Early naturalists were obsessed with the idea to collect and to describe all the secrets of earth, many unusual and strange things were therefore displayed - for education and amusement - in "Wunderkammern" or "Cabinets of Curiosities". Following this tradition I will try to present on a regular basis my own "online cabinet of curiosities", where I will share links and stories related to the history of earth sciences.
As this is the first post of the (so I hope) coming series there is also a contest:
I would like to introduce you to this cute chamois (artwork by illustrator and artist Tricia Arnold and used here with permission) which I would like to use as a mascot for the blog.
As I´m searching still a name for it - if you get a good proposal let me know at <history_of_geology@yahoo.com> , use in the header the tag "Chamois" and include in the e-mail body the name and maybe a short explanation or drawing* why you think the name would be fitting - by doing so you will get also a chance to win a geology-related textbook (*for some inspiration visit the "making of…" post on Tricia's Obligatory Art Blog!) - deadline for the contest will be November 30.
This Week Geohistory:
- November 1, 1755: The city of Lisbon is destroyed by one of the worst earthquakes in European history
- November 1, 1880: Birthday of meteorologist Alfred Wegener, "the father of continental drift"
- October 29, 1831: Birthday of paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh
- October 30, 1938: The radio-dramatization of "War of the Worlds", reporting the invasion of Earth by Martians, scares millions!
This Week Geonews:
- The Accretionary Wedge #60 is hosted at the Geosphere-blog and dedicated to "momentous discoveries in geology"
- The oldest depiction of a volcano found in the Turkish site of Çatalhöyük? Well, the depiction is not so unequivocal…
- What's Geology got to do with Coffee?!
- "Seismograph" a new song by earth-science inspired music group The Amoeba People
- Tectonic stress causes real stress in humans? Animals sensing earthquakes is not a new claim, but until now there is no evidence we can use behavior (or other) to predict earthquakes
- For the very first time the original jaw of Megalosaurus (descibed in 1824 by William Buckland) was shown outside the U.K.
- Alfred Russel Wallace´s forgotten Voyage
- Plants can help to find ore deposits, but at high costs
- The characteristic sediment of the Anthropocene will be waste
The celebration of All Hallows' Eve in this week prompted a lot of awesome geology-posts
- I see dead paleontologists: Othniel Charles Marsh (died March 18, 1899) und Edward Drinker Cope (died April 12, 1897) are still fighting who discovered more dinosaur species
- The Geology of Graveyards and a Gravestone for a Geologist
- Fire burn, and cauldron bubble... the perfect recipe for a geological-magical potion - you just will need a Toadstone, the Devil´s Fingers, Bones of Giants and a Philosopher’s Stone to do the transmutation. If you like you can also add some Snakestones
- Halloween special: Lovecraft and the Mountains of Madness
- Ge o’ Pumpkins !!
- The Return of the Loch Ness Monster !
- The haunting mummies (however I don´t think they are petrified, you see still soft tissue, seems more dried corpses) from Lake Natron
This Week Geopapers:
- Open access review of "Dinosaur doctor: The life and work of Gideon Mantell" (2010) by Edmund Critchley
- Open access paper "A risk society? Environmental hazards, risk and resilience in the later Middle Ages in Europe" by C.M. GERRARD & D.N. PETLEY
- Paywall paper on "Mary Anning's legacy to French vertebrate palaeontology" by V. PEGGY, published in the Geological Magazine
You can find this links - collection also on facebook or on twitter.
