Welcome to the Mineral, Rock, Organic, Fossil, Sand, and Silt (MIROFOSS) foundation page. The MIROFOSS foundation is a non-profit organization that was created April 03, 2013 to promote the study and interest in Earth Science; in the fields of Geology, Paleontology, Mineralogy, Pedology, Botany, and Mycology. MIROFOSS is currently building an extensive article based web page, in conjunction with various social media outlets to engage the public; as well as provide scholarship money for students wishing to pursue education in Earth Science that come from low income families or third world countries. It is the mission of MIROFOSS to:

"To promote Earth Science to all people through the Internet and social media; and to do what we can to assist those who may not have the means to pursue education in Earth Science."
 
 
How did it all begin?
We started working on the idea of the MIROFOSS project back in late 2010. At the time it was not called MIROFOSS, rather it was just an idea that we should start taking images of our mineral, rock, and botanical samples and placing them online for people to view. In the process of taking photos and looking up information for the various samples in our collection, we realized there is not very many consolidated reference sites online which someone can go to and get quick facts about minerals. There are web sites for history, web sites for charts and tables of data, web sites with images, and web sites with 'holistic' properties of natural items. However, a site which had everything, and formatted in easy to read sections, was a very rare site to find. So we decided to start building a web page to help people find information easily with images to help along the way. The MIROFOSS site has seen many changes since it first came online in 2013, many additions were made, graphics were greatly improved, searching the site was improved using search topics, and CSS was introduced to allow search engines to find the articles; we learned frames are a horrible format to use in modern web design. From 2013 to today, we continually improve MIROFOSS by tweaking the articles, adding new functions, and of course adding new articles.
A very small team
As a non-profit organization; we are a very small team with a novice level of computer experience. Some computer experts have criticized us and made comments such as "you don't know how to professionally code", or "get off the web!" although we appreciate any productive advice, we don't have professional degrees in web programming. Our goal is to make MIROFOSS easy to use on most computer systems. Our team consists of only five people: two photographers, a geologist, a botanist, and an administrator who tries to keep everything running. We use one computer to write articles, code pages, debug, and publish. As a small team sometimes MIROFOSS becomes a head ache trying to find every little bug in code or proof reading each article over and over again. At this time we are not in a financial position to hire on staff for media relations, or web development, so we make do with what we have. We are always looking for volunteers to help us with MIROFOSS and in the past have had many people lend their time and expertise to the project.
Where do we operate?
We conduct most of our day to day work out of one of the MIROFOSS founder's private home. We have access to an Earth Science lab to complete most of our sample identification and conduct various tests on samples, if needed. Field research for organic samples takes place all over Southern Ontario, Canada at the current time. We are hoping to be able to travel to other locations around the world one day to research other organics species which cannot be found here.
Why are we asking for help?
MIROFOSS is like a small child; when you have a child you need to provide for that child so they can grow up to be healthy and strong. We currently fund all of our expenses out of pocket to keep MIROFOSS running. We pay for web domain registration, web hosting, internet access, and everything from paper and pens to expensive software to develop the articles and process the images. We are asking for help, so we can continue to develop MIROFOSS into a healthy and strong resource for anyone around the world to be able to use.
How can you help?
There are many ways that you can help to keep MIROFOSS running, or even make it a better resource for the future. Donating funds is the first thing we usually ask. Funds can be donated via Pay pal and these funds go directly into the upkeep of the web site. You can also sponsor one or more of our articles and have your name right at the top of the page. We have many different sponsorship options to fit any budget. We are always looking for new geological samples to showcase in an article and we are always accepting donations of samples from private or public groups. We can work with you to cover the cost of shipping if you have a tight budget and need help. MIROFOSS also operates an eBay Store where we sell anything and everything we can find. All profits from eBay go directly into web site upkeep and fees. If you like our images and want to use them for your own research, you can always visit our stock image gallery where you can acquire many of our sample images.
No Funds, No Problem ;)
Would you like to help MIROFOSS, but you do not have any way to make a monetary contribution? How about donating time? MIROFOSS is always looking for volunteers that can assist with proof reading and debugging of our articles. If computers are not your thing, we are always looking for volunteer photographers to go out and capture images of organic samples in nature. Check out careers @ MIROFOSS for more details and to see what openings are currently available.