Tag Archives: fossils

Back to the Big Island for the Fourth of July

mwilson July 4, 2011 10:48 am

KURESSAARE, SAAREMAA, ESTONIA–The Wooster Geologists Estonia Team today braved the Baltic Sea again and took a ferry from the island of Hiiumaa to return to their previous field sites on the island of Saaremaa. We worked at Soeginina Cliff on … Continue reading →

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Saying goodbye to the little island of Hiiumaa

mwilson July 3, 2011 10:25 am

KÄINA, ESTONIA–Today we had our last visit to our Silurian quarry working site (where I photographed the Paleofavosites coral fossil above, which by the way was preserved upside-down in the sequence), and then we had lunch in the town of … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Nummulitid foraminiferans (Eocene of the United Arab Emirates)

mwilson July 3, 2011 6:14 am

The Great Pyramids of Egypt are made primarily of a yellowish limestone. About 40% of that limestone is made of the fossil type pictured above. These are foraminiferans (single-celled organisms with shells) that lived by the countless billions during the … Continue reading →

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Quarry time on Hiiumaa

mwilson July 1, 2011 10:00 am

KÄINA, ESTONIA–Rachel, Nick and I worked today in our lonely quarry on Hiiumaa measuring and describing this section of Lower Silurian (Llandovery, Rhuddanian) rocks and fossils. This is the fieldwork for Rachel’s Senior Independent Study.

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A second new Senior Independent Study project begins in Estonia

mwilson June 30, 2011 10:51 am

KÄINA, ESTONIA–Today we moved our geological investigations from Saaremaa to the island to the north: Hiiumaa. Our friend Olev Vinn of Tartu University then led us to an abandoned quarry in the Hilliste Formation (Lower Silurian). This made Rachel Matt … Continue reading →

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Saaremaa Silurian stromatolites studied

mwilson June 29, 2011 8:22 am

KURESSAARE, ESTONIA–Our fieldwork today at the Soeginina Cliff locality ended with an examination of a sequence of stromatolites near the top of the exposed Ludlow section. Stromatolites are layers of sediment accumulated by photosynthetic cyanobacteria. They are the earliest fossils … Continue reading →

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Independent Study fieldwork begins in Estonia … with a little unexpected canine companionship

mwilson June 28, 2011 2:05 pm

KURESSAARE, ESTONIA–Nick Fedorchuk began his fieldwork today at the Soeginina Cliff site we visited two days ago. The first thing we did was scout out the best place to measure the most complete section possible, and then we started the … Continue reading →

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An intricate Silurian stromatoporoid reef on the island of Saaremaa, Estonia

mwilson June 27, 2011 1:39 pm

KURESSAARE, ESTONIA–Stromatoporoids are extinct calcareous sponges that were very common in shallow water environments of the Silurian. They are especially abundant in the middle Silurian of the Baltic Region. Today we visited a site called Katri Cliff where a reef … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Tiny little oysters (Lower Paleocene of Mississippi)

mwilson June 26, 2011 1:45 am

This week’s fossils are by no means rare — last year Megan Innis and I picked up dozens of them at a muddy outcrop near Starkville, Mississippi, on our Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary expedition (click “Alabama” and “Mississippi” in the tags to … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologists return to Estonia

mwilson June 25, 2011 2:40 pm

KURESSAARE, ESTONIA–Yesterday afternoon three Wooster geologists met in the Tallinn, Estonia, airport within an hour after flying from three different countries. (Thank you, travel agent Suzanne Easterling!) We rented a car and then drove through impressive rainstorms westwards to the … Continue reading →

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