Volume 44- No. 12
March 21, 2013
Editor’s Note: Not far from two small Nebraska towns, Royal and Orchard, the beautiful Niobrara River runs contentedly through farmland (background photo) . It has done this for years. Today, near these two towns, paleontologists have discovered remnants of once active wildlife that today is totally alien to Nebraska.
Prehistoric Pompeii When The Dust Settled 12 Million Years Ago Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park by Claudia Aragon
It never fails to amaze me where my story ideas come from. A short while ago I spoke with a gentleman named Richard, regarding Yellowstone National Park. We talked of how magnificent the park is and how fortunate we both were to have seen first-hand a volcanic hot spot in action and all of the visual wonders the park has The Paper - 760.747.7119
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Our Claudia Aragon picks up the story from there:
to offer, like ‘Old Faithful.’
During the course of our conversation Richard asked if I’d ever been to Ashfall State Park. I’d neither been to, nor heard of the park before and as he provided the details about Ashfall my interest was piqued.
Approximately 12 million years ago, there was a volcanic eruption of a ‘hot spot’ similar to Yellowstone, in southwestern Idaho, which spread a blanket of ash as far east as Nebraska. There is evidence that approximately two feet of the glassy dust
covered the flat, savannahlike grassy plains of northeastern Nebraska.
A geological analysis of the ash in Nebraska revealed the same chemical components as the Bruneau-Jarbidge Eruptive Center, an extinct volcanic caldera in Idaho. The ash was dated by two methods: by Uranium fission tracks, and by the single crystal Argon of the source material. Evidence reveals that most of the fossilized animals excavated survived the initial ash fallout, but as the animals continued to graze across the
grasslands they inhaled the harsh, abrasive ash, filling their lungs with the glassy powder. After time, their lungs became severely damaged and the animals began to die. Some of the best preserved fossils of rhinos, camels, horses, turtles and birds have been excavated at Ashfall. It is estimated that the smaller animals died in the first few days after the initial ash fall, and the larger animals, like the rhinos, perished within a three to five week time frame. Petrified wood, plus the skeletal remains of alligators and large fish were found at a
“In . . . Nebraska? ” Continued on Page 2