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Microscopic Meteorites Are All Around Us

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Various types of micrometeorites (credit: ©  Jon Larsen ) In 1970, a machine was rigged onto a high-altitude atmospheric balloon and sent 21.7 miles (35 km) into the sky over Texas. The machine, lovingly named the Vacuum Monster after a creature in The Beatles' Yellow Submarine  movie, collected microscopic particles as small as two micrometers (microns) in diameter. Some of which were determined to be extraterrestrial, marking this as the first time "space dust", or more precisely, micrometeorites, were collected at altitude. Micrometeorites are a niche area of study within astrogeology (the study of the geology of extraterrestrial bodies), but has recently been expanding as it is now more accessible for researchers. On a large scale, international space agencies have devoted funding for missions to collect material directly from asteroids and comets, such as the ongoing  Hayabusa 2  mission to the asteroid  Ryugu , which has very recently completed its ...
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Structural Geology Trip to the Ouachita Mountains

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People looking at folds. Faces obscured to protect identities. ¡Mas folding!. Action shot of man pointing at a fold Normal fault in sandstones and shales Recently, I got to join a field trip to the Ouachita Mountains to discuss a spectacular structural event that took place in the Late Paleozoic. The strata of the Ouachita Mountains are dominantly sandstone and shale beds from the Cambrian to the Pennsylvanian that were deposited in an offshore, deep water environment somewhat similar to the deep water regime of the Gulf of Mexico. Beginning in the Mississippian Subperiod, a compressional event initiated as proto-North America collided with a small land mass (volcanic arc) to the south creating the Ouachita Mountains, a...
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The Arkansas Paleozoic Stratigraphy Database is live!

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A new project I've been working on is now on the blog: the Arkansas Paleozoic Stratigraphy Database . This is a searchable database of the Paleozoic lithostratigraphic nomenclature in Arkansas with some related information. Within this database, you can search for stratigraphic names that not only are currently in use, but names that are now abandoned and replaced, as well as some that have recently been proposed. For each name you can find its age, any sub-divisions, proper usage as used by the USGS and AGS, historical usage (including past and present names), type locality or type area, type section location (if available), primary reference section location (if available), geographic distribution, etymology of the name, and citation of the original publication the name was used in. Also included for each name is a downloadable stratigraphic chart (PDF file) of either the Ozark or Ouachita/Arkansas River Valley region (whichever the unit is best exposed in) that illustrates the s...
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