Posts treating: "microscope"
Thursday, 17 March 2016
Happy Saint Patrick's Day from Palmer Station!We're done with field work, so we've been using our time to wrap things up in the lab. First, we had to process the samples we collected at Berthelot Island. We had help in the lab this time from Garcon, the traveling alligator. (Since he helped collect the samples, he wanted to see what we did in the lab, too.)A while ago I told you about some of the lab work that we do. Here, Garcon is helping us weigh out the soils to extract the organisms in the [...]
We have had a busy few days working in the lab to process the samples we collected at Biscoe Point. First, we spent a day at Palmer Station. We were supposed to only be there overnight to drop off passengers and cargo, but the wind picked up. We can’t use the cranes to offload cargo when it’s windy, so we had to wait overnight until the wind died down. That gave us the time to use the lab facilities at Palmer, which has more equipment than the LMG. It also meant we could visit with the [...]
Now you know all about thin sections, reading previous posts !
I propose you to do your own thin sections from sands. With epoxy on a glass slide and some sand above, you have to polish till you obtain a good picture with polarizing microscope.
We are now collecting gabbro sand for education. We had to sieve it with sieves from #35 to #45.
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While looking at a chunk of Waldron Shale that had a crinoid calyx, the shale split revealing a small fossil fragment. This image was taken while it was under a microscope with a field of view of about 4 mm.
The Strophostylus cyclostomus was described by James Hall in the 1881 Indiana Geological Survey (pages 316-317; Plate 31 Figure 13). "An enlargement of the surface-striae of a
Two women investigating climate change from different perspectives—Christine McCarthy, a geophysicist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and Denise Iris, a multimedia artist from Brooklyn—had a chance to spend several days together recently. In the Rock Mechanics Lab at Lamont, where McCarthy works, and a nearby “cold room” chilled to the climate of an industrial freezer, they exchanged notes on two ways of looking at
Louisville Area Fossils [2015-02-22 06:31:00]
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(671 visits) Carboniferous; US
My cousin recently sent me some images of crinoid fossils he has been finding in the New Providence Formation of Clark County, Indiana, USA. The fossils date to the Mississippian Period (Carboniferous). All pictures were taken using a microscope and have an approximate field of view of 2 mm.
Thanks to Kenny for the
This made me chuckle: On being a mycologist from Adam Rogers- Proof: The Science of Booze
"It was something even I, an undergraduate who didn't know anything could do", Scott says. " I could go out there and look for stuff" In the space of one anecdote, Scott had become a mycologist. You think you were an iconoclast in college? Try being a tall, gay, banjo-playing fungus major with a
I'll wrap up my series on fossils I found in the Utica Shale (Ordovician, Darriwillian stage) with this post concerning some Brachiopods that were among the specimens I brought home.The first specimens are of Leptobolus insignia which are fairly common and scattred throughout the black shale. The appear to be a Lingulid type of brach which means they are inarticulate. Perhaps they lived in the mud or just on the surface of it.Not much details in those pics because the shells are so small, only [...]
Now that we’ve collected soil samples, we need to extract and identify the organisms living in the soil. We also need to measure the chemistry of the soil to understand the organisms’ habitat. For the past few days, we’ve been working quite a lot in the lab.We first preserve part of the soil to measure the bacteria and fungi back at home in the U.S. We separate some of the soil into a vial and add a solution that preserves the bacteria and fungi. These vials will be sent home and analyzed [...]
The “World Climate Widget” from Tony Watts’ blog is probably the most popular deceptive image among climate “skeptics”. We’ll take it under the microscope and show what it would look like when done properly. So called “climate skeptics” deploy an arsenal of misleading graphics, with which the human influence on the climate can be down
Here is a magnified image of a Caecum sp. sea gastropod shell. It was found in 2014 during a diving trip to Key West Florida, USA. The specimen was about 2 km off shore in about 5 meters under the water. I do not think this is a fossil. Viewed under microscope with a 3 mm field of view.
Thanks to Kenny for the specimen and Herb for letting me use his microscope.
Learn more at these
Louisville Area Fossils [2014-09-19 03:30:00]
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(132 visits) Carboniferous; US
These fossils appears to be a Fenestella. It was found in
the Glen Dean formation.of Grayson County,
Kentucky USA. There is an interesting set of spines in the middle of the image. The fossils date to the Mississippian Period. Image was
taken with a microscope with an approximate 4 mm field of view (FOV).
Thanks to Kenny for the
Louisville Area Fossils [2014-09-18 03:30:00]
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(115 visits) Carboniferous; US
The white fossil appears to be a Cornulites worm tube fossil next to an unidentified brown trilobite genial spine. It was found in the Glen Dean formation.of Grayson County,
Kentucky USA. The fossil dates to the Mississippian Period. Image was taken with a microscope with an approximate 4 mm field of view (FOV).
Thanks to Kenny for the
Louisville Area Fossils [2014-09-17 03:30:00]
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(147 visits) Carboniferous; US
The fossil the blue arrow is pointing to appears to be a Palaeoconchus (aka Spirobus) worm fossil. It was found in the Glen Dean formation.of Grayson County,
Kentucky USA. The fossil dates to the Mississippian Period. The worm fossils is intermixed with bryozoans (maybe Fenestella). Image was taken with a microscope with an approximate 4 mm field of view (FOV).
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An article on Slate.com looks at what some people call “The War on Coal” from blue, red and two different green (environment and money) perspectives. Related: Coal Through a
WOOSTER, OHIO–Steph Bosch (’14) and Lizzie Reinthal (’14) volunteered to examine the Matmor Formation fossils I collected last month in Israel. Each fossil, most of which are crinoid ossicles, must be scanned under a microscope for tiny encrusters (especially bryozoans), borings, and bite marks. In the image above you can see the collection bags on
One of the great privileges of studying geology at university is spending time looking at thin sections. It may not feel like it at the time – learning to identify minerals down the microscope is hard work – but peering … Continue reading
In my previous post, you see two different photos of moss in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. In one photo, the moss is green. In the other, it's very grey and brown.Because the Dry Valleys are so dry, normally moss is kind of shriveled and brown. It looks like it might be dead, but it's not! That stage is called "moribund", which basically means "looks dead." As soon as the moss gets wet, it perks right up! In the photo with the green moss, the moss had recently gotten wet from the flow of the [...]
Recently, I bought a microscope for home use. This has been a longtime goal for me. I’ve dreamed of having my own microscope the way some guys fantasize about a Porsche 911. It’s an AmScope model, and it has an attachment for a small digital camera that comes with the scope. While the scope is lots of fun, though a little small, I’ll admit that I’m not too impressed with
If you think that coal is a boring black rock then you have never seen it through a transmitted light microscope. The microscope reveals coal’s hidden beauty as well as its