Charles B. Moore

Charles Bachman Moore, Jr. (October 28, 1920 – March 2, 2010) was an American physicist, engineer and meteorologist, known for his research atmospheric physics and his work with gas balloons. He was born in Maryville, Tennessee.
Career.
Moore attended college at Georgia Institute of Technology in 1940. During World War II, he served as a weather equipment officer for the U.S. Army Air Corps in the China-Burma-India theater, and later in occupied China. Moore returned to Georgia Tech after the war, and received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1947.
Moore was recruited as a project engineer for Project Mogul in 1947 by New York University geophysicist Athelstan Spilhaus, who headed the Balloon Group within the project. Project Mogul, led by Dr. James Peoples and his assistant Albert P. Crary, made use of Moore's work in materials science allowing the construction of balloons which could better withstand cold temperatures and safely rise to significantly greater altitudes. A balloon that Moore helped launch in New Mexico on June 4, 1947, was later identified as the source of the debris found on the Foster ranch which led to UFO conspiracy theories and claims surrounding the Roswell incident.
In 1953, Moore joined the Arthur D. Little Corporation and worked with Bernard Vonnegut to develop techniques for vaporizing sodium, cesium, and calcium from rockets for high-altitude studies of winds and sodium in the upper atmosphere. They collaborated on over 50 publications related to atmospheric electricity. Moore worked at the General Mills Aeronautical Research Laboratory throughout the 1950s, participating in a number of projects sponsored by the Office of Naval Research aimed at developing both military and intelligence applications for balloons, including attempts to drop anti-Soviet leaflets from balloons and the use of balloons for surveillance purposes. Moore was also known for his 1959 expedition to the stratosphere with Malcolm Ross, in which they performed the first spectrographic analysis of the planet Venus which was free of interference from the Earth's atmosphere, thereby proving the existence of water on that planet; this expedition involved an ascent to 89,000 feet (then a record for altitude).
In 1969, Moore became the chairman of Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research and greatly expanded the lab's facilities.
Moore was a professor of atmospheric physics at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro for several years, and nominally retired in 1985; however, he continued his research afterward, and his subsequent discoveries led to the first improvement in the design of the lightning rod since that device's invention by Benjamin Franklin.
Awards and honors.
Moore has received a number of professional and academic honors.


Melanosclerite

The Melanosclerites are a group of problematic microfossils obtained by palynological processing.
Morphology.
The form-taxon contains a wide array of rod-like fossils, 100 µm to some mm long, that culminate in a broad bulbous 'head', often separated from the stalk by a constriction. The bulbous end may bear broad 'prongs', giving the appearance of the end of a human femur where the prongs are paired, although the prongs often occur in higher number – five, six, a dozen – with some resemblance to "Namacalathus".
Affinity.
Affinity of Melanosclerites is uncertain; algal has been proposed, but hydrozoan (cnidarian)is preferred, but not conclusively established.
"Melanoscleritoites" Eisenack, 1963 is interpreted as a hydrozoan, with other taxa not attributable to that particular class, on the basis of a broad morphological similarity – though the distinguishing features are far from unequivocal, and the preservation of the material raises some taphonomic problems. The composition resembles that of chitinozoans, scolecodonts, graptolites, and fungi – though a particular species of extant cubomedusan hydroid does produce a similarity resilient "chitinous" 'wall'.
Occurrence.
They have been reported in shallow marine sandstones and limestones, as well as upper slope and open marine sediments, in strata from the Lower Cambrian to Upper Devonian.
Taxa include:


Siccar Point

Siccar Point is a rocky promontory in the county of Berwickshire on the east coast of Scotland.
It is famous in the history of geology for Hutton's Unconformity found in 1788, which James Hutton regarded as conclusive proof of his uniformitarian theory of geological development.
History.
Siccar Point was the site of a dun, or small hill fort, in the territory of the ancient Britons.
Siccar Point is now in the parish of Cockburnspath but was formerly in the parish of Old Cambus, from which the ancient parish church of St Helen's Chapel survives as a ruin about one kilometre to the west of the point. The church is built in a Romanesque style, in a mixture of Old Red Sandstone believed to have been quarried from the nearby Greenheugh Bay and of the greywacke rock also used in the drystone dyke forming the field boundaries. It is likely that the medieval village of Old Cambus was nearer to Siccar Point than the extant hamlet of Old Cambus.
To the south of the point twentieth-century quarrying for greywacke to be used as roadstone left a hollow named Old Cambus Quarry which is now occupied by a vegetable distribution warehouse complex.
Hutton's Unconformity.
Siccar Point is notable in the history of geology as a result of a boat trip in 1788 in which geologist James Hutton observed the angular unconformity of the point. He wrote later that the evidence of the rocks provided conclusive proof of the uniformitarian theory of geological development; that is, that the natural laws and processes which operate in the universe have never changed and apply everywhere.


Old Dominion Limestone

The Old Dominion Limestone is a geologic formation in Washington (state). It preserves fossils dating back to the Cambrian period.


Gullane Formation

The Gullane Formation is a geologic formation in Scotland. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carboniferous period.


Brigus Formation

The Brigus Formation is a fossiliferous (e.g. trilobites) upper lower Cambrian geologic formation in Newfoundland and Labrador.
It comprises a series of deep red nodular mudstones, with some prominent grey limestone beds.


Kennel Creek Formation

The Kennel Creek Formation is a geologic formation in Alaska. It preserves fossils dating back to the Silurian period.


Conostichus

Conostichus is an ichnogenus of trace fossil.


Upper mantle (Earth)

The upper mantle of Earth is a very thick layer of rock inside the planet, which begins just beneath the crust (at about under the oceans and about under the continents) and ends at the top of the lower mantle at . Temperatures range from approximately at the upper boundary with the crust to approximately at the boundary with the lower mantle. Upper mantle material which has come up onto the surface is made up of about 55% olivine, 35% pyroxene and 5 to 10% of calcium oxide and aluminum oxide minerals such as plagioclase, spinel, or garnet, depending upon depth.
Seismic structure.
The density profile through Earth is determined by the velocity of seismic waves. Density increases progressively in each layer largely due to compression of the rock at increased depths. Abrupt changes in density occur where the material composition changes.
The upper mantle begins just beneath the crust and ends at the top of the lower mantle. The upper mantle causes the tectonic plates to move.
Crust and mantle are distinguished by composition while the lithosphere and asthenosphere are defined by a change in mechanical properties.
The top of the mantle is defined by a sudden increase in the speed of seismic waves, which was first noted by Andrija Mohorovičić in 1909; this boundary is now referred to as the Mohorovičić discontinuity or "Moho".
The Moho defines the base of the crust and varies from to below the surface of the Earth. Oceanic crust is thinner than continental crust and is generally less than thick. Continental crust is about thick, but the large crustal root under the Tibetan Plateau is approximately thick.
The thickness of the upper mantle is about . The entire mantle is about thick, which means the upper mantle is only about 20% of the total mantle thickness.
The boundary between the upper mantle and the lower mantle is a discontinuity. Earthquakes at shallow depths are a result of strike-slip faulting; however, below about the hot, high pressure conditions inhibit further seismicity. The mantle is viscous and incapable of faulting. However, in subduction zones, earthquakes are observed down to .
Lehmann discontinuity.
The Lehmann discontinuity is an abrupt increase of "P"-wave and "S"-wave velocities at the depth of (Note that this is a different "Lehmann discontinuity" than the one between the Earth's inner and outer cores labeled in the image on the right.)
Transition zone.
The transition zone is located between the upper mantle and the lower mantle between a depth of and
This is thought to occur as a result of rearrangement of grains in olivine to form a denser crystal structure as a result of the increase in pressure with increasing depth. Below a depth of , due to pressure changes ringwoodite minerals change into two new denser phases, bridgmanite and periclase. This can be seen using body waves from earthquakes, which are converted, reflected or refracted at the boundary, and predicted from mineral physics, as the phase changes are temperature and density-dependent and hence depth dependent.
410 km discontinuity.
A single peak is seen in all seismological data at which is predicted by the single transition from α- to β- Mg2SiO4 (olivine to wadsleyite). From the Clapeyron slope the Moho discontinuity is expected to be shallower in cold regions, such as subducting slabs, and deeper in warmer regions, such as mantle plumes.
670 km discontinuity.
This is the most complex discontinuity and marks the boundary between the upper and lower mantle. It appears in PP precursors (a wave which reflects off the discontinuity once) only in certain regions but is always apparent in SS precursors. It is seen as single and double reflections in receiver functions for P to S conversions over a broad range of depths (640–720 km, or 397–447 mi). The Clapeyron slope predicts a deeper discontinuity in colder regions and a shallower discontinuity in hotter regions. This discontinuity is generally linked to the transition from ringwoodite to bridgmanite and periclase. This is thermodynamically an endothermic reaction and creates a viscosity jump. Both characteristics cause this phase transition to play an important role in geodynamical models.
Other discontinuities.
There is another major phase transition predicted at for the transition of olivine (β to γ) and garnet in the pyrolite mantle. This one is only sporadically been observed in seismological data.
Other non-global phase transitions have been suggested at a range of depths.
Temperature and pressure.
Temperatures range from approximately at the upper boundary with the crust to approximately at the core-mantle boundary. The highest temperature of the upper mantle is Although the high temperature far exceeds the melting points of the mantle rocks at the surface the mantle is almost exclusively solid.
The enormous lithostatic pressure exerted on the mantle prevents melting, because the temperature at which melting begins (the solidus) increases with pressure. Pressure increases as depth increases, since the material beneath has to support the weight of all the material above it. The entire mantle is thought to deform like a fluid on long timescales, with permanent plastic deformation.
The highest pressure of the upper mantle is compared to the bottom of the mantle which is .
Estimates for the viscosity of the upper mantle range between 1019 and 1024 Pa·s, depending on depth, temperature, composition, state of stress, and numerous other factors. The upper mantle can only flow very slowly. However, when large forces are applied to the uppermost mantle it can become weaker, and this effect is thought to be important in allowing the formation of tectonic plate boundaries.
Although there is a tendency to larger viscosity at greater depth, this relation is far from linear and shows layers with dramatically decreased viscosity, in particular in the upper mantle and at the boundary with the core.
Movement.
Because of the temperature difference between the Earth's surface and outer core and the ability of the crystalline rocks at high pressure and temperature to undergo slow, creeping, viscous-like deformation over millions of years, there is a convective material circulation in the mantle.
Hot material upwells, while cooler (and heavier) material sinks downward. Downward motion of material occurs at convergent plate boundaries called subduction zones. Locations on the surface that lie over plumes are predicted to have high elevation (because of the buoyancy of the hotter, less-dense plume beneath) and to exhibit hot spot volcanism.
Mineral composition.
The seismic data is not sufficient to determine the composition of the mantle. Observations of rocks exposed on the surface and other evidence reveal that the upper mantle are mafic minerals olivine and pyroxene and it has a density of about
Upper mantle material which has come up onto the surface is made up of about 55% olivine and 35% pyroxene and 5 to 10% of calcium oxide and aluminum oxide. The upper mantle is dominantly peridotite, composed primarily of variable proportions of the minerals olivine, clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, and an aluminous phase. The aluminous phase is plagioclase in the uppermost mantle, then spinel, and then garnet below ~100 km. Gradually through the upper mantle, pyroxenes become less stable and transforms into majoritic garnet.
Experiments on olivines and pyroxenes show that these minerals change structure as pressure increases at greater depth, and this explains why the density curves are not perfectly smooth. When there is a conversion to a more dense mineral structure, the seismic velocity rises abruptly and creates a discontinuity.
At the top of the transition zone, olivine undergoes isochemical phase transitions to wadsleyite and ringwoodite. Unlike nominally anhydrous olivine, these high-pressure olivine polymorphs have a large capacity to store water in their crystal structure. This has led to the hypothesis that the transition zone may host a large quantity of water.
In Earth's interior, olivine occurs in the upper mantle at depths less than about 410 km, and ringwoodite is inferred to be present within the transition zone from about 520 to 670 km depth. Seismic activity discontinuities at about 410 km, 520 km, and at 670 km depth have been attributed to phase changes involving olivine and its polymorphs.
At the base of the transition zone, ringwoodite decomposes into bridgmanite (formerly called magnesium silicate perovskite), and ferropericlase. Garnet also becomes unstable at or slightly below the base of the transition zone.
Kimberlites explode from the earth's interior and sometimes carry rock fragments. Some of these xenolithic fragments are diamonds which can only come from the higher pressures below the crust. The rocks that come with this are ultramafic nodules and peridotite.
Chemical composition.
The composition seems to be very similar to the crust. One difference is that rocks and minerals of the mantle tend to have more magnesium and less silicon and aluminum than the crust. The first four most abundant elements in the upper mantle are oxygen, magnesium, silicon, and iron.
Exploration.
Exploration of the mantle is generally conducted at the seabed rather than on land because of the relative thinness of the oceanic crust as compared to the significantly thicker continental crust.
The first attempt at mantle exploration, known as Project Mohole, was abandoned in 1966 after repeated failures and cost over-runs. The deepest penetration was approximately . In 2005 an oceanic borehole reached below the sea floor from the ocean drilling vessel "JOIDES Resolution".
On 5 March 2007, a team of scientists on board the RRS "James Cook" embarked on a voyage to an area of the Atlantic seafloor where the mantle lies exposed without any crust covering, midway between the Cape Verde Islands and the Caribbean Sea. The exposed site lies approximately three kilometres beneath the ocean surface and covers thousands of square kilometres.
The Chikyu Hakken mission attempted to use the Japanese vessel "Chikyū" to drill up to below the seabed. On 27 April 2012, "Chikyū" drilled to a depth of 7,740 meters (25,400 feet) below sea level, setting a new world record for deep-sea drilling. This record has since been surpassed by the ill-fated "Deepwater Horizon" mobile offshore drilling unit, operating on the Tiber prospect in the Mississippi Canyon Field, United States Gulf of Mexico, when it achieved a world record for total length for a vertical drilling string of 10,062 m (33,011 ft). The previous record was held by the U.S. vessel "Glomar Challenger", which in 1978 drilled to 7,049.5 meters (23,130 feet) below sea level in the Mariana Trench. On 6 September 2012 Scientific deep sea drilling vessel "Chikyū" set a new world record by drilling down and obtaining rock samples from deeper than 2,111 meters below the seafloor off the Shimokita Peninsula of Japan in the northwest Pacific Ocean.
A novel method of exploring the uppermost few hundred kilometres of the Earth was proposed in 2005, consisting of a small, dense, heat-generating probe which melts its way down through the crust and mantle while its position and progress are tracked by acoustic signals generated in the rocks. The probe consists of an outer sphere of tungsten about one metre in diameter with a cobalt-60 interior acting as a radioactive heat source. This should take half a year to reach the oceanic Moho.
Exploration can also be aided through computer simulations of the evolution of the mantle. In 2009, a supercomputer application provided new insight into the distribution of mineral deposits, especially isotopes of iron, from when the mantle developed 4.5 billion years ago.


Anticline Ridge

The Anticline Ridge is a ridge, southeast of Joaquin Ridge, declining from its 3,629 foot / 1,106 meter high point, Black Mountain in the north at , to the southeast into low hills bound on the southeast by Los Gatos Creek that divides it from the Guijarral Hills. It is located in the inner California Coast Ranges, in Fresno County, California, east of the town of Coalinga. Anticline Ridge and Guijarral Hills divides Pleasant Valley from the San Joaquin Valley to the east. California State routes 33 and 198, which join together for the stretch through and north of Coalinga, cut across the Coalinga field and cross Anticline Ridge.
Anticline Ridge is the surface expression of an anticlinal structure which continues to the south as the Guijarral Hills and Kettleman Hills, and is the location of a major part of the huge Coalinga Oil Field. The anticline in Anticline ridge continues to the southeast as the Guijarral Hills Oil Field and the Kettleman North Dome Oil Field.


Hyolithelmintida

Hyolithohelminths are phosphatic tubular fossils from the Cambrian period. They were sedentary, possibly infanual, organisms; once thought to have opercular (hence the comparison with hyoliths), these structures are now understood to be unrelated shells.


Whittier Fault

The Whittier Fault is a geologic fault located in eastern Los Angeles County in Southern California, that is one of the two upper branches of the Elsinore Fault Zone, with the Chino Fault the second.
Geology.
The Whittier Fault is a right-lateral strike-slip fault that runs along the Chino Hills range between the cities of Chino Hills and Whittier. The fault has a slip rate of per year. It is estimated that this fault could generate a quake of MW6.0–7.2 on the moment magnitude scale.


New Albany Shale

The New Albany Shale is an organic-rich geologic formation of Devonian and Mississippian age in the Illinois Basin of the United States. It is a major source of hydrocarbons.
Stratigraphy.
The New Albany formation consists of brown, black, and green shale with minor beds of dolomite and sandstone. It was deposited under anoxic marine conditions. Pyrite is a common accessory mineral, and parts of the shale have greater than 4% by weight of organic carbon. The black shale layers have anomalously high radioactivity (due to uranium), phosphorus, and heavy metals. The formation was named for outcrops near New Albany, Indiana. It is one of a number of organic-rich shales of upper Devonian and lower Mississippian age in North America. It is correlative with the Antrim Shale of the Michigan Basin, the Ohio Shale of Ohio and eastern Kentucky, and the Chattanooga Shale of Tennessee and central Kentucky.
The formation is composed of six members. These members in ascending stratigraphic order are the Blocher, the Selmier, the Morgan Trail, the Camp Run, the Clegg Creek and the Ellsworth. The Blocher consists of brownish-black to grayish-black, slightly calcareous pyritic shale. The Selmier is a greenish-gray to olive-gray shale. The Morgan Trail is a brownish-black to olive-black fissile siliceous pyritic shale. The Camp Run is a greenish-gray to olive-gray shale interbedded with brownish-black shale. The Clegg Creek is a brownish black pyritic shale that is rich in organic matter. The Ellsworth is composed of a lower part of interbedded brownish-black shale and an upper part of greenish-gray shale.
Natural resources.
Natural gas is produced from wells completed in the New Albany Shale in the southern part of the basin in Indiana and western Kentucky. As of 2001, technically recoverable shale gas in the New Albany was estimated to be between 1.9 and 19.2 trillion cubic feet. More recently reserves have been estimated as high as 160 trillion cubic feet.
The New Albany Shale is also a major deposit of oil shale. The Eastern Devonian shale has been estimated to contain 189,000 106 bbls of oil.
The formation is also thought to be the source rock of petroleum found in Devonian and Silurian formations in the basin. It is hypothesized that the long distance migration of oil from the New Albany Shale into surrounding sandstones was caused by orogenies occurring to the east. These orogenies caused periods of uplift and subsidence that influenced movement of the hydrocarbons in the Illinois Basin.


Avawatz Formation

The Avawatz Formation is a geologic formation in California. It preserves fossils dating back to the Neogene period.


List of mosasaur type specimens

This list of mosasaur type specimens is a list of fossils that are official standard-bearers for inclusion in the species and genera of the squamate clade Mosasauroidea, which includes the line of predatory marine lizards that culminates in the mosasaurids. Type specimens are definitionally members of biological taxa, and additional specimens are "referred" to these taxa only if an expert deems them sufficiently similar to the type.


Beaverdam Formation (Idaho)

The Beaverdam Formation is a geologic formation in Idaho. It preserves fossils dating back to the Neogene period.


Carrickaness Sandstone

The Carrickaness Sandstone is a geologic formation in Northern Ireland. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carboniferous period.


Geology of Mercury

The geology of Mercury is the scientific study of the surface, crust, and interior of the planet Mercury. It emphasizes the composition, structure, history, and physical processes that shape the planet. It is analogous to the field of terrestrial geology. In planetary science, the term "geology" is used in its broadest sense to mean the study of the solid parts of planets and moons. The term incorporates aspects of geophysics, geochemistry, mineralogy, geodesy, and cartography.
Historically, Mercury has been the least understood of all the terrestrial planets in the Solar System. This stems largely from its proximity to the Sun which makes reaching it with spacecraft technically challenging and Earth-based observations difficult. For decades, the principal source of geologic information about Mercury came from the 2,700 images taken by the Mariner 10 spacecraft during three flybys of the planet from 1974 to 1975. These images covered about 45% of the planet’s surface, but many of them were unsuitable for detailed geologic investigation because of high sun angles which made it hard to determine surface morphology and topography. This dearth of information was greatly alleviated by the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft which between 2008 and 2015 collected over 291,000 images covering the entire planet, along with a wealth of other scientific data. The European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) BepiColumbo spacecraft, scheduled to go into orbit around Mercury in 2025, is expected to help answer many of the remaining questions about Mercury’s geology.
Mercury's surface is dominated by impact craters, basaltic rock and smooth plains, many of them a result of flood volcanism, similar in some respects to the lunar maria, and locally by pyroclastic deposits. Other notable features include vents which appear to be the source of magma-carved valleys, often-grouped irregular-shaped depressions termed "hollows" that are believed to be the result of collapsed magma chambers, scarps indicative of thrust faulting and mineral deposits (possibly ice) inside craters at the poles. Long thought to be geologically inactive, new evidence suggests there may still be some level of activity.
Mercury's density implies a solid iron-rich core that accounts for about 60% of its volume (75% of its radius). Mercury's magnetic equator is shifted nearly 20% of the planet's radius towards the north, the largest ratio of all planets. This shift suggests there being one or more iron-rich molten layers surrounding the core producing a dynamo effect similar to that of Earth. Additionally, the offset magnetic dipole may result in uneven surface weathering by the solar wind, knocking more surface particles up into the southern exosphere and transporting them for deposit in the north. Scientists are gathering telemetry to determine if such is the case.
After having completed the first solar day of its mission in September 2011, more than 99% of Mercury's surface had been mapped by NASA's "MESSENGER" probe in both color and monochrome with such detail that scientists' understanding of Mercury's geology has significantly surpassed the level achieved following the "Mariner 10" flybys of the 1970s.
Difficulties in exploration.
Reaching Mercury from Earth poses significant technical challenges, because the planet orbits so much closer to the Sun than does the Earth. A Mercury-bound spacecraft launched from Earth must travel 91 million kilometers into the Sun's gravitational potential well. Starting from the Earth's orbital speed of 30 km/s, the change in velocity (delta-v) the spacecraft must make to enter into a Hohmann transfer orbit that passes near Mercury is large compared to other planetary missions. The potential energy liberated by moving down the Sun's potential well becomes kinetic energy; requiring another large delta-"v" to do anything other than rapidly pass by Mercury. In order to land safely or enter a stable orbit the spacecraft must rely entirely on rocket motors because Mercury has negligible atmosphere. A direct trip to Mercury actually requires more rocket fuel than that required to escape the Solar System completely. As a result, only two space probes, "Mariner 10" and "MESSENGER", both by NASA, have visited Mercury so far.
Furthermore, the space environment near Mercury is demanding, posing the double dangers to spacecraft of intense solar radiation and high temperatures.
Historically, a second obstacle has been that Mercury's period of rotation is a slow 58 Earth days, so that spacecraft flybys are restricted to viewing only a single illuminated hemisphere. In fact, unfortunately, even though Mariner 10 space probe flew past Mercury three times during 1974 and 1975, it observed the same area during each pass. This was because Mariner 10's orbital period was almost exactly 3 sidereal Mercury days, and the same face of the planet was lit at each of the close approaches. As a result, less than 45% of the planet's surface was mapped.
Earth-based observations are made difficult by Mercury's constant proximity to the Sun. This has several consequences:
Mercury's geological history.
Like the Earth, Moon and Mars, Mercury's geologic history is divided up into eras. From oldest to youngest, these are: the pre-Tolstojan, Tolstojan, Calorian, Mansurian, and Kuiperian. These ages are based on relative dating only.
After the formation of Mercury along with the rest of the Solar System 4.6 billion years ago, heavy bombardment by asteroids and comets ensued. The last intense bombardment phase, the Late Heavy Bombardment came to an end about 3.8 billion years ago. Some regions or massifs, a prominent one being the one that formed the Caloris Basin, were filled by magma eruptions from within the planet. These created smooth intercrater plains similar to the maria found on the Moon.
Later, as the planet cooled and contracted, its surface began to crack and form ridges; these surface cracks and ridges can be seen on top of other features, such as the craters and smoother plains—a clear indication that they are more recent.
Mercury's period of volcanism ended when the planet's mantle had contracted enough to prevent further lava from breaking through to the surface. This probably occurred at some point during its first 700 or 800 million years of history.
Since then, the main surface processes have been intermittent impacts.
Timeline.
Time unit: millions of years
Surface features.
Mercury's surface is overall similar in appearance to that of the Moon, with extensive mare-like plains and heavily cratered terrains similar to the lunar highlands and made locally by accumulations of pyroclastic deposits.
Impact basins and craters.
Craters on Mercury range in diameter from small bowl-shaped craters to multi-ringed impact basins hundreds of kilometers across. They appear in all states of degradation, from relatively fresh rayed-craters, to highly degraded crater remnants. Mercurian craters differ subtly from Lunar craters – the extent of their ejecta blankets is much smaller, which is a consequence of the 2.5 times stronger surface gravity on Mercury.
The largest known crater is the enormous Caloris Basin, with a diameter of 1550 km, A basin of comparable size, tentatively named Skinakas Basin had been postulated from low resolution Earth-based observations of the non-Mariner-imaged hemisphere, but has not been observed in "MESSENGER" imagery of the corresponding terrain. The impact which created the Caloris Basin was so powerful that its effects are seen on a global scale. It caused lava eruptions and left a concentric ring over 2 km tall surrounding the impact crater. At the antipode of the Caloris Basin lies a large region of unusual, hilly and furrowed terrain, sometimes called "Weird Terrain". The favoured hypothesis for the origin of this geomorphologic unit is that shock waves generated during the impact traveled around the planet, and when they converged at the basin's antipode (180 degrees away) the high stresses were capable of fracturing the surface. A much less favoured idea was that this terrain formed as a result of the convergence of ejecta at this basin's antipode. Furthermore, the formation of the Caloris Basin appears to have produced a shallow depression concentric around the basin, which was later filled by the smooth plains (see below).
Overall about 15 impact basins have been identified on the imaged part of Mercury. Other notable basins include the 400 km wide, multi-ring, Tolstoj Basin which has an ejecta blanket extending up to 500 km from its rim, and its floor has been filled by smooth plains materials. Beethoven Basin also has a similar-sized ejecta blanket and a 625 km diameter rim.
As on the Moon, fresh craters on Mercury show prominent bright ray systems. These are made by ejected debris, which tend to be brighter while they remain relatively fresh because of a lesser amount of space weathering than the surrounding older terrain.
Pit-floor craters.
Some impact craters on Mercury have non-circular, irregularly shaped depressions or pits on their floors. Such craters have been termed pit-floor craters, and "MESSENGER" team members have suggested that such pits formed by the collapse of subsurface magma chambers. If this suggestion is correct, the pits are evidence of volcanic processes at work on Mercury. Pit craters are rimless, often irregularly shaped, and steep-sided, and they display no associated ejecta or lava flows but are typically distinctive in color. For example, the pits of Praxiteles have an orange hue. Thought to be evidence of shallow magmatic activity, pit craters may have formed when subsurface magma drained elsewhere and left a roof area unsupported, leading to collapse and the formation of the pit. Major craters exhibiting these features include Beckett, Gibran and Lermontov, among others. It was suggested that these pits with associated brighter and redder deposits may be pyroclastic deposits caused by explosive volcanism.
Plains.
There are two geologically distinct plains units on Mercury:
The floor of the Caloris Basin is also filled by a geologically distinct flat plain, broken up by ridges and fractures in a roughly polygonal pattern. It is not clear whether they are volcanic lavas induced by the impact, or a large sheet of impact melt.
Tectonic features.
One unusual feature of the planet's surface is the numerous compression folds which crisscross the plains. It is thought that as the planet's interior cooled, it contracted and its surface began to deform. The folds can be seen on top of other features, such as craters and smoother plains, indicating that they are more recent. Mercury's surface is also flexed by significant tidal bulges raised by the Sun—the Sun's tides on Mercury are about 17% stronger than the Moon's on Earth.
Terminology.
Non-crater surface features are given the following names:
High-albedo polar patches and possible presence of ice.
The first radar observations of Mercury were carried out by the radiotelescopes at Arecibo (Puerto Rico) and Goldstone (California, United States), with assistance from the U.S. National Radio Astronomy Observatory Very Large Array (VLA) facility in New Mexico. The transmissions sent from the NASA Deep Space Network site at Goldstone were at a power level of 460 kW at 8.51 GHz; the signals received by the VLA multi-dish array detected points of radar reflectivity (radar luminosity) with depolarized waves from Mercury's north pole.
Radar maps of the surface of the planet were made using the Arecibo radiotelescope. The survey was conducted with 420 kW UHF band (2.4 GHz) radio waves which allowed for a 15 km resolution. This study not only confirmed the existence of the zones of high reflectivity and depolarization, but also found a number of new areas (bringing the total to 20) and was even able to survey the poles. It has been postulated that surface ice may be responsible for these high luminosity levels, as the silicate rocks that compose most of the surface of Mercury have exactly the opposite effect on luminosity.
In spite of its proximity to the Sun, Mercury may have surface ice, since temperatures near the poles are constantly below freezing point: On the polar plains, the temperature does not rise above −106 °C. And craters at Mercury's higher latitudes (discovered by radar surveys from Earth as well) may be deep enough to shield the ice from direct sunlight. Inside the craters, where there is no solar light, temperatures fall to −171 °C.
Despite sublimation into the vacuum of space, the temperature in the permanently shadowed region is so low that this sublimation is slow enough to potentially preserve deposited ice for billions of years.
At the South Pole, the location of a large zone of high reflectivity coincides with the location of the Chao Meng-Fu crater, and other small craters containing reflective areas have also been identified. At the North Pole, a number of craters smaller than Chao-Meng Fu have these reflective properties.
The strength of the radar reflections seen on Mercury are small compared to that which would occur with pure ice. This may be due to powder deposition that does not cover the surface of the crater completely or other causes, e.g. a thin overlying surface layer. However, the evidence for ice on Mercury is not definitive. The anomalous reflective properties could also be due to the existence of deposits of metallic sulfates or other materials with high reflectance.
Possible origin of ice.
Mercury is not unique in having craters that stand in permanent shadow; at the south pole of Earth's Moon there is a large crater (Aitken) where some possible signs of the presence of ice have been seen (although their interpretation is disputed). It is thought by astronomers that ice on both Mercury and the Moon must have originated from external sources, mostly impacting comets. These are known to contain large amounts, or a majority, of ice. It is therefore conceivable for meteorite impacts to have deposited water in the permanently shadow craters, where it would remain unwarmed for possibly billions of years due to the lack of an atmosphere to efficiently conduct heat and stable orientation of Mercury's rotation axis.
Mercury's biological history.
Habitability.
There may be scientific support, based on studies reported in March 2020, for considering that parts of the planet Mercury may have been habitable, and perhaps that life forms, albeit likely primitive microorganisms, may have existed on the planet.


Molasse calcaire et sablo

The Molasse calcaire et sablo is a geologic formation in France. It preserves fossils dating back to the Neogene period.


Calcaires a Asteries

The Calcaires à Asteries are a geologic formation in France. It preserves fossils dating back to the Oligocene epoch. Among the known fossils is the kekenodontid whale "Phococetus".


Hells Mouth Grits

The Hells Mouth Grits, formally defined and renamed the Hells Mouth Formation by Young "et al". (1994, p.337), is a geological formation composed of Cambrian Greywackes in the south west part of St. Tudwal's Peninsula (which protrudes from the southern coast of the main Llŷn Peninsula, North West Wales). Equivalent to the Rhinog Formation in the Harlech Dome, the grit beds exposed at St Tudwal's are very uniform in lithology and thickness when traced along the outcrops, with a gradual thinning southwards. They exhibit the characteristic textures and structures of greywackes but differ from the normal type in being relatively well sorted and commonly laminated. Intercalated mudstones are more variable both in thickness and in lithology and contain laminated mudstones rich in sponge remains. The sandstones have sharply defined bases, often bearing sole structures and occasionly loaded. Sandstone dykes cut down from the bases of some beds and extend through up to 0.6 m of underlying siltstones. The sandstones may form sheets up to 4 m thick, although a bed thickness of up to 1m is more usual, and have been interpreted as turbidites deposited by currents from the northeast (Bassett & Walton, 1960).
Type Section of the Hell’s Mouth Formation is at Trwyn y Ffosle, 1 Km north of Trwyn Careg-y-tir, where a relatively complete succession can be traced from sea-level () to the manganese trials marking the line of outcrop of the overlying Trwyn y Fulfran Formation. The upper part of this section is not well exposed, so the section above Trwyn Carreg-y-tir () has been used to define the base of the Trwyn y Fulfran Formation (Young "et al"., 1994, p. 337).
The Hells Mouth Formation has yielded fossils dating back to the Lower Cambrian period, including the trilobites "Hamatolenus" ("Myopsolenus") "douglasi" Bassett "et al." (1976, p. 627, pl.1, figs 1 - 8; pl. 2, figs. 1 - 4). "Leptochilodiscus succinctus" (described originally as "Kerberodiscus succinctus" gen. et sp. nov., Bassett "et al"., "op. cit". p. 631, pl.2, figs. 6 - 14; pl. 3 figs. 1 - 4), and "Serrodiscus ctenoa"? Rushton, 1966, collected from 16.5 m below the base of the overlying Trwyn y Fulfran Formation at Trwyn Carreg-y-tir (). The fauna is of late lower Cambrian age and falls within the upper part of the protolenid-strenuellid Zone of the Comley Series of British nomenclature. East of Trwyn y Fossle acritarchs from the upper part of the Hell’s Mouth Formation are often numerous but, at best, moderately well preserved (Young, "et al"., 1994, p. 338.).


Deep Spring Formation

The Deep Spring Formation is a geologic formation in Nevada. It preserves fossils dating back to the Cambrian period.


Taxon-range zone

In biostratigraphy, a subdiscipline of geology, a taxon-range zone is the zone between the highest and the lowest stratigraphic occurrence of a taxon. Taxon-range zones are one of the fundamental biozones used in biostratigraphy and are named after the taxon whose range they describe.
Definition.
The International Commission on Stratigraphy defines a Taxon-range zone as follows:
"The body of strata representing the known range of stratigraphic and geographic occurrence of specimens of a particular taxon. It is the sum of the documented occurrences in all individual sections and localities from which the particular taxon has been identified."
So a taxon-range zone is not only a vertical interval, but expands laterally. Taxon-range zones are limited at the top by the surface that connects all highest known stratigraphic occurrences of the taxon and are limited at the bottom by the surface that connects all lowest known stratigraphic occurrences of the taxon.
Local Range.
The local range of a taxon is the zone between the highest and the lowest stratigraphic occurrence of a taxon in a particular locality or area.


Chimera (paleontology)

In paleontology, a chimera is a fossil that was reconstructed with elements coming from more than a single species or genus of animal. In other words they are mistakes or sometimes hoaxes made by paleontologists, putting together parts that do not come from the same organism. A now classic example of chimera is "Protoavis".


Dimitri Sverjensky

Dimitri Alexander Sverjensky is a professor in Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University where his research is focused on geochemistry.
Career.
Dimitri Sverjensky received his B.Sc. from the University of Sydney, Australia in 1974. He went on to Yale University where he received his Masters and Ph.D in Geology in 1977 and 1980. After leaving Yale, Sverjensky worked as a staff scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, before becoming an assistant professor at SUNY Stony Brook. In 1984, he was appointed an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, and later promoted to associate professor. Since 1991 he has been a professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. Throughout his academic career, he has served as associate editor for "Economic Geology" and "Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta". From 2005 to 2015, he was the senior visiting investigator at the Geophysical Laboratory at the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Sverjensky is a member of the Deep Carbon Observatory’s Extreme Physics and Chemistry Community, where he also serves on its Scientific Steering Committee.
Research initiatives.
Sverjensky’s research areas include aqueous geochemistry, mineral surface geochemistry, thermodynamics, and water-rock interaction. In 2005 he started a collaboration at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in astrobiology, addressing the role of mineral-water interfacial reactions in the origin of life and the role of hydrothermal fluids. They also developed a historical approach to the appearance of minerals on Earth called mineral evolution.
Sverjensky is investigating the surface environments on early Earth using theoretical models of weathering and element mobility. In 2012 he launched a new field of research through the Deep Carbon Observatory investigating the role of water in deep Earth. Current areas of investigation include the origins of fluids in diamonds, the species and transport of carbon, sulfur and nitrogen in subduction zones, and the role of fluids in oxidation of mantle wedges.


Stonehaven Group

The Stonehaven Group is a geologic group in Scotland. It preserves fossils dating back to the Silurian period.


Henry Mountains

The Henry Mountains is a mountain range located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Utah that runs in a generally north–south direction, extending over a distance of about . They were named by Almon Thompson in honor of Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. The nearest town of any size is Hanksville, Utah, which is north of the mountains. The Henry Mountains were the last mountain range to be added to the map of the 48 contiguous U.S. states (1872), and before their official naming by Thompson, were sometimes referred to as the "Unknown Mountains." In Navajo, the range is still referred to as "Dził Bizhiʼ Ádiní" ("mountain whose name is missing").
Geography and geology.
The range is clustered into two main groups, with Highway 276 dividing the two portions. The northern group is by far the taller of the two with Mount Ellen: above sea level; Mount Pennell: ; and Mount Hillers: . The southern group is much lower in elevation. The southern group has two peaks: Mount Ellsworth: and Mount Holmes: . The southern group is also known as the "Little Rockies".
The Henry Mountains are drained by a number of canyon systems which radiate away from the isolated range, flowing north into the Fremont River, east into the Dirty Devil River, or south into Lake Powell.
The geology of these mountains was first studied in 1875-1876 by Grove Karl Gilbert. He coined the term "laccolite" (now laccolith) to describe the characteristic shapes of some of the igneous intrusions that core the mountains. The main type of igneous rock is porphyritic diorite.
Ages of the igneous rocks are important for understanding the evolution of the Colorado Plateau. Ages of these rocks were reported to be about 45 to 50 million years in older geologic literature. However, it has been established that these intrusions formed in the period from about 23 to 31 million years ago, using uranium–lead dating of zircon and argon–argon dating of hornblende; fission track dating also has yielded consistent results (the older, erroneous ages were by potassium–argon dating). The intrusions are hosted by Permian to Cretaceous sedimentary rocks. The geology of these mountains is similar to the geology of the La Sal Range and of the Abajo Mountains, both also on the Colorado Plateau in southeastern Utah: locations are shown on a satellite image presented with information about the La Sal Range.
American bison.
The Henry Mountains are home to approximately 350 American bison. Via genetic testing of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, the Henry Mountains bison herd was recently shown to be one of only three free-roaming and genetically purebred bison herds on public lands in the United States. This study, published in 2015, also showed the Henry Mountains bison to be free of brucellosis, a bacterial disease that was imported with non-native domestic cattle to North America. The other two American herds are in Yellowstone National Park, and Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota. The majority of free-ranging American Bison (approximately 90%) are found in Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories, with additional populations in Alaska transplanted from Canada in 2008.
The Henry Mountains Bison Herd was created in 1941 when 18 bison, including three bulls, were moved from Yellowstone National Park and released near the Dirty Devil River, south and east of Hanksville, Utah. An additional five bulls were added to the population in 1942. The herd has gradually moved toward the Henry Mountains, frequenting elevations up to . The Henry Mountain herd has been brucellosis-free since 1963.
A population objective of 325 bison by 2012 was set by Utah wildlife biologists for the Henry Mountain herd. Since the bison reproduce easily and the herds have been larger than this in the past, a decision was made to reduce the size of the herd. To achieve this objective, and increase overall genetic diversity, breeding animals are being transplanted to other locations from the herd. In January, 2008, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources officials transplanted 31 animals to the Book Cliffs in eastern Utah. The new group joined 14 animals previously released in August, 2008 from a private herd on the nearby Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation. In addition, special licenses are issued annually to hunt the animals and help reduce the excess population. In 2009, 146 public once-in-a-lifetime Henry Mountain bison hunting permits were issued.
Management.
Much of the area is managed by the United States Bureau of Land Management. Eggnog is a former ranch site in the area.
External links.
Kay, Charles E. 2015. Long Term Vegetation Change in Utah's Henry Mountains: A Study in Repeat Photography. BLM-UT-GI-14001-8002+REV15. 274 pages. https://web.archive.org/web/20161006151707/http://www.blm.gov/style/medialib/blm/wo/blm_library/misc_pubs.Par.74891.File.dat/Kay2015_HenryMtns.pdf


List of albedo features on Mercury

This is a list of the albedo features of the planet Mercury as seen by early telescopic observation.
Early telescopic observations of Mercury were based on the assumption that Mercury keeps one of its faces permanently turned toward the Sun, through the mechanism of tidal locking. Although this is not true (Mercury rotates three times on its axis for every two revolutions around the Sun), when it is positioned for best viewing from Earth, the amount by which its visible face has rotated from its previous best viewing position is fairly small.
A map of Mercury made in the 1910s by astronomer Eugène Michel Antoniadi shows the following albedo features, localized by a grid in which 0° longitude is the (assumed) subsolar meridian. No certain connection has been made between these features and the topographic features viewed on Mercury by the Mariner 10 spacecraft. Mariner 10, however, imaged less than half of Mercury's surface.
The names are drawn from Greek mythology, and often allude to myths about Hermes, the Greek equivalent of the Roman god Mercury.
List of albedo features on Mercury.
The names of albedo features currently used by the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature are largely based upon Antoniadi's names, but include several alterations; they also necessarily use a different coordinate grid.
The newer regional names are: "Borea" () "Northern region"; "Australia" () "Southern region"; and "Tricrena" (), the name of a mountain near Pheneus in Arcadia.
Other changes are: all features named "Vallis" and "Promontorium" have been renamed "Solitudo"; "Solitudo Argiphontae" has been renamed "Sinus Argiphontae" ("bay of Argiphontes"); "Admeti" has been changed to "Admetei" (in error; there is no mythological figure "Admeteus"); "Pleias" has become "Pleias Gallia".


Auburn Formation

The Auburn Formation is a geologic formation in Kansas. It preserves fossils from the upper Carboniferous Period.


Martin Formation

The Martin Formation is a geologic formation in Arizona. It preserves fossils dating back to the Devonian period.


Deep River Formation

The Deep River Formation is a geologic formation in Montana. It preserves fossils dating back to the Neogene period.


Gale (crater)

Gale is a crater, and probable dry lake, at in the northwestern part of the Aeolis quadrangle on Mars. It is in diameter and estimated to be about 3.5-3.8 billion years old. The crater was named after Walter Frederick Gale, an amateur astronomer from Sydney, Australia, who observed Mars in the late 19th century. Aeolis Mons is a mountain in the center of Gale and rises high. Aeolis Palus is the plain between the northern wall of Gale and the northern foothills of Aeolis Mons. Peace Vallis, a nearby outflow channel, 'flows' down from the hills to the Aeolis Palus below and seems to have been carved by flowing water. Several lines of evidence suggest that a lake existed inside Gale shortly after the formation of the crater.
The NASA Mars rover "Curiosity", of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, landed in "Yellowknife" "Quad 51" of Aeolis Palus in Gale at 05:32 UTC August 6, 2012. NASA named the landing location Bradbury Landing on August 22, 2012. "Curiosity" is exploring Aeolis Mons and surrounding areas.
Description.
Gale, named for Walter F. Gale (1865-1945), an amateur astronomer from Australia, spans in diameter and holds a mountain, Aeolis Mons (informally named "Mount Sharp" to pay tribute to geologist Robert P. Sharp) rising from the crater floor, higher than Mount Rainier rises above Seattle. Gale is roughly the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island.
The crater formed when an asteroid or comet hit Mars in its early history, about 3.5 to 3.8 billion years ago. The impactor punched a hole in the terrain, and the subsequent explosion ejected rocks and soil that landed around the crater. Layering in the central mound (Aeolis Mons) suggests it is the surviving remnant of an extensive sequence of deposits. Some scientists believe the crater filled in with sediments and, over time, the relentless Martian winds carved Aeolis Mons, which today rises about above the floor of Gale—three times higher than the Grand Canyon is deep.
At 10:32 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5, 2012 (1:32 a.m. EDT on Aug. 6, 2012), the Mars Science Laboratory rover "Curiosity" landed on Mars at , at the foot of the layered mountain inside Gale. "Curiosity" landed within a landing ellipse approximately by . The landing ellipse is about below Martian "sea level" (defined as the average elevation around the equator). The expected near-surface atmospheric temperatures at the landing site during "Curiosity"s primary mission (1 Martian year or 687 Earth days) are from to .
Scientists chose Gale as the landing site for "Curiosity" because it has many signs that water was present over its history. The crater's geology is notable for containing both clays and sulfate minerals, which form in water under different conditions and may also preserve signs of past life. The history of water at Gale, as recorded in its rocks, is giving "Curiosity" many clues to study as it pieces together whether Mars ever could have been a habitat for microbes. Gale contains a number of fans and deltas that provide information about lake levels in the past, including: Pancake Delta, Western Delta, Farah Vallis delta and the Peace Vallis Fan.
Geology.
Orbital THEMIS and topography data, plus visible and near-infrared images, were used to make a geologic map of the crater. CRISM data indicated the lower bench unit was composed of interstratified clay and sulfates. Curiosity explored the stratigraphy of the crater consisting of the Bradbury Group and the overlying Mount Sharp Group. Formations within the Bradbury Group include the Yellowknife and Kimberley, while the Murray Formation is at the base of the Mount Sharp Group. The Bradbury Group consists of fluvial conglomerates, cross-bedded sandstones, and mudstones reflecting a basaltic provenance. Sandstone clinoforms indicate deltaic deposits. The Murray Formation is a laminated mudstone overlain by a cross-bedded or clinoform sandstone, though in places the base is a conglomerate. Thus, the formation is interpreted to have been deposited in a lacustrine environment adjacent to a fluvial-deltaic one. The Murray Formation is overlain by clay and sulfate-bearing strata.
An unusual feature of Gale is an enormous mound of "sedimentary debris" around its central peak, officially named Aeolis Mons (popularly known as "Mount Sharp") rising above the northern crater floor and above the southern crater floor—slightly taller than the southern rim of the crater itself. The mound is composed of layered material and may have been laid down over a period of around 2 billion years. The origin of this mound is not known with certainty, but research suggests it is the eroded remnant of sedimentary layers that once filled the crater completely, possibly originally deposited on a lakebed. Evidence of fluvial activity was observed early on in the mission at the Shaler outcrop (first observed on Sol 120, investigated extensively between Sols 309-324). Observations made by the rover "Curiosity" at the Pahrump Hills strongly support the lake hypothesis: sedimentary facies including sub mm-scale horizontally-laminated mudstones, with interbedded fluvial crossbeds are representative of sediments which accumulate in lakes, or on the margins of lakes which grow and contract in response to lake-level. These lake-bed mudstones are referred to as the Murray Formation, and form a significant amount of the Mount Sharp group. The Siccar Point group (named after the famous unconformity at Siccar Point) overlies the Mount Sharp group, and the two units are separated by a major unconformity which dips toward the North. At present, the Stimson formation is the only stratigraphic unit within the Siccar Point group which has been investigated in-detail by "Curiosity". The Stimson formation represents the preserved expression of a dry aeolian dune field, where sediment was transported towards the north, or northeast by palaeowinds within the crater. In the Emerson plateau area (from Marias Pass, to East Glacier), the outcrops are characterised predominantly by simple cross-sets, deposited by simple sinuous-crested dunes, with heights up to ~10 m. To the south, at the Murray buttes, the outcrop are characterised by compound cross-sets, with a hierarchy of bounding surfaces migration of small dunes superimposed on the lee-slope of a large dune known as a "draa". These draas have estimates heights of ~40 m, and migrated toward the north, while superimposed dunes migrated toward the east-northeast. Further to the south, at the Greenheugh pediment, compound and simple cross-sets consistent with aeolian depositional processes have been observed in the pediment capping unit.
Observations of possible cross-bedded strata on the upper mound suggest aeolian processes, but the origin of the lower mound layers remains ambiguous.
In February 2019, NASA scientists reported that the Mars "Curiosity" rover determined, for the first time, the density of Mount Sharp in Gale, thereby establishing a clearer understanding of how the mountain was formed.
Gale is located at about on Mars.
Spacecraft exploration.
Numerous channels eroded into the flanks of the crater's central mound could give access to the layers for study. Gale is the landing site of the "Curiosity" rover, delivered by the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, which was launched 26 November 2011 and landed on Mars inside the crater Gale on the plains of Aeolis Palus on 6 August 2012. Gale was previously a candidate landing site for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover mission, and has been one of four prospective sites for ESA's ExoMars.
In December 2012, scientists working on the Mars Science Laboratory mission announced that an extensive soil analysis of Martian soil performed by "Curiosity" showed evidence of water molecules, sulphur and chlorine, as well as hints of organic compounds. However, terrestrial contamination, as the source of the organic compounds, could not be ruled out.
On September 26, 2013, NASA scientists reported that "Curiosity" detected "abundant, easily accessible" water (1.5 to 3 weight percent) in soil samples at the Rocknest region of Aeolis Palus in Gale. In addition, the rover found two principal soil types: a fine-grained mafic type and a locally derived, coarse-grained felsic type. The mafic type, similar to other martian soils and martian dust, was associated with hydration of the amorphous phases of the soil. Also, perchlorates, the presence of which may make detection of life-related organic molecules difficult, were found at the "Curiosity" landing site (and earlier at the more polar site of the Phoenix lander) suggesting a "global distribution of these salts". NASA also reported that Jake M rock, a rock encountered by "Curiosity" on the way to Glenelg, was a mugearite and very similar to terrestrial mugearite rocks.
On December 9, 2013, NASA reported that, based on evidence from "Curiosity" studying Aeolis Palus, Gale contained an ancient freshwater lake which could have been a hospitable environment for microbial life.
On December 16, 2014, NASA reported detecting, by the "Curiosity" rover at Gale, an unusual increase, then decrease, in the amounts of methane in the atmosphere of the planet Mars; in addition, organic chemicals were detected in powder drilled from a rock. Also, based on deuterium to hydrogen ratio studies, much of the water at Gale on Mars was found to have been lost during ancient times, before the lakebed in the crater was formed; afterwards, large amounts of water continued to be lost.
On October 8, 2015, NASA confirmed that lakes and streams existed in Gale 3.3 to 3.8 billion years ago delivering sediments to build up the lower layers of Mount Sharp.
On June 1, 2017, NASA reported that the "Curiosity" rover provided evidence of an ancient lake in Gale on Mars that could have been favorable for microbial life; the ancient lake was stratified, with shallows rich in oxidants and depths poor in oxidants; and, the ancient lake provided many different types of microbe-friendly environments at the same time. NASA further reported that the "Curiosity" rover will continue to explore higher and younger layers of Mount Sharp in order to determine how the lake environment in ancient times on Mars became the drier environment in more modern times.
On August 5, 2017, NASA celebrated the fifth anniversary of the "Curiosity" rover mission landing, and related exploratory accomplishments, on the planet Mars. (Videos: "Curiosity" First Five Years (02:07); "Curiosity" POV: Five Years Driving (05:49); "Curiosity" Discoveries About Gale Crater (02:54))
On June 7, 2018, NASA's "Curiosity" made two significant discoveries in Gale. Organic molecules preserved in 3.5 billion-year-old bedrock and seasonal variations in the level of methane in the atmosphere further support the theory that past conditions may have been conducive to life. It is possible that a form of water-rock chemistry might have generated the methane, but scientists cannot rule out the possibility of biological origins. Methane previously had been detected in Mars' atmosphere in large, unpredictable plumes. This new result shows that low levels of methane within Gale repeatedly peak in warm, summer months and drop in the winter every year. Organic carbon concentrations were discovered on the order of 10 parts per million or more. This is close to the amount observed in Martian meteorites and about 100 times greater than prior analysis of organic carbon on Mars' surface. Some of the molecules identified include thiophenes, benzene, toluene, and small carbon chains, such as propane or butene.
On November 4, 2018, geologists presented evidence, based on studies in Gale by the "Curiosity" rover, that there was plenty of water on early Mars. In January 2020, researchers have found certain minerals, made of carbon and oxygen, in rocks at Gale Crater, which may have formed in an ice-covered lake during a cold stage between warmer periods, or after Mars lost most of its atmosphere and became permanently cold.
On November 5, 2020, researchers concluded based on data observed by "Curiosity" rover that Gale crater experienced megafloods which occurred around 4 billion years ago, taking into consideration antidunes reaching the height of , which were formed by flood waters at least deep with a velocity of per second.


Thomas S. Bianchi

Thomas S. Bianchi is an oceanographer and biogeochemist. He is currently the Jon and Beverly Thompson Endowed Chair of Geological Sciences at the University of Florida and Editor-in-chief of the journal "Marine Chemistry".
Early life and education.
Bianchi was born in 1956 in Richmond Hill, New York, and moved to Holbrook in eastern Long Island where he stayed through his early college years. As a child he was very interested in basketball, largely influenced by his uncle, Al Bianchi, who was a professional basketball player. Bianchi has played drums through much of his life, and became interested in oceanography very early on. He earned his Ph.D. from University of Maryland in 1987.
Research and career.
Bianchi has been a professor at the University of Florida since 2013. Before joining UF he held full professor positions at Tulane University and Texas A&M University.
Personal life.
Bianchi is the son Rita and Tom Bianchi and is married to Jo Ann Bianchi (artist), and has a son Christopher T. Bianchi (video artist)
Selected publications.
Tom Bianchi has published over 300 articles.


Hyginus (crater)

Hyginus is a lunar caldera located at the east end of the Sinus Medii. It was named after ancient Roman astronomer Gaius Julius Hyginus. Its rim is split by a 220 kilometer-long rille, Rima Hyginus, that branches to the northwest and to the east-southeast. The crater is deeper than the rille, and lies at intersection of the rille's branches. Together, the crater and the rille form a prominent feature in an otherwise flat surface. Smaller craters along the length of the rille may have been caused by the collapse of an underlying structure.
Hyginus is one of the few craters on the Moon that was not created as a result of an impact, and is instead believed to be volcanic in origin. It lacks the raised outer rim that is typical with impact craters. Hyginus was considered a possible landing site during the Apollo Program, because it was thought to be a site of potentially active volcanism.
Satellite craters.
By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that is closest to Hyginus.


Fort Scott Formation

The Fort Scott Formation is a geologic formation in Kansas and Oklahoma. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carboniferous period.


Ootsa Lake Formation

The Ootsa Lake Formation is a geologic formation in British Columbia, Canada. It preserves fossils dating back to the Paleogene period.


Ross Point Formation

The Ross Point Formation is a geologic formation in Nova Scotia. It preserves fossils dating back to the Silurian period.


Hempstead Formation

The Hempstead Formation is a geologic formation in England. It preserves fossils dating back to the Paleogene period.


Epitaph Formation

The Epitaph Formation is a geologic formation in Arizona. It preserves fossils dating back to the Permian period.


Jeckenbach Formation

The Jeckenbach Formation is a geologic formation in Germany. It preserves fossils dating back to the Permian period.


Burgner Formation

The Burgner Formation is a geologic formation in Missouri. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carboniferous period.


Lievin Formation

The Lievin Formation is a geologic formation in France. It preserves fossils dating back to the Devonian period.


Codroy Group

The Codroy Group is a geologic group in Newfoundland and Labrador. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carboniferous period.


Archer City Formation

The Archer City Formation is a geologic formation in Texas. It preserves fossils dating back to the Permian period.


Bee Low Limestones

The Bee Low Limestones is a geologic formation in England. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carboniferous period.


Hitchcock Ichnological Cabinet

The Hitchcock Ichnological Cabinet is a collection of fossil footmarks assembled between 1836 and 1865 by Edward Hitchcock (1793–1864), noted American geologist, state geologist of Massachusetts, United States, and President of Amherst College. He was one of the first experts in fossil tracks. A footmark impression in stone is a petrosomatoglyph.
Begun when the science of ichnology (the study of tracks) was in its infancy, and the word dinosaur had not been coined yet, the collection was made chiefly from the fossils of the Connecticut River Valley (Connecticut River Valley trackways). By 1875 this collection consisted of 21,773 tracks representing 120 species. It is the world's largest collection of dinosaur tracks.
Starting in 1855, the collection was located in the lower level of Appleton Cabinet on the Amherst College campus. It has subsequently been twice relocated, and can now be found in the Amherst College Museum of Natural History.


Chickaloon Formation

The Chickaloon Formation is a geologic formation in Alaska. It preserves fossils dating back to the Paleogene period.


Jones Ridge Limestone

The Jones Ridge Limestone is a geologic formation in Alaska. It preserves fossils dating back to the Cambrian period.


Ouray Formation

The Ouray Formation is a geologic formation in Colorado. It preserves fossils dating back to the Devonian period.


Commentry Shales

The Commentry Shales is a geologic formation in France. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carboniferous period.


Prehistoric Trackways National Monument

Prehistoric Trackways National Monument is a national monument in the Robledo Mountains of Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States, near the city of Las Cruces. The monument's Paleozoic Era fossils are on of land administered by the Bureau of Land Management. It became the 100th active U.S. national monument when it was designated on March 30, 2009.
Fossils.
The Prehistoric Trackways National Monument site includes a major deposit of Paleozoic Era fossilized footprints in fossil mega-trackways of land animals, sea creatures, and insects. These are known as trace fossils or ichnofossils. There are also fossilized plants and petrified wood present, as well as plenty of marine invertebrate fossils including brachiopods, gastropods, cephalopods, bivalves, and echinoderms. Much of the fossilized material originated during the Permian Period and is around 280 million years old.
Some of the animals who may have left tracks in the Robledo Mountains include "Dimetrodon", "Eryops", "Edaphosaurus", and multiple other pelycosaurs. There are at least 13 major trace fossils found at the monument, including Selenichnites (sel-EEN-ick-NIGHT eez) or moon-shaped trace, Kouphichnium (koof-ICK-nee-um) or light trace, Palmichnium (pal-ICK-nee-um) or palm [frond] trace, Octopodichnus (oct-toe-pod-ICK-nuss) or eight-footed trace, Lithographus (lith-oh-GRAFF-us) or rock writing, Tonanoxichnus (tong-a-nox-ICK-nuss) or Tonganoxie [Kansas] trace, Augerinoichnus (aw-gurr-EE-no-ICK-nuss) or Augerino trace, Undichna (und-ICK-nuh) or wave-shaped trace, Serpentichnus (serpent-ICK-nuss) or snake-like trace, Batrachichnus (baa-track ICK-nuss) or frog trace, Dromopus (dro-MOE-puss) or running foot, and Dimetropus (die-MEET-row-puss) or Dimetrodon foot.
The trackways can be difficult for the general public to find, as the monument is largely undeveloped with few facilities yet existing to aid fossil hunters. Many of the slabs pulled out by Jerry MacDonald are housed at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, although they are not on display at this time. Guided hikes are periodically offered by BLM interpretive staff.
Geology.
The monument lies along the western portion of the Rio Grande rift and is within part of the Robledo Mountains. It is made up of Cenozoic and Paleozoic (Hueco Group) sediments. The Hueco Group is Early Permian strata. Most of the monument is Permian and would have been underwater or along the coast of what was once the Hueco Seaway. The tracks can be found in the red rock which is called the abo red beds.
Flora and fauna.
The monument is situated at the northern tip of the Chihuahuan Desert. Some examples of plants within the monument are ocotillo, mesquite, creosote bush, prickly-pear cactus, Torrey yucca, barrel cactus, sotol, agave and snakeweed. A few of the animals that you may see are mule deer, rattlesnakes, desert cottontail, many species of lizards, and several species of birds.
Climate.
On average the coolest month in the monument is January with an average high of , the hottest month is June with an average high temperature of , and the wettest month is August with about of precipitation.
Discovery.
In situ Paleozoic Era tracks were discovered on June 6, 1987 by Jerry Paul MacDonald. Scattered footprints had been found in the Robledos for almost fifty years prior to MacDonald starting his search. He used the recollections of local hikers, quarrymen, and fossil hunters to concentrate his search. This initial site was named the "Discovery Site". It is one of the best places in the monument for visitors to see fossilized tracks. Jerry MacDonald excavated three long trackways, carrying over 2500 slabs out from the site on his back. The majority of the slabs are housed in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in the Jerry MacDonald Paleozoic Trackways Collection. Two other continuous trackways are held in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Smithsonian.
Monument designation.
Prehistoric Trackways National Monument was sponsored by Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Pete Domenici (R-NM) and was part of the National Landscape Conservation System of the United States of America under the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, signed into law on March 30, 2009. It was the first national monument established under the Barack Obama administration, and the fourth established in 2009. At the time of its establishment, it was the 100th active national monument in the United States (not the 100th national monument ever designated, since some monuments were previously designated and later dissolved, but the 100th national monument still in operation).
Recreation.
The Bureau of Land Management is in the process of writing a resource management plan for the monument to be completed in 2012. In the meantime, there are no developed hiking or equestrian trails, and only one interpretive sign. Roads are not maintained and there are no facilities. There are OHV and mountain bike trails, which are rugged and require appropriate skills and equipment.


Elmore Formation

The Elmore Formation is a geologic formation in England. It preserves fossils dating back to the Paleogene period.


Gehlberg Formation

The Gehlberg Formation is a geologic formation in Germany. It preserves fossils dating back to the Paleogene period.


Lenticular bedding

Lenticular bedding is a sedimentary bedding pattern displaying alternating layers of mud and sand. Formed during periods of slack water, mud suspended in the water is deposited on top of small formations of sand once the water's velocity has reached zero. Lenticular bedding is classified by its large quantities of mud relative to sand, whereas a flaser bed consists mostly of sand. The sand formations within the bedding display a 'lens-like' shape, giving the pattern its respected name. They are commonly found in high-energy environments such as the intertidal and supratidal zones. Geologists use lenticular bedding to show evidence of tidal rhythm, tidal currents and tidal slack, in a particular environment.


Rytteraker Formation

The Rytteraker Formation is a geologic formation in Norway. It preserves fossils dating back to the Silurian period.


Freilingen Formation

The Freilingen Formation is a geologic formation in Germany. It preserves fossils dating back to the Devonian period.


Malbaie Formation

The Malbaie Formation is a geologic formation in Quebec. It preserves fossils dating back to the Devonian period.


Mount Mark Formation

The Mount Mark Formation is a geologic formation in British Columbia. It preserves fossils dating back to the Permian period.


Ellis Bay Formation

The Ellis Bay Formation is a geologic formation in Quebec. It preserves fossils dating back to the Ordovician period.


Periodic Bedrock Ridges

Periodic Bedrock Ridges (PBRs) are features of the surface geomorphology of Mars and formerly unknown on Earth, first described in a paper in the Journal of Geological Research - Planets, in March 2012, by Professor David R. Montgomery, Joshua L. Bandfield, and Scott K. Becker of the University of Washington. Periodic Bedrock Ridges (PBRs) have also been identified at the ExoMars 2022 landing site, Oxia Planum, which show that the landing site experienced multiple climatic changes in the Amazonian.
Evidence for sediment transport and erosion by wind is widespread over the surface of Mars today and was likely a major geomorphic process for much of its geological past. Although Martian surface features resembling aeolian dunes and ripples have been recognized since the Mariner and Viking missions, such features have been interpreted previously as active, indurated, or exhumed sedimentary forms.
The authors reported evidence based on High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment images flown on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, that show some megaripple forms are eroded into cohesive substrate rather than being composed of loose granular material or fossilized dunes. Exposure of stratigraphic continuity within layered, cohesive material extending crest to trough through features with mean wavelengths of to demonstrates the primarily erosional formation of what they termed periodic bedrock ridges (PBRs). Thus, some surfaces on Mars previously considered to be covered by wind-deposited material are actually wind-carved exposures that offer insights into Martian history.
PBRs lack the distinctive streamlining associated with wind-parallel yardangs, and comparison of PBR orientation to yardangs, megayardangs, and active sedimentary dunes in the same vicinity confirm that these PBRs formed transverse (across, or 90 degrees) to prevailing winds. Observed wavelengths of PBRs are comparable to those predicted by a simple model for erosional wavelengths of periodic transverse bed forms owing to the spacing of flow separations within the flow. Recognition of these transverse aeolian erosional forms brings up the question of how widespread Martian PBRs are and how many have been misinterpreted as active or indurated (fossilized) sedimentary dunes.
PBRs are not known on Earth. Montgomery has said that there could be landforms on Earth that are somewhat similar to PBRs, but to date there's nothing exactly like it, largely because there are not many bedrock landscapes on Earth in which wind is the main erosion agent. "There are very few places ... where you have bedrock exposed at the surface where there isn't also water that is carving valleys, that's shaping the topography. Mars is a different planet, obviously, and the biggest difference is the lack of fluvial action, the lack of water working on the surface."


Concha Formation

The Concha Formation is a geologic formation in Texas and Arizona. It preserves fossils dating back to the Permian period.


Talc carbonate

Talc carbonates are a suite of rock and mineral compositions found in metamorphosed ultramafic rocks.
The term refers to the two most common end-member minerals found within ultramafic rocks which have undergone talc-carbonation or carbonation reactions: talc and the carbonate mineral magnesite.
Talc carbonate mineral assemblages are controlled by temperature and pressure of metamorphism and the partial pressure of carbon dioxide within metamorphic fluids, as well as by the composition of the host rock.
Compositional controls.
In a general sense, talc carbonate metamorphic assemblages are diagnostic of the magnesium content of the ultramafic protolith.
Thus, the MgO content of a metamorphosed ultramafic rock can be estimated roughly by understanding the mineral assemblage of the rock. Magnesium content determines the proportion of talc and/or magnesite and aluminium-calcium-sodium content determines the proportion of amphibole and/or chlorite.
Talc carbonate minerals.
Several minerals are diagnostic of talc carbonated ultramafic rocks;
At amphibolite facies, the diopside-in isograd is reached (dependent on carbon dioxide partial pressure) and metamorphic assemblages trend toward talc-pyroxene and eventually toward metamorphic olivine.
Mineral reactions.
Serpentinisation of olivine:
"Or by addition of aqueous silica:"
"Carbonation of serpentine to form talc-magnesite"
Occurrence.
Because carbon dioxide is such a common component of metamorphic fluids, talc-carbonated ultramafics are relatively common. However, the degree of talc-carbonation is usually somewhere between the two end-member compositions of pure serpentinite and pure talc-carbonate. It is common to see serpentinites which contain talc, amphibole and chloritic minerals in small proportions which infer the presence of carbon dioxide in the metamorphic fluid.
Talc carbonate is present in many of the ultramafic bodies of the Archaean Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia. Notably, the Widgiemooltha Komatiite shows pure talc-carbonation on the eastern flank of the Widgeimooltha Dome, and almost pure serpentinite metamorphism on the western flank.
Carbonation of other rocks.
Carbon dioxide has less severe impacts on mafic, felsic and rocks of other composition, such as carbonate rocks, chemical sediments, etcetera. The exception to this rule is the calc-silicate family of metamorphic rocks, which are also subjected to wide variations in mineral speciation due to the mobility of carbonate during metamorphism.
Felsic and mafic rocks tend to be less affected by carbon dioxide due to their higher aluminium content. Ultramafic rocks lack aluminium, which allows carbonate to react with magnesium silicates to form talc. In rocks with extremely low aluminium contents, this reaction can progress to create magnesite.
Advanced carbonation of felsic and mafic rocks, very rarely, creates fenite, a metasomatic alteration caused particularly by carbonatite intrusions. Fenite alteration is known, but very restricted in distribution, around high-temperature metamorphic talc-carbonates, generally in the form of a sort of aureole around ultramafics. Such examples include biotite-rich zones, amphibolite-calcite-scapolite alteration and other unusual skarn assemblages.


Bighorn Basin Paleontological Institute

The Bighorn Basin Paleontological Institute (BBPI) is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization dedicated to paleontology and earth science research, education, and outreach. The organization conducts paleontological field work in the Bighorn Basin of Montana and Wyoming, largely focusing on vertebrates from the Mesozoic. During the off-season, the BBPI is primarily based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where they work to provide free outreach and education programs in the natural sciences to the public. The BBPI is the official scientific and educational partner of . The BBPI also operates the Fossil Preparation Lab at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, which serves as the BBPI’s base of operations for fossil preparation and research. The BBPI also works very closely with the Academy to develop and implement educational programming. The Cincinnati Museum Center, Museum of Natural History and Science is the official repository for all fossils collected by the BBPI.
Programs.
The BBPI runs a 6-week field expedition each summer in southern Montana and northern Wyoming to collect fossils of dinosaurs and other Mesozoic vertebrates. Field programs generally run from late June through mid-August. These field expeditions are open to sign-ups for individuals to learn about the geology, paleontology, and natural history of the region while aiding BBPI paleontologists in collecting fossils for research. For students, the program is available as a for-credit field paleontology course through Rocky Mountain College.
From 2017-2019, the BBPI also offered a dinosaur-themed summer camp program entitled “Dinosaur Treasures in Our Backyard” for children throughout rural Carbon County, Montana and in Cody, Wyoming. The program features several lessons and hands-on activities to teach children about dinosaurs, paleontology, and the fossil discoveries that have been made within their region.
Dig sites.
The BBPI’s dig sites are largely within the Lance and Morrison formations, though they have also spanned through the Cloverly, Fort Union, and Willwood formations. Nearly all of the BBPI’s localities lie within Carbon County, MT. Among the BBPI’s excavation sites is the Mother’s Day Quarry which the team has been excavating since the summer of 2017.
The BBPI has excavated a wide variety of dinosaur genera including "Diplodocus, Tyrannosaurus, Allosaurus, Triceratops, Leptoceratops, Suuwassea", "Edmontosaurus", Ankylosaur, and many others. Their finds have included many crocodilian, turtle, and plant fossils as well.


Nant Ffrancon Formation

The Nant Ffrancon Fermation is a geologic formation in Wales. It preserves fossils dating back to the Ordovician period.


Guinevere Planitia

Guinevere Planitia is an expansive lowland region of Venus that lies east of Beta Regio and west of Eistla Regio (quadrangle V-30). These low-lying plains, particularly in the western portion, are characterized by apparent volcanic source vents and broad regions of bright, dark, and mottled deposits. They are the only break in an equatorially connected zone of highlands and tectonic zones. The types, numbers, and patterns of mapped tectonic features and small volcanic landforms in the region provide important detail in the interpretation and evolution of venusian landscape.
By using Pioneer Venus, Goldstone, and Arecibo data, these regions have been interpreted as widespread superposed flows that originated from the source vents. Fracture zones and lineament belt segments that have been identified are said to represent the Beta-Eistla deformation zones of the region. "Magellan" SAR images have revealed that most of these surface units are composed of volcanic land forms. There is also Seymour crater that is associated with extensive crater outflow deposits.
Overview.
The region of Guinevere Planitia gives great insight to venusian tectonics and how the planet manages its heat. The nature of these structures also provides clues to the styles of volcanism, which is related to composition, volatile content, interaction with crust during magma movement, and the structure of the crust and lithosphere. By using geomorphic properties observed in the images taken, the terrain can be categorized into three types of geologic material: ridge terrain, plains materials, and volcanoes. There are crater materials locally that include ejecta, rim, and floor deposits from nine recognized craters. These structures also exhibit prominent outflow deposits.
Ridge terrain.
Complex ridge terrain in Guinevere Planitia consists of embayed remnants of material that have undergone extensive deformation. Lineated materials contain one dominant orientation of tectonic features, and complexly lineated materials contain two or more tectonic fabrics. Ridge terrain includes the oldest materials found in this region and are often referred to as tessera. The ridge terrain is generally referred to as mottled, lineated plains which are generally large expanses of rolling topography that contain a small variety of volcanic domes, shields, cones, and flows. The mottled nature of the ridges is a result of ponding of flows and flow deposits in regions of low slopes.
Regional plains.
Structures primarily found in the plains of Guinevere Planitia consist of wrinkle ridges, fractures and lineaments. Lineaments exhibit one dominant orientation of tectonic features. Extending through the plains of Guinevere is a deformation zone that is made up of discontinuous segments of lineament belts and ovoids that are referred to as the Beta-Eistla deformation zone.
Other structural features are observed in coronae and coronae-like features as well as tesserae and other highly tectonized units. Within this region, structures exhibit a diversity of orientations and occur in sets of features with similar trends. Prominent East-West and Southeast-Northwest trends are locally observed in the regional plains. The figure to the left, beginning with A, shows a backscatter image of the northeastern region of Guinevere Planitia. Depicted in figure B, in the shaded regions are outcrops of tesserae which are concentrated on the eastern side of Beta Regio. Wrinkle ridges can be viewed as the purple fill in figure C. These outcrops dominate the low-lying region and are marked with yellow lines that represent major trends. Figure D shows the distribution of fracture belts and their trends in black. The likely cause of these trends is due to mantel upwelling at Beta Regio to the west. The trend of these figures can be directly related to radiating fractures and grabens, interpreted as underlying dyke swarms. The remainder of the systems are interpreted to be caused by tectonic stresses related to uplift or a combination of dyke and uplift mechanisms.
Volcanology.
Volcanism is one of the fundamental processes of heat transfer from planetary interiors. By assessing the location of volcanic deposits and edifices, their volumes, and their sequences provide evidence for quantitative assessment of heat transfer in space and time. The region contains three major volcanoes which have smaller volcanic constructs built upon their flanks and summit regions: Atanua, Rhpisunt, Tuli, and Var Mons, and three coronae: Hulda, Madderakka, and Pölöznitsa. Due to the amount of flows from these major eruptive centers, there is much obscurities among the deposits. Relative age relationships both within and between the major eruptive centers are difficult to determine due to the complex nature in which these flows coalesce and inter-finger. Each volcano appears to have had an extensive period of eruptive activity with several major phases creating large flow fields and more localized activity occurring both at vents on the flanks of the volcanoes and at their summits. Geologic mapping shows a general progression from upland terrain to volcanic plains and then to shield volcanoes and flow fields but also reveals a complex interplay between volcanic and tectonic processes.
Tuli Mons.
Tuli Mons (13°N, 314.5°) is ~600x800 km across and contains a ~100x200 km field of low shields at its summit. Tuli rises an average of 600 m above its surroundings, and its flanks consist of a series of lobate, narrow flows which radiate from the summit region. Progressing north, large flow fields extend onto the plains and unite with a secondary eruptive center.
Atanua Mons.
The westernmost volcano, Atanua Mons (9.5°N, 309°), is delineated by a cluster of small edifices and flows. At the summit, radial flows surround a small shield or cone with a central pit roughly 12 km in diameter. The flanks of this edifice (~1000 km across) are composed of lobate flows that extend in all direction from the summit. To the north of Atanua flows embay a corona, to the west is a fan-shaped flow field that covers the adjacent plain and may include some of the youngest deposits in the region, and to the south, flows embay a remnant of complexly deformed terrain.
Var Mons.
Var Mons (1.5°N, 316°) lies in the southernmost portion of the plains and has a very complex summit region consisting of a shield field, a collapsed and embayed steep-sided dome, and a large, irregular dome. On the southern flank of Var Mons lies narrow, lobate flows which extend for ~500 km where they overlie dark, ridged plains.
North of the summit extends a prominent rift zone that stretches a distance of 250 km where it terminates in a cluster of ring structures. The rift zone is embayed by summit flows. North of this rift zone, four more corona-like structures (~70–250 km in diameter) are partially embayed by flank flows and appear to be source regions for other flows on the plain as well.


Collis (planetary nomenclature)

Collis (plural: colles , from the Latin word for "hill") is a small hill or knob on a celestial body. The term is used in planetary nomenclature: it is a part of international proper names of such features. Like other generic terms, it is capitalized and stands after the proper name (for example, "Bilbo Colles"; the only exception is "Colles Nili" on Mars). As of 2015, only groups of the hills have names, and the term is used only in plural.
Like the other terms of planetary nomenclature, this word describes only external view of the features, but not their origin or geological structure. So, it is used for hills of any origin. Names of bigger (especially domical) uplands usually contain the term "Tholus" ("dome"), and the names of still bigger mountains – the term "Mons" ("mountain"). Peculiar round mountains, which are found on Venus, get names with the term "Farrum".
The term "Collis" was introduced into planetary nomenclature in 1982, on XVIIIth General Assembly of International Astronomical Union. This year two groups of hills on Mars were named ("Ariadnes Colles" and "Deuteronilus Colles"). As of May 2015, 43 such groups are named: 22 on Mars, 16 on Venus and 5 on Titan. On different celestial bodies they are named differently:


Dufton Shales

The Dufton Shales is a geologic formation in England. It preserves fossils dating back to the Ordovician period.


Kenneth Scarratt

Kenneth Scarratt (born 1948), is a notable British gemologist, pearl expert, authority on the British crown jewels, and the current Director for South East Asia of the Gemological Institute of America and GIA Research Center in Bangkok, Thailand
Scarratt has authored or co-authored articles in many gemological magazines and journals worldwide, and has co-authored two books: "The Pearl and the Dragon. A Study of Vietnamese Pearls and a History of the Oriental Pearl Trade", and "The Crown Jewels: The History of the Coronation Regalia in the Jewel House of the Tower of London".
Scarratt is currently CEO of DANAT, the Royally sponsored authority on precious gems and natural pearls in Bahrain.
History.
Prior to taking over GIA in Bangkok, Scarratt was laboratory director of the American Gem Trade Association's (AGTA) Gem Testing Center (GTC) in New York, beginning in 1998. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Scarratt has also served as Director of Laboratory Services, Education, and Research for The Asian Institute of Gemological Services (Bangkok) and Chief Executive and Laboratory Director of The Gem Testing Laboratory of Great Britain.
British Crown Jewels.
The (British) Royal Household's representatives realized there was no definitive text on the Crown Jewels and the regalia. There have been some books about the Crown Jewels written, but all of those texts were never written from first-hand knowledge. So, a group of specialists headed by Scarratt were brought in to write the book. According to Scarratt it took six years to write the book, from its inception to the completion of the work, and an extra five years to see it printed as a gilt-edged, two-volume, 1,440-page tome.
Natural Pearls.
Scarratt is considered by many in the gem and jewelry industry media to be one of the leading pearl authorities in the world. He has extensive experience in the research and identification of a broad range of pearl materials and detection of treatments. His expertise on saltwater and freshwater natural pearls includes the rare Melo pearl. In 1999 Scarratt co-authored The Pearl & the Dragon – which is the definitive study of Oriental pearls.
Bahrain.
In 2017, at the instigation of HRH Crown Prince Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Scarratt established Danat, the pioneering authority on precious gems on Bahrain, where he is the current CEO and Natural Pearl expert.


Esmeralda Formation

The Esmeralda Formation is a geologic formation in Nevada. It preserves fossils dating back to the Neogene period.


Cedar Mesa Sandstone

Cedar Mesa Sandstone (also known as the Cedar Mesa Formation) is a sandstone member of the Cutler Formation, found in southeast Utah, southwest Colorado, northwest New Mexico, and northeast Arizona.
Cedar Mesa Sandstone is the remains of coastal sand dunes deposited about 245–286 million years ago, during the early Permian period. Coloration varies, but the rock often displays a red and white banded appearance as a result of periodic floods which carried iron-rich sediments down from the Uncompahgre Mountains during its formation.
Named after topographic Cedar Mesa near the San Juan River in Utah, exposures of Cedar Mesa Sandstone form the spires and canyons found in the Needles and Maze districts of Canyonlands National Park, the inner gorge of White Canyon, and the three natural bridges of Natural Bridges National Monument.
References.


Mocha-Villarrica Fault Zone

The Mocha-Villarrica Fault Zone is a northwest-trending geological fault zone in southern Chile and Argentina. The fault zone runs from Mocha Island in the Pacific to the Andes where it aligns Villarrica, Quetrupillán and Lanín volcanoes. It is one of several fault zones that traverses the north-south Liquiñe-Ofqui Fault.


Chanac Formation

The Chanac Formation is a Cenozoic Era sandstone geologic formation in the southeastern San Joaquin Valley, within Kern County, California.
Geology.
The Kern River Series is divided into the lower Chanac Formation unit, and the upper Kern River Beds Formation unit, with the wedge of the Etchegoin Formation in the middle in the western section. It is composed of sandstone and cobble conglomerate. It overlies the Miocene Period Santa Margarita Formation.
It preserves fossils dating back to the Neogene period.


Bird Spring Group

The Bird Spring Group is a geologic group in Nevada. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carboniferous period.


Llandeilo Formation

The Llandeilo Formation is a geologic formation in Scotland. It preserves fossils dating back to the Middle Ordovician period.


Haverford Mudstone

The Haverford Mudstone is a geologic formation in Wales. It preserves fossils dating back to the Silurian period.


Neosauroides

Neosauroides koreaensis was a Cretaceous ichnogenus, found in South Korea. The name means a "new kind of lizard found in Korea".


Grenola Formation

The Grenola Formation (or Grenola Limestone) is an early Permian geologic formation (Wolfcampian) with its exposure running north and south through Kansas and extending into Nebraska and Oklahoma, notably having the Neva Limestone member, a terrace-forming aquifer and historic Flint Hills building stone source secondary to the Cottonwood Limestone.