A field trip to examine the glacial geology of Discovery Park in Seattle, Washington, leads Callan to contemplate the nature of expertise — and especially his steep learning curve on an oceanographic cruise.
Reader Nancy Weidman (who supplied the Wind River boudinaged basaltic dike images from earlier in the week) sent me this interesting note: Your ichnoanalogue post reminds me of the insect or pillbug tracks I found in Mt. St. Helens ash deposited in Missoula, Montana. At least some of the tracks, if I recall correctly, ended … Read more
The Friday fold shows some sheared quartz-filled tension gashes in sandstones of one of the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound.
The Friday fold is a slab of banded iron formation now dwelling in the University of Washington’s Department of Earth & Space Sciences. But where did it come from? India? Brazil? Perhaps you can help identify its provenance.
Four Friday folds from Marli Miller’s online photo archive of geological images.
Since I showed off some Icelandic pillow basalts yesterday, today I thought I would showcase a new 3D model of big pillows in Columbia River basalt of eastern Washington, taken from a photo set I made when I was out there in May:
Two weeks ago, I went on an awesome, informal field trip to eastern Washington State to visit the Channeled Scablands for the first time. My collegue Bill Richards of North Idaho College picked me up in Spokane and drove me halfway across Washington and back to Moscow, Idaho, over the course of a day. This … Read more
Heading into the Columbia River Plateau, Callan and his colleague Bill Richards make a detour in search of some varves from Glacial Lake Columbia. They find them, a credit to the authors of “Washington Rocks!” – the new book from Mountain Press.
How did this bold orange layer develop? It’s seen in an outcrop near Wilson Creek, Washington, in the Columbia River basalts.
Pillow basalts form when mafic lava erupts underwater. Here are several examples from the Miocene Columbia River flood basalts, a large igneous province in eastern Washington state.
I’m in Idaho for the Rocky Mountain section meeting of the Geological Society of America. Yesterday, I was delighted to tour around in eastern Washington’s Channeled Scablands with my colleague Bill Richards (North Idaho College). I took a lot of photos, but here are two to start – lovely examples of “onion skin” style weathering … Read more
I’m grateful to Mountain Press for sending me copies of all of their new books. There are some terrific volumes that have arrived in my mailbox over the past year, and I feel guilty for not reviewing more of them. But when I upwrapped this one, I was struck by two things: 1) The author … Read more
Another guest submission for the Friday fold – this is becoming a major trend! Peter Selkin‘s student Rick Schwartz loaned us this one. Peter describes the outcrop this way: The rocks here are Miocene turbidites of the Hoh lithic assemblage (sometimes called the “Hoh Terrane”) exposed at Beach #4 on the Pacific coast of the … Read more