Wednesday, May 25, 2016, 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Join us this May for a Rock Solid program!
Presented by Dr. Arthur Sylvester & Elizabeth O’Black Gans
Within an eight hour drive of any point in southern California, you can see the results of any kind of geologic process, from desert erosion to glaciation, from volcanism to landsliding; any kind of rock from Precambrian gneiss to the latest sandstone stratum. Southern California has ancient and recent volcanoes, and besides the San Andreas, it has many other active and inactive faults. “Roadside Geology of Southern California” will guide you to see and understand these and many other geologic features so nicely displayed along southern California highways.
Arthur Sylvester is a native Southern Californian whose eyes were opened to geology by high school biology class trips to the Colorado Plateau. He earned a B.A. in liberal arts at Pomona College. Graduate study at UCLA was interrupted by a one-year Fulbright Fellowship in Norway. He returned to UCLA to complete his MA thesis and then a PhD dissertation about the emplacement of Papoose Flat pluton in eastern California. After working for Shell Development Company as part of a team of geologists and geophysicists studying the tectonic history of the Pacific margin of the United States he joined the faculty at UC Santa Barbara. He taught courses in structural geology, field geology, and petrology. His academic research focused on structural, seismic, and igneous rock problems in the Colorado and Mojave Deserts, the Transverse Ranges, and the Lake Tahoe region, as well as in Norway and southern Italy. He received the UC Presidents Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring in 1994, the UCSB Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award in Mathematical, Life & Physical Sciences 1996-97, and the Dickson Emeriti Fellowship 2015-16. He retired from active teaching in 2003.
Libby O’Black Gans holds a BS in geology from UC Santa Barbara, where she was introduced to plenty of great southern California geology, as well as to the art of map making. Shortly after graduation, Libby started Gans Illustrations and began working on maps and scientific illustrations for publication, eventually becoming the first digital artist of the Dibblee Geological Foundation. She continues to work on geologic map making and scientific illustration projects, with her work most recently appearing in Science, in Tectonics, and in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (G-Cubed), as well as in posters at AGU and GSA national meetings. Libby is currently employed at Santa Barbara City College in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
