Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois - ESCONI

Chicago Rocks & Minerals Society - 68th Annual Silent Auction - Saturday, March 11th, 2017

Chicago Rocks & Minerals Society

Announces

68th Annual Silent Auction of

Rocks, Minerals, Fossils and Lapidary Treasures

 

Saturday, March 11, 2017

6 to 9 p.m.

 

St. Peter’s United Church of Christ gymnasium

8013 Laramie Ave., Skokie

(across the street from the public library on Oakton)

 

First table closes at 6:30 p.m. Bid on rocks, crystals, minerals, fossils, geodes, handmade jewelry, lapidary materials, books, magazines and much more!

Families with children are welcome. Free admission and parking. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

For more information, call Jeanine N. Mielecki at (312) 623-1554 or email [email protected]. Visit www.chicagorocks.org.

 

Merry Christmas!

A Possible Break in One of Evolution's Biggest Mysteries - Whales

jamesteohart / svrid79 / Benny Marty / imaginasty / Mara008 / Wikimedia / Flickr / The Atlantic

The Atlantic has an interesting story about the evolution of whales.  Whales have a strange history, from a dog-like creature to probably the largest animal ever on Earth.  This article discusses the last 50 million years and how they travelled the oceans looking for food.  During their journey, they had a few passengers - barnacles.  It's these fossilized barnacles that are revealing new clues to the history of the whales.

“Essentially no one knows anything about whale migration in the prehistoric past,” says Taylor. “But the idea would be that as climate got more unstable in the last several million years—and we went through glacial maximums and minimums—the productive zones of the oceans would have been shifting around a lot, and these huge animals could quickly adapt their behavior to find these productive zones of the ocean. Evolution might have favored these really large animals that could migrate huge distances and survive off an enormous fat store.”

It’s an intuitive idea. But it’s long been just that—an idea. This is where Taylor’s humpback barnacles come in. The unassuming shells effectively act as a black box for whale journeys of the distant past.

Here’s the trick. Whale barnacles build their shells from seawater. Seawater, as you might imagine, is made of atoms. Some of those atoms are oxygen. And oxygen in the ocean comes in lighter and heavier isotopes. Water closer to the poles tends to be lighter because most of the heavier stuff—being heavier—has been literally rained out of the clouds in the long trip to the Arctic. This is because, in very general terms, the most evaporation happens where there’s the most sunshine (near the equator) and, as the water evaporates and moves pole-ward, it’s successively rained out, re-evaporated, rained out, re-evaporated, rained out and so on, along the journey north. In the process—with each step—the water is essentially distilled for lighter isotopes. As a result, animals swimming in the Arctic find themselves in lighter water.

 

CBC Quirks & Quarks: Check out this 99-million year old dino feather

A beetle is trapped in amber alongside a 99-million year old dinosaur feather. It was found in an amber market in Myanmar. (Ryan McKellar)

A recreation of what a Maniraptora would have looked like, based on a 99-million year old feather found preserved in amber. (Ryan McKellar)

CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks has a segment about a 99 million year old dinosaur tail feather locked in amber.  Found at an amber market in Myanmar, the feather was destined for jewellery before a paleontologist named Dr. Lida Xing stepped in an bought it.  The chunk of amber is about the side of a dried apricot and was analyzed at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum.  It's thought to belong to a Maniraptor and was not a flight feather, but it sheds some light on the evolution of feathers.

The original paper appeared in Cell's Current Biology.

Reminder: Warehouse Work Day - Saturday, December 10th, 2016, 9:00 - 2:00

If you have some time, come join our work day at the warehouse on Saturday, December, 10th, 2016 from 9:00-2:00 in order to begin preparation for the ESCONI rock show in March at DuPage Co Fairgrounds. The warehouse is in Aurora.

 

For more information, contact John Good at 1-630-303-2352 for reservations or e-mail at [email protected]

The December 10, 2016 Mineral Study Group Meeting Has Been Canceled!

The Mineral Study Group meeting for December 10, 2016 has been cancelled due to bad weather.

See you next month!

St. Paul, IN Quarry Open House - December 20th, 21th, 22nd, and 23rd, 2016

The open collecting dates for the St. Paul quarry in December are:

 

Tuesday, December 20th

Wednesday, December 21st

Thursday, December 22nd

Friday, December 23rd

 

Here is a map for directions.

 

If anyone plans to go, please e-mail John Catalani ([email protected]).  He will inform the quarry.  Be at the quarry at 8:00 am eastern to sign waivers and have safety equipment.

Warehouse Work Day - Saturday, December 10th, 2016, 9:00 - 2:00

Sorry for the late notice.   If you have some time, come join our work day at the warehouse on Saturday, December, 10th, 2016 from 9:00-2:00 in order to begin preparation for the ESCONI rock show in March at DuPage Co Fairgrounds. The warehouse is in Aurora.

 

For more information, contact John Good at 1-630-303-2352 for reservations or e-mail at [email protected]

ESCONI Events December 2016

Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings!

Fri, Dec. 2nd	ESCONI Holiday Party 5:00 - 7:30 p.m. - Cozymel's Restaurant, 311 East Loop Road, Wheaton, IL 60189
Fri, Dec. 2nd	ESCONI General Meeting 8:00 p.m. College of Dupage - Tech Ed (TEC) Building, Room 1038B (Map) - Topic: "Spheres of Influence; A Geobiological approach to understand how the interaction of the lithosphere, biosphere and outer space shaped our world” by Jim Holstein, Collection Manager of Physical Geology at the Field Museum
	ESCONI Minerology Study Group Meeting - Canceled due to bad weather!
	ESCONI Paleontology Study Group Meeting - No meeting this month
	ESCONI Archaeology Study Group Meeting - Open at this time, seeking a chair
	ESCONI Junior Meeting - Open at this time, seeking to restart the group.  Contact Diana Lord for information.