Metropolitan Community College-Blue River

Paleonerds with Rock Hammers – Fossil Collecting at MCC – Blue River

This display will exhibit some of our finest collections acquired on various geology Field Study trips to Wyoming, Nebraska, Western Kansas, and the Kansas City Metro area.  Stop by to test your paleo knowledge, and see if you can figure out which fossils are which!

Metropolitan Community College-Maple Woods

Common Minerals and Their Uses in Everyday Life

This exhibit will show everyday uses of minerals that we depend on to maintain our standard of living. It will point out that everyday we use resources that are found under our feet and not man made.

Northwest Missouri State University

Lead Deposits of SE Missouri

This exhibit displays mineral samples from mines located in the Viburnum Trend in Southeast Missouri. The Viburnum Trend is the largest mineral deposit of its type in the world. A map with the location of each mine in the Trend will be accompanying the samples.

University of Central Missouri

Barites of Missouri and from Around the World

The mineral name Barite, comes from the Greek word “baros” (which means “heavy”) and is composed of barium sulfate, BaSO4. In purest form, it is usually colorless or milky white, but can be almost any color, depending on the impurities trapped in the crystals during their formation.

By far, the principal use for barite is as a “weighting agent” in oil and natural gas drilling. In this process, barite is crushed and mixed with water or other materials, then pumped into the drill hole to prevent the explosive release of the oil and gas from the ground. Like the element lead, barite has the unique ability to strongly absorb X-rays and gamma rays, and consequently has found valuable applications in the medical and nuclear industries.

Missouri was the primary producer of barite for the United States from 1885 to 1971. Today, China is the predominant producer and supplier of this mineral worldwide.

University of Kansas-Lawrence-Vertebrate Paleontology

Prehistoric History of Jayhawk Flight

Booth/exhibit will be display of dinosaur, bird and various tetrapod tracks including the Kansas dinosaur Silvisaurus. The real tracks, a cast of the skull and a life size graphic of the dinosaur will be displayed.

University of Kansas-Lawrence-Invertebrate Paleontology

There will be a sandbox fossil hunt activity

University of Missouri-Kansas City

Fossil cephalopods from the Dr. Richard Sutton Collection

Park University

Dinosaur Bones from Charles H. Sternberg

Most, or all, of these dinosaur bones are from the 1917 field season when Charles Sternberg and son Levi acted as independent collectors.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of evidence about their 1917 collections due to no known field notes. The San Diego Museum of Natural History are know destinations of the 1917 material.