Took a hike this morning with my bride-to-be, out to Buzzard Rock on the northeastern corner of Massanutten Mountain. There, we observed numerous boulders of Massanutten Sandstone float, many bearing charismatic cross-beds. Here’s one more slab of float, presumably weathered out along the main bed, showing gorgeous internal cross-stratification: A closer look at the left … Read more
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!
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
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 think snow can act as a nice analogue for larger-scale rock deformation. I explored this a bit last February, and I was reminded of it again last week, when I walked to my car one morning and saw this: Notice how the slab of snow on the hood (“bonnet” for British readers) of my … Read more
Check out this video I found online whilst uploading last week’s Friday fold: This video was produced and published on YouTube by Markus Beckers, Michael Ketterman, Dennis Laux and Janos Urai. It’s a nice demonstration of how multiple layers of material of different properties and different thicknesses can yield up different flavors of folds. In … Read more
Whilst hiking at Dolly Sods over the weekend, I found this old artifact: Upper 10 is apparently a “Sprite”-esque lemon-lime soda, discontinued in America but still being marketed abroad. But that wasn’t what got me jazzed, of course. Look more closely… That is a lovely little conchoidal fracture, and it’s so exquisite because it preserves … Read more
Beautiful fiancée for scale.
Tell me why I took this iPhone picture, and I’ll mail you a GEOLOGY ROCKS bumper sticker! Answer in the comments below…
Heat-stressed map of the Chesapeake Bay / Washington, DC region, as seen at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. Looks like mudcracks, eh? Similar stresses; similar strains.
A million years ago, I posted about my inaugural attempt to use the Butter Buster to illustrate shear zone deformation to my structural geology students. Today, using the UnFREEz program to make an animated GIF (Thanks, Lockwood!), I give you the Butter Buster animation:
Sunday morning, NOVA adjunct geology instructor Chris Khourey and I went out to Sugarloaf Mountain, near Comus, Maryland, to poke around and assess the geology. Sugarloaf is so named because it’s “held up” by erosion-resistant quartzite. It’s often dubbed “the only mountain in the Piedmont,” which refers to the Piedmont physiographic province. Here’s a map, … Read more
Earlier in the month, during the big snowstorms, my window got plastered with snow. This snow formed a vertical layer which then deformed under the influence of gravity. Looking at it through the glass, I was struck by how it could serve as a miniature analogue for the deformation typical of a mountain belt. Let’s … Read more
Whilst discussing how to quantify strain with my GMU structural geology students recently, I hit upon a cool analogy. In order for you to understand the analogy (assuming you’re not a structural geologist), I’ll have to review some background information first. Stick with it, and I promise you a salamander at the end. Structural geologists … Read more
Intersection of 16th Street and Columbia Road NW… … a wee bit underexposed, eh? Guess the high albedo blew out my iPhone camera. (glove for scale)