Chrysanthemum lavandulifolium

Chrysanthemum lavandulifolium is a flowering plant within the family Asteraceae and the genus "Chrysanthemum". It is a perennial flowering plant that is often noted because of its yellow flowers. It has 18 chromosomes at the diploid stage.
Description.
The morphology of the plant consists of a herb and its flower. The herb is erect, and the flowers have yellow sepals and multiple carpals. The herb has a green, oblong leaf with pinnate venation. These leaves are about 5–7 cm in length and 4–6 cm in width. The leaf blade is broad, while the base is suddenly narrowed and of an ovate or lanceolate lobed shape. The leaves are in alternate arrangement throughout the stem. In addition, it has a broad sinus base with "dorsifixed pubescence" underneath. The petiole is about 1–2 cm long.
The rhizome is short, while the stem is erect, long branched, and colored white pubescent. Also, there are only a few stem-leaves. The herb grows from 100 to 150 cm.
"C. lavandulifolium" flowers grow in a corymb-style head and are terminal. They also have yellow heads that contain multiple carpals; these stretch from 14–15 mm in diameter. They also contain three or four oblong bracts that have soft tissue and are elliptical and tipped. These bracts have hemispherical involucre or coverings. In addition, the yellow corollas of the flower are about 5–7 mm long and 1.5–2 mm wide These heads stretch to about 1.5 cm in diameter. These bisexual florets have obtuse and irregular anther bases. They have pistillate ray florets that can be yellow or white. From these pistillates, they produce achenes, which are indehiscent and angled. The pappus, a modified calyx, is not present or extremely small.
Taxonomy.
The species was first described in 1872 by Ernst von Trautvetter as "Pyrethrum lavandulifolium", with the name attributed to Friedrich von Fischer. In 1909, Tomitaro Makino placed the species in "Chrysanthemum" when describing "Chrysanthemum boreale" (which he had mentioned as a variety of "C. indicum" in 1902). He noted that "C. boreale" "came very near" to "C. lavandulifolium". The two are now treated as one species.
When it became understood that Linnaeus's "Chrysanthemum", which was typified by a Mediterranean annual species, was distinct from the largely Asian perennial species, these latter, including "C. lavandulifolium" and "C. boreale", were initially given names in the genus "Dendranthema". In 1999, the genus name "Chrysanthemum" was conserved for the Asian species, so the name "Chrysanthemum lavandulifolium" became acceptable again.
Distribution.
"C. lavandulifolium" naturally occurs or is native to regions of eastern Asia such as Korea, Japan, and China. In China, it is found in the provinces Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan. In Japan, it is found primarily in Honshu and Kyushu. In Korea, it is found in Gyeongsangbuk, Gangwon, and Chungcheongbuk. Chrysanthemums may have been introduced to Japan by Chinese in the eighth century AD.
Habitat and ecology.
"C. lavandulifolium", a perennial plant, grows well in warm climates around East Asia. It flowers from October to November. The plant grows well on moist clayey soils in full sun. It is also quite immune to high temperatures and lack of moisture.
Medicinal use.
In Korea, "C. lavandulifolium" has been used to treat vertigo, a type of dizziness, in traditional medicine. In addition, its flowers have been used as an antipyretic. It has been also noted to have anti-inflammatory effects on disease such as atopic dermatitis.
Diseases.
This particular type of chrysanthemum is noted to be affected by black plight. In addition, in Korea and other Asian countries, "C. lavandulifolium" has contracted a downy mildew infection caused by "Paraperonospora minor". The fungi-like agents grow on leaves and turn them a yellowish color, and the plant eventually wilts until it dies out. This study was the first to find "C. lavandulifolium" with this infection.


Aceste ovata

Aceste ovata is a species of sea urchin of the family Schizasteridae. Their armour is covered with spines. It came from the genus Aceste and lives in the sea. Aceste ovata was first scientifically described in 1907 by Alexander Emanuel Agassiz & Hubert Lyman Clark.


Penicillium duclauxii

Penicillium duclauxii is an anamorph species of the genus of "Penicillium" which produces xenoclauxin and duclauxin.


Erigeron irazuensis

Erigeron irazuensis is a Central American species of flowering plant in the daisy family. It has been found only in Costa Rica.
"Erigeron irazuensis" is a perennial herb up to 25 cm (10 inches) tall, producing a branching underground caudex. Stems are sometimes erect (standing straight up) but other times recumbent (reclining on the ground or leaning on other vegetation). Leaves are moderately hairy, some produced close to the ground plus others higher on the stem. The plant produces flower heads on long, thin stalks. Each head contains 38-55 white or pink ray florets surrounding numerous yellow disc florets.


Jasminum subtriplinerve

Jasminum subtriplinerve is a species of jasmine, in the family Oleaceae. Its leaves are used as a drink in Vietnam.


Sebastiania ramulosa

Sebastiania ramulosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae. It was described in 1924. It is native to São Paulo, Brazil.


Genoplesium acuminatum

Genoplesium acuminatum, commonly known as the pointed midge orchid and as "Corunastylis acuminata" in Australia, is a small terrestrial orchid endemic to eastern Australia. It has a single thin leaf fused to the flowering stem and up to sixteen small, hairy, greenish purple to brownish purple flowers. It is found in coastal and near-coastal parts of New South Wales and Queensland.
Description.
"Genoplesium acuminatum" is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber and a single thin leaf long and fused to the flowering stem with the free part long. Between six and sixteen greenish purple to brownish purple flowers are crowded along a flowering stem tall and taller than the leaf. The flowers are about long and wide and are inverted so that the labellum is above the column rather than below it. The dorsal sepal is broadly egg-shaped, about long and wide with long, coarse hairs on its edges. The lateral sepals are linear to lance-shaped, about long, wide, have pointed tips and spread widely apart from each other. The petals are lance-shaped to broad egg-shaped, about long and wide with hairy edges and a sharply pointed tip. The labellum is lance-shaped to egg-shaped, about long, wide, with a curled, sharply pointed tip and long, coarse hairs on the sides. There is an oblong callus in the centre of the labellum and extending about half way to its tip. Flowering occurs between December and May.
Taxonomy and naming.
The pointed midge orchid was first formally described in 1927 by Richard Sanders Rogers who gave it the name "Prasophyllum acuminatum" and published the description in "Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia". In 1989, David Jones and Mark Clements changed the name to "Genoplesium acuminatum" and in 1998 changed the name again to "Corunastylis acuminata". The specific epithet ("acuminatum") is a Latin word meaning "sharpened" or "pointed".
Distribution and habitat.
"Genoplesium acuminatum" grows in forest in coastal and near-coastal areas of New South Wales from near Sydney north to Fraser Island in Queensland.


Rhodacarellus silesiacus

Rhodacarellus silesiacus is a species of mite in the family Rhodacaridae.


Dipodium conduplicatum

Dipodium conduplicatum is an orchid species that is native to Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra. The species was formally described in 1927 by Dutch botanist Johannes Jacobus Smith.


Argyroglottis

Argyroglottis is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family.
The genus is monotypic, that is, there is only one species, Argyroglottis turbinata, in the genus, which is endemic to Western Australia.


Penicillium simplicissimum

Penicillium simplicissimum is an anamorph species of fungus in the genus "Penicillium" which can
promote plant growth. This species occurs on food and its primary habitat is in decaying vegetations
"Penicillium simplicissimum" produces verruculogene, fumitremorgene B, penicillic acid, viridicatumtoxin, decarestrictine G, decarestrictine L, decarestrictine H, decarestrictine I, decarestrictine K decarestrictine M, dihydrovermistatin, vermistatin and penisimplicissin


Calvatia arctica

Calvatia arctica is a species of puffball mushroom in the family Agaricaceae. Found in Greenland, it was first described scientifically by Carl Christian Frederic Ferdinandsen and Øjvind Winge in a 1910 publication.


Malaxis abieticola

Malaxis abieticola is a species of orchid native to Mexico and to the southwestern United States (Arizona, New Mexico). It has only one leaf underneath several small green flowers growing in an elongated array.


Glyceria melicaria

Glyceria melicaria, the melic mannagrass or northeastern mannagrass, is a perennial grass found in the eastern United States. Its specific epithet "melicaria" means "similar to "Melica"". Its diploid number is 40.
Description.
"Glyceria melicaria" grows erect culms from a creeping base, with the solitary or few culms growing tall. Its leaf sheaths are smooth and its ligules are translucent. Its lax, elongate leaves are long and wide, and are smooth on their bottom side but scabrous on the top. Its linear-cylindrical panicle is long and nods down towards its end. The panicle's closely appressed floral branches have thirty to upwards of sixty spikelets per branch. Its appressed spikelets are about 4 mm long and have three to four flowers.
Its glumes are lanceolate and have acute apices. The lower glume is 1.3-2.4 mm and the upper glume is 1.7-3 mm. Its five- to seven-veined lemmas are 1.9-2.8 mm long, with its paleas roughly the same size. The grass flowers from late June to August.
"Glyceria" × "gatineauensis" is a sterile hybrid between "Glyceria striata" and "G. melicaria" which has been found to occur in Quebec and possibly West Virginia. It resembles "G. melicaria" but has longer and less appressed panicle branches, growing up to long. The hybrid is a triploid.
Habitat and distribution.
"Glyceria melicaria" grows in wet soils, swamps, and wet forests from New Brunswick to Ontario and south into Illinois and the northeastern United States, as well as down into the Appalachian Mountains as far south as northern Georgia.


Palaquium pseudorostratum

Palaquium pseudorostratum is a tree in the family Sapotaceae. The specific epithet "pseudorostratum" is for the species' similarity to "Palaquium rostratum".
Description.
"Palaquium pseudorostratum" grows up to tall. The bark is reddish brown. Inflorescences bear up to four flowers. The fruits are up to long.
Distribution and habitat.
"Palaquium pseudorostratum" is native to Borneo and the Philippines. Its habitat is swamp and "kerangas" forests.


Scirpus flaccidifolius

Scirpus flaccidifolius, the reclining bulrush, is an uncommon plant species endemic to a small region in Virginia and North Carolina. It is reported from only six populations in three counties in Virginia (Greensville, Sussex and Southampton) and one county in North Carolina (Northampton). All known populations are within 100 km of each other, though the species does not seem to be in danger of extinction.
"Scirpus flaccidifolius" is unusual in the genus in having culms (flowering stalks) that lean against other vegetation instead of being stiff and erect. The species also has wider but less numerous spikelets than closely related species (fewer than 15 spikelets per cluster but each spikelet 2–3 mm wide).


Coconino National Forest

The Coconino National Forest is a 1.856-million acre (751,000 ha) United States National Forest located in northern Arizona in the vicinity of Flagstaff. Originally established in 1898 as the "San Francisco Mountains National Forest Reserve", the area was designated a U.S. National Forest in 1908 when the San Francisco Mountains National Forest Reserve was merged with lands from other surrounding forest reserves to create the Coconino National Forest. Today, the Coconino National Forest contains diverse landscapes, including deserts, ponderosa pine forests, flatlands, mesas, alpine tundra, and ancient volcanic peaks. The forest surrounds the towns of Sedona and Flagstaff and borders four other national forests; the Kaibab National Forest to the west and northwest, the Prescott National Forest to the southwest, the Tonto National Forest to the south, and the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest to the southeast. The forest contains all or parts of ten designated wilderness areas, including the Kachina Peaks Wilderness, which includes the summit of the San Francisco Peaks. The headquarters are in Flagstaff. There are local ranger district offices in Flagstaff, Happy Jack, and Sedona.
Etymology.
Coconino is the word the Hopi use for Havasupai and Yavapai Indians. The Coconino National Forest was so named because it is located in the central portion of Coconino County.
Geography.
The elevation in the forest ranges from 2,600 feet (800 m) in the southern part of the forest near the Verde River to 12,633 feet (3,851 m) at the summit of Humphreys Peak, the highest point in the state of Arizona. Much of the forest is a high altitude plateau (average elevation is roughly 7,000 feet (2,100 m) on the plateau) that is located in the midst of the largest contiguous ponderosa pine forest in North America. The southern border of this plateau is the Mogollon Rim, a nearly 400 mile (640 km) long escarpment running across central Arizona that also marks the southern boundary of the Colorado Plateau. The Coconino National Forest is divided into three districts that each possess their own distinct geography and environments.
The northernmost district, known as the Flagstaff District, is home to the San Francisco Peaks, an ancient group of volcanic summits. The highest peak, Humphreys Peak, is the highest point in Arizona at 12,633 feet (3,851 m). The second, third, and fourth highest peaks in Arizona are found nearby. The San Francisco Peaks are the dominant structure of the San Francisco Volcanic Field, an 1,800 square mile (4,700 km2) volcanic field that contains more than 600 volcanic features. The Coconino National Forest encompasses a large portion of the volcanic field and so the forest landscape around Flagstaff is dotted with tree-covered cinder cones, lava flows, and lava tubes (such as Lava River Cave). The Flagstaff District surrounds two United States National Monuments near Flagstaff, Walnut Canyon National Monument and Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument the latter of which preserves the youngest cinder cone in the San Francisco Volcanic Field, Sunset Crater. The forest borders another National Monument, Wupatki National Monument on its northeast corner.
Located in the southern portion of the Flagstaff District is Mormon Lake, the largest natural lake in the state of Arizona. Several other natural lakes, including Ashurst Lake and Marshall Lake, dot the top of Anderson Mesa, an approximately 20-mile (30 km) long ridge that rises 200 to 400 feet (60−120 m) above the surrounding landscape. Anderson Mesa is best known for the branch of Lowell Observatory located along the edge of the mesa. At the base of the southwest side of Anderson Mesa are two narrow, manmade reservoirs constructed in the early 1900s, Upper Lake Mary and Lower Lake Mary. Upper Lake Mary contains water year round in all but the very driest years while Lower Lake Mary, located just to the northwest of Upper Lake Mary, usually resembles a wet meadow rather than a lake.
The Red Rock district, centered on the town of Sedona, encompasses many of the famous red rock buttes and mesas, and canyons that have made Sedona famous as a resort town. Just north of Sedona is Oak Creek Canyon, one of the many large canyons located along the Mogollon Rim. Oak Creek Canyon is one of the most popular recreation destinations in the Coconino National Forest and along with Sedona is Arizona's second most popular tourist attraction, second only to the Grand Canyon. Oak Creek Canyon is also a popular leaf peeping area in the fall as it is one of the few areas in the forest where deciduous trees are the dominant vegetation type. This region is also home to Sycamore Canyon, the second largest canyon in Arizona. Elevations in this part of the forest are substantially lower (Sedona is at 4,500 feet (1,400 m) above sea level) than the rest of the forest resulting in higher temperatures year round.
The Third district is the Mogollon Rim District, located along the Mogollon Rim south of the Mormon Lake District and east of the Red Rock District. The landscape here resembles the Mormon Lake District with a number of small lakes and perennial streams scattered among a dense ponderosa pine forest. The southern boundary of the district is the edge of the Mogollon Rim where the Coconino National Forest borders the Tonto National Forest and Coconino County borders Gila County.
Flora.
Conifers and other evergreen plants are the dominant type of vegetation in the Coconino National Forest. Due in part to the dry climate, deciduous trees are rare except for in some moist areas along creeks and streams. While the ponderosa pine is by far the most common tree species in the Coconino National Forest, vegetation type varies depending on the elevation of a certain area.
At the lowest elevations, in the extreme southwestern portion of the forest, actual trees are scarce and the landscape is dominated by various small shrubs and sagebrushes. At elevations between 4,500 feet and 6,500 feet (1,400−2,000 m), which includes the area surrounding Sedona, various species of juniper including the alligator juniper and the Utah juniper are predominant. Other common tree and shrubs of this environment, often classified as the "juniper-pinyon woodlands", include Arizona cypress, manzanita, and pinyon pine. Hikers often encounter Parry's agave, yuccas, and prickly pear cacti in this region as well.
The huge stands of ponderosa pine on the forest are found primarily at elevations between 6,500 feet and 8,000 feet (2,000−2,400 m). Other species scattered among this region include gambel oak, quaking aspen, and Rocky Mountain Juniper.
The highest elevations in the forest are located in the San Francisco Peaks area north of Flagstaff. Here grow large conifers such as Engelmann spruce, blue spruce, subalpine fir, corkbark fir (a variety of subalpine fir found only in isolated areas of Arizona and New Mexico), Douglas-fir, bristlecone pine, and limber pine. Isolated stands of quaking aspen, usually the first tree to regenerate following a severe wildfire, are scattered across the mountain.
Above 11,000 feet (3,400 m) is found the only alpine tundra region in Arizona. Vegetation is scarce in this region. A few small bristlecone pines are found otherwise the area is above tree line and inhabited by small grasses, lichens, and alpine wildflowers.
Wildfire.
Wildfire is a major concern across the Coconino National Forest. Despite the abundance of green vegetation throughout the forest, the region is classified as a high desert. Flagstaff, located in the northern part of the forest, receives about 22 inches (560 mm) of precipitation annually—including an average annual snowfall of —while other areas of the forest receive even less. The lack of any significant rainfall during the spring and early summer combined with the high temperatures and strong winds that are commonplace during that time of year results in fire danger that is usually defined as "very high" or "extreme" during the months of May through July. The danger of a major wildfire is increased by the fact that there are a number of cities and communities surrounded by forest land. Restrictions on campfires and smoking in the forest are common during peak fire season. Occasionally, the fire danger will become so great that the forest is closed to all public entry until substantial precipitation is received to minimize the danger of a stray spark setting off a destructive wildfire.
Over the past few years, the Coconino National Forest has increased its use of prescribed burns as a tool to prevent major wildfires. This strategy, along with forest thinning, has been especially widespread in areas of the forest that surround urban areas.
Wilderness areas.
There are ten federally designated U.S. Wilderness Areas within or partially within the Coconino National Forest:
History.
When the United States acquired the territory comprising Arizona and New Mexico by treaty with Mexico in 1848, those lands not already privately owned, including Spanish and Mexican land grants, nor reserved by treaty for the various Indian tribes, became a part of the "public domain" and open under various laws to settlement, purchase, and use.
In 1898, President William McKinley established the San Francisco Mountain Forest Reserve, at the request of Gifford Pinchot, head of the US Division of Forestry. Local reaction was hostile—citizens of Williams, Arizona held a mass protest, and the "Williams News" editorialized that the reserve "virtually destroys Coconino County."
In 1905, the Forest Reserves were transferred to the Department of Agriculture. Some 21 million acres (85,000 km2) of public lands, almost one-eighth of the area of Arizona and New Mexico, were now to be administered by the new Forest Service.
In 1908, the Coconino National Forest was established from parts of the Tonto, Black Mesa, Grand Canyon, and entire San Francisco Mountains National Forests.


Mycena atkinsonii

Mycena atkinsonii is a species of agaric fungus in the family Mycenaceae. The species was first described scientifically by New York State botanist Homer Doliver House in 1920.


Quercus morii

Quercus morii is an uncommon Asian species of trees in the beech family. It has been found only in Taiwan.
"Quercus morii" is a large tree up to 30 meters tall. Leaves can be as much as 10 cm long.


Chaetodiadema keiense

Chaetodiadema keiense is a species of sea urchins of the family, Diadematidae. Their armour is covered with spines. Chaetodiadema keiense was first scientifically described in 1939 by Ole Theodor Jensen Mortensen.


Coprinellus marculentus

Coprinellus marculentus is a species of mushroom in the family Psathyrellaceae. First described as "Coprinus marculentus" by the mycologist Max Britzelmayr in 1893, it was later transferred to the genus "Coprinellus" in 2001.


Allium punctum

Allium punctum is a species of wild onion known by the common name dotted onion or Modoc onion. It is native to the western United States in and around the Modoc Plateau in northeastern California (Modoc County), northwestern Nevada (Humboldt County), and southeastern Oregon (Malheur, Lake and Harney Counties). It is uncommon, growing volcanic flatlands created by old lava flows.
Description.
"Allium punctum" grows from a yellow-brown to grayish oval-shaped bulb one or two centimeters wide. It produces a short stem no more than 10 centimeters tall and two sickle-shaped leaves which are usually a bit longer. The inflorescence bears up to 20 flowers which are white or pink with purple veining.


Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary

Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary is a protected area located in the Chengalpattu District and Madurantakam taluk of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The sanctuary is about from Chennai on National Highway 45 ([NH45]). Easily reachable from Madurantakam and Chengalpattu. More than 40,000 birds (including 26 rare species), from various parts of the world visit the sanctuary during the migratory season every year.
Vedanthangal is home to migratory birds such as pintail, garganey, grey wagtail, blue-winged teal, common sandpiper and the like.
Vedanthangal is the oldest water bird sanctuary in the country. Vedanthangal in Tamil language means 'hamlet of the hunter'. This area was a favourite hunting spot of the local landlords in the early 18th century. The region attracted a variety of birds because it was dotted with small lakes that acted as feeding grounds for the birds. Realising its ornithological importance, the British government undertook steps to develop Vedanthangal into a bird sanctuary as early as 1798. This was established in 1858 by the order of the Collector of Chengalpattu.
The best time to visit this sanctuary is from November to March. During this time, birds are seen busy building and maintaining their nests.
Villagers near this sanctuary are very concerned about the sanctuary and its winged residents, and they have taken many serious steps to avoid disturbance to the flow of birds.
History.
The Vedanthangal lake bird sanctuary has a tradition of the people actively protecting birds coming to the area since time immemorial. The local people understood the relationship between birds and the productivity of their crops even before the concept of wildlife conservation came into vogue. They knew that the bird droppings in the water created guano which acted as fertilizer. Towards the end of the 18th century local villagers complained to the collector of Chengalpet Lionel Palace, about the British soldiers shooting the birds. They demanded and obtained a 'Cowle' from the collector (Mr Place, Collector of Chingleput 1796-1798) to protect the birds. In 1936 the collector officially recognized the lake as a sanctuary. In 1962 it was given the legal status of reserved forest under the Madras Forest Act.
Several accounts of the sanctuary were published in the mid-19th century. In 1936, the park was notified as a sanctuary, and in 1962, the Madras Forest Act legally accorded the status of a reserve forest to Vedanthangal. Ten years later, the place was declared as a wildlife sanctuary.
In the government order dated 8 July 1988, the area was declared as 'Vedanthangal Lake Bird Sanctuary', under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.
In 1967, a rest house was constructed for the convenience of visiting inspecting officers and tourists.
The area had a compact grove of more than 500 "Barringtonia" trees earlier. An additional 100 trees were planted in 1973 and over 1,000 trees were planted in 1996.
Bird species.
The Vedanthangal Lake Bird Sanctuary features thousands of birds coming from various countries, some of which can be easily identified. Some easily found birds include cormorants, darters, grebes, large egrets, little egrets, moorhens, night herons, paddy birds, painted storks, pintails, pond herons, sandpipers, shovellers, terns, white ibises and many more. The migratory birds include garganeys and teals from Canada; snake birds and glossy ibises from Sri Lanka; grey pelicans from Australia; grey herons and openbilled stork from Bangladesh; painted storks from Siberia; spoonbills from Burma and the Indian spot-billed duck. It is a good tourist spot.
The Lake.
The Vedanthangal lake is situated 122 m above sea level. It supplies water to 250 acres of agricultural land around the area. The west and south sides of the lake are bordered by a long bund, whereas the northern and eastern sides extend to the agricultural lands. Input of water into this lake is through four small canals. Maximum depth of the lake is 5 metres. The area receives an average annual rainfall of 1400 mm, mostly from the north-east monsoon.
Flora and fauna.
Flora: "Barringtonia acutangula", "Acacia nilotica," and "Alangium salviflorum" trees and dry evergreen scrub and thorn forests.
Fauna: monkeys and other common mammals can be spotted.
Birds: garganey, teal, glossy ibis, grey heron, grey pelican, open-billed stork, painted stork, snake bird, spoonbill, spot bill duck, cormorants, darter, grebes, large egret, little egrets, moorhen, night herons, paddy bird, painted stork, pintails, pond heron, sandpiper, shovellers, terns, white ibis. They migrate from Europe during November and December to escape the frost that sets in.
Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary
List of birds.
The breeding waterbirds found at the Vedanthangal bird sanctuary are:
Conservation.
Several steps have been taken by the Government of Tamil Nadu to protect the area. Water channels have been built by the Public Works Department to facilitate water supply to the sanctuary from neighbouring lakes.
In 2013, two lakh Barringtonia saplings were planted in the sanctuary to allow birds to nest. The Vedanthangal lake was also desilted and deepened to hold more water.


Hordeum brevisubulatum

Hordeum brevisubulatum is a widespread species of wild barley native to temperate and subarctic Eastern Europe and Asia. A halophyte, it prefers to grow in saline grasslands.


Pattison State Park


Tombstone, Arizona

Tombstone is a historic city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, founded in 1877 by prospector Ed Schieffelin in what was then Pima County, Arizona Territory. It became one of the last boomtowns in the American frontier. The town grew significantly into the mid-1880s as the local mines produced $40 to $85 million in silver bullion, the largest productive silver district in Arizona. Its population grew from 100 to around 14,000 in less than seven years. It is best known as the site of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and presently draws most of its revenue from tourism. It also houses the highest rated brewery in the state of Arizona.
The town was established on Goose Flats, a mesa above the Goodenough Mine. Within two years of its founding, although far distant from any other metropolitan area, Tombstone had a bowling alley, four churches, an ice house, a school, two banks, three newspapers, and an ice cream parlor, alongside 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls, and numerous dance halls and brothels. All of these businesses were situated among and atop many silver mines. The gentlemen and ladies of Tombstone attended operas presented by visiting acting troupes at the Schieffelin Hall opera house, while the miners and cowboys saw shows at the Bird Cage Theatre and brothel.
Under the surface were tensions that grew into deadly conflict. The mining capitalists and the townspeople were largely Republicans from the Northern states. Many of the ranchers (some of whom—like the Clantons—were also rustlers or other criminal varieties) were Confederate sympathizers and Democrats. The booming city was only from the U.S.–Mexico border and was an open market for cattle stolen from ranches in Sonora, Mexico, by a loosely organized band of outlaws known as The Cowboys. The Earp brothers—Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan—as well as Doc Holliday, arrived in December 1879 and mid-1880. The Earps had ongoing conflicts with Cowboys Ike and Billy Clanton, Frank and Tom McLaury, and Billy Claiborne. The Cowboys repeatedly threatened the Earps over many months until the conflict escalated into a shootout on October 26, 1881. The historic gunfight is often portrayed as occurring at the O.K. Corral, though it actually occurred a short distance away in an empty lot on Fremont Street.
In the mid-1880s, the silver mines penetrated the water table and the mining companies made significant investments in specialized pumps. A fire in 1886 destroyed the Grand Central hoist and the pumping plant, and it was deemed unprofitable to rebuild the costly pumps. The city nearly became a ghost town, saved only because it was the Cochise County seat until 1929. The city's population dwindled to a low of 646 in 1910, but grew to 1,380 by 2010. Tombstone has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names.
History.
Founding.
Ed Schieffelin was briefly a scout for the U. S. Army headquartered at Camp Huachuca. Schieffelin frequently searched the wilderness looking for valuable ore samples. At the Santa Rita mines in nearby Santa Cruz Valley, three superintendents had been killed by Indians. When friend and fellow Army Scout Al Sieber learned what Schieffelin was up to, he is quoted as telling him, "The only rock you will find out there will be your own tombstone", or, according to another version of the story, "Better take your coffin with you, Ed; you will only find your tombstone there, and nothing else."
In 1877, Schieffelin used Brunckow's Cabin as a base of operations to survey the country. After many months, while working the hills east of the San Pedro River, he found pieces of silver ore in a dry wash on a high plateau called Goose Flats. It took him several more months to find the source. When he located the vein, he estimated it to be fifty feet long and twelve inches wide. Schieffelin took on a partner named William Griffith who financed the filing of the claim in return for a later claim for himself. Griffith filed Schieffelin's first claim, which was named Tombstone, on September 3, 1877.
When the first claims were filed, the initial settlement of tents and wooden shacks was located at Watervale, near the Lucky Cuss mine, with a population of about 100. The Goodenough Mine strike occurred shortly after. Former Territorial Governor Anson P. K. Safford offered financial backing for a share of the mining claims, and Schieffelin, his brother Al, and their partner Richard Gird formed the Tombstone Mining and Milling Company and built a stamp mill near the San Pedro River, about away. As the mill was being built, U.S. Deputy Mineral Surveyor Solon M. Allis finished surveying the new town's site in March 1879. The tents and shacks near the Lucky Cuss were moved to the new town site on Goose Flats, a mesa above the Goodenough Mine at above sea level and large enough to hold a growing town. Lots were immediately sold on Allen Street for $5.00 each. The town soon had some 40 cabins and about 100 residents. At the town's founding in March 1879, it took its name from Schieffelin's initial mining claim. By fall 1879, a few thousand hardy souls were living in a canvas and matchstick camp perched amidst the richest silver strike in the Arizona Territory.
When Cochise County was formed from the eastern portion of Pima County on February 1, 1881, Tombstone became the new county seat. Telegraph service to the town was established that same month. In early March 1880, the Schieffelins' Tombstone Mining and Milling Company which owned the original Goodenough Mine and the nearby Tough Nut Mine (among others), was sold to investors from Philadelphia. Two months later, it was reported that the Tough Nut Mine was working a vein of silver ore across that assayed at $170 per ton, with some ore assaying at $22,000 a ton.
On September 9, 1880, the richly appointed Grand Hotel was opened, adorned with fine oil paintings, thick Brussels carpets, toilet stands, elegant chandeliers, silk-covered furniture, walnut furniture, and a kitchen with hot and cold running water. At the height of the silver mining boom, when the population was about 10,000, the city was host to Kelly's Wine House, featuring 26 varieties of wine imported from Europe, a beer imported from Colorado named "Coors", cigars, a bowling alley, and many other amenities common to large cities.
Early conflicts.
Under the surface were other tensions aggravating the simmering distrust. Most of the Cowboys were Confederate sympathizers and Democrats from Southern states, especially Texas. The mine and business owners, miners, townspeople and city lawmen including the Earps were largely Republicans from the Northern states. There was also the fundamental conflict over resources and land, with traditional, Southern-style "small government" agrarianism of the rural Cowboys contrasted to Northern-style “big-government” development.
In the early 1880s, smuggling and theft of cattle, alcohol, and tobacco across the U.S./Mexico border about from Tombstone were common. The Mexican government taxed these items heavily and smugglers earned a handsome profit by sneaking these products across the border. The illegal cross-border smuggling contributed to the lawlessness of the region. Many of these crimes were carried out by outlaw elements labeled "Cow-boys", a loosely organized band of friends and acquaintances who teamed up for various crimes and came to each other's aid. The "San Francisco Examiner" wrote in an editorial, "Cowboys [are] the most reckless class of outlaws in that wild country...infinitely worse than the ordinary robber." At that time during the 1880s in Cochise County it was an insult to call a legitimate cattleman a "Cowboy". Legitimate cowmen were referred to as cattle herders or ranchers. The Cowboys were nonetheless welcome in town because of their free-spending habits, but shootings were common.
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
On the evening of March 15, 1881, three Cochise County Cowboys attempted to rob a Kinnear & Company stagecoach carrying $26,000 in silver bullion (about $ in today's dollars), en route from Tombstone to Benson, Arizona, the nearest railroad freight terminal. Near Drew's Station, just outside Contention City, the popular and well-known driver Eli "Budd" Philpot, and a passenger named Peter Roerig riding in the rear dickey seat, were both shot and killed. Deputy U.S. Marshal Virgil Earp, with his temporary deputies and brothers Wyatt Earp and Morgan Earp, pursued the Cowboys suspected of the murders. That set off a chain of events that culminated, on October 26, 1881, in a gunfight in a vacant lot owned by famous photographer C. S. Fly near, but not in or at, the O.K. Corral, during which the lawmen and Doc Holliday killed Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, and Billy Clanton.
The gunfight was the result of a personal, family, and political feud. Two months later, on the evening of December 28, 1881, Virgil Earp was ambushed and seriously wounded on the streets of Tombstone by hidden assailants shooting from the second story of an unfinished building. Although identified, the suspects provided witnesses who supplied alibis, and the men were not prosecuted. On March 18, 1882, while Morgan Earp was playing billiards at 10 p.m. at Campbell & Hatch in Allen Street — in the heart of Tombstone's still-current downtown — he was killed by a shot that struck his spine, as Wyatt looked on. Once again, the assailants were named but escaped arrest due to legal technicalities. Wyatt Earp, concluding that official justice was out of reach, but with warrants obtained via the U. S. Marshal's Office, led a posse on what became known as the Earp Vendetta Ride, pursuing and killing four of the men they held responsible.
Much of the Cowboy-related crime subsided after the Earp family left Arizona in early 1882, following the attempted murder of Tombstone Marshal Virgil Earp on 28 December 1881, and the murder of Deputy Marshal Morgan Earp on 18 March 1882. John Slaughter was elected Cochise County Sheriff in 1886 and served two terms. He hired Burt Alvord, who as a 15-year-old boy had witnessed the shootout between the Earps and Cowboys. Alford served very effectively for three years until he began to drink heavily and associate with outlaws, as had Earp-era County Sheriff Johnny Behan, a close friend and constant protector of the law-breaking Clanton family and their friends.
Boothill Graveyard.
Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, and Billy Clanton, killed in the O.K. Corral shootout, are among those buried in the town's Boothill Graveyard. Of the number of pioneer Boot Hill cemeteries in the Old West, so named because most of those buried in them had "died with their boots on", Boothill in Tombstone is one of the best-known.
Silver mining.
Tombstone boomed, but founder Ed Schieffelin was more interested in prospecting than owning a mine. Ed was one-third partners with his brother Al Schieffelin and Richard Gird. There were several hundred mining claims near Tombstone, although the most productive were immediately south of town. These included the Goodenough, Toughnut, Contention, Grand Central, Lucky Cuss, Emerald, and Silver Thread. Due to the lack of readily available water near town, mills were built along the San Pedro River about away, leading to the establishment of several small mill towns, including Charleston, Contention City, and Fairbank.
Schieffelin left Tombstone to find more ore and when he returned four months later, Gird had lined up buyers for their interest in the Contention claim, which they sold for $10,000. It would later yield millions in silver. They sold a half-interest in the Lucky Cuss, and the other half turned into a steady stream of money. Al and Ed Schieffelin later sold their two-thirds interest in the Tough Nut for $1 million, and sometime later Gird sold his one-third interest for the same amount.
There are widely varying estimates of the value of gold and silver mined during the course of Tombstone's history. The Tombstone mines produced 32 million troy ounces (1,000 metric tons) of silver, more than any other mining district in Arizona. In 1883, writer Patrick Hamilton estimated that during the first four years of activity the mines produced about US$25,000,000 (approximately $ today). Other estimates include US$40 to US$85 million (about $ to $ today). Renewed mining is planned for the area.
One of the byproducts of the vast riches being produced, lawsuits became very prevalent. Between 1880 and 1885 the courts were clogged with many cases, often about land claims and properties. As a result, lawyers began to settle in Tombstone and became even wealthier than the miners and those who financed the mining. In addition, because many of the lawsuits required expert analysis of the underground, many geologists and engineers found employment in Tombstone and settled there. In the end, a thorough mapping of the area was completed by experts which resulted in maps documenting Tombstone's mining claims better than any other mining district of the West.
Mining was an easy task at Tombstone in the early days, ore being rich and close to the surface. One man could pull out ore equal to what three men produced elsewhere. Some residents of Tombstone became quite wealthy and spent considerable money during its boom years. Tombstone's first newspaper, the "Nugget", was established in the fall of 1879. "The Tombstone Epitaph" was founded on May 1, 1880. As the fastest growing boomtown in the American Southwest, the silver industry and attendant wealth attracted many professionals and merchants who brought their wives and families. With them came churches and ministers. They brought a Victorian sensibility and became the town's elite. Many citizens of Tombstone dressed well, and up-to-date fashion could be seen in this growing mining town. Visitors expressed their amazement at the quality and diversity of products that were readily available in the area. The men who worked the mines were largely European immigrants. The Chinese did the town's laundry and provided other services. The Cowboys ran the countryside and stole cattle from haciendas across the international border in Sonora, Mexico.
When the railroad was not built into Tombstone as had been planned, the increasingly sophisticated city of Tombstone remained relatively isolated, deep in a Federal territory that was largely an unpopulated desert and wilderness. Tombstone and its surrounding countryside also became known as one of the deadliest regions in the West. Water was hauled in until the Huachuca Water Company, funded in part by investors like Dr. George E. Goodfellow, built a pipeline from the Huachuca Mountains in 1881. No sooner was a pipeline completed than Tombstone's silver mines struck water.
City growth and decline.
By mid-1881 there were fancy restaurants, Vogan's Bowling Alley, four churches—Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Methodist—an ice house, a school, the Schieffelin Hall opera house, two banks, three newspapers, and an ice cream parlor, alongside 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls, several Chinese restaurants, French, two Italian, numerous Mexican, several upscale "Continental" establishments, and many "home cooking" hot spots including Nellie Cashman's famous Rush House and numerous brothels all situated among and on top of a number of dirty, hardscrabble mines. The Arizona Telephone Company began installing poles and lines for the city's first telephone service on March 15, 1881.
Investors from the northeastern United States bought many of the leading mining operations. The mining itself was carried out by immigrants from Europe, chiefly Cornwall, Ireland and Germany. Chinese and Mexican labor provided services including laundry, construction, restaurants and hotels, but immigrant labor provoked backlash; an "Anti-Chinese League" was formed in the 1880s to boycott Chinese businesses and workers.
The mines and stamping mills ran three shifts. Miners were paid union wages of $4.00 per day working six 10-hour shifts per week. The approximately 6,000 men working in Tombstone generated more than $168,000 a week (approximately $ today) in income. The mostly young, single, male population spent their hard-earned cash on Allen Street, the major commercial center, open 24 hours a day.
The respectable folks saw traveling theater shows at Schieffelin Hall, opened on June 8, 1881. On December 25, 1881, the Bird Cage Theatre opened on Allen Street, offering the miners and Cowboys their kind of bawdy entertainment.
In 1882, "The New York Times" reported that "the Bird Cage Theatre is the wildest, wickedest night spot between Basin Street and the Barbary Coast." The Bird Cage remained open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year until it closed its doors in 1889. Respectable women stayed on the north side of Allen Street. The prostitutes worked the saloons on the south side and in the southeast quarter of the town, as far as possible from the proper residential section north of Fremont Street.
By late 1881 Tombstone had more than 7,000 citizens, excluding all Chinese, Mexicans, women and children residents. At the height of the town's boom, the official population reached about 10,000, with several thousand more uncounted. In 1882, the Cochise County Courthouse was built at a cost of around $45,000.
Fires.
Due to poor building practices and poor fire protection common to boomtown construction, Tombstone was hit by two major fires. On June 22, 1881, the first fire destroyed 66 businesses making up the eastern half of the business district. The fire began when a lit cigar ignited a barrel of whiskey in the Arcade Saloon.
On May 25, 1882, another, more destructive fire started in a Chinese laundry on Fifth Street between Toughnut and Allen streets. It destroyed the Grand Hotel and the Tivoli Saloon before it jumped Fremont Street, destroying more than 100 businesses and most of the business district. Lacking enough water to put out the flames, buildings in the fire's path were dynamited to deny the fire fuel. Total damages were estimated to be $700,000, far more than the estimated $250,000 insurance coverage. But rebuilding started right away nonetheless.
In March 1883, along one short stretch of Allen Street, there were drinking establishments in two principal hotels, the Eagle Brewery, Cancan Chop-House, French Rotisserie, Alhambra, Maison Dore, City of Paris, Brown's Saloon, Fashion Saloon, Miners' Home, Kelly's Wine-House, the Grotto, the Tivoli, and two more unnamed saloons.
Mines strike water.
The Tough Nut Mine first experienced seepage in 1880. In March 1881, the Sulphuret Mine struck water at . A year later, in March 1882, miners in a new shaft of the Grand Central Mine hit water at . The flow wasn't at first large enough to stop work, but experienced miners thought the water flow would increase, and it did. Soon constant pumping with a pump was insufficient. The silver ore deposits they sought were soon underwater.
Several mine managers traveled to San Francisco and met with the principal owners of the Contention Mine. They talked about options for draining the mines, and found the only system available for pumping water out of mines below was the Cornish engine which had been used at the Comstock Lode in the 1870s. They bought and installed the huge Cornish engines in the Contention and Grand Central mines. By mid-February 1884, the engines were removing of water every twenty-four hours. The city merchants celebrated the continued success of mining and the transfer of funds to their businesses. The Contention and the Grand Central found that their pumps were draining the mining district, benefiting other mines as well, but the other companies refused to pay a proportion of the expense.
On May 26, 1886, the Grand Central hoist and pumping plant burned. The fire was so intense that the metal components of the Cornish engine melted and warped. The headworks of the main mine shaft were also destroyed. Shortly afterward, the price of silver slid to 90 cents an ounce. The mines that remained operational laid off workers. Individuals who had thought about leaving Tombstone when the mine flooding started now took action. The price of silver briefly recovered for a while and a few mines began producing again, but never at the level reached in the early 1880s.
Tourism.
The U.S. census recorded fewer than 1,900 residents in 1890 and fewer than 700 residents in 1900. Tombstone was saved from becoming a ghost town partly because it remained the Cochise County seat until 1929, when county residents voted to move county offices to nearby Bisbee. The classic Cochise County Courthouse and adjacent gallows yard in Tombstone are preserved as a museum.
Currently, tourism and western memorabilia are the main commercial enterprises; a July 2005 CNN article notes that Tombstone receives approximately 450,000 tourist visitors each year. This is about 300 tourists/year for each permanent resident. In contrast to its heyday, when it featured saloons open 24 hours and numerous houses of prostitution, Tombstone is now a staid community with few businesses open late. Tombstone and surrounding areas have a variety of lodging options, restaurants, and attractions. The town is located near other historic sites of interest, including Bisbee and the San Pedro Riparian area. Tombstone is a short drive away from Sierra Vista, which is considered the shopping hub of Cochise County.
East Allen Street is the center of Tombstone's tourist attractions, featuring three blocks of shaded boardwalks lined with gift shops, saloons, and eateries. Allen Street's historic district is closed to motor traffic from 3rd Street, the location of the city park and OK Corral, to 6th Street, where the Bird Cage Theatre is located. Additional sites of interest can be found throughout the city, even out on Highway 80, where Boothill Cemetery is found.
Performance events.
The historic O.K. Corral has been preserved but is now surrounded by a wall. Mannequins are used to depict the location of the participants as recorded by Wyatt Earp. Visitors may pay to see a reenactment of the gunfight. Until April 2013, the reenactment was performed at 2:00 p.m. each day, but a new version is now performed three times daily at 12:00, 2:00, and 3:30 PM. Fremont Street (modern Arizona Highway 80), where portions of the gunfight took place, is open to the public.
Performance events help preserve the town's Wild West image and expose it to new visitors. Helldorado Days is Tombstone's oldest festival and celebrates the community's wild days of the 1880s.
World's largest rose bush.
According to Guinness, the world's largest rosebush was planted in Tombstone in 1885 and still flourishes in the city's sunny climate. The Lady Banksia rose originated in Scotland. Mary Gee was the wife of mining engineer Henry Gee, who worked for the Vizina Mining Co. Mary's family sent the homesick bride a box of rooted cuttings from her home country. She planted one of the roses by the patio of the Vizina Mining Company's boarding house, the first adobe building in town, located at 4th and Toughnut Street across from the later site of the railroad depot. She and Henry lived in the boarding house when they first arrived in Tombstone.
The building was later renamed the Cochise House Hotel, and from 1909 to 1936 it was known as the Arcade Hotel. By the 1930s, the rose bush had grown to shade the entire patio and became a popular site for tourists. The hotel was later renamed the Rose Tree Inn and then the Rose Tree Inn Museum. The museum curator tells visitors that all Banks roses growing in the U.S. today are descendants of the Tombstone rose.
In 1940, the Lady Banksia rose covered about . , the rose bush covered more than of the roof and garden trellis of the inn, and has a circumference trunk. The rose bush is walled off, and the inn charges admission to view it.
Historic district.
The Tombstone Historic District is a National Historic Landmark District. The town's focus on tourism has threatened the town's designation as a National Historic Landmark District, a designation it earned in 1961 as "one of the best preserved specimens of the rugged frontier town of the 1870s and '80s". In 2004, the National Park Service declared that the Tomb's historic designation was threatened, and asked the community to develop an appropriate stewardship program.
The National Park Service noted inappropriate alterations to the district included:
Historical buildings include Schieffelin Hall, the opera house built by Al Schieffelin in 1881, and the Cochise County Courthouse. The courthouse was largely unused and then vacant after the county seat was moved to Bisbee. An attempt was made to turn it into hotel in the 1940s, and when that failed it stood empty until 1955. The Tombstone Restoration Commission acquired the courthouse and developed it as a historical museum that opened in 1959. It features exhibits and thousands of artifacts documenting Tombstone's past.
The Crystal Palace Saloon, including its long mahogany bar, was rebuilt based on photographs of the original saloon was restored in May 1964 to its 1881 condition. This included large Victorian ceiling lamps and the inlaid‐patterned wood floor.
Geography and geology.
The Tombstone District located at (31.715940, −110.064827) sits atop a mesa (elevation ) in the San Pedro River valley between the Huachuca Mountains and Whetstone Mountains to the west, and the Mules and the Dragoon Mountains to the east. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land.
The silver-bearing Tombstone Hills around the city are caused by a local upheaval of porphyry through a limestone capping.
When actively mined, the silver vein of argentiferous galena (silver-bearing lead) was large and well defined. The silver and lead was easily milled and smelted. The lead content sometimes was as much as 50 per cent of the ore, and assays proved the silver content ran as high as $105.00 per ton in 1881 dollars.
The underlying basement rocks are fine-grained Pinal Schist which is intruded by gneissic granite. The outcrop is in a small area south of the principal mines. The overlying Paleozoic quartzite and limestones rock lies on an unconformity with a total thickness ranging from , and contains of Mississippian Escabrosa Limestone and the Naco Formation limestone of Pennsylvanian age in the upper formations.
Overlying the Naco Limestone is an unconformable Mesozoic series of conglomerate, thick-bedded quartzites, and shales, with two or three lenses of soft, bluish-gray limestone. Into these formations intrude intruded great bodies of quartz monzonite and by dikes of quartz monzonite-porphyry and diorite-porphyry. Structural faulting occurs throughout the district especially immediately south of Tombstone, where the strata are closely folded.
Tombstone District ores have been produced geologically in three or more ways.
They may have been formed in argentiferous (silver-bearing) lead sulfide containing spotty amounts of copper and zinc. These deposits are usually deeply oxidized and enriched by irregular replacement bodies along mineralized fissure zones and anticlinal rolls cut by Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary formations. Ore bodies are often closely associated with newer cross-cutting intrusive dikes of Laramide.
Ore deposits were formed by base metal mineralization occurs with oxidation found in fault and fracture zones in Laramide volcanics and quartz latite porphyry intrusive.
Silver ore was also formed in manganese oxides with some argentiferous deposits in lenticular or pipe-like replacement bodies along fracture and fault zones, usually in Pennsylvanian-Permian age Naco Group limestones.
Climate.
Tombstone has a typical Arizona semi-arid climate (Köppen "BSk"/"BSh") with three basic seasons. Winter, from October to March, features mild to warm days and chilly nights, with minima falling to under on 28.4 nights, although snowfall is almost unknown, with the median being zero and the heaviest monthly fall being in January 1916, of which fell on January 16. The coldest temperature record in Tombstone has been on December 8, 1978.
The summer season from April to June is extremely dry and gradually heats up – the hottest temperature on record being on July 4, 1989 – before the monsoon season from July to September brings the heaviest rainfall, averaging out of an annual total of . The wettest month has been July 2008 when fell and fifteen days saw at least of rainfall – though the record for the most such days in a month stands at eighteen, in July 1930. Since 1893, the wettest calendar year has been 1905, with and the driest was 1924, with .
Demographics.
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,504 people, 694 households, and 419 families residing in the city. The population density was 349.8 per square mile (135.0/km2). There were 839 housing units at an average density of 195.1 per square mile (75.3/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 87.37% White, 0.60% Black or African American, 1.00% Native American, 0.33% Asian, 8.18% from other races, and 2.53% from two or more races. 24.14% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 694 households, out of which 20.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.6% were married couples living together, 7.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.5% were non-families. 32.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.17 and the average family size was 2.73.
In the city, the age distribution of the population shows 19.3% under the age of 18, 4.9% from 18 to 24, 19.9% from 25 to 44, 32.5% from 45 to 64, and 23.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 49 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $26,571, and the median income for a family was $33,750. Males had a median income of $26,923 versus $18,846 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,447. About 13.0% of families and 17.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 22.6% of those under age 18 and 13.1% of those age 65 or over. In 2010, the total population was 1,380.
Education.
Tombstone Unified School District serves Tombstone. The district schools in Tombstone are Walter J. Meyer Elementary School and Tombstone High School. Tombstone is within the Cochise Technology District which assists in the development of career and technical education programs for high school students.
Historic properties.
Several properties in Tombstone have been included in the National Register of Historic Places. The following are images of some of these properties:
In popular culture.
Tombstone's western heritage has made the town popular in film, music, and television.
Film.
Tombstone has appeared in many Western films, including "Frontier Marshal" (1939), "My Darling Clementine" (1946), "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" (1957), "Hour of the Gun" (1967), "Doc" (1971), "Tombstone" (1993), and "Wyatt Earp" (1994).
Music.
Bob Dylan wrote a song named "Tombstone Blues" that appears on the album "Highway 61 Revisited". Singer/songwriter Carl Perkins wrote a song titled "The Ballad Of Boot Hill" about Billy Clanton's role in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.


Goldlauter Formation

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


Whittaker Formation

The Whittaker Formation is a geologic formation in Northwest Territories. It preserves fossils dating back to the Silurian period.


Greseuse Formation

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


Kergarvan Formation

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


Cannonball Formation

The Cannonball Formation is a geologic formation in western North Dakota. It preserves fossils dating back to the Paleogene Period.


Elsinore Fault Zone

The Elsinore Fault Zone is a large right-lateral strike-slip geological fault structure in Southern California. The fault is part of the trilateral split of the San Andreas fault system and is one of the largest, though quietest faults in Southern California.
Fault characteristics.
The Elsinore fault zone, not including Whittier, Chino, and Laguna Salada faults, is long with a slip-rate of 4.0 millimeters/year (0.15 in/yr). It is estimated that this zone is capable of producing a quake of 6.5–7.5 MW. The projected interval between major rupture events is 250 years.
The last major rupture event on the main Elsinore fault was in 1910 with a 6 MW earthquake centered just northwest of the city of Lake Elsinore.
Fault segments and geography.
The fault runs from the mountainous Peninsular Ranges region between El Centro and San Diego, northwest to the Chino Hills range and Chino Hills. On the southern end of the fault zone is the southeastern extension of the Elsinore fault zone, the Laguna Salada Fault. At its northern end, the Elsinore fault zone splits into two segments, the Chino Fault and the Whittier Fault. In the Elsinore Trough, the Elsinore fault zone creates four graben rift valleys between the Santa Ana Mountain Block and the Perris Block: the Temescal Valley, the Elsinore Valley with its large sag pond of Lake Elsinore and the Temecula Valley and Wolf Valley. In the Elsinore Trough the fault zone is split into pairs of parallel strands with the Glen Ivy North Fault and Lee Lake Fault forming the first valley, the Glen Ivy South Fault and Willard Faults the second and the Willard and Wildomar Faults the last two valleys to the southeast.
A multi-year study published in 2018 suggests a connection between the Elsinore Fault and other fault lines farther south, in Mexico: "...observations of the Yuha Desert and Salton Trough suggest that the 2010 M7.2 El Mayor ‐ Cucapah earthquake rupture, the Laguna Salada fault in Baja California, Mexico, and the Elsinore fault in California are part of the same fault system."


Calcimicrobe

Characteristic of the Neoproterozoic and Cambrian periods, the heterogeneous group called calcimicrobes are calcareous colonial microfossils, which include many morphologically dissimilar organisms, whose effect in massive aggregations, in association with shelly metazoans, was to lay down the earliest recognizable reef systems: compare Archaeocyathids. The earliest recognizable patch reefs date to the Tommotian. Individual calcimicrobes laid down calcium carbonate in tubules, threads, chambered structures and other forms. The term calcimicrobe is useful in recreating the paleoecology of these systems. The term was first applied by N.P. James and D.I. Gravestock in 1990.


Fred T. Mackenzie

Frederick T. Mackenzie (born March 17, 1934) is an American sedimentary and global biogeochemist. Mackenzie applies experimental and field data coupled to a sound theoretical framework to the solution of geological, geochemical, and oceanographic problems at various time and space scales.
He is identified closely with the book "Evolution of Sedimentary Rocks" co-authored in 1971 by Mackenzie with Robert M. Garrels, which reawakened and revitalized the scientific community to the ideas of the British geologist James Hutton that lay fallow for more than 150 years. "Evolution of Sedimentary Rocks" expanded on the theory of reverse weathering proposed by Mackenzie and Garrels in 1966.
Life and career.
Mackenzie earned a bachelor's degree in physics and geology from Upsala College in 1955. He went on to earn an M.S. degree in 1959 and his Ph.D. in 1962 in geological sciences and biogeochemistry from Lehigh University. His Ph.D. dissertation research dealt with a paleocurrent and environmental analysis of the ~ 140 Ma Cretaceous Lakota and equivalent rock units of the Western Interior of the United States.
Following completion of his Ph.D., Mackenzie went to work full-time for Shell Oil Company as an Exploration and Research Geologist. Two of his assignments at the time involved studies of the stratigraphy and structure of Ordovician carbonates in the Appalachian Mountains as targets for oil exploration and of the Devonian Marcellus Shale, which in recent years has become a horizon for gas production by fracking and a subject of strong environmental concern. Then in 1963, Mackenzie accepted a position as Staff Geochemist and Assistant Director at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR, now the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences). One of his tasks at BBSR was to manage Hydrostation S, the longest continuously occupied hydrostation in the world.
In 1967 Mackenzie joined the faculty at Northwestern University becoming Full Professor and department Chair in 1971. Here between 1967 and 1981, he in association with colleagues Robert Garrels, Hal Helgeson, Abraham Lerman and his many graduate students and national and international colleagues published a number of classic papers involving an interdisciplinary range of scientific topics including early diagenetic processes of reverse weathering and controls on seawater composition, pore water geochemistry, kinetics and thermodynamics of mineral-water reactions, and modeling of Earth's surface environmental system over geological time.
In 1981 Mackenzie left Northwestern and accepted an appointment in 1982 at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he continues doing research and teaching until today, although in 2008, he became a Professor Emeritus of Oceanography and Geology & Geophysics. At the University of Hawaii, Mackenzie broadened his research and teaching program even more into the field of marine biogeochemistry, particularly into the biogeochemical interactions involving carbon and oxygen and the nutrient elements of nitrogen, phosphorus, and silicon between the land and coastal waters. He also investigated CO2 exchange in coastal marine waters, and the biogeochemistry and consequences of ocean acidification for reefs and other carbonate ecosystems.
In 1997, Mackenzie founded the Bachelor of Science degree program in Global Environmental Science at the University of Hawaii in the Oceanography Department.
Mackenzie is the author or co-author of nearly 300 scholarly works, and has written works with more than 200 co-authors. Mackenzie is also an ardent athlete, lifetime traveler, and mountaineer having climbed in many ranges of the world.
Fellowships, awards and honors.
Mackenzie is a Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America, the Geological Society of America, the Geochemical Society, the European Association of Geochemistry, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is a Life Trustee of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences. He has received innumerable awards and honors including:


Monongahela Formation

The Monongahela Formation is a geologic formation in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maryland. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carboniferous and Permian periods.


Fillmore Limestone

The Fillmore Limestone is a geologic formation in Utah. It preserves fossils dating back to the Ordovician period.


Catoche Formation

The Catoche FormationFormation is a geologic formation in Newfoundland and Labrador. It preserves fossils dating back to the Ordovician period.


Cuslett Formation

The Cuslett Formation is a geologic formation in Nova Scotia. It preserves fossils dating back to the Cambrian period.


Elton Beds

The Elton Beds is a geologic formation in England. It preserves fossils dating back to the Silurian period.


Block Island meteorite

Block Island meteorite, officially named Meridiani Planum 006 shortened as MP 006, was found on Mars by the "Opportunity" rover on July 17, 2009. It is about across.
History.
Block Island was the first of three iron meteorites encountered by the rover on Meridiani Planum within a few hundred meters, the others being Shelter Island (the second meteorite found), and Mackinac Island (the third one found).
No strong evidence exists concerning when Block Island may have fallen on Mars, though atmospheric conditions would have favored its arrival in the late Noachian period. Block Island may be extensively weathered, or conversely the features covering it may simply be the regmaglypts formed by its passage through the atmosphere. Contrary to some claims, Block Island is not too large for the modern martian atmosphere to produce, though the denser the atmosphere the more effectively it would produce Block Island mass meteorites.


Izalco (volcano)

Izalco is an active stratovolcano on the side of the Santa Ana Volcano, which is located in western El Salvador. It is situated on the southern flank of the Santa Ana volcano. Izalco erupted almost continuously from 1770 (when it formed) to 1958 earning it the nickname of "Lighthouse of the Pacific", and experienced a flank eruption in 1966. During an eruption in 1926, the village of Matazano was buried and 56 people were killed. The formation of the volcano actually occupied highly arable land on the southern slope of the Santa Ana volcano which was used for the production of coffee, cacao and sugar cane.
Geology and mineralogy.
The lava historically erupted from Izalco consists of vesicular vitrophyric olivine basalts. Izalco's formation was preceded by fumorolic activity in 1658, before Izalco was born in 1770.
Today, Izalco experiences only fumarolic activity in the form of rainwater seeping into the volcano and contacting hot rocks, rather than steam emissions from underground gases. The fumarole deposits of the volcano are noted as sources for several rare minerals. It is the type locality for the copper vanadium minerals: bannermanite, blossite, fingerite, howardevansite, lyonsite, mcbirneyite, stoiberite and ziesite.
Tourism.
The volcano is visited and climbed regularly by tourists to El Salvador via the Cerro Verde National Park and is a national icon of the country, even featured on the 10 colón bank note (US dollars replaced the colon in 2001, so the bank note is no longer in circulation). The volcano is currently quiescent but may erupt again.
A hotel was built on the nearby Cerro Verde to provide accommodation with a view of the erupting volcano, but the volcano ceased to erupt shortly before the hotel was completed.
Izalco Volcano National Symbolism.
The volcano on the stamps' central oval design is an allegorical representation of the coat of arms existing at the time; the stamps depict the Izalco volcano, popularly known as "El Faro del Pacífico" - "The Lighthouse of the Pacific". This argument is based on the fact that the decree signed by Francisco Duenas, creating the coat of arms, specifically mentions the Izalco volcano as the inspiration for its design, and also on the idea that the Izalco volcano was (and still is) one of the symbols of the country. Covers genuinely used with these stamps are rare. So far, only 37 have been recorded.


Couches de la Maurerie

The Couches de la Maurerie is a geologic formation in France. It preserves fossils dating back to the Ordovician period.


Clair Cameron Patterson

Clair Cameron Patterson (June 2, 1922 – December 5, 1995) was an American geochemist. Born in Mitchellville, Iowa, Patterson graduated from Grinnell College. He later received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and spent his entire professional career at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
In collaboration with George Tilton, Patterson developed the uranium–lead dating method into lead–lead dating. By using lead isotopic data from the Canyon Diablo meteorite, he calculated an age for the Earth of 4.55 billion years, which was a figure far more accurate than those that existed at the time, and one that has remained largely unchanged since 1956.
Patterson had first encountered lead contamination in the late 1940s as a graduate student at the University of Chicago. His work on this subject led to a total re-evaluation of the growth in industrial lead concentrations in the atmosphere and the human body, and his subsequent campaigning was seminal in the banning of tetraethyllead in gasoline and lead solder in food cans.
Early life.
Clair Cameron Patterson was born in Mitchellville, Iowa. His father was a mail carrier and his mother was a member of the school board; Patterson had one brother, Paul, and one sister, Patricia. From a young age he was encouraged by his family to pursue his intellectual curiosity. Patterson graduated from high school in 1939, at the age of 16. He attended Grinnell College—close enough that Patterson would hitchhike home to do laundry—and graduated with a degree in chemistry in 1943. There, he met his future wife, Lorna (Laurie) McCleary. For graduate school, they both attended the University of Iowa, where he was awarded an M.A. in molecular spectroscopy. Both were then sent to work on the Manhattan Project, first at the University of Chicago and then at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where he encountered mass spectrometry.
After World War II, the Pattersons returned to Chicago, where Laurie took a research job as an infrared spectroscopist to support Patterson while he studied for his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago under Harrison Brown. While studying at an old laboratory, Patterson was able to make discoveries involving the lead that he ended up studying later in his life. He made several different experiments which led to shocking results for the time period involving the lead. After a postdoctoral year at Chicago, Patterson moved with Brown to the Division of Geology (later the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences) at the California Institute of Technology in 1952, as founding members of its geochemistry program. Patterson remained at Caltech for the rest of his life. He and Laurie had four children.
Measurement of age of Earth.
When Patterson returned to the University of Chicago to work under his research adviser Harrison Brown, Brown, knowing about Patterson's experience with mass spec, teamed him up with George Tilton to do geological aging on zircons. Zircons are extremely useful for dating since, when they are formed, they possess tiny imperfections of uranium inside them but no lead. Therefore, if any lead is present in the zircon, it must come from the decay of uranium. This process is known as U-Pb dating. The job of the team was to measure the concentration and isotopic compositions of the elements inside the zircon. Tilton was to measure the uranium and Patterson, the amount and type of lead. The goal for Patterson was to figure out the composition of the primordial lead in the Earth. In doing so, it would be possible to figure out the age of the solar system and, in turn, the Earth from using the same techniques on meteorites.
As Patterson and Tilton began their work in 1948, Patterson quickly became aware that his lead samples were being contaminated. They knew the age of the igneous rock from which the zircon came, and Tilton's uranium measurements aligned with what should be in a zircon at that particular age, but Patterson's data always was skewed with too much lead. After six years the team did publish a paper on methods of determining the ages of zircon crystals and Patterson did achieve his Ph.D., but they were no closer in determining the age of the Earth.
Brown was able to receive a grant from the United States Atomic Energy Commission to continue work on dating the Earth, but more importantly, to commission a new mass spectrometer in Pasadena, California at Caltech. In 1953, Brown brought Patterson along with him to Caltech, where Patterson was able to build his own lab from scratch. In it he secured all points of entry for air and other contaminants. Patterson also acid cleaned all apparatuses and even distilled all of his chemicals shipped to him. In essence, he created one of the first clean rooms ever, in order to prevent lead contamination of his data. He then was able to finish his work with the Canyon Diablo meteorite. He used the mass spectrometer at the Argonne National Laboratory on isolated iron-meteorite lead to collect data on the abundance of lead isotopes. With the new data, in 1956 he published “Age of Meteorites and the Earth”, the first paper containing the true age of the solar system's accretion, which was 4.550Gy ± 70My.
Before the major discovery was made, it was believed to the public that the earth was around 3.3 billion years old. Many were very surprised to find that the actual age of the earth was much more than what they had expected. The publicity that came after the discovery was made, was handled quite well by Patterson, he made the statement, "we did it" in several interviews, sharing the honor of the discovery with his fellow scientific minds behind the action. {The Toxic Truth, Lydia Denworth]
Tracing geochemical evolution of Earth.
Patterson's ability to isolate microgram quantities of lead from ordinary rocks and to determine their isotope composition led him to examining the lead in ocean sediment samples from the Atlantic and the Pacific. Deriving from the different ages at which the landmasses had drained into the ocean, he was able to show that the amount of anthropogenic lead presently dispersed into the environment was about 80 times the amount being deposited in the ocean sediments previously: the geochemical cycle for lead appeared to be badly out of balance.
The limitations of the analytic procedures led to his use of other approaches. He found that deep ocean water contained up to 20 times less lead than surface water, in contrast to similar metals such as barium. That led him to doubt the commonly held view that lead concentrations had grown by only a factor of two over naturally occurring levels.
Patterson returned to the problem of his initial experiment and the contamination he had found in the blanks used for sampling. He determined, through ice-core samples from Greenland taken in 1964 and from Antarctica in 1965, that atmospheric lead levels had begun to increase steadily and dangerously soon after tetraethyl lead began to see widespread use in fuel, when it was discovered to reduce engine knock in internal combustion engines. Patterson subsequently identified that, along with the various other uses of lead in manufacturing, as the cause of the contamination of his samples. Because of the significant public-health implications of his findings, he devoted the rest of his life to removing as much introduced lead from the environment as possible.
Campaign against lead poisoning.
Beginning in 1965, with the publication of "Contaminated and Natural Lead Environments of Man", Patterson tried to draw public attention to the problem of increased lead levels in the environment and the food chain from lead from industrial sources. Perhaps partly because he was criticizing the experimental methods of other scientists, he encountered strong opposition from those then recognized as experts, such as Robert A. Kehoe.
In his effort to ensure that lead was removed from gasoline (petrol), Patterson fought against the lobbying power of the Ethyl Corporation (which employed Kehoe), against the legacy of Thomas Midgley, Jr. (which included tetraethyllead and chlorofluorocarbons), and against the lead additive industry as a whole. Following Patterson's criticism of the lead industry, he was refused contracts with many research organizations, including the supposedly-neutral United States Public Health Service. In 1971, he was excluded from a National Research Council (NRC) panel on atmospheric lead contamination, even though he was then the foremost expert on the subject.
The United States mandated the use of unleaded gasoline to protect catalytic converters in all new cars starting with the 1975 model year, but Patterson's efforts accelerated the phaseout of lead from all standard, consumer automotive gasoline in the United States by 1986. Lead levels within the blood of Americans are reported to have dropped by up to 80% by the late 1990s.
Most people, following Kehoe's arguments, referred to "normal levels" of lead in blood, soil, and air, meaning values near the average. They assumed that because these levels were common, they were harmless. "Normal" also carries some of the meaning "natural". Patterson argued that "normal" should be replaced by "typical" and that just because a certain level of lead was commonplace, it did not mean it was without harm. "Natural", he insisted, was limited to concentrations of lead that existed in the body or environment before contamination by humans, which has occurred frequently due to technological advancements and cultural traditions.
Due to his ultraclean chamber, considered one of the first clean rooms, his measurements of isotopic ratios were free of the contamination that confounded the findings of Kehoe and others. Where Kehoe measured lead in "unexposed" workers in a TEL plant and Mexican farmers, Patterson studied mummies from before the Iron Age and tuna raised from pelagic waters. Kehoe claimed that humans had adapted to environmental lead. Patterson's precise point was that humans only recently had increased their concentration of lead and that the short span of exposure, a few thousand years, was an instant in the Darwinian time scale, nowhere near the time needed to develop adaptive responses.
Patterson focused his attention to lead in food, for which similar experimental deficiencies also had masked increases. In one study, he showed an increase in lead levels from 0.3 to 1400 ng/g in certain canned fish compared with fresh, while the official laboratory had reported an increase of 400 ng/g to 700 ng/g. He compared the lead, barium, and calcium levels in 1600-year-old Peruvian skeletons and showed a 700- to 1200-fold increase in lead levels in modern human bones, with no comparable changes in the barium and calcium levels.
In 1978, he was appointed to a National Research Council panel that acknowledged many of the increases and the need for reductions, but other members argued the need for more research before recommending action. His opinions were expressed in a 78-page minority report, which argued that control measures should start immediately, including gasoline, food containers, paint, glazes, and water distribution systems.
Death.
Patterson died in his home in Sea Ranch, California, at the age of 73 on December 5, 1995. The reported cause of his death was a severe asthma attack.


Lowstand systems tract


Geysers of Enceladus


Penkill Group

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


Deese Group

The Deese Group is a geologic group in Oklahoma. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carboniferous period.


Accruva Formation

The Accruva Formation is one of multiple geologic units found on Venus. Abbreviated psh, it is also known as shield plains due to the shield like structures formed in its region. It is characterized by its abundant clusters of small shield dome structures located throughout the unit and lack of pervasive tectonic deformation. The domes that characterize the unit are likely volcanic edifices, the result of multiple small volcanic eruptions over an extended period of time. It formed during the second half of the Guineverian Period, in which vast plains formed globally on Venus. It is one of 14 formations identified by Mikhail A. Ivanov and James W. Head.
Description.
The Accruva Formation is also known as shield plains because of the shield shaped structures that form in close proximity to each other. The surface of this area is notably different from the other 14 formations mapped on Venus due to the clusters of shield plains, the morphologically smooth transition from the shields to the plains in between the shield plains, and the low amount of deformation within this region, only observably containing a few wrinkle ridges. The shield structures themselves can range from a few kilometers to greater than 10 kilometers in diameter. The formation region tends to occur as equidimensional patches several tens to hundreds of kilometers across. The relief of the formation is hilly due to the clusters of shield domes. The hypsogram of the Accruva Formation almost perfectly matches the overall hypsogram of Venus, which indicates that this formation represents the general topographic level of Venus.
Formation.
The shield structures are believed to be of volcanic origin. These shields typically found in close proximity with each other and will form groups of structures. The transition between the shields and the plains in between the shields is morphologically smooth and sometimes contains wrinkle ridges. This is the first unit that display no pervasive deformation. Along with the volcanic shields, slight deformation is present evidenced by wrinkle ridges and a few fractures and grabens.
Likely the shields form in multiple stages over time, rather than from a single event. Single eruption events would more likely cause very large shield volcanoes, instead of the clusters of small, approximately 10 km diameter, shield domes found within the Accruva Formation.
They frequently form in clusters of 100 km in diameter. This indicates that this eruption pattern of small individual eruptions was widespread and continued for an extended period of time.
Classification.
The Accruva Formation was classified using the dual stratigraphic classification system. This system defines and maps rock units based on the description of the observable characteristics at the surface due to lacking other information. This is the common method used for classifying formations on other planets where we lack the necessary information to classify as we do on earth, which is classifying by its position within geologic time.
Location.
The Accruva Formation covers about 79.3x106 km2 or 17.4% of the area mapped on Venus. Type locations include 29.4°N, 131.0°E; 11.9°S, 335.8°E.


Agenais Limestone

The Agenais Limestone is a geologic formation in France. It preserves fossils dating back to the Neogene period.


Friedrich Hecht

Friedrich Hecht (3 August 1903, Vienna – 8 March 1980, Vienna) was an Austrian chemist and writer.
Hecht studied chemistry at the University of Vienna, and in 1928 was awarded a PhD. He was an assistant at the Institute of Chemistry. He wrote science fiction under the pseudonym Manfred Langrenus. In 1980, he died in Vienna, Austria.
Even before the Anschluss, in 1933 Hecht was a member of the (at that time illegal) National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSGWP) or Nazi Party and Sturmabteilung or SA, from 1934, the Schutzstaffel or SS.
In 1938, Hecht moved to the Analytical Department of the University of Vienna and achieved habilitation there in 1941. From 1943 to 1950 he was Professor of Microchemistry and Geochemistry at the Graz University of Technology. From 1959-1973, he was Associate Professor of Analytical Chemistry and head of the Analytical Institute in Vienna. At Vienna, Hecht was assisted by Edith Kroupa.
In 1938, Hecht received the Fritz Pregl Prize for distinguished achievements in chemistry by the Austrian Academy of Sciences.


Calcaire grosse

The Calcaire grosse is a geologic formation in France. It preserves fossils dating back to the Paleogene period.


Meganos Formation

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


Knoydart Formation

The Knoydart Formation is a geologic formation in Nova Scotia. It preserves fossils dating back to the Devonian period.


Palisades Sill

The Palisades Sill is a Triassic, 200 Ma diabase intrusion. It extends through portions of New York and New Jersey. It is most noteworthy for The Palisades, the cliffs that rise steeply above the western bank of the Hudson River. The ideal location and accessibility of the sill, as well as its unique features, have generated much attention from nature enthusiasts, rock climbers, and geologists alike.
Location.
The outcrop of the Palisades Sill is quite recognizable for its prominent cliffs above the Hudson River; it is easily seen from the western portions of Manhattan. The exposure is approximately long, most of it following the Hudson River. It first emerges in Staten Island in New York City. The sill then crosses the state line into New Jersey, where Jersey City, Union City, Fort Lee, and Englewood Cliffs all lie on it.
The sill eventually crosses back into New York, following the Hudson River north until reaching Haverstraw. It is at this point that the sill makes a turn to the west, where it disappears near Pomona. At this turn, the sill cuts across local strata, making it a dike in that area, not a sill.
It has been proposed that the sill reemerges in two locations in Pennsylvania (where the outcrops are also discordant with local strata), but this idea is not generally agreed upon, and discussion of the Palisades Sill is usually limited to the exposure in New York and New Jersey.
A portion of the sill is also home to the Palisades Interstate Parkway, a stretch of road that passes through the park area preserved by John D. Rockefeller to protect its natural beauty.
Geology.
The end of the Triassic Period saw large-scale rifting during the break-up of Pangaea. What is now eastern North America began to separate from what is now north-western Africa, creating the young Atlantic Ocean. Magma was generated through decompression melting, and a portion of it was intruded into the sandstones and arkoses of the Stockton Formation within the Newark Basin, one of the Eastern North America Rift Basins. The magma would eventually solidify and, after millions of years, the overlying rocks would be uplifted and eroded, exposing the Palisades Sill as we know it today.
The composition of the sill is that of diabase, although its mineral assemblage is not uniform throughout the thickness of the body. The mineralogy of the sill consists principally of plagioclase feldspar, several varieties of pyroxenes, and olivine, with minor biotite, titanite, zircon and oxides.
Most researchers report that, generally speaking, the sill becomes progressively differentiated as one moves away from either the upper or lower contact. The "sandwich horizon" is the term given to the central region where both cooling fronts met; it is here where the diabase is the most differentiated.
The most intriguing geological feature of the sill is a 10-meter-thick olivine-rich zone roughly 10 meters (30 ft) from the lower contact. The modal percent of olivine goes from 0-2% within the main body of the sill to up to 28% within this layer. It is the origin of this layer, and subsequently, the sill as a whole, that has generated much of the attention, as well as the varying origin theories proposed for the intrusion (see below).
There is an average stratigraphic thickness of 300 meters (~1000 feet), with the famous cliffs rising 100 meters (300 ft) on average above sea level. The intrusion dips between 10 and 15 degrees westward for most of its length. It has been determined through stratigraphic studies that the sill was intruded at a depth of approximately 3-5 kilometers. These studies also concluded that the sill was emplaced in a position nearly identical to its current one (10-to-15-degree dip); this is further confirmed by the still-vertical orientation of the columnar jointing.
It has been proposed that the Watchung basalt flows of the Watchung Mountains are extrusive eruptions of the same magma that created the Palisades Sill. Magnetic and gravity measurements have indicated the presence of a large subsurface dike between the Palisades intrusion and the Ladentown basalt, an extrusive body of Watchung basalt north of Suffern, New York. More recently, the various Watchung flows have been correlated to geochemically distinct layers within the Palisades sill, bolstering the theory that eruptions of the Palisades magma were responsible for the episodic flood basalts of the Newark Basin.
Origin.
Due to the presence of the olivine-rich zone, the normally difficult task of determining the history of an igneous body becomes even tougher.
Each of these theories supported the idea of crystal fractionation playing a significant, if not total, role in the differentiation of the sill. A single source for the magma was assumed.
Due to the interest in the subject, and a lack of a satisfactory conclusion, research on the Palisades Sill is currently ongoing.


Lindsay Formation

The Lindsay Formation is a geologic formation in Ontario. It preserves fossils dating back to the Ordovician period.


Fort Randall Formation

The Fort Randall Formation is a geologic formation in South Dakota, United States. It preserves fossils dating back to the Neogene period.


Walter H. F. Smith

Walter H. F. Smith is a geophysicist, currently working in NOAA's Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry. He was formerly Chair of the scientific and technical sub-committee of GEBCO.
Smith earned a BSc at the University of Southern California, and an MA, MPhil and PhD degrees at Columbia University. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography until joining NOAA in 1992.
He is a co-founder of the Generic Mapping Tools, and maintains the GSHHG.


Barnsdall Formation

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


Hopeman Sandstone Formation

The Hopeman Sandstone Formation is a geologic formation in Scotland. It preserves fossil footprints and body fossils from the Guadalupian Epoch in the Late Permian, to the Early Triassic, It preserves fossils and fossil footprints from various extinct animals such as pareiasaurs and dicynodonts, which are collectively often referred to as the Elgin Reptiles.
The formation, named for the village of Hopeman, lies unconformably over the Devonian Upper Old Red Sandstone, and it underlies the waterlain sandstones of the Burghead Sandstone Formation. It represents a windswept dune landscape.
The Hopeman Sandstones were previously referred to as the Cutties Hillock Sandstone, Quarry Wood Sandstones, Sandstones of Hopeman, and Hopeman-Cummingstown Sandstone, but these names have since been superseded.
Lithology.
The Hopeman Sandstone Formation is predominantly composed of fine- to coarse-grained yellowish sand with well rounded grains, mostly deposited as wind-blown dunes, but occasionally deposited by sheet floods. Basal beds are pebbly and the unit varies, exhibiting large-scale crossbedding to fine rarely contorted laminations. Some beds are friable, while others hard and siliceous.
Origin of names.
The name "Cutties Hillock" is believed to derive from the Scottish Gaelic , meaning 'hill brow of the hunting'. The name first appeared in print after the discovery of the Elgin Reptiles in 1884.
Although now formally considered part of the Hopeman Sandstone Formation, the Cuttie's Hillock Sandstone is still used to refer to the inland outcroppings of Hopeman Sandstone, particularly at Quarry Wood near Elgin. Benton and Walker (1985) argue that the name Cuttie's Hillock Sandstone should be retained to distinguish these fossil-bearing beds from those on the coast, which have only yielded footprints and very few body fossils.
Paleobiota.
The pareiasaur "Elginia" and dicynodonts "Geikia" and "Gordonia" are known from the formation, the fossils are preserved as hollow internal moulds within the sandstone.


Claremont Shale

The Claremont Shale is a Miocene epoch geologic formation in the Berkeley Hills of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California.
It is found within the Claremont Canyon area of the Berkeley Hills in Alameda County and Contra Costa County.
The Claremont Shale formation preserves fossils dating back to the Miocene epoch of the Neogene period.


Emporia Formation

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