"The Whitfield Stump" EarthCache
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WHITFIELD STUMP
University of Kentucky - Lexington, Kentucky
LOCATION: The Whitfield Stump is located on the campus of the University of Kentucky at the Department of Mining Engineering Building.
VISITING & PARKING: DO NOT visit this EC after dark. Visitors are allowed to back in Parking Structure #5 or any metered slot. You can park anywhere after 4:00 pm, Monday-Friday, and all day Saturday and Sunday. OBSERVE all parking rules and meters.
HISTORY: What you see before you is the preserved stump and roots of a lycopod tree that lived about 300,000,000 years ago in Harlan County, Kentucky. In the 1930's, the stump fell from the roof of an excuvated coal seam. George Whitfield, manager of the Clover Fork Coal Company, removed the stump from the mine and kept the 7000 pound fossil on display in Kitts, Kentucky until 1961 when he donated it to the University of Kentucky.
GEO/BIO-OLOGY: Pennsylvanian-aged rocks are rich in lycod fossils. Lycopods (primarily the genera Lepidodendron andSigillaria) trees formed huge forests and contributed most of the organic matter that composed the coal swamps. Lepidodendron bore leaves near top of the trees. As the tree grew, diamond-shaped leave scars were left on the trunk in a spiraling fashion. This led to many thinking that these were the scales of fossilized snakes. Sigillaria have rounder leaf scars that spiral around the trunk. Many of these trees reached heights of 100 feet with a trunk girth of 3 feet. As the late Pennsylvanian climate became drier, many of these species became reduced in size and abundance or extinct. Today, there are about 1200 living species of lycpods. They are vascular plants that reproduce by spores.
Lepidodenron diamond-shaped leaf scars
Sigillaris fossil
GEOLOGY LESSON:
A. Email me the answers to the following questions to demonstrate your understanding of the geology behind the Whitfield Stump.
1) How wide is the stump?
2) Is this a petrified fossil or a cast of the original stump? Explain you answer.
3) What ceiling structure was formed after the coal and fossil was removed?
B. Though not required but GREATLY appreciated, take a picture of you (and you group) in front of the Stump. PLEASE do not include pictures that will give the answers to the above questions.
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