Category: Recorded Event

2023-04-29 Skye Cooley: Calcrete and Soil-Climate Evidence

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SAT. APRIL 29, 2023

The Lecture: Soil-climate evidence for timing of the Cascade uplift and creation of its rain shadow

Calcrete is a CaCO3-rich hardpan paleosol that forms in dry, stable landscapes of the world. Calcrete in eastern Washington cements a 20-m-thick interval across three geomorphic domains: Palouse Hills, Channeled Scablands, and Yakima Fold Belt. The sheet-like calcrete deposit encloses ancient Scabland flood gravels and defines a regional paleosurface that has been bent and broken by Quaternary faults. Calcrete overprints primarily lowland alluvial deposits (ancestral Columbia-Snake River floodplain) and basaltic alluvial fan gravels shed from fault-bounded ridges. Thick layers of pedogenic carbonate accumulated during the Pleistocene, between about 1.8 million years ago to about 40 thousand years ago, but older cements at somewhat deeper levels date back to ~7 million years (late Miocene). The appearance of arid-land calcrete ineastern Washington coincides with the topographic rise of the Cascade Range and establishment of a strong rain shadow east of the divide. This study sheds new light on this lesser-known part of eastern Washington’s stratigraphy.

The Speaker

Skye is a field geologist who specializes in mapping, paleosols, and geomorphology. His work focuses on the interplay between tectonics, topography, and climate. Skye received his BSc. in Geology from Whitman College and his MSc. from the University of Wyoming. He has been a Soil Scientist for the Colville Confederated Tribes and taught Geosciences at Boise State University.

Currently, Skye is mapping the surficial geology of the Mission Valley in northwest Montana and sorting out the geomorphic history of calcretes in Eastern Washington. Skye’s hobbies include woodworking, nordic skiing, and motor-cycles. Skye is married to Hilary, manager of the Grizzly Bear Program for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They live with their hound dog, Lucy, in northwest Montana.

2023-05-13 Vince Matthews — Global Scramble for Natural Resources

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Vince Matthews, former director of the Colorado Geological Survey and now a consulting geologist in Wisconsin, speaka on the Global Scramble for Natural Resources. This was a ZOOM broadcast Saturday, May 13.

The Lecture

During the 1990s, the world’s most populous nations—China and India–were unleashed from Communist and Socialist regimes, respectively. The first decade of the 21st Century saw China’s GDP grow at more than 10 percent per year and India’s at 7-9 percent.  Both are drastically increasing their use of all natural resources.  Although they have resources of their own, they are insufficient to meet their internal demand.

Because the world’s mineral and energy resources are being strained to supply these exploding economies, the price of nearly every natural-resource commodity dramatically escalated beginning in 2003. Not only did the price of commodities increase, but the competition to simply obtain a share of these natural resources became intense. From cement, to petroleum, to fertilizer, to strategic metals; the scramble for a piece of the worldwide commodities pie is in a state the world has never known. The U.S. is being, and will be, significantly affected by this new world disorder.

As America looks increasingly to alternative energy sources, we face an increase in imports to achieve our goals.  Many of the current alternative energy technologies use a variety of imported mineral commodities, especially “rare earths.” The country’s increasing vulnerabilities to foreign sources of strategic mineral commodities were slow to be recognized.

The Speaker

Dr. Vince Matthews received B.S. and M.S. degrees in geology from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He was awarded “Outstanding Alumnus” recognition from both institutions. His career includes holding executive positions with four natural resource companies and teaching at eight institutions of higher education, two of them tenured positions.

About ten years ago Vince retired as Director of the Colorado Geological Survey. In retirement, he has served as Interim Executive Director of the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum, served on the Special Scientific Committee on the Health Effects of Unconventional Oil and Gas Development in the Appalachian Basin, presented Zoom talks on a variety of topics to geological societies and universities, led field trips in the Rocky Mountains, completed the manuscript for a book entitled, Land of Ice: Jaunts into Colorado’s Glacial Landscape, and was recruited to teach “Earth Resources and Sustainability” at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire last fall semester.

2023-03-18 David Williams—Secrets of Seattle’s Geology: Connections of the human story and the geology story

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Street Smart Naturalist

The Talk.  Unlike many regions in the country, the Seattle area is constantly reminded of its geologic past, present, and future. Whether it is our landslides, our glacier-carved topography, or our volatile volcanoes, this area’s geologic history is young, dynamic, and accessible. In this talk, I will explain why we can blame California for some of our geo hazards, how coal influenced our economic development, and why it’s harder to travel east/west than north/south.

 

Denny Hill, Seattle, 1910

The Lecturer.  David B. Williams is an author, naturalist, and tour guide whose award-winning book, Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound is a deep exploration of the stories of this beautiful waterway. He is also the author of  Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle’s Topography, Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology, as well as Seattle Walks: Discovering History and Nature in the City. Williams is a Curatorial Associate at the Burke Museum and writes a free weekly newsletter, the Street Smart Naturalist.

Book sale/signing.  David B. Williams will bring a supply of his award-winning books for sale before and after the lecture. He accepts cash, checks and can process credit cards.