Draft Minutes for the 1522nd meeting of the Geological Society of Washington
October 25th, 2017
John Wesley Powell Auditorium, Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
President Bentley called to order the 39 attendees of the 1522nd meeting of the Geological Society of Washington at 20:02 EDT (by best estimation of the secretary who was busy chatting and opening his second beer).
As is tradition, the first order of business was approval of the minutes of the preceding meeting. Last minute Executive Order decreed by President Bentley demanded the minutes be read aloud. Whether this will be a permanent, or temporary, 90 day, ban on strictly web based draft minutes is yet to be determined.
The minutes were duly read aloud by the Meeting Secretary, after minor struggle with the e-mail on his cell phone.
Minutes were approved after reading with two corrections.
Guests and New Members
Several guests were sweet-talked by their peers in attending, and one who simply came out of geological interest (yay!). They were Alan Kelley of UNCC, Patrick Wheatley of National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, Andreza Eufrasio of CUA, and Luwan Sehagl of Children’s Hospital.
There were two new members to announce. They were Madeline Shaffer of UC, Santa Barbara and Charles Grymes of GMU.
Announcement and Informal Communications
There were no announcements or informal communications, and President Bentley called to order the formal program.
Formal Program
The 1st talk of the evening was given by Libby Stern of the FBI titled, “Probabalistic Geographic Attribution of Forensic Soils”
Forensic soil examinations can be used to narrow the likely geographic source to aid law enforcement investigations; relative likelihood applied to multiple GIS maps based on examination results can generate a probable source map. This approach was applied to a previously issued report of examination. Somewhere along a 5000 km route, emplacement of a clandestine grave resulted in < 1 g of soil on digging tools. Examination led to a provenance estimation to prioritize searches. The actual gravesite, when eventually located, agreed with the issued report and the probabilistic models.
Questions were posed by Caitlin Sheza of NOVA and GWU, John Repetski of USGS, Mark Tyra of NIST, another by John Repetski, Carl-Henry Geschwind – independent researcher, and Vector Zabielski of NOVA.
The 2nd talk of the evening was orated by Anna Normand of the American Geological Institute titled, “Peatland Composition and Global Greenhouse Gas Production”
Peatlands are critical ecosystems for climate mitigation as their soils store the equivalent of two thirds of the earth’s atmospheric carbon; however, the carbon stored in peatlands is at risk due to land-use changes that can potentially increase microbial production of carbon dioxide. We found that the chemical composition of soil organic matter is key to regulating the amount of carbon loss from peatlands following disturbance. Further, soil organic matter composition varied among global peatlands based on site characteristics. A stability index developed from global peat organic matter composition can differentiate the potential carbon loss among peatland ecosystems and aid global carbon models to improve estimates of greenhouse gas emissions.
Inquisitive minds were Carl-Henry Geschwind – independent researcher, Joe Kenney of the NRC, President Bentley, Earl Saxon of Forest Inform, Karen Prestegaard of UMD, and Sandy Newsell of USGS.
After conclusion of the questions, President Bentley announced the program of the 1523rd meeting, the Bradley Lecture, with speaker Iain Stewart. President Bentley adjourned the 1522nd meeting of the Geological Society of Washington at 21:26 EDT.
Respectfully Submitted,
Nik Deems – Meeting Secretary.