This weekend I went camping with my family in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, near Berryville. I poked around with river cobbles and experienced fluvial dynamics firsthand with an inner tube ride down the Shenandoah River, but mainly I turned off the geology part of my brain. Instead, the brain enjoyed idling, and thinking about how to … Read more
I realize the geological blogging has been rather light around these parts lately – just one more day of “fluff” posts… Here’s a damselfly, photographed close-up last Thursday along Route 340 south of Elkton, Virginia. There were also some rocks there… more on them tomorrow.
Yesterday, Lily and I embraced my first day of no-more-classes by taking a hike. We drove out to Massanutten Mountain and hiked up to Signal Knob, a ten-mile (roundtrip) jaunt with about 1500 feet of elevation gain. Along the way, we saw a lot of Massanutten Formation quartz sandstone (Silurian), a few trace fossils, a … Read more
A macro shot of a beetle (length ~11 mm) I saw on the wildlife-rich George Mason University structure trip two weekends ago… Neat iridescence, eh? I love macro photography, especially of bugs.
… So, today is: … and not only that, it’s the 40th anniversary of the first “Earth Day.” Shall we reflect? Yes, let’s shall. My career as a geoscientist was largely inspired by desire to spend time outside, and that in turn was inspired by a lot of positive outdoor experiences as a child and … Read more