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Largest Crystals in the World
Read more: Largest Crystals in the WorldDescription of exploration of the Crystal Cave of Giants. The explorer, George Kourounis, has other photo galleries as well. From the site: … The crystals themselves are made of selenite which is crystallized gypsum, the same material used in drywall construction. Except these crystals formed over a span of about half a million years in a hot water solution, saturated with minerals. The the temperature inside the cave remained very consistently hot for the entire time the crystals were growing.…
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10 Extraordinary Lakes
Read more: 10 Extraordinary LakesFrom Womans Day via geology.com: When a body of water is inland, not part of an ocean, deeper than a pond and fed by a river, it is classified as a lake. Usually created by rifts, tectonic shifts and ongoing glaciations—often found in basins or along mature rivers—they’re some of the most beautiful nature-… Photo: Plitvice Lake by 29cm
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No Water in Building During General Meeting 9/11
Read more: No Water in Building During General Meeting 9/11The College of Dupage has to shut down the water in the building that we will be meeting in on Friday. So there will be no restroom facilities available in Building K. Be sure to call other members who may not read this blog and let them know. Check this site for other updates before attending the meeting, e.g, there may be other buildings made available.
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General Meeting – Book Signing Too – This Friday 9/11
Read more: General Meeting – Book Signing Too – This Friday 9/11Just found out that Jack Wittry will be available before and after his presentation to sign his book, The Mazon Creek Fossil Flora. The book will be on sale for $65 hard cover, $35 soft cover at the General Meeting on Friday, September 11 at College of Dupage, Building K, Room 131, at 8:00 pm. (Photo by: Andrew Young) A book reviewer on Amazon wrote this: … This book is like having a paleobotanist at your service to get the labels right. It is inexpensive and will appeal to collectors, students, nature enthusiasts, and teachers. The subject matter will also…
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Updated site for buying minerals
Read more: Updated site for buying mineralsI don’t know much about this site, but saw that they had updated their site to make it easier to use… MinFans
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Got Mazon Creek Fossils?
Read more: Got Mazon Creek Fossils?Do you have 1-2 Mazon Creek fossils that you would be willing to part with? I’m asking on behalf of a geology teacher in LaCross Wis. who wants to teach her kids about Mazon Creek and to show her class some example fossils. Ms. Frisby is also the president of the Coulee Region Rock Club in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. So, if you have a one or two Mazon fossils that you would like to part with, you can bring it to the Friday, Sept. 11th General Meeting and I’ll collect and send on in the following week.
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Listening to Rocks
Read more: Listening to RocksVia Science Daily: …Earth is not a quiet planet. The key is knowing how to listen to the ever-present ambient noise. University of Illinois seismologist Xiaodong Song and graduate student Zhen J. Xu have become good listeners, especially to the sounds beneath our feet. Using a technique called “ambient noise correlation,” Xu and Song have observed significant changes in the behavior of parts of Earth’s crust that were disturbed by three major earthquakes….
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The Geologist’s Tale
Read more: The Geologist’s TaleVia NYT: … But it was all true. And now Dr. Sallenger, a coastal geologist for the United States Geological Survey, has turned the 153-year-old story into a book he hopes will not only engage readers with its tale of love, death and narrow escapes but also teach them about the hazards of living on the ever-changing coastal landscape, particularly in an era of climate change and rising seas. The book is “Island in a Storm.”…
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Trip Full
Read more: Trip FullDave is taking names for a waiting list for a trip to a quarry in Sycamore. His email is “fossil54@worldnet.att.net”.
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Fossilized iridescent colors
Read more: Fossilized iridescent colorsVia National Science Foundation (from geology.com) … A team of paleontologists and ornithologists has now discovered evidence of vivid iridescent colors in fossil feathers more than 40 million years old. The finding, published online August 26 in the journal Biology Letters, signifies the first evidence of a preserved color-producing nanostructure in a fossilized feather…
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Book Recommendations Wanted
Read more: Book Recommendations WantedWhat are your favorite earth science books? Tell us… by sending an email to “diannal20@yahoo.com” or by leaving a comment on this post. Books will be added to a new feature of the web site – a list of ESCONI member favorite earth science books…
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General Meeting: Friday, Sept. 11, Jack Wittry speaker
Read more: General Meeting: Friday, Sept. 11, Jack Wittry speakerTime to mark your calendars…. the next ESCONI general meeting will be Friday, September 11 at 8:00 pm, College of Dupage, Building K, Room #131. Jack Wittry will speak on, “Antediluvian Phytology Illustrated by a Collection of the Fossil Remains of Plants Peculiar to the Coal Formation of Mazon Creek.”
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Scott’s Rock Trips
Read more: Scott’s Rock TripsInteresting web site displaying photos and descriptions of this person's rock hunting trips. The latest trip was to an open pit mine on Rainbow Ridge in Virgin Valley Nevada for opals. (via geology.com)
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Continuing Dinosaur Discoveries in Australia
Read more: Continuing Dinosaur Discoveries in AustraliaVia ABC News Australia: “Dinosaur bones around 97 million years old have been found in south-west Queensland…. …”The discoveries made this year confirm the site is likely to be of great significance, not only for Australia, but for a wider scientific understanding of the age of dinosaurs,” Mr Hocknull said. Other discoveries in the region include a long-necked plant-eating sauropod, Rhoetosaurus, found in the 1930s at Roma and believed to be 170 million years old….” Image created by William Stout
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World Faces Possible Shortage of Technology Minerals
Read more: World Faces Possible Shortage of Technology MineralsVia the Telegraph: A draft report by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has called for a total ban on foreign shipments of terbium, dysprosium, yttrium, thulium, and lutetium. Other metals such as neodymium, europium, cerium, and lanthanum will be restricted to a combined export quota of 35,000 tonnes a year, far below global needs….. Mr Stephens said China had put global competitors out of business in the early 1990s by flooding the market, leading to the closure of the biggest US rare earth mine at Mountain Pass in California – now being revived by Molycorp Minerals. New technologies…
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A Rockhunting Trip to India
Read more: A Rockhunting Trip to IndiaFrom the “Spirifer” Geological Society, great photos from a rockhound’s collecting trip to India. (via geology.com)
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How You Can Post to ESCONI Site
Read more: How You Can Post to ESCONI SiteAll ESCONI members can post to this site. Currently four members are set up to post. If you would like to post to the site, send me an e-mail at “diannal20@yahoo.com” (remove the quotations) and I’ll send you information on how to get setup to post to the site. So far, members have posted on trips, meetings and finds. Select the Member Posts option from the menu on the left to see member posts.
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Want to Be Notified of ESCONI Web Posts?
Read more: Want to Be Notified of ESCONI Web Posts?If you would like to be notified by email of new ESCONI web posts, look at the bottom right of the screen for the Notifixious button. Click the button and follow the instructions to sign up for automatic updates.
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ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show
Most Recent Post
- Mazon Monday #317: Pohlsepia Revisited — Not an Octopus After All
A new paper “Synchrotron data reveal nautiloid characters inPohlsepia mazonensis, refuting a Palaeozoic origin for octobrachians” in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences refutes the classification of Pohlsepia mazonensis as an octopus and reclassifies it as a soft-bodied nautiloid as Paleocadmus pohli.
- About ESCONI
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- Throwback Thursday
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Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings!
| Friday, April 10th | General Meeting – 8:00 PM via Zoom. Jessica Hull will present “Life in the Devonian Period, The Age of Fishes.” |
| Saturday, April 11th | Junior Study Group Meeting – 2:00 PM, in person at the College of DuPage Technical Education Center (TEC) Building – Room 1038A (Map). Katherine Howard will present on Sand and Sediment Collecting. Specifics of this meeting are available from Scott Galloway, 630-670-2591, gallowayscottf@gmail.com. |
| Saturday, April 18th | Paleontology Study Group – 7:30 PM via Zoom and in person at the College of DuPage, TEC, Room 1038B (Map). Keith Robitschek will present “Digging the Marl of the Lance Formation.” |
| Friday, April 24th | MAPS Expo XLVII – Springfield, IL. |
| Saturday, April 25th | MAPS Expo XLVII – Springfield, IL. |
| Sunday, April 26th | MAPS Expo XLVII – Springfield, IL. |
| No meeting this month | Mineralogy Study Group |