The Eastern Section of the Society for Sedimentary Geology
~ ES-SEPM ~
February 2006 Newsletter
President’s Column______
Dear Colleagues –
I would like to invite you to the ES-SEPM annual business meetings and gatherings at the NE and SE GSA conferences in March 2006. We are also sponsoring technical sessions and field trips at these conferences (please see the Announcements Section for more details), and I hope that many of you will be able to participate in these events. The National SEPM President-Elect, Robert W. Dalrymple (Professor and Head of the Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada) will attend our business meeting at the SE SGA conference in Knoxville, Tennessee. Prof. Dalrymple will talk about some National SEPM issues, and will give the keynote address about his research on the subject of mud dispersal and deposition on continental shelves. Many find the results of his research controversial and his conclusions have spawned lots of discussion, so this promises to be a very interesting lecture. We will also have a speaker at the NE GSA meeting in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. There, I will share with you the results of my own research on the stratigraphy of Cambrian strata throughout the U.S. Appalachians. The titles and abstracts for both talks are included in the Announcements Section of this Newsletter.
These two gatherings in March will offer plenty of opportunity for Section members to share their thoughts, opinions and ideas about the mission and future of the ES-SEPM. Eastern North America has a lot to offer to sedimentary geologists and there are many professionals and students working in this region. Yet the amount of interest and support for the Section has been rather minimal. It is my hope that at our upcoming gatherings we will be able to make some specific conclusions about future Section activities including the election of new officers. Therefore, I look forward to seeing you there!
Sincerely,
Bosiljka Glumac
Geology Department, Smith College
Northampton, Massachusetts 01063
; 413-585-3680
Secretary/Treasurer’s Report______
The current level of activity of ES-SEPM definitely is strong. I urge all of you to be involved this year by attending an ES-SEPM-sponsored event and/or by sending us your ideas for future section activities!
$$$$$: Regarding payment of dues, I remind you that the members attending the annual business meeting held during the NE-GSA meeting at Saratoga Springs in March 2005 voted by a large majority to resume payment of membership dues for professional members. Professional member dues are $8 per year and are currently payable for 2006 and beyond. At least for the present, student members
are not required to pay dues. Receipt of dues payments has been strong since resumption of dues collection with the May 2005 newsletter.
Note for former Northeast Section members, the following is a repeat of my statement in the May 2005 newsletter: Since membership dues were not collected for the past three years, I advanced the paid-up status of each professional member by three years. To determine your paid-up membership status, please check the mailing label of this newsletter. Following your name you will see “Pro” and a year designation (for example, Pro 05 means paid up through 2005). For paid up members, dues received this year will be credited to 2006. If your paid up status is for a year earlier than 2005, you owe more $$$, i.e. 2004 = $16 and so on. That said, the real goal of the membership in reinstituting dues payments at the March 2005 meeting was to foster an active and healthy ES-SEPM Section in the future, not to discourage members over past dues. So, please pay your dues as requested by the vote of the membership and send in a check in the amount that your conscience dictates. All members who are in arrears on dues and send in a check will be credited as paid up through 2006. Dues policy will be subject to review at our 2006 annual business meeting.
For former Southeast Section members: No record of past dues payments to the SE Section of SEPM was transmitted at the time of the reuniting of the sections at the Tysons Corner NE-SE GSA meeting in March 2004. Your mail label has with your name and address only unless you have paid your dues recently. Dues payments are currently due in the amount of $8 and will be credited for 2006. With payment, your dues status will be reflected on your mailing label.
All dues checks should be made payable to ES-SEPM and sent to me at the address below.
On behalf of ES-SEPM, I thank all members who have recently made dues payments, and I urge those of you who have not yet responded to do so as soon as possible. The challenge is to increase the level of activities of the section to meet the interests of the membership. Bosiljka Glumac, our section president, has done an excellent job in this regard. We need your continued support of ES-SEPM activities, as well as your input with ideas and planning for the future.
Sincerely,
H. Allen Curran
Geology Department, Smith College
Northampton, Massachusetts 01063
; 413-585-3943
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Announcements______
2006 Northeastern GSA Conference
March 20-22, 2006,
Radisson Penn Harris Hotel &Convention Center, Camp Hill/Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
ES-SEPM co-sponsored theme sessions:
Coastal Change: Natural and Anthropogenic Process-Response systems. Allen Gontz (University of Massachusetts, Boston) and Dan Belknap (University of Maine, Orono).
Paleosol Environments from Across the Landscape. Jennifer Elick (Susquehanna University).
Oil and Gas in the Appalachian Basin. Langhorn "Taury" Smith (New York State Museum), Rich Nyahay (New York State Museum), and John Harper (Pennsylvania Geological Survey).
ES-SEPM co-sponsored field trip:
Cambrian Microbial Reefs, LWB Quarry, York County, Pennsylvania. Carol de Wet (Franklin and Marshall College).
ES-SEPM Annual Business Meeting and Lecture by the ES-SEPM President Bosiljka Glumac (Associate Professor, Department of Geology, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts):
CARBON-ISOTOPE STRATIGRAPHY: TOWARDS BETTER STRATIGRAPHIC RESOLUTION AND CORRELATION OF UPPER CAMBRIAN STRATA IN THE APPALACHIANS
High-resolution stratigraphy of Upper Cambrian strata throughout the Appalachians is hindered by the lack of well-exposed and laterally extensive outcrops of thick sedimentary successions. Dense vegetation and thick soil cover limit exposure to small, isolated and widely spaced outcrops. In addition, strata at these outcrops are commonly poorly fossiliferous, highly dolomitized, tectonically deformed, and in many cases metamorphosed. Characteristic geochemical signatures, especially stable isotopes of carbon, can provide invaluable new information in regional stratigraphic studies of these strata. To be an effective tool in such studies, carbon-isotope stratigraphy is used in conjunction with all available biostratigraphic, lithostratigraphic, and sequence stratigraphic information.
A large, global, positive carbon-isotope excursion (13C values of up to +5 ‰ VPDB), recorded in marine carbonate rocks deposited during the late Dresbachian and early Franconian or the Steptoean stage of the Late Cambrian, provides a useful chemostratigraphic marker. The excursion began between the Crepicephalus and the Aphelaspis Zones (Dresbachian Stage), peaked at the Dresbachian-Franconian boundary, and ended during the Elvinia Zone of the early Franconian. The maximum excursion is commonly associated with indicators of a sea level fall, which produced a craton-wide unconformity or the Sauk II-III sequence boundary on the Laurentian continent. Large unconformities were not developed in all areas along the subsiding passive-continental margin of eastern Laurentia. Instead, in carbonate platform successions of the southern and central Appalachian region this interval is commonly characterized by condensed sections and the presence of coarse-grained siliciclastic detritus. The Steptoean carbon-isotope excursion has not been documented yet from the carbonate platform deposits of the northern Appalachians. It is likely that the shallow-marine record of the excursion in this area is highly condensed or absent because of the sea-level fall. This is supported by elevated 13C values (up to +3 ‰) in continental slope deposits of southeastern New York at the locality that has previously yielded the only documented post-Crepicephalus and pre-Elvinia Zone fossils in New York. This and other examples from Upper Cambrian sedimentary successions throughout the U.S. Appalachians (including Tennessee, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Vermont) will be discussed to demonstrate the application and usefulness of carbon-isotope stratigraphy for recognition and regional correlation of this stratigraphic interval beyond the resolution possible by any other means.
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2006 Southeastern GSA Conference
March 23-24, 2006, Marriott Hotel, Knoxville, Tennessee
ES-SEPM co-sponsored theme sessions:
New Views on Old Rocks: Insight on Biospheric Evolution from the Precambrian Sedimentary Record. Linda Kah and Chris Fedo (University of Tennessee, Knoxville).
Carbonates Then and Now: How Much Has Changed? A Session in Honor of Kenneth R. Walker. Bosiljka Glumac (Smith College) and Stan Dunagan (University of Tennessee, Martin).
Hands on Ichnology and the Union Chapel (Alabama) Tracksite. Andy Rindsberg (Alabama Survey).
ES-SEPM Annual Business Meeting and Keynote Address by the National SEPM President-Elect Robert W. Dalrymple (Professor and Head, Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada):
Where Does the Mud Go? The Dispersal of Mud From Rivers and the Stratigraphic Implications
Abstract byR.W. Dalrymple and D.I. Cummings:
Many people have misconceptions about the dispersal of mud after it leaves a river mouth, believing that most of the suspended load disperses widely, accumulating in "deep water" (i.e., below storm wave base) by slow settling from suspension. Recent work in modern environments, supported by numerical modeling, suggests that most (but not all) fine-grained material accumulates relatively close to the coast (i.e., within 40-50 km of the shoreline or the outer edge of the subaqueous delta platform) as a result of two factors: the generation of fluid mud by a variety of processes that extract material from the surface plume and concentrate it near the bed, which in turn promotes deposition close to the river mouth; and the Coriolis Force, supplemented by coastal winds, which causes the buoyant surface plume to flow parallel to the coast. Mud escapes to deeper water in significant amounts only by means of density flows on steep slopes, for example, on shelf-margin delta fronts, or by means of offshore-direct plumes at headlands. These findings imply that: 1) most mud is deposited above storm wave base; 2) the presence of mudstones in outer shelf and/or basinal settings may require larger excursions of the shoreline than might be expected; 3) mudstone successions need not represent a large-scale sea-level rise and transgression; 4) most muddy successions should contain clinoforms that downlap onto a condensed horizon; and 5) mudrocks deposited near the coast probably accumulated more rapidly than those deposited in distal, deep-water setting, causing the two deposit types to display different facies characteristics.
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NOTE: This form is for New Members or for Current Members to update membership information. If the information on your mailing label is correct and we have your e-mail address, there is no need to return this form with your dues payment. Current members – please pass this form on to prospective new members, both professionals and students as appropriate.
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Return completed forms with dues payment as applicable to:
H. Allen Curran
Eastern Section SEPM Secretary/Treasurer
Department of Geology, Smith College
Northampton, Massachusetts 01063
e-mail:
You can find a copy of this form and other pertinent information at:
(can also be accessed from:
Eastern Section-SEPM
Al Curran, Secretary/Treasurer
Department of Geology
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063
Address Correction Requested
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