A new mineral was discovered in Australia. It purple to pinkish in color, its only .4 millimeters in size, it is cubic in structure, and it was found by miners. This mineral was found on volcanic rock and appears as a purple or dark pink spot but on a white rock it looks green.
The interesting thing is that its composed of a new chemical composition that has never been seen before.Strontium calcium chromium sulfate carbonate." Elliott told Live Science. "Over time, weathering released these elements and concentrated them, allowing Putnisite to crystallize." This new mineral is very soft and brittle.
This new mineral is unrelated to any other mineral that is known today.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Fossils
We did a fossil lab this week and it was a lot of fun. There were a number of samples to look at and using a chart we had to label which fossils were which.
I particularly enjoyed this lab because I like puzzles and to me this was one giant puzzle.
Each fossil that we had was usually from a different period but there was just a handful that repeated. Some of the fossils were very easy to identify because their characteristics were like none of the others that we had on our chart. However, the bivalves and clams were the most difficult. There were minute variations of the same species that it took quiet a bit of time to determine which one was which.
Each group of fossils belonged to a "time core" and we had to go down the line in each group and log which time period they were from. This is were it got tricky. I wish that I had filled out the questions and time scale with the fossils. The time did not always match up in the sequence like it was suppose to. But overall i enjoyed it.
I particularly enjoyed this lab because I like puzzles and to me this was one giant puzzle.
Each fossil that we had was usually from a different period but there was just a handful that repeated. Some of the fossils were very easy to identify because their characteristics were like none of the others that we had on our chart. However, the bivalves and clams were the most difficult. There were minute variations of the same species that it took quiet a bit of time to determine which one was which.
Each group of fossils belonged to a "time core" and we had to go down the line in each group and log which time period they were from. This is were it got tricky. I wish that I had filled out the questions and time scale with the fossils. The time did not always match up in the sequence like it was suppose to. But overall i enjoyed it.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Giant Impact
Here is something that is just mind boggling
Geologist from Stanford Unisversity have discovered and mapped a huge impact from an asteroid that was belived to be bigger than the one that killed all of the dinosaurs. This thing was gargantuan, 23 to 36 mile wide and speeing toward Earth at speeds up to 12 miles per second and the impact happened over 3.26 billion years ago. Which would have been in the Archean period, right on the edge of the mesoarchean period.
This asteriod is thought to have change the Earth in such ways as creating the plate technonics that we see today. This asteriod collision had enough energy to be able to reach all the way down the lithosphere and cause the plates to ove enought to change how they act. When the plates only move centimetters a year under normal conditions. That amount of energy is with out fathom. On top of all the earthquakes that happened afterward there were huge tsunamis.
The evidance from this impact was discovered in the Barberton greenstone belt sits east of Johannesburg near the border with Swaziland in southern Africa. The model provides evidence for the rock formations and crustal fractures that scientists have discovered in the Barberton greenstone belt, said Frank Kyte, a geologist at UCLA who was not involved in the study.
This research is all in effort to understand the Earth as it was forming and how life has evolved to what is it today.
Geologist from Stanford Unisversity have discovered and mapped a huge impact from an asteroid that was belived to be bigger than the one that killed all of the dinosaurs. This thing was gargantuan, 23 to 36 mile wide and speeing toward Earth at speeds up to 12 miles per second and the impact happened over 3.26 billion years ago. Which would have been in the Archean period, right on the edge of the mesoarchean period.
This asteriod is thought to have change the Earth in such ways as creating the plate technonics that we see today. This asteriod collision had enough energy to be able to reach all the way down the lithosphere and cause the plates to ove enought to change how they act. When the plates only move centimetters a year under normal conditions. That amount of energy is with out fathom. On top of all the earthquakes that happened afterward there were huge tsunamis.
The evidance from this impact was discovered in the Barberton greenstone belt sits east of Johannesburg near the border with Swaziland in southern Africa. The model provides evidence for the rock formations and crustal fractures that scientists have discovered in the Barberton greenstone belt, said Frank Kyte, a geologist at UCLA who was not involved in the study.
This research is all in effort to understand the Earth as it was forming and how life has evolved to what is it today.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
History of the Earth Part one
This part of class has kinda been kicking my but. We are going into detail about what is going on in the geologic history of the Earth (sorry Mel Brooks fans) and its getting a little confusing.
The Hadean and the Archean time spans are easy enough because not so much has happened but as soon as we get into the Proterozoic that's when a lot of things happen all at once. I have been reading the book and that has been helping. But there are mountain building events going on, opening and closing of ocean basins, life is present, the atmosphere is changing, and glaciations are happening.
It did make sense when we went over cratons and how continents were formed from the cratons.
In class we did talk about fracking and the possible ramifications with earthquakes. That was very interesting because that's the type of field that I could see myself working in.
The idea that fracking can increase the pressure inside the earth and that increase pressure builds and builds until it causes a normal or large earthquake.
But i digress, the rest of the Proterozoic is still a little confusing.
The Hadean and the Archean time spans are easy enough because not so much has happened but as soon as we get into the Proterozoic that's when a lot of things happen all at once. I have been reading the book and that has been helping. But there are mountain building events going on, opening and closing of ocean basins, life is present, the atmosphere is changing, and glaciations are happening.
It did make sense when we went over cratons and how continents were formed from the cratons.
In class we did talk about fracking and the possible ramifications with earthquakes. That was very interesting because that's the type of field that I could see myself working in.
The idea that fracking can increase the pressure inside the earth and that increase pressure builds and builds until it causes a normal or large earthquake.
But i digress, the rest of the Proterozoic is still a little confusing.
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