AEG News Vol. 65 No. 5 - Winter 2022

2022 Annual Meeting

AEG 2023 Annual Meeting

Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront

September 19–24

Portland, Oregon’s largest city, sits on the Columbia and Willamette rivers, in the shadow of snow-capped Mount Hood. It’s known for its parks, bridges, and bicycle paths, as well as for its eco-friendliness and Powell’s Books, its microbreweries and coffeehouses.

The city hosts thriving art, theater, and music scenes. Surrounded by Portland hot spots and more than 60 breweries, the Marriott Portland Downtown Waterfront hotel reflects the vibrancy of the city and is located directly on the waterfront in downtown. Wind down with friends by sampling some of the 150 types of whiskey at their on-site restaurant, Proof Reader.

FIELD COURSES:

• Landslides & Engineering Geology in the Columbia River Gorge

• Living with Giant Landslides in Portland, Oregon

• Scoggins Dam Engineering Geology in the Cascadia Subduction Zone/Networking Opportunity

• Mt St Helens –Highlights of the 1980 Eruption and Engineering Geology after the Event Don’t miss the outstanding technical program and the Special Event at the Oswego Hills Vineyard planned for this incredible 2023 Annual Meeting.

AEG News (ISSN 0899-5788; USPS 954-380) is published by the Association of Environmental & Engineering Geologists (AEG), 3053 Nationwide Pkwy., Brunswick, OH 44212, four times a year in April, July, and December with the Annual Report and Directory in March. The Annual Meeting Program with Abstracts is published only digitally, in September, and the digital copies are distributed at the AEG Annual Meeting. Association members receive an electronic copy of all five issues of AEG News as part of their dues. Print subscription for Association members, which includes all three regular issues of the AEG News and the Annual Report and Directory issue, is $40 in addition to annual membership dues. Nonmember annual subscription is $50. Back copies of AEG News regular issues are $12 each. Inquiries should be sent to AEG Headquarters: Association Manager, 3053 Nationwide Parkway, Brunswick, OH 44212 330-578-4900.

Periodical Postage paid at Brunswick, OH, and additional mailing offices: POSTMASTER: Send address changes to AEG News, 3053 Nationwide Pkwy., Brunswick, OH 44212.© 2022 Association of Environmental & Engineering Geologists—All Rights Reserved.

Views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those officially representing the Association of Environmental & Engineering Geologists except where expressly stated.

AEG News Editors

Acquisitions Editor: Martha Whitney, Principal Engineering Geologist, Whitney Geologic, news@aegweb.org

Content Editor: Bill Roman, Woodsman, bill.roman.bretz@gmail.com

Managing Editor/Production: Andrea Leigh Ptak, Communicating Words & Images, 206-300 -2067, andrealeighptak@me.com, www.andrealeighptak.com

Submission Information

In order of preference:

1. Send files via email, preferably as attachments, to both email addresses above. Optimum file format is MSWord. Users of other software programs should convert their file to ASCII or text only. Photos and other images, charts, graphs, etc.) should be sent as separate images but may be included in the Word.doc for placement purposes.

2. Images should be sent as high-resolution (250 dpi at 4” wide or larger) jpeg or tiff files and should be named with a strong identifier such as HF-TexasJohn Jones—NOT P204679.jpg. Corresponding photo captions should be included in the text along with an attribution of the source/photographer.

3. The policy of AEG News editorial staff is to limit the credentials of an individual to two. No effort will be made by the AEG News editorial staff to determine if individuals whose credentials are missing from the submitted copy actually have academic or professional credentials, nor will the staff verify the existence or correctness of the credentials submitted.

For detailed guidelines visit: https://aeg.memberclicks.net/assets/docs/aeg_news_style_guide_0713.pdf

Advertising in the News

Contact AEG Headquarters at advertising@aegweb.org.

Submission Deadlines

https://www.aegweb.org/aeg-news-2

Canada Agreement number: PM40063731; Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: Station A, PO Box 54; Windsor, ON N9A 6J5; Email: returnsil@imex.pb.com

Vol. 65, No. 5 – Winter 2022

Table of Contents

Index to Advertisers 7

From the Editors 4

The Acquisitions Editor’s Pen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

News of the Association 5

The President’s Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Vice President’s Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Treasurer’s Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Secretary’s Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

AEG Foundation Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Field Camp Rite of Passage at Poleta Folds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Indiana University Field Camp Cardwell, Montana – Summer 2022 . . . . .13 Committee & Technical Working Group Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Memorials: Richard Gentile, Carl Norman & Richard Fink . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Special Feature 24

Recap of AEG 65th Annual Meeting “Geology in the Wild” . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Field Course #3 for the Win . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 Grand Canyon Skywalk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38

News of the Profession 41

ASBOG 2022 Annual Meeting & Fall COE Workshop Recap . . . . . . . . . . .41

Professional Contributions 42

CPT Pushing in “Pure” Michigan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

Field Trips 44 San Francisco Chapter’s Trip to Mt. Diablo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

The HomeFront 47

On the Cover

A selection of photos of the informative, enjoyable, and exciting events at the 2022 AEG Annual Meeting held in Las Vegas, Nevada. See page 24 for full coverage. Cover photo key on page 7.

The association

2022–23 Officers

President: NATHAN SARACENO

Senior Geologist, DiGioia Gray and Associates, Monroeville, Pennsylvania president@aegweb.org

Vice President/President Elect: SARAH KALIKA Consulting Geologist, DiabloGeo Environmental, San Ramon, California, VP@aegweb.org

Treasurer: RENEE WAWCZAK Hydrogeologist, Norridge, Illinois, treasurer@aegweb.org

Secretary: PAUL WEAVER

Senior Transportation Geotechnical Project Manager, ESP Associates, Inc., Greensboro, NC, secretary@aegweb.org

Past President: MADDIE GERMAN Consulting Geologist, Fort Myers, Florida, PP@aegweb.org

Association Contacts

Headquarters:

Association Manager: SHERI MASKOW

J&M Business Solutions 3053 Nationwide Parkway, Brunswick, OH 44212 330-578-4900, manager@aegweb.org

AEG Foundation—President: KEN NEAL, president@aegfoundation.org

Acquisitions Editor’s Pen

Martha Whitney, AEG News Acquisitions Editor

The variety of content presented in this issue makes it one of the most exciting editions since I took on the role of Acquisitions Editor back in the spring of 2020. We have come through a lot together, as an organization and as a community. With this issue, it truly feels like we are through the dark days, and a vast and exciting landscape has opened up for us on professional and personal levels. Chapters are once again active—hosting meetings and organizing field trips—Field Camps are back, the important work of AEG committees continues to have a positive impact, and the Annual Meeting was a great success.

The Annual Meeting was my first, and I really didn’t know what to expect. I had never met any of the folks I’d been virtually interacting with over the past two years. I went to Vegas solo (who does that?) and had mentally prepared myself for a lonely week of technical talks and obligatory socializing. I could not have been more wrong! At the event, I found a welcoming community of consultants (from young professionals to “geocelebrities”), researchers, and students, all mingling, learning, and collaborating in a relaxed and productive atmosphere. The presentations were top-shelf, and the various events added that perfect element of networking without feeling like we were networking. We were having fun! So much fun that I never even found time to try my luck at blackjack.

A couple of weeks before the meeting, I learned that I was elected to be the new Director of the International Region. One of my goals as International Region Director is to encourage discourse and idea exchange that includes voices from the global AEG community. I am working to incorporate those voices in future editions of AEG News through short bio pieces and technical contributions.

I am writing to you from a drilling vessel currently located in Buzzard’s Bay off the coast of Massachusetts. We are sheltering in the bay while the remnants of Hurricane Nicole pass through.

There is a lot of wind energy-related work going on along the New England seaboard as some offshore wind projects launch the preliminary construction phase and others are just beginning to collect geophysical and geotechnical data. This is an exciting time for applied geology in sustainable energy sectors. We are at the forefront of the transition to clean energy. The 2023 Spring edition will target Technical/Professional Contributions focused on sustainable energy and energy storage. If you are involved in any projects in this arena, please consider preparing an article for AEG News The deadline for the Spring Edition is February 15.

All the best and have a great festive season!

Cities of the World Editor Wanted – Volunteer Position

AEG is looking for an editor for our Cities of the World project. These are generally technical publications written by local- and subject-matter experts, often over the course of several years. Final reports are published and made available to AEG members.

The editor role requirements:

Develop a scope for each city and work with the project team to determine the outline and timeline for the article • Track and coordinate the writing of the various articles, typically several in-process concurrently • Advise the project teams as questions arise during the writing process • Review intermediate drafts as needed • Review and edit the final draft • Work with the project team to incorporate edits and comments • Review draft final and make any necessary adjustments • Coordinate document production with AEG resources • Generate ideas for new city articles and solicit project teams • Attend routine calls with the article teams as well as the AEG communications committee • Develop new ideas for process improvement and the long-term development of the series • Have a broad understanding of many geology disciplines • Be a strong writer with a deep understanding of grammar, syntax and style • Proficiency in MS

Word for document markup • Ability to step back and consider the document in full, for consistency in the way it flows and what it says • Learn, understand and implement the various steps needed to get a guide from text to finished publication • Experience communicating feedback to others in a constructive manner and with the ability to collaboratively achieve project goals

Time requirements

Approximately eighty hours for a first draft comment review and forty hours for each subsequent round of review (per document) • One hour monthly for Communications Committee calls • Approximately two–four hours per month corresponding with the various city teams to keep the various articles on track

Interested candidates should contact AEG Vice President Sarah Kalika at VP@AEGweb.org.

Three Months In

Nathan Saraceno, 2022–23 AEG President

As you read this message, I will already be wrapping up the first quarter of my term as President of AEG. I continue to be honored to serve in this role and am thankful for your trust and support. I also want to thank everyone that helped make the 2022 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, such a unique and successful experience! The event was full of great speakers, field courses, exhibitors, and, of course, people. If you were not able to attend this year, you were missed, but I hope to see you at next year’s meeting in Portland, Oregon!

As I shared during the recent Annual Meeting, I have three primary objectives for my time as AEG President: 1. Strengthen our relationships with affiliated societies, 2. Develop more effective volunteer management, and 3. Continue the momentum of our Strategic Plan.

1. Strengthen Our Relationship with Affiliated Societies

Affiliated societies are like-minded scientific, professional, or technical organizations that share common interests and goals with AEG. We have had both formal and informal relationships with many affiliated societies over the years, such as the Environmental & Engineering Geology Division (EEGD) of GSA, American Geosciences Institute (AGI), and ASBOG, just to name a few. However, we could be doing more to leverage these relationships in order to better collaborate in mutually beneficial ways. For example, members of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (DEIC) have been participating in AGI’s Intersociety Committee on DEI to share their own successes, learn best practices, and address DEI-related challenges, and to apply what they have learned to our own DEI initiatives. As another example of our relationshipstrengthening, we are currently in the process of developing a formal memorandum of understanding with the Geoprofessional Business Association (GBA), which will in part provide greater visibility of AEG with GBA’s members and will make GBA resources available to AEG members.

2. Effective Volunteer Management

Volunteers are what makes AEG function. Historically, we have managed most of our volunteers by organizing them into committees and working groups. AEG has many highly active operational committees, and others that are struggling to find direction or have been dormant for several years. After several brainstorming sessions with the Board of Directors (BOD) on how to reinvigorate some of our struggling and dormant committees, I believe AEG must reevaluate how volunteers are organized in order to achieve our strategic goals. For our most active committees, this may mean no change at all. For others,

combining or completely disbanding the committee. However this looks, the process will involve stakeholder input from the BOD, committee chairs and volunteers, and you, the membership. Our intent for this volunteer management plan would be increasing our volunteer base by identifying and pairing volunteers with specific initiatives that are of interest to them. Our goals would be to reduce volunteer burnout, increase our volunteer base, and to develop new leaders within AEG.

3. Continue the Momentum of Our Strategic Plan

My third objective is to continue pushing toward achieving our strategic goals as an Association. The last version of our Strategic Plan was developed in 2018. AEG Past Presidents Cynthia Palomares (2019–20) and Bill Godwin (2020–21) made great strides toward completing many of the tactics that were identified in the Strategic Plan during their time on the Executive Council. Since then, and beginning with AEG’s current Past President Maddie German, we have begun the process of revisiting and revising the plan, and through strategic planning workshops with the BOD are nearing completion of an updated plan with new goals and tactics. The Strategic Plan is vital to AEG maintaining relevancy and continuing to understand and meet our members’ needs. Through new tactics under the overall goals of membership, meetings, communication, and marketing and management, we will continue to thrive as an Association.

I look forward to serving as your President and am excited to do so alongside the strong and dedicated slate of volunteer leaders that make up the rest of the Executive Council.

Nate with outgoing AEG President Maddie German at the 2022 Annual Meeting

AEG – The Place to be for Applied Geology

Sarah Kalika, 2022–23 AEG Vice President

began my year as Vice President in September and hit the ground running, but instead of physically running—I started my year of listening and coordinating.

During both the April and September 2022 meetings of the Board of Directors (BOD), the Board took a closer look at refining AEG’s Strategic Plan (originally developed in 2018) and identifying some new goals to keep us moving forward. As the Strategic Plan turns five years old in 2023, it is time to take a closer look to identify which initiatives have been accomplished and which ones need some reworking as we strive toward continued improvement of the Association and benefits for members.

The BOD, along with organizational input from the Strategic Initiative Coordinators, have identified goals in the following areas to move AEG forward over the next five years:

Membership:

Establish a membership committee to, among other items:

■ Ensure timely communication during the membership renewal season of late Fall.

■ Develop a more formalized membership renewal and appreciation effort.

Board member Martha Whitney (International Region) and Student and Young Professional Support Committee (SYPSC) Cochair (and former Board Member) Rick Kolb agreed to get this committee up and running.

Meetings:

■ Reestablish development of Spring Forums (in-person or online).

■ Encourage Chapters to begin recording speaker presentations when permission is granted.

■ Work with the Association Manager and AEG’s Meetings Manager to create meeting advertising content for social media.

■ More effectively communicate the availability of the Student/Young Professional Travel Grant funding to encourage Annual Meeting attendance.

Many of these initiatives will be adapted as goals for the Meetings Advisory Committee (co-chaired by Sarah Kalika and Paul Weaver), with assistance from the SYPSC (co-chaired by Morley Beckman and Rick Kolb), and the Chapter Support Committee (chaired by Curt Schmidt with active participation by all Chapter leaders.

Communication:

■ Ensure that the voices of AEG members and leaders are being heard.

■ Provide clear direction to leadership on which issues have the most impact.

■ Increase recognition for our many outstanding volunteers. Ensure that the Volunteer of the Year Award is communicated at prominent levels within AEG’s publications and during plenary sessions, including the Opening Session of the Annual Meeting.

■ Promote more and better communication with the Chapters and Chapter leadership boards by hosting more effective collaborative calls.

These initiatives will be advanced by multiple parts of the Association including the Communications Committee (co-chaired by Isaac Pope and Bill Godwin), Chapter Support Committee, and Annual Meeting Chairs, with support from the Executive Council and Regional Directors.

Marketing & Management:

Recognizing that AEG has a long history of being a small- to medium-sized professional organization that still lacks recognition among industry professionals, the following goals were established:

■ Increase the impact from advertising of AEG-hosted events including the Annual Meeting, webinars, professional forums, Chapter events, field courses, and short courses. Find alternative approaches to advertising these events to different audiences (including members of partner organizations).

■ Evaluate the use, reference, and readership of our peerreviewed journal, Environmental & Engineering Geoscience (E&EG).

Look at other association journals for cues on ways to improve readership and citations of E&EG, including potential for more open-access publishing, special edition issues featuring a common topic, and better publicity for the journal.

As Vice President, one of my tasks is to attend as many Operational Committee meetings as possible and serve as a liaison between the Committees and the Board, so this year I will strive to invigorate our existing leaders and recruit new leaders to take on some of the initiatives identified in our revised Strategic Plan. I am already full of ideas, and I’m looking forward to working with you— our outstanding members and leaders—to help AEG accomplish our goals.

A Balanced

Renee Wawczak, 2022–23 AEG Treasurer

uring the Annual Meeting in Las Vegas this year, I transitioned from AEG Secretary to Treasurer, and I am eager to continue my journey on the Executive Council. I enter this role following in the footsteps of previous treasurers that worked tirelessly to oversee AEG’s finances during a time of uncertainty. I hope to continue their excellent work and maintain fiscal responsibility for the Association.

We enter this new year with a balanced proposed budget. This is exciting and noteworthy because AEG typically projects a deficit budget each year, despite often ending with a surplus. The Board approving a balanced budget for 2022–23 is a manifestation of the dedication and hard work of AEG staff and volunteers to evaluate realistic membership numbers, operational costs, and Annual Meeting budgets to most accurately interpret and project spending and income numbers for each budget year. Our Association Management Company, J&M, has proved to be more affordable than previous association management companies and has been able to work more effectively with AEG treasurers to provide accurate spending and income numbers, allowing for accurate accounting and real-time tracking, so that the Association can make informed decisions should significant budget deviations occur.

AEG has seen its highest membership numbers this year since 2018! As of October 2022, the Association has 3,073 members, of which, 1,356 are Full Members. The majority of our membership income is a result of our Full Membership category. These currently make up forty-four percent of our

On the Cover: Scenes from the 2023 AEG Annual Meeting

LEFT TO RIGHT FROM TOP: 1. The view from The Great Wheel during the Special Event PHOTO BY LOREN LANSKY 2. AEG members examining an unusual quadruped specimen found on The Strip PHOTO PROVIDED BY ELDON GATH

membership, but greater than ninety percent of our income comes from their paid dues. Please remember to renew your membership, and, if you’re able, please consider donating an additional amount to support the continued operation of AEG as a “Sustaining Member.” All Sustaining Members are recognized in the Annual Report and Directory, thank you for your continued support! No matter which membership category you identify with, you will need to renew to continue receiving your membership benefits. AEG appreciates all of our members!

Other factors contributing to this year’s proposed budget include income from successful professional forums (in-person and virtual), continued monthly webinars, and increased sponsorship sales for both the Association and the Annual Meeting. If you have an interest in hosting a professional forum, sponsoring an event at the Annual Meeting, or presenting a webinar, please reach out to a member of the Executive Council at exec@aegweb.org.

AEG has also utilized new virtual technology for some EC meetings, which has resulted in a decrease in overall travel costs, and the Association’s software expenses have decreased. At the time of writing this article, the Annual Meeting numbers from Las Vegas have not been finalized, but it is expected to have a modest surplus despite lower-than-projected attendance numbers. Please look for additional discussion about the final numbers from the Annual Meeting in the next issue of AEG News.

6. Attendee visiting exhibitor booth during a break

PHOTO BY CONFERENCE PHOTOGRAPHER 7. The hard-working AEG Team at the registration table.

PHOTO BY MARTHA WHITNEY 8. A colorful Vegas casino PHOTO BY LOREN LANSKY 9. Lauren Miller receiving a Lemke Award from AEGF President Ken Neal

PHOTO BY CONFERENCE PHOTOGRAPHER

Looking Forward

Paul Weaver, 2022-2023 AEG Secretary

lam excited to have become a part of the AEG Executive Council (EC) at the 2022 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas. We had a wonderful Annual Meeting which included an EC meeting on Tuesday and a Board of Directors’ (BOD) meeting on Saturday and half of Sunday.

Strategic Planning Workshop

As part of the BoD meeting at the Annual Meeting on Saturday, a Strategic Planning Workshop was held to solicit new ideas and generate action items to continue moving forward with the AEG Strategic Plan. One of the things to come out of this workshop was the agreement to form a new AEG com-

mittee, the Membership Committee or MemCom for short. We also heard great ideas during the workshop in the areas of meetings, communications, marketing, and management.

2022–23

The EC will continue to meet on a regular basis during the coming year. A mid-year board meeting will be held in the spring with all of the Board of Directors and the EC. We will also have an EC meeting and a BOD meeting at the Annual Meeting in September.

I’m looking forward to a great year for AEG, and I hope to see you all in Portland next September!

Outstanding Volunteer Recognition

Volunteers are the backbone of AEG. At the 2022 Annual Meeting, AEG’s Executive Council recognized the following individuals for their outstanding service to AEG:

David Abbott – for his long-term service as San Francisco Chapter treasurer and an active member for over forty years.

Dale Andrews – for his commitment to AEG as a past president and through his recent work on the Strategic Initiatives Committee revamping AEG’s Strategic Plan.

Patricia Bryan – an AEG workhorse who is diligently helping our profession by organizing technical sessions and initiating and maintaining research and industry contacts, while serving as an active member of the Chicago Chapter.

Courtney Johnson – a long-term San Francisco Chapter officer (past membership chair and secretary) who continues to contribute to AEG as co-chair of the Geologic and Seismic Hazards Technical Working Group.

Rick Kolb – for helping to reinvigorate the Carolinas Chapter while stepping in as temporary co-chair for the SYPS Committee and organizing several ASBOG-related webinars.

Gary Luce – for his service as past chapter chair and continued advisor for the Great Basin Chapter.

Cornelia Marin – a long-serving Chicago Chapter officer who has served as vice chair and done an amazing job of finding venues and speakers, especially following pandemic restaurant closures.

Isaac Pope – for stepping up to chair the Communications Committee on his own, while a student, and continuing to write articles for AEG publications.

Kathleen Rodrigues – for her service as secretary of the Great Basin Chapter and now vice chair.

Jesse Ruzicka – for her service as past chair and continued advisor for the Great Basin Chapter.

Dr. Chris Stohr – for his years of service as the Chicago Chapter chair.

Dr. Andrew Stumpf – for his service as the long-time treasurer of the Chicago Chapter.

AEG News Welcomes Your Feedback.

Comments, suggestions, or questions should be sent with the writer's name, address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to news@aegweb.org.

AEG News Disclaimer

Authors alone are responsible for views expressed in signed articles. Advertisers and their agencies are solely responsible for the content of all advertisements printed and also assume responsibility for any claims arising therefrom against the publisher. AEG and AEG News reserve the right to reject any advertising copy.

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Consider Corporate Sponsorship to Support AEG…

AEG is one of the very few organizations dedicated to supporting applied geology. Members include geologists specializing in engineering geology, environmental geology, and hydrogeology as well as other professionals in affiliated fields, such as civil and mining engineering, land use planning, public policy and education. Go beyond just advertising to constantly connecting with over 2,000 members online, in person, and through AEG’s publications. This is the best way to support the profession while growing visibility for your business. Sign up for a sponsorship and start receiving benefits today! We are flexible and would love to work with you for a custom sponsorship that fits your exact needs.

AEG Foundation – Supporting Students

Nichole J. Vetter, PG, AEGF Director

The AEG Foundation was proud to select and present six students with Lemke awards at the Annual Meeting in Las Vegas. The Lemke award is a monetary prize that is intended to help students who present their research defray the costs of attending the meeting.

The 2022 Lemke Awardees

Cassidy Grady, Colorado School of Mines

Daisy Hermann, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Elisabeth Kennedy, California State University-Chico

Oscar Lemus, Colorado School of Mines

Lauren Miller, Colorado School of Mines

Matthew Wagoner, California State University-Chico

https://www.aegfoundation.org/application/ PLEASE NOTE: You must set up an account for the application process that is separate from your AEG log-in.

The following funds/grants are available for 2023: Beardsley-Kuper Fund: Provides support for field camp tuition and expenses

Carolinas Scholarship Fund: Provides support for geologic studies by undergraduate students enrolled in a geology or geoscience program at an accredited university in North Carolina or South Carolina

Diversity Scholarship Fund: In mid-2020, AEG established the Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Committee (DEIC). Leaders and members of the DEIC have established this fund to support academic scholarships for qualified college/university students.

Diversity Field Trips Grant: Supports geoscience enrichment field trips for junior-high/middle-school and high-school students and academic scholarship for college/university students.

Lemke Fund: Provides support to AEG Student Members presenting at professional meetings at which AEG plays a substantial role.

Marliave Fund: Provides support to graduate and undergraduate scholarships in engineering geology and geological engineering.

Mathewson Fund: Provides support to AEG Student Members studying in Texas.

Robert J. Watters Great Basin Chapter Scholarship Fund: Provides support for geoscience studies by students at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Shlemon Quaternary Engineering Geology Fund: Provides support for geologic studies by students at the graduate level.

Stout Fund: Provides support to graduate and undergraduate students in environmental and engineering geology.

2023 Scholarships

The AEG Foundation is delighted to announce that the application process for 2023 scholarships is now open! This article gives a list of the current active scholarships. To learn more about their qualifications and various requirements and to determine which you should apply for, check out the AEG Foundation’s Fund page https://www.aegfoundation.org/funds/

The application process is straightforward and painless, but it’s best to start now. The deadline for 2023 scholarships is January 15, 2023. Currently, applications are only accepted online. To apply, please visit the website at:

Susan Steele Weir Scholarship Fund (Women of “Steele”): Provides support for the continued development and advancement of women in the profession of engineering geology.

John Moylan Student Chapter Grant: Provides support to AEG Student Chapters for field trips, visiting professionals, and other program needs through small grants.

Tilford Fund: Provides support to graduate and undergraduate students for field studies.

West-Gray Scholarship Fund: Provides support to undergraduate and graduate geology students in the eastern half of the United States.

Above: Lauren Miller, Colorado School of Mines, with her mentor Jennifer Ostrowsky

Top Left: Cassidy Grady, Colorado School of Mines; Bottom Left: Elisabeth Kennedy, California State University-Chico

Field Camp Rite of Passage at Poleta Folds

Ashley A. Scholder

To become a geologist means years of study. When we are done with studying, we all must go through the rite of passage known as “field camp.” I attended California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) and was lucky enough to be awarded the Beardsley-Kuper Scholarship provided by the AEG Foundation. This scholarship took away the burden of taking out another school loan! I am incredibly grateful and so honored to share my journey.

CSUF is one of many schools to have field camp at Poleta Folds, which is situated in the White Mountains of California at the southern end of Deep Springs Valley. This area is growing in popularity for many schools because of its complex geologic structure. Dr. Sinan Akciz, two teaching assistants, nine other students, and I embarked on a month-long journey of geologic exploration. We spent the first two weeks in tents—far away from wi-fi—at the Grandview Campground. The normal student campsites were already filled by the time CSUF decided we were going to do an in-person camp. The campsite was incredible. It was peaceful, and we all staked out perfect spots for our tents. I was lucky enough to have one of the biggest tents and I picked a spot with no view obstructions. Camping was one of my favorite activities. Our site included a study tent attached to our kitchen tent. We spent a lot of time perfecting our maps in the study tent until the late hours of evening.

We were on a six-day-on/one-day-off schedule. The first day was one of learning where we were and what geologic units to expect. The area comprised eight units of the Poleta Formation and just the first unit of the overlying Harkless Formation, with a marker bed lovingly called “chocolate chip” because of its distinctive chert nodules. Most of the Poleta Formation is limestone, so we spent the day learning to distinguish the units. We were mapping row one and row two of the area. There is a

third row, but we did not explore that. I thoroughly enjoyed having class outdoors every day on the side of a mountain being immersed in what was being discussed.

Each day featured an early rise to get to the site early, so we could beat the 2:00 p.m. heat. We were usually the first ones on site out of the four other schools we encountered. We were split into mapping pairs. I was luckily paired up with a buddy I met in my first class at CSUF two years prior. We had a great time following unit contacts and taking strike and dips every other step. There were many heated discussions about where exactly we were on a topo map with only three contours labeled on it. I have a newfound respect for those that can locate themselves with ease on a topo map. After the first week, we all discussed what we were finding since we would all split up and map different areas.

The Poleta Folds is truly unique. Between the folding, uplifting, and numerous faults, it is quite clear why this is used as the gauntlet into our geology careers. We saw just about every structure there is to see in a matter of two weeks. This was the most enriching experience. I found a place that I called “Jumbled Junction” SE in row one. It was an area of complete chaos, and I spent days there mapping and theorizing the events that made it so…. jumbled. My theory is long and complicated. It involves folding, then uplifting, then a thrust fault, then a strike slip fault, then another thrust fault…possibly a reverse fault too. I could easily write a whole paper on my theory.

At the end of our time spent out there, we had to create a strat column, colored geologic map, report of the history and what we found, and turn in our notebooks. I am sad about turning in my notebook because I would have loved to keep that experience forever. I guess professors do this in order to try and control the details about Poleta Folds from getting out and being accessible, so future geology students

Beardsley-Kuper Scholar Ashley Scholder exploring the Poleta Folds

My tent site with a view

can experience what we all have for themselves with fresh eyes and minds.

After the two grueling weeks of boots on the ground, it was on to the last two weeks which included taking measurements along the San Andreas Fault in the Maricopa area, and then onto the hydrology portion of camp, which is new this year but quite imperative to a geologist’s career. The hydrology portion included instruction on all the different drilling methods and gave us first-hand experience in the art of logging the sediments encountered during drilling. The final day was spent hand augering and logging a five-foot-deep hole.

In the end, I now feel like a real geologist and can begin my career knowing I survived field camp. I thank the AEG Foundation and donors to the Beardsley-Kuper Scholarship for the incredible opportunity to finish my scholastic career on a high note. I will never forget this experience and those wonderful people I got to share it with.

A field camp outdoor class

Collaborating with my mapping partner Vince

Logging a hand auger hole

Indiana University Field Camp Cardwell, Montana – Summer 2022

Justin Coley

Field Camp… Two words that strike either fear in the hearts of undergrad geology students or excitement. Having grown up fishing and camping with my dad and the Boy Scouts, I was looking forward to six weeks in the Tobacco Root Mountains of southwest Montana. As a Marine I had slept more than one or two nights in holes I had to dig in the ground, so how hard could this be? I had always wanted to see Montana and couldn’t think of a better way to do it than at field camp. So, I left for Cardwell in early June. The drive out was beautiful, but I couldn’t wait to get there and get started. Living accommodations were better than I expected with bunk beds in a five-man bunkhouse (see “sleeping in holes” above). Breakfast and dinners were prepared hot by someone other than me (taking another possible duty off my plate) and there were hot showers.

The first week was spent acclimatizing to the elevation and learning the local rock units we would be mapping. Having come from approximately six hundred feet above sea level and being a non-traditional student (read that as “not twenty-two years old”), those first few “easy” days were appreciated (the 5,280-foot contour line runs through the men’s shower house). The instructors were friendly and

helpful, but never so much so that you would be able to avoid thinking yourself out of a problem. Being from the Piedmont of North Carolina, I had almost no exposure to limestones prior to field camp and wish I had given the number and proximity to each other of various limestone units in that part of Montana. It would have made telling the Pilgrim and Meagher apart much easier (and Jefferson and Madison Group, etc.).

I was a special case during the second week, having been one of the lucky few to test positive for Covid. The instructors did a good job keeping us on the same track as everyone else, in spite of having to isolate from the larger group. We spent the week working on mapping exercises that stemmed from videos of someone making observations in the field. We also, spent a significant amount of the second week working on background sections of the final report that would accompany our maps during the final mapping exercise.

It was Go time during the third week. Because of the Covid outbreak, the schedule was altered. We spent this week working on the Highway 2 mapping project, which I had read about before leaving for field camp and knew was one of the more difficult exercises we would complete. The first few field days were not that bad, and the geology seemed to be pretty straight forward. That didn’t last long though as we began to learn about how to identify faults from stratigraphic anomalies.

On top of the general confusion associated with stratigraphic anomalies, the rattlesnakes were beginning to wake up from their hibernation. There weren’t any bites, but several encounters as noted by the frequent screams and running heard all over the map area. The last two days in the field were devoted to the “Pit

Atop the first ridge of Mount Doherty looking south toward Cardwell, Montana

of Despair” (or “Bowl of Enlightenment” depending on your individual experience) where the geology looked almost like a drain had been pulled, and sedimentary layers were circling it. In the end, the Highway 2 map was as difficult as I had been led to believe, but definitely helped me understand how to use the stratigraphy to identify folds and faults.

The fourth week was spent at Mount Doherty. The geology was not as complicated as it had been at Highway 2, but the topography was much more challenging, and we were mapping a much larger area. More than once on Mount Doherty, I wished I had more time for acclimatization. Again, we had to use stratigraphic anomalies to recognize folds and faults. On top of the topographic challenge of Mount Doherty, we were expected to work much more independently from the instructors than we had been at Highway 2. Instructors’ answers were much more vague, and leading questions were farther between. At the end of the Mount Doherty exercise, my confidence recognizing rock units and placing contacts on the map were improved (as was my cardiovascular fitness).

The final mapping exercise took up the fifth week and was what we had been preparing for over the previous weeks. My final study area covered an area that was approximately 3 miles by 4.5 miles with elevation ranging from 4,800 feet to 6,800 feet. By this time, it was summer in Montana, and even though the mornings were still cool enough for long sleeves, it was in the mid to high 90s by midday. On top of that, I think the

highest elevations we worked at were in the final study area. I haven’t walked that much since I was in the Marines. The instructors were with us the entire week, but it was completely up to us with regard to what traverses we would make, identifying rock units, and placing contacts and structural features. It was the most challenging thing I’ve done physically or academically since the Marines. I’ll never forget the experience and what I learned about surficial geologic mapping.

The sixth and final week were devoted to a specialization which, for me, was based on hydrology and environmental geology. The entire week was spent studying an abandoned copper/lead mine, and its effects on the surrounding environment. We spent several days taking water chemistry measurements and studying the local bedrock and mine tailings. By the end of the week, we had each produced reports meant to simulate Phase I and Phase II assessments with recommendations for Phase III applicability.

Field camp was much more challenging than I expected, both physically and academically. I’m glad it was though. I can’t imagine learning that much, in that amount of time, without it having been a challenge. Getting to experience the geology in place was also more important than I realized until I got there. The sheer scale of it is impossible to understand without seeing it in situ. This was something I’ll never forget, and I cannot say thank you enough to the field camp instructors, and the scholarship donors that made it possible for me to get there.

At the bottom of the first hill in the Highway 2 map area

Performing a field titration

Committees

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (DEIC)

Deborah Green, Co-chair

The DEIC convened the second annual DEI symposium at the AEG Annual Meeting in Las Vegas in September 2022. We asked to be scheduled on the first afternoon of the meeting, and we are so glad we did, because the dialogue started during the symposium, Words Matter, continued throughout the meeting, specifically at the Strength Through Equity–Inclusion Luncheon the next day and in many casual conversations as the week progressed, culminating in addressing the need for training on DEI issues that was taken up by AEG’s Board of Directors at the end of the Annual Meeting.

Six speakers—young professionals through retirees, newer AEG members to those wearing forty-year AEG lapel pins, AEG leaders to geoscience profession leaders to educators—spoke.

Diverse voices, especially considering the relatively small group. Topics addressed during the symposium included:

■ DEIC’s accomplishments, from Deborah Green (retired consultant, writer, and DEIC Co-chair);

■ Implicit biases and taking on a growth mindset to overcome them, from Sarah Kalika (self-employed consultant and AEG Vice President);

■ Dealing with harassment at work—sometimes you report/sometimes you educate, from Alexia Mackey (consulting environmental engineer);

■ Supporting a diverse population of students in STEM and modeling for them what a career in the geosciences can be like and what it can accomplish, from Dr. Laura RosalesLagarde (professor at Nevada State College);

■ Needed shifts in the culture of the geoscience profession, and progress being made toward inclusion, then equity, and ultimately a diverse profession, from Christopher Keane (AGI Director of Profession and Higher Education); and

■ Why words really do matter in our use of pronouns and how it all points to treating each other with respect from Minda Moe (consulting geologist).

We wrapped up the afternoon with a panel discussion that included all the speakers in the symposium.

The rich conversations continued at the Strength through Equity–Inclusion Luncheon the following day, where attendees were encouraged to talk about their experiences around feeling included, or not, in the geoscience profession and at AEG meetings. We asked attendees to fill out a short questionnaire regarding those feelings and asked them for suggestions in making AEG more inclusive. Some included: working with meeting hotels to make sure there are gender-neutral bathrooms available to meeting attendees, highlighting DEI issues in more widely attended sessions like the opening session and the annual banquet, and changing the masking policy for COVID prevention so older members and others with under-

lying health issues can feel safe attending. In addition, there were requests for webinars concerning DEI issues and bystander intervention training (both at the Annual Meeting and virtually throughout the year).

All luncheon attendees were given an AEG Progress Flag lapel pin, to express their support for a diverse geoscience profession, and also to show they are someone who can be looked to as an ally, for acceptance and safety, at AEG events.

The important issues discussed during the meeting resulted in AEG’s leadership taking on some of these items in the Board of Directors’ meeting in the following days.

For a small organization, AEG is taking on DEI issues in a big way. We have made progress, but there is still so far to go. If you wish to help make a difference, consider working on DEI initiatives in your AEG Chapter or join the DEIC. For more information on AEG’s DEI positions and programs, take a look at: https://www.aegweb.org/diversity. Onward!

K–12 Outreach Committee

Bruce Rogers, PG, Co-chair

On October 20, 2022, I traveled to the Pine Mountain Settlement School to deliver educational materials the Nashville Chapter is providing to the school’s new geology laboratory. Among the materials were mineral specimen kits with instructional manuals and a raised relief topographic map of the region encompassing the school, which is located at the northern edge of the Pine Mountain Overthrust Fault in rural Harlan County, Kentucky. The learning materials were really needed to renovate the geology lab, since the school hosts K–12 students from all over the eastern United States for biology and environmental classes.

Entrance to the Pine Mountain Settlement School in Harlan County, Kentucky

The school was founded in 1913 and has provided classes in environmental education since 1972! During the visit, I met with Preston Jones, the Executive Director of the school and agreed to return to provide a geology lecture and lab exercises for their teachers to use. The school’s campus features some amazing facilities and is designated a National Historic Landmark District. The school’s grounds comprise several hundred acres, including the James E. Bickford State Nature Preserve, and is one of the most beautiful places to visit in October you will ever find. Our goal now is to get that geology lab and curriculum the resources it needs to better serve STEM students from across the region.

TWGs

Environmental Technical Working Group

Loren Lasky

Infrastructure and the Environment: Impacts on the Built World

After a year of planning by the Environmental Technical Working Group (TWG), AEG’s fifth annual Environmental Symposium took place at the 2022 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas. The 2022 Environmental TWG consisted of two founding members Patty Bryan (Chicago) and Loren Lasky (NYP), plus two new members, both coincidentally from the Carolinas Chapter, whose contributions were invaluable: David Ebinger of Schnabel Engineers in Columbia, South Carolina, and Professor Kevin Finneran of South Carolina’s Clemson University.

Titled Infrastructure and the Environment: Impacts on the Built World, the symposium examined some of the many ways that human infrastructure impacts the environment, not necessarily from roads and bridges, but rather as side effects from activities such as mining and manufacturing.

Nine invited Nevada experts (including two students) from such prestigious institutions as the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SWNA), the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP), Geosyntec Consultants, and the Desert Research Institute (DRI), reported on important local environmental issues in the Las Vegas area. Topics ranged from PFAS and pharmaceutical contamination, to uranium mining, to aquaculture and Legionella, to the shocking impact that homelessness can have on groundwater. The half-day event was lively, topical, and well-attended.

Past environmental symposia have addressed such compelling topics as: Emerging Contaminants and PFAS, GenX, Radon and Dioxane. We try hard to stay ahead of the curve. What topic should we consider for the next year’s symposium in Portland? Please send your suggestions to Patty Bryan at pbryan@bryanenv.com.

Ariel Atkinson (SWNA) reports that Legionella is the primary cause of drinking waterrelated deaths in the United States.

GROUP (TWG) REPORTS

School Director Preston Jones with learning materials donated to the school’s geology lab

Speakers at 2022 Infrastructure Symposium (L to R): Shawna Hunnicutt, Ahdee Zeidman, Ben Moan, Katerina Papp, Ariel Atkinson, Molly Small, Adam Katlein, Khalid Haji Omar (Not pictured: Wayne Isphording)

Adam Katlein (Geosyntec) details the exacting procedures required to conduct field work for PFAS.

Landslides Technical Working Group

PHOTO BY MARTHA WHITNEY

Nearly two dozen people representing a wide range of experience and regions attended AEG’s Landslides TWG meeting in Las Vegas during the Association’s Annual Meeting in September.

Tunneling Technical Working Group

Paul Headland, Ike Isaacson, and Mike Piepenburg, Co-chairs

The fifth consecutive Tunnel Symposium at the 2022 AEG meeting in Las Vegas featured a wide variety of talks including an hour-long keynote presentation by Randy Essex. For the last twenty-five years, Essex has devoted his efforts to the development and refinement of the Geotechnical Baseline Report (GBR), a document that includes the measurable and anticipated ground materials and observations made by engineering geologists. In response to observations within the underground construction industry, the GBR guidelines continue to evolve, and Essex presented the highlights of the third edition of ASCE’s Geotechnical Baseline Reports for Construction: Suggested Guidelines. The third edition should be available to the public in late 2022 and will also be made accessible for translating to interested offshore parties.

All three of the Tunnel TWG co-chairs have been involved in preparing GBRs, as well as working with contractors and dispute review boards (DRBs) in applying GBRs to develop a fair resolution to differing site conditions. We can attest to the importance of a thoughtful, concise, and well-written GBR, and thank Randy for all his efforts with this endeavor.

We heartily thank Heather Clark and her team for their efforts in making the Tunnel Symposium possible. We know of very few people who can remain good humored and gracious working with three co-chairs as they assemble, modify, shuffle, and lose abstracts, speakers, and time slots—usually at the last minute or after a deadline has been missed. Thank you, Heather.

Ahdee Zeidman (DRI) describes the successful use of zero-valent iron nanoparticles to degrade antibiotics in water.

PhD Student Khalid Haji Omar (Oklahoma State University) explains his research on the use of dolomite for the filtration of produced water.

Members of the Landslides TWG at the 2023 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas

We would also like to thank our colleagues for stepping up to submit abstracts and make presentations. Without your efforts, the symposium would not have happened. Looking ahead, we urge you—geologists, tunnelers, and engineers—to consider submitting an abstract for the 2023 Tunnel Symposium in Portland, Oregon. For industry veterans, a presentation is a chance to share your hard-earned experiences, “chestnuts,” and “war stories” with the next generation of engineering geologists. For those newer to our industry, we feel the symposium is a friendly venue to learn public speaking and presentation of a topic—both key components to your professional growth. The requirements are simple: a 250-word abstract and an eighteen-minute PowerPoint presentation. The Tunnel Symposium and technical working group belongs to you and our profession. Without your involvement, these activi-

ties will founder. Please seriously consider submitting an abstract next year.

On the Thursday following the symposium, the Tunnel TWG co-chairs met for our annual summit meeting on a summit—in this case the summit of Mummy Mountain (el. 11,527 feet) located in the Spring Mountains west of Las Vegas. The tradition of having a meeting while hiking began on Pikes Peak (Colorado Springs), continued to Mount Shasta (an unsuccessful attempt after San Francisco), Mount Mitchell (Asheville), and now Mummy Mountain. One current debate for the Portland post-meeting summit revolves around climbing Mount Saint Helens, Mount Hood, or having another “go” at Mount Shasta.

GROUP (TWG) REPORTS

BELOW: On the summit of Mummy Mountain. L to R: Mike Piepenburg, Ike Isaacson, Paul Headland with PennyPup in the foreground

The summit of Mummy Mountain from the top of the “scree slope”

Heading down the summit access notch with (R to L) Paul, Ike and PennyPup in the lead, Mount Charleston is the highpoint in the background.

Carl E. Norman, PHD, PG

Submitted by Richard G. Howe, PG, CPG

Carl Edgar Norman passed from this life on August 3, 2022 at the age of 91 years. Carl was Professor Emeritus in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Houston where he had taught and conducted research in structural geology and rock mechanics for thirty-five years. Carl is the last of an early group of geologists who had an extensive knowledge of the surface and near-surface geology of the Texas upper Gulf Coast as well as its geomorphology. Carl was considered the foremost authority on surface faulting along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana and was widely known and respected for his expertise.

Carl was born on February 1, 1931, to Oscar Edwin and Grace Genevieve (née Thune) Norman in the small farming community of Cokato, Minnesota. Reared on a dairy farm, which in addition to producing milk also raised crops such as corn and soybeans, Carl had an appreciation for hard work and possessed a mechanical aptitude that is typical of young men who grew up on a farm. Enlisting in the United States Air Force shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, he worked as a mechanic on aircraft and aircraft engines. This included servicing the Convair B-36 “Peacemaker,” which was the largest piston-driven bomber ever built. Carl was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant after four years of service.

Carl took advantage of the GI Bill and enrolled in the University of Minnesota where he received a BS in Geology in 1957. He then enrolled in the graduate program at The Ohio State University and attained his MS in Geology in 1959. With his master’s degree in hand, he went to work for Carter Oil (soon after to become Humble Oil and Refining). After working a few years in the oil and gas industry, he returned to Ohio State University in the early 1960s to pursue his PhD.

Following the completion of his PhD in 1967, Carl accepted a permanent faculty position as a professor of geology with the University of Houston. During his time at the university, he taught physical geology to more than 6,500 students and worked with numerous graduate students. Carl was the Geoscience Department’s field camp instructor for twelve years. He led his students on field trips into New Mexico and interior Mexico as well as a trip to the Grand Canyon. His abilities as a teacher were recognized in 1992 with his receiving the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies’ Outstanding Educator Award.

Starting in the late 1970s, Carl began working with his fellow professor DeWitt Van Siclen on the geologic hazard of surface faulting in the Houston metropolitan area. Their research into the nature of surface faulting was greatly assisted

by the work of graduate students who put in many hours of literature and field research. As the public became ever more aware of the risk posed by surface faulting, their efforts in studying this phenomenon grew beyond academic research into consultation for governmental entities, private companies, and individual property owners who were concerned with the problem. In 1985, a collaborative effort was put forth by Carl Norman, DeWitt Van Siclen, Bill Ellsbury (McClelland Engineers), Bob Valentine (Woodward-Clyde Consultants), and Lynn J. Ratliff (McBride-Ratcliff) to produce guidelines for surface fault investigations along the Texas Gulf Coast. This work was published under the auspices of the Houston Geologic Society in its monthly bulletin “Investigation of Surface Faults in Texas Gulf Coast Region.” Today, thirty-seven years later, these guidelines are still the standard for surface fault investigations along the Gulf Coast.

When Carl retired from the University of Houston in 2000, his consulting work became full-time and the demand for his services often had him working as many as seven days a week. His consultation work was applied geology concentrating in the geologic sub-discipline of engineering geology. Besides his work with faults, Carl was hired to work on a variety of projects dealing with other geologic hazards. In particular, he was noted for his work with sinkholes, which began with his investigation of the Boling Sinkhole in Wharton County, Texas. In west Texas, Carl was hired to study the Wink Sink and Wink Sink II and predict the likelihood and locations of future sinkhole manifestations. His most recent effort with sinkholes was investigating the Daisetta Sinkhole, which garnered national media coverage.

Part of Carl’s work was providing expert witness testimony for which he testified in more than two dozen administrative hearings and trials. Various governmental entities would consult with Carl, and he and Richard G. Howe developed the requirements for surface fault investigations for the City of Houston.

Carl’s service to professional societies extended to AEG where he developed and led several field trips and gave talks about the hazards of surface faults and how to detect them. In particular, his work for AEG included speaking at the seminar on seismicity and faulting at AEG’s 2007 national convention in Los Angeles and working on the 2010 Shlemon Specialty Conference, which addressed modern subsidence, sea-level rise, and the future of the Gulf Coast. For his extensive work with AEG, Carl received the Floyd T. Johnston Memorial Award for Outstanding Geologist from the Texas Section of the AEG in 2010.

He was also a long-time member of the Geological Society of America and gave presentations at several of their regional conferences. Carl was also a long-time member of the Houston

Geological Society (HGS) and received the HGS President’s Award in 2004 and Distinguished Service Award in 2018.

Until the end of his career, Carl was a licensed Professional Geologist with the State of Texas and a Certified Professional Geologist with the American Institute of Professional Geologists.

In addition to his parents, Carl was preceded in death by three sisters: Pearl Norman, Ruth Norman Lindahl, and Delores Norman Larson. He is survived by his daughter Ingrid Norman

Monroy, his grandson Michael Joseph Monroy, and his brotherin-law Gerald Larson.

Carl will be sorely missed by his many friends and colleagues, and he will not soon be forgotten.

For those who wish to remember Carl, donations may be made to Mikey’s Place, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit named for his grandson, which assists families of children with disabilities (https://mikeysplace.net).

Richard Fink, PG, CEG San Joaquin Chapter

Richard Fink, PG, CEG, co-founder and officer of AEG San Joaquin Valley Chapter, passed away peacefully on June 8, 2022, following a cancer diagnosis in February 2022. He started professional life with a geology degree from UC Santa Cruz (1976), followed by work with the USGS in Alaska, and then attained an MS degree in geology from the University of Nevada, Reno (1979). He then entered geological consulting, working at S.E.A., Inc. in Sparks, Nevada; Kleinfelder in Reno and Fresno; and most recently as a principal geologist with Provost & Pritchard.

Rich had more than forty years of experience in environmental, geologic, and geotechnical disciplines. His responsibilities involved overseeing and coordinating local and regional site assessments, remediation and other environmental efforts, and engineering geologic projects. He developed strong technical, project management, and loss prevention skills in working with both public- and private-sector clients and worked extensively as client liaison with various public works departments and regulatory agencies.

Rich managed and prepared numerous soils and groundwater investigations, environmental assessments, site remediation plans, and engineering geologic studies. His specific expertise was in the area of soils and groundwater assessments and geologic hazards including landslides, earthquake fault evaluation and seismicity. He was well versed in the use of seismographs, electromagnetics, and proton magnetometers in landfill and other environments as survey techniques to identify landfill boundaries or locations of large areas of ferrous fill materials.

In addition to the formulation of environmental assessment work plans and serving as liaison with regulatory agencies, Rich’s project management responsibilities included supervision of drilling, excavation and geophysical crews, groundwater sampling and laboratory analysis programs for environmental and solid waste clients; geologic hazard identification and general geologic mapping; and performing geotechnical studies including field exploration, laboratory testing, and report preparation.

Rich grew up in Southern California where he developed a love of the sun, sand and waves. He met his wife Denise, while working in Alaska, and they married on July 22, 1978, and

together built a loving family with four children and five (one more on the way!) grandchildren. Rich loved all things outdoors. He spent summers water skiing on Millerton Lake, fishing, sightseeing in Yosemite, bodysurfing at the beach, or grilling tri-tip and burgers in the back yard by the pool. In the winter, he loved to hit the slopes at China Peak with friends and family, although not many could keep up with him. Later in life, he enjoyed riding his Harley through the nearby hills and mountains, stopping for a burger and shake whenever possible. Sharing these activities with his family, kids and grandkids was his favorite hobby.

Rich rarely met a home project that he could not tackle. He would often be found in the garage or yard tinkering with a project or fixing something that others would have replaced. He was always ready to pack up some tools and help anyone who needed a hand.

Rich was an example of selflessness who put the needs of others before his own. Whether it was waking up early to be sure that the coffee was made or answering the call from a friend with a flat tire, Rich could always be counted on to lend a hand. In this vein, Rich was the anchorman of the San Joaquin Valley AEG Chapter leadership, serving as Chair or Treasurer for at least thirteen years. This group, which meets in Fresno, would have folded without his service, and during his tenure, transitioned from a satellite of the Sacramento Chapter to a separate self-sustaining Chapter. Rich was proud to have passed this servant’s heart to his kids and regularly bragged about being the dad of a social worker, a police officer, a United States Marine, and a school counselor.

Rich loved the Lord and never missed an opportunity to share his faith with anyone who would listen. His amazing testimony of faith, courage, and love of God inspired many and encouraged those going through difficult times. That faith carried him through to his final days during which he expressed peace, contentment, and gratitude. All who knew Rich will greatly miss him.

On November 17, the AEG San Joaquin Chapter held a Zoom and live meeting at the Sequoia Brewing Company to remember and honor Rich.

Richard Joseph Gentile

(1929–2022)

WSubmitted by Syed E. Hasan, Professor Emeritus, Environmental Geology, University of Missouri-Kansas City

e have lost a gentle giant!” These were the words expressed by his colleague of fifty-one years, Dr. Raymond Coveney. The passing of Professor Richard Joseph Gentile on June 8, 2022, has left a void that could never be filled. “Dick,” as he was addressed by his colleagues at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) and ”Doctor G” by his students, had made lasting contributions to the geologic history of Missouri and adjoining states and had accomplished much during his lifetime both as a professor and as a remarkable and modest human being. He was active in his scholarly endeavors all along, having appeared in the office the day before he died at his home in the presence of a close relative.

Professor Gentile was born June 25, 1929, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Richard Gentile and Anne Lucille Krecch. He graduated from Valley Park High School in suburban St. Louis in 1947, and after serving in the Army, attended the University of Missouri in Columbia, where he received BA and MA degrees in geology in 1956 and 1958, respectively, followed by a PhD, also in geology, from the University of Missouri at Rolla in 1965. He was employed by the Missouri Geological Survey at its headquarters in Rolla and served as the Chief Geologist and Head of Coal Geology Section, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geology, from 1958 to 1966, He joined UMKC as an assistant professor in 1966, advanced to full professor in 1974, and retired as Professor Emeritus in 1999. His remarkable achievements as a teacher were recognized in 1992 when he received an Outstanding Teacher Award from the UMKC Alumni Association and again in 2003 when the field trip guidebook of the GSA North-Central Section Meeting in Kansas City was dedicated to Professor Emeritus Richard J. Gentile.

Dick was a member of AEG’s Kansas City-Omaha (KC-O) Section since 1970 and served as its chair during 1980–81. He was the first person to introduce me to the local group and graciously gave me the forty-mile ride in his car to attend the KC-O fall meeting in Lawrence, Kansas in 1979, when I had just joined UMKC. AEG’s KC-O Section honored him for his contributions to the profession of geology in September 2011.

Professor Gentile was a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and was registered as a Professional Geologist in the state of Missouri. He was a member of eighteen professional societies, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, National Association of Geoscience

Teachers, American Association of Petroleum Geologists, and both the Missouri and the Kansas Academy of Science. He served as President of the Kansas City Chapter of Sigma Xi (1979–80).

Dick was a dedicated educator and researcher”—a truly outstanding teacher who influenced the lives of thousands of undergraduate and graduate students. After his retirement in 1999, he stayed active in teaching, research, and community service until his death. Dick was a world traveler having attended field excursions in forty countries to gain better understanding of local and regional geology. He was thus able to observe first-hand the geologic features of all the six continents. His international travel included Australia, China, Europe, Iceland, Korea, South America, several African countries, and the former Soviet Union (including a train trip from Moscow to eastern Siberia). He really got around! All these trips were inevitably funded by Dick himself. He never asked the department or the dean for support.

Dick’s travels expanded his considerable knowledge of geology and the world in general, which he shared with students in his classes. He personally conducted over 200 geology field trips, including directing twenty five-week summer field camps in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana.

Professor Gentile authored over fifty scientific articles; most of his publications deal with the geology and paleontology of the Greater Kansas City area. Some of his major publications are listed here below ”Selected Publications.” He enjoyed constructing geologic maps and with his students mapped over 2,500 square miles of west-central Missouri. His latest publication includes Bedrock Geologic Map of the Kansas City 7 1/2’ Quadrangle, Missouri (2004), modified and updated May 2022.

He had participated in engineering geologic investigations for the Trans-Missouri River Tunnel, excavated below the Missouri River, to carry drinking water to the Kansas City metro area from the water treatment facilities located north of the river to meet the need of the growing population in the south. Dick was also involved in the development of Kansas City’s underground space, construction of the Christopher Bond (Paseo) Bridge, and the UMKC Florsheim Hall.

Dick served as curator of the Richard L. Sutton Museum of Geosciences and augmented the museum collection with vertebrate fossils obtained during his field work in the Badlands of South Dakota. Over a period of forty years, he led museum tours for more than 10,000 visitors—mostly classes of school children—and gave more than 100 talks to amateur geology clubs on a variety of subjects.

A little-known fact about his life was his service to the nation. He was drafted and served in the Korean War as a Private First Class in a heavy weapons infantry company, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Division. He participated in the deadly battle of Heartbreak Ridge, August to November, 1951, with only 300 out of about 1,200 surviving. For his exemplary service Dick received the combat infantryman’s badge and the bronze medal. But Dick never spoke of this. He simply answered the call of the nation, and that was that!

Once, while he was instructing one of the students on how to map a quadrangle geologically, he inadvertently displayed his own map of the area. The student wondered why she had to “repeat” the work that Doctor G had already finished himself. Professor Gentile replied, “How can I evaluate the quality of a student’s efforts without checking the area myself?” Clearly, Professor Gentile was a diligent scientist and an exemplary teacher who strived for and maintained the highest standard, which was deeply admired by students, the public, and fellow professionals.

A memorial service was held on June 25, 2022, at the Johnson County Funeral Chapel, Overland Park, Kansas, and attended by about fifty people that included his former students, colleagues, and family members. Representatives from the United States Army presented a guard of honor to the departed soul.

Professor Gentile leaves behind three nephews, and thirteen grandand great-grand nieces and nephews, thousands of former students, hundreds of esteemed colleagues, a unique collection of vertebrate fossils, and a most comprehensive geologic record of the ground underneath the Greater Kansas City Area ever to be compiled by a single person. A marvelous display of his fossil collection, named The Giant Ice Age Mammals that Roamed Throughout the Greater Kansas City Area and Beyond, which was put on public display April–June 2022, in the downtown Commerce Bank building, drew large crowds. The display will now be housed permanently at UMKC to perpetuate Professor Gentile’s memory.

Selected Publications

■ Gentile, R.J., 2022, Bedrock geologic map of the Kansas City 7 1/2’ quadrangle, Missouri (2004), modified and updated May 2022, US Geological Survey.

■ Gentile, R.J., 2015, Rocks and fossils of the central United States, with special emphasis on the Greater Kansas City area, 2nd ed.: University of Kansas, Department of Geology and Paleontological Institute, Special Publication 8, 221 p.

■ Gentile, R.J., 2003, Upper Carboniferous crinoids: an extraordinary collection by late 19th century amateur paleontologists, Kansas City, Missouri, USA: The Geological Curator, v. 7, no. 10, p. 373–380.

■ Gentile, R.J., Moberly, R.L., and Barnes, S.K., 1994, Geology along the Trans-Missouri River Tunnel, Kansas City, Missouri: Environmental & Engineering Geoscience, v. 31, no. 4, p. 483–504 (available at https://doi.org/10.2113/gseegeosci.xxxi.4.483).

■ Gentile, R.J., 1984. Paleocollapse structures: Longview region, Kansas City, Missouri: Bulletin, Association of Engineering Geologists, v. 21, no. 2, p. 229–247.

■ Gentile, R.J., 1981, Surficial materials and geological susceptibility analysis, in Liu, Ben-Chieh, ed., Earthquake Risk and Damage Functions; Applications to New Madrid: Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press, p. 43–61.

Richard “Doctor G” Gentile in the field

Call for Case Histories,Technical Notes, and Research Papers

Environmental & Engineering Geoscience (E&EG)

Special Section Special Section

RECAP

AEG 65th Annual Meeting

“Geology in the Wild”

Jerry King and Nick Saines, 2022 Annual Meeting Co-chairs

EG’s 65th Annual Meeting was held at the Planet Hollywood Las Vegas Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip from September 12–17, 2022. The centrally located hotel venue was great, and the technical sessions and field courses were outstanding. Residual concerns about COVID and high airfares limited meeting attendance to about 385 people, but those who attended had an exceptional professional experience. Although twentyeight guests registered, which is a good number, not enough signed up for the scheduled guest activities, so those were canceled. Evidently, Las Vegas itself is a guest activity.

Field Courses

The meeting kicked off on Monday, September 12, with two field courses. Seventeen people attended Field Course No. 1, Field Analysis of the Blue Diamond Landslide, led by John Peck

and Nick Saines. Forty people participated in Field Course No. 2, Hard Hat Tour of the Hoover Dam and the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge, organized by the AEG Dams & Levees Technical Working Group.

Two more field courses were run on Tuesday, September 13. Twenty-seven people went on Field Course No. 3, The Great Unconformity, Las Vegas Valley Shear Zone, and Discovery of Extensional Tectonics, led by Professor Steve Rowland of UNLV. Twenty people attended Field Course No. 4, Las Vegas Valley Groundwater Recharge Well Field, led by Jim Prieur of the Las Vegas Valley Water District.

Pre-Meeting Receptions

A student/professional networking reception, the general meeting icebreaker, and a young at heart student/professional special event were held Tuesday evening.

Stop two of Field Course #3 overview of the Las Vegas Valley Shear Zone

Field Course No. 1: Field Analysis of the Blue Diamond Landslide

Field Course No. 2: Hard Hat Tour of the Hoover Dam and the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge

AT LEFT: Fault (see the dark band) at the Hoover Dam on left abutment BELOW LEFT: The Bypass Bridge BELOW RIGHT: Visty Dalal points out the historic low water level (since 1930s) at Lake Mead.

Led by John Peck and Nick Saines (pictured at right)

Field Course #3 for the Win

Martha Whitney, Whitney Geologic

There is no better way to kick off an AEG Annual Meeting than to join one or more of the pre-meeting Field Courses. The thoughtfully curated selection always offers trips to the best of the region’s sites of geologic intrigue as well as opportunities to get behind-the-scenes access to civil engineering works where applied geology was fundamental to design and construction. No matter what the destination or topic, AEG field courses provide the perfect mix of learning, adventure, and meeting new people. Participating in a Field Course before the meeting is also a great way to expand your social circles during the actual meeting as you encounter your fellow field trippers in the meeting halls and at the various social events.

The many great Field Course options of AEG’s Annual Meeting in Las Vegas made it hard to choose one! But time was limited, and I decided on Field Course #3: The Great Unconformity, the Las Vegas Valley Shear Zone, and the Discovery of Extensional Tectonics led by Stephen M. Rowland (Professor Emeritus of Geology, University of Nevada Las Vegas) and James E. Faulds (Nevada State Geologist, Director, Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Professor, Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno).

About twenty-eight folks loaded up on the bus, and as we made our way out of the sprawling metropolis of Las Vegas, I observed a different side of this city. I had only ever been to The Strip, and as we traversed the sprawling residential neighborhoods, I saw a more honest and intimate side of the city. It was

somehow refreshing. We approached the eastern margin of the Basin, which is well-defined by Frenchman Mountain (aka Sunrise Mountain). Despite the sunrise peaking over the mountain, and with the help of the beautiful sketch provided in the guidebook, we were able to make out the famous stratigraphic section of the Grand Canyon rocks as exposed in Frenchman Mountain.

Our first stop was just along the boundary between crudely stratified, consolidated Quaternary gravel and well-stratified new housing construction. We walked up Owens Road a few hundred meters to a spectacular road cut exposure of the Frenchman Mountain Fault. Quaternary gravel forms the hanging wall, and the Vishnu basement complex defines the footwall. Stephen Rowland provided an overview of the development of extensional tectonics of the Basin and Range Province and the formation of the Las Vegas Shear Zone. Seth Dee (Geologic Mapping Program Manager, Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno) presented preliminary results of tectonic geomorphologic mapping and paleoseismic trenching along range front faults in the basin.

Stop two was a visit to Frenchman Mountain’s very own exposure of The Great Unconformity. A global phenomenon, this particular exposure represents an erosional contact between 1.7 Ga basement rocks and 0.5 Ga Tapeats Sandstone. We discussed the misnomer of ‘missing time,’ the evidence of a changing ocean chemistry, its impact on chemical weathering of continental crust, and the response of microorganisms. The

The Great Unconformity, Las Vegas Valley Shear Zone, and the Discovery of Extensional Tectonics: A Trifecta of Geologic Intrigue

Field Course attendees in front of the Frenchman Mountain Fault

various events that resulted in the Great Unconformity and how they may have led to the Cambrian Explosion is an evolving story and this stop was a great introduction.

The folks at UNLV have worked hard over the years to raise awareness and promote the geo-heritage of this important Geologic Interpretive Site. There used to be interpretive signs installed at the parking area and a well-maintained trail led to the outcrop. Further upslope, there is an excellent view of the range front and the Las Vegas Basin. Unfortunately, the proximity of the site to the city results in it being well visited but not always for the exceptional geology. It is a local party spot and has been subject to vandalism including graffiti on the sacred exposure(!). The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) graffitiremoval crew has managed to remove some of the graffiti, and this is evidenced by the lack of varnish on the Tapeats Sandstone nearest to the contact.

After a short but steep jaunt up to the overlook, we enjoyed stunning views of the city nestled in the increasingly cozy graben that is the Las Vegas Basin. James Faulds discussed the regional tectonic setting, and we learned that Frenchman Mountain is part of the southern Walker Lane structure. Spoiler alert: the Walker Lane may become the new plate boundary between the Pacific and North American Plates.

Stop three took us just a bit further from the city to Rainbow Gardens where we learned about Chester Longwell, the legendary geologist of southern Nevada, and the huge clasts of rapakivi granite that he mapped 64 km from their source at Gold Butte. How did they get there? It’s a great story and one that echoes that of other pioneering geologists around the world and across time, from James Hutton to J Harlan Bretz.

The area from Frenchman Mountain to Rainbow Gardens is a special place, and I was grateful to have the opportunity to visit with other members of AEG. I met up with a few old friends, made some new ones, and learned heaps!

Stephen M. Rowland talks about the Great Unconformity

Group hiking up to examine one of the massive clasts of rapakivi granite—the east side of Frenchman Mountain looms in the background.

Close-up of The Great Unconformity. Tapeats Sandstone overlying weathered Vishnu schist. This unconformity represents 1.2 b.y. of geologic history!

The land we visited is currently managed by the BLM and has been designated as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern. This designation is due in part to the exposure of the Great Unconformity, but also to the presence of the endangered species Arctomecon californica, aka Las Vegas Bearpoppy. The land east of Las Vegas also provides an opportunity for people living nearby to experience nature and have safe recreational opportunities. Most importantly, these lands are sacred to the Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute) peoples and include sites used for ceremonies that are vital for maintaining their connections to the land and their life journey. For these reasons, an effort to have the area designated as a National Monument is well underway. If this interests you, please visit eastlasvegasmonument.org and sign the petition.

Up-close and personal with the rapakivi granite (a type of granite with distinctive plagioclase rims around large round orthoclase crystals)

INSET: James Faulds discussed the regional tectonic setting.

Seth Dee – Geologic Mapping Program Manager, Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno

The Opening Session

The General Session opened Wednesday morning and featured an outstanding keynote address by Colby Pellegrino, Deputy General Manager of the Southern Nevada Water District, on the status of the Colorado River, drought in the Southwest, and water conservation efforts in the Las Vegas Valley. Following Pellegrino’s address, AEG’s Outstanding Environmental and Engineering Project Award was presented to the Southern Nevada Water Authority for its Lake Mead Intake No.3 and Low Lake Level Pump Station. The award was accepted by Peter Jauch, Director of Engineering of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. AEG members can read about the project and see a number of photos on page 37 of the meeting’s Program with Abstracts available online here: https://www.aegweb.org/aegnews-2. The opening session ended with presentations from the 2021–2022 AEG/GSA Richard H. Jahns Distinguished Lecturer in Applied Geology, Richard Wooten, and from the 2022–2023 Jahns Lecturer, Vincent Cronin.

The Technical Program

The technical program included talks that ran from Wednesday afternoon through Friday, and also included ten poster presentations. The technical sessions included symposia on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion—Words Matter; Tunneling; Tectonics and Seismicity of the Walker Lane: A Potential Incipient Plate Boundary; Water Management in the Era of Climate-ChangeCaused Megadroughts and Mega-Floods; Naturally Occurring Asbestos; Wild Problems with Geophysics Solutions; Dams and Levees; Infrastructure and the Environment: Impacts on the Built World; and Land Subsidence. There also were technical sessions on Landslides, Hydrogeology and Groundwater Recharge, and Geologic and Seismic Hazards. So many interesting talks happening simultaneously made it difficult to decide which session to sit in on.

Keynote speaker Colby Pellegrino, Deputy General Manager of the Southern Nevada Water District

2021–22 Jahns Lecturer Richard Wooten

AEG 2021–22 President Maddie German with 2022–23 Jahns Lecturer Vincent Cronin

The team from the Southern Nevada Water Authority winners of the OEEG Award with AEG 2021–22 President Maddie German (L)

A meeting highlight was Wednesday night’s special event, A Night on the Town, when people took advantage of Las Vegas’ many attractions. The night included group reservations on the 550-foottall High Roller (pictured above), which is the biggest Ferris wheel in the United States. Other highlights included meetings of the AEG Executive Council and AEG Foundation, the Strength Through Equity—AEG Inclusion Luncheon, the AEG Finance Committee meeting, the Board of Directors meeting, and the Annual Banquet, at which AEG’s prestigious award recipients were honored.

Meeting attendees had plenty of opportunities to socialize while being informed. Pictured top to bottom: Poster displays, Exhibitor booth, Exhibitor luncheon, and Session break.

The AEG Board of Directors gathered for dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe.

Fourteen AEG Past Presidents joined 2023–24 President Nate Saraceno (plaid shirt) to celebrate a successful Annual Meeting.

Celebrating achievements and being together in person again!

Coming together to bestow welldeserved awards over a meal and conversation with colleagues and friends.

More from the Awards Banquet

The closing Beer & Wine Reception sponsored by Lettis International was a final chance for attendees to gather and say goodbye to colleagues old and new.

The AEG Executive Council with the AEG Foundation Board

Grand Canyon Skywalk

Loren Lasky, 45-year AEG Member

On Saturday, September 17, 2022, a busload of lucky AEG Members visiting Las Vegas after the Annual Meeting got to accompany John Peck (Honorary Member, Southern Nevada Chapter) on a Field Trip to Arizona for a firstperson tour of “One of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World—the Grand Canyon.”

John was one of many experts consulted on the design and placement of the spectacular new glass Skywalk. It is an engineering marvel that allows visitors to actually walk out on a cantilevered glass bridge that is suspended 4,000 feet above the Grand Canyon. It is a horseshoe-shaped glass walkway made of layered glass, 2.5 inches thick, overdesigned to support a load of 100 pounds per square foot. The Skywalk offers gut-dropping views of the colorful rock walls of the Grand Canyon all the way down to the Colorado River.

The Skywalk is located on land sacred to the Hualapai Nation at the west rim of the canyon in Peach Springs, Arizona. The roundtrip from Vegas passed quickly as John narrated enroute, with commentary on Lake Mead, the impact of the new solar panels on the desert tortoises, and of course, the geology. It was an excellent field trip.

John Peck not only conducted this excursion, but he actually planned all the field trips offered at this year’s Annual Meeting in Las Vegas. John shook everyone’s hand as we got off the bus and declared that this would be the last field trip that he would take responsibility for leading. So, it’s fitting for us to thank him for the great job he did planning this one and all the other Las Vegas field trips, but also for his excellent service to his Chapter, his Region, and our association over many years.

The Colorado River is exposed at the base of the West Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, on tribal land sacred to the people of the Hualapai Nation.

With the Grand Canyon Skybridge in the background, Field Trip leader John Peck, explains the siting studies performed to determine where to build the structure.

PHOTOS BY LOREN LANSKY

The glass Skybridge lets visitors walk on a see-through platform suspended 4000 feet above the Canyon.

AEG field trip members assemble atop the West Rim of the Grand Canyon.

PHOTOS BY LOREN LANSKY

for these future AEG Annual Meetings Save the Dates…

AEG 67th Annual Meeting

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

SEPTEMBER 10–14, 2024

Hilton Philadelphia at Penn’s Landing

AEG 68th Annual Meeting Chicago, Illinois

SEPTEMBER 23–27, 2025

Westin Chicago River North Chicago is one of the top tourist destinations in the United States for a reason. It’s a welcoming city with plenty of world-class attractions. Located on Lake Michigan in Illinois, Chicago is famed for its bold architecture. In additional to engineering geology, the AEG 2025 Annual Meeting will focus on sustainability, health, climate change, and environmental geology.

Philadelphia, the nation's birthplace and capital from 1790 to 1800, is renowned for its rich history on display at the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall (where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed), and many other historical sites. Also iconic are its cheesesteaks and the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art immortalized by Sylvester Stallone’s triumphant run in the film “Rocky.”

The Meeting Hotel

Overlooking the Delaware River with views across to New Jersey, the hotel is less than a mile from the Liberty Bell, the Museum of the American Revolution, and the Benjamin Franklin Museum. They are adjacent to Spruce Street Harbor Park, and Society Hill is less than a mile away. The hotel is located on the waterfront in Center City’s Historic District and steps from numerous attractions and an eclectic array of restaurants.

The Meeting Hotel

Located in the heart of downtown Chicago in the prestigious River North neighborhood of the city, the Westin Chicago River North’s location makes it a perfect base to explore the historic and energetic Windy City with nearby attractions including the Millennium Park, The Chicago Theatre District, and the vibrant Chicago Riverwalk. Refreshed in early 2020, the flexible event space offers the perfect setting for meetings. Recharge in your choice of accommodations, from traditional rooms to luxury suites, all with a view of the Chicago River or the downtown skyline. Maintain your health goals with the delicious and healthy on-site dining at 320 RiverBar and the state-of-theart WestinWorkout fitness studio. Enjoy complimentary fitness classes as well as Rise + Ride with Westin and Peloton.

ASBOG 2022 Annual Meeting and Fall COE Workshop Recap

William Godwin, AEG Past President

The Association of State Boards of Geology (ASBOG) held their 2022 annual meeting in Wilmington, North Carolina in late October. Thirty-two state boards were represented as were several at-large members including AEG liaison Bill Godwin and several other AEG members. The fiveday event included a business meeting, an all-day field trip, two days of Council of Examiners (COE) workshops, and a Task Analysis workshop.

The COE workshops featured almost fifty subject-matter experts (SME) assembled to evaluate past and future Fundamentals of Geology (FG) and Practice of Geology (PG) examinations. The 2022 Task Analysis Survey (TAS) was wrapped up during the meeting. The TAS is designed to identify the tasks most commonly performed by geologic professionals and the underlying knowledge needed to perform these tasks. One highlighted discussion by attendees was the anticipation of the first Computer-Based-Testing (CBT) administrations of both examinations scheduled for the Spring of 2023.

Another meeting highlight was the presentation of two service awards. The Charles R. Sherman Award for meritorious service and mentoring was given to Dennis LaPoint. Former AEG President Bob Tepel received the James Hutton Lifetime Service Award in recognition of his service leading to the significant advancement of the profession of geology. Bob has attended forty COE workshops and has contributed to licensure support to AEG throughout his career.

Arguably the best experience of the meeting was the field trip. Attendees visited the Castle Hayne quarry operated by Martin Marietta to observe exposures of Eocene-age limestones and biomicrites. Also exposed was a conglomerate of the K-T boundary (only the Paleocene section was missing in the quarry wall), which attendees were allowed to sample. Following a catered lunch on the retired battleship USS North Carolina, moored across the Cape Fear River from downtown Wilmington, the group visited a nearly completed reverse osmosis (RO) treatment facility of the Brunswick Regional Water and Sewer (H2GO). Wrapping up

the day was a most enjoyable visit to Kure Beach on a spit of land just north of Cape Fear. The visit was timed to take advantage of low tide, which exposed the only known outcrop of rock on the North Carolina coastline (see photo). This outcrop is part of the Cape Fear Coquina, a cemented Pleistocene deposit that technically is referred to as a sandy pelecypod biosparrudite.

Field trip attendees on the beach at Kure Beach Coquina outcrop with a close-up above

“The Life of a Traveling Geologist” CPT Pushing in Pure Michigan

Luke Ducey, WSP USA

lt feels like yesterday that I got a phone call from the head of Geotechnology’s Geotechnical Division to ask what I had going on in November and December and if I might be available to do some Cone Penetration Testing (CPT) in Michigan for “a while.” At Geotechnology, only two people were trained to operate the massive, 40,000-lb CPT rig, and I was one of them. After being reassured I would be home for the holidays and not miss a thing, I said, “I’m in.”

A CPT rig is a direct push rig that pushes a cone tip vertically into the ground to collect load cell data—think of pushing a piece of spaghetti into a cake. Before starting a test location, it is important to have the utilities cleared, the cone hooked up, the rig leveled to ensure a stable push platform, computer software operational with the proper job number/hole number, and the cone cleaned and assembled.

As the ~$10,000 cone is pushed into the ground, it collects tip, sleeve, pore pressure, and inclination using load cells within the cone. Additionally, temperature and shear wave data can be collected. These data are processed and displayed on a

screen in real-time so that we can observe and assess our depth, soils strength, where groundwater is, cone inclination, and cone or sleeve refusal. This requires quick thinking and can be stressful because the cone is advanced at approximately 2 cm per second, which seems slow, but is fast enough that during difficult pushing, you have to pay close attention and be ready to stop the cone prior to damaging it.

CPT operation is a two-person job because as the operator is monitoring the push and controller pad, the helper is attaching each additional rod as the push goes deeper and deeper. The helper makes sure that the cord, running through all the rods, does not get pinched or damaged, and attaches each rod (1 meter or 3.3 feet) one at a time until the target depth is reached or rig/cone refusal occurs. Once at the final depth, the operator switches gears, and the cone is then hydraulically pulled back up, cleaned, and placed on the rack until you start on the next hole.

This particular CPT job was different from any other I had done. Starting with the location—neither of us had been up to Michigan for a job before, let alone somewhere so far north in the winter. Usually, when we are doing CPT for a new building, we will just do a few locations across the building footprint, but for this project they weren’t putting in buildings, they were building wind turbines—seventy-five of them. These wind turbines weren’t all just a couple of hundred feet apart, they were miles and miles apart so the project covered a large area and required tracking the CPT rig in and out of many cornfields. Mind you, the CPT rig has a maximum speed of 2.5 mph, so getting from one site to the next was…slow. To save time, instead of driving the rig (slowly) between each site, we decided to load and unload it onto a drop-deck trailer and transport the rig from site to site. However, each load and unload cycle still took an hour, resulting in a significant time sink. The proposed wind tur-

Figure 1: Geotechnology CPT rig tracking to a new location

bine sites were spread over an area of roughly 17 by 10 miles and usually located in the center of fields away from trees, sheds, and homes.

One unexpected roadblock we encountered on this project was getting the supplies we needed to continue operating. For each hole we pushed, we then set a temporary well in each location to check groundwater levels. But, to do so, we had to purchase hundreds of PVC pipes to assemble and install in each hole. We went to multiple stores looking for enough PVC pipe for the project, but many were closed for the holidays or because of snowy weather. We were a bit confused as to why the stores were closed for the “holiday” when it was still early November. We didn’t realize it was actually the opening day of deer season until a local told us. Everyone in central Michigan considered these days a holiday that businesses, schools, and supply stores shut down for! We made sure to keep our flashers on when driving down the road, safety vests permanently on, and the CPT rig lights on at all times after learning that. Luckily, we found a mom-and-pop shop that was open one of the days so we bought everything they had!

The other challenge of this project was the most obvious— the “pure” cold weather. Michigan winters chill to the bone no matter how many layers you are wearing. Each morning saw the same routine of putting on two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants/long underwear, three long-sleeve shirts, ear muffs, a knit cap, and then finally my coveralls and jacket. Then, it would

begin to snow, sleet, and the winds would pick up, making it even more brutal on your body. Fortunately, the cab of the CPT rig does have a heater, which was usually kept at around 65 degrees inside, so coming out of freezing temperatures and high winds felt like stepping into a sauna. The whole trip consisted of putting clothes on and taking them off about ten times a day. The snow and ice made driving a Peterbilt semi-trailer truck and F-150 on the country roads a challenge at times. When the snow finally melted and the temperatures warmed up to the 40s, the fields turned into deep, wet mud, which led to us getting the support truck stuck MANY times. But with 40k pounds on steel tracks, you have something to pull yourself out.

At the end of the project, we were able to complete all the locations the client had requested. And in fact, we even went back again at a later time to do some more testing. Pushing in the stiff glacial till of central Michigan was tough. But with a lot of experience behind the rig, my partner and I overcame the stiff till, the cold weather, random holidays, ten-hour days/nights, and long drives between St. Louis, Missouri, and St. Louis, Michigan.

I hope this information and story were easy to understand and provide an awareness of all the activities that go into pushing with a CPT rig. If you have other questions, feel free to contact me through AEG or Luke.Ducey@wsp.com.

Figure 2: View from inside of the CPT rig of the head press, rods going down to depth, and the computer/controller set up

Figure 3: The author taking a break to make a “pure” snow angel

San Francisco Chapter Telegraph Hill Rock Slides

Kate Zeiger

On a rare, sunny and warm summer day in San Francisco, Nik Sokol, PG, CEG, from ARUP led a walking field trip in San Francisco. Recent rock slides from San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill have damaged adjacent property and prompted the City of San Francisco Department of Public Works to initiate emergency slope stability measures. This group visited a few of the rock slopes prone to rock falls and discussed the underlying geological and human influences on rock slope instability. We also discussed the city’s approach to managing these risks, the digital methods being employed to evaluate slopes, and the common techniques implemented to provide longterm slope stabilization.

About twenty-five attendees first arrived at the bottom of the Filbert Street Steps to evaluate the geology and subsequent slope-support installation of a steep hill behind upscale condominiums and below luxury homes. As we ascended the 400 steps of Telegraph Hill, Nik explained the geological complexities and engineering issues of the bedrock.

The second stop was a road cut along O’Shaughnessy Boulevard that had undergone slope stabilization in the folded and faulted redbedded chert regime of San Francisco.

The third stop was a happy hour hosted by Arup to end the warm day on a cold (beer) note.

The group inspecting bolted slope stabilization mesh and rock fall fence adjacent to the condominium complex Photo by Kate Zeiger

ABOVE: The group photo! Attendees were engineers and geologists, in early and late parts of their careers, and local geology and engineering students.

Photo by Kate Zeiger

AT RIGHT: The group on the steps ascending Telegraph Hill

Photo by Ozgur Kozaci

chert

O’Shaughnessy Boulevard. Photo by Kate Zeiger

The Mile High Chapter

Kaitlin L. Reiman, Secretary

The Homefront

The Homefront

After a short break for the summer, the Chapter resumed meetings for the fall and winter! On October 11, we gathered in Golden, Colorado, to be introduced to Mathew Morgan, the new Colorado Geological Survey (CGS) Director and State Geologist, and for a presentation by Jonathan R. Lovekin, PG, Senior Engineering Geologist, Colorado Geological Survey. Jonathan provided an overview of the Colorado Geological Survey’s review process, the evolution of the Colorado Springs land-use ordinance following the 2015 landslides in Colorado Springs, and recent examples of success!

On November 4, many of the Chapter members attended the Rocky Mountain Geo-Conference in Westminster, Colorado, which provided a full day of great presentations and discussions for our community. The Chapter met again for a meeting in Golden, Colorado, on November 8.

Nashville Chapter

Bruce Rogers, PG, AEG Southeast Regional Director

Karst Seminar

On October 1, the Chapter held our first karst seminar at the Hamilton Valley Cave Research Center near Mammoth Cave National Park. We wish to thank our presenters, Dr. Chris Groves of Western Kentucky University; Autumn Singer, Lab Manager of the Crawford Hydrology Lab; Mark Elson, PG, of the US Army Corps of Engineers; and Dr. Pat Kambesis of the Cave Research Foundation. In addition to consulting and government geologists, the seminar was attended by several geology students from Western Kentucky University and Middle Tennessee State University. That mix of folks provided great conversation and the seminar was a big success thanks to

awesome presentations on karst, good food, and wonderful weather. Door prizes for the students included a rock hammer and the new AEG Nashville T-shirts. Also a big thanks to Dr. Pat Kambesis of the Cave Research Foundation for the use of the research center facilities.

The presentations included karst aquifer testing for a community water source, in-depth discussions on dye-tracing techniques, logging rock core in karst terrains, and recent cave mapping at Mammoth Cave. A presentation for the students on careers was given by the AEG Nashville Young Professional Committee Chair, Caitlan Howard, PG. We plan to make this an annual event for all AEG Southeast Region members and college students in the region.

Mark Elson, PG, USACE, presenting on drilling in karst

Dr. Chris Groves, WKU, presenting on testing aquifers for community water supplies in karst

Dr. Pat Kambesis of the Cave Research Foundation presenting on recent mapping discoveries in Mammoth Cave

Attendees of the AEG Nashville 2022 Karst Seminar

New York-Philadelphia Chapter

Loren Lasky, Newsletter Editor

The New York-Philadelphia (NYP) Chapter resumed meeting in person in the Spring of 2022 but continued to accommodate virtual attendees. To start things off, Chapter Chair Jim Peterson and Program Chair Mike Newtown launched a series of talks on naturally-occurring, or “Geogenic” Contaminants, in New Jersey.

Steve Spayd, PhD, MPH, and local water expert recently retired from the New Jersey Geologic Survey, kicked off the Geogenic series on April 6, 2022, with his eye-opening talk focusing on arsenic, boron, and manganese in local groundwater. Considering that many of us live and work in his study area in central New Jersey, for some of us, that groundwater quality data is personal. We look forward to more topical talks of this nature by other regional groundwater experts.

On May 25, 2022, Professor Zack Westgate of UMass Amherst presented his talk Glauconitic Sand: A New Geohazard for Offshore Wind. The burst of interest in developing wind energy off the coast of New Jersey is also close to home and will impact many of us, personally and professionally. We were grateful he was able to build a stopover into his busy schedule in order to deliver his talk here in person.

In September, several NYP members attended the Annual Meeting in Las Vegas.

John Robinson (Dewberry) presented his talk on green infrastructure, The Time is Right to Add Deep Aquifer Recharge as a Resiliency Planning Tool.

Past NYP Chapter Chair Loren Lasky and Patty

Bryan (Chicago) planned AEG’s fifth annual Environmental Symposium, Infrastructure and the Environment: Impacts on the Built World. At the symposium, nine invited experts reported on important local issues ranging from PFAS and pharmaceutical contamination to uranium mining, aquaculture, and the impact of homelessness and Legionella on groundwater in the Las Vegas area.

For more details on the symposium, please see Loren Lasky’s Environmental TWG report on p. 16 of this issue of AEG News

In October, a museum-quality display of Native American artifacts that had been painstakingly curated by two longtime NYP Members—Past Chair Mark Zdepski and popular speaker Dr. Greg Herman—and their colleague, expert collector Ed Fimbel was finally put on view. The new exhibit was opened with a flourish by the Hunterdon County Historical Society in Flemington, New Jersey, and received great popular acclaim.

The new exhibit finally did justice to the outstanding collection of indigenous peoples’ arrowheads, stone weapons, and handcrafted tools that farmers had been finding in the fields around Flemington since the 1800s. Research indicates that the oldest relics in the area date back as far as 13,000 years ago.

Curators Greg Herman, Ed Fimbel, and Mark Zdepski (L to R) at the opening of the Native American Artifacts exhibit on October 22, 2022 Photo by Loren Lasky

Locally found arrowheads on display in Flemington, New Jersey

John Robinson presenting his talk

Photo by Loren Lasky

Patty Bryan and Loren Lasky

Photo by Jim Eilbert

You can read amateur collector Greg Herman’s remarkable story of finding his first arrowhead at: http://www.impacttectonics.org/Archeology/Pennsylvania/GH1. html

St. Louis Chapter

Jessie Goodwin, Chapter Editor

The St. Louis Chapter of AEG welcomed new officers in September of 2022: Matt Masterson, Chair; Luke Ducey, Vice President; Ben Luetkemeyer, Treasurer; and Alex Hirsch, Secretary.

The author looks forward to her term as Past Chair and wishes a wonderful term to the new officer team. The Chapter’s first meeting of the fall was originally scheduled for October but was postponed, so we are planning to hold a double feature in November.

San Francisco Chapter

Justin Lindeman & Sarah Benjaram

For the San Francisco Chapter, 2022 continues to be an exciting year. We are still exploring how to offer hybrid (inperson/virtual) meetings to allow everyone in our large footprint to attend meetings and to archive presentations for people who cannot attend. We are closing the year with a virtual geologythemed trivia night while we continue to prepare for 2023. One of our main focuses will be reconnecting with students in this “post” COVID world.

On June 14, AEG President, Maddie German, gave her inperson presentation on The State of AEG and A Not-So-Routine Hydrogeologic Study in Pleasant Hill. After updating us on AEG and her goals for the year, she described what appeared to be a routine site investigation from the outset. However, once the data started coming in things were not what they seemed. What was to blame? COVID? Complications? Additional research needed? We hope you got to see this talk to find out how she avoided a major construction redesign. The results inspired some big questions!

August saw two events. On the ninth, AEG SF held our first in-person happy hour in two and a half years! Many members and friends met up at Temescal Brewing in Oakland to enjoy several pints of fresh brew. On the twentieth, Nik Sokol guided our Chapter and the San Francisco Geo-Institute on a field trip around San Francisco. For more details, please see Kate Zeiger’s report on p. 44 of this issue of AEG News

At our October meeting in Oakland, Dimitrios Zekkos, PhD, PE, of UC Berkeley presented the Development of Regional –Co-seismic Landslide Inventories and Predictive Models: The Example of the 2015 Lefkada, Greece, Earthquake. He discussed how landslides represent a distributed hazard that has significant consequences on infrastructure and communities that occur due to a range of environmental “stressors” such as precipitation events, earthquakes, and human activities. Despite our established ability to reliably back-analyze landslides following their occurrence, our ability to predict the occurrence of landslides remains limited. However, this predictive ability is key for our communities to become resilient against landslides. Our predictive abilities have been limited due to the lack of regional computational models with reliable, spatially-resolved input parameters. Advances in multi-scale monitoring approaches using satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and on-theground deployments can be leveraged to generate this input that can be used to calibrate such models. In his presentation, an application of such regional co-seismic landslide resiliency frameworks was presented with a focus on the landslides that occurred during the Mw 6.5 earthquake on the island of Lefkada, Greece, on November 17, 2015. The earthquake resulted in more than 700 landslides, particularly along the west coast of the island which was subjected to peak ground accelerations of 0.2–0.4g. Following the earthquake, the coastline was mapped using satellite imagery and UAVs. Using satellite and UAV-based imagery, 3D models of the coastline and the co-seismic landslides at high resolution were created. The

One farmer’s intact collection of artifacts from the 1800s on display

satellite and UAV imagery was also complemented with on-theground, in situ characterization of the rock mass and measurements of the shear wave velocity of the subsurface. The collected data were introduced in regional 1D and 3D slope stability analyses using the pre-earthquake coastline topography. Current results of the 3D regional stability analyses were compared to the mapped landslides following the earthquake and were used to derive site-specific and regional strength

Maintaining Sustainability Through Geoscience

The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), which includes the world’s largest mining houses and many leading mining companies as part of its membership, has long recognized that economic growth should never be at the expense of people or the planet. In 2003, ICMM published its 10 Principles for sustainable development for mining to set a standard of ethical performance in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. These ICMM mining principles cover all aspects of mining operations throughout the life-of-mine cycle. In line with these principles, and cognizant of the value of geoscience in helping deliver and meet sustainable mining performance goals, AEG and the Environmental and Engineering Geophysical Society are convening this online symposium over four half-days in May, 2023. Lifeof-Mine activities cover everything from mine feasibility planning through to closure, with geoscience contributing practical assistance to the life-of-mine site key activities to sustain the mine and leave an acceptable legacy—the 6Rs: “Regulation, Running, Rehabilitation, Repurposing, Retirement and Reclamation.” Customized geoscience workflows contribute through implementation of the 4Ms: “Mapping, Monitoring, Modelling and Management.”

The symposium plans to cover this broad sweep with presentations on state-of-the-art aspects of principles,

estimates and assess the most critical uncertainties associated with accurate landslide prediction. The results show that 3D topography used in stability analyses is of paramount importance and significantly influences the critical regions for a range of material properties. However, the assumed material properties and their spatial variation have a significant influence on the calculated factors of safety, and ultimately, on the ones that failed during the earthquake.

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