Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois - ESCONI

12 Million Yr Old Pollen

From Rice University via geology.com:

A painstaking examination of the first direct and detailed climate record from the continental shelves surrounding Antarctica reveals that the last remnant of Antarctic vegetation existed in a tundra landscape on the continent’s northern peninsula about 12 million years ago.” Quoted from the Rice University news release.

 

Summer and Fossil Hunting

Fun and interesting report on what one person did on their summer:

This is just a brief “What I did on my summer field trip” report. I’m saving some of the really juicy stuff for A Date With a Dinosaur, but I must admit that actually participating in paleontology is a hell of a lot more fun than simply writing about it from my desk in Salt Lake City. I’m itching to get back out there.

3.4 Billion Yr Old Fossils

From New York Times, August 21, 2011:

A team of Australian and British geologists have discovered fossilized, single-cell organisms that are 3.4 billion years old and that the scientists say are the oldest known fossils on earth.

Their assertion, if sustained, confirms the view that life evolved on earth surprisingly soon after the Late Heavy Bombardment, a reign of destruction in which waves of asteroids slammed into the primitive planet, heating the surface to molten rock and boiling the oceans into an incandescent mist. The bombardment, which ended around 3.85 billion years ago, would have sterilized the earth’s surface of any incipient life.

World-Famous Diamond Replicas

Via geology.com:

Scott Sucher has carefully researched, calculated and faceted replicas for over 30 of the world’s most famous diamonds. Images, histories and descriptions of these incredible stones can be seen at his Museum Diamonds website.

Homo Erectus Tools

From NYTimes via BoingBoing:

In the NYT, science writer John Noble Wilford reports that scientists have finally pinned a firm date on the earliest evidence of advanced tool-making by Homo erectus, a forerunner of modern humans. The new study dates the axe shown below to 1.76 million years ago.

Once Hidden Faults Now Found In Oregon

From KVAL.com:

On the northern flank of Mount Hood, a scar in the earth's crust stretches for several miles beneath the fir trees that hide it from airborne observers.

It is the mark of a previously undetected seismic fault that appears to be active... The fault went unnoticed until its recent discovery by Madin's team, which is using aircraft equipped with lidar, a system that bounces laser flashes off the ground, to search for hidden seismic faults.

New Archeo Sites Found in BP Disaster Area

From NPR via geology.com:

Archaeologists working with cleanup workers after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill discovered dozens of new archaeological sites of Native Americans. Public Radio International has a podcast interview with Chip McGimsey, Louisiana State Archaeologist.

100 yr old Glass Slides of Digs

This article was making the rounds last week, so you may have already seen it, but if not, enjoy!!

Field Life of Bone Hunters - A collection of newly digitized glass lantern slides, showing early 20th century paleontological digs and the preparation of fossils for display, is now available to the public from the Smithsonian Institution Archives and the National Museum of Natural History.

Knowing where fossils were found in the past might help them decide where to dig. It could also help them correlate strata between areas, or determine the age of rocks.

“Geologically they have value,” said Jorstad. “And aesthetically they are very cool, showing what the early days of field work were like.”

New Field Trip - November 11th

Fossil  Field Trip, St. Paul, Indiana - meet at the quarry office by 7:45 am (6:45 am Chicago time). Normal safety equipment is needed - hard hat, protective boots, eye protection. To get to the office take I65 south around Indianapolis to 174. Exit and Exit 123 go south to Michigan Av. right to N. County Road 800 W left following signs to St. Paul. Go through the town over the railroad tracks past town, ending up on Mound Rd, to office on right. Indiana state law that no one under 18 is allowed in quarries. Also, need to be a member of ESCONI.

Middle Silurian fossils found.

Photo Used with Permission: (Joe K. of http://www.crinus.info/crinoids/data/eucaly.htm)

Eucalyptocrinus elrodi

Silurian
Waldron Shale
St. Paul, Indiana
Another one of those rare specimens that includes the crown, stem and holdfast. Size: 16 cm inc. stem.br>

Propanoplosaurus marylandicus

Via Smithsonia.org:

... The study, by Ray Stanford, David Weishampel and Valerie Deleon, does not describe an actual skeleton, but rather the impression of a tiny dinosaur body found in the roughly 112-million-year-old rock of Maryland....

Historical Map Collection

From USGS via Geology.com:

“Nearly 90,000 high resolution scans of the more than 200,000 historical USGS topographic maps, some dating as far back as 1884, are now available online. The Historical Topographic Map Collection includes published U.S. maps of all scales and editions.” Quoted from the USGS news release.

 

Igneous Provinces

From Scientific American: Large Igneous Provinces and Mass Extinctions By David Bressan:

...The causes of this profound environmental changes are still unknown, however one hypothesis involved the large scale volcanic eruptions that deposited the rocks of the Siberian Traps, one of the largest igneous provinces recognized on earth....

Events for the Last Couple Weeks of Sept. 2011

Wed. 9/21 -  Celebrate Illinois Archaeology Awareness Month & Help with an Archaeological Excavation at Garfield Farm Museum To register, see the dig, or to financially contribute to the effort, contact the museum at 630 584-8485, e-mail info@garfieldfarm.org or write to Box 403 LaFox, IL 60147.

Fri. 9/23 - Board Meeting. 7:30 p.m. College of Dupage, Building K, Rm 161.

Sat. 9/24 - Winfield Mounds Hike  10:00 am - 11:30 am Join a naturalist-led hike to the only known prehistoric American Indian mounds in DuPage County. Ages 12 and up; under 18 with an adult. Free. Registration begins Sept. 10. Call (630) 942-6200.

Sat & Sun - 9/24 and 9/25 - ESCONI Mazon Creek fossil collecting trip in Braceville.
Collecting Mazon Creek Fossils on private property. You need to be a member of ESCONI to attend.contact John Good at 1-630-483-2363 for reservations or e-mail at esconi@hotmail.com.  Or, on the day of the trip, contact John Good at 630-303-2352.

Kids Finding Breakthrough Fossils

 Enjoyable and informative Science Friday interview with Bernard Wood and Lee Berger, whose 9 yr. old son and dog "found" Australopithecus sediba.

 (Also good is the Science interview also with Lee Berge about this same topic,)

And last week a six year old found aanother amazing fossil  -

Preserved Dino Feathers

From Science via NatureNews:

The amber samples are between 70 and 85 million years old, and come from a site called Grassy Lake in western Canada that was once home to a conifer forest. The site is well known for the wide range of insects found preserved in its amber.

Palaeontologist Ryan McKellar and his colleagues at the University of Alberta in Edmonton were keen to find out whether any feathers had been preserved, so they sifted through more than 4,000 of the amber inclusions held in museum collections. Once feathers were found, the samples were mounted on slides and polished, before being analysed using microscopy. The team reports the 11 feathers identified, as well their range of structures, today in Science¹.

How Does the Calendar Work?

Question: How do I find events for this year?

Answer: The Calendar of Events page lists the events for the current year. Click for demonstration.

Sept. 21 Archaeo Excavation Garfield Farm Museum

Registrations are now being taken for individuals who wish to help with an archaeological excavation returning September 21 at Garfield Farm Museum. Both novice and experienced volunteers are needed to help excavate, screen, wash and catalogue artifacts in the vicinity of the original log house built in 1836 by the Culbertson family and later expanded in 1841 by the Garfield family.

September is Illinois Archaeology Awareness Month and the theme for 2011 is entitled 'Saving Our Past- Archaeology and Site Preservation'. Garfield Farm Museum's preservation efforts are a very excellent fit for this theme. More information about Illinois archaeology is available at http://www.illinoisarchaeology.org/.

 To help accurately interpret, restore and re-create the 1840s conditions of the Timothy and Harriet Garfield's farmstead and tavern, the museum started up a 5 year archaeology program last year

The research will be headed by James R. Yingst, Director and Chief Archaeologist of Heartland Archaeology Research Program of Chicago, Illinois and is coordinated by Helen Bauer, an experienced amateur archaeologist and board member of Garfield Farm Museum's Campton Historic Agricultural Lands. Yingst has experience in Illinois and Wisconsin 19th century sites and ceramics of the period. Bauer has traveled and participated in excavations in Asia, Europe, Central America as well as President James Madison's home, Montpelier and Illinois‚ Cahokia Mounds and Kampsville sites.

Volunteers must commit to a set schedule to participate. September's two week session will begin September 21aand continue through October 2. They will be working alongside college and graduate school archaeology students. Volunteers 14 - 17 years of age may participate with parent permission. Younger students accompanied by a parent or guardian may also participate.

Ultimately, a replica of the original log house that the Garfield family enlarged and made into an inn or tavern will be built. The research will help in this effort and will provide better clues as to how the Culbertson and Garfield families lived.

The Culbertson log house/Garfield log tavern stood in the fork of the Chicago St.Charles Road that branched northwest to Sycamore and southwest to Oregon, IL. Culbertson originally claimed 440 acres of land that he improved with the house, a dug well, and had 30 acres in cultivation when he sold the claim to Timothy Garfield in 1841 for $650.

Farmers hauling wheat to Chicago's port caught the Garfield's attention and they expanded the log house as an inn or tavern. The structure occupied a 20 by 50 foot area with a cellar that was discovered in the 2006 archaeology investigation. The house consisted of two sections and a kitchen to the west. Three first floor rooms included the barroom and two chambers were on the second floor. The log house had slab siding with a roof of shakes bound down by poles according to the Timothy Garfield biography.

The historic integrity of the site and its documentation call for a thorough archaeological study to confirm and add to understanding the first settlement and development of farms in northern Illinois. To register, see the dig, or to financially contribute to the effort, contact the museum at 630 584-8485, e-mail info@garfieldfarm.org or write to Box 403 LaFox, IL 60147.

Events this week ending 9/18

Sat. 9/17   Paleontology Study Group. 7:30 p.m. College of Dupage, Building K, Rm 161.

Fri. 9/9 General Meeting - Scott Williams of Burpee Museum on Tyranno Forelimbs

What about those small forelimbs? Scott Williams, Director of Exhibits and Science, Burpee Museum, will be presenting on tyrannosaurid forelimb allometry at the ESCONI General Meeting, this Friday, 9/9/11, at 7:30 pm at College of Dupage, Building K, Room 161.

Free and open to the public.

Graphic: Wikipedia Commons

Event This Week Ending 9/12/11

Fri, 9/9	General Meeting: 7:30 p.m. College of Dupage, Building K, Rm 161. Scott Williams of Burpee Museum, will be presenting on tyrannosaurid forelimb allometry.
Sat, 9/10	Mineralogy and Micromount Study Group. 7:30 p.m. College of Dupage,Building K, Rm 161. Topic: Flourescents, including a Show and Tell.