Friday fold: kinked phyllite from Bonner, Montana
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHi7AJwjhbI”]
Callan Bentley
Conglomerate from Dolly Sods
While my focus was more on bugs and plants than geology this time around, I did hike a new trail at Dolly Sods this past weekend, and on that trail I found several nice boulders of conglomerate. These stood out as being much coarser than the pervasive quartz sandstone of the Pennsylvanian-aged Conemaugh Group which … Read more
A couple of plants from Dolly Sods
It wasn’t just bugs that we saw at Dolly Sods, West Virginia, over the weekend. There were some plants, too. Here’s a look at the typical Dolly Sods scene, with spruce trees and aspen and alder and a boggy trail: “Lady slipper” orchid: Fiddleheads unfurling into ferns: And, of course, one of my favorite things … Read more
Another weekend, another batch of macro bugs
This weekend, we went backpacking with our friends Seth and Anne, at Dolly Sods in West Virginia. As usual, I took pictures. Not so much of rocks this time, but there were lots of springtime buggies crawling about, and you know how I like to shoot macro photos of small critters… So here you go: … Read more
Friday fold(s): the Outdoor Lab
Today’s Friday fold takes me back 25 years, to when I visited the Outdoor Lab with my science class in Arlington County Public Schools. I revisited this exemplary outdoor education facility on Tuesday, at the invitation of its director, Neil Heinekamp. Neil wanted a geology “expert” to take a look at their rocks, and I … Read more
Tumbling Run: New Market/Lincolnshire contact
Here’s a gigapan I shot yesterday, looking north at the contact between the New Market and Lincolnshire Formations at the classic “Tumbling Run” outcrop south of Strasburg, Virginia: See if you can find the E. coli plush toy I included, or the cm-scale pencil! As usual, you can see it full screen, by clicking on … Read more
The view from Signal Knob
Here’s a gigapan I shot last Saturday, looking north from Signal Knob, Virginia: As usual, you can see it full screen, by clicking on the word “Gigapan” in the lower right.
Fault in Massanutten Sandstone
Here’s a gigapan I shot last yesterday, looking west from “Blue Hole” towards a cliff of Massanutten Formation sandstone, south of Waterlick, Virginia. A prominent fault zone can be seen in the center of the image. Unfortunately, the auto-stitch deformed my face. I look like Quasimodo. Oh well. As usual, you can see it full … Read more
Weekend macro bugs
“Did somebody say bugs?” …Yes, Mr. Lizard, it’s time for a photo gallery of the macro bugs I saw this past weekend. We got some caterpillars for you, some millipedes, and also a very cool moth. Feast your eyes! Unidentified caterpillar 1: Underwing caterpillar (?): Unidentified caterpillar 2: Millipedes: (See also here, if you … Read more
Three other interesting gravestones
While exploring the Rock Creek Cemetery last week, I noticed a couple of other interesting graves. This one, made of limestone, shows nice “reverse” cross-bedding: Here; I dialed up the contrast a bit to highlight these cool primary structures: It’s “reverse” because the tilting direction of the cross-beds switches from left (at the bottom) to … Read more
Geology LOLcats 3
This morning, my cat Lola (a.k.a. “LOLa”) had squirmed herself in between the sheets, and it reminded me of something: If this pose inspires you to another LOLcat caption, you can click through for the original image file, unadorned. Modify it as you like, and give us a link to your creation in the comments … Read more
A tidy little quartz crystal
A doubly-terminated quartz crystal (or “Herkimer diamond”) is found on a hike in the Silurian sandstones of Virginia’s Valley & Ridge province.
New hallway display: geologic provinces of northern Virginia
Callan shows off a new hallway display in his building at Northern Virginia Community College, showcasing the numerous geologic provinces of northern Virginia (as well as adjacent mid-Atlantic states).
Geology LOLcats 2
Another day, another geology LOLcat challenged issued by a geoblogger… Okay, I’ll bite: Other geology LOLcats have been found curling up all over the geoblogosphere in the past 24 hours: Outside the Interzone Georneys
The grave of Charles Walcott
Callan pays a visit to the grave of celebrated paleontologist and geological administrator Charles D. Walcott.
Geology LOLcats 1
Dana posted early this morning with an invitation to “LOLcat” with a geological flavor. Here’s the best I could come up with: If you’re not familiar with the LOLcat genre, you might want to take a look at a random sampling of LOLcat images for context. Yes: I have the day off today, and can … Read more
Friday fold: “Butt of Lewis” (yes, really!)
Today’s Friday fold comes to us from Alistair Knock on Flickr*, via Dave Schumaker’s Geology News Blog, where there is a daily Flickr feed of photos tagged with the word “geology”: Bigger version here. The fold in question, an overturned synform, is at a place called “Butt of Lewis” (the northernmost point on the island … Read more
Check out my bookshelf
A fresh gigapan, of my office bookshelf. There’s some rocks there: Find anything neat?
Some cool rocks from DGMR’s rock garden
A brief tour of some cool rocks, shown in close-up, from the rock garden at the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Department of Geology and Mineral Resources in Charlottesville, Virginia, presented as a follow-on to the gigapan of the garden shown a month ago. The post features close-ups of plumose structure in slate, epidote slickensides, and graded bedding in ancient rhythmites.
More garbage about impending disasters
Hot on the heels of my discussion of yesterday’s “end is nigh” prophecy, here’s another one, an example that more plausibly wears the cloak of pseudoscience. A cousin sent me a link to this video via Facebook, and asked me what I thought. I sat through it (ten minutes of my life I’ll never get … Read more