Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois - ESCONI

Saxon Princess

Via the Windsor Star:

Archeologists have hailed as a "glorious moment" the discovery in Germany of the mortal remains of Saxon princess Eadgyth, who married the future Holy Roman Emperor Otto I more than 1,000 years ago.

Following detailed analysis, an international team of over 30 researchers confirmed a tomb found in Magdeburg Cathedral in 2008 belonged to Eadgyth -- a granddaughter of Alfred the Great -- who married Otto, heir to the throne of Saxony, in 929.

Climate Change 2.7 Million Years Ago

Via National Science Foundation:

... a research team led by Brown University has established that the climate in the tropics over at least the last 2.7 million years changed in lockstep with the cyclical spread and retreat of ice sheets thousands of miles away in the Northern Hemisphere. The findings appear to cement the link between the recent Ice Ages and temperature changes in tropical oceans....

Canyon Making

Via PhysOrg:

In the summer of 2002, a week of heavy rains in Central Texas caused Canyon Lake -- the reservoir of the Canyon Dam -- to flood over its spillway and down the Guadalupe River Valley in a planned diversion to save the dam from catastrophic failure. The flood, which continued for six weeks, stripped the valley of mesquite, oak trees, and soil; destroyed a bridge; and plucked meter-wide boulders from the ground. And, in a remarkable demonstration of the power of raging waters, the flood excavated a 2.2-kilometer-long, 7-meter-deep canyon in the bedrock.

Particle Physics For Geology

Via Princeton University:

An international team including scientists from Princeton University has detected subatomic particles deep within the Earth's interior. The discovery could help geologists understand how reactions taking place in the planet's interior affect events on the surface such as earthquakes and volcanoes.

National Fossil Day

Get ready.... National Fossil Day, October 13 (hat tip - Peter).

Snowball Earth

Via Futurity:

New evidence uncovered by a team of Princeton geologists suggests that an episode 720 million years ago called “snowball Earth,” which may have covered the continents and oceans in a thick sheet of ice, produced a dramatic change in the carbon cycle.

Australopithecus afarensis

Via Discovery OnLine:

Scientists may have found the great, great, great, etc., grandfather of the famous fossil Lucy.

A new partial skeleton of an early hominid known as Australopithecus afarensis was discovered in a mud flat of the Afar region of Ethiopia.

Western Canadian Fossils

Via MSNBC:

These storms could also help explain why fossils are so abundant in the badlands of western Canada overall, "and why they are often found preserved so exquisitely," Eberth said.

Coastal floodplains such as those seen in modern Bangladesh can cover vast areas, with flooding killing hundreds of thousands of livestock, not to mention the human tragedies that occur.

"Because of their size and the scale of the flooding, dinosaurs could not escape the coastal floodwaters and would have been killed in large numbers," Eberth explained

Mammoths and Mastodons Exhibit at Field Museum

Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age Exhibition runs March 5, 2010 - September 6, 2010 at the Field Museum.

Science Networking

How to network for a science career...

Water Present At Birth of Earth?

Via Science Daily:

Tiny variations in the isotopic composition of silver in meteorites and Earth rocks are helping scientists put together a timetable of how our planet was assembled beginning 4.568 billion years ago. The new study, published in the journal Science, indicates that water and other key volatiles may have been present in at least some of Earth's original building blocks, rather than acquired later from comets, as some scientists have suggested.

Coprolite Mystery in Indiana

Via ScienceBlogs:

Time and again I have stressed that every fossil bone tells a story, and, in a different way, so do coprolites. They are small snapshots of a moment in the life of an organism, often preserving bits of their meals, and while they may not get top billing in museum halls, they are among the most pungent reminders that weird and wonderful organisms really did live during the remote past.

As reported by paleontologists James Farlow, Karen Chin, Anne Argast, and Sean Poppy in the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, two such vestiges of ancient digestive systems have recently been found in Indiana, but what left them is something of a mystery.... read more

Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS)

About COPUS:

The Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS) is a grassroots effort whose goal is to engage sectors of the public in science to increase their understanding of the nature of science and its value to society. A key objective of COPUS is to create new forums for communication and to develop new opportunities for engaging the public with science.

We invite your organization to join this coalition and to work with others in your community to engage the general public in dynamic ways that will make science more accessible, personally meaningful, and locally relevant.

Ancient Icebox Found

Via Xinhuanet:

Archeologists in northwest China's Shaanxi Province said Wednesday they had found a primitive "icebox" dating back at least 2,000 years...

New Estrucan Home Found

Via a blog called Archaelogy News Network:

An ancient Etruscan home dating back more than 2,400 years has been discovered outside Grosseto in central Italy. Hailed as an exceptional find, the luxury home was uncovered at an archeological site at Vetulonia, 200 kilometres north of Rome.

Geology Museum 125 Year Anniversary

Via KCAU TV

The Museum of Geology at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology is celebrating its 125th anniversary on Saturday.

On June 12, 1885, Gilbert Bailey made a gift to the Rapid City school that laid the foundation for the museum.

Bailey was in charge of the Harney Peak Tin Mining and Milling Company.

He offered to lend his collection of more than 5,000 fossil and mineral specimens to the school, and the collection has since grown to more than 300,000 specimens.....

New Field Trip - Register by June 19

Update 6/21 - Field Trip Closed.

Just announced: We have been invited to attend a ZRS field trip to Rochester Minnesota on June 26, 2010

We have until June 19 to respond.

ZRS GUIDED FIELDTRIPS 2010 - FILLMORE COUNTY, MINNESOTA Saturday, June 26th

We will be collecting unique marine fossil shells and corals from the Stewartville member of the Galena formation in an active quarry near Wykoff, Minnesota. These  fossils date to the Middle Ordovician Period (450 million years old), when this  portion of southern Minnesota was a shallow water, tropical sea. This quarry will require significant work to find the fossils, which will Include exceptionally large snails (Maclurites).

Contact us to register soon! 3018 Lyndale Avenue South - Minneapolis TEL 612.824.1068

ZRS will provide background information  on the geology of this area, as well as examples of the fossil material you can find, identification manuals,  and collecting instructions -- in addition to individual guidance to help you remove  any specimens you discover!

COST: $40 Adults Only Register with nonrefundable payment in full by June 19th Payment can be made at quarry. Informational packet will be provided after registration.

Please note -- Advance registration required!  Insurance forms and releases must be received by ZRS by June 19, 2010. After June 19, 2010 no one else will be allowed on the trip.TELEPHONE 612.824.1068 cell phone is 612-803-5301 EMAIL info@ZRSfossils. com
 

Do you Know About Frazzle Ice?

Frazil Ice: - A forest hazard...

Mesoamericans First Polymer Scientists

Via Discovery News:

Ancient Mesoamerican peoples manufactured rubber from latex some 3,500 years before the modern invention of vulcanization and even compounded it for different applications, says new research from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology research team....

Geologist Shortage In Copper Industry

Via Geology.com:

A shortage of geologists and other skilled workers in the copper industry could severely limit how quickly companies can increase production when demand begins to rise.