Bearded Geology

In 1857, twenty-one years after Arkansas gained statehood, the Arkansas legislature approved funding for the first geological survey of the state. Governor Elias N. Conway commissioned Dr. David Dale Owen to lead the survey beginning in 1857 to 1859 with funds of $4,800 per year, plus a salary of $1,800, and continuing from 1859 to 1860 with $6,000 per year, plus $2,500 salary. Owen was no stranger to government surveys; he also served as the State Geologist of Indiana (1837-1838) and Kentucky (1854-1857), as well as a geologist for the U.S. Government on a survey of Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and parts of Illinois and Nebraska (1839-1840, 1847-1850). David Dale Owen (image credit: Smithsonian Archives/ Wikimedia ) Owen commenced the Arkansas survey in Greene County with laboratory and field assistance of William Elderhorst - professor of chemistry and mineralogy at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Edward T. Cox - who later would be State Geologist of Indiana, Robert Pete...

Looking through the department's collection for the most difficult rock and mineral samples to put on the lab exam... Happy Finals Week!!

I'm a huge Star Wars nerd. I'm going to say that right now and get it out of the way. I'll undoubtedly be subscribing to the Disney+ streaming service just to watch the new Star Wars live-action TV show, The Mandalorian , which just dropped a new trailer . In the trailer there is are a couple of shots of a new creature on an unspecified world from a galaxy far, far away: I will love him and squeeze him and call him George (© Lucasfilm/Disney) As soon as I saw this angry, furry unicorn pop up on the screen, I got a sudden, strong feeling as if I've seen this creature before. Then, the name Elasmotherium formed in my head. Elasmotherium is an extinct genus and cousin to the modern rhinoceroses that lived during the Pleistocene epoch (appx. 2.6 million years ago to appx. 39,000 years ago). One particular species, Elasmotherium sibericum , is now thought to have been one of the last of the genus that lived until about 39,000 years ago in Eurasia, when mode...

While between rain storms earlier this week, I was able to get out into the field to do some outcrop work near Yellville, Marion County, Arkansas. I visited a roadcut near the US Hwy 412/AR Hwy 125 junction that is made of Lower Ordovician age  dolostone rock with some shale intervals. Interestingly, it has a couple thrust (reverse) faults on display: Thrust fault through carbonate rock (Facing north. Scale: 1.5 m staff with 10 cm intervals) A closer look at the fault in the lower-right corner of the previous image An even closer look at the fault. Lots of fault gouge. Notice the clasts that have rotated. Another thrust fault at the same roadcut (Facing north. Scale: 1.5 m staff) Some weeks ago, I was visiting a roadcut near Cotter, Arkansas  where I left with buckets of samples to analyze. One such sample was a large cobble that I slabbed on the rock saw and found these beautiful normal faults, with a baby graben flanked by two horsts: Faulte...

"geology isn't a real science" ?! "geology is the kardashians of science" ??!!! I.....I don't know what to say. I've never felt so offended. What happened to you Google? You used to be cool.

Recent earthquake (orange dot) on Sept. 12, 2019 (via  USGS ) After a slow start with my research, I'm hoping that things will begin to move along much faster this fall. To help with the momentum, I've scheduled a meeting with my PhD committee, however, the best day to do so is tomorrow - Friday the 13th. Now, I'm not a superstitious person. After all, when has anything bad happened to me on Friday the 13th? I'll take my chances. However, early this morning - at 1:42am for those who are sticklers for precision - I had just woken up as I was rolling over in bed when suddenly an earthquake rumbled through. I heard my window blinds rattle and felt my bed vibrate, which brought me into a state of sleepy confusion unsure if it was an earthquake or just my neighbors on the other side of my wall. It was initially recorded as a 3.7 by the USGS with an epicenter 19 km (11.8 miles) south-southeast of Gassville, Arkansas just east of the Buffalo River in Baxter County. On...

While doing some research for a new blog post, I took a break from writing by taking a trip over to Facebook again , and unfortunately found something else to write about: I've seen this image before and apparently it's making the rounds again. Based on what you see here, with no additional text or context given, is there any way that you can arrive to the same conclusion as the one given? I find that there is an absurd amount of information that is neglected, which prevents me from making any conclusions whatsoever. But firstly, what is this an image of? Photograph of Fort Denison, circa 1880s. (credit: Wikimedia /National Archives of Australia) This is Fort Denison on delightfully named Pinchgut Island in the Sydney Harbour of Australia. Originally built as a prison, and later converted into a fort to protect the harbor, Fort Denison still stands today well within eyesight of the famous Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. I was not able to find the...

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 ...

On occasion, my home Internet router will reboot itself for reasons unknown to myself, and during one such instance recently, I was left realizing how much that I rely on the Internet these days and was unable to do much without it. However, since I use the Google Chrome browser, I was able to play the jumping T. rex game while waiting for my router to finish rebooting (press arrow keys on the "No Internet" screen to activate). While trying to beat my high score, I noticed that the dinosaur, some kind of tyrannosaurid (the T. rex family), was jumping over saguaro cacti. This got me wondering about the evolution of cactus plants and when they evolved. Cactus are flowering plants (aka angiosperms) and angiosperms evolved in the late Jurassic Period, and rapidly diversified during the Cretaceous Period. But, did the cactus (particularly saguaro) live at the same time as the dinosaurs? First, when did cacti evolve? Interestingly,“[t]here are no relevant fossil records...

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...

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...