We celebrate having met the $7,000 goal, and with 30 days to spare! We are declaring victory. The whole Rincon Tectonics Team, and our partners in the community (e.g., Saguaro National Park and Pima County Parks and Recreation), are grateful to all who contributed. It has been touching to witness the response, not only in the form of gifts small and large, but the ‘tributes’ that accompanied the giving. This dimension was unexpected to those of us new to ‘crowdfunding’. I personally have found it to be a particularly personal and meaningful dimension of this approach in supporting discovery and learning.

The deadline for preparing our Geological Society of America ‘keynote’ presentation is fast approaching, and we are of course ‘scrambling’ to bring as many data and ideas to bear as possible. Then we will continue with manuscript preparation with an intent to make an impact. Our story includes the spectacular rock fabrics/textures produced under conditions of extreme shearing and high temperatures. In one of the accompanying photos, we see fractured purple garnets suspended in ‘ribbons’ of quartz and mica that have flowed like butter. In the other, we see ‘survivor’ feldspar crystals that fractured and rotated while flowing in sheared quartz. Look carefully and you will see that the feldspars have ‘wings’ that disclose for us the sense of movement.

Finally, we look forward to a time when it will be possible again to go to the field in large unmasked groups, and when this condition arrives I will extend invitations to all those who have supported us in this ‘crowdfunding’ so that we may convene in the Rincons for a sharing of some of what was learned and accomplished.

On behalf of the whole team,

George Davis

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