Rockin' Pop-Up - Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History

Rockin’ Pop-Up: Biogenic Geology

When we think of geology and rocks, living things rarely jump to mind unless we’re talking about fossils. And when we think of fossils, we usually think of mineralized bones and shells or tell-tale impressions within sedimentary rocks. Some rocks, however, are made up entirely of the fossilized remains of once living creatures. These “biogenic” sedimentary rocks are an important part of the solid Earth and more common than you might think! The Geology Gents are no biologists, but they nonetheless explore biogenic sedimentary rocks and the incredible geologic histories they record.

About the Series: Join the Geology Gents, Gavin and Graham, for monthly conversations about rocks live on Facebook. Each month we’ll explore a different geologic topic, from Santa Cruz formations to tips for being a more effective rockhound. Graham Edwards and Gavin Piccione are PhD candidates in geochronology with the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Santa Cruz.

Submit your questions ahead of time by emailing events@santacruzmuseum.org and feel free to include pictures of rocks you’d like identified! Note: you do not need to have a Facebook account to be able to watch the program live.

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Read our blog Rock Record

Rockin’ Pop-Up: The Varieties of Volcanoes

This month, the Geology Gents explore how varied volcanoes can be. Graham Edwards and Gavin Piccione, PhD candidates in geochronology at UC Santa Cruz, put on blast how lava type affects the appearance of volcanoes and the way those volcanoes erupt.

Watch Past Pop-Ups
Read our blog Rock Record

Rockin’ Pop-Up: Paleoclimatology

This month, the Geology Gents explore what has happened to the Earth throughout its history when sudden climate change has occurred. Hint: it usually involves mass extinctions. Look back at last month’s episode exploring Ice Ages as a primer for this discussion of paleoclimatology, or the study of ancient climates.

Submit your questions ahead of time by emailing events@santacruzmuseum.org and feel free to include pictures of rocks you’d like identified! Pro-tip: the better the picture, the better the ID.

Watch Past Pop-Ups
Read our blog Rock Record

Rockin’ Pop-Up: Ice Ages

Join the Geology Gents as they explore how Earth freezes over! Sure, the weather is getting cooler in Santa Cruz as we head into winter, but far cooler temperatures have prevailed on Earth during “ice age” climates. In this Rockin’ Pop-Up the Gents dive into the history of Earth’s ice ages. Some ice ages may have covered the entire planet with ice, while other periods are punctuated by cold “glacial” ice ages and warm “interglacial” periods — which is what our Earth is currently undergoing.

Submit your questions ahead of time by emailing events@santacruzmuseum.org and feel free to include pictures of rocks you’d like identified! Pro-tip: the better the picture, the better the ID.

Watch Past Pop-Ups
Read our blog Rock Record

Rockin’ Pop-Up: Supercontinents

An illustration that shows the continents in different positions on a circle representing the earth. To the right is text and images of two men.

There have been a dozen major and minor supercontinents over the earth’s 4.567 billion year history, and odds are that there will be more. Explore plate tectonics and continental drift in this month’s Rockin’ Pop-Up.

Submit your questions ahead of time by emailing events@santacruzmuseum.org and feel free to include pictures of rocks you’d like identified! Pro-tip: the better the picture, the better the ID.

Watch Past Pop-Ups
Read our blog Rock Record

Rockin’ Pop-Up: Caves (Special Edition)

Photo of stalactite formations in a marble cave.

In honor of Halloween, we’re exploring the curious, the scary, and the strange all week during our series, Museum of the Macabre. And what’s scarier than a deep, dark cave? For the special Halloween Pop-Up, Gavin and Graham will explore the different ways that caves form. Learn more about caves in this month’s Rock Record blog post.

Submit your questions ahead of time by emailing events@santacruzmuseum.org and feel free to include pictures of rocks you’d like identified! Pro-tip: the better the picture, the better the ID.

Watch Past Pop-Ups
Read our blog Rock Record

Rockin’ Pop-Up: Building Appalachia

The mountain ranges along our western edge of North America have a much different origin story than those of the east coast. We’ve explored the Sierra and the Santa Cruz Mountains in past pop-ups. This time around we’re comparing our relatively young ranges to the ancient origins of the Appalachians and beyond.

About the Series: Join the Geology Gents, Gavin and Graham, for monthly conversations about rocks live on Facebook. Each week we’ll explore a different geologic topic, from Santa Cruz formations to tips for being a more effective rockhound. Graham Edwards and Gavin Piccione are PhD candidates in geochronology with the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Santa Cruz.

Submit your questions ahead of time here or by email to events@santacruzmuseum.org and feel free to include pictures of rocks you’d like identified! Pro-tip: the better the picture, the better the ID.

Watch Past Pop-Ups

Rockin’ Pop-Up: Impacts of Fire on Geologic Landscapes

This month, the Geology Gents are joined by their colleague Alandra Lopez, a Ph.D. candidate in the Earth System Science Department at Stanford University who will discuss the impacts of fire on geologic systems, as well as spend some time on one of our state’s unique features: serpentine soils.

Alandra studies the biogeochemical processes that control the release of naturally occurring contaminants, like arsenic, uranium, and hexavalent chromium, in soils to groundwater.

Watch Past Pop-Ups

Rockin’ Pop-Up: 115 Years of Geologic History in Santa Cruz

Topic: From earthquakes to erosion and limekilns to cement, a lot has happened geologically since the Museum first opened 115 years ago.

About the series: Join the Geology Gents, Gavin and Graham, for weekly conversations about rocks live on Facebook. Each week we’ll explore a different geologic topic, from Santa Cruz formations to tips for being a more effective rockhound. Graham Edwards and Gavin Piccione are PhD candidates in geochronology with the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Santa Cruz.

Submit your questions ahead of time on Facebook or by emailing events@santacruzmuseum.org, or during the program live on Facebook. Feel free to include pictures of rocks you’d like identified! Pro-tip: the better the picture, the better the ID.