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Welcome to Bearded Geology, an irregularly updated blog on geologic curiosities and happenstances that I encounter. My beard and I are both Ph.D. students and teach some geology labs. Included on the "Courses" page are extracurricular material for some of these labs. In the "My Bookshelf" page, I have a list of books that I have acquired (including a few I have yet to read) and am always looking for other interesting books related to geology.

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The Norphlet Crater: When A Good Well Goes Bad

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Hidden in the woods of Union County, Arkansas, a large unassuming sinkhole housing a small pond called the Norphlet Crater was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. Although it's easy to overlook, this hole in the ground has quite a story to tell about the early days of the oil and gas industry in Arkansas and a gas well that could not be tamed. Topographic map view of Norphlet Crater In 1922, two years following the Hill No. 1 gas well drilled by Constantine Oil and Refining Company near El Dorado, Arkansas, oil and gas production in the area expanded dramatically and El Dorado became the hub for the petroleum industry in Arkansas. Small independent oil companies and major companies with internationally recognized names, such as Shell and Standard Oil, were all drilling in Union County, Arkansas. In the pine covered hills and farmland about eight miles northwest of El Dorado, near the small town of Norphlet, a cotton field [1] on a farm own
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The Fatal First Natural Gas Well in Southern Arkansas

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At 2:10 pm on Thursday, April 22, 1920, the small town of El Dorado, in Union County, Arkansas was busily going about its day. Over a dozen miles northwest, a drilling rig had just finished drilling the first productive oil well in Arkansas six days prior, the Hunter No. 1. However, just two miles [1]  southwest of town was another well being drilled that was going to make headlines as the first productive gas well in southern Arkansas.  Top left: land owners, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hill. Center: the Hill No. 1 well blowing water, gas, and mud into the air. Bottom right: Constantine Oil and Refining geologist, J. J. Victor. [2] The Hill No. 1 well (Sec. 1, T.18S., R.16W.) operated by Constantine Oil and Refining Company of Tulsa, Oklahoma drilled to 2,226 feet, when it became an "unexpected 'gusher'" and a "great 'gasser'" [3] . The Monroe News-Star newspaper of Monroe, Louisiana reported that it received a kick (i.e. anomalous influx of
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Naturally Historical Coins from the UK

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Just recently, I found out that The Royal Mint of the United Kingdom is releasing three versions of a newly designed 50 pence coin. These coins celebrate the grandmother of paleontology, Mary Anning. Coincidentally, Anning is the focus of a new film, "Ammonite" also (full disclosure: I've yet to see the film, but it seems to be loosely based on Anning's life, much of which is unknown to us today, particularly her romantic life). These coins bear the illustrations of an two marine reptiles, a Plesiosaurus and an icthyosaur called Temnodontosaurus, and a flying reptile called Dimorphodon. All three lived during the Jurassic Period and were discovered by Anning in the early 1800s. The Royal Mint even offers color imbued and gold versions of these coins for a higher price. After finding out about the Mary Anning coins, I immediately found out that The Royal Mint had also produced three versions of the 50 pence coin featuring dinosaurs in 2019! I immediately opened my wall
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