Via Physorg: Researchers here are hopeful that the new core they drilled through an ice field on the Antarctic Peninsula will contain ice dating back into the last ice age. If so, that record should give new insight into past global climate changes.

Via Google Earth Blog: There’s a neat story on the Google LatLong blog today about a professor that has been using Google Earth to find caves and fossil deposits, eventually leading to the discovery of a hominid fossil dated between 1.78 and 1.95 million years old. Before Professor Lee Berger began this project using Google Earth, there were around 130 cave sites and 20 fossil deposits that they were aware of, identified by him and his colleagues over the past few decades. Since beginning to use Google Earth, they’ve found over 500 previously unidentified sites!

On Saturday, the Mineralogy study group was discussing minerals of South Dakota. Kathy showed us this amazing website of photos of agates. Hidden Beauty by Vítězslav Snášel

Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland.

Via GantDaily: Penn State DuBois Associate Professor of mathematics and geology Rick Brazier had the opportunity to work on several projects in South Africa during a recent sabbatical.  While he spent time training students in a field school, and monitoring seismic activity, some of his most profound work may have helped to save a local school…. more

Via The Onion: In a paradigm-shattering revelation that has shocked the scientific community, paleontologists from the Utah Geological Survey offered definitive proof Wednesday that, for the past 175 years, everyone has been looking at dinosaur fossils upside down… Happy April Fools Day!

Via Geology.com: The Pennsylvania Geological Survey has an informative publication on sinkholes that provides useful information that can be applied in areas far beyond the state. It includes information about how sinkholes form, where they might occur, how to identify them, the types of problems that they cause, remediation and lots of photos.

Many interesting exploration ideas…

Via Geology.com: Some eight centuries ago in what is now Arizona and New Mexico, women of different cultures were brought together by the desire for peace amongst their peoples. Their artwork, known today as Salado pottery, tells a story of religious unity in the face of tribal differences….more

A long but interesting report on how epigenetics can change the view of evolution.

Pretty good video footage of Icelandic volcano from the BBC.

From the Fort Scott Tribune: The Kansas Archeology Training Program, held June 5-20, will give volunteers an opportunity to participate in salvage excavation of a well-preserved prehistoric site threatened by river erosion in Montgomery County. Professional and avocational archeologists form the Kansas Historical Society and the Kansas Anthropological Association will work together to recover as much data as possible from the site before a major portion is destroyed by a stream bank stabilization project. … …The deadline for the lowest registration fee is May 1. For full details and registration information, log on to www.kshs.org/research/katpcurrent or contact Kansas Historical Society…

Via Discovery News: … geology — at least in the English and American histories of it — is thought of as commencing with Scottish geologist James Hutton and the “Geological Revolution” of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. That’s when scientists recognized that rocks and fossils told the story of a very old Earth with a complicated history. …But in other traditions around the world, Earth science, which includes geology as well as marine and atmospheric sciences, started much earlier, and even includes voyages of discovery by the Portuguese in the 1500s, said Alvarez, whose co-author on the paper…

From Weird News: If you’re going to pay more than $11,000 for a watch, you’d probably want it to be made of gold and encrusted in precious gems… not poop. But Swiss company Artya has unveiled an expensive new watch, and it’s literally made of dung….