ARIZONA ROCKS – The Postcards! Celebrating GSA-2019 Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona

/ 6 May 2019 / 0 Comments

For the first time in more than 30 years, the Geological Society of America (GSA) is convening its Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, in September 2019. This is cause for celebration.

Staff of the Arizona Geological Survey are working with meeting organizers to draft and distribute a suite of 21 Arizona Rocks! digital postcards celebrating the 2019 GSA Annual Meeting. Our principal objective: to enhance your visit to Arizona by showcasing examples of the marvelous geology that abounds throughout the state.

The inspiration for this project is our long-standing Arizona Rocks postcard that displays the distribution of granite, basalt, mixed volcanics, schist and gneiss, limestone, sandstone, and unconsolidated sediments across the state. From each category, we selected three units to represent the broad array of rocks found throughout Arizona.

Each postcard will include an image, description, precise location, and an apropos quotation from a geoscientist or person of prominence in Southwestern geology/literature. To reach a broader audience, the 75- to 125-word description will eschew technical terms in favor of jargon-free text.

Each Tuesday morning from mid-May to mid-September, a fresh postcard will be broadcast over social media outlets of the Arizona Geological Survey and the Geological Society of America. And all postcards will be compiled at an Arizona Rocks! postcard StoryMap.

We look forward to sharing our Arizona Rocks! with you, our geoscience colleagues, and the public.

Sincerely,
P.A. Pearthree & M. Conway (AZGS)

Acknowledgments

We thank Steve Semken (ASU) for suggesting the Arizona Rocks! postcard project. Emily Levine, Graphic Designer and Production Specialist at the Geological Society of America, masterminded the layout.

Social media outlets – Hashtag #GSA2019 #AZRocks