Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois - ESCONI

Events This Week - 5/31/11 - 6/5/11

ESCONI Board Meeting. 7:30 p.m. College of Dupage, Building K, Rm 161.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams - see your local movie theatre listings...  Ebert Review: To the degree that it's possible for us to walk behind Herzog into that cave, we do so... there are poignant signs that humans were here. Near the original entrance, where outside light was still present, many visitors left their palm prints on a wall in red ochre. Were these the artists' marks? Calling cards? Why did many leave them? A palm print stands out: One man had a damaged little finger. Further back in the cave, they found another mark with the same finger. His two visits and a child's footprint remain after 30 millennia.

 

Walt Whitman Poetry on Geology

The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first, Nature is rude and incomprehensible at first, Be not discouraged, keep on, there are divine things well envelop'd, I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell. — "Song of the Open Road"

Photo: 21. Basal surge and nonwelded rhyolitic Nelson Mountain Tuff (unit Tnn) overlies reworked tuff (from Mineral Mountain Rhyolite?; west margin of Stewart Peak quad). Note geologist (lower right) for scale.
Photograph by P.W. Lipman. USGS

 

Tunnel Under Pyramid

From PhysOrg:

Researchers found a tunnel under the Temple of the Snake in the pre-Hispanic city of Teotihuacan, about 28 miles northeast of Mexico City.

The tunnel had apparently been sealed off around 1,800 years ago.

Dinosaur Skin Scraps

Via Smithsonian Mag:

...The newest specimens, reported by scientists John Foster and Rebecca Hunt-Foster in the new issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, come from the Jurassic rock of Colorado’s Morrison Formation. Foster and Hunt-Foster describe three distinct skin specimens. Two of them are thin, carbonized patches of fossilized skin that appear to have come from sauropod dinosaurs. Both were found near sauropod bones. The third specimen, however, is not attributed to any particular dinosaur....

Volunteer Chipped Away Until He Found a new dinosaur

Via Philly.com:

All along, it turns out, the find of a lifetime was there in the mudstone, right under Dermody's nose

Chicagoland Gem and Mineral Show This Weekend!

Chicagoland Gems & Mineral Association 35th Annual Gem, Jewelry Fossil and Mineral Show, Dupage Fairgrounds, 2015 Manchester Road, Wheaton, IL. Saturday, 5/28 - 10 am to 6 pm and Sunday, 5/29 - 10 am to 5 pm. Adults: $5.00. Seniors & Students, $3.00. Under 13 Free.

ESCONI members can help the show by volunteering. If you volunteer 2 or more hours a day, CGMA will let you in for free. Need help with the silent auction, kiddie korner and admissions. ESCONI members can also help the show by donating silent auction material. Contact John Good at 630-483-2363 or email at esconi@hotmail.

Ionosphere New Predictor of Earthquakes?

Via the ESCONI Yahoo Group Discussion Board from Technology Review:

... They say that before the M9 earthquake, the total electron content of the ionosphere increased dramatically over the epicentre, reaching a maximum three days before the quake struck...

Oldest Mine In Americas Found

From MSNBC via geology.com:

Archaeologists have discovered a 12,000 year old iron-oxide mine along the coast of northern Chile that they say is the oldest evidence of organized mining found in the Americas...

Dinosaur Video from TED Vancouver Going a Little Viral

I know most ESCONI members already know about the subject, but just wanted you all to know this video of Horner at TED is going a little viral. I ignored the first mentions of this talk, but it keeps showing up, so it seems the general public seems interested in it. just fyi.

... Jack Horner is one of the paleontologists involved in that research. And, for him, it's more than just a single study of a couple of species. Horner thinks that scientists have identified far more dinosaur species than actually existed. It's not just Torosaurus he'd like to see consigned to the trash heap, as he explains in this TEDxVancouver talk...

 

 

Why Every Student Needs to Be Science and Math Literate

From CNN via geology.com:

Carbon-based Minerals May Be Younger Than Thought

Press release from Boston College via geology.com:

Carbon found within ancient rocks has played a crucial role developing a time line for the emergence of biological life on the planet billions of years ago. But applying cutting-edge technology to samples of ancient rocks from northern Canada has revealed the carbon-based minerals may be much younger than the rock they inhabit, Boston College Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Dominic Papineau and a team of researchers report in the latest edition of the journal Nature Geoscience.

Events This Week 5/23 - 5/30

Chicagoland Gems & Mineral Association 35th Annual Gem, Jewelry Fossil and Mineral Show, Dupage Fairgrounds, 2015 Manchester Road, Wheaton, IL. Saturday, 5/28 - 10 am to 6 pm and Sunday, 5/29 - 10 am to 5 pm. Adults: $5.00. Seniors & Students, $3.00. Under 13 Free.

ESCONI members can help the show by volunteering. If you volunteer 2 or more hours a day, CGMA will let you in for free. Need help with the silent auction, kiddie korner and admissions. ESCONI members can also help the show by donating silent auction material. Contact John Good at 630-483-2363 or email at esconi@hotmail.

3-D Laser Scanner Images of Dinosaur Feet

Via Photonics.com:

... Throughout Trentino, Italy, many signs have been left by the dinosaur giants that trod the beaches and dominated the landscape millions of years ago, even before the valleys were formed. Icnologists – scientists who study the traces of animal behavior – have long been trying to discover more about the types of animals that once roamed the earth...

...Through experiments and tests conducted in the field, the researchers developed a method that yielded fascinating results, producing reconstructions of the dinosaur footprints in a digital rather than physical format. Through specific software, the prints left by dinosaurs can now be viewed on a computer monitor. This allows researchers to analyze the images quickly and from any angle, rotating them in space, turning them upside down, or zooming in and out, all of which can be done with such precision as to reveal details that would be invisible to the naked eye. The acquisition process also allows researchers to study the actual site where the prints were found – whether in a tunnel, a cave or outdoors – and to reproduce it faithfully in 3-D.

Eruptions through Coal Beds Caused late Permian Extinction?

Via geology.com:

... Unlike the end of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago—where there is widespread belief that the impact of a meteorite was at least the partial cause—it is unclear what caused the late Permian extinction. Previous researchers have suggested massive volcanic eruptions through coal beds in Siberia would generate significant greenhouse gases causing run away global warming...

Evolution of Snakes

Via PhysOrg:

Until a recent discovery, theories about the origins and evolutionary relationships of snakes barely had a leg to stand on.

Genetic studies suggest that snakes are related to monitor lizards and iguanas, while their anatomy points to amphisbaenians ("worm lizards"), a group of burrowing lizards with snake-like bodies. The debate has been unresolved--until now....

Earth Core Melting and Freezing

Via PhysOrg:

The inner core of the Earth is simultaneously melting and freezing due to circulation of heat in the overlying rocky mantle, according to new research from the University of Leeds, UC San Diego and the Indian Institute of Technology.

Events this week

Saturday and Sunday - ESCONI Mazon Creek fossil collecting trip in Braceville.

Collecting Mazon Creek Fossils on private property
Meet at 8:00 A.M. Saturday at the BP Amoco in Coal City. No Age Limit.  Hard Hats not required.

Take I-55 to Exit 236 (Coal City).  Take a right onto Highway 113 (Division Street).  Go west to Broadway Street and Division in Coal City.

We will be collecting Mazon Creek concretions from an old spoil pile on private property.  Hard hats are not required.  Boots are recommended.  An Estwing rock hammer is the best tool.  A small shovel or pick is helpful.  Knee pads, backpacks, fanny packs, extra clothes (you will get wet and muddy) are also a plus.  Bring a bucket for the fossils. Also bring insect repellant.

Check the web site for details or contact John Good at 1-630-483-2363 for reservations or e-mail at [email protected].  Or, on the day of the trip, contact John Good at 630-303-2352.

Saturday - Paleonotology Study Group Meeting, 7:30 pm College of Dupage, Building K, Rm 161. Topic: Mososaurs of the Smokey Hill Chalk by Michael Payne, ESCONI Member.

Oldest Fossilized Micrometeorites

Via Wired:

Japanese researchers have discovered the first micrometeorites known to land on Earth. No larger than droplets of fog, the spherical, iron-rich particles arrived 240 million years ago, 50 million years before the previous record-holding space dust.

“These are the the oldest fossil micrometeorites I’ve ever heard of, and the preservation is fantastic. They look exactly like their modern equivalents,” said geologist Susan Taylor of the U.S. Army Corps of engineers, who wasn’t involved in the work, published in Geology May 4. “If we can figure out where these things came from, they can help inform us about the history of the solar system.”...

Chinese Dinosaur Igniting Evolutionary Debate

Via The Guardian:

Chinese 'dinosaur city' reshapes understanding of prehistoric era Troves of early Cretaceous and Jurassic relics in country where palaeontology is just taking off has ignited evolutionary debate...

Geocaching for Geology - Earthcache

Have you ever tried geocaching?

Geocaching is a real-world outdoor treasure hunting game. Players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using GPS-enabled devices and then share their experiences online.

In Earthcaching, instead of looking for a hidden container, you look for earth science. An Earthcache is an educational form of a virtual cache. The reward for these caches is learning more about the planet on which we live - its landscapes, its geology or the minerals and fossils that are found there. Earthcaches are developed in association with the Geological Society of America. For more information go to http://www.geosociety.org/earthcache/

Here is an example, in Oak Park you can find the location of the Prehistoric Continental Divide Earthcache.

The person who created the earthcache includes a link to a web page that explains this geological formation.