VMNH Educator Robin Jensen Leads Geocaching Day at the Gravely Nature Preserve

Geocaching Fun, The Rivers & Trails Jounal

Stromatolite Stuff

Martinsville Bulletin June 27, 2008


Stromatolite, Wikipedia

Fossil Record of the Cyanobacteria, University of California Museum of Paleontology

HESIT Teachers and VMNH Staff Explore Boxley Quarry in Fieldale

The trip to Boxley was fun. VMNH Curator of Earth Sciences Dr. Jim Beard talked to the group about the geology of the Piedmont and the rocks and minerals found in the quarry.

Participants "mined" the rocks in the quarry looking for good classroom specimens.

Some of the minerals collected included: muscovite mica, biotite mica, garnet, feldspar, quartz, pyrite, and chlorite.

After leaving the pit, we ate lunch, sitting on some big quarry boulders along the access road, under some much appreciated shade trees.

On the way back to the museum, we stopped by a nearby rock formation along the banks of the Smith River. Here Dr. Beard, using a geologic map of the area, talked to the group about the volcanic rock diabase, "...that originated from the mid-ocean ridge zone from the breakup of the Paleozoic era supercontinent Pangea, about 180 million years ago."

When we returned to the museum, Dr. Lauck Ward, curator of invertebrate paleontology, gave a presentation to the group along with the museum's volunteer interpreters on the topic of the mollusks of Virginia's tidewater.

After the presentaion, the group toured the scientific labs, education center, and the new exhibit, "Amazing Feats of Aging."

Hollins Elementary Science Institute for Teachers at VMNH

Tomorrow, 23 educators from HESIT will be coming to VMNH to take a behind-the-scenes tour the museum and a geologic fieldtrip to Boxley Materials Quarry in nearby Fieldale. One rock from this Henry County location is a garnetiferous biotite gneiss, a light- to medium-gray, mediumgrained, highly metamorphosed sedimentary rock. This rock is part of the Fork Mountain Formation, the rocks date to the Cambrian – Late Proterozoic (505 – 900 million years ago). See Virginia Minerals (v19 n4, Nov. 1973) (image courtesy of Virginia Department of Mines Mineral and Energy).

The tour of the museum will go into areas not typically seen by the general public including the scientific labs and the Suzanne M. Lacey Education Center.

Summer Solstice

For those that live in the northern hemisphere, the summer solstice occurred just before midnight Universal Time (5:59 pm Eastern Standard Time) on Friday, June 20th. It was the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere.

Because the Earth orbits the Sun and Earth's axis of rotation is tilted, the length of daylight changes through the year. Summer solstice has the longest period of daylight and the shortest period of night because the northen hemisphere is at its maximum tilt toward the Sun. The length of the daylight varies by latitude, but in Martinsville, Virginia it was 14 hours and 41 minutes (US Naval Observatory).

From now until the fall equinox, the length of daylight will decrease by a few minutes less each day until the length of the day and the length of the night will be exactly equal--known as equinox.

For a good explanantion of summer solstice, visit: http://www.earthsky.org/article/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-solstice-on-june-21

VMNH WeatherBug

This is an image taken at about 7 pm, June 21, 2008 by the museum's WeatherBug web cam located on the roof. The direction is northwest and off in the distance is a storm cloud. This past week, we established an automated link between our WeatherBug weather station and the GLOBE atmospheric database for the museum. From now on, each day's atmospheric data will be automatically uploaded to the GLOBE database.

Southwestern Piedmont Master Naturalists to Begin New Course of Study

The next course of study for the Southwestern Piedmont Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalist Program is about to begin. There will be an information session at the Virginia Museum of Natural History on July 15 at 6:30. Anyone interested should attend or contact me (634-4184). Applications are due July 18 and the first class is scheduled for July 29.

Yorktown and Gloucester, June 15-16, 2008

Sunday (June 15, 2008) I drove to Gloucester to attend a Learn and Serve Virginia workshop for grant recipients. All of the recipients are doing service learning projects related to water quality. I presented a program entitled "GLOBE Hydrology and Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences."

I arrived in Gloucester at about 3 pm and finding that my room was not ready, I drove to Yorktown for the afternoon.

These images were taken in Historic Yorktown on the York River.