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When I was young my Dad took me to this fossil reef in Stroudsburg PA. It is solid fossils. You may...
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Transcript of When I was young my Dad took me to this fossil reef in Stroudsburg PA. It is solid fossils. You may...
When I was young my Dad took me to this fossil reef in Stroudsburg PA. It is solid fossils. You may collect there, and keep your fossils, on the field trip.
All slides are copyright © Charles and Susan SmartSome are also copyright ©National Geographic SocietyPermanent stock collection
When I was a young Marine in Vietnam we passed a fossil Mastodon skeleton while coming back from patrol. Geology seemed an interesting major.
West of Dong Ha Marine Base, RVN
As soon as possible, I took degrees in Geology at Rutgers and Princeton.My first job in Geology was Natural Gas exploration for Shell Oil.
Mapping the White River Oligocene, containing many fossil mammals, South Dakota
This course provides the fundamentals of Geology. In the laboratory we will learn the skills of the field geologist. We will learn to read and make maps, recognize common rocks and minerals, make and interpret geologic cross sections, make observations, and on the field trip, correctly take samples.A field geologist’s equipment is usually simple.
Mapping the Careless Creek Dinosaur sites, North of Shawmut, Montana
In the early 60’s, Geology was collection of unrelated topics without an underlying theory.
Prospecting for Silver in Montana
For example, long volcanic arcs and deep ocean trenches were discussed in separate courses. As students, we didn’t realize how they are related.
Deep trench the entrance to a subduction zone
The Aleutians, a volcanic island arc, made of basalt that rose
up from partial melts of the mantle, wetted by subducted
ocean lithosphere
Climate changes in the past, with growing and melting glaciers, were still another separate course. As students, we didn’t realize extreme climate changes were caused, in part, by plate movements.
A Tarn, a glacial meltwater lake, in the Swiss Alps. Photo by Susan Smart
There were courses on rift valleys with long axial lakes, and separate courses on long linear seas. As students, we didn’t realize they were the same thing at different stages.
Research Vessel, Lake Turkana, Northwest Kenya
Or that oceans were just old seas.
Limestone coast, Curaçao
Everyone had a specialty. Some geologists studied coastal erosion
Sunset, Curaçao
others studied coral reefs
Dive site, Bonaire
or stream erosion
Stream, Swiss Alps, (c) Susan Smart
or sedimentation in small ponds called oxbows
Our swimming pool, Middle Awash Basin, Ethiopia
Desert specialists knew of a connection to equatorial weather
Sunset, Bonaire
and tried to understand the physics of dunes and desert pavement
Sand Dune, Northwest Lothagam, Kenya
or weathering by flash floods
Flooded Kerio River, Kenya
whose water disappeared as quickly as it arrived.
Lomenyenkuperat River, Kanapoi, Kenya
Water formed erosional features such as this toadstool
Lothagam, Kenya.
and this arch. Both are explained by flash floods. But as students we were never told about any connections between the topics we studied.
Finally, in the early 1970’s, the geology faculty members let students in on the secret. Now geology has a robust central model that relates folded mountains, rift valleys, mid-ocean ridges and oceans, deep trenches and long ranges of volcanoes, and earthquakes, to a single process: very slow convection in the Mantle. The paradigm, called Plate Tectonics, has made the Earth much easier to understand.
Of course, geologists still specialize.
Plate Tectonics
Some geologists who study long extinct fossils still set out to look for modern counterparts
Bonaire
With colleagues from universities from all over.
Bonaire
Deep dives in remote regions sometimes lead to understanding a fossil
Malindi, Kenya
when modern animals give up insights to past life
Bonaire, 130 feet
Some were captured with bottles
Bonaire
Or nets
Bonaire
and brought up for examination
Bonaire
For example, this jellyfish from offshore of Malindi, Kenya has a hard disc similar to fossils in the Shawangunk Formation near here.
Malindi, Kenya
Students of fossil plants study modern forests
Susan in the Karura Forest, KenyaSusan in the Karura Forest, Kenya
as do students of weathering, erosion and soils.
Karura Forest, Kenya
From studies of fossil plants, we know that climates cooled and dried in the Oligocene. Plate Tectonics explains this cooling. Forests retreated, and were replaced over large areas by drought tolerant grasslands.
South of Nairobi, Kenya, near the Athi River
Herbivores evolved to eat the grasses.These are impala.
South of Nairobi, Kenya
Horses became increasingly adapted for grasses; they developed large molars and very long feet.
Elaborate social structures evolved to allow huge herd migrationsin search of fresh pasture and water
Treetops, near Nyeri, Kenya
A great variety of carnivores appeared,
Ashok’s pet Otters, Calcutta
Some groups, e.g. dogs and cats diversified into social, cooperating hunters
South of Nairobi, Kenya
including some really large ones.
South of Nairobi, Kenya
Hominids evolved as grassland hunter-gatherers(this guy had malaria, note the thickened skull bones)
Bodo D’Ar, Middle Awash Basin, Ethiopia
Mad dogs, Englishmen and geologists. This is my student, Dr. Assefa Mebrate
Bodo D’Ar, Middle Awash Basin, Ethiopia
Recently our civilizations arose. This is a burial of a Corinthian soldier in northwestern Kenya
220’ bench, Lothagam, Kenya
Some geologists study Taphonomy, the processes that preserve fossils
This civet has just died. Will a fossil form? Insects and scavengers will remove the flesh.
On the road escarpment to Naivasha, Kenya
If the bones are on a floodplain they may be covered with sediment
Water Buffalo killed by Lions, South of Nairobi, Kenya
This fossil hippo skull is 5 million years old
Lothagam, Kenya
These dinosaur bones are about 70 million years old
AvaceratopsAvaceratops level, Careless Creek Ranch, near Shawmut, MT level, Careless Creek Ranch, near Shawmut, MT
Here Prof. Peter Dodson collects dinosaurs from a Cretaceous stream
AvaceratopsAvaceratops level, Careless Creek Ranch, near Shawmut, MT level, Careless Creek Ranch, near Shawmut, MT
Sometimes Field Geology is hazardous. This geological survey crew ran out of Petrol. When we happened by five days later, they had run out of water. We gave them water and gasoline.
Pokot District, Kenya
Camps, however, can be luxurious. Here our shower water is heating up in the equatorial sunshine.
Kanapoi, Kenya
Sources of water, groceries and the doctor are a short drive to town
Note the cinder cone volcano
Lodwar, Kenya
Bathrooms are spacious
Sundown, Lothagam, Kenya
We fend for ourselves; here a tire tube needs a patch.
Prof. Dennis Powers, UTEP
Lothagam, Kenya
Infrastructure is up-to-date
Crossing the Awash River, Gewane, Ethiopia
Of course, some of the local fauna are a nuisance
Red Spitting Cobra, Lothagam, Kenya
Some downright dangerous. Our friend John M. Kioko is holding a dead five-stepper, Echis carinatus. It has been preserved in alcohol for the Kenya National Museum
Kanapoi, Kenya
But the neighbors are great.
Mary, near Gewane, Ethiopia
So if you like learning about the world, welcome to geology.