Current Year Schedule
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.
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 fall 2024 are Mondays at 7:00 PM CT on the University of Minnesota campus, Keller Hall, Room 3-230. The address is 200 Union St. SE, Minneapolis MN. 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.
Seminar Details
Seminar Lab Date: January 27, 2025
Seminar Lab Subject: ORIGIN OF OLIVINE PHENOCRYSTS IN OCEANITES AT PITON DE LA FOURNAISE VOLCANO (REUNION HOTSPOT)
Seminar Lab Presenter: BENOÎT WELSCH, PH.D., VISITING SCHOLAR IN GEOLOGY, MACALESTER COLLEGE
Seminar Lab Location:
In-person only at U of Minnesota, Keller Hall, Room 3-230
Lecture start time 7:00 PM CT.
Seminar Lab Detail:
Summary: Piton de la Fournaise (Reunion Island, Indian Ocean) is one of the most active volcanoes on Earth, erupting once every 9 months on average. This volcano is well known to produce basaltic lavas that can be either extremely crystal-poor, or extremely crystal-rich, with up to 60% vol. olivine and as low as 40% vol. melt. In this talk, we will look into the origin of these olivine crystals, and what they can tell us about the plumbing system of the volcano.
Biography: Ben is a visiting assistant professor at Macalester College. He studies how crystals form in magmas using a variety of microscopes and high temperatures furnaces. Ben earned his PhD in France in 2010, where he studied olivine basalts erupted at Piton de la Fournaise volcano (Reunion hotspot). Since then, he has worked at several research institutes in the US (Hawaii, Cornell, Brown) to expand on his crystal growth research.
Please visit his homepage at https://benoitwelsch.com for an overview of activities.