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Dear colleagues and friends, At the upcoming Geological Association of Canada (GAC) conference, to be held in St. John's, Nfld. we are convening a symposium (and associated field trip) called: Collision Tectonics and Terranes: The Appalachian-Caledonian Symposium: a Celebration of the Career of Hank Williams, which will provide a venue for the presentation of new research concerning the opening and closing of the Iapetus and Rheic oceans, which gave rise to the Appalachian-Caledonian - Variscan mountain belts; the assembly of Laurussia and Pangea; the provenance and evolution of the various terranes caught-up in these oceans, and the origin and development of bends of the Pangean orogenic belts. In addition, we encourage talks on other mountain belts so as to stimulate discussions of comparative orogenesis and particularly on how and why orogens differ. Conveners: Cees van Staal, Stephen Johnson, Dennis Brown & John Waldron The chairs invite accepted presenters to submit a manuscript for inclusion in a forthcoming special volume of Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences in honour of Hank Williams. Keynote and invited speakers: John Dewey (emeritus Universities of Oxford and UC Davis), Mike Brown (University of Maryland) We hope you will be interested in participating in this Symposium and submit an abstract for a talk or poster. Also, please share this email with others (colleagues, students, fellow students) that may be interested in attending. The Structural Geology and Tectonics Division of GAC may sponsor a student to go on the fieldtrip. If you'd like to know the details, please contact John Waldron at the University of Alberta ([log in to unmask]). Associated fieldtrip ACCRETED TERRANES OF THE APPALACHIAN OROGEN IN NEWFOUNDLAND: IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF HANK WILLIAMS Dates: Tuesday May 22nd - Saturday May 26th Leaders: Cees van Staal and Alexandre Zagorevski, Geological Survey of Canada. Summary: Due to its extensive and magnificent coastal exposures and numerous multi-disciplinary investigations over the last thirty years, Newfoundland has become the type area for the northeastern Appalachian Orogen, and was a critical natural laboratory in the application of the plate tectonic theory to ancient mountain belts. This excursion provides a cross-section through the Appalachian Orogen, focused largely upon the accreted terranes derived from island-arcs of the Iapetus Ocean, and microcontinental blocks of both Laurentian and Gondwanan affinities. The excursion will explore how ideas on the tectonic evolution of the Appalachian Orogen have changed with our growing knowledge of modern analogues, and with the advent of high-precision geochronology. The excursion is focused on volcanic and sedimentary rocks and their structural evolution, but will also include aspects of magmatic evolution, and the linkages between lithotectonic terranes and economic mineralization. Last, but not least, it will highlight the prescient and enduring contributions of the late Harold (Hank) Williams to our understanding of this classic and important region. Other Information: Trip commences the morning of Tuesday May 22nd in Stephenville, NL and ends Saturday afternoon/evening in St. John's; participants must make their own travel arrangements to Deer Lake or Stephenville, where they will be picked up. Most locations are easily accessible roadside or coastal outcrops. Time flies and the formal abstract deadline is coming up shortly (Jan. 27). For on-line submission and other conference details, please see the website at: http://stjohns2012.ca/ Kind regards and we hope to see you there, Cees van Staal on behalf of the conveners [log in to unmask]