Public Is Invited

Fall 2006 Newsletter

Thursday, November 9, 7:00 PMSelby Hall, Rm 143, Marietta College

Presenter: Dan HermsDept. of Entomology, OSU. and Ohio Agric.

Research and Development Center The onslaught of exotic insects poses a

clear and present danger to Ohio forests.Surely, gypsy moth and emerald ash

borer are enough – are there more species we should be on the lookout for?

Thursday, October 12, 7:00 PM SelbyHall, Rm 143, Marietta CollegePresenter: Dr. Edwin Michael

West Virginia UniversityThe passenger Pigeon once occurred in

numbers so great everyone 'knew' huntingcould never drive them to extinction.

Wrong. Could it happen to species plentifulin our time? Dr. Michael, who has sharedhis enthusiasm about snapping turtles, is

making a return visit to take us for ajourney into the past.

MNHS Annual Potluck DinnerThursday, December 14, 6:00 PM

St. Luke's Lutheran Church, Corner of Scammel and 4th Sts.

Presenter: Jean AndrewsProgram will be the acclaimed video "A Forest

Returns" introduced by its maker, Jean Andrews.The film documents creation of Wayne NationalForest as told through 93 year-old Ora "Andy"Anderson, who witnessed the process during its

early years. Bring a dish to share and table service.

A Forest Returns

The Sad Saga of the

Passenger Pigeon

Special Program "Birds of Lower Muskingum Riverin Sight and Sound" by Bob Scott

Placier. Friends of LowerMuskingum River meeting, 7:00pm, Thursday, November 30 in

Community Room at WashingtonState Community College. Almost

as good as being there!

Marietta Natural History Society

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Web Threads

Dinner with the speakers

We will meet at 5:30 at the Levee House RestaurantCheck first with Marilyn (373-3372) or Elsa (373-5285). to be sure speaker will be there. Members should make their own reservations.

Recycled Paper 100% Post-Consumer

} } } Advance Notice } } }Scott Weidensaul to speak to MNHS

Thursday, January 18, 2008(3rd Thursday of January)

In 1953, the noted field guide author and birdwatching guru Roger Tory Peterson and his Britishcounterpart James Fisher embarked on an incrediblejourney. In 100 days, they traveled more than 30,000miles to experience the length and breadth of NorthAmerica. Their collaborative book Wild America is aclassic account of their adventure. Pennsylvania naturalist Scott Weidensaul, fifty yearsafterward, retraced Peterson & Fisher's steps to tell thestory of wild America today. In his Return to WildAmerica he tells how the continent's natural landscapehas fared in the ensuing half century. Weidensaul is the author of more than two dozenbooks on natural history. He writes regularly forSmithsonian magazine and his articles have appeared insuch publications as Orion, Audubon, Bird Watcher'sDigest, and Natural History. Wild America and Return to Wild America will be available at Sugden's.

Nelsonville Bypass Plant Rescue! Saturday, October 14, 9:00 - Noon The Native Plant Rescue is an opportunity to protect a precious piece of southeastern Ohio forest heritage. Participants will dig up native forest plants from the future site of the US 33 bypass through Wayne National Forest. The plants will be placed in

especially constructed beds for future restoration projects as well as native plant beds for public enjoyment and education. Each rescue outing includes training on plant identification and replanting. Participants will meet at WNF headquarters. Register with Elise George of Rural Action. (740)742-4401 or elise@ruralaction.org.

Suggestions, Comments orContributions for the MNHS

Newsletter?Send them to the Editor:

Rocks and more. A great source for all things geology is About Geology, one of many Informational web sites sponsored by About.com. Topics and links range from structural geology toidentifying rocks and minerals, educational resources to career opportunities. Some current feature articles are on the geology ofcement, concrete and bricks. Does sedimentary rock cross-bedding make your day? Can’t find geology computer screen wallpaper? You will find it at http://geology.about.com/.

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Bird Feeder WatchTime Again

It’s almost time again for theWinter Bird Feeder Watch. Participants record speciesand number of birds at theirbird feeders every otherweekend from November to midMarch. You don’t have to watch every weekend;all data collected can be used. If you want toparticipate, contact our feeder watchcoordinator, Ava Bradley (373-5790) or BirdWatcher's Digest (373-5285).

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Rivers, Sandstones, and Landscape of the Mid-Ohio Valleyby Dr. David Jeffery, Marietta College Department of Petroleum Engineering and Geology

It sounds like a simple question to ask. What forms thehills in our area of Appalachia? We generally explain toour students that the hills are capped with resistantsandstones and the slopes are primarily composed ofshales lying beneath the sandstones that weather anderode very quickly. The sandstones are primarily riverdeposits that were laid down as discontinuous lenses, podsor stringers of sand. The shales are primarily floodplain ordeltaic deposits that were laid down as extensive mudlayers that encase the sands. I always find this quick answer somewhat less thansatisfying because we really need to put those sandstonesand shales into the context of geological history. In orderto do that, we need to go way back… and think in terms ofsome basic geology such as is taught in historical geologyclasses and texts (e.g. Wicander and Monroe, 2004). Three hundred million years ago, during thePennsylvanian Period, two massive continents collidedforming a gigantic mountain chain that would have rivaledthe modern Himalayan Range in size. Just a short drive tothe south and east from Marietta, we can go look at theroots of these formerly towering peaks in the Valley andRidge, Blue Ridge, and Piedmont geographic and geologicprovinces of North America. These mountains stretchedfrom Europe (prior to the opening of the Atlantic Ocean)beyond the maritime provinces of Canada and ran downthe Appalachians south and west just into Georgia andAlabama, then west all the way out to west Texas. Geoscientists call the two continents that collidedLaurasia, comprised of North America and Europe, andGondwana comprised of Africa, South America, Australia,Antarctica, and India. Needless to say, this was a bigevent. The result was a supercontinent called Pangaea,whose spine was the huge Appalachian Range runningdown the suture zone between the two former continents. So, you might ask, what happened to this toweringmountain range? Well, quite simply, we're standing on it. Or, at least we are standing on the weathered and erodedproducts that now make up the bedrock of the AppalachianPlateau, also known as the Appalachian Basin. The wordplateau refers to the horizontal attitude of the layers of rockthat form the bedrock in this area. The word basin refers toa broad, low spot in the Earth's crust that often becomesflooded with seawater and where sediments accumulate inlayers as it slowly fills over time. This basin runs parallel toand along the western side of the Appalachian Mountainsfrom up in New York State and down into Alabama. Wehappen to be right in the middle of it. As you could imagine, when you hoist the edge of onecontinent on top of another during a mountain buildingcollision,

or orogeny, all that weight will push the edge of onecontinent down, thus forming a low spot or basin next tothe mountain range. We call this type of basin a forelandbasin because it occurs in the foreland of the mountainrange beyond the collision zone. Thus, during theformation of Pangaea, a sediment source was created (theAppalachian Mountains) right next to a sediment sink (theAppalachian Basin). When you expose massive amounts of rock to theatmosphere as the result of an orogeny, that rock will breakdown over millions of years into sedimentary particles,primarily sand and mud. With the creation of a steepstream gradient from mountain to basin, the sand and mudbreaks down and washes down from the mountains via theconstant reworking and meandering processes of riversand eventually makes its way down to the basin. Thisbasin was intermittently a terrestrial environment ofmeandering rivers and floodplains that was occasionallyflooded with a shallow sea. Over millions of years, during the Pennsylvanian Periodthat started 320 million years ago, through the PermianPeriod that ended 245 million years ago, the slow andrelentless process of weathering and erosion decimatedthe mountains and supplied the sediments that blanketedthe basin floor and ultimately filled the whole basin. Thesediments were primarily laid down in river, floodplain, anddelta environments resulting in flat-lying layers madeprimarily of mud that contain isolated stringers and lensesof sand. The rivers flowed primarily from the southeasttoward the northwest. The stringers and lenses of sand were the result of theenergy of the rivers constantly sorting out and carryingaway the finer muds and depositing sands in channels andpoint bars on the river banks, or on sand bars and beacheson the shoreline. Muds were generally deposited on thefloodplains during flood events (as we are all intimatelyfamiliar!) or in the shallow sea beyond the river mouths. The sands and muds were later lithified, which meansmade into hard rock, through cementation and compactioninto sandstone and shale. Other rocks that are much less abundant within thestratigraphy, although are economically significant, includecoals and limestones. Coals are the remains of thickaccumulations of plant debris in swamps that thrived andwere associated with the floodplain and delta environmentsduring the Pennsylvanian Period. Limestones weredeposited as thin, but widespread and laterally continuouslayers of marine shell debris during periods of higher sealevel. When we venture out on local field trips with students and friends, we commonly focus on the shape of the landscape geology by

See Geology, Pg 5

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Geology, Con’t from page 4referring to the sandstones that form prominent ledgesalong roadside outcrops and form the caprock of every hillin the region. We also tell about how the steep shaleslopes are the sources of major headaches because theeasily weathered, incompetent shales tend to over steepenresulting in landslides and slumps in the area. In terms ofthe bedrock geology, we discuss river and delta processes,the sorting and reworking of the sediments prior todeposition, and the lateral transitions in environment withinthe layering of the rock, or stratigraphy. Field trippers frequently ask if these river sandstonesforming the hilltops mean that the Ohio River was once thatmuch higher or deeper. This is actually not a bad questionfor new students because it presents an opportunity tolaunch into a discussion of geologic time, orogeny,stratigraphy, sea level change, climate change, andlandscape development. Indeed no, the Ohio River is amuch later occurrence. It and its tributaries are carvingthrough the layers of bedrock composed of mudstonewith isolated sands like a slow-moving saw,deepening and widening valleys. The hilltops are places where resistant,isolated sands of ancient river channels andpoint bars were deposited 300 million yearsago during the filling of the AppalachianBasin, and have little to do with the moderndrainage system. Geoscientists are interested in thesandstones that form the hilltops for anumber of reasons. Currently, severalMarietta College students are startingcapstone research projects (required for adegree in geology) focusing on aspects ofthese old river sandstones. One reasonfor this is because, besides capping offthe hills in this region and being intimatelyinvolved in the formation of the steepslopes in the landscape, sandstones makevery important oil and natural gas reservoirs. Much of the recent, frenzied drilling activity in thisarea is focused on finding similar isolated pockets ofsand in the subsurface. Several students will be analyzingsandstone exposures along local highways and in corestaken from local boreholes to evaluate sandstonegeometries and the distribution of porosity and permeabilitywithin the sandstones. These types of studies help usunderstand the characteristics and distribution of reservoirproperties and thus make us able to guide oil and gasdrilling. The sandstone outcrops exposed at the surfaceare direct analogs for the pockets of sandstone that still layburied in older strata deep beneath us. An excellent resource for information about localoutcrop geology is a guidebook recently published by Dr.Ed Crisp of WVU Parkersburg and Dr. Dwayne Stone(Stoney) of Marietta College, Field Trip Guidebook, EasternSection, National Assoc. GeoscienceTeachers; WVGeological and Economic Survey. This guidebookincludes detailed maps, road logs, descriptions, and

photographs of locations readily accessible by car. It alsocontains background information about geological andoilfield history of the Parkersburg and Marietta area. Perhaps requests from interested folks to the WVSurvey in Morgantown will spur them to print more copies. This fall, you may see members of the Marietta GeologicalSociety, composed of students, friends, and faculty of thecollege checking out the local outcrops. All are welcome tostop in and join us.

Pond Problemsby Marilyn Ortt

Water gardens are enjoyable to assemble in the springand observe throughout the season. As Octoberapproaches, the critical question is how the plants and fishwill be disposed of if the pond needs to be winterized. Fish, of course, should never be released into a localstream or lake. Find a way to winter them over even if it

means an indoor fish tank. The effect of these non-nativespecies on a native fish community can be serious aswould the possible introduction of pathogens. No one likes to try to swim in a lake full of "seaweed" (actually Eurasian water milfoil and parrotfeather, usually) neither of which are native to thiscountry. As with some terrestrial non-native species,lacking the limiting influences of predators, disease

and climate, they grow unchecked - foulingbeaches and boat propellers as well as having

a detrimental effect on the fish population Some aquatic plant

species that are sold as annuals are nowable to winter over whether because of

global warming or geneticchanges. Water hyacinthsurvived this past winter in theWilliamstown Wetlands. It

was also found growing late fall inKroger Wetland but it was fished out and nonehas been observed this season. This scourge of the south, which chokes waterwaysand does not allow sunlight into the water column, couldhave no less destructive effect in southern Ohio. Water hyacinth, like many other aquatics such as waterlettuce and water shamrock, may be attractive but can dosevere damage to native aquatic communities. Responsible disposal of plant and animal organismsfrom these specialized gardens will help protect localaquatic systems from this problem. [Image shows parrotfeather]

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Marietta Natural History Society Membership

L Monthly programs

Wood Thrush — Individual $15 L Field trips

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The MNHS Mission

i To foster awareness of and sensitivity to our environment and its biodiversityi To provide a place where people with these interests can gather for information and activityi To create a presence in our community representing these ideas

Marietta Natural History Society P.O. Box 1081 Marietta, Ohio 45750 (740) 373-5285