There are some folds in this stunning west Idaho landscape. Perspective is looking toward the north, more or less. See if you can find them: [gigapan id=”187745″] Link GigaPan by Callan Bentley One example that will probably be obvious at first glance is this syncline/anticline pair, differentially weathered, with subvertical axial traces, and an apparently … Read more
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.
My family and I went canoeing this weekend, and one of the more photogenic things we saw on the river was this fine cut bank: The bank is being actively undercut by the river, as evidenced by the overhanging soil + grass carpet, the slump scarps at the bottom (showing fresh, wet soil), and the … Read more
I’ve posted here before about the extraordinary intra-layer folds in the varved evaporite deposits of West Texas’ Permian Basin, but today I can go one better and offer a GIGAmacro look at these lovely folds: [gigapan id=”187629″] Link GIGAmacro by Callan Bentley Enjoy checking these amazing small-scale folds out. They will boggle your mind.
Glaciers can cause thrust faults! Explore an example from a trench south of Chicago.
Alethopteris fern fossil: [gigapan id=”187190″] Link GIGAmacro by Robin Rohrback Rapid River Canyon, Idaho: [gigapan id=”187535″] Link GigaPan by Callan Bentley River cobble of brecciated Columbia River Basalt, Hammer Creek (Salmon River), Idaho: [gigapan id=”187524″] Link GIGAmacro by Callan Bentley Petersburg Granite exposed at Belle Isle, Richmond, Virginia: [gigapan id=”187523″] Link GigaPan by Jeffrey Rollins … Read more
At the Rocky Mountain Section meeting of the Geological Society of America this week, there were several displays of interesting cores. I’m not sure where this one came from, but it had a fold in it, and since no one else had volunteered a Friday fold for this week, I took a photo: It’s standard … Read more
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.