News Articles

Finger Lakes Terrain
Published March 11, 2021 | Quarternary Landscape Materials (QLM)

The layers of rock and sediment on the Earth's surface represent both a time capsule and vessel of stored resources. Geologist at the New York State Museum recently completed deep drilling exploration investigations near Ithaca, New York, to investigate Ice Age history. Over the last 2.8 Million...

Published October 18, 2019 | Geology

This fall State Museum scientists will join staff from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and Cornell University to conduct fieldwork into the Ice Age landscape of the Ithaca, NY area.

The scientists will core as deep as 700 feet underground and...

rock collections
Published November 30, 2016 | Mineralogy

The Museum's mineralogy collection constitutes the world's largest and most complete array of New York State minerals. However, the collection also contains thousands of non-New York specimens, including minerals from Europe, Africa, Asia, and North and South America. 

A recent...

Marian Lupulescu in the mineral collection
Published January 14, 2016 | Mineralogy

From rocks to gems to minerals, there are thousands of specimens in the Museum's mineralogy collection. "Every mineral can tell you a story," says Dr. Marian Lupulescu, curator of geology at the State Museum.

Many New York pegmatite rock minerals (igneous rocks with large crystals) are...

Jamborite detail
Published August 11, 2015 | Mineralogy

Dissakisite-(Ce) - Ca(Ce,REE)(Mg,Fe2+)(Al,Fe3+)2Si3O12(OH) - the magnesium analogue of the more common allanite (Ce), was found in a specimen from the Henry Rudy Farm, in Orange County. It occurs as millimeter-size pink crystals...