Field work from last summer focused on late Eocene nodules and concretions in SW Montana terrestrial strata. We found that most concretions and nodules are actually burrow complexes in paleosols. Many of these paleosols are developed in massive to blocky mudstone that contain pedogenic features characteristic of Inceptisols but there are also some with more…
Category: Montana geology
Montana Geological Society New Quarterly Magazine – MAGMA
The Montana Geological Society is thrilled to be publishing the very first edition of our new quarterly publication, the Montana Applied Geosciences MAgazine (MAGMA). This new publication is the result of our members’ feedback and interest in ongoing geoscience articles focused on Montana and Applied Geosciences. Inside this issue, you’ll find several articles featuring MGS…
Geochronologic Framework for Western USA Regional Cenozoic Unconformities and Associated Unconformity-Bounded Sequences
I am currently part of a project focusing on western USA regional Cenozoic unconformities. We presented some of our results at the 2023 Geological Society of America (GSA Connects 2023) meeting held in Pittsburgh, PA 10/15-18, 2023, but I thought I’d post a brief recap of our presentation below. Our study area lies within western…
Field Trip! Eocene-Oligocene Geology and Vertebrate Paleontology, Northern Jefferson Valley, Southwest Montana
Eocene-Oligocene Geology and Vertebrate Paleontology of the Northern Jefferson Valley, Southwest Montana Field Trip Sponsored by the Montana Geological Society Field Trip Information: Saturday July 8th, 2023 Trip Leaders: Deb Hanneman (Whitehall GeoGroup Inc., Whitehall, MT) Don Lofgren (Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, Claremont, CA) On this field trip we will visit: – Late…
Yellowstone National Park Winter Trackways and Feeding Traces
Being in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) in winter is always amazing. It’s a good time to watch animal behavior – minus the confusion of the many human interactions that one normally runs into during the summer season! It’s also a prime time to observe animal tracks in the snow and get insight into the movement…
Late Eocene-early Oligocene Travertine Deposits and their Correlation with High-Elevation Tertiary Strata, Gravelly Range-Greater Yellowstone Region, Southwest Montana
My field work in the Gravelly Range of southwest Montana has been on-going for a few years. Each field season there usually are field crews from the Alf Museum/Webb Schools headed up by Don Lofgren, along with many other earth scientists from a variety of places working together in the Gravelly Range. We base our…
Yellowstone Flood Damage Update – Lamar Valley to Cooke City Road Reopens
The historic Yellowstone flood of early June 2022 dramatically changed the fluvial geomorphology in the northern part of Yellowstone National Park (YNP). According to the National Weather Service Billings, Montana, the Beartooth and Absaroka mountain ranges in this part of YNP had from 0.8 inches to over 5 inches of rainfall from June 10th through…
Priabonian, late Eocene chronostratigraphy, depositional environment, and paleosol-trace fossil associations, Pipestone Springs, southwest Montana, USA
Finally – the work done by myself and my co-authors, Don Lofgren, Steve Hasiotis, and Bill McIntosh, is published in the new issue of Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 67 (1): 5–20. Our work combines chronostratigraphy with depositional environment interpretations and paleosol-trace fossil associations for a new view of a well-known Eocene vertebrate locality in southwest Montana….
Flagstaff Rim, Wyoming – A Classic Area of Continental Eocene Tuffs and Fossil Vertebrates
The Flagstaff Rim area in central Wyoming contains a classic geological section of Tertiary continental rocks that, for the most part, range in age from approximately 37 million years to about 35 million years. These strata are then capped by gravels that may be late Tertiary in age (probably younger than 20 million years in…
Welcome To My 2021 Field Office
My geological field work lately has taken me to several areas of western Montana, so I thought I’d do a visual collage of a few of the landscapes where I’ve been working. To start with, I’ve been spending time flying drones over Tertiary exposures in southwestern Montana, Great fun and good insight into Tertiary…
LATE EOCENE CHRONOSTRATIGRAPHY, DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENT, AND PALEOSOL-TRACE FOSSIL ASSOCIATIONS, PIPESTONE SPRINGS, SOUTHWEST MONTANA
I just received notice from the Geological Society of America (GSA) that our abstract is now accepted for the GSA 2020 annual meeting. I was very much looking forward to going to Montreal for the meeting, but like much else, it will now be virtual. Our presentation is scheduled for the session titled “D23. Recent…
EOCENE AND OLIGOCENE MAMMALS FROM THE GRAVELLY RANGE OF SOUTHWEST MONTANA
Our first paper on work that several of us are doing in the Gravelly Range, southwestern Montana, was just published in a special issue of Paludicola, Scientific Contributions of the Rochester Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology. This issue contains papers in honor of James Gilbert Honey, a paleontologist and stratigrapher who focused on the Cenozoic, particularly…
Devil’s Slide and A Jumping Fox
Whenever I drive to Yellowstone National Park’s northern gate, I pass by the Devil’s Slide. It seems that the slide is my gate keeper to the park, and it is always fun to see it in all our different seasons. And once again, during a chance conversation in the park, I was asked about the…
Fall Fieldwork in the Greater Yellowstone Area
Doing geology field work in the greater Yellowstone area during the fall is always an adventure. This is the time that animals and birds are on the move, so it’s a good opportunity to have interesting chance encounters. In my quest to understand the Eocene thermal springs of the Gravelly Range in southwestern Montana, I’ve…
Yellowstone To Southwest Montana Autumn Field Photo Snaps
Montana’s autumn is my favorite time of the year to do field work. Daytime temperatures are usually cool enough to encourage one to keep moving and the lighting is simply gorgeous. It is also one of the best times to visit areas in and around Yellowstone National Park (YNP) because most of the tourists have…