Category Archives: announcements

Wednesday, 17 Feb 2021

Michelle Muth, University of Oregon, “The origin of sulfur in volcanic arcs“

Yan Zhan, Carnegie Science, “An instant pot model for volcanic degassing“

Kyle Anderson, US Geological Survey, “Geophysical insights from the world’s best-documented caldera collapse: Kilauea Volcano, 2018“

Talks will be 20 minutes with questions to follow. The Zoom link opens at 7:30 PM for socializing. Formal program begins at 8 PM Eastern time.

To insure that our speakers are able to present their talks without any distractions or disruptions, the meeting will be locked 15 minutes after the formal program begins, after which time new attendees will only be allowed into the meeting room between talks (the waiting room will be enabled for anyone trying to enter the meeting during a talk). Further details, including the Zoom link to the talk, will be sent to members shortly. For non-members, please e-mail Mong-Han Huang (mhhuang [at] umd.edu) for the Zoom link.

Dear GSW members,

I hope you and yours are faring well in these difficult times.

As you know, our next GSW meeting (on March 25) is a virtual meeting using Zoom technology.

Here is a link to a short survey about the March 11 GSW meeting we held at AGU headquarters: https://forms.gle/6ANPt7eC9g2rbiCW8

To complete this short survey you will need to provide your email address, but rest assured that your answer will be completely anonymized before GSW officers see the aggregate answers. Please respond by March 27.

Thank you, and hope to see you virtually on March 25!

Ester Sztein, PhD
President,
Geological Society of Washington

The Bradley Award, for best paper, goes to Deborah Green, for ‘You Don’t Look like a Geologist – Why are the Geosciences the least diverse of the STEM fields?’

The Bradley Award for 2nd best paper goes to Larry C. Peterson of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami for ‘Ice Cores and Ocean Mud: Records of Abrupt Climate Change and Implications for Tropical Hydrology’

The Great Dane Award, for the best informal communication to the society of timely or newsworthy events, goes to James W Head of Brown University, Dept of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, for ‘Chang’E 4 Mission to the Lunar Farside and the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP)’

The Sleeping Bear Award, for the person who displays the most memorable act of genuine good humor, goes to Bill Burton of the US Geological Survey.

Congratulations to all four of the awardees!

Since its founding in 1893, the Geological Society of Washington has held its meetings at the Cosmos Club, which had been founded as a social club with John Wesley Powell and several other noted geologists among its initial members. The Cosmos Club charges us both a rental fee and a per-drink charge; in 2018/19 the average cost per meeting was about $1,115. The American Geophysical Union (AGU) has now made a proposal to host our meetings at its facility (about a 7-minute walk north of the Dupont Circle metro station, with a parking deck directly across the street) at a flat cost of $900 per meeting (including all drinks). Details of their offer can be viewed here.

AGU is offering us this significantly lower rate for a period of 3 years. The AGU facility is a carbon net-zero building with many sustainability amenities, has more modern projection and recording technology, and would associate GSW with the largest organization of Earth science professionals in the world. However, it is not yet known how relations with an organization so much larger than the Cosmos Club might impact GSW’s routine and membership. The GSW Council had hoped that we could have at least one “trial” meeting at the AGU facility this fall for the Bradley Lecture on Nov. 13 so we booked their large conference room, and AGU confirmed that reservation. Subsequently, AGU had a higher priority group that they wanted to host in their conference room, so they asked us to move. AGU has offered to reimburse the GSW for the rental of the Powell auditorium at the Cosmos Club, and we were able to secure that room again for the Bradley lecture on Nov. 13.

This poll is a nonbinding referendum to get the GSW membership’s initial reactions to the proposed move to AGU as our venue. The issue will be discussed by the GSW Council at its meeting on 23 October. There will be no final decision on a move until spring 2020, after we have had an opportunity for at least one “trial” meeting at the AGU building.

The options under consideration are:

(1) move all GSW meetings to the AGU facility
(2) keep all GSW meetings at the Cosmos Club
(3) split GSW meetings between AGU and Cosmos Club

This poll will be open for about a week. Please complete the poll by Sunday, October 20th.

You must enter your email address to ensure that each member only completes this survey once. The email identification information will be removed by the pollster before the results are shared with Council. (In other words, all comments will be “anonymized” before any GSW officer sees them.)

https://forms.gle/MUc1oHZ8yzTNef5Y7

GSW venue survey: relocate or stay? forms.gle