Low-P/High-T pre-Alpine metamorphism and medium-P Alpine overprint of the pelagonian zone documented in high-alumina metapelites from the Vernon massif, Western Macedonia, Northern Greece

A low-P / high-T metamorphic event (andalusite-sillimanite series) of pre-Alpine age, identified here for the first time, has affected the metapelitic rocks of the Vernon Massif. P-T conditions of metamorphism in the western part of the Massif are estimated at -2.5 kb / 600-610°C, while in the northeastern part they are estimated to have exceeded 4.5 kb / 640°C respectively. Such P-T conditions correspond to geothermal gradients of 68°C/ km and 40°C/km for the western and the northeastern parts of the Massif respectively. The inferred steep geothermal gradients require transport of heat from deeper to shallower levels within the crust, achieved via magmatic intrusions in a continental magmatic arc setting. Alpine overprinting is characterized by P-T metamorphic conditions of ~6 kb / <350°C in the western part and ~9 kb / <570°C in the northeastern part of the Massif respectively. Low-P / high-T metamorphic rocks, occurring as klippen in the Cyclades and as blocks in the ophiolitic milanges of Crete, are interpreted as remnants of the pre-Alpine Pelagonian nappe similar to those occurring in the Vernon Massif

A Rapid Prototyping Experiment for Undergraduate Laboratory Courses

In this paper, the authors describe the development and implementation of a Problem-Based Learning Rapid Prototyping experiment for undergraduate laboratory courses. The laboratory is aimed at giving students a better understanding of current computer-aided product development processes and to help them improve their CAD modeling and design skills. The main body of the paper is comprised of apresentation of the corresponding laboratory manual and procedures, along with selected examples of experimental outcomes of the experiment as it was run in the spring and fall semester of 2009

Kinkaid area: An inventory of the region's resources

The scene from a fishing boat in Kinkaid Lake???the sandstone bluffs, the patches of piney forest, even the muskie lures in the tackle box???puts visitors in mind of Wisconsin or Minnesota. The lake however is set in southern Illinois, just west of Murphysboro. In the early 1970s the earthen Crisenberry Dam was thrown up across Kinkaid Creek on this spot. The stopped-up creek swelled to 2,350 acres of water with 73 miles of shoreline that became the jewel of this part of Illinois??? Egypt. The sandstone bluffs through which Kinkaid Creek winds on its way to the Big Muddy River form a forested rampart overlooking the Mississippi River. Part of the lake???s charm is the scenic contrast it offers to the more familiar Illinois landscape to the north and east. There, the valleys of Beaucoup Creek and its tributary creeks are wide and flat, covered in farmland rather than forest. A much longer stream (81 miles) than Kinkaid Creek, Beaucoup Creek runs from its origins in Washington County southward through Perry County to its junction with the Big Muddy in Jackson County, just east of Murphysboro. The watersheds of Kinkaid and Beaucoup creeks together cover approximately 629 square miles that mostly lie in Perry, Jackson, and Washington counties. The area is southern Illinois in miniature, with forested hills (some of which are part of the Shawnee National Forest) in the Kinkaid watershed and strip-mine lakes interspersed with farm fields in the Beaucoup watershed.published or submitted for publicatio

The Chicago River/Lake Shore : an inventory of the region's resources

The fact that the landscape drained by the Chicago River is home to a great city is obvious to even the most distracted tourist. Less obvious is the fact that nature survives, even thrives, amidst the Midwest???s greatest city. Few places in Illinois offer the variety of habitats, and thus of living things, that are found in and around Chicago. In the mid-1970s, experts combed Illinois to compile a catalog of significant living communities and other natural features. To the surprise of many, they found that Lake and Cook counties contain by far the richest concentration of such treasures in all of Illinois.published or submitted for publicatio

The Sugar-Pecatonica Rivers basin : an inventory of the region's resources

Beginning in 1838, officials in the then-territory of Wisconsin asserted that the watershed of the Pecatonica River and the Sugar River, its main tributary, and the rest of Illinois??? northernmost 14 counties belonged to the Badger State. The land had in effect been stolen by Illinois, Wisconsin argued, when Illinois inaccurately set its state boundaries in 1818. The legal dispute was resolved in 1848 when Wisconsin officially surrendered its claims to northern Illinois. Ecologically, however, the region remains a creature of Wisconsin. The rivers rise in that state before curving south and east into Illinois, where the two streams, now conjoined, meet the Rock River at Rockton. What happens upstream in Wisconsin has more effect on the rivers (especially the Sugar) than what happens in Illinois. And the climate of the watershed, which lies more than 400 miles north of Cairo, Illinois, is as different from that town???s as Kentucky???s is from Wisconsin???s. This part of Illinois also differs from central and southern counties in terms of its human culture. It was settled not by Kentuckians and Carolinians, as happened to the south, but by Scandinavians, Yankees, and German settlers from Pennsylvania. These were people undeterred by winter. The newcomers also had a different attitude toward the land than that of the slash-and-burn farmers who settled the southern Illinois frontier a generation earlier. Back home they had learned how to farm thinly soiled, hilly country like this without wasting it. Today the verdant pastures dotted with dairy cows (and towns dotted with cheese makers) still give the area a marked Wisconsin flavor.published or submitted for publicatio