Well, this years GSA conference is now in the history books. Day 1 (Sunday) Nat and I split up and went to separate sessions. I went to Economic Geology while Nat went to Supervolcanoes and Ignibrite Flareups. The economic geology session focused on mainly copper/gold transport in crustal fluids and vapours. The talks focused on deposition of gold and copper in low, intermediate, and high density vapours coming off the fluids, and brines as being a major copper depositor. Some of the latest research is looking at how elemental sulphur as well as hydrogen sulphide and sulphuric acid play a role in the increased amounts of gold and copper found in some areas and how these materials interact with fluids.
The supervolcano session was equally interesting. Topics included talks on Toba, the distal range of ash a supervolcano can produce, the magmatic plumbing system of a supervolcano, the true definition of and exploring the limits of super-eruption size, and whether glaciation-deglaciation cycles have an effect on eruptions. Some specific areas studied included Yellowstone, Taupo in New Zealand, the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico, and new research into a nested caldera complex in Hong Kong. The afternoon was spent wandering through the many posters presented by students and professors alike in the exhibit halls. There are always lots of interesting posters on all facets of research in the geologic community. As typical at 7:00 PM sharp, the exhibit hall opens with a mad rush for the “adult” beverages (the first one is free!) and also the chance to wander around to see the latest in geologic gadgets, tools, and books for a couple hours.
Day 2 (Monday) began with a session on the Deccan Traps in India and how they may have played a major role in the extinction of the dinosaurs. New research suggests that not only a meteorite impact and not only the Deccan Traps were responsible, but a combination of both events may have triggered the end for the dinosaurs. For the afternoon, we went to another session devoted to extinction events; this time focusing on the Siberian Traps in Russia and how this largest of flood basalt eruptions may have had a major influence on the end-Permian extinction event, the largest single mass extinction event Earth has ever seen. After sitting through the more interesting talks in this session, I decided to switch sessions and catch a talk by my former undergrad advisor on whether large igneous provinces record the growth of continental crust. Two other talks in this session included ones on the Mid-Continent Rift in central North America, a region that I conduct a fair bit of research on myself.
Day 3 (Tuesday) started out with a session on “Magmas and Volatiles: Linking granites, volcanoes, geothermal systems, and mineral deposits”. The talks included bonanza ore deposits related to the Yellowstone hotspot, world class porphyry copper deposits (Bingham Canyon, Utah), the magnetite crisis, degassing of andesite/dacite liquids, degassing of calderas with respect to uranium isotopes, the Yarington District in Nevada, and a talk on lithium isotope distribution in the Wisconsin pegmatites. These were all very good talks with plenty of new research being conducted. The afternoon was spent wandering around the exhibit halls once again and also browsing the many posters provided by students and faculty from universities from all over the world. Tuesday was our last day; however, the meeting did continue on Wednesday, the 21st with many more sessions and other activities.
I should also mention that two other Mindat users, Stuart Mills and Chris Stefano, were also in attendance at the meeting and we had a fine discussion about minerals, geology, and the like. All in all, a very good meeting with lots of new and exciting research being conducted in the geosciences. My apologies for not posting photos, but photos of the meeting can be seen at the GSA website, www.geosociety.org.
For those interested, next year’s meeting will be held in Denver, Colorado October 31 through November 3. I highly encourage anyone interested in the geosciences to attend and take in the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America.
