BLM Resources for Rockhounds

BLM Resources for Rockhounds

BLM Resources for Rockhounds
San Diego Gem and Mineral Society
http://www.sdmg.org/sdmg-public/resources/blm-resources/

Rockhounds could hit rock bottom in 2018
by Lisbet Thoresen, The Pegmatite - December 2017 Page 13
http://www.sdmg.org/articles/201712/201712_Rockhounds_could_hit_rock_bottom_in_2018.pdf

Yours,

Paul H.

Worst Misidentification Ever- FAKE! China's unique natural impact glass

Worst Misidentification Ever- FAKE China's unique natural impact glass

In " worst misidentification ever,"
Alfredo Petrov wrote on Tue, 23 Jan 2018,
This has got to be the worst, and funniest, in a schadenfreude sort of way, hoped-to-be-a-meteorite ever:
https://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/gurugram-residents-store-poop-falling-from-aircraft-in-fridge-thinking-that-it-s-a-rare-mineral-338089.html

I am nominating for second or third worst misidentification of some obviously man-made glass as a Chinese impactite, the "Shui jing glass" featured in the below YouTube videos.

Exploring the mysteries of China's unique natural glass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmzTXfwf9yA

Hongshan Culture & the mystery of China's unique natural glass 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM6s9mWh7Xw

Hongshan Culture & the mystery of China's unique natural glass 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2CYggCtfFM

This material reminds me of the tables covered with varicolored glass blocks that I saw out in front of Arkansas rocks shops when I went fossil and rock collecting decades ago.

There is the below abstract:

A crackpot ejection theory about China's unique natural glass
Endocrine Abstracts (2015) 38 SE1.4 DOI:10.1530/endoabs.38.SE1.4
(Society for Endocrinology, British Endocrine Societies)
http://www.endocrine-abstracts.org/ea/0038/ea0038SE1.4.htm

"I shall present evidence from the carvings that points to a unique post-impact lateral ejection of molten glass; and that this was later carved by grinding using impact diamond sand."

Yours,

Paul H.

Field Work Problem? - Rodents are Chewing up Car Wires

Field Work Problem? - Rodents are Chewing up Car Wires

This might seem off-topic, but it might apply to vehicles used in the field for meteorite hunting.

Why Rodents are Chewing up Car Wires and What You Can Do to Prevent it.
https://www.wheels.ca/news/rodent-damage/

Every farmer knows that vermin nesting in a warm engine bay is yesterday’s news. What is troubling is the growing volume of online stories about rodents chewing up expensive wiring looms that keep Audis, Hondas, Toyotas and Volvos running.

Yours,

Paul H.

Astronomers Explain why They don't Publish

Astronomers Explain why They don't Publish

Below are a couple of articles about how science works / doesn't work.

'Still working': Astronomers explain why they don't
publish. By Daniel Clery, Science News, Feb. 14, 201

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/02/still-working-astronomers-explain-why-they-don-t-publish

Meet the 'data thugs' out to expose shoddy and
questionable research By Adam Marcus, Ivan Oransky,
Retraction Watch, Science News, Feb. 14, 2018
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/02/meet-data-thugs-out-expose-shoddy-and-questionable-research

Yours,

Paul H.

Neutron-Star Collision Reveals Origin of Gold (Great Video)

Neutron-Star Collision Reveals Origin of Gold (Great Video)

Neutron star collisions may have created most of the gold in the universe All that glitters is a neutron star collision.
By Mary Beth Griggs, Popular Science, October 18, 2017
https://www.popsci.com/neutron-star-gold

Neutron-Star Collision Reveals Origin of Gold, Astronomers Say
By Jesse Emspak, Live Science, October 17, 2017
https://www.livescience.com/60701-ligo-neutron-stars-heavy-metals-gold.html

Colliding Neutron Stars, Gravity Waves, and the Origin of the Heavy Elements, Jan. 24, 2018, video
Dr. Eliot Quataert (University of California, Berkeley)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6qWhOtRxtU

Yours,

Paul H.

Machine Learning Framework for Prioritizing NEO Asteroid Deflection

Machine Learning Framework for Prioritizing NEO Asteroid Deflection

Nesvold, E.R., Greenberg, A., Erasmus, N., Van Heerden, E., Galache, J.L., Dahlstrom, E. and Marchis, F., 2018. The Deflector Selector: A Machine Learning Framework for Prioritizing Hazardous Object Deflection Technology Development. arXiv preprint arXiv:1802.00458.
https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.00458

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.00458.pdf

The Deflector Selector: A Machine Learning Framework for Prioritizing Deflection Technology Development, 2016
http://adsabs.harvard.edu//abs/2016DPS....4832911V

Yours,

Paul H.

Sea-surface and Air Temperatures Started Cooling Before Start of Younger Dryas

Sea-surface and Air Temperatures Started Cooling Before Start of Younger Dryas

I assume that everyone has heard about the new "Journal of geology" papers as at Burn Paper
A new day at the Cosmic Tusk
https://cosmictusk.com/9483-2/

As far as the start of the Younger Dryas and the uncertainties of science are concerned, there is:

Levac, E., Sandercombe, S. and Chmura, G.L., 2018.
The Younger Dryas in palynological records from the northern Northwest Atlantic: Does the terrestrial record lag the marine and air records?.
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 490, pp.269-279.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018217307514

"Sea-surface and air temperatures started cooling 250 and 110 years before the start of the YD, hence there is a 140 years delay between ocean and atmosphere."

and

"Vegetation reversals in N. America do not represent the start of cool conditions."

How can an impact, no matter how powerful, have started cooling Earth centuries before it happened?

This and a lot of other fine-grained inconsistencies constantly give me heretical doubts about what should be a quite appealing and simple explanation of puzzling Quaternary events.

Other papers with similar details is:

Emery-Wetherell, M.M., McHorse, B.K. and Byrd Davis, E., 2017. Spatially explicit analysis sheds new light on the Pleistocene megafaunal extinction in North America. Paleobiology, 43(4), pp. 642-655.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319333874_Spatially_explicit_analysis_sheds_new_light_on_the_Pleistocene_megafaunal_extinction_in_North_America

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Meaghan_Wetherell

Woodman, N. and Athfield, N.B., 2009. Post-Clovis survival of American mastodon in the southern Great Lakes region of North America. Quaternary Research, 72(3), pp. 59-363.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usgsstaffpub/625/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248574797_Post-Clovis_survival_of_American_Mastodon_in_the_southern_Great_Lakes_Region_of_North_America

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Neal_Woodman


Widga, C., Lengyel, S.N., Saunders, J., Hodgins, G., Walker, J.D. and Wanamaker, A.D., 2017. Late Pleistocene proboscidean population dynamics in the North American Midcontinent. Boreas, 46(4), pp. 772-782.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313800551_Late_Pleistocene_proboscidean_population_dynamics_in_the_North_American_Midcontinent

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chris_Widga

Besides, correlation does not imply causation.

Yours

Paul H.

Seafloor Data Point to Global Volcanism after Chicxulub Impact

Seafloor Data Point to Global Volcanism after Chicxulub Impact

The dinosaur-murdering asteroid maybe also triggered an underwater volcano meltdown. Why pick just one flavor of apocalypse? By Rachel Becker, The Verge, Feb 7, 2018
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/7/16988112/asteroid-chicxulub-mass-extinction-dinosaurs-underwater-volcanoes-magma

Seafloor data point to global volcanism after Chicxulub meteor strike, University of Oregon, February 7, 2018
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-02/uoo-sdp020518.php

https://around.uoregon.edu/content/one-two-punch-may-have-helped-deck-dinosaurs

The paper is;

Joseph S. Byrnes and Leif Karlstrom, 2018, Anomalous K-Pg-aged seafloor attributed to impact-induced mid-ocean ridge magmatism Science Advances 07 Feb 2018:
Vol. 4, no. 2, eaao2994 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aao2994
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/2/eaao2994

Yours,

Paul H

More (Space) Junk Falling From Sky: Peru

More (Space) Junk Falling From Sky: Peru

Meteorites are not the only stuff falling from space.

Peru: Russian inscriptions found on metal spheres that dropped from sky
http://www.andina.com.pe/ingles/noticia-peru-russian-inscriptions-found-on-metal-spheres-that-dropped-from-sky-697964.aspx

Yours,

Paul H.