Q&A, episode 4
Who are “the 3%?” A reader question prompts a conversation with “Skeptical Science” guru and cognitive scientist John Cook.
gmu
Trace fossils in the Juniata and Tuscarora Formations
Route 33 in Pendleton County, West Virginia cuts across the lower Paleozoic stratigraphic section. I went there this past spring on a sedimentology and stratigraphy field trip with the GMU sed/strat class. The trip was orchestrated by professor Rick Diecchio. Here are some scenes from two of the stops – the upper Ordovician Juniata formation … Read more
Stromatoporoids in a Devonian reef
Here are a few shots of a Devonian aged reef exposed in Mustoe, Virginia – one of the sites I visited this spring with GMU’s Rick Diecchio, when he led his sedimentology and stratigraphy trip there. At first, the outcrop made no sense to me – I kept searching for bedding, and failed to find … Read more
Ripple marks and trace fossils in the Rose Hill Formation
An outcrop of Silurian-aged Rose Hill Formation in West Virginia reveals excellent examples of ripple marks and trace fossils.
Eocene dike and sill in Ordovician limestone
A virtual field trip to a quarry in far western Virginia, showing anomalous igneous intrusions (a dike and a sill) of Eocene age cross-cutting early Paleozoic carbonates.
Spring time
This past weekend, I had a chance to visit Bath, Highland, and Alleghany Counties, Virginia, three amazingly beautiful places I had never before seen. I was tagging along on my colleague Rick Diecchio’s annual sedimentology & stratigraphy field trip for George Mason University. I was eager to learn from some awesome field sites from him … Read more
Guest post: Glaciolacustrine deltas in the Canadian Rockies
One of Callan’s “Canadian Rockies” field course students supplies a guest post about deltas that build out into glacial lakes.
Friday fold: a recumbent anticline in an abandoned quarry
Yesterday, I spent a pleasant day in the field with John Singleton, the new structural geology professor at George Mason University. I was showing John a couple of sites I’ve used as field trip locations for the GMU structural geology class, and John was showing a couple of new sites to me – places he … Read more
Giant pencil cleavage in the Martinsburg Formation
Two giant “pencils” in the Martinsburg Formation: You can see smaller (more typically sized) “pencils” on the slope behind me. Photo by John Singleton, GMU.
GMU structural geology students admire Compton Peak columns
Last Saturday, before the rains moved in…
Sharing the M.A.G.I.C.
Last Thursday, my colleague Jim Buecheler and I took two students (Robin Rohrback and Alan Pitts) down to Charlottesville, Virginia, for a meeting at the state geological survey. The Department of Geology and Mineral Resources sponsors an annual one-day symposium on Virginia geology that I’ve participated in two or three times before. Last year I … Read more
Mystery rock
Here’s a mystery rock that’s just aching to have its identity be crowdsourced: I got these photos from Rick Diecchio of George Mason Univerisity, who got them from a local fellow who dug it up in his yard in Dale City, Virginia. Rick says: I was stumped at first, but the more I look at … Read more
Compton Peak columns
Callan and three students visit a world-class outcrop of columnar jointing in Shenandoah National Park.