Wooster Geologists

The last day of a professional meeting is very different from the first. At least half the attendees have gone home. Those that remain move a little slower and have that glazed look from late night dinners, too little sleep, and dreams of getting on that flight out of here. The convention staff is clearly oriented now towards the next event of cheerful conventioneers. (The “RAM SWANA” conference. I was so hoping this was about a mystical Indian guru, but instead it is a joint meeting of the “Recycling Association of Minnesota” and the “Solid Waste Association of North America”. I’ll give it a skip.)

My friend Paul Taylor and I organized a topical session on sclerobionts and mass extinctions, and we have the honor of ending the meeting this afternoon. With generous support from the Paleontological Society, we’ve brought in an international team of paleontologists who specialize in hard-substrate marine organisms, including Michał Zatoń of Poland, Silvio Casadio of Argentina, and Liz Harper of England. Our students Megan Innis and Caroline Sogot are participating as well. The audience may be the speakers themselves, but it will be enthusiastic. (Too bad we won’t get even a small fraction of the attention the pseudoscientific and embarrassing talk on the “Triassic kraken” received earlier in the meeting.)

I’ve started this entry with the first slide of the first talk, and ended it with our conclusions. We hope we’ve at least planted the seeds of a new topic in extinction studies. We’ve certainly had fun getting this diverse group of scientists together in one room.

And yes, we are also dreaming of that flight home!

Sarah Appleton presents her research in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. Her IS topic Tree-Ring Dating of the Glacial History of Wachusett Inlet, Glacier Bay was part of a special session honoring Dr. David Michaelson (U. Wisconsin – Madison) a long time worker in Glacier Bay.

Andrew Collins presents his work on The Use of Geophotography as a Permanent Resource in Higher Education – this is a collaborative project that Andrew is doing with Drs. Judge and Wiles and The College of Wooster librarians – Marsha Bansberg and Jessica Clemons. The database has gone live and can be found here. In the future all those trips to Spangler and other field sites around Wooster will be archived at this site. If alumni have some photos in their collection they would like to contribute to the effort, that would be greatly appreciated.

Lindsey Bowman presented her geochemical data to the geologists. He poster describes results of her ongoing IS work with Dr. Meagen Pollock in Iceland. Her poster is entitled: Geochemical and Field Relationships of Pillow and Dike Units in a Subglacial Pillow Ridge, Undirhlithar, Southwest Iceland.

Dr. Shelley Judge leads a lively discussion of her work summarizing 65 Years of Pedagogical Scaffolding and Sequencing in the Sanpete Valley of Central Utah – although it sounds like a series of structural geology terms, Dr. Judge’s poster was about assessment. In addition to being a leader in the field of structural geology, Dr. Judge is a leader in learning assessment, which makes her Chair very happy.

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA–It is a tradition that Wooster geology alumni, faculty, students and friends gather at the Geological Society of America meeting on Monday evening. Twenty-three of us were there tonight, although we never seem to get everyone in the same place at the same time for the photograph. It’s interesting how we actually talk very little about past Wooster experiences. Most of the time we’re comparing notes about our current projects and planning when we will see each other again. That and apologizing for missing each other’s talks!

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA–Wooster Geologists are again attending the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in force. It is strangely very warm and sunny here in mid-October Minneapolis. The convention center looks like a late summer college campus with people sunning themselves in grassy gardens surrounding the convention buildings.

We have all four faculty and six students at the meeting this year making various presentations from Sunday through Wednesday. We will soon show you our students giving poster presentations, along with comments on the meeting itself.

Minneapolis skyline from the Convention Center. Note the blue sky!