Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth Opens at American Museum of Natural History
by Michael J. Passow
Earth Sciences CorrespondentThis past summer marked the opening of the American Museum of Natural History's long-awaited Earth Sciences exhibit hall. The Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth provides a comprehensive display of current theories about Earth's formation and processes, as well as useful background information concerning development of these theories. Unique specimens collected around the world blend together with elaborate models and multimedia technology to make this a worthy addition to this premier-class museum's efforts to educate the general public about our planet.
The entrance is located on the ground level below the Theodore Roosevelt rotunda (Central Park West entrance). On your left as you enter are displays based around the theme of "Habitable Planet." Here are exhibits illustrating the rock, water, and carbon cycles. There are several interactive "touch-screen" computer displays dealing with such themes as "Missing Carbon." (I was concerned about the effectiveness of these for museum visitors -- they require extended periods of time in one place, considerable reading at a sophisticated level, and patience with the slow response time. Also, during my visit, an interested family of non-English speakers attempted to use the display with limited success, though foreign language options could be implemented.)
Should you choose to turn to the right as you enter, you'll see a multimedia display about forces affecting climate and climate change. These include atmospheric and oceanic circulation, volcanism, and ozone. On the opposite side of the corridor are displays presenting evidence of climate change over time, including ice cores, corals, tree rings, and glacial striations.
In between these two corridors is one of the first museum displays of perhaps the most interesting geoscience discovery in the past twenty-five years -- models of the sulfur chimneys in the hydrothermal fields of the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the North Pacific. The unique ecosystem based around these "black smokers," including giant tube worms and chemosynthetic bacteria, is the subject of intensive studies and new understandings about the nature and evolution of Life. (You can learn more about these research efforts at http://www.amnhonline.org/expeditions/blacksmokers/.)
The center of the exhibit is a circular seating pit beneath a huge hemispherical inverted dome on the ceiling. On the inverted dome are constantly-changing projections showing satellite views of Earth's cloud system gradually blending into an ocean-continent surface that, in turn, removed the vegetation and water to reveal topographic features of the abyss, and then slowly reverses the procession to build back out to the Earth-from-space view. This is an effective display that also provides respite for a few minutes from the sound, motion, and other sensory stimuli from all sides around this "Dynamic Earth" pit.
On the right of this centerpiece is the "Earth Event Wall," a large-screen display of various Earth processes, and the section designated as "Reading the Rocks." Here are excellent examples of various rock types, along with information about development of relative and absolute geologic time scales. Walking past a large brass physiographic globe, you come to "Earth through Time." Here are exhibits presenting theories concerning the origin of life and the evolving atmosphere. Another exhibit describes formation of the Grand Canyon. Others focus on the formation of Earth and other planets.
The rear of the Hall deals with Plate Tectonics. Large specimens of volcanic products, displays about the Pacific Ring of Fire and the Cascades, and other exhibits attempt to explain our understanding that crustal plates separate, collide, and slide past each other. A full-size cast of a wall from one villa excavated in Pompeii provides human interest aspects to the impact of the eruption of Vesuvius. Opposite the back wall's large screen projections of volcanic events is an interesting display about measuring Earth movements. This includes a seismograph linked to a section of the floor where visitors can stomp or jump to produce a visual response on the rotating drum. Obviously, this was one of the most popular parts of the Hall.
It is to be hoped that the Museum works out the "bugs" in the "touch-screen" displays (such as sound going on and off, a vocabulary and pace too fast for most children). But overall, the Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth is a worthy addition to other American Museum of Natural History exhibits dealing with meteorites, gems and minerals, and, of course, the world-famous fossil halls on the Fourth Floor. It is well worth a visit when you're in New York City. Until then, the Museum can provide a "virtual visit" on its Internet site: www.amnh.org/rose/hope. (Educators planning to bring classes to the Museum should contact the Education Department for the accompanying Teacher's Guide.)
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