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Science and History Week is back for another year of exciting presentations! Beginning Monday, September 26 through Thursday, September 29, 2022 a special presentation will be hosted each day from noon to 12:50 p.m. The series will highlight current research and historical topics related to Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. Each presentation will give viewers the opportunity to connect with scientists and historians from the Peace Park and get a unique look at archives, insights, and latest findings from Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Parks. Each presentation will have its own registration link. Check out this link to learn more about each presentation and to sign up: Science & History Week - Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov) 

Monday, September 26, 2022 - The Montana Memory Project: Your Online History Research Resource 

Tuesday, September 27, 2022 - The Half-moon Hairstreak Butterfly Recovery Project in Waterton Lakes National Park 

Wednesday, September 28, 2022 - Grizzly Bear Use of Army Cutworm Moth Aggregations in Glacier National Park 

Thursday, September 29, 2022 - Digitally Preserving Culturally Modified Trees at Kootenai Brown's Homestead

The formations found in the fossils and geology at Glacier National Park are a work of art!

The wavy appearance of stromatolite fossils in Glacier National Park may remind you of the sky in Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night. These mesmerizing swirls represent one of the earliest life forms on our planet. If we traveled back in time in Glacier National Park to over 1 billion years ago, we would find ourselves transported to a landscape that was covered by a vast, shallow sea. In the warm water cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, carried out photosynthesis and helped to create an oxygen rich environment. Cyanobacteria, mixed with sediments is what causes stromatolites to form. Sediments become trapped and the algae grows through the sediments. This creates the distinctive layers of algal mats and sediment. Overtime, the layers flatten out and keep expanding. Stromatolites form in different shapes including conical, stratiform, branching, domal, and columnar. Some of the oldest stromatolite fossils found in Glacier National Park are in the upper Altyn Limestone (1.35 to 1.45 billion years old) near Apikuni Falls. They can also be found in the Appekunny and Grinnell Formations, the Siyeh Formation, the Snowslip Formation, and the Shepard and Mt. Shields Formations. They were widespread and abundant during the Precambrian (4,500 to 500 million years ago) forming reef-like structures known as bioherms. Today similar living stromatolites can be found in tidal channels in the Bahamas and Australia. The stromatolites in Glacier National Park are some of the oldest fossils preserved in any National Park Service unit and the variety of stromatolite fossils here is one of the richest accumulations of Precambrian life in the United States.

What artistic interpretations can you find in the fossils and geologic formations of Glacier National Park?

Read more about stromatolites: https://www.nps.gov/articles/park-paleo-fall-2018-stromatolites.htm