The Ghosts of Evolution, by Connie Barlow

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Over Snowmageddon, I read Connie Barlow’s book The Ghosts of Evolution: Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, and Other Ecological Anachronisms. [Google Books; Amazon] Barlow isn’t a scientist, but she’s got a scientist in her pocket: Paul Martin of the University of Arizona. In 1982, Martin and Dan Janzen of the University of Pennsylvania published a paper … Read more

Is this dike a feeder?

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A new paper in the journal Geology examines an interesting question: how can you tell feeder dikes from non-feeder dikes? The answer is, normally you can’t. Normally, there’s no way to tell for sure whether a given dike actually funneled magma to the paleo-surface, or whether it never reached the paleo-surface. The reason for this … Read more

Triassic rifting in the Capitol

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My girlfriend’s mom was in town in January, and we took her down to visit the Capitol Building. The tour had a good bit of history, but definitely missed the opportunity to talk geology. I was particularly struck by the columns in the Hall of Statuary: Close up of one column, with my hand for … Read more

Advice for giving a talk

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What makes a good presentation? I watch a lot of talks. Between monthly meeting of the Geological Society of Washington and professional meetings and student presentations and local departmental seminars, I see a lot of people present information aloud, with varying degrees of success. I also give talks. While I don’t claim to be the … Read more

Crucifix site 3: a WTFite

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So, I’ve introduced you to the sediments at the Crucifix Site, and the faults which cut across those sediments. Today, I would like to show you something else that I found there, and ask you to tell me just what the hell it is. Here we go: an outcrop of the volcaniclastic sediments in this … Read more

Crucifix Site 1: Sediments

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On the September 2009 GSA field forum in the Owens Valley, the final stop of our first day was to check out the so-called “Crucifix Site,” along Chalk Bluff Road (north of Bishop, California, at the southern margin of the Volcanic Tableland). It’s called the “Crucifix Site” because there is a metal cross erected there: … Read more