General news:
We still have two positions open on the Chapter Board this year – president and treasurer. President is a 1-year term with a term limit of 3 years. Treasurer is a 2-year term with a term limit of 4 years. In addition, our bank account needs to stay in Washington, so our treasurer should be a Washington resident. Per our bylaws, we MUST have a new treasurer. If someone is willing to take on president, Marcia is willing to become treasurer (the only chapter office she’s never held). Please consider serving as a chapter officer. If you’re interested, contact Marcia Knadle at president@awgpnw.org. We’ll soon start calling people if no one volunteers…
We’ve given up on a spring Zoom speaker but will have a summer speaker – Tina Neal on July 14, so save the date. Tina is the new director of the USGS Volcano Science Center (which oversees all five USGS volcano observatories) and has had a very interesting career. We’ll be sending out a more formal announcement in June. For fall, we hope to have an in-person social event in conjunction with the Annual GSA Meeting in Portland in October, assuming it’s held in person. For a Seattle-area in-person fall event, we’re planning a special tour of the newly-rebuilt Burke Museum at the University of WA in November. However, we’re planning to continue with Zoom meetings during the winter, so if anyone is interested in making a presentation or has a suggestion for a speaker, please contact president@awgpnw.org.
Finally, registration has opened for our second chapter field trip for this year, the SE BC Hot Springs Geology Tour (Sept. 25 – Oct. 6). You must be an AWG member to attend this field trip. Please see the flyer; contact Marcia at president@awgpnw.org if interested and for more information, including a registration form. You can also register in the AWG Store (under Events) on the AWG website. We’re very optimistic that Canada will open their border for vaccinated tourists from the US by August. If you find this trip too expensive, you might consider the Yosemite trip the AWG Sierra Chapter is sponsoring in conjunction with Williams GeoAdventures at about the same time – please see flyer. The E. OR Volcanics Related to the Yellowstone Plume field trip we’re co-sponsoring with GSOC in late June is full.
Upcoming presentations:
Some organizations have gone on their summer meeting hiatus, but there are still several talks coming up in the next few months that should be of interest to many of our members. Otherwise, take the opportunity to recover from Zoom fatigue.
Thursday May 27: USGS Public Lecture Series – at 7 pm Austin Elliot (USGS Earthquake Science Center)will present Where Earthquakes Hide in the Desert: What we’ve learned from recent fault ruptures in the western U.S. Go to Public Lecture Series (usgs.gov) to find the links for the flyer and the live stream.
Tuesday June 8: IAFI – Kelsay Stanton (UW PhD candidate) will present Plate Tectonics and Cascadia Earthquakes. Go to Field Trips and Presentations – Ice Age Floods Institute (iafi.org) for the Zoom link.
Friday June 11: GSOC – Emily Cahoon (our very own AWG-PNW Editor) will present Sunstone Clues to Flood Basalt Magmatism. Register at GSOC.
Thursday June 17: IAFI – Bill Burgel will present When Yellowstone was in Oregon. Go to Field Trips and Presentations – Ice Age Floods Institute (iafi.org) for the Zoom link.
Wednesday June 23: Seattle WIE – Those of you who work in the environmental field may enjoy participating in a Women and Environmental Trivia night. To register for the Zoom link, go to https://mailchi.mp/womeninenvironment/wie-networking-presents-women-and-environmental-trivia?e=217e3b2941.
Thursday June 24th: USGS Public Lecture Series – AWG-PNW member Carolyn Driedger (USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory) will present Mount St. Helens – Lives Changed, Lessons Learned, Legacies of 1980. Check back in June at Public Lecture Series (usgs.gov) to find the links for the flyer and the live stream.
Friday June 25 (8-11 am PDT): For those not going on the AWG-PNW/GSOC field trip, AWG-DMV (the WA DC area chapter) is hosting an AWG/ADVANCEGeo Partnership webinar on Improving Workplace Climate: Empowering Individuals to Become Active Bystanders. You MUST be an AWG member to register at Webinars (awg.org).
Friday July 9: GSOC – Leslie Moclock (former curator at the Rice NW Museum of Rocks & Minerals) will present a talk about her new book Rocks, Minerals & Geology of the Pacific Northwest. Register at GSOC.
Wednesday July 14: AWG-PNW – At 4:30 pm, Tina Neal (USGS Volcano Science Center) will present What’s Happening at the USGS Volcano Science Center: Perspectives of a New Director. Watch for an emailed flyer or check the chapter website next month for information on how to register.
Humor:
The xkcd comics roundup –
Those of you in academia or grad school should appreciate this categorization of scientific papers – it’s spot on! https://xkcd.com/2456/
This comic may be a little off in their hazard assessment. Depending on exactly what shows up in your classroom –say, a T. rex – paleontology could be pretty bad! https://xkcd.com/2466/
Geoscience-related (or at least evolution-related) stories from The Onion –
https://www.theonion.com/geologists-recommend-eating-at-least-one-small-rock-per-1846655112
https://www.theonion.com/god-frustrated-after-google-search-reveals-octopuses-al-1846774782
https://www.theonion.com/researchers-determine-coelacanth-faked-own-extinction-t-1846777826
https://www.theonion.com/entomologists-identify-moth-species-that-evolved-to-fly-1846703452
PACIFIC NORTHWEST CHAPTER Association for Women Geoscientists 