NM Tech Geoscientists Present Research at GSA Annual Meeting

by George Zamora

DENVER, Oct. 26, 2007 – Several New Mexico Tech geoscientists are in Denver this weekend and early next week, not to take in a World Series game, but to present talks and posters about their current research at the 119th annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA), which is being held October 27-31 at the Colorado Convention Center.

Approximately 6,300 geoscientists from throughout the world are expected to attend this year’s conference. In all, 19 New Mexico Tech professors, researchers, and graduate students will give 20 scientific presentations at the annual convention.

The New Mexico Tech geoscientists scheduled to make presentations at the GSA meeting in Denver (preceded by the title of their presentations) are:

• “Episodic Granitic Magmatism in Space and Time: Constraints from Igneous and Detrital Zircon Age Spectra” presented by Kent C. Condie;
  
• “110 Years of Research in the Salinization of the Rio Grande” presented by Fred M. Phillips;
  
• “Influence of Depositional Environment on Covariation of Oxygen and Carbon Isotopes in Marine Dolomite Cements” presented by Peter S. Mozley;
  
• “Speleogenetic Evolution from Rising to Descending Fluids: Gypsum Karst of Southeastern New Mexico and Far West Texas” presented by Kevin W. Stafford;
  
• “Hydrothermal Circulation in Subducting Crust Reduces Subduction Zone Temperatures” presented by Glenn A. Spinelli;
  
• “On Earth, Caves are Wet; On Mars, Caves are . . .?” presented by Penelope J. Boston;
  
• “Field Evaluation of Surfactant-Modified Zeolite System for Removal of Organics from Produced Water” presented by Robert S. Bowman;
  
• “A Geomicrobiological and Geochemical Analysis of the Biogenicity of Moonmilk Cave Formations: Potential as Biosignatures” presented by Megan D. Curry;
  
• “Cenozoic Extension across the Western Rio Grande Rift Margin in the Northern Jemez Mountains and Adjoining Colorado Plateau, North-Central New Mexico” and “Exhumation History of the Colorado Plateau” presented by Shari A. Kelley;
  
• “Modeling Impact-Induced Subsurface Cavity Formation on Mars: Astrobiological and Geological Implications” presented by Erin K. Kay;
  
• “Tectonic Evolution of the Española Basin, Rio Grande Rift, North-Central New Mexico” presented by Daniel J. Koning;
  
  “Characterization of Nonequilibrium Sorption of Produced-Water Components by Surfactant-Modified Zeolite” presented by Joshua A. Simpson;
  
• “Late Mesoproterozoic Basin Formation and Deformation of the Unkar Group of Grand Canyon, Arizona: New Insights from Intracratonic Greenville-Age Deposits” presented by Michael J. Timmons;
  
• “K-Feldspar 40Ar/39Ar Thermochronology of Western U.S.A. Precambrian Lithosphere: Improved Understanding of Systematics Toward More Accurate Geological Models” presented by Matthew T. Heizler;
  
• “Mantle Structure of the Colorado Plateau and Its Margins Revealed by La Ristra” presented by Richard C. Aster;
• “Evolution of Hydrologic Science: The New Mexico Tech Example” presented by John L. Wilson;
  
• “Timing of Exhumation, Deformation, and Fluid-Flow Preserved in Microtexturally Complex K-Feldspar, Sangre de Cristo Range, New Mexico” presented by Robert E. Sanders;
  
• “Hydrothermal Alteration and Mineralization Associated with a Copper-Molybdenum Porphyry System, Webster Pass Area, Park and Summit Counties, Colorado” presented by Josh C. Crook; and,
  
• “Using Exploration-Stage Mineralogy and Geochemistry to Anticipate Environmental Consequences of Mining” presented by William X. Chavez, Jr.

-NMT-