Friday folds: Mather Gorge Formation

It’s been a very Billy-Goaty week for me. Three times since Sunday afternoon, I’ve taken people to the Billy Goat Trail’s “A” loop in C&O Canal National Historical Park. On Tuesday and Thursday, it was my NOVA Physical Geology students. On Sunday, though, it was just my son and me. Good news! He helped me … Read more

Friday fold: quartz veins in metagraywacke of the Mather Gorge Formation

It’s Friday! Here’s a lovely sight, contributed by reader Fred Atwood: [youtube_agu id=Au-jIGfbs8g] Those are quartz veins in one of my favorite local rock units, the Mather Gorge Formation. Fred reports, This is at Madeira School in Great Falls between Black Pond and the Potomac. The rocks around Great Falls, particularly those on the Billy … Read more

Friday fold: new folds from the Empire Formation, Glacier National Park

Hiking Siyeh Pass in Glacier in Glacier National Park on Tuesday with my Montana State University field course, we spotted a few new folds in the Empire Formation (a transitional unit between Helena Formation and Grinnell Formation). Here is one of the students serving as a sense of scale, with interesting features on either side … Read more

Friday fold: the anticline at Chickie’s Rock

Chickie’s Rock is a prominent cliff of Cambrian quartz arenite (sandstone) in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. I visited it last month with field trippers at the eastern section meeting of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers. One of the aspects of the site is this gentle anticline with axial planar cleavage: The yellow rectangle is my … Read more

Friday fold: twisted turbidites at Usal Beach

Last week, I spent two perfect days camping with family at Usal Beach, in Mendocino County, California. Along the beachside cliffs there, I spotted plenty of lovely turbidites: graywacke and shale and a little bit of conglomerate that had been scraped off the subducted Farrallon Plate to help contribute to the bulk of the Franciscan … Read more