Fury: The Power of Nature is a new exhibit at Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, Ga. The exhibit opened Dec. 7 and will run through January 4, 2026.
Curatorial Coordinator, Rebecca Melsheimer said various objects from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Debris Program, NOAA Heritage, and the Uncharted Supply Company were brought in so people can learn about the different types of natural disasters.
The exhibit is housed in the Vault special exhibit gallery located in the Weinman Mineral Gallery. That area of the museum houses gems and jeweled objects, geological artifacts, Southeastern and international minerals, and more.
Melsheimer said hosting the exhibit in that section of the museum was a good fit, since many locations where you mine for minerals have volcanic activity and earthquakes.
Volcanoes host deposits of many metals, including copper, gold, silver, lead, zinc, aluminum, and nickel. During an earthquake, water under high pressure in fault zones can suddenly vaporize, releasing minerals like gold and silicate minerals.
Melsheimer explained that tsunamis are caused by a sudden shift in the ocean floor and could also be caused by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
The exhibit features several interactive displays allowing visitors to get hands-on experience with the natural forces that threaten life, property, and livelihood.
Tellus Science Museum Marketing Associate Lauren Rhodes said the exhibit is extremely relevant, specifically as it relates to the recent uptick of hurricanes in the area and harsh weather throughout the country.
“We had a crazy hurricane season this year,” she said. “This exhibit feels very timely with all of this going on.”
There is a TV monitor in the mineral gallery that registers earthquakes across the country. Rhodes said the day they began installing the Fury exhibit one of the museum employees watched in real time when the monitor registered the seismic activity from the earthquake which hit California the first week of December. The earthquake was measured at 7.0 and activated a tsunami warning for the area.
During a tour of the exhibit, the monitor showed several seismic activities happening in Alaska. Rhodes and Melsheimer said earthquakes in Alaska are practically a daily occurrence.
The immersive and interactive exhibit is suited for all ages.
Guests can create a tornado, manufacture an earthquake, and feel the power of hurricane-force winds at the interactive displays.
“I personally am passionate about families enjoying our museum not just children not just adults but a family experience,” said Marketing Director Shelly Humble. “And to me, Rebecca did a really good job of having interactives for each of those major weather events. She has the tornado simulator where you can see the little tornado spinning up. We have the hurricane simulator that you can go into and feel those winds on you. And then she has this tsunami simulator, and the earthquake shake table. To have those tangible items, those interactives that people can touch and see. It was very important to me and because she was the architect of this exhibit, I was very thankful that she did that.”
Melsheimer said she hopes the exhibit will help people understand weather events and put a plan in place to be ready for them.
“We want people to be prepared,” Melsheimer said.
Cartersville is affectionately known as Museum City. Tellus Science Museum is a program of Georgia Museums, Inc. which also includes Booth Western Art Museum, Savoy Automobile Museum, and Bartow History Museum. All within the city limits and just a few miles from each other.
“Tellus opened officially in 2009,” Rhodes said. “Prior to that, it was the Weinman Mineral Museum. “It was a museum dedicated to the mining industry we had here.”
Rhodes said the educational programs and museum started to grow and they expanded from 10,000 square feet to the 120,000 square feet museum that is Tellus Science Museum today.
“We’re a Smithsonian affiliate,” Rhodes said. “So, that gives us access to get things on loan from Smithsonian and have access to some of their resources.”
The Tellus Museum used those resources back in 2009 when they received a call about a meteorite which struck a house in Cartersville.
“Luckily it was unoccupied,” Rhodes said. “You can see the plaster on it, and you can see the wood fibers. It looks like gold speckles on it, but it's the wood fibers where it went through the house. You’ll see there's a flat slice off the front of it and that's the slice we had to cut off for the Smithsonian to identify it.”
Appropriately named the Cartersville Meteorite the display is a popular stop in the vault gallery along with a 4,400-pound Amethyst.
The museum houses a vast collection of items, many of which are unique and local to the Southeastern section of the country.
The Millar Science and Motion Gallery features vintage motorcycles, model trains, examples of communications technology, and even a jet cockpit. The Collins Family My Big Backyard gallery is designed for kids and allows them to get hands-on with interactive exhibits on electricity, magnetism, and weather.
Humble said they are currently expanding and will soon open a new permanent technology exhibit.
“We did this as a special exhibit several years ago and it was such a big hit,” she said.
She said the technology exhibit will be a welcome addition to multi-generational families. Grandparents will be able to show their grandchildren the evolution of communications systems, the internet, the way we listened to music then and now and the evolution of technical devices like computers and smart phones.
Most people born to generation Z (1995-2009) and generation alpha (2010-2024) people may have no clue how to use a rotary phone or know what a Walkman is. This future exhibit will display many of the items that 21st century technology has made obsolete.
The museum is open seven days a week, Monday-Sunday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. It is closed on New Year’s Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.
For more information and to purchase tickets online visit: www.tellusmuseum.org