Author Archives: Mark Wilson

About Mark Wilson

Mark Wilson is an emeritus Professor of Geology at The College of Wooster. He specializes in invertebrate paleontology, carbonate sedimentology, and stratigraphy. He also is an expert on pseudoscience, especially creationism.

A Wooster Geologist at Austerlitz and other Czech places

Mark Wilson June 13, 2019

Olomouc, Czech Republic –At our very first site, Holubice in the Czech Republic, the Miocene celliporid bryozoans are like baseballs. The site is in the middle of a vineyard, with the fossils eroding out of the loose sediment at our … Continue reading →
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Wooster Geologist in Slovakia and Austria

Mark Wilson June 12, 2019

Mikulov, Czech Republic — We have been very fortunate with the weather on our long IBA field excursion. Dazzling sunlit days and relatively cool evenings. Above is our first stop of the day — the Sandberg site with Miocene fossils … Continue reading →
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Wooster Geologist in the High Tatras Mountains of northern Slovakia

Mark Wilson June 11, 2019

Bratislava, Slovakia — Today our continuing IBA field trip adventure started in the High Tatra Mountains at this spectacular glacial lake called Štrbské pleso. This is  very popular ski destination in central Europe. The sharp mountain peaks are granitic. Another … Continue reading →
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Dundee Falls: A beautiful waterfall in northeastern Ohio

Mark Wilson June 4, 2019

Dundee, Ohio — One of the joys of summer for a geologist is the time to take short trips in the neighborhood to explore nature. This afternoon Greg Wiles, Nick Wiesenberg, Greg’s adventurous dog Arrow, and I drove about 45 … Continue reading →
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New paper on crinoids of the Kalana Lagerstätte (Early Silurian) of central Estonia

Mark Wilson May 14, 2019

Bill Ausich (The Ohio State University), Oive Tinn (University of Tartu) have a paper that has just appeared: Ausich, W.I., Wilson, M.A. and Tinn, O. 2019. Kalana Lagerstätte crinoids: Early Silurian (Llandovery) of central Estonia. Journal of Paleontology doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2019.27 It … Continue reading →
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New paper: Borings from the Silurian of Sweden — possibly the oldest deep-boring bivalves

Mark Wilson April 27, 2019

It was a delight to be a junior member of the team that produced this recent paper: Claussen, A.L., Munnecke, A., Wilson, M.A. and Oswald, I. 2019. The oldest deep boring bivalves? Evidence from the Silurian of Gotland (Sweden). Facies … Continue reading →
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Making Intellectual Connections: An education steeped in liberal arts forms excellent preparation for an environmental career

Mark Wilson April 26, 2019

Dr. Wilson suggested I contribute to the blog following my February 2019 presentation on Environmental Challenges Facing the Department of Defense.  So I have worked up the following missive.  If the audience, especially students and recent graduates, find it of … Continue reading →
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Birthplace of the Sandusky River

Mark Wilson April 6, 2019

I’ve long appreciated river confluences where two flows join to make a third, “new” river. The most impressive confluence I’ve visited is where the Bhagirathi and Alaknanda Rivers meet to produce the iconic Ganges at Devprayag, India. (The second image … Continue reading →
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Wooster Geologists in Southwestern Utah (March 2019)

Mark Wilson March 21, 2019

During our 2019 Spring Break, Dr. Shelley Judge, our ace technician Nick Wiesenberg, and I took two students (Anna Cooke ’20 and Evan Shadbolt ’20) to southwestern Utah for Independent Study (IS) research and geologic exploration. We had a great … Continue reading →
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Local culture on our last day in Utah

Mark Wilson March 20, 2019

Hurricane, Utah — On our last day in Utah, we packed up and shipped our samples back to Wooster by FedEx (almost 100 pounds of rock) and then visited the St. George Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of … Continue reading →
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