There are millions of asteroids orbiting the solar system most of which are found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Studies of these asteroids, as part of an effort to assess the threats to earth, have allowed us to track and paths, sizes and rotational frequencies of over 1000 asteroids.
The Toba volcano is found near the center of Sumatra, Indonesia. It has been estimated that at least 2800 cubic kilometers of material was thrown into the air during the explosion or series of explosions. To put that in perspective the Krakatoa volcano threw just over 2 cubic kilometers of material into the air some of which circled the globe causing dazzling sunsets in Europe.
Dinosaur eggs are surprisingly (to the non-biologist) similar in size. Even the very largest dinosaurs laid eggs that were hardly any bigger than the largest eggs found today. These are observations from the fossil record and these observation make sense biologically even though all we see are fossilized eggs. Eggs are limited in the size they attain for several reasons but one of the most important is that the embryos in the eggs must have oxygen to grow.
Many people have a perception of scientists as white-coated individuals hunched over at a lab bench performing experiments.  They are doing experimental science which include the testing of hypotheses and determining which ones are supported and which should be discarded.  Others scientists are imagined as collecting observational data using  telescopes to describe distant planets and... Continue Reading →
I think it is safe to say that the average person has little appreciation for the diversity (eg. number of species) and the total numbers of whales in the world. What most people hear about whales is that there are some that are hunted to near extinction. This tends to create the impression that whales are rare animals. Yes, there are many rare and endangered species of whales but there there are many that are very abundant.
Recently I shared evidence of an ancient forest preserved in amazing detail in a thick layer of volcanic ash (An Ancient and Alien Forest Reconstructed: A challenge for young earth creationism). I raised a number of challenging questions that this spectacular fossil discovery raises for those that hold to a young-earth creationists (YEC) understanding of... Continue Reading →
Can you find the gecko in the picture to the right? Yeah, it is that brown leaf-like things toward the top of the image.   I saw this image being used as the profile image for the facebook page "we  CAN and we WILL find 1,000,000 Creationists."    The suggestion of course is that such an amazing... Continue Reading →
Recent studies of multiple intact fossilized forests provide a very detailed account of the presence of an seemingly alien forest that was found multiple locations across the entire globe at some point in the past. A forest completely devoid of the presence of any flowering plants such as oaks, maples and beech trees or even... Continue Reading →
Continuing on with the theme of the last several posts which examined reconstructions of fossil forests here are the results of another research paper released this past week (reference below). In this study the authors examined records of more than 2200 fossilized wood collections just from Cretaceous aged rocks at locations all around the world. ... Continue Reading →
A quick note about another report of a fossilized forest that has been described. Last week it was PNAS that had the big story of a the "Permian Pompeii," a fossil forest reconstructed in China which I discussed in "An Ancient and Alien Forest Reconstructed." Not more than a week later the magazine "Nature" is highlighting the description of a another reconstructed forest.
An areas with thousands of fossilized tracks from the United Arab Emirates has been described in the journal Biology Letters. Additional background information about the find can be found HERE.  The tracks have been described as having been formed by an extinct species of elephants and are possibly the largest continuous set of trackways discovered... Continue Reading →
As a way of simplifying yesterday's rambling entry I offer the following comparison of two meteorite impact craters. The first, Victoria Crater, is from Mars and the second, Amguid Crater, is in Algeria, Africa. Let's compare the features and then ask if they can help us to evaluate the current young earth geology models and... Continue Reading →
Kamil Meteorite crater is a recently discovered crater in Egypt which is an example of a very young crater on earth. What can Kamil Crater tell us about the origin of craters not only on Earth but also on other Planets? And what does this tell us about the age of the Earth and those other planets?
I love interesting geological puzzles that many mysterious landforms and features present to us. Below are a few images of a landscape that show large rocks sitting on a flat, dry, lake bed. Notably there are what appear to be skid marks in the dry lake sediments leading to each rock. This should make anyone scratch... Continue Reading →
This is a follow-up to my previous post on the 15 juvenile dinosaur fossils found in a nest. Â In that post I mentioned one of the explanations by flood geologists (ie. young earth creationists) for the presence of fossilized dinosaur eggs in the fossil record is that dinosaurs somehow escaped the initial stages of... Continue Reading →
Naturalis Historia 