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GSA 2020 Annual Meeting

Welcome

“La Belle Province de Québec” is very proud to host the Annual Montréal is also the crossroad of North American and European
Meeting of the Geological Society of America. Montréal knows cultures, with a distinctly Québecois charm. Walk around the city
how to offer a warm welcome to meeting attendees because it and sample one of the numerous microbreweries or barista cafés.
hosts more international meetings than any other city in North For lunch and dinner, you’ll have a large choice of restaurants
America. It is a lively cosmopolitan city that offers a wide range of directed by world-known chefs preparing cuisines inspired from
activities in a very safe environment. It was named best city of the around the world, but preserving a Montréal style.
world to be a university student in 2017. Moreover, Montréal can GSA 2020 promises to be a success, with 254 topical sessions,
be described as a cultural and geological crossroad. 37 short courses, and five Pardee Symposia! There are also 15 field
It lies at the junction of four distinct geological entities. Located trips that cover everything that the regional geology has to offer. In
less than an hour drive away from the city center, the pleasant addition, the meeting will have activities for K–12 educators, early
Laurentians are the remaining vestiges of the Grenville Province, career geoscientists, a sparkling exhibit hall, and some surprise out-
the giant mountain belt of the Mesoproterozoic. The city sits on the reach and gathering activities!
St. Lawrence Lowlands, presenting the classical sedimentary sec- We are looking forward to welcoming you in Montréal,
tion reflecting the Cambrian rifting of the Grenvillian basement
followed by the passive margin of the Iapetus ocean that was then
closed in the Ordovician during the Taconian orogeny that initiated
the formation of the Appalachians. In Québec, this mountain belt,
which may still retain colorful foliage at the end of October, exposes
its fold-and-thrust belt and a spectacular ophiolite complex. The
Mont Royal, from which the name Montréal was derived, consti- Félix Gervais
tutes the green heart of the city center and is one of the Monteregian GSA 2020 General Chair
Hills. These mid-Cretaceous alkaline intrusions, composed of Associate Professor, Department of Civil,
unusual igneous rock types, form a swath of monadnocks through Geological and Mining Engineering,
the St. Lawrence Lowland and Appalachians foothills. Polytechnique Montréal