Fossil Dinosaur Tracks, Marine Reptiles, and Fishes of Svalbard

Fossil Dinosaur Tracks, Marine Reptiles, and Fishes of Svalbard

Dinosaur Footprints on the Roof… Of the World!
by Jørn Hurum, National Geographic Explorers
Journal, August 6, 2014
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2014/08/06/dinosaur-footprints-on-the-roof-of-the-world/

The Hunt for Triassic Sea Monsters in Svalbard Is On
by Jørn Hurum, National Geographic Explorers
Journal, August 6, 2014
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2014/08/06/the-hunt-for-triassic-sea-monsters-in-svalbard-is-on/

Mega-Ichthyosaur Discovery on Svalbard by Jørn
Hurum, National Geographic Explorers Journal, August 8, 2014
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2014/08/08/mega-ichthyosaur-discovery-on-svalbard/

Geology of Svalbard by the Norwegian Polar
Institute, Polar Environmental Centre, Norway
http://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/173141/GeologyOfSvalbard.pdf?sequence=1

Yours,

Paul H.

The curse of the $8 million dinosaur (Review of the film "Dinosaur 13")

The curse of the $8 million dinosaur (Review of the film "Dinosaur 13")

The curse of the $8 million dinosaur (Review of the film
"Dinosaur 13") by Horatia Harrod, The Telegraph.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/11016945/The-curse-of-the-8-million-dinosaur.html

"Dinosaur 13" (Film) - http://dinosaur-13.com/

A Native American's thoughts about Sue in:

After T-Rex Troubles, Dinosaurs Stay on the Rez
by Christina Rose, Indian Country, March 21, 2014
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/03/21/after-t-rex-troubles-dinosaurs-stay-rez-154111

Yours,

Paul H.

The Not-So-Solid Earth Beneath Us

The Not-So-Solid Earth Beneath Us

Dramatic Pictures of Recent Sinkholes Reveal Hazards
Lurking Below Natural and human-caused sinkholes have
swallowed cars and houses in Florida, Minnesota, England,
China, Latin America, and beyond, National Geographic
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/07/140724-sinkhole-pictures-photos-geology-science/

Devastating Sinkholes Around the Globe, Viral Global
News by Lauren DiDonato, July 25, 2014
http://www.viralglobalnews.com/world/devastating-sinkholes-around-globe/12943/

Sinkhole in Florida: In 'Sinkhole Alley,' another massive
one swallows a street Christian Science Monitor, July 21, 2014
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2014/0721/Sinkhole-in-Florida-In-Sinkhole-Alley-another-massive-one-swallows-a-street-video

Record-breaking skyscraper threatened by sinkholes
by Euan McKirdy, CNN, August 6, 2014
http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/05/world/asia/seoul-skyscraper-sinkholes/

Yours,

Paul H.

Yukon Gold Miners Uncover Pleistocene Vertebrate

Yukon Gold Miners Uncover Pleistocene Vertebrate

Fossils in them there hills: Yukon gold miners
uncover bounty in ancient animal remains each
year by Tristan Hopper, National post, July 31, 2014
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/07/31/fossils-in-them-there-hills-yukon-gold-miners-uncover-bounty-in-ancient-animals-remains-each-year/?__federated=1

Ice age horse skull found near Dawson City, Yukon
Yukon's paleontologist Grant Zazula says fragments
not uncommon, but a complete skull is rare
CBC News, July 14, 2104,
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/ice-age-horse-skull-found-near-dawson-city-yukon-1.2710664

Yours,

Paul H.

The Kardashian index: a measure of a scientist's discrepant social media profile

The Kardashian index: a measure of a scientist's discrepant social media profile

Some strangeness from the world of science. :-) :-) :-)

The Kardashian Index by Tommaso Dorigo
August 4th 2014
http://www.science20.com/a_quantum_diaries_survivor/blog/the_new_bit_of_the_summer_the_kardashian_index-141848

'Kardashian-index' raises awareness of
cult of celebrity in sciences, Phys.Org
http://phys.org/news/2014-08-tongue-in-cheek-kardashian-index-awareness-cult-celebrity.html

Hall, K., 2014, The Kardashian index: a measure
of discrepant social media profile for scientists,
Genome Biology. vol. 15, no. 424
DOI: 10.1186/s13059-014-0424-0 , http://genomebiology.com/2014/15/7/424

Proposes the ‘Kardashian Index’ to measure
"the discrepancy between a scientist’s social
media profile and publication record based
on the direct comparison of numbers of
citations and Twitter followers."

Yours,

Paul H.

Interesting Paper About Pseudo-Impact Craters

Interesting Paper About Pseudo-Impact Craters

I came across an interesting paper about crater-like
landforms that were formed by erosional processes.

It is:

Seward, C. L., Jr. and I. D. Boone, 1966, Erosion
Craters Kimble County, Texas. Texas Journal of
Science. vol. XVIII, no. 2, pp.184-190.

They looked at numerous small crater-like features
that they noticed in the Llano River valley in the
Junction, Texas, area. Instead of finding impact
craters, which they expected these features to be,
they found features to be erosional origin. They
suggested that similar pseudo-impact craters likely
would be created by similar climatic and geologic
conditions and could be found elsewhere.

Yours,

Paul H.

Asteroid impacts significantly altered ancient Earth

Asteroid impacts significantly altered ancient Earth

Arizona State University, Science Daily, July 31, 2014.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140731150045.htm

Marchi, S., W. F. Bottke, L. T. Elkins-Tanton, M.
Bierhaus, K. Wuennemann, A. Morbidelli, D. A.
Kring, 2014, Widespread mixing and burial of
Earth’s Hadean crust by asteroid impacts.
Nature. vol. 511, no.7511, pp. 578-582.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v511/n7511/full/nature13539.html

Yours,

Paul H.

Yukon Gold Miners Find Pleistocene Fossils

Yukon Gold Miners Find Pleistocene Fossils

Fossils in them there hills: Yukon gold miners
uncover bounty in ancient animal remains each
year by Tristan Hopper, National post, July 31, 2014
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/07/31/fossils-in-them-there-hills-yukon-gold-miners-uncover-bounty-in-ancient-animals-remains-each-year/

Ice age horse skull found near Dawson City, Yukon
Yukon's paleontologist Grant Zazula says fragments
not uncommon, but a complete skull is rare
CBC News, July 14, 2104,
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/ice-age-horse-skull-found-near-dawson-city-yukon-1.2710664

Yours,

Paul H.

Deltas In Martian Craters

Deltas In Martian Craters

Experimental Delta Formation in Crater Lakes
by G. de Villiers, Faculty of Geoscience, Utrecht University.
http://planetarygeomorphology.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/experimental-delta-formation-in-crater-lakes/
http://planetarygeomorphology.wordpress.com

Other articles are:

Most deltas on Mars created by short, catastrophic floods
by rburnham, Red Planet Report, April 22, 2013
http://redplanet.asu.edu/?p=2534

Aeolis Serpens, Mars’ longest sinuous ridge, is an ancient riverbed
by rburnham, Red Planet Report, May 17, 2013
http://redplanet.asu.edu/?p=2555

Papers are:

de Villiers, G., M. G. Kleinhans and G. Postma, 2103,
Experimental delta formation in crater lakes and
implications for interpretation of Martian deltas
Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, vol. 118,
no. 4, pp. 651-670.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jgre.20069/abstract
https://uu.academia.edu/GeorgePostma

de Villiers, G. Postma and M. G. Kleinhans, 2011,
Interpretation of Martian Delta Morphology and
Processes Based on Experimental Work. 42nd
Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2011) no. 1784
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2011/pdf/1784.pdf
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011LPI....42.1784D

Kraal, E. R., M. van Dijk, G. Postma, and M. G.
Kleinhans, 2013, Martian stepped-delta formation
by rapid water release. Nature. vol. 451, pp. 973-976
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v451/n7181/full/nature06615.html

Yours,

Paul H.

More About Mysterious Giant Siberian Holes

More About Mysterious Giant Siberian Holes

Inside Siberia's mysterious sinkhole that appeared
at the 'end of the world, The Mirror, July 31, 2014
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/inside-siberias-mysterious-sinkhole-appeared-3940712

Two new mysterious craters emerge in Siberia,
deepening giant hole saga. Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/29/two-new-mysterious-craters-emerge-in-siberia-deepening-giant-hole-saga/

Mystery of giant holes in Siberia may be solved
Shelley Hazen, USA Today, August 1, 2014
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/08/01/newser-mystery-giant-holes-siberia/13455833/

Mysterious Holes In Siberia May Actually Be
Odd Type Of Sinkhole by Tanya Lewis, LiveScience
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/31/mysterious-siberian-holes-explained_n_5637303.html

Yours,

Paul H.

Man Made Crater in Turkmenistan

Man Made Crater in Turkmenistan

This Hellish Desert Pit Has Been On Fire for More
Than 40 Years. In the Turkmenistan desert, a crater
dubbed "The Door to Hell" has been burning for decades
by Natasha Geiling, Smithsonian Magazine, May 20, 2014
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/giant-hole-ground-has-been-fire-more-40-years-180951247/?no-ist

How 'the Gates of Hell' Emerged in a Soviet Desert
Giant pit has become tourist spot. byMatt Cantor,
USA Today, May 25, 2014
http://www.newser.com/story/187280/how-the-gates-of-hell-emerged-in-a-soviet-desert.html

Door to Hell, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door_to_Hell

Yours,

Paul H.

Fossil hunting on The Moon?

Fossil hunting on The Moon?

Ancient Earth fossils could be found on the moon
by Jacob Aron, July 28, 2014, New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25961-ancient-earth-fossils-could-be-found-on-the-moon.html

There's Now a Reason to Go Fossil Hunting on
the Moon by Becky Ferreira, Otherboard, July 29, 2014
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/theres-now-a-reason-to-go-fossil-hunting-on-the-moon

Burchell, M. J., K. H. McDermott, M. C. Price, and
L. J. Yolland, 2014, Survival of fossils under
extreme shocks induced by hypervelocity impacts.
The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
vol. 372 no. 2023 20130190
http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/372/2023/20130190

Yours

Paul H.

Online Guidebooks About Florida Geology and Fossils

Online Guidebooks About Florida Geology and Fossils

Online PDF versions of guidebooks about Florida geology
and fossils can be found at http://segs.org/publications/ .

They include;

Hurst, M. V., ed., 2012, Central Florida Phosphate District
Southeastern Geological Society Field Trip Guidebook No. 57
http://segs.org/publications/
http://segs.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/SEGS_Guidebook_57.pdf

Portell, R.W., G. H. Means, and R. C. Hulbert, 2012,
SMR Aggregates, Inc., Sarasota, Florida. Southeastern
Geological Society Field Trip Guidebook No. 53
http://segs.org/publications/
http://segs.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/SEGS-Guidebook-53.pdf

Yours,

Paul H.

Pseudocoprolites, Miocene, Washington State

Pseudocoprolites, Miocene, Washington State

Pseudo-poo! All that glitters isn’t fecal gold
by Andrew Farke, PLOS Blogs, July 23, 2014
http://blogs.plos.org/paleo/2014/07/23/pseudo-poo-glitters-isnt-fecal-gold/

The papers that this article cites are:

Mustoe, G. E., 2001, Enigmatic origin of ferruginous “coprolites”:
Evidence from the Miocene Wilkes Formation, southwestern
Washington. Geological Society of America Bulletin vol. 113
no. 6, pp. 673–681.
http://bulletin.geoscienceworld.org/content/113/6/673

Seilacher, A., C. Marshall, H. C. W. Skinner, and T. Tsuihiji,
2001, A fresh look at sideritic “coprolites.” Paleobiology.
vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 7–13.
http://paleobiol.geoscienceworld.org/content/27/1/7.abstract

Spencer, P. K., 1993, The “coprolites” that aren’t: The
straight poop on specimens from the Miocene of
southwestern Washington State. Ichnos. vol. 2, no. 2,
pp. 231–236.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10420949309380097

Yancey, T. E., G. E. Mustoe, E. B. Leopold, and M. T.
Heizler, 2013, Mudflow disturbance in latest Miocene
forests in Lewis County, Washington. PALAIOS.
vol. 28, no. 6, pp. 343–358.
http://palaios.sepmonline.org/content/28/6/343.short

A wikipedi image is "File:Pseudocoprolite.jpg" at
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pseudocoprolite.jpg
Yours,

Paul H.

Scientists Get First Look Inside Siberian Crater

Scientists Get First Look Inside Siberian Crater

First pictures from inside the 'crater at the end of the
world' by Anna Liesowska Siberian Times, July 17, 2014
http://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/first-pictures-from-inside-the-crater-at-the-end-of-the-world/

Scientists Get First Look Inside Mysterious Siberian
Crater, by Lisa Winter, IFL Science, July 18, 2014
http://www.iflscience.com/environment/scientists-get-first-look-inside-mysterious-siberian-crater

Team reaches the giant Siberian hole at 'the end of the
world' (The depth of the pit is still unconfirmed by
Christopher Hooton The Independent, July 17, 2014
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a-team-has-reached-the-giant-siberian-hole-at-the-end-of-the-world-9612727.html

Yours,

Paul H.

Martian Paleosols?

Martian Paleosols?

Earth-like soils on Mars? Ancient fossilized soils potentially
found deep inside impact crater suggest microbial life,
University of Oregon, ScienceDaily, July 17, 2014
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140717125043.htm

Oregon geologist says Curiosity's images show Earth-like
soils on Mars. University of Oregon, News Release, July 17, 2014
http://uonews.uoregon.edu/archive/news-release/2014/7/oregon-geologist-says-curiositys-images-show-earth-soils-mars

Gregory Retallack
http://blogs.uoregon.edu/gregr/
http://blogs.uoregon.edu/gregr/detailed-webpage/
http://blogs.uoregon.edu/gregr/detailed-webpage/publications/

The paper is:

Retallack, G. J., 2014, Paleosols and paleoenvironments
of early Mars. Geology, 2014; DOI: 10.1130/G35912.1
http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/2014/07/14/G35912.1

Yours,

Paul H.

Update On Mysterious Siberian Crater

Update On Mysterious Siberian Crater

An update on the mysterious Siberian Crater.

Video: Team reaches the giant Siberian hole
at 'the end of the world' (The depth of the
pit is still unconfirmed by Christopher Hooton
The Independent, July 17, 2014
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a-team-has-reached-the-giant-siberian-hole-at-the-end-of-the-world-9612727.html

Yours,

Paul H.

Mysterious Crater Forms in Siberia

Mysterious Crater Forms in Siberia

Scientists baffled by appearance of giant crater
in Siberia (Mysterious hole discovered in remote
tundra in Siberia leaves Russian scientists
looking for answers), The Telegraph, JUly 16, 2014
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/10971128/Scientists-baffled-by-appearance-of-giant-crater-in-Siberia.html

Giant Hole Forms In Siberia, And Nobody Can
Explain Why. Huffington Post, July 16, 2104
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/16/giant-hole-siberia-crater-end-of-world_n_5591780.html

Large crater appears at the 'end of the world'
By The Siberian Times, July 15, 2014
http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/features/large-crater-appears-at-the-end-of-the-world/

A Huge New Crater Is Found In Siberia, And
The Theories Fly, NPR, July 16, 20141
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/07/16/331982188/a-huge-new-crater-is-found-in-siberia-and-the-theories-fly

It is stuff like this that make geology fun.

Yours,

Paul H.

New Geological Map of MARS

New Geological Map of MARS

A Beautifully Detailed New Geologic Map of Mars
by Betsey Mason, Wired July 14, 2014
http://www.wired.com/2014/07/new-geologic-map-mars-usgs/

ASU, USGS project yields sharpest map of Mars
surface properties, Arizona State University
https://asunews.asu.edu/20140715-thermal-map

ASU, USGS Create Sharpest Map Ever of Mars
Surface Properties, united States Geological Survey
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=3936

The geological map is at:

Tanaka, K. L. J. A. Skinner, Jr., J. M. Dohm, R. P.
Irwin, III, E. J. Kolb, C. M. Fortezzo, T. Platz,
G. G. Michael, and T. M. Hare, 2014, Geologic
Map of Mars. Scientific Investigations Map no. 3292
United States Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia
http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3292/

Supplementary data is at:

Mars Global Data Sets, Mars Space Flight Facility
http://jmars.asu.edu/maps/?layer=thm_ti_100m_8bit&z=6&greenlabels

Mars THEMIS-Derived Global Thermal Inertia Mosaic
http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/maps/mars-themis-derived-global-thermal-inertia-mosaic

Yours,

Paul H.

CT-scans Of Two Siberian Mammoth Calves Yield Scientific Insights

CT-scans Of Two Siberian Mammoth Calves Yield Scientific Insights

Short lives, violent deaths: Two CT-scanned Siberian
mammoth calves yield trove of insights, University of
Michigan, Science Daily, July 13, 2014
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140713163326.htm

Short lives, violent deaths: Two CT-scanned Siberian
mammoth calves yield trove of insights by Jim Erickson
Michigan News, Univresity of MIchigan
http://ns.umich.edu/new/multimedia/videos/22280-short-lives-violent-deaths-two-ct-scanned-siberian-mammoth-calves-yield-trove-of-insights

The paper is;

Fisher, D. C., E. A. Shirley, C. D. Whalen, Z. T. Calamari,
A. N. Rountrey, A. N. Tikhonov, B. Buigues, F. Lacombat,
S. Grigoriev, and P. A. Lazarev, 2014, X-ray computed
tomography of two mammoth calf mummies. Journal of
Paleontology. vol. 88, no. 4, pp. 664-675.
http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1666/13-092

Yours,

Paul H.