Tuesday, August 11, 2014-- In this issue:

• Undersea Landscapes of Coastal Maine with a Focus on Blue Hill Bay
• Mapping the Frontier: A Memoir of Discovery from Coastal Maine to the Alaskan Rim
• Need a Book for the Beach? 
• More from Water and Light

• Knitters are invited to participate in the Blue Hill Mitten Project and come to a knitting session to learn more and get tips on knitting, THIS THURSDAY! August 13, 6:30
  PM. More info here. 

• Join us for a talk by local antiques dealer and Blue Hill history expert Brad Emerson, Picasso, Pie, and Gropius: Mid-Century Art & Design and the Blue Hill Pavilion, THIS THURSDAY!, August 13, at 7:00 PM. More info here. 

• Check out the ever popular weekly book sale in the basement "book nook" THIS SATURDAY! August 15, 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Weekly summer book sales continue for two more Saturdays with new titles and different half price sales each week! 

University of Maine professor of marine geology Dr. Joseph Kelley will present a talk, Undersea Landscapes of Coastal Maine with a Focus on Blue Hill Bay at the Library on Wednesday August 19 at 7:00 PM. The ocean bottom may be blocked from our view by water, but it is not shielded from the "ears" of acoustic geophysical remote sensing equipment that can image the seafloor and the layers of sand and mud under it. For 30 years marine scientists have used this technology to understand geological history since the end of the last Ice Age 15,000 years ago.

Bathymetry of Blue Hill reveals numerous gas-escape pockmarks (from Brothers et al., 2012)

Dr. Kelley will talk about the geologic, glacial tectonic history of coastal Maine, highlighting the sea level change and features that occurred as a result of the last ice age.  Sea level was as much as 200 feet (60 m) below the present level by 12,500 years ago, but 7,500 years ago sea level rose rapidly, drowning the earlier beaches and deltas as well as archeological sites including Indian settlements.

Close up of pockmarks with the Blaine House (Governor's Home) for scale. (from Brothers et al., 2010)

One unexpected discovery scientists made while studying Blue Hill Bay and other muddy coastal areas was of seabed pockmarks, crater-like features up to hundreds of feet in diameter and tens of feet deep. There are hundreds of these in Blue Hill Bay, formed by methane gas erupting out of the seafloor. It is not known if they are active today, but there are hints that they do erupt occasionally. Such craters have been proposed as dredge disposal sites in Penobscot Bay which" may or may not be a good idea."

Joe Kelley in front of  Mount Saint Helens in Washington

A native of Maine, Dr. Kelley received his Ph. D. from Lehigh University and taught at the University of New Orleans. He worked as the Maine State Marine Geologist before taking a position in Orono. He has written more than a hundred scientific papers on the Maine coastline and seafloor and co-authored several popular books on beaches. This event is sponsored by the Library. There is no charge, and everyone is welcome. For more information, call the Library at 374-5515.

Jan Hartman will present the new book that she edited, Mapping the Frontier: A Memoir of Discovery from Coastal Maine to the Alaskan Rim on Thursday August 20 at 7:00 PM at the Library. In this book Hartman publishes for the first time Maine native Rufus Harvey Sargent's diary of his explorations in the world's outer edges, from China to Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Montana, and Alaska.

R. Harvey Sargent (1875-1951), a surveyor and topographer for the U.S. Geological Survey, was born in Sargentville, where the Sargent family still lives. Sargent led the U. S. Geological Survey in Alaska for over three decades, 1901-1936, charting the vast expanses of the remarkably beautiful and treacherous land. A pioneer of modern mapping, he introduced 20th-century "firsts": photogrammetry and aerial surveys in Alaska, and the first professional surveys of China's mountainous interior. He also explored areas of Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and Montana.

Books will be available for sale and signing. This event is sponsored by Blue Hill Books and the Blue Hill Library. There is no charge, and everyone is welcome. For more information, call the Library at 374-5515.

  

Releasing the Stars, artist book, acrylic, ink, various papers, book cloth, by Kristy Cunnane.

Sketchbook, Marcia Stremlau.

Thunder Hole, oil, by Margret Baldwin.

Sketchbook, Jennifer Mitchell Nevin

Don't hesitate to call us for more information at 207-374-5515.