Date: Wednesday, January 6, 2016 — Friday, January 8, 2016
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Web: http://www.tcd.ie/Geology/vmsg2016/index.php
Includes the following session:
LIPs, rifting and element cycling in the mantle
Chairs: Mike Widdowson (m.widdowson@hull.ac.uk), Sally Gibson (sally@esc.cam.ac.uk), Emma Tomlinson (tomlinse@tcd.ie)
This session will investigate the genesis of the wide variety of primitive magmas that are found in intraplate settings, LIPs, rifts and ocean basins. In addition to petrological studies and emplacement histories, we also invite contributions that attempt to decipher the chemistry and isotope composition and heterogeneity of the mantle and their information on long-term element cycling in the silicate Earth.
Date: Monday, March 21, 2016 — Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Location: Albany, New York, USA
Web: http://www.geosociety.org/Sections/ne/2016mtg/index.htm
Includes the following symposium:
S1. Applications of geochemistry and geochronology to understanding tectonic processes: in honor of Raymond A Coish
Convenors: David West (dwest@middlebury.edu), Peter Ryan (pryan@middlebury.edu), Jonathan Kim (jon.kim@state.vt.us)
This session honors the career of Ray Coish and welcomes contributions focused on understanding tectonics through the lens of geochemistry and geochronology. Submissions might include the use of igneous and metamorphic rock geochemistry, igneous and metamorphic mineral chemistry, and geochronology as applied toward understanding tectonic processes and unraveling tectonic histories.
Date: Monday, March 21, 2016 — Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Web: http://www.geosociety.org/Sections/sc/2016mtg/index.htm
Includes the following workshop:
W2. Geologic studies of the 3.5-3.2 Ga Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa
Leader: Gary Byerly (glbyer@lsu.edu)
This course will use rock samples, thin sections, field photos, and geologic maps to provide context for the evolution of this important sequence from the early Archean. Komatiites will be examined in detail, because they are only rarely found in younger rock sequences. Rock and mineral chemistry, including REE and PGE, will be examined. Dacites form the other end-member of the volcanic series, and again rock and mineral chemistry, will be examined along with U/Pb and Lu/Hf isotopic data used to determine the ages of these old rocks. This sequence includes eight layers that result from large asteroidal impacts, and we will examine some of the materials from these layers. A broad spectrum of sedimentary rocks will conclude the workshop, including well preserved sandstones, volcaniclastics, barites, banded iron formation, stromatolites, and carbonaceous cherts with microfossils.
Date: Monday, April 4, 2016 — Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Location: Ontario, California, USA
Web: http://www.geosociety.org/Sections/cord/2016mtg/index.htm
Includes the following session:
T6. Integrated volcanic systems: coupling and feedbacks between volcanic, sedimentary, geomorphic, climatic, and environmental processes
Convenors: Benjamin Murphy (murphybe@onid.oregonstate.edu), Nicole More (mooreni@geo.oregonstate.edu)
Volcanism profoundly impacts surficial non-magmatic processes. As these are intricately coupled with volcanic activity, analysis of the sedimentary, geomorphic, environmental, and volcanic features of ancient and modern magmatic systems is crucial in fully understanding volcanism. We invite abstracts that examine the relationships between these diverse yet integrally linked processes.
Date: Sunday, April 17, 2016 — Friday, April 22, 2016
Location: Vienna, Austria
Includes the following session:
SSP2.9/GMPV1.7 Mass extinctions, volcanism, impacts, and catastrophic environmental changes: observations and processes
Convenors: Sverre Planke (planke@vbpr.no), Thierry Adatte (thierry.adatte@unil.ch), Eric Font (font_eric@hotmail.com), Andrea Marzoli (andrea.marzoli@unipd.it)
This session will investigate how massive volcanism and meteorite impacts may have caused mass extinctions and global environmental crises. We hope to bring together researchers across the geological, geophysical, and biological disciplines to present new and exciting research. The session will focus on the four main Mesozoic and Cenozoic crises (end-Permian, end-Triassic, end-Cretaceous, and the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM)), but contributions from theoretical studies or from other environmental crises are also welcome.
Date: Monday, April 18, 2016 — Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Location: Champaign, Illinois, USA
Web: http://www.geosociety.org/Sections/nc/2016mtg/index.htm
Includes the following session:
T31. Magmatic processes of the Midwestern Proterozoic: Mid-Continent Rift to St. Francois Mountains
Convenor: Craig Lundstrom (lundstro@uiuc.edu)
While out stable platform location now leads to little igneous activity, the Proterozoic provided a great deal of magmatism, which emplaced large amounts of basaltic to rhyolitic magmas. This session solicits contributions related to igneous petrology of the Midcontinent Rift and Granite-Rhyolite Province. Observations, experiments, and numerical models of petrogenesis are welcomed.
Date: Thursday, May 5, 2016 — Friday, May 6, 2016
Location: Duluth, Minnesota, USA
Web: http://lakesuperiorgeology.org/Duluth2016/index.html
Date: Wednesday, May 18, 2016 — Thursday, May 19, 2016
Location: Moscow, Idaho, USA
Web: http://www.geosociety.org/Sections/rm/2016mtg/index.htm
Includes the following sessions:
12. Geologic setting and hydrogeology of the Columbia River Basalt Group and the Snake River Plain
Convenors: Attila Folnagy (afolnagy@mt.gov), Tom Wood (twood@uidaho.edu)
Includes the following fieldtrips:
The Columbia River Basalt Group of Western Idaho and Eastern Washington - Dikes, Vents, Flows, and Tectonics along the Eastern Margin of the Flood Basalt Province
Date: 16-17 May
Leaders: Stephen Reidel (sreidel@tricity.wsu.edu), Victor Camp (vcamp@mail.sdsu.edu), Barton Martin (bsmartin@owu.edu), Terry Tolan (ttolan@intera.com), John Wolff (jawolff@wsu.edu)
The Columbia River flood basalt province is the youngest and smallest 'Large Igneous Province' yet it is one of the most studied and best understood. Participants will have an opportunity to examine features along the eastern margin of the province that provide excellent examples of typical lava flows, dikes and vents, and tectonic features.
Geology of the Wallowa Terrane in the Northern Parts of Hell Canyon
Date: 17 May
Leaders: Tracy Vallier (tvallier@usgs.gov), Keegan Schmidt (klschmidt@lcsc.edu), Todd LaMaskin (lamaskint@uncw.edu)
Much of the Paleozoic-Mesozoic exotic island arc complex represented by the Wallowa terrane is covered by extensive Cenozoic volcanics and sediments in the Blue Mountains and Columbia Plateau of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Locations in which these basement rocks are visible are limited, and one of the most impressive continuous exposures occurs in the walls of Hells Canyon. This trip will explore the anatomy of the Wallowa island arc by jet boat including its plutonic basement, extensive volcanic sequences, and capping sedimentary rocks, along with faults and Columbia River basalt exposures within, “North America’s deepest gorge.”
Miocene to Pleistocene Volcanism of the Yellowknife Hotspot: Western and Central Snake River Plain
Date: 20-23 May
Leaders: Scott Boroughs (scott.boroughs@wsu.edu), Bill Bonnichsen, Martha Godchaux, John Wolff (jawolff@wsu.edu)
The Snake River Plain is a classic province of bimodal intraplate volcanism, along the track of the Yellowstone hotspot, that has been intensely studied in recent years. This trip will examine trademark high-temperature rhyolites, both densely welded lava-like ignimbrites and large-volume lava flows, associated basaltic lavas and tuffs, and features arising from the interaction of basalt and rhyolite lavas with Miocene–Pliocene Lake Idaho.
Date: Sunday, May 22, 2016 — Thursday, May 26, 2016
Location: Makuhari Messe, Japan
Web: http://www.jpgu.org/meeting_e2016/index.htm
Includes the following session:
S-IT10 Do plumes exist?
Convenors: Hidehisa Mashima (hisa.mashima@mbn.nifty.edu), Gillian Foulger (g.r.foulger@durham.ac.uk), Dapeng Zhao (zhao@aob.gp.tohoku.ac.jp)
The debate regarding whether anomalous volcanic areas on Earth's surface are fed by deep-mantle plumes is widely considered to be the most significant debate currently ongoing in Earth science. Not only does the debate touch on a fundamental aspect of how Earth works dynamically, but the subject is extraordinarily cross-disciplinary to an extent that probably few scientists fully realize. Sub-disciplines that can contribute to efforts to resolve the debate include sedimentology, palaeontology, tectonophysics, geochronology, volcanology, petrology, geochemistry, geothermal research, seismology, geodesy, electromagnetics and many others.
In addition to the disciplines of Earth science, the plume debate provides a remarkable and thought-provoking subject for scientific philosophy and reflections on correct scientific methodology: (1) What exactly is a plume? People often change their definition of a plume a posteriori in order to fit their observations. (2) How can the plume- or the plate hypothesis be falsified? (3) Do Earth scientists tend to present only one possible interpretation of their data, or do papers reflect all possible interpretations? Unfortunately, the former is often the case. (4) Are published interpretations consistent with other data from the subject field area? Often they are not, and the inconsistencies are not sufficiently highlighted nor discussed. These issues are particularly useful for inducting students into correct scientific working. In summary, the debate provides enormously fertile ground for new, fundamental questions and cross-disciplinary research.
This session welcomes studies of melting anomalies on Earth from the point of view of any sub-discipline. We also welcomes studies of geological phenomena which are attributed to mantle plumes, such as back-arc extension, plate motion, sedimentary basin formation and lithospheric uplift, and any other work that bears on this fascinating and challenging geological debate.
Date: Wednesday, June 1, 2016 — Friday, June 3, 2016
Location: Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada
Web: http://whitehorse2016.ca/
Includes the following session:
Northwest Laurentia's neighbor in Proterozoic supercontinents: cratonic identifications and their geodynamic implications
Convenors: Bruce Eglington (bruce.eglington@usask.ca), David Evans (david.evans@yale.edu), Zheng-Xiang Li (z.li@exchange.curtin.edu.au)
Recent paleogeographic models for both Nuna (ca. 1600-1300 Ma) and Rodinia (ca. 900-700 Ma) invoke ancient tectonic connections between NW Laurentia and eastern Australia, possibly with various cratons of eastern Asia (South China, North China, Tarim, Siberia) in between or nearby. The tectonostratigraphic and paleomagnetic records of all of these continental blocks must be scrutinized to test whether any of the proposed models has validity, for either time interval. If they are even approximately correct, then a general geodynamic pattern of supercontinental “introversion” is suggested. As part of International Geoscience Programme (IGCP) Project 648, “Supercontinent Cycles and Global Geodynamics,” this session aims to bring both geologists and geophysicists together to discuss recent advances in Proterozoic supercontinent research, at both regional and global scales.
Date: Sunday, June 26, 2016 — Friday, July 1, 2016
Location: Yokohama, Japan
Web: http://goldschmidt.info/2016/index
Includes the following sessions:
05d Large Igneous Provinces Through Time: Their Origin and Economic/Environmental Impacts
Convenors: Yigang Xu (yigang.xu@gig.ac.cn), Ian Campbell (ian.campbell@anu.edu.au), Richard Ernst (richard.ernst@ernstgeosciences.com), Christina Yan Wang (wangyan2002@graduate.hku.hk)
Large igneous provinces (LIPs) consist of enormous, rapid outpourings of magmas at the surface, and/or layered mafic and ultramafic intrusions within the crust that may host important mineral deposits. LIPs involve the transfer of large amounts of heat and mass from Earth’s interior to its surface, and this can have a profound impact of Earth evolution. LIP processes include the release variable amounts of greenhouse gases and/or toxic volatiles into the atmosphere that may cause harmful damage to the biosphere, which can lead to mass extinctions. Significant progress has been made with respect to our understanding of LIP genesis and evolution, but important questions remain. This session welcomes multidisciplinary contributions to our understanding of the nature and evolution of LIPs through time including, but not limited to, magmatic processes, the origin of associated mineral deposits, volatile speciation and emission budgets, and the environmental impact of LIPs, including mass extinctions. The aim of the session is to provide better insights into mantle-lithosphere-atmosphere-biosphere interactions.
09b Links between Large Igneous Province Events and Metallogeny
Convenors: Simon Jowitt (simon.jowitt@monash.edu), Richard Ernst (richard.ernst@ernstgeosciences.com)
Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) have been genetically linked with a wide variety of differing types of mineralisation, including the genesis of magmatic, hydrothermal and sedimentary deposits. In many cases carbonatites and kimberlites and their associated ore deposits are also associated with LIPs. World-class mineralised provinces related to LIPs, include the Noril'sk-Talnakh deposits associated with the Siberian Trap LIP, the Olympic Dam IOCG deposit with the Gawler Craton LIP, and the Guinea bauxite deposits with weathering of rocks of the CAMP LIP. Increasing our understanding of the fundamental links between LIP magmatism and the post-magmatic processes that affect LIP rocks is vital to not only ensure success in future mineral exploration but also to understand the impact of these processes on the wider environment (e.g. the impact of potentially mineralised LIP-related hydrothermal vent complexes on the atmosphere), especially given the known links between LIPs and extinction events. The links between LIP events and metallogeny represent significant but under-investigated geochemical systems that are deserving of further research. As such, we invite submissions from researchers working on any aspect of LIP-related metallogenesis, including orthomagmatic systems, hydrothermal systems, ore deposits associated with carbonatites and kimberites, and the weathering of LIP rocks, as well as from the wider LIP community. The aim of this session is to further our knowledge of geochemical cycling associated with LIP events, and how this geochemical cycling has changed throughout the geological record.
04g Do Basalts Accurately Sample Mantle Source Rocks? The Role of Lithologic Heterogeneity in the Sub-Oceanic Upper Mantle during Melt Generation at Ridges and Hot Spots
Convenors: Lynne Elkins (lelkins@brynmawr.edu), John Lassiter (lassiter1@jsg.utexas.edu)
Mid-ocean ridge and ocean island basalts display considerable geochemical heterogeneity. However, the degree to which variations in the isotopic and trace-element compositions of mantle-derived basalts track changes in the major element compositions and lithology of mantle source rocks is uncertain. Recent studies have called on a role for preferential melting of pyroxenite in mixed pyroxenite/peridotite mantle sources to explain geochemical variations in oceanic basalts. Isotope signatures in abyssal peridotites may further suggest the presence of ancient refractory components that are under-sampled during melt generation. However, the importance and length scales of mantle major element heterogeneities remains unclear. This session aims to explore the role of lithologic heterogeneity in the mantle during melt generation, the extent to which the melting process may generate a biased sampling of mantle sources, and the impact of such bias on estimates of mantle composition. We invite submissions that explore the nature of melt production at ridges, hotspots, and ridge-hotspot interaction settings and how those processes impact differential sampling of mantle heterogeneities over a range of length scales. Studies examining the origins of petrologic and geochemical variations in mantle xenoliths and abyssal mantle rocks, the nature of elemental and isotopic compositions of oceanic basalts, results of empirical analysis, or geochemical modeling outcomes are all welcome.
Date: Thursday, August 18, 2016 — Saturday, August 20, 2016
Location: Beijing, China
Web: http://idc7.csp.escience.cn/dct/page/1
Conference committee contact: Richard Ernst (richard.ernst@ernstgeosciences.com), Peng Peng(pengpengwj@mail.iggcas.ac.cn)
Likely topics:
Date: Saturday, August 27, 2016 — Sunday, September 4, 2016
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Web: http://www.35igc.org/Themes
Includes the following themes:
Mineral Deposits and Ore Forming Processes
Champions: Anthony Williams-Jones (anthony.williams-jones@mcgill.ca), Yasushi Watanabe y-watanabe@gipc.akita-u.ac.jp), Michael Meyer (m.meyer@rwth-aachen.de), Jamie Wilkinson (j.wilkinson@nhm.ac.uk), Nick Arndt (nicholas.arndt@ujf-grenoble.fr)
The concentration of metals in the Earth’s crust is a complex and diverse process. The recognition of such processes and their distribution in space and time is fundamental to sustainable global resource management. This theme presents an opportunity to provide updates on the understanding of ore genesis and its importance to the search for new mineral resources.
The Hadean and Archaean Earth
Champions: Axel Hofmann (ahofmann@uj.ac.za), Alfred Kroner (kroener@uni-mainz.de), Christoph Heubeck (christoph.heubeck@uni-jena.de), Martin Van Kranendonk (martin.vankranendonk@unsw.edu.au)
For the first half of its existence the Earth was a very different planet - the Hadean and Archaean Eons were typified by geological and atmospheric processes quite different to those prevailing today. This theme will cover all aspects of the Earth's geological evolution up to 2.5 Ga.
The Proterozoic Earth
Champions: Nic Beukes (nbeukes@uj.ac.za), Paul Hoffman (paulfhoffman@gmail.com)
The Proterozoic Eon was initiated and terminated by catastrophic global events and spans 2 000 million years, about which very little is known. Any presentation that contributes to the understanding of geological evolution during this vast time span is invited for this theme.
Magmatism - Settings, Compositions and Processes
Champion: Julian Pearce (pearceja@cf.ac.uk)
The formation and intrusion of magma is a fundamental and ongoing process in the lithosphere. Papers and symposia on the processes of magma formation, the controls on magma compositions, the geological settings of magmatic activity, and the processes by which magmas evolve on cooling are invited for this theme.
Date: Sunday, September 25, 2016 — Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Web: http://community.geosociety.org/gsa2016/home
Includes the following sessions:
T65. Precambrian evolution and mineral resources of the Midcontinent Rift region: in honor of William J. Hinze
Convenors: Benjamin Drenth (bdrenth@usgs.gov), Joyashish Thakurta (joyashish.thakurta@wmich.edu), William Cannon (wcannon@usgs.gov)
T145. Volcanism, mass extinctions, and environmental change
Convenors: Thierry Adatte (thierry.adatte@unil.ch), Stephen Grasby (steve.grasby@canada.ca), Gerta Keller (gkeller@princeton.edu), Blair Schoene (bschoene@princeton.edu), David Bond (d.bond@hull.ac.uk)
T166. Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) in the solar system
Convenors: Tracy Gregg (tgregg@buffalo.edu), Richard Ernst (richard.ernst@ernstgeosciences.com)
Date: Monday, December 12, 2016 — Friday, December 16, 2016
Web: https://fallmeeting.agu.org/2016/
Includes the following sessions:
V018. Mass extinction events: from above or below
Convenors: Michael Rampino (mrr1@nyu.edu), Ken Caldeira (kcaldeira@standford.edu)
Two kinds of catastrophic events—large-body impact and flood-basalt volcanism—have been suggested as the cause of mass extinctions. It has also been proposed that these events show periodic patterns. Flood basalt eruptions have been further linked to Oceanic Anoxic Events, as a proximate cause of the extinctions. In this session, we will explore these potential connections. The subject of the session is very topical, as mass extinctions, flood basalts and impacts are all “hot button” issues. Correlation among them would suggest that extreme physical changes in the environment are required to produce extinctions. We would pursue abstracts that address the nature of these correlations and patterns, as well as studies on the environmental effects of impacts and flood basalts.
V024. Quaternary and Neogene hotspot volcanism on the Cretaceous Kerguelen Plateau, Southern Indian Ocean: nature and potential environmental impact
Convenors: Millard Coffin (mike.coffin@utas.edu.au), Robert Duncan (rduncan@coas.oregonstate.edu)
The Kerguelen Plateau, a large igneous province (LIP) of predominantly Cretaceous age in the southern Indian Ocean, has experienced widespread Quaternary and Neogene hotspot volcanism. Loci of this younger magmatism include not only the Kerguelen Isles, Heard Island, the McDonald Islands, and the seafloor surrounding these islands, but also broad areas elsewhere on the Central Kerguelen Plateau. Recent data and samples acquired from the seafloor, islands, and water column are illuminating the origin, age, and distribution of the Quaternary and Neogene hotspot volcanism as well as its role in supplying iron to the anemic Southern Ocean. Phytoplankton, which produce approximately half of the oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere, require iron to metabolize and bloom. This multidisciplinary session aims to foster better understanding of young hotspot volcanism in the Southern Ocean and its potential role in supplying iron to surface waters where it nourishes phytoplankton.
V028. The ins and outs of flood basalts
Convenors: Wendy Bohrson (bohrson@geology.cwu.edu), Anita Grunder (grundera@geo.oregonstate.edu)
Flood Basalts are catastrophic, voluminous magmatic events that punctuate Earth History. We invite papers that address a range of questions that contribute to an integrated view of flood basalt magmatism from eruption dynamics to mantle source characteristics. What volcanic processes distinguish flood basalts? How do the erupted products change with time, and what is the character of the feeder systems? What is the duration of magmatism? What is the role of crustal modulation, including the location and size of magma reservoirs? What is the balance between crustal (e.g., assimilation, crystal accumulation) and mantle input, and does this balance change with time? What mantle sources are involved, and what distinguishing characteristics allow these source contributions to be resolved? Studies that document the petrological, geochemical, geochronological, volcanological and geophysical attributes of flood basalts and associated crust and mantle are encouraged, to ultimately assemble a temporal and spatial synthesis of these extraordinary events.