It's pretty much an undisputed fact that nautilus are awesome, and the same goes for their siblings, the extinct ammonites. Both are cephalopods with external, chambered shells, but they fall into different subclasses: Nautiloidea and Ammonoidea. How can you tell the difference? As this awesome, easy-to-read page shows, nautilus hit the scene first in the Late Cambrian, and in the Devonian, ammonites evolved as an offshoot of that branch. (The first nautilus had straight shells!)
The quick difference between nautiloids and ammonoids
Cortney Science & Technology + ammonites, evolution, invertebrates, nautilus
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Easy Science: simple timeline of pre-Cambrian earth and life
Cortney Science & Technology + ancient earth, Easy Science, evolution, fossils, geology, precambrian, zircons
Understanding the formation of the earth can be overwhelming. I've simplified and condensed the big events into an easy-to-follow timeline. Obviously, the list is not meant to be exhaustive and probably isn't 100% accurate. Clicking on the links will take you to Wikipedia that lead to journal articles (a few links directly to sources). Read more →
Geology of Hawaiian Coral Reefs
Cortney Science & Technology + calcium carbonates, coral, geology, hawaii
HAWAIIAN CORAL REEFS
Cortney Cameron
EOS 402S, Duke University
I. Introduction
He pūko‘a kani ‘āina.
A coral reef grows into an island (from small beginnings come great things).
Part animal, part plant, and part mineral, corals sit at the crossroads of biology and geology. In the Hawaiian Islands, geographic isolation and hot spot volcanism have created a uniquely trying environment for coral reef development. This paper will summarize the biology and ecology of Hawaiian corals, as well as their economic and cultural importance, in order to understand the geologic contributions that corals make in producing carbonate and aiding the interpretation of igneous features. Read more →
See-through glass frogs
Cortney Science & Technology + biology, frogs
Glass frogs are seriously way too cool, down to their crazy eyes and their visible innards. Via IFLS: "Glass frogs are a group of South and Central American frogs with translucent skin. Their internal viscera, including the heart, liver, and gastrointestinal tract, are all completely visible." The transparency is thought to help them camouflage. Read more →
Structure and formation of recent limestone (Miami & Key Largo) of Southern Florida
Cortney Science & Technology + bryozoans, calcium carbonates, corals, florida, geology, limestone, ooids, sea level, southern florida
This post provides a brief overview of the formation and characteristics of recent limestone deposits in Southern Florida, the Miami Limestone and Key Largo Limestone. Most of this material was collected as part of a presentation for EOS 404S: Geology of Tropical Marine Environments in Spring 2013, but has been expanded and re-formatted here. Read more →
Why Gastropods (snails & slugs) are awesome
Cortney Science & Technology + busycon, gastropoda, nematocysts, nudibranchs, radula, snails, whelk, why invertebrates are awesome
Snails. They're slow and boring. We regularly use "snail-like" as an adjective to diss something for being so slow - hardly a positive connotation. What could be so exciting about snails? For starters, what about the fact that they're basically moving fortresses? Okay, maybe this doesn't impress you. Turtles have the same thing going for them, after all. Read more →
Why Poriferans (sponges) are awesome
Cortney Science & Technology + archeocytes, biology, diffusion, porifera, regeneration, spicules, sponges, venturi effect, why invertebrates are awesome
I've talked about why despite their slow rap, snails are actually awesome -- but if there's a creature more seemingly boring than a snail, it's the sponge. Evolutionarily, sponges are among the oldest, most basal multi-cellular animals, and as such, they're very simple, lacking organs and the ability to move -- but despite this, they've come up with some clever body engineering. Read more →
Influence of tropical storms on turbidity in Chesapeake Bay, USA
Cortney Science & Technology + discharge, hurricanes, sediment
INFLUENCE OF TROPICAL STORMS
ON TURBIDITY IN CHESAPEAKE BAY, USA
Cortney Cameron
EOS 321S, Duke University – Durham, NC
Introduction
The Chesapeake Bay, located in the mid-Atlantic costal region of Maryland and Virginia, is a partially mixed estuary and the largest in the United States, with a length of 300 km and area of 6,500 km2 [Willard et al., 2003]. With an average depth of 6.5 m, the Bay is broad and shallow, cut by a 20-30 m deep by 1-4 km wide central channel; depths greater than 10 m constitute just 24% of the Bay’s surface area [Kemp et al., 2005]. The Bay is interconnected with its 165,000 km2 watershed by a 18,000 km dendritic shoreline [Kemp et al., 2005; Willard et al., 2003] and exhibits a strong north-south salinity gradient; fluvial freshwater drives stratification, overlying denser seawater from the Atlantic Ocean to the south and driving stratification, which suppresses vertical exchange and traps sediments [Sanford, Suttles, & Halka, 2001]. Episodic storm events serve to destratify Bay waters and stir sediments, playing key roles in both erosion and deposition, depending on storm dynamics [Stevenson, Kearney, & Pendleton, 1985; Kemp et al., 2005; Palinkas et al., 2013]. Read more →
Perpetual Ocean: hypnotic video of ocean surface currents
Cortney Science & Technology + currents, earth science, nasa, oceanography, oceans
The Perpetual Ocean video by NASA is absolutely hypnotic, and lets the viewer appreciate large-scale and smaller-scale surface circulation patterns. The visualization was created using a model crunching satellite and in-situ data collected from June 2005 to December 2007. You can download the full-version at NASA's website.
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Best trick for learning the seven crystal systems
Cortney Education, Science & Technology + crystals, earth science, geology, minerals
You can find various websites discussing the crystal systems (see my short list below), but in all honesty, the best way to mastering these systems is to deal with them in 3D. Read more →