A geologist riddle #24

What is this strange rock supposed to be and most important: from where it is supposed to come?

Dinosaurs enter the Atomic Age

Monsters in monster movies - they are the antagonist of our hero, the threat to society, the key element of the movie - we despise and love them at the same time.

The monster movie can be created by human folly - an experiment gone wrong, the destruction or the violation of an isolated habitat - or on purpose as a biological weapon.
The monsters can came from space: actively searching habitable planets or hosts for its lifecycle or it was brought back as sample or unwillingly from a space mission.
This last origin can be mixed or being replaced by the explanation that the monsters came from a different time period, usually the past - trough a time warp or surviving entrapped in ice, mud or on a lost island.

All these different births of monsters reflect the technology and the fear by society of this technology at the time. A classic example of this correlation is the decade of 1950 to 1960. "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" is considered the first movie to introduce the atomic bomb as possibility to create monsters - that will go wild. 

Fig.1. The "Rhedosaurus" - first evil dinosaur-star?

The movie was produced by the small independent company "Mutual Pictures", Warner Brothers recognized the potential and released it in 1953, 8 years after the first U.S. atomic bombs and 4 years after the first Soviet atomic test, just at the beginning of the arm race between the two superpowers. First test previously of 1948 and released footage of the test sites at the lagoons of Bikini had already showed to the public the devastating effects of the heat and the radiation of an atomic blast on living animals - the movie is based on and also exploits this fear. 



 
In the movie during "Operation Experiment" (how inventive by the scriptwriters...) an atomic bomb will be detonated in the atmosphere over the Arctic, the producers used real footage of real nuclear blasts- a common trick to save costs, but maybe also to emphasize the "reality" of the story. The movie introduces the classic scientists and their pseudoscientific techno-babble, an element that will become standard until modern movies.
"20,000 Fathoms" is also one of the first movies to introduce animals/dinosaurs as the main monster - breaking with the tradition of human-like creatures of the early 20th century - and inspire an entire bunch of later movies that will explain the origin of the monsters from misuse of radioactive radiation or contamination of harmless organisms. 
The "Rhedosaurus" is awakened by the nuclear blast from the arctic ice and goes on to terrorize and destroy entire cities, the military and all the weapons can´t apparently stop it.

Fig.2. Timeline of nuclear test and important movies of the monster genre, note the decade 1950-1960. "The Valley of Gwangi" in 1969 is considered an effort to revitalize the - at the time - dying genre, by introducing western elements in a classic monster story.

Strangely it is a nuclear scientist that will solve the problem - displaying the contradictory relationship of society to the atomic energy at the time - it causes problems but also can solve them. However this somehow positive message of "20,000 Fathoms" will go lost in subsequent movies, when the monsters created by the atom will only cause havoc and suffering.

Video: Footage of the animal tests codenamed "Plumbbob" (1957)  - WARNING Graphic Content!



Bibliography:

EVANS, J.A. (1998): Celluloid Mushroom Clouds - Hollywood and the Atomic Bomb. Critical Studies in Communication and in the Cultural Industries; Westview Press: 212

Marie Tharp: The map that changed the world

"The tiny fringe of shallow sunlit waters which has been so frequently treated in books and films is entirely excluded, for in this book we are concerned only with the sunless and little-known abyss which claims over half of the planet."

HEEZEN & HOLLISTER (1971)

Marie Tharp was born July 30, 1920 in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Already at very young age she followed her father, a soil surveyor for the United States Department of Agriculture, into the field. However she also loved to read and decided to study literature at St John's College in Annapolis, but at the time women were not admitted to study there. So she went to Ohio University, where she graduated in 1943. 

The Second World War changed dramatically the situation in the United States - the nation needed highly educated replacement for the men who went into war, women now were encouraged to choose degrees also in science and technology. Marie enrolled in a petroleum geology programme, becoming so a "Petroleum Geology Girl" she graduated in geology in 1944. Afterwards she worked for a short time in the petroleum industry, however she found the work unrewarding and decided to resume her studies at Tulsa University. 

In 1948 she graduated in mathematics and found work at the Lamont Geological Laboratory of Columbia University. The atmosphere there was relaxed and friendly; also in times of Cold War money for geological projects studying the ocean floor, which results promised to be important for the war with submarines, was abundant. 

She began a prolific collaboration with geologist Bruce Charles Heezen (1924 -1977), who was specialized on the gathering of seismic and topographic data from the sea floor. As women Marie was not allowed on board of the research vessels crossing over the sea to collect profiles of the seafloor, so she started to calculate, interpret and visualize the data when Heezen was on the sea. She co-authored with Heezen a book and various papers; however her role was often neglected. Her employment despite continuous remained insecure, in certain moments the bureaucracy and financial troubles forced her to work from home. 

Between 1959 until the death of Heezen in 1977 she worked strenuously on various maps that would depict the still unknown topography of the oceanic basins - and the results were astounding. The ocean floor was not a flat plain of mud, as previously imagined, but displayed mountains, ridges and canyons, sometimes larger and deeper than any feature found on the continents. The most impressive feature however was a chain of mountains cutting in half the large basins of the oceans - Tharp and Heezen had discovered the backbone of earth, the Mid-Ocean Ridges.

Fig.1. "I was so busy making maps I let them argue,...[]" (photography published in HEEZEN & HOLLISTER 1971). Both Heezen and Tharp recognized the Mid-Ocean Ridges as spreading centres of the oceanic crust; both tended to consider this a result of an expanding globe. Marie Tharp´s cartographic accomplishments were exceptional because she overcame educational and employment barriers that limited opportunities for women of her generation. Without doubts she prepared the field for other researchers; however she will not became directly identified with the era's most revolutionary geological theory  - plate tectonics.

Bibliography:

BARTON, C. (2002): Marie Tharp, oceanographic cartographer, and her contributions to the revolution in the Earth sciences. In OLDROYD, D.R. (ed.) The Earth Inside and Out: Some Major Contributions to Geology in the Twentieth Century. Geological Society Special Publications 192, London: 215-228
HEEZEN, B.C. & HOLLISTER, C. D. (1971): The face of the deep. Oxford Univ. Press, New York, London, and Toronto: 659

In search of Punt: The Lost Land of Gold

"Suddenly I heard a noise as of thunder, which I thought to be that of a wave of the sea. The trees shook, and the earth was moved. I uncovered my face, and I saw that a serpent drew near…[]…his body was as overlaid with gold, and his colour as that of true lazuli….[]… it was the prince of the land of Punt…"
"The Shipwrecked Sailor", 2200 B.C.



May 9, 1871 the German geologist Karl Mauch finally spotted after one year of strenuously search was he had hoped for: the impressive ruins of gigantic stone buildings - the remains of a long lost city, at least for the European explorers. The local people of the tribe of the Shona know the ruins well - in their language the buildings were called "dzimba woye" - the venerated houses, build by an ancient African civilization. Mauch however, following the racial ideas of the time, was sure that the buildings "could not possibly being built by Negroes." * He thought that he had discovered the ruins of the mythical city of Ophir, known in legends for the immeasurable wealth treasured there, and of course founded by Asian immigrants. 

The bible cites Ophir as unidentified place from which King Salomon received a cargo of gold, silver, sandalwood, precious stones, ivory, apes and peacocks - and all this every three years. Various scholars puzzled about the exact location of this rich land, the African continent seemed to be supported by the tales of exotic animals found in Ophir, but in 1857 the German archaeologist Heinrich Ferdinand Karl Brugsch collocated Ophir on the Arabian Peninsula.
Other scientists associated Ophir with another legendary place - "Ta netjer" the land of the gods, also known by the ancient Egyptians as the land of gold - the mythical Punt.
But Punt was more than a legend - long before 2000 B.C. Egyptian Pharaohs send expeditions to Punt to recover precious metals - gold, silver and electrum, gemstones - like malachite, wood and resin. The successful expeditions were so important, such great achievements, that the Egyptians immortalized them on their temples.
In the temple of Athribis, commissioned by Ptolemaios XII, a relief shows the various and precious trees growing in Punt - apparently Punt was a lush, tropical land.
In 1858 the French archaeologist Auguste Ferdinand François Mariette interpreted a relief in the temple of Deir el-Bahari, the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, as realistic depiction of an expedition to the remote and fabled land of Punt. 

Fig.1. The expedition to Punt as immortalized in the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut. The ships are loaded with gifts and exotic animals, (large version) image from Institute for Egyptology - University of Bern.

The reliefs show a fleet, the five ships are loaded with gold, trees and exotic animals like leopards, apes and giraffes - species associated with the African continent. In the sea the reliefs sows various fish species, zoologist identified some of them living on the coast of Africa, but also near the Arabian Peninsula. The plants that produce frankincense and Myrrh, Boswellia sp. and Commiphora myrrha, are native to the Arabian Peninsula (Oman, Yemen) and to Africa (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Northeast Kenya).

Maybe looking at the geology the place of Punt can be traced back to Africa? Still today in Eritrea gold can be found, associated to the old metamorphic rocks of the interior plateau. The river of Nahr Al-qa-sh is known for its gold bearing sediments. Also in Ethiopia gold is associated with the proterozoic metamorphic rocks, found to the west of the Afar lowlands, where cenozoic volcanic rocks mark the Great Rift System of the African plate. The eastern part of this proterozoic basement is found on the northern coast of Somalia. The overall geology of Saudi-Arabia - especially Yemen and Oman- is characterized instead by phanerozoic sediments mostly lacking gold. 

 Fig.2. Simplified geology of north-eastern Africa and possible localization of Punt, Mersa Gawasis was an ancient Egyptian harbour.

Geology can however give us another ulterior clue to find the lost land of Punt. Along the gifts brought back from Punt were also living exotic animals, so baboons (Papio sp.) - as clearly depicted on the relief of Deir el-Bahari. In 2010 researchers analyzed hair samples from 3.000 years old mummified baboons found in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings. 

Every living organism must drink water and water consists of two elements: hydrogen and oxygen. Both elements exist in various isotopes, atoms who differ in mass and also (slightly) in chemical properties. The oxygen isotopic signature of a particular spring can be unique and is controlled by geology and location of an aquifer. By comparing the results of the ancient hair samples with hair samples of animals living in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, Uganda and Mozambique the research concluded that most isotopic similarity can be found with animals coming from eastern Ethiopia and all of Eritrea.

Mystery solved? Well, the isotopic signature could be identified only from one baboon and the localization is still very vague. The search of a myth continues….

*The British archaeologist Gertrude Caton-Thompson proved in 1929 that Great Zimbadwe and the civilization that build these monuments are of African origin.

Bibliography:

BROWN, D.M. & LYNCH, J. (1995): Africa's Glorious Legacy (Lost Civilizations). Time-Life-Books: 168
FRANZ, A. (2011): Das sagenhafte Goldland Punt. Bild der wissenschaft 9(11): 68-75
HOULIHAN, P.F. (1996): The Animal World of the Pharaohs. Thames & Hudson: 237
SCHLÜTER, T. & TRAUTH, M.H. (2006): Geological Atlas of Africa - With Notes on Stratigraphy, Tectonics, Economic Geology, Geohazards and Geosites of Each Country. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg: 255

Online Resources:

(2008): Terra X - Weihrauch für den Pharao - Aufbruch nach Punt. (Accessed on 01.10.2011)

The case of the rock, the lady in the lake and a dubious murderer

In 1997 some amateur divers discovered at the bottom of Coniston Water, a lake in the British Lake District, a corpse. The body of a women was wrapped up in plastic bags and tubs of lead have been used as weights to hide it in the  24m deep water.
The woman was identified as Carol Ann Park, disappeared in the year 1976. An autopsy revealed that Ann Park was killed with an ice pick and soon her ex-husband, Gordon Park, was suspected and arrested. The press publicized this crime with the title of "The Lady in the Lake Murder".

However there was no hard evidence against him, only a supposed confession by Park to a cell inmate during the imprisonment on remand, so he was soon released. 

In 2004 Park was rearrested, based on new evidence: a rock. A rock, assumed to have been used also as weight in the plastic bag, and found near the corpse was similar to rocks used by park to build a wall of the family's bungalow. Prosecution's expert and geologist Duncan Pirrie concluded that there were no naturally occurring outcrops on the shores of the lake of this kind of rock, the only possible source was therefore Park's home.
However the defence of Park commissioned two geologists, Kenneth Pye and later Andrew Moncrief, to disprove this important evidence that connected Park to the corpse. Pye studied the rock and his results were astounding. The rock was a sample of Westmorland green slate - a metamorphic tuffaceous sandstone - lithology part of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group not present near Coniston Water, but found in the central parts of the Lake District.
The boulders in the lake, so the final verdict of the two geologists, were of glacial origin, transported during the last glacial maximum from the Cumbrian Mountains to the area of the lake. Glacial till was therefore widespread on the bottom of the lake, the shores and the entire landscape - so were rocks of green slate. The supposed unique connection between Park and the site of discovery of the corpse was disproved by the general geology and galcial origin of the lake.

Despite this devastating setback for the prosecution, the trial, based mainly on circumstantial evidence, ended with a prison sentence for Park.
The judge commented the geological dispute about the origin of the particular rock as follows:

"Rocks, ladies and gentlemen, therefore rocks…[] The science, underlying this research was exceptionally challenging, not true? It was of awe-inspiring quality that none of us has ever been enjoyed…[]… I think the experts managed to formulate their opinions in an understandable way. At least the important facts have become clear, we have understood in which final statements both researchers disagree."

Yo Ho, Yo Ho! A Pirate's Life for Me

Shiver me timbers! - to all you scurvy landlubber geologists, here the fabulous famous first geological map of the entire island of Jamaica - old buccaneer hideout -  by privateers Sawkins & Brown 1865, Arrr this is a treasure map for gentlemen o' fortune like us ....

Cryptozoology and a geologist's nightmare - Vermes lapidum

"Stone Worms - Vermes lapidum, are tiny worms, which grow in sculptured rocks, especially in old buildings and walls they are found. They nibble on the rocks, such as [the rocks] decay like leaves to dust."

Definition of the "Stone Worm" according to the "Allgemeines Lexicon der Künste und Wissenschaften" (General dictionary of Arts and Sciences) - first edition of a dictionary published in 1721 by JABLONSKI, J.T., re edited in 1748 by Anonymous.

Eberhard Werner Happel "Relationes curiosae, oder Denckwürdigkeiten der Welt" (Curiosities of the world), published in 1683 and 1691 in five volumes, tells the story of the discovery of these strange and terrifying creatures. 

A monk of a monastery in the Normandie - Mr. de la Voye - found "on an old wall to midday, much of rock eaten by these vermin. The holes were as big, as that a hand could be put within. Such holes were full of living worms and dust, which they made of the rocks..[]"

Pulling them out of their bore holes and observing them under a magnifying glass he observed:

"This vermin is enclosed in a grey shell, as depicted in Fig.1., large as a grain of barley...on the tip there is a hole, trough which the excrements can be excreted/ on the other end there is a larger hole, trough which the head can be protruded.

They are entirely black, the body shows various segments, near the head there are three legs, each has two joints, not dissimilar to these of a flea.

When they move their body is suspended in air, the mouth but is still oriented to the rock. The head is bulky, a bit smooth, similar in shape and colour to the shell of a snail... also the mouth is similar large, with four kinds of teeth disposed in cross like manner..[]"

Fig.1. A worm that eats rocks.

I wonder to which animal-species this terrible creature can be attributed ? Could it be a still unknown metamorphosis-stage of the stone louse (Petrophaga lorioti), as de la Voye note he didn´t observe an imago with developed wings...

Fig.2. Cross-section of a limestone-pebble of the Adriatic Sea with recent bioerosion and bore holes of Cliona sp. (a sponge), Lithophaga lithophaga and Zirfea sp. (bivalves)... or could this be the terrible results of a Vermes lapidum  infestation?