Callan Bentley So where did we leave off with the Capadoccia photos? I think we mentioned a hike, right? Here’s Lily buying orange juice from two boys who operated a refreshment stand in the middle of nowhere. There was a lot of good, fresh fruit in this dry land, a fact which surprised me. Here’s some apricots … Read more
Today’s edition of the Friday fold is a cross-section: Doesn’t look too spectacular, does it? — “Why, it’s just a bunch of strata folded into anticlines and synclines,” I’ll bet you’re thinking. But no… it’s actually more complicated than that. We know it’s more complicated by examining geopetal primary structures in the strata. Geopetal structures … Read more
On our second day in Capadoccia, Lily and I went for a walk through one of the valleys that are eroded into the landscape there. Bas-relief hoodoos emerging from the wall of the canyon: We came to one area with classic turret-like hoodoos: Note the gravel layers in that column’s section, and the human at … Read more
Callan shares some more images from last summer’s trip to Capadoccia, Turkey. Eroded turrets of ignimbrite served as dwellings for Byzantine-era Christians, who decorated them with distinctive art.
The 30th edition of the “Accretionary Wedge” blog carnival is hosted at Mountain Beltway. A delectable array of foods, mainly dessert, are displayed. The treats demonstrate a wide array of geologic processes. Eat, drink, and be geologic!
Click this image to go to a big panorama (but not big enough to be hosted by Gigapan) of one of the valleys near Göreme, Capadoccia, Turkey: Note: The agriculture that lines the bottom of the valley. The colors of the tuff, and how they vary from place to place. The differentially eroding layer that … Read more
The Friday fold is a series of strata underwater near California’s famed “Mavericks” surf break.
A video, “The Dreaded Stairs,” has been getting some circulation lately on Facebook. It shows what happens when a staircase (beside an escalator) gets a makeover which features piano-style keys which make sounds when they are trod upon. Watch the video if you would like; I’m going to focus on the accompanying blurb, which reads: … Read more
Today, you get the first of several batches of photos dealing with one of the most magical places I’ve ever been, the Cappadocia region of Turkey. Cappadocia (pronounced “kap-uh-doke-ee-yuh“) is an area of eroded volcanic tuffs. The overall effect is badlands-like, but without the micro-turrets and hoodoos. The individual erosional remnants are larger in Cappadocia … Read more
This is from an e-mail I just got from Dr. Robert Templin, the President of Northern Virginia Community College, in reference to my colleague Ken Rasmussen: Dear Colleague, I am very pleased to share with you the news that Dr. Kenneth Rasmussen, Professor of Geology at the Annandale Campus, is a recipient of the Virginia … Read more
So here’s how I made that cake I showed you Monday. Step 1: Collect the necessary ingredients: (Nice job with the stitching, Photoshop… jeez!) Step 2: Clear your schedule and start baking. My first layer was to be “the basement complex” and so I wanted something marbled in appearance. Mixing chocolate-powder-stained batter with regular yellow … Read more
Over the weekend, hideously cold temperatures kept me indoors. I baked a cake, I went to see the new movie “True Grit” (excellent), and I read the 2006 compilation of John McPhee’s writing on transportation, Uncommon Carriers. Like most everybody I know, I came to McPhee based on his geology writings — the quartet of … Read more
Over the weekend, hideously cold temperatures kept me indoors. I baked a cake, I went to see the new movie “True Grit” (excellent), and I read the 2006 compilation of John McPhee’s writing on transportation, Uncommon Carriers. Like most everybody I know, I came to McPhee based on his geology writings — the quartet of … Read more
Callan showcases his contribution to this month’s Accretionary Wedge blog carnival. The theme of the Wedge is “Bake Sale,” and Callan shows a cake he “discovered,” describing its geologic origin in detail. This would be tongue in cheek, except that his mouth is already full of dessert.
I didn’t mention it yesterday, but there was one other structure that I saw at my newest outcrop on New 55. This is it: That’s a bunch of fractures. The broken rock is being altered by preferential fluid flow through the fractures. The fluid is not inert; it’s chemically active, and reacting with the rock. … Read more
This week’s edition of the “Friday fold” takes us to Route 55 in West Virginia, to deformed Appalachian strata of the Valley and Ridge province. A few bonus structures are also shown — some ripple marks, slickensides, and pencil cleavage.
Just got this in an email: “Hi professor Bentley, This is [redacted], I had you for Geology last Spring. I just wanted to email you to first off, thank you, and second off, to ask some questions. Before I took your class Science was my worst subject , and I did everything to avoid taking … Read more
This is a friendly reminder that you have one more week to prepare your brownies, cakes, puddings, eclairs, gumballs, gobstoppers, and cookies for the Accretionary Wedge Bake Sale. The deadline for the submission of entries is a week from tomorrow, next Friday, January 28. Leave a link in the comments here, or at the original … Read more
Amazon links to the five books mentioned: Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne (and here’s his blog) The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins (and we gave a shout out to the superb The Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins, also) (the video with the giraffe neck dissection) … Read more
