Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois - ESCONI

Friday Lecture: Meteorites & Impact Events

Friday, 6/10 - General Meeting - Lecture: Dr. James St. John, Ohio State University at Newark will present a program on Introduction to Meteorites and Impact Events. This will give an overview of what rocks from space look like, what their mineral contents are, their ages, their origins, and their beauty. Various rocks resulting from impact events on Earth will also be shown, plus a couple rocks from beyond our solar system!

Geodefest 2011

Let’s Get Cracking at GEODEFEST 2011

Chicago Rocks and Minerals Society Presents a Celebration of Geodes Saturday, June 11, 1 to 5 PM
New Location: St. Peter’s United Church of Christ, 8013 Laramie Ave., Skokie

Don’t miss Geodefest 2011, the Chicago Rocks & Minerals Society’s 3rd annual celebration of geodes – those plain ol’ lumpy, bumpy rocks on the outside, often with a beautiful cache of sparkling crystals inside. Be the first to see the treasure your geodes hold when scores of these unusual rocks are cracked for your enjoyment. Everyone – especially families with children – is welcome to attend.

The fun takes place Saturday, June 11, 1 to 5 p.m., in the gymnasium at St. Peter’s United Church of Christ, 8013 Laramie Ave., Skokie, across the street from the Skokie Public Library.

The members of the Chicago Rocks & Minerals Society are hard at work creating educational exhibits, gathering up the tools to crack your geodes, and preparing for purchase geodes unearthed from the 340 million-year-old layers of the Warsaw shale formation of Illinois, Iowa, Indiana and Missouri. Plus, you can buy opened geodes from Mexico, Brazil, Morocco and more exotic locations from around the world, Bring your opened geodes and any other rocks in your collection about which you’re curious, and have these identified for free. Enjoy homemade refreshments while you are here.

Events This Week Ending Sunday 6/12

Friday, 6/10 - General Meeting - Lecture: Dr. James St. John, Ohio State University at Newark will present a program on Introduction to Meteorites and Impact Events. This will give an overview of what rocks from space look like, what their mineral contents are, their ages, their origins, and their beauty. Various rocks resulting from impact events on Earth will also be shown, plus a couple rocks from beyond our solar system!

Saturday, 6/11 - Let’s Get Cracking at GEODEFEST 2011
Chicago Rocks and Minerals Society Presents a Celebration of Geodes Saturday, June 11, 1 to 5 PM
New Location: St. Peter’s United Church of Christ, 8013 Laramie Ave., Skokie

Saturday, 6/11 Mineralogy and Micromount Study Group. 7:30 p.m. College of Dupage, Building K, Rm 161. Topic: Geology of California, including Beryl and Tourmalines

Male or Female Dinosaur?

Via Discovery News

Paleontologists have devised a new method to distinguish male from female dinosaurs, according to a paper in the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The technique, which involves analyzing upper-hind limb bones, may help to solve this long-standing male or female anatomical mystery, since the remains of dinosaurs today are not fleshed out with soft-tissue genitals....

... Paleontologist Ralph Chapman, an owner/partner at New Mexico Virtualization, has also studied dinosaur fossils with sexual dimorphism in mind.

Chapman told Discovery News that the new study "pretty much achieves what they say it does and I think it is a good paper." He pointed out that the ends of femora fossils might be particularly revealing, in terms of identifying differences among dinosaurs.

Photos Added for Field Trips

Photos of the Indiana field trip and Braceville trip were just added to the photo albums.

Photo: Andrew Young

 

Anomalocaridids

From Yale via Geology.com:

Paleontologists have discovered that a group of remarkable ancient sea creatures existed for much longer and grew to much larger sizes than previously thought, thanks to extraordinarily well-preserved fossils discovered in Morocco.

Olivine Rain

Geology.com:

“NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope detected tiny green crystals, called olivine, thought to be raining down on a developing star. This graphic illustrates the process, beginning with a picture of the star and ending with an artist’s concept of what the crystal “rain” might look like.” Quoted from the NASA press release.

Economist on Anthrocepene

Via The Economist:

... Geologists care about sediments, hammering away at them to uncover what they have to say about the past—especially the huge spans of time as the Earth passes from one geological period to another. In the same spirit they look at the distribution of fossils, at the traces of glaciers and sea-level rises, and at other tokens of the forces that have shaped the planet. Now a number of these scientists are arguing that future geologists observing this moment in the Earth’s progress will conclude that something very odd was going on...