JAN 12, 2001    College of DuPage Bldg. K Room 161 8:00 P.M.

"Door County, the Old and New" by Dr. Paul Ries, Chairman and Professor of Geology and Environmental Planning at Elmhurst College

Dr. Paul Ries, Chairman and Professor of Geology and Environmental Planning at Elmhurst College, will present a program on Door County, Wisconsin entitled "Door County, the Old and New" on Friday, January 12. Dr. Ries, a native of Wisconsin, has traveled many times to Door County since 1964. He uses the area for study in several of his classes, including physical geography, recreational geography, and environmental management. The program will utilize slides to show the physical beauty of the area as well as the cultural and economic activities which have changed greatly in recent years.

FEB 9, 2001      GENERAL MEETING 

CANADA DINOSAURS 

David and Sheila Bergman, ESCONI Members, will be discussing the dinosaurs of Canada.  They will present a program about their trip to Drumheller,Alberta, Canada.  They will show slides of the  Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, a dinosaur dig, Lake Louise, the Columbian Ice Field, the Burgess Shale, and Egg Mountain.  After the program, they will have fossil dinosaur bones on display. 

APRIL 13, 2001      GENERAL MEETING 

 "AN ARCHAEOLOGY DIG"

Mr. Larry Scheff, a volunteer at the Oriental Institute and at The Field Museum, will make a slide presentation about his visit many years ago to Ashkelon in Israel. This site has had a long and interesting history and was just featured in the January issue of National Geographic Magazine.

Related Web site is 

ORIENTAL INSTITUTE  

http://www-oi.uchicago.edu/OI/default.html 

MAY 11, 2001      GENERAL MEETING 

"Evolution on an Island Continent: The Fossil Mammal Fauna of South America" by Darrin Croft of the University of Chicago and the Field Museum.  

Not long after the dinosaurs went extinct, South America became isolated from both North America and Antarctica, with which it was previously connected.  This h ad profound implications for the mammal fauna of South America which, from that point on, evolved in almost total isolation.  In many regards, the Cenozoic mammal fauna of South America was much like that of Australia or Madagascar today.  However, many of these endemic mammals are now extinct due in part, at least, to the megafaunal extinction which took place in the late Pleistocene.  Dr. Croft will provide a tour through time of the diversity of South American fossil mammals and will discuss how they have influenced the present composition of New World Mammal Faunas.

  JUNE 8, 2001      GENERAL MEETING 

"Introduction to the Earth's Mantle" by Phil Janney   

 Earth's mantle makes up 7% of the Earth by volume but our knowledge of it is still rudimentary.  What we do know has been gathered from the study of relatively rare mantle zenoliths (which are brought to the surface in volcanic eruptions) and ophiolites (pieces of oceanic lithosphere attached to continents) scattered across the globe, as well as in direct inferences from seismic measurements and meteorites.  Phil will discuss what we know about the mantle from all of these sources, and concentrate on the mineralogy and petrography of mantle rocks brought to the surface in eruptions of volcanic rocks, such as kimberlites.

Web Sites of Interest

Field Museum

NOV 9, 2001      GENERAL MEETING 

                                 College of DuPage Bldg. K Room 161 8:00 P.M.

"Cleopatra and Her Time" by Frank Yurco, Egyptologist  

Ancient Egypt has always conjured up images of pyramids, mummies, dark incensed filled temples with her people so enamored with death and the afterlife. Not so, the ancient Egyptians, like  us, enjoyed evening banquets, loved the sun and the breeze of the Nile River and most of all enjoyed life - so much that they wanted to continue living even after the physical body ceased to be.  For 4000 years, this great civilization remained almost unchanged.  Discover the life of the ancient Egyptian from its Predynastic beginnings to the reign of the Great Cleopatra. 

Web Sites of Interest

Field Museum

ORIENTAL INSTITUTE  

http://www-oi.uchicago.edu/OI/default.html