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 are Mondays at 7:00 PM CT on the University of Minnesota campus, building & room Tate Hall, Room B20. 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: November 9, 2026
Seminar Lab Subject: New Mapping of the Baraboo Hills Unravels a More Complex Geologic History for Southern Wisconsin (V)
Seminar Lab Presenter: Esther Stewart, Ph.D., Senior Geologist, WI Geological & Natural History Survey
Seminar Lab Location:
**Virtual Online Lecture**
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, Nov 9: Go to the Contact menu above and select “Ask GSM”. In the form that appears, enter your name and e-mail address. Enter “Nov 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: The Baraboo Hills of southern Wisconsin preserve over a billion years of earth history spanning growth of the ancient North American continent, flooding by tropical seas, and more recent glaciation. New geologic mapping of the Baraboo Hills adds detail to the oldest, Precambrian rock units and advances our understanding of how these rocks formed. In this talk I’ll present an overview of the new geologic map and how it contributes to our understanding of Wisconsin geology.
Biography: Esther Stewart has been a geologist with the WGNHS since 2013. Prior to joining WGNHS she worked for ExxonMobil in Houston, TX for several years. She earned her masters in geology from Idaho State University and recently completed her PhD at UW-Madison. Her research interests involve using geologic maps and stratigraphic frameworks to address practical issues in Wisconsin.