I’ve just returned to Charlotte after spending a few days in Baltimore, Maryland attending the combined Northeastern and Southeastern Section Meetings of the Geological Society of America. It was a really good conference, with lots of cool science, good people, and a fun setting.
I tried to tweet some highlights of the conference as I went, but for those of you not following me (@highlyanne) on Twitter, I’ve attempted to reassemble the conference based on my 140 character soundbites. Note that the unofficial conference hashtag (a way of following topics on Twitter) was #geoBAL, so I incorporated that into most of my messages. There wasn’t a lot of users of the hashtag, but I did get sneak peeks into some of the other sessions. Below the fold, you can get a sneak peek into my conference experiences, both scientific and touristy.
Saturday March 13th: Arrival and Opening Reception
- Fun day in Baltimore with friends both geological and not. Tomorrow I’m ready to hit the ground running at #geoBAL.
Sunday March 14th: Conference Day 1
- About to hear @callanbentley talk about state of geoblogosphere in 2010 at #geoBAL.
- Big influx of people for @callanbentley geoblog talk. Probably 40 people in room. Shoutouts to various geoblogs. Stratigraphy.net #geoBAL.
- Geoblog authors Survey data: >3/4 male, mostly 20-40 years old, average posting rate 0.37 per day.
- Hydrogeology is an underserved topic on geoblogs. [Non-tweeted note: This was based on survey responses about how much geobloggers liked to read about hydrogeology versus how much they liked to write about it. It was (oddly) not that high on either list, but I’ll see the glass as half-full.]
- Wordle (word cloud) as a quick way to display open-ended responses. Cool!
- Green Gabbro is the Edicarean fauna of the geoblogosphere. Cambrian explosion in 2006/2007
- Extinction now: example loss of @stressrelated blog. Is Twitter the future?
- Wondering how @callanbentley survey results would differ if readers surveyed not just authors?
- Baltimore has orders of magnitude more old buildings than Charlotte http://twitpic.com/18l9gu
- Might have just blown off #geoBAL talks to watch part of St Pat’s day parade. More pics to follow: http://twitpic.com/18lgxf
- More St Pats Day at #geoBAL http://twitpic.com/18lhfu
- Irish bagpipe band at #geoBAL http://twitpic.com/18lhvy
- Parade still on outside but I am off to learn about landscape evolution in the southern Appalachians.
- Does the Blue Ridge escarpment retreat in punctuated fashion because of stream capture? Gravels/DEMs suggest it does.
- After 1st day at #geoBAL, took my awesome students to dinner. Good food, good convo, and what a view! http://twitpic.com/18nosb
- Have just put finishing touches on my talk for tomorrow’s #geoBAL. Yes, I missed deadline for uploading to speaker ready. Worth it. [10:07 pm]
Monday March 15th: Conference Day 2
- Today is the big hydrogeology day at #geoBAL.
- [I gave a talk in the “Hydrogeology of Wetlands and Watershed Processes.” session on “Hydrogeomorphic controls on the expression of stream water in less than 1 km2 Piedmont watersheds” with data collected by the above-referenced awesome grad students.]
- Jean Bahr, hydrogeologist and @geosociety president is in the room for #geoBAL session on hydrogeology of wetlands & watershed processes.
- Just heard a talk where >4K well completion and water quality reports scanned, databased, and GISed. What a labor!
- Standing in front of the one paleomagnetism poster at #geoBAL. Thanks to @Allochthonous [co-blogger Chris Rowan] I understand some of the words on it. 🙂
- Ha! Not only have I rocked science all day long, but now I’ve got some grading done (1 paper). Time for the #geoBAL banquet.
- I’m at the #geoBAL banquet, having dinner w Jack Sharp, hydrogeologist and past @geosociety president.
- Jack Sharp…Jean Bahr… Hydrogeologists in power. I like this @geosociety. 🙂
- Official #geoBAL tally: >1600 attendees and 871 abstracts. This has been a fantastic size for a meeting. Intimate, but not at all sparse.
- 5 minutes into his talk, Bruce Marsh has the #geoBAL audience spellbound with his tales of geologic exploration of Antarctica.
- Matthew Henson, went to North Pole w Peary, an African-American from Baltimore
- Amundsen had successfully gone through northwest AND northeast passage before Antarctica.
- Bruce Marsh: Amundsen and “Norwegians come out of the womb with skis on” Scott had to hire a Norwegian ski instructor.
- Following Shackleton’s lead, Scott brought Siberian ponies for race to s pole. They had to make snowshoes for them!
- Scott got to pole, found Amundsen’s flag, tent, letter to Scott & 1 to King of Norway! Amundsen left mittens, sextant etc for Scott
- Audience is still spellbound by Marsh’s stories. We’ve heard Amundsen’s success, Scott’s tragedy, Shackleton’s endurance. [one hour into talk]
- Must learn more about Shackleton’s forgotten men at McMurdo. 2 recent books.
- Bruce Marsh: Antarctic peninsula (where cruise ships go), is the Miami of Antarctica
- Marsh: “Dry Valleys = 100% exposure. No poison ivy. No shopping malls!” Appreciative laughter from audience.
- Moving Dry Valleys up on my checklist tourism list. Holy geology, batman! 300 m thick sills, outburst floods, sublimating glaciers
- Sign of a good conference? I’m falling-down tired, yet exhilarated heading into the final day.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010: Conference Day 3 and Goodbye Baltimore
- Fascinating #geoBAL talk by Jack Sharp about volcanogenic karstification in Mexico. A whole new side to gw in volcanic terrains!
- I can hear bagpipes outside of my hotel window again. Feel like I’m in Scotland, not at #geoBAL
- [Spent afternoon browsing the Quaternary geology student posters. Hadn’t ever really thought much about deglaciation alluvial fans in the Northeast. Cool stuff.]
- Goodbye Baltimore. It was fun and I’m sure we’ll hang out again sometime. #geoBAL http://twitpic.com/18zahy
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