Yummygal's Top 10 Sites in South Jersey 2013

Boyd

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Staff member
Site Administrator
Jul 31, 2004
9,503
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Ben's Branch, Stephen Creek
I guess she doesn't like us here anymore. :(

That's a good list, but the pictures have been "photoshopped" a bit too much for my taste....
 

Spung-Man

Explorer
Jan 5, 2009
976
656
64
Richland, NJ
loki.stockton.edu
Pineywoman,

I am delighted to see the Manumuskin Preserve included at the #2 position in the Y-list! Its remarkable biodiversity is related to the Preserve's remarkable geodiversity. The location is a good example of a Pleistocene dune field. Attached is a copy of a poster I just presented at the 2013 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco that illustrates the point (VI, c. Depositional Forms). Its remarkable biodiversity is related to its remarkable geodiversity. The location is a good example of a Pleistocene dune field. Attached is a copy of a poster I presented at the 2013 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco that illustrates the point.

On the poster Part VI, a. is the Newtonville dune field, which is noted here.

Ben, thanks for providing a link for the poster! It's 16.6 MB, so may take a while to load for some.

AGU MD Poster.jpg


The daughter came out to California to join me for a couple days after the conference. Great fun (Butano State Forest).

Redwood Grove Alexis.jpg

Pineywoman, thanks for making South Jersey exciting again!

S-M
 
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amf

Explorer
May 20, 2006
152
45
Swedesboro
Great poster, spung-man! Takes me back to my college days with Dr Tedrow at Cook College / Rutgers!
And straying a bit off topic (and out of the Pinelands) its amazing how it has similarities to sand wedges in the Permian reef limestones of the Guadeloupe Mtns in New Mexico, created by outflow from ancient back-reef lagoons.
 

Spung-Man

Explorer
Jan 5, 2009
976
656
64
Richland, NJ
loki.stockton.edu
it has similarities to sand wedges in the Permian reef limestones of the Guadeloupe Mtns in New Mexico

AMF, here's where the similarity ends. Permian wedges are earthquake related, if memory serves me. Pine Barrens sand wedges are the result of frost cracking – cryodessication and/or thermal-contraction. The latter type have distinct primary infill laminations that, as far as I know, can only be generated under dry permafrost conditions, i.e., sand wedges. Note the vein propagating off towards the trowel held by my good friend Chris 'Cold Front' Karmosky, now Assistant Professor of Meteorology at the University of Tennessee at Martin during a graduate geomorphology field class I co-taught. These are not ice wedge relicts. These are not seismic (earthquake) wedges.

SandWedgeCloseUp Karmosky.jpg


Close-up of an older (≥65 ka) sand-wedge cast near the Delaware Bay (39º 19’ N).​
It is indicative of continuous permafrost south of the Mason Dixon if extrapolated eastward.​
This pit section is adjacent to the Manumuskin River Preserve.​

Today sand wedges only occur in places like East Greenland or the dry valleys of Antarctica. During Ice Age global cooling, water was scarce, so sand wedges are commonplace in ice marginal locations throughout the world. Places like Wyoming, New Jersey, England, and Poland are often polar desert-like. Thermal-contraction sand wedges are also common during Snowball Earth, a series of cold periods before 650 million years ago when our planet was pretty much a Popsicle.

S-M
 

Glenn Walters

Explorer
Oct 2, 2013
190
64
Yummygal readers,
All look like great spots. Look forward to some posts on the beauty of the northeast pines. Didn't see any on the list. Guess it's hard to pick just ten when you are as spoiled as all of us. So many square miles of beauty to choose from. Still a great post though
 
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