The Virtual Landscapes of Texas website has been re-released in a new
revised and updated form, with enhanced design, graphics and search
capabilities. It contains more than 600 documents on the geology of
Texas (including a number of AGS guidebooks), full text free online,
and should now be exposed through the Google search engine. Please
visit the site - this fall we will begin adding new materials again.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/books/landscapes/index.php

October 16-19, 2011
Veracruz, Mexico
Visit the GCAGS 2011 Convention Website!

Pre-Registration Deadline is
August 15, 2011.

AUSTIN GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

MONTHLY MEETING

MONDAY AUGUST 29^TH 2011

6:30 – 8:00 PM

ROC SEMINAR ROOM 1.603

BUILDING 196 PICKLE CAMPUS

The Austin Geological Society’s 2011 Ethics hour will be in a panel format. Geologists from four professional employment categories will participate through brief presentations of either an ethical dilemma in which they have found themselves, or ethical issues encountered during their careers. The presenters will then accept questions and comments from the audience. The panel presentation and discussion will last approximately one hour.

Please join us on Monday, August 29, 2011 for interesting and varied discussion of ethical issues encountered or pondered by geoscientists with a combined total of over 100 years of professional experience. The four panelists will be:

• Ann F. Ardis, P.G. – USGS Texas Water Science Center, Austin
• Kirk Holland, P.G. – Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District
• Robert S. Kier, PhD, P.G. – Robert S. Kier Consulting, Austin, TX
• Ernest Lundelius, PhD, Emeritus Professor – UT Austin Department of Geological Sciences

Ann Ardis received a BS in Geological Engineering and a BS in Geological Sciences, both from the University of Texas at Austin. She is currently a supervisory hydrologist for the US Geological Survey where she has spent the last 27 years working on a variety of hydrogeological projects, primarily involving groundwater monitoring & assessment.

Kirk Holland has Bachelor’s and  Master’s degrees in the geological sciences, and almost 40 years of experience in environmental management services consulting, business management consulting, and organizational management and administration.  For the last six years, he has been the General Manager of BSEACD, a leading groundwater conservation district in the state, serving portions of Travis, Hays, and Caldwell Counties.

Bob Kier began his post-student career at the UT Bureau of Economic Geology some 40 years ago.  After a stint with CDM, beginning in 1979, Bob formed Robert S. Kier Consulting in 1986 through which he has been involved in private consulting for industry, government entities, municipalities, and special interest groups for the past 25 years.

Ernie LundeIius is a vertebrate paleontologist working on Plio-Pleistocene faunas of Texas and Australia. He received a BS in Geology from UT Austin in 1950 and PhD in Paleozoology from the University of Chicago in 1954. Ernie taught geology at UT Austin for 41 years.

Hill County Trinity Lithostratigraphy: Surface to Subsurface In Blanco and Hays Counties, Texas

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Fieldtrip Leaders/contributors: Brian B. Hunt, Alex S. Broun, Ronald Fieseler, Brian A. Smith, Doug Wierman, and Chock Woodruff (and perhaps a few others)

Destination:  Northern Blanco and Hays Counties

Depart:  0800 from the Pickle Center parking lot at the East (Main) Entrance

Cost: TBD, sign-up at the first and second AGS meetings

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This trip is meant as a follow-up and compliment to the recent publication titled Hydrogeologic Atlas of the Hill Country Trinity Aquifer (Wierman et al., 2010), which AGS supported.  Attendees will visit unique locations and a nearly continuous measured section of the Trinity Group centered along Flat Creek in northern Blanco and Hays Counties.  This trip is a hands-on geologic fieldtrip with hammers, acid, and hand lenses encouraged.   Participants will visit the Hammett Shale, and some unique exposures of the Cow Creek and Hensel on a private ranch.  Then participants will walk from the top of the Cow Creek through a nearly continuous exposure of the Hensel, lower Glen Rose, and into the upper Glen Rose.  The focus of discussion will be on the relationship of the Trinity Group rocks (as seen in outcrop) and how they influence groundwater availability in Hays County (Hill Country Trinity Aquifer).  Geophysical logs and cuttings from boreholes will be presented during lunch as will other hydrogeological information.

Time allowing, additional stops could include Pedernales Falls to look at the Paleozoic and Hosston (lowest unit of the Trinity Group) and a road cut near the town of Blanco looking at the Trinity-Fredericksburg transition.

Participants will receive a guidebook containing maps and measured sections in addition to select plates (small) from the Hydrogeologic Atlas.  This trip requires more than a mile of walking up hill along this unique exposure and some uneven and rough hiking along Flat Creek.  Please bring your lunch and standard field gear (water bottle, hat, and sturdy hiking shoes or boots).

Welcome back from a very hot summer!  While the heat may be here to stay for a bit longer, fall is just around the corner, as is our first Austin Geological Society meeting of the season!  The first meeting is again our annual Ethics Talk.  This year we’re in for a special treat — the talk will take the form of a panel of guests from across the disciplines to discuss ethics in the geosciences and to field your questions!  In addition, we’ve asked representatives of the Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists will share news from the Board before the regular meeting time.  See below for details.

AGS Meeting
August 29th
ROC Auditorium at the BEG building
6:30pm: AGS registration/renewal
6:45pm: Pre-meeting update from the TBPG
7:00pm: Ethics Panel

This months talk will be from Rebecca Smyth of the BEG. The relationship between carbon sequestration and enhanced oil recovery in Texas.
:Rebecca C. “Becky” Smyth received a B.S. in Geology from Virginia Tech and M.A. from UT Austin. She has worked in Austin as a geologist/hydrogeologist/project manager since 1982. Becky first joined the Austin Geological Society in 1986 and served as Treasurer in 2000-2001. She was instrumental in the legislative effort to establish the Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists and is a licensed professional geologist (no. 68). Since 1997 Becky has been with the Bureau of Economic Geology working in fields of hydrogeology, airborne topographic lidar mapping, and now carbon sequestration.

The Spring, 2011, AGS field trip was conducted on 26 March, with an excursion to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area (ERSNA).  The tour of Enchanted Rock was led by Dr. Rob Reed of the Bureau of Economic Geology and Dr. Jim Petersen of the Geography Department at Texas State University.   Rob focused on the emplacement and structural setting of the mass of granite that includes Enchanted Rock, with special attention on the context of ERSNA within the much more extensive Enchanted Rock batholith., with detailed insights on various petrographic features visible in the granite.  Jim provided valuable lessons on the landforms and weathering aspects of the rock mass.  During the drive to and from Enchanted Rock we discussed the context of this remarkable landform in context of Paleozoic stratigraphy and structure (grabens that result in high-standing “mountains”) and the presence of the high-standing edges of the Edwards Plateau, clearly visible from the summit of Enchanted Rock.  Attendees were especially grateful that the bus made it past Dripping Springs, unlike our previous attempt to reach ERSNA back in October.  It was a day well spent. (summary from Chock Woodruff; Pictures from Heather Beatty)

AGS Education Chair John Mikels, assisted by AGS member Brian Hunt, made a geology presentation to about 50 4th grade students at Clayton Elementary in SW Austin. The topic was rocks and minerals and the connection to our lives. John had good assortment of rocks and minerals and corresponding objects produced from those natural resources. One of John’s messages was, “if it is not grown, then it was mined.”

This is the 3rd time John has given this presentation.  Our President Dallas Dunlap also assisted in previous presentations.

The AGS will have its Spring Field Trip on March 26th. Enchanted Rock – Here we come! We will depart the Pickle Campus at 7:30 am sharp Saturday morning and arrive back at the Pickle at 5:30. Trip leaders are Dr. Rob Reed and Jim Peterson. Cost will be $50, unless you currently have a guide book, then its only $40. Drinks and park access are included. Should be a great trip. Contact the Treasurer to reserve a spot.