Geological Insights & Event News

The FCGS announces the May 8th, end of season party, shares mineral name humor by Dr. David Gonzales, the politics behind the renaming of the Grand River to the Colorado River in 1921 by Dr. Vince Matthews, and the Foundation’s final grant awards, which totaled $2,900 distributed to four M.S. students. Other updates include recent photos from the Aztec Arches and Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness Area field trips, upcoming meetings and trips, the August picnic, and membership renewal details.

April 2025 newsletter features Magdalena Sandoval Donahue on writing the Roadside Geology of New Mexico guidebook. President David Gonzales explores metallic mineral colors through band gap theory and atomic structure. Foundation awards $2900 in M.S. thesis grants to four students. Spring field trips to Aztec Arches and San Juan Basin paleobiology sites.

March 2025 newsletter features Wade Aubin on paleomagnetic analysis of Crater Lake pyroclastic density currents. President David Gonzales examines Proterozoic zircon inheritance in post-75 Ma plutonic rocks. Foundation announces 2025 M.S. thesis grant recipients. Field trips planned for Aztec Arches and San Juan Basin paleobiology.

February 2025 newsletter features Annette Patton on Southeast Alaska landslide risk research. President David Gonzales explores mineral color physics through refraction, interference, and diffraction. Foundation offers $3,000 field camp scholarships and M.S. thesis grants, welcomes new interim director Michele Tuttle.

The January 2025 FCGS newsletter highlights Sabina Kraushaar’s talk on estimating lithium resources in Lisbon Valley using historic oilfield data. She details host formations, well-log correlations, porosity analysis, water sampling, and seismic reinterpretation that support a 3.3 Mt lithium carbonate estimate. The issue also includes Dr. Gonzales’ essay on reticulite, the announcement of a spring field trip to the Aztec Arches, and the opening of the Foundation’s 2025 M.S. Thesis Grant program.

The Dec. 3 meeting features Logan Powell of Metallic Minerals on the La Plata alkaline porphyry complex. Mr. Powell discusses how Farallon flat slab subduction relates to Arizona porphyry systems and alkaline magmatism, using new geochemistry from the Allard stock to illuminate this unusual igneous complex. Dr. Gonzales’ “Prez Sez” column examines the Oligocene (32–30 Ma) San Juan Formation volcanism, its thick strato-volcanic deposits, inherited zircons, paleo- valley infill, major unconformities, and evidence challenging a proposed La Plata stratovolcano.