a little note: free maps + preholiday discount sale! The USGS Map Store is giving out Free Surplus Topographic Maps for Holiday Wrapping Paper! Just show up during store hours, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, at the southwest corner of building 810 on the Denver Federal Center (main entrance is off Kipling between 6th Ave. and Alameda, in Lakewood); 3 rolls per visitor, please; and a chance to take a look at all the USGS and other maps, books, nature and hiking guidebooks, and many other items, sold here by the Rocky Mountain Nature Association. Phone number at the store is 303-202-4675. As well, the Map Store is holding a Holiday Sale, 15% discount on purchases (maps, books, all other items) this week only, Dec. 3-7 (applies only to items in stock in the sales room, orders of other material from the USGS warehouse are not included).

Friday-Sunday Dec. 7-9, the Flatirons (Boulder) Gem and Mineral Club will hold its annual Gem and Mineral Show at the Boulder County Fairgrounds, in Longmont, Exhibit Building, 9595 Nelson Rd. (Nelson & Hover), Longmont, CO, Fri. 10-6, Sat. 10-5:30, Sun. 10-4. Dealers, door prizes, exhibits, speakers, classes. Free parking. Food available. Admission: Age 14 and up, is $2.50 on Friday, $5.00 Sat. & Sun. (the Boulder Model Railroad Club Show will also be present here on the weekend, admission includes both. We (the USGS) will have an exhibit booth here, and I (Pete Modreski) will be giving a slide show on "Mineral Collecting in Northern Colorado" at 11 a.m. Sunday, at the show. through Sat. Dec. 8 and perhaps not any longer (?) -- see my note further below about the IMAX 3-D movie, "Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure", playing only at the Cinemark IMAX theater in Colorado Springs.

Sunday, Dec. 16, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00, A field trip "In the footsteps (mule steps?) of Arthur Lakes", led by John Ghist, to Bailey, Colorado and back. Meeting Place: Dinosaur Ridge Visitor’s Center "Follow Lakes’ route on a very cold Christmas Eve and day as he rode Jenny, his mule, to Bailey (and back). Restrictions: Jenny limited to 1. Vanosaurus limited to 14. Extra drivers may caravan behind. Food: Dutch treat lunch stop in Aspen Park . To attend, please call Dino Ridge at 303-697-3466 or email Beth Simmons, at cloverknoll@comcast.net

Thursday, Dec. 20, all interested persons are welcome to the monthly meeting of the Colorado Scientific Society. The talk, the address by its outgoing President, Dr. William Nesse of the UNC Geology Department, will be "Late Paleozoic Uplifts in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Adjacent Areas". This promises to be a very stimulating talk about Bill Nesse's new perspectives in understanding the uplifts that created the entity(s) commonly known as the "Ancestral Rocky Mountains" (for which Bill has some new and, he argues, better names to propose). The meeting (all welcome, no charge) is at 7 p.m. at the American Mountaineering Center, 710 10th St., Golden (NE corner of 10th and Washington Streets). For more info and an abstract of Bill's talk see the Society's website, http://www.coloscisoc.org/ [if the info isn't posted there yet, please email me and I'll forward you a copy of the abstract]. museums and other places to visit during the holiday season: “Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure” is an IMAX 3-D movie that was produced by National Geographic and also with assistance from Triebold Paleontology, Inc., which operates the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland Park . I've seen the movie--it's really superb!--but it is only playing for another week or so (possibly only through this coming weekend; no one seems to know for sure, including the theater). The only place in the Front Range area where it is playing is at the Cinemark Carefree Circle in Colorado Springs; see www.cinemark.com or call 719-596-0442. Movie trailers and info can be viewed on the National Geographic web site athttp://www.nationalgeographic.com/seamonsters/ "Dolichorynchops bonneri, a short-necked plesiosaur, is the star of the show, traversing the dangerous Western Interior Seaway with her new offspring. Tylosaurus proriger and Xiphactinus audax are just two of the villains of the movie.

The Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center museum, 201 S. Fairview, Woodland Park, CO, has excellent exhibits of dinosaur and friends, both of skeletons and "restored" replicas. Open daily; see their website at www.RMDRC.com or call 719-686-1820.

At the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Titanic, the Artifact Exhibition, exhibit and IMAX show, will be open only through Jan. 6. For information see http://www.dmns.org/main/en/General/Exhibitions/CurrentExhibitions/titanic.htm

And at the Western Museum of Mining & Industry, Colorado Springs, through Dec. 29 one can still see, Changing Mines in America, A Photography Exhibit by Peter Goin ; as well as all their regular exhibits about mining and mining techniques & machinery. 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. daily. 225 North Gate Blvd. (at I-25 Gleneagle exit #156A); 719-488-0880; for more info see www.wmmi.org.

University of Colorado Museum, Boulder, ongoing exhibits include: "Fossils: Clues to the Past" in the museum's Paleontology Hall, and "What's In a Name? Understanding the World of Plants", through May 15, 2008 in the McKenna Gallery, exhibits the science and art of botanical classification. This exhibit examines the very human endeavor of placing names on the flowers, grasses, and trees with which we share the world, and the closely related study of understanding their biological and historical relatedness with each other. For more information about the museum see http://cumuseum.colorado.edu/ It should be open during the whole holiday season except Christmas Eve & Christmas and New Years Day.

The Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum has superb exhibits of minerals, including special displays about crystals, state rocks and gemstones, Colorado minerals, gold, silver, radioactivity, fluorescent minerals, and more. The museum is free, and normally open 9-4 daily and 1-4 Sundays. Located at 13th and Maple Streets on campus in Golden; see http://www.mines.edu/Academic/geology/museum/ The museum will be closed during the CSM holiday break, Dec. 17 through Jan. 8.

The Dinosaur Ridge Visitors Center, near Morrison, is a free visitors center and gift shop which serves as the place to find out about what's to see outdoors at Dinosaur Ridge, as well as at the new Triceratops Trail interpretive trail near 6th Ave. and 19th St. at the edge of Golden. The Visitor Center is at 16831 W. Alameda Parkway; just follow Alameda toward the Hogback and Red Rocks Park. It's open 9-4 Mon.-Sat., 11-4 Sun.; for more info call 303-697-1873 or see www.dinoridge.org. The sales shop is a great place to buy dinosaur-related books, shirts, models, toys, specimens, and more (great gift ideas for kids and adults!).

In that area, also consider a visit to the Morrison Natural History Museum, with exhibits about local and worldwide dinosaurs and other fossils as well as live reptiles and amphibians to see and perhaps handle! Open 10-4 Mon.-Sat., 12-4 Sun.; admission charge. For more info see http://www.mnhm.org/index.html, or call 303-697-1873. Located 1/2 mile south of Morrison on State Highway 8 (heading toward The Fort restaurant and US-285).

Yet another place to visit, a "best kept secret", is the Dinosaur Tracks Museum on the CU-Denver Auraria Campus. "Home to the world's largest collection of fossil footprints", the museum is run by Dr. Martin Lockley's Dinosaur Trackers Research Group. It is located in the St. Cajetans Building, at the end of Lawrence Way on the Auraria Campus. Entrance is free; the museum is normally open from 12 to 2 p.m., Monday through Thursday during the regular Spring and Fall semesters (this means it will probably be closed from Dec. 16 through Jan. 21). Special tours can be arranged for groups at other times. For more info see http://carbon.cudenver.edu/public/oldtrackers/ or call 303-556-5261

Also keep in mind the Dinosaur Depot Museum in Canon City, operated by the Garden Park Paleontology Society; open 10-4 except on Christmas and New Years Days; also with dinosaur exhibits and a gift shop. See http://www.dinosaurdepot.com/

A little farther afield, if you are up in the mountains, consider visiting the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum in Leadville; it has excellent exhibits about mining history & technology and rocks, minerals, and their uses. See http://www.mininghalloffame.org/

And a P.S. to teachers, during the holiday break might be a good time for you to visit, as well as the USGS Map Store to browse our maps, books, and other items, our Rock Room (free rock and mineral samples for educators), here in the same building (810) on the Denver Federal Center, in Lakewood. For information call the USGS Drill Core Research Center, 303-202-4851, or Pete Modreski, 303-202-4766. If you visit there or the Map Store, both of us still have a few copies remaining of the free AGI 2007 Earth Science Week Teacher Packets -- just ask for them.

some things worth viewing or reading: AOL (America Online) science news currently has an excellent story & pictures posted about the discovery of a mummified Hadrosaurian dinosaur in North Dakota, as well as a fascinating slide show about other "Recent Fossil Discoveries". I don't know how long this will be posted; you should be able to view it directly at http://news.aol.com/story/_a/mummified-dinosaur-reveals-surprises/20071202194209990002 or from the www.aol.com home page, click on More: Top News, then Science, and scroll down to this story.

Speaking of dinosaurs, the latest issue (December 2007) of National Geographic has a very good article on Extreme Dinosaurs (also titled Big Bad Bizarre Dinosaurs) -- pictures and insightful comments about dinosaurs with highly unusual and bizarre features, and why they might have developed that way (which in some cases, is totally unknown). See the magazine, or www.nationalgeographic.com (the website also has the story about the mummified Hadrosaur discovery).

The About Geology website (http://geology.about.com/) currently has some excellent online articles posted about Cement and Concrete (I learned a lot from this!), several interesting items about building stones, as well as a vast amount of articles and links to other material about all things geological. It's worth a look (if this sort of things interests you as much as it does me) and you can sign up to receive free weekly e-bulletins about what's posted there. Try their very educational geo-quizzes to "win a million" (only virtually) about various geological topics; the latest is "Geologic Disasters".

Another excellent geological website of great interest on many topics is Geology.com, at http://geology.com/ . Here you can read & view stories about Lowest Land Below Sea Level, Sliding Rocks on Racetrack Playa, Who Owns the Arctic, and all sorts of things. Very much worth a look! It has a weekly geology quiz and will also send out daily emails about interesting geology news.

And while we're at it, a final "geology web site" is Earth Science Sites of the Week, which is a weekly email listserv sent out by Mark Francek of Central Michigan University. The home page has links to a great many websites with information about all aspects of geology and earth science--volcanoes, glaciers, earthquakes, climate, oceanography, rocks & minerals, plate tectonics animations, and so on, plus an archive to all the past material posted here. Check it out at http://webs.cmich.edu/resgi/

And keep an eye out for the Geminid Meteor Shower, expected to be "the best meteor shower of 2007", which will peak before dawn on Friday, Dec. 14. Read all about it--and about the earth-crossing asteroid, 3200 Phaethon (probably a "dead" comet) that is believe to be responsible for it, at the NASA web page, http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/03dec_asteroidshower.htm?list952693

and some advance notes, coming up in 2008:

Tuesday, Jan. 8, will be the next and a special evening meeting of the Colorado Scientific Society, the annual Emmons Lecture, featuring visiting speaker Dr. Steven Squyres, of Cornell University, who will present a program on Science Results from the Mars Exploration Rover Mission. This presentation will be held in the Green Center, CSM Campus, Golden, 8 p.m. See the CSS website for more details as the time approaches.

Friday, Jan. 11, and the second Friday of every month through November, Free USGS GPS, Map, and Compass Classes will resume for 2008. Building 810, Federal Center, Lakewood; 9-11 a.m. Map & Compass, 12-4 p.m., GPS class. Call 303-202-4689 or email gpsworkshops@usgs.gov to reserve a place in the sessions, or see www.cr.usgs.gov/gpsworkshops/index.html for more information.

Thursday, Jan. 30, a "Fireside Chat" lecture sponsored by the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge, "Tracking the growth and tracks of Emus" by Todd Green and Dr. Brent Breithaupt, of the University of Wyoming. Now, there's a different topic; in case you can't quite comprehend what an "Emus" is, that's the plural of "Emu", the big bird (which is, of course, a dinosaur descendant). 7:00 p.m. in the Dinosaur Ridge Visitors Center, 16831 Alameda Parkway.

Feb. 22-24, a Gem and Mineral Show will be held at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, sponsored by the Denver Gem and Mineral Guild. Free admission; for more info see http://home.comcast.net/~DenverGem/Shows.html details