A couple of other cool stuff, not directly related to the theme of the GSA Field Forum, that we saw at the site of the tafoni and the metates:

First, some petroglyphs. These are carved into the clay/oxide/biofilm layer known as "desert varnish," revealing the pink Bishop Tuff beneath:


And if you walk to the edge of the bluff, where the Owens River has chewed away at the edge of the volcanic tableland, you can see this:


That's the Sierras in the distance, the Owens River in the middle ground, Chalk Bluff Road, and then the south slope of the volcanic tableland. The Owens River is near its local base level here, and has produced some lovely meanders. You can see the current batch of meanders, plus older, cut-off loops here:


...And did I mention they have some fault geology there too?

Labels: anthropology, california, conferences, rivers, travel, weathering

Okay, so maybe you recognize that. No? Take another look:



That's tafoni, peppering the Bishop Tuff on the volcanic tableland north of Bishop, California. I went there in September as part of a weeklong GSA Field Forum. Tafoni is a distinctive weathering pattern presumed to be caused by salt weathering, often in sandstones. This particular example wasn't in a particularly salty location, and the rock being weathered was the Bishop Tuff, a welded volcanic ash deposit. But it's clearly the tafoni pattern:



Here's some tafoni resources from the geoblogophere:
Through the Sandglass 1
Through the Sandglass 3
Tafoni from About.com 1
Tafoni from About.com 2
The Dynamic Earth 1
The Dynamic Earth 2
A previous mention here on NOVA Geoblog



And one more... ??

...Just kidding. This last one is a metate, a Native American grain-grinding depression. There were a couple of them at this location, too. Like the tafoni, it's a hole in the rock. Unlike the tafoni, it's man-made. Would you believe we didn't go there for the metates or the tafoni, but some normal faults instead? ...I'll have to share them in a future post.

Labels: anthropology, california, conferences, history, travel, weathering

The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History is looking for a creative individual to work on contract in the capacity of Producer/Writer for a new Human Evolution website. In this capacity, the individual will work with the Museum's Human Evolution Web team, and coordinate with the Web Development Contractor to bring creative solutions to presenting the human evolution story, shaping, editing, and writing multimedia content. We are looking for someone with experience writing science stories, producing multimedia, and developing content for museums. For more information, contact Robert Costello, costellor@si.edu.

Labels: anthropology, evolution, jobs, museums, smithsonian

Ann Hornaday authored an interesting piece in this morning's Washington Post about Ota Benga, the Congolese Pygmy who was displayed for a time in a cage in the Bronx Zoo. It turns out that Ms. Hornaday's great-great-great-uncle, William Temple Hornday, was the one who put Ota Benga there.

Labels: africa, anthropology, new york, science and society

An article posted last hour on washingtonpost.com by Joel Achenbach examines an upcoming paper in Science that explores the idea of an impact triggering the Younger Dryas glacial advance as well as ending the Clovis culture and triggering the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna. The evidence is nanodiamonds in sedimentary deposits from 12,900 years ago. Read the article, and wonder how Joel Achenbach finds out about this stuff a day before it's published. How does he get his hands on this article with enough time to compose a newspaper piece about it, but the rest of us have to wait until tomorrow to read the original paper?

Labels: anthropology, climate change, critters, diamonds, ice, news, sediment

There's more than rocks in Hawai'i. Another thing that might catch the naturalist's eye is the diverse suite of interesting animals and plants. Today, I'd like to share some images of neat lifeforms I encountered on my Thanksgiving trip to the big island. I'll start with sea turtles, then move on to jellyfish, crayfish, endemic freshwater fish, chameleons, wooden tiki carvings (not technically alive), and plants.

Let's start with the turtles. These are green sea turtles, and they're pretty common in Hawai'i. They have certain beaches they frequent, where they haul themselves up and out onto the beach to rest. Here's one at Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park:


Here's one feeding on algae at Punaluu Harbor:




Video of the same foraging turtle:


A short distance further along the shore, a snoozer:




But there's more in the sea than turtles... On a hike to the Polulo Valley, we found half a dozen small "Portuguese Man O' War" jellyfish on the beach:




A few valleys down, we spied these native crayfish and freshwater fish in a stream:


One of the real charmers is an invasive species, the Jackson's chameleon, native to Africa:




Look at those hands! Three "thumbs" and two "fingers."


Males have three prominent horns on their heads:


Video:




Baby Jackson's:


Do these count as "critters"? Not sure where else to put them... Tikis outside the chief's house at Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park:


And lastly, a couple of botanical images:

Labels: anthropology, critters, hawaii, plants, travel