I have many heroes, but the one I would like to pay tribute to today is Larry Wiseman, my mentor through my undergraduate years at William & Mary and beyond. Now, Larry is a biologist, not a geologist — but he probably did more to frame my life’s work than any other individual. At William … Read more
On my structural geology field trip this past weekend, I made one major modification compared to last year’s iteration. I added a fifth detailed “field study area” at an outcrop of the Swift Run Formation, a Neoproterozoic sedimentary unit that is discontinuous in extent between the underlying Blue Ridge basement complex and overlying Catoctin Formation … Read more
… So, today is: … and not only that, it’s the 40th anniversary of the first “Earth Day.” Shall we reflect? Yes, let’s shall. My career as a geoscientist was largely inspired by desire to spend time outside, and that in turn was inspired by a lot of positive outdoor experiences as a child and … Read more
Whilst poking about Sunday on the fine exposures along West Virginia’s new route 55, my structural geology students and I noticed some joint surfaces decorated with pyrolusite dendrites. But I also found a nice slab which had one surface covered with a thicker coat of manganese oxide, and here the habit was botryoidal, like little … Read more
Remember the mud I saw on Pimmit Run? Turns out that West Virginia mud pulls many of the same tricks as Virginia mud. Here’s some mud cracks I noticed on Sunday afternoon on the shoulder of New Route 55 in eastern West Virginia: Notice how West Virginia spices her mudcracks with chunks of Silurian quartzite … Read more
For the first time ever, I have won a Where on Google Earth? that Ron Schott hosted, heavy on the clues. Now that it’s my turn to host, I’d like to spice things up a bit with a dynamic view. Using Google Earth’s historical imagery feature (the little “clock” button up top), I managed to … Read more
While on our structural geology field trip this week, my GMU students and I encountered an eastern worm snake, Carphophis amoenus amoenus. The little charmer at first reminded me of a boa, like the ‘rubber boa’ I once found in California (a real animal, not made of rubber), and then I convinced myself it was … Read more
What do I have in common with luminaries like Mike Fay, James Balog, and Stuart Pimm? We’re all this year’s cadre of Fine Fellows, recipients of free Gigapanning equipment and training (at a conference in Pittsburgh in November) on how to use it. Ron Schott is of course the king of geology Gigapanners, though he … Read more
A few more photos from Pimmit Run … of mud. This mud has lots of interesting features, including dessication cracks showing lovely 120° triple junctions connecting up with their neighbors, raindrop impressions, and animal tracks. Tracks of at least three species here: (Clicking on this one will make it bigger) Mud: not as fascinating as … Read more
Hiking last Sunday in Rock Creek Park, DC, I saw this boulder and my eye was immediately drawn to the linear pattern running from upper left towards lower right (Swiss Army knife at upper right for scale): Because that photo is not especially large, let’s zoom in a bit to two sections… Here is Photo … Read more