Guess hoo’s back?

Scops owl, Kruger National Park, South Africa Hi everyone! I’m back in the States. There will be more photos of wildlife and geology from South Africa to come in the days and weeks ahead, but this little fellow can be an appetizer for you. It was a great trip, but it also feels good to … Read more

Friday fold: a wrinkled mountain in Hermanus

While I was away in South Africa, both Brian Romans of Clastic Detritus and Evelyn Mervine of Georneys posted pictures of folds in quartzite of the Cape Fold Belt in southern South Africa. Well, I’m not going to be left out. Here’s a belated Friday fold for December 23, showing a bunch of sweet folds … Read more

Upcoming plans

A heads-up: I’m leaving Wednesday afternoon for a 3 week trip to South Africa. My wife Lily and I are off on our half-year-delayed honeymoon (to be distinguished from our Canadian Rockies pre-honeymoon last summer mainly by its exorbitant cost and low levels of geology). We will be spending the day in downtown London, England, … Read more

Friday fold: cleaved slate in Kootenay National Park

This summer, a week or two after our wedding, my wife and I found ourselves in the Canadian Rockies for a pre-honeymoon. Part of our time was spent on a backpacking trip to Floe Lake in Kootenay National Park, British Columbia. On our hike in, we passed this outcrop of Chancellor Slate, a Cambrian aged … Read more

The GSA meeting experience, 2011

I’m on the plane home from the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, held this year in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This annual event features a robust smorgasbord of science, with talks and posters detailing the research efforts of thousands of geoscientists from the US and other countries. It’s an amazing experience on many, many … Read more

Giant City State Park, Illinois

Giant City State Park is a patch of protected forest south of Carbondale, Illinois, where there are some pretty cool exposures of Pennsylvanian-aged Makanda Sandstone. Here’s a typical look at one: Notice the deep chasm on the right. This leads, maze-like, to other flat-bottomed and vertically-walled canyons: The orthogonal joint sets produces some nice tall, … Read more