04/14/2012
Student: Joseph Cancellare (EPCC)
Faculty: Dr. David Lemone (UTEP)
The Clare Quarry is located in the town of Florissant, Teller County, Colorado, approximately 30 miles west of Colorado Springs on State Highway 24. The elevation at the quarry face is 2500 meters ASL. 40Ar/39 dating of the upper beds of the Florissant Formation indicates an age of 34.07 +/- 0.10 Ma. An Oreodont fossil jaw and other mammalian fossils place the formation in the Chadronian Age. The basin in which the formation lies is undergirded by Wall Mountain Tuff dated at 37Ma, which sits on Pike’s Peak Granite, which is dated at1080 Ma. In the Late Eocene the Florissant region was lacusterine in nature due to the damning of the river valley which runs north into Florissant. The ash and lahars from volcanic eruptions from the Thirty-nine Mile Volcano Field formed impoundments that produced shallow lakes for what is thought to been a period for 5000 years. Repeated ash falls placed plant matter and insect material in the lakes and streams that were formed intermittently during the period. The ash layers in the Florissant Formation are very fine grained, and contain diatomaceous mats that formed on the lake deposited ash layers aiding in the preservation of plant and insects material. Previous work on Florissant Fossils has been done by Lesquereaux (plants) 1878, Scudder (insects) 1890, and McGinitie (plants) 1959. This project began 17 years ago and has consisted of collection trips ranging from one to eight days in the summers at a proprietary quarry owned land adjacent to The Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. The collection consists of 2400 catalogued plants, insects, and fish fossils. To date classification is strictly superficial. One of the early objectives of this work was to collect series of the same genera however there is no discernible pattern below the ordinal level. In this phase the primary objective will be to place as many insect specimens into families as possible. Many insect families (but no genera) found in the Florissant still persist today. Tools used in the initial sorting and extraction process are push pins, Exacto knives, razor blades and a Bausch and Lomb zoom dissecting scope fitted with a circular fluorescent illumination ring with magnification ranging from 60 to 210 diameters. This study will also incorporate the use of a scanning electron microscope to help aid in the identification process. at the quarry face is 2500 meters ASL.
Student: Joseph Cancellare (EPCC)
Faculty: Dr. David Lemone (UTEP)
The Clare Quarry is located in the town of Florissant, Teller County, Colorado, approximately 30 miles west of Colorado Springs on State Highway 24. The elevation at the quarry face is 2500 meters ASL. 40Ar/39 dating of the upper beds of the Florissant Formation indicates an age of 34.07 +/- 0.10 Ma. An Oreodont fossil jaw and other mammalian fossils place the formation in the Chadronian Age. The basin in which the formation lies is undergirded by Wall Mountain Tuff dated at 37Ma, which sits on Pike’s Peak Granite, which is dated at1080 Ma. In the Late Eocene the Florissant region was lacusterine in nature due to the damning of the river valley which runs north into Florissant. The ash and lahars from volcanic eruptions from the Thirty-nine Mile Volcano Field formed impoundments that produced shallow lakes for what is thought to been a period for 5000 years. Repeated ash falls placed plant matter and insect material in the lakes and streams that were formed intermittently during the period. The ash layers in the Florissant Formation are very fine grained, and contain diatomaceous mats that formed on the lake deposited ash layers aiding in the preservation of plant and insects material. Previous work on Florissant Fossils has been done by Lesquereaux (plants) 1878, Scudder (insects) 1890, and McGinitie (plants) 1959. This project began 17 years ago and has consisted of collection trips ranging from one to eight days in the summers at a proprietary quarry owned land adjacent to The Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. The collection consists of 2400 catalogued plants, insects, and fish fossils. To date classification is strictly superficial. One of the early objectives of this work was to collect series of the same genera however there is no discernible pattern below the ordinal level. In this phase the primary objective will be to place as many insect specimens into families as possible. Many insect families (but no genera) found in the Florissant still persist today. Tools used in the initial sorting and extraction process are push pins, Exacto knives, razor blades and a Bausch and Lomb zoom dissecting scope fitted with a circular fluorescent illumination ring with magnification ranging from 60 to 210 diameters. This study will also incorporate the use of a scanning electron microscope to help aid in the identification process. at the quarry face is 2500 meters ASL.
