Newsletter of the Mineralogical Society of America

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Volume 13, number 3, August 1997

Table of Contents                             Date last edited:07/03/98

MSA Arts council presents 1998 mineral calendar

The MSA Arts Council’s latest venture is the 1998 MSA Mineral Calendar. This calendar celebrates the aesthetic beauty of minerals as well as the wonders of their creation revealed through scientific studies. In doing so, this calendar is not only a source of beautiful mineral images, but also provides educational information for all mineral enthusiasts about recent advances in mineralogy. Each month you will find a stunning 9" x 11 1/2" photograph of a superlative mineral specimen from one of the participating museums*. In addition, inset in the monthly calendar page is an aesthetic scientific image from the research of mineralogists and petrologists in the MSA. These are accompanied by a short description of the image and its significance.

The MSA Arts Council was formed in March of 1993 to increase revenues and visibility of the society through sales of "artistic items". The MSA necktie, 75 year commemorative T-shirt, and the commemorative 25 and 50 year member pins are just a few of the items that we have designed and produced. Through the interests of its members and of the Society, the Arts Council has developed into an outreach arm of MSA with sales of products geared towards educating and advertising.

MSA members may purchase calendars through the business office using the publications order form which accompanies the American Mineralogist and the Lattice. Calendars will also be available at the MSA booth at this years GSA and AGU meetings. If successful, we plan to produce a calendar with this format annually. Should this happen, the Arts Council will hold an annual contest for the submission of scientific images from MSA members for inclusion in the calendar.

* The participating museums include: The A.. E. Seaman Mineralogical Museum, American Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Denver Museum of Natural History, Houston Museum of Natural Science, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and Harold and Erica Van Pelt, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institute, and the University of Delaware Mineralogical Museum.

MSA is publishing a new book for mineralogy teachers edited by John B. Brady, David W. Mogk and Dexter Perkins III. This sourcebook of classroom-tested exercises, activities, and teaching methods is a product of the Teaching Mineralogy Workshop held at Smith College in June 1996 with funding from NSF (DUE-9554635). It is packed with great ideas that could transform your mineralogy course. Check out the contents in this Lattice and see the Publications Order Form for ordering information.

In this last of my messages to you, I wish to continue my comments on the role of electron microscopy in mineralogy, geochemistry, and petrology. First, though, I want to join all the members of our society in thanking Rich Reeder and Ted Labotka for their four years of service as Editors of American Mineralogist, clearly the most arduous and important task we have to offer.  It also gives me great pleasure, however, to announce that  Anne Hofmeister and Bob Dymek, both of Washington University in Saint Louis, will be assuming the American Mineralogist Editorship. I am delighted that our journal will continue to be edited by such able and conscientious individuals.

But back to electrons.  I, like many of you, grew up loving and collecting minerals, rocks, and fossils.  Little did I know, as I was picking up everything from agates to basalt, that pioneers in electron physics and crystallography were making the basic contributions that were to lay the foundations for future applications of electron microscopy in the geological sciences.  Names like Cowley, Moodie, Hirsch, Howie, and Vainshtein come to mind.  As I noted in a previous letter, the transmission electron microscope was invented in the early 1930s, but it wasn't until the 1950s and 60s that the theoretical basis for the interpretation of images from crystals was laid.  Gradually, a clear picture of the role of defects in controlling the properties of simple metals emerged, but despite some major contributions, such as Zvyagin's classic book on electron diffraction of clays, work on minerals had to wait until the 1970s to come into full blossom.

Perhaps ironically, return of the lunar samples gave earth-science electron microscopy a big push, as can be seen by perusing the 1976 book Electron Microscopy in Mineralogy, edited by Wenk et al.  (I must say that lunar rocks gave us a somewhat warped view of minerals, due to the paucity of hydrogen, which is so important in most terrestrial processes.)  I also recall the amazement many of us felt upon the 1974 publication of the American Mineralogist paper by Buseck and Iijima, showing that the structures of minerals could be imaged directly using high-resolution TEM.  Since then, many wonderful studies have used the powerful combination of electron diffraction, amplitude-contrast imaging, and HRTEM to elucidate the structures of mineral defects and interfaces and, more important, to show us the role that these nonperiodic aspects of mineral structure play in crystal chemistry, crystal growth, and chemical reactions throughout the earth.  During the same period, rapid development of analytical electron microscopy (both x-ray emission and electron energy-loss spectroscopy) has allowed us to analyze remarkably small chemical heterogeneities in minerals.  Another healthy development has been the increasing number of studies that employ multiple experimental and theoretical approaches; TEM has become an important adjunct for investigations using more traditional analytical procedures, various types of spectroscopy, and high-pressure research using the diamond-anvil cell, to name a few areas.  I consider myself lucky indeed to have been scientifically active during this time of rapid discovery over the past twenty years.

Although electron microscopy is now over sixty years old, it is still undergoing surprisingly rapid development, with what to me are truly awesome capabilities already here or just around the corner.  True atomic-resolution microscopy is at hand, and we can obtain electron-diffraction information from structural regions smaller than the unit cells of most minerals.  New theoretical tools even allow us to interpret some of this information reliably!  In fortuitous cases, single atoms can be imaged, and there are indications that even chemical analysis of individual atoms may be feasible in some circumstances. Energy-filtered imaging and diffraction are in their infancy and show remarkable promise for future mineralogical investigations.  Although crystallographers probably shouldn't use crystal balls, I will stick my neck out and say that before I retire it may well be possible to image individual atoms of specific trace elements in crystals, for example. It isn't uncommon these days to hear people say that mineralogy is dead, but I don't think so.  My own view is that electron microscopy and numerous other rapidly developing technologies will make us key players in the future development of geochemistry, petrology, environmental science, and the materials sciences.  As pointed out by Gordon Brown in his presidential address last year, our science is changing, but opportunities abound.

This year has whizzed by, and it's hard to believe this is my last letter to you.  I've enjoyed working with so many of you, and it's good to know the MSA will be in the capable hands of Bruce Watson, not to mention all the other members who work so hard to keep the society moving ahead. 

Thanks for listening! With best regards,

At its Spring, 1997 Meeting, MSA Council voted to keep 1998 member dues at the 1997 cost of $40. Student dues will also remain unchanged at $30, as does the cost of a member subscription to American Mineralogist at $30. Institutional subscriptions to the journal are increased to $350 for subscribers with U.S. address and to $360 for subscribers with non-U.S. addresses. MSA membership renewals will be mailed in October, 1997. You can save your Society money by renewing early. If you reside overseas and are interested in faster delivery of the American Mineralogist, consider ordering International Surface Airlift service (ISAL) for the journal when you renew your member subscription. It costs $30 additional and will reduce shipping time from several months to 2-3 weeks, depending on your location.

In addition to the renewal notice, you will receive in October a copy of all information contained in your membership record with a request for you to update and return it. 1998 is the year a new MSA Membership Directory will be produced. At the moment it appears that there will be both a paper and electronic version of the Directory. The electronic version will be accessible through the MSA Home Page. If you have any comments about the new Directory, share them with an MSA officer or Council member.

MSA will again have a booth at the Fall AGU Meeting in San Francisco December 8-12, 1997. If you are attending the meeting, please stop by. If you have the time, consider volunteering to help with the booth.

The schedule for MSA’s events before and at the Salt Lake City GSA Meeting, October 17-23, 1997 is given in the accompanying table. The joint MSA-Geochemical Society Reception will again be a ticketed function. Tickets are sold by GSA and can be bought either when you register for the meeting or up to 24 hours before the event in the meeting registration area. Cost is $10 for professionals and $5 for students.

MSA is tentatively scheduled to have a booth at five meetings in 1998: Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, Tucson, AX, February 12-15; AGU Spring Meeting in its new location in Boston, MA, May 26-29; 17th General Meeting of the International Mineralogical Association, Toronto, ON, August 9-14; GSA Meeting, Toronto, ON, October 26-29; Fall AGU Meeting, San Francisco, CA, December.

A book review of Crystal Structures I: Patterns and Symmetry by M. O’Keefe and B. G. Hyde appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, v.119, pp. 3851-3852. A review of Chemical Weathering of Silicate Minerals, Reviews in Mineralogy volume 31, edited by A. F. White and S. L. Brantley appeared in Catena, volume 29, p. 85. If these reviews convince you to buy copies, use the Publication Order Form that appears elsewhere in this newsletter.

Remember, MSA reached an agreement with the Clay Mineral Society (CMS) wherein the members of either Society can purchase the publications of both Societies at member discount prices. CMS publication descriptions and order form can be obtained from the CMS Home Page: http://shadow.agry.purdue.edu/clay/claymin/claymins.html. When ordering, indicate that you are an MSA member entitled to a 25% discount.

The 50- and 25-year MSA membership pins were mailed to members in the early summer. There were 88 (16 overseas) members receiving 50-year pins, and 612 (218 overseas) members receiving 25-year pins. If you have not received a pin, and believe that you are entitled to one, please contact the MSA Business Office.

1997 is the 60-year anniversary of the incorporation of the Society. It was incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia. The paper work was submitted on June 17, 1937 by MSA members and District residents Norman L. Bowen, John F. Schairer, and Waldemar T. Schaller. This followed a Council decision to incorporate on December 28, 1936, but no reason was recorded for why this was done. The only immediate practical effect of incorporation was the suggestion to have a corporate seal. A seal committee was formed and the forerunner of the present MSA logo first appeared in 1946.

This issue of the Lattice contains reports by the MSA Treasurer and Financial Advisory Committee. These reports contain all the financial details, but you may be interested in a graphical summary of MSA income and expenses for 1996 by program. These are given in the two pie diagrams accompanying this column. Some explanation is required: Journal income includes member and institutional subscriptions, page charges, offprint sales, and author alteration charges. Books include MSA Reviews in Mineralogy, MSA Monographs, and the Mineralogical Society Series. Society expenses include the cost of MSA Council and the Committees, research grants, lectureship program, awards, the Lattice, balloting, renewal notices, and dues to the IMA and AGI. Administration expenses are the costs of arranging for the production and delivery of the journal, books, ballots, and newsletter; renewing members and subscribers; processing book orders and short course registration; answering inquiries; keeping the accounts; attending meetings; and organizing Society events and short courses. The administration costs are the organizational expenses of all other MSA programs.

MSA will sponsor symposia and theme sessions on three differing topics at the 1997 GSA meeting in Denver, Colorado. The MSA Symposium and an associated Theme Session are on the topic of the MSA Short Course: Geomicrobiology: interactions between microbes and minerals on Monday, October 20, 1996. In addition, there will be symposia and theme sessions on Environmental Mineralogy, jointly sponsored with the Clay Mineral Society, and Volatiles in Planetary Mantles and Basalts as a result of efforts by MSA’s Planetary Materials interest group.

MSA members have taken advantage of the Society's American Mineralogist Undergraduate (AMU) Award program to recognize outstanding students who have shown an interest and ability in the discipline of mineralogy. Each student was cited by his or her department for outstanding achievement in mineralogy-related courses. The AMU Awards allow MSA to join with the individual faculty to formally recognize outstanding students. Each student is presented a certificate at an awards ceremony at his or her university or college. In addition, each recipient receives a complimentary student membership, including the American Mineralogist, for 1997.

Deadlines for nominating students are January 1 and July 1 of each year. Mark these dates on your calendars and let us know about your exceptional student. If you are interested in presenting the award at a particular ceremony, please remember that time is required to produce certificates. To nominate a student, send a letter on departmental letterhead to Dr. J. Alexander Speer, MSA Business Office, 1015 Eighteenth St. NW Ste. 601, Washington, DC 20036-5274, USA. With the nomination, please include the student's full name that would be suitable for the certificate, the student's address that will be current at the time the award will be made (we receive returned mail from AMU awardees who have moved on), year in school, the MSA sponsor's name, and the date and brief description of the award ceremony at which the certificate will be presented. The letter must be signed or co-signed by the department chair.

The Society welcomes the following exceptional students to the program's honor roll and wishes to thank the sponsors for enabling MSA to recognize these outstanding individuals.

Megan L. Buchholz

Bryn Mawr College

Sarah K. Carmichael

Smith College

Erika Engstrom-Johnson

Arizona State University

Kim E. Gerke

University of Missouri - Rolla

Karen Lister

Acadia University

Nathan P. Mellott

Michigan State University

Romy D. Schneider

The University of Texas at Austin

We regret to announce the passing of the following MSA Members. The Society extends its condolences to the family and friends of these scientists.

John C. Griffiths, Life Fellow (1945)

Lincoln Page, Life Member (1938)

The MSA home page has a new location: http://www.science.smith.edu/geology/msa/msa.html. The new e-mail address for Darrell Henry, The Lattice Editor, is glhenr@unix1.sncc.slu.edu. The new e-mail addresses for Alex Speer, MSA Business Office, are: business@minsocam.org and j_a_speer@minsocam.org. Watch for additional changes in The Lattice and MSA web sites.

Many members contribute to the MSA Endowment, MSA Mineralogy/Petrology, and the Edward H. Kraus Crystallographic Research Funds each year by including a contribution along with their dues payments. The MSA Benefactor Committee, chaired by Donald Peacor, has also been soliciting contributions for the newer Outreach Fund. These four Funds support MSA's research grants in crystallography, mineralogy, and petrology; publishing of the American Mineralogist; the American Mineralogist Undergraduate Awards; the Mineralogical Society of America Award; the Public Service Award, the Roebling Medal; and the lectureship program. These Funds are described in more detail in the Financial Advisory Committee Report which appears in this issue. The contributions range from modest to generous. But they are effective. The Fund with the largest number of contributors is the Mineralogy/Petrology Fund and the persistence of these contributors’ generosity has permitted the Fund to reach the point where a $3500 student research grant is given each year.

In 1996, $8717 was contributed to your Society: Endowment ($3451), Kraus ($1066), and Mineralogy/Petrology Fund ($4200). In 1997, $4117 has been contributed as of July 1: Endowment ($1074), Kraus ($682), and Mineralogy/Petrology Fund ($2362). As part of the MSA’s Benefactor Program, $4106 was contributed to the Outreach Fund in 1996-7. If you have not done so previously, you might want to consider contributing at the next opportunity. Here we want to extend our gratitude to the following individuals:

1. During the last two months of 1996 the Editorial Office was transferred from its location in Ann Arbor, MI, to Washington, DC, where it shares quarters with MSA's Business Office. The Ann Arbor staff, including Managing Editor Tom Cichonski, Assistant Editor Heidi Williams, and Editorial Assistant Teresa Rogers, did not move to Washington. The new Managing Editor, Ms. Rachel Russell, started in early November, trained with outgoing Managing Editor Cichonski, and organized the office transfer. The Ann Arbor Editorial Office, which had been located there since 1989, officially closed on Dec. 31, 1996. The transfer to Washington, DC, establishes a permanent location for the Editorial Office.

Ms. Russell has over ten years of editorial experience in science publications; she was most recently managing editor of Bioscience, and previously was their production editor. She brings with her considerable experience in electronic and desk-top publishing. Other new staff members in Washington include Assistant Editor Everett Johnson and Editorial Assistant Anna Ewald.

2. New Associate Editors (serving through 1999) include: Gray Bebout (Lehigh), Brad Jolliff (Washington U.), Craig Manning (UCLA), Peter Nabelek (Missouri), and Lars Stixrude (GA Tech). Jonathan Stebbins, Nancy Ross, and Robert Luth have agreed to extend their terms for another year. We extend our sincere thanks to retiring Associate Editors Jean Morrison, Dexter Perkins, Paula Davidson, and Jonathan Berg.

3. Volume 81 contains 1564 total pages and is the largest volume since Volume 76 (which contained the Thompson issue). There are a total of 155 regular articles, which includes 148 scientific articles, New Mineral Names, and the Presidential Address, and a total of 11 letters. The total number of submissions in calendar year 1996 was 194, with 22 of these Letters. Rejections over this same period were 49, with 9 additional withdrawals, giving a rate of 30% (as a percentage of submissions). Of the 22 Letters, 5 were rejected or withdrawn and 6 were changed to regular articles.

4. Virtually all authors now provide disk copies of final revised manuscripts. Only a few manuscripts in Volume 81 were typeset from paper copies. This has allowed the Editorial Office to submit edited disk files to the press, which results in modest time and cost savings. Further improvements should increase these savings.

5. The American Mineralogist web page (http://ammin.gg.utk.edu) provides complete Table of Contents, contact information for editorial staff and associate editors, and some supplemental data. Early in 1997 abstracts of articles will be available as well as an updated edition of Information for Authors.

Theodore C. Labotka, Editor

Richard J. Reeder, Editor

As we reported last year the MSA Council approved a restructuring of the MSA Endowment at its Spring 1996 Meeting. As a result of that restructuring and the Council’s need for current information on the unrestricted balances in the various Funds in order to prepare their budget for the following year, the financial status of the MSA Funds is now being reported for a fiscal year ending on June 30th.

Money Market Account

The financial statements of the Society covering the final 1996 budget were examined by the accounting firm of Rubino & McGeehin, Chartered Public Accountants, Bethesda, MD. A summary from their report (Table 1) lists the assets and liabilities for each of the funds of the Society for 1996. Some differences in accounting practices account the greatest differences in most of the fund balances from 1995. The main one is that here the values are reported at fair market value, not on a cost basis (as they were in the 1995 fiscal-year audit). This reflects a change in accounting practices and guidelines for nonprofit organizations. For this reason a specific comparison against the 1995 budget report is not made here (but see August 1996 Lattice), although actual net increases in the Society’s funds during the fiscal year are summarized below. Also, the unrestricted part of the Roebling fund (formally the Reserve fund) has now been included in the general operating fund. Overall, the budget values agree well with the final 1996 actual budget approved by the council.

Most of the Society’s functions are reflected in the General Operating and Roebling funds. In addition, the Society now has four other funds for specific purposes. Net changes for these funds during fiscal year 1996, primarily reflecting investment income were: Mineralogical and Petrology fund: $29,039; Crystallographic Research fund: $15,228; MSA Endowment fund $5,668; Outreach fund $3,435. Overall, we have been blessed during the past two years by wise investments of these funds and particularly a strong market, as all of these funds have continued to grow at over 10% per year.

Summary of 1996 Budget activities. The society ran a small deficit in 1996 of $11,165; for comparison in 1995 the Society managed a small profit of $3343 (see August 1996 Lattice). Some large expenses in 1996 though were covered by withdrawals from funds. The main unusual items in the budget were the move of the American Mineralogist office to Washington, DC, to join with the Business Office, and purchase of new equipment for both offices. Overall, $89,241 was withdrawn from the Roebling fund per council to fund primarily these activities; net income to the combined General Operating and Roebling funds, including investment income and this withdrawal, was $3,798. Although most of the cost of the move was in 1996, some residual will carry over to 1997. Other unusual expenses arose as a result of staff turnover primarily associated with the office move (that is, unused leave; about the amount of the deficit, $10,230). Together these should be one-time expenses. The Reactive Transport short course came in on budget.

Overall, the Society did well financially this year. We were fortunate that the large expense associated with the office move came at a time of a favorable market, so the net value of all funds increased.

October

5-10    Fourth International Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry. Vail, Colorado. Details: 4^th ISEG, c/o USGS/CEGG, Federal Center, Box 25046, MS 973, Denver, CO 80225. Tel.: (303) 236-3200, E-mail: iseg@helios.cr.usgs.gov .

10-13    International Workshop on Continetal Roots. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Details: Bill McDonough, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, 20 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138. Tel.: (617) 496-2010, Fax: (617) 496-0434. E-mail: mcdonough@eps.harvard.edu. (Abstract deadline: September 1, 1997)

18-19    Ore Genesis and Exploration: the Roles of Organic Matter: A shortcourse sponsored by the Society of Economic Geologists. Salt Lake Cit, UT. Details: Richard M. Kettler, Dept. of Geology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln NE 68588-0340, USA, (402) 472-0882, Fax: (402) 472-4917, rkettler@unlinfo.unl.edu or Thomas Giordano, Dept. of Geological Sciences, Box 3AB, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001 USA, (505) 646-2511, Fax (505) (646) 1056, tgiordan@nmsu.edu.

20-23    Geological Society of America Annual Meeting. Salt Lake City, Utah. Details: GSA, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301. Tel.: (303) 447-2020, Fax: (303) 447-1133, WWW: http://www.geosociety.org/ meetings/97/index.htm.

November

13-14    Clay Mineral Evolution, Basin Maturity and Mudrock Properties. Nottingham, United Kingdom. Details: Dick Merriman or Simon Kemp, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK. Tel.: 01159-363417 or 01159-363448, Fax: 01159-363352, E-mail: r.merriman@bgs.ac.uk or s.kemp@bgs.ac.uk. .

December

8-10    Fall American Geophysical Union Meeting. San Francisco, California. Details: AGU meetings department, 1997 Fall Meeting, 2000 Florida Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. 20009. Tel.: (202)-462-6900 or 1-800-966-2481 (in USA), Fax: (202)-328-0566, E-mail: meetinginfo@kosmos.agu.com., WWW: http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm97call.html. (Abstract deadline: Sept. 3, 1997)

March

16-20 29^th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. Houston, Texas. Details: L. Simmons, Conference Administrator, LPI Publications and Program Services Department. 3600 Bay Area Blvd., Houston, TX 77058-1113.  Tel.: (281)-486-2158 Fax: (281)-486-2160, E-mail: simmons@lpi.jsc.nasa.gov, (Abstract Deadline: January 9, 1998).

April

13-17   7^th International Kimberlite Conference. Rondebosch, South Africa. Field trips April 6-12 and April 19-24. Details: J. Gurney, 7IKC, Dept. of Geol. Sci., University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, 7700, South Africa. Tel.: 27-21-531-3162 or 27-82-550-2004; Fax: 27-21-650-3783; E-mail: 7ikc@geology.uct.ac.za ; WWW: http://www.uct.ac.za/depts/geolsci/7ikc .

May

18-20    Geological Association of Canada/Mineralogical Association of Canada. Quebec, Canada. Details: A. Morin, Dept. Geologie et de genie geologique, Universite Laval, Pavillon Adrein-Pouliot Sainte-Fay, Quebec, G1K 7P4 Canada. Tel.: (418) 656-2193; Fax: (418) 656-7339; E-Mail: quebec1998@ggl.ulaval.ca ; WWW: http://www.ggl.ulaval.ca/quebec1998.html .

June

1-4 Pan American Current Research on Fluid Inclusions (PACROFI) VII. Las Vegas, Nevada. Details: Jean S. Cline, Dept. of Geoscience, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada  89154-4010. E Mail: jcline@nevada.edu; FAX: (702) 895-4064, WWW: http://www.geology.wisc.edu/~pbrown/fi.html (Abstract deadline: March 1, 1998)

July

4-11    Geological Society of America Penrose Conference on " Processes of Crustal Differentiation: Crust-Mantle Interactions". Verbania, Italy. Details: T. Rushmer, Dept. of Geology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405. Tel.: 802-656-8136; Fax: 802-656-0045; E-mail: trushmer@zoo.uvm.edu

August

9-14   17^th General Meeting of the International Mineralogical Association. Toronto, Canada. Details: A. J. Naldrett, Dept. of Geology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada M5S 3B1 Tel.: (416) 978-3030: Fax: (416) 978-3938; E-mail: ima98@quartz.geology utoronto.ca; WWW: http://www.geology.utoronto.ca/ima98

10-16 International Ophiolite Symposium and Field Excursion: "Generation and Emplacement of Ophiolites through Time". Oulo, Finland. Details: J. Vuollo, Dept. of Geology, University of Oulu, FIN-90570 Oulu, Finland. Fax: 358-81-5531484; E-mail: vuollo@sveka.oulu.fi or E. Hanski, Geol. Survey of Finland, P.O. Box 77, FIN-96101 Rovaniemi, Finland. Fax: 358-60-3297289; E-mail: eero.hanski@gsf.fi .

October

4-8 Symposium APIFIS (Asian and Pacific International Fluid Inclusion Society) II, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Details: Organizing committee, Block VII-47-40, Chilansar,Tashkent,96,700096,Uzbekistan CIS. Tel: +7 (3712) 78-06-30; +7 (3712) 33-70-69, , Fax: +7 (3712) 33-49-01 E-mail: mir@saturn.silk.org

26-29    Geological Society of America Annual Meeting. Toronto, Canada. Details: Geological Society of America, 3300 Penrose Place, Boulder, CO 80301. Tel.: (303)-447-2020, Fax: (303)-447-1133, WWW: http://geosociety.org/meetings/index.htm .

We welcome the following as members of the Society. The areas of interest on the application form have been increased in an attempt to cover the increasingly broader interests of our membership. They are: Mineralogy (MI), Crystallography/Crystal Chemistry (CC), Material Properties (PP), Igneous Petrology (IP), Metamorphic Petrology (MP), Sedimentary Petrology (SP), Geochemistry (GE), Phase Equilibria (PE), Economic Geology (EG), Clay Mineralogy (CM), Industrial Mineralogy (IM), Environmental Mineralogy (EM), Gems (GM), Planetary Materials (PM), Teaching (TC), Topologic Mineralogy (TP), and Others as indicated.

If you know of someone who would like to join MSA, or should join MSA, use the membership application appearing elsewhere in this issue of The Lattice or obtain one from either MSA’s home page (http://www.science.smith.edu/ geology/msa/msa.html ) or the MSA Business Office, 1015 Eighteenth Street, N.W., Suite 601, Washington, DC 20036-5274, USA.