May 9th
6:45 PM
6:45 PM
Tourmaline var. Liddicoatite from Madagascar by the Arkenstone
April 6th
2:56 AM
2:56 AM
Dinosaur Feathers Discovered in Canadian Amber
Today a group of paleontologists announced the results of an extensive study of several well-preserved dinosaur feathers encased in amber. Their work, which included samples from many stages in the evolution of feathers, bolstered the findings of other scientists who’ve suggested that dinosaurs (winged and otherwise) had multicolored and transparent feathers of the sort you might see on birds today. The researchers also presented evidence, based on the feathers’ pigmentation and structures, that today’s bird feathers could have evolved from dinosaur feathers.
Read More | Photos © Science/AAAS
THIS IS FUCKING NEAT AS FUCK okay
and is it terrible that I desperately want a piece of jewelry (like a pendant or a pair of plugs) made from this amber??
(via dendroica)
February 26th
3:27 PM
3:27 PM
James Appleton captured the northern lights and an erupting volcano in Iceland - in a single shot.
(via fuckyeahnorthernlights)
February 20th
10:03 AM
10:03 AM
Ray Troll stratigraphy/geologic time.
This is so awesome.
(Source: cetacean34, via galesofnovember)
February 2nd
2:00 PM
2:00 PM
January 8th
5:14 PM
5:14 PM
Sedimentary layers with bands of hematite, magnetite (gray/black), and jasper (red) in Precambrian banded iron formations (BIFs) of northern Michigan.
(via uniformitarianism)
December 28th
7:06 PM
7:06 PM
December 27th
2:08 PM
2:08 PM
I hate it when I google for minerals and get a thousand results about how fucksite can help ground your heart to your stupidity chakra or whatever
leave the rocks alone, you fucking hippies
as a pagan, I AGREE.
I kind of have a special dislike for New Agers, hippies, and pagans/fluffy bunny wiccans who, like…. proselytize about the ~magical~ qualities of ~crystal healing~ or about astrology or…. whatever. because it’s not just that they believe these things have these properties (that’s fine, to each their own) it’s that they expect everyone else to believe it, too.
I know, I’m a terrible pagan because I don’t believe rocks and minerals can cure cancer or protect you from getting mugged if you just carry them around all the time. there is a certain kind of anti-intellectualism that comes along with much of the pagan & New Age communities, and it’s always struck me as hilariously ironic that people who claim to worship the Earth remain so willfully ignorant, and even disdainful, about the actual fucking geological processes that are going on right under their feet. and geological reality is actually so much more badass than the fluffy ~magical properties~ associated with minerals.
October 4th
1:33 PM
1:33 PM
Dinosaur Bone Art
Credit: Douglas Moore University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA
20th place has been waiting a long time for this — 150 million years, to be precise. This image of agatized dinosaur bone cells magnified 42 times rounds out the top 20 in the 2011 Nikon Small World photography contest.
September 9th
2:59 AM
2:59 AM
kodakowl: Hallucigenia
Hallucigenia, (meaning strage and dream-like) was a small worm-ish creature that scurried about the ocean floor on longe stilt-like legs. Our little friend here has suffered much confusion in the paleontological community, it was first depicted upside-down, because it was thought that what are now seen as defensive spikes were it’s legs. It is unknown which end is the front, there are dark stains at bothe ends of fossils, either of which may be a head. Maybe we have a CatDog on our hands. Recent specimens of Hallucigenia were found to have small claws on the tentacles, which are what brought about the change of which end was up. It is unknown what it’s spines were made of, but they haven’t preserved well, so it is likely they were soft, and serverd little defensive purposes. Perhaps they were like the spines of the sea urchin… That’s enough speculation from me, though. It was likely a decomposer of the sea floor, like the friendly little slimebag, the hagfish, and fed on decaying animal corpses. It has been found in Burgess Shale and Cambrian Maotianshan.
(Source: lifethroughgeologictime, via ca2mgfe5si8o22oh2)
