A continental heat wave won’t stop Wooster Geologists …

… but it will slow us down! Today Nick Wiesenberg, our excellent departmental technician, and I took a short day trip to southeastern Indiana to collect fossils for my upcoming Paleoecology course. It was in the middle of what may be globally the hottest month on record, as well as the start of a long extreme heat event in North America. It was plenty hot and sticky, but the fossils were toasty warm and inviting. Nick is shown above on my favorite outcrop of the Upper Ordovician Whitewater Formation along US 27 (locality C/W-148). It is no doubt the most photographed section on this blog. [Update: July 2019 was indeed the hottest month ever. Sadly, I’m sure it will later be superseded by a still hotter one.]

Here is the same scene in March 2017 with Wooster students Luke Kosowatz and Matthew Shearer. Note the white icicles!

And here am I testing the concept that baggy clothes are cooler. I’m standing on an outcrop of the Upper Ordovician Liberty Formation exposed along IN 101 (locality C/W-149).

Nick and I were successful in filling a box with beautiful fossils for lab exercises, and we were happy to retreat to the air-conditioned car for the four-hour ride back home!

About Mark Wilson

Mark Wilson is an emeritus Professor of Geology at The College of Wooster. He specializes in invertebrate paleontology, carbonate sedimentology, and stratigraphy. He also is an expert on pseudoscience, especially creationism.
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2 Responses to A continental heat wave won’t stop Wooster Geologists …

  1. Tim says:

    Good to see proper Ohio fieldwork being done…

  2. Mark Wilson says:

    So many stories still to tell.

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