College Is Walking Into The Dining Hall And Wondering Why They're Playing Jazz Music Only To Disocver

I have another paleontology joke for y’all!

Why did Archaeopteryx catch the worm?

Because it was an early bird!

Yes geologists! Doing the important work 💖

Indigenous knowledge of palaeontology in Africa

Ohhh my gosh, thank you for your post about geologic events and tips on writing them! If you don't mind, can I ask you about cave systems? Some of the more commons types (mineral types and formations) vs some of the more spectacular/rare finds and the conditions for their formation?

Hello and thanks! Caves typically are formed out of limestone (a sedimentary rock). Limestone is a rock mostly made of calcite/ calcium carbonate that is formed in the ocean. Once the ocean level lowers or the land rises due to mountain building events, these rocks get exposed to the surface where rain (which is usually always a little bit acidic) will begin to react with the stone (Similar to your teeth and soda). Once this process begins it will make the caves we know and love.

There are a couple interesting things that can happen though! First, dissolving rocks means that the water is full of minerals, that means that while that water drips from the caves it will precipitate out those minerals creating stalactites and stalagmites on the ceilings and floors. This also means that they will be made out mostly pure calcite!

Another interesting thing is that because they were on the ocean floor, it means that there will be a lot of fossils present from an ancient ocean.

So, most times, the only things you will find in caves is calcite and fossils. However in some rare instances you can have salt caves, which are also sedimentary but would be associated with the drying of oceans (You would also be able to probably find gypsum in those caves as well).

Other rare and interesting caves could be formed from hydrothermal water (hot water generated from volcanic activities), this opens up a world of different things that *could* be present including metals being deposited in the stone (gold, silver, or copper). That said, this is just me inventing excuses for if you want it to be mineable.

Some natural disasters associated with cave systems being under the land would definitely be sinkholes! There can also be entire rivers that just disappear underground.

I truly hope this helps! If someone who knows more about caves sees this, please feel free to add comments!

Just because we aren't seeing more posts about Palestine, doesn't mean the genocide has stopped. Let's keep Praying and speaking up for Gaza, Palestine.

NASA Data Sonification: Black Hole Remix

In this sonification of Perseus. the sound waves astronomers previously identified were extracted and made audible for the first time. The sound waves were extracted outward from the center. (source)

Let's look at this with a handful of dinosaurs:

Microraptor

Anchiornis

Vegavis

Titanis

Secretarybird

"Nonavi(la)an Dinosaur": Includes Microraptor. Does not include the rest.

"Non-Neornithine Dinosaur": Includes Microraptor and Anchiornis.

"Mesozoic Dinosaur": Includes Microraptor, Anchiornis, and Vegavis

"Extinct Dinosaur": Includes Microraptor, Anchiornis, Vegavis, and Titanis

"Living Dinosaur": Includes Secretarybird

"Neornithine Dinosaur": Includes Vegavis, Titanis, and Secretarybird

"Cenozoic Dinosaur": Includes Titanis and Secretarybird

"Avia(la)n Dinosaur": Includes Anchiornis, Vegavis, Titanis, Secretarybird

"Dinosaur that looks like a bird": literally all five of them

Utah Layering

It's weird how geological time works. Eras start and end bit by bit over the course of hundreds of thousands of years. That sounds like a big uncertainty but that sort of timescale, on which the climate can overhaul itself completely and entire species rise and fall, is instantaneous compared to the age of the earth. Any hypothetical sentient creature would have no idea it was living through a major turning point. The Silurian slid into the Devonian as land plants became A Thing and insects started to wonder if 'pilot' might be a good career path, but there was no one moment when one thing ended and another began. That's not how that works...

... except for the Cretaceous. The Cretaceous had a Last Day and it was probably in April, and then the next day it was the Paleogene.