenville paragneiss (1.8 "b.y.)."
By careful analysis, he was able to demonstrate that the pinched-off ends of
zircon crystals were 5 m.y. younger than the main
part of the crystals. One wonders what would have happened if the opposite had
been true. Discussed by Melson.
The
program concluded with a talk by William J. Perry, USGS, on the
"Development of Western Valley and Ridge fold belt,
Meeting
adjourned 9:56. Attendence 99 until the late arrival
of Tina Zen rescued the meeting from falling into the attendance category of
less than 100.
Douglas
W. Rankin
Secretary
Geological
Society of
February 13,
1974
President
Zen called the 982nd meeting of the Society to order at 8:03 p.m. in the John
Wesley Powell auditorium. Hans Schminke of the University of Bochum, Germany and Harold
Sigurdsson of the
The
death of Douglas Alverson, USGS, was announced.
As
required by the constitution, a proposed amendment to Section 5 of the By-Laws
was read, so that it might be voted upon at the following meeting. For reasons not entirely clear, Dan Appleman
of the Public Service Committee, announced a forth coming meeting of the Gulf
Coastal Geological Association, He also made the annual pitch for volunteer
judges for local Science Fairs. Jim
O’Connor outlined the USGS program for minority groups in earth science.
Next
the Chair, with some trepidation (having been forewarned), recognized Tom Dutro
who lodged two protests. First, speaking
for the Paleontological Society of Washington (PSW),
he noted that the Geological Society of Washington (GSW) in straying from its
traditional meeting dates of the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month, had
selected meeting dates in April and May that conflicted with meetings of the
PSW. Paleontologists are not gutless,
observed Dutro. The President, not being
gutless either, accepted responsibility for the regrettable situation, but
following an even higher precedent, did not offer to do anything about it. Dutro, speaking this time for himself, next
protested that a nomination for membership in GSW had been rejected by the
Secretary because it was written on a cocktail napkin.
Bill
Melson introduced Ian McGreggor of the
At this
point President Zen thought the meeting was successfully diverted from the
paleontologists. But, no. Greg Sohn demanded
recognition and then moved that the chairman of the Committee on Communications
attempt to change the dates of the 2 GSW meetings that conflict with PSW. The motion was defeated, but this time the
President said he would not only accept responsibility, but would try to do
something about it.
The
regular program opened at last with a formalized informal communication by
Francis R. Boyd on the first international kimberlite
conference, held in
B.W.
Blackwelder discussed research of his own and L. W.
Ward, USGS, on The concept of the 'Formation' in the Atlantic coastal plain:
evolution, extinction, changing environments, and stratigraphic foppery (dignus vindice nodus).He made a strong case for the necessity of studying biostratigraphy along with lithostratigraphy. Discussion by Owens (twice), Sohn, Reinhardt, Melson, Doan (who commented in reference
to the title, "The logic of this escapes me"),
The
final paper of the evening was by John Wood of the Smithsonian Astrophysical
Observatory, A Survey of rock types found on the moon, and a comparison of the
crusts of the Earth and Moon. Prior to
his paper, however, Wood was informed by President Zen that he was the first
recipient of an honorary corresponding membership in the Society as an out-of-town
speaker — a new policy set in effect that day.
Wood, properly appreciative, reviewed the types of samples returned from
the moon — big rocks, tiny rocks, and glass particles, and the techniques
available for determining their bulk compositions. He showed us a variety of not quite 3-dimensional
chemical plots, which to the uninitiated looked like so many pins and
needles. A major difference between the
earth and moon is that the moon, with a nonconvecting
mantle may have been able to float calcic plagioclase (hence the anorthositic
highlands), whereas the earth with a convecting
mantle may not have been able to float plagioclase. Discussed by Roedder, Melson (twice), Warren,
Boyd, French (twice) and Wones.
Meeting
adjourned 10:04 p.m. Attendence
145.
Douglas
W. Rankin
Secretary
Geological
Society of
February 27,
1974
President
Zen called the 983rd meeting of the Society to order at 8:01 p.m. in the John
Wesley Povell auditorium. Sam Goldich was
introduced by Tom Stern. Jurgen Reinhart introduced
collectively a group of students from
The
proposed amendment to Section 5 of the By-Laws passed unanimously. Three words
have been added at the end of a sentence. These are "and the
President." The new wording is effective immediately.
President
Zen announced two forthcoming field trips for the Spring. One on April 28 to
the Coastal Plain led by Peter Stifel.
One on May 11 to
Joshua
Tracey presented an informal communication on a drilling program on Eniwetok
Atoll designed to determine the effects of nuclear blasts of more than a decade
ago. Discussed by French and Roedder. Ellis Yochelson
presented an informal communication on Salterella
that aren't from South America, Antarctica, and
The
regular program followed. V. R. Macgregor, of the Geological Survey of
Greenland and our newest Honorary Corresponding Member, gave a well illustrated
talk on the "Earth's oldest known rock:
3.7 billion year gneiss from Godthaab,
Ian
G. MacIntyre of the Smithsonian Institution presented
a talk on "Annual bands in tropical reef corals; a record of colonial
growth and changing environmental conditions." He noted rather disturbingly
that evidence of man's mucking up his environment can be noted in the annual
bands. Discussion by Chayes, Douglass , Roedder and
French.
Richard
Arculus of the Geophysical Laboratory talked on
"The Alkali basalt, andesite association of
Douglas
W. Rankin
Secretary
Geological
Society of
March 13,
1971
President
Zen called the 984th meeting of the Society to order at 8:04 p.m. in the John
Wesley Powell auditorium. No visitors admitted being present. Minutes of the
983rd meeting were approved. The names
of ten new members were announced. President Zen apologized for the last minute
or non-arrival of meeting notices saying the Postal Service isn't what it used to
be. Members were warned in advance that in the future they may only "be
able to learn of future programs by having been at the previous meeting.
For
several meetings, the Society has used George Erickson's personal electric
pointer. President Zen expressed his own and the Societies appreciation for
this and announced that the Cosmos Club had purchased a new pointer, hence,
hopefully ending the crisis.
Dan
Appleman again asked for volunteer judges for Science fairs. Bob Tilling
presented a spectacularly illustrated informal communication on the very recent
activity of Mauna Ulu which has been in nearly
constant eruption since May 1969.
Porter
M. Kier of the Smithsonian opened the formal program with a 22 minute color
film on "The wonders of Echinoids" and wonderful they were.
Through
time lapse photography we saw various Echinoids scurrying hither and yon,
burrowing in the sand, eating sand dollars and all the while we had the
enthusiastic running commentary of the speaker interspersed with comments by D.
B. Stewart. Discussion by George Helz
and Stewart.
Leonard
Johnson of the Naval Oceanographic Office talked about "Arctic Geology:
recent marine geological/geophysical investigations in the Labrador Sea,
Peridotite
Thayer, USGS, concluded the program with a talk on "Sheated
dikes swarms in ophiolites: dogma vs
reality." After defining geological dogma as the actualistic
model proposed by the speaker, he once again outlined the reasons why
Douglas
W. Rankin
Secretary
Geological
Society of
March 27,
1974
President
Zen called the 985th meeting of the Society to order at 8:04 pm and extended
the traditional call for visitors: whereupon Bob Neuman
introduced Dave Holloway, Ralph Miller introduced Jack Medlin, Anna Jesperson introduced Dr. Lester Lewis, Paul Keller
introduced Jerry Kline, Cynthia Sturtz introduced
Barbara Lovelace and Eric Force introduced David Swartzman.
Minutes of the 984th meeting were read and approved. Jim O’Connor requested volunteers to lead an
April 27th field trip for local secondary school teachers and Dan Appleman
extended an invitation for volunteers to judge the Prince Georges County
Science Fair. Gene Robertson reported
that the D.C. Science Fair contained about 20 earth science exhibits out of a
total of 272 and 1st Prize in Earth Science was awarded to Donna Ship for her
exhibit entitled "What do you think when you see soil?" Pete Stifel
announced the upcoming Coastal Plain field trip at 8 am on April 28th.
President Zen thanked Dick Fiske for taking pictures of the Society in action
and George Helz for assembling the pictures into an effective recruiting poster
displayed at the Northeast Section meeting of GSA in
Alexander
McBirney of the
Next,
Don Brobst of the USGS discussed, at great length,
the composition and diagenesis of
In
the final paper Dennis Wood of the
The
meeting adjourned at 10:10. Attendance a whopping 178.
D.S.
Harwood for D.W. Rankin,
Meetings
Secretary
The
Geological Society of
April 17,
1974
President
Zen called the 986th meeting of the Society to order at 8:02 p.m. in the John
Wesley Powell Auditorium. Dave Wones introduced
Robert Siebert of the
George
Helz reported that six prizes in Earth Science were awarded at the Prince
Georges, Maryland Science Fair. First
prize went to Richard Eddington for his exhibit,
"Miocene Fossils of Maryland".
Bill Leo reported that first prize in Earth Sciences in the Northern
Virginia Science Fair went to David Layton for an exhibit on radiocarbon dating
by a photoscintillation technique.
President
Zen reviewed plans for field trips for the remainder of the Spring: a Coastal
Plain field trip on April 21 led by Peter Stifel, and a Harper's Ferry trip on
May 11 led by David Elliott. He also reminded the audience of a field trip
organized by Jim O’Conner for local secondary school teachers on April 27 to
Theodore Roosevelt Island. Mackenzie Gordon informed the Society of the
International Congress on Carboniferous Rocks to be held August 25-30, 1974, in
The
formal program opened with a talk by Richard E. Smith of the Naval
Oceanographic Office on "Harbor Muds and Man -
geochemical monitoring of sediment dredging." Silting up of harbors is a
process that man has long coped with by dredging. However, as man's activities
continue to foul the harbors, what to do with the dredged muck becomes an
increasingly difficult problem. Discussed by Sellers, French, Henbest and an unidentified gentleman.
Mel
Kuntz of
In
the final paper of the evening, Richard P. Sheldon of the U.S. Geological
Survey discussed “FY75: A revolution in U.S.G.S. Geologic Division
Programs". After some discussion of the USGS tree with its strong roots,
periodic pruning and grafting of the upper branches, and spring leafing,
Sheldon announced that the Geologic Division could expect an increase of $35
million for FY 75. He noted that this was in part accounted for by the
tremendous inflation rate, but also pointed out that USGS was undergoing a
fundamental change in that ratio of constant dollars to professional geologists
was increasing. He predicted that this would impose a major grant-giving
function on the Survey. Finally, he predicted that the future main form of publication
would be magnetic tape, although he said nothing about how to cope with
potential gaps in those tapes. Discussed by Erickson,
Meeting
adjourned 10:06 p.m. Attendance 145.
Douglas
W. Rankin
Secretary
The
Geological Society of
May 1, 1974
The
987th meeting of the Society was called to order by President Zen at 8:05 p.m.
in the John Wesley Powell. Auditorium. In
order to compensate for the lack of visitors to introduce, President Zen wished
the attendees a Happy May Day. Minutes
of the 986th meeting were read and corrected by Dutro. Later investigation, however, revealed that
Mackenzie Gordon's name had been correctly written. Apparently the
Paleontologists had simply cast a spell over the Secretary's reading ability,
which is poor enough at best. The names
of 9 new members were announced.
President Zen thanked Peter Stifel and Jim O'Connor, the leaders of the
two recent Society-sponsored field trips, for jobs well done.
Peter
Stifel presented an Informal Communication allegedly about dinosaurs but, in
fact, a guise for launching a new career as the Bard of College Park.
The
regular program opened with a talk by Brian Mason of the Smithsonian
Institution, on "High-Ti lunar basalts: a possible source in the Allende
Meteorite". Mason noted that
interstitial pyroxene from chondrules of the Allende meteorite have many compositional
similarities with the older lunar basalts, such as those of the Apollo 11
site. Both are rich in Ti and other
refractory elements such as Ba, Nb,
and Rare Earth elements. He suggested
that these older high-Ti lunar basalts are partial melts of Allende-like
material. Discussed by Wones and Bass,
Next,
Steven M. Stanley of
The
final paper of the evening was presented by Larry M. Cathles—
"Glacial rebound and elastic properties of Earth's mantle." Nature
has been conducting its own experiment for the past 20 thousand years or so on
the driving mechanism for plate motions.
Cathles attempted to model this experiment and
to use these observations to determine the viscosity of the mantle. From the time distribution of terminal
moraines and consideration of ice mechanics, he determined the glacial loading.
By extrapolating from measurements of glacial rebound, he calculated the influx
of mantle material back under the continents. Then assuming that the mantle is
a Newtonian fluid of uniform viscosity, he calculated a viscosity of 1020
poise. Discussed by Chayes, Sellers, Tracey, George Helz, Bass (twice), Shaw
(thrice), Roedder, and Robertson.
Meeting
adjourned at 9:52 p.m. Attendance 85.
Douglas
Rankin
Secretary
The
Geological Society of
May 22, 1974
Vice
President Tracey called the 988th meeting of the Society to order at 8:04 pm. Charles
Milton gave an informal communication on his visit to the University of Costa
Rico and volunteered to coordinate all shipments of geology books to that
university if members wished to donate any.
The
first paper of the evening, given by Arthur C. Tarr
of the USGS, was on Recent Global Seismicity. Tarr indicated that 23,000 seismic events of magnitude 4.5
or greater recorded by 600 stations over a 9.5 year time period went into the
new map of global seismicity. Discussion by Sohn, Pavlides, Roedder, Wones, Mrs. Jack Dorr and two or three other unidentified
members.
Next,
Marshall Kay of
In
the final paper of the evening Gordon Eaton of the USGS gave us A Look at the
Magma Chamber Beneath Yellowstone National Park. Gordon showed that the gravity
and magnetic gradients mark the outer limit of rhyolite
in the Park and encircles the post caldera plugs, vents and hydrothermal
alteration zones. He concluded that if
The
meeting adjourned at 9:50pm. Attendance 120.
Repspectfully,
David
S. Harwood
for
Douglas W. Rankin
Meetings
Secretary
Geological
Society of
October 9,
1974
President
Zen called the 989th meeting of the Society to order at 8:07 pm with the
traditional call for visitors: Louis Conant introduced Sam Frazier of Gulf Oil
Company and Doug Kinney introduced Gene Anderson of Bureau of Mines. Ernst Cloos was remembered with a reflective moment of silence.
President
Zen and Finance Committee chairman Mac Ross presented a black picture of the
Society's impending fiscal peril and proposed the following remedy to be
considered by the Society and voted on at the next meeting:
1)
Dues increase to
$7.00 for active members, $4.00 for corresponding members, and $2.00 for
retired members.
President
Zen announced that, effective immediately, there will be a voluntary
contribution of 50 cents per drink for refreshments. These contributions totalled $33.00 for the October 9th meeting.
It
was also announced that meeting's notices would not be mailed to members who
failed to remit their dues after a suitable grace period. Peter Stifel
announced that John Dennison would speak at a
Charles
Drake of
Next,
James V. O'Connor of the USGS and Washington Tech. led us on a tour of Backyard
Geology using
Bill
Melson of the Smithsonian concluded the evening's program with a report on
sediment/flow relations, gabbro/peridotite complexes
and other "delights of deep penetration" on DSDP Leg 37. In addition
to the major accomplishment of drilling 582 m into basement on the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge, Bill reported that the upper part of the basement in all four holes was
vesicular extrusive basalt, and that one hole penetrated gabbro-peridotite about 60 m beneath the extrusive basalt, and
that there-is about 1000 m of vertical displacement in the basement outward
from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Discussion by Sato, Toulmin, Yngvar
Isachsen, Bass, Yoder, Thayer, and Hart.
The
meeting adjourned at 10:15. Attendance 160.
David
S. Harwood
for
Douglas Rankin
Meetings
Secretary
The
Geological Society of
October 23,
1974
The
990th meeting of the Society was called to order by President Zen at 7:58 p.m.
in the John Wesley Powell auditorium. Bill Oliver introduced Jim Cooke of
Jerry
Goldberg informed the Society of the recent publication of the "Shore
Protection Manual" by the
The
formal program opened with a paper by Richard S. Fiske (USGS) and Othmar T. Tobisch (
Maurice
Terman of the USGS followed with a paper on
"East Asian tectonics since the Paleozoic: Implications for the western
Pacific." He showed us reconstructions of plate positions for many, many
times between 200 m.y. before present and the
present. He suggested that a sedimentary basin may develop on the trailing edge
of a plate in response to uplift and the formation of a magmatic
arc on the leading edge. Discussion by Arculus, Zen, Doane and Sato.
The
program concluded with a talk and movie by Thomas R. Waller of the Smithsonian
on "Living habits of some marine bivalves." We saw sitting bivalves,
walking bivalves, swimming bivalves, scared bivalves and inscrutable bivalves.
Discussed by Roedder, Stewart, Henry Bell (who had hoped to see flying
bivalves), Peck, Bass, Cox, Doane, Toulmin, Sato,
Anita Epstein, Stanley, Towe and Peggy Appleman (who
asked the most cruel of all questions - Why?)
Prior
to adjournment President Zen again mentioned the problem of late delivery of
meeting notices. He suggested that another source of delay, in addition to the
Postal Service, might be the printer. Spilhaus was
heard by some to exclaim loudly, "Impossible" and by others
"____" (expletive deleted).
Meeting
adjourned 10:05 p.m. Attendance 145. Income from refreshments $59.60.
Douglas
W. Rankin
Secretary
The
Geological Society of
November
13, 1974
President
Zen called the 991st meeting of the Society to order at 8:02 p.m. in the John
Wesley Powell auditorium. Harry Ladd
introduced Professor Alan Cohn of the
Jack
Reed of the U.S.G.S., opened the formal program presenting a paper by himself
and Bob Zartman on The Teton Range,
Next,
A. G. Coates, of
Donald
W. Peterson of the U.S.G.S. - Hawaii Volcano Observatory concluded the program
with a beautifully illustrated talk, Recent eruptiye
activity at, Kilauea Volcano,
Meeting
adjourned at 9:43 p.m. Attendance
167. Income from refreshments $41.95.
Douglas
W. Rankin
Secretary
Geological
Society of
December 11,
1974
President
Zen called the 992nd meeting of the Society to order at 8:02 p.m. in the John
Wesley Powell auditorium. Professor Fuster of the
Minutes
of the 991st meeting were approved and the names of 11 new members were read.
At the President's request the Society stood for a moment of silence in memory
of Jerry Hadley.
President
Zen then turned the chair over to Vice President Tracey who gave us a brief
rundown on the very active life of our President before, in turn, introducing
him. The Presidential address, The last 80 million years in the Pioneer Mountains,
Montana; a short story with igneous punctuation, clearly reflected the
geologic versatility of the speaker, and an early encounter with the amplifying
system provided yet a new challenge. The geologic story presented for the
Meeting
adjourned for beer and the Annual Meeting about 8:45. Attendance, a disappointing 125. Income from
refreshments, $49.
Douglas
W. Rankin
Secretary
[Minutes of Annual Meeting 82 lost]