Table of contents for Spring 2024 in The Explorers Journal

An international group of researchers aboard the R/V Falkor (too), led by Javier Sellanes of the Universidad Católica del Norte, may have discovered more than 100 species new to science—deep-sea corals, glass sponges, sea urchins, amphipods, and squat lobsters—living on a suite of seamounts off the coast of Chile. The Schmidt Ocean Institute expedition has been surveying seamounts along the Nazca and Salas y Gómez ridges. The latter is a 2,900-kilometer-long underwater mountain chain comprising more than 200 seamounts that stretch from offshore Chile to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the central Pacific. Created by volcanism, these underwater mountains provide essential habitats for deep-sea organisms that support some of the highest marine endemism on the globe. Many of the species living here, the researchers say, exist nowhere else on Earth.…

WHEN EDWARD A. LYON ISN’T “BONEDOGGLING” IN THE MONTANA HILLS, HE’S A TAX ATTORNEY WHO HELPS BUSINESS OWNERS PAY LESS. HE’S THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF EIGHT BUSINESS BOOKS AND A VETERAN OF DOZENS OF NATIONAL TV APPEARANCES, INCLUDING ON CNN, WHICH DUBBED HIM “THE FUNNIEST TAX GUY IN AMERICA.” Montana is having a moment. The Treasure State’s gorgeous mountains, clean rushing waters, vast national parks, and federal lands are attracting tourists and residents alike. Some are fleeing California’s high taxes and congestion. (They call Bozeman “Boze Angeles” for a reason!) Others are drawn to the hunting, fly fishing, and outdoor lifestyle they see featured in Kevin Costner’s hit western, Yellowstone. And, while the current governor appears to be a committed young-Earth creationist, Montana is attracting its share of top scientists…

RETURN OF FLAG Nº229 THIS EXPEDITION MARKS THE FIELD DEBUT OF FLAG Nº 229, WHICH, LIKE ITS FELLOW BANNERS, IS SURE TO ACCRUE A STORIED HISTORY IN THE YEARS TO COME. A MEMBER OF THE EXPLORERS CLUB SINCE 1993, J. ROBERT “J.R.” HARRIS IS A WILDERNESS BACKPACKER AND FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF JRH MARKETING SERVICES, THE OLDEST AFRICAN AMERICAN-OWNED RESEARCH AND CONSULTING FIRM IN THE UNITED STATES. SINCE 1966, HE HAS UNDERTAKEN MORE THAN 50 MULTI-WEEK TREKS, ALL UNSUPPORTED AND MOST OF THEM ALONE, DURING WHICH HE HAS BEEN MESMERIZED BY THE AWESOME MAJESTY AND PRISTINE BEAUTY OF OUR INCREDIBLE PLANET. THE AUTHOR OF WAY OUT THERE: ADVENTURES OF A WILDERNESS TREKKER, HARRIS CURRENTLY SERVES ON THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND IS CHAIR OF THE CLUB’S DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION…

EXPLORERS CLUB FLAG Nº 69 & Nº 240 THIS EXPEDITION WAS AWARDED TWO FLAGS—ONE WITH A STORIED HISTORY, THE OTHER ROBUST ENOUGH TO SURVIVE ITS UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGICAL WORK. SINCE IT WAS FIRST TAKEN INTO THE FIELD—BY CLYDE FISHER OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ON AN EXPEDITION TO OBSERVE A SOLAR ECLIPSE IN PERU ON JUNE 8, 1937—FLAG Nº 69 HAS BEEN CARRIED TO THE WRECKS OF THE RMS TITANIC AND THE HMHS BRITANNIC, AS WELL A SUITE OF ANCIENT SHIPS THAT FOUNDERED OFF THE COAST OF THE GREEK ISLAND OF FOURNI. ONE OF OUR NEWEST AND MOST DURABLE BANNERS, FLAG Nº 240 MADE ITS DEBUT ON THIS EXPEDITION, BEFORE RETURNING TO THE FIELD WITH MARK MOLINE, WHO IS SEARCHING FOR A PLANE THAT CRASHED OFF THE IVORY COAST…

A JAZZ CLARINETIST, COMPOSER, AUTHOR, AND PHILOSOPHER-NATURALIST, DAVID ROTHENBERG HAS EXPLORED THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMANITY AND NATURE THROUGH HIS WRITINGS AND PERFORMANCES. A FELLOW OF THE EXPLORERS CLUB SINCE 2010 AND A PROFESSOR AT THE NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (NJIT), HE IS THE AUTHOR OF WHY BIRDS SING, THOUSAND MILE SONG, SURVIVAL OF THE BEAUTIFUL, BUG MUSIC, AND, MOST RECENTLY, SECRET SOUNDS OF PONDS. HE HAS PRODUCED 19 CDS, INCLUDING BUG MUSIC AND CICADA DREAM BAND. FOR MORE ON HIS WORK, VISIT: DAVIDROTHENBERG.NET. A MEMBER OF THE EXPLORERS CLUB SINCE 2023 AND THE FOUNDER OF BROOKLYN BUGS, ACCLAIMED CHEF JOSEPH YOON TOURS GLOBALLY AS AN EDIBLE INSECT AMBASSADOR—SHARING THE POSSIBILITIES OF EDIBLE INSECTS AND THE INNOVATIONS AROUND INSECT AGRICULTURE THAT HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO IMPACT GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEMS. FOR…

WORLD’S OLDEST FOSSILIZED FOREST FOUND BRITISH COAST YIELDS EVIDENCE OF 390-MILLION-YEAR-OLD ALIEN PLANTS Paleobotanists have found the remains of the oldest known fossilized forest on Earth high in the sandstone cliffs along the Devon and Somerset coasts of south-west England. Discovered and identified by researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Cardiff, the fossilized forest has been dated to 390 million years ago—some four million years older than the previous record holder, in New York State—and is made up exclusively of Calamophyton, which the researchers describe as a “prototype” palm tree. Their trunks were thin and hollow, they lacked leaves, and their branches were covered in hundreds of twig-like structures. The trees were also much shorter than their descendants, being but two to four meters tall. As they grew, they…

A FELLOW OF THE EXPLORERS CLUB SINCE 2022, ANGELA POSADA-SWAFFORD IS A COLOMBIAN-AMERICAN SCIENCE JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR BASED IN MIAMI BEACH. CHRISTIAN ZIEGLER IS AN AWARD-WINNING PHOTOJOURNALIST AND FILMMAKER SPECIALIZING IN NATURAL HISTORY AND SCIENCE-RELATED TOPICS. A TROPICAL ECOLOGIST BY TRAINING, HE HAS WORKED IN RAINFORESTS ON FOUR CONTINENTS AND, FOR 12 YEARS, WAS AN ASSOCIATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE SMITHSONIAN TROPICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE (STRI) IN PANAMA. The crack of dawn at the Tatacoa Desert in south-central Colombia announces this will be an exceedingly hot day to go searching for fossils. Still, I walk in the footsteps of a group of specialists as we traverse the undulating terrain of gullies and loose ochre clays where water once flowed. Finding fossils in the tropics is not easy, as the rocks that…

INGREDIENTS: 1 lb fettuccini or linguini2 tbsp olive oil1 cup onions, diced3 cloves garlic, minced1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced salt & pepper to taste1 cup cicada nymphs, defrosted*1 cup fiddlehead ferns, trimmed and cleaned1 red bell pepper, sliced1 cup broccoli florets1 cup cremini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced4 scallions, cleaned and sliced on the bias4 tbsp soy sauce2 tbsp mirin1 tbsp toasted sesame oil For this dish, I wanted to highlight the cicadas with other seasonal spring ingredients. Boil the fiddlehead ferns for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside. Boil noodles with a pinch of salt, reserving ½ cup of the pasta water for the sauce. Preheat a frying pan or wok to medium high and add olive oil. Once the oil is shimmering, add in the aromatics—onions, garlic, and ginger—with…

There is a deadly, silent killer that can stalk any explorer. This quiet assassin is odorless, tasteless, room temperature, and can be found in camping facilities, cabins, tents, and even ordinary homes. It is similar to air. Carbon monoxide (CO) is a byproduct of incomplete combustion of substances that contain carbon. CO rapidly diffuses through the alveolar membranes in the lung, and it has a binding affinity nearly 300 times that of oxygen (O2). Therefore, it displaces O2 binding of hemoglobin and replaces O2 at the cellular level in its delivery from the lungs to vital organs and peripheral tissues. Within tissue, CO also binds to other heme-containing proteins found in skeletal and cardiac muscle with resulting damage to those tissues with delay. At the cellular level, CO inactivates neutrophils…