14 November, 1797: Happy Birthday Charles Lyell

"The science of Geology is enormously indebted to Lyell-more so, as I believe, than to any other man who ever lived."

Darwin, C. in his autobiography 1887

Fig.1. "Awful Changes." The caricature by De la Beches of Charles Lyell as Prof. Ichthyosaurus on the pages of Francis Trevelyan Buckland (Son of William B.). "Curiosities of Natural History".

Charles Lyell (1797-1875) was born in Kinnordy, Scotland, from a wealthy family. He inherited his passion for natural sciences from his father, an amateur botanist, and his grandfather, a navigator. Following the traditional path for a 19-year young man of his status, he went to Oxford University to study mathematics, classical literature and law, but he also followed the geological course held by William Buckland, and became interested in geology.
He worked as jurist until 1827, when he decided to dedicate his career to geology, and helped by his fortune, in 1828 and 1830 he begun to travel trough Europe, visiting Paris, the Auvergne, the Pyrenees, Switzerland and the Volcanoes in South-Italy and the Canary Islands. Between 1830 to 1833 he published his first edition of the three volume work "Principles of Geology".

13 November, 1985: Nevado del Ruiz - The world screamed

The eruption started at 15:00 o’clock local time November 13, 1985 with smaller explosions in the crater. Ash was carried by the wind in north-eastern direction, however only minor ash fall occurred in the city of Armero (Colombia), located 48kilometers east of the “Cumanday“ – the smoking nose, as the Indians used to call the volcano.
In the evening the intensity of the eruption increased, however it was still considered only a medium sized event for the Nevado del Ruiz. At 23:00 most of the 25.000 inhabitants of Armero were sleeping, despite some preoccupation for the sounds coming from the distant mountain, then suddenly – as an eyewitness describes – “the world screamed.”
The underground was trembling and a terrible roar followed. A mixture of water and debris overwhelmed the entire city. In 20 to 30 minutes three or four lahars  (mudflows of volcanic material) occurred. Some survivors later reported that the first waves were formed by cold mud, followed by waves of hot mud. Nearly 22.000 people were killed by these mudflows that coming from the summit of the volcano followed the river valley of Lagunillas until reaching Armero. The lahars covered nearly 33 square kilometres with 1 to 1,5meters of mud, in the deposits enclosed, transported by the flood, 10m large boulders were found.

The volcanic nature of the Nevado del Ruiz (5.389m) was already known in ancient times as the indigenous name reveals. The volcano erupted in historic times in the years 1595 and 1845; and already during this last eruption a mudflow killed 1.000 people in the Lagunillas valley.
Before 1985 the presence of vapour on the mountain summit was noted and a small glacial lake filled the bottom of the crater. In November 1984 an intense earthquake activity started, probably marking the slow rise of magma inside the volcano. In the last year, between December 1984 and September 1985, the volcanic activity steadily increased. The relatively small eruption from November 1985 melted partially the glaciers covering the Nevado del Ruiz (estimated 10% of the ice-area), forming the lahars that had such disastrous effects in the valleys surrounding the volcano.

After the catastrophe an intense debate about responsibility began, the compiled hazard map (one of the first in Colombia) of the entire area got widely ignored and misinterpreted, as were the signals of activity by the volcano. The authorities were informed previously that Armero was located on the deposits of the lahar of 1845 and a similar disaster could occur again even by minor eruption. After the disaster the government of Colombia created a special program to prevent such incidents in the future.

Fig.1. The hazard map for mudflows in the area surrounding the city of Armero compiled before the event in 1985, compared to the mapped effects of the mudflows/lahars (Observatorio Vulcanologico de Colombia, figure from DECKER & DECKER 1991).

Bibliography:

DECKER, R. & DECKER, B. (1991): Mountains of Fire: The Nature of Volcanoes. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge: 243

The dinosaur in the church: bad journalism, media ingenuousness or paleontological publicity?

The presumed discovery of a skull in the limestone (presumably Broccatello-Formation or Rosso ammonitico, lower Jurassic) used in the construction of an Italian church has caused a lot interest and response in both international media and the blogosphere.
The news was reported on October 25. on the online version of the Italian newspaper "La Repubblica", claiming that it is in fact a dinosaur skull, and soon adopted by international sites like Discovery News (28. October). In both news releases the affinity of the fossil to dinosaurs is accented.
In the Italian version the discoverer, Italian Palaeontologist Andrea Tintori, is highly convinced that the fossil is the skull of an ichthyosaur or, much probable, from a dinosaur. In the English article he and the American palaeontologist Paul Sereno are much more cautious about the identification, nevertheless preferring a dinosaur.

However soon after the announcement the first doubts about the nature of the fossil arouse, the section according to the personal opinion of various experts and geobloggers remembers much more the section of a large ammonite shell, common fossils in this kind of rock.

It must be said that in case of doubt the defendant has to be considered innocent, however it seems to emerge that the presumed discovery was announced too easily, and the news report soon got out of control by the discoverer.
In the ongoing discussion about the veracity of the discovery now also unconfirmed rumours are emerging that the claim of a dinosaur skull was intended also as (sincerer) bait for the mass media, to lure their attention on the neglected palaeontology in Italy, and the nearby fossil site of Monte San Giorgo.

The discussion is ongoing, and the claims of both sides are based only on the superficial investigation of the rock slab or photos, however the dynamics that this story developed in the age of internet shows how careful such claims must be handled. It shows also that the general picture of palaeontology in the public is apparently limited on the association to "dinosaurs", and it is enough to put them in a news report to sell it.

Geology History in Caricatures: Dr. M. in extasies at the approach of his pet Saurian

"Like Frankenstein, I was stroke by astonishment by the enormous monster that my investigations have called to existence."

G.A. MANTELL 1834

Fig.1. "Dr. M. in extasies at the approach of his pet Saurian", a sketch by Henry De la Beche celebrating Mantell´s acquisition of the "Maidstone Iguanodon", the best preserved specimen of the time (in fact a heavily damaged skeleton by careless blasting in the quarry, discovered in May 1834 near the city of Maidstone in Kent).
The laurel-crowned geologist has tamed the monster, which now wags its tail like a dog.

November 10. marks the anniversary of the tragic death of an extraordinary personality, Gideon A. Mantell (1790-1852), physician by necessity, geologist and palaeontologist by choice.
He sacrificed all to this passion, his income, his time, his marriage and maybe at last even his health and life.

But let us remind the good times.
 
His interest to fossils awake as youth by the discovery of an ammonite on the shore of a river and was later enforced by the private teachings of geology by James Parkinson during the medical studies of Mantell. Earned the diploma and settled down, he studied first the geology and the fossils of the marine chalk formations of the region of Weald in Sussex, later he recognized that a peculiar sandstone-formation outcropping in the area of Tilgate Forest represents the sediments of a delta, folded into the chalk.
It was in these sediments that he discovered the remains of teeth and bones. Eroded by the fluvial transport and disarticulated by the current, he nevertheless recognized that the bones were extraordinary fossils, remains of other creature then the sea lizards discovered some years before on the coast of Dorset by Mary Anning.
Studying the remains, and searching for analogous animal parts, he discovered the teeth of a vegetarian iguana species. He began to dream of a giant, herbivorous land dwelling lizard, an Iguanodon (Iguana tooth) - an outrageous idea at the time.

Mantell is today remembered for his palaeontological work - he described also the first armoured dinosaur named Hylaeosaurus (Forest lizard), the first sauropod named Pelorosaurus (Monster lizard), but also his contributions to geology were important. His Tilgate Forest beds and the fossils of plants found in them proved to be the first non-marine fossil environment to be known from England's past.
Fig.2. "Section from the South to the North Downs, trough the Weald", from MANTELL (1839): The wonders of geology.

Bibliography:

CADBURY, D. (2010): The Dinosaur Hunters. A true Story of Scientific Rivalry & the Discovery of the Prehistoric World. Fourth Estate Publisher: 386
O´CONNOR, R. (2007): the Earth on Show - Fossils and the Poetics of Popular Science, 1802-1856.University of Chicago Press, Chicago: 541

DJ Geology mixing for you

Geology and palaeontology have inspired all sorts of music and songs, there is something for everybody, from rap to classic music, from hard rock to blues, from the Archean to the Anthropocene.

The German music group "The Ocean" in 2007 released an hard rock album entitled "Precambrian", the single CD´s are named after the four erathems of the Precambrian (Hadean/Archaean/Meso- and Neoproterozoic) and the single songs after the single periods (Tonian, Cryogenian,…).

The Canadian Burgess Shale Fauna is one of the icons in geology, and inspired by Stephen J. Goulds Wonderful Life (1989) in 1994 the composer Rand Steiger wrote a work for large orchestra entitled "The Burgess Shale" featuring Pikaia and Hallucigenia.

The paleoartist Ray Troll is known best for his surreal -comic kind artwork, but there is a quite good Devonian Blues written and performed in 2005.
The band "Ilium"published an album with the title "Permian dusk", also the song EoceneDawning and King Crimson wrote the "Dinosaur".
Not hard enough ? Try Pearl Jam´s Evolution and Korn´s Evolution versions, both wrong from the scientific content but they rock ...
The Italian progressive rock band Banco del Mutuo Soccorso has also a quite good song dedicated about Evoluzione.

In his animation film "Allegro non Troppo" (1976) the Italian cartoonist Bruno Bozzetto uses Maurice Ravel Bolero to display a sort of ladder of evolution. In the same movie a bunch of cave mens dances to Danza slavica Nr.7 by Antonin Dvorak.
In Le carnaval des animaux (The Carnival of the Animals) by the French Camille Saint-Saëns also the Fossils and extinct animals have their grand debut.

And Baba Brinkman explores with his hip-hop Rap Guide to Evolution modern Evolutionary Biology.

Hot tip by Gunnar Ries: Dr. Richard Alley´s Geoman and other classics, like Ring of Fire, Rocking Around the Silicates and Down Doo Bee Doo. And "Marvin Pontiac" want´s us to "Bring Me Rocks- to study them."
Charles Darwin and his Evolution (not just a) theory inspired bunch of songs, Suzi Quatro calls Hey Charly, released in 1991 on her album Darwin the Evolution, and Chumbawamba on their The Boy Bands Have Won have a good time with a sing-along for Charles Darwin.

Earthquake - myths: The Loch Ness Monster

Earthquakes have inspired legends in the past, but can they also account for mysterious modern monster myths?

On June 28, 2001 the Italian newspaper "La Repubblica" published a summary of the hypothesis that the Italian geologist Luigi Piccardi had proposed during the Earth Systems Processes meeting in Edinburgh regarding the monster of Loch Ness.
According to Piccardi the historic description of the appearance of the monsters - with great (earth)shakes and rumours - could be associated with gas bubbles emanating from the lake bottom and the seismic activity of the Great Glen fault system.

"There are various phenomena on the surface of the water that can be related to the activity of the fault..[] If we consider the Latin that Adamnano [a biographer that reported the legend of Saint Colombian] used, the beast appears with great shakes and when it disappears shacking. I think it's an obvious description what really happened…[] We know that this was a period [the 1920-1930 were a period with many reported apparitions of Nessie] with increased activity of the fault, who thought to have seen the monster in reality has seen the effects of the shakes of earth on the water."

POSTER ABSTRACT: "A multidisciplinary study reveals close correspondences between mythological descriptions, arrangement of the cult-sites and local active faults in ancient Greece. Chthonic dragons, mostly feminine polymorph creatures, were also indicated at many of these special sacred places, and their lairs are located directly above major active faults. The veneration of these places might have been a consequence of the observation of peculiar natural phenomena, such as gas and flames emissions, underground roaring, ground shaking and ground ruptures. Maybe this coincidence is simply circumstantial in the East Mediterranean due to the abundance of myths in such a highly seismic region. However, it can likewise be observed in areas less active seismically, and with different mythologies. Scotland, for example, is famous for its modern myth of the Loch Ness monster, affectionately called Nessie. Known to derive from a primitive cult of the water-horse, sacred to the Picts, its first written mention appears in Adomnan's ‘Life of St. Columba’ (7th century AD). In the original Latin description the dragon appears "cum ingenti fremitu" (with strong shaking), and disappears "tremefacta" (shaking herself), which seems to point to a telluric nature of the monster living in the lake. In fact, Loch Ness is positioned directly over the fault zone of the most seismic sector (for example the M=5 earthquake of 18.09.1901) of the Great Glen Fault, the major active fault in Scotland. In this light, many modern eyewitness reports attributed to Nessie may find a simple natural explanation."

According to the biography of Saint Colombian (Vita Sancti Columbae) compiled by Adamnano in 690, the scene described by Piccardi happened in 565.
Trying to cross the river Ness (not the lake itself), Colombian encounters a group of locals intent to bury a men, killed, so the legend, by a terrible beast. When Colombian orders one of his fellows to recuperate a boat from the other bank of the river suddenly the beast attacks, but Colombian request the protection of God and the beast withdraws. The original text however is very vague and gives no detailed description of the appearance; it states only that it was an "unknown beast", and it approached with the throat open and a laud roar. The mention that the beast was of unknown origin makes think that this was an unique event, and no monster tradition surrounding the lake existed. More important is the act perpetuated by Colombian and the impression left by the Saint on the pagans.
This seems to enforce the interpretation that the passage describing this encounter was never intended as a real chronicle, but as depiction of Colombian of holy man with divine assistance.

Even if this chapter reported by Adamnano is granted for real, the vague description doesn't support any proposed interpretation, nether gas bubbles emanating from the river nor a presumed lake monster. The presence of Nessie in Loch Ness can more reasonable be explained by a combination of hoaxes, misinterpretations and publicity - a long tradition of research on the lake has never delivered even a hind for the possibility of the existence of a larger animal in the Loch.

From geological viewpoint there are various problems with the idea of Piccardi. The mean magnitude of earthquakes from the surroundings of the lake lay between 3 to 4, larger events are reported from 1816, 1888, 1890 and 1901. Despite the missing correlation of the activity of the fault system and phases of sight reports (mainly during 1933), even these registered tremors in the observed decade were to weak to cause any observable effects on the lake surface.

These observations shouldn't minimize the attempt of Piccardi - the hypothesis value however lays probably more in the stimulation of the fantasy of other researchers' then verifiable cryptogeology.

Bibliography:

PICCARDI, L. (2001): Seismotectonic Origins of the Monster of Loch Ness. Poster Session G5. Earth System Processes - Global Meeting (June 24-28, 2001)

Online Ressources:

ALDEN, A. (2010): Phenomenon at Loch Ness. (Accessed 07.11.2010)
Fig.1. Probably the most famous of all Loch Ness Monster photos. It was submitted to the Daily Mail newspaper by Dr. Kenneth Wilson in April 1934 (also known as Surgeon photo), from Wikipedia.

Cabinets of curiosities #2: The Freak Show

The apparent chaos displayed in the Cabinets of Curiosities was in fact essential part of them, forcing the visitor to explore every corner and to delve into a subject, to find and touch the strangest things, and experience a cool chill by discovering hidden abomination.
Sometime the monsters were of natural origin, however also strange art objects were exposed.

The host of the cabinet was glad to conduct the visitors' trough his collection, enjoying their astonishment, take for example the third installment of the new Boneyard to explore the hidden corners of Palaeontology in the Web, and also the Accretionary Wedge… Trick or Treat..
And speaking of fear, who don't remember the creepy plastic - saurs of our youth? Generations of children scared their parents with these monstrosities; today such jewels lurk in many collections.
Other abominations are old or new Monster-movies, the best geo-related movies were selected by Jessica Ball and assembled on the brandnew Magma cum Laude AGU-Blog.

LOOK OUT for The Monolith Monsters, El monstruo de los volcanes, Fantasia and Tremors...

For centuries it was thougth to be impossible, stories of falling rocks were considered fairy tales, and presumed "thunderstones" displayed well guarded in Cabinets of Curiosities, as strange and scary messengers from other worlds...