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Follow the Limestone

A new brochure featuring a self-guided walking tour of the Indiana University Bloomington campus is now available. "Follow the Limestone: A Walking Tour of Indiana University" was written by IGS senior scientist Brian Keith and produced by the Bloomington / Monroe County Convention and Visitors Bureau. “The heart of the Indiana University Bloomington campus is meant for casual walking and exploration. The unique combination of green space and architecturally distinctive limestone buildings that span across three centuries continually provides me with interesting and enjoyable things to see, even after being here for many years,” said Keith.

The brochure celebrates and commemorates the area’s limestone heritage as evidenced by the prolific limestone architecture on the campus of Indiana University, and is full of interesting facts about the architectural styles of the buildings and the stone that was used to construct them.

Brochures are available at the Bloomington Visitors Center on North Walnut Street, the Indiana Geological Survey at the corner of 10th Street and Walnut Grove Avenue and at the IU Visitor Information Center on Indiana Avenue.

New Environmental Publication

In Indiana, the groundwater in many agricultural areas is susceptible to pollution from agricultural sources such as inorganic fertilizers, crop residues, applied manure, and manure from grazing cattle. Results of an important environmental study by the IGS on this subject have been published in Best Management Practices to Remediate Nitrate Contamination in a Major Outwash Aquifer in Jackson County, Indiana , IGS Occasional Paper 70, by D. Harper and E. Hartke.

This paper resulted from a 4-year field experiment undertaken by the authors, wherein they developed a cooperative effort with local farmers and farm service companies to establish a program to implement best management practices (BMPs) for the application of fertilizer. The project involved intensive groundwater monitoring with the intention of assisting farmers with optimizing the rate, method, and timing of their nutrient applications. Ideally, these BMPs will result in minimizing the influx of nitrate into the local aquifer, which is composed of glacial outwash and windblown sands. The research and recommendations are applicable to similar aquifers of the same composition.

Order this publication from the IGS Bookstore.

New Geologic Maps Published for Bloomington and Monroe County

The Bedrock Geologic Map of Monroe County is a color map that shows the distribution of the bedrock units immediately below the soil and unconsolidated material in the county at a scale of 1:48,000 (meaning that one inch on the map represents 4,000 feet on the land). Also shown on the map is the surface topography in shaded relief, the location of stone quarries, and the main roads and highways in the county.

A more detailed map (scale 1:24,000) of the Bloomington area— Geologic Map of the Bloomington 7.5-Minute Quadrangle —was published in 2008. Both maps contain detailed geologic information that can be used as a guide for infrastructure development; the use of resources, such as the economically important Salem Limestone; and delineation of areas of karst features for environmental planning. Land-use planners, county officials, environmental planners, geologists, and educators will find these new maps useful.

For more information about the Bedrock Geologic Map of Monroe County see this press release.