Friday fold: Kink band in Lodgepole Limestone, Sacagawea Peak, Bridger Range, Montana

As I’ve mentioned previously, I spent some time making GigaPans this summer out west. Here’s Lily and me on the crest of the Bridger Range, enjoying the clear skies and great geology: When this portrait was taken (by our friend Lindsay), I was shooting this GigaPan: [gigapan id=”135511″] link Try exploring it to see if … Read more

Strained stylolites at Foamhenge

One thing that’s 100% worth doing if you find yourself visiting Natural Bridge, Virginia, is to pop in for a visit at Foamhenge, an art installation a few miles away. Foamhenge is a full-scale replica of Stonehenge, made of styrofoam (covered in gray latex paint). It’s a few years old now, so it’s begun to … Read more

Friday fold: Sandy Hollow, Montana

Today, a view to the southwest, from close to the hinge of the main anticline in the Sandy Hollow area, a classic geological field mapping locality in southern Montana: Triassic-aged Dinwoody Formation dominates the main part of the scene. Note how the strike and dip of the positively-weathering strata wrap around. Our Rockies students mapped … Read more

Friday fold: New Market / Lincolnshire formation contact, Staunton, Virginia

Happy Friday! Here’s a view of the folded contact between the (older, lower) New Market Formation, and the (younger, upper) Lincolnshire Formation, as exposed in Staunton, Virginia: The contact has been folded, pretty intensely: The New Market Formation is massive, light-colored, and exhibits fenestral texture here. The Lincolnshire is darker, more thinly-bedded, and is chock … Read more

Boudinage in northern Minnesota

This is my final post on the pre-GSA-Minneapolis structural geology field trip to the Superior Province. The photo above shows a roadcut exposure of boudinage in xenolith-bearing Vermillion Granitic Complex. Here’s another, smaller, more brittle example of boudinage, from another site, the following morning: Gee, it only took me 1.5 years to blog that trip … Read more

Brallier Formation 2: tectonic structures

Yesterday we examined primary sedimentary structures (including trace fossils) at an outcrop of Devonian-aged Brallier Formation turbidites between Deerfield and West Augusta, Virginia. Today, we’ll zoom in on the tectonic structures at the site: folds, faults, and joints. Remember, you don’t have to take my word for it. You can explore it for yourself in … Read more

Friday fold: Baxter and the boulders

Last weekend, after we checked Lily in for her race, I spotted some boulders near the check-in site. The next morning, once the race had started but before we could cheer her on, my field assistant and I went back to the boulders to check them out. My field assistant’s planners had forgotten to pack … Read more