DOCSLIB.ORG

Medals and Awards for 1981 Presentation of the Penrose Medal

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Medals and Awards for 1981 Presentation of the Penrose Medal Medals and Awards for 1981 Presentation of the Penrose Medal to John Rodgers CITATION BY STEVEN S. ORIEL Cordilleran thrust-belt students, both in Canada and in the United States have emphasized during the past decade or so that Some of you may remember that John Rodgers served as a crystalline basement generally is not involved in the tight foreland Medal citationist in 1963. At that time, John recalled that he and deformation. That concept, of course, was deftly illuminated in fellow graduate students attended the 1938 Fiftieth Anniversary 1949 by John Rodgers, who, while acknowledging his debt to John banquet of the Society, in happy anonymity away from this uncom- L. Rich, defined the thin-skinned and thick-skinned attributes of fortable spotlight, and amused themselves by exchanging remarks both Appalachian tectonic analyses and the geologists who study about the speakers. The Penrose Medalist's response that year different parts of that beast. Other contributions by John have included a generous dose of advice for the youngsters on how they, included emphasis on the significance of the internal metamorphic too, might build exalted careers and perhaps some day earn the belt, definition of the history of orogeny, and attempts to define the Medal. John concluded his citation preface with the statement: "I early continental margin. don't intend to repeat that advice (it's pretty obvious it never did me John is a frequent and active participant in conferences and any good). ." All of which establishes that John's crystal ball is field trips, not only in the Appalachians, but in mountain belts no less clouded than yours or mine. throughout the world. His incisive observations are invariably con- If that advice was not entirely heeded, how then did John structive. His discussions, like his monumental book, The Tectonics Rodgers come to merit a place among our distinguished company of the Appalachians, reflect a spirit of inquiry and search for truth. of Penrose Medalists? John's own words, in his citation for Medalist Bill Rubey, apply John has earned an enviable reputation as a pre-eminent earth most eloquently to himself: scientist, as a great teacher, as a distinguished and gifted editor, as an accomplished pianist, as a proficient linguist, as a historian, He isn't out to proclaim triumphantly that he has at last found the theory and as a raconteur. that explains all the facts; he's out to find out what those facts really are and The stories about John are legion, but one concerning his then diffidently to suggest that perhaps such or such a theory will help to explain them. linguistic ability may be appropriate. His students have always been in awe of his ability to stay abreast of the international literature, ... he recognizes the proper role of the theoretician: to do his part with all whatever the language. But one student with an inquiring mind the rest in obtaining, analyzing, and evaluating the facts and in building asked a prominent French geologist how John's spoken French partial hypotheses and temporary explanations that will further our com- served him in discussions during a sabbatical in Paris. The response mon goal, the gradual construction of a more nearly perfect theory. was, "Hearing John speak French gives one courage to try English." So much for his French; I do not know about his German, Russian, It seems particularly appropriate and timely that the Society Chinese, and Greek. again chose this year to honor a teacher. Discussions in the hallways But few have ever tried to play the piano after John had dem- indicate that earth-scence education has seldom been in greater onstrated his virtuosity. And very few of his more distinguished jeopardy. Classrooms are being abandoned in the scramble for students have chosen to pursue work in the Appalachians; most higher salaries, yet the demand for earth scientists has never been have moved on to other mountain systems of the world. greater (which obviously presents industry with a responsibility that John's outstanding contributions to an understanding of the it has yet to address adequately). John is not only a dedicated Appalachian Mountain System are known to almost everyone in teacher, but also an enthusiastic and inspired one. And his personal this room. Not only has he looked at, poked at, and worked on demands are few: all he needs is a little travel money, some white details of local geology from Newfoundland to Alabama, but he has socks, a wide necktie, and a Resident's suite at one of the Yale stimulated many studies by others. Allegations that he simply fol- colleges with sufficient room for a grand piano. He has served lowed a family tradition begun in the previous century by the longer as a Resident-Fellow at Branford College than anyone else at Rodgers brothers are unfounded; his association with the Appal- Yale, where he continues to welcome wide-ranging discussions with achians began in 1933 when he attended a Cornell University field undergraduates, whatever their interests. camp in Pennsylvania, after his interest in geology had been kindled Among the first graduate courses that John taught at Yale was at the Albany Academy and at the New York State Museum in one on stratigraphy. It consisted of a delightful series of discussions Albany. He worked in Vermont for his master's thesis and in east- of sedimentation and stratigraphic principles. Each discussion ern Tennessee for his Ph.D., and has been studying field relations seemed fresh and relaxed, indeed even undirected. Yet when that ever since. Rumor has it that he may even complete a geologic map class prepared for the final exam, those who had taken extensive of Connecticut, but E-An Zen is not betting on it. notes recognized that they had the first beautifully organized and Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 93, p. 357-369, 7 figs., April 1982. 357 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/93/4/369/3419646/i0016-7606-93-4-369.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 358 MEDALS AND AWARDS FOR 19131 completed draft of an outstanding book on stratigraphy, later pub- coming when needed by staff members. He did make waves, lished as the classic textbook, Principles of Stratigraphy, by Dun- though. Whenever he traveled on Society business, accommoda- bar and Rodgers. Incidentally, John is also very skillful in tions had to be found adequate to house not only him but also a defending a doctoral dissertation—he did a superb job in defending grand piano—a piano that had to be found and rented at his mine! expense. John's students have always known of his enthusiasm and skill Among John's outstanding contributions to our profession has as a teacher and of the stimulation he evokes. Some of this stimulus been his steady and con tinuing commitment for more than 30 years has even spilled over into some obscure Ivy-league institutions and to editing Silliman's Journal, the American Journal of Science. into more field-oriented schools from Blacksburg to Tallahassee. Coincidentally, he has also occupied the Benjamin Silliman chair in Many students at these universities have benefited from his interest geology at Yale since 1962. As has been acknowledged by others, and comments, especially at meetings. every issue of AJS bears the stamp of his critical mind, insistence on John further serves his profession and his nation in one other quality, relish for controversy, and enthusiasm for diversity. The important way: he instills in his students, mainly by his own exam- AJS "John Rodgers volume," published in 1975 while he was on ple, a sense of the responsibilities of good citizenship. He has served sabbatical, remains must-reading for anyone interested in tectonics not only this Society, but other local and international groups, in and mountain ranges. Other journals have much to learn from his numerous ways. So, too, have many of his students. Not because of dedicated and able stewardship. old school ties, but because of our obligations as members of our Despite John's enviable accomplishments, he perennially dis- several communities—to serve, rather than to covet titles. plays an interest in people and concern for them. Controversy is The GSA staff recalls John's term as President of the Society in hardly shunned, but there is never rancor. 1970 as not only productive but tranquil. What a tribute to his The selection of this year's Medalist is singularly appropriate, leadership! His advice, support, and guidance were always forth- for John is the kind of scientist for whom the Medal was intended. RESPONSE BY JOHN RODGERS The Penrose Medal has been something important for me ever since I was in college. In 1934, when I was just a junior geology major at Cornell University, I went to my first GSA meeting and witnessed for the first time the award of the Penrose Medal, when it was only seven years old. It made a deep impression on me. I've been to a large majority of the GSA meetings since then, and at most of them I've witnessed the award of the Medal, as, one after another, many of the great geologists of my young years were honored. Several of those occasions were, like the first one, out- standing moments in my life. So the Penrose Medal became for me a symbol of the geologists I most looked up to. But now, this time, I'm not a witness any more, I'm the one standing here. I tell you, it's scary, to be judged by the standards set by all the geologists who have been Medalists in the past, to have to ask myself soberly whether I measure up to the qualifications that Penrose spelled out for the medal he established.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • GSA TODAY December Vol
    Vol. 5, No. 12 December 1995 INSIDE • New Members, Fellows, Student Associates, p. 247 GSA TODAY South-Central Section Meeting, p. 250 • A Publication of the Geological Society of America • Northeastern Section Meeting, p. 253 Seismic Images of the A B Core-Mantle Boundary Michael E. Wysession, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130 C D ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION Seismology presents several ways While most geologists, including of providing images of the geologic specialists in the field of seismology, structures that exist in the lowermost study rocks at Earth’s surface, more mantle just above the core-mantle attention also is being paid to the boundary (CMB). An understanding planet’s other major boundary, that of the possibly complex geophysical between the core and mantle. With a E F processes occurring at this major density jump of 4.3 kg/m3 between discontinuity requires the combined the silicate lower mantle and the liquid efforts of many fields, but it is the iron outer core, as well as a tempera- role of seismology to geographically ture increase of possibly 1500 °C map out this largely uncharted terri- between the lower mantle adiabat and tory. Seismic phases that reflect, outer core, the core-mantle boundary diffract, and refract across the CMB (CMB) may well be Earth’s most signifi- can all be used to provide different cant and dramatic discontinuity. Our Figure 1. Images from a motion picture showing the propagation of seismic shear energy information in different ways. increasing knowledge of this highly through the mantle (Wysession and Shore, 1994).
    [Show full text]
  • GSA TODAY North-Central, P
    Vol. 9, No. 10 October 1999 INSIDE • 1999 Honorary Fellows, p. 16 • Awards Nominations, p. 18, 20 • 2000 Section Meetings GSA TODAY North-Central, p. 27 A Publication of the Geological Society of America Rocky Mountain, p. 28 Cordilleran, p. 30 Refining Rodinia: Geologic Evidence for the Australia–Western U.S. connection in the Proterozoic Karl E. Karlstrom, [email protected], Stephen S. Harlan*, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131 Michael L. Williams, Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003-5820, [email protected] James McLelland, Department of Geology, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY 13346, [email protected] John W. Geissman, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, [email protected] Karl-Inge Åhäll, Earth Sciences Centre, Göteborg University, Box 460, SE-405 30 Göteborg, Sweden, [email protected] ABSTRACT BALTICA Prior to the Grenvillian continent- continent collision at about 1.0 Ga, the southern margin of Laurentia was a long-lived convergent margin that SWEAT TRANSSCANDINAVIAN extended from Greenland to southern W. GOTHIAM California. The truncation of these 1.8–1.0 Ga orogenic belts in southwest- ern and northeastern Laurentia suggests KETILIDEAN that they once extended farther. We propose that Australia contains the con- tinuation of these belts to the southwest LABRADORIAN and that Baltica was the continuation to the northeast. The combined orogenic LAURENTIA system was comparable in
    [Show full text]
  • IN THIS ISSUE GSA TODAY May Vol
    Vol. 8, No. 5 May 1998 INSIDE • Upcoming Penrose Conference GSA TODAY p. 16 • Book Reviews, p. 19 A Publication of the Geological Society of America • Calls for Service, p. 3, 23, 26 Comings and Goings of Global Glaciations on a Neoproterozoic Tropical Platform in Namibia Paul F. Hoffman, Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138 Alan J. Kaufman, Department of Geology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 Galen P. Halverson, Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138 ABSTRACT many Neoproterozoic glacial deposits are Kennedy, 1996)—a climatological or geo- rich in carbonate debris and are directly chemical paradox, given that inorganic An enduring enigma of Neoprotero- overlain by carbonates containing struc- zoic Earth history is the intimate associ- tures indicative of sea-floor precipitates ation of glacial diamictites with typical (Fig. 1)(Roberts, 1976; Fairchild, 1993; Global Glaciations continued on p. 2 warm-water carbonates. Among the many hypothesized explanations for this paleoclimatic dichotomy are high orbital obliquity, true polar wander, reduced solar luminosity, snowball albedo, CO2 drawdown, stagnant ocean overturn, and reinterpretation of diamictites as mega-impact ejecta. The Otavi carbonate platform on the Congo craton in Namibia contains two discrete intervals of diamictite and associated glaciomarine deposits, sand- wiched by thick carbonates from which we have obtained detailed carbon-iso- topic records. From subsidence analysis,
    [Show full text]
  • GSA TODAY • 1998 Section Meetings a Publication of the Geological Society of America Southeastern, P
    Vol. 7, No. 10 October 1997 INSIDE • New Honorary Fellows, p. 15 • Call for Award Nominations, p. 16, 22, 24, 26 GSA TODAY • 1998 Section Meetings A Publication of the Geological Society of America Southeastern, p. 27 Cordilleran, p. 29 Postglacial Ponds and Alluvial Fans: Recorders of Holocene Landscape History Paul Bierman,* Andrea Lini, Paul Zehfuss, Amy Church, Department of Geology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405 P. Thompson Davis, Department of Natural Sciences, Bentley College, Waltham, MA 02154 John Southon, Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550 Lyn Baldwin, Field Naturalist Program, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405 ABSTRACT northern Vermont as an example, alluvial fan sediments reveal that we demonstrate that the sedimentary the highest rates of hillslope erosion Little is known about rates and record preserved in humid-region occurred as a consequence of European patterns of Holocene hillslope erosion ponds and alluvial fans can be dated, settlement. The geologic record of colo- in areas once covered by Pleistocene ice deciphered isotopically and stratigraph- nial deforestation is clear, revealing sheets and now heavily populated. Yet, ically, and used to understand the his- significant human impact and suggest- understanding past landscape behavior tory of hillslope erosion. Our data sug- ing that past landscape response is a is prerequisite to predicting and mitigat- gest that erosion rates were higher in meaningful basis for guiding future ing future impacts of human-induced the early and late Holocene than in the land management practices. disturbance and climate change. Using mid-Holocene, perhaps the result of changing climate and the frequency INTRODUCTION *E-mail address: [email protected].
    [Show full text]
  • Bibliography of U. S. Geological Survey Publications on Lead and Zinc
    2421 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CIRCULAR 242 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PUBLICATIONS ON LEAD AND ZINC By Gwendolyn W. Luttrell (To January 1, 1953) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Douglas McKay, Secretary GEOLOGICAL SURVEY W. E. Wrather, Director GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CIRCULAR 242 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PUBLICATIONS ON LEAD AND ZINC By Gwendolyn W. Luttrell (To January 1,1953) Washington, D. C., 1953 Free on application to the Geological Survey, Washington 25, D. C. CONTENTS Page Page Scope and plan................................. 1 Bibliography Continued Bibliography .................................. 1 Circulars ................................ 7 Professional papers....................... 1 Preliminary reports and maps in open files.... 8 Bulletins................................. 2 Preliminary reports and maps for Monographs .............................. 6 limited distribution...........,.......... 9 Mineral resources of the United States ...... 6 Maps .................................... 11 Annual reports ........................... 6 Miscellaneous publications................. 11 Folios of the Geologic Atlas of the Subject index................................... 15 United States........................... 7 Author index .................................... 17 iii BIBLIOGRAPHY OF U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PUBLICATIONS ON LEAD AND ZINC SCOPE AND PLAN This bibliography lists all publications on lead and zinc published by the Geological Survey prior to January 1, 1953. The reports are grouped by type of publication,
    [Show full text]
  • Rummaging Through the Attic; Or, a Brief History of the Geological Sciences at Yale
    » Geological Society of America Centennial Special Volume 1 1985 Rummaging through the attic; Or, A brief history of the geological sciences at Yale Brian J. Skinner Department of Geology and Geophysics Yak University P.O. Box 6666 New Haven, Connecticut 06511 Barbara L. Narendra Peabody Museum of Natural History Yak University P.O. Box 6666 New Haven, Connecticut 06511 ABSTRACT Commencing with the appointment of Benjamin Silliman as Professor of Chemistry and Natural History in 1802, the history of instruction and research in the geological sciences at Yale can be conveniently divided into seven generation-long stages. Each stage was characterized by a group of faculty members whose interests and personalities imparted a distinct flavor and character to the institution; as those faculty members left, retired, or died over a decade-long period of change, responsibility for geological studies passed to a new generation. The first stage began with the appointment of Silliman; the second started in 1850 as Silliman's career drew to a close and J. D. Dana, his son-in-law, was appointed to the faculty, and brought the first Ph.D. degrees in the United States. The third stage com• menced in 1880, and the fourth beginning in 1900, brought the first faculty appointments specifically for graduate instruction. The fifth and sixth stages saw the formative moves that welded different administrative units together, leading to today's Department of Geology and Geophysics. Stage seven, commencing in 1965, includes the present (1984), but holds the seeds of stage eight. The increasing diversity of research activities in geology has led to a doubling of the number of geological faculty employed at Yale approximately every 50 years.
    [Show full text]
  • B-90 Annotated Bibliography of Georgia Geology 1965-1970
    ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GEORGIA GEOLOGY 1965 through 1970 by Howard Ross Cramer STATE OF GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES Joe D. Tanner, Commissioner THE GEOLOGIC AND WATER RESOURCES DIVISION Sam M. Pickering, State Geologist and Division Director ATLANTA 1976 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GEORGIA GEOLOGY FROM 1965 through 1970. by Howard Ross Cramer This bibliography is a continuation of, and a supplement to, the Annotated Bibliogra­ phy of Georgia Geology through 1959 and the Annotated Bibliography of Georgia Ge­ ology, supplement from 1960 through 1964. These were published as Bulletins 79 and 84 of the Georgia Geological Surve-y, This bibliography contains annotations of not only those articles published' during 196.5''through 1970 inclusively, but also those published at earlier dates which were not included in Bulletins 79 and 84. The annotations and index pattern of this supplement are similar to those established for Bulletins 79 and 84 which in turn have been modelled after those established by the U.S. Geological Survey and used in the preparation of the BibYiography of North Ameri­ can Geology. Each article was read, annotated, and indexed by county, subject, and geological age where appliGable. In those cases where the geographic area of the subject was greater than a county, subdivisions of the state, based upon physiographic provinces, were em­ ployed. These subdivisions are outlined in Figure 1. Theses from colleges and universities in the United States and elsewhere are included if they contain information about Georgia. They are indexed, but not annotated. Ab­ stracts of papers are not included if the paper has appeared in full except for theses; abstracts are not annotated, however.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 8. Partnership in the Natural-Resources Program, 1953–1955
    Chapter 8. Partnership in the Natural-Resources Program, 1953–1955 The best natural resources program for America will not result from exclusive dependence on Federal bureaucracy. It will involve a partnership of the States and local communities, private citizens, and the Federal Government, all working together. This combined effort will advance the development of the great river valleys of our Nation and the power that they can generate. Likewise, such a partnership can be effective in the expansion throughout the Nation of upstream storage; the sound use of public lands; the wise conservation of minerals; and the sustained yield of our forests.1 —Dwight D. Eisenhower The convening of the 83d Congress on January 3, 1953, and the inaugura- tion of Dwight Eisenhower as the 34th President of the United States 17 days later began an upheaval in the Federal Government. During the almost 20 years since the last Republican President, the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, except in the 80th of 1947–49, and Cabinet officers, with few excep- tions, were Democrats. During those two decades of peace and war, the United States had changed economically, politically, and socially. America’s gross domestic product had grown sixfold, the net national income increased sevenfold, and the national debt rose ninefold. The Nation’s view of the world changed as well; the so-called rugged individualism of Hoover’s day gave way to social consciousness, and internationalism succeeded isolationism. The United States, emerging from World War II as the world’s dominant superpower, became the largest contributor to the rehabilitation and development of impoverished nations.
    [Show full text]
  • GSA TODAY October
    Vol. 5, No. 10 October 1995 INSIDE • Aerial Photos by Washburn, p. 200 • Call for Award Nominations, p. 203 • Rocky Mountain Section Meeting, GSA TODAY p. 206 A Publication of the Geological Society of America • Cordilleran Section Meeting, p. 207 Figure 2. Topography of the Manicouagan complex impact The Record of Terrestrial structure, Quebec, Canada. The original diameter of this Impact Cratering 214 ± 1 Ma structure is esti- mated to have been 100 km. Richard Grieve, James Rupert, Janice Smith, Ann Therriault Erosion, however, has removed the rim, and the structure Continental Geoscience Division. Geological Survey of Canada appears as a series of circular Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0Y3, Canada features with positive and nega- tive relief, beginning with a 150-km-diameter outer fracture zone, seen most easily in the western and southern sectors, ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION and culminating in slightly off- center topographic peaks. The Approximately 150 terrestrial The first studies of a terrestrial annular Manicouagan reservoir impact structures are currently impact structure, of the now famous (dark green area slightly left of known, representing a small, biased Meteor or Barringer Crater, Arizona, in center) is ˜65 km in diameter sample of a much larger population. the early 1900s by D. M. Barringer and and at ˜360 m elevation. Eleva- The spatial distribution indicates colleagues, produced more controversy tions in the center are as much as 1100 m (brown). concentrations in cratonic areas— than acceptance. There was, however, a ˜ in particular, ones where there have gradual increase in the number of rec- been active search programs. The ognized small craters with meteorite majority of the known impact struc- fragments until the 1960s, when so- tures are <200 m.y.
    [Show full text]
  • GSA TODAY • Call for Award Nominations, P
    Vol. 6, No. 10 October 1996 INSIDE • First International Secretary Named, p. 22 • 1996 Honorary Fellows, p. 23 GSA TODAY • Call for Award Nominations, p. 26 A Publication of the Geological Society of America • Southeastern Section 1997 Meeting, p. 32 Out of the Icehouse into the Greenhouse: A Late Paleozoic Analog for Modern Global Vegetational Change Robert A. Gastaldo, Department of Geol- ogy, Auburn University, AL 36849-5305, William A. DiMichele, Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20506, Hermann W. Pfefferkom, Department of Geology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6316 ABSTRACT A change to global greenhouse con- ditions following deglaciation occurred during the late Paleozoic. The deep-past data set preserved in the stratigraphic record can serve as a model system to understand vegetational responses dur- ing this kind of climatic change, espe- cially in the tropics. No other time in Earth history so mimics the late Ceno- •umM zoic or provides the long-term data set from which generalizations can be Figure 1. Reconstruction of middle late Carboniferous tropical coal swamp showing different plant deduced. Two long-term glacial cycles communities made up of tree lycopods (L, tree club mosses), tree sphenopsids (two brushlike trees above letter S in center and tree scouring rushes), tree ferns (F), pteridosperms (P, seed plants with have been identified in Permian-Car- fernlike leaves; extinct group), and cordaites (C, seed plants with strap-shaped leaves; extinct group). boniferous time. The waxing and wan- From a painting by Alice Prickett, published in black and white in Phillips and Cross (1991, pi.
    [Show full text]
  • 2006 Medals & Awards Rip Rapp Archaeological Geology Award
    2006 MEDALS & AWARDS RIP RAPP in the Department of Geosciences. Under redundancy, Pete saw a big, varied landscape the tutelage of paleoecologist Paul Martin, with abundant evidence of environmental ARCHAEOLOGICAL vertebrate paleontologist John Lance, change including glacial cirques, pluvial lake GEOLOGY AWARD geochronologist Ted Smiley, and geochemist strandlines, and sand dunes. Pete became Paul Damon, Pete turned his energies interested in understanding how and when Presented to Peter J. Mehringer towards solving “deep mysteries of the these environmental changes occurred, and past”. At Arizona, Pete specialized in pollen how they influenced past human settlement analysis of ancient deposits as a means of and behavior. Following in the footsteps of environmental reconstruction and worked in Henry P. Hansen, Ernst Antevs, and others, the Geochronology Laboratory where there Pete searched nature’s archives extracting was considerable interest in dating important pollen, charcoal, and other macrobotanical archaeological sites. Thus, Pete soon began remains from a variety of geological and collaborating with archaeologists in trying archaeological contexts including dunes, to understand the environmental context of spring mounds, caves, lakes, and marshes. In archaeological sites. Although pollen analysis many of these ecological repositories were was well established in archaeological layers of volcanic ash that Pete recognized as research in northern Europe, it had been important chronostratigraphic markers that relatively uncommon in North America prior could be used to help correlate archaeological to the 1960s. However, it soon became clear sites and date environmental changes. Pete that palynology had much to offer New World became involved in several archaeological archaeologists, including the reconstruction of projects including the Steens Mountain environment and human subsistence.
    [Show full text]
  • GSA TODAY • Call for Award Nominations, P
    Vol. 6, No. 10 October 1996 INSIDE • First International Secretary Named, p. 22 • 1996 Honorary Fellows, p. 23 GSA TODAY • Call for Award Nominations, p. 26 A Publication of the Geological Society of America • Southeastern Section 1997 Meeting, p. 32 Out of the Icehouse into the Greenhouse: A Late Paleozoic Analog for Modern Global Vegetational Change Robert A. Gastaldo, Department of Geol- ogy, Auburn University, AL 36849-5305, William A. DiMichele, Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20506, Hermann W. Pfefferkorn, Department of Geology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6316 L ABSTRACT A change to global greenhouse con- ditions following deglaciation occurred during the late Paleozoic. The deep-past data set preserved in the stratigraphic C record can serve as a model system to understand vegetational responses dur- ing this kind of climatic change, espe- cially in the tropics. No other time in Earth history so mimics the late Ceno- FSSP zoic or provides the long-term data set from which generalizations can be Figure 1. Reconstruction of middle late Carboniferous tropical coal swamp showing different plant deduced. Two long-term glacial cycles communities made up of tree lycopods (L, tree club mosses), tree sphenopsids (two brushlike trees above letter S in center and tree scouring rushes), tree ferns (F), pteridosperms (P, seed plants with have been identified in Permian-Car- fernlike leaves; extinct group), and cordaites (C, seed plants with strap-shaped leaves; extinct group). boniferous time. The waxing and wan- From a painting by Alice Prickett, published in black and white in Phillips and Cross (1991, pl.
    [Show full text]