I took a trip down to Charlottesville this week for a couple of meetings, and I made time along the way to capture two new GigaPans of the lovely exposures of Catoctin Formation greenstone at Rockfish Gap, where Interstate 64 traverses the Blue Ridge. This is very close to the southernmost tip of Shenandoah National … Read more
Yesterday I drove down I-81, through the heart of Harrisonburg, Virginia, and the campus of James Madison University. On the east side of the road, a big new slump / earthflow caught my eye. On my way back up the same stretch of road today, I pulled over and photographed it: Panorama 1 (click to … Read more
Are you into structure? Sedimentology? Stratigraphy? Well, I’ve got some good news for you – I’ve imaged several key outcrops on the newly-discovered (to me) roadcut on South Page Valley Road, showcasing the middle Martinsburg Formation turbidites (and their Alleghanian structural overprint). link link link link link link See if you can find: an anticline … Read more
Boudinage is such a fun structure. Here’s an example from the roadcut adjacent to the quarry featured so heavily last week. The thick limestone stratum in the center of the photo has been stretched left-to-right. It exhibits pinch-and-swell structure, the first stage of boudinage. Small extensional fractures began to form in the boudin necks, accommodating … Read more
Today, we return to my field trip from last week, for a look at an odd outcrop of the Ordovician-aged Edinburg Formation: Note the car key with green lanyard, to provide a sense of scale. It’s folded, as the yellow bedding traces show in this annotated version: But what really caught my eye about this … Read more
Today, two GigaPans shot of the uppermost Martinsburg Formation, informally known as the “Cub Sandstone” since it crops out along Cub Run in the southern part of the Massanutten range. 10 or 15 meters upsection (west) of these two outcrops is the base of the Silurian-aged Massanutten Sandstone, the ridge-forming unit. Lower in the section: … Read more
Last week, the Friday fold was presented in GigaPan format only, which led to a concerned reader lamenting that he couldn’t see it on his mobile device. (GigaPans are Flash-based images; they don’t work on Apple devices in the standard GigaPan format, though there is a perfectly suitable workaround with two extra clicks.) So, for … Read more
Yesterday, I spent a pleasant day in the field with John Singleton, the new structural geology professor at George Mason University. I was showing John a couple of sites I’ve used as field trip locations for the GMU structural geology class, and John was showing a couple of new sites to me – places he … Read more
There’s something so awesome about a heavy snowfall, so transformative – it really inspires me. I went out skiing this morning, and I’ve never seen our house looking more beautiful. The snow is about 11 inches deep so far: It’s a wet, heavy snow. Temperatures are hovering right around 32°F (0°C), so it’s sticking to … Read more
It’s lovely here in the Fort Valley this morning! Lily went skiing: Lola sat in the window: Yay!
A USGS colleague shows Callan a bizarre fold outcrop in the Conococheague limestone of the Boyce quadrangle, Virginia.
Callan and two colleagues find a “textbook” unconformity on a field trip in Virginia’s westernmost Blue Ridge.
Eastern Hercules Beetle, Dynastes tityus. Dessicated sample, collected at the 7-11 on the corner of route 55 and route 522 north of Front Royal, Virginia. Collected by one of my wife’s students (she’s a science teacher). I like the shadow of the horns in this one: Monday macrobug is officially on winter hiatus. We’ll resume … Read more
Whoa – look at all that GREEN. You can tell this Virginia picture wasn’t taken recently. In fact, it’s another image from the field review I participated in for the Elkton East quadrangle back in May of last year. Somehow I start blogging these things, but run out of steam (or really more accurately: I … Read more
On Saturday, Lily and I went out for a date. It was only the second time since Baxter was born that we were able to get away for quality time, just the two of us. We headed up to Doukénie Winery near Hillsboro, Virginia. Here it is on a topographic map: Here’s what it looks … Read more
Dan Doctor of the US Geological Survey contributed this week’s Friday fold. It’s a lovely view of the asymmetric folds in the Cambrian-aged Weverton Formation (part of the Chilhowee Group, a Sauk-Sea passive margin transgressive sequence), exposed on the western flank of the western limb of the Blue Ridge Anticlinorium. It’s a LIDAR image, and … Read more
After Passage Creek receded following last week’s flood, I went down to the bridge and the floodplain to have a look around. Here’s a little bit of what I saw… Let’s start at the bridge itself. The view is to the west, and Passage Creek flows north: On the other side of the bridge, looking … Read more
After a night of torrential rain, Callan wakes to find his sole (vehicular) route to the outside world under several feet of flood water.
I got a call last month from Rebekah Wiedower, a landowner up in Frederick & Clarke counties (her family’s property includes pieces of both), inviting me to come up and look at some anticlines and synclines that Dan Doctor (USGS) had identified on the bank of Opequon Creek. I was glad to do it, though … Read more
Here’s our “yard list” of birds since we moved to the new place in June: Pileated woodpecker Red-bellied woodpecker Eastern phoebe Great blue heron White-breasted nuthatch Scarlet tanager Whippoorwill Chipping sparrow Ruby-throated hummingbird Tufted titmouse Black-capped chickadee Indigo bunting Chimney swift Red-eyed vireo Turkey vulture American crow Great crested flycatcher Louisiana warbler Broad-winged hawk Eastern … Read more