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2024 – Sylvia Nicovich, Mendenhall Fellow|Research Geologist, Geologic Hazards Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey
Lacustrine Paleoseismology in the Intermountain West
See all of the Colorado Scientific Society Best Paper of the Year awards since 1962.
Meetings are normally on the third Thursday of the month.
All are welcome – no admission charge
6:30 pm – Social time at in-person meetings
6:45 pm – Join Zoom meetings
7:00 pm – Meeting and Program begin. Please arrive early.
Church doors are locked, and no one will be at the door to let you in after 7:00 pm.
~ 7:45 pm – Start of second presentation, if there are two
All are welcome – no admission charge
6:30 pm – Social time begins at Golden Calvary Episcopal Church. Enter off 14th St.
6:45 pm – Join Zoom meeting, if attending remotely
7:00 PM – Meeting starts.
Please arrive early. Church doors are locked, and no one will be at the door to let you in after 7:00 pm.
In-person Meeting at Golden Calvary Episcopal Church
1320 Arapahoe St, Golden, CO 80401
Click on link to open a Google map.
Enter off 14th St., going in via the main glass doors on 14th St.
Do not enter the old church above 13th St.
Go through building following the CSS signs to the Community Rooms 1 and 2, where we meet.
The church doors must stay locked, and we will have a person to let you in at the doors off 14th st.
They want to see the presentation too, so please arrive before 7:00 pm.
There will be a phone number that you can text to be let in if you arrive late.
Parking
On street parking is available close by, west of Washington Ave in downtown Golden.
The AirGarage parking structure, which can be entered from Arapahoe St., is $3.00 for three hours.
Copies of The Geology of Boulder County by Raymond Bridge (2004) will be available for $20.
Meetings are normally on the third Thursday of the month.
All are welcome – no admission charge
In-person meetings Social time starts at 6:30
Join Zoom meetings at 6:45
Meeting and Program begin at 7:00
“No Moss” Geology Hike for CSS to North Table Mountain
Saturday, March 19, 2022, at 9:00 am</h5
Pete Modreski, CSS Newsletter Editor
We are starting a new program of short, Saturday morning geological hikes/field trips, which has been suggested as our “No Moss” trips (as in… a rolling stone gathers no moss). We are soliciting suggestions from any of you members who might like to lead such a trip! Our general plan will be for about a 2-hour hike, meeting at 9 a.m. on Saturday mornings. To start the program off, I am going to be leading the first such trip; it will be a hike up & back down the east side of North Table Mountain, at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning, March 19. You can contact me (720-205-2553, or pmodreski@aol.com) if you wish to join us. We will meet at the Tony Grampsas Sports Complex Park, located at the end of Salvia Street, off W. 44th Ave., Golden, which is between McIntyre St. and the Colorado Railroad Museum. The hike, on the Open Space trails, will take us up through the three lava flows on Table Mountain and intervening Denver Formation sediments, and our destination at the top will be the small waterfall where surface drainage collects and cascades (or more usually, trickles) over the lip of one of the lava flows. Depending on what our variable Colorado weather is like between now and then, the waterfall may be a solid mass of frozen ice (which is quite neat to see), or a trickle of water, or a mixture of the two; and the trails themselves may be either dry, muddy, or snowpacked. I hiked up to the water just a few days ago (Thursday, Mar. 3, before this weekend’s snowfall); the trails were completely dry, and the waterfall was a mass of ice, with dripping water). We’ll see what it’s like on the 19th! The hike up and down (about 600′ of elevation gain) can be done in about 2 hours, if we don’t linger too long at geologic spots; for those who might be willing to take a little longer, we can do a loop hike, coming down on a different trail (Cottonwood Canyon, on the south side of the mountain) to rejoin our starting place.
This meeting will be in-person and on Zoom. The link to Join the Zoom meeting is after the details about the in-person meeting at Berthoud Hall below.
The in-person meeting is at the Colorado School of Mines, Berthoud Hall, room 241
All are welcome – no admission charge
In-person meetings start with Social time at 6:30
Meeting and Program begin at 7:00
“Masks are no longer required in academic instructional spaces” at the Colorado School of Mines.
Colorado School of Mines, Berthoud Hall
We have most in-person meetings in Berthoud Hall, Room 241 on the Colorado School of Mines campus.
Located along 16th St. between Illinois and Maple Streets, Berthoud Hall may be entered from doors on any side of the building. Campus parking is free after 5 p.m.; you may park on Maple, Illinois, or other campus streets or in campus parking lots. Lot D, west of Elm St., is the closest. 16th St. next to the building is a pedestrian mall, closed to traffic, but Berthoud Hall has a ground level entrance with access to an elevator, off 16th St. Room 241, on the 2nd floor, is located on the west (Maple St.) side of the building.
CSS Past Presidents’ Dinner at Mount Vernon Canyon Club
CSS Past Presidents’ Dinner and presentation at the
Mount Vernon Canyon Club
24933 Clubhouse Circle, Golden, CO (on Lookout Mt.)
See map below.
Social time at 5:30 pm; Dinner at 6:00; Program starts at 7:00 pm
All members and their guests are welcome.
***
The Mount Vernon Canyon Club was formerly named the Mount Vernon Country Club. It is southwest of Lookout Mountain off of I-70.
Open Mount Vernon Canyon Club on Google maps
CSS Annual Business Meeting at Calvary Church Golden
Thursday, December 16, 2021
CSS Annual Meeting and President’s Address
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants:
Unraveling Salt Tectonics in the Eagle Basin
Bruce Trudgill, Colorado School of Mines
This meeting will be both in-person and remote.
We are meeting at Calvary Church in Golden for a potluck dinner, short annual business meeting, and our CSS President’s Address.
You can also join us via Zoom for our business meeting and the President’s Address (see below).
All are welcome – no admission charge
-
- 6:30 pm: Meet for potluck dinner at Calvary Church Golden
- 7:30 pm: CSS Annual Business meeting – 7:30 pm
- 8:00 pm: Talk by Bruce Trudgill, CSS President, about Unraveling Salt Tectonics in the Eagle Basin
Calvary Church Golden
1320 Arapahoe St, Golden, CO 80401 (Click link to open a Google map. You can look at the Calvary parking entrance from 14th Street in street view.)
- We will meet in Community Rooms 1 and 2.
- Masks are Required for All Indoor Gatherings at Calvary Church, in compliance with Jefferson County Public Health Order 21-006.
- CSS will provide soft drinks. Beer and wine are only permitted for those over 21, and a CSS member must moniter our use . Hard liquor is not permitted.
Note: Golden City Brewery is donating a pony keg for our potluck.
Parking at the Church
- The parking structure is southeast of the Church. Access the top level of the AirGarage from 14th Street,a block and a half southwest of Washington Ave.
- Park in the top level of the structure.
- Driver texts license plate to “Guest of Calvary” phone number on the sign on the structure walls (719-212-2702)
- The parking system responds with the instruction “Please get a validation code from inside and text it back”
- Driver texts back this code: csspark
- System will respond with a message “Welcome to Calvary Church! You parking is valid for ” [our event].
If this seems too complicated there is on street parking pretty close by, west of Washington Ave in downtown Golden.
Note: Access to the Church will be via the door on 14th Street (so the parking garage may be more convenient).
CSS Potluck Dinner – 6:30 pm
- Bring an main course entree, a side dish, desert, etc. to share with other CSS members. CSS Council members will provide a spiral cut ham and dinner rolls
- We will not be able to cook at the church. We should be able to warm up dishes.
- CSS will provide plates, bowls, cups, dishes, napkins and eating utensils.
Colorado Scientific Society Annual Business Meeting – 7:00 pm
The Annual Meeting includes our election of 2024 CSS officers, presentation of the Society’s Best Paper Award for 2023 Meetings, and presentation of the CSS Sliver Gavel to the incoming CSS President.
Slate of CSS Officers nominated for 2024:
President Elect: Still being selected at this time
Secretary: Patrick Sullivan, Colorado School of Mines
Treasurer: James Paces, Scientist Emeritus, US Geological Survey
Councilors for 2024-26:
??? Lesli J. Wood, Colorado School of Mines, Weimer Distinguished Chair and Professor, Geology and Geological Engineering
??? Julie A. Herrick, Geologist/Geologic Map Editor, Office of Communications and Publishing
CSS Best Paper Award
The CSS Best Paper Award for 2023 was won by Bob Anderson, Distinguished Professor, University of Colorado, Boulder for: Climate as seen through the lens of Colorado’s Glaciers.
View his presentation at: Archive of CSS Talks – November, 2023
Approval of Updates to Colorado Scientific Society Constitution and Bylaws
During 2003, a committee of Lisa Fisher, James Paces, Patrick Sullivan, and Chris Morrison made the first update to the CSS Constitution and Bylaws since 2001. These changes must be approved by a vote of the membership at the CSS Annual Business Meeting. See the 2001 and updated Constitution and Bylaws and a description of the changes at: https://coloscisoc.org/constitution-and-bylaws/
Colorado Scientific Society Annual Meeting – 7:30 pm
The Annual Meeting includes our election of 2022 CSS officers, presentation of the Society’s Best Paper Award for 2021 Meetings, and presentation of the CSS Sliver Gavel to the incoming CSS President.
Slate of CSS Officers nominated for 2022:
President Elect:
Cal Ruleman, Research Geologist, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center
Secretary:
Lisa Rae Fisher, Executive Vice President, Escalante Resources
Note: Patrick Sullivan will be working with Lisa Fisher, in order to smoothly transition to Secretary in 2023. While there is no formal designation for a “Secretary Elect”, Patrick will be acting in this capacity.
Treasurer:
James C. Paces, Scientist Emeritus, USGS, Geology and Environmental Change Science Center
Note: Don Sweetkind will aid in the transition.
Councilors for 2022-24:
Lesli J. Wood, Colorado School of Mines, Weimer Distinguished Chair and Professor, Geology and Geological Engineering
Julie A. Herrick, Geologist/Geologic Map Editor, Office of Communications and Publishing
Any additional nominations may be submitted, and votes will be taken, at the December Business Meeting, or may be mailed (emailed) to the Secretary beforehand.
CSS Best Paper Award
The CSS Best Paper Award for 2021 Meetings was won by Robert B. Smith, Distinguished Professor Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah for:
Old Faithful Anatomy and Magma from Earth’s Core Fueling The Volcanism of Yellowstone, Its Geysers and Hot Springs.
See more about his talk at: Archive of CSS Talks – March, 2021
Arbor House
In December, we met at the Arbor House, in Maple Grove Park, 14600 W. 32nd Ave., Golden (in the Applewood/Mountair area, between I-70 and McIntyre St.). This is the same location where we held our Student Night program, last September.
Arbor House on map
On the Estimation of the Capital requisite for Investment in Mining Properties, by P. H. van Diest
New Apparatus for the Estimation of Copper, by A. H. Low
Notes on Sulpho-Bismuthite, by E. LeNeve Foster
Building Stones of Colorado, by P. H. van Diest
On an Association of Rare Minerals from Utah, by W. F. Hillebrand
On Zunyite and Guitermanite, two new Minerals from Colorado, by W. F. Hillebrand
A Vein of Pyrite in California, by Pearce
A List of Specially Noteworthy Minerals of Colorado, by Whitman Cross
2023 Colorado Scientific Society Field Trips
Colorado Scientific Society 2-Day Field Trip
Touring Pikes Dome – Deformation of the Rocky Mountain Erosion Surface and Its Effects on Landscape Evolution and Drainage Reorganization across the Colorado Piedmont and Front Range
September 9-10, 2023
Ned Sterne*, Cal Ruleman**, and Bob Raynolds***
*Independent Geologist, ** United States Geological Survey, ***Denver Museum of Nature and Science
Sign up by email to nedsterne@aol.com. Be sure to tell me who will be in your group and include their email addresses.
Schedule and Accommodations
Meet at the southwest corner of the Littleton-Mineral Park and Ride at 7:30 AM on Saturday 9/9/23. If you plan on leaving your car at the P&R during the field trip there will be a charge, see: ttps://www.rtd-denver.com/rider-info/how-to-park for instructions on charges and how to pay.
We will have a potluck dinner (burgers and drinks provided) at the Sterne’s 1897 cabin in Goldfield and will spend Saturday night in the Victor/Cripple Creek area. You will need to book your own hotel accommodations in Victor or Cripple Creek, or camp at Mueller State Park (https://cpw.state.co.us/placestogo/parks/Mueller), at the Cripple Creek KOA (https://koa.com/campgrounds/cripple-creek/https://koa.com/campgrounds/cripple-creek/, or at Skaguay Reservoir SWA with State hunting or fishing license (https://cpw.state.co.us/swa/Skaguay%20Reservoir%20SWA).
Trip will end at 7:00 PM on 9/10/23 at the Littleton-Mineral Park and Ride.
Trip Summary
Since the 1870’s when Archibald R. Marvine, geologist extraordinaire with the Hayden Expedition, recognized the accordant summits of the Front Range were beveled by erosion, geologists have pondered the evolution of what we now call the Rocky Mountain Erosion Surface (RMES). The surface formed between the end of Laramide contraction at ~45Ma and the advent of extension and voluminous volcanism of the Ignimbrite Flareup that blanketed it by ~37 Ma. These events bracket a period of stasis in the trajectory of the subducting Farallon Plate relative to the overriding crust of North America, once the plate reached its easternmost excursion due to flattening of its subduction angle, and started to roll back to the west or founder.
The RMES is a surface of mostly low to moderate relief. What caused the relief and when it developed have long been debated by geologists and will be the focus of our field trip. Luminaries such as Thomas S. Lovering and Francis M. Van Tuyl explained the relief solely by erosion with the oldest of 14 surfaces preserved at high elevations and the youngest at low elevations. In contrast, illustrious pioneers such as Samuel H. Scudder, Arthur Lakes and George H. Stone recognized relief on the RMES was also due to later deformation by studying the ancestral rivers that once flowed across the it. Recent cosmogenic dating by current CSS president, Cal Ruleman, and coworkers of high-level gravels in the Clear Creek drainage thought traditionally to be Miocene indicates they are Pleistocene, which shows the importance of dating these enigmatic deposits.
During this trip we will be traversing Pikes Dome, a post-Laramide uplift that extends some 500 km from west of Pikes Peak into western Kansas. Since its initial rise in the latest Eocene, the dome diverted the southerly flows of the ancestral South Platte and Castle Rock rivers first to the east into the now extinct Hayden-Divide-Arikaree River and finally to the northeast into the current course of the South Platte River. We will also ponder the Arkansas River that flowed south through the Wet Mountain Valley during the middle to upper Eocene and was diverted east during the Oligocene between the rising Pikes Dome on the north and the Raton Dome on the south. Our discussion will be framed by a new structure map of the RMES across Colorado and parts of neighboring states compiled by past CSS president, Ned Sterne, and ongoing cosmogenic, detrital zircon and detrital sanidine dating of the various ancestral river gravels that rest on the RMES. Stops at Daniels Park and the Paints Mines will highlight the Cretaceous to Eocene Laramide synorogenic deposits predating the RMES that have been detailed by Marieke Dechesne, Kirk Johnson and past CSS presidents Peter Barkmann and Bob Raynolds.
Our travels will take us south of Denver to Jackass Hill, Daniels Park, Castle Rock, Castlewood Canyon State Park, the Paint Mines at Calhan, the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Lake George, Tarryall Creek, Divide, the Rampart Range and back to Littleton via Deckers and the South Platte River. Join us as we follow the path forged by a host of CSS past presidents who have grappled with the evolution of our Cenozoic landscape, including Matt Morgan, Vince Matthews, Emmett Evanoff, Jack Reed, Rudi Epis, Wally Hansen, Tom Steven, Glen Izett, Glenn Scott and Ogden Tweto.
Itinerary
Day 1 – Saturday 9/9/23.
Meeting Place: Meet at the southwest corner of the Littleton-Mineral Park and Ride at 7:30 AM on Saturday 9/9/23. If you plan on leaving your car at the P&R during the field trip there will be a charge, see: https://www.rtd-denver.com/rider-info/how-to-park for instructions on charges and how to pay.
Stop 1. – Jackass Hill overview (39.580641, -105.018266)
– Trip logistics and introductions
– South Platte River
– Rocky Mountain Erosion Surface and Pikes Peak
– Age of high-level gravels in Bear Creek, Clear Creek and Coal Creek drainages
– Age of the 700-meter valleys the gravels reside in?
– Age of the 300-meter incision below the gravels?
Stop 2. – Daniels Park (39.473112, -104.921683) (toilet)
– Rocky Mountain Erosion Surface and Pikes Peak
– Denver Basin Project
– Pre-RMES D1 & D2 synorogenic patterns
Stop 3. – Castle Rock (39.381653, -104.857757) (toilet)
– Rocky Mountain Erosion Surface and Pikes Peak
– Castle Rock Conglomerate
Stop 4. – Castlewood Canyon State Park (39.329797, -104.738258) (toilet)
– Castle Rock River vs. Cherry Creek
– Lunch
Stop 5. – Paint Mines Interpretive Park, Calhan (39.020488, -104.274258) (toilet)
– Castle Rock Conglomerate
– Pikes Dome axis and South Platte-Arkansas drainage divide
– Castle Rock drainage reversal
– Sand Creek valley
– Canon City lahar outcrops – Arkansas River in RMES low.
Stop 6. – Potluck dinner at Sterne’s red cabin – Ninth Street and Independence Ave., Goldfield
(38.719981, -105.124512)
Day 2 – Sunday 9/10/23.
Meeting time and place: Meet at 8:00 AM at the Lowell Thomas Museum, 298 Victor Ave., Victor, CO 80860, We will take orders for lunches in advance and they will be ready for our 8:15 AM departure from Victor.
Stop 1. Teller County Rd 112 (38.773904, -105.297695)
– Tallahassee Creek Conglomerate
Stop 2. Evergreen Station (38.821846, -105.259688) (toilet)
– Lake Florissant Lahar dam
Stop 3. Teller County Rd 1 (38.884808, -105.272848)
– Pikes Dome axis, South Platte -Arkansas drainage divide
Stop 4. Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument (38.913556, -105.285388) (toilet)
– Samuel Scudder and Arthur Lakes – Lakes’ map
– Stratigraphy and deformation of the Florissant Valley
– Lunch
Stop 5. Tarryall Road (39.069699, -105.408660)
– Tarryall Creek diversion due to deformation of its original course
– South Platte River now occupies reversed Tarryall Creek drainage
– Stream capture and/or structural deformation?
Stop 6. RT 24 and Twin Rocks Rd. (38.934680, -105.186490)
– Hayden River – Divide Gravels
– George H. Stone
Stop 7. Woodland Park Rest Area (38.994051, -105.054477) (toilet)
– rest stop
Stop 8. Rampart Range Road (38.982708, -105.016377)
– Hayden River – Divide Gravels
– Ute Pass Fault offset of the Hayden River
Stop 9. Sprucewood Inn on Rt 67 (optional)
– Beer
– Trip recap
Stop 10. Littleton Mineral Station
– 7:00 pm end of trip!
