NYSGA 81st Annual Meeting - Part 1
10/07/2009
The long preparations for the New York State Geological Association 81st Annual Meeting came to fruition over the weekend of September 25 to 27, 2009 when over 200 geology faculty, professionals, students, teachers and enthusiastic amateurs gathered at New Paltz for a weekend of geologic field studies. The meeting started off with a Friday evening welcoming reception at the College Terrace. Six trips went out each day Saturday and Sunday at 8:00 am to diverse areas north, south, east and west, including the Catskills, Hudson Highlands, Shawangunk and Taconic Mountains.
The banquet on Saturday night featured guest speaker Stephen Marshak, University of Illinois, Urbana, the Director of the School of Earth, Society, and Environment at the University of Illinois, who spoke on "The Impact of Appalachian Orogenies on America's Midcontinent".
Field excursions such as this play a vital role in the geological sciences, where theories must be supported by the data on the ground, and lively debates often center on the interpretation of features in outcrop. The New York State Geological Association, along with other organizations, provide essential forums for field-based scientific interaction and debate. Students are especially welcome, and learn an important component of scientific inquiry.
Stephen Marshak (University of Illinois, Urbana) lectures from a convenient roadside podium at outcrops near Catskill, NY (Trip 1, Marshak et al).
Stephen Marshak describes out-of-syncline thrusts at quarry near Kingston, NY. Coleaders, from upper left, are Petr Yakovlev (Boston College), Pragnyadipta Sen (University of Illinois, Urbana), Kurtis C. Burmeister (University of the Pacific), and Yvette Kuiper (Boston College) (Trip 1, Marshak et al).
Kurtis Burmeister (University of the Pacific) describes structural features at an outcrop exposing the Shawangunk pinch-out near Rosendale, NY (Trip 1, Marshak et al).
Participants in the Widow Jane Mine at the Snyder Estate Natural Cement Historic District, The Century House Historical Society (Trip 1, Marshak et al).
Jeff Walker (Vassar, right front) discusses Dutchess County metamorphism with Teodosia Manecan of Hunter College. NYSGA Executive Secretary Alan Benimoff, College of Staten Island/CUNY, at left front (Trip 11, Vollmer and Walker).
Participants looking for garnet and chloritoid porphyroblasts at garnite isograd outcrop in the Barovian metamorphic sequence of Dutchess County (Trip 11, Vollmer and Walker).