Cover Story BELOW THE UNIVERSITY HILL Presented by JAMES STEWART
President’s Message
by Meg Harris
GEOLOGIC NEWS OF INTEREST Compiled
by Roy Wagner
CNYAPG MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL TIME IS HERE by Gerry Gould
THE BLUE’S ON A RAINY NIGHT by Robert Titus, Hartwick College
In contrast to the deep soft soils of the Syracuse Lakefront area, the University Hill area Is underlain by shallow soils and dense glacial till over bedrock. Nevertheless, subsurface conditions around the University have posed challenges for building construction. Mr. Stewart will present several brief case histories from a geotechnical engineer’s perspective.
Come join us for an interesting evening on Thursday, February 12 as Mr. Stewart blends geology with engineering. What is common knowledge to one profession is frequently not considered by another. The effects of something which most would consider insignificant, such as rain water run-off from roofs, can significantly impact building foundations, even those on bedrock. This will be a most informative evening as the geological sciences and engineering disciplines join together to meet the challenges of building construction on the University Hill.
The evening will conclude with an open question and discussion period.
Don’t forget! Thursday, February 12, at the Glen Loch Restaurant.
The cash bar will open at 5:30 pm followed by dinner at 6:30 pm.
Our guest Mr. Stewart will present Below the University Hill at 7:30 pm.
It is quite ironic to think that we have a unique state-of-the-art resource recovery operation in the same county as "the most polluted lake in the country". A lot of what we have or don’t have is determined by the successful education of the public on environmental issues. Where people understand the need for environmental action and understand the technology involved, things get done. The OCRRA plant is a good example of how continuing public education is necessary for a company to coexist comfortably with its neighbors.
I would like to follow up on my message for last month in which I asked for volunteers to host college students on a visit to your job site. If you have not emailed me with your intentions to help out, we will have a sign-up sheet at the table Thursday night if you would like to get involved.
In addition the Geology Club has asked me to invite another group from the CNYAPG to be our guests for lunch. If you can get away from the office between 11:00 and 12:30 and would like to join us please let us know.
Finally I’m pleased to announce that our Vice President, Chris Gachowski gave birth to a little baby girl, December 29. Her name is Zoe Elizabeth. Our heartiest congratulations to Chris and her family.
I would like to thank Roy Wagner for taking over the job of newspaper
editor and encourage you all to support Roy with your ideas and contributions.
Barbra Tewksbury, one of our past speakers, was recently selected by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to receive the New York Professor of the Year award. Ms. Tewksbury is a Professor of Geology at Hamilton College where she has taught since 1978.
As you may recall, all CNYAPG memberships expire on December 31st. Membership
renewals are still a low $20 per year. All current members should
have received renewal forms containing the information we currently have
on file for you and your membership expiration date. Please make
necessary additions or changes to the forms and return them with
your $20 dues payable to CNYAPG.
FEBRUARY 1998
If you have not received a form, you may download it from our
World Wide Web site at www.dreamscape.com/cnyapg or call me at 437-1142
or fax a request to 437-1282.
The New York State Council of Professional Geologists (NYSCPG) held
a symposium on licensing of geologists in New York on November 5, 1997.
The symposium served as a valuable kickoff for the Council’s next level
of activity as it seeks to achieve licensing for geologists in New York.
The large number of attendees was a testament to the legitimacy of the
Council’s efforts, and demonstrated the keen interest that geologists statewide
have in licensing. A group-wide discussion followed the speakers,
with numerous important issues and questions being discussed by all.
With continued support from all geologists, both individually and as members
of other geo-related organizations, New York State
should be the next in a long list of states to license geologists.
1998 will be an important year for the NYSCPG, and the time is now to begin to make your voice heard in Albany. The pieces are now beginning to fall into place: 1) NYSCPG has draft legislation in the Assembly (A.6822); 2) NYSCPG has Assemblyman Stephan Englebright, a geologist from the 4th Assembly District as its legislative sponsor; and 3) NYSCPG has hired Don Clarey and John Privitera, lobbyist and attorney, respectively, in Albany, to provide expert legal and political council.
The prime ingredient in this process however is YOU, the professional geologists of New York State. The time is now for you, the members of the NYSCPG and CNYAPG to let your local members of the Assembly and State Senate know that you are informed, involved and in favor of attaining licensing for geologists in New York.
To move this important legislation ahead in 1998 the NYSCPG will need to mobilize its members and focus its attention on the legislature in Albany at critical junctures along the way. NYSCPG will be notified by Mr. Clarey at key times when we need to apply that attention, such as when the bill arrives in committee. When the time comes, we will all need to be prepared. It will be up to each one of us to make a call and write a letter.
Start by becoming a member of NYSCPG. Contact Jerry Bastedo at Ecology & Environment, Inc. (716) 684-8060 or jcbo1@ene.com.
"Carved in stone" is a common enough cliche. Its meaning is plain enough: any concept etched in stone is permanent, it will never go away or be altered. There is an important implication in the term; something carved in stone must be of some real importance. Otherwise who would bother?
To we geologists, things carved in stone are much more commonplace. Lot's of things are carved in stone. Some of the most mundane events have, by happenstance, been recorded not by a skilled engraver, but by the everyday events of nature. If you know what to look for, sometimes the rocks light up with unexpected etchings.
You have, no doubt, commonly walked the sidewalks on a rainy night. To the young and in love it can be a great pleasure; to most of the rest of us it's just cold and wet. But, in the Catskills, a dark, rainy night can bring a journey into the past. You see, most Catskill villages still have a lot of old bluestone sidewalks, and each old slab can be a time machine.
Bluestone has always been quarried in the Catskills. This durable and
attractive stone holds up very well to the traffic of feet. It was deposited
nearly 400 million years ago mostly along the coastline of the Devonian
Catskill Sea. Its sands once traveled down the rivers of the Catskill Delta
and came to be deposited as flat sheets on the shallow sea floors or within
the river channels themselves. With time came hardening and lithification.
With a lot more time came quarry men to chisel out
these stones and cut them into sidewalk slabs. Now they line our streets,
but they often still retain vestiges of their venerable past.
Go out, find some bluestone walks and really take a look at them. Most
regional sidewalks are now of concrete, but there still are some old bluestone
slabs. Look at the sidewalks along the back streets of most upstate towns.
Earlville is an especially good example. Look also at the stones leading
to people's front doors. Many are featureless, but many others display
sedimentary structures which take us back to moments of time in the Devonian.
Look for two of these structures. The first is the most obvious; these
are the ripple marks. Devonian age currents passed across these Devonian
sands and sculpted them into the delicate ripples. Often they are current
ripples, steeper on the side toward the way the current was flowing. It
is a most remarkable experience to visualize these briefest and most ephemeral
events of so long ago. They should not exist. How could
such delicate structures survive long enough to turn into stone? And
yet, there they are. Were these currents of any importance? Not at all;
they were just the most everyday of events and yet they are "carved in
stone."
The other structure is the flow lineation. Again as currents sweep across sea floors or stream bottoms they sculpt the sand. This time the resulting features are virtually invisible. The grains are lined up into a subtle lineation which only appears millions of years later when the stone cutter splits the rock. The resulting fracture has a faint lineation to it, again oriented with the ancient flow.
Both of these features are quite clear in broad daylight and not much harder to see at night, under street lights. But on a rainy night, when the street lights are reflected off the wet sidewalks, these features light up. They are almost electric. It’s something to look for, not just in the Catskills, but anywhere there are bluestones, which is all of eastern North America.
So you don't have to be young and in love to enjoy a walk on a dark rainy night. Ripple marks and flow lineations are nice too, although they do come in a distant second place.
(Adapted from an article first published in the Woodstock Times.)
February 9, 1998 (LATHAM, NY)
February 11, 1998 (ROCHESTER, NY)
March 12, 1998 CNYAPG @ Glen Loch Restaurant
March 19-21,1998 Northeastern GSA Section Meeting, Holiday Inn by the Bay, Portland, Maine
March 22-26, 1998 EEGS (Environmental and Engineering Geophysical Society) in cooperation with NGWA presents the Symposium on the Application of Geophysics to Environmental and Engineering Problems at the Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, Illinois*Contact Jayne Sturges, SAGEEP (303) 771-2000 or Kathy Butcher, NGWA (303) 422-2685
April 9, 1998
CNYAPG @ Glen Loch,Dr. Don Woodrow, Hobart-William Smith College
April 28, 1998
ASCE / BAPG Technical Presentation and Discussion, Land Application
of Biosolids / Bioremediation of Petroleum Hydrocarbons, Rochester Institute
of Technology