Gray Fossil Site

Johnson City, Tennessee is not a major tourist destination and not an area that people typically go to unless they have a very specific reason for going there or are driving on I-81 between Knoxville, TN and Bristol, TN. East Tennessee State University which is located in Johnson City is also a very unassuming place that many people outside of the region have likely not heard of. But within this region sits the East Tennessee State University and General Shale Brick Natural History Museum and Visitor Center (what I will call the Gray Fossil Site from now on) (Wikipedia page)a small but impressive museum that opened its doors in 2007.

Before I get to the review of the museum let me provide a little context as to why this museum exists, and I should point out this is just a brief summary and in no way will incorporate all of the details (see a longer and more through history here on the museum's website). Sitting directly in front of the museum is Tennessee State Route 75 which makes a large arc in front of the museum, the reason for the arc and the museum are intertwined. In 2000 the state was doing road work to widen Route 75 and as anyone who has spent time in that are of the country knows there are plenty of little hills that have been cut to the the roads where they need to get to. During the widening of the road the construction workers stumbled across some fossilized remains so they called out a paleontologist to investigate. After an initial investigation Dr. Steven Wallace realized that the site was much bigger than just the small area where the road was being widened. The governor at the time Don Sundquist along with others in the state agreed that the area should be preserved so the road was moved around the site and a museum was built to house the fossils found at the site as well as to display some of the fossils and educate the public about what had been found.

Being a museum on the site of discovery makes understanding the geology of the area important. The site sits in the Ridge and Valley Geologic Providence of the United States, the basics of which I have covered before (see here and here). The Ridge and Valley is characterized by limestone based valleys surrounded by sandstone capped ridges. This site sits in one of the limestone valleys, which as I have discussed before (here and here) limestone is easily dissolved away. The dissolving of limestone, in this case, created a sinkhole during the Miocene, the age of most of the fossils in the site, which infilled with water and therefore attracted wildlife to the site. One of the most common finds at the site are tapirs which along with several other animal and plant fossils help indicate the area was heavily forested at the time. Another fossil that tells us a great deal about this portion of North America during the Miocene is the presence of alligators which indicate a much warmer environment that was is found in the region today.

The museum itself is much bigger than one might expect from the area and is quite well done inside. After walking into the main entrance and finding out why there are so few, non-avian, dinosaurs in Tennessee and none in the area there is a little seating area. This seating area has a short video presentation on the history of the site and the importance of the finds from the site. Around the video area is an amazing painting covering the wall depicting a more Miocene like environment. After watching the video the visitor then follows the path into the main display area. Here are wonderful displays of fossils that unlike the old static displays one typically thinks of with museums show an active scene. An alligator is jumping out and attacking a tapir while life continues on around them. Around the outer wall are many smaller fossils including plant fossils and animal teeth. Displays of these type of fossils were typically not put on in the museums of old but as these fossils are as important, if not more so, to the understanding of a site more and more museums are putting them on display as well. In this area you also find out about the discovery of a red panda (although from a different genus and species from the one in the link) from the site, there are now at least two known from the site, which is important to understanding the history of red pandas as well as being cool as well. The Miocene section also has multiple drawers and areas where visitors can learn more about the animals found at the site as well as what the site teaches us about the area at the time. Most of these are clearly aimed at children but that doesn't make them any less informative. The next area of the museum is a smaller area that talks about the Pleistocene of the area. While only a small amount of this comes from the site specifically much more is known from local cave sites as well as a continuing excavation of a Pleistocene sinkhole site from Saltville, Virginia. The last few rooms of the museum show what it is like to be a paleontologist, including the typical kids excavation station where kids can "dig out" fossil casts and an area that describes how a specimen is jacketed from the field and then put back together for display/continued research. The upstairs of the museum has a window that looks in on students, volunteers, and scientists who are in the process of preparing specimens for display/research from the field. There is also a window that looks in on the main reason for such a large museum, the massive collections room where specimens that have been cleaned and repaired are put into storage for future research. The room is huge and has many cabinets full of fossils that have been excavated from the area. After looking in on collections one can walk out on a short walkway that overlooks the actual site and can, during most summer days, see a field crew of students and volunteers doing an excavation of fossil remains and preserving all of the sediment in bags for future screening for potential remains that are too small to readily be noticed. The site is huge and goes down a fair distance into the sediment below which, along with continued expansion to eventually get the whole sinkhole within the property of the museum, will assure many more years of excavation and future research.

As I mentioned when I started the Gray Fossil Site is not something you will just stumble upon but I highly recommend it. The museum is large but is easy to stop through if you just happen to be heading through the region, maybe to catch a race in Bristol. I highly recommend it and it is a unique chance to learn about when alligators, tapirs, and even red pandas roamed eastern Tennessee and when the climate of the region was much different than what is experienced in the region today.

Museum visits page

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Location: On the border between Tennessee and North Carolina containing portions of the counties of Swain and Haywood in North Carolina and Sevier, Blount, and Cocke in Tennessee.

Introduction:

Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Smokies for simplicities sake) (Wikipedia page) is actually a park that I have been to several times before but most of these times were before I had started blogging at all. It had been a while since I had done anything outdoorsy let along go to a National Park it was nice when my wife and I were able to get away for a weekend and head out there. While it is still too long a drive for us to justify heading out there every weekend if you live in the Knoxville area it is ~1 hour away and totally worth many trips.

The Smokies is a huge park encompassing over 500,000 acres total between Tennessee and North Carolina. What makes it more impressive is on several sides are National Forests making the natural beauty of the area seem to go on forever. The towns around the area are very cliche and touristy but this means the type of people you will meet in this park varies drastically from who you will meet in other parks. In fact the Smokies were the 3rd most visited park in 2011 with over 9 million visitors. This isn't always a good thing for someone who enjoys getting away from it all as there are people who head to this park that likely haven't been or won't be headed to any other park so typical park/hiking etiquette is often thrown out the window, along with garbage sometimes I am afraid. This isn't the fault of anyone who works at the park but its location is part of the problem. As I mentioned it is only an hour from Knoxville but it is within driving distance for many other major cities in the Eastern United States, such as Atlanta, GA. It is also free to get in, minus any charge for camping if you do that or hotel if you don't.

With all of that said if you live nearby and haven't checked out the Smokies yet you need to. There is a natural beauty to the park that is not seen in many of the big cities on the east coast. Trees, including old growth forest, abound and animal life from the common white tailed deer to the less common black bear are very often seen but perhaps most impressively and only rarely seen are the Elk which were reintroduced to the park in 2001, I have never actually seen elk (although I am pretty sure I saw evidence of them this past trip, even if it is an area where they aren't known to be so I could obviously be wrong and it could just be evidence of a large deer). Much of the local plant life is on display as well and during the spring there is a rush of people coming in to photograph the wildflowers, they were just starting to open up when we were there, and in the fall there is just as big a rush to take pictures of the beautiful fall leaves that makes the area many brilliant colors. I have been in both the summer and winter as well, and trust me both those times are absolutely beautiful as well.

Heavy visitation and being near so many urban areas has also effected several other aspects of the Smokies. While it gets it's name from the fog and low clouds that sometimes cover the area air pollution has been causing problems from as simple as making views appear hazy to as dramatic as killing plants due to the effects of acid rain. Another major problem has been the infestation of an insect called the hemlock woolly adelgid. This insect infects hemlock trees and basically sucks them dry causing them to die off, you can see evidence of this throughout the park, both dead and infected trees abound, and like the American Chestnut in the '20s and '30s the hemlock is likely to be extinct in the region soon if the National Park Service can't get it under control. That doesn't mean they aren't trying to stop the spread of this insect but they may already be fighting a losing battle.

All the problems you would expect with a major tourist destination aside, yes that includes traffic jams, the park is big enough and there are enough areas that are not visited much that it is easy to find yourself in the peace and serenity of nature. I will be headed back soon and every visit I find something new. The area is beautiful and even if you don't want to see nature you can see buildings built when the area was still the frontier or you can just be a tourist and stay in the towns around the area and just go check out the visitor center there are many different options.

Geology:

Interestingly enough the geology of the Smokies gives me a great place to pick up from Russell Cave NM and C&CNMP as far as the geology of the southeast is concerned. It is worth going to check those two out because the rest of this post is going to be based on the assumption that you already at least partially understand what is going on there.

Looking at the regional geologic map, which can be downloaded or opened here (you will have to click on the link for the huge PDF), it should become obvious that the area has two primary geologic rock types. To the north and west there are primarily sedimentary rocks, these rocks are similar, although not quite the same aged as those at RCNM and C&CNMP. These sedimentary rocks represent the Ridge and Valley Province and were likely laid down in conditions similar to those of a warm shallow sea. To the south and east the rocks contain a mix of igneous and metamorphic with metamorphic rocks being the primary constituent. These rocks represent the next geologic province the Blue Ridge Province (also known as the Blue Ridge Mountains). The contact between these two provinces can vary from place to place, in some areas of the east the sedimentary rocks of the Ridge and Valley slowly become more and more metamorphic till they are the very metamorphic rocks of the Blue Ridge while in other areas the transition is very abrupt.

Moving on to the more local map, found here (warning link goes to PDF), you can see that the majority of the park consist of metamorphic rocks, meaning that the Smokies are located in the Blue Ridge. So lets talk on a very short description of how the Blue Ridge formed. Very simply the Blue Ridge was formed by accretionary metamorphism. During the formation of Pangaea as well as the formation of the previous super continent Rodinia, during the Precambrian more specifically the Mesoproterozoic the east coast of the US moved eastward. During this time subduction of an oceanic plate was occurring under the continent, this produced a lot of heat (this is why there are currently volcanoes on the West Coast and why there are igneous rock on the east coast (and even this comes with a caveat that it isn't a Triassic/Jurassic rift basin)) and pressure. This heat and pressure caused changes in the rocks in what is now the Blue Ridge and Piedmont changing them from sedimentary to metamorphic rocks and why in some areas the transition is very hard to see. In the Ridge and Valley this accretion caused the many different anticlines and synclines you see but similar things happened in the Blue Ridge some fell over or got pushed over the younger sedimentary rocks to the west, this will be important in a minute.

During the Mesozoic the Appalachian Mountains, of which the Blue Ridge is a part, may have been as tall as the Rockies are currently but as accretion/subduction stopped so did the mountain building and eventually the only force acting on the mountains was erosion. As the Appalachian got more and more rounded off and lower in elevation due to erosion all of this rock material flooded the continental shelf. This caused loading on the shelf which lifted up the continent and again raised the mountains. There are some ideas why you can have the same rocks in the Piedmont and Blue Ridge but a huge elevation change is due to the a fault or some other geologic feature being able to act on the western side and force up the Blue Ridge while other ideas say that the Piedmont has just been eroded away. All of this relates to the uplift currently of both the Blue Ridge and the Ridge and Valley, which allows rivers like the New River to form great cuts in locations.

During all of this time the rocks on the Blue Ridge that had been pushed on top of the younger sedimentary rocks in portions of the Smokies were being eroded away as well. In several areas these rocks completely eroded away to expose the underlying sedimentary rocks in what is known as a tectonic windows. This is why on the geologic map you may have areas of old, non alluvium, sedimentary rock surrounded on all sides by metamorphic rock. The most famous example of this, also one of the most visited (I am sure most of the people who visit it don't even realize what they are driving through), is Cades Cove in which the ~9 mile driving/biking route follows most of the outer edge of the window.

That is a very short summary of the geology but as it is getting long already I will call it quits. As should be obvious from this is just how complicated the geology that formed the Smokies, and much of the east coast in general, actually is.

More Pictures: All images are by the author ask permission if you want to use them, and if you do make sure you give me credit.

Further Reading:
Southworth, S., A. Schultz, and D. Denenny. 2005. Geologic map of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Region, Tennessee and North Carolina. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2005-1225. (Link goes to PDF)

Thornberry-Ehrlich, T. 2008. Great Smoky Mountains National Park Geologic Resource Evaluation Report. Natural Resource Report NPS/NRPC/GRD/NRR—2008/048. National Park Service, Denver, Colorado. (Link goes to PDF)

NPS website on the geology of the Smokies.

National Park Service Series Page

Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park

Location: Northwestern Georgia near the border with Tennessee and Alabama in portions of the counties of Catoosa, Dade, and Walker as well as in Southeastern Tennessee in and around the city of Chattanooga in Hamilton County.

Introduction:
On the same trip that my wife and I went to Russell Cave National Monument we also hit up Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park (Wikipedia page), since we were going down to the Chattanooga area anyway. This park is actually consists of a grouping of several parks that are in close proximity so they all fall under one name. The reason for this is that the city of Chattanooga had taken over many of the locations used in the battle after the Civil War ended so the NPS had to purchase some of the land piecemeal as well as having several things within the city itself. Another reason why it is multiple pieces of land is that there are in fact 2 main battles that took place in this area, one would eventually lead to the other but there is a gap in time in between.

I grew up as a history buff and one of the most interesting times to me was the American Civil War. As such I have been to many of the battle sites and I have always enjoyed them as they are always interesting and try to show you the scale, not only geographically but of human loss, that each site exhibits. I have been to where the war started, Fort Sumter, where the war ended, Appomattox Court House (sorry about that not linking to a post this was before I started blogging), and many places in between, including Gettysburg and many of the sites in Northern Virginia (again sorry for not having a post but those trips were also before I started blogging). Each battle has its own story and at everyone the NPS staff works to let you know not only how the battle fit into the overall story, but also how the battle fits in to the stories of individual from the war, and we aren't just talking General here but everyone down to the lowly privates.

Growing up and spending a lot of my time in the east it is easy to forget how major many of the battles of the west were. The east is where the show was, the west was how the North won the war. By the September of 1863 the Confederates were in trouble and they were starting to feel it. By this time the Battle of Gettysburg had happened and the Union had won not only there but in Vicksburg and now controlled the entire Mississippi River. The South was feeling the choke of the Union blockade and knew something had to be done. The North leading up to these battles had almost taken all of Tennessee and the marches leading to this battle would allow a Union capture of Chattanooga.

The Battle of Chickamauga would represent a slight turn for the Confederates. Union forces held the high ground and the ground easiest to defend by the start of the second day of the battle. Some costly maneuvers due to some poorly written/poorly understood orders would lead the a Union retreat that was averted total disaster by Union forces capturing the highest ground around an almost cliff like climb for the Confederates brought an end to fighting. By the next morning the Union troops had fallen back to the city of Chattanooga itself.

The city of Chattanooga sits at a bend in the Tennessee River and is surrounded to the south and east by high ridges. The Union stayed in the city which allowed the Confederates to put their guns in a position to fire heavily into the city. But the Union over the long run had more men and better weaponry. Eventually a commanding officer would be put in place who could handle the situation. The Union forced open a supply line which brought in fresh troops and supplies so that by the end of November the Union forces would be able to take back the hills around the city. The attack began on what is known as Lookout Mountain and eventually Union forces climbed to the top to find that the Confederates who had started the day shooting at them had abandoned their positions. The Union victory and ability to hold Chattanooga would allow General Sherman to have a supply base on his march to Atlanta and eventually to the sea.

I have been to several different types of Civil War sites and this one had a uniqueness of its own. Civil War sites in cities, like Petersburg, often feel cramped in or at least surrounded while those out in the country, like Appomattox Court House, often feel like they take forever to get to. This site has a little bit of both. You feel a little ways away from the hustle of the city while not actually being that far. I enjoyed the trip and recommend anyone in the area to head down and check it out.

Geology:

I don't want to repeat myself too much here so I recommend you go check out my post on Russell Cave National Monument as these two sites are only about 30 minutes away from each other so the overall geology isn't that different. What I want to stress here is just how important geology is to wars, especially the Civil War, and I can assure you I can think of several more sites where geology plays a major role in the way the battle was won/lost. While the actual knowledge of geology was not important for the battle the way the battle took place could only have occurred because of the set up of the geology in the area.

The Battle of Chickamauga was takes place in an area of low rolling hills with some areas of higher relief. The rocks in the area where the battle took place represent what is known as the Ridge and Valley Province. These rocks have been heavily uplifted as well as folded and faulted. There are also a lot of limestone in the area and this is easily eroded away to produce sinkholes or just lower areas where rivers and streams flow. At the end of the first day and beginning of the second day the Union forces held a line on a slight limestone ridge, they owed this ridge due to erosional factors that had lowered the surrounding area while the ground sloped more gently behind them. This gentle slope led the the next formation above/younger than the one they were on. While the eventual falling apart of the Union line had little to do with geology their survival is directly because of it. Where the younger higher formation has a lot more limestone in it, this means it erodes faster, this quicker erosion can cause steeper cliffs to form since the erosion is going to be faster at the edge and with a more easily eroded formation the erosion will likely start from the edge, since that is where the rock is exposed. As the Union forces retreated they regrouped up on top of a short steep ridge. This was enough for them to gain an area where they had the firing advantage and were able to hold off the Confederates long enough to form a more cohesive retreat.

The Battle of Chattanooga is a different story though. The high ground around the city of Chattanooga is due to the ridges being caped by a layer of sandstone and/or conglomerate. These rock types are harder to erode and as such will stand up longer to erosional forces than will other rock types. The city itself sits primarily on the flood plain for the Tennessee River. These river sediments buried arrowheads and other archeological remains so that they could be found in what is now another part of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, in what is known as Moccasin Bend, we did not get a chance to go here however (mostly because most of it is closed off to the public). These ridges gave the Confederates a better firing angle on the city but they did not use them well enough as supply lines were eventually opened. Under the sandstone layer are more layers of limestone this is why the sandstone in this location is interpreted as a river setting that temporary buried a calcite producing system, if you want to know how look at how far the plume of debris from the Mississippi River goes out into the Gulf of Mexico today. The lower layers being limestone creates really steep cliffs on the sides of the ridges and these steep cliffs make it hard to get to the top but as you are shooting down they make it hard to shoot at the people directly below you as well. This is what would eventually force the Confederates off the ridges around the city and would allow the Union to win the battle.

More Pictures: All images are by the author ask permission if you want to use them, and if you do make sure you give me credit.

Further Reading:
University of Tennessee Chattanooga (UTC) site on the outcrops of the area.
Another piece by UTC on the geology visible from Lookout Mountain. (PDF)
If you want to learn more about the history of the site visit the NPS page.

National Park Service Series Page

Comfort you are in trouble now

So I know that Michael Shermer tweeted this but I figured I would throw together a quick post on it. The story can be found here. But to summarize it real quickly it seems the evidence is pointing toward Ray Comfort stole a summary of Darwin's life from a professor at the University of Tennessee who is now thinking about legal action for obvious reasons. My favorite part of the article is this:

“I would like to engage him in intellectual combat, but it wouldn’t be fair,” Guffey says. “If he were to play by the rules of reason and logic, I would whoop his ass, but he’s not constrained by those rules, so it wouldn’t be fair to me.”

Yes, he is right that most creationists don't play by the same rules as us scientists but the part I am talking about is the "I would whoop his ass" part. I can see a lot of my professors saying things like that but not to a newspaper article for publication but to each his own.

Anyway this is an interesting development we will have to keep tabs on it to see what happens.