Participant Comments

Unanimously, participants thanked Dave Williams for doing a great job organizing the workshop, and to Christine Martin for her help with the logistics!  Here's more of what they had to say about the workshop.

The workshop and field conference went well. I think the presentations were good and despite the rain on Tuesday, we had two good days in the field.
Dave Williams, Kentucky Geological Survey

The meeting went very well. Attendance was high and there was a good set of presentations, which were all informative and pertinent. It rained during much of the 1st day field trip, but not hard enough to wash us out. The cone-penetration truck was a big hit and the data collected will be very valuable. The field trip stops generated good discussions- for me this was the highlight of the meeting. I got to spend quality time with Dave Moore and we outlined a strategy for USGS mapping activity. The seeds for at least one external NEHRP proposal (Erik Kvale, IGS and Drew Andrews, KGS) were planted to conduct research on the Quaternary subsurface. What they have planned would be an excellent scientific contribution. I told them that I would cooperate with them by trying  to get my Team's drill rig to core some drill holes in critical areas.
Richard W Harrison, USGS

It was a well organized conference and I learned a lot.  A couple thoughts for improvement:  1) Warn people to bring mud boots! 2)  I would have liked to see more discussion about how to make sure that on both sides of the river units were mapped so that the correlations between seismic velocity and lithology were the same.
Jennifer Haase, Purdue University

I had a blast and learned a great deal.  I'm looking forward to starting a study on paleovalley fill down there and look forward to working with the KGS on it.  My only comment with regard to the fieldtrips is that it would have been nice to have had a handout on  the relative stratigraphy of the paleosols and loess deposits.
Erik Kvale, Indiana Geological Survey

We need to do another trip when we are closer to our deliverable and starting to think about Owensboro in a serious way. We should focus the attendance on field-oriented people (Rich Harrison and Dave Moore, John Nelson and Don McKay, Andrew Phillips, Kvale and Bleuer again, Ron, Steve Martin, me, you...) and instead of encouraging conversation on alterative hypotheses etc (which is what I tried to do this time), focus on our results, and present it as a field defense of our first mapping project. The food was good and the logistics were fine. This trip was SUPPOSED to be informal, and exploratory... so I think the amount of written info we provided was adequate for the goals of the trip. For the next one, I think we should put together more comprehensive background, context, and data for each stop, etc.... not quite a full-blown published field trip, but a rough draft of one. After April/May, I intend to be more actively involved in the mapping project.
Drew William, Kentucky Geological Survey

Meeting was great, food was fine, field stops covered a lot.  This all worked out well.  Would have liked a road type map with stops for the first day.  The ones for the second day that Ron put together overnight helped with driving and the overall picture of what was going on! Overall this helped me see more of what KY and IN are mapping and their problems of interpretation, etc.  Another one in the future would be fine to see what is being mapped - but the greatest benefit to the mappers would be to bring in a group to discuss interpretations and how to go about gathering information to get to the answer.
Bob Bauer, Illinois Geological Survey