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Silvia Ramos-Hernandez of the Universidad de Ciencias y Artes in the annual CARIBE WAVE exercise in tsunami preparedness
de Chiapas leads a field trip to examine fluvial and coastal
stratigraphy along the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico.
organized symposia that featured student and faculty research.
At the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez, each undergraduate
geology major completes two independent research projects,
several of which were exhibited in the student poster session
of the geology department’s 31st Annual Symposium on
Caribbean Geology.
At the Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral (ESPOL) in
Guayaquil, Ecuador, a short course for 40 students included a day
of presentations followed by a two-day field trip to investigate
Holocene coastal stratigraphy and volcanic tephras. Many proudly
donned field vests emblazoned with the ESPOL geology logo, sold
as a fund-raiser by the student geology club. The timely impor-
tance of this type of educational program in geologic hazards was
brought home by the occurrence of a devastating Mw7.8 earth-
quake that struck the same section of coastal Ecuador on 16 April
2016, six months after our field excursion. Similar courses
throughout this tectonically active region are developing the next
generation of professionals to lead public education and prepara-
tions for future earthquakes.
The general public in Latin America is, in my experience, recep-
tive to and interested in the earth sciences. During our fieldwork
in Chile, many rural residents gave detailed testimonials of their
experiences during the 1960 and 2010 tsunamis and were
intrigued by our geological investigations of those events. The
experiences recounted by the director of the Instituto de Geología
at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM),
Elena Centeno, illuminated some of the roles played by the
Institutes of Geology and Geography as societal resources for
solving geoscience problems. These ranged from explaining the
sudden disappearance of a river and local water supply into a karst
sinkhole to consultation on forensic geology in legal cases.
My final stop, the EcoExploratorio science museum in Puerto
Rico, has a mission to promote the spirit of exploration in
everyone, which is resonant of the spirit of scientific curiosity
expressed in the journals of the young Charles Darwin. Here I
gave my presentation to an eclectic group of local citizens in
tandem with Christa von Hillebrandt, director of the Caribbean
Tsunami Warning Program, who encouraged public participation
GSA TODAY | www.geosociety.org/gsatoday
throughout the Caribbean. Through the persistent determination
of its staff and founders, I have every reason to expect that by my
next visit, the EcoExploratorio will have moved from its present
quarters in a San Juan shopping mall to the modern building
inspired by the DNA double helix, currently a 3D model in a
display window there.
What was the highlight of this GSA lecture tour? The “modern-
day Darwins” I met along the way. These young researchers and
students embody the promising ability and enthusiasm for
geology of the young man who set off on a voyage around the
world 200 years ago and whose careful observations and
thoughtful syntheses led to scientific interpretations that continue
to evolve into the present day.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Geological Society of America Thompson International
Distinguished Lecture Tours are named after the former Harvard
Professor James B. Thompson, Jr., whose bequest to GSA contrib-
uted to the endowment of two lecture tours. The research
presented in this GSA International Lecture tour was supported
by National Geographic Society Grant 8577-08 and U.S. National
Science Foundation grants EAR-1036057 and EAR-1145170.
The Geological Society of America Thompson International Distinguished
Lecture Tours are named after the former Harvard Professor James B. Thompson,
Jr., whose bequest to GSA contributed to the endowment of two lecture tours, one
by a North American scientist to international universities and geological insti-
tutions and a parallel tour by a non–North American scientist within North
America. The goal is to send abroad established speakers on topics at the forefront
of research to raise GSA’s visibility within the international geoscience commu-
nity and communicate the importance and relevance of the geosciences in a
global context. Both tours are arranged under the guidance of GSA International
(see www.geosociety.org/GSA_International).
REFERENCES CITED
Darwin, C., 1839, Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships
Adventure and Beagle, between the Years 1826 and 1836 Describing their
Examination of the Southern Shores of South America, and the Beagle’s
Circumnavigation of the Globe, in Three Volumes. Vol. III: Journal and
Remarks. 1832–1836, by Charles Darwin, Esq, M.A.: London, Henry
Colburn.
Ely, L.L., Cisternas, M., Wesson, R.W., and Dura, T., 2014, Five centuries of
tsunamis and land-level changes in the overlapping rupture area of the
1960 and 2010 Chilean earthquakes: Geology, v. 42, p. 995–998, doi:
10.1130/G35830.1.
FitzRoy, R.N., 1839, Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships
Adventure and Beagle, between the Years 1826 and 1836 Describing their
Examination of the Southern Shores of South America, and the Beagle’s
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Wesson, R.L., Melnick, D., Cisternas, M., Moreno, M., and Ely, L.L., 2015,
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