Geological Monitoring

Geologic Monitoring is a practical, nontechnical guide for land managers, educators, and the public that synthesizes representative methods for monitoring short-term and long-term change in geologic features and landscapes. A prestigious group of subject-matter experts has carefully selected methods for monitoring sand dunes, caves and karst, rivers, geothermal features, glaciers, nearshore marine features, beaches and marshes, paleontological resources, permafrost, seismic activity, slope movements, and volcanic features and processes. Each chapter has an overview of the resource; summarizes features that could be monitored; describes methods for monitoring each feature ranging from low-cost, low-technology methods (that could be used for school groups) to higher cost, detailed monitoring methods requiring a high level of expertise; and presents one or more targeted case studies.
Monitoring in situ paleontological resources
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Published:January 01, 2009
Abstract
Paleontological resources (fossils) are the remains of life preserved in a geologic context. Fossils may consist of the physical remains of a biological organism such as a tooth, bone, shell, leaf, cone, seed, or wood. Evidence of biological activity may sometimes be preserved in rocks, hence tracks, traces, burrows, coprolites (fossil dung and feces), and nests represent other valuable types of paleontological resources.
The fossil record reveals an extremely rich diversity of ancient organisms preserved in the Earth's strata (layers of rock). The fossil record of life on Earth spans nearly every period of geologic history from Precambrian bacteria, billions of years old, to more recent Pleistocene or Holocene cave fossils dating back only a few thousand years. Together, fossils from around the world yield significant scientific and educational information regarding the history of life on Earth.
From the moment of death for an organism, a wide array of agents and forces work toward the breakdown and destruction of its physical remains. Raup and Stanley (1978) identify and describe biological, chemical, and mechanical variables associated with the destruction of biological remains. Only a very small percentage of all living organisms become part of the fossil record, and of those, an even smaller percentage have been discovered, collected and studied. The preservation of fossils and the associated biases in the fossil record are directly attributable to the organism's morphologic composition, rate of post-mortem burial, environment of deposition, diagenetic variables, tapho-nomic (after death) factors, and the post-depositional geologic history of
- Arizona
- Cenozoic
- climate
- Colorado
- conservation
- erosion rates
- fossil localities
- fossils
- frost action
- geographic information systems
- geologic hazards
- Glenns Ferry Formation
- human activity
- Idaho
- in situ
- information systems
- land management
- landslides
- mapping
- mass movements
- monitoring
- Paleogene
- Petrified Forest National Park
- photography
- protection
- resources
- technology
- Tertiary
- United States
- Wasatch Formation
- Yellowstone National Park
- Fossil Butte National Monument
- Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument
- Curecanti National Recreation Area
- freeze-thaw index