NAU students, faculty participate in annual Geological Society of America meeting in Flagstaff

Dozens of Northern Arizona University faculty and students participated in the annual regional Geological Society of America Rocky Mountain/Cordilleran Joint Sectional meeting, held in Flagstaff in May.

The meeting consisted of short courses, field trips, student programs, exhibits and different types of sessions, many of which took place on the NAU campus. About 25 NAU students received free student registration, since the College of Engineering, Forestry, and Natural Sciences and School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability sponsored the event. Students from NAU also volunteered for the event.

Several geoscientists from NAU gave presentations:

• Scott Anderson presented Paleoclimate Records and Future Climate Trends in the American Southwest and Paleomagnetic, Structural, and Geophysical Data Applied to Intrusive and Extrusive Igneous Systems, Tectonic Applications, and Paleoclimate Studies.
• Daniel Buscombe presented The Happy Marriage of Geology and Art and Advances in River Science in the Intermountain West.
• Ernie Duebendorfer presented Recent Advances in Basin-and-Range and Proterozoic Geology of the Western U.S.
• David Elliott, a technical program co-chair, presented in Paleontology of the Colorado Plateau and Environs.
• Nicholas McKay presented Paleoclimate Records and Future Climate Trends in the American Southwest.
• Michael Ort presented in Volcanology/Petrology/Ore Mineralization and Paleomagnetic, Structural, and Geophysical Data Applied to Intrusive and Extrusive Igneous Systems, Tectonic Applications, and Paleoclimate Studies.
• Ryan Porter presented Colorado Plateau Landscape Evolution—Grand Canyon—and Upper Basin-Focused Colorado River Evolution, Advances in River Science in the Intermountain West, Laramide Tectonics in the Southwest North American Cordilleran Interior and Paleomagnetic, Structural, and Geophysical Data Applied to Intrusive and Extrusive Igneous Systems, Tectonic Applications, and Paleoclimate Studies
• Nancy Riggs, a technical program co-chair, presented in Pennsylvanian to Early Triassic Tectonics of Southwest Laurentia, Emerging Ideas on the Ancestral Rocky Mountain System and Paleomagnetic, Structural, and Geophysical Data Applied to Intrusive and Extrusive Igneous Systems, Tectonic Applications, and Paleoclimate Studies.
• Lisa Skinner was part of the Short Courses and Student Volunteers.
• Abraham Springer presented in Chemical and Isotopic Tracers of Water Sources in Semiarid Regions: From the Mantle to the Atmosphere.
• Paul Umhoefer, conference chair, presented Cenozoic Extension in Western North America and Emerging Ideas on the Ancestral Rocky Mountain System.
• James Wittke presented Jurassic to Cenozoic Geology of Southern California, Southwest Arizona, and Sonora.

Astronomy professors Nadine Barlow, Christopher Edwards and Mark Salvatore and postdoc Jean-Francois Smekens led The Holey Tour: Planetary Analog Sites of Northern Arizona field trip for 19 participants of the Geological Society of America Rocky Mountain/Cordilleran Joint Sectional meeting. The trip included explorations of Meteor Crater, Cinder Lake Crater Field, SP and Colton volcanoes.

Barlow presented on Comparing Central Pit Craters across the Solar System: Characteristics and Implications for Formation Models during the meeting. She also co-chaired the Recent Advances in Planetary Geoscience session.