Category: Blog

2023-11-11 Washington’s fossils—Nesbitt and Williams

QMPGEOeditor1

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 11, 2023

Co-authors Elizabeth Nesbitt and David B. Williams discussed their new book, Spirit Whales and Sloth Tales:  Fossils of Washington State. They provided background on what inspired them to write their book on fossils in Washington state, why they chose the fossils they did, and some of the new science that has allowed paleontologists to tease out the 500-million-year long story of life in this region. They connected the geology with fossils and illustrated how/why we have certain fossils, such as those brought in on accreted terranes and where our oldest fossils are located.

On Sunday, November 12th they presented a complementary version of this talk for the Port Townsend Marine Science Center at the Fort Worden Chapel. It  focused on the marine organisms, such as the whales, and faunas of methane seeps.

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 (https://streetsmartnaturalist.substack.com/ – by clicking the “No thanks” you may access the previous newsletters). More information about David’s books may be found at www.geologywriter.com

Liz Nesbitt is Curator Emerita of invertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum for Natural History and Culture, as well as, associate professor of Earth Science at the University of Washington. Her distinguished scientific contributions to the marine paleontology of the Pacific Northwest have earned many awards and honors, including having a tiny fossil snail and a fossil whale (Maiabalaena nesbittae) named for her, .

She is currently working with Burke colleagues on measuring the health of Puget Sound waters using microfauna in bottom sediments.

2023-03-15 KPTZ Interview with David B. Williams, prelude to Seattle’s Geologic Secrets

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Nan Evans of KPTZ and Seattle Naturalist David Williams, discussed “A Sense of Place – What is it?”  This is a prelude to David’s March 18th lecture entitled “Secrets of Seattle Geology—Connections of the human story and the geology story.”

The interview was delivered for Nature Now, a weekly radio broadcast on KPTZ 91.9 MHz. The interview was recorded as a MP3 file and broadcast three times preceding David’s March 18, 2023 lecture for the Quimper Geological Society:

Show #610: David Williams—A Sense of Place:  What does that mean?
Broadcast on March 15 at 12:30 PM; March 16at 5:30 PM; and March 18 at 12:30 PM

A recording of the interview is available on KPTZ’s Nature Now

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

QMPGEOeditor1

 

Street Smart Naturalist

The Lecture.  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, David explained 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 throughout the area.

 

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 brought a supply of his award-winning books for sale before and after the lecture.