Callan Bentley Outside a metro station in DC a couple of months ago, I noticed a group of people with signs, pamphlets, and earnest expressions. They were advertising the “good news” that the end of the world was soon: May 21, in fact. They’ve been getting some more attention since, and since May 21 is this coming … Read more
Camping this weekend; when we took the rain fly off the tent this morning, we found this gruesome scene of a predator and its prey, a miniature drama that played itself out above our heads while we slept: I love macro photography of critters like these… tiny dramas revealed!
My fiancée Lily teaches science at a local middle school, and she has a pet leopard gecko there. I went in this morning to give her students a talk on climate change, and used the opportunity to hang out a bit with the gecko, which is named Kimo (“chemo”). Lily affectionately calls him “Kemo-sabe”… I … Read more
Last week, the Friday fold featured a kinked phyllite of unknown provenance that is currently resident in David King Hall 2074 on the campus of George Mason University. However, on Tuesday of last week, I found another kinked phyllite, this one out in the real world, at Thoroughfare Gap, in the Harpers Formation of the … Read more
My student Troy was working on the geologic history of the Thoroughfare Gap regions for his Honors project this semester, and we went out there last week to check out some stuff. One thing I was struck by was how much more deformed these rocks were than I had expected. This was particularly evident in … Read more
Atop the glorious pile of travertine that is Pamukkale (photos 1, 2, & 3), there is an ancient ruined city called Hierapolis. It was founded by the Romans in the second century BC, and was constructed (not surprisingly) from the most common locally available stone: travertine. A tomb with a view: This last one is … Read more
Yesterday afternoon, I spent some time in the field with a colleague, a student, and a gigapan. I took four gigapan images, which are of varying quality due to the partly cloudy day, but still you ought to find them interesting to explore. You can see any of them full-screen by clicking on the word … Read more
Callan shares a third batch of photos from the stunning travertine terraces at Pamukkale (“cotton castle”) in central Turkey, near the town of Denizli. Travertine structures on numerous scales are shown, adorned with flowers, tourists, and ducks.
I already mentioned the “paddle hackle” that I saw on the field trip I took to Thoroughfare Gap in February. Well, this week I went back out to Throughfare Gap twice, once with a student and once with my fianceé and a friend of ours. I saw cool new plumes both times, decorating joint surfaces … Read more
On the original version of this blog, I showed off a couple of pseudoscorpions that I found under a rock in Montana. On Tuesday, poking around at pollen-ific Thoroughfare Gap with my Honors student Troy, I found another one. Looked like the same thing. See for yourself. I shot a bunch of macro shots with … Read more
Following on from Thursday’s initial suite of Pamukkale photos, here’s some more. More later!
Kink bands in phyllite. Another sample from the GMU teaching collection. Ruler in the background shows blurry mm-scale demarcations. Happy Friday — enjoy your weekend!
Callan shares some photos from his time last summer at the massive travertine deposits at Pamukkale, Turkey.
If I had a structural superpower, it would be to shoot en echelon tension gash arrays from my fingertips: Photo by Sharon Ruggeiri
This is a sample from the teaching collection at George Mason University: The swirly folds exhibited by this quartz vein reminds me of von Karman vortices. Happy Friday! For me, it’s the last day of classes of the spring semester at NOVA, though GMU is still in session for a couple more weeks. I’m grateful … Read more
Stopped at Sideling Hill, Maryland, a few weeks back with my three Honors students, on our way to Pittsburgh for the northeast/north-central GSA section meeting. Robin took this photo of me with some sandstone beds that reveal two nice examples of joint anatomy, complementary in their structure: First focus in on the area right of … Read more
Shot this on Friday with my iPhone, with student David’s hand lens held in front of it. Nice look at a resting moth: Not bad, eh? Anyone else got any recent iPhone macro photography to share?
The Friday fold is a contorted chert sample from Turkey.
My friend JT, who got her MS in geology at the University of Maryland when I did, is now at the Colorado School of Mines working on her PhD in Environmental Science and Engineering. A water main broke outside her house this morning, and I’m pleased that her first thought was to photo-document the resulting … Read more