So much of the landscape here is set by things that happened in the last glaciations. Bluffs of loess, flat plains, eskers, hills and valleys more deeply eroded the longer ago the landscape was glaciated. Travel through 66 counties of Iowa.
Of all animals I’ve ever seen spar, these young #giraffes
were without a doubt the gentlest I’ve ever seen. When large bulls go
at it it’s thunderous, however these two young ones here were playfully
learning and not trying to injure one another. This behavior is known as
#necking - @campjabulani / filmed on the @nikonusa#Z6
Here’s a cool fact: 20 million years ago, Nevada was half as wide as it is now. Literally.
In a post earlier this week we showed a very small normal fault of the Basin and Range province in the western U.S. This satellite photo shows the Basin and Range at its true extreme. The state of Nevada, and several others, is crossed by a series of ranges that trend almost north-south, with valleys/basins in-between
The continent being pulled apart created this topography. As the continent is pulled apart, normal faults have grown, with the rocks dropping down to fill in the space required by extension. The ground dropped down by these faults has filled in with sediments shed from the higher-standing basins, creating mountain ranges, fairly flat basins filled with sediment, and sharp, sometimes spectacular boundaries between them.
When in candy cane form, it is easy to forget where the flavor came from. Peppermint (Mentha x piperita) is actually a hybrid between two other mint species, water mint (Mentha aquatica) and spearmint (Mentha spicata). It is commonly grown for food or medicinal herb in gardens. It is also well known to escape garden settings and spread aggressively. Like other mints, this species is in the plant family Lamiaceae, which includes many strongly scented kitchen herbs. Members of the mint family are well recognized by their unique flowers and characteristically square stems.
This peppermint specimen was collected on August 29, 1965 by Norman R. Farnsworth in an open field at Ranalli’s Drive-In, eight miles north of Etna off Route 8, outside of Pittsburgh, PA.
Farnsworth (1930-2011) received his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, where he researched medicinal plants. He was an influential professor and researcher in the field of pharmacognosy (study of medicinal drugs derived from plants). He was a founding member of the American Society of Pharmacognosy.
The Carnegie Museum herbarium includes 1,108 specimens collected by Farnsworth. Each specimen is recognizable, with an envelope attached to each sheet that includes a typed description of the results of chemical screenings he did on the specimen.
Check back for more! Botanists at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History share digital specimens from the herbarium on dates they were collected. They have embarked on a three-year project to digitize nearly 190,000 plant specimens collected in the region, making images and other data publicly available online. This effort is part of the Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis Project (mamdigitization.org), a network of thirteen herbaria spanning the densely populated urban corridor from Washington, D.C. to New York City to achieve a greater understanding of our urban areas, including the unique industrial and environmental history of the greater Pittsburgh region. This project is made possible by the National Science Foundation under grant no. 1801022.
A timelapse of clouds and fall leaves, shot with iPhone 6s using @moment wide lens and @procamapp to shoot raw photos at 2 second intervals. Thanks to @stacydimapelis
for hanging out with me in this beautiful spot while I let this
timelapse run! As usual, this was in 4K until it went to IG… if you
want to see it in full 4k, check my Flickr page.
Almost 34 years to the day (December 27th, 1984), a meteorite named Allan Hills 84001 was discovered in Antarctica.
This particular meteorite is famous for all the media attention it received in the 90s. Johnson Space Center’s chief astrobiologist, Dr David McKay published a paper in the renowned journal, Science stating that ALH84001, of Martian origin, may contain evidence of life on Mars. This claim stemmed from results obtained using a scanning electron microscope. The results showed what was thought to be fossilized lifeforms referred to! as nanobacteria due to their size of the order of nanometers.
Pumice layer at the Brough of Birsay in Orkney, Scotland.
There’s some mad geology up there, lads! Bold and picturesque from a diasance, and up close you can see small snails sheltering in the pumice voids. Didn’t see any info on this layer in local museums, but nearby fossil bearing layers are from the Devonian. Artifacts made of pumice are not an uncommon at local archeological sites, I saw several lovely pumice abraders in person.
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