Digging the Past Event 2015

Today, I helped out with the Digging the Past event at the Falls of the Ohio State Park. The weather was nice. A lot of visitors showed up despite the main building being closed for renovations and there is so much construction in the area involving the new Ohio River bridge. The park employees estimated about 500 cars showed up with about 1,500 visitors. I did not see many fossils being found in the Silurian Period Waldron Shale pile (mostly brachiopods and one Trimerus trilobite pygidium). The Jeffersonville limestone pile was seeded so people were bringing me some Devonian brachiopods to ID and some corals. I did see some button corals from the Speed Limestone as well.

Mostly I stayed by the washing station of the mineral pile and identified fluorite, barite, calcite, and such mineral specimens. I saw a few nice cubed pieces of fluorite early on but no blue or green material. The biggest find I saw a piece of galena. Myself and the naturalist at the Falls have never seen a galena specimen in the pile so that was quite a rarity. Also someone found a nice purple fluorite piece on a orange matrix. I do not recall seeing the orange matrix before either.

I helped a fellow volunteer with some stability issues on flying his quadcopter but a park employee came over told me to stop flying as it was against the rules. So I learned something new today. As stated on the DNR web site, "Motor Driven Airborne Devices: Motor-driven airborne devices (RC airplanes) should be operated in designated areas only or with clearance from property management. Drones are not currently permitted on DNR properties."

All and all, it was a good day and hope the people attending had fun and learned something about fossils and minerals with their visit to the Falls of the Ohio State Park.

Digging the Past! Event at Falls of the Ohio State Park

Saturday was Digging the Past! A Celebration of Archaeology and Fossils Day at the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville, Indiana. It is an event that focuses on educational activities for public. I am not sure how many years I have been volunteering at this event but it is always a fun and educational event to attend. This year I got a lot of new scientific questions about minerals that I need to be ready to answer next year.

The fossil pile did not yield a lot of fossils but I did see a number of brachiopods people brought to me for identification. I saw a nice crinoid holdfast and beautiful Platystoma snail fossil with growth lines. The naturalist at the park showed me a Dawsonoceras cephalopod fossil someone left that was about 20 cm long. The Devonian fossil pile was stocked with lots of spirifer brachiopod fossils for visitors to take home. A number of trilobite and coral fragments could be found there as well.

The mineral pile was the usual big geology attraction. A number of visitors found flourite cube corners or cube clusters in purple, yellow, and bluish colors. The material is from a fluorite processing mill in southern Illinois that processed minerals from that area. Normally one sees four types of minerals: fluorite, barite, calcite, and sphalerite. The fluorite is usually purple, yellow or clear. Occasionally, green and blue fluorite will be found.

A persistent child collector found a nice pink-clear fluorite fragment.

Learn more at the Falls of the Ohio State Park web site:
http://fallsoftheohio.org/special_events.html

Earth Discovery Day - August 2013

Today was Earth Discovery Day at the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville, Indiana. It is an event that focuses on educational activities for public. I have been volunteering over the last several years and it is a good feeling helping young students learn more about the mineral world around them while teaching about the fossil world of the past. Even though I have been really busy teaching, it is good to help out at an event like this.

The fossil pile was sparse in finds this year but the mineral pile while very dusty was a mountain of exploration for those willing to search for buried mineral treasure. The material is from a fluorite processing mill in southern Illinois that processed minerals from that area. Normally one sees four types of minerals: fluorite, barite, calcite, and sphalerite. The fluorite is usually purple, yellow or clear. Occasionally, green and blue fluorite will be found. A child found a nice fluorite cube corner shown in the first picture above. It has some nice purple phantom cubes that show through when held up to a light source.

Another child found a greenish-blue fluorite fragment while another found several aqua blue fluorite pieces. My challenge to visitors is to find pieces like this and usually about 4-6 specimens are found during my volunteer shift.

I was also told some material from China was processed there as well. So I am not sure what that might look like. A red or crimson colored rock was being found this year that was not seen in past years. It might be something from China. It is thought to be some type of reddish fluorite.

Fossils found were a number of brachiopods, corals, and snails from the Devonian fossil pile. The Silurian pile was being a bit more stingy. It did yield some nice brachiopods, a trilobite fragment, and a cephalopod fossil. Silurian Period Waldron Shale fossils are as shown: probably the tail (pygidium) of an Arctinurus sp. trilobite (I think it is upside down), next a fragment of a shell of a Dawsonoceras cephalopod, third is the index fossil of the Waldron Shale Eucalyptocrinus crassus crinoid calyx cup, and last an uncompressed Leptaena sp. brachiopod that has Cornulites sp. worm tubes on it.

Earth Discovery Day 2012

The Falls of the Ohio State Park (Clarksville, Indiana, USA) hosted a geology education day with lots of activities the general public around the Louisville, Kentucky area could participate in. My contribution to the event was helping with identification of minerals and fossils being found in the collecting piles. I have been participating in events like this at the state park for the last 3 years.

This year was nice as a mix of adults and students visited the piles next to the main parking lot. Some visitors were from geology clubs in Illinois and Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was a nice weather and the visitors seemed enthused about the collecting and learning about minerals and fossils.
Inside the Interpretive Center a number of tables were set up showing micro-minerals and fossils, 12 mineral/fossil specimens for a $1, books by local geology professors, and fossil identifications. Also a number of talks were given by local experts and teachers on geological subjects.

I stayed on my shift a lot longer than planned since a lot of people had questions. Most questions were about minerals but I had some fossil questions dealing with Devonian corals and Silurian brachiopods. Fossil collecting was sparse as the piles were not yielding very many fossils. See picture of the only fossils I saw collected by a fossil enthusiast from Marion, Indiana. He found two Eucalyptocrinus crinoid cups plus some nice brachiopods. All the fossils had to be extracted from a large matrix piece.

The mineral pile was getting the most activity with tons of material from southern Illinois mine tailings. Yellow and purple fluorite was the most prevalent though clear was found as well. My challenge to the visitors was to find the blue and green fluorite specimens and at least 6 people found blue transparent/semi-transparent minerals. See picture below on a blue one. A couple of kids found small green fluorite crystals. So that was fun to see! Other minerals being found were calcite, sphalerite, barite, and pyrite.

A number of college groups seemed to be visiting, I did not get any school names but here is a picture of what appears to be a school group meeting on the fossil bed.

Fluorite? in the Lexington Limestone

I make no claims as to being a mineral expert but I believe these specimens are fluorite mixed with calcite or some other mineral (dolomite?). They were found with Cyclonema sp. snail fossils in Franklin County, Kentucky. The layer should be the Lexington Limestone of the Ordovician Period.

The majority of the fluorite is yellow but one has a small section of purple. I find it unique as typically think of the fluorite areas of the state of Kentucky to the western part near southern Illinois.

Mindat.org lists fluorite, calcite, and dolomite as all being found in Franklin County, Kentucky.

Mystery Mining Tools

Mystery mining tools found in or around the fluorite mines of Crittenden County, Kentucky. Does anyone know what these are?  When recently at the Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum during the tour, the museum manager showed these tools and asked if anyone knew what they were.  Three different sized tools, one is in a circle and two others were pill shaped.  Inside the tray tools are rows of spike like protrusions. Circular tool is about 4 inches in diameter (10 cm), longest pill shape tool is about 12 inches long (30 cm) and the shorter pill shaped tray is about 10 inches long (25 cm).

Here are some other tools that were on display.

Last picture shows model of fluorite mine with its vertical shaft 200 feet (61 m) deep.

Minerals at Cincinnati GeoFair 2009

These are not fossils but I took some pictures of the mineral display cases as well at the Cincinnati GeoFair 2009. Here are some pictures of fluorite, sphalerite, and calcite.