Marie is a western Pennsylvania native who is interested in studying the processes by which volcanic rocks form. Since there are no volcanoes in Pennsylvania, she fled to the west coast in 2016 to pursue graduate studies in geology, where she is currently a master’s student at Central Washington University. There, she studies the chemical compositions of volcanic rocks and minerals in order to gain insight into their formation and evolution. The title of her presentation will be Mt. Etna Volcano, Italy: A Historic Landmark And Volcanic Laboratory.

Friday 1:00-2:00 Melanie Swick Central Washington University

Melanie is a masters student at Central Washington University. She is studying geology with a focus on snow studies. She realized that geology had won her heart after she began studying glacial geology as an undergraduate at St. Lawrence University in New York State. After moving to the Pacific Northwest she realized she could combine her passion for geology with her passion for the outdoors. during her spare time she can be found in the mountains skiing, snowboarding, hiking, and rock climbing. The title of her presentation will be Partitioning the Contribution of Light Absorbing Aerosols Using a Novel Hyperspectral Microscopy Method.

Friday 2:00-3:00 Greg Carr North America Research Group

The North America Research Group (NARG) is a group formed to promote research and provide paleontological information related (and not limited to) events, identification, and legal collecting and preparation of fossils. Greg will be giving an overview of their organization and some of the projects they have participated in.

Saturday 11:00-12:00 Bob Pattie

Bob has been an active rockhound and member of the Boeing Employee’s Mineralogical.Society, Inc., Cascade Mineralogical, and the Washington State Mineral Council for over 40.years. he is an author of Gems and Minerals of Washington, a pamphlet published by the.State of Washington Department of Natural Resources and also an article in the Rocks &.Minerals Washington State Issue titled “Collecting Sites or Agate in Washington State”. He has supported the DeLorme issue of the Washington Atlas and Gazetteer. Bob has also been a contributor to the Washington State Mineral Council’s Wagon Masters Maps which identifies collecting sites in Washington. He has also supported the Department of Natural Resources in the Snoqualmie Corridor recreation Planning Committee as the rockhound recreation representative. And finally Bob has provided many public information talks for schools groups, clubs, and scouts. The title of Bob’s presentation will be Gemstones in Washington. He will show samples of gemstone specimens found in Washington that showcase localities and maps that can be found in the Wagon Master Map Book.

Saturday 1:00-2:00 Bruce Bjornstad

Bruce Bjornstad is a licensed geologist/hydrogeologist and retired Senior Research Scientist from Battelle’s Pacific National Laboratory. He received a Bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of New Hampshire and Masters in geology from Eastern Washington University. During his 35 year career he has written numerous documents and reports on the geology of the region as well as two geologic guidebooks on Ice Age floods that transformed the pacific Northwest as recently as 13,000 years ago. Bruce is also the creator of an online YouTube channel titled: “Ice Age Floodscapes.” Bruce will be delivering a talk on the Ice Age Floods.

Saturday 2:00-3:00 Darryll Powell (Diamond Dan)

Florida native Darryl Powell and owner of Diamond Dan Publications will be flying in courtesy of the NFMS to participate in several venues at the show. Some of the publications he offers for sale on his website are The Best Bathroom Book for Mineral Collectors Ever Written, Diamond Dan’s Mineralogical Dictionary For Mineral Collectors, and Minerals Of The USA. Darryl has extensive knowledge of minerals, their properties, and locations where they can be found. He is especially gifted at taking complex mineral concepts and adapting them so that children can understand. Darryl will be presenting two talks at the show. The first will be on specimen mineralogy and the second will be on building and maintaining a vibrant and fun juniors program. He will also be helping out at the Juniors Table. Make sure you find time to stop by, say ‘Hi’, pick his mind, and peruse the materials he will be bringing with him.

Saturday 3:00-4:00 Nick Zentner Central Washington University

Nick hails from the geology department at Central Washington University where he teaches very popular undergraduate classes. His class field trips are the best as he makes use of local geology to embellish the concepts he covers in his courses.

Nick received a BS in geology in 1986 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MS in geology in 1989 from Idaho State University-Pocatello. In 2015 he received the prestigious James Shea Award, a National Association of Geoscience Teachers Award which recognizes exceptional delivery of earth science content to the general public. Past Shea Award recipients include John McPhee, Jack Horner, Robert Ballard, and Stephen Jay Gould.

Nick is a tireless promoter of everything that has to do with the field of geology and is a master of taking complex concepts and making them understandable to the general public. His public field trips are attended by hundreds of people. For these he provides detailed geology maps and information that make the landscapes of Washington State come alive. His current video projects include “Nick On The Rocks” with 6 episodes that were produced by CWU for KCTS (PBS-TV in Seattle, Washington (5 minutes each) and “Downtown Geology Lectures” which has 22 lectures (60 minutes each) that were also produced by CWU.

His past video projects include:
I-90 Rocks and other Special Topics (6 episodes)
2 Minute Geology (17 episodes)
Central Rocks-Roadside Geology (8 episodes)
Central Rocks Interviews with Geologists (33 episodes)

Nicks’ afternoon talk will be on Liberty Gold

Sunday 10:00-11:00 Darryll Powell (Diamond Dan)

This will be the second presentation Darryll will be giving at the show. The title of his presentation will be Building And Maintaining A Vibrant And Fun Juniors Program.

Sunday 11:00-12:00 Pat McMahan

Pat McMahan was born in Los Angeles, California in 1947. At the age of eight he met Professor Ade, a well know rockhound who collected in the 1930’s. He taught Pat how to cut, polish, distinguish the various rocks, document his collection, and prepare displays for shows. Pat focused on rocks until he was 12 years old then set the hobby aside until he was about 38 and had kids of his own. He got a guidebook and took his wife Kathy and two boys Scott and Chad to the desert camping and rock collecting. With Professor Ade’s influence Pat came to love sagenite and plume agate. Little did Professor Ade know that he was creating a life-long obsession for Pat.

Pat graduated from the University of Southern California in 1969. His major was business but he loved the earth sciences and studied geology, systematic botany and more. Upon graduation he worked in his family’s office furniture business and after 15 years opened his own retail stores in Santa Barbara and Ventura. Selling his business at age 42 and retiring, Pat has spent much of the past 30 years collecting agates.

His long years of intensive collecting resulted in the best and most comprehensive collection of sagenite and plume agate in the world. More than 8,000 polished agate specimens from over 550 locations are in his collection. Most of these agates have been collected in the field by Pat himself. He has spent considerable time digging on the Laguna and Coyamito Ranches with Gene Mueller from thegemshop.com. He has dug “Condor Agate” at over a dozen localities in Argentina and has collected in all 11 Western states in the U.S., also in Canada and Alaska.

In addition to plume, sagenite and dendritic agates, he has a collection of fine quality banded agates. He has displayed agates in rock shows in Europe and across the U.S. He has published articles in Rock and Gem Magazine and the German magazine Mineralien Welt, and is the author of a chapter on agates with inclusions in the authoritative book Agates II. Pat has just completed Agates, The Pat McMahan Collection. This is a comprehensive book of 500 pages which includes 1,250 beautiful color photos of agates from 300 agate deposits worldwide. It shows personal collecting stories, prospecting techniques, history of some locations and more.  His signed book will be available for viewing and purchase. http://agateswithinclusions.com.

Sunday 1:00-2:00 Bron Mayo The Wenas Mammoth Foundation

Bron and her husband Doug are the driving force behind the Wenas Mammoth Foundation and the dig site on their property that led to its formation. Construction of an access road led to the discovery of the partial skeleton of a regionally rare Columbian Mammoth which was excavated by researchers from Central Washington University over several summer dig seasons. Since then Bron and her husband have been tireless advocates for science education as it applies to the dig site. Their mobile museum has been toured by thousands of students and adults and their outreach presentations at area schools have been well received. Bron has designed several hands on activities for kids that have been showcased at the Central Washington State Fair and other events around the Yakima Valley. She is also a tireless writer of grant proposals, the success of which has led to the development of both the mobile museum and infrastructure at the dig site. Bron will be giving an overview of the Wenas Mammoth Project.

NOTE: Being that it is still February this slate of speakers may or may not change by show time. Stay tuned for updates or any changes.