Past Meetings, 2010–11 to 2019–20
Click the talk title to see the talk abstract and speaker’s biography (PDF).
September 29, 2010
Stephen Testa, Executive Officer, California State Mining & Geology Board ― Geological Development in the Post-Gold Rush Era and the Fate of the First California Geological Survey
October 27, 2010
Dr. Geoffrey W. Marcy, Professor of Astronomy, UC Berkeley ― Searching for Other Earths and Life in the Universe
November 17, 2010
Philip Johnson, Cotton Shires & Associates, Los Gatos ― Concurrent Growth of Uplifts with Dissimilar Orientations in the Southern Green River Basin, Wyoming: Implications for Paleocene-Eocene Patterns of Foreland Shortening
January 26, 2011
Dr. John Parrish, State Geologist, California Geological Survey ― California Geological Survey – Staying Relevant After 150 Years
February 23, 2011
Andre Brown, P.E., W. L. Gore & Associates ― An Innovative Passive Detection Method for Site Screening of VOCs and SVOCs in Soil, Ground Water, and Indoor Air
March 30, 2011
Dr. James Moore, Retired, U.S. Geological Survey ― Native American Granite Cisterns in the Sierra Nevada
April 27, 2011
Dr. Greg Croft, Croft Consultants ― Coal and the Peak of World Carbon Emissions
May 25, 2011
Dr. Eldridge Moores, UC Davis ― Assembling California: An Update
June 29, 2011
Dr. John Wakabayashi, California State University Fresno ― Franciscan Mélanges: Evidence for Sedimentary Origins, Multiple Subduction-Exhumation Cycles, Subduction Accretion, Subduction Erosion and Non Accretion
September 28, 2011
Dr. William E. Motzer, Todd Engineers ― California’s Gold: History, Geology, and Geochemistry
October 26, 2011
Dr. Richard Allen, UC Berkeley ― Delivering Earthquake Warning to California
November 16, 2011
Michelle Newcomer, NASA Ames DEVELOP Program, San Francisco State University ― A Comparison of Groundwater Storage using GRACE Data, Groundwater Levels, and a Hydrological Model in California’s Central Valley
January 25, 2012
Dr. Kevin Padian, UC Berkeley, Curator of Paleontology, UC Museum of Paleontology and President of the National Center for Science Education ― What Darwin Said (and Didn’t Say): Evolution, “Intelligent Design,” and Education
February 29, 2012
Dr. John Karachewski, Department of Toxic Substances Control ― An Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS)—Free Software and Data for Recreational, Educational, and Geologic Investigations
March 28, 2012
Dr. Gerhard Neuhuber, GallZeidler Consultants ― Caldecott Tunnel Construction 4th Bore, State Highway 24: After Three Tunnel Constructions and Investigation Programs, Are There No Surprises Anymore?
April 25, 2012
Dr. Ray Sullivan, Emeritus, San Francisco State University ― Ocean Floor to Shelf, the Lower Tertiary Sequences in the Sacramento Basin
May 30, 2012
Dr. Geoff Marcy, UC Berkeley ― The Hunt for Another Earth
June 27, 2012
Dr. Donald L Gautier, U.S. Geological Survey ― Volumes, Uncertainty and Costs of Undiscovered Arctic Petroleum
September 26, 2012
Cindy Pridmore, California Geological Survey ― California Tsunamis: State Inundation Maps and Lessons Learned from the Japan 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami
October 24, 2012
Dr. Ray Wells, U.S. Geological Survey ― “Revolutionary” Tectonics in the Pacific Northwest: The Role of Rotating Microplates and Mega-Blocks along the Cascadia Convergent Margin
November 28, 2012
Dr. Patrick Muffler, U.S. Geological Survey, Emeritus ― Lassen Volcanic National Park—A Wonderland of Volcanoes and Thermal Features
January 30, 2013
Scott Bennett, UC Davis ― Testing the Role of Rift Obliquity in the Formation of the Gulf of California
February 27, 2013
Dr. John Karachewski, Geoscapes and Department of Toxics Substance Control ― Geologic Landscapes of Mount Diablo (no abstract available)
March 27, 2013
Dr. Greg Balco, Berkeley Geochronology Center ― Applications of Cosmogenic-Nuclide Geochemistry and Low-Temperature Thermochronometry to Earth Surface Processes
May 29, 2013
Dr. David F. Blake, NASA Ames Research Center ― Results from the Mars Science Laboratory Rover Curiosity’s Geological Investigations of the Surface of Mars
June 26, 2013
Dr. Lester McKee and Sarah Pearce, San Francisco Estuary Institute ― Science Support for Improved Management of Sediment in Bay Area Watersheds, Creeks, and San Francisco Bay
September 25, 2013
Dr. William Motzer, PG, CHG, Senior Geologist, Todd Engineers ― Mercury Deposits of the California Coast Ranges and their Environmental Impacts
October 30, 2013
Dr. David A. Osleger, UC Davis ― Paleo-Precipitation Records from Lake Tahoe Cores
November 20, 2013
James J. Rytuba, Victoria E. Langenheim, and Daniel N. Goldstein, U.S. Geological Survey ― Effects of the Paso Robles Geothermal System on Water Quality and Availability in the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin, California
January 29, 2014
Dr. Barbara Romanowicz, UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory ― Imag(in)ing the Earth’s Interior
February 26, 2014
Tess Menotti, PhD Candidate, Stanford University ― Moving Targets – Petroleum System Modeling in Central California
March 26, 2014
Tom MacKinnon, Consultant ― Geology of the Monterey Formation of California, with Comments on Recent Oilfield Developments
April 30, 2014
Stephen D. Reynolds, California Geological Survey ― Reclamation of the Abandoned Spenceville Copper Mine
May 28, 2014
Dr. Kevin Padian, UC Museum of Paleontology ― Why Don’t Vertebrates Care about Mass Extinctions?
June 25, 2014
Jason Utas, PhD Candidate at UCLA ― Meteorites
September 24, 2014
Dr. Thomas Holzer, U.S. Geological Survey ― Catastrophic Earthquakes in a Crowded World
October 29, 2014
Marcus Trotta, Sonoma County Water Agency ― Groundwater Basin Studies and Management in Sonoma County
November 19, 2014
Christopher Lewis ― Tales of the Oil and Gas Fields and Thereabouts
January 28, 2015
Dr. Lisa White, Director of Education, UC Museum of Paleontology ― Understanding Global Change: Increasing Public Engagement in Science through a New Web Resource at the UC Museum of Paleontology
February 25, 2015
Dr. Bradley Erskine, Kleinfelder ― Building a Dam out of Naturally Occurring Asbestos: Challenges and Solutions at the Calaveras Dam Replacement Project, Sunol, CA
March 25, 2015
Dr. Jake Lowenstern, U.S. Geological Survey ― The Yellowstone Volcano: Past, Present and Future – Monitoring the Sleeping Giant Beneath Yellowstone National Park
April 29, 2015
Dr. Robert B. Miller, San Jose State University ― Construction, Emplacement, and Structures of Plutons and their Importance: Insights from the Sierra Nevada Batholith and North Cascades (Washington)
May 27, 2015
B. Lynn Ingram, UC Berkeley ― The West Without Water
June 24, 2015
Dr. Will Schweller, NCGS President and Consultant ― Injected Sands – Mother Nature’s Giant Frac Jobs?
September 30, 2015
Dr. Greg Beroza, Stanford University ― Induced Earthquakes in the 21st Century
October 28, 2015
Dr. Anne Sanquini, Stanford University ― Inspiring Earthquake-Resistant Construction in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
November 18, 2015
Dr. Andrea Foster, US Geological Survey ― The Environmental Legacy of California’s Gold Rush: Arsenic and Mercury Contamination from Historic Mining
January 27, 2016
Dr. Samuel Johnson, US Geological Survey ― Exploring California’s Amazing Seafloor: The Visionary California Seafloor Mapping Program
February 24, 2016
Dr. John Karachewski, NCGS — Exploring California’s Hydroscapes
March 30, 2016
Dr. Jeff Unruh, Lettis Consultants International ― Geologic History of Mount Diablo
April 27, 2016
Dr. Ronald Olowin, St. Mary’s College ― Dark Matter and the Universe
May 26, 2016
Dr. Julia Sigwart, Queen’s University Belfast ― Two Miles Underwater: A Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
June 22, 2016
Jerome De Graff, US Forest Service ― Fire, Earth and Rain: Emergency Response for Wildfire-Induced Landslide Hazards
September 28, 2016
Rick Wilson, California Geological Survey ― Addressing California’s Tsunami Hazard
October 26, 2016
Dr. Brian Collins, U.S. Geological Survey ― Processes of exfoliation-induced rock falls: recent studies from California’s Sierra Nevada
November 16, 2016
Dr. Julia Sigwart, UC Museum of Paleontology ― Two Miles Underwater: A Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
January 25, 2017
Rick Wilson, California Geological Survey ― Addressing California’s Tsunami Hazard
February 22, 2017
Tom Williams. Williams GeoAdventures ― The Geology and Landscapes of Iceland
March 29, 2017
Dr. Kim Blisniuk, San Jose State University ― Tectonic Geomorphology of San Andreas Fault in Southern CA
April 26, 2017
Dr. Mark Richards, UC Berkeley ― Triggering of the Largest Deccan Eruptions by the Chicxulub Impact, or What Really Killed the Dinosaurs
May 31, 2017
Dr. Greg Stock, National Park Service ― The Rise and Fall of Sierra Nevada Glaciers
June 28, 2017
Dr. Matthew J. James, Sonoma State University ― Collecting Evolution: The Galápagos Expedition that Vindicated Darwin
September 27, 2017
Dr. Slawomir M. Tulaczyk, UC Santa Cruz ― Glaciology and Recent Behavior of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
October 25, 2017
Megan Nguyen, UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences ― UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences –Research Summary
November 29, 2017
Dr. Marjorie Schulz, U.S. Geological Survey ― Marine Terraces of California: Landscapes from the Waves
January 31, 2018
Dr. Kurtis Burmeister, University of the Pacific ― Welcome to Jurassic Arc: Resolving the Pre-Batholith History of the Sierra Nevada
February 28, 2018
Dr. John G. Parrish, CA State Geologist ― The End of the ‘Permanent’ Drought
March 28, 2018
Dr. Tom MacKinnon ― Early Accretionary History of the Franciscan Complex as Inferred from the Yolla Bolly/Black Butte Area of the Eastern Belt
April 25, 2018
Dr. Andrew Gunther ― Talking Climate Change
May 30, 2018
Dr. Isabel Montañez, UC Davis and Geological Society of America ― Reconstructing Precipitation Patterns in California during Warmings and Coolings of the Last 20,000 Years
June 27, 2018
Dr. Suzanne Hecker, Earthquake Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey ― The Rodgers Creek Fault, Sonoma County: What Recent Advances in Mapping Reveal about Its Contribution to Bay Area Earthquake Hazards
September 26, 2018
Dr. Artie Rodgers, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory ― High-Performance Computing Ground Motion Simulations of Large, Damaging Hayward Fault Scenario and Moderate Earthquakes in the USGS 3D Model of the San Francisco Bay Area
October 31, 2018
Dr. Cristina M. Robins, UC Museum of Paleontology ― Calaveras: The Most Significant Fossil Find in the Bay Area in Decades
November 28, 2018
Dr. Stephen Self, UC Berkeley ― Anticipating Future Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) 7 Eruptions and their Chilling Impacts
January 30, 2019
Dr. William Motzer, Consultant ― The Gold Rush and Its Impact to the San Francisco Bay Area
February 27, 2019
Dr. Paul Renne, Berkeley Geochronology Center ― Flood Basalts and Mass Extinctions: The Cretaceous/Paleogene Perspective
March 27, 2019
Dr. Sara Kelly Mcbride, U.S. Geological Survey ― When Science Meets Emergency Management — And Back Again: The M7.8 Kaikōura Earthquake Case Study
April 24, 2019
Dr. Owen Anfinson, Sonoma State University ― To See the World in a Grain of Sand: Utilizing Detrital Heavy Minerals to Reconstruct California’s Sedimentary History
May 29, 2019
Dr. Tanya Atwater, UC Santa Barbara (emerita) ― The Wonderful, Frenetic Years of the Plate Tectonic Revolution: How It Was to Be in the Middle of It
June 26, 2019
Dr. Jonathan Lilien, Chevron ― Environmental Aspects of Oil & Gas Production in California
September 25, 2019
Dr. Douglas Dreger, UC Berkeley ― Exotic Seismic Sources: Nuclear Explosions, Mining Events, Volcanic and Geothermal Seismicity, and a Landslide
October 30, 2019
Dr. Russell Graymer, U.S. Geological Survey ― Geologic and Geophysical Framework of Mount Diablo
November 20, 2019
Dr. David P. Schwartz, U.S. Geological Survey ― Earthquakes of the East Bay
January 29, 2020
Dr. Jeff Unruh, Lettis Consultants International ― Deformation of the Ancestral California Forearc during Late Cretaceous-Early Tertiary Blueschist Exhumation, Mt. Diablo Region
February 26, 2020
Dr. Donald Medwedeff, Independent Research Geologist ― Tectonic Setting and Structural Analysis of Mt. Diablo and Vicinity