Via Sci-News: (Hat tip Dave Carlson at the ESCONI Yahoo Group): Scientists at the University of Washington suggest that early microbes might have been widespread on land, producing oxygen and weathering pyrite, an iron sulfide mineral, which released sulfur and molybdenum into the oceans.

From PhysOrg: Recently, a mysterious seed fern, Lepidopteris baodensis sp. nov., dating to more than 251 million years ago (Ma), was discovered at the Baijiagou of Baode, Shanxi, China, from the Upper Permian Sunjiagou Formation. This discovery completely changed the understanding of the stratigraphic distribution of the genus Lepidopteris in China and promoted the taxonomic study of late Paleozoic plants. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-mysterious-seed-fern-lepidopteris-upper.html#jCp

From Seattle Times:  An interview with the author of “The Rocks Don’t Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah’s Flood,” MacArthur Fellow and UW professor David Montgomery….  Q: Most people probably think creationism is a pretty old belief system, but in the book you clearly lay out that it’s not. Briefly describe how it developed. A: George McCready Price was the guy who championed flood geology (the theory that Noah’s flood was real) in its darkest hours through the early 20th century. He was not a trained geologist, but he argued that geologists had the whole theory wrong. His arguments evolved into…

From American Geosciences Institute (AGI), data on when geoscience students got interested in the field of geosciences. 

Via Science Friday:  Reporting in Science, researchers write of sequencing the genome of a young Denisovan girl — an archaic human distantly related to Neanderthals and modern humans. Geneticist David Reich discusses the tale the genome tells about the Denisovan people and their interactions with modern humans.

E-books (self-publishing) are becoming more popular. Here is an e-book being sold on E-bay about Mazon Creek Animal Fossils. The author, TVTesta, is a previous member of ESCONI, as well as speaker to the Paleontology study groups. He is also a subject of a 2004 Chicago Reader article about the Mazon Creek fossils: http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-vanishing-mother-lode-of-mazon-creek/Content?oid=915941 Partial description of Mazon Creek Animal Fossils:  …. The sole purpose of this book is to share photographs of remarkable and interesting museum quality Mazon Creek fossil specimens from the private collection of T.V. Testa.… This volume contains photos of Mazon Creek fossil animals including; the amphibian…

Guatemala has evacuated thousands of people after the Fuego volcano started spewing ash and lava. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-19594481 See also http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=79168 for a view from space.

Via AFP: NASA’s Opportunity rover, older brother to the Curiosity rover that landed on Mars last month, has made a new discovery that geologists find both puzzling and exciting, the US space agency said Friday. Opportunity, which has been on the Red Planet since 2004, has come across an outcrop of tiny spheres — up to around an eighth of an inch (three millimeters) in diameter — the likes of which scientists have never seen before.  

Be part of a new paleo project through a Kickstarter project for Tyler Keillor (who was a member of ESCONI when young) – Award winning Paleoartist Tyler Keillor uses digital technology to create the authoritative full-body reconstruction of Dryptosaurus. 

Via PhysOrg:   … Here’s how it works: Basically, the oceans, together with the atmosphere, rebalance heat on the planet. The sun shines on the Earth and heats up the tropics more than the poles. Near the poles, the ocean is cold and the water sinks; near the equator, the surface of the ocean is inviting and warm—and floats on top of the colder deep water. So the question is this: Where does the water that goes down come back up? Speer, Marshall and other oceanographers now believe that it comes back up in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica—not as…

From geology.com: You don’t need a huge hammer to break a massive rock. Lots of tiny blows smartly delivered and the help of a few simple tools. In the second half of the video you can clearly “hear” the rock breaking.

Via Scientific American: The evolution of metamorphosis remains somewhat mysterious, but biologists have gathered enough evidence to plausibly explain its origins…  

Hawthorne Hill Nature Center needs rocks! They are creating a family-friendly rock collection area. They are looking for all different kinds of rocks and would appreciate if you would contact them if you have rocks to donate – whatever you would like to donate – interesting shaped or naturally-colored rocks, stream stones, fossil-laden rocks, minerals, etc.  How cool! This October, Hawthorne Hill Nature Center will be celebrating their very first “Rock Out” Month at HHNC and throughout Elgin with special programs at thenature center, Elgin Public Museum, and Elgin History Museum. To donate rocks & fossils, please contact:April AndersonNaturalistHawthorne Hill Nature Center28 Brookside Drive …

From BigThink via Geology.com