PGS Newsletter
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PGS Newsletter http://www.pittsburghgeologicalsociety.org/ Vol. LXVIII, No. 1 Karen Rose Cercone, Editor September, 2015 Wednesday, September 16, 2015 The Pittsburgh Geological Society presents Gregory Walsh, United States Geological Survey, Montpelier VT The rocks in the New England Appalachians span 1.4 billion years of Earth history. Multiple episodes of deposition and erosion are attributed to repeated cycles of rifting and orogenesis. Major mountain building events with their associated deformation are punctuated by plutonism and metamorphism, all of which has produced a region underlain by highly complex geology. Geologic mapping has long been the key to unravelling the complex evolution of complicated rocks and, when combined with topical studies, has yielded not only scientific advances to the nature of mountain belts but also improvements to our understanding of groundwater and natural resources. This talk will highlight the region’s diverse tectonic history and provide case studies illustrating the links between geologic mapping and our natural resources. Social hour - 6:00 p.m. Dinner - 7:00 p.m. Program - 8:00 p.m. Dinner costs $30.00/person, students $10.00; checks preferred. For reservations, please email [email protected] with your name and number of attendees in your party. You can also reserve and pay for dinners via PayPal on our website http://pittsburghgeologicalsociety.org. Please include your name and number of attendees in your party. Deadline for reservations is noon Monday, September 14. Meeting will be held at Foster’s Restaurant, Foster Plaza Bldg 10, Green Tree. SPEAKER Society (1991-92), as she returns as our BIOGRAPHY Secretary to keep minutes of all our doings as Greg Walsh has well as act as our new Newsletter Editor. been a Research Geologist with the To round out our Board, I again look forward USGS since 1992. to working with the following current and new He is currently the members. Counselors John Harper (also Project Chief in Chair of the Membership Committee) and charge of bedrock Chuck Shultz (also Chair of the Ad-hoc geologic mapping Constitution Committee) both have a long activities in the record of service with the Society. We have northeastern United three returning Directors at Large with one States. He has year remaining on their terms. Erica Love th managed two begins her 13 year on the Board and international mapping projects in Morocco and continues to serve as our Communication conducted mapping in Madagascar. Greg Committee Chair. Mark Barnes and Peter specializes in the structure and tectonics of Michael also return and continue to make complexly deformed rocks, the integration of contributions to several committees. Our geologic data with hydrogeologic studies, and newly elected directors begin with Ken LaSota the use of GIS as a mapping and analysis returning to the Board and continuing as our tool. He has trained many geologists in acting Chairman of the Education Outreach geologic mapping, GIS, GPS, digital mapping, Committee. We also welcome back two past and U-Pb geochronology by SHRIMP. Presidents; Wendell Barner (2000-01) and Peter Hutchinson (1994-95). Wendell will also PRESIDENT’S be serving as Chairman of our Audit Committee. Albert Kollar, our active Past STATEMENT President, continues to serve as our new Chairman of the Awards Committee. Welcome back for a new year of PGS We also have dedicated members that chair meetings and I am or are members of committees that take on happy to serve as responsibilities that are vital to our operations President of the but not voting members of our Board. It is Society for another important that we recognize Frank year. I am very fortunate to have a great Benacquista (Continuing Education group of officers and board members who are Committee and our Hospitality Chair), Mary dedicated to serve the entire membership. We McGuire (Webmaster), Judy Neelan (Archives do have a new arrangement of officers this Chair/Historian), Mike Bikerman, Ed Girard, year that will make a seamless transition into Dan Harris, Steve McGuire, and our AAPG their positions. Tamra Schiappa will be our Delegates Dan Billman and Andrea Reynolds new Vice President after serving on our Board for their efforts. for the previous two years. She will also be acting as our Program Committee Chair and In closing, I look forward to seeing everyone be responsible for planning and corralling all at our September 16th meeting. Our guest of the interesting speakers that present at our speaker, Greg Walsh of the USGS, will be meetings. If you have any suggestions give presenting a wonderful talk on bedrock her a call because we are always looking for a mapping in the New England Appalachians. good geologic presentation. Kyle Fredrick, our Please don’t forget…it’s that time to pay your previous VP for the past three years, will take membership dues. over as our new Treasurer and track all things financial for the Society. We welcome back Karen Rose Cercone, a past president of the Ray Follador AAPG EASTERN SECTION NEEDS VISITING GEOSCIENTISTS! Contact Ione Taylor, AAPG Eastern Section The Eastern Section of AAPG has 46 active Coordinator ([email protected]) Student Chapters, but only 10 Visiting or Robbie Gries, co-Chair VGP committee, Geoscientists ... which makes it almost Denver ([email protected]) if you are impossible to have a professional geoscientist interested in being a Visiting Geoscientist. visit each school at least once a year or even once every two years. The aim of AAPG’s program is to give students a flavor of a professional life in energy resources. It also A MILESTONE FOR AN hopes to encourage dialog between industry HONORARY PGS MEMBER and academia. To be a Visiting Geoscientist bearing the AAPG flag, you are asked to have at least 5 years of experience and make at least one visit per year to a university. It can be a school with an AAPG Student Chapter, or a college/university without one. Your choice. Here are the Eastern Section schools with student AAPG Chapters: Augustana Brooklyn Akron College College Bryn Mawr California Univ. Cincinnati College of Pennsylvania President Ray Follador and Honorary Concord Cornell PGS Member Paul Garrett Georgia University University Hope College Illinois Illinois State I had the great privilege and honor, along James Madison Kent State Kentucky with fellow PGS member Jeff Greenawalt Marietta Marshall Maryland and our wives, to attend the 90th birthday Massachusetts Miami of Ohio Michigan celebration of Paul Garrett on July 1st, Michigan Tech North Carolina Ohio State Penn State Pitt Slippery Rock 2015. Paul, a retired petroleum Southern St Lawrence geologist, who spent his career with South Carolina Illinois University Peoples Natural Gas and CNG Tennessee at Tennessee Syracuse Development Company, is a long time Knoxville Tech and Honorary Member of the PGS. Paul Western Toledo SUNY Buffalo served as the Society’s Secretary in Georgia Virginia Washington 1953-54 but is best remembered as our West Virginia Polytech and Lee longtime Historian, a position he retired Western Western from in 2009. Western Illinois Kentucky Michigan THE ORIGINS OF WESTERN CALENDAR OF EVENTS PENNSYLVANIA PLACE NAMES Mather is a small community in Morgan Township, Greene County that was named in Pennsylvania Council of Professional Geologists honor of Samuel Mather, senior member of the firm of Pickands, Mather & Company, and September 2, 2015 William G. Mather, of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Hydrogeology for the Consulting Geologist. Company. Mather was home to the Mather Comfort Inn East, Monroeville, PA Colliery a mine built by Picklands, Mather & September 17, 2015 Co. in 1917 to supply coal to the Cleveland- Geophysical Methods for Effectively Cliffs Iron Company coke ovens in Ohio. Mapping Bedrock Fractures and Other Subsurface Conditions in Urbanized Environments. Regional Learning Alliance, Cranberry Twp., PA Geophysical Society of Pittsburgh September 8, 2015 Jianli Yang of Seneca Resources Corp. "Appalachian Basin 3D Seismic Acquisition, What Have We Learned after 12 Surveys?" Penn Brewery, Pittsburgh PA Pittsburgh Association of Petroleum Painting of the Mather Mine Geologists by Howard Fogg September 17, 2015 Christopher Gonsalves of Shell Appalachia The town’s major claim to fame occurred at “Unlocking the Deep Utica Play in Northeast Pennsylvania” Cefalo’s Event 4:07 PM on May 19, 1928 when an explosion Center, Carnegie PA in the mine killed 195 men. Of the 209 men that were in the portion of the mine where the explosion occurred, 193 died in the explosion Association of Engineering Geologists or were suffocated and two died after they September 21-26, 2015 reached the hospital. Fourteen men escaped The 2015 AEG National Meeting to safety. The disaster was the result of a “Conference at the Confluence” methane gas and dust explosion that was Wyndham Grand, Pittsburgh PA triggered by an arc from a battery powered locomotive being operated in the mine. The Geological Society of America Mather Mine disaster ranks as the seventh worst mining disaster in U.S. history and the November 1-4, 2015 The 2015 GSA National Meeting second worst in Pennsylvania history. The Baltimore Convention Center Mather Mine closed in the mid-1960s. Baltimore MD PROFILES OF THE PITTSBURGH GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY Starting this month, the Communications What is your favorite geology movie and why? Committee will spotlight the accomplishments Dante’s Peak – great lahar special effects! of the geologists who belong to our society. We will be circulating questionnaires to What’s your favorite rock, mineral, or fossil? members (both students and professionals) at Kyanite – I named my border collie after it. our meetings this year, and we hope many of you will share your interesting lives with us. If you could choose anyone, who would you pick as your mentor? Our new PGS secretary and newsletter editor John Harper.