Friday fold: Prins Christian Sund, Greenland
This Friday, we are off looking for folds in South Greenland. Care to join?
The Liar’s Club, by Mary Karr
I just finished this excellent memoir by Mary Karr, mostly about her childhood, mostly in east Texas. It’s not explicitly geological but it does feature an oil town economy and a hurricane, as well as some consideration of the Rocky Mountain Front Range in Colorado. I didn’t read it out of any illusions it would … Read more
Mystery structure: please help identify / interpret
I have a mystery for you today: These are samples of Tonoloway Formation carbonate (not sure if it’s limestone or dolostone in retrospect), with bedding more or less horizontal in these images, and a few petite stylolites running orthogonal to that. The top sample has a gentle fold 2/5ths of the way across. All of … Read more
Friday fold: a kink fold at Baldwin Gap
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… The Friday fold: This beauty came to my attention on Monday, when I was lucky enough to go on a field trip with my friends Leigh and Mary. They are founding members of our local informal geology club, and we have been meaning to take a Cedar Creek field … Read more
Stromatoporoids in a Devonian reef
Here are a few shots of a Devonian aged reef exposed in Mustoe, Virginia – one of the sites I visited this spring with GMU’s Rick Diecchio, when he led his sedimentology and stratigraphy trip there. At first, the outcrop made no sense to me – I kept searching for bedding, and failed to find … Read more
Iron oxide sweat stains in sandstone
What do a sweaty baseball cap and fractured sandstone have in common? Episodes of absorption of dirty liquids that pile up material such as iron oxide at the soaking front.
The Revenant, by Michael Punke
On the recommendation of my friend Troy Holland, I just finished reading Michael Punke’s novel about Hugh Glass. The book has been optioned as a film, and because it stars Leonardo diCaprio, it will doubtless be a hit. What got Troy’s attention, though, is the director: Alejandro González Iñárritu, the guy who gave us Babel, … Read more
Geology Underfoot in Western Washington, by Dave Tucker
I’m grateful to Mountain Press for sending me copies of all of their new books. There are some terrific volumes that have arrived in my mailbox over the past year, and I feel guilty for not reviewing more of them. But when I upwrapped this one, I was struck by two things: 1) The author … Read more
Paleobiology database survey request
Dear colleagues, My collaborators and I are exploring the potential of big science databases, like the Paleobiology Database (see below), to enhance geoscience education and research at all types of institutions. We’re very interested in learning who is and isn’t currently using this and other databases for education and research and why. This work is … Read more
Paleoslump features and fluvial incision in the Conemaugh Group, West Virginia
The answer to this week’s geological interpretation contest is revealed, sort of. Annotations, GigaPans, and outcrop detail photos reveal the story of equatorial fluvial incision and ancient slumping during the Carboniferous ice ages.