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| 5630 Dunbar St. at 41st Ave. 604-684-4613 |
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Things to do in the Neighbourhood: Pacific Museum of the Earth |
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The Pacific Museum of the Earth is the result of the amalgamation of two pre-existing Museums: The M.Y. Williams Geological Museum and the Pacific Mineral Museum. The M.Y. Williams Geological Museum was located in what was then known as the Geological Sciences Building. The curator was Mr. Joe Nagel, who put an incredible amount of time, energy, and dedication into building a truly impressive collection of more than 10,000 mineral samples. Mr. Nagel also built the electronic catalogue used to track the specimens and maintained the original gift shop, which was particularly successful in acquiring specimens for collectors from around the world. |
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| Unfortunately, when the then Department of Geological Sciences came under hard times, one of the sacrifices that was made was the curator's position. The M.Y. Williams Geological Museum was never officially closed, but in the absence of a curator the displays soon fell into disrepair.
However, Mr. Nagel and his associate, Dr. Mark Mauthner, refused to let the idea of a mineral museum die. With support from industry (notably Mr. Ross Beaty), they opened the Pacific Mineral Museum in downtown Vancouver. Whereas the M.Y. Williams Geological Museum had featured displays on a variety of geological concepts, the Pacific Mineral Museum focused solely on minerals, mineralogy, and (to a limited extent) mining. As curator, Dr. Mauthner built the Pacific Mineral Museum into a world class attraction and gift shop, which continued to cater to mineral collectors. |
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| An interesting sculpture in the courtyard showing a cross section of the planet, revealing the crust, upper mantle, lower mantle, outer core and inner core. | Unfortunately, the overhead involved in maintaining a Museum in a downtown location eventually grew unsupportable. Rather than let the Museum disappear, the staff of the Pacific Mineral Museum and their principal sponsor, Mr. Beaty, approached the University of British Columbia and the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences (formerly the Department of Geological Sciences) about returning the Museum to the location it had begun in so many years before. The end result was the Pacific Museum of the Earth, which opened in June of 2003. | |
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| The Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences has 3 buildings and the Museum is in the middle one. The Museum actually starts in the courtyard, where there are several well annotated rocks on display. | ||
 For example, this is a chunk of vesicular lava from the Nass river near Terrace, BC in the west-central part of the province in the Coastal Range. The abundant holes, called vesicles, are formed when dissolved gasses escape from congealing magma.
The "taffy-like" texture is a surface feature, and thus seen only in recently formed rocks. The First People of Canada witnessed this eruption; its legacy lives on in the oral tradition of the Nisga'a People. This is one of the youngest rocks in Canada, less than 500 years old. One of the first displays on the inside is one of the oldest rocks in the world. |
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| This is a sample from the Acasta Gneiss complex, located in Canada's Northwest Territories. Radiometric dating of zircon crystals in the rock indicates that it formed 4.03 billion years ago. Scientists believe that the Earth itself is 4.6 billion years old, but the rocks from the first 600 million years life were likely recycled by plate tectonics, weather and other geologic activity.
If all 4.6 billion years of Earth's history were represented by a single year, then the Acasta Gneiss would have formed in mid-February. Using this scale, all of recorded human history would be contained in the last 34 seconds before midnight on December 31st. |
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| Located just behind the oldest rock is the Museum's largest display, the skeleton of a Lambeosaurus, named after Canadian paleontologist Lawrence Lambe, who discovered the first specimens in Alberta in the early years of the 20th century.
The Lambeosaurus was a plant eating, duck billed dinosaur, perhaps eating pine needles, conifers, ginkgos, seeds, cycads, twigs, and magnolia leaves. It probably used its short front legs to support itself as it foraged on the ground. It lived in the Late Cretaceous period, about 80 to 65 million years ago. It was 30-50 feet (9-15 m) long, 7 feet (2.1 m) tall at the hips and weighed about 5.6 tons. This specimen was discovered in 1913 in the Belly River Formation in southern Alberta, an area where many different dinosaur fossils have been found. It is on permanent loan from the National Museum of Canada and was installed at UBC in 1950. |
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| The other large display in the Museum is called the jellyroll because of it's structure (a series of concentric rings). This sedimentary structure was formed during an underwater landslide in a glacial lake. A section of sediment on the side of the lake was ripped up by the energy of the slide and the momentum of the event rolled up the section of sediment.
It was discovered in a gravel pit just south of Lytton, BC at the confluence of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers in the Fraser Canyon. This jellyroll is unusual because of its size. Such structures are usually measured in centimetres. |
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| Another large display is the Irish Elk skull and antlers. In fact, Megaloceros giganteus is neither exclusively Irish, nor is it an elk. Rather, it is extinct species of deer, the largest species of deer that ever lived. It got its misleading name from the fact that some of the best preserved specimens are found in the peat bogs of Ireland, though specimens have been found in many countries, including Russia and China. | ||
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| This display features a giant cluster of calcite crystals. With the chemical formula CaCO3, when calcite forms it draws into its crystal structure small amounts of atmospheric carbon (C). Once locked into the crystal, this carbon serves as a small, preserved sample of the atmosphere as it existed in the geologic past. | ||
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| This display highlights a proposal currently being studied by UBC researchers which they hope will one day increase weather forecast accuracy by gathering data from an area off the coast of British Columbia which is currently known as the "Pacific Data Void." The idea is to float a buoy covered with loaded launch tubes out in the Pacific west of the coast and to use them to test atmospheric conditions.
The local weather predominantly moves from the west, but because there is no way to track the oncoming conditions except by looking at a satellite image and making a guess. Because of that, we have the least accurate weather predictions in the country. |
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 The Lower Mainland Seismic Array consists of a seismograph drum displaying seismic (e.g., earthquake) data from Galiano Island, Watts Point, 8 km south of the campus and Bowen Island. An upgrade and expansion of the area is currently partially complete.
The "Earthquake Corner" now also features a relief globe showing the world's tectonic boundaries and two monitors with interactive earthquake information menus. The Watts point drum was quite active and the floor of the museum was definitely vibrating. |
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| Amethyst, one of the "touchable" displays. This cluster of beautifully formed amethyst crystals from the Anahi mine in Bolivia never fail to distract tour groups from the systematic rock display. | ||
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This geode is more than seven feet tall! This type of geode is typical of those found in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul and the northern part of Uruguay, but this is a particularly large specimen. The crystals lining the inside of the geode are the purple variety of quartz. |
This display highlights the process of twinning, in which two or more crystals of a single mineral intergrow in a mathematically describable manner. There are many different types of twinning and this display focuses on representing as many of them as possible.
This specimen above is Actinolite, a calcium magnesium iron silicate, from Washington State. Under special conditions, water can dissolve magnesium and iron from a rock call gneiss and deposit them in crevices of neighbouring rock, in this case, talk. |
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| They were deposited by mineral-rich waters after a gas bubble in cooling lava formed the open space itself. | Ammonites are an extinct marine organism that built their shells out of the mineral aragonite. When it occurs in particular quality, this shell material is called "ammolite" and displays spectacular iridescence. This particular fossil is beautifully iridescent. | |
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| British Columbia is world famous for its jade and many First Nations artists have used it with beautiful results. This jade boulder, comes from the Polar Mine in northern British Columbia. This is the only mineral in the museum that has been polished; this boulder had no crystal faces that would destroyed by polishing, and the polish brings out the colour of the jade.
"Jade" is actually the gem name for two different minerals: jadeite and nephrite. Although historically the best jade was jadeite from deposits in China, those deposits have now been completely worked out. The best jade in the world now comes from British Columbia and is nephrite. |
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| A large specimen of iron pyrite, the metallic lustre and yellowish colour makes it clear why this mineral is also called "fool's gold". Although pyrite is best known for its cubic form, this specimen shows multiple octahedral crystals. | ||
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| These samples of asbestos are not dangerous to visitors. Even if they were not contained by the plexiglass display case, asbestos is only harmful when very fine fibres are inhaled in quantity. These samples are too large and coherent to be inhaled.
This sample is an example of Chrysotile, a magnesium silicate hydroxide from Italy that is an example of the highest grade of commercial asbestos. |
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| One display case focuses on minerals mined in BC. This specimen is silver from the Highland Bell mine. | ||
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| Beside the main hall of the museum, some older displays have been placed along a hallway across the lobby of the building. Don't miss it, because it contains examples of Burgess Shale.
The Burgess Shale near the town of Field in the Canadian Rockies, is one of the most famous fossil localities in the world because the circumstances of its deposition allowed for the preservation of soft body parts, which are normally degraded by bacteria, predators, and weathering and erosion. The fossils from this deposit are 505 million years old! The one above is a trilobite. |
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| This cluster of spectacular quartz crystals is one of the "touchable" displays. Visitors are welcome to handle the large, well formed crystals. This specimen is from Arkansas, U.S.A, a state well known for its large and high quality quartz crystals.
The Pacific Museum of the Earth is a fascinating place and this newsletter just scratches the surface. There is another room off the main gallery called The Vault. It is a high security area designed to showcase precious metals, gems and gem minerals, and rare and delicate mineral specimens. To see all the displays, plan on being there several hours. |
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| The best way to access the museum is to park in the West Parkade, 2140 Lower Mall. Located on the west side near Gate 6. Then exit onto West Mall and take the short walk to 6339 Stores Road. Admission is by donation.
The Museum web site. |
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| Other Things to do in the Neighbourhood: | ||
Newsletter #147 Newsletter #148 Newsletter #149 Newsletter #150 Newsletter #151 Newsletter #152 Newsletter #153 Newsletter #166 Newsletter #169 Newsletter #173 Newsletter #174 Newsletter # 180 Newsletter #182 Newsletter #196 Newsletter #209 |
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