Tracks and Traces with the Geraces: Three Decades of Geologic Research in the Bahamas

Founded in the early 1970s by Don and Kathy Gerace with the support of a consortium of small colleges in upstate New York, the Gerace Research Centre (GRC; formerly the Bahamian Field Station) on San Salvador Island has played an important and unique role for over three decades as a location for the study of carbonates geology. Because of the vision and hard work of the Geraces and that of the GRC staff, literally thousands of geology students and hundreds of geology faculty members and researchers have had the opportunity to investigate the diverse modern environments presented by the “natural laboratory” of a largely pristine, all-carbonates island and its well-exposed late Quaternary stratigraphic sequence.

In 1982, professional geologic conferences were initiated with The First Symposium on the Geology of the Bahamas convened by Jim Carew and Don Gerace. The 14th symposium of this highly successful biennial event took place earlier this year. The GRC publishes proceedings volumes from the symposia, as well as geologic field guides, and both types of publications have contributed a wealth of new information to the carbonates literature, ranging from paleontology to karst studies to geophysical surveys. Beginning in 1996, in conjunction with the Bahamas Symposium, the GRC has sponsored short field trips to other Bahamian islands, and field guides now have been published for six islands in addition to San Salvador.

Our research on San Salvador and elsewhere in the Bahamas has focused on the ichnology of modern environments and late Quaternary strata, the characteristics of carbonate eolianites, fossil and modern coral reefs, the coastal landscape, and eustatic sea-level change as recorded in the Bahamas. We hope we have left positive tracks and traces throughout, and we are greatly indebted to the Geraces for making our work possible.