FREE Days at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument (Colorado)––home to one of the richest and most diverse fossil deposits in the world––is waiving entrance fees on August 15-16, 2009. The name Florissant comes from a French word meaning “blooming” or “flowering.” Both modern and fossil flowers are found in Florissant, Colorado today.

Admission to the park will also be free on Saturday, August 22 in celebration of the park’s 40th anniversary. Ranger-led programs will be offered throughout the day, including a free seminar from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., The History of the Founding of Florissant Fossil Beds NM (teachers can receive credit, fees apply).

More information available on the park’s website.

Fossil Friday- Giant Trilobites from Portugal

“It was THIS big.”

Geological Adventures Examiner: Fossil Friday- giant trilobites from Portugal

Recently we reported on Isotelus rex being the largest of the trilobites. Now it appears it may have been dethroned. Recent finds published in the journal Geology tell of more giant trilobites from Portugal. Fossils of Ogyginus forteyi and Hungioides bohemicus are found in slabs of rock from a slate quarry in groups numbering in the thousands. Most of the specimens are over 30 centimeters (1 foot).
Read more…

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Beware of Trilobites Yard Sign. Don't be caught unaware or become the victim of pesky liability suits due to marauding trilos on your property!

USGS Stimulus Funding Bears Scrutiny

If you had any doubt about USGS increased funding via the President’s stimulus package, I submit to you this video which I received by email. *wink*

Seriously, though, the original videos on the USGS site does not include music (sorry, I cannot credit whoever added that) and was filmed using a remote camera.  However, the doctored version, besides being fun, does get attention to an important wildlife message.

Many scientists believe that bears rub trees to leave and gather certain kinds of information about other bears (think of it as a kind of ursine chatroom), and in fact use the same rub trees for generations.

Shale Ale Toasts 100 Years Since Fossil Discovery

Are you a dino wino? Could you go for some gneiss on ice or get pissed on schist?  If so, you might enjoy Shale Ale.

The just-launched brew celebrates the 100th anniversary of the shale discovery on Mount Burgess, in Yoho Park, British Columbia, site of the world’s most important fossil animals.

The limited edition beer celebrates the Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation (the BSGF) and is being manufactured by Big Rock Brewery, Canada’s leading craft brewer.

Made exclusively for BSGF’s special events, the Shale Ale label depicts the Dr. Charles Doolittle Walcott, who discovered the site, surrounded by the 505-million-year-old Burgess Shale fossils, famous for their amazing diversity, bizarre life forms, and out-of-this-world appendages.

Shale Ale will be launched at the GeoConvention Gala of the annual technical convention of the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, the Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists and the Canadian Well Logging Society, to the estimated 4,000 geologically savvy attendees.

Some more on the fossils at Burgess (via the BSGF website):

Discovered in 1909 in Yoho National Park by Charles D. Walcott, the Burgess Shale not only challenges the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin, but provides a glimpse of what life was like on Earth – 505 million years ago!

Just imagine…

• The 5-eyed Opabinia, with an elephant-like trunk with fierce claw at its end… or
• The strange Dinomischus, looking more like a flower than an animal… or
• Anomalocaris, the largest of these ancient animals, and terror of the Cambrian seas… or
• A beautiful Marrella, the “lace crab”, and most common fossil in the Walcott quarry… or
• The modest Pikaia, looking like a worm, but in fact a primitive chordate, and our oldest known ancestor!

Um, five eyes and an elephant-like trunk with fierce claw at its end?  I’ll have that drink now!

Cheers to the Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation!

(Via Marketwire — Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation)

Women Geologists on a Rocky Road

Florence Bascom was the first woman geologist hired by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1896. It was rare for a woman to become a field geologist. Medora Hooper Krieger followed in the footsteps of Bascom, joining the USGS in 1944, and was an inspiration to other women geologists of her time. By 1952, only 2 percent of the geoscience workforce in the USGS was female and only a handful were field geologists. By 2004, the numbers increased to 20 percent. (Source: USGS EEO office.)

Medora Hooper Krieger’s daughter recounts her mother’s career as a groundbreaking (in more ways than one) geologist.  Intrigued? You can read the entire article at The Daily Courier of Prescott, AZ.

GSA Annual Meeting Honors International Year of Planet Earth

This year the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA) will hold a joint meeting with the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA), American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies with the Gulf Coast Section of SEPM (GCAGS), and the event will be hosted by the Houston Geological Society (HGS).

The conference will take place October 5-9 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.

The extended program linking Energy, Water Resources, Education, and Earth Systems, will encompass the 10 broad, societally relevant and multidisciplinary themes declared by The International Year of Planet Earth (health, climate, groundwater, ocean, soils, deep Earth, megacities, hazards, resources, and life).

There is still time to register for the event. For more information see the Joint Annual Meeting website.

Eye on Volcanoes with Webcams

Wired Magazine’s Geek Dad recently posted a list of live volcano webcams. He points out that thanks to the internet, we can see volcanoes without putting our lives in danger. His links include:

• Mt. St. Helens, Washington, USA. Possibly the most famous volcano in North America. The huge gap in the crater wall was created during a massive eruption in 1980. http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/
• Pu`u `O`o vent, Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, USA. One of several volcanoes on the Big Island of Hawaii. Kilauea is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/cam/
• Moku‘aweoweo caldera, Mauna Loa Volcano, Hawaii, USA. Another volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. Mauna Loa (“long mountain” in Hawaiian) is the largest volcano on Earth. http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/cam2/
• Various volcanoes, Alaska, USA. Alaska has many volcanoes scattered over its entire territory but the Aleutian Islands are one long chain of active and dormant volcanoes. http://www.avo.alaska.edu/webcam/
• White Island, New Zealand. New Zealand’s most active volcano. A sulfur mine was opened here in 1885 but was closed about 30 years later when an eruption destroyed part of the facility. http://www.geonet.org.nz/volcano/volcams/whiteisland/
• Mt. Vesuvius, Italy. Vesuvius is possibly the best known volcano on Earth because of its eruption in 79 AD which destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The modern city of Naples is about nine kilometers to the west of the volcano. http://www.vesuvioinrete.it/e_webcam.htm
• Klyuchevskoy Volcano, Kamchatka, Russia. At 4833 meters Klyuchevskoy is the tallest volcano on the Eurasian continent. The ash plume from its eruption in 1994 crossed a number of busy airline routes from North America to the Far East. http://data.emsd.iks.ru/video/video.htm

Geek Dad also notes, and wisely, that since these webcams are situated in mountainous and remote areas they may sometimes be offline for a while, or may be less than perfect thanks to the capriciousness of nature.

You may notice that I’ve also added two new volcano-related videos to my VodPod on the right: one short one of lava flow from the USGS and a longer one from PBS relating to volcanoes in New Mexico, looking at both geology and cultural history.

Credits: Wired Blog Network/GeekDad

CFMS Show

I went to the CFMS Tri-State Convention and Lapidary Show in Palmdale, CA, yesterday. This was their 68th year! By the time I got there it had been going on for three days so unfortunately I missed most of the demonstrations and talks. But I saw the many cases of impressive displays and had the chance to chat with some vendors and club members.

I took a few photos, but alas, I have no macro lens so the impressiveness of the specimens doesn’t quite translate. But I’ll post a few, with thanks to the vendors.

Pyrite, sulfur, museum-grade citrine and quartz from Brazil

Thanks to Dragon Minerals, Kristauphe Gems and Glidden Enterprises.
Please visit their sites 🙂

Dynamic Earth

Very cool website from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History . I thought this was such a fun and well-executed interactive web display. It includes sections on gems and minerals, rocks and mining, plate tectonics and the solar system!

http://www.mnh.si.edu/earth/main_frames.html