Port Townsend is no stranger to hosting musical performances, artists’ exhibits, authors’ readings and even presentations on historical or scientific subjects, but not everyone might be aware of the free talks offered by the Quimper Geological Society.

Geologists and cartographers have been mapping and interpreting glacial landforms since the late 19th century, work that provides important information for present maps, said Carol Serdar Tepper, an advisor to the Quimper Geological Society.

“The Washington Geological Survey has created new maps that build upon this rich cartographic history, by fusing older datasets and techniques with modern insights and technology, such as lidar,” said Serdar Tepper.

Dan Coe, graphics editor for the Washington Geological Survey of the Department of Natural Resources, will give the Quimper Geological Society’s guest lecture, “Mapping the Glacial Legacy of the Pacific Northwest.”

The event is being presented on Saturday, March 8, at the Port Townsend First Baptist Church.

“Dan’s lecture will focus on how the Puget lobe of the Cordilleran ice sheet, repeated ice age floods and expansive alpine glaciation have left their distinctive fingerprints on the topography of our region,” said Serdar Tepper.

Coe has been active in the mapping field for the past two decades, and has spent the past 15 years working specifically with geological data.

Although Coe is not a geological scientist himself, his job is to use maps to communicate geologists’ findings to the public, in ways they will be able to understand more easily.

“Maps are great for conveying spatial understanding,” Coe said. “And here in Washington state, there’s a lot of interest in that, because of how much glaciers have shaped our landscape. This whole region was under an ice sheet, about 15,000 years ago, and it left us with a very unique topography.”

Coe enjoys guiding people in connecting the geological events of the past to the landscapes that surround them today, “because with all the waterways those glaciers gouged out of the landscape, what happened in the past still impacts the environment we have to navigate every day today.”

Coe elaborated on how his cartographic duties benefit from high-tech tools including lidar, which stands for light detection and ranging, and which allows him to scan an area’s topography via laser, without worrying about obstructions that might compromise overhead photography.

“With lidar, I can map out the ground beneath the forests, and track the courses of ancient rivers,” Coe said. “It’s almost like taking x-rays of the earth’s surface.”

He praised the Quimper Geological Society for hosting his lecture, and noted how often the group presents similar speakers to address the public.

“They do a very good job of bringing informed speakers to this area, and even organizing field trips to other locations,” Coe said. “It doesn’t hurt that there’s a good number of geologists in the Port Townsend area to begin with, as well as members of the public with more than a passing interest in this sort of stuff.”

Coe reiterated the relevance of the region’s glacial history, pointing out that, “if you’ve rode the ferry, or drove across the Hood Canal Bridge,” then you already have a sense of how the aftermath of those ice sheets’ advances and recessions continue to affect our lives.

What to know

The Quimper Geological Society’s in-person-only lecture will start at 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 8, at the First Baptist Church, located at 1202 Lawrence St. in Port Townsend.

Doors open at 3:30 and donations are welcome.