Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois - ESCONI

Video for ESCONI January 2022 General Meeting - "Through the Ages: How we Date Rocks and Geologic Processes” #geology #rocks #dating #time

 

The January 2022 General Meeting was held on January 14th, 2022 via Zoom.  Our speaker was Dr. Alyssa Abbey from California State University Long Beach.  The title of her talk was “Through the Ages: How we Date Rocks and Geologic Processes”.  

Mazon Monday #90: Video for ESCONI December 2021 General Meeting - "The Life and Death of the Herrin Peat Swamp – Whys, Whens, and Hows” #fossil #illinois #coal #paleontology #pennsylvanian #paleoclimate

This is Mazon Monday post #90.  What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com.

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For December 2021, the presentation by Scott Elrick provided context for the Danville, IL spoil pile fossils.  Scott also discussed coal formation in Illinois during the Pennsylvanian.  Additionally, he mentioned where the Colchester #2 Coal, associated with Mazon Creek, fits into the paleo-environment of the Pennsylvanian.

The speaker at our December 3, 2021 meeting was Scott Elrick, Head of the Coal, Bedrock and Industrial Minerals Section of ISGS. The topic of his talk via Zoom was paleoecology of the Herrin Coal roof shales including depositional environment and climate. This talk added context to the fossil flora found at the Danville shale pile.

A story about Scott and the discovery of a large underground coal forest in the Smithsonian Magazine from 2009.

Finding a fossil in a coal mine is no big deal. Coal deposits, after all, are petrified peat swamps, and peat is made from decaying plants, which leave their imprints in mud and clay as it hardens into shale stone.

But it was a different thing entirely when John Nelson and Scott Elrick, geologists with the Illinois State Geological Survey, examined the Riola and Vermilion Grove coal mines in eastern Illinois. Etched into ceilings of the mine shafts is the largest intact fossil forest ever seen—at least four square miles of tropical wilderness preserved 307 million years ago. That's when an earthquake suddenly lowered the swamp 15 to 30 feet and mud and sand rushed in, covering everything with sediment and killing trees and other plants. "It must have happened in a matter of weeks," says Elrick. "What we see here is the death of a peat swamp, a moment in geologic time frozen by an accident of nature."

To see this little-known wonder, I joined Nelson and Elrick at the Vermilion Grove site, a working mine operated by St. Louis-based Peabody Energy and closed to the public. I donned a hard hat, a light, gloves and steel-toed boots. I received an oxygen bottle and a safety lecture. In case of emergency—poison gas, fire or an explosion—follow the red lights to find the way out of the mine, safety manager Mike Middlemas counseled. We could encounter "thick black smoke, and you won't be able to see anything in front of you." He said to use the lifeline running along the ceiling, a slender rope threaded through wooden cones, like floats in a swimming pool.

Video for ESCONI September 2021 General Meeting - "Exploring evolutionary patterns and processes in trilobites” #fossil #trilobite #paleontology #cambrian

The speaker at our September 10th general meeting was Dr. Mark Webster from the Department of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. The topic was Cambrian trilobites.

 

Here's a link to his page at the university: https://geosci.uchicago.edu/people/mark-webster/

 

Video for ESCONI June 2021 General Meeting - "The Glasford Structure: A Marine Target Impact Crater with a Possible Connection to the Great Ordovician Meteorite Shower” #meteor #paleontology #space #Illinois #peoria

 

The speaker at our June 2021 meeting was Charles Monson from ISGS. Charles recently published on the Glasford Illinois impact structure and its relation to the Ordovician meteor event.

WCBU, a joint service of Bradley University and Illinois State University, interviewed Charles back in November 2019.  Their program is online and available for listening.  His paper was published in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science.

Glasford Meteor May Have Played A Role in Ancient Ice Age

New research on a central Illinois crater suggests possible links to an Ice Age about 455 million years ago. 

Charles Monson is an assistant project coordinator with the Illinois State Geological Survey. He said his team's research suggests a ancient meteor about the size of Wrigley Field struck near Glasford, 20 miles southwest of Peoria, creating a 2.5 mile wide crater that's now buried under a more than a thousand feet of sediment. 

Scientists look for certain geologic signs like shatter cones (or altered rock) to prove a meteor impact is responsible for a crater, instead of another phenomenon. Monson said no one's taken a good look at the crater since its discovery more than 50 years ago. Using 21st century technology and methods, he said scientists were able to learn more. 

"We've documented some of those at the Glasford structure, much more thoroughly than they've been previously documented, so you could say we are the first ones to completely prove this was a meteor impact," he said. 

 

Mazon Monday #87: Video for November 2021 Paleontology Meeting - "The Linton Ohio Coal Mine; a unique look into Carboniferous Tetrapods" #fossil #paleontology #MazonMonday #MazonCreek #Pennsylvanian #Ohio #Linton

This is Mazon Monday post #87.  What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com.

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The ESCONI November 2021 Paleontology was held on Saturday, November, 20th, 2021 at 7:30 PM.  The presentation was by ESCONI member Mike Payne. It's called "The Linton Ohio Coal Mine; a unique look into Carboniferous Tetrapods".  The Diamond Coal Mine in Linton, OH dates to the mid 1800's and interesting fossils were collected from the shales since the very beginning.   The deposit dates to around 300 million years.  Over the years, thousands of specimens of Pennsylvanian vertebrates have been collected from the site.  This list includes fish, amphibians, and reptiles.

The photos below are from John Spina Jr. and were also used in Fossil Friday #37.

Mazon Monday #66: Video for June 2021 Paleontology Meeting - "Collecting Mazon Creek Fossils" #fossil #paleontology #MazonCreek #Illinois

This is Mazon Monday post #66.  What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com.

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The topic of our Paleontology Study Group meeting was "Collecting Mazon Creek Fossils".  It was presented by ESCONI President Keith Robitschek.  The presentation included State Park Links, Maps, Surface Collecting Concretions, Concretion Storage, Opening, Cleaning, and Care.

 

Mazon Monday #61: Video for May Paleontology Meeting - "A Historical Perspective on Collecting Mazon Creek and Pit 11" by Peter Kruty #MazonMonday #fossils #history #Illinois #paleontology

This is Mazon Monday post #61.  What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com.

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We are very excited to post the video of Peter Kruty's presentation for the May 2021 Paleontology Meeting. The title of his talk was "A historical Perspective on Collecting Mazon Creek and Pit 11". It was a very interesting presentation which was sure to bring back memories for long-time Mazon Creek collectors and instill a deep longing and heartfelt regret for those that couldn't or didn't participate in the glory years of the 1950's to the early 1980's.

Peter showed many photos of he and his family collecting at three different historic Mazon Creek localities. The first was a stretch of the Mazon River just east of Morris, which passes between the Kodat and Bensen farms. This was the original Mazon Creek collecting spot, active all the way back to the 1850's. The locality was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997.

Secondly, the Greer School sat on what was Peabody Coal's Pit #1 and was known for incredible plant fossils. The school trained construction workers to drive heavy equipment. The site now hosts Cinder Ridge Golf Course in Wilmington, IL. The last site was Peabody Coal's Pit #11, which is now a State Park - Mazonia. The public is still allowed to collect in the park, however
it is overgrown with plants and concretions can be very difficult to find.

At the end of his presentation, Peter showed some stunning fossil specimens, including a Tully Monster, a very nice shrimp, some gorgeous ferns, and an incredible Elonichthys fish, which was featured in Fossil Friday #46.

Peter and his brother Paul donated parts of his father's fossil collection to ESCONI earlier this year. His father, Sam Kruty, a Chemical Engineer by profession, was an enthusiastic fossil collector, who contributed specimens to the Field Museum and the Mazon Creek Project. He was generous with his fossils using them to educate many that he met. Additionally, he was co-author of three chapters of the Richardson's Guide to the Fossil Fauna of Mazon Creek.

Thanks again, Peter and Paul!

 

Video: ESCONI March 2021 General Meeting - "The Big Hill Lagerstätte” #fossil #paleontology #Michigan #Ordovician #arthropod

The ESCONI March 2021 General Meeting is on March 12, 2021 at 8:00.  The program will be presented via Zoom by Dr. James Lamsdell of West Virginia University. Dr. Lamsdell studies Paleozoic arthropods such as eurypterids and xiphosurans (horseshoe crabs and their relatives). He recently published on the fauna of the Ordovician “Big Hill” Lagerstatte in Upper Michigan.  We posted about this locality and the paper back in December 2020.

The University of Michigan has an interesting post about a new Lagerstatte, which was discovered in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan back in 2013.  This fossil deposit dates to the Silurian Period about 430 million years ago.  Over 40 species of animals have been discovered at the locality, including soft bodied animals like Jellyfish. Jellyfish are exceedingly rare in the fossil record.  Another animal found there is a strange arthropod called chasmataspids, which are related to sea scorpions.  The Youtube video provides a good explanation of the site.

The fossil collection adventures began in the fall of 2013 and the team started finding many fossils that they thought were eurypterids - sea scorpions - but they turned out to be an even stranger group of arthropods called the chasmataspids.The Big Hill fauna completely changed our understanding of the chasmataspids, documenting large variation in size and species and the first complete specimens. Previously, there had only been fragmented fossils found. However, the Big Hill fauna added 50 complete specimens! So, what were all of these chasmataspids doing in Michigan ~430 million years ago? Well, just like other arthropods, chasmataspids molted or shed their exoskeleton as they grew. This is a very difficult process, as it leaves the animal very vulnerable. Dr. James Lamsdell of West Virginia University thinks that these animals were coming to the shallow seas of Michigan to molt in a more protected lagoonal environment.

Why are these strange arthropods so important? These creatures are related to spiders, mites, and horseshoe crabs - things we know and can find on Earth today. The evolutionary histories  of these groups are less well understood. When did they make the transition out of the sea? Where and when did the groups we see today originate in the arthropod tree of life? The Big Hill fauna helps paleontologists better understand many of these questions.

Jellyfish were the other really important find at this location - the number of fossil sites containing jellyfish are low. Jellyfish contain no hard parts, so their ability to fossilize is very slim. Over 100 fossil jellyfish have been found in the Big Hill fauna, which is an unprecedented number for a fossil deposit.

His lab website can be found at: http://jameslamsdell.com/.

Here’s a link to a short YouTube video about Big Hill.

Video: ESCONI February 2021 General Meeting - "Assessing the Early Mars Hydroclimate Using Paleolake Geometries” #mars #space #geology #astronomy #paleontology

 

Did rainfall and snowmelt fill rivers and lakes on Mars? GETTY

Our February 2021 speaker via Zoom will be Dr. Gaia Stucky de Quay from the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. The topic of her talk will be evidence for water and its effect on the geomorphology of early Mars. Title: “Assessing the Early Mars Hydroclimate Using Paleolake Geometries".  She had a recent paper published in the August 2020 edition of Geology called "Global precipitation and aridity constraints from paleolakes on early Mars".  Forbes did an article on that paper in which she is quoted.

Perseverance will land in Jezero crater, home to one of the open lake beds used in the study. Data collected by the rover will help determine how much water was on Mars and whether there are signs of ancient life.

This matters because we know Mars was covered with water. “It had lots of rain or snowmelt to fill those channels and lakes,” said lead author Gaia Stucky de Quay, a postdoctoral fellow at UT's Jackson School of Geosciences. “Now it's completely dry. We’re trying to understand how much water was there and where did it all go.”

The study’s conclusions are pretty loose; researchers using satellite images and topography found that rainfall must have been between a minimum of 13 feet/4 meters and a whopping 520 feet/159 meters in a single episode to fill the lakes.

That’s a large range, but it’s a start.

Here's a link to her page at UT: https://www.jsg.utexas.edu/gaia-stucky/

 

Video: ESCONI December 2020 General Meeting - "What Genetics Tells Us About the Peopling of the Americas” #archaeology #genetics #Americas #NativeAmericans

 

The title for our Dec 4th program is "What Genetics Tells Us About the Peopling of the Americas” by Dr. Jennifer Raff, of the University of Kansas.  Dr. Raff's  research includes ancient DNA, anthropological genetics, human evolution and population history, migration, bioarchaeology, and scientific literacy.

You can find more about her on her page at KU.  https://anthropology.ku.edu/jennifer-raff

 

Video: ESCONI October 2020 General Meeting - "The Blue Forest of Ancient Lake Gosiute” #fossils #paleontology #PetrifiedWood #chalcedony

 

At the October 2020 General Meeting, we had Mike Viney speak about the petrified wood of the Blue Forest in Wyoming.  The Zoom meeting video has been processed and is now available for viewing.  After the presentation, Mike sent a pdf with many of his slides (RBlueForestOfAncientLakeGosiute).

Mike is a Teacher in Residence at Colorado State University and a long-time collector and researcher into petrified wood. The title of his talk was "The Blue Forest of Ancient Lake Gosiute: Sweetwater County, Wyoming". The Blue Forest is a famous source of petrified wood known for its blue chalcedony. Lake Gosiute was one of the lakes in the Green River region during the Eocene.

Here's a link to Mike’s web page called "The Virtual Petrified Wood Museum" http://petrifiedwoodmuseum.org/

 

Video: ESCONI General Meeting, September 2020 - "Carboniferous Fossils Reveal How Fishes Evolve, and How They Don’t" #fossils #MazonCreek #fish #Carboniferous

"Carboniferous Fossils Reveal How Fishes Evolve, and How They Don’t” The speaker at our September 11th, 2020 general meeting was Dr. Lauren Sallan from the University of Pennsylvania. Her presentation was done via Zoom and started at 8:00 PM. Dr. Sallan received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 2012. She was a co-author of the 2017 article that determined that the Tully Monster was not a vertebrate. She also works on Paleozoic ray-finned fishes and sharks.

Here's a link to her lab webpage, which includes links to her TED Talks: http://www.laurensallan.com/

 

Video: ESCONI General Meeting, June 2020 - "Dino-Sores: Injury and Behavior in Cretaceous Dinosaurs" #dinosaurs #cretaceous #paleontology

 

We are pleased to present to you the video of our first zoom general meeting. It was held on June 12th, 2020. We had a remote speaker. He was Dr. Joe Peterson from the University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh. Joe earned a BS Geology at SIU-C and an MS/PhD Geology from NIU. Since, then, he worked and volunteered at Burpee for many years. The title of his program is “Dino-Sores: Injury and Behavior in Cretaceous Dinosaurs”.

 

Mazon Monday #26: Braceville Field Trip Report #fossils #MazonCreek

This is Mazon Monday post #26.  What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com.

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The weather could not have been better for the annual Fall trip to Braceville, IL for Mazon Creek concretions this past weekend.  For both days, we had lows in the 50s and highs around 70 degrees.  There were 51 participants on Saturday and 42 on Sunday, with 9 of those on Sunday from the Kalamazoo Geological and Mineral Society (KGMS).  Thanks for joining us!

We had several donations of fossils.  Most notable was the donation from Ralph Jewell, Thanks!  He donated several buckets of concretions, Mississippian fossils, Ordovician fossils, Pliocene fossils, and some fossils from Morocco.  Hopefully, people won't be too confused with their findings!  Everyone went home with something... be it finds from the spoil pile or the donated fossils.

There is a great field trip report by Ralph Jewell on the Fossil Forum.  If you aren't a member over there, you are really missing out on some great information and discussions.  Sign up... it's free!  You will learn more than you ever imagined about fossils and their place in the natural world!

Here are a couple videos of the distribution of donated material on Saturday.

Sunday.

Here is a photo of the hill... it's shrunk since my first visit in 2004.

A view from the top

Various photos from the day

ESCONI Field Trip Report - Braceville Fall 2019, #fossils #MazonCreek

The Fall 2019 trip to Braceville was on September 14th and 15th this year.  The weather was great on Saturday, maybe a little hot for digging.   On Sunday, the day started out wet, with a steady down pour in early morning, but a few hardy souls went in right from the beginning!  It was two good days of fossil collecting, renewing old friendships, and making some new friends.  It may take a little while with the freeze/thaw preparation, but hopefully, we'll all come away with some awesome new fossils for our collections!

With all the rain we have had this year, the path got pretty overgrown this year.

There were some wet areas and they really turned to mud on Sunday.  Here is a little video summary of the trip.

A lunch time selfie...

We did the customary dump of fossils on both Saturday and Sunday.

 

There was a special visitor on Saturday...  A caterpillar from an Imperial Moth was found.

Here are various pictures from the 2 days of fossil fun!