The Geological Society of America (GSA)

Calling all undergraduate geoscience students 📣 Need funding for your research project? GSA Section Undergraduate Research Grants can help support fieldwork, lab work, and more.

⏰ Applications due 10 April

🔗 Find your Section and apply: geosociety.co/Undergrad_Grants

A great start to the Triple Joint Section Meeting in Memphis! 🎉

Geoscientists from the Southeastern, North-Central & South-Central Sections connected at the Opening Reception, explored Exhibit Hall vendor booths, and shared maps. A big thanks to our Local Organizing Committee for making it happen!

New #GSABulletin research by Levy et al. shows silica-rich water tracks in the McMurdo Dry Valleys record ongoing aluminosilicate weathering—highlighting implications for warming climates and polar biogeochemistry.

🔗 geosociety.co/46TSijo
Image: Figure 2 from the paper.

EarthCache Spotlight: Pine Lake Wetlands, Georgia, United States

Built in 2005, this wetland filters Snapfinger Creek, traps sediment, breaks down waste, and protects downstream aquatic life—showing how engineered wetlands restore natural waterways.

🔗 geosociety.co/EarthCache

Last call to apply for a 2026 GSA International travel grant to present at GSA Connects in Denver this October.

Two opportunities:
• GSA International Travel Grant
• Christopher I. & Irene N. Chalokwu Travel Grant

🔗 Apply by 15 March: geosociety.co/TravelGrants

A new #GSABulletin study reveals 15–27 major (~M7) earthquakes in the past 60,000 years along the Cañada David detachment in Baja California—evidence that low-angle normal faults can host powerful surface-rupturing events.

Read the paper: geosociety.co/40e3eog
Image: Figure 16 from the paper.

Join us in Scotland for a rare field experience exploring remarkable landscapes. Stand at Siccar Point, visit Glen Tilt and Jedburgh, and reflect on the legacy of James Hutton—whose observations reshaped our understanding of deep time.

Register today: geosociety.co/ScotlandFieldTrip

🪨 Rock the competition at the 2026 GSA Geology Club Tee-Off!

Clubs from the Southeastern, North-Central & South-Central Sections face off at the Triple Joint Section Meeting. Voting runs daily from 12:00 a.m.–11:30 p.m. MT during each round.

Get ready to vote: geosociety.co/GeoClubTee-Off

New #GSABulletin research finds that relatively small, shallow faults beneath Seattle may rupture more often than we thought.

This work is gaining traction on MSN, highlighting the importance of such research for assessing earthquake risk in urban areas.

Read the paper: geosociety.co/Angster_et_al

Explore new Professional Learning Pathways at the 2026 Triple-Joint Southeastern/North-Central/South-Central Section Meeting to:

✔️ Earn CEUs
✔️ Receive documentation of your structured learning
✔️ Build progress toward future GSA Certificate opportunities

Learn more: geosociety.co/Pathways_Triple

Roadtrip through one billion years of Earth's history in one weekend on GSA's upcoming Roadside Geology of Central Texas and Hill Country Field Trip!

📍Waco → Hill Country
🗓️11–12 April 2026
🔗Learn more & register: geosociety.co/RGTXFT

Learn the geology of this landscape on this 2-day field trip.

🌻A rare superbloom is underway in Death Valley National Park — transforming one of the hottest, driest places on Earth into a vibrant landscape of wildflowers.

🔗 Learn more about the remarkable geologic forces that make moments like this possible with Death Valley Rocks! geosociety.co/DVRocks

In new #Geology research, S. Grasby et al. document ultra-acidic, metal-rich waters forming in Arctic Canada’s Smoking Hills as thawing permafrost exposes metal-rich mudstones. The findings link climate-driven thaw to rising metal fluxes in Arctic rivers.

Read more: geosociety.co/4cVVwGE

Did you know Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872, making it the first national park in the U.S? We’re celebrating with 20% off Yellowstone-themed books!

Use code YELLOWSTONE20 at checkout*: https://geosociety.co/YellowstoneBooks
*Valid 2/18–3/6. Not combinable with other offers.

By integrating field-based sedimentological observations with machine learning analysis of bulk grain-size data, researchers found that Paleogene loess deposition in the western USA began earlier than previously thought.

Read paper in #GSABulletin: geosociety.co/Guo_et_al
Image: Fig 3 from paper

Did you know the first reef builders were... sponges?

In this new Geology Bites episode, Sara Pruss from Smith College discusses archaeocyaths — Early Cambrian sponges that built some of Earth’s very first reefs and helped fuel the Cambrian Explosion. 🌎

🎧 Listen now: geosociety.co/GeoBites_Feb26

New #Geology research proposes wide rifting and wide rift-inversion mountain building may have been dominant modes of continental deformation in the Proterozoic, producing mountains that differ from those formed by narrow rift inversion.

Full article: geosociety.co/Ibrahim_and_Rey
#GSAPubs

Don't miss early registration rates and travel grant opportunities for the 2026 Cordilleran and Rocky Mountain Section Meetings.

🗓️ Cordilleran Deadline: 19 March
🗓️ Rocky Mountain Deadline: 16 April
🔗 Choose your Section Meeting & start planning: geosociety.co/SectionMeetings

New roles just dropped on the GSA Geoscience Job Board.

Whether you’re advancing your research, stepping into administration, or shaping the next generation of geoscientists—your next role could already be live.

🔎 Explore these and more: geosociety.co/JobBoard

EarthCache Spotlight: Marble Mountains, Vietnam

South of Da Nang, the Marble Mountains formed when heat and pressure recrystallized limestone into marble. Erosion exposed hills with caves, temples, and striking marble formations.

🔗 Discover more: geocaching.com/play/search

🪨 Rep Your Club. Don’t Miss the Deadline.

The clock is ticking for the 2026 Geology Club Tee-Off—design submissions close 2 March. If your club hasn’t submitted your tee design yet, now's the time.

The bracket is forming. Make sure your club is in it.
👉 geosociety.co/GeoClubTee-Off

How does magma move beneath slow-spreading backarc ridges?

A new #GSABulletin paper reveals a reversed plumbing systembeneath the Marsili seamount—the largest submarine volcano in the Euro-Mediterranean.

Read more: geosociety.co/Gennaro_et_al
#Volcanology #EarthScience
Image: Fig 1 from the paper

How do orogenic plateaus cool before they break apart?

New #GSABulletin research shows that pre-extensional cooling of the Nevadaplano (Nevada–Utah, USA) was driven by lithospheric refrigeration during flat-slab subduction, not erosion.

Article: geosociety.co/Long_et_al
Image: Fig 2 from paper

How long did it take for life to bounce back after the KPg asteroid impact and mass extinction event 66 million years ago? ☄️ A new #Geology study found that life recovered much faster than we previously thought.

🔗 Read the full study: geosociety.co/Lowery_et_al
#MassExtinction #Chicxulub #GSAPubs

Are you exploring a career in the geosciences? Join us for two career advice webinars and learn from a panel of professionals!

Dates:
• Tuesday, 24 Feb | 12–2 p.m. PT
• Wednesday, 25 Feb | 9–11 a.m. PT

🔗 Register below:
• geosociety.co/SEDTuesWebinar
• geosociety.co/SEDWedWebinar

The February Issue of GSA Today is out now: geosociety.co/GSAT_Feb26

• Learn about international professional geology licensure.
• Read the "From Black Shales to Drinking Water: What Groundwater Chemistry Tells Us" article by Grad Grant Recipient, Fidelis Onwuagba.

Coastal dead zones were already a major ecological issue in the past.

A new #Geology study found that the expansion of terrestrial plants in the Late Devonian stimulated primary productivity and the spread of euxinic waters, causing mass extinctions.

Full article: geosociety.co/Li_et_al_2026

New in #GSABulletin: M.N. Ducea and colleagues explore the role of crustal magmatism in the formation and the evolution of orogenic plateaus.

Read the paper and learn more here: geosociety.co/Ducea_et_al
#Geochemistry #Petrology #Tectonics #GSAPubs
Image: Figure 17 from the paper.

The February issue of #Geology is online! Read the full issue here: geosociety.co/GeologyFeb26

Cover: Surface rupture produced by an aftershock of the 2024 Mw 7.0 Wushi earthquake, China. See Li et al., p. 105–110.
Photo by Jiawei Pan.

A new #Geology study finds eclogite-facies metamorphism in the continental crust at ca 2.8 Ga, which may provide a record of the transition from a pre-plate tectonic regime to one with an increasing role for stable subduction.

Full article: geosociety.co/Huang_et_al
Photo by Shujuan Jiao