Essentially, I'd like to keep it simple. This blog should not serve as a penis-enlarging exhibition of my expertise or claims to be scientific through and through. I just would like to share pictures of geological phenomena and goodies as well as thoughts that I think are worth mentioning. Thank You for visiting! Criticism and suggestions welcome!
I always thought they split up some years ago, so I was a little bit surprised as the band announced a new record and a tour this year. I didn’t expected too much because most of such reunion-records are rather lame and bands usually never find their ingenuity of the “early days”. In this case, however, it is not a typical reunion because they just split and re-formed many times. Long story short: Ox (both, Lp and ep) completely blew me away. It’s like taking the best part of every Coalesce release (including their Led Zeppelin cover album) and welding it to a perfect album. They even made it to include clean vocal parts within some songs, which in my view usually appears misplaced in such music. The blunt guitar riffing topped with the acridly barking vocals is typically coalesce but the clean singing and the almost "morriconesque" interludes really make it a special record. I think this is probaly the last Hardcore album that really means something to me.
Gaudiest metal record of all time. Baroness once emerged from a rather rough small cove embedded somewhere between Hardcore/Crust Mountain and a more advanced Heavy Metal Volcano not unlike early Mastodon. At least since their last release “red album” they got a little bit more straight forward and fancy. I don’t mean this in a negative way. The “blue record” follows this path consequently. It twinkles and sparkles with every pearly guitar riff passing your auditory meatus. Not to mention the hymnal vocal parts that instantly reminded me of Hot Water Music. Sometimes, I felt a little embarrassed because some songs are so cheesy but at the same time it sounds amiable and refreshing for this kind of music where every band tries to sound as evil and brutal as possible. This is a honest release of a honest band.
I don’t know too much about pop so I can’t present a thorough review like for the records above. This is a very fragile and spooky pop album that was my background music as I walked through summer nights of Zürich.
This one has been posted already here and there on the net and actually, the paper was published 2.5 years ago. However, this report really surprised me and I want to share my amazement.
Baumiller and Messing (2007) report that extant isocrinids are able to move as fast as 10 - 30 mm per second using their "arms" to crawl over the seafloor (fig. 1). Although some groups of crinoids were suggested and proven to perfom some sort of locomotion, the authors provide evidence for an almost "benthic-vagile" lifestyle of a group of organisms that is largely recognized as de facto sessile.
This contribution concerns me for two reasons. First, I am highly interested if there are some trace fossils that were found to represent crinoid locomotion (see fig. 2) and second, the portion of crinoids suggested to apply this kind of locomotion is highest in the Triassic (fig. 3).
Fig. 2: Traces of Davidaster rubiginosa in a fishtank experiment, scale bar: 20 mm (Baumiller and Messing, 2007).
Fig. 3: Generic diversity of crinoids from Ordovician to modern times. Red bars represent the portion of crinoidtaxa that might have been able to perform the observed mode of locomotion (Baumiller and Messing, 2007).
Working in the lower Triassic with a keen interest in ichnology, I will keep this work in my head when returning to the field. Does anybody knows about crinoid trace fossils?
Reference
Baumiller, T.K., and Messing, C.G., 2007: Stalked Crinoid locomotion, and its ecological and evolutionary implications. Palaeontologia Electronica, v. 10/1. http://palaeo-electronica.org/paleo/2007_1/crinoid/index.html
Sorry, it is Sunday, I finished my tasks scheduled for today (building up an ikea-something) and my significant other is trapped in a synchrotron somewhere in France. Let me dump the internet with useless information (nothing new, actually).
Probably on every student field trip a picture like this is going to be taken. It was a third years field trip, so you still see tools from DIY markets, which are infact unsuitable for torturing rocks. They easily chip. I once shot a fellow student in the leg while I tried to decompose a cherty limestone. Blood everywhere, I tell you. She sued me and I still have to pay her smart money. So get decent gear for fieldwork. Safety first!
Some details of the story are exaggerated to justify a blog post but basically it's true.
Go and see this movie. Being a geologist, I really enjoyed the part with the Yellowstone eruption (fig. 1). Although 99% of the stuff happening there is far beyond being realistic, the explosion of a caldera appears to be more or less like that (according to what I learned in my volcanics-class). However, the pyroclastic cloud in the movie appears quite comfortable. A real one probably wouldn't release an aircraft that it once caught.
Fig. 1: Zzzzsch-Kraboom
Apart from the CGI earth decomposition, which is well done, I would recommend to movie directors to throw all this emotional crap away and add self-irony and dirt instead. The pretence to create a movie which tries to sell family-compatible ethics although there is terror and destruction everywhere just doesn't work. All of this pathos really destroyed the movie more than the earth has been destroyed in the movie. Haha, but that's okay, they want to earn money. I understand that.
My wish: just show the cool parts and add cool music. I found the following clip on youtube which is pretty close to what I imagine:
It is online for quite a while so it is not really new: A blog by Kevin Bylund called Ammonoida which is focused on Cephalopds from the U.S. Kevin joined the recent field trip. He is an Ammonite-specialist and there is probaly no one who knows better about the Geology of Utah and adjoining areas.
Recently, I returned from a field trip with American (Jim Jenks and Kevin Bylund) and French (Dr. Arnaud Brayard) Cephalopod researchers. I have been in the south-western U.S. for almost 4 weeks to see the Panthalassian faunas mainly of the Smithian and Spathian (Upper Early Triassic, Olenekian if you want). I've got a lot of things to do right now so I just will post some pictures from the field trip and some ichnologic goodies. Almost everything that is suggested for publication will emerge here (if any) after definite publication. It is not that I am conceited or afraid that someone snitches my ideas but most journals require that the submitted material is not published elsewhere in any form (hence, including blog-posts). In fact, currently I am working on a manuscript on some trace fossils from the Dolomites that I'd love to show you. Anyway back to the U.S. (as always: click to enlarge!):
The ?Thaynes Formation at the Dog Valley locality (Pahvant Range, central Utah).
Our camp with the Thule Valley in the background seen from the Disappointment Hills (Confusion Range, Utah) . The backmost mountains belong to the House Range and are mainly composed of Cambrian sediments.
One of the sections at the Disappointment Hills locality. The succession of interest starts at the right with a calcarenitic bed (the bright bedding plane) blanketing a ?permian paleo-relief. The Triassic here is represented by the Thaynes Formation (Smithian and Spathian) .
Well, the desert can be a lonely place...
...but furry guests show up from time to time.
Thats a locality called Smiths Phalen Ranch near Currie (Nevada). See the post on Ammonoidea.
"Superb" outrcop conditions in NE-Nevada (Winecup Ranch, or something). We weren't even sure if its Lower Triassic at all.
The morning after a 25°C drop in temperature.
The Spathian Virgin Member (stratigraphic nomenclature is debated, some researcher refer to the Vrgin Limestone Formation) near Hurricane. Basically, a shale interbedded with a series of prominent limestone ledges.
The lowermost of such "ledges", here very variable in thickness. It pinches out towards the left. I think it represents an estaury filling incisions in the underlying terrestrial red beds. The base of the Virgin member is highly variable in facies. It must have been a very dissected coastline with shoals, tidal flats, lagoons and estuaries. Honey Moon Trail east of the Hurricane cliffs.
The same little mesa showing the prominent pinch-out towards the left.
The Hurricane Cliffs east of Hurricane (Utah).
So called "wrinkle structures". Little pseudo ripples which are formed by microbial mats. It is considered as an "anachronistic" facies showing up in areas or times when grazing and bioturbation in general is dramatically reduced due to nonexistence of grazers and burrowers (Lower Cambrian) or as a result of a previous massive extinction (Lower Triassic). If you are interested read Pruss et al. 2004 for instance.
An ichnologic goodie: Cruziana in the lower Triassic. Usually, Cruziana is suggested to have been produced by Trilobites. As they went extinct in the course of the end-Permian mass extinction, similar structures can be obviously produced by someone else. A paper dealing with this topic is Zonneveld et al. 2002. The occurence reported in that reference is dated to the Middle Triassic. So my specimen (Spathian Virgin Member) should be the earliest large Cruziana after the end-Permian Mass extinction found so far. Well, the photographed specimen is not the whole story and I hope I can come back to this one when we have better data and a publication.
Me and my little clam truck.
References
Pruss S. B., Fraiser M. L., Bottjer D. J. 2004: The proliferation of Early Triassic wrinkle structures: implications for environmental stress following the end-Permian mass extinction. Geology, 32, 461–464.
Zonneveld J. P., Pemberton S. G., Saunders T. D. A., Pickerill R. K., 2002: Large, Robust Cruziana from the Middle Triassic of Northeastern British Columbia: Ethologic, Biostratigraphic, and Paleobiologic Significance. Palaios, 17, 435-448.
Recently, I have been busy to finish a poster for the meeting of the german palaeontological association (see the german website here). Furthermore, I just finished a manuscript, which is suggested to be submitted as soon as I am back from the field.
I am going to the see Lower Triassic of panthalassian shallow marine environments involving the Thaynes Formation and the Dinwoody Formation in the "Confusion Range" of western Utah. There are localities like "disappointment hills" and "cowboy pass". Sounds pretty "amazing", does'nt it, haha! I will join a team of French and American researchers. For the last 10 days, I will be on my own down in southwest Utah to see the Virgin Limestone (sounds better). I Hope to be back on 13th of october.
I will listen to this one constantly, all the time, no kidding!
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