Precambrian Research Center

55th Annual

Institute on Lake Superior Geology

May 5-10, 2009
Ely, Minnesota

Download

FINAL PARTICIPANT LIST

PROGRAM AND ABSTRACT VOLUME

FIELD TRIP GUIDEBOOK

Organized by

Precambrian Research Center
at the University of Minnesota Duluth
 
Jim Miller, George Hudak, and
Dean Peterson
Co-Chairs, 55th Annual Meeting

Meeting Co-Sponsors

Minnesota Mineral Resource Education Foundation

Meeting Information

General Information

Important Dates

Call for Papers

Meeting Co-Sponors

Meeting and Field Trip Registration and Costs

Student Travel Support

Best Student Paper Award

Meeting Schedule

Travel to Ely

Accommodations

Field Trips

GENERAL INFORMATION

The 55th Annual Institute on Lake Superior Geology will be held from Tuesday, May 5 to Sunday, May 10, 2009 at the Grand Ely Lodge in Ely, Minnesota. The meeting will consist of a two-day technical session (May 7 & 8) and seven field trips.  The technical sessions will include a single series of oral presentations and full-time access to poster presentations.

This year, all correspondence from the organizers will be conducted by email and through this website. Participants are also encouraged to communicate and register by email, though correspondence by regular mail or fax is also acceptable.   Send all communications to the following addresses:

              Email:          prc@d.umn.edu

   Regular Mail:          2009 ILSG
                                 Precambrian Research Center, NRRI-UMD,
                                 5013 Miller Trunk Hwy, Duluth, MN  55811

                Fax:          218-720-4329

IMPORTANT DATES

March 27, 2009 – Abstract submission deadline
April 3, 2009 – Pre-registration deadline; Student financial award
     application deadline; Grand Ely Lodge room release date
April 13, 2009 – Notification of field trip participants, student award
     recipients, and technical session presenters

CALL FOR PAPERS

Abstract Submission Deadline: March 27, 2009

Participant interested in giving an oral or poster presentation will be required to submit an abstract by the deadline.  All abstracts will be reviewed for content.

Abstract specifications and submission instructions:
A. Limit of two pages (8½" x 11") including illustrations and references
B. Use 10-12 point type; left, top, bottom, and right margins of 1"
C. Use GSA or GAC-MAC-SEG style for the abstract, title, author(s)' name, affiliation and cited references (refer to previous ILSG abstracts for guidance)
D. Abstracts must be submitted by email as attached computer files in either MS Word or Adobe pdf format; all figures and tables should be embedded in the diagrams; abstracts will be returned to the authors if revisions are necessary
E. Indicate in the email transmittal letter:
     a. Whether an oral or poster presentation is preferred (From the                interest survey responses, we may not be able to accommodate as           many oralpresentations as requested).
     b. The author who will be giving the oral presentation
     c. Whether the abstract is being submitted for consideration as a best           student talk or poster (in this case, the student should listed be first           author; see below for more information)

Send abstract files by the March 27th deadline to:
George Hudak  - hudak@uwosh.edu
Any questions, email George, or call Jim Miller at 218-726-6582

MEETING CO-SPONSORS

The organizers want to acknowledge and thank several companies and organizations who have contributed financial support for various components the meeting.  The current co-sponsors are:

American Institute of Prof. Geologists–Twin Cities Chapter ($1000) - Student Travel Support
Barr Engineering ($1000) – Welcoming Reception
Duluth Metals Ltd ($2000) – Addition of Color to the Field Trip Guidebook
Minnesota Mineral Resource Education Foundation ($500-1000) – Student Travel Support
Northland Securities ($500) - Student Travel Support

If others would like to be a contributing sponsor of student travel support, please contact Jim Miller (prc@d.umn.edu) by April 3rd.

MEETING AND FIELD TRIP REGISTRATION COSTS

Registration forms for the meeting are available in Word or fillable pdf formats (must have Adobe Acrobat to fill our pdf form).  This year, payment for meeting and field trip costs (listed below) can be paid by either by credit card or check.  All costs are in US$. Canadian registrants paying by check should multiply the costs by 1.25.   Registrations should be sent by mail or by fax as indicated on the registration form.

EARLY REGISTRATION DEADLINE – FRIDAY, APRIL 3RD

Professional Registration* (by 4/03/09; $80 thereafter)                   $65
*Registration includes a Proceedings and Abstracts Volume and tickets to welcoming reception (5/6)
Student Registration (by 4/03/09; $45 thereafter)                            $35

Banquet (Thursday, May 7)                                                               $25

Guidebook (All trips; not included in field trip costs)                            $20

Field Trips (FIELD TRIPS WILL FILL FAST SO DON'T DELAY!!!)

STUDENT TRAVEL SUPPORT

Thanks to contributions from the ISLG Eisenbray Fund and co-sponsor donations to this year’s meeting (see above) travel subsidies up to $200 and meeting registration waivers are available for graduate and undergraduate students who attend the 55th meeting. Students giving oral or poster presentations will be given favored consideration. Interested students should complete an application form (Word, pdf) by April 3, 2009.  

BEST STUDENT PAPER AWARD

Each year, the Institute selects the best of the student presentations and honors presenters with a monetary award. Funding for the award comes from registration at the annual meeting. The meeting chairs will appoint a Student Paper Committee who will be charged with selecting the best oral presentation and best poster presentations.  Students must notify the meeting chairs that they would like to be considered for a BSP award when submitting their abstracts.  Moreover, the student should be listed as primary author on their abstract.  Students submitting posters, will need to make arrangements for a 5 minute interview with the Student Paper Committee at the meeting.   For more information, see the ILSG Student Paper Award webpage.

MEETING SCHEDULE

Estimated driving distances to Ely are:  

ACCOMMODATIONS

All events for the 55th Annual Meeting will take place at the Grand Ely Lodge, Ely, Minnesota (http://www.grandelylodge.com/).  The Grand Ely Lodge has reserved a limited number of rooms for ILSG registrants. To make a reservation, call 218-365-6565 and request the ILSG rates ($99.95-standard room, $159.95-whirlpool room; $189.95-suite).  Rooms are going fast, so act quickly if you want to stay at the meeting site. These rates apply until April 3rd when the reserved rooms will be released. Participants are responsible for making their own reservations and for any penalties due to late cancellations (after April 21st). 

For a listing and map of other motels, resorts, and campgrounds in the Ely area, check out the Ely Tourism website.  

FIELD TRIPS

Based on the responses to the interest survey, all trips will likely fill to capacity.  Field trip registrations will be accepted on a first come-first served basis, based on the date that the registration was mailed (postmarked) or faxed.   Please be careful not to register for trips that overlap days. 

All field trips depart from and return to the Grand Ely Lodge.  (Trip 6 is the only 2-day trip involving an overnight away from Ely.)  Participants must arrive at least 20 minutes prior to departure time in the Gateway area of the lodge (coffee will be provided).  Note that guidebooks are not included in the cost of the trips.   Participants must purchase a guidebook separately when registering for the meeting.

Lunches and beverages will be provided on all field trips.  On Trip 6, a dinner (Sat) and breakfast (Sun) will also be provided.  Rock (and till) sampling will be allowed at most stops, however, sample bags will not be provided. Trips will run, rain or shine, so be prepared for all weather conditions.  However, if ice is not out on the lakes, trips 4 and 6 will be cancelled, with registrants receiving a full refund.

1) Cu-Ni Deposits of the Duluth Complex (Participant List)

Dates: Tuesday and Wednesday, May 5-6
Leaders: Rich Patelke - Polymet Mining
             Mark Severson – Natural Resources Research Institute (UMD)
             Dean Peterson - Duluth Metals Ltd. & Precambrian Research Center
             Tim Jefferson – Teck American
             Ernie Lehmann – Franconia Minerals
Description: This trip is intended to update participants on the resource evaluation and development status of several Cu-Ni-PGE projects along the base of the Duluth Complex.  The companies and deposit areas involved are the Polymet’s Northmet deposit, Teck’s Mesabi deposit, Franconia’s Birch Lake deposit, and Duluth Metal’s Nokomis deposit.  Drill core from all deposit areas will be on display and Polymet will provide a tour of the crushing, milling and tailings operations that they will be reusing from the old LTV taconite operation.
Participation Limit: 50
Cost: $55
Departure/Arrival: 8AM /6PM (Day 1); 8AM /5:30PM (Day 2)

2) Glacial geology of the Vermilion Moraine (Participant List)

Date: Wednesday, May 6
Leaders: Phil Larson – Cliffs Natural Resources
             Howard Mooers – Dept. of Geological Sciences (UMD)
Description: The Vermilion greenstone belt (VGB) hosts glaciogenic sediments deposited in a wide variety of glacial environments, both subglacial and proglacial and from subaqueous to subaerial. Glacigenic sediment composition in the VGB strongly and systematically reflects that of the underlying bedrock, and as such serves as a virtual laboratory of glacial sediment erosion and transport processes. This field trip will visit sites illustrating the diversity of glacigenic sedimentary deposits in the VGB, as well as the compositional variability of these sediments. A main theme explored on the field trip will be the interpretation of glacial sedimentological environments toward application of drift exploration techniques to glaciated shield terranes.
Participation Limit: 25
Cost: $35
Departure/Arrival: 8AM /5:30PM

3) Tour of the Soudan Iron Mine and Physics Lab (Participant List)

Date: Friday, May 8 (3:30-6:30)
Leaders: Dean Peterson – Duluth Metals Ltd & Precambrian Research Center
             James Pointer – MN Dept of Natural Resources, Parks and Rec                     Marvin Marshak – Department of Physics, Univ. of Minnesota Description:  The Soudan Underground Mine, which operated from 1882 until 1962, extracted Minnesota’s oldest, richest, and deepest iron orebodies.  Now a MN state park, this trip will provide an underground tour of  Level 27 (located 2341 feet below surface and 689 feet below sea level) and will include both the Historic Mine Tour and a tour of the High Energy Physics Lab (including the MINOS neutrino detector), where state-of-the-art physics experiments are investigating some of the most fundamental problems in modern physics.
Participation Limit: 42
Cost: $25
Departure/Arrival: 3:30-6:30 PM

4) Pioneer Mine Canoe Excursion (Participant List)

Date: Friday, May 8 (3:30-6:30)
Leader: Mark Jirsa - Minnesota Geological Survey
Description: The Pioneer Mine was one of the richest underground mines on the Vermilion Iron Range from its opening in 1888, until closure in 1967.   The iron-formation occurs as discontinuous layers and lenses within the Neoarchean Ely Greenstone.  The Pioneer Mine lies along an isoclinally folded trough, with nearly vertical limbs.  This short canoe trip down the axis of the trough explores exposures along the walls of the water-filled collapse crater that developed after mining ceased in upper workings and is now called Mine Lake (just 300m south of the Grand Ely Lodge).  Steeply dipping, pillowed metabasalt flows, lean and brecciated iron-formation, and a complex array of mafic intrusions are visible from the gunnels. 
Participation Limit: 30
Cost: $15
Departure/Arrival: 3:30-6:30 PM

5) Geology and Metamorphism of the Eastern Mesabi Range (Participant List)

Date: Saturday, May 9
Leaders: Dick Ojakangas - Dept. of Geological Sciences (UMD)
             Mark Severson - Natural Resources Research Institute (UMD)
             Doug Halverson – Cliffs Natural Resources
             Jeff Bird – Cliffs Natural Resources
             Tom Campbell – Cliffs Natural Resources
             Jared Lubben – Cliffs Natural Resources
             Peter Jongewaard – Cliffs Natural Resources
             William Everett – Mesabi Nugget
Description: The complete stratigraphic sequence of the eastern Mesabi Range will be viewed during this one day field trip. Units to be visited include Archean basement, Pokegama Formation, Biwabik Iron Formation (Lower Cherty, Lower Slaty, Upper Cherty, and Upper Slaty members), Virginia Formation, and Keweenawan intrusive rocks.  Stops will be in and near Cliffs Northshore's mining operations (Peter Mitchell Mine and inactive Dunka Pit), the Cliffs-Erie site (inactive LTV mine), and the proposed Mesaba Nugget facility. 
Participation Limit: 52
Cost: $35
Departure/Arrival: 8AM /6PM

6) Geology of the Lake One Troctolite by Canoe (Participant List)

Dates: Saturday and Sunday, May 9-10
Leader: Jim Miller - University of Minnesota Duluth
Description: This two-day trip will travel by canoe into the BWCA to investigate lakeshore exposures of the Lake One troctolite - the basal intrusion of the northwestern part of the Duluth Complex.  The trip will focus on the igneous stratigraphy of the intrusion and the variety of inclusions which it contains.  Participants (8 maximum for BWCA travel) will stay overnight on Saturday at the Kawishiwi Lodge, which is about 25 miles east of Ely. 
Participation Limit: 8
Cost: $75
Departure/Arrival: 8AM (Sat) /4:00PM (Sun)

7) Architecture of an Archean Greenstone Belt (Participant List)

Dates: Saturday and Sunday, May 9-10
Leaders: George Hudak – Dept. of Geology (UW-Oshkosh) and PRC
             Dean Peterson – Duluth Metals Ltd. and PRC
             Mark Jirsa – Minnesota Geological Survey
Description: This two-day trip will investigate numerous classic outcrops and new exposures of extremely well preserved Neoarchean metaplutonic, metavolcanic, and metasedimentary rocks in the Vermilion District and the Virginia Horn areas. Primary lithological features, syn- and post- volcanic hydrothermal alteration and deformation, and associated base metal and precious metal mineralization will be investigated.   We will portray our present understanding of this classic greenstone belt in the context of its geological architecture, highlighting the interrelationships between stratigraphy, structure, and mineralization.
Participation Limit: 42
Cost: $65
Departure/Arrival: 8AM /6PM (Sat); 8AM /4:00PM (Sun)