It has been quite the exciting week! On Wednesday alone I attended two presentations and got a tour of the Earth and Planetary Sciences department. The talks were both really interesting! Dr. Kate Kiseeva presented on "Probing the Deep Earth: Insights from Mantle Xenoliths and Inclusions in Diamonds". I learned a lot during that talk, I previously had very little knowledge of inclusions in diamonds, let alone how one would study them! Another talk was given by Stephanie Pierce from Harvard and was titled "Functional Adaptive Landscapes (Help) Illuminate Major Transitions in Vertebrate Evolution". This talk was also very enlightening regarding the specifics of what changes animals underwent during these transitions.
The tour around the Earth and Planetary Sciences department was excellent. Nicole Childs, the Collections Manager in the department, had a wide range of knowledge about all of the collections we visited. We started in the rock collections, and all of the samples were gorgeous. We started with one of my favorites, a garnet bearing gneiss from Gore Mountain, New York. This sample is from the same locality as the huge slab of garnets showcased in the gems and minerals exhibition, and this site produces the largest garnets in the world! Nicole also handed us a slab of shiny material, warning us it is heavy. As it turns out, that sample is almost entirely silver! There was also a beautiful fold preserved in gneiss.
Garnet in gneiss from Gore Mountain, NY Folded gneiss, unknown locality
Silver in calcite from Cobalt, Ontario, Canada
Then we moved on to the meteorites section. Before this tour, I had no idea AMNH has one of the largest meteorite collections! Nicole explained the basic classifications of meteorites. There are two major types of meteorite: chrondrites and achondrites. Chondrites formed from the dust and debris that was scattered with the birth of the sun, achondrites are the remnants of larger bodies that formed after the fact. Achondrites are the bulk of the museum's meteorites, and different types of achondrites represent different parts of the larger body (think small planets) after it is destroyed. Stony meteorites would be equivalent to the Earth's crust, pallasites (olivine rich) are equivalent to the upper mantle, and iron-nickel meteorites are the core.
The first large slab Nicole pulled out was a slice of Symchan pallasite full of olivine surrounded by iron-nickel. Having seen other olivine rich rocks before, I thought it was really cool to be reminded that some of the same materials we are familiar with on Earth also exist in other parts of the universe. The second one we looked at was a slice of a Gibeon meteorite, an iron-nickel achondrite, that represents the core of a dead planet. The patterning inside the meteorite is very famously associated with Gibeon meteorites, and it is one of the more famous octahedrites ever discovered. I had seen small pieces of similar meteorites before, but none of this size. It was held in a plastic bag anyway as it should only be handled with gloves, but it almost felt too special to touch anyway.
A slice of Seymchan pallasite Macro photo of the Seymchan pallasite
Slice of Gibeon meteorite showing the Widmanstaetten pattern of alternating iron-nickel minerals, primarily kamacite and taenite
Lastly, we ended in the mineral collections, where I wish I could spend hours! I saw so many samples showing features I had never seen before. Two fluorite specimens caught my eye, one because the geometric patterns were mesmerizing. Another fluorite specimen was covered in small quartz crystals, the texture of which almost reminded me of an old fleece jacket. I had also never seen a hematite specimen like the one Nicole showed us, which was so sparkly it does not come through on camera. The reverse side of the hematite specimen features quartz crystals interbedded within the hematite, and the quartz crystals show a crystal shape called "Cumberland habit". This is a very famous British locality that has been of interest to mineralogists since the 1800s.
Fluorite, United States Fluorite with Quartz, Weardale England
Hematite from Cumberland, England The reverse side of the hematite specimen
I have been enjoying exploring various museums on the weekends. This past weekend I went to not one but two different art museums to explore modern art. My first day I spent a couple hours at the Guggenheim. There were so many breathtaking pieces of art there, but one collection that caught my eye featured works by Beatriz Milhazes (b. 1960, Rio de Janeiro). I loved a lot of her works but the one that first drew my attention was her painting titled "Four Seasons." The information plaque next to it stated that growing up in Rio de Janeiro, Milhazes did not get to experience dramatic seasonal shifts in climate, as Rio's weather is relatively consistent throughout the year. It brought me a new appreciation for the seasons we have at home in Colorado, and the fact I am currently experiencing Spring in the Big Apple!
As quatro estações (The Four Seasons) 1997 O cravo e a rosa (The Carnation and the Rose) 2000
In albis 1995-96
On Sunday I spent the day at the Museum Of Modern Art and loved every second of it. I mean WOW. To be honest, I had no idea Starry Night was in New York. I thought for sure it would be somewhere in Europe. But I feel so lucky to have been able to see it and sit with one of Van Gogh's masterpieces. The texture of the painting in person is something rarely seen in other versions, whether they be online or on prints. My dad had also told me I was going to love Monet's Water Lillies, saying I could spend hours there. Boy was he right. As much as I loved the central attraction, a three-panel painting, the one that drew me in was on the opposing wall, painted between 1914 and 1926. Photos will never do it justice, but something about the light blues and pinks and purples had such an airiness to them. Like just looking at the painting and getting lost in it lightened my spirit. Ok, I know this post is getting long, so last painting! This one was an unexpected favorite. I did not realize at first this painting was made up of tiny dots until I got closer to it, and the detail took my breath away. I also loved that the frame was also painted on. I was awed by how it was not just an extension of the painting, but more so constructed of patterns and colors that complemented the rest of the work and made it shine even more beautifully.
Claude Monet Water Lillies 1914-26 Georges-Pierre Seurat Evening, Honfleur 1886
Vincent van Gogh The Starry Night. Saint Rémy, June 1889
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