2023 Joint Southeastern & Northeastern Section Meeting

17–19 March 2023

Reston, Virginia, USA
Hyatt Regency Reston

Meeting Program
Program PDF
Events Code of Conduct

Field Trips

Trip registration opens in December. For additional information, please contact the field trip co-chairs: Jean M. Self-Trail, jstrail@usgs.gov, and Laurel M. Bybell, lbybell@usgs.gov.

Pre-Meeting

FT1. Geology and the Civil War at the North Anna River Fall Zone, Virginia.

Wed.–Thurs., 15–16 Mar. US$175. Max. participants: 17.

Chuck Bailey, William & Mary, cmbail@wm.edu.

Description: In May 1864, the Union and Confederate armies clashed along the Fall Zone of the North Anna River in central Virginia. The underlying Fall Zone geology played a significant role in the battle. This trip will visit sites of geological and historical interest on or near the battlefield and discuss both the tectonic history and record of Neogene sea-level change in the region.

Post-Meeting

FT2. Experience Capitol Hill: Geoscience and Public Policy in Washington, D.C.

Mon., 20 Mar. US$67. Max. participants: 20.

Kasey White, Geological Society of America, kwhite@geosociety.org.

Description: Participants will travel to Washington, D.C., for a day of meetings on Capitol Hill to learn about current science policy topics and how geoscientists can become involved in the policy-making process.

FT3. Geology and Paleontology of Cretaceous and Paleocene Sediments of Cabin Branch and Tinkers Creek, Prince Georges County, Maryland.

Mon., 20 Mar. US$78. Max. participants: 22.

Jean M. Self-Trail, U.S. Geological Survey, jstrail@usgs.gov; David L. Govoni, U.S. Geological Survey (emeritus), dgovoni@usgs.gov; Laurel M. Bybell, U.S. Geological Survey (emeritus), lbybell@usgs.gov.

Description: This one-day trip examines the Cretaceous Severn Formation and the Paleocene Brightseat and Aquia formations from two localities in Prince Georges County, Maryland. Analyses of calcareous nannofossils, ostracodes, planktic and benthic foraminifera, gastropods, and bivalves provide environmental and temporal control. A discussion of possible depositional models will provide regional context.

FT4. Proterozoic and Paleozoic Tectonic Evolution of the Northern Shenandoah Massif.

Mon., 20 Mar. US$67. Max. participants: 30.

Bill Burton, U.S. Geological Survey, bburton@usgs.gov; J. Steven Schindler, U.S. Geological Survey, sschindl@usgs.gov; Alan Pitts, U.S. Geological Survey, apitts@usgs.contractor.gov.

Description: This will be a one-day trip across the northern Virginia Blue Ridge geologic province highlighting published geologic mapping and ancillary studies of Mesoproterozoic rocks that constitute the core of the Blue Ridge anticlinorium and Neoproterozoic cover-sequence rocks on the fold limbs.

A vertical bank with visible soil layers dips into a a shallow stream.

Outcrop of the fossiliferous Paleocene Aquia Formation along Tinkers Creek, Prince George’s County, Maryland. The shell has consists mainly of gastropod Kapalmerella mortoni. Photo: Jean Self-Trail, USGS.

Rocks disrupt a wide but shallow river bordered by lush trees, introducing rapids and white water.

Rapids in Fall Zone of the North Anna River, bedrock is Paleozoic metamorphic rock in the damage zone of the Mesozoic Fork Church Fault. Photo: Chuck Bailey, William & Mary.