Mineralogical Society of America
The Next 100 Years of Mineral Sciences
June 20-21, 2019
On June 20 and 21, 160 mineral enthusiasts gathered in the newly renovated Carnegie Institution for Science building to celebrate the 100th anniversary of MSA through moderated presentations of exciting advances in the solid Earth sciences.
The 14 hour-long theme colloquia were proposed by MSA members, and they beautifully illustrated the broad reach and profound impact of mineralogy today. The opening session on sustainability included sobering messages from Gordon Brown and Michael Hochella regarding the lasting legacy of open-pit mining in the western U.S. and the role of incidental nanomaterials in controlling contaminant dispersal in mine wastes. A related theme by David Singer and Michael Schindler emphasized the need to characterize soil horizons across multiple length scales, with evidence that processes at the nanoscale do not extrapolate simply from larger size regimes.
Ross Angel and Lucie Tajcmanova offered perspectives on the future of metamorphic petrology by stressing that state-of-the-art characterization techniques require a commensurate understanding of the complex physics and chemistry that produce metamorphic textures. In their session on mineral analysis, Michael Wiedenbeck provided a historical overview of SIMS while Simon Jackson impressed the audience with current capabilities in trace element mapping by LA-ICP-MS. Othmar Muentener and Roberta Rudnick next walked the audience through models of the formation of the lower and upper crust based on field studies and experimental petrology. Fabrizio Nestola and Graham Pearson took the audience even deeper through a review of the exotic inclusions and isotopic compositions that have been observed in diamonds. Kim Tait and Aaron Celestian closed Thursday’s session with their perspectives on how mineral museums can thrive in the next century by aligning their missions through close collaborations with the research community.
Friday began with a COMPRES-sponsored overview of synchrotron-based studies in mineral physics. Przemyslaw Dera discussed surprising 5- and 6- coordination states for Si at high pressure, and Jin Zhang described anisotropy in omphacite as a means of detecting eclogite in the Earth’s mantle. Elizabeth Rampe and Harry McSween next offered revelations into the early history of Mars through rover-based in situ rock analyses and characterization of the >100 meteorites that originated on Mars. In a session sponsored by Rob Lavinsky, Shaunna Morrison and Simone Runyon challenged the audience to imagine the power unleashed by connecting the dots in the enormously large mineralogic and petrologic datasets that geologists have amassed over the last century. Alexandra Navrotsky closed the morning with an announcement of the next chapter in her multifaceted career as director of a new Materials of the Universe program at Arizona State University.
Gilberto Artioli tugged us back in time to consider the earliest uses of minerals in ceramics from 18,000 BCE, and his talk was followed by Michael Tite’s history of the earliest Pb-Sn oxide glazes that were innovated in the Middle East in counter-thrust to Chinese porcelain. The Gemological Institute of America funded the following session, with Wuyi Wang describing the emergence of synthetic gem diamonds over the last 15 years and Mandy Krebs illustrating trace element and isotope approaches to provenance colored gems. Supported by C2/m Mineralogy, John Hughes and Jill Dill Pasteris expounded on the essentiality of apatite as a pillar for both our civilization and our bodies, and Ann Wylie and Matthew Sanchez concluded the meeting with presentations on the real and supposed health hazards of mineral dusts.
The Symposium proved that despite the diversity of our interests, there is more that unites than divides us thanks to our common foundation in the minerals and rocks that support our existence.
MSA Centennial Symposium Presentations Videos
Thursday, 20 June 2019
Each theme colloquium included two 20-minute presentations by invited speakers followed by 15 minutes of moderated audience discussion.
8:00-8:30 am Introductory Remarks
F. Donald Bloss (58th MSA President): Greetings. video
Mickey Gunter (100th MSA President): Welcome to the Symposium. video
Peter Heaney (Penn State University, USA; Co-Organizer): Welcome and Logistics. video
Steven Shirey (Carnegie Institution for Science, USA; Co-Organizer): Welcome and Overview of Carnegie Building. video
8:30-9:30 am Sustainable Development of Mineral Resources and its Societal Impact
Gordon Brown (Stanford Univ.): The environmental legacy of mercury, gold, and asbestos mining: Evaluation of long-term impacts. video
Mike Hochella (Virginia Tech): Newly discovered environmental impacts of mineral resource utilization: Direct and indirect incidental nanomaterials. video
Moderator: Georges Calas (Universite Pierre et Marie Curie). video
9:30-10:30 am Linking Metal (Bio)geochemical Cycling from the Atomic to Landscape Scale
David Singer (Kent State Univ.): From atoms to mountains: New frontiers in X-ray science video
Michael Schindler (Laurentian Univ.): Nano-mineralogy: A new dimension to understand the fate of metal(loid)s in the environment video
Moderator: Sarah Carmichael (Appalachian State University) video
10:30-11:00 am: Coffee and snacks
11:00-Noon A Second Golden Age for Metamorphic Petrology
Ross Angel (Univ. Pavia): The importance of physics to thermobarometric research video
Lucie Tajcmanova (Univ. Heidelberg): What’s Next? Exploring the future of metamorphic geology video
Moderator: Sarah Penniston-Dorland (Univ. Maryland) video
Noon-1 pm: Lunch
1:00-2:00 pm Advances in Mineral Analysis: What Improvements Will We See in the Chemical and Isotopic Analyses of Minerals?
Michael Wiedenbeck (DGFZ-Potsdam): SIMS and related technologies: Where they stand, where they are headed, and where things need to go
Simon Jackson (Geological Survey of Canada): LA-ICPMS mineral analysis: Prospects for development and improved integration with other technologies video
Moderator: Paul Sylvester (Texas Tech Univ.) video
2:00-3:00 pm Unraveling the Roots of Continents: From Paleo-island Arc to Mature Continental Crust on Earth
Othmar Muentener (Univ. Lausanne): Lower crust formation and differentiation constrained by field studies and experimental petrology video
Roberta Rudnick (UCSB): Earth’s continents through time video
Moderator: Mattia Pistone (Univ. Lausanne) video
3:00-3:30 pm: Break
3:30-4:30 pm Mineral Inclusions in Diamonds from the Deep Earth
Fabrizio Nestola (Univ. Padua): In-situ, ambient analysis of diamond-captured mantle transition zone and lower mantle minerals video
Graham Pearson (Univ. Alberta): The diamond record of plate tectonic recycling of H, C, N, and B video
Moderator: Steven Shirey (Carnegie Institution for Science) video
4:30-5:30 pm Museum Mineral Collections in the next 100 years
Kim Tait (Royal Ontario Museum): The Kirwin collection: Looking ahead for the next 100 years at the Royal Ontario Museum video
Aaron Celestian (Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County): Unlocking the collections: Making minerals accessible in the next 100 years video
Moderator: Jeff Post (US National Museum) video
7:00-10:00 pm: Evening reception at the National Museum of Natural History Sponsored by GIA
Friday, 21 June 2019
8:00-8:30 am Welcome
Eric Isaacs (President, Carnegie Institute for Science): Welcome. video
8:30-9:30 am Synchrotron-based Studies of High-Pressure Mineral Behavior
Carl Agee (Univ. New Mexico, ): Synchrotron-based Studies of High-Pressure Mineral Behavior video (follows the Welcome by Isaacs)
Przemyslaw Dera (Univ. Hawaii): Putting the squeeze on silicate chains: Unusual coordination states accompanying the densification of pyroxenes and amphiboles video
Jin Zhang (Univ. New Mexico): Elastic anisotropy and phase transitions in the Earth’s upper mantle video
Moderator: Carl Agee (Univ. New Mexico) video
9:30-10:30 am Mineralogy Beyond the Boundaries of Earth: Advances in the Mineralogy of Mars
Elizabeth Rampe (Johnson Space Center): New perspectives of ancient Mars: Mineral diversity and crystal chemistry at Gale crater, Mars from the CheMin X-ray diffractometer video
Harry McSween (Univ. Tennesee, Knoxville): The mineralogy of Mars from rocks in hand video
Moderator: Doug Ming (Johnson Space Center) video
10:30-11:00 am: Break
11:00-Noon The Future of Data-Driven Discovery in Mineralogy, Crystallography, and Petrology
Shaunna Morrison (Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Inst.): The future of data-driven discovery in mineralogy and crystallography video
Simone Runyon (Univ. Wyoming): The future of data-driven discovery in petrology and geochemistry video
Moderator: The Rob Lavinsky Distinguished Moderator: Robert Hazen (Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Inst.) video
Noon-12:10 pm The Future of Data-Driven Discovery in Mineralogy, Crystallography, and Petrology
Alex Navrotsky (Arizona State Univ.): ASU’s Materials of the Universe Initiative video
12:10-1:00 pm: Lunch
1:00-2:00 pm Applied Mineralogy as a Tool to Research the Provenance and Technology of Ancient Ceramics
Michael Tite (Oxford Univ): The mineralogy of opaque ceramic glazes: Development in the Islamic world and Europe from the 7th to the 16th centuries CE video
Gilberto Artioli (Univ. Padova): Modern mineralogy and ancient pots: The archaeometry of ceramics video
Moderators: Pamela Vandiver (Dept. Mat. Sci. and Eng., U Arizona) video
2:00-3:00 pm Scientific Characterization of High-Value Gemstones
Wuyi Wang (GIA): Challenges in the identification of synthetic diamonds video
Mandy Krebs (GIA): Determining the provenance of colored gemstones video
Moderators: Wuyi Wang (GIA) and Jim Shigley (GIA) video
3:00-3:30 pm: Break
3:30-4:30 pm The Societal Relevance of Apatite
The C2/m Mineralogy Distinguished Speaker John Hughes (Univ. Vermont): The geological and agricultural significance of calcium phosphate apatite video
Jill Pasteris (Washington Univ. St. Louis): Biomineralization and biomaterials: Apatite and the human body video
Moderator: John Rakovan (Univ. Miami-Ohio) video
4:30-5:30 pm Minerals and Industry: Evaluating the Real Impacts of Mineral Dusts on Human Health
Ann Wylie (Univ. of Maryland): What makes an amphibole “asbestos”? History and status of regulatory issues dealing with amphiboles video
Matthew Sanchez (R J Lee Group): Mineral misidentification in connection to potential hazards of mineral dusts video
Moderator: Jessica Elzea Kogel (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)) video
5:30 pm Thanks and conclusion
Peter Heaney (Penn State Univ.) video
Past, Current and Future MSA Presidents
Past, current and future MSA Presidents in Attendance. From left to right: Robert Hazen (2005), Michael Brown (2018), Mickey Gunter (2019), Barbara L. Dutrow (2007), Michael F. Hochella, Jr. (2012), Peter J. Heaney (2008), Carol Frost (202), Gordon E. Brown, Jr. (1996), Douglas Rumble, III (2003), John B. Brady (2010), John M. Hughes (2013), Nancy L. Ross (2009), Steven B. Shirey (2015), George E. Harlow (2017). Attended but not pictured: Rebecca A. Lange (2016), John W. Valley (2006), Alexandra Navrotsky (1993).
MSA Centennial Exhibits
In the rotunda of the Carnegie Institution for Science building, MSA displayed a range of items illustrating the history of the society, its publishing and many other programs.
Program, Abstracts & Schedule
Complete Symposium Program with Abstracts: (pdf, 2.2 MB)
Schedule Theme Colloquia: (pdf, 2.2 MB)
Each theme colloquium included two 20-minute presentations by invited speakers followed by 15 minutes of moderated audience discussion.