Current Year Lectures

GSM seminars with slide show presentations are free and open to the public. They are presented by leading professionals in their fields and are aimed at learners from high school to adult. A question-and-answer session follows each seminar. The labs, also free and open to the public, allow a hands-on learning experience and demonstrate the ideas and principles of geology and earth science. Live lectures and labs require no registration; just show up a few minutes early on the evening of the lecture.  These lectures and labs are eligible for Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits.

Click on date of any seminar for attendance information and other details. For a printable version of our schedule of seminars and labs, click here.

Except as noted, live lectures during during winter/spring 2024 are Mondays at 7:00 PM CT on the University of Minnesota campus, Keller Hall Room 3-210. A lecture with (V) following its title is an online virtual lecture. For these, free registration is required by non-members; the instructions are supplied with the lecture description.

Our schedule is planned over 6 months in advance, so changes may occur. Always check this website shortly before each lecture for the latest seminar information.

Winter weather will come and snow might impact our lectures. The GSM will make any decision about cancelling or postponing a lecture due to inclement weather no later than 3:00 PM the day of the lecture. This information will be posted on the GSM home page (http://www.gsmn.org/). So check our home page shortly before each lecture in case there is a cancellation or a last-minute change. Also, we will e‐mail lecture postponement and cancellation information to our members.

Past seminars marked with * were recorded and the recording is available on the Geological Society of Minnesota YouTube channel. Subscribe to this channel for updates. 

GSM Lecture Schedule for 2023-2024

Seminar Lab Date Seminar Lab Subject Seminar Lab presenter
09/18/23 Fall Banquet - The Deep Caves of Minneapolis and the Shock of the Anthropocene Greg Brick, Ph.D.
10/02/23 Making magmas: Experimental insights on magma depth and temperature beneath Emily First, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Geology, Macalester
10/16/23 Urban Micrometeorites and Everything You Need to Know about Them Scott Peterson, micrometeorite hunter
10/30/23 The Great Lisbon Earthquake in 18th-Century Philosophy and Seismology Anna Graber, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History of Science and Technology, U of MN
11/13/23 Deciphering the Details of Dinosaur Worlds: Insights From 35 Years in the Cretaceous Rocks of Montana Ray Rogers, Ph.D., Professor & Chair, Geology Dept., Macalester College
11/27/23 CANCELLED: Tennessee’s Mining Industry and Geology-Related Tourism (V) Ronald Zurawski, State Geologist, Tennessee Dept. of Environment & Conservation
12/11/23 T. rex, Triceratops, and MOR: The Dynamic Dinosaurs of Museum of the Rockies (V) Ashley Hall, Outreach Program Manager, Museum of the Rockies
01/29/24 Sediment Records of Extreme Earthquakes Chris Paola, Ph.D., CSE Distinguished Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of MN
02/12/24 Charting Pathways to a More Sustainable Future in the Ogallala Aquifer of Western Kansas (V) James Butler, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Geohydrology Section, Kansas Geological Survey
02/17/24 Paleo Lab: Fossils Through Time: Fossil Diversity and the 'Big Five' Mass Extinctions Jeff Thole, M.Sc., Geology Laboratory Supervisor & Instructor, Macalester College
02/26/24 Tennessee’s Natural Resources & Geology-Related Tourism (V) Ron Clendening, B.Sc., Geologist, Tennessee Dept. of Environment & Conservation
03/11/24 Tales Told by Trilobites (V) Thomas Hegna, Ph.D., Associate Professor, SUNY Fredonia, Research Associate at the Buffalo Museum of Natural History
04/15/24 Important Events In Precambrian Earth History As Seen Through Minnesota's Bedrock Eric Nowariak, Precambrian Geologist, Minnesota Geological Survey
04/22/24 CANCELLED: PFAS: Contaminant hydrogeology of the East Metro
04/29/24 From Formations to Foundations: The Geology of Bridge Construction Jill Mickelson, Principal Engineer, Braun Intertec
05/06/24 Spring Banquet - Digging into the Stories of Sands Kate Clover