Louisiana & Earth Science

Louisiana & Earth Science

In “Louisiana & earth science”at
http://lists.drizzle.com/pipermail/rockhounds_lists.drizzle.com/2013-January/000392.html
Johan Mineral wrote:

"Planning vacation for Louisiana New Orleans –
Baton Rouge area. What are your suggestions for
earth science related activities: museums, digs, ..."

The best summary of the type of information that exists
for which you are looking is found in "Rockhounding
Louisiana" at
http://www.gatorgirlrocks.com/state-by-state/louisiana.html

Of the books that she lists, the one that a person visiting
Louisiana definitely should get is Darwin Spearing's
“Roadside Geology of Louisiana,” which was published
by Mountain Press.
http://geology.com/store/roadside-geology-louisiana.shtml

An article about fossil hunting in Louisiana is "Fossil
Hunting in Louisiana Gravels" at:

http://appl027.lsu.edu/MNSEducation/Saturday/Hunting%20for%20Fossils%203.pdf

PDF files of Louisiana geological maps can be found at:
http://www.lgs.lsu.edu/deploy/content/PUBLI/contentpage17.php

General PDF files about Louisiana geology can be found at:
http://www.lgs.lsu.edu/deploy/content/PUBLI/contentpage14.php

A nice fieldtrip guidebook about Katrina and New
Orleans is “Hurricane Katrina - What Happened?
A Field Trip The Geology of the Katrina Disaster in
New Orleans” by Stephen A. Nelson, Dept. Earth &
Environmental Sciences, Tulane University at
http://www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/Katrina/

PDF file at:
http://www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/Katrina/Hurricane%20Katrina%20Field%20Trip.pdf

The local museums are

1. International Petroleum Museum & Exposition
Morgan City, Louisiana

http://www.rigmuseum.com/

2. Louisiana Museum of Natural History
Louisiana State University – Baton Rouge, Louisiana

http://appl003.lsu.edu/natsci/lmnh.nsf/index

3. Lafayette Science Museum, Lafayette, Louisiana

http://www.gatorgirlrocks.com/state-by-state/louisiana.html

The best source of information for your inquiries are
local gem and mineral societies. Contact information
for them can be found in "Louisiana Gem and Mineral Clubs" at

http://www.rockhounds.com/rockshop/clubs/louisiana.shtml

Baton Rouge Gem & Mineral Society
40443 Sycamore Ave
Gonzales, Louisiana 70737
Meeting Place: Marriott Hotel - Baton Rouge
Meeting Time: 4th Tuesday, 7:00PM
Primary Contact: Ray Duplechain
rayduplechain[at]hotmail.com
Phone: [225] 978-0031

Gem and Mineral Society of Louisiana
P.O. Box 51527
New Orleans, Louisiana 70151
Meeting Place: University of New Orleans,
Geological Bldg., Room 1000, Lakeshore Drive, NOLA
Meeting Time: 7:30 pm - Second Monday of each Month, except July
Primary Contact: Levette Carlos
E-Mail: ljcarlos[at]gmail.com
Phone: [985] 643-6610
Secondary Contact: Mary Lou Shannon-Fuerst
E-Mail: jerseydevil1974[at]yahoo.com
Phone: [504] 285-2950

Some Informative Web Pages

Louisiana Gravel Fossils and Agates
http://la-gravel-fossils.blogspot.com/

Also, a person can search the "Fossil Forum" for posts
about Louisiana fossils at http://www.thefossilforum.com/ .

Finally, there is the "Louisiana Fossil Page" at:
http://web.archive.org/web/20110910005442/http://members.cox.net/pyrophyllite/lafossil1.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20110711151310/http://members.cox.net/pyrophyllite/lafossil1.html

If you have any specific questions, you can contact
the geologists at the Louisiana Geological Survey at
http://www.lgs.lsu.edu/deploy/content/GINFO/contentpage5.php

Best wishes,

Yours,

Paul H.

Meteorite Men Comment

Paul Heinrich oxytropidoceras at cox.net
Sat Feb 27 00:48:02 EST 2010

Dear Friends,

Meteorite Men is a great show. personally, I feel
that it has a nice mix of science, humor, entertainment,
and droll, low-key "adventure" that many shows needs
to have.

From my job, I can tell that bit definitely has generated
a lot of interest in Louisiana, with a very definite increase
in inquiries, about meteorites and meteorite hunting
received by other geologists and I. There have been a
bunch of rocks, some of which have been lying in people's
closets for decades. Unfortunately, they have so far
been meteorwrongs and even one craterwrong. However,
a person never knows when that meteorite that has been
either sitting in someone''s porch as doorstop or in their
garage for the past few years will finally make it way
into my or some other geologist's office possibly because
of the interest generated by "Meteorite Men".

One of the more strange meteorwrongs was a gneiss
boulder about 1.5 to 2 meters in diameter that got pulled
up in a fishing net off Grand Island, Lafourche Parish.
The most frustrating meteorwrongs in Louisiana are
"bog iron ores", which form in permanently saturated
coastal plain soils and often are associated with springs.
Pieces of this material have an unfortunate tendency of
being dense, pitch black, and even magnetic. Certain
pieces are troublesome because neither I nor any other
geologist feel comfortable, despite what intuition says,
about judging them as definite meteorwrongs without
being able to inspect them in person.

I have been tempted to suggest to to a soil scientist, whom
I worked with, that looking at the genesis of these "bog
iron ores" would be a worthwhile project for a Masters
thesis for some student. I and another geologist can at least
now point out a number of places where they can be
studied. They have a strange, although quite terrestrial,
mineralogy.

Yours,

Paul H.
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
http://www.scribd.com/etchplain