Colorado Scientific Society – Earth Sciences since 1882
The oldest scientific society in the Rocky Mountain region
Founded in 1882, the Colorado Scientific Society promotes knowledge, the understanding of science, and its application to human needs.
We focus primarily on earth science, welcoming members with interests in all fields of science. Learn more.
Future Colorado Scientific Society Meetings and Field Trips
We normally hold monthly meetings from September through May.
Our meetings are normally now both in-person and virtual.
CSS March Meeting
The tale of the 2022 Chaos Canyon landslide: an ice-rich debris slide in Rocky Mountain National Park
Thursday, March 21, 2024 at 7:00 p.m.
Kate Allstadt, U.S. Geological Survey
In-person Meeting at Calvary Church Golden or Join us on Zoom
In-person Meeting at Calvary Church Golden
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.
CSS is inviting you to our meeting on Thursday March 21st at 7:00 pm.
For other Zoom options, click here.
See details about attending in-person at the church below.
The tale of the 2022 Chaos Canyon landslide: an ice-rich debris slide in Rocky Mountain National Park
Abstract: On 28 June 2022, ~2 million cubic meters of ice-rich debris mobilized from the southeast flank of Hallett Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park. The material slid rapidly for about 245 m into Chaos Canyon, a popular bouldering destination in the park. The slide stopped when it reached a deposit composed of massive boulders filling the valley floor that has been previously mapped as a relict rock glacier. Several climbers were bouldering near the toe of the landslide when it occurred. The group narrowly escaped and caught parts of the event on video, resulting in substantial nationwide media coverage. In this talk, I will detail a multifaceted investigation in which we used eyewitness accounts, field and remote sensing techniques, historic climate data, and seismic recordings to unravel the mysteries of this unusual landslide sequence and the events leading up to it. Direct observations of melting blocks of icy debris in the landslide deposits, coupled with decades of slope deformation patterns correlated with warming temperatures, strongly suggest permafrost degradation was a major contributing factor.
The full study is publicly available here:
The 2022 Chaos Canyon landslide in Colorado: Insights revealed by seismic analysis, field investigations, and remote sensing
Biography: Kate Allstadt has been a Research Geophysicist at the USGS Geologic Hazards Science Center in Golden, CO since 2015. Kate conducts multidisciplinary approaches, commonly incorporating seismic and geophysical techniques, to study landslide, earthquake, and volcano hazards. She currently focuses on earthquake-triggered ground failure, near-real-time earthquake impacts, seismic monitoring of debris flows and lahars, and studies of massive rapid landslides using seismic methods and numerical modeling. Kate completed her PhD in Seismology at University of Washington in 2013 and her MS in Engineering Seismology jointly at the Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France and ROSE School, Pavia, Italy.
In-person Meeting at Calvary Church Golden
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.
Calvary Church Golden
Click on link to open a Google map.
Enter from 14th St., go in by the main glass doors at [906] 14th St.
Do not enter via the old church above 13th St.
From the 14th Street entrance go down the hallway following Colo Sci Soc signs to 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, along 14th St and west of Washington Ave in Golden.
The AirGarage parking structure, which can be entered from Arapahoe St., is $3.00 for three hours.
Approval of President Elect for 2025 and Revisions to Bylaws
Votes of the membership at this meeting will also be taken to approve:
Shannon Mahan as the Colorado Scientific Society President Elect for 2025.
These Revisions to the Colorado Scientific Society Bylaws:
For reference see the Colorado Scientific Society Constitution and Bylaws.
Article VIII, Section 2, for the membership of the Executive Committee:
From:
“This committee shall consist of the President as Chairman, the President-elect, the Secretary, and one Councilor selected by the Council.”
To:
“This committee shall consist of the President as chair, the President-elect, the most recent past-President, the Secretary, and the Treasurer.”
Article V, Section 1(a) for the membership of the Nominations Committee:
From:
“The Nominating Committee will be a standing committee consisting of at least three officers of the Society including the Secretary and three or more Past Presidents of the Society, at least two members of which were on the past years Nominating Committees.”
To:
“The Nominating Committee shall consist of a past-President as chair, the most recent past-President, the Secretary, and at least two officers or councilors of the Society.”
Red Rocks Park – CSS No Moss Field Trip
Saturday, March 30th 2024, 9:00 AM to noon
Steve Cumella and Mark Kirschbaum, USGS will lead this trip.
Join Steve Cumella and Mark Kirschbaum on Saturday March 30th for a 3-hour tour of the spectacular Fountain outcrops in Red Rocks Park near Morrison, Colorado. Park in the Upper North Lot (see attached map) and meet at 9:00 AM at the top of the Amphitheater. From there, we will walk 2.25 miles through the Amphitheater and along the Trading Post Trail for a cumulative 675’ of elevation gain and 670’ of elevation loss. Park entry is free and all are welcome to join us for this Colorado Scientific Society No Moss Gathering. Bring your expertise, your questions, your curiosity, and most of all – have fun!
The Pennsylvanian-age Fountain Formation is spectacularly exposed at the Red Rocks Amphitheater near Morrison, Colorado. The Fountain is composed of thick-bedded arkosic sandstones and conglomerates interbedded with dark maroon mudstones. The Fountain is believed to have been deposited by alluvial fans being shed eastward from the Ancestral Front Range. On this fieldtrip we will examine sedimentary features of the Fountain. Surprisingly, no detailed modern sedimentologic study has ever been done on the Fountain at Red Rocks, so we can discuss how well the features we observe fit within an alluvial fan model. Fortunately, high-resolution Google Earth imagery is available for the Red Rocks area and this imagery offers the opportunity to attempt to correlate the Fountain stratigraphy. The attached Google Earth images show possible Fountain correlations. (See the “Red Rocks, Google Earth Dec 2020, Cumella” PDF below. The colored lines on the images show possible correlations.) During the fieldtrip we can see how well these correlations hold up.
Flyer for Red Rocks Park No Moss Gathering 3-30-24.
Print and bring it with you.
Images showing correlations: Red Rocks, Google Earth Dec 2020, Cumella, 5.4 MB
Print this and it bring it with you.
CSS April Meeting and Emmons Lecture
Tales from the Field:
Using Modern Earth to Assess Life on Ancient Mars
Thursday, April 18, 2024 at 7:00 p.m.
Brian Hynek, Department of Geological Sciences and Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado
In-person Meeting at Calvary Church Golden or Join us on Zoom
Abstract: After two decades of intense exploration, it is clear that ancient Mars met all the requirements to support microbial life for at least 100s of millions of years. This includes an active hydrologic cycle hosting rivers, lakes, and potentially an ocean. We have also found many “dried up Yellowstones” on Mars and these are crucial habitats since most scientists believe that Earth’s life originated in similar settings and at a similar time in the planet’s history. One way to learn about ancient environments on Mars and the microbes that might have lived there is to study analogous environments on modern Earth. I will talk about some of my recent work from around the world that have detailed some of Earth’s most extreme environments including expeditions to the world’s tallest active volcano, hypersaline alkaline lakes in Tanzania, steaming lava fields in Iceland, boiling acid lakes in Costa Rica, and high-altitude salty lagoons in the high Argentinian desert. Remarkably, most all of these extreme settings host microbial ecosystems. I will discuss our current understanding of ancient Mars and how Earth life’s remarkable resiliency makes the likelihood of past microbial life on Mars quite likely.
A unique ecosystem in an inhospitable desert
Deep within Argentina’s Puna de Atacama, a desert more than 12,000 feet above sea level, a previously undocumented ecosystem could provide scientists with a window to life 3.5 billion years ago. These lagoons surrounded by salt flats are home to microbial communities called stromatolites, which grow alongside minerals to create unusual rock formations over time.
CU Media put together a nice drone video montage that you can view from here:
https://vimeo.com/891536538/268ef5428f?share=copy
Bio: Dr. Brian M. Hynek is Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder. He has spent the last 25 years studying Mars and its potential to host past life. Brian is a world expert on the study of modern terrestrial analogs to understand geological processes that operated on early Mars and the Moon, with recent field-based projects spanning five continents. He has worked extensively with NASA, conducting mission simulations in preparation for robotic and human exploration of the Moon and Mars. Brian has published over 80 peer-reviewed scientific papers, multiple book chapters, and hundreds of conference abstracts.
CSS May Meeting
Minerals and Elements
Thursday, May 16, 2024 at 7:00 p.m.
Peyton Jackson, American Clean Resources Group
In-person Meeting at Calvary Church Golden or Join us on Zoom
CSS Past Presidents Dinner – September
Topic tbd
Thursday, September 19, 2024 at 7:00 p.m.
David Goodwin and Peter Roopnarine, California Academy of Sciences
Mount Vernon Canyon Club or Join us on Zoom
CSS October Meeting
Topic tbd
Thursday, October 24, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. – note a week later than normal
Harrison Gray, U.S. Geological Survey
In-person Meeting at Calvary Church Golden or Join us on Zoom
CSS November Meeting and Student/Member Poster Night
Thursday, November 21, 2024 at 7:00 p.m.
In-person Meeting at Calvary Church Golden or Join us on Zoom
CSS December Holiday Potluck, Meeting and President’s Address
Quaternary Records of Spring Ecosystems
Tuesday, early December 2024 at 5:30 p.m.
Jeff Pigati and Kathleen Springer, U.S. Geological Survey
In-person Potluck Dinner at New Terrain Brewing Company or Join us on Zoom
Please pay your CSS dues for 2024!
You may pay dues online or print out a PDF of the membership form and mail it to us with a check. Continuing your membership in CSS will enable us to continue all our ongoing programs, including our field trips, virtual meetings, Student Research Grants, and more.
See Membership and Donations for the CSS membership PDF and our online membership payment form.
Regular CSS Membership is $25;
Student Membership, $5;
Life Membership, $395.
Send your membership payment, if not done through our online membership payment form, to Colorado Scientific Society P.O. Box 150495 Lakewood, CO 80215-0495.
Thank you!
See Zoom Recordings of Recent CSS Meetings
Most recent CSS presentations are recorded on Zoom. Follow the links in the titles for each presentation to see abstracts, biographies of the speakers and video recordings of our meetings.
‘Golden Age of Geology’; Plate Tectonics and the Metaluminous-Peraluminous Distinction, September 21, 2023
Monte Swan, MagmaChem Associates, LLC
View ‘Golden Age of Geology’; Plate Tectonics and the Metaluminous-Peraluminous Distinction.
CSS and SIPES Summer Picnic, August 5, 2023
at Roger and Connie Knight’s
Not a meeting, just pictures of our CSS and SIPES Summer Picnic.
Next-generation stress maps of North America: Utility for understanding active tectonics and managing induced seismicity
May 11, 2023
Jens-Erick Lundstern (Lund Snee), US Geological Survey
View the PowerPoint presentation of Next-generation stress maps of North America: Utility for understanding active tectonics and managing induced seismicity.
When the Colorado Ran North – Chasing Zircons from Arizona to the Labrador Sea,
April 20, 2023
James Sears, University of Montana
View When the Colorado Ran North – Chasing Zircons from Arizona to the Labrador Sea.
Breaking plates: how the recent earthquakes in Turkey relate to the tectonic escape of Anatolia and the migration of the Anatolia-Africa-Arabia triple junction
March 7, 2023
Michael Cosca, US Geological Survey
Mars Geology; Stratigraphy, Sedimentology, and Diagenesis of a Martian Lacustrine Deposit, Murray Formation, Gale Crater, Mars
February 16, 2023
Dr. John P. Grotzinger, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology
Colorado’s Evolving Landscape from the Neogene to Present: Insights from Geo- and Thermochronology
January 19, 2023
Alyssa Abbey, California State University, Long Beach View Colorado’s Evolving Landscape from the Neogene to Present: Insights from Geo- and Thermochronology
Who Owns the Arctic?
the Geopolitics of Plate Tectonics in a Melting World
December 13, 2022
Ned Sterne, Independent
View Who Owns the Arctic? The Geopolitics of Plate Tectonics in a Melting World
All in the (human) family: Neanderthals and Denisovans and us
November 17, 2022
Bence Viola, University of Toronto
View All in the (human) family: Neanderthals and Denisovans and us
Assessing the role of the Deccan Traps in the end-Cretaceous mass extinction
October 6, 2022
Blair Schoene, Princeton
View Assessing the role of the Deccan Traps in the end-Cretaceous mass extinction
The White Sands footprints — humans in North America 23,000 years ago
September 15, 2022
Kathleen Springer and Jeff Pigati, US Geological Survey
See The White Sands footprints — humans in North America 23,000 years ago
Read past Colorado Scientific Society Newsletters
Start or renew your membership with the Online CSS Membership Form
Or print and mail in the Colorado Scientific Society Membership Form (PDF)
Archive of Past Colo. Scientific Society Meetings
About the Colorado Scientific Society
The Colorado Scientific Society was founded in 1882 as a forum for the exchange of observations and ideas on the topics of earth science. Lecture topics largely focus on earth science, and are open to the public. In addition to our monthly lecture series, the society is also active in public service. We fund student research grants, construct and post signs that describe local geologic features, and organize and lead field trips.
The Colorado Scientific Society normally meets on the third Thursday of the month from September through May. (In the summer months of June-August, too many members are out in the field.)
6:30 – Social time at in-person meetings
6:45 – Join Zoom meetings
7:00 – Meeting and Program begin
Corporate Sponsorship of the Colorado Scientific Society
Corporate sponsorship helps the Society continue to provide earth science-related talks, field trips, and other events to a broad cross-section of Front Range geologists and interested people. Please accept an invitation from the Colorado Scientific Society to become a corporate sponsor, enabling us to continue and expand our programs.
Details of corporate sponsorship of the Colorado Scientific Society
The Colorado Scientific Society is an Associated Society of the Geological Society of America
Please send comments about the Colorado Scientific Society website to ColoSciSoc.webmaster@gmail.com .
We meet at the Golden Calvary Church and appreciate them sharing their facilities.
We have our December Business Meeting and Potluck Supper at New Terrain Brewing Company and appreciate their support.
RockWare provides the Colorado Scientific Society with a meeting place for our monthly CSS Council meetings. RockWare provides Earth Science Software, Consulting, and Training.
We appreciate the support for our website by Table Mountain Web Design.