Snow spiders, shrimps and migration of Ice Age animals

Walney Island Deer comes to Manchester Museum

 

 

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Dettifoss

Dettifoss in Northern Iceland is Europe’s largest waterfall by volume. It flows over some stunning columnar basalt lavas

Collecting the Myvatn fires 1724-29

One of the main reasons to come to Iceland was to collect new volcanic structures for the museum alongside collecting stories, interviews and background information. We were able to collect some beautiful Ropey lava from the 1724-29 Myvatn Fires eruption yesterday.

They show the classic  ‘ropey’ texture of gas poor, very fluid lava that flowed down the hill and across the valley in the images below. The lava was very brittle.

The edge of the lava flow

We have made every effort to collect in a responsible way. We have permission to export from the Icelandic Institute of Natural History and are only collecting loose material. A telegraph line ran across part of the lava flow which gave us a good, very disturbed area to collect from.

Washing specimens in a hydrothermal shower

Snaefellsjokull volcano

More about our Iceland collecting trip

New light on old boulders

I’m pleased to say that the hoardings around the glacial boulder in the University Old Quad next to the museum have been taken down.

Here’s what we’ve got about the boulder in our new Ice Age display:

In 1888, during the construction of a sewer on Oxford Road, an enormous boulder was discovered, that had originated in the Lake District, more than 80 miles away. It has been displayed in the Old Quad next to the Museum ever since.

The icebergs vs land ice debate was still raging. William Boyd Dawkins, the first curator of Manchester Museum, favoured drifting icebergs.

The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, February 21st 1888

Excavating the boulder at the junction of Oxford Road and Ducie Street
Image courtesy of Buxton Museum

Iceland: the sequel

We’re doing lots of planning at the moment for our return trip to Iceland. Rachel Webster and I visited Iceland last September to see some of the world’s best geological sites and meet potential partners.

Well I’m delighted to say we are returning in August this year to focus on thematic collecting for the museum. And we are taking Curator of Arthropods Dmitri.

Over the last hundred years or so most museums have collected examples of lots of different things from around the world as if the museums were encyclopedias. We are trying to move away from that idea and collect new objects based on a theme. Last year we trialed this idea on the theme of trees.

Our trip to Iceland will focus on collecting objects, blogs posts, images and videos around:

• Volcanic environments
• Making land (how plants and other life colonise new land)
• Sustainable energy and resource use

These objects and themes will feed into exhibitions, public events and research projects back at Manchester Museum.

We’ll be collecting as much background and contextural information as possible and interviewing a wide range of people whilst we are there, so watch this space to find out more!

Mid-Atlantic ridge graben fault at Pingvellir

William Buckland and Noah’s Flood

Another extract from our new Ice Age display:

In the 1820s and 1830s the Reverend William Buckland argued that Noah’s Flood in the Bible had once covered Britain, eroding valleys and depositing sand and gravel. Buckland studied fossil bones which he suggested were all from animals wiped out by the flood.

Iceberg Lake, Iceland

Buckland taught at Oxford University where one of his students was Charles Lyell. In 1833, Lyell put forward a powerful case suggesting the deposits had come from melting icebergs drifting across a sea and not the flood suggested by Buckland.

Reindeer antler
Robin Hood Cave, Creswell Crags, collected by Boyd Dawkins

Glacial cobble
Found near Oxford road, Manchester
Originally from Eskdale, The Lake District

Thanks to Professor Jamie Woodward who helped put the display together. Find out more in his new book Ice Age VSI

Come and see the new display in the Fossils Gallery, Manchester Museum.

The Adams Mammoth

I thought I’d share some of the great stories we have put in our new Ice Age display. Here’s the first:

The Adams mammoth was discovered in Siberia in 1799. It takes its name from Mikhail Adams a Russian botanist, who retrieved the body.

The fleshy body and thick woolly fleece convinced early nineteenth century naturalists that this animal was adapted to life in the Arctic tundra.

Mammoth bones had also been found in Britain and other parts of temperate Europe. Had Britain once been as cold as Siberia?

Mammoth hair Yakutia, Siberia Russia (purchased 2001)

Thanks to Professor Jamie Woodward who helped put the display together. Find out more in his new book Ice Age VSI

Come and see the new display in the Fossils Gallery, Manchester Museum.