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Activities Calendar 2009
The Maryland
Geological Society is an advocate of responsible collecting. The society has
permission to collect in all of the sites listed that require such
permission. Some sites allow only organizations to attend, while at
othersindividuals are welcome to go on their own. Most trips are weather
dependent and some require at least an average level of physical fitness. A
few are announced on short notice, either by way of mouth or via eMails
Field trip
Coordinator: Gerald Elgert (301)681-5720
or via eMail (Isaiah.423@juno.com) announced
on short notice, either by way of mouth or via eMails.
Below is a list of field trips scheduled for MGS
members:
May 23-24 : Field
trip to Red Hill and Bear Valley
Right now there are 13 MGS
members signed to go. How many will be coming from the CMMFC is unknown. Now
would be a good time to begin making reservations for the overnight on May
23rd. In just inquiring the clerk at Sportsman's said they were getting calls.
There are two motels in
the area, one with a restaurant. That is The Sportsman's at (570)923-9968.
. There is an excellent
restaurant and bar there that I highly recommend. We will eat dinner there
and breakfast the next morning.
Summerson's Four Seasons Motel is (570)923-1398.
Plan to be at the Red Hill site by 10 AM. We'll dig for a few hours, break for lunch (there is a sandwich
shop), eat at the museum and return for digging until dark.
Email Gerald for directions & details.
Saturday, January 31st - Paint Branch.
The Paint Branch stream, in its upper reaches, is a Brown Trout breeding
area. In a rush from the Piedmont to the Coastal Plain
it runs past a Native American site where various artifacts such as chipping
tools and even pottery have been found. The stream takes its name from the
colorful exposures of clay used by the local inhabitants to decorate their
pottery. These Cretaceous Age sediments also contain a variety of fossils
including petrified Araucaria and Sequoia wood. This is a classic locality
for the fabled Patuxent River Agate, rumored to be petrified dinosaur bone.
Skolithos worm borrows, formed during the Cambrian Age and washed down from
the mighty Appalachian Mountains, are also found in abundance
here. The course of the lower stream is currently being surveyed for flood
control measures. How this will affect future collecting is uncertain. Even
the Native American site may perish with this effort.
We’ll meet at the Staples parking lot which is just across from the
Beltway Plaza Mall on Greenbelt Road
at 10:00 AM. The trip will be
dependent upon the weather and water levels in the stream. Some
access points to the stream bed are walk-ins while others require scrambling
down steep banks. Dress warmly and knee length boots are a must. Email
reminders will be sent out by the preceding Thursday. Please contact me by
phone (301)681-5720 or via eMail (Isaiah.423@juno.com)
if you plan to attend.
Saturday, February
21st - Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and the Odessa petrified wood site
The
Reedy Point spoils site is being excavated by a road building company for use
as fill in new highway construction. In the process, Cretaceous Age sediments
which haven’t seen the light of day for more than 60+ million years are
being exposed. On the last MGS trip there both Bradley Grant and I found
coprolites containing bits of bone and some other interesting structures.
Local residents and MGS members, John and Joan Wolf, regularly collect there.
John reports that the current collecting “may be the best ever.”
On the club’s last trip to the Odessa, Delaware
petrified wood site I found what may be petrified Sequoia wood. For some
reason the general notion is that the site contains only Cypress
wood. Although most will spend their time looking for larger pieces, it is
the smaller chips that often contain the most detail. A cream colored agate
is sometimes found in the fields here. The Odessa
petrified wood site is private property and permission to trespass must be
secured on a per visit basis. The land is sometimes leased to hunters and at
other times it is plowed and planted for agricultural purposes. The owners of
the property are becoming increasingly cautious about granting permission to
collectors who then return at indiscriminate or inappropriate times.
We’ll meet at the Staples parking lot which is just across from the
Beltway Plaza Mall on Greenbelt Road
at 9:00 AM. The trip will be
dependent upon the weather and secured permission to trespass on the Odessa
property. Email reminders will be sent out by the preceding Thursday. Please
contact me by phone (301)681-5720 or via eMail (Isaiah.423@juno.com) if you plan to
attend.
Saturday, April 11th
- Paint Branch.
The Paint Branch stream, in its upper reaches, is a Brown Trout breeding
area. In a rush from the Piedmont to the Coastal Plain
it runs past a Native American site where various artifacts such as chipping
tools and even
pottery have been found. The stream takes its name from the colorful
exposures of clay used by the local inhabitants to decorate their pottery.
These Cretaceous Age sediments also contain a variety of fossils including
petrified Araucaria and Sequoia wood. This is a classic locality for the
fabled Patuxent River Agate, rumored to be petrified dinosaur bone. Skolithos
worm borrows, formed during the Cambrian Age and washed down from the mighty Appalachian
Mountains, are also found in abundance here. The course of the
lower stream is currently being surveyed for flood control measures. How this
will affect future collecting is uncertain. Even the Native American site may
perish with this effort.
Saturday, May 2nd – Science Drive
The Science Drive stream is late Cretaceous, K/T Boundary, marine Severn
Formation and well known for its abundant shark and fish teeth. Mosasaur and
croc teeth are sometimes found here as well as turtle and crocodile scutes.
In the concretions littering the stream bed one can find the most beautifully
preserved ammonites. I prefer surface collecting but some will use a fine
mesh screen to find the smaller teeth that are often overlooked. Belemnites
should be found here, too, and would represent only the second record from
the Western Shore of Maryland. We’ll meet at the Staples parking lot
which is just across from the Beltway Plaza Mall on Greenbelt
Road at 10:00 AM.
The trip will be dependent upon the weather and water levels in the stream.
Some access points to the stream bed are walk-ins while others require
scrambling down steep banks. Dress warmly and knee length boots are a must.
Email reminders will be sent out by the preceding Thursday. Please contact me
by phone (301)681-5720 or via eMail (Isaiah.423@juno.com) if you plan to
attend.
Lee Creek - May 3rd, 2009 - Dick Grier Sr.
will have a call in on April 15th between the hours of 6:00 PM and 9:00 PM
at (410) 285-5554. Only phone calls will be accepted for the 9 available
slots.
Saturday and Sunday,
May 23rd and May 24th – Red Hill and Bear Valley
This being advertised as a two day trip but those wishing to plan for a
single day of collecting may meet at the site by prior arrangement. Red Hill
is a
Devonian Age, Catskill Formation site managed by the Philadelphia Academy of
Sciences as a Field Research Station. It is located in Central
Clinton County, Pennsylvania,
a good four hour drive from the metro DC area. There is a Resident Research
Associate, Doug Rowe, who maintains a museum and research facility there.
Highlights of the site include Hynerpeton, one of the first tetrapods to make
the transition from sea to land. The teeth, scales and
skeletons of this beast are fairly numerous. Fish and shark teeth and
placoderm armor fragments can also be found. On the way to Red Hill there is
another Devonian site where free standing blastoids can be had. Overnight
accommodations will be found at the local Sportsmans Hotel and Restaurant. It
is a very good restaurant. Please call in for this trip. We can all carpool
for the long drive. The site is a kind of mudstone that when dry can be very
hard to crack open so a heavy sledge and chisels are to be handy. When soft
it tends to fracture unexpectedly and Elmer’s Glue helps to keep the
pieces together. Some climbing could be involved
Plans for future trips will include the Red Hill Field Station in Clinton
County, Pennsylvania for
early tetrapod fossils, a Devonian site near Shomokin Dam for blastoids and
the Bear Valley Mine in Shamokin for shale found fossils.
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