Searching for the "Wow Factor" - Part 4

For the 4th and final post for this little mini-series, the pipe-dream of how we can make our new Community Science Center into the focus of a renewal of science education in our college district, I offer my favorite idea.

Once again, I point out that during the age of the dinosaurs that everyone always goes ga-ga about, there were a lot of other really interesting creatures, and some were every bit of ferocious as the wimpy little velociraptors of "Jurassic Park", and as big as a T-Rex. The sediments of the Great Valley Group exposed in the eastern foothills of the Coast Ranges have revealed a diverse marine ecosystem, and I have saved the best for last...

The same kid who found the first dinosaur, Al Bennison, became a paleontologist in later life. One of his discoveries in the Diablo Range was a new species of Mosasaur (Plotosaurus bennisoni), a sort of late Cretaceous sea-going lizard that has been likened to a T-Rex of the seas (Sorry, Charlie). These creatures were nearly 40 feet long, and some had jaws 4-5 feet in length with huge sharp teeth. What could be better than one of these hanging from the ceiling of the atrium?

The first photo is a skeleton I saw on display in the Auckland Museum of Natural History in New Zealand...the painting is from TaylorMadeFossils, who sells a 36 foot long replica for $39,000 assemblied, and $21,000 unassembled (how hard could it be??).

Searching for the "Wow Factor" - Part 3

Continuing the string of thought concerning how we might produce "shock and awe" among the visitors to our new museum, there is another idea. Dinosaurs are almost out of fashion, in a sense, since it has been quite a few years since Speilberg made a sequel of "Jurassic Park". And...we have a host of really cool ocean-going reptiles that were as ferocious or scary as any little ole' raptor. The sediments of the Great Valley Group have yielded numerous specimens of of Plesiosaurs, which I could imagine as suspended above the main floor of the atrium. The example for sale here by Triebold Paleontology (for, um, $70,000) is 42 feet long.

Searching for the "Wow Factor" - Part 2

The next level of the "Wow Factor" (see part 1) regards our district's special place as the first place in California where a dinosaur was discovered. Del Puerto Canyon drains the eastern slope of the Diablo Range above the town of Patterson in our community college district. Back in the 1930's, a young man from Patterson, Al Bennison, found bones on a hillside up the canyon. Eventually excavated and prepared at UC Berkeley, the partially complete skeleton proved to be a species of hadrosaur, Saurolophus. Finding such a creature has to be regarded as slightly unusual, as California lay mostly below sea level at the time. It was probably a carcass that floated out to sea after being caught in a flood.

So what could be better than to have an example of our great heritage on display in the atrium of our new Community Science Center? Very few people in our region even know that dinosaurs have been found in California, much less in our own backyard. I have borrowed (stolen) the image above from the Black Hill Institute, in the hopes that they will realize that we would be a potential customer for their $45,000 replica of a 14-foot long specimen of a juvenile Edmontosaurus, and that as such, I am giving them a bit of free advertising...

Searching for the "Wow Factor" - Part 1

I have a once-in-a-career opportunity coming up soon. Our community college, for better or worse, is the highest-level public academic institution in our town (we fought for and lost the chance to host the newest UC campus, which ended up at Merced instead). A while back, the public passed a huge bond issue, and we now are designing a community science center, which will include the physical sciences labs, classrooms and instructor offices, but will also include a planetarium, observatory, and best of all, a public museum. We have a local natural history museum (the Great Valley Museum), which has been struggling for years in a couple of ancient buildings next to our campus, but now we will have one beautiful integrated structure that will be a centerpiece of science education for our county.

The conundrum? What do we do for the "wow factor"? The building will have three stories, and there will be a main entrance atrium that will be the gateway to the museum and to the classrooms as well. What do we put in this atrium area that will capture the attention of people, and especially children who are visiting the museum? What can we put there that will capture the essense of what is special about the natural history of the Great Valley of California?

Well, I have some ideas. It will take a couple of posts, so my apologies to Chris at Highly Allochthonous for filling up his Geoblogosphere feed.

As geologically boring as our valley might seem at first glance, with endless flatness, and agricultural fields, it does have some striking geology, admittedly mostly beneath the surface. The sediments of the Great Valley are thousands of feet thick, dating back to Jurassic and Cretaceous time, but they have been curled up at the edges to form a homocline in the eastern Coast Ranges, so we know what these layers contain, and there is some good stuff here, mostly having to do with the history of life in Mesozoic and Cenozoic time.

Which brings us to idea #1: The Pleistocene Megafauna and Smilodon

Noting the picture above, I figure this is the most bang for the buck. A full-sized replica of a Smilodon californicus (the saber-tooth cat) can apparently be had for around $6,000-7,000. It was a denizen of the plains of the Great Valley, has been found nearby in the Fairmead Sanitary Landfill, and has the added benefit of being the California State Fossil. I imagine the squeals of kids as they see one of these things greeting them as they enter the museum. This would lead in turn to some possible displays in the museum, some discussions of the kinds of animals that Smilodon hunted.

What do you think? I have a few more ideas to be presented in the next couple of posts, and I am hoping to catch the attention and imagination of some of my committee members. Thanks for your ideas!

Geyser Cam at Yellowstone National Park

Hat tip to http://geology.com/news for this one: the national park service website for Yellowstone has a webcam view of Old Faithful. It will be adjusted to catch eruptions of Beehive, Lion and Giantess geysers as well. Check it out at http://www.nps.gov/yell/photosmultimedia/yellowstonelive.htm

This takes me back to a very fine field trip we had to Yellowstone in 2006. Wandering about the Old Faithful geyser area, I was snapping photos of Castle Geyser when Beehive started erupting at the same time. Old Faithful is the iconic geyser, but many, many others are every bit as photogenic and far less crowded. Something like 70% of all the geysers in the world are within the boundaries of the park; it's one of those places that should be on every geologist's lifetime list. Despite all the crowding and over-exposure of the place, it is still a wonderous place to visit.

Speaking of webcams in volcanic places, be sure to check out one of my absolute favorite parks in the world: Lava Beds National Monument. They have a webcam showing the tremendous view of the Modoc Plateau from the veranda of the park visitor center at http://www.nps.gov/archive/labe/content/webcam.htm. And don't forget to check out the ongoing eruptions at Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument (http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/), and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/cam/index.htm).

Picture of the Day - The Airliner Chronicles Part 9

Today's picture is a "twofur", taken out the plane window while in the vicinity of Baffin Island in Canada. It was late July of 2007. The strange patterns on the ocean surface are clearly ice floes from the summer breakup of the pack ice that forms every year in this region. From 34,000 feet, it is difficult to get a sense of the size of the individual floes, so I have added a second picture with a wider view showing some of the islands in the near vicinity. I would have to guess that the floes are a few tens of meters across.

So much of the world lies undiscovered and unexplored. How many people have ever wandered through this region? Not that it would be easy in any sense of the word! Still, how many fossils remain to be found in these rocks? How many missing bits of geologic history?

Picture of the Day - The Airliner Chronicles Part 8

Several of my flights have passed over Greenland and northern Canada, giving me a chance to see some glacial features that I may never otherwise have a chance to see in my travels on the ground. Here are some beautiful drumlins partially submerged in water. I am struck by the absolute barreness of these landscapes, perhaps hundreds of miles from any human settlement. I think this was in the vicinity of Baffin Island, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, United didn't offer a GPS screen when movies were running. I haven't found the site on GoogleEarth yet, and I invite anyone to try and find it!