Just finished a geologically focused book that the readers of this blog might be interested in. It is a history of work on delineating the early part of the Phanerozoic timescale in Wales and Scotland. The majority of the book is about Adam Sedgewick and Roderick Murchison and their close collaboration and increasing divergence and … Read more
I have two Friday folds for you today, both by geovisualizers who contributed to the 2019 Geological Society of America Pardee Symposium on Geoscience Communication in Phoenix, Arizona: The first is a painting by talented geoartist Emma Theresa Jude, showing a fold at Caithness, Scotland. The fold in question can be seen at the site … Read more
Looks like we’re sticking with the U.K. for Friday folds, for the time being… This lovely beast comes to us from Torcross, via Danny Stubbs, who shared it on Twitter this past week. That’s from the Meadfoot Group of slates, cross-cut by quartz veins. In this follow-up image, Danny shares that sometimes the quartz veins … Read more
For the Friday fold this week, we travel to Northumberland, U.K. for this beautiful fold pair: Robert McKibbin posted this image on Twitter this week, and graciously allowed me to feature it here. Thank you Robert! Happy Friday to all.
A hilly region of Cornwall, U.K. features beautiful folding, and a fuzzy field assistant!
As noted previously, the old way of viewing gigapixel imagery is no more. But there is a new, better way. The GIGAmacro company has a better viewing platform that can be used either with images uploaded to their server or with pre-existing images that currently “live” at GigaPan.com. Here’s an example: a roadcut of limestone … Read more
The Friday fold is a really cool 3D model of differentially-weathered calc-silicate rocks in Scotland that were folded during the Caledonian Orogeny.
A sea stack on the west coast of Orkney showcases Devonian sedimentary strata and implies terrific storm waves in its geomorphology.
Any readers have any idea what this strange rock is? It’s got wild patterns! These samples were in the garden of a local rockhound in Lerwick; I have zero idea what the mineralogy is; I was just stunned by the “scale-like” pattern of gray and pink. I’d be eager to hear your ideas what this … Read more
Ahhhh, a raw Scottish coast. …Let’s go there. There’s sedimentology to be learned here, and coastal geomorphology to be ogled. This is Yesnaby, on the west side of Orkney. The rocks there are part of “the Old Red Sandstone,” a neat package of Devonian strata, flavored here and there with an igneous dike, a fault, … Read more
The answer to yesterday’s geo-puzzle is revealed to be a storm deposit of boulders, 20 m above sea level!
Check this out: That’s a beautiful example of weathering in a dolerite dike on Arran. The igneous rock was broken along two more or less perpendicular joint sets, and then fluid flow along those fractures helped “rot” the adjacent rock through oxidation and hydrolysis. The resulting brownish weathering rind grows at the expense of the … Read more
The evidence for a meteorite impact origin for the Stoer Group’s Stac Fada member seems to stack up. Engage in a virtual field investigation on Mountain Beltway.
Who dwells beneath the sands of Islay? Lugworms do. These embedded annelids process the sediment for food, extruding the undigested sand in charismatic piles that adorn the beach of Loch Gruinart.
Let’s reminisce back to the Walls Boundary Fault on the Ollaberry Peninsula of Shetland today. Here’s a 3D model to go along with the ones I posted last time: It’s a little ragged, but so am I at the end of the workweek! Happy Friday. Have fun spinning this thing.
On the northwestern coast of the Northmavine Peninsula of Shetland, there is an unusual coastal landform: a gate-like entrance to an elevated amphitheater, like something out of Tolkien, and a storm beach of slab-like boulders inland of that.
In eastern Shetland, the sea chews away at the innards of a Devonian stratovolcano. But there’s an odd visitor there too – and we’re not talking about the blogger.
The scenic arch of Dore Holm (“Door Island”) in Shetland shows off the most efficient way of breaking a slab of rock. The island’s shape is a reflection of the parsimonious nature of natural deformation.
Another loose, 3D fold from the north side of Machir Bay, Islay. Wish I could have brought it home to dwell in my lab… Happiest of Fridays to you! The solstice is now past, and the days are getting longer in the northern hemisphere for the next 6 months! Cheers to that!