Category Archives: Uncategorized

Climate Monday: Keeling Curve Animation from NOAA

acrawford January 29, 2018 6:28 pm

While Dr. Wilson is away on leave this semester, I am going through 15 weeks of “Climate Monday”, in which every week I get the opportunity to highlight one graphic or animation or data tool that shows something interesting about … Continue reading →

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Climate Monday: Weather Animations by Cameron Beccario

acrawford January 22, 2018 12:39 pm

While Dr. Wilson is on leave and taking a hiatus from his acclaimed “Fossil of the Week” series, the Department of Geology decided to fill the void with something completely different: Climate Monday. For 15 weeks in the Spring 2018 … Continue reading →

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Weather Sensationalism: Boston is colder than Mars

acrawford January 4, 2018 11:25 am

Today, CNN and several other news outlets are reporting that “Boston and part of New Hampshire will be colder than Mars” this weekend. At first glance, this sounds incredible.  It’s going to be really cold this weekend! Indeed, on Saturday, the coldest … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geology at AGU 2017

acrawford December 18, 2017 4:32 pm

Three Wooster Geologists (Dr. Karen Alley, Dr. Alex Crawford, and senior Geology major Cole Jimerson) descended on New Orleans last week to attend the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union. With 20 to 25 thousand attendees each year, this … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Echinoid bite marks from the Upper Cretaceous of southwestern France

Mark Wilson November 30, 2017 12:01 am

Above is another beautiful image from Paul Taylor’s paleontological lab at the Natural History Museum, London. It is one of our fossil oysters (Pycnodonte vesicularis) from the French Type Campanian collected in the town of Archiac in southwestern France on … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Barnacle borings from the Cretaceous of southwestern France

Mark Wilson November 24, 2017 12:01 am

Small comma-shaped trace fossils this week in a Cretaceous (Upper Campanian) oyster (Pycnodonte vesicularis) from the Aubeterre Formation of southwestern France. (Locality C/W-747, Plage des Nonnes, to be exact.) These are borings produced by barnacles, which are sedentary crustaceans more … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Encrusting cyanobacteria from the Upper Ordovician of the Cincinnati region — now published

Mark Wilson November 17, 2017 12:01 am

[This week’s post is a repeat from last year, with some modifications. The paper Paul Taylor and I wrote on these microbial beauties has just appeared this week in the latest issue of the journal Palaios. A pdf is yours … Continue reading →

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How to Combat a Drought

acrawford November 14, 2017 10:57 am

About a month ago, I wrote on this blog about an exceptionally dry late summer for Wooster.  It was dry enough to put much of northeast Ohio in a moderate drought.  But of course the moment I published that blog … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A Middle Jurassic trace fossil from southwestern Utah

Mark Wilson November 10, 2017 12:01 am

Time for a trace fossil! This is one of my favorite ichnogenera (the trace fossil equivalent of a biological genus). It is Gyrochorte Heer, 1865, from the Middle Jurassic (Bajocian) Carmel Formation of southwestern Utah (near Gunlock; locality C/W-142). It … Continue reading →

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West Antarctic mantle plumes: A lesson in ice flow and science communication

kalley November 9, 2017 4:01 pm

Newsweek published a scary-looking headline yesterday: “NASA DISCOVERS MANTLE PLUME ALMOST AS HOT AS YELLOWSTONE SUPERVOLCANO THAT’S MELTING ANTARCTICA FROM BELOW.” It’s a scary idea, right? That heat that drives Yellowstone’s steam vents, boiling hot springs, and explosive geysers is … Continue reading →

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