2002 Medals and Awards

PENROSE Maxwell (1963 and 1974 GSA oratory, and modeling work. An iridium Presidents, respectively). After receiv- layer at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) MEDAL ing his Ph.D., Walter worked for a time boundary reportedly has been discov- Presented to Walter Alvarez for the American Overseas Petroleum ered in more than 100 sites around the Company, exploring in the world, as has the “smoking gun”—an Mediterranean and North Sea regions. impact site in Yucatán, and “splash” de- Out of this work came several contribu- posits around the Gulf of Mexico and in tions to the tectonics of North Africa, the Atlantic east of Florida. Several Sicily, and Corsica-Sardinia, one of other extinction events in earth history which was a co-edited book entitled have been ascribed to impacts. The Geology and History of Sicily. The original paper has been Walter moved to Lamont- cited more than 1100 times. Four inter- Doherty Geological Observatory in disciplinary, so-called “Snowbird” con- 1971 and to UC Berkeley in 1977. ferences have focused on the subject of During this time Walter continued his global catastrophes and earth history. work in the Mediterranean with a series The first two of these conferences were of important papers on paleomagnet- held in Snowbird, Utah, in 1982 and ism, magnetostratigraphy, Cretaceous- 1988, the third in Houston in 1994, and Walter Alvarez Tertiary stratigraphy, and upon struc- the most recent in Vienna in 2000. (All tural features observed in the complexly these conference proceedings have been deformed rocks of Italy and the Alps. published as GSA Special Papers.) Citation by Eldridge Moores Walter was one of the first workers to Walter has been directly in- President Naldrett, Vice document the rotation of Corsica and volved with much of this work. It has President Burchfiel, ladies and gentle- Sardinia during the Neogene, a work been interesting to watch him handle men. It is my privilege and honor to in- which presages the now well-known the notoriety, as well as the controversy, troduce to you Walter S. Alvarez, the complex microplate interactions that that this issue has generated. He has be- 2002 GSA Penrose Medalist. Walter is characterize the entire Alpine- come a master of what he calls “the a true renaissance man who has made Himalayan belt, as well as other colli- gentle art of scientific trespassing.” This outstanding contributions to the field of sional plate margins. His work on the he defines as working in a profoundly geology. application of fold distortion to trans- interdisciplinary field and overcoming port direction determination and on the Walter and I go way back—we the problems caused by differences in origin and significance of solution were graduate students together at the training of one’s co-workers, differ- cleavage stand as landmark contribu- Princeton in the early 1960s; we got ent scientific cultures, and different per- tions. More recently he has worked on married within a week of each other, ceptions of a scientific hierarchy or the Quaternary volcanic province and we had a joint bachelor party, a pecking order, not to mention judging around Rome. subject on which we have a mutual pact the quality of work in different fields of “omertà” (the Italian word for the Walter’s research on and overcoming the barriers of discipli- Mafia’s “code of silence”). Cretaceous stratigraphy and magne- nary-specific jargon. Through it all, In the 35 years since receiving tostratigraphy in northern Italy led to Walter has remained a cheerful, hard- his Ph.D., Walter has been a prolific re- his discovery with his coworkers, his working, extremely versatile, imagina- searcher and writer on a variety of sub- father Luis Alvarez, Frank Asaro and tive, and very well organized geologist. jects. His geologic work includes con- Helen Michel, of an iridium-rich layer This work has placed Walter at the fore- tributions to South American geology, at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. front of a revolution in geology every Mediterranean tectonics, structural ge- When they published this discovery in bit as important as the plate tectonic ology, magnetostratigraphy, and, of 1980, they provocatively suggested that revolution of the 1960s; that is, the course, impacts. Walter’s Ph.D. work the layer resulted from a meteorite im- planetary revolution—our ideas of was on the Guajíra peninsula, pact that caused the mass extinctions at Earth’s place in space. We now know Colombia, the northernmost tip of the end of the Cretaceous. This origi- that there have been and will be peri- South America. He was one of the last nally revolutionary, controversial hy- odic catastrophic collisions between the students of the Caribbean Research pothesis has been corroborated by an Earth and asteroids or comets. And Project of Harry Hess and John enormous amount of detailed field, lab- these collisions have significantly af-

The Geological Society of America P. 1 2002 Medals and Awards

fected the evolution of the Earth and its All that changed — reversed, the smuggling business. And I discov- life. even — when I went off to college at ered that I had married the perfect geol- Carleton, in Minnesota, where the hori- ogist’s wife — the worse the condi- Walter has received many zontal Paleozoic strata and the glacial tions, the better she liked it. awards and recognitions for his work, deposits are orderly and well behaved. including membership in the National Uncle Harry’s idea of sea- But in exchange, Minnesota taught me Academy of Sciences and the American floor spreading was gaining support, about seasons, and especially about Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addi- and the springtime of a new geology winter, where two-week stretches of tion, he is the recipient of the was sweeping across the world. I sim- 20-below-zero reminded us that the gla- G.K.Gilbert award of the GSA ply watched from my ringside seat at ciers were not long gone, and would Planetary Geology Division, and an Princeton. But friends of mine made soon be back. honorary citizenship of the towns of major contributions, like my roommate Gubbio and Piobbico, Italy. In a certain sense, it was then Eldridge Moores, whose studies of the winter of Geology as well, and as a Mediterranean ophiolites convinced Walter is a man of many tal- student, I absorbed two venerable dog- Harry Hess that ocean floor was made ents and interests. He is a multilinguist, mas that held our science as icebound of basalt, not of serpentinite, as he had speaking Italian, Spanish, German, and as the upper Mississippi in January. The originally proposed. French. He is an accomplished pianist, continents, I learned, have always been a pilot, and an enthusiastic raconteur. I emerged from Princeton in exactly where they are today, and there 1967, into the summer of a revitalized In summary, I believe that was no merit in the foolish ideas of an geology, fully merged with geophysics, Walter Alvarez’s contributions have eccentric German meteorologist named and pouring forth a stream of new dis- been of great importance in a number of Alfred Wegener. And I also acquired a coveries about a dynamic Earth on fields including Caribbean and Alpine- reverence for the doctrine of uniformi- which continents move about, just as Mediterranean geology, structural geol- tarianism — the view that nothing in Alfred Wegener had said they do. In the ogy, and magnetostratigraphy and the past has ever happened at a faster summer of young adulthood, Milly and global impact events. His impact work rate, or by a different process than we I lived an adventurous life, first in has fundamentally changed the way we can observe today. Holland and then in Libya. view the history of the Earth and its life. In 1962 I went to Princeton as He is highly deserving of this award. And then, to follow up on a a new grad student. Through an uncom- Ladies and Gentlemen: Walter Alvarez. growing interest in Mediterranean mi- monly fortunate blind date, I met Milly, croplates and archeological geology, we a most remarkable young woman from moved to Italy, which soon became a Virginia, and we fell in love in Response by Walter Alvarez second home. There, for many years, I Washington DC, where she was a grad have found the fascination of the Thank you so much, Eldridge. student, among the blossoming cherry Apennine Mountains matched only by It is such an honor to receive the trees that brighten the banks of the the kindness of the geologists of Italy, Penrose Medal not only from a lifelong Potomac in the spring. who took me into their friendship and friend, but from someone who has done Springtime was bursting forth shared their country and its geology as much for our science and our Society in geology as well, and Princeton was with me. I have the fondest memories as you have. And my deep thanks to its source. During my first year there, of what the Italian geologists call “geo- GSA, as represented by President Tony Harry Hess published his revolutionary gastronomic excursions,” in which hard Naldrett and Vice President Clark paper with the very first statement of days of field work are followed by din- Burchfiel. And to so many other friends sea-floor spreading. By good fortune I ners in little mountain villages, after and colleagues that I could not begin to became Uncle Harry’s grad student, and which we would sit around in the name them all. was able to do my doctoral research in evening, singing the old traditional I grew up in northern the Guajira Peninsula of Colombia, fol- songs of the Apennines and the Alps. California, where the occasional geo- lowing in the footsteps of older grad In the Apennines, around logical violence of the San Andreas students Bill MacDonald and Jack Gubbio and Perugia and Assisi, we fault and the incomprehensible confu- Lockwood. Milly and I had our honey- stumbled onto the pelagic limestones sion of the Franciscan mélange con- moon there, living in the back room of that provide the best record anywhere trasted with the benign climate and the a desert trading post run by a Guajiro of 150 million years of Earth history, subtle, almost imperceptible seasons. Indian named Robertico, who was in from the Jurassic to the late Tertiary. By

P. 2 The Geological Society of America 2002 Medals and Awards

then I was based at Lamont-Doherty and I took it with me when Milly and I much of Earth history did take place Geological Observatory and, while try- moved to Berkeley. Using the sample as through slow, gradual processes, but ing to do tectonic paleomagnetism, my bait, I lured my physicist father into an now Earth scientists are free to consider Scottish Lamont colleague, Bill Lowrie unaccustomed interest in geology. We catastrophic events, like impacts, when and I serendipitously discovered that decided to use iridium, depleted in the the evidence supports them. the pelagic limestones of the Scaglia Earth’s crust, as a measure of cosmic But now it is autumn. The Rossa contain a complete record of the dust, to see if the clay layer had been days are shorter, the air is a little chilly, reversals of the Earth’s magnetic field. deposited quickly (thus incorporating and the leaves are turning to colors on little cosmic dust) or slowly (so that That record matched the pat- the misty slopes of the Apennines. there would be substantial dust-borne tern of sea-floor magnetic anomalies, in iridium). Of the two dogmas I learned rocks packed with planktic forams that as a student, I have watched as one was allowed us for the first time to date the Our Berkeley colleagues demolished, and participated in correct- reversals. Bill and I joined forces with Frank Asaro and Helen Michel made ing the other. Their demise has made it Al Fischer, Giovanni Napoleone, the measurements in their neutron acti- possible for geologists and paleontolo- Isabella Premoli Silva, Mike Arthur and vation lab, and to our shock, they found gists to acquire a deep, rich understand- Bill Roggenthen, and for several sum- far more iridium than either scenario ing of Earth history, inconceivable mers in the 1970s we systematically could explain. It was the second when I was a student. dated a hundred million years worth of serendipitous discovery in the geomagnetic reversals. It was finally a Apennine limestones. We finally con- And although new challenges contribution to the plate tectonic revo- cluded that the unexpected iridium await, perhaps it is a good time to pause lution that Uncle Harry had started, anomaly was due to the impact of a 10- and breathe in the fresh, cool air of which had broken the stultifying grip of km asteroid or comet at the time of the October, to thank you all for the honor continental fixism — one of the two Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction — what of the Penrose Medal, and then perhaps dogmas of my early student days. became known as the Berkeley Theory. to gather up Milly and a few old friends, and go and find the Italian geol- But plate tectonics was a de- In Holland, quite independ- ogists in a little trattoria, in some vil- cidedly uniformitarian theory, with con- ently, Jan Smit had just received chemi- lage way back in the Apennines. The tinents separating at about the rate your cal data on a KT boundary section he day’s field work is done. The local wine fingernails grow. Geologists were so had discovered in Spain, which imme- is waiting, the pasta sauce with the fascinated by plate tectonics that few diately confirmed our results, so I have freshly gathered fall mushrooms fills paid any attention to the impact re- long thought of Jan as the co-discoverer the air with its irresistible aroma, and search of Gene Shoemaker and Bob of the iridium anomaly. sausages are sizzling on a grill in the Dietz, or the evidence for impact at The impact theory flew in the fireplace. Sudbury that Tony Naldrett has just de- face of uniformitarian doctrine, enrag- scribed, or the results of lunar explo- And if you listen, you can hear ing a large number of geologists and ration, where the evidence of non-uni- the soft, sweet harmonies of an old paleontologists. The debate was intense formitarian, catastrophic impacts was Italian song the geologists like to sing, and exhaustive, as it should be in sci- becoming undeniable. in the evening. ence. Together, Jan and I and a growing Little did I imagine that the number of colleagues and friends, in- Apennine limestones would hold the cluding my Berkeley postdocs, Sandro clues that would demolish the uniformi- Montanari and Philippe Claeys, de- tarian dogma as well. But Isabella fended our catastrophic challenge to taught me to recognize the Cretaceous- uniformitarianism through the decade Tertiary boundary in the field, and Al of the 1980s. Fischer pointed out the crucial signifi- Finally, in the early 1990s, the cance of the KT extinction in the his- Chicxulub Crater, in the subsurface of tory of life on Earth. In the summer of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, was rec- 1977, Terry Engelder and I carefully ognized and shown to date from pre- collected a sample of the thin clay bed cisely the KT boundary. Hard-core, ab- sandwiched between top Cretaceous solutist uniformitarianism was finally and basal Tertiary Scaglia limestones, dead. Today no geologist doubts that

The Geological Society of America P. 3 2002 Medals and Awards

Arthur L. Day O’Hare, he developed a method for ana- continental plates during the Mesozoic lyzing paleomagnetic apparent polar and Cenozoic. This paper has been ex- Medal wander paths to determine all three com- tremely important to those studying the Presented to Richard G. Gordon ponents of past plate motion. This ap- consequences of plate interactions at the proach can give the past positions of a edges of the Pacific basin and is still used plate in both latitude and longitude, today to explain the motion of far-trav- rather than just paleolatitude that results eled tectonostratigraphic terranes. from standard analysis of paleomagnetic Richard’s research focus has data. evolved from ancient plate dynamics to Richard has also contributed to present day plate tectonics. Working with a better understanding of true polar wan- Seth Stein and graduate students, he has der. He and his colleagues have shown developed NUVEL-1 that describes “in- that the hotspot and no-net-rotation-of- stantaneous” plate motions of the 12 ma- the lithosphere reference frames are very jor plates. This model of instantaneous similar. His work supported work by oth- plate motion is based on a massive ers that hotspots have moved in latitude, dataset comprising spreading rates from but went on to show that the Hawaiian marine magnetic anomalies, directions of hotspot has moved relative to the paleo- relative plate motion from transform fault Richard G. Gordon magnetic and spin axes, an indication of trends, and seismic slip vectors. It is a true polar wander. Unraveling the history threefold increase over earlier datasets. Citation by Kenneth P. Kodama of true polar wander has important impli- NUVEL-1 has given new insights about The defining paradigm of how cations for understanding the dynamic current plate motion. behavior of plates and Earth’s mantle, as Earth works is plate tectonics. Clearly, NUVEL-1 has had other impli- well as interpreting apparent polar wan- the development of the plate tectonic cations for Richard’s research. In defin- der for paleogeographic reconstructions. model is a fundamental achievement of ing plate motions over the past 3 m.y., the earth sciences. Richard Gordon, the Richard has intensively studied Richard and his colleagues recognized 2002 Arthur L. Day Medalist, has been the kinematics of the Pacific plate and that India and Australia could no longer and is a major contributor to our under- furthered understanding of Pacific basin be assigned to the same large plate. A dif- standing of the plate tectonics that is oc- plate tectonics. He has developed mathe- fuse plate boundary needs to be located curring now and has occurred in the dis- matical techniques for combining and an- between the two continents in the Indian tant past. Richard’s achievements have alyzing heterogeneous paleomagnetic Ocean. This realization has lead to im- been in two main areas. His earlier work datasets to determine pole positions for portant and extensive work that has re- involved using paleomagnetism to study Pacific plate apparent polar wander. He cently redefined our understanding of the plate tectonics while his more recent has also developed rigorous techniques plate tectonic paradigm. Richard has sug- work has evolved to give new, important for analyzing inclination-only data from gested a modification of the plate tec- understanding of the plate tectonic para- marine sediment cores and the shapes tonic model in which he defines compos- digm using a variety of geophysical data. and amplitudes of marine magnetic ite and component plates. The simple One of Richard’s first contribu- anomalies to further constrain past lithospheric plates of plate tectonics are tions, as a graduate student, was to de- Pacific plate motion. In this work, and in now envisioned to be composites that are velop a method by which paleomagnetic all of his work, one of Richard’s hall- made up of component plates separated data can be used to determine the mini- marks is his attention to rigorous propa- by diffuse plate boundaries. This modifi- mum velocity of a plate or continent at gation of errors through his analyses. cation provides new insights about basic times in the past. This method gave the This attention to error analysis has al- assumptions of plate tectonics; it is show- new insight that continents had moved lowed him to test different hypotheses ing exactly how rigid the lithosphere is. much more quantitatively than previous rapidly in the past; hence, the slow mo- I’ve known Richard since he workers. Richard worked with co-au- tion of continents today is only an acci- and I were graduate students together at thors David Engebretson and Allan Cox dent of present-day plate geometry. This Stanford. He’s always shown an intensity on a widely cited, award-winning paper work lead to one of Richard’s most im- and strong dedication to his work, but be- that carefully reconstructed the Euler portant contributions as a young profes- yond that to Earth sciences and to sci- poles describing the motion of Pacific sor, paleomagnetic Euler poles (PEP). ence, in general. He actively promotes With his co-authors, Allan Cox and Scott basin plates with respect to the bordering

P. 4 The Geological Society of America 2002 Medals and Awards

the recognition of other scientists for from my fellow graduate students. I have had the good fortune to their contributions. It’s an honor to be his collaborate with David Engebretson, As scientists, to separate what citationist today. who is a very creative scientist and was a we know from what we think we know fellow graduate student at Stanford. I first Using geophysical observa- can be a delicate endeavor, and has been learned about the deformation in the tions, Richard Gordon has made many a task with which I have often been con- equatorial Indian Ocean from Seth Stein, important, significant contributions to fronted in my research. I was fortunate at a colleague of boundless energy with our understanding of how the Earth Stanford to be able to see how Allan Cox, whom I collaborated for many years. I works. He has been at the forefront of my thesis advisor, thought both rigor- have enjoyed synergistic collaborations collecting new data sets that illuminate ously and creatively about data, espe- on Cenozoic and Cretaceous global plate our understanding of plate tectonic cially paleomagnetic data . Allan, who motion with Donna Jurdy and Roy processes, but more importantly he has himself received the Day Medal while I Livermore. During the past decade my framed scientific questions about plate was his student, also set a high standard, main collaborator, aside from my stu- tectonics in new ways. He is well-deserv- through his example, of how to write dents, has been Jean-Yves Royer, who is ing of the Arthur L. Day Medal. clearly about complex subjects. I learned a master of the art of quantitative plate much from him, but probably not as reconstructions. It is with sadness that I much as I should have. One lesson, acknowledge another wonderful col- Response by Richard G. Gordon which I had to wait a few more years to league, Stephen Zatman, who died three learn is that it is not enough to have con- If I was allowed to be so pre- months ago at the age of 30 in an auto- vinced oneself that one is right—to be ef- sumptuous as to pick any one honor I mobile accident. Stephen and I, in part fective you also have to convince nearly might receive in my professional life, the with Mark Richards and Mark Jellinek, everyone else. This has caused me to try Arthur Day Medal would be it. It pleases made some real progress in understand- to further raise the level of rigor, docu- me enormously to be recognized for the ing various aspects of the dynamics and mentation, and clarity in my papers. application of physics to the solution of rheology of diffuse oceanic plate bound- Seeking these higher standards has also geologic problems (I make no pretense aries during Stephen’s last two and one- caused me on occasion to realize that I about the chemistry part), and it’s hum- half years. wasn’t as right as I initially thought that I bling to see the list of past medalists, was. I hope that receipt of this award in- Before I conclude, I want to which includes a great many of my per- dicates that I’ve at least had some partial give special thanks to my citationist Ken sonal heroes in geoscience. I am thrilled success, however. Kodama. As he mentioned, he and I were to be receiving this award. in graduate school together. What he The Day Medal recognizes a My interest in active tectonics diplomatically did not tell you was that, body of work and thus recognizes the and geoscience may have its roots in hav- to complete his thesis work, Ken had contributions of the many scientists with ing grown up in the foothills of the built an oven for the thermal demagneti- whom I have collaborated and without Diablo Range in California, between the zation of paleomagnetic rock samples. whom I wouldn’t be receiving this honor. Calaveras and Hayward faults, and as a Ken graciously loaned me his oven to de- My own former students with whom I 12-year-old having gone on several eye- magnetize some of my own rock sam- have published papers being recognized opening and memorable natural history ples. One evening I left it overnight to today include Laurel Henderson, Phil field trips along the California coast, in run at a temperature higher than it had Bryan, Gary Acton, Katerina Petronotis, the Mojave Desert, in the Sierras, and in been used before. In the morning I dis- Alice Gripp, Dezhi Chu, and Jim the Basin and Range. My interests in covered that it had caught fire. Lemaux. I want particularly to acknowl- Earth remained dormant, however, until I Fortunately the fire died out without trig- edge two outstanding former students made a short move to the west of the San gering the sprinklers that would have ru- with whom I have had long-running and Andreas Fault to attend the University of ined the entire laboratory. Unfortunately, enormously productive collaborations— California at Santa Cruz, where as a jun- however, Ken’s thesis work was delayed Donald Argus and Chuck DeMets. For ior I took an introductory geology class several months until I was able to rebuild the determination of the NUVEL-1 set of from Casey Moore and introductory geo- the oven. That Ken nominated me for relative angular velocities of the plates, physics classes from Rob Coe and Eli this award probably means that he has Don was the lead worker for the Atlantic Silver. I was hooked, and still am. I next forgiven me, at least I hope so. Ocean and Chuck for the Pacific and crossed back over the San Andreas fault Indian Oceans. The two of them literally The past 25 years have been an to do graduate work at Stanford, where I divided and conquered the globe. exciting time to be a geoscientist, and I learned much both from the faculty and am looking forward to the next 25. I

The Geological Society of America P. 5 2002 Medals and Awards

thank my family and loved ones, my stu- dents and colleagues, the scientists who took time from their busy schedules to write supporting letters, the committees responsible for selecting the Day Medalist, the GSA, and all of you.

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YOUNG Since 1996, Ariel has been on Historical research requires the faculty of the University of that we struggle with a sparse geologic SCIENTIST Rochester, first as an assistant professor record, particularly in the Precambrian. AWARD and now as an associate professor. The This means developing new analytical years at Rochester have been very fruit- tools to get old rocks to tell new stories. (DONATH MEDAL) ful. Ariel’s Caltech expertise blossomed My early career has been devoted to first into the use of iridium anomalies in this effort, most recently focusing on Presented to Ariel D. Anbar sediments to define the habitability of the stable isotope geochemistry of tran- the early Earth. Subsequently, he has sition metals. I am fortunate that been among the pioneers in using new Francis Albarède and Alex Halliday pi- mass spectrometric methods to explore oneered the technologies that opened the stable isotope geochemistry of tran- this door just as I arrived on the scene. sition metals, particularly iron and As revealed by my group and by others, molybdenum. His iron isotope research Fe, Mo, Cu, Zn, Cr, Cd and even Tl iso- demonstrated the importance of inor- topes commonly fractionate in nature. ganic chemistry for this isotope system. With Ken Nealson, Sue Brantley and His exciting, ongoing study of the iso- Mukul Sharma, we have studied mech- topes of molybdenum in carbonaceous anisms of Fe isotope fractionation in shales promises to resolve long-stand- hopes of revealing new biosignatures. ing questions regarding the oxidation This is a difficult but worthy challenge. state of the oceans during the With Andy Knoll and Tim Lyons, we Proterozoic Era. He has supervised an are using Mo isotopes to study changes impressive number of undergraduates in ocean redox, notably in the Ariel D. Anbar and graduate students, has taught a Proterozoic. Initial results are very wide range of courses, and has acquired promising. It is an exciting time to be a Citation by Heinrich D. Holland a burgeoning family. We at Harvard are geochemist! fortunate to have him as a member of I am fortunate to have a sup- It is always a pleasure to pres- the NASA Astrobiology Institute team, portive setting at the University of ent a former student for an award. The which has its center of gravity in Rochester, which gambled on a brash pleasure is particularly keen when the Cambridge. honored student has become a personal young scientist with a dissertation still friend and a valued colleague. Ariel Anbar is clearly a bright warm from the copying machine. Asish young star in the geological firmament. Basu and John Tarduno secured re- While Ariel Anbar was an un- It is a privilege Mr. President, to present sources, gave wise counsel, encouraged dergraduate at Harvard in the late eight- to you this outstanding scholar, teacher, my odd isotopic and geobiological in- ies, I was struggling to determine and mensch for the Society’s Donath terests, and reinforced my aspirations whether solar ultraviolet light played a 2002 Medal. through their exceptional research. role in the origin of banded iron forma- They enliven my professional life, as do tions. At that time, the response of man- Udo Fehn, Bob Poreda and the rest of ganese to ultraviolet light promised to Response by Ariel D. Anbar the faculty. After living in Cambridge be a useful clue to the puzzle. and Pasadena, it is a privilege to have It is especially meaningful to Unfortunately, Ariel’s senior thesis colleagues who demonstrate every day me that this award comes from the demonstrated very clearly that it did that high-impact science is possible Geological Society of America, and that not. even in a city that does not have a high Prof. Holland gave the citation. I be- cost of living. After this demonstration, Ariel came a geoscientist because I was fasci- moved to Caltech for graduate work. nated by the history of the Earth and of In the lab, I am indebted to There Gerry Wasserburg taught him life, and their “coevolution”. Such top- Jane Barling for keeping standards how to make very difficult measure- ics have a home in the GSA. And Dick high. Jo Roe, Gail Arnold, Karen Knab, ments very precisely. This led to his Holland and Gerry Wasserburg, the Matt Polizzotto and Erick Ramon doctoral dissertation and to the first de- most influential mentors in my aca- gracefully endured my experiments in terminations of the concentration of demic life, profoundly affected their mentoring while doing the really hard iridium in natural waters. study. work. They made this award possible.

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I am also grateful to a long list Turekian’s enthusiastic creativity. Many of mentors and colleagues from whom I other faculty, fellow students, postdocs draw inspiration. I cannot give proper and staff helped me learn the ropes, thanks in the time allotted, but will do made the good times better, and the what I can. hard times easier. Mark Allen, Per Andersson, Rosemary Capo, Yigal Erel, I owe an incalculable debt to Laurie Leshin, John Holt, Hari Nair, my first mentors, my parents, Michael Don Porcelli, Brian Stewart, Kim Tryka and Ada, and my brother, Ran, who en- and Laura Wasylenki head a list too couraged me by their examples to fol- long to complete. low my interests. When they learned I was going to pursue a career in geo- In more recent years, as part of science rather than medicine, they never the Harvard/MIT astrobiology group, I asked, “but how are you going to make regularly visit Cambridge. There, I am a living?” It is true that you can’t inspired by the abilities of Sam choose your family, but I would choose Bowring, Ed Boyle, John Hayes, Stein them if I could. Jacobsen, and Roger Summons to turn analytical expertise into geoscience At Harvard, Prof. Holland res- knowledge, and Paul Hoffman’s ability cued a discontented chemistry major by to see the big picture. From opposite teaching me to combine chemistry with ends of the country, Andy Knoll and “back of the envelope” calculations to Ken Nealson patiently tutor me in biol- learn about the Earth. Suddenly, chem- ogy, and humanity. From the other side istry seemed relevant, and geoscience of the planet, Roger Buick emphasized the most exciting application. I the value of fieldwork, and of “color- promptly changed my major! ful” language. Greg Ravizza, generous Prof. Holland steered me to to a fault, is the unsung hero of Mo iso- Caltech, where I was drawn into Gerry topes and much else. Tom Bullen, Wasserburg’s orbit. I arrived just as the Rosalind Grymes, Munir Humayun, “Lunatic Asylum” revolutionized geo- Steve Mojzsis, Mark Rehkamper, Kevin chemistry for the umpteenth time, lead- Zahnle and many others have helped ing to my work on Re and Ir in seawa- make most days fun and productive. I ter. From Dr. Wasserburg with the help hope for many more such days, with of Dimitri Papanastassiou and Rob many more such people. Creaser, I learned to practice science Clair Patterson once told me with honesty, rigor, and attention to de- that while money may be the source of tail, but without getting lost in trivia. I all evil, it is surely the source of all sci- also learned to pursue novelty without ence. And so I thank the NSF and the flights of fantasy. If I have avoided both NASA Astrobiology Institute for sup- trivia and fantasy and if I continue to do porting my efforts. so in the future, it is because Dr. Wasserburg taught me to strike the right Above all, I thank my wife, balance. Marni, for nearly twenty years of loving friendship that words cannot describe, Others also helped make and my son, Nathaniel, who constantly Caltech a magical experience. From reminds me that science is not really a Sam Epstein and Yuk Yung, I learned career, but an attitude of constant cu- about the power of informed intuition. riosity. From George Rossman, the value of ex- ploration without clear destination. Again, thank you for this honor. From Lee Silver, the elusive goal of in- tegrating field and lab. During his Pasadena visits, I was inspired by Karl

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GSA organizations in New Hampshire; most Without volunteers GSA is an anachro- recently the National Alliance for the nism. Perhaps the most important single DISTINGUISHED Mentally Ill. Sam has served on no benefits a scientific and professional or- SERVICE AWARD fewer than 12 GSA committees, be- ganization provides to its members is coming chair of the majority of them. the opportunity to learn how to serve Presented to Samuel S. Adams, He has served on Council, and for one selflessly in pursuit of a common vi- year was the council member at large sion. This exposure and training is criti- David E. Dunn, on the Executive Committee. There can cal to GSA achieving its mission and to and John W. Geissman be very few GSA members who have earth scientists learning how to define contributed so much of themselves to and achieve theirs. The GSA staff is our Society, and I am delighted that there as much to facilitate members’ Sam has been chosen to receive one of growth into service and volunteerism as this year’s Distinguished Service it is to provide professional services to Awards. us. Membership is first a contract for services, but more deeply a covenant rooted in shared visions and opportuni- Response by Samuel S. Adams ties for shared experiences. With the hope of contributing in some way to the Thank you for your kind intro- strength of this covenant I gratefully ac- duction. I am flattered and appreciative cept this honor that this organization would choose to honor me in this manner. Lord knows, there are numerous members among you here today who have volunteered Samuel S. Adams for GSA through the years in a variety of ways and on a variety of occasions. Citation by Anthony Naldrett It is precisely for that reason that I pre- fer to think of this award as a recogni- Samuel S. Adams, Sam to his tion of GSA volunteerism, especially friends, has had and continues to have a the many among us who have pitched long and distinguished career within the in as the opportunities have occurred. earth sciences. His roots are set firmly Since my name begins with “A” it in New England, with degrees from seems I got chosen for some of the Dartmouth and Harvard, and from there “pomp and circumstance”. he entered the mining industry, first working in industrial minerals, and then In his thought-provoking David E. Dunn in metal mining for 10 years with the book, Bowling Alone; The Collapse and former Anaconda Company. After an- Revival of American Community, other 10 years as a consultant, he joined Robert Putnam identified a disturbing Citation by Sharon Mosher the Colorado School of Mines, where trend that started in the mid 1960’s in David Dunn’s service to the he headed the Department of Geology our country and which relates to volun- society has been truly exceptional. and Geological Engineering, before re- teerism in GSA. Simply put, even Until a year ago, David was treasurer, turning to the private sector. Sam has though membership, and in some cases an office he held with distinction for been president of the Society of philanthropic giving, may have risen nine years. During this time, he served Economic Geologists and continues to for an organization, attendance at meet- with three executive directors and pro- play a major role in that organization. ings and voluntary service for most are vided much needed financial continuity He has served as president of the decidedly down. We are tending to in- and sage advice at the leadership level. American Geological Institute and is vest less of our time and ourselves in As part of his responsibilities he currently editor in chief of Geotimes. organizations and activities, preferring chaired the Budget Committee and His services in earth sciences have been a more limited interpretation of “paying served on the Audit, Investments, recognized by many awards, too many our dues” than we used to. Increasingly Global Review, and Executive to mention today. He has also volun- our activities are more solitary. What Committees. As a councilor over that teered his time in support of numerous does this mean for GSA?

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time, he played an active and influential Response by John W. Geissman role in shaping the society, mentoring Greetings. new council members, and providing a much needed corporate memory of past I remember an experience, councils. David’s most important con- decades ago, in my parents bedroom, tributions are mostly invisible to the watching my mom pack a suitcase for membership, but his impact on the soci- my dad, for one of many professional ety as a whole has been significant. society-related trips. And I of course David also has a long history of contri- asked “why”? She responded, “that’s butions to GSA, and he has been a what he does”; later (because I asked Fellow since 1962. David was a found- why again?) he responded with some- ing member and a chair of the Structure John W. Geissman thing like “professional societies are the and Tectonics Division, GSA’s largest essence of science and engineering, division. David’s more than 20 years of Citation by Sharon Mosher without them and people actively par- service include being General Chair of ticipating in them, we’d be lost.” At the the 1990 Annual Meeting, being on the John Geissman has been a time, it sort of whizzed over my head. Geology Editorial Board, and serving dedicated GSA volunteer who over the Since, illumination has allowed me to on the Short Course and Nominations years has contributed to the society in understand his remark (and question Committees and on the Committee on many capacities. John served as editor why a spouse should pack a suitcase for Committees. David now serves as a of GSA Bulletin from 1994 to 2000 another). member of the GSA Foundation Board where he made numerous contributions I thank the many members at of Trustees and brings his wide experi- to GSA publications in addition to ful- GSA Headquarters, notably Nancy ence with GSA’s finances to the filling the duties and responsibilities of Carlson, Larry Bowlds , Faith Rogers, Investment Committee. He is extremely editor. He was the driving force behind Melissa Cummiskey, and Jon Olsen. deserving of GSA’s Distinguished having GSA’s Data Repository avail- Very importantly, my family, graduate Service Award. able electronically, instituting a reason- able page charge policy, and establish- and undergraduate students, editorial ing the staggering of Science Editor assistants Cathy Ratcliff and then Mary Simmons, and UNM colleagues suf- Response by David E. Dunn terms—hence, his extra two years of service in this time-consuming en- fered through occasional rantings and Mr. President, fellow hon- deavor. John also has co-chaired two, ravings while Bulletin Editor, and TPC orees, friends and colleagues, ladies combined Rocky Mountain–South- for this meeting. To Lynn Walter and and gentlemen: During the 16 years I Central GSA section meetings in Allan Glazner; thanks for the opportu- was affiliated with GSA Council in one Albuquerque, one in 1991 and one in nity to work with you. Art Sylvester’s capacity or another, I was privileged to 2001. John’s contributions continue to 1987 phone call, saying “say, I just no- serve under, and learn from, Presidents this very week. He is the Technical ticed your mug in Eos, for an Editor’s Reds Wolman, Brian Skinner, Gary Program Chair for the Denver 2002 Citation; I need you on the Bulletin AE Ernst, Jack Oliver, Bert Bally, E-an Annual Meeting and was responsible Board, and you have no choice” was Zen, Bob Hatcher, Bill Dickenson, for scheduling and overseeing the entire the beginning. Dave Stephenson, Eldridge Moores, technical program. This position is key To relatively young (whatever George Thompson, Vic Baker, Gail to the meeting’s success and is the most that means) members of GSA, your Ashley, Mary Lou Zoback, Sharon important and time-consuming of all time devoted to a professional society Mosher, and Tony Naldrett. What an in- jobs related to the meeting. John will only enhances your appreciation of the credible array of talent and dedication! continue to serve on the Annual wonderful science, and the way in I am grateful for the learning experi- Program Committee to help advise the which it is done, of which you are an ence and for the opportunity to have next Technical Program Chair. We hope integral part. To Frank Rhodes, thanks served. It has been a labor of love that and expect that his contributions and for the best class of my life, 32 years has greatly enriched my professional dedication to the society will continue ago, in the nat sci building, at dear old life. Thank you. throughout his career. John has dedi- Michigan. cated a tremendous amount of time and energy to GSA and is very deserving of the Distinguished Service Award.

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And to all of you, I hope you find this meeting as stimulating and re- warding as I have found my experi- ences working with the many dedicated GSA professional staff and volunteers. Thanks.

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GSA PUBLIC drive the pickup he had rented. As we John is a hugely talented careened from roadcut to roadcut, I kept wordsmith, who is able to grasp diffi- SERVICE an eye peeled for the California cult concepts—in a field in which he AWARD Highway Patrol (we never did get was never trained—and make them busted). I tried to explain the geologic come alive. For example, in Presented to John A. McPhee mess of the Sierra Nevada and Coast “Assembling California” John was able Ranges, while McPhee pelted me with to juxtapose the history of the questions from the passenger’s seat and California Gold Rush and the Loma wrote furiously in one of his many Prieta earthquake with intricacies of notebooks. California geology in a way eminently accessible to non-geologists and useful In person, McPhee is a soft- to geologists at the same time. He is a spoken, gentle, considerate, compas- master at putting his subject out front, sionate, invariably polite person. He’s a and himself in the background. really nice guy. He is also the most for- midable interviewer I have ever en- McPhee’s geology works form countered. John soaks up knowledge only a small part of his efforts. Over the like a sponge. He can quietly, grace- years, he has published and received fully, and skillfully extract from an un- awards for some thirty books on such suspecting interviewee the most arcane diverse subjects as nuclear hazards, the details of whatever subject is under dis- Swiss Army, the New Jersey Pine John A. McPhee cussion. The process is hard work and Barrens, Scotland, orange-growing, occasionally dangerous if you are driv- traveling on a freighter, and most re- ing. I remember at the end of one day in cently, The Founding Fish (on the Citation by Eldridge Moores our early travels together, I blurted out species American shad). However, John McPhee is one of, if not “I’m exhausted. You’ve really put me McPhee has developed a deep under- the, greatest living American non-fic- through the wringer.” He responded, standing of geology, and a remarkable tion author. In fact, he has been called “How do you think I feel? This stuff is ability to translate that understanding in one of the best nonfiction writers, ever all new to me.” terms accessible to the layperson. Four of his other books deal partly or largely (see The Globe Corner Bookstore, A few years later we went to with geologic themes: Coming into the www.globecorner.com/a/596.html). Cyprus and northern Greece, and subse- Country (on Alaska), The Control of quently to Arizona. We revisited Born and raised in Princeton, Nature (on human attempts to modify California sites a decade later, and we N.J., John was educated at Princeton natural processes), and Encounters with traveled along part of the San Andreas and Cambridge Universities. Since the Archdruid (travels with the late fault after the 1989 Loma Prieta earth- 1965 he has been associated with the David Brower), and Irons in the Fire (a quake. Over the course of these travels, New Yorker magazine as a staff writer. collection that includes a long piece on our relationship blossomed into a life- I first met John in November 1978, as a forensic geology). result of a telephone call from Ken long family friendship. I certainly feel Deffeyes of Princeton University. Ken enriched, personally, by knowing him. John has brought geology alive to a public thirsting for more informed me that McPhee was begin- John’s assembled work on knowledge of the Earth. The reactions ning a study of the roadcuts of I-80 and geology, Annals of the Former World to McPhee’s writings demonstrate the asked if I would help with California. was a best-seller and won the Pulitzer hunger his readers have for knowledge While I had never heard of McPhee, I Prize for General Nonfiction in 1999. about the Earth and the landscape readily agreed, as the project sounded He worked on this book on-and-off around them. interesting, and it was along a route that over a 20-year period during which I had used many times for student field four of its sections were published in Through his many writings, trips. Thus began the long road to The New Yorker magazine. Two of John has made “geology” a household “Assembling California.” these parts, “Basin and Range” (on word. I cannot think of a more deserv- McPhee arrived on a Friday Nevada and New Jersey), and ing recipient of the GSA Public Service afternoon, and we went out in the field. “Assembling California” were them- Award. We are lucky that such a tal- Our modus operandi was for me to selves best-sellers. ented writer got interested in geology. It

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gives me great pleasure to introduce meant. My own notes were over my way from geologists has been warm to him to you. John McPhee. head. In the course of time, and further an unexcelled extent, and this evening I dialogue with Anita and other geolo- have — as noted — the best chance I’ll gists, those notes gradually became ever have to express my heartfelt appre- Response by John A. McPhee clear. Anita, like every other geologist I ciation. would talk to, understood what I had set As I have occasionally re- out to do, did all she could to help me marked in the past, it has not been my Thank you, Eldridge. Thank get there intact, and devised ways to purpose to write for a scientific audi- you, GSA. Last spring, I was asked to communicate with my innumerate ence but my purpose would be defeated write a formal acceptance speech for mind. She and everyone else in the pro- if my work were not acceptable to sci- this occasion, and acceptance is exactly fession had no difficulty understanding entists. The corroboration implied in what I wish to mention in more than that a piece of writing can take forever. this award is an award in itself. one sense. For me, this is an unparal- When I met Eldridge Moores, he had leled opportunity to register my grati- just turned forty. His children were so tude to the geological community as a young you could see the scuff marks whole for your acceptance of my pres- where they crawled on the rug. Over ence among you and for your unending the years, as I made field trips with patience in teaching me, guiding me, Eldridge, his children grew up, went to encouraging me, and correcting me in a college, and soared on into the world project that must have seemed quixotic while the guy with the notebook, who to those of you who were close enough first appeared in their home in 1978, to judge. For example, Anita Harris, of had still written nothing about their fa- the United States Geological Survey — ther, his ophiolites, and his beloved on the first day of my first field trip California. With the late John David with her, in 1979 – was walking upsec- Love, of the USGS, my lag time was tion through the Delaware Water Gap, only eight years — eight privileged pointing out the nuances in the Silurian years of learning from him – and the in- quartzites. I said, “Do you ever get tired tervals were analogous with Karen of teaching ignoramuses?” She said, “I Kleinspehn, now of the University of haven’t worked on this level since I Minnesota, and Randy Van Schmus, of don’t know when.” the University of Kansas. At the outset, before I had so much as collected Rock Academically, about all I had No. 1, Kenneth Deffeyes, of Princeton behind me was an undergraduate de- University, volunteered to shepherd me gree in English literature. In college and through the whole of it, recommending in high school, I had taken various in- and introducing other geologists, going troductory courses in physics, chem- with me himself across the Basin and istry, biology, and geology, but only out Range, and enlisting into the advisory of idle interest or to discharge distribu- process most of Princeton’s Department tional requirements. As a forty-seven- of Geosciences and members of this year-old professional writer, I was at- profession in many parts of the United tracted to geology, I guess, by the States, England, Scotland, and Canada. humanistic implications in its scientific Because my work as a non-fiction facts, the marvels and the metaphors in writer has been delimited and defined its descriptions of the world. Among the only in its being about real people in mangled ripple marks in quartzite, an real places, I have ventured into highly affection for marvels and metaphors varied fields of endeavor, experiencing, will not get you very far in figuring out as you might guess, highly varied levels which way is up. On that first outing of welcome. In the federal and state sur- with Anita, I scribbled a large quantity veys, in the academic world, and in pri- of notes, and when I typed them up a vate companies large and small, the ac- few days later I did not know what they ceptance that I have felt coming my

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