This Friday, ESCONI General Meeting 8:00 p.m. College of Dupage, – Tech Ed (TEC) Building, Room 1038B

Topic: Snapshot in time – Geologic Secrets of the Springfield Coal Fossilized Forests

Scott Elrick, from the Illinois State Geological Survey, will describe a 300-million-year-old fossilized forest, found along the Galatia channel, an ancient river that flowed across southern Illinois. This ancient forest is the world’s largest intact rain forest from the Pennsylvanian Period ever to be discovered. Preserved along 150 miles of the Galatia channel river banks, the forest’s sheer size offers an unprecedented view of ancient forest life and diversity. Discovered in the roof of multiple underground coal mines, this rare find, opens a tantalizing window into the past. The forest plants and their encapsulating geology reveal much about the ancient environmental conditions during the time of their formation and about the coal they left behind. Scott will describe the geology surrounding this amazing underground discovery and the geologic and climatic factors that led to the remarkable preservation of this fossil forest.