Where would Starks Knob be without Ed Landing?
Probably right in Northumberland where it's been for a very long time. But it might not be publicly accessible and we certainly wouldn't understand its origin and history quite as well.
Landing is New York State Paleontologist Emeritus ( a geologist who specializes in fossils). During his long career in Albany he took two Museum owned properties under his wing, opening them to the public as educational reservations. One is Lester Park with its stromatolite fossils and the other is Starks Knob, noted for rare pillow basalts.
Landing takes his place in a long line of researchers (Woodworth, Cushing, Kidd, and others) trying to understand how this geologic oddity was created and why it's located here in the Hudson Valley. He detailed his findings at a recent talk with the Knob serving as a backdrop. It's a story of plate collisions, subduction and melting with subsequent magma eruption on the sea floor. Of course, there's much more to it than that. At his talk Landing answered questions that revealed how science worls to understand our world and he painted a picture of just what a fascinating world we live in.
If you missed last weeks event you're in luck. Landing will be repeating his program at 3 pm on Sunday, July 6th during Hudson Crossings Water Music event. A second chance to get to know one of our areas most distinctive landmarks and meet the man who studies it.
