Today, we continue with the story of the field trip I took last week out to Corridor H, the new superhighway in West Virginia that is practically unused, and decorated with multistory roadcuts of spectacular Valley and Ridge sedimentary sequences, and their attendant structures. From the putative Hampshire Formation exposures with their uncharacteristic marine incursion … Read more
See the size of those road cuts? Count all those cars? Exactly. Why this place isn’t swarming with geologists, I cannot for the life of me comprehend.
I went out last Tuesday to Corridor H, the exemplary new highway cutting through the Valley and Ridge province of eastern West Virginia. Joining me was former student Alan Pitts, a devotee of Corridor H from way back in the early days when we just called it “New Route 55.” The boondoggle highway is now … Read more
One of the intriguing rocks you find in Virginia, at the interface between the Valley and Ridge province and the Blue Ridge province, is distinctive brecciated Antietam Formation. The Antietam (sometimes known as the “Erwin,” especially in Shenandoah National Park), is a quartz arenite (quartz sandstone) that has been variably fused to quartzite in some … Read more
As soon as I got back from GSA, I had to run two field trips, back to back. Both are the same trip: my Historical Geology field trip to the Massanutten Synclinorium. Here’s yesterday’s crew perched on a moderately-dipping slab of Massanutten Sandstone along Passage Creek: Today, it’s the same routine all over again, though … Read more
The work of team M.A.G.I.C. continues. This is a lovely sample quartet of salt cast samples from Silurian-aged Tonoloway Formation limestone. I collected these samples on Corridor H’s newly-opened section west of Moorefield, West Virginia, last spring. The big one at the bottom was collected by my friend Leigh Henry, who graciously loaned it to … Read more
I have two new GigaPans of hand samples to share with you this morning… The Edinburg Formation graptolites from Mint Spring, Virginia, that I featured here back in May, can now be explored in GIGAmacro hand sample: link Students: are these colonial or solitary organisms? Benthic, nektonic, or planktonic? Does this relate to their usefulness … Read more
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
Our three-day karst theme wraps up today with a visit to Natural Bridge, Virginia, an impressive sight: I went to Natural Bridge early last week to give a talk to a group of Road Scholars (an Elderhostel-like program) about the Snowball Earth. Part of my compensation for the talk was a night’s lodging at the … Read more
To continue with the karst theme I initiated yesterday, let me share a few photos today from a visit last week to Luray Caverns, a large show cave in Page County, Virginia near the town of Luray. This was my first visit to Luray Caverns since I was a child. Probably it had been thirty … Read more
Take a look at this… Doesn’t look like much, does it? But it’s actually the surface expression of a vast, long-lived sinkhole. If you walk over to the hole and look in, you can’t see the bottom. It’s semi-supported by limestone boulders, but between the boulders, the soil and gravel filter down, down, down, like … Read more
In April, I posted some images of an odd structure from some of the fossiliferous siltstones of the Fort Valley. Some of the commenters suggested it was no fossil, but simply a very small scale version of soft-sediment deformation. Now, another “Fortian” has shown me another example, and this one is better preserved. Its lobes … Read more
Renowned geological aerial photographer Michael Collier gives Callan a lift over the Fort Valley and Massanutten Mountain in his two-seater Cessna.
Found this small, flat brachiopod fossil last fall just down the road from my place in the Fort Valley. Lovely little thing… That’s all I’ve got for you today!
We had another flood on Passage Creek on Wednesday, and into Thursday morning. Here are a few photos and GigaPans for those of you who like flood imagery: link link link Making GigaPans of the scene: Some images of the flood itself: Aftermath: http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/129490 http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/129543 http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/129569 10.3 feet was the maximum gauge height this time … Read more
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
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
Last week, I mentioned some geologizing with the family in the Staunton area. The furthest west we ventured was to the road connecting Deerfield, Virginia, with West Augusta. There, the Brallier Formation is well exposed in a dramatic roadcut. Explore it for yourself in this M.A.G.I.C. GigaPan: link The Brallier is turbidites, shed off the … Read more
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