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 concludes 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, in-person lectures during winter/spring 2026 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.
Seminar Details
Seminar Lab Date: March 9, 2026
Seminar Lab Subject: Geologic Hydrogen, Abiotic Methane, and Volume Changes Associated with Aqueous Alteration of Mantle Rocks in Submarine Environments (V)
Seminar Lab Presenter: Frieder Klein, Ph.D., Associate Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
Seminar Lab Location:
Virtual lecture 7:00 PM CT.
Participation instructions will be e-mailed to GSM members. If you are not a member of GSM and wish to attend this free seminar online, register as follows by 8 AM CT Monday, Mar 9: Go to the Contact menu above and select “Ask GSM”. In the form that appears, enter your name and e-mail address. Enter “Mar 9 lecture” in the subject line. In the message body, please enter the city and state or country from which you will view the seminar. You will receive instructions by e-mail prior to the lecture. Check your spam folder if the instructions do not appear in your in-box at least one hour prior to the lecture.
Seminar Lab Detail:
Summary: Rocks from Earth’s mantle are widespread at slow- and ultraslow-spreading mid-ocean ridges, oceanic transform faults, magma-poor continental margins, and subduction zones. Where they are exposed to (sea-)water, they can undergo a series of chemical reactions to form a rock referred to as serpentinite, a rock that plays a key role in the global water cycle. However, whether the formation of serpentinite, i.e. serpentinization, is associated with a volume increase of 40 percent or the export of 30 percent of its original mass has remained hotly debated. Serpentinization is also considered one of the largest sources of geologic hydrogen and abiotic methane, critical energy sources for microbes inhabiting the deep subseafloor biosphere. However, the conditions of abiotic methane formation and subseafloor life remain enigmatic. This presentation will provide a broad overview of these topics and present some of the recent findings relevant one of the most ancient and influential hydrothermal processes in diverse submarine environments.
Biography: Frieder Klein is a petrologist who studies fluid-rock interactions in submarine environments using a combination of field observations, hydrothermal laboratory experiments, microanalytical techniques, and thermodynamic modeling. He studied at the Philipps University of Marburg and the University of Bremen in Germany where he earned his Ph.D. in 2009 working with Wolfgang Bach. He held postdoctoral positions in Granada (Spain), Woods Hole (MA), and Boulder (CO) before joining the scientific staff at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 2011. His research concerns the aqueous alteration of mafic and ultramafic rocks, focusing on serpentinization, geologic carbon sequestration, abiotic organic synthesis, and alkalinity formation in submarine settings on Earth and elsewhere in the solar system.