Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois - ESCONI

Exploring Earth Visualizations

Chock full of interesting information.... Exploring Earth Visualizations

Web Sites About Archaeology

Interesting sites about archaeology:

Kansas Archaeology: http://www.ksartifacts.info/

Archaeology for Kids: http://www.mrdonn.org/index.html

Field Study Scholarship

From National Association of Geoloscience Teachers:

Each year, NAGT makes several $500 awards to undergraduate students to facilitate their study of field geoscience. These awards, previously given to students who attend a traditional summer field camp, are now available for students attending field-based courses at any time of year.... applications due by February 16, 2009

Do You Know Any Remarkable Creatures?

Interesting interview by Diane Rehm of Tracy Chevalier the author of the new book, "Remarkable Creatures". It is a book about the life and times of Mary Anning, a world-renowned 19th-century paleontologist.

And interview of the same author by Leonard Lopate too. 

Later in the January, Leonard Lopate interviewed a renowned paleontologist Peter Ward, who explained why he thinks only one of the Earth’s mass extinctions was caused by outside forces.

Color of a Dinosaur

Via National Geographic:

...In a report released online today by the journal Nature, an international team of paleontologists and experts in scanning electron micrography infer that this dinosaur had reddish orange feathers running along its back and a striped tail....

What Are Your Memories of ESCONI?

On this anniversary year, it would be fun to have people share their memories of ESCONI.

You can send your thoughts to the email of the ESCONI web administrator, who will post to the web site -  diannal20@yahoo.com You can send photographs too!

Request for Volunteers for Earth Day

The Forest Preserve District of Will County is presenting its annual Earth Day Celebration on April 24th, 2010 at Plum Creek Nature Center in Beecher, IL. and has asked for our club to participate. This year's theme is "Soil".

If you are interested in participating, please contact John Good.

South-Central Ontario Fossils

Northumberland News of Canada reports on a new fossil book,"South-Central Ontario Fossils".

Read Any Good Earth Science Books Lately?

I just finished Snowball Earth and would recommend it. The book is about the "... controversial hypothesis asserts that about 600 million years ago, the entire planet was encased in ice that was thicker and lasted millennia longer than in any previously recognized ice age. Instantaneously in geologic time, the hypothesis continues, the planet moved from temperatures averaging minus 40 degrees centigrade to sweltering heat unlike anything seen since..."

Geology Blogger

Interesting geology blog called, Geotripper.

British Geology Viewer

This simple Geology of Britain viewer helps you explore the geology around Britain.

Pan and zoom to where you are interested, click on an area of interest and reveal the rocks beneath.

Breathing Similar to Birds

Via Physorg.com:

...University of Utah scientists discovered that air flows in one direction as it loops through the lungs of alligators, just as it does in birds. The study suggests this breathing method may have helped the dinosaurs' ancestors dominate Earth after the planet's worst mass extinction 251 million years ago...

Are You Using the Browser IE 6 or 7?

If you are using the Internet Explorer 6 or 7 browser, you may want to update to IE8.

IE6 & IE7 browsers are the least secure of the IE browsers - in fact, some say, running IE6 and IE7 is like hanging a sign on your back that says kick me (with a virus).

Abstracts from 30th New Mexico Mineral Symposium

Many interesting articles from their annual meeting in November.

Field Trip & Archaeology Study Group Meeting This Saturday

Field Trip to Chicago Academy of Sciences Museum Collections (CAS) (part of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum). Saturday, 1/23, 10 -11 a.m. To make reservation, please contact Joe Kubal at (630) 983-6159 or e-mail at SMKubal0712@aol.com.

Archaeology Study Group Meeting. Saturday, 1/23, 7:30 p.m. College of Dupage, Building K. Rm 131.

Interactive Climate Wizard

Via Geology.com - from University of Washington -

Climate Wizard, a tool meant for scientists and non-scientists alike, is being demonstrated by The Nature Conservancy in Copenhagen, Denmark, in conjunction with the climate summit underway there. It also is the subject of a presentation Tuesday, Dec. 15, at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco and a paper just released online by the Public Library of Science's PLoS ONE with Evan Girvetz as lead presenter and lead author. Girvetz worked on Climate Wizard during postdoctoral work at the University of Washington's School of Forest Resources and just accepted a job with The Nature Conservancy.

"Climate Wizard is meant to make it easier to explore climate data in an interactive way," Girvetz says. "It makes the data accessible in ways that are more intuitive, even for people who are not climate scientists."

For example, data used by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the science organization evaluating the risks of climate change, is made visual and more readily understandable through Climate Wizard. Politicians, resource managers and citizens are all potential users, Girvetz says. Find Climate Wizard at http://www.climatewizard.org/....

Soil Lessons for K-12

Soil Science of America offers lessons in soil.

Geologists Love Beer

Via Wired:

Fact: Geologists love beer.

There is abundant proof of this here at the American Geophysical Union meeting, the largest collection of earth scientists in the world....

So the real question is why the bond between geologists and beer is so strong. I decided to do some research this week to get to the bottom of the phenomenon. So, beer in hand, I asked a sampling of the 16,000 or so geologists, geophysicists, hydrologists and atmospheric scientists at the meeting and got some very interesting responses. (Full disclosure: I am also a geologist, and I like beer.)

The most popular theory was that it must have something to do with the amount of time spent outside doing fieldwork....

Earth's Moving Magnetic Pole

From National Geographic:

Santa better check his compass, because the North Pole is shifting—the north magnetic pole, that is, not the geographical one. New research shows the pole moving at rapid clip—25 miles (40 kilometers) a year.

New Earth Science TV Show - Meteorite Men

The world premiere of Meteorite Men is January 20, 2010 only on the Science Channel.