Nashville City Cemetery

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I visited Nashville, Tennessee. Some spare time became available, so I made a quick visit to the cemetery in Nashville that is home to the grave of Dr. Gerard Troost. Dr. Troost is tied to Louisville because his mineral/fossil collection is stored at the Louisville Science Center (former Natural History Museum of Louisville founded in 1871).  Dr. Troost was also active in the New Harmony, Indiana utopian community in the early 1800s.  New Harmony is about 131 miles driving distance from Louisville, Kentucky.

The Nashville City Cemetery Association should be commended for their work in maintaining and cleaning up this cemetery (established 1822).  I found it to be a clean and peaciful place that is the final resting place for a number of past residents of the city.  The website is excellent and the records there helped me find Dr. Troost grave in section 29.1 near the cross section of Pine Avenue and Maple Avenue (inside the cemetery).  The 1909 records show the grave at Section M-29, Lot 25 belonging to Mary Troost.

Panoramic images of part of the cemetery

The grave of Gerard Troost, M.D.; Ph. M. born March 15, 1776 (Bois-le-Duc, Holland) and died August 14, 1850 (Nashville, Tenneessee).  He was a Professor of Chemistry and Geology at University of Nashville, 1828-1850.  I think that university was merged into what is now Vanderbilt University.

Apparently, this grave marker is not the original and might be from 1905-1906.  According to The American Geologist A Monthly Journal of Geology and Allied Sciences, Editor N.H. Winchell, Volume XXXV, January to June 1905.  The article is in the February 1905 section entitled Gerard Troost by L.C. Glenn, Nashville, Tenn. pages 72-94.

To quote from the article on pages 89-90, "He sleeps in an unmarked and neglected grave in an obscure corner of the old city cemetery of Nashville.  The State will be asked at the coming session of the legislature to place an appropriate marker over his grave and thus rescue from oblivion the last resting place of one who gave much of his time and skill to the service of the State in making known the existence or extent of natural resources whose later development has brought wealth and prosperity to their fortunate possessors.  The portrait herewith reproduced is from a portrait in oil belonging to the Tennessee Historical Society."

I took this picture of the grave of Henry Langford, a War of 1812 veteran.

Conularia

Here is an ancient sea creature I am trying to draw. It is called a Conularia and existed in the Mississippian Period. It is not known what it actually looked like some thought it might be some sort of jellyfish that floated around. Specimens have been found where the tip or apex had a stem on it. So it might have been like a crinoid with tentacles.

Check out this link at Harvard for more information about this creature.

The Louisville Fossils site also has an entry.




These creatures can might also be referred to as Paraconularia. You can find some more images of the Conularia on the KYANA Geological Society website:

http://www.kyanageo.org/Fossils/mississippian/other/Conularid_Coral_Ridge1.jpg

http://www.kyanageo.org/Fossils/mississippian/other/Conularid_in_nodule_Coral_Ridge.jpg

http://www.kyanageo.org/Fossils/mississippian/Corals/conularia.jpg

This link shows a nice specimen from Missouri.

Lake Cumberland, Kentucky

Over the weekend, I got to go camping at Lake Cumberland, Kentucky and study the geology of the lake. The dam is being repaired so the banks of the lake are revealed which also shows all the exposed rock. This area has a lot of exposed Mississippian period fossils which consists mostly of the animal called a crinoid.

Another Geode Fragment

Here is another piece of geode with quartz and reddish material (maybe iron) found near Lake Cumberland, Kentucky.

Red Quartz Geode

Here is the inside of geode found near Lake Cumberland, Kentucky. I think the red is some sort of iron and quartz crystals. Maybe some dolomite and gypsum as well surround by chalcedony.

Visit to Lake Cumberland, Kentucky

Last weekend I went on a geology field trip with KYANA Geological Society (http://www.kyanageo.org/) to Grider Hill Dock (http://www.griderhilldock.com/) at Cumberland Lake, Kentucky.

The lake was nice and not too crowded. As you can see in the picture the rock banks are very visible in the pictures as the Army Corp of Engineers had to lower the water levels to repair the dam that created this lake from the Cumberland River.

Since the water level is down it makes a great time to observe the geological features covered by the water. This area was part of a vast shallow sea during the Mississippian period (known as Carboniferous outside the United States) which was about 320-360 million years ago. Animals that looked like plants ("sea lilies") known as crinoids flourished here.

These pictures showed the marina and our group of 17 rented two pontoon boats for the day.

Fossils from Hodgenville

Here are some fossils from Hodgenville, Kentucky famous for being the birthplace of United States president Abraham Lincoln.

These fossils for the most part are of bryzoan fenestella. It looks like a net pattern on the rock. There are also a few brachiopod imprints as well.

These creatures existed in the Mississippian (known in the United States) or elsewhere as early Carboniferous during the Paleozoic era. Timeline wise it was about 320-360 million years ago.

The rocks are reddish with white chalk like material and some rocks have a black almost burnt section to them. After consulting with a long time member of KYANA (Kentuckiana Geological Society), he told me that probably the red was iron, white silicon, and the black magnesium.







This is not a fossil but I thought it looked pretty neat so I took its picture.

Fossil Hunting After Watermelon Planting

Last Friday, I finally got my watermelons planted in a field in Hodgenville, Kentucky. It is really late but our growing season has been messed up due to cooler weather in April and May.

On my way back to Louisville, I stopped off at Joe Prather highway and looked for fossils.

I found 4 trilobite tails embedded in a some rocks. So I keep my trend alive at find trilobite pieces on my last 6 outings. I thought this trip would end it since the area is not known for trilobites.

Here is a small shell I found but have not identified yet. It might be some type of Athyris brachiopod but I am not sure Devonian fossils are in this area. It would seem to be maybe from the Mississippian Period (Lower Carboniferous) so maybe it is a Beecheria brachiopod.

Here is a pea sized blastoid head which I was surprised to find. It might be a Pentremites from the Mississippian time period.

Another surprising thing about it is that is black in color.

Geology Field Trip to Bedford, Kentucky

Recently, I got to go on a geology field trip to Bedford, Kentucky to collect snails or gastropods. It was fun though it was hot and sunny. Also the weeds were making my allergies flare up. Found lots of neat fossils and here are some pictures of some.

Keeping my streak alive of finding some trilobite piece on my last 5 outings. This trip was extra nice in the the upside down flexicalymene trilobite that is about 50% there. Also found at least 5 other trilobite pieces.

On the way back home, the fire department of Bedford was collecting money at the stop light for the WHAS Crusade for Children so I gave the firefighter some money. His face was really red I assumed from being out in the sun for hours and hours so I gave him the rest of my 50 level sunblock. I hope he was able to use it because that looked like quite a sunburn. The sunblock packet came from the Louisville Mayor's ride so it was good I could pay it forward with them giving it to me and I able to give to someone else.

Other Fossils in KYANA case at Louisville Nature Center

Keeping with yesterday's post, I finish with the photos I took at the last KYANA meeting at the Louisville Nature Center (www.kyanageo.org).

These are some other minerals and fossils besides crinoids. The 3 photos show quartz geodes, rugosa solitary coral, and brachiopods.

KYANA Fossil Display at Louisville Nature Center

Today's post are pictures of the display case at the Louisville Nature Center that has fossil specimens provided by the KYANA Geological Society (www.kyanageo.org). I think most of the fossils shown in these pictures are crinoids and they were found at Cumberland Lake, Kentucky. Some of the stems look like they could be the size of small trees today. Since the rock is brown I wonder if they are from the Devonian period?

Quartz Brachiopods and a Gastropod

Here are some more pictures of fossils from Mt. Washington, Kentucky. All specimens are under 4 cm in size.

Trilobite Segment and Gastropod from Bardstown Roadcut

The opportunity arose for me to search for fossils last week for about 30 minutes and I found some nice specimens.

The first is a large gastropod (or snail) that is pretty much intact. It has a nice spiral and is 2.5 cm in diameter and about 2 cm high.

The site I visited in Mt. Washington, Kentucky is Ordovician time period known for gastropods, brachiopods, and cephalopods. I was trying to find cephalopods and picked up a rock that looked the shape but was very muddy and caked with limestone debris. After cleaning it later, I was surprised to find the back segment of a trilobite about 1 cm in length and 0.75 cm in width.

More Trilobites

My cousin was on the April 19th KYANA field trip to the Speed Indiana Quarry as well and really went after trilobites. He found about 9-11 trilobite parts. Here are some pictures I took of some of this finds.

More fossil pictures

These fossils have been posted before or at least two of them. The pictures are new and I was using a tripod with sunlight and an incandescent bulb to take pictures.

The images are of a dawsonoceras cephalopod, crinoid calyx, and blastoid head.

More Fossils

Here is a rock with a fragment of a trilobite tail in it.


Here is rugose horn coral that I cut the end off with a diamond saw so it ring pattern would show up better. I then started to polish it with high grit sandpaper.

Mystery Rock Probably Identified

I visited the place where the mystery rock came from and I thought it came out of a pond out in a farm field. It came from a shale bed that had a pond on it. So it looks more and more likely the rock was a marcasite nodule. This is iron sulfide or a form of pyrite. I am not sure how to tell the crystal structure so maybe it is pyrite or marcasite or some mixture.

Here are some pictures of the New Albany shale layer dug up in Memphis Indiana.