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A Special Message From Scott Burns, President, IAEG
Welcome to our 11th IAEG Connector! In this issue, we are putting the spotlight on another IAEG officer and another keynote speaker.
I would like to introduce Mark Eggers who has been our Vice President for Australasia for the past 3.5 years. He is a principal and director with the company Pells Sullivan Meynink (PSM) based in Sydney, Australia. He has been a leader on the IAEG Executive Committee working with the organization's vision statement, aims and objectives and where we are going. He has done an excellent job in that area plus being an active member of the Executive Committee!
Another keynote speaker is Professor Kerry Sieh who is the director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore which is part of the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore. He is a specialist in geo-hazards, especially paleo-seismology. He will also be receiving the highest award given by AEG at this conference, its Honorary Member Award.
An update on the upcoming congress in San Francisco: We now have registrants from over 44 countries around the world! Over 650 people have registered for the meeting so far. We have used up 72% of the room block at the Hyatt Regency so far, so we need just a few more people to secure rooms so we can hit 80% of the room block, at which point our meeting rooms are free. We encourage people to sign up for rooms soon. We have five and a half weeks before the congress starts. I am getting very excited as things are beginning to fall into place!
Prof. Scott Burns, President, IAEG
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Mark Eggers – IAEG Vice President for Australasia
Mark is a Principal and Director at Pells Sullivan Meynink (PSM), which is a geotechnical consultancy based in Sydney, Australia. In his consulting work, Mark specialises in engineering geological studies and geotechnical models for large civil and mining engineering projects with a particular emphasis in rock engineering, landslides and terrain evaluation. With over 30 years of experience, Mark has worked on projects throughout Australia and in overseas locations such as New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Africa and South America.
In 2012, Mark was awarded an Erskine Fellowship and has been appointed an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand where he assists with lectures and is active in research on rock engineering projects. He leads teaching of the Geotechnical Models course within the geotechnical engineering post-graduate program at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. Mark is also a co-presenter of the Australian Geomechanics Society courses on Geology for Engineers and Engineering Geology. Mark has published 25 papers and was convenor of Theme 31 on Engineering Geology at the 34th International Geological Congress held in Brisbane, Australia in 2012. Mark edited selected papers from this IGC symposium which were published by The Geological Society as Engineering Geology Special Publication No. 27, "Developments in Engineering Geology."
Mark has been the IAEG VP for Australasia for the term 2015 to 2018 and is a committee member of IAEG Commission C25 on the Use of Engineering Geological Models. Along with Ann Williams from New Zealand, Mark has nominated for the role of Co-President of the IAEG for the term 2019 to 2022.
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A Meteorite Impact and a Dam Failure in Southern Laos
Kerry Sieh, director, Earth Observatory of Singapore
The Earth Observatory of Singapore began a decade ago with the mission to conduct basic geohazards research about earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, sealevel and climate change, as well as to create a new undergraduate program in Environmental Earth Systems Science at our host institution, Nanyang Technological University. We've made good progress on all this and are now a well-recognized player in earth science research and education in Southeast Asia.
The level of research and training in geohazards in Southeast Asia is at least an order of magnitude lower than it is in the West. And so we've been able to expand geohazards knowledge there at a very rapid pace. I'll briefly discuss two research examples, one primarily academic and the other mostly applied.
A few years ago, I began searching for the point of origin of an 800,000-year old field of tektites strewn over the Earth's surface between southern China and Australia. The impact crater from which these obsidian-like blobs of melted crust originated had been estimated to be at least 15 kilometers in diameter and to reside somewhere in northern Indochina. But decades of searching had failed to find it. Through the use of satellite imagery, geochronology, gravimetry and field studies, my colleagues and I believe we have discovered the site of the impact, buried beneath an extensive volcanic field just east of the Mekong River in southern Laos. In addition, we're finding that the volcanic hazard posed by the volcanic field is far higher than had been appreciated.
Coincidentally, in the course of conducting fieldwork there, we became acquainted with the construction of a very large hydroelectric-power project and were able to gain access to previously inaccessible parts of the plateau and to study some of the exposures made for construction of the project's roads, dams and conduits. Filling of the dam began in May 2017 and was nearly complete by this July. Sadly, one of the "saddle" dams, meant to allow the reservoir to be filled above saddles along the drainage basin's perimeter, failed after heavy rains on July 24, just as the reservoir was nearly full. I'll report what we've learned about this catastrophe.
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Dear IAEG members:
I have been Iceland the past two weeks leading a group of 24 around the country seeing all of the wonderful glaciers, volcanoes, geothermal areas, waterfalls, paleo floods and mid-Atlantic Ridge. I am now back in Portland.
While I was in Iceland, I met with the officers of the Iceland National Group. They have filled out the paper work and are reactivating their national group. Below is a photo of the group (from left to right: Haraldur Sigursteinsson (president), Sigurdur Erlingsson, me and Thorsteinn Saemundsson. They are sending Gunnar Bjarnason to San Francisco, and he will be at the council meeting on Sunday!
It is a great group in Iceland (very small though because the total population of the whole country is 350,000). They are putting on the European Soil Mechanics meeting next year in September!
Prof. Scott Burns, President, IAEG
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Wouldn't it be great if you could determine lithology breaks, fluid content, the direction of the updip and identify the depth and thickness of the payzone? You can. Contact us for more information. MORE
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IAEG
Save the date and register today for the must-attend International Naturally Occurring Asbestos (NOA) Symposium featuring internationally renowned NOA research and industry-focused geologists, regulators and policymakers from Italy, France, Australia, Argentina, Germany, South Korea and the United States.
LOCATION: Waterfront AB, Hyatt Regency Embarcadero, San Francisco
DATE: September 18-20, 2018
This is a rare opportunity to hear how industrialized countries from around the world are dealing with NOA issues without having to spend the time and expense to travel abroad. From the Alps to the Australian outback, to the Andes to the California Coastal Ranges
and Sierra Foothills, the issue of NOA, how it occurs, how it is identified, how it is
regulated and controlled will be explored on a global scale.
Who should attend: Geologists, Asbestos Consultants, Environmental Consultants, Certified Industrial Hygienists, Geotechnical Engineers, Risk Assessors, Testing Laboratories, Government Regulators, Epidemiologists, Toxicologists
Click here for more information, hotel reservations and to register!
IAEG
AEG — 61st AEG Annual Meeting/13th IAEG Congress
Join us for your choice of 15 presentations that explore and explain the history and operation of licensure for geologists in the USA. Learn how licensure is influencing undergraduate programs and early career decisions. Be prepared for your future in regulatory compliance practice. California Geological Survey Program Managers will provide authoritative descriptions of the Survey's three major public safety programs. Take a look at Utah's new comprehensive non-mandatory practice guidelines; some of them might work in your state. We close with three papers on political geology. Come and learn about lobbyists and how (and why) to shake hands with a legislator. The final talk reports on cooperation among the three west coast licensure boards to increase practitioner mobility.
CONVENER & MODERATOR: Robert E. Tepel
LOCATION: Waterfront AB, Hyatt Regency Embarcadero, San Francisco
DATE: Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018
31 states and Puerto Rico license geologists.
Over 75 percent of the U.S. population lives in a state that licenses geologists.
The three west coast states offer supplemental statutory certification for engineering geology practice. How does that affect you?
Undergraduate geology program accreditation is now available through ABET's Applied and Natural Science Accreditation Commission. What are the implications for licensure applicants and their boards?
The ASBOG® (National Association of State Boards of Geology) two-part examination is used by all licensing jurisdictions. How is it constructed and is the knowledge base publicly available?
Learn how (and why) to shake hands with a legislator and what lobbyists can do for you.
Click here for more information!
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IAEG
Abstract submission is now open for the 7th International Conference on Debris Flow Hazards Mitigation. Convened by the Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists, the conference will be held in Golden, Colorado, June 10-13, 2019. With the beautiful Rocky Mountains covering half the state, Colorado shares the problem of debris-flow hazards with other mountainous areas of the world. Against this backdrop, scientists, engineers and policy makers from around the world will be able to share new research and ideas in the field of debris flows. Field trips will take place both before and after those dates.
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IAEG
GeoMEast 2018 will provide a showcase for recent developments and advancements in design, construction and safety inspections of transportation infrastructures and offer a forum to discuss and debate future directions for the 21st century. Conference topics cover a broad array of contemporary issues for professionals involved in geosynthetics, geotechnical, geo-environmental, geomechanics, geosciences, geophysics, tunnel, water structures, bridge, pavement, railway and emerging techniques for safety inspections. You will have the opportunity to meet colleagues from all over the world for technical, scientific and commercial discussions.
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Eos
Evidence collected following the 2011 eruption of Japan's Shinmoedake volcano suggests that the powerful event affected the behavior of an active caldera nearby.
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Nature
Volcanoes have thwarted human efforts to shrink the ozone hole.
Industrial chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) destroy ozone in the atmosphere. Their use created the ozone "hole," a patch of the sky above Antarctica where ozone is sparse. As a result, a global treaty signed in 1987 mandated gradual cuts to the use of ozone-depleting chemicals, and developed nations ceased using CFCs by 1996, although use continued in the developing world.
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The New York Times
Blue diamonds — like the Smithsonian's famous Hope diamond — are the rarest of all and how they formed more than a billion years ago is a bit of a mystery. Now scientists think they have a glimmer of an answer.
They've long known that the blue tint comes from traces of boron in the diamond. But the element is mostly found near the Earth's surface, not deep down where diamonds are typically created.
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Live Science
Before our planet took shape billions of years ago, the sun was a hyperactive hot mess. As a young star, it erupted frequently, spewing enormous quantities of high-energy particles.
That tempestuous past was preserved in microscopic, pale-blue crystals locked in ancient meteorites, a new analysis reveals.
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University of Bristol via ScienceDaily
A new study carried out by an international team of researchers, using the chemistry of ocean sediments has highlighted a widespread picture of Atlantic circulation changes associated with rapid climate change in the past.
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University of California, Irvine via ScienceDaily
In a new study, researchers report that temperatures during droughts have been rising faster than in average climates in recent decades, and they point to concurrent changes in atmospheric water vapor as a driver of the surge.
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IAEG
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Dr. Scott Burns, President, IAEG, 503-725-3389, Email: burnss@pdx.edu
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