If you’re like me, you liked playing the classic board game, Clue, on rainy nights at camp with whoever was willing to play. (I always won.) My brother, Tad, and I also had the old 1960s game, Lie Detector, and we played that for hours. Then we’d write clues and hide them for each other around the yard and in the woods, went on our own scavenger hunts, digging up treasures we’d buried for one another. (I buried his matchbox cars.) When the first CSI TV show aired, I was fascinated. I studied anthropology in college and loved the mysteries involved with uncovering “evidence” with forensics. I read mysteries. I even went so far as to obtain a copy of the CSI board game—but this time, my brother beat me while I was deeply puzzled by the elaborate clues. THIS is better: Geoforensics. What is that? According to the geologist Robert Hayes, CPG, “forensic geology is the scientific application of earth sciences to legal matters. Practically, this means that a forensic geologist identifies, analyzes, and compares earth materials, such as soil, rocks, minerals, and fossils found on or in a receptor (e.g., a suspect, a vehicle or other medium of transfer, such as water) to possible source areas (e.g., a crime scene, an alibi location, and/or a point of disposal/release).” http://www.geoforensics.com/geoforensics/art-1101a.html Really neat stuff!
For kids and students wanting to learn about geoforensics, check out:http://www.biologyjunction.com/
crime_scene_investigation.htm
Event: CSI: Lake Erie Tours Link History and Science, Ohio Sea Grant
http://www.ohioseagrant.osu.edu/
news/?article=165
Geoforensics links –
http://www.geoforensics.com/
geoforensics/home.html
http://web.mst.edu/~rogersda/forensic_geology/Geoforensics%20notes.htm
Strange Wetlands™ 