Keenan's Blogiddy Blog

The Atlantic Geoscience Society (AGS) held their 38th annual Colloquium in Moncton this past weekend (February 3 and 4th, 2012). I was really happy to be able to free up some time and attend the numerous talks given by professionals and educators, which some I had befriended. Lynn, Melissa, and Matt I wanted to take the time to express my gratitude to the organization to have held this event in Moncton this year, and to make this a memorable experience. Can't get the chance to nerd out geo-style like this, right? One of many posters on display Bloody Creek 'Crater', Nova Scotia, Canada It was nice to see familiar faces and meet new ones. This year was also the first time that the AGS had introduced sessions dedicated to Paleontology. I hope they keep it in their future format. Hope to be able to attend next year, wherever that might be. Till then, cheers! - Keenan

Originally post - Smithsonian NMNH Reposting from a link that Matt had brought up in Facebook. Freakin' awesome if you tell me. =P Natural History Highlight Giant Fossil Scale Tree In June, 2005, the National Museum of Natural History received one of the largest plant fossils ever collected - 3.9 m (13 ft) long and 3.7 m (12 ft) high, and weighing more than 16 tons. Fossil preparators are now working in our Mall-side parking lot to reduce the size of the block. You can see them from the Mall steps, if you look down into the parking lot on the side towards the Washington Monument. Once the specimen is light enough that the Museum's floors can safely support it, the fossil will be brought inside for additional preparation and display. Dr. Schabilion admiring the fossil tree before it is shipped to the National Museum of Natural History. The fossil comes from a coal mine on the Rus family farm located near Pella, Iowa. The Rus family donated the fossil to the Univers...

Happy New Year! As time progresses, the finds and fun gets better and Mother Earth keeps on giving. I celebrated 2012 by going rock hunting, in January! We've had record highs in warm temperatures in the Maritimes so I grabbed the opportunity by the horns and headed down by Johnson Mills (Cape Maringouin) to test out my newly acquired field GPS. Surprisingly, for January 2nd, there was no snow on the ground. There were traces of ice around pools and other bodies of water, but not much to give you clues that we were smack in the middle of Winter. The other thing too is that it was a comfortable 7 degrees Celcius, which has to be a record high. Driving on the dirt road felt like driving on ice, as the car kept zigzagging all over the place. By the time I got there, I had reached low tide. I had brought my Tiley hat and raincoat as there was possible rain in the afternoon forecast. Camera in hand, I ventured down the road and onto the icy beach. When I got on the beach, I looked...

I was invited by my friend Matt to partake in some field work at the Joggins fossil site. He had put in a few weeks ago an application for a Heritage Permit to extract a fossilized tree from the cliffs, still 'in situ'. From the information he gave me, it might be a tree that could be bearing fossilized remains of tiny animals within it. The tree, most likely a lycopsid such as a lepidodendron, would also have some sort of indication that it had been altered by fire. Forest fire during the Carboniferous Period (Myers) Tree is probably a member of the lycopsid family, such as this 'Lepidodendron' I accepted his invitation and prepared for this little endeavour. Matt had warned me about the cold, so I was prepared to wear triple tuque if need be. I drove down to Joggins, Nova Scotia and arrived a little after sun up. Matt had told me that we'd be joined by colleagues of his and that they'd be setting up scaffoldings on site. On exiting the car I had the pleas...