The eyes have it

Okay, I photoshopped that one up. This one too… Here are the originals… And, if you’re a scale-off-to-the-side-of-your-main-subject purist, here’s a different shot of this quintessential boudin: And, while we’re at it, here are some other fine boudins (of granite pegmatite) exposed along the coast of West Boothbay Harbor, Maine: Some nice coastal ecology to … Read more

Pemaquid Point, Maine

Pemaquid Point, Maine, is a locally-owned and -managed park near an old lighthouse. I went there yesterday with my family. We’re on vacation in coastal Maine for a week. At Pemaquid Point, the action of waves have cleaned the rocks, and they offer a delightful three-dimensional look at Acadian-aged metamorphics and granite pegmatite dikes, with … Read more

Diabase intrusion at the Vulcan Manassas quarry

When I was flying back from Phase I of “Border to Beltway” in Texas this past March, I was delighted to photograph a bunch of local geology from the air, including this prominent diabase quarry in Manassas: I had never been to this particular quarry before, but as it turned out, it was one of … Read more

Monday migmatite

Here’s a sweet little sample of migmatite (~470 Ma late Ordovician Taconian Orogeny, U/Pb date from zircon), that my students and I spotted last week on the Billy Goat Trail, downstream of Great Falls in Maryland’s metamorphic Piedmont province: Note the white translucent quartz, the orangey (partially kaolinitized and rusty stained) opaque potassium feldspar, and … Read more

Friday fold: rolled boudin

Howard Allen returns with a Friday fold contribution for this week. He says: Not exactly a fold, but I thought you’d like this rolled boudin(?) (quartz) in a muscovite garnet schist (note garnets above the lens cap). This specimen is also from the Shuswap Metamorphic Complex, north of Sicamous, British Columbia. Lovely. Thanks for sharing, … Read more

Friday fold: Okanagan gneiss

Todd Redding is our genorous sponsor for this week’s Friday fold. Todd reports that this boulder is derived from the Okanagan Metamorphic Complex near Penticton, British Columbia, Canada. He gives its lat/long as 49°28’14.10″N, 119°30’23.14″W. Did you spot the small fault in there, too? Thanks for sharing, Todd!

Exploring Wind River Canyon’s Great Unconformity in outcrop and hand sample (via GigaPan)

Over the summer, I shot these two GigaPans of the “Great Unconformity” in Wind River Canyon (Owl Creek Mountains), Wyoming: [gigapan id=”136109″] link [gigapan id=”136122″] link This week, Team M.A.G.I.C. (by which I mean my student Robin Rohrback-Schiavone) finished up a series of three macro GigaPans of rock samples from the site (made with our … Read more

A new outcrop of Catoctin meta- volcanic breccia

Lily and I took our son to the Virginia Scottish Games on Sunday. This is an annual competition of events in traditionally Scottish feats – throwing heavy things, mainly. There is also fried food, whisky, and some terrific music. The event is held at the Great Meadow, south of The Plains, Virginia. I had never … Read more