The Time Capsule Series, 2003
My Time Capsules series provides viewers with a glimpse into geological, evolutionary, and ecological time that prevails in forest ecosystems, and consists of samples that represent these different ages. All materials, except the newspaper page, were obtained from the Hiram College Field Station Forest. When viewing this installation we are invited to place the typical span of human life in its sequence.
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2.4 to 0.8 Billion Years Old
Pebbles of Igneous and Metamorphic RockA fiery birth far to the northwest
Molten magma, volcanoes;
Rock turned plastic by heat and pressure
Cooled, solidified, exposed by weathering and erosion
Transported over a thousand miles by glaciers
Deposited as glaciers melted 14,000 years ago
Exposed once more by Spring Creek's erosion
420 Million Years Old
"Packer Shell" Limestone/DolomiteNow 4100 feet deep below the ground
Deposited in a tropical, shallow sea
Teeming with Silurian shelly life
Brought to the surface by Noble Oil's drilling rig in 1980
The sole remaining treasure of Venture #1 Well
320 Million Years Old
Sharon ConglomerateA huge delta bigger than the Mississippi's
Fed by large rivers from the east where mountains eroded,
Cyclical floods brought clean sand and pebbles
Deposited in layers, lithified to sandstone
Exposed today by Silver Creek
300 Million Years Old
Connoquenessing SandstoneEmerging, low, swampy land at the ancient delta's fringe
Quiet, muddy water deposited fertile, dark sediments
Endless swamps supported roots
of NE Ohio's first forests
Sandy sediments preserved plant parts as dark fossils
About 14,000 Years Old
Silver Creek ClayDark, unoxidized,
Once the gray mud of an ancient sea bottom
Excavated and milled to powder by glaciers
Once again accumulated as fine mud,
On the bottom of a glacial meltwater lake
Formed by a short lived ice dam in Eagle Creek Valley
About 13,000 Years Old
Glacial SandMeltwater ran through glaciers' dark ice caves
Entire river beds formed, only to be stranded when their world melted
As orphaned sand bars,
Sinuous glacial eskers
Adorn the land
Deposited about 13,000 Years ago
Ground Moraine ClayMelting glaciers
Unloaded their burdens of sand, rock, and clay
Distributed and deposited by flooding meltwater,
Dense blankets of clay covered the ground
Oxidized yellow and brown, it is the stuff
That makes orange fired bricks
About 12,000 Years Old
Forest SoilPlants established on sterile glacial till
Organic matter accumulated
A soil ecosystem slowly formed
Rich and dark
Smelling of life
324+ Years Old
A Section from an American Beech TreeGerminating from a Beechnut or arising as a sucker by 1678,
247 years of very slow growth in the understory
Only a microscope reveals these rings clearly
Penetrating the canopy in 1925, it surged rapid growth
This tree stood through the European arrival, the Revolutionary War
An old tree at the beginning of the Civil War,
Wind blew it down, still healthy, in 2002
About 70 Years
The Human LifespanSometimes longer, often shorter
Self centered distortion makes it appear important
A recently arrived species,
We consume ourselves into
A nonsustainable corner
1 to 10 Years Old
Forest HumusDerived from leaves, twigs, bark, branches, wood, nuts,
Bodies of countless invertebrates,
Fungi, and bacteria;
Colonized and eaten over and over again
Nutrients slowly released to the soil,
Giver of lives, foundation of the forest
1 to 6 Years Old
Fallen Twigs and Branches
Taken by gravity
Future homes or food for fungi, bacteria and insects
Ever betraying the most careful footstep
10 months old
Last Year's LeavesRecently fallen
Undecayed
Disposable solar panels
