It’s sedimentary, my dear Watson

February 20, 1949 Mrs. Henrietta Helen Olivia Roberts Durand-Deacon, a wealthy widow, disappeared from the Onslow Court Hotel located in South Kensington, London. The police interviewed the residents and soon John George Haigh became a suspect, as he was the last person to have be seen together with the woman. He led the police to an old storeroom on Leopold Road in Sussex, where they discovered strange and suspicious tools – a revolver, some rubber protective clothing and three containers filled with sulphuric acid.

During the interrogation Haigh suddenly confessed to an incredible crime, “Mrs. Durand-Deacon no longer exists. She has disappeared completely, and no trace of her can ever be found again. I have destroyed her with acid. You will find the sludge which remains on Leopold Road. But you can’t prove murder without a body.” 

Fortunately, Haigh ignored one important fact in his euphoria: the law doesn’t require a body to incriminate him – it requires a corpus delicti - the evidence that a murder happened. Forensic pathologist Keith Simpson examined carefully the ground at the supposed crime scene. He noted something unusual, a small pebble which he described as follows: “It was about the size of a cherry, and looked very much like the other stones, except it had polished facets.“ Simpson realized that he had found the evidence to prove the murder. The pebble was a gallstone from poor Mrs. Durand-Deacon. Gallstone can form from calcium-salts and organic substances in the gallbladder. A thin layer of organic matter protected the pebbles from being dissolved in the acid. John George Haigh, who was ultimately suspected of committing an entire series of murders, was sentenced later to death.

This forensic case was an unusual example of how rocks can help solve a crime. However already in the mid of the 19th century people realized that rocks, soils and the science of geology could be used to reconstruct a crime and provide circumstantial evidence to connect a suspect with the crime scene. An 1856 one issue of the magazine “Scientific American” reported the “Curious Use of the Microscope” to help clarify a case of thievery:

“Recently, on one of the Prussian railroads, a barrel which should have contained silver coin, was found, on arrival at its destination, to have been emptied of its precious contents, and refilled with sand. On Professor Ehrenberg, of Berlin [1795-1896, famous zoologist and geologist] from Leipzig in, being consulted on the subject, he sent for samples of sand from all the stations along the different lines of railway that the specie had passed, and by means of his microscope, identified the station from which the interpolated sand must have been taken. The station once fixed upon, it was not difficult to hit upon the culprit in the small number of employees on duty there.“

Influenced by the rapid development of science, the British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced in 1887 a new kind of detective, who based his crime solving abilities on the scientific and forensic clues that everybody acquired or left behind by touching objects, or simply walking on muddy ground: “Knowledge of Geology. – Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them."

About at the same time as Doyle published his fictional adventures, the Austrian professor of criminology Hans Gross (1847-1915) published various textbooks dealing with forensic investigations methods. In his “System der Kriminalistik” (Criminal Investigation, published in 1891) he proposed that the police should carefully study geomorphological maps, to infer possible sites where criminals could commit crimes or hide bodies – like forests, ponds, streams or sites with a well. In 1893 Gross published his “Handbuch für Untersuchungsrichter” (Handbook for Examining Magistrates), where he explained how the petrographic composition of dirt found on shoes could indicate where a suspect went previously. Based on these ideas, in 1910 the French physician Edmund Locard (1877-1966) established the basic exchange principle of environmental profiling:

“Whenever two objects come into contact, there is always a transfer of material. The methods of detection may not be sensitive enough to demonstrate this, or the decay rate may be so rapid that all evidence of transfer has vanished after a given time. Nonetheless, the transfer has taken place.“

The German chemist Georg Popp (1867-1928) was the first investigator to solve a murder case by adopting the principles of Gross and Locard and considering soil as reliable evidence. In the spring of 1908 Margarethe Filbert was murdered near Rockenhausen in Bavaria. The local attorney had read Hans Gross’s handbook and know Popp from an earlier case, where Popp connected a strangled woman to the suspect by mineral grains of hornblende found in the mucus of the victim’s nose and under the fingernails of the suspect.
In the Filbert case a local factory worker named Andreas Schlicher was suspected, however he claimed that on the day of the murder he was working in the fields.

Popp reconstructed the movements of the suspect by analyzing the dirt found on his shoes. The uppermost layer, thus the oldest, contained goose droppings and earth from the courtyard of the suspect’s home. A second layer contained red sandstone fragments and other particles of a soil found also where the body of the victim was discovered. The last layer contained brick fragments, coal dust, cement and a whole series of other materials also found on the site where the suspect’s gun and clothing had been found. However, there were no mineral grains – fragments of porphyry, quartz and mica- on the shoes. Since these were found in the soils of the field where Schlicher supposedly worked the very same day, he was obviously lying.

In the last two decades, the significance of forensic geology increased steadily. It is applied not only to connect single suspects to criminal cases, but also to trace the provenience of explosive, drugs or smuggled goods, including wildlife, not to mention the possible applications to detect cases against the environmental law. Forensic geology also proved valuable to reconstruct and uncover modern war crimes.

In 1997 the United Nations International Criminal Tribune for the Former Yugoslavia (UN ICTY) began exhuming five mass graves in north-eastern Bosnia associated with the massacre of civilians in and around the town of Srebrenica in July 1995. Intelligence reports showed that 3 months after the initial executions of civilians, the primary mass graves had been exhumed and the bodies transported over a 1-3 day period to a number of unknown (but at least 19) secondary grave sites. To prosecute the suspects, it was necessary to prove that the now recovered bodies came without doubt from Srebrenica, and that therefore the later dislocation of the graves was intentionally to hide these war crimes. Two grave sites were intensively studied and samples of the grave fills and surrounding soils and bedrock collected. Soil samples can be screened by their content of minerals and rocks, the size and form of single mineral or rock grains, biochemistry of organic substances, microbiology, remains of invertebrates and plants and pollen and spores preserved in it. These various parameters can vary in so many ways, every soil can be regarded as unique. Comparing the parameters between samples recovered from the victim or the suspect and collected at the crime sites it is possible to establish a unique connection between them.
During the investigations in Bosnia a clast of serpentinite found in one of the secondary gravesites proved to be the decisive evidence. This greenish rock connected one secondary grave site with only one primary site – only there an outcrop with a serpentinite dyke could be found. Similarity, the presence or absence of particular clay minerals, depending on the surrounding geology of the primary burial site, connected or excluded the primary to the secondary sites.

The list of fascinating or strange cases solved thanks to forensic geology would surprise even Sherlock Holmes himself.

Alternative Model For Formation Of Devils Tower Explains Its Geological Oddities

Devils Tower in Wyoming is surrounded by myths and mysteries. To the Sioux people, this site was sacred and some of their stories tell how this mountain formed: A long time ago a giant bear chased a group of children onto the flat top of the mountain. Out of reach of the animal, the bear started to scratch the rocks with its claws, forming the characteristic joints in the rock. Reportedly, Devils Tower got its name from this legend, as "bear" was erroneously translated as "bad god" - later becoming the "devil".

Today, this 1,267-foot-high pinnacle of phonolite (a silica-poor fine-grained igneous rock) is described in many textbooks as an intrusion of igneous rock that never reached the surface to form a volcano. However, there are a number of issues with this idea.

The New Netflix Movie 'How It Ends' Features Societal Collapse By Geological Apocalypse

The new Netflix action thriller film "How it Ends" imagines how a sudden collapse could happen in the modern U.S., likely triggered by a mysterious geological apocalypse🌋

Why Hydrogeology Plays Such An Important Role In The Thailand Cave Rescue Operations

Rescue operations to free 12 boys together with their soccer coach from the Tham Luang cave in Thailand are underway but could take days to complete. The geology of the region plays a role in both the origin of the cave as why exploring wild cave systems is so dangerous.

Hawaii's Kilauea Eruption Did Not Rain Gemstones From The Sky

Since the beginning of May 2018, the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii has been erupting. First a cloud of fragmented older lava, volcanic ash and vapor rose from the Pu‘u ‘O‘o crater on the summit, magma then migrated to the flanks, opening a series of fissures from where now lava is pouring out.

Around five weeks into the eruption, some residents of the town of Kalapana reported small, green crystals to be found on the ground, soon speculating that the crystals rained out from the eruption column or the lava fountains of Kilauea.

Olivine sand from the Papakolea Beach on Hawai'i. Source and Credit: Wikipedia-user Tomintx, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ernst Haeckel, Evolution and Japanese Anime

Ernst Haeckel, German naturalist and artist, was born February 16, 1834. He was one of the first biologists to accept the theory of evolution and created phylogenetic trees to show the relationships of various animals (including humans). 

It´s curious to note that one of Haeckel´s drawings features also in the 1995 anime „Ghost in the Shell“, when the puppet master - a sentient A.I. - discusses evolution as descent with modification:

“A copy is just an identical image. There is the possibility that a single virus could destroy an entire set of systems and copies do not give rise to variety and originality. Life perpetuates itself through diversity and this includes the ability to sacrifice itself when necessary. Cells repeat the process of degeneration and regeneration until one day they die, obliterating an entire set of memory and information. Only genes remain. Why continually repeat this cycle? Simply to survive by avoiding the weaknesses of an unchanging system.” 

Ghost in the Shell, the final battle in the museum.

From Nukes to Ship Disasters - how Forensic Seismology helps to understand Catastrophes

On July 25, 1946 the United States detonated the first underwater nuclear weapon in history – code name “Baker” – at the Bikini Atoll. The explosion generated a gas bubble that pushed against the water, generating a supersonic shock wave which crushed the hulls of nearby target ships as it spread out. Seismic waves of this test were observed at seismograph stations around the globe and it was realized that these waves could be used to detect and potentially characterize a nuclear explosion.

Fig.1. Photography of the underwater “Baker” nuclear explosion of July 25, 1946 showing the white sphere of water and vapour formed by the shock wave of the explosion (image in public domain).

The U.S. performed also the first fully underground explosion – code name “Ranier” – that was detected by about 50 seismic stations; however, it was confused in part with a “normal” earthquake.
 

With the ban of nuclear weapon (well, sort of…) testing in the year 1958 it became necessary to install an effective worldwide monitoring system. Three years later the set-up of the WorldWide Standardized Seismographic Network (WWSSN) began and in 1966 almost 112 stations were working in the monitoring project “Vela“. Vela provided a large quantity of supplementary seismic data used to answer three questions: Where is the seismic event located? What is the source type (artificial or natural) of the event? How large is the event?

“It appears increasingly doubtful that an atomic-weapons test of significant dimension can be concealed either underground or in outer space. A five-kiloton nuclear explosion in an underground salt cavern near Carlsbad, N.M., in December was clearly recorded by seismographs as far away as Tokyo, New York, Uppsala in Sweden and Sodankyla in Finland. The seismograph records included tracings of the ‘first motion,’ considered critical in distinguishing between earthquakes and underground explosions.” from “Scientific American“, February 1962

The signature of a natural earthquake shows a distinct pattern: a seismometer will first detect the Primary and Secondary Waves, followed by the more destructive Surface or Rayleigh Waves.
Seismic P Waves are compressional waves, similar to sound waves in the air. Secondary or Shear (S) Waves are transverse waves, like those that propagate along a rope. A sudden explosion generates a “sphere” of compressional waves travelling in all directions. In contrast an earthquake is caused by the sliding of rocks along a fracture and it will generate shear waves concentrated in a certain direction. Therefore an explosion will show a strong and sudden signal of P-waves, with a similar signal recorded by all the seismometers collocated around the explosion. An earthquake will show a more complex pattern, depending of the position of the seismometer, characterized by strong S-Waves and R-Waves.
Also an underground explosion does not generate very strong surface waves as a natural earthquake does.

Fig.2. Schematic seismogram with Primary (P; compressional waves), Secondary (S; shear waves), and Rayleigh (R; surface waves) phases for an artificial blast and a natural earthquake.

As every atomic explosion will generate a unique pattern, distinct from natural earthquakes, seismology is a reliable tool to control the ban of nuclear test and to supervise countries that still test atomic weapons.

The information recovered from seismograms of nuclear blasts can be applied in forensic seismology also to study detonations of common explosives. Most spectacular cases in the last years comprise the reconstruction of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 (see this abstract by HOLZER at the AGU meeting in 2002) and the investigation in the explosion on the Russian submarine “Kursk” in 2000 (see KOPER et al. 2001; the blog “About.com Geology” hosts many other examples).

Seismic waves can be generated not only by shear movements along faults or by the expansion of plasma (nuclear device) or gas (conventional device) during an explosion, but also by the impact of objects with the ground.
Seismic signals were already used to identify the location of rock-falls and recent research suggests that the signals can help to characterize the dynamics and volume of a landslide, Dave Petley discusses the significance and use of seismograms in various posts published on his “Landslide blog“.

The analysis of seismic waves provided also insights on what happened September 11, 2001 in New York. Seismograph stations around the city recorded the signals generated by the aircraft impacts and the subsequent collapse of the two towers of the World Trade Center (the Lamont-Doherty Cooperative Seismographic Network provides a rich collection of datasets of the seismic activity around N.Y.). The collapse of the south tower generated a signal with a magnitude of 2.1 and the collapse of the north tower, whit a signal of magnitude 2.3, was recorded by 13 stations ranging in distance from 34 to 428 km.
Also these seismograms show a distinct pattern if compared to the pattern caused by a natural earthquake. There are no P or S Waves, but the impacts of the buildings on the ground generated a sudden peak of short-period Rayleigh Waves.

Fig.3. Seismic recordings at the seismograph station Palisades (N.Y.) for events at World Trade Center on September 11, distance of station from Ground Zero ~ 34 km. Note that impact 1 and collapse 2 relate to the north tower, and impact 2 and collapse 1 apply to the south tower. Expanded views of the first impact and first collapse shown in red. Figure from KIM et al. 2001, published here according to the Usage Permissions granted by AGU & authors.

The seismograms show also that the impact and explosion of the two airplanes generated a relative small amount of seismic energy. This confirms the observation that the collapses of the two towers were not a direct result of the impacts, but caused by the weakening of the supporting structures of the buildings due the subsequent fires.

Most energy of the collapses was dispersed into the deformation of the buildings and the formation of rubble and dust, only a small portion of potential energy was converted into seismic waves. The generated 2.1 and 2.3 M earthquakes were too weak to destabilize nearby buildings, most damage was done by the kinetic energy of the debris and the displaced air.

Also the collision of the cruise ship “Costa Concordia” on January 13, 2012 was recorded by the seismograph station “Monte Argentario“, situated on the Italian mainland. From the eyewitness testimony and the Automatic System of the ship the time of collision with a submerged rock was estimated at 20:45 (UTC). This time is confirmed by a sudden peak in the seismogram at 20:45:10 (the seismograph station is distant 18 km from the site of the collision, the seismic waves needed almost 3-4 seconds to travel this distance). The seismogram shows also after the impact the “noise” generated by the hull of the ship grinding along the rocky substrate.

Fig.4. Seismogram recorded at the station “Monte Argentario” (Italy) showing the seismic waves generated by the impact of the “Costa Concordia” on January 13, 2012 20:45 (UTC). An accurate analysis of “The seismic wake of “Costa Concordia” (23.01.2012) can even specify the speed of the ship at the moment of the collision. Figure used with permission and taken from the post “The earthquake of the Costa Concordia” by Italian seismologist Marco Mucciarelli, published January 21, 2012 on his blog “terremoti, sismologia ed altre sciocchezze“.

Bibliography:

ANDERSON, D.N.; RANDALL, G.E.; WHITAKER, R.W.; ARROWSMITH, S.J.; ARROWSMITH, M.D.; FAGAN, D.K.; TAYLOR, S.R.; SELBY, N.D.; SCHULT, F.R.; KRAFT, G.D. & WALTER, W.R. (2010): Seismic event identification. WIREs Computational Statistics Vol.2, July/August: 414-432
KIM, W.-Y.; SYKES, L.R.; ARMITAGE, J.H.; XIE, J.K.; JACOB, K.H.; RICHARDS, P.G.; WEST, M.; WALDHAUSER, F.; ARMBRUSTER, J.; SEEBER, L.; DU, W.X. & LERNER-LAM, A. (2001): Seismic Waves Generated by Aircraft Impacts and Building Collapses at World Trade Center, New York City. EOS Vol.82 (47)

KOPER, K.D.; WALLACE, T.C.; TAYOLR, S.R. & HARTSE, H.E. (2001): Forensic seismology and the sinking of the Kursk. EOS, Vol.82 (4): 37

The End of the Mayan World

According to the popcorn-movie "2012" (2009) the end of the world will come due increased solar activity that will overheat earth and cause catastrophic volcanic and tectonic storms on December 21, 2012. This premise is so dumb that even NASA declared "2012" as the most "absurd science-fiction movie" of all times, not only because the science is so bad, but the movie exploits also the fear mongering story of the supposed end of the Mayan calendar, first proposed by artist and author José Argüelles in 1987. Almost all of the supposed end of the world tale is nonsense, the various proposed mechanism to explain the destruction of the planet, like solar eruptions, pole shift or the impact of an invisible planet, are unrealistic, as it is unrealistic to claim that the end of a arbitrary time period has any significance for earth.

Fig.1. The goddess Chakchell, with her terrifying snake headdress, is flooding earth with the waters coming from the jar of the gods. She is helped in this task by the dark god of the underworld, with an owl as symbol of his power, and the divine crocodile - even the holy hieroglyphs are crying and the world will soon drown (after the "Codex Dresdensis", ca. 1200-1250, plate 47 "The flood").

However in the last years the Maya Civilization arouse the interest not only of crackpots, but also serious historians and even climate scientists. This ancient society possessed advanced knowledge of astronomy, mathematics and architecture, but 1.200 years ago (750-950 A.D.) the various city-states on the Yucatan peninsula suffered a sudden collapse. Various hypotheses tried to explain this demise: internal warfare, foreign invasions, diseases, overpopulation in combination with environmental degradation and climate change.
The Yucatan peninsula is characterized by a heterogenic spatial distribution of precipitation and seasonal droughts, especially during the beginning of the year (January- May). The climate is influenced by the position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), wind systems that shift position due the seasons and bring moisture to the land. The Maya had to deal with these variations and in response build large artificial reservoirs. The limestone of the Yucatan peninsula is highly permeable and the groundwater is almost inaccessible, if not by naturally occurring caves or cenotes, and there are virtually no rivers.
It was in these cenotes that geologists of the University of Florida collected sediment cores and discovered in the isotope variations of shells a pronounced drought period between 800 and 1000 A.D., coincident with the collapse of Classic Maya civilization. A even more detailed reconstruction of the climate of the region was possibly by the research done on sediments from the Cariaco Basin, a basin with limited deep water mixing and anoxic conditions on the ground (and therefore perfect sedimentation conditions) offshore Venezuela. Depending from the position of the ITCZ fossil-rich or clastic-rich layers are deposited, so by studying and counting these layers the former variation of the ITCZ and the amount of precipitation can be estimated.
Also this record shows a climate shift and cyclic multi-year droughts from 910 to 760 A.D.

According to the proposed scenario a population at the margin of environmental sustainability experienced repeated droughts and a demise of agricultural production. The various city-states, chronically involved in wars for power and sacrifice victims, consumed the last reserves in a desperate struggle for survive.

However like in the case of Easter Island considering both evidence from natural sciences and historical and cultural circumstances the scenario could become more complicated. The Mayan Civilization was characterized by religious violence and war was less aimed to destroy the enemy than to catch (and sacrifice) the political elite. This society had also survived previous droughts or phases of increased soil erosion, when in A.D. 550-830 the population reached high densities. The power became concentrated in few city-states, which struggled for power and replaced small military expeditions with great wars. The crumbling central government could no longer guarantee the safety of peasants, when the society was further weakened by climate changes.

In the end the city-states were replaced by a most decentralized kind of society, whit the descendants still living today.

Bibliography:

ANSELMETTI, F.S.; HODELL, D.A.; ARIZTEGUI, D.; BRENNER, M. & ROSENMEIER, M.F. (2007): Quantification of soil erosion rates related to ancient Maya deforestation. Geology Vol. 35(10): 915-918
GILL, R.B. (2000): The Great Maya Droughts - Water, Life, and Death. Univ. New Mexico Press: 464
PETERON, L.C. & HAUG, G.H. (2005): Climate and the Collapse of Maya Civilization. American Scientist, Vol. 93: 322-329

Dear Leaders and a Volcano

Eternal President Kim Il-sung (1912-∞) and Dear Leader Kim Jong Il (1941-2011). In the background Tianchi or "Lake of Heavenly Peace", a crater lake inside the volcano Baitoushan or Paektusan ("white headed mountain"). Tianchi Lake has a diameter of more than three kilometres and is 373 meter deep. The volcanic complex is more than 2 million years old, however the caldera formed only during a large eruption about 965 A.D. Since then at least 3 to 5 eruptions of small to moderate size occurred, the last in 1703. 

Curiously the lake is not only the mythical birthplace of Dear Leader but hosts also a Lake Monster.

Bibliography:

SCHMINCKE, H.-U. (2004): Volcanism. Springer, Berlin-Heidelberg: 324

In search of Punt: The Lost Land of Gold

"Suddenly I heard a noise as of thunder, which I thought to be that of a wave of the sea. The trees shook, and the earth was moved. I uncovered my face, and I saw that a serpent drew near…[]…his body was as overlaid with gold, and his colour as that of true lazuli….[]… it was the prince of the land of Punt…"
"The Shipwrecked Sailor", 2200 B.C.



May 9, 1871 the German geologist Karl Mauch finally spotted after one year of strenuously search was he had hoped for: the impressive ruins of gigantic stone buildings - the remains of a long lost city, at least for the European explorers. The local people of the tribe of the Shona know the ruins well - in their language the buildings were called "dzimba woye" - the venerated houses, build by an ancient African civilization. Mauch however, following the racial ideas of the time, was sure that the buildings "could not possibly being built by Negroes." * He thought that he had discovered the ruins of the mythical city of Ophir, known in legends for the immeasurable wealth treasured there, and of course founded by Asian immigrants. 

The bible cites Ophir as unidentified place from which King Salomon received a cargo of gold, silver, sandalwood, precious stones, ivory, apes and peacocks - and all this every three years. Various scholars puzzled about the exact location of this rich land, the African continent seemed to be supported by the tales of exotic animals found in Ophir, but in 1857 the German archaeologist Heinrich Ferdinand Karl Brugsch collocated Ophir on the Arabian Peninsula.
Other scientists associated Ophir with another legendary place - "Ta netjer" the land of the gods, also known by the ancient Egyptians as the land of gold - the mythical Punt.
But Punt was more than a legend - long before 2000 B.C. Egyptian Pharaohs send expeditions to Punt to recover precious metals - gold, silver and electrum, gemstones - like malachite, wood and resin. The successful expeditions were so important, such great achievements, that the Egyptians immortalized them on their temples.
In the temple of Athribis, commissioned by Ptolemaios XII, a relief shows the various and precious trees growing in Punt - apparently Punt was a lush, tropical land.
In 1858 the French archaeologist Auguste Ferdinand François Mariette interpreted a relief in the temple of Deir el-Bahari, the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, as realistic depiction of an expedition to the remote and fabled land of Punt. 

Fig.1. The expedition to Punt as immortalized in the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut. The ships are loaded with gifts and exotic animals, (large version) image from Institute for Egyptology - University of Bern.

The reliefs show a fleet, the five ships are loaded with gold, trees and exotic animals like leopards, apes and giraffes - species associated with the African continent. In the sea the reliefs sows various fish species, zoologist identified some of them living on the coast of Africa, but also near the Arabian Peninsula. The plants that produce frankincense and Myrrh, Boswellia sp. and Commiphora myrrha, are native to the Arabian Peninsula (Oman, Yemen) and to Africa (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Northeast Kenya).

Maybe looking at the geology the place of Punt can be traced back to Africa? Still today in Eritrea gold can be found, associated to the old metamorphic rocks of the interior plateau. The river of Nahr Al-qa-sh is known for its gold bearing sediments. Also in Ethiopia gold is associated with the proterozoic metamorphic rocks, found to the west of the Afar lowlands, where cenozoic volcanic rocks mark the Great Rift System of the African plate. The eastern part of this proterozoic basement is found on the northern coast of Somalia. The overall geology of Saudi-Arabia - especially Yemen and Oman- is characterized instead by phanerozoic sediments mostly lacking gold. 

 Fig.2. Simplified geology of north-eastern Africa and possible localization of Punt, Mersa Gawasis was an ancient Egyptian harbour.

Geology can however give us another ulterior clue to find the lost land of Punt. Along the gifts brought back from Punt were also living exotic animals, so baboons (Papio sp.) - as clearly depicted on the relief of Deir el-Bahari. In 2010 researchers analyzed hair samples from 3.000 years old mummified baboons found in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings. 

Every living organism must drink water and water consists of two elements: hydrogen and oxygen. Both elements exist in various isotopes, atoms who differ in mass and also (slightly) in chemical properties. The oxygen isotopic signature of a particular spring can be unique and is controlled by geology and location of an aquifer. By comparing the results of the ancient hair samples with hair samples of animals living in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, Uganda and Mozambique the research concluded that most isotopic similarity can be found with animals coming from eastern Ethiopia and all of Eritrea.

Mystery solved? Well, the isotopic signature could be identified only from one baboon and the localization is still very vague. The search of a myth continues….

*The British archaeologist Gertrude Caton-Thompson proved in 1929 that Great Zimbadwe and the civilization that build these monuments are of African origin.

Bibliography:

BROWN, D.M. & LYNCH, J. (1995): Africa's Glorious Legacy (Lost Civilizations). Time-Life-Books: 168
FRANZ, A. (2011): Das sagenhafte Goldland Punt. Bild der wissenschaft 9(11): 68-75
HOULIHAN, P.F. (1996): The Animal World of the Pharaohs. Thames & Hudson: 237
SCHLÜTER, T. & TRAUTH, M.H. (2006): Geological Atlas of Africa - With Notes on Stratigraphy, Tectonics, Economic Geology, Geohazards and Geosites of Each Country. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg: 255

Online Resources:

(2008): Terra X - Weihrauch für den Pharao - Aufbruch nach Punt. (Accessed on 01.10.2011)

The case of the rock, the lady in the lake and a dubious murderer

In 1997 some amateur divers discovered at the bottom of Coniston Water, a lake in the British Lake District, a corpse. The body of a women was wrapped up in plastic bags and tubs of lead have been used as weights to hide it in the  24m deep water.
The woman was identified as Carol Ann Park, disappeared in the year 1976. An autopsy revealed that Ann Park was killed with an ice pick and soon her ex-husband, Gordon Park, was suspected and arrested. The press publicized this crime with the title of "The Lady in the Lake Murder".

However there was no hard evidence against him, only a supposed confession by Park to a cell inmate during the imprisonment on remand, so he was soon released. 

In 2004 Park was rearrested, based on new evidence: a rock. A rock, assumed to have been used also as weight in the plastic bag, and found near the corpse was similar to rocks used by park to build a wall of the family's bungalow. Prosecution's expert and geologist Duncan Pirrie concluded that there were no naturally occurring outcrops on the shores of the lake of this kind of rock, the only possible source was therefore Park's home.
However the defence of Park commissioned two geologists, Kenneth Pye and later Andrew Moncrief, to disprove this important evidence that connected Park to the corpse. Pye studied the rock and his results were astounding. The rock was a sample of Westmorland green slate - a metamorphic tuffaceous sandstone - lithology part of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group not present near Coniston Water, but found in the central parts of the Lake District.
The boulders in the lake, so the final verdict of the two geologists, were of glacial origin, transported during the last glacial maximum from the Cumbrian Mountains to the area of the lake. Glacial till was therefore widespread on the bottom of the lake, the shores and the entire landscape - so were rocks of green slate. The supposed unique connection between Park and the site of discovery of the corpse was disproved by the general geology and galcial origin of the lake.

Despite this devastating setback for the prosecution, the trial, based mainly on circumstantial evidence, ended with a prison sentence for Park.
The judge commented the geological dispute about the origin of the particular rock as follows:

"Rocks, ladies and gentlemen, therefore rocks…[] The science, underlying this research was exceptionally challenging, not true? It was of awe-inspiring quality that none of us has ever been enjoyed…[]… I think the experts managed to formulate their opinions in an understandable way. At least the important facts have become clear, we have understood in which final statements both researchers disagree."

Onkalo

Onkalo - the cave - is the name given to a subterranean facility being built deep inside massive gneiss lens surrounded by schist in southern Finland. Once finished in 2020 it will act as permanent repository for highly radioactive nuclear waste.
When its capacity is exhausted - in estimated 100 years - it must be sealed off for at least the next 100.000 years…Into Eternity is a documentary film realized in 2009 that explores the gloomy threat of a place that can never be forgotten and at the same time should ever be feared by future generations….

History of Paleomammology: The sabre-toothed moonrat from the island of the sabre-toothed prongdeer

In 1969 a team of palaeontologists, Cornelis Beets, Hendrik Schalke and Matthijs Freudenthal from the Dutch Rijksmuseum van Geologie en Mineralogie from Leiden, discovered and excavated various fossil lagerstätten in the fissures of the Mesozoic limestone of the Gargano promontory, exposed by the intense quarrying activities in the area. For three summers the team, aided also by other researchers from all over Europe, searched the red clays for bones and teeth of rodents, insectivores and artiodactyls.
One of the most intriguing specimens of the endemic fauna recovered was a large insectivore mammal, described in 1972 by Freudenthal as Deinogalerix and attributed to the family of the Erinaceidae, which includes modern hedgehogs and the moonrats.

Fig.1. The fossil material of Deinogalerix is actually composed by two sub-complete skeletons and hundreds of isolate teeth and bones, the first one was found in 1969 and is hosted today in the Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum of Leiden (from VILLIER et al.2009).

Moonrats today include only 7 species found in South-east Asia; they are large, ratlike animals lacking the characteristic spikes of the common hedgehogs - they most probably resemble best how the extinct Deinogalerix look alike.
However Deinogalerix displays the usual unusual characteristics of endemic mammals of islands - in contrasts to related fossil or recent mainland species it was a very large animal - 9 kilograms (this is a 2 kg rat of the the genus Mallomys, endemic to Indonesia) heavy and 60 centimetres long - not including the stumpy tail - with 20 centimetres skull - one of the largest insectivore known and the name emphasize the astonishment of the researchers realizing how large this strange animal was - they named it "terrible mouse".

Fig.2. and 3. Fragments of a left maxilla with three molars and of a right mandible with five molars of Deinogalerix compared to the respective bones of a modern hedgehog.

Various species (even if some of dubious taxonomic value and representing a possible sexual dimorphism) are described, all descending from the earliest known genus Parasorex originally of Asiatic origin: D. freudenthali, D. brevirostris, D. minor, D. intermedius and D. koenigswaldi - the last and biggest species of the genus.

Fig.4. The skulls of D. koenigswaldi and D. brevirostris compared to two actual species of insectivores: Echinosores gymnura (moonrat) and Erinaceus europaeus (hedgehog) (from VILLIER et al.2009) - for the size of the largest species - D. koenigswaldi - see also this reconstruction by artist M. Anton and for the impact on pop-culture also this alternative reconstruction...

Based on its size of D. koenigswaldi early research suggested that the dull animal was a scavenger, the dentition suggest however that Deinogalerix was an active predator, hunting insects, and helped by its size, also small vertebrates.
The former of island of Gargano lacked population of large carnivores, with the exception of rare fossil of crocodiles, an otter (Paralutra garganensis) and more common bird of preys no fossil evidence of active predators was discovered. Deinogalerix had therefore little competition to fear and over geologic time occupied the niche as one of the apex predators of the Gargano island environment.

Fig.5. and 6. "The exact nature of the species to which the above mentioned fossil remains belong was at first quite dubious: there are molars which on a superficial view might be attributed to an artiodactyl, premolars that might conceivably indicate a carnivore, and large caniniform incisors, all of them together in a skull over 20 cm long." FREUDENTHAL 1972
Skull reconstruction from VILLIER et al.2009, upper premolar from Deinogalerix from the "Red Clays" of Gargano.

The peculiar fauna of the Gargano was considered an isolated and endemic fauna, however in 1999 a fragmentary maxilla with the characteristic teeth of Deinogalerix freudenthali was found in the ossiferous breccia of Scontrone, a village of today Central Italy. This discovery suggests a paleogeographic connection, maybe trough an episodic land bridge or smaller islands of the island of Gargano to the European mainland.

Bibliography:

AGUSTI, J. & ANTON, M. (2002): Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids - 65 Million Years of Mammalian Evolution in Europe. Columbia University Press: 313
FREUDENTHAL, M., (1972): Deinogalerix koenigswaldi nov. gen., nov. spec., a giant insectivore from the Neogene of Italy. Scripta Geologica 14: 1-19
GEER, A.v.d.; LYRAS, G.; VOS, J.d. & DERMITZAKIS, M. (2010): Evolution of Island Mammals - Adaption and Extinction of Placental Mammals on islands. Wiley-Blackwell: 479+26 plates
VILLIER, B.; OSTENDE, H. & PAVIA, M. (2009): Deinogalerix: a giant hedgehog from the Miocene. Poster-Abstract Giornate di Paleontologia IX Edizione - Apricena (FG), 28-31 maggio 2009.

Online Resources:

Anonymous (): Age of Mammals - Deinogalerix. (Accessed 11.07.2011)
Tupaia (17.01.2011): L’incredibile fauna dell’isola del Gargano, arcipelago Puglia. (Accessed 09.07.2011)

The history and geology of the first Italian dinosaur: Scipionyx samniticus

"In geology we cannot dispense with conjectures: [but] because we are condemned to dream let us ensure that our dreams are like those of sane men-e.g. that they have their foundations in truth-and are not like the dreams of the sick, formed by strange combinations of phantasms, contrary to nature and therefore incredible."

"Introducione alla Geologia" (1811), by Scipione Breislak

The fine-grained, greyish to yellow, cherty limestone surrounding the area of the small village of Pietraroia (or Pietraroja in the Italian province of Benevento/Campania) was in the past a popular rock used widely in construction works, but for centuries it provided also more peculiar treasures - exceptional well conserved fossils forming an important fossil-Lagerstätte of the Cretaceous.
The Italian physician and naturalist Nicolo' Braucci da Caivano (1719-1774) mentions briefly the fossils in his work "Historia Naturale della Campania Sotterranea" (1770):

"...quivi dentro le valli lacerate, erose dai torrenti delle acque piovane, si scoprono sassi con l'impronta di molti generi di pesci, e specialmente di sarde." (source)
"There [in the Matese Massif] inside the valleys, eroded by the streams of rainwater, you will discover rocks with the imprints of many kinds of fish, especially sardines."

However the first naturalists to describe more in detail the fossil fishes found on the surface of the limestone layers was the Italian philosopher, theologian and physicist Scipione Breislak (1750-1826) in his book about the geology of Campania, with the title "Topografia fisica della Campania", published in 1798 he wrote:

"Sopra Cerreto sorge l'alta montagna di Pietra Roja che è una delle cornate del Matese, molto interessante per i prodotti che presenta. Questa montagna in alcune parti è composta da pietra calcarea scissile con impressioni di pesci. La durezza però dello schisto e la molteplicità delle venature spatole che s'intersecano in molte direzioni, fan sì, che con difficoltà se ne possano avere de' belli esemplari, né sono giammai di quella precisione e bellezza che si osserva ne' pesci fossili di Bolca".
"Above Cerreto rises upwards the mountain of Pietra Roja..[]..very interesting for some features it presents. This mountain in some parts is composed of cleaved limestone with the impressions of fishes. However the hardness of this shale and the multiplicity of the crystalline fissures, which intersects in many directions, make it hard to recover some good specimen, they are never as well preserved and beautiful as the fossil fishes of Bolca."

In the years 1853 to 1864 the geologist Oronzo Gabriele Costa (1789-1867) published various volumes of his "Paleontologia del Regno di Napoli", where he in magnificent prints depicted the fossil fishes of the "fishes-bearing limestone of Pietraroia", name that was later also adopted to designate the geologic formation of Pietraroia.

Fig.2. Impression of articulated fossil fish as found in the limestone-Lagerstätte of Pietraroia, the tail can be seen above the pencil.

Fig.3. Disarticluated skeleton in typical reddish-brown preservation.

The formation of Pietraroia, also Pietraroia Plattenkalk, consists of a succession of thick bedded limestone and dolostone, with embedded greenish layers of marl and rare fossils in the lower part, and 2-25cm thick bedded bituminous limestone and dolostone whit chert-layers and a rich variety of vertebrate fossils in the upper part.

Fig.4. Former quarry with outcrops of the vertebrates rich Plattenkalke (upper part of the Pietraroia-formation), today included (in theory) in the protected Geo-Park of Pietraroia. The fossils are found on the limestone surface in the foreground, the former bottom of an ancient sea basin.

The macrofossils found in this formation comprise ammonites, crustaceans, a rich variety of fishes, crocodiles, three species of (presumed) lizards, one species of amphibian and one species of larger vertebrate.
In fact the Plattenkalk of Pietraroia became worldwide known to the paleontological community in 1998, when a nearly complete skeleton of a dinosaur was described by the Italian palaeontologists Cristiano Dal Sasso and Marco Signore in an article in the prestigious journal "Nature" and the new species named Scipionyx samniticus.

The described fossil was extraordinary; a nearly complete and articulated skeleton of a small (23cm long) bipedal dinosaur, lacking only parts of the tail and some bones of the hind legs, additionally in the body cavity there were structures interpretated as imprints of the inner organs; it was in fact so photogenic that Scipionyx samniticus, or Ciro as the fossil was nicknamed by an Italian newspaper that financed the research of the fossil, made it on the cover of the actual edition of Nature.
At the time it was one of the best preserved theropods known to science. The genus "claw of Scipio" is dedicated to Scipione Breislak, who first described the locality, the species name derives from the ancient Latin name for the region of South Italy of Samnium, which comprised modern Campania.

The exact circumstances of the discovery and description of the fossil of Scipionyx is an intriguing story. It must be said that in Italy the active search for fossils is in practice prohibited, the legislation concerning the matter is however vague and requirements for the legal custody of fossil confusing. Whoever found and collected the fossil was at the moment and in theory committing a crime against the Italian state…

- One version of the story of the recovery of Scipionyx claims that it was found in 1979 by an anonymous boy who handled the fossil over to an amateur palaeontologist, who did not recognize it as dinosaur and only in 1993 contacted the museum of natural history museum of Milan to determinate the species.

- Another version claims that the fossil was discovered by accident by two tourists of Milan visiting the village of Pietraroia. They took the fossil with them, but only in 1993 and after the release of the movie "Jurassic Park" they recognized it as possible dinosaur and handled it over to the authorities of the natural history museum of Milan.

- A third versions claims that an anonymous palaeontologist obtained the fossil from a collector with contacts to the black market, and finally handled it over to the museum in Milan.

- The official version, published in most reports and books, attributes the discovery to the amateur fossil collector Giovanni Todesco from Verona. Todesco during a journey in South Italy visited the site of Pietraroia and hoping to collect some fossils he examined a slab of unusual shape in a dump of rocks used for the construction of a new street. Observing more carefully the rock he noted imprints of bones covered by a thin layer of sediments. He took the slab home and tried to remove the thin layer of sediments, but soon abandoned this arduous task and the presumed bird-fossil became forgotten for years.
Only in 1992 Todesco contacted the palaeontologist Giorgio Teruzzi, who finally recognized it as dinosaur and contacted the rare Italian dino-experts.

Scipionyx and the Lagerstätte of Pietraroia is not only an important paleontological discovery, but was useful also for geologist. The taphonomy of Scipionyx and the other discovered vertebrates helps to reconstruct the environment in which they lived and has important implications of the paleogeography of the Italian peninsula and the Tethys Ocean.
The limestone consists mostly of fragments of foraminifers and spicule of echinoderms, reworked algae and clastic deposits. Such sediments were produced in a biologically active zone were enough sun light and nourishment are available. However the distinct stratification and the presence of bitumen in the Plattenkalke points to an environment without currents, which could disturb the deposition of sediments, and the lack of oxygen, inhibiting the biologically breakdown of organic matter.
Also the presence of terrestrial vertebrates on the surface of the layers shows that these are single sedimentation-events, probably the sediments engulfed very fast the remains of dead animals and conserved them fully articulated.
The presence of larger animals like reptiles and amphibians in the fossil record, depending on the availability of freshwater, proves the former presence of islands or large areas of land covered with vegetation and with large rivers - interestingly in the geologic record there are no such direct hinds and until some decades ago the Tethys Ocean was therefore reconstructed as a large, monotonous and shallow sea.
The modern reconstruction of the environment of Scipionyx includes an archipelago of islands scattered in the Cretaceous Tethys Ocean, large enough to sustain populations of endemic dinosaur species and surrounded by lagoons with a high biologic productivity.
Submarine channels connected the deltas of rivers coming from inland of the islands to deeper basins in the sea with reduced oxygen content and low biologic activity. From time to time turbidity currents descended these channels, carrying with them the carcasses of animals drowned in the rivers or in the lagoon and embedding them in fine grained sediments, protecting them from currents, decay and scavengers.

Soon after the publication and description of Scipionyx and the increased interest in the Lagerstätte of Pietraroia it was attempted to protect the area and encourage it as local touristic attraction with the foundation of an Geo-Park, until 2001 also field campaigns to study the geology and recover other fossils were initiated, but finally the money run out and the area was soon vandalized, displays and structures damaged and even entire fossils stolen.
The in 2005 new build museum -the Paleolab- was unfortunately until 2007 mostly an expensive media spectacle open to the public only two days in a week, with (at the time) mostly fake fossils on display, promised financing never arrived to Pietraroia and the park... in the moment the Italian authorities decided to put Ciro here... - however there is still hope and rumours about a monograph dedicated to Scipionyx...

Fig.6. The PaleoLab museum with the protected (but not guarded) park in the background.

Bibliography:

BARBERA, C. ; SIGNORE, M. & LA MAGNA, G (1999): International meeting on Scipionyx samniticus dinosaur, Telese Terme, 25-27, 1999 - Guida all'escursione e abstracts.
CARANNANTE, G.; SIGNORE, M. & VIGORITO, M. (2006): Vertebrate-rich Plattenkalk of Pietraroia (Lower Cretaceous, Southern Apennines, Italy): a new model. Facies 52: 555-577
DAL SASSO, C. & SIGNORE, M. (1998): Exceptional soft-tissue preservation in a theropod dinosaur from Italy. Nature 392 (26, March 1998): 383-387
DAL SASSO, C. & BRILLANTE, G. (2001): Dinosauri italiani. Marsilio Editore, Venezia: 256
DALLA VECCHIA, F.M. (2003): Dinosaurs of Italy. C.R. Palevol 2: 45 - 66 (book-cover used as introduction of the post)
SIGNORE, M. (2004): Sample excavations in Pietraroja (lower Cretaceous, Southern Italy) in 2001 and notes on the Pietraroja palaeoenvironment. PalArch vertebrate palaeontology Vol.2 (2): 13-22