I have a great book to recommend today – a book that takes a “Great Books” approach to tracking the advance of western science through history. The book is called, straightforwardly, The Story of Western Science. Its author is Susan Wise Bauer, who writes with a confident erudition and a clear, solid style. She surveys … Read more
Happy Friday! Here’s another fold from Catalina Island, California – an antiform in metasediments, courtesy of Sarah Penniston-Dorland of the University of Maryland:
While I’ve spent quality time in Ireland on previous trips, I’ve never been to Scotland. To me, it is terra incognita, and I am eager to explore it this summer. It was with delight then, that I delved into David Oldroyd’s The Highlands Controversy, which at once tickled many parts of my brain: the structural … Read more
My friend Sarah Penniston-Dorland, of the University of Maryland, supplied this week’s Friday fold. it comes from Catalina Island, California, where Sarah just wrapped up some field work with two of her students. All three of them have given me permission to post the images here: The Catalina Schist is a suite of subduction-related metamorphic … Read more
I’ve been doing some reading lately to get some foundational ideas established in my mind for my upcoming summer trip to Europe. This trip has three goals: (1) to gather key digital imagery (GigaPans, 360° photospheres, video) for curriculum to teach geoscience concepts and give students everywhere with particularly instructive geology in Iceland, Ireland, the … Read more
Here are some new “virtual samples” for you to check out: Dessication cracks in Tonoloway Formation (Silurian): [gigapan id=”183042″] Link Image by Callan Bentley Random conglomerate (unknown age and formation): [gigapan id=”183322″] Link Image by Robin Rohrback Skolithos trace fossils (tops) in Hampshire Formation (Devonian): [gigapan id=”183132″] Link Image by Callan Bentley Crinoid calyx fossil … Read more
The geology east of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, is cool. It’s Blue Ridge rocks, from basement to the cover sequence, tilted to the west and broken and repeated by the Short Hill Fault. Here’s a look at a detail of the Geology of the Harpers Ferry quadrangle by Southworth and Brezinski (1996). So there’s a … Read more
There’s something about Arctic and Antarctic adventure that stirs my interest. The merciless but fascinating environment, the odd fauna, the endurance, The Endurance, the way human frailties pop out against the stark backdrop. Evidently novelist Rebecca Hunt is subject to the same entrancement. She was one of 18 artists and writers who participated in the … Read more
Today’s Friday fold comes from Martin Schmidt, who has shared a few previous folds with Mountain Beltway readers. It shows a folded ptygmatic vein from the Himalayas. Pretty sweet, amiright? Thanks, Martin. Happy Friday, all!
The week before the AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco experienced heavy rain and strong coastal wave action. These two phenomena liberated a big boulder of serpentinite on Marshall’s Beach. As it moved downhill, it opened up a scarp with views into the colluvial soil horizons.