INSIDE:
President’s Message 2
GeologicNews ofInterest 3
CNYAPG Calendar 6
OctoberMeeting 6

    The Middle Devonian Hamilton Group is composed of widespread, time-stratigraphic, discontinuity- bounded depositional cycles.  Recurrent lithofacies and biofacies units correlate predictably with given parts of cycles.  Transgressive facies are marked by widespread, thin (0.5 to 3 m), winnowed, shelly sandstones or skeletal wacke- to grainstones.  Bases are typically heavily burrowed with a distinctive firm ground ichnofacies.  Condensed intervals of maximum sediment starvation may have thin (centimeters) lags of phosphatic, concretionary, or pyritic diaclasts, bones and conodonts as well as corroded carbonate skeletal debris.  These intervals are typified by sharp diastemic contacts between the transgressive facies and overlying maximum highstand shales.  Early highstand deposits are characterized by an alternation of discrete storm beds with mudstones which may yield spectacular fossil assemblages.  Regressive taphofacies display greater evidence of sediment-shell disturbance by bioturbation and repeated storms. Most of the typical "Hamilton fauna" appears abruptly in the second major sub-sequence (4th order cycle) of the Hamilton Group.  The Hamilton fauna was partitioned into distinctive biofacies which were remarkably stable in terms of taxonomic composition, guild structure and relative abundance.  These biofacies tracked favored environments and recur through ten or more basinwide cycles during some 6-7 my.  Very few species became extinct, immigrated, or underwent significant morphological change.  Instead, both the initiation and termination of the Hamilton fauna correspond with major deepening events (Marcellus and Genesee transgressions) of combined eustatic/tectonic origin.  This observation suggests that the major transgressions may have been associated with widespread environmental restructuring.Dr. Brett is the department chair for the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department at the University of Rochester, where he has been a professor for the last 19 years.  Among the many honors he has received for his work are the Edward Peck Curtis Award for outstanding undergraduate teaching,  and the Charles Schubert Award for the outstanding paleontologist under age 40.  His publications include 105 refereed papers and chapters, 32 guidebook articles, 30 miscellaneous publications and a co-edited book.  Please join us in welcoming Dr. Brett to the Glen Loch on Thursday, October 9, 1997.

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PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE

By Meg Harris

OCTOBER 1997

 At our September meeting, we were treated to a wonderfully entertaining presentation on practical and realistic emergency response to hazardous  spills.  Buzz Melton dramatically demonstrated many of the common misconceptions about the danger of hazardous materials and the effect they might have on personnel responding to an accident.  Since the talk, we have received several inquiries about how to bring his hazmat workshop to local businesses.

It was, however, a shame that we did not have a bigger turnout for such a nationally respected speaker.  Those of us who were there were very grateful we had attended.  In the next couple months we will have two more distinguished speakers with national reputations in their fields.  Don’t miss the opportunity to meet them and listen to them discuss their latest research.

To encourage more participation in our meetings, we have chosen to return the advance notice for reservations to 24 hrs.  Please note the new phone number at O’Brien and Gere.  Remember you can come unannounced, without reservations-  it will just cost you a little more!

In addition, the board voted to offer students a special discounted rate of  $10 with reservations, $13 without.  In keeping with our mission statement we can "strengthen and advance the geological sciences" by
including students and those new to the field, introducing them to
professionals in the private sector and exposing them to "an open forum for the exchange of  ideas".

Their experience will be greatly enhanced by the opportunity to
 

interact with our membership.  Attend  meetings.  Introduce yourself to visiting students and new members.  Share your experiences in the job market and the workplace.

This month we have the first article contributed by our "Catskill correspondent", Dr. Robert Titus of Hartwick College.  Dr. Titus presented some of his popular geologic compositions at one of our spring meetings and has agreed to share more of his writing with us in the future.  His vivid descriptions shift our imaginations into high gear and ancient geologic events seem to come to life.

The same techniques might be applied to the scenarios that our guest speaker uncovers in the geologic record.  Picture the Devonian seas of Central New York with their ebbing and flowing tides, migrating shorelines, violent storms and abundant life all overshadowed by the growing Acadian Mountains to the east.  Carlton Brett will describe the fine detail he has come to read in the rock record, the events they suggest and the implications for the study of evolution and tectonism.

As a final note, Dave Palmerton has agreed to chair a committee which will decide on this year’s short course topic.  If you’re interested, please call Dave at 446-9120.
 
 

DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT CNYAPG ON THE WEB AT:
dreamscape.com/cnyapg
 

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GEOLOGIC NEWS OF INTEREST

Compiled by
Chris Gachowski and Nancy Gensky

 NYS COUNCIL OF PROFESSIONAL GEOLOGISTS SYMPOSIUM

On November 5, 1997, the Council will be sponsoring an informational symposium on the process of licensing geologists in NYS.  Tentative speakers include:

Bill Kelly, President
Steve Englebright, State Assembly
TBA, Group Lobbyist
Karen Moran, NYS Society of   Engineers

The meeting will be held at the embassy Suites Hotel from 3:00 to 9:00 p.m. with dinner included.  For more information, contact Gerry Gould at 437-1142.

OLDEST FOSSILS IN THE EASTERN UNITED STATES

Dr. Yngvar Isachsen of the New York Geological Survey discovered the oldest plant fossils in New York near Balmat in the northwestern Adirondacks.  The fossils, stromatolites, were buried nearly 15 miles deep and survived the near-melting of surrounding rock during the Pre-Cambrian.

Dr. Ed Landing, New York State Paleontologist, discovered snails, clams, starfish, sponges, and other marine fossils from the Cambrian in Columbia County, New York.  These fossils, about 505 million years old, are so well preserved that individual cells can be seen on some snail fossils.

(From New York  State Museum, Fall ‘97)
 
 

PROGRAMS AT THE NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM

If you have never been to the New York State Museum in Albany --GO!! Here’s a snapshot of some of there fall programs in addition to the great exhibits:

OCTOBER 4, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
($35 per person)
Tunneling Through the Appalachians

Dr. Yngvar Isachsen will conduct this field trip to explore mountain building processes.  The trip will traverse the Berkshire Hills from the Taconic Parkway near Hillsdale to Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

 OCTOBER 5 at 2 p.m.
Footsteps Through the Adirondacks: Lecture and Book signing with Nina Webb

Ms Webb’s book, Footsteps Through the Adirondacks... The Verplanck Colvin Story, is a biography of Colvin, who played a major role in the creation of the Adirondack Park.  Colvin was the surveyor and superintendent of the Adirondack Survey from 1872 to 1900 and was also a wilderness advocate and ecologist.

OCTOBER 18 at 2 p.m.
History of the Cohoes Mastodon

George Hamell, Museum Educator, will conduct this program which will consist of a slide show and a tour of the Ice Age Landscape Exhibit.  Information on the Mastodon find, the geologic history of Cohoes, and North American mastodons in general will be provided.

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A MORNING TO REMEMBER

BY ROBERT TITUS

 Esopus and Woodland Creeks form a nearly perfect circle where they flow around Panther Mountain in the central Catskills. This has led geologists at the New York State Museum to speculate that an asteroid may once have made an impact here. That's difficult to prove, but fun to imagine.

Syracuse, Aug. 15, 382,439,953 BC, the predawn hours --
There is, of course, no Syracuse at this time, but the site is here, a part of the shallow Catskill Sea. It's the end of a moonless night and it's still dark out, but there is a growing light and it's not the approaching sun. Over the past several weeks there has been a slow moving pinpoint of light in the nighttime sky. It is an asteroid, about a half mile across. It's moving in from the south and, as it enters the thin upper atmosphere, it is starting to glow quite brightly. Its speed is about 20 miles per second, but it is still so far away that it seems to hang in the sky. As it comes closer, however, its apparent motion speeds up. Now as it enters the denser parts of the Earth's atmosphere, friction heats it into a great flare. The whole southeastern sky lights up, silhouetting the black horizon below.

This is the critical moment; if the asteroid is small enough and its angle of approach low enough, then it will bounce off the atmosphere and skip harmlessly back into space. If not . . . The flare's flight path doesn't skip, it plummets silently and disappears behind the horizon.

Moments pass in what seems to be a endless pause, and then comes a great and instantaneous shock of light. It flickers for a few seconds and then the whole southeastern horizon glows red. The color brightens to an orange, then a yellow and finally a brilliant radiance of white. An enormous gassy fireball rises rapidly above the horizon; its image reflects upon the still sea. The fireball is followed by a rising mass of black smoke. The dark cloud rises quickly and it gradually assumes a funnel shape.

Incredibly, this entire scene has been played out during nearly a minute of complete silence, but that ends abruptly. The nearby sea floor begins to hiss and then roar, the ocean boils.  Powerful surface earthquake waves are passing. They move very much like the waves of an ocean, but these are radiating through the very ocean bottom itself, and its that which, in turn, affects the sea surface.

In another minute the great shock wave of the impact blast itself hits Syracuse. For several minutes the sea floor rocks with the combined effect of the earthquake and the atmospheric shock waves. Then, several long minutes after the impact, the actual sound of the asteroid's impact catches up with the chaos. Only the word "unimaginable" does justice to the power that this sound signals.
 
Meanwhile, the great rising fireball has blown a hole in the stratosphere and it continues to rise. It's a hundred miles high now and the trailing plume of dust below is catching the high sunlight of the still approaching dawn. The whole thing has become an awe-inspiring pillar of white, starkly outlined by the surrounding nighttime dark. The pillar is a chimney with walls of dust; its flue is a vacuum which is drawing a vast draft of air upward. Back at Syracuse things had quieted momentarily, but now a new breeze has started and it's being sucked toward the chimney. It quickly speeds up to gale force and then to hurricane speeds. All this air is drawn up the chimney and vented out into space.

Next comes a hailstorm of dust and rocks. This is the debris that the impact blasted out of the earth and threw tens of thousands of feet up. Now it's all falling back again. The first rocks plop loudly into the surrounding sea. Then the higher-flying rocks start returning as an incredibly dense shower of meteors. Hundreds of them cascade out of the darkness and they light up the entire sky. The sea hisses and foams as they fall into it.

In the east the sun is about to rise, but it's a futile effort; sunlight won't fall again upon Syracuse for months. A great stratospheric shroud of black has been expanding ominously from the southeast. Along its front an enormous and continuous rage of dry lightning forms an expanding plexus of sparkles that illuminate the wrecked landscape below. Gradually, a moonless, starless black engulfs the area.

But if there is nothing to see, there is still plenty to hear and feel. The winds still howl and more rocks continue to fall out of the sky. And the temperature has been rising
alarmingly over the past hour; it is already more than 100 degrees and getting hotter. Once again light penetrates the dusty gloom, but only in the form of burning plant debris falling slowly out of the sooty black sky. To the east, closer to the impact, the Devonian Gilboa forests have been ignited and their burning embers have been lofted into the sky. It is a hellish sight.

The author writes about Catskill geology for Kaatskill Life magazine and The Woodstock Times.

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EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY FOR STRUCTURAL GEOLOGISTS

Hartwick College is seeking an individual to teach one section of structural geology and accompanying laboratory section for Spring Term 1998.  Course enrollments will be approximately ten geology majors.  Scheduling is flexible.  Please send resume and names of three references to Robert Titus, Chair, Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY 13820.  Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.  An Equal Opportunity Employer.
 

GEOLOGIC NEWS OF INTEREST

CONTINUED

PAGE 6
 
 
 CNYAPG CALENDAR
October 7    Dr. Andrew Simon of the USGS at Cornell University, 1120 Snee Hall at 4:30 pm.  Title TBA.Using Remote Sensing to Understand Antarctic Ice Streams: Past, Present, and Future.

October 15     Dr. Robert Bindschadler of NASA at Cornell University, 1120 Snee Hall at 4:30 p.m.

October 20-21 New York State 4th Annual Recycling Conference and Vendor Exhibition, sponsored by the New York State Association for Reduction, Refuse and Recycling.  Sheraton Four Points Hotel, Liverpool , NY

October 20-23GSA Annual Meeting, Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, Utah.

October 28 Dr. Maria Zuber of the Department of Earth and Planetary Science, MIT, at Cornell University, 1120 Snee Hall at 4:30 pm.  Title TBA.

November 13 CNYAPG October Meeting with Dr. Scott Bair of Ohio State University.

The Thursday, October 9 CNYAPG meeting will be held at the Glen Loch.  A cash bar will open at 5:30 p.m. followed by dinner at 6:30. Our guest Dr. Brett, will speak at 7:30.  Dinner is $13 (if reserved 24 hr in advance) or $15 at the door.Make your reservations today by calling O’Brien & Gere Engineers at (315) 437-6100 ext. 2656.See you there!

If you have events that you would like to include in the CNYAPG calendar, please contact Bill Gabriel of O’Brien & Gere Engineers at (315) 437-6100.CNYAPG NEWSLETTER - OCTOBER 1997
 
PRESIDENT
Meg Harris 469-2477

VICE PRESIDENT
Chris Gachowski  437-6100

ASSOCIATE VICE   PRESIDENT
Steve Crook 437-1429

SECRETARY
Gerry Gould 451-2811

TREASURER
Sean Pepling 445-2554

IMMEDIATE PAST   PRESIDENT
Dave Palmerton 446-9120

DIRECTORS
Vita DeMarchi 446-9120
Greg Flick 454-2000
Bill Gabriel 437-6100
George Kelley 469-2476

CNYAPG
PO Box 567
Dewitt, NY 13214
 

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