Annual Conference

2023 NEIGC Announcement

NEIGC 2023 – Field Trips in Northern Maine and Western New Brunswick
Oct 6-Oct 8

Hosted by the University of Maine at Presque Isle, Presque Isle, Maine

GO to the  NEIGC 2023 Website for postings of field trips and registration information

Please mark your calendar and join us this fall for the NEIGC 2023 field trips in northern Maine and western New Brunswick, during the first weekend of October (6–8). 

The NEIGC 2023 will be hosted by the University of Maine at Presque Isle, a small but beautiful campus located in Aroostook County, the largest county east of the Mississippi River, known for its potato farms, North Maine Woods, and Acadian culture. It will be dedicated to Dr. Robert Marvinney, who served for 26 years as State Geologist and Director of the Bureau of Resources and Land Use Planning and for 34 Years as a geologist with the Maine Geological Survey. His contributions to Maine geology research have spanned more than 40 years. In recent years, Dr. Robert Marvinney played a critical leadership role in the USGS-funded STATEMAP and Earth MRI bedrock geologic mapping and airborne geophysical survey projects in northern Maine that have led to breakthroughs in the study of Maine Northern Appalachian geology and tectonics and to discovery of the Pennington Mountain REE-Zr-Nb deposit. The NEIGC 2023 will also honor pioneer geologists Gary Boone, Bill Forbes, Brad Hall, and David Roy who have made historic and significant contributions to the study of geology in northern Maine. 

In addition to field trips in Northern Maine, with collaboration from the University of New Brunswick Department of Earth Sciences and the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development (Canada), a couple of trips will run across the border, in western New Brunswick, making the NEICG 2023 an international event. Field trips will include bedrock geology, economic geology, Quaternary and glacial geology, as well as geo-archaeology. Bedrock geologic trips will cover all the major lithotectonic belts and terranes in northern Maine and western New Brunswick, including, from northwest to southeast, Connecticut Valley-Gaspé, Munsungun-Winterville (a newly identified peri-Laurentia massif), Weeksboro-Lunksoos Lake, Number Nine Mountain, Aroostook-Matapedia, and Miramichi/Meductic.

The NEIGC (New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference) is an annual conference with three days of geologic field trips scheduled on a weekend in early October. Generally, there are 4–6 separate field trips each day led by geologists with different themes and in different areas in the region where it is held. Attendees include college faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students, and professional and amateur geologists from New England and beyond. Due to its unique field trip style, the NEIGC is the most attractive geologic conference in New England and Northeastern America. The NEIGC has a long history. It began in 1901 with a geologic field trip led by William Morris Davis (a Harvard professor, known as the “Father of American geography”) to the Westfield River in south-central Massachusetts, reported in a paper in American Journal of Science. The conference has met annually since that time, except during World War I, a two-year gap during 1913 and 1914, and another two-year gap during 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. NEIGC may be the oldest scientific “non-organization” in North America whose sole purpose is to organize and present geologic field trips in areas of recent geologic mapping and topical studies.

This will be the second time the NEIGC is held in Aroostook County, the most remote and pristine part of New England. The first and the last one was in 1980, organized by Drs. David Roy (Boston College) and Richard Naylor (Northeastern University) and facilitated by Bill Forbes (University of Maine at Presque Isle). 

The NEIGC 2023 will provide a great but rare opportunity to people in the south and from afar to head north to visit the County and examine the wonderful and unique geology of the Northern Maine Appalachians, as well as the beautiful landscape during a peak foliage week, where there are few traffic lights and few people but large population of wildlife. The Presque Isle area offers great lodging and camping facilities and excellent restaurants. The organizer, Dr. Chunzeng Wang, and the host, the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI), intend to make the NEIGC 2023 the best one ever: concerted and successful fundraising will reduce the financial burden for all student attendants. UMPI officials have reserved the fitness center, Gentile Hall, for indoor camping, particularly for student attendants, for free. Registration will be open in late August 2023. Please check the NEIGC 2023 website and the NEIGC website and Facebook page for update. Please contact Dr. Chunzeng Wang (chunzeng.wang@maine.edu) for any questions and information about the NEIGC 2023.

Educators and professional geologists can download this Certificate of Attendance for professional development. You will need to bring it and have it dated and signed by the field trip leader. We can thank Chris Dorian from C.C. Dorian Geological Services for the suggestion and implementation. (Download certificate.)