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MEMO (meaning): A memorandum (abbrev.: memo) was from the Latin verbal phrase memorandum est, the gerundive form of the verb memorāre, "to mention, call to mind, recount, relate", which means "It must be remembered (that)...". It is therefore a note, document or other communication that helps the memory by recording events or observations on a topic.
Source:” https://en.wikipedia.org”
MEMO (project): Is a project to build a sublimely beautiful, ongoing memorial commemorating all the species to have perished in the Earth’s ongoing sixth mass extinction, on the Isle of Portland in Dorset. The bell will sit on top. It has the rarely bestowed official endorsement of the Royal Society.
At the moment no comprehensive record of the images and stories of historically extinct creatures exists in one place, in any medium. MEMO will redress the balance. It will be a circular stone enclosure carved on the inside with images of all plant and animal species known to have gone extinct in modern times.
Source:” http://www.memoproject.org/”
A geological moment: Human culture is unimaginable without stone. We made our first tools from it. We carved our first images into it or else painted the images of animals onto its surface. We have always embodied our triumphs and disasters in monuments of stone.
Since the 17th century when we began to understand the fossils it contains, we have learned from stone an ever more miraculous story of evolving life, on this the only planet where living creatures are yet known.
Fossils are also our only yardstick for the future. It is comparison with the fossil record which tells us that 860 species extinctions over 350 years is a radical acceleration from the natural rate.
For every one of those 860 species more than 20 are now endangered.
Source:” Memo Brochure - http://www.memoproject.org/docs/MEMO_brochure.pdf”
Fossils: The word fossil is derived from the Latin ‘fossilis’ meaning, an object that has been dug up from the ground. Fossils are the evidence of once-living animals and plants that may be either the preserved remains of an organism, such as body fossils, or evidence of activity, such as trace fossils. They range from tiny plants and animals that can only be seen under a microscope to huge skeletons of dinosaurs. Body fossils are the remains of living organisms and are direct evidence of past life. Usually only hard tissues are preserved, for example shells, bones, teeth or wood. Trace fossils are the preserved impressions of biological activity. They provide indirect evidence for the existence of past life. They are the only indictors of fossil behavior.
Fossils will be found almost exclusively in sedimentary rocks. Sedimentary rocks are formed by the compression and cementation of sediments over millions of years. Organisms that die on, in, or near a body of water have a better chance of becoming fossils due to the fact that fossilization requires that the organism be covered relatively quickly in sediments. Once covered in sediments, some of these remains remain intact and can be discovered to have formed fossils or fossilized remains within the layers of the rock. Shale is a particularly good rock for this to occur in, and some limestones like chalk, are composed almost entirely of fossilized marine animal remains.
Source:” http://www.ucl.ac.uk/es/impact/geology/london”
Memo The Earthcache:
Memo takes you to a sculpture (a limestone base with an inverted bell on top). The bell was designed by sculptor, Marcus Vergette and cast at Taylor’s Bell Founders in Loughborough from a mould of the same fossil-rich Portland limestone of which the Base, St. Paul’s, and so much of central London is made.
Focus on the base of the sculpture and see how rich in fossils it is.
To log this as a found you have to respond to the owner by email to the following questions. In the provided links (sources for the text) you can find all the help you need:
1 – The base has a large number of fossils close together. What is the name of this type of limestone? Explain how it is formed.
2 – Among so many fossils, can you identify the one that inspires the project? What is it called?
3 – Within 20 metres of waypoint in the listing, at knee level, is placed a bronze signboard. It Starts with "SITE OF OLD..." What is written on it?
For some time the photos in the EC are no longer mandatory, but will always be nice to see.
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