The Earth Story

The New Madrid Seismic Zone About once a year, residents of the counties at the border between Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas will feel the ground roll beneath their feet. This image maps out the location of earthquakes in this area over a 30-year period and clearly illustrates a major feature: the New Madrid Seismic Zone. This zone produces about 1 quake that can be felt per year in addition to many small earthquakes…and has historically produced really big ones.

Hands up if you’d like a diamond for a few dollars? The Crater of Diamonds located in Arkansas, USA allows you to be the miner and search for diamonds, and then keep any you find. The Crater of Diamonds was first discovered by J. Huddlestone in 1906 who spotted odd crystals in his soil. Since then 30,000 diamonds have been found in the park by some of the 3,000,000 visitors each year. With prices of $10 for adults and $6 for children aged 6-12, it's a fun family day out!

Speedboat through an Arkansas Swamp

Syringoporid

This little rock from Arkansas is a Pennsylvanian aged coral from Arkansas. This was a Syringoporid coral, a type of tabular coral. Syringoporid corals existed from the Ordovician until the end-Permian Mass Extinction. Tabulate corals, the larger order, continue to this day – they form large, flat sheets and grow smaller parts of the colony vertically from the large sheet. Different genuses of Syringoporid corals are classified based on properties such as the width of separate tabularium (The columns that hosted each live polyp), the spacing between the distinct coralites, and the thickness of the walls between them. Changes in these properties lead to slightly different coral morphologies in the fossil record.

-JBB

Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Syringoporid.jpg

References: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00338-014-1232-4 http://bit.ly/2DjRYKC

Pulling out a quartz crystal from one of the public crystal mines in Arkansas

The contrast between the lightning filled clouds and the stars above in the second storm is really neat.

Drone flights over Pinnacle Mountain - large chunk of sandstone west of Little Rock, Arkansas

Arkansas Oil Spill

This photo was taken after an oil spill in Mayflower, Arkansas in 2013. Approximately 84,000 gallons of crude oil spilled from the 20-inch (51cm) diameter pipeline that runs 850 miles (1367km) from Patoka, Illinois to Nederland, Texas. The type of oil that was spilled was not the ordinary oil we think of, instead this was diluted bitumen, more commonly know as tar sands oil. Unlike ordinary oil that can simply be pumped out of the ground and put directly in a pipeline, bitumen must be mined. As part of the pre-shipping process the bitumen has to be diluted, with water and other chemicals, to get it to flow through a pipeline.

This spill has not only affected the community, but also the wildlife of the area. The spill has so far affected a marshy area near the homes, and because of a storm drain, some has flowed into a cove that leads to Lake Conway, a major sport fishing attraction. One wildlife rescue worker said, “I can’t believe how thick this stuff is, it’s like road tar, it’s nothing like motor oil.” Several wildlife rescue groups have come in to help treat the affected animals. As of this writing groups such as Helping Arkansas Wild Kritters (HAWK) and Wildlife Response Services are leading the recovery effort. Cleaning up 100% of this spill will likely be impossible, and will likely have lasting impacts for many years down the road.

Note: If you are in the area, please do no touch/pickup or try to help any oiled animals you find, contact your local authorities for information.

---Adam

Photo: Reuters/Landov

References:

http://www.salon.com/2013/04/04/6_things_you_need_to_know_about_the_arkansas_oil_spill_partner/

http://nwahomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=417712

http://arkansasmatters.com/fulltext?nxd_id=650782

http://www.kqed.org/news/story/2013/04/04/118867/arkansas_oil_spill_sheds_light_on_aging_pipeline_system?source=npr&category=science

http://bit.ly/Y2TWU4

http://blog.nwf.org/2013/04/as-arkansas-community-reels-from-tar-sands-oil-spill-wildlife-remain-in-peril/

Hot spring/stream in Arkansas’s Hot Springs National Park.