Rail line could be part of Resolution Copper land exchange

A proposal has come forward to include a Magma Arizona Railroad line as part of the land swap bill in Congress for the Resolution Copper mine near Superior. Her proposal is to add the rail line to the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act that would trade 5,500 acres of conservation lands for lands Resolution needs to develop its mine. [right, Magma engine #10, at the Arizona Railroad Museum]

State Representative Barbara McGuire wants the existing line now owned by Resolution to become a passenger line connecting the Superior area to the Phoenix Valley and eventually to the new light rail line. According to a story in the Arizona Republic, McGuire also wants to get federal transportation stimulus money to help convert the line.

The rail line was built to transport cattle and copper to the SP line in Magma.

World's largest fossil oyster and more from Tucson fossil show

The seller says that at 52 inches across, this is the world's largest fossil oyster [right]. It's from the Cretaceous Niobrara Fm. in Gove Co., Kansas. The flyer says these oysters were unusually thin, which allowed them to 'float' along the sediment surface of the ancient sea.

The Fossil Hall at the Inn & Suites hotel two blocks from the AZGS building is one of the more spectacular venues of big and exotic fossils. I ran down during lunch and, as usual, was blown over by what's for sale. The dinosaur skull on the lower right has a 'sold' sign on it, as did a number of other showy pieces including a beautiful mammoth tusk.

Chromium petrified wood from Arizona

This piece of green petrified wood from Winslow Arizona caught my attention at the gem show. The vendor, from Kingman, said it's the result of chromium infusion in the agatization process. He said it comes from an extremely small occurrence on the Navajo Reservation, and fetches premium prices. The piece pictured was listed at $175.

Pleistocene wooly rhino from Siberia

This Pleistocene wooly rhino is from the Siberian Natural History Museum in Novosibirsk. Pictured with it are Oleg Medvedev and Igor Gebnev, who are selling it and a complete mammoth, along with other fossils, to raise funds to support the museum's research and operations.

Their tent is set up at the Ramada Inn mineral and fossil show just west of downtown Tucson.

Oleg says there only two complete intact wooly rhinos on display in the world, both in former Soviet republics. Theirs is a composite of bones from a few different animals. It can be yours for only $50,000. It's mostly other museums that are the customers for these fossils.

Petrified wood art and furniture

One of the more striking pieces I spotted at the Tucson gem and mineral shows today is this conference table [right] made of a single slab of Arizona petrified wood.

Ralph Thompson with Russell-Zuhl Petrified Wood in Massachusetts, polishes slabs all year as art pieces and furniture and displays them only at the Tucson show.

I did not ask prices.

Into the belly of the Biosphere

About 10 pm last night, a line from the "Gilligan Island's" theme song started running through my head - something about "a three hour tour."

We were deep in the subterranean levels of Biosphere 2, ducking our heads to enter a low triangular- shaped tunnel into one of two giant 'lungs.' The lungs are huge circular underground chambers, sealed with rubber-like bellows that allow the whole complex to breathe and prevent the Biosphere from exploding or imploding as air pressures change with the changing temperatures.

A group of us were getting the special tour following an all-day meeting of the UA-run iPlant Collaborative education, outreach, and training planning group. We had a wonderful dinner in the former rec room where the biospherians gathered during their infamous 2-year isolation experiment. [left, the sign says, "Lower Savanna Basement" and identifies water pipes under that environment in the overlying Biosphere]

Much of our tour was underneath the floor of the giant iconic glass structure. That also allowed us to walk the beach of the ocean lagoon, which is not open to the public, as well as seeing the incredibly complex guts of the operation.

Groundwater mining caused 3,000 square miles of subsidence in Arizona

More than 3,000 square miles of Arizona has subsided, due to groundwater pumping, including an area of 100 square miles in Pinal County between Phoenix and Tucson that sank 7 feet between 1952 and 1977, according to testimony by Arizona water chief Herb Guenther in testimony last week.

Herb raised concerns that the 100 year assured supplies of water are based on allowing groundwater mining down to 1,000 feet, but what happens then? How do you replace the water and how do you deal with the resulting subsidence?

[right, active subsidence areas in Arizona, based on ADWR InSAR]