The Loess Hills...

• Where are they?

• You can see what's curious about them today

• Sir Charles Lyell visited them at Natchez
  

The Loess Itself...

• Loess, such as that shown in the bluff at the right (notice the interesting bee-tunnels... ), is composed of tiny mineral particles with very specific characteristics

• A sharp scientist decided that snails were telling us loess's story

• Despite the clear message from the snails, for a long time the debate continued over where loess comes from

• Why is our loess located where it is?

• The age of our loess has been determined, thanks to C¹⁴ and... snails

Loess & the Ice Age...

• Putting our loess's age into the context of time

• Our loess was deposited during the last Ice Age

• Amazing fossils of Ice Age animals have been found in our area

Just below the Loess...

• What's the story of the sand and gravel below our loess?

• What if we dug a hole through all the loess, sand and gravel, and kept on going for thousands of feet deeper?

• Sometimes, in the rocks below the loess, sand and gravel, there's a whale of a story