national parks

Weathering on Old Rag Mountain 2: Opferkessel

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Yesterday, I pointed out an example of differential weathering on Old Rag Mountain, in Shenandoah National Park, in Virginia. Today, I’d like to shine the spotlight on another example of weathering to be seen along the trail there: little weathering pits that occur on the top of the granite outcrops. These are opferkessel. Some people … Read more

Weathering on Old Rag Mountain 1: feeder dikes

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Old Rag Mountain is a distinctive mountain in the eastern Blue Ridge of Virginia, contained in a little lobe of Shenandoah National Park. It’s a great hike on several levels: (1) it’s got no trees on the summit, so you can actually get a decent view from on top, (2) it’s got a great section … Read more

McKittrick Canyon, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas

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While in West Texas over spring break, the “Border to Beltway” students took a hike up McKittrick Canyon, in Guadalupe Mountains National Park. This is part of the famed Permian reef complex, the deep reservoir of Texas’s rich endowment of oil. Here, the reef comes to the surface. In fact, it pokes up a good … Read more

Stromatolites along the trail to Crypt Lake

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On the trail up to Crypt Lake in Waterton Lakes National Park (southernmost Alberta, Canada), there’s a ‘traditional’ hiking trail, and then an intense ledge on a glacial headwall that you must teeter along, including scaling your body up into and through a person-sized tunnel! Right at the transition between the two “phases” of the … Read more

The trail to Crypt Lake

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Today, I’d like to share some images with you from Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada. This is the Crypt Lake hike, a popular (but grueling) hike in the park. It starts at the Waterton Marina, across Emerald Bay from the Prince of Wales Hotel. Mount Crandell and the Bear’s Hump are visible in … Read more

Natural Bridge, Yoho National Park: Bedding/cleavage relationships

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Check out the scene at Natural Bridge in Yoho National Park, British Columbia, Canada: Don’t confuse this “Natural Bridge” with the one in Virginia. Here, in the western Canadian Rockies, the structural geology is much better. You may recall that I’ve previously featured outcrops from nearby this site as a Friday fold. It’s a great … Read more

Friday fold: recumbent fold at Two Medicine Lake, Montana

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Here’s a photo from Tom Biggs (University of Virginia), taken on the NOVA Rockies field course last summer. It shows a recumbent fold along the Front Range of Glacier National Park, in Montana, just north of Two Medicine Lake. I hope you get some ‘recumbent’ time this weekend… I know I could use some rest. … Read more

Friday fold: clear evidence of the work of the Intelligent Folder

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Yesterday’s post showcasing my conversational critique of Intelligent Design got a lot of attention, including tweet love from @NCSE and @BadAstronomer, and a blog post at Pharyngula. So, at the risk of overkill, I decided to have a little fun with the Friday fold… Check out this fold that I found in float of Purcell … Read more

Friday fold: Mosaic Canyon Monster

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While out in Death Valley with my Field Studies students last March, we encountered an extraordinary fold in Mosaic Canyon. Check this thing out: The rock is the Noonday Dolostone (“Noonday Dolomite” in mineralogically biased argot). It may be hard to make out what’s what there… So let me assist with a little annotation, tracing … Read more

AW50: The tweaked pinkie

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My AGU Blogosphere neighbor Evelyn of Georneys fame is hosting this month’s Accretionary Wedge. Her topic? “Field camp memories”… I never attended a bona fide field camp myself, but I attended a lovely “regional field geology” course that my undergraduate alma mater, the College of William & Mary, put on each summer in the Colorado … Read more