Category Archives: Uncategorized

Products of an angry giant

Mark Wilson June 4, 2013 3:59 pm

CATANIA, SICILY, ITALY–They may look like impressive sea stacks to you, but it turns out these are three huge stones thrown by the aggrieved and wounded cyclops Polyphemus at Odysseus as he escaped that infernal cave. Who knew? This morning … Continue reading →

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Pillow basalts for Dr. Pollock

Mark Wilson June 4, 2013 3:17 pm

CATANIA, SICILY, ITALY–These are Dr. Meagen Pollock’s favorite kind of rocks: pillow basalts. Above we have a spectacular example of pillow basalts exposed in cross section below a castle ruin in Aci Castello a few kilometers north of Catania. The … Continue reading →

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Exploring Mount Etna

Mark Wilson June 3, 2013 3:01 pm

CATANIA, SICILY, ITALY–The International Bryozoology Association conference field trip began with a day on the magnificent compound basaltic stratovolcano that virtually defines the eastern half of Sicily: Mount Etna. We did not get to climb all the way to the … Continue reading →

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A Wooster Geologist in Sicily

Mark Wilson June 2, 2013 9:13 am

CATANIA, SICILY, ITALY–This summer Wooster’s Team Italy consists of only me. Maybe in the future I’ll take students here for Independent Study projects depending on what I find. I’ve just arrived in the city of Catania on the eastern coast … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A shrimp from the Upper Jurassic of Bavaria, Germany

Mark Wilson June 2, 2013 1:18 am

The beautiful fossil shrimp above is Aeger tipularis (Schlotheim, 1822), and it comes from one of the most famous rock units: the Solnhofen Plattenkalk (Tithonian, Upper Jurassic) of Germany. (The Solnhofen is well known for its extraordinary fossils, including the … Continue reading →

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A Journey Inside the Volcano

mpollock May 31, 2013 6:49 pm

ICELAND – You may remember that Team Iceland is trying to determine the origin of interesting columnar-jointed features exposed in the interior of a subglacial pillow ridge. We have several hypotheses, one of which is that they could be related … Continue reading →

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Exploring Reykjavik, Iceland

mpollock May 30, 2013 7:15 pm

ICELAND – Team Iceland had a chance to explore Iceland’s capital city of Reykjavik today. Here are the photo highlights of their day:  

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A visit to the Natural History Museum of Utah

Mark Wilson May 29, 2013 7:01 pm

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH–On the last full day of our Utah trip, we toured the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City. It is in a spectacular place against the red rocks of the Wasatch Mountains and looking … Continue reading →

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Fantastic Weather Makes Productive Field Days

mpollock May 28, 2013 7:15 pm

ICELAND – Team Iceland made the most of the beautiful weather over the last two days. After spending all day in the field yesterday, we went back after dinner;  the lighting was just right to take GigaPan images of the … Continue reading →

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Ancient islands

Mark Wilson May 27, 2013 11:42 pm

LOGAN, UTAH–Today we explored the area around Promontory, in northern Utah. Among the many beautiful sites were these rocky, faceted hills that several thousand years ago. This particular hill was intriguing although inaccessible. (It is on a vast tract of … Continue reading →

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