Partial Ellipsis of the Sun is on Spring Break, Week 2

     A smattering of images from our last week in NM and CO, USA. Guesses as to where? Some are pretty easy. Hope you are having a great week!

Happy Trails!
Steph

Partial Ellipsis of the Sun is on Spring Break

     Enjoy a few views of the Great Sand Dunes in southern Colorado, USA, after our big April snow. . . Amazing Clouds! All the moisture slowed dune movement considerably. The snow outlined some great star and other dunes.

     Next up, Abiquiu, Taos. Santa Fe, Albuquerque. Ah--Georgia O'Keeffe country!

      See you next week! 

Have a great week!

Steph, Maizie, (CO contingent) Mom and Liz (CT contingent)

Abiquiu skies in GO'K country

The Tully (Not Telly) Monster was a VERTEBRATE (!) Extremely Well Preserved in Siderite

      A 300 million year-old fossil mystery has possibly been solved by a research team at the University of Leicester, which has identified the ancient 'Tully Monster' as a vertebrate, due to the unique characteristics of its eyes.

      Tullimonstrum gregarium or as it is more commonly known the 'Tully Monster', found only in chucky-jam full of fossils coal quarries in Illinois, USA, is known to many Americans because its alien-like image can be seen on the sides of large U-haul™ trailers along the freeways. 

    Dr. Sarah Gabbott from the University of Leicester's Department of Geology said: "Since its discovery over 60 years ago scientists have suggested it is a whole parade of completely different creatures ranging from molluscs to worms -- but there was no conclusive evidence and so speculation continued."

        Thomas Clements, a PhD student from the University of Leicester and lead author on the paper, explained: "When a fossil has anatomy this bizarre it's difficult to know where to start, so we decided to look at the most striking feature -- the stalked structures with dark blobs."

      The Tully Monster, unlike the Telly Monster of Sesame Street fame, is extremely well preserved in siderite which, as we've previously discussed has very high iron concentration.

     "In a new study published in Nature, the University of Leicester paleontologists discovered that the dark 'blobs' were actually made up of hundreds of thousands of microscopic dark granules, each 50 times smaller than the width of a human hair."

     "The shape and chemical composition of these granules is identical to organelles found in cells called melanosomes; these being responsible for creating and storing the pigment melanin."

     "We used a new technique called Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) to identify the chemical signature of the fossil granules and compared it to known modern melanin from other vertebrates and this proved that we had discovered the oldest fossil pigment currently known."

      Identifying fossil melanosomes containing melanin and a lens is the first time it has been conclusively proved that Tullimonstrum had eyes on stalks.

      Professor Gabbott said: "There were two distinct shapes of melanosomes in Tullimonstrum's eyes: some look like microscopic 'sausages' and others like microscopic 'meatballs'. This evidence was crucial because only vertebrates have two different shapes of melanosome, meaning that unlike previous researchers that thought that Tullimonstrum was an invertebrate (animal without a backbone), this is the first unequivocal evidence that Tullimonstrum is a member of the same group of animals as us, the vertebrates."
  

     Thomas added: "This is an exciting study because not have we discovered the oldest fossil pigment, but the structures seen in Tullimonstrum's eyes suggest it had good vision. The large tail and teeth suggest that the Tully Monster is in fact a type of very weird fish."

       So. . .Tully and Telly Monsters, melanosomes that look like meatballs and sausages, eyes on stalks, very weird fish--there must be some good puns and jokes in there somewhere. . .

Steph

South Park, Colorado, clouds 

Revisiting Iceland: A Kentucky-Sized Place Where Geology is in Your Face at Every Turn

         A friend's trip to Iceland the past two weeks has reinspired a look at this Kentucky-sized land. My friend's description of her trip included words about geology staring one in the face at every turn. Young, changing, extraordinary geology is located next to the much older geology of Greenland.

     "Iceland is a manifestation of plate tectonic activity along a 10,000-mile underwater mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The island, which is about the size of the state of Kentucky, is only 15-20 million years old, making it one of the youngest landmasses of its size in the world, according to Ari Trausti Guðmundsson, a geophysicist, poet, and former Iceland presidential candidate."

     “If you hop over to Greenland, the bedrock is over 3,000 million years old,” says Guðmundsson, who guided Pitcairn during his expedition to Bárðarbunga and wrote the text, including 120 poems, in his book. “In comparison, Iceland is an infant.”

     "The Mid-Atlantic Ridge gives rise to Iceland’s volcanoes, one of its signature geological features. The country boasts 30 volcanic systems, which contain hundreds of active volcanoes. The natural upwelling of magma from beneath the ridge, as well as a mantle plume located almost right under the middle of the country, send billions of tons of lava surging through the bedrock annually, causing the country to expand about one inch per year, on average, according to Guðmundsson.

       Additional information about this geologist's dream country is located at this link. Hoping to get to Iceland before too many of the glaciers have melted.

        I am also fascinated by the unusual diacritical marks in the place and author names. It's also fun to see a geologist poet who ran for the presidency of Iceland! With a small population, I guess residents wear many hats. . .

        How about you; what about Iceland fascinates you?

Steph

White-Nose Bat Syndrome Crosses the Rocky Mountains close to Seattle, Washington, USA

      Sadly, today, "a sick bat caught by hikers not far from Seattle has now been confirmed to have the first case west of the Rockies of the deadly bat disease white-nose syndrome."

      "First noticed in North America in the winter of 2006-2007, the disease exterminated some whole colonies of hibernating bats on the East Coast, though some species have proved less susceptible.  White-nose syndrome has now swept from coast to coast, the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed March 31, 2016."

      "So far the USGS’s National Wildlife Health Center has only confirmed the one case, in a little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) that hikers found near North Bend, Wash., on March 11 and took to an animal welfare center for care. Genetic testing identified it as a little brown bat most likely from the West instead of an accidental hitchhiker that crossed the Rockies in a truck or cargo container, Jeremy Coleman of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said at a press conference."

    "Just how the disease reached Washington isn’t clear yet. Twenty-seven other states and five Canadian provinces have reported it, but what was previously the most western location, in Nebraska,was more than 1,000 miles away. The fungus causing the disease can spread bat-to-bat or can ride along on travelers’ outdoor gear."

      The article is in today's Science News.

       Wow, less that 10 years for the syndrome to spread coast to coast in the US.

       I wish it were April 1 and it was all a joke!

Steph

On a positive note, here's Zoë and friends in Ethiopia! (No kidding.)

Shrinky Dinks: Crumpled Graphene

 
      "Brown University researchers have developed a method for making super-wrinkled and super-crumpled sheets of the nanomaterial graphene. The research shows that the topography can enhance some of graphene’s already interesting properties."

      "Crumple a piece of paper and it’s probably destined for the trash can, but new research shows that repeatedly crumpling sheets of the nanomaterial graphene can actually enhance some of its properties. In some cases, the more crumpled the better."

      "The research by engineers from Brown University shows that graphene, wrinkled and crumpled in a multi-step process, becomes significantly better at repelling water—a property that could be useful in making self-cleaning surfaces. Crumpled graphene also has enhanced electrochemical properties, which could make it more useful as electrodes in batteries and fuel cells."

        The research is published in the journal Advanced Materials.
         
       In keeping with our honey-comb theme of late, graphene is an allotrope of carbon in the form of a two-dimensional, atomic-scale, honey-comb lattice in which one atom forms each vertex. 

      It is the basic structural element of other allotropes, including graphite, charcoal, and carbon nanotubes.

      "Researchers deposited layers of graphene oxide onto shrink films—polymer membranes that shrink when heated (kids may know these as Shrinky Dinks). As the films shrink, the graphene on top is compressed, causing it to wrinkle and crumple. To see what kind of structures they could create, the researchers compressed same graphene sheets multiple times. After the first shrink, the film was dissolved away, and the graphene was placed in a new film to be shrunk again."

      "The researchers experimented with different configurations in the successive generations of shrinking. For example, sometimes they clamped opposite ends of the films, which caused them to shrink only along one axis. Clamped films yielded graphene sheets with periodic, basically parallel wrinkles across its surface. Unclamped films shrank in two dimensions, both length- and width-wise, creating a graphene surface that was crumpled in random shapes."


      "They showed that a highly crumpled graphene surface becomes superhydrophobic—able to resist wetting by water. When water touches a hydrophobic surface, it beads up and rolls off. When the contact angle of those water beads with an underlying surface exceeds 160 degrees—meaning very little of the water bead’s surface touches the material—the material is said to be superhydrophobic."

       "The team also showed that crumpling could enhance the electrochemical behaviors of graphene, which could be useful in next-generation energy storage and generation. The research showed that crumpled graphene used as a battery electrode had as much as a 400% increase in electrochemical current density over flat graphene sheets. That increase in current density could make for vastly more efficient batteries."

           Happy crumpling from blizzardy Denver!

Steph

Geologic Field Camp: Blooming and In Tents, Lumping and Splitting

     Ah, nostalgia for geologic field camp and geologic field work emerges in the springtime like saguaro cactus blooms and ocotillo flowers!

     Gearing up for 6-week or longer treks into Arizona, Mexico, Arkansas, and Nevada included these sorts of checklists (minus the computer in the 70's and 80's):

      We've discussed some field gear including rock hammer and Brunton compass here at PEOTS before:

         Other additions include tape measures, notebooks, chisels, rock bags, and markers. At the heart of every geologist's field record is the field notebook, made of carefully-stitched waterproof paper which notes cross-sections, sample locations, and other field observations tied to aerial photographs, LANDSAT images or Geographical Information Systems (GIS):

       It's a dense, "chucky-jam-full" source of information about every day in the field. Entering data and observations into an electronic tablet or Smartphone doesn't have the same thrill for me. I recall making every inch of every page count. . .These notes, especially cross- sections are geological works of art.

      One of my most memorable experiences was comparing my Paleozoic era cross-section with a dozen or more units to the cross-section from a geological engineer at field camp. His read "rock" or "bedrock" for the entire cross-section!

       Are you a lumper or a splitter?

Happy almost spring from the latter,
Steph

Diatom Beams: Naturally Strong Silicious Honeycomb Architecture Posts

     "Beams made of sawn diatom shells and poked with a diamond-tipped probe until they cracked have revealed that the microbial armor has the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any known biological material. According to the scientists who conducted the study, the remarkable toughness of this material is likely due to its honeycomb-like architecture and flawless silica build." SEM images of diatoms include ones like these:

      Diatoms are marine algae that come in a wide variety of shapes. Those with honeycomb shapes are especially strong.

     "The scientists studied the shells – called frustules – of Coscinodiscus, a hamburger-shaped diatom. Like all diatoms, it bears two frustules that fit together like the halves of a petri dish. The shells are perforated by pores."

        Further details of the study are described in this link. Some of these pores occur in Fibonacci patterns (similar to sunflower seed whorls) as in this SEM of another diatom.

        A closer look at the microstructure is seen in this diagram:

   

       Mighty perforated tiny organisms with great natural strength occurring in Fibonacci patterns and packed together in hexagonal groupings--anything familiar here?

          Anyone else reconcile Fibonacci numbers and hexagons by noting 6 is made of two sets of three? Other thoughts?

Diatomaceously yours,
Steph

Beware today, 3/15: