The main Annual Meeting of the IGCP 653, titled “Trekking Across the GOBE (Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event): From the Cambrian through the Katian”, was a great success. The main meeting on the Ohio University campus, brought together a group of 60 scientists from eight nations. Read the Ohio University writeup here.
26 participants joined the pre-conference excursion to visit classic late Cambrian to Mid Ordovician strata of the Great Basin, and 28 scientists participated in the post-conference excursion to Late Ordovician strata of the Cincinnati Arch.
Daily updates were posted on the IGCP 653 Facebook account during the meeting and are summarized below. Many additional photos are posted on the Facebook page.
Pre-conference excursion (May 30-June 2)
The outstanding four day field trip was led by Bob Gaines, Seth Finnegan, and Sara Pruss, who led us through classic exposures of the House Range of Utah and Shingle Pass area of Nevada.
Day 1 of the IGCP 653 pre-conference field excursion: overview of Utah geology and travel to Delta for our staging area for the next two days plus cultural study.
Day 2 of the IGCP 653 field trip focused on visiting classic Cambrian sections in the House Range. Fantastic fossils and stratigraphy! Thanks so much to Bob Gaines for leading us through his favorite rocks.
The IGCP 653 excursion spent day 3 working our way from the Tremadoc to the Dariwillian. Fantastic brachiopods and sedimentary facies! We finished the day experiencing Nevada culture.
The final day of the IGCP pre-meeting excursion, we visited Sawmill Canyon and Shingle Pass to see the classic Cambrian and Ordovician strata exposes in the Egan Range.
Indoor sessions in Athens, Ohio (June 3-6) + midconference excursion
The Athens IGCP 653 meeting is underway! Day 1 featured talks and posters exploring various aspects of geochemical and biotic change with an emerging theme that the Dariwillian is a particularly exciting interval for coordinated Earth-life change.
Day 2 of the IGCP 653 annual meeting focused on biostratigraphy and Cincinnatian stratigraphy and paleontology—including some epic talks.
Today’s midconference field trip had something for everyone. In car narration, sequence stratigraphy, sedimentology, earthquakes, invasions, bourbon tasting, taphonomy, brachiopods, trilobites, echinoderms, bryozoa, and more brachiopods!
The final day in Athens included more discussion of paleontological patterns and chemostratigraphy. Following the end of the formal session a group visited the Geology Department and OHIO Museum Complex on optional tours. Then the conference concluded with a banquet at the Dairy Barn, a regional arts center, where participants dined surrounded by entries within an international quilt competition.
Post-conference excursion (June 9-10)
Carl Brett and his colleagues, Kyle Hartshorn, Allison Young, and Cameron Schwalbach led the participants through an impressive series of stratigraphy and outcrops spanning the Katian and depositional environments from offshore to tidal throughout northern Kentucky.
Day 1 of the post conference excursion was a case study in a classic Carl Brett expedition. Many fossils, much stratigraphy, lots of localities, and final departure from the outcrop at 8:26pm.
Day 2 of the post conference excursion focused on primarily in the stratigraphy and paleontology of the Mohawkian succession in Kentucky. Although the afternoon heated up to 90 degrees, it was a spectacular day.
