2017 AASG/GSA Frye Award to be presented to Colorado

At GSA in Seattle, this year’s Frye Award will be presented to Colorado authors. The Frye Award is named for John C. Frye, who joined USGS in 1938, he went to the Kansas Geological Survey in 1942, he was its Director from 1945 to 1954, he was Chief of the Illinois State Geological Survey until 1974, and he was GSA Executive Director until his retirement in 1982, shortly before his death. John was active in AASG and on national committees, and was influential in the growth of environmental geology. The John C. Frye Memorial Award is given each year to a nominated environmental geology publication released in the current year or one of the three preceding calendar years, either by GSA or by a state geological survey. The nominated publications identify a geologically based environmental issue such as water resources, engineering geology and hazards, provide sound and substantive information pertinent to the problem, relate geology to the issue, and present information directly usable by geologists, other professionals such as land-use planners and engineers, and ideally also by informed laypersons. The selection committee assesses uniqueness, significance as a model, and overall worthiness. Again, all of the nominations this year were superb, and the competition was very close, although one nominated publication stood above the rest, and the committee was unanimous in their choice. The 2017 recipient of the John C. Frye Memorial Award therefore will be: The West Salt Creek Landslide: A Catastrophic Rockslide and Rock/Debris Avalanche in Mesa County, Colorado, 2015, by Jonathan L. White, Matthew L. Morgan, and Karen A. Berry, Colorado Geological Survey Bulletin 55, 57 p.