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Posted: September 16th, 2016 Art Hussey Celebration of Life
September 25, 2-4pm,
Moulton Union, Bowdoin College
Arthur M. Hussey II led a full life of family, friends, trains, Bowdoin College and, yes, geology! This life deserves remembering. Hence, we—Arthur III, Nathaniel and Mary—hope you can join us in celebration of the life so well spent. Do so by coming on Sunday September 25 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. to the Moulton Union of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME.
Get ready for a few tails of the trail of Arthur’s life. Bring your fond memories, your anecdotes, your stories, ready to tell if you desire. Light refreshments will be available.
Please share this invite with anyone who might be interested in attending, put it out on Facebook, etc. All are welcome to attend!
Questions? Call and leave a message at 207-666-5526 or email amhjgd@alaska.net, or nat@nathussey.com, or mhstride@gmail.com. We hope to see you there.
Arthur III, Nathaniel and Mary
Posted: July 7th, 2016 The GSM Fieldtrip to greater Belfast-Brooks area will be held on Saturday and Sunday, July 16 and 17. The leaders Dave West, Woodrow Thompson, Stephen Pollock, and Roger Hooke have produced a great looking field trip guide. GSM Summer 2016 Field Trip Guide
We will meet each morning at the Unity College Center for Performing Arts, 42 Depot St, Unity, ME 04988 at 8:30am. We will have a social at 6pm on Saturday at the Center for Performing Arts.
Those who have dinner reservations or plan to stay at Unity, send your checks to:
Bruce E. Hunter, Treasurer
Geological Society of Maine
44 Old Fairgrounds Rd.
Readfield, ME 04355
Posted: June 21st, 2016 July 16 and 17
The field trip will start at 8:30am both days from the Unity College Center for the Performing Arts on Depot Street in Unity.
Reservations for lodging need to be made by July 1. See details below
Description
The 2016 GSM Summer Field Trip will be on bedrock and glacial geology in the greater Belfast-Brooks area, south-central Maine and will be led by Woody Thompson, Dave West, Roger Hooke, and Steve Pollock. It will be held on the weekend of July 16 and 17.
This field trip will highlight prominent bedrock and surficial features in the general area between Belfast and Brooks, Maine. Many of the individual stops visited will allow for observations of features related to both the bedrock geologic history (hundreds of millions of years old), and the much more recent glacial history (tens of thousands of years old).
The bedrock portion of the trip will provide opportunities to observe representative units within the four major tectonic terranes that are juxtaposed in this region (St. Croix, Fredericton, Passagassawakeag, and Casco Bay belts). Additionally, aspects of the deformation, metamorphic, and plutonic history of these rocks will be examined. Finally, a spectacular traverse across the high strain portion of the regionally extensive Norumbega fault system will reveal a wide variety of fault rocks (e.g., mylonite, cataclasite, pseudotachylyte), and demonstrate a complex history of superimposed fault activity.
The glacial portion of the trip will include localities showing impressive glacial grooves revealing ice flow directions, erratic boulders eroded from till, a new glaciomarine delta exposure, and an esker pit. Additionally there will be stops that “ground-truth” the new stunning Lidar imagery in the area that has provided evidence of widespread removal of upland till by subglacial meltwater streams which, near the glacier margin, are associated with esker nets.
Logistics:
Rooms are available at Unity College, 90 Quaker Hill Rd, Unity, Maine, Friday and Saturday nights. We will be having a social with cash bar at the College Saturday after returning from the field, followed by a sit down dinner. For those wishing to stay at Unity College, rooms will be $25 per night per person and will include breakfast. I expect most will only be staying Saturday night, but if you wish to stay Friday night also that is an option.
1 night including breakfast buffet = $25.00
2 nights including breakfast buffet = $50.00
We will be having a sit down dinner prepared by the Unity College Catering Service on Saturday night. It will include an entrée with salads and vegetables on the side. The choice in entrees will be chicken, beef or vegetarian. The dinner will cost $10. We will have more information on this later. Both the social and dinner will be in the Unity College Center for the Performing Arts on Depot Street in Unity.
There is no cost for the field trip and it is not required that you stay at Unity College. You can join the trip at the college on Saturday or Sunday mornings or both. Field Trip details will be provided later.
For now I need to know how many people will be staying at Unity College and for which nights. I also need to know who will be coming to the dinner and what entrée you want. Please send me an email by Friday, July 1 and follow that with a check for room and food. We must inform the Unity College Catering Service two weeks before the event, hence the July 1 deadline.
Bruce Hunter
Email – bruce.e.hunter@gmail.com
44 Old Fairgrounds Rd.
Readfield, ME 04355
Posted: May 9th, 2016 She Blinded Me With Science! The Role of Science in Public Policy
When:
7:15 AM – 10:00 AM Thursday, May 19, 2016
Location: Congregation Bet Ha’am,
81 Westbrook Street, South Portland
Registration – http://www.e2tech.org/events/forums-and-events
- Member – $15.00 (USD)
- Non- Member – $30.00 (USD)
- Student Member – Free
- SunriseGuide Coupon Holder –Free, Must present SunriseGuide coupon at registration table
She Blinded Me With Science! The Role of Science in Public Policy
We live in an age when all manner of scientific knowledge- from climate change to vaccinations- faces furious opposition. Some even have doubts about the moon landing.
Joel Achenbach, Washington Post Science writer
Science and technology are foundations of good environmental, public health, and other public policy initiatives, but they can also be twisted to achieve predetermined results. Politics increasingly plays a role in “selecting” scientific data to fit an ideology and confirm what is already believed. History is awash with flat-earth advocates and Washington, DC and Augusta both have their fair share of scientific skeptics. True science is subjected to rigorous experimentation, peer review, and reproduction of results. While absolute certainty is virtually impossible, scientific consensus should always be subject to being overturned by more advanced research, testing, and discovery.
A contemporary example of the diminishing role of science in public policy can be found in the ongoing climate change debate. While some believe that the threat of global warming is a hoax perpetuated to attack the free market and industrial society and keep fossil fuels in the ground, most scientists believe that human activity is the dominant cause. The “debate” over science extends to mining, forestry, water use, medicine, and many other policy spheres.
When taxpayer dollars are at stake, should the scientific research process be under more intense scrutiny in setting public policy? Should politics be allowed to stifle, or at least shape, scientific consensus? Is the role of science in public policy paramount in decision-making? And, what about the precautionary principal – should the lack of reliable scientific knowledge hold back developments in environmental, public health, food, and other potential advances?
Speakers Include:
- Senator Thomas Saviello, Chair, Environmental & Natural Resources Committee – Maine State Senate
- Michael Halpern, Program Manager, Center for Science and Democracy – Union of Concerned Scientists
- James Houle, Program Director – University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center
- Taryn Hallweaver, Climate Project Director – Maine People’s Alliance
Thank You to Our Sponsors!
Posted: April 1st, 2016 “Plate Tectonics of the Appalachians: A Traveling Geology Course, Maine to Quebec” will be offered through the Eagle Hill Institute this summer, 6/19-25/16. It is patterned after Hank Williams’ legendary trans-Newfoundland trip, and has been run in various forms around a dozen times since 1992. Please see link for details. Questions may be addressed to Marilyn Mayer, the coordinator at Eagle Hill Institute (marilyn@eaglehill.us) and/or Doug Reusch, trip leader (reusch@maine.edu). This field trip is an updated version of the GSM-sponsored trip of summer 1999 (see page 2 of July 1999 newsletter: http://gsmmaine.org/newsletters/1999_v25_n2.pdf.
2016 Appalachian Tectonics
Posted: February 26th, 2016
Geological Society of Maine
Spring Meeting April 1, 2016
Location: Bryand Global Science Center
University of Maine
Orono, Maine
Agenda – 2016 Spring -meeting-program
1:00pm Registration
1:00-2:30pm Poster Presentation, 2nd Floor Bryand Global Science Center and School of Earth and Climate Sciences Open House
2:30-4:00 Student Oral Presentations, 100 Nutting Hall
4:00 pm Keynote Speaker, 100 Nutting Hall
When Carbon Escaped from the Sea: The End of the Last Ice Age Recorded by Marine Microfossils
Katherine Allen: School of Earth and Climate Sciences, University of Maine
4:55 pm Award Presentations
5:00 pm Business Meeting, 100 Nutting Hall
~5:15 Social Hour, 2nd Floor Bryand Global Science Center
Call for Abstracts for Student Presentations
Submit abstracts by email to: Martin Yates, yates@maine.edu
Please indicate in the subject line if it’s a GSM poster abstract or GSM oral abstract.
Abstract Deadline: must be received by Friday, March 25, 2016
Posted: November 13th, 2015 The Geological Society of Maine Fall Meeting
Friday, November 13, 2015, 1:00 pm
Augusta Civic Center, Washington/York Room
The theme of the presentations is
Using Emerging Technology on a Submerging Coast
The preliminary program announcement is here:
2015Fall-meeting-program-announcement_10-8
Hope to see you there.
Posted: October 19th, 2015 Of interest to Geological Society of Maine members:
2nd Symposium on the Presumpscot Formation
Advances in Geotechnical, Geologic, and Construction Practice
October 28, 2015
8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Hannaford Hall
University of Southern Maine
88 Bedford St.
Portland, Maine
http://umaine.edu/presumpscot-symposium/
The 1st Symposium on the Presumpscot Formation, entitled Geologic and Geotechnical Characteristics of the Presumpscot Formation Maine’s Glaciomarine “Clay”, was held March 20, 1987 in Augusta, ME. It was organized to allow discussion among geologists, soil scientists, and geotechnical engineers on topics including: hazardous and radioactive site disposal, groundwater investigations and modeling, coastal retreat and bluff formation, sedimentology and landslide processes, wick drains, and highway embankments.
The 2nd Symposium on the Presumpscot Formation will focus on Advances in Geotechical, Geologic, and Construction Practice and include site investigation, design, and implementation of project in the Presumpscot glacial-marine clay found in coastal Maine and New Hampshire. Sessions include: geology, soil properties, design and performance, and construction practices. Attendees receive complimentary meals (light breakfast, lunch, breaks) and a digital copy of Symposium proceedings.
Registration: http://umaine.edu/presumpscot-symposium/register-to-attend/
• Professionals: $100
• Retirees/Students: $25
• Presenters/Panelists: $50
Sponsorship: http://umaine.edu/presumpscot-symposium/sponsorship/
Corporate sponsorship funds will be use to help to defray the cost of registration, catering, and symposium organization. Funds collected in excess of Symposium costs will be donated as scholarships to the Civil & Environmental Engineering and Earth Science programs at UMaine.
• $500: Bronze Sponsor (includes one full registration)
• $1000: Silver Sponsor (includes one full registration)
• $2000: Gold Sponsor (includes two full registrations)
For more information, contact: Melissa Landon, University of Maine: melissa.landon@maine.edu
Charlie Nickerson, R.W. Gillespie & Associates: cnickerson@rwg-a.com
PDF Announcement: 2015 Presumpscot Symposium Announcement
Posted: October 12th, 2015 The Geological Society of Maine Fall Meeting
Friday, November 13, 2015, 1:00 pm
Augusta Civic Center, Washington/York Room
The theme of the presentations is
Using Emerging Technology on a Submerging Coast
The preliminary program announcement is here:
2015Fall-meeting-program-announcement_10-8
Hope to see you there.
Posted: September 9th, 2015 Augusta Civic Center (tentative). Details to follow.
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Coming Up: She Blinded Me with Science, May 19, 2016
7:15 AM - 10:00 AM
GSM Summer Field Trip: July 16-17, 2016 - Save the Date!
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