Unit 1: Natural History – Part 3 – Pre Reading Ned Tillman

Slide 54

Here is an illustration of a Japan style Island Arc complex developing above an oceanic

subduction zone.

Slide 55

Here is a mid-oceanic ridge spreading center causing the separation and spreading of North

America away from Africa.

Slide 56

This shows westward subduction of the oceanic crust causing the formation of the proto-

Appalachian mountain belt.

Slide 57

This shows the final collision of Africa with North America followed by a later spreading event

that produces the current Atlantic Ocean.

Slide 58

This is a current cross section of eastern North America showing the deformed rocks of the

Piedmont and the younger erosion sediments of the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

Slide 59

This shows details of the geology from the Piedmont across the Catoctin Mountains and into the

Hagerstown Valley.

Slide 60

This is a detailed cross section of the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

Slide 61

Geologic formations of the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

Slide 62

Geology of the Fall Line in the upper Bay area showing the siltation resulting from years of

tobacco farming.

Slide 63

How old are the Appalachians? What rock types occur in Maryland? What natural resources come from Maryland?

How old are the Appalachians?

The original Appalachian Mountains are believed to have first formed 480 million years ago.

From that time until the formation of Pangaea 225 million years ago there were a number of

other mountain building plate collisions. Around 460 million years ago the Appalachians were

likely the highest mountain range on Earth.

What rock types occur in Maryland?

All three of the major rock groups are found in Maryland.

The Appalachian Plateau and the Valley and Ridge areas are mainly composed of folded layers

of sedimentary rocks. The Piedmont has many examples of igneous rocks (example – Ellicott

City granite), some of volcanic origin as well as a great deal of metamorphic rocks (example –

Cockeysville marble). The Coast Plain was produced by the weathering and erosion of rock

materials from the mountains to the west.

Slide 64

Past Six Months

Earthquakes that occurred in Eastern United State in Jan 09.

Some of largest earthquakes have been in Eastern US.

Slide 65

Annapolis aquifer (bottom left photo – gray).

Slide 66

Gas 5-10 thousand feet down from organic matter buried there.

Slide 67

Oil and gas migrates into traps. Geothermal Gradient is about 1 degree per 100 ft on average.

Slide 68

We export a lot of coal.

Slide 69

Well Aquifer Reservoir River Ocean Rain Spring Bottles

Where does your water come from?

Slide 70

A water pipeline carries water from the Susquehanna River to Baltimore.

Slide 71

Our Report Card

The best way to determine how well we are taking care of our watershed is to look at the health

of the rivers and the Chesapeake Bay downstream from where we live.

Slide 72

Morgan Heim

There was a heavy algal bloom in the Chesapeake Bay in summer 2010.

Slide 73

Population Density in Maryland:

Montgomery County: 1,760

Prince George’s County: 1,652

Anne Arundel County: 1,177

Slide 74

We are trying to preserve forested areas and wetlands, but we are not doing enough for meadow

habitats.

Slide 75

The Wildlife and Heritage Service Natural Heritage Program tracks the status of over 1,100

native plants and animals that are among the rarest in Maryland and most in need of conservation

efforts as elements of our State's natural diversity.

Of these species, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources officially recognizes 607

species and subspecies as endangered, threatened, in need of conservation, or endangered

extirpated. Only 37, or 3% of the total tracked species, are listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service as nationally endangered or threatened.

Slide 76

Benjamin Banneker, 1731-1806 Charles Wilson Peale, 1741-1827 Ellicott Brothers, 1770’s… Matthew Henry, 1866-1955 Rachel Carson , 1907-1964 Abel Wolman , 1892-1989 Watermen Jim Clark, 1918-2006 Herman Daly

Banneker – Astronomer, surveyor, farmer, almanac writer.

Peale had a great interest in natural history, and organized the first U.S. scientific expedition in

1801. These two major interests combined in his founding of what became the Philadelphia

Museum, and was later renamed the Peale Museum.

This museum is considered the first. It housed a diverse collection of botanical, biological, and

archaeological specimens. Most notably, the museum contained a large variety of birds which

Peale himself acquired, and it was the first to display North American mastodon bones (which in

Peale's time were referred to as mammoth bones; these common names were amended by

Georges Cuvier in 1800, and his proposed usage is that employed today).

Ellicott Brothers improved farming practices with crop rotation and gypsum supplements.

Matthew Alexander Henson (August 8, 1866 – March 9, 1955) was an African American

explorer and associate of Robert Peary during various expeditions, the most famous being a 1909

expedition which claimed to be the first to reach the Geographic North Pole.

Rachel Carson – Mother of the Environment movement – Book ‘Silent Spring’ and DDT

Abel Wolman (June 10, 1892 – February 22, 1989) was an American inventor, scientist,

professor and pioneer of modern sanitary engineering. His work in supplying clean water

spanned eight decades.

Watermen insisted that Baltimore put in a modern sewer system and stop contaminating the

oysters.

Jim Clark helped pass land preservation ordnances and set model for the US.

Herman Daly is the father of Ecological Economics.