Category Archives: Uncategorized

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: an encrusted nautiloid (Upper Ordovician of Kentucky)

mwilson March 4, 2012 11:33 am

Two fossils this week in our series. The large segmented cone is a bisected nautiloid cephalopod from the Upper Ordovician of northern Kentucky. The original shell (made of the mineral aragonite) has been dissolved away, leaving the sediment that filled … Continue reading →

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A Wooster Geologist … on TV?

mwilson March 3, 2012 12:44 pm

The irony of me appearing for brief moments as a commentator on last night’s episode of Ancient Aliens (“Aliens and Mega-Disasters“) is that I teach a course at Wooster entitled “Nonsense! And Why It’s So Popular“. One of our favorite … Continue reading →

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Accretionary Wedge #43: Fun with Chemographic Projections

mpollock February 29, 2012 3:38 pm

This month’s Accretionary Wedge calls for posts on our favorite geological illustrations. Some of my personal favorites are drawn by Dr. Kurt Hollocher from Union College. His collection of hand-drawn thin sections is enough to make any petrologist drool. One of Dr. … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A holey brachiopod (Lower Cretaceous of southeastern Spain)

mwilson February 26, 2012 1:10 am

This striking and unusual brachiopod is Pygites diphyoides (d’Orbigny, 1847) from Hauterivian (Lower Cretaceous) of Cehegin, Murcia, Spain. Wooster acquired it through a recent generous exchange of brachiopods with Mr. Clive Champion in England. I had heard about this brachiopod … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologists Visit the Miller Oil and Gas Museum in Shreve, Ohio

gwiles February 21, 2012 2:55 pm

Drs. Judge and Wiles are teaching a half credit course in The Geology of Oil and Gas. After weeks of well log interpretation, rock core description and interpretive contour mapping exercises the class caught a break and traveled to the … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: star sand (Recent of southern Japan)

mwilson February 19, 2012 1:37 am

Yes, that “Recent” in the title was a clue that these are not actually fossils, but the little beauties fit the spirit of our series. This is sand from an unknown island beach in southern Japan. The spotted star-shaped grains … Continue reading →

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Geology and art meet with a ceramic creation from the Cretaceous extinctions

mwilson February 16, 2012 7:49 pm

In August 2010 I had a fantastic geologic field trip to the tunnels of Geulhemmmerberg, The Netherlands, to see an unusual exposure of the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. There I collected a fist-sized sample of the famous boundary clay, which is found … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An asteroid trace fossil from the Devonian of northeastern Ohio

mwilson February 12, 2012 1:31 am

It is pretty obvious what made this excellent trace fossil: an asteroid echinoderm. (The term “asteroid” sounds odd here, but it is the technical term for a typical sea star.) The above is Asteriacites stelliformis Osgood, 1970, from the Chagrin … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A mysterious sponge (Late Ordovician of Ohio)

mwilson February 5, 2012 1:48 am

I’ve been collecting and studying fossils from the Upper Ordovician of the Cincinnati region for three decades now, but I’ve never seen another specimen like the one pictured above. An amateur collector, Howard Freeland, generously donated this rock to Wooster … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Most Beautiful Building Stones

mpollock January 31, 2012 11:21 pm

Wooster, OH – Volcanoclast is hosting the latest Accretionary Wedge, and since I have exactly 2 hours left until the end of January, I thought I’d post a last-minute entry. The theme is countertop geology, or more broadly, stones that … Continue reading →

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