The silver lining of Florence

[Peace river rat]

After this storm passes I bet tons of meg teeth and other fossils will be found, churned from the deep. I know it was a banner year for fossils in the peace river in Arcadia Fl after the floodwaters of Irma receded.

To those in the path, you have my prayers. Stay safe.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Been thinking about the Meg Ledge myself through all this.  One day...

[Peace river rat]

14 minutes ago, Uncle Siphuncle said:

Been thinking about the Meg Ledge myself through all this.  One day...

If there was any way possible, I'd certainly be there.

[goatinformationist]

Same here in Atlanta.  Not much in the way of fossils but the mineral bonanza will be extreme come Saturday and Sunday.  Do be safe.

[Peace river rat]

30 minutes ago, goatinformationist said:

Same here in Atlanta.  Not much in the way of fossils but the mineral bonanza will be extreme come Saturday and Sunday.  Do be safe.

Asides from agatized coral, no minerals to hunt in SW Fl.

[goatinformationist]

Just now, Peace river rat said:

Asides from agatized coral, no minerals to hunt in SW Fl.

But Rucks pit in south central, off of 441 about 15miles north of the big lake will knock your socks off with calcified clams.  Check photo.  Expensive but worth it.

And don't forget the phosphate mines, or lime rock mines; those extant and those extinct.  Been there and done that.

[Peace river rat]

17 hours ago, goatinformationist said:

But Rucks pit in south central, off of 441 about 15miles north of the big lake will knock your socks off with calcified clams.  Check photo.  Expensive but worth it.

And don't forget the phosphate mines, or lime rock mines; those extant and those extinct.  Been there and done that.

Love to get into mine but you have to be in a group of some sort. Simple trespass is automatically a felony. Mosaic has designs to mine 19,000 acres here in DeSoto county. So far, city council shot em down, but they will have their way. Wonder how many beautiful skeletons they tear up with that dragline bucket?

[MarcoSr]

First let me say that my prayers and best wishes are for the folks affected by Florence.

 

Major storms don't always improve fossil collecting.  The remnants of Hurricane Isabel in 2003 hit parts of Virginia really hard (tropical storm wind, very heavy rain, spinoff tornadoes) especially where I live.  We were without power for 9 days afterwards.  Others for weeks more.  It took me months to cut up and remove downed trees on my 55 acre property.  The rain washed out my road to my pond.  Instead of Isabel uncovering new fossils it put up to 3 feet of overburden/sand on the beaches at some of my favorite fossil hunting sites.  It took over a year at some sites for this overburden to wash away and for the sites to be productive again.  It also dropped trees all over which made even walking in some areas almost impossible for several years.  I saw absolutely no silver lining. 

 

Marco Sr.

[Peace river rat]

5 hours ago, MarcoSr said:

First let me say that my prayers and best wishes are for the folks affected by Florence.

 

Major storms don't always improve fossil collecting.  The remnants of Hurricane Isabel in 2003 hit parts of Virginia really hard (tropical storm wind, very heavy rain, spinoff tornadoes) especially where I live.  We were without power for 9 days afterwards.  Others for weeks more.  It took me months to cut up and remove downed trees on my 55 acre property.  The rain washed out my road to my pond.  Instead of Isabel uncovering new fossils it put up to 3 feet of overburden/sand on the beaches at some of my favorite fossil hunting sites.  It took over a year at some sites for this overburden to wash away and for the sites to be productive again.  It also dropped trees all over which made even walking in some areas almost impossible for several years.  I saw absolutely no silver lining. 

 

Marco Sr.

Yes, I can see that working the other way to.

While Irma made life miserable for a couple weeks, when the super swollen peace river went down, I had my best fossil day ever, by far. 6 complete horse molars, one meg tooth, about 12 glyptodont and homesinia osteoderms (or scutes ?) and two whale verts and these were SURFACE finds!

[goatinformationist]

On ‎9‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 1:41 PM, Peace river rat said:

Love to get into mine but you have to be in a group of some sort. Simple trespass is automatically a felony. Mosaic has designs to mine 19,000 acres here in DeSoto county. So far, city council shot em down, but they will have their way. Wonder how many beautiful skeletons they tear up with that dragline bucket?

 

I hear ya.  Armand Hammer tried to divert the (entire) Suwannee river into his phosphate works back in the '70's.  A lot of his large equipment went missing until

the deepest springs were investigated.  Very deep springs, very large trucks and earth movers. Dang those river rats.

[Peace river rat]

2 hours ago, goatinformationist said:

 

I hear ya.  Armand Hammer tried to divert the (entire) Suwannee river into his phosphate works back in the '70's.  A lot of his large equipment went missing until

the deepest springs were investigated.  Very deep springs, very large trucks and earth movers. Dang those river rats.

This rat was not yet alive! While I can't say I would support such tactics, I find it hard to be sympathetic to the phosphate barons plight. They rape the earth and export a strategic mineral for crop production with zero benefit to the region they mine.

 

I have read, that the bone valley region produces 25% of global supply.

 

When all the phosphate peters out and has been exported, the US will be in a real bind for domestic crop production. I suspect I will be on the path to fossilization at that time, but I feel for future Americans.