Friday fold: Sideling Hill

Here’s what the Sideling Hill road cut looked like last month: It’s a terrific example of a syncline. Usually I show folds in profile view, but here, the view is essentially perpendicular (not parallel) to the axis of the fold: Sideling Hill’s rocks are early Mississippian in age, made of debris shed off the late … Read more

On ignorance, bias, data, and the tentative nature of (scientific) interpretations

A young-Earth creationist reinterprets one of Callan’s blog posts in light of a Biblical flood. Callan responds with a demonstration of how new information can change a true scientist’s mind, but no amount of data can convince someone whose conclusions are based on faith rather than empirical data.

Upturned Paleozoic strata on Highway 16, Bighorns, Wyoming

Here’s a terrific outcrop to start off the new year at Mountain Beltway. We’re back in the Bighorns of Wyoming here, on highway 16, traversing the southern portion of the range en route from Buffalo to South Pass City. Click to enlarge Annotated, expanded, and Easter-egg-embedded: Click to enlarge From a different perspective (uphill a … Read more

Up on Sulphur Mountain

Here’s the view riding up (or down) Sulphur Mountain, Banff, on the gondola: As you can probably tell from the cable lines’ misalignment, this was a composite (stitched) photo. Mt. Rundle is in the background. If you turn to the left, you can see Tunnel Mountain, south of the town of Banff: Tunnel Mountain is … Read more