ABSTRACT Born in Chicago, Illinois, I am a beneficiary of doors being opened during the 1960s. I was able to attend the University of Chicago Laboratory High School, and after high school, I attended Michigan Technological University. Thinking I’d like to become an architect, I enrolled in the civil engineering program. During orientation week, I discovered the geology department, and as my first class as a civil engineering major was Principles of Geology, it wasn’t long before the hook was set! However, I never really considered a career as a geologist after college because I assumed the draft and the Vietnam War would determine my ultimate fate. But I wasn’t drafted, and, ultimately, I took a job with Shell Oil Company in New Orleans as an “engineer,” though I had a geology degree. Realizing this was not the job I wanted or the place I wanted to be, I sought an adventure by going to the University of Alaska to get a master’s degree. This led to many more adventures and challenges as I learned to adapt to a new environment far different from my past experience. As I finished the master’s degree, I was invited to join the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and began a long career with the Alaska group of the USGS. It, too, has been one continuing adventure, working with and learning from some amazing people through the years. I only hope that others can find their way to their own adventures in the geosciences. There have been barriers thrown up along the way at times, sometimes reflecting that I’m African American. Yet, in all cases, I’ve found ways to adapt or overcome. My style has been to get along, but sometimes I’ve needed to push through barriers to accomplish my goal at the time.

ABSTRACT I have been fascinated by science ever since childhood, through college, during 30 years with the U.S. Geological Survey, and to this day. Younger and smaller than my urban elementary and high-school peers, I developed a great curiosity about the outdoors early in my life. Through capturing specimens and placing them in home terrariums, building plastic models, and attending school science fairs, I looked to learn all I could about the world of science. Yet, in a span of a few years, I went from gifted student to college dropout. After breaking away from school for three years as a college sophomore, I finally found the inspiration, confidence, and an environment for success in the U.S. Army. Taking chances and making changes to live my new dream of being a geologist, I worked in lunar- and Mars-like areas of the Columbia River Plateau and at a workplace staffed by scientists I had seen on television as a teen. I made opportunities or took those that came along to help me reach my goals and became a professional geoscientist, entering perhaps the least diverse of all the sciences. There were wonderful experiences that I had, through outreach programs, activities, and the personal involvement of caring and forthright people. There were other experiences or circumstances, perpetuated against me by people with uncaring, antisocial, and even antiscience motives. Having addressed my own insecurities, I took on these extra challenges and found ways of ignoring or overcoming hatred and contempt by finding and grasping the outreaching hands that wanted to make lasting changes in our profession. Through it all, I persevered and achieved goals and happiness I had previously only dreamed of. Aside from perhaps leaving a scientific or management legacy, I also strove to help as many other underrepresented, underserved, and overlooked students as I could. Content Warning: This chapter contains several instances of a racist slur. The editors have chosen to leave this language intact in order to most faithfully convey the power of the author’s experience.

Abstract The Walcott Quarry was discovered in 1909 by the Smithsonian Institute's Charles Doolittle Walcott (1850–1927). The Cambrian Burgess Shale (505 Ma, Miaolingian) crops out in the quarry and the lagerstätte is the nexus of ongoing vigorous debate about fossil preservation (including taphonomy and diagenesis), taxonomy, classification, phylogeny, and the origin of phyla and baupläne. Smithsonian Institute's field crews collected from 1909–24, and the quarry was subsequently expanded by Harvard University (1930), the Canadian Geological Survey (1966–67), and the Royal Ontario Museum (1992–2000). Approximately 250 000 fossils, including soft-bodied forms, have been collected, making the Walcott Quarry with exposures of the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, a significant geoheritage site and an important representation of the Cambrian Explosion.

Abstract Geological maps document knowledge of considerable value (economic, cultural and aesthetic) for societies, enterprises and people in general. Knowledge illustrated in geological maps also helps us to foresee how landscape interventions and climate change may affect our living ground and make us vulnerable to geohazards. The present paper presents an overview of geological mapping carried out by the Geological Survey of Norway since 1858 while also focusing on mapping activities and products produced in the present millennium. Key issues to consider are how we are moving into the digital world, how we use geological mapping to follow up on national agendas like Green Shift and Blue Growth and how national agreements and cooperation help us to make geological and other geographic information available to everyone through open access web portals and services.

Abstract Today's geoscience challenges often require repurposing of data and samples from legacy boreholes. Collection of new deep core is expensive; maximizing this investment is vital. However, the condition of legacy cores varies due to factors including recovery, sampling, lithology, and storage. Rock Quality Designation analysis is often undertaken on new core but this only provides a snapshot of core condition and will not be indicative of subsequent condition. Poor core condition can make destructive analytical techniques impossible and also impacts non-destructive techniques including core scanning. Since 2011, BGS have systematically collected 125 000 core images. This study investigates if core condition of this archive can be assessed using automated analysis by machine learning. A neural network-based approach was used to segment these images. By differentiating imaged core from their background, properties such as number of fragments and total rock area were determined and used to assess core condition. Analysis of outputs demonstrates that with minimal input data, core condition can be rapidly assessed. This allows users to better understand and visualize core. This can be used to qualitatively assess non-destructive data, improve success of destructive sampling through targeted sampling and reduce the time and effort spent interacting with physical material.