These are all 2003-2004 academic year announcements

Geo-Club Field Trip

April 16-17 there will be a field trip to Wausau, Wisconsin area.

To summarize the trip, we would leave Friday Afternoon (when everyone is done with class) and try to hit one outcrop for kyanite on the way in Iron County, WI. Then Saturday, we're visiting a granite quarry and looking for some feldspar that is similar to a moonstone or labradorite. There may be another few places we'll try to get into, but as of now, this is all that is for certain.

Granite Quarry

the feldspar material (labradorite/moonstone) - not going to exact location mentioned on the page.

We may try to hit one other quarry around Wausau that mines weathered granite for roads. These "rotten granite" quarries are sometimes cut by pegmatite dikes, but I guess it is pretty much hit and miss. If interested in going e-mail me (demoore@mtu.edu) and I'll get everyone together to figure out final arrangements for the trip in a week or so.

The Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciencesis
pleased to announce the following speaking engagement:

TUESDAY, APRIL 20 - 4:00 P.M. DOW 641

DR. WM. SCHOPF - PROFESSOR OF PALEOBIOLOGY, UCLA
"EARTH'S EARLIEST FOSSILS:SOLUTION TO DARWIN'S DILEMMA"


ABSTRACT In 1859, in On the Origin of Species, Darwin repeatedly pointed to what he viewed as the greatest challenge facing his theory of evolution -- the lack of a rich fossil record predating the rise of shelly invertebrate animals that marks the beginning of the Cambrian Period of geological time (~550 million years ago).

A scientist to the core, Darwin faced the problem straight on, arguing that the lack of such a record was "inexplicable" -- an absence that could be "truly urged as a valid argument" against his theory. For more than 100 years, the missing Precambrian history of life stood out as one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in natural science. In recent decades, however, life's early history has finally begun to be unearthed as the documented fossil record has been extended to some 3,500 million years ago, an age more than three-quarters that of the planet itself. As this new science has matured, hundreds of ancient fossiliferous units have been discovered and the rules for accepting ancient microfossil-like objects as bona fide have come to be well established -- namely, that such objects be demonstrably biogenic, and indigenous to and syngenetic with the formation of rocks of known provenance and well-defined Precambrian age.

In the past few years, two new techniques have been devised to help answer the question of biogenicity, the most vexing of the criteria to satisfy. Founded on firm understanding of the morphology and physiology of extant microorganisms and a large body of data on the maturation of organic matter in geologic settings, for the first time these techniques provide means to correlate directly cellular morphology with organic composition in individual Precambrian microscopic fossils.

(1) Ion microprobe spectroscopy has been used to measure the carbon isotopic composition of single microscopic fossils(1,2), analyses that provide evidence of their ancient physiologies.

(2) Laser-Raman imagery has been used to determine the chemical-structural composition of such fossils -- both in two and in three dimensions(3-5) -- data that confirm the biological origin of the carbonaceous matter comprising their petrified cell walls and that demonstrate the presence of cell lumina, the cellular spaces that define biological systems. After more than a century of unrewarded search, an immense early fossil record, unknown and assumed unknowable, has been unearthed to reveal a microbe-dominated evolutionary progression that stretches seven times farther into the geologic past than had previously been imagined.

For more information regarding Dr. Schopf's visit please contact Dr. James Wood, jrw@mtu.edu or 487-2894.

The April meeting of the AAPG, SEG, and Geology Club

Tuesday, April 13 at 6 pm in Dow 610. Subs will be provided for dinner.

Fred Bailey will be giving a presentation on the mining, geology, and mineralogy if the Nanisivik Mine. Topics to be discussed at the business meeting include the field trip to the Wausau, WI area, a possible geology club trip (May 1) to Caledonia Mine, and of course officer elections. If you were nominated for a position last month, be sure to attend this meeting. Hope to see everyone there. Katrina Settles

AAPG Jan 2004 Meeting

Visiting DOE Geologist Dr. Edith Allison

12 Noon Dow 610 Tuesday Jan 20th

Grinders from Mancinis

Click for Details

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

The department's annual holiday party will be held Thursday, 12/4/03, from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. in the Robbins Atrium, Dow 632. The department will provide a meat and cheese tray, rolls, and drinks. If you could bring a dish to pass that would be appreciated. Thanks and we look forward to seeing you there. 

Azadeh Tabazadeh, a senior scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, will present, "The Effect of Crystallization Process in Clouds on Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate," Wednesday, Oct. 22, 4-5 p.m. in Dow 641. Tabazadeh has been featured in Science News, was named one of Popular Science's "Brilliant 10" in 2002 and received the American Geophysical Union's James B. Macelwane Medal in 2001. The Macelwane Medal is awarded to young scientists for significant contributions in geophysics. The abstract for the seminar can be found at http://www.rsi.mtu.edu/seminar_current.html .

When: Wednesday, September 17.

Demo 1*: 8:30 to 11:30 AM to South Portage Entry to view a
shipwreck and coastal processes

Demo 2*: 12:30 to 1:30 PM to view industrial jetsam including stamp sands from MTU going west in the Portage

Demo 3*: 2:30 to 3:30 PM to view industrial jetsam including stamp sands from MTU going east in the Portage. (Sorry that this interferes with the President's Convocation at 3 PM).

*Space on the Agassiz is limited to 18 persons total. Please contact me by e-mail to sign up. Please indicate your preferred time and leave your phone number. (Contact Chuck Young ctyoung@mtu.edu 487-2072).

Side scan sonar is used to produce images of underwater geology and sunken objects. Common targets are shipwrecks, snowmobiles that have fallen through the ice, and drowning victims. nthropogenic targets for side scan. It is also used to produce images of underwater sediment deposition (natural or man-made, such as mine tailings), and other features of the lake bottom such as grooves made by ice. McQuest Marine Sciences Limited, in Burlington, Ontario is providing a Sport Scan sonar made by Imagenex (BC Canada) for demonstrations at MTU. This equipment is highly portable, and is powered by a 12 volt car battery. The electronics is in the sensor fish, which weighs about 25 pounds in air. The only other equipment required in the boat is a laptop computer and a GPS. In winter, the equipment can also be deployed by lowering it through a hole in the ice and turning it to obtain a radial scan. This demonstration should appeal limnologists, geologists, environmental engineers, industrial archeologists, and law enforcement.

*Space on the Agassiz is limited to 18 persons total and I am required to have a list of passengers before leaving the dock. Please contact me by e-mail to reserve a spot on the boat, and indicate which time you wish to go, also leave your phone number. (Contact Chuck Young ctyoung@mtu.edu 487-2072). I will NOT be providing refreshments. Bring your own water bottle. There is no toilet on the boat, so go before you go.

The main expense of this demonstration is the cost of the boat. If you would like another demonstration during the week of Sept. 15 to 19, and if you could provide a boat with a cabin or sunshade, please contact Chuck Young (ctyoung@mtu.edu 487-2072). The cabin is needed to shade the computer screen.

Relevant URLs:

The manufacturer's home page is: http://www.imagenex.com/Products/SportScan/sportscan.html

Basic principles are discussed at: http://www.marine- group.com/SonarPrimer/SideScanSonar.htm

Awesome side scan images are presented at: http://www.marinesonic.com/archives.html

Please note the following:

Effective December 2001 all Michigan candidates must contact the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) to register for future examinations.

The Michigan Board of Professional Engineers website is http://www.cis.mi.us/bcs/pe and their phone number is 517/241/9253.

The address for the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES):
PO Box 1686
280 Seneca Creek Road
Clemson, SC 29633-1686
Phone 877-536-7729 or 864-654-6824
Fax 864-654-6033