GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING

Date: March 2, 2026
Social Time: 7:00 pm
Meeting Time: 7:30 pm
Location: In-Person at GMS and Virtual via Zoom (link is on the GMS calendar here)
Speaker: Speleologist and Geologist Liana (Lee) Boop, PhD
Topic: “Caves of Northwest Georgia”

Dr. Boop’s talk will cover the geology that has made the Tennessee - Alabama - Georgia, or “TAG” region world famous for cave development. We will consider how bedrock that is made of limestone creates unique landscape features (karst). Cave enthusiasts from around the world travel to this area for its deep pits, and locals and visitors alike marvel at the area’s beautiful cave formations (speleothems).

Liana has been interested in geology since a young age. As a little girl, she chiseled garnet crystals from the schist in her backyard in Connecticut, and noticed that the schist at a nearby park also had amphibole in it. Many years later, while teaching introductory geology to college students, she realized that she had created a fragment of a metamorphic facies map! Liana graduated from the University of Connecticut (2007; BS Environmental Science) and the University of South Florida (2014; PhD Geology) and is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech).

Program Chair’s Note: Liana’s graduate research was in Paleoclimate and Geochemistry, related to speleothems in Majorca ’s Mediterranean tidal caves. Her research included chemical analysis of minerals in the cave formations as indicators for sea levels during past glaciations. She is a member of the National Speleological Society, and has been exploring caves for the past 20 years (including Alaska and Puerto Vallarta).

Sue Gorday
Vice President of Programs

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General meetings are usually on the first Monday of the month. If this date falls on a holiday, the general meeting will be on the SECOND Monday of the month. In September, the annual picnic and auction replaces the general meeting and is held on a Saturday.