It’s Friday… that means it’s time for a fold. Let’s try this outcrop at “Confusion Hill” in the Franklin Mountains of West Texas: See it? Let’s zoom in… From the shadows to the left of the hammer, trace out the dark green layer… it may make you think of a box fold: …but it’s not. … Read more
Good morning! Let’s take a walk up the east side of the Franklin Mountains, north of El Paso, Texas, to walk across the Great Unconformity. The basement rock exposed here is the Red Bluff Granite, a 1.1 Ga felsic magma that intruded the columnar basalts of the Mundy “Breccia” and the Castner Marble. (It is … Read more
While I’m showing photos from last week’s Billy Goat Trail field trips (3 in total), let me share a striking example of root wedging from Olmstead Island, on the walkway out to see Great Falls: And, since I meant to get back to blogging about west Texas this week, here’s another example of the same … Read more
I know nothing about this sample, other than the fact that it was a thrown-away sample found in the rock pile next to the old geology building at the University of Texas at El Paso. Happy Friday!
Today, I initiate a series of posts based on some of the geology I saw over spring break, in west Texas and southern New Mexico, on the field exchange between Northern Virginia Community College and El Paso Community College that I helped facilitate. We spent our first morning in the field in the Franklin Mountains, … Read more
I just wanted to let readers know that posting will be light this week, as I’m down in Texas running my field exchange course with Joshua Villalobos of El Paso Community College. Joshua’s supplying 12 students, and so am I. Together with talented colleagues, we’re aiming to give these students, many of whom hail from … Read more
While at the University of Texas at Austin, where the Jackson School of Geosciences was hosting the Summit on the Future of Geoscience Education this past weekend, I was impressed to see a well-developed rock garden outside the student center. Here’s an example of a stretched-pebble conglomerate from that garden: Note the nice epidote boudins … Read more
While at the University of Texas at Austin, where the Jackson School of Geosciences was hosting the Summit on the Future of Geoscience Education this past weekend, I was impressed to see a well-developed rock garden outside the student center. Here are three boulder-sized samples of folds from that garden. Enjoy! Jackson School of Geosciences … Read more
While at the University of Texas at Austin, where the Jackson School of Geosciences was hosting the Summit on the Future of Geoscience Education this past weekend, I was very impressed with the backdrop behind the main desk at the student center. It showed lovely meso- and macro- scale folds, and exquisite boudinage. I never … Read more
While at the University of Texas at Austin, where the Jackson School of Geosciences was hosting the Summit on the Future of Geoscience Education this past weekend, my friend and colleague Pete Berquist snapped this image of a stretched pebble conglomerate in the structure teaching lab: Some nice examples of pressure solution evidence in there … Read more
The laccolith of Cristo Rey, at the Chihuahua / Texas / New Mexico triple point, is host to some cool geology. It’s cored by the Campus Andesite (47 Ma, Eocene) but surrounding the intrusion are a slew of sedimentary rocks, include the Turitella-bearing limestones of the Buda Formation and the shales and sandstones of the … Read more
This spring, I traveled to west Texas to assist Joshua Villalobos of El Paso Community College in capturing a series of GigaPan images, in hopes of creating a comprehensive virtual field experience revealing that area’s spectacular geology. Since then, my student Robin Rohrback-Schiavone has been using our GIGAmacro photographic imaging system to make a series … Read more
Spring break field course: GOL 295 Regional Field Geology of west Texas: March 8 to 15, 2014, and Appalachian Geology: May 19-24, 2014. West Texas and southern New Mexico showcase tectonic, sedimentary, geomorphic, and volcanic features which provide world-class examples of geologic processes. Students in this course will travel to El Paso, TX, and complete … Read more
Kilbourne Hole is the crater of a maar volcano in southern New Mexico, just across the state line from El Paso, Texas. I went there the weekend before last with a team from El Paso Community College, led by Joshua Villalobos. This is the place where xenobombs come from! If you go to the right … Read more
No time for more details than that – sorry! Happy Friday and a restful weekend to all!
The Friday fold comes from the Texas – New Mexico – Chihuahua triple point, on the flanks of Cristo Rey mountain.
Everything’s bigger in Texas, even the footprints…
Have you ever seen a black rhyolite? Neither had geoblogger Callan Bentley – until he went to the Franklin Mountains of West Texas.
Today, I’m going to show you some monster-sized single-celled organisms: giant fusulinid forams from the western flank of the Franklin Mountains in west Texas, beyond El Paso. I saw these critters in February when I went on a field trip there led by Josh Villalobos of El Paso Community College. Here’s the scene where we … Read more
Today, for your viewing pleasure, please check out five macro GigaPans of insect fossils from the Florissant fossil beds in Colorado (34.07 +/-0.10Ma). These amazing specimens were collected by Joe Cancellare, a student working on research supervised by Josh Villalobos of El Paso Community College in El Paso, Texas. Our M.A.G.I.C. project is helping Joe … Read more