Geoscience Reports 28:4,6-7 (Fall 1999).

GEOSCIENCE RESEARCH INSTITUTE NEWS

GRI Building Update

    Dr. Gibson, our GRI Director, has been swamped with construction-committee meetings this year. At present the site has been graded, re-bar is in place, and cement trucks roll in and out of the gates. The site is genuinely "under construction"! Paint and carpet have all been selected but it will be several months into the new year before we can move into the new building. Look for our progress report in the Spring 2000 issue of Geoscience Reports.

Brazil

    In late January, Drs. Gibson, Kennedy and Webster participated in a Creation Seminar held at our SDA college in Sao Paulo, Brazil. At the end of the week some of the professors from Brazil College formally inaugurated "Núcleo de Estudos das Origenes." This creationist group is led by Professor Euler Pereira Bahia, and they shared their plans for speaking engagements at various colleges and universities in Brazil. We wish to encourage our Adventist professors who volunteer their time for such worthy causes. Dr. Kennedy and Dr. Marcia Oliveira de Paula traveled to northern Brazil to see the quarries in the Santana Formation where the fossilized "fish in the round" are preserved. The director of a local museum donated several fossil fish which will be displayed in the new GRI building.

University Lectures

    During this past Winter Quarter, Dr. Clausen taught physics classes at La Sierra University.
    April was another heavy travel-and-lecture month for the GRI scientists. Drs. Gibson and Webster presented lectures for two weeks at the SDA seminary in the Philippines. They also visited the Taal volcano and Mt. Pinatubo, where Dr. Gibson had a personal encounter with quicksand.
    Also in April, Drs. Kennedy and Sauvagnat (Director of the GRI Branch Office in Europe) taught classes to the seminary students and pastors at Friedensau, Germany; Cernica, Romania; and Sazava, Czech Republic. One of the highlights of their travels was a visit to the Humboldt University Museum in Berlin to see the fossil specimen, Archaeopteryx (Fig. 8).

Figure 8. Archaeoptetyx sp.

1999 Field Conference

    From 11-22 July GRI conducted a field conference to geological sites in Arizona and Utah. Among the participants were administrators and teachers from the General Conference world divisions, including EUD, NAD, NSD, SAD, SSD, and TED (Fig.9). Tom Lloyd, SDA coal geologist from Ferron, Utah, gave a lecture on coal geology and led one of the field trips. Dr. Arthur Chadwick from SWAU presented lectures on trilobites and on paleocurrents.

Figure 9. Participants from the 1999 Field Conference at the Grand Canyon. (Photo courtesy of Clyde Webster) — large color version

Teaching Aids

    Terrie Kinsey, a participant in the 1998 NAD Teachers' Conference from Forest Lake Academy in Florida, visited GRI this summer to help develop teaching materials for our web site, which now has a special section for secondary-school science teachers. Terrie's PowerPoint presentations on creation models and on evidences for the Flood, along with a guide to the "Evidences" video, can be found on our web site.
    GRI has received a donation of rock and minerals from Mr. and Mrs. Russell Filer of Yucaipa, California. Cristian Carvahol, a graduate student in geology at Loma Linda University, is working part-time at GRI to inventory and prepare the donation for classroom use. GRI really appreciates the support and assistance from non-GRI personnel.

Professional meeting

    In August, Dr. Webster attended a symposium in New Orleans on "The Origin of Chemical Elements in the Solar System." The meetings discussed cosmo-chemistry and nucleosynthesis in the context of Big Bang vs Non-Big Bang components. Apparently, several lines of evidence for the Big Bang can be accounted for by other processes. For example, the current levels of background radiation may be attributed to nucleosynthesis of helium.

BRISCO

    Dr. Clausen reports that the Biblical Research Institute Science Committee meetings went well this year. Dr. Kevin Nick led the field trip through the McKittrick Canyon outcrops of the El Capitan Reef in New Mexico/Texas. Rock samples and well cores were also available for the participants to study. A post-session field trip went to the salt mines east of Carlsbad where radiation waste is being permanently stored. Attendees from outside the US represented India, Kenya, Argentina and France. Our thanks to Ben for a well-planned meeting.

RECENT RELEASES

Video

Berthault G. Experiments in Stratification. SARONG LTD (Jersey), c/o 42, BD d'Italia, MC98000 Monaco FAX: 377 92 16 73 36

    This is an excellent video on principles of stratification and sedimentation. The principles are seldom presented from this perspective in the standard texts and lectures. Illustrations are easy to understand. The content is appropriate for junior academy and academy students in earth science and geology classes, and particularly important during the chapter on sedimentation and/or sedimentary rocks. The video is very informative for teachers, and should be adapted for classroom use. The pace is a bit slow: although the video is listed as a 10-minute film, it plays like 20. The author does not overstate his results; however, he does extrapolate his results to explain the deposition of the Cambrian sediments in the Grand Canyon. His position agrees with conclusions drawn by Chadwick and Kennedy from their work on the Tapeats Sandstone. Their work does not extend into the Bright Angel Shale and Muav Limestone; consequently, conclusions drawn with respect to their relationship with the Tapeats are tentative.

Book

Ashton J. 1999. In Six Days: Why 50 Scientists Choose to Believe in Creation. Sydney, Australia: New Holland Publishers. 360p.

    This volume is a collection of personal essays written by PhDs supporting the biblical account of creation. Several of the authors are Seventh-day Adventist professors and researchers, including: Paul Giem, Henry Zuill, Ariel Roth, Tim Standish, George Javor, Dwain Ford, Theo Agard, Walter Veith, Ben Clausen, Elaine Kennedy, and Colin Mitchell. The essays are as varied as the expertise of the scientists. Most will find the reading refreshing and enjoyable.