Accretionary Wedge #28- Desk-crops

October’s theme is going to be “Desk-crops.” This can be any rock or other geological* specimen that you have lying around your office/desk/lab that has a story to tell. The spookier the better. Photos and/or illustrations are very important (although not absolutely required). This is taken directly from Ron Schott’s “deskrcop series” of his rocks and such – great examples of what I had in mind with the theme (but not the only way to skin this horse).

The deadline is Friday, October 29… so find your spookiest paperweights in time for Halloween.



This is my submission for my Desk-crop. It is a piece of Amber.  I know its not very spooky.  But it has a lot of sentimental meaning to me. It was given to me by my exchange student from the Mecklenburger region of Germany. He lived in Rostock which is located on the Baltic Sea.  As a child he liked to collect pieces of amber on the beach.  He wanted me to have a piece of his home.
  I have wondered about the texture on it.  At first I thought the texture was from the tree bark that it might have been on.  But it doesn't look like bark.  Now I wonder if the texture wasn't formed as it dried and shrunk.
( New material added 11-3-10) As Matt at Research at a Snails Pace, has pointed out Amber is a fossil resin from coniferous trees.(The Dictionary of Geological Terms rev. ed -1976 Prepared under the direction of the American Geological Institute pg 12). The piece I have is very light and weathered.  I could see how it would float on the Baltic sea and be washed ashore after it had weathered out of the rock. The edges are rounded so I feel like it has been in the water.  On the back side there appears to be some salt crystals in some holes. It also appears as if something tried to burrow into it creating those holes were the salt, accumulated. I tried to take a picture of it but my camera just couldn't capture it and do it justice.
I was also wondering if anyone knows anything about how Amber changes as it solidifies. My initial assumption it was caused by resting next to some tree bark, then I changed it to shrinkage due to solidification because it has the polygonal indentations on it that are typical as mud dries.  But the problem I've had with that is they do not radiate inwards, but I am dealing with weathering too. Now I'm also considering the possibility that it might have come from being next to an animal skin. But if it was on top of the skin the ridges should be sticking up and not indented in as they are.  There is something about it that makes me think of snakes.  Now I wondering if a snake could have shed its skin and some how the amber got inside of it and solidified in the trapped skin. Any theories anyone else comes up with would be greatly appreciated.   It is a fun piece to pick up and ponder (ophs) I should say muse upon.

These photos are on the table next to my desk where I work.  I think of it as my Germany section.
The exchange student is the boy in the Shreve shirt to the right, in the 3x 5 photo. The little boy with him is my youngest son.  I have it next to the picture of me when I was in Germany on my honeymoon 25 years ago.   







Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Baltic amber.

Baltic amber

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Baltic amber collected at Sopot, Poland.

Typical beach sand on the Baltic Sea where amber is often washed up.

Different colours of Baltic amber.

Fishing for amber at the seacoast, Mikoszewo, close to Gdansk, Poland.

The Baltic region is home to the largest known deposit of amber, called Baltic amber, with about 80% of the world's known amber found there. It dates 44 million years ago (Eocene).^[1] It has been estimated that these forests created over 10⁵ tons of amber.^[2]
The term Baltic amber is generic, so amber from the Bitterfeld brown coal mines in Saxonia (Eastern Germany) goes under the same name. Bitterfeld amber was previously believed to be only 20-22 million years old (Miocene), but a comparison of the animal inclusions revealed that it is most probably genuine Baltic amber that has only been redeposited in a Miocene deposit.^[3]
Because Baltic amber contains about 8% succinic acid, it is also termed succinite.
It was thought since the 1850s that the resin that became amber was produced by the tree Pinites succinifer, but research in the 1980's came to the conclusion that the resin originates from several species. More recently it has been proposed, on the evidence of Fourier-transform infrared microspectroscopy (FTIR) analysis of amber and resin from living trees, that conifers of the family Sciadopityaceae were responsible.^[2] The only extant representative of this family is the Japanese umbrella pine, Sciadopitys verticillata.
Numerous extinct genera and species of plants and animals have been discovered and scientifically described from inclusions in Baltic amber.^[4]

[edit] See also

• Dominican amber
• Amber

[edit] References

1. ^ Ritzkowski, S. 1997. K-Ar-Altersbestimmungen der bernsteinführenden Sedimente des Samlandes (Paläogen, Bezirk Kaliningrad). Metalla, Bochum, 66: 19–23.
2. ^ ^{a b} Wolfe, A. P. et al. 2009. A new proposal concerning the botanical origin of Baltic amber. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.0806
3. ^ Dunlop, J.A. & Giribet, G. 2003. The first fossil cyphophthalmid (Arachnida: Opiliones), from Bitterfeld amber, Germany. Journal of Arachnology, 31: 371-378.
4. ^ Weitschat, W. & Wichard, W. 2002. Atlas of Plants and Animals in Baltic Amber. Pfeil, 256 pp.

This material-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_amber"

Categories: Fossil resins | Eocene | Oligocene | Paleontolog

But the 'Desk-Crop' I enjoy the most is the view I get from looking out of my home windows. I love working out of my home because I enjoy living on the bayou so much.  It makes it feel like I am living in the south.
Here is the view from the desk I used to work at all the time.  It is now my youngest son's bedroom, so now I have to work at a different place in the house, but it is still my favorite view of my back yard.

When the weathers nice I sometimes prefer to work from my back porch.  Here's the view I get from there.  I always find it so peace full and calming.









More views of my back yard.  I enjoy my back yard because it is always constant but ever changing.

 

This is a couple of days after The New Orleans Saints winning the Super Bowl. (2-12-10) We all said Hell really did freeze over for us to get snow.  For years and years that has always been a standard joke in LA.  - That the Aint's would only win when Hell freezes over.  Now they are not the Ain't but the  
Saints of the 'WHO DAT' Nation.

We also have a camp on Lake Bistineau which I sometimes go and work at too.  Here are some photo's of the yard. The kids like going there because it's reminds them of the Louisiana swamps and is a lot more spookier than our back yard.

I am now in the Wedge thanks to Matt. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
I'm just including what's been added, to the wedge stuff.

Ann Says:
November 3, 2010 at 1:54 am | Reply
Why can’t you edit your blog to include me now? Why do I have to wait until the next time? Why have they stopped posting things here at the wedge?

• Matt Says:
  November 3, 2010 at 2:55 pm Ann,
  I just found your blog and scrolled down to see your AW#28 post. I added it to the list. I don’t know why the updates on the AW main page aren’t more frequent, you’d have to ask the person in charge of the site.
  

UPDATE: Ann,who muses on geology and other things, has a post. It got lost in the shuffle and I wasn't able to find a link to the post until today. She writes a few musings about a piece of amber. As you may know, amber is the fossilized sap of trees. It has the interesting property of being slightly less dense than salt water, so sometimes chunks of amber erode out of the rock where they are preserved and wash up somewhere down the shore.

Labels: accretionary wedge, blog carnival, deskcrops, halloween, trinitite

Accretionary Wedge #27 -Addendum

    In November I was able to go to Ohio for a short visit.  The purpose was a reunion of my Geology department to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first masters being awarded there at Ohio University.  I looked forward to going seeing as how I had gotten both my BS and MS from that department.  I had a great time, and took some pictures of Athens, Ohio.  I even got to go on a field trip, which I plan to write up at another time.
   Since I was in Ohio I had to swing on up north to visit my family.  While I was there, I borrowed some of my families old family photos.  I had been wanting to scan these into the computer for the longest time so that they could be shared with my siblings.  Well I finally got them done and was able to bring them back to my mom, when I went back for a longer visit for Christmas.

When I wrote my piece for Accretionary Wedge - 27 I thought of all the wonderful things I saw.  I was surprised we had as many photos of that time as we did when I went through the family pictures.  I remember they were taken by my sister who took them on her girls scout 'brownie' camera she had gotten years before the trip.  It was a very cheap camera, and only took roles of 12 pictures.  I remembered we lost a couple of the roles because they were in a bag and someone through it out as trash - so there were whole sections of the trip that were missing.  I remembered wanting to take more pictures but it seemed like it was so expensive to buy the film and have it develop back then so my parents didn't want to waste film as they called it and limited the number to just one or two of each place. Also for the longest time the pictures were not properly stored in an album or storage box.  A lot of them had faded and were ruin, but yet some of them still made it today. None of them were labeled and were out of order -- so I am going on my memories of that time, (they may be wrong since it was quite a few years ago.) They were fun to see.  So here are some of the photos of that trip taken back in August of 1965.

 I think this was Souix Falls in South Dakota

 

Dinosaur park,  Rapid City? South Dakota

 

The badlands South Dakota

 

The badlands South Dakota

 Mount Rushmore National Memorial,  South Dakota

 

Falls at Yellowstone National Park

 

Old Faithful at Yellow stone National Park.  I remembered this picture was taken on August 25, 1965 because it was my best friend's birthday and I wanted to be at his party and not there.  Now I'm so glad I was there seeing Old Faithful because I have always remembered it and I wonder if I would have remembered that party like I did Old Faithful. Now I am sure he was glad I was seeing Old Faithful because when I came back I told him all about it.  Later in life he became a geologist too. 

 

Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park - 8-25-1965

 

I remembered being scared seeing this bear and was just glad I was in the car and not out of it.  I remembered the rangers telling us not to feed the bears since they were wild.  We called him Yogi after Yogi the bear which was a popular cartoon series at the time.

 Buffalo at Yellowstone.  I remember my brother getting out of the car to take this shot and one of the male buffalo's decided to charge him.  We were so glad there was a barbed wire fence between us and the buffalo, but felt like it really wouldn't be much if the buffalo kept on coming.  We didn't stay long at that location.

My first view of the Pacific Ocean.  I know we went to Portland first after coming there following the Columbia River gorge.  I remember seeing the salmon steps and found watching the salmon run so fascinating.  I couldn't find any of those pictures or the pictures of Portland.  I really don't know where this is on the coast, but I do feel like it was in Oregon.  

 

We did go up to Puget Sound - Washington.  I thought that was such a funny name a had trouble spelling it, but it always stuck with me.  This might be a picture of that area or it might also be where the Columbia river goes into the ocean.  I know we stayed a day in both locations.

 

We spent a couple of days in San Francisco, California and of course we had to ride the trolley.

 

We also had to take the tour of the bay on a boat.  I thought it was so neat to have been able to go over and under the Golden Gate bridge.

 

This was my favorite picture of the whole trip. I am 9 years old (soon to turn 10) at the time and am in the lower right hand side. Here I was collecting a rock sample for my mom.  Originally I thought this picture was taken when we were seeing the Snake River in Idaho, but now I think it was in Sierra Nevada range

This was always my mom's favorite picture.  It was taken of all of us.  We were at Yosemite National Park.  I do remember Yosemite as being my most favorite spot that we visited during the whole trip.

Lake Mead, Nevada - looking at it from the Hoover Dam.

Grand Canyon National park, Arizona.  This was second most favorite places to visit.  I think I didn't care so much for it as Yosemite because I was afraid at looking down and seeing how deep the canyon really was.  

 

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.   I just remember us driving and then stopping and getting out and looking and then getting in the car again and driving for what seem like forever only to stop and see more of the canyon.  I could not believe how big and long it was.  I was so impressed with it.  I could not believe that it was formed from the Colorado river eroding it away.  I thought for sure there had to have been a big machine to help it at one time.  Back then I had no concept of the geologic time and how long the river was able to work on it.  I do recall when I got home I went to the library and got some National geographic out to read more about it.  That was the first time I looked up anything geologic in nature.  

 

Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado.   Before we got to this place I remembered us stopping off at the four corners - where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet.  I thought it was so neat to be able to stand in four states at the same time.  I couldn't find that picture but I know we took some.  By then I was getting home sick and just wanted to get back home.  I know all of us were feeling that way.  

But then we stopped here and I was fascinated by this things I was seeing again.  It amazed me that Indians could build a place like this to live in.  What impressed me more than anything was how big it was and how many people who must have lived there at one time.  After that for the longest time I wanted to be an archeologist so I could study places like this more.   I took my first geology class to help me with archeology but after that class I could never go back to archeology and just kept with the geology.  

  I don't know why this picture was in with this group because as I recalled we then saw some caves which might have been the Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico. Then we headed to Denver and Pikes peak- again no pictures of either one.  But this looks like The Alamo in San Antonio, Tx.  But it could have been a mission house built in a similar fashion to the alamo that we saw along the way.  By then I really wasn't paying much attention to where we were going.  I was dreading going back home because as soon as we were to get back school would be starting.  I wanted to keep on traveling hoping I would be able to miss some school if we did.  I thought this stuff was so much more educational and I thought I would only make a trip like this once in my lifetime and thus should see as much of the United States as I could.  Finally we did get home on Labor day.  I remembered I hated that the next day school started and I didn't miss a day of school.

Accretionary Wedge #27- Important geological experience you've had

Hi Lockwood,
  Here's my Accretionary Wedge submission again.  If it too long feel free to edit to size or whatever. Work with me to get something that is acceptable.  I want to be involved with the AW too even though I'm not a blogger.  I thought you didn't have to be a blogger to summit stuff.  I was very disappointed not to see mine included and I hope it was do to your technical difficulties and not something else. To make sure you get this I'll also send it to you via facebook. 

Hi Lockwood,
 Here's my response to the Accretionary Wedge call: "What is the most important geological experience you've had?"


  In 1965, when I was 10, my mom loaded up my siblings and I and we took a trip across the country to Portland, Oregon where there we met up with my dad who was at a meeting at the time.  I'll never forget that trip.  We left from Cleveland, Ohio and drove along Lake Erie, I was amazed a lake could be so big.  I then remember seeing, Chicago, Sioux Falls, a dinosaur park, Mount Rushmore, The Bad Lands, Pikes Peak and the Continental divide, Yellowstone National Park, Old Faithful, The Grand Teton's, the Snake River, Salt Lake city and the Salt Lake, The Columbia River Gorge, Mt St. Helen, The giant Redwoods,  San Francisco, The Golden Gate bridge, Yosemite, Sequio, Death Valley, San Diego and the San Diego zoo, Las Vegas, The Hoover Dam & Lake Mead, The Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, Mesa Verde and the cliff dwellers, some caves and caverns, St Louis and the Arch,  and The Mississippi River. (I might have gotten these is the wrong order because it was so long ago.) 
  The main thing I remembered about that trip was mom bought a national park pass and she was determined to get her moneys worth from it.  She made it a point to see as many National parks as possible during that trip. 
 I also remember that she started to pick up cobble size rocks from every place we visited that she thought was significant and represented the area.  She was doing it so we would have keep-sakes of the trip and to make a rock garden at home.  She made it my job to put the rocks in paper bags and say were it came from. She gave me the maps to figure out where we were. I quickly became good at reading maps and directing us to our next location. It started to be a pain keeping up with the bags because the bags started to rip so I started to label the bags with gray rock, tan rock, etc. so I would know what rock went with what bag. I started to realize how different all the rocks were and became fascinated with rocks.At each new location I eagerly help search for the rock that we would take with us. That trip started my love of geology.
  When we took that trip there were fewer interstate roads and we took a lot of the lesser traveled roads.  What I really liked about that was it gave us time to really see things as we were traveling through the different areas.  I know the trip took weeks to do but I really think everyone should travel across the country at least once in a car on non-interstate roads.