Finally starting to notice?

This morning I fired up my email account to see a new USGS Release waiting for me.

"USGS To Award $4 Million in Earthquake Research Grants"

Hmm. Maybe it's about time. Inhabitants of our planet are starting to take notice. In this short calendar year, we have seen quite a few devestating seismic events hitting populated area and regions proximal to high population centres. Along with the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, the science of geology is becoming more and more a part of everyone's lives.

Take a look at your TV guide when you get a chance. Over the past few years, National Geographic, Discovery and Science Channel have produced many a show pertaining to geologic phenomena, but only now are we beginning to see repeated shows, marathons, and even geologists themselves narrating said programs.

Of particular commonality, I believe I have seen Iain Stewart's How The Earth Was Made series, and volcanologist Guy de Saint Cyr, host of On The Volcanoes of the World. For the record, I recommend both of these programs. On The Volcanoes..., however, is much more adventure-themed, rather than teaching-themed, but you may be able to see some things you never have before.

It is a bit troubling that tragedies such as Haiti, Chile, and most recently the Qinghai quake of China; are what it takes for seismic hazards to be noticed.

Shameless attempt to stay active in the geo-community

Since I have a meager full time job an hour away, I dont have time to go hunting for fossils like rockmaster Ruuy does (uber jealousy). I sometimes work 11 hours a day, often six days straight. On my days off, I coach a youth soccer club (crossing fingers for a 8-0-0 season). Anyways, I read a book awhile ago written by Jack Horner, Professor of Paleontology at Montana State University and from the sounds of it, God 2.0. The title of the book is "How to build a dinosaur." I suggest going out and buying this book. Its yummy.

Horner and his author-sidekick James Gorman, after explaining the idea behind the book, describe in detail the vast paleontological digs they took part in. The Hell Creek formation in Montana is a hotbed for dinosaur fossils (jealousy meter rising again). Later in the book, Horner begins to propose his hypothesis on hatching a modern day dinosaur using chicken DNA. Horner compiles the physical similarities between chickens and ancient dinosaurs and further supplements it with similar traits in their chemical and genetic makeups.

I'll leave the actual book review to Good Books and Wine, but Horner does infuse a good amount of humor into a potentially dry topic. He also dumbs down the writing so non-rockology readers can understand the concept. It was a good read.

They're not Seahorses, They're Eurypterids

With the coming of a new season, one which does not bury the Central New York strata in many feet of snow, is the gradual opening of an unofficial hunting season.

The snow disappears, some glaring ball of fire in the sky once again shows it's face. The ground dries out and pack boots are not required for simple tasks such as walking dogs or getting the mail.

Colorful birds show up or molt from earth toned ones, singing the hunter into the woods as he finally - after months of researching, planning, readying the weapons and of course - dreaming of the kill.

This time has approached in central New York. The season is open.

It's time to hunt some fossils.

ON Tuesday earlier on this week, fellow dead-animals-in-rock enthusiast Randall and myself decided to meet up in Mohawk, NY to start a journey through the Silurian and Devonian boundary rocks of New York's Mohawk Valley. Stops were planned in a total of three counties (Herkimer, Oneida and Madison) known for sedimentary rocks of the middle Paleozoic seas.

Starting near Mohawk, NY; our first stop were Dayville Member carbonates...which are pretty much in the middle of nowhere, near the town of Getman Corners.
On top you can see some the much more planar-bedded Dayville. Member. We're still in the (upper) Devonian at this point.
Here's a huge tabulate coral. Huge by my standards, anyways. This guy is the biggest I have found. The entire top layer you see in the first image is composed, almost entirely, of rocks similar to this. Float blocks at the bottom of the slope (which you may also view in the first image) are composed entirely of tabulates.

We then decided to do a short little drive in the nearby Spinnersville/Ilion area, in the vicinity of Lang's Quarry, famous for Eurypterids of the Fiddler's Green in great quantity and quality. As we neared Lang's however, there were up to six POSTED signs on each tree letting us know that we were not welcome. Maybe someday.

So we continued on to across the valley towards Litchfield. Near Jarusalem Hill there is a fine outcrop of Fiddler's Green in which Randall promised Eurypterid pieces. We got one better:
Probably not complete enough to identify beyond it's genus, but still a great specimen in my opinion. I just managed to hit the rock in perfect spot, and this guy popped out. Randall also collecting an excellent carapace.
This one was from a much bigger specimen, but as you can see, is quite incomplete. This came from a piece of float, so trying to find what could have been the carapace would be like, well, finding a Eurypterid carapace (not easy).

Then on to some of the Green Vedder Member (Devonian). Randall was here to collect some shales, and I was there to finally bite into my pulled pork sandwich I had packed five hours before. We did not stay long, as the aggregate company across the road had someone staked out watching us.
We then visited the amazing Mosquito Point Outcrop in Munnsville(ish) which contained one of my favorite Devonian Formations, The Coeyman's Limestone.
The darker rocks towards the top are Coeymans. The lighter, whitish rock, was composed almost entirely of these guys (On the right):
Tabulata abound!

The Rugosa sp. to the left is from the Coeymans.

Typical Coeymans:
Two nice fat gastropods. Gastropods, though incredibly interested to me, are not my specialty. I wish I could at least place them in a Genus, but alas, cannot at this time.

We ended at Stockbridge Falls, over the hill and across the valley from The Mosquito Point outcrop.
The area was littered with Onondaga Limestone (Onondaga Formation), which in this area is likely to overlay either Coeymans or Kalkberg Limestone of the Helderberg Group of the Early Devonian.

Eyjafjallajokull Jokulhlaup Video!

(Look at all those vowels...)

A heads up i credited to Dave's Landslide Blog for posting this video earlier this morning (probably afternoon in Durham by now) but needless to say, this is a must see - not only for geologists and rock hounds alike, but for everyone. I mean everyone.



I will write up a post shortly on jokulhlaups - their causes, mechanisms and past events. Truly amazing phenomena. Stay tuned.

Dinosaurs on Baseball Cards

I wanted to brew up a quick post on the intermingling of two of my favorite past times.

Dinosaurs and Baseball Cards.

Recently, card companies have been exhuming the remains of baseball cards past. This includes resurrecting themes which vanished hastily when baseball cards first died in popularity. This was almost 100 years ago at this point, so I don't believe anyone who reads this will know what I'm talking about. Old designs are intentionally being reused, and with this theme, old idea. Back when card still came with tobacco, card would also come printed with pictures of boxers, flags of nations far away, historical figures, and of course, dinosaurs.

But I know many people love to collect dinosaur related things, and these "things" are my favorite.

Right now, I only have two dinosaur cards, and I will post them here.

The first, is Taurosaurus:
As you can see, Upper Deck, the company which makes these, did a hell of a job. They are actually "mini" in size, roughly 1/2 to 1/3 the size of a normal card. You can count on getting one "Natural History" card in every fourth pack, so they're not very easy to come by for a modest collector.

From the back of the card:
"The Taurosaurus, meaning "Wide Perforated Lizard," lived during the Late Cretaceous Period (About 70 Million Years Ago.) With a length of 25 feet and a weight of up to six tons, the Taurosaurus had two long horns over it's eyes."

Granted, you cannot fit much on the back of one of these cards, so understandably, the descriptions are brief.

Now for my favorite.
This one is from 2008-2009 set, out for almost a year now. I looooves me some Stegos. They may have spent a little more time on this set, or maybe they're just better for having much more iconic dinosaurs, but here is the description for this one:

"An armored herbivore of the late Jurassic period, the Stegosaurus was distinguished by the dual rows of pointed, bony plates that ran along it's back as well as the long, dangerous spikes that rose from it's tail.

Roughyl 30 feet long, 15 feet tall and six tons in weight, the Stegosaurus' brain was only about the size of a walnut."

Way to dis the beast at the end, Upper Deck. Still, I'd rather be a Stegosaurus than anything that ever lived, except for maybe Eurypterus remipes, Amargasaurus cazaui or Canis familiaris.

If you're interested in finding some of these for yourself, hit up eBay and search for "UD Champs National History" or "2010 Allen Ginter Monsters of the Mesozoic" later this summer.

Dinosaurs and Volcanoes

I came across this great post today at Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs. If you have not discovered it yet, I suggest you check it out. And if you can, join and submit some Vintage Dinosaur Art to the Flickr Group!

Here's the first one I came across, and I have to say it's quite perfect:

This is from page 403 of Prothero & Dott Jr.'s Evolution of the Earth Textbook. If I could scan the cover, featuring one of the most amazing Amarghasaurus art of all time, I'd get that in there, too.

Disappearing Stream Video

So I'll have to do some more snooping around with this stream. It seems to be getting bigger every year, and I am yet to figure out exactly where this particular stream is discharging into the river (if it is, even).

Redundant, But About Time

At risk of sounding redundant, I'd like to reiterate Callan Bentley's tweet yesterday of "About time..." in regards to the Obama administration FINALLY putting an end to this environmental catastrophe.

Is Glen Canyon Dam next? Probably not, but I can dream.

Photo taken from Coal is Dirty.