I just finished an excellent insider account of the Flint water crisis, written by the pediatrician who brought it to the attention of the wider world. Mona Hanna-Attisha practices medicine in Flint, has a background in environmental activism, and happened to be good friends with a specialist in the management of municipal water systems. An … Read more
Folded Eocene turbidites exposed on the face of a spectacular waterfall in the Spanish Pyrenees. It’s Friday; enjoy this fold!
This past week, there’s been a beautiful sight along the stretch of the Fort Valley Road that goes past the Blue Hole section of Passage Creek. Click to enlarge Ice has been forming beautiful forms as groundwater seeps out along bedding planes in the Massanutten Sandstone (a Silurian-aged quartz arenite, folded during late Paleozoic Alleghanian … Read more
Today, I’d like to share some images with you from Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada. This is the Crypt Lake hike, a popular (but grueling) hike in the park. It starts at the Waterton Marina, across Emerald Bay from the Prince of Wales Hotel. Mount Crandell and the Bear’s Hump are visible in … Read more
The Friday fold is seen at one of the stops on Callan’s pre-GSA-Charlotte field trip: a small waterfall in North Carolina’s Inner Piedmont.
A few shots from Fossil Falls, in the southern Owens Valley, California… This is the now-dry river bed of the Owens River. There’s abundant evidence of water-induced erosion (potholes, polishing, etc.), but nary a drop of water to be seen – Though this particular portion of the Owens River drainage dried up in the Pleistocene, … Read more
Yesterday I flew from DC to Reno, Nevada in the company of 11 students, and then we rented vehicles and drove south on Route 395, one of the greatest roads in America, to Bishop, California, where we area based for the next 3 days. We’re doing a regional field geology course examining the extraordinary rocks, … Read more
Here’s where to find it, if you want to. Can’t say I recommend it – just an overlook, with no opportunities to hike or swim or explore in any more detail than just passively observing gravity exert its pull on water unencumbered by underlying rock.
The Friday fold is a series of strata underwater near California’s famed “Mavericks” surf break.
This site, from the USGS, shows depth to the water table for a well in Virginia: You’ll notice the tidal influence on the water table (broad sine-curve-like up and down crests and troughs at ~12 hour intervals), and then a sudden perturbation which caused some wiggles almost two and a half feet of magnitude! This, … Read more