Friday fold: Isla Escarpada, Chile

I’m very nearly delinquent on posting the Friday fold… Here you go – a Google Earth view of a differentially-weathered fold partly above and partly below sea level in Chilean Patagonia, south of Puerto Natales: They call it Isla Escarpada. Awesome. Here’s a Google Maps link if you want to explore it yourself. Happy Friday!

Friday fold: flexed turbidites

Spring is almost here! As you get ready for the equinox, enjoy this gentle fold on a Friday: These are turbidites (graywacke and shale) of the late Ordovician Martinsburg Formation, seen in Edinburg Gap, western Massanutten Range, greater Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. Bedding is flexed very slightly here, from moderately-dipping to more steep, and then back … Read more

Friday fold: Mazatzal Orogeny, Arizona

Reader Mike Pendergrass contributes this Friday’s fold: I found your blog a couple years ago and I share your love of structural geology.  I did my Master’s Thesis while at Northern Arizona University in the early 80’s and mapped an area on the Mazatzal Mountains of central Arizona.  The Mazatzals in my field area contain … Read more

Friday folds: Three tweets

Back at the beginning of January, I asked for help on Twitter for Friday fold fodder. Here are three responses I got: @callanbentley one of my favorites from South Georgia Island. Have more on the laptop. pic.twitter.com/UaRtxM77Vm — John Van Hoesen (@Taconic_Musings) January 8, 2015 @callanbentley 2 folds from my SC Inner Piedmont MS thesis … Read more

Friday fold: Ptygmatic Irving Fm., Colorado

Another one from Kim: Kim says: Pygmatic folds in the Precambrian Irving Formation. I think this is 1.7 Ga deformation, late in the Yavapai orogeny, which added various arcs in Colorado to North America. Good place to think about strain ellipses in progressive deformation. Zooming in on the best part, and dialing up the contrast … Read more

Friday fold: Ouray Limestone, Colorado

Kim Hannula shares a fold today: Kim says: The rocks folded here mostly the Devonian Ouray Limestone. There’s a fault through the outcrop, and another fault to the left of the photo. Regionally, the faults are mapped as normal faults, mostly with the east (right in photo) side down. Locally, that’s not what I see … Read more

Friday Fold: Mist Mountain Formation in Canmore, Alberta

Let’s journey to the Cretaceous today, to see sandstones, shales, and even some coal strata that have been folded during the eastward thrusting that built the Canadian Rockies. Here’s the same fold, in context, shot in GigaPan on a different day, from a different angle. Can you match it up? link Ben Gadd showed me … Read more

Friday folds from the Shenandoah River

My student Josh B. found this beautiful map view of a plunging fold in the bed of the Shenandoah River, as viewed in Google Earth: Josh posted his results on Facebook, and then the other Josh (Joshua Villalobos of El Paso Community College) poked around the area and found some others downstream (north): Here’s a … Read more

Friday fold: GSW fall field trip

Last Saturday was the Geological Society of Washington’s fall field trip. Dan Doctor, Alan Pitts, and I led a team of ~20 geologists out to the great new exposures along Corridor H in West Virginia. Here’s the team in front of some of the parasitic anticlines and synclines that decorate the larger structure of the … Read more