Category: 2020 Events

2020-05-20 Michael Machette — Geology in Our Neighborhood (JLT Recording)

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Click here:  https://youtu.be/jaFWQiZNv38

The Lecture (Starts at around 23 minute mark)

This presentation on May 20, 2020 was made as part of Nature in Your Neighborhood, a six-part series of Zoom Lectures sponsored by the Jefferson Land Trust (add link here).  It describes the general geologic history of the Quimper Peninsula during the latest Pleistocene (past 20,000 years) and Holocene (past 11, 500 years).  It focuses on three themes:

  1. Glacial meltwater channels — Chimacum Valley
  2. The Bluffs Downtown
  3. Glacial Erratics with a special challenge

The presentation is about an hour long and features geologic interpretation of glacial deposits in the Port Townsend area. The challenge is one to discover the larger and largest glacial erratics in the area.  See our tab on Resources for a List of Glacial Erratics and our Photo Gallery for Images of Glacial Erratics.

The Speaker

Michael Machette

Michael Machette is an advisor to the Quimper Geological Society.  He moved to Port Townsend, WA after a 35-year career as a Quaternary Geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver, CO.  His areas of research evolved over this time period:  from geologic mapper, to Cenozoic basin studies, Neogene tectonics, active faulting and probablistic seismic hazards analysis.  Since relocating to the Quimper Peninsula, he has started to delve into the local geology, hence this lecture for the JLT Nature in Your Neighborhood series.

2020-10-08 Michael Machette –Your soil: it’s all about geology

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Your soil— it’s all about geology (presented by Port Townsend Master Gardeners)

The lecture

If you didn’t see Michael’s hour-long Zoom presentation, it will be available for 6 months on WSU’s YouTube channel (click above).  Michael discussed the local geology ofPort Townsend and the larger Quimper Peninsula and geology effect on the soils in your garden. Topics included soil forming factors, the importance of and way to determine the texture of your soil, and the relationships between surficial geology and soils, with examples from Port Townsend and the Chimacum Valley.  All of the soils in this region are young (less than 15,000 years), but they can be some of the most productive in the state.

The speaker

Michael Machette
Michael Machette

Michael is a Quaternary geologist (one who deals with the past 2 million years of the earth’s history). Much of his 35-year career was in the arid Southwest with the US Geological Survey in Denver, but he moved to Port Townsend in 2008 to retire near the water in a cooler low-land climate.  Michael consultants on earthquake hazards and is a principle advisor to the Quimper Geological Society (QuimperGeology.org), which has more than 800 local members. He has a small garden that feeds a couple of neighborhood deer and rabbits.

Thanks for supporting the Jefferson County Master Gardener Foundation!

2020-10-03 Terry Wallace — Gold: A Journey from the Big Bang to the Amazon (Zoom)

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Gold—A Journey from the Big Bang to the Amazon

Gold is one of the most fascinating of the 5,400 mineral species on Earth and no mineral (or metal) evokes more emotion, but gold also has an incredible scientific story: a gold nugget is made of material that was not born in our planet or even our solar system.

In this talk, world-renowned geophysicist Dr Terry Wallace discusses how the metal was created, how it came to be found on Earth, and the spell it has cast over humankind.  The lecture was broadcast via Zoom on Oct. 3, 2020; the recording is available above.

Terry C. Wallace Jr. was raised in Los Alamos, New Mexico and graduated from Los Alamos High School in 1974. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in geophysics and mathematics from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, followed by a Master of Science and PhD in geophysics from the California Institute of Technology.

From 1983 to 2003, he was a professor at the University of Arizona, but moved back to Los Alamos in 2006 to become their Principal Associate Director for Science, Technology, and Engineering.  From 2011 to 2017, Wallace was the Laboratory’s Principal Associate Director for Global Security. He served as the 11th Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory until his retirement in 2018.