The Devil's Tail: What the Fossils say
" After such an impact, in accordance with the general laws of nature, the following phenomena will occur: cloudy skies, then rain, high storms and hurricanes, the lakes and rivers will overflow their margins, the ocean will flood from the east to the west the lowlands, later also the mountains…[] The complete destruction of all creatures living on land will be the consequence; and when after thousand of years the water will be evaporated into the ether, new animal species will have made multiple attempts to colonize the land again and without doubt after thousands of years some of these attempts will be successful...
November 10, 2011 — David Bressan
The Devil's Tail
" It was nothing of this earth, but a piece of the great outside; and as such dowered with outside properties and obedient to outside laws. "" The Colour Out of Space ", by H.P.
November 8, 2011 — David Bressan
November 1, 1755: The Earthquake of Lisbon: Wrath of God or Natural Disaster?
" Are you then sure, the power which would create The universe and fix the laws of fate, Could not have found for man a proper place, But earthquakes must destroy the human race?
Climate, Overpopulation & Environment - The Rapa Nui debate
The story of the " ecocide " and collapse of the civilization on Easter Island , or Rapa Nui in the native language, became very popular with the film " Rapa Nui " (1994) and the book by American biologist Jared Diamond " Collapse - How societies choose to fail or survive " (2005)...
October 31, 2011 — David Bressan
On the Track of Ichnology
" We can do nothing . . . that does not leave its impress behind, for good or for evil, for a blessing or a curse,..[] Our footprints are left in whatever we do.
October 9, 1963: Vajont
" Know, that mountain - it will not stand still. Believe me it´s a troublemaker - you can ask whoever you will. "" La ballata di Longarone ", by Beppe Chierici 1969The valley of Vajont (also Vaiont ) is characterized in the upper part by a large catchment area, smoothed by ancient glacal activity, and a narrow gorge eroded by the river Vajont in the lower part.This geomorphology and the nearby industries made this valley a perfect site for a dam and a hydroelectric power station.Construction of the Vajont dam started in 1956 and was completed in 1960, at this time it was the highest double-curvature arch dam in the world - rising 261.6 meter above the valley floor it was 190m broad across the top, with a capacity of 150 to 168 million cubic meter of water...
October 9, 2011 — David Bressan
Dinosaurs as kangaroos and T-rex the Pop Icon
In 1841, during a lecture in which he coined the term " dinosaurs ", the English palaeontologist Richard Owen (1804-1892) described some new species of this particular group of vertebrates, including the Iguanodon ...
Accretionary Wedge #38: Back to School for Applied Geology
An "Accretionary wedge" is formed from sediments that are accreted onto the non-subducting tectonic plate at a convergent plate boundary, but it is also the title of the monthly gathering of the geoblogosphere - where various posts became accreted to form an insightful discussion to a proposed topic...
September 30, 1861: The First Feather
September 2011 marks the 150 years anniversary of the description of an important paleontological discovery - Archaeopteryx lithographica , the first Mesozoic bird recognized by science and considered at the time a compelling proof of Darwin's theory, published just two years earlier.In 1860 in a quarry near the village of Solnhofen (Bavaria) the faint imprint of a single feather was discovered on a slab of limestone...
Baron Nopcsa: More than just Transylvanian dinosaurs
The publication and description of the peculiar dinosaur species Balaur bondoc in 2010 generated a lot of interest in the paleontological community and the general media - nevertheless it was only a preliminary last chapter in the long and intriguing exploration of the geology and palaeontology of the former Cretaceous islands of the Hateg region (a geological basin in modern Romania).The first scientific exploration of these lost islands is connected to one name: Nopcsa...