This is Mazon Monday post #63. What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:[email protected].
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This spring’s field trip to the Braceville spoil pile started as a cool, cloudy day with a chance of rain. 45 members chanced the weather to collect Mazon Creek fossil concretions. Around 10:30, a steady, but light, drizzle fell and continued on and off until after lunch. This drizzle and rain from a few days before washed away dirt and clay which exposed many concretions, which made surface collecting a little easier. The rain didn’t stop a Scarlet Tanager from visiting participants during lunch. By the end of the day, the clay had turned to gumbo, which made everyone's boots feel about ten pounds heavier.
Sunday’s weather was a complete opposite from Saturday's. Cloudy at first, after which it cleared to a wonderful sunny, spring day. There were 46 members climbing the hill on Sunday. Chuck Nicchia, a long time ESCONI member, brought his new drone. Along with the traditional photos, taken by few participants, below are a couple images from his flight around the spoil pile. Those photos provide a new point of view of old worm hill. Thank you so much Chuck!
This spring’s fossil donations were provided by the Kruty family, Andrew Young, and Marie Angkuw. Both young and old alike went through these donation and were able to bring home a few (already open!) fossils. Some of the fossils and iron pyrite provided by Andrew and Marie were from their last few trips to England. Included in the donated material were shells, crinoid stems, and cephalopod parts, which are not a part of the Mazon Creek fauna.
Both regulars and newbies alike had success digging into the ridge lines, finding concretions in both the eroded areas and in situ. Finding a concretion in situ can lead to finding multiple as they usually come in small bunches relatively close together.
The freeze/thaw method is the best way to get a concretion to reveal its fossil. Soak them in water for a few days and then place the container in a freezer. Once the water has penetrated the rock, the process of freezing (through the formation of ice crystals) may cause the rock to split along the fossil plane, which is usually an area of weakness in the concretion. To read more, have a look at Mazon Monday #27 "Care and Feeding of Your Mazon Creek Fossil Concretions".
Many of the donations are visible at the feet of our young adventurers. As they looked through the loot, there were many questions for Andrew and Keith. Is this a fossil? What is this?
The next few photos were taken by Chuck's drone.
A family digging for fossil treasure!
This next photo invokes memories of old-time photos from gold rush, where the miners trekked up tall ridges to the gold fields in Alaska.
The hill has shrunk, but it's still there for another visit in the fall!
