Geological Musings in the Taconic Mountains...

Geology of Skiing #2: Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland

2012-01-16T20:30:00.005-05:00

Last year was a pretty amazing ski year in the northeastern United States - abundant and high quality snow continued well into March for some wonderful spring skiing (which I missed out on since I was in Chile). However winter 2011-2012 in the northeast has so far failed to produce more than a sprinkling of snow, which is why I headed north to Newfoundland with my friends Bruce and Nate in search of natural snow in excess of 3 inches. The journey itself is a story; we left Castleton, Vermont at approximately 2:30AM EST and drove north through New Hampshire and Maine, crossing the border into Canada into St Stephen, New Brunswick. We followed Routes 1 and 2 across New Brunswick and north on Routes 104 and 105 to our final destination, North Sydney, Nova Scotia. Approximately 17 hours after leaving Vermont we boarded a Marine Atlantic ferry at 10:30PM AST for a overnight crossing of the Gulf of St Lawrence and made port in Port aux Basques at approximately 7:00AM NST. We followed Route 1 north through Corner Brook, past Marble Mountain Ski Resort, and turned west onto Route 430, arriving at our ultimate destination and base camp: Rocky Harbor. The entire travel time was approximately 30 hours and well worth the effort.

Much to our dismay Newfoundland was experiencing the same warm winter as Vermont... we arrived to barely freezing temperatures and little snow cover on any feature lower than ~1500 feet - even the higher elevations presented thin cover. We spent the first of four nights at Gros Morne Cabins listening to howling wind in excess of 40mph. The wind hadn't abated by morning and looking out into the dark choppy waters of Rocky Harbor cove, it was clear we weren't going to go skiing. We were inspired by a panorama photograph in the convenience store to hike into Western Brook Pond - a small, shallow pond filling an uplifted fjord to the northeast of Rocky Harbor. The Hiking into the pond the temperature dropped, winds increased and frozen precipitation in the form of sleet pellets began to 'fall' sideways. A good sign that skiing was in our future. The northwestern shore of Western Brook Pond was littered with small, think platters of ice and eventually we had to turn back when we discovered there was active Moose hunting in the area in the vicinity of Snug Harbor.

Looking east into Western Brook Pond canyon
From Western Brook we headed north to Cow Head, which is a small island connected to the mainland by a tombolo created by a classic cuspate spit well-armored in places with clasts of varying lithology. Cow Head itself exposes limestone conglomerates, shales and limestone of varying thickness that have been weathered and eroded into steep cliffs and long fins that run parallel with the currents. Instead of hiking for snow we found ourselves enjoying an afternoon of 'extreme tide pooling' in blistering wind carrying shards of ice.

Looking north along the western edge of Cow Head
Our second and third days were more successful. The wind calmed down, the temperatures dropped and we could see snow accumulating in the higher elevations. We ventured south towards the Tablelands - a large plateau sheared off by glaciers composed of serpentinized peridotite.

A view looking south across the South Arm of Bonne bay into the Tableands from Woody Point

An example of serpentinized peridotite exposed in the slope
Peridotite is an ultramafic rock derived from the mantle; part of a thin slice of oceanic crust exposed at the earth's surface as part of an Ordovician ophiolite complex. We turned into the first parking lot on the south side of Route 431 just past Winter House Brook and picked our way through a sea of exposed peridotite into an unnamed cirque between Dry Brook and Winter House Brook.

Image from: Osborn et al (2007)

The first day we skinned up and only skied the lower portion of the bowl because of poor visibility and evidence of recent avalanche activity. The second day we skinned up onto the Tableland plateau itself and skied the upper bowl. We took three runs down a moderately steep gully (Osborn et al. described the gullies as fluvial gorges) filled with knee deep powder and returned to the parking lot via a rock slide channel filled with wind-blown snow. The Tablelands area is littered with solifluction lobes, rock slide channels, sporadic rock-glacier debris, patterned ground, and weakly developed moraines. More than anything else, these features are the reason I would like to return in the summer to hike and explore these unique u-shaped valleys exposing serpentine barrens.

Small panorama looking southeast towards the Tablelands taken from the parking area
I highly recommend a visit to Gros Morne National Park any time of year (even though I haven't yet visited in the summer, it can only be more magnificent). The landscape is breathtaking and the geology is incredibly diverse, ranging from calcareous turbidites near Cow Head, to Grenville age gneisses surrounding Western Brook Pond and the Long Range Mountains, to the volcanics of Green Gardens and peridotite making up the Tablelands. Truly a unique geologic and skiing excursion!

Complete slideshow of photos taken during the Newfoundland trip

Accretionary Wedge #41 - Memorable Conduit of Oozing Lava

2011-12-22T16:48:00.006-05:00

Ron Schott's topic for this installation of The Accretionary Wedge prompted me to get back on the blog wagon. He asked us to ponder the most memorable/significant geologic we've directly experienced and I instantly though of watching lava drip into the Pacific Ocean and turn into pumice while precariously perched on a lava bench in Hawaii. Which by the way, was one of the silliest decisions I've ever made while 'chasing' geology. However it was one of the most memorable thus far (watching Stromboli erupt at sunset is a close second, I'll share that story in a future post).

It may be the 'go to' for a lot of responses to Ron's request but watching lava flow out of a small vent, spill over onto a lava bench, disappear into yet another tube and then slowly dribble out into the ocean was awesome. Awesome in the strict definition of that word. I was both mesmerized by the visual and awestruck at how quiet the process of building new land was; the gulls made more noise!

I climbed down a steep, gnarly, crumbly and rotten slope of basalt with one thought in my mind: "pumice, pumice, pumice..." I knew it was forming, the white vapor clouds told the tale of superheated lava encountering seawater but I wasn't sure I would be able to see it actually 'drip' into the water. I was worried it would be below the water level... I should have been worried climbing back up a life threatening slope of manky basalt waiting to slice and dice, but I wasn't. I made it all the way to a postage stamps sized black sand beach (ok, slightly larger than a postage stamp) and waited. I couldn't see anything at first because the steam was blowing towards me (problematic for a number of reasons, least of all obstructed viewing opportunities) but eventually the wind shifted and there it was: the maple syrup of geology, slowly oozing out of a wave battered lava bench (again, take note of throwing caution to the wind), stretching out to touch the water and then sizzle and steam and then... float. It happened just liked I'd been told, read and watched in videos. It was aa'aa-mazing. <-- I know, I know... please forgive the lack of scientific correctness and enjoy the few photos I was able to take that more or less captured the 'event.'

Returning up the slope of death was uneventful (for me) and truth be told, I would do it again. Not one of the best decisions I've ever made and in hindsight I would do several things differently but it was an amazing event, one few folks likely take the risk to experience (which just means they make better decisions than I do).

Chinchorro Cemetary - Gigapan

2011-06-28T10:58:00.003-05:00

This is a Gigapixel image I took of an exposed Chinchorro cemetery on a steep north-facing slope of the Morro, which overlooks the northern city of Arica. My friend and colleague, Bernardo Arriaza, asked me to take this photo to help protect this area from development. This is just one of many cemeteries still waiting to be excavated on the Morro. Apparently the problem is less about funding the excavation as it is having storage for the excavated material.

Standing in this location and looking north out over the city, it is easy to see why this site would have been chosen for a burial and occupation site. The steep slopes provide a strategic defensive position and the views are unparallelled in the area - at least when looking northwest to northeast. They also had easy access to the ocean and rivers, for food, water and wetlands filled with the all important reeds they used for mats, windbreaks, and wrapping their dead prior to burial.

Geologic Mapping on the iPad - For real?

2011-06-27T17:18:00.006-05:00

I've spent a lot of time over the last year downloading and playing with applications for the iPad that have some relevance to geology. However the dream of using a lightweight tablet with a stylus and built-in GPS for field mapping is getting closer to reality. I always thought the limiting factor was the ability to make use of digitizing on the tablet to draw contacts, annotations, etc. However, I think the free iCMTGPS app provides a viable tool for actual field-mapping. It isn't as slick and easy as using ArcPad, however it works and it's as accurate as many of the GPS units are folks are using for 1:24,000 mapping.

You can email the support staff at CMT for a user guide, but it's a little thin on some of the specifics so I put together a short review and tutorial illustrating how it can be set up for field mapping applications. Strengths, weaknesses and quirks are all discussed in the video. Any and all feedback is appreciated!

Accretionary Wedge #35: Favorite Geology Word

2011-06-25T12:24:00.004-05:00

For this month's Accretionary Wedge, Evelyn Mervine from Georneys asked us the impossible... to settle on one favorite geology word. I've been mulling this question over off and on for the last week, and found myself sifting through words like yardgang, pingo, sandur, tor, felsenmeer, molasse, tuya, tombolo, doline, nunatuk, moulin, firnschnee, thalweg, polje, inselberg, tafoni, etc... probably a lot more I can't remember right now. Clearly I like words that are unique and often derived from another language, I'm especially partial to German-based terms. Hopefully I'll get around to blogging about each of these words and sharing my photos of them, although I don't have a good photo of a polje. Guess I need to take a trip to Eastern Europe!

However one word that has always fascinated me and drawn me to its country of origin is jökulhlaup. A term derived from the Icleandic for glacier ( jökull) and burst or flood (hlaup), which we use to describe a glacially-derived outburst flood. They are often triggered by a tuya - also in my list - which is a subglacial volcanic eruption. These two events are excellent reasons why Iceland is called the land of 'fire and ice.' Here are two videos that illustrate this process in action following the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in 2010.

I didn't become really fascinated with jökulhlaups until after I had read about the Wegner-esque experience of J. Harlen Bretz. Faced by similar dogmatic biases from the geologic community, Bretz challenged the status-quo and argued that the scablands of the western United States were created through a catastrophic flood. However, similar to Wegner, he failed to provide a 'smoking gun' that would convince his detractors. The origin of this flood (although, generally accepted as multiple flooding events) was later identified by J.T. Pardee as jökulhlaup events from Glacial Lake Missoula. Two excellent books on this topic are "Glacial Lake Missoula and its Humungous Floods" by David Alt and "Bretz's Flood" by John Soennichsen.

Fortunately for me, I also lack photographs of a jökulhlaup in action but here are a few photos taken while traveling through the scablands in 2000:

Chinchorro Landscapes - Caleta Vitor, Chile

2011-06-24T16:08:00.003-05:00

These panoramas were taken in Caleta Vitor, a small fishing village on the coast of Northern Chile and home to the Chinchorro culture approximately 6,000 - 7,000 years B.P. The primary evidence for their existence is extensive middens and in rare cases well-preserved mummies. The reeds visible in both panoramas were an integral artifact in their culture; they were used to make mats for sun and ground protection and more interestingly they were used to wrap the mummies before burial.

This is a view looking east towards the Andes along an ephemeral stream that supports the local reeds and abundant vultures. It is lower quality than the Caleta Vitor GigaPan I shot in a similar location but looking south shown below.

This GigaPan provides an excellent perspective on a typical Chinchorro landscape, however wave movement along the beach has created a number of ghosts I couldn't correct.

Accretionary Wedge #33: Geology and the Built Environment: Past, Present, Future

2011-04-20T12:31:00.012-05:00

I tossed out the topic of how geologists et al. have or would like to incorporate aspects of their professional and personal passions into their built environment. The response was varied and it was intriguing to discover where folks 'see' geology. If you're like me, you probably tell your students "geology is everywhere" and that claim was only strengthened by the response to this months Accretionary Wedge.

Anne from Highly Allochthonous illustrates how she uses her backyard for a geologic purpose rather than altering it to serve her own aesthetic interests... either she has higher morals about terraforming backyards or she wins the geo-nerd award for encouraging citizen science with her daughter. Her description of the dangers associated with conducting science in your backyard will make you smile and illustrates how something as simple as a bucket of water on monkey-bars can be extrapolated back to calculating isotope hydrology... and wow that analyzer is small!

Geology Happens describes two different scenarios involving landscaping of a sort; one that recreated the stratigraphy of the Canyonlands and another where someone incorporated an iron concretion into a retaining wall in Zion National Park. I can't help but wonder why we don't see more of this type of creativity, government rules, lack of inspiration, lack of time? It certainly can't be a lack of interesting rocks!

Dana from En Tequila Es Verdad offers inspiration for letting your rocks out of their boxes and displaying them proudly... everywhere! Her apartment looks like a clean version of the rock room's we all browsed as undergraduates (minus the crystal models of course). She even has zen garden incorporated into her fractal-esque approach to interior landscaping. I think it's time we all brought some of our samples locked away in the office back home!

On-the-rocks follows suit with a similar mosaic-like approach to outdoor xeriscaping, describing the significance of the rocks and stones integrated into his retaining walls and patio. He has incorporated his passion for geology with the concept of 'Found Art' by making use of stones collected from previously built structures. A fascinating synthesis of aesthetics with wonderful stories related to his great-great grandfather. I hope he doesn't have to part with his collection any time soon. His stories strike a chord with my contribution to this months AW, where I finally provide visuals for the way my father integrated rocks into the house I grew up in.

Hypocentre at Hypo-Theses tells a sadder tale of having his rock garden 'banished' outside, left to summer the ravages of time... okay, I elaborated a little and they are rocks, so they will survive. While his gardens appears to be a little smaller, the diversity of rocks and the stories (many, yet to be told) tied to them are as varied as they are obscure! I also think you'll enjoy the wonderful textures created between the rocks and the just as varied 'shrubberies' growing among them. I hope we can convince Ian to elaborate on his rocks more than the rock of the day blurbs, I know there is more to tell....

Ann from Ann's Musings on Geology & Other Things takes us back inside and describes a seismic event leading to a new table top and how she created a xenolith in her house. Actually the seismic event was her son providing her with an opportunity to upgrade to serpentine table tops. Her experience illustrates the need for one of us to write a "Field Guide to Commercially Available Building Stones" so everyone can correctly identify rocks... Her xenolith was created when she had slate with two slightly different tones installed in her office. Tell me I'm not the only one who saw a xenolith hiding in the floor?

Silver Fox from Looking for Detachment brings us back to our roots by describing her desire to live in a stone 'hobbit-like' cottage tempered by her acceptance that having rocks in her backyard is just as satisfying - and safer in earthquake country! I may read to far into her 'message' but I think it's appropriate to claim that no matter how many rocks we collect, stack into neat little piles, turn into furniture, hold back sod, etc, etc., we all prefer our rocks in their natural habitat. Where they challenge us with their complexity, provide a substrate to play on, and a library to learn from.

Accretionary Wedge #33: Geologic Feng Shui

2011-04-20T11:52:00.003-05:00

I've written about the house my father built a number of times in various posts and described the bedding plane of Devonian limestone, which served as our basement floor and the integration of local limestone and sandstone into rock walls and our hearth. This past fall my parents decided to sell the house, not without difficulty of course - although I think it was harder for me since I associate so many life decisions with the geologic influences of the house and surrounding property. So I thought I would share a few photos of that house and the various 'geologic' features embedded in the property.

These are views of the front and back of the house, you can see just how many rocks went into the rock wall and the chimney. What is so impressive is that my father literally collected every rock by hand from the property and also while driving along the surrounding roads. Every now and then he would slam on the brakes and jump out to grab a 'prized' rock... how did I become a geologist again?

This is a view of the hearth my father built with rocks from the surrounding property; look for fossils they are in there! I was in a bit of a rush when taking all this photos, so I couldn't use the Gigapan, but you get the general gist of the incorporation of geology into the structure.

As I dream about building my own house, I envision using local Vermont slate for all the window sills and door thresholds and will likely tile the kitchen floor with mottled slate as well. While granite counter tops seem an obvious choice, we all know that most of what is sold as granite really isn't 'granite.' I'd prefer a diorite counter top from the Barton Mine in the nearby Adirondack Mountains; they sell a stone called "Garnet Gem" that contains large porphyblasts of garnet, it's magnificent. I've also dabbled with using sheets of muscovite for lampshades and think that they would work great for covering recessed lighting built into a stairwell for simple night lighting. Finally, for stairs I think it would be neat (although I haven't tested the durability) to make stair treads out of local wood and router out a 1/2" recess in the wood with 2" margins and then install marble treads in the wood. I think the juxtoposition of the light stone with a stained wooden tread would look great. All future projects...

Open Call for Accretionary Wedge #33 - Geologic Feng Shui?

2011-03-28T14:54:00.003-05:00

I've always wondered how crazy other geologists have gone with incorporating geology into their homes, offices, gardens, etc. I know we all have a mini rock collection on the shelf, or a rock holding open a door but I'm thinking bigger. For example, I haven't done it yet but when I build the next house, all the window sills will be made out of slate. Share your stories, descriptions, photos of your current or past geology-related embellishments and I'll summarize.

The deadline for this is April 17th, I'll summarize on the 18th. Please post your contributions in the comment section, thanks!

La Mariposa del Tsunami

2011-03-11T19:30:00.007-05:00

After today's 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued an alert for many coastal areas bordering the Pacific Ocean, including Chile. After reading the estimates that the waves will likely only crest at 0.25 to 0.5 feet I didn't think they would take the warning all that seriously.

Source: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/newsgraphics/2011/0311-japan-quake-tsunami/tsunami.png

However the memory of last years Chilean tsunami that devastated Constitución is still fresh and I don't think the Chilean or local government wanted to risk any further causalities. Although they canceled school for all the children, there were still people at the beach and shopping downtown like any other day.

However at ~18:00 local time the klaxon went off and the Carabineros began clearing downtown following orders from Santiago to evacuate everyone living within possible inundation zones. I went to my 7:30 Spanish lesson and at 8:30 when I wandered back out onto 21 de Mayo, the primary shopping district, I was astonished at the celerity with which everyone had evacuated the downtown area.

It was difficult catching a collectivo home so I walked about halfway and was again amazed at the migration inland. I saw families pushing strollers filled with children and belongings, 100s of vehicles normally parked in driveways and estacionamentos, and numerous people who had clearly been living on the beach (it is legal to camp on some of the beaches in Arica) just sitting in the park or in the rotundas. The hospital was clearly on high alert, all the Carabineros and their local counterparts were prevalent and they kept their emergency lights on all the time as they drove around the city - the tension was quite tangible and although I've never lived in earthquake or tsunami country before it was very similar to the feeling right before a big snowstorm or strong thunderstorm in the Midwest.

Any resulting waves aren't expected to reach Arica until 23:24 so no word on the impact yet but I will update if anything of interest happens in the next few hours. It's interesting to think that in 1868 an 8.6 earthquake occurred in Chile that affected New Zealand, Hawaii and Japan and now an earthquake near Japan produced a tsunami that is fluttering back across the Pacific - like earthquakes playing ping pong I guess.

Desiccation Diversity - Lluta River, Chile

2011-03-07T08:16:00.004-05:00

A Photosynth composed while standing in the center of the Lluta River, Chile

I take a lot of mudcrack photos, for some reason I am drawn to them. Fortunately while I wandered the Lluta River this past weekend I discovered quite a diverse number of cracks exposed in recently abandoned channels. I brought my Gigapan robot along to capture the above scene in higher resolution but unfortunately the shutter depressor had fallen off in my Pelican case at the house. So I hope you enjoy these modern dessication cracks; there is an aesthetic quality to them that forces me to stop and take their photo every time!

Accretionaly Wedge #32: Uncertain Unconformity

2011-03-06T17:51:00.003-05:00

Posting late for this Accretionary Wedge and I was a little overwhelmed by 'favorite' geology photo; I wasn't sure how to decide on my favorite of all time, so I narrowed down my favorite taken during the the last year...

Last summer I drove out to Bozeman, Wyoming for a GIS conference and took a rather circuitous route both outward from and back into Vermont. We decided to camp at Buffalo Bill State Park along the reservoir and then return to Cody after setting everything up. On our way back into Cody, just before the famous rodeo stadium, the setting sun illuminated this fantastic angular unconformity exposed in the Shoshone River. Based solely on the descriptions found in Torres and Gingerich (1983) I think the lower reddish unit is the Eocene Wildwood Formation overlain by the volcaniclastic Aycross Formation. I haven't done any work at all, so this is solely based on reading geologic descriptions, hope I'm close.

View Angular Unconformity in a larger map

And here is a closer view of the contact; again I 'think' my interpretation is correct but please advise if I'm off base here!

Living in a Seismic Gap Isn't So Bad... Yet.

2011-03-04T12:12:00.019-05:00

After the magnitude 8.8 (MM) occurred just north of Conception Chile many friends, family, and colleagues were concerned my trip could be canceled. After quelling those fears, many became concerned about the idea that I would be living in 'earthquake and volcano country' with the added threat of possible tsunami activity. So I thought I would create a few maps to hopefully minimize concern while being honest, keeping in mind that anything is possible when you live on an active subduction zone. Subduction in this area occurs between the Nazca and South America Plates, producing dramatic topography, explosive volcanoes and powerful earthquakes.

Source: Allmendinger and González (2010)

Arica is a coastal city with approximately 190,000 residents located at 18° south latitude on the extreme northwestern edge of Chile. While historical earthquakes have indeed occurred within this region, little seismic activity has occurred here since 1877 because Arica resides within a seismic gap. This is generally not settling news since it represents a region where strain is and has been accumulating without release - meaning a considerable earthquake could hypothetically occur and Spence et al. (1999), and Berrocal et al (2004) have suggested that earthquakes in the late 1990s were precursors to a major event in the Arica 'elbow.' This is illustrated below as white ellipses, representing sections along the subduction zone that haven't experienced slip in the last century.

Source: Pritchard and Simmons (2006)

"as the only segment of the Chile-Peru Subduction Zone not to have ruptured within the last 100 years, the north Chile segment is now considered to be a region at high risk from an earthquake similar to, or larger than, the 1877 Tarapaca or Iquique earthquake (Mw 8.3)" - (Benfield 2010)

The last major event occurred in 1868 and completely leveled Arica and numerous coastal cities. This earthquake also produced a tsunami that added to both the local devastation and caused damage in New Zealand and Hawaii. This tsunami also left numerous ships stranded on land - similar to the events following the eruption of Krakatoa - such as the U.S. Wateree:

Source: Scribners Monthly

So I created some simple maps illustrating the tsunami inundation zone and historical earthquakes in the Arica region. To accomplish this I downloaded an inundation map produce by the Chilean Navy, exported the PDF as a tiff file and georeferenced it. Then I digitized the approximate boundary of the inundation zone and draped it over the topography (in relation to where I'm living and working) in ArcGIS and ArcScene to produce the following visualizations:

A simple 3D model illustrating how far both work and home are from the predicted inundation zone. The red flag represents the house, which is approximately 2.0 miles inland and the green flag is work and approximately 0.8 miles inland.

I created the earthquake magnitude maps by draping a Landsat image over a 30-m Aster-derived DEM and incorporating historical seismic data obtained from the USGS. This isn't very helpful other than illustrating how few earthquakes have occurred in this region since 1877. The large earthquake depicted in the center of the map represents the 1868 earthquake that caused so much devastation as depicted below:

Source: U.S. Library of Congress

So, while the images are visually jolting there's no real way of predicting when an earthquake will occur so I won't - and hopefully friends and family won't - spend too much time worrying about what might happen. I would be more concerned if I was living in San Francisco given the height of their buildings; it is rare to find buildings over 3 stories in Arica and they are all downtown. I'm also confident that if an earthquake occurs that produces a tsunami, even if I'm within the inundation zone, I will have plenty of warning and time to flee the mile inland necessary to avoid harm. After living in Vermont for the last 7 years, I'm a little excited about living on an active margin and embrace all the possible processes that are at work beneath the city. So, to anyone out there who is worrying, don't!

Norte Chile - A Lesson in Pisco

2011-03-01T13:32:00.009-05:00

I was fortunate enough to receive a Fulbright to spend three months teaching and conducting research associated with the Chinchorro culture in northern Chile this spring. I will cover the specifics about the research in a future post. I arrived February 24th, traveling from Albany to Atlanta, Santiago and finally landed in Arica where I will spend most of my time. I don't necessarily just want this to become a travel blog with tips, but if you are thinking of traveling with a lot of camera equipment and a laptop I HIGHLY recommend the Naneu K4L bag, I picked this up for the trip and so far it is just awesome!

View Larger Map

After spending the day exploring downtown Arica, I traveled to Putre, a quaint Aymaran village in the highlands to visit my friend Angel. Putre is just outside Lauca National Park and a gateway to the higher elevation, snow covered Andes. The areas surrounding Putre is dominated by exposures of Holocene and Pleistocene age pyroclastics, Miocene andesites and dacites, and ignimbrites of the Oligocene Oxaya Formation. I made a quick geology map of the area surrounding Putre from a paper map I georeferenced but haven't yet digitized so there isn't a legend for the geologic map (but you'll get the gist).

And here are just a few photos taken in the Putre area, mostly focusing on geologic landscapes.

While I was obviously fascinated with the landscape and the completely impenetrable Aymaran language, I was most taken with a short-course delivered by my hosts on the importance of pisco in the Peruvian/Chilean culture. I have had pisco many times, I even have a bottle at home in the US, but I had never been properly educated about the varieties, the distillation process or even how one might 'properly' drink it. I was incredibly fortunate that two of my hosts, Angel's girlfriend and her brother, are part of the Parede's family and originally from the Moquegua Valley in southern Peru. As it turns out, the Parede's operation is 'famous' in Peru for making exquisite pisco and the family has won numerous awards.

The particular bottle we enjoyed was 'Pisco Paredes 4' named for the 4 Paredes brothers who run the business. I was given the honor of first taste by filling the cap and instructed to let the pisco sit on my tongue and then exhale through my nose as I swallowed to enjoy the aromatic nature. It was a very smooth and semi-fruity sensation with none of the burning I've experienced with other piscos. Their favorite family cocktail includes a healthy pour of pisco topped off with ginger ale and a squeeze of lime. Marie and her brother also explained the bottle insignia, which includes a single cowboy riding a horse pressed in a copper color. This copper color is tied to the rich history of copper mining int he Moquegua Valley - dominated by the Cuajone Copper Mine.

View Larger Map
Interestingly, many of the gold and silver mines of the Moquegua region are US owned (in some form or another) and this fact is not lost on the locals. However, they still have a close connection with the mining community and are proud of their natural resources - even if Peru is not reaping the majority of the benefits. And yet, they seem more proud of their pisco and after helping them finish a bottle at ~8,000 feet I can assure you they have every right to be proud!

For those more geology-minded you can learn more about the Cuajone mine here:

Geology of Skiing - Hickory Ski Center

2011-01-22T15:38:00.014-05:00

This is an attempt to bring together three professional and extracurricular passions: skiing, GIS, and geology. I think I'm going to try and produce a number of these for a few of my favorite local ski areas, but my favorite ski mountain must come first!

Skiing:

The weather has cooperated and I've been lucky enough to ski my favorite little mountain in upstate New York after its grand re-opening; the last time I skied at Hickory Ski Center was the fall of 2003 and in the intervening years I either haven't made it back over or it wasn't open. I wish I could claim I grew up skiing Hickory but I wasn't introduced until I was a Junior at SUNY Albany by my friends Craig and Jeff - a big thank you to both of them! For us interlopers, Hickory is best known for its steep terrain, lack of snow making and grooming, and only opening it's doors on the weekends and holidays. But the retro-style lodge with a circular fire pit, perfect for roasting hot dogs, and the deafening silence you find on the slopes both round out a close second in my opinion. Seriously, without snowmaking, high speed quads, snowcats on the prowl and few snowmobiles, it is unbelievably quiet!

It is one of the few remaining mountains in the east where you can find steep expert terrain while also enjoying an overwhelming family atmosphere. It's one thing to tell people the skiing is good, but I decided to create some visualizations using a GIS to help convince anyone who is skeptical.

3D Visualizations:

I created a suite of maps depicting the topography, slope, and 2ft aerial photography. This is a general location map of the ski center and view of the overall topography of the surrounding area:

Shaded relief map depicting topography in the Hickory Ski Center area

And these three orthophoto renderings give some perspective on the layout of the runs and just how much relief there is between the Hudson River and the summit!

View looking north down the face of the mountain towards the Hudson River

View looking south across the Hudson River towards Hickory Ski Center

View looking southeast across the Hudson River towards Hickory Ski Center

These two slope maps best illustrate the point of how steep Hickory is near the summit and how special it is in this particular region, it (and the other two 'Sisters') really stands out relative to the more subdued surrounding landscape.

View looking southeast at a slope map of the area surrounding Hickory Ski Center

View looking southwest at a slope map of the area surrounding Hickory Ski Center

Hopefully these images give a sense of just how steep the runs are on the upper mountain and offers a sneak preview of the views you might catch from the summit! To create these visuals I obtained a 10-meter digital elevation model (DEM) and 7.5' USGS digital raster graphic (DRG) of Warrensburg, NY from the Cornell University Geospatial Information Repository (CUGIR) and 2ft digital orthophotos (DOQ) from the NYSGIS Clearinghouse.

Geology:

Last but not least, the geologic history of the region that Hickory calls home primarily exposes pre-Cambrian rocks associated with the Grenville Orogeny - a mountain building event similar to what is happening in the Himalaya's today. The map below depicts a simplified reconstruction of the North American continent during is mountain building event. A common saying about the Adirondack Mountain region is that while the mountains are relatively young (~30 million years) the rocks are very old (~1.9 billion years). For a more rigorous discussion of the relationship between the Adirondack's and the Grenville Orogeny you can read McLelland et al. (1996).

Source: http://instruct.uwo.ca/earth-sci/300b-001/rodkarl2b.jpg

These two maps depict the bedrock and surficial geology of the immediate area around the Hickory Ski Center, which indicates that all those bedrock exposures and ledges on the upper slopes are primarily a biotite and/or hornblende gneiss and the surficial material is exclusively glacial till. Interestingly (to someone who likes surficial deposits), there are lacustrine (lake) sands found along the floodplain of the Hudson almost up to the entrance into the Hickory Ski Center, likely a result of "Glacial Lake Warrensburg" described by Miller (1921) and later discussed by Connally and Sirkin (1971) and kame deposits (might look like gravel) on both sides of the river adjacent to the entrance, indicative of a depositional environment along a stagnant ice marge. This makes a lot of sense when you look at the steep faces of the Three Sisters, they likely shed sediment onto the ice lobe and when it stagnated and melted out, it left behind these deposits.

The datasets used to create these maps were obtained from the New York State Museum GIS data center. The underlying data was mapped at 1:250,000 so these aren't particularly high-resolution map products but they'll suffice for a general discussion of the local geology in this area.

Summary:

Hickory is pretty awesome if you have the legs to ski it; it can be pretty demanding and you're likely to get a few 'scratches' in your skis and you might have a sore spot from the 'caressing touch' of the Poma lifts, but it will be SO worth it. I hope the visualizations are useful for folks who have heard of Hickory but weren't convinced, for folks who haven't heard about, hopefully you're intrigued now! The geology on the slopes themselves are fairly unexciting, even to a geologist - gneiss is nice and till is, well till. But once the till is covered with snow it becomes a skiers Disneyland!

Knob and Kettle Topography - Black Earth, Wisconsin

2011-01-17T18:47:00.009-05:00

The drive out to Montana this past summer (2010), took me through Wisconsin, home to numerous well-preserved and really cool glacial landforms. I had always wanted to visit the Ice Age Trail, which follows the terminal margin of the last glaciation in Wisconsin, and that side trip took me through some beautiful farmland with a unique topgraphy. This is a Photosynth I took near the town of Marxville, WI looking to the northwest across a field with this characteristic knob and kettle topography.

These are a series of simple three-dimensional maps I created to provide a birds-eye-view of this deglaciated landscape while comparing a few of the open-source alternatives out there:

USGS DRG draped over 10-meter DEM - (Black Earth, Wisconsin)

An attempt at draping the same DRG over the same DEM - (Black Earth, Wisconsin)

The product out of ArcScene is visually more compelling than the NVIZ version, I still can't figure out why the DRG is so pixelated in NVIZ. NVIZ was accessed through the GUI-driven GRASS available in QGIS ('Copiapo'). What I do like about NVIZ (besides being open-source) is that you can actually add an arrow (easily) and scale bar (which isn't all that great) into the 3D scene (seriously ESRI, how long has it been?). The red point in all the scenes is where the photo was taken looking to the northwest.

I am in the midst of trying to create similar 3D images using CapaBuilder and IDV, but so far I haven't figured these two out!

Open Layers And Virtual Microscopy: Part 1

2010-12-22T18:51:00.010-05:00

One of the topics of discussion at the recent Fine Gigapan Conference in November that Ron Schott and Callan Bentley was the 'dream' to layer images within a Gigapan interface that were taken under plain and polarized light. The current Gigapan interface doesn't allow for overlays or extensive annotation so I started working with Open Layers a few weeks ago for another project that requires extensive annotation. In the process, I found a simple way to address the dream for flipping back and forth between plain and polarized light.

This is just part 1 of the progression, but in the example below all I've done is call two different images into the Open Layers API and with two lines of code you can add the layer switcher feature. Right now, the images are not gigapixel images (that's part 2) but you get the idea how seamless the transition can be, once the images load. I'm still working out the details for part 3, which will illustrate how to annotate your images so that they can be used as teaching tools for students (e.g. - you can label different minerals and link out to ancillary information like phase diagrams). Unfortunately, still haven't figured out how to do this with a 'rotating' stage. I'll post part 2 as soon as I finishing uploading the tiles. Until then, enjoy! I also haven't figured out why Blogger won't let me copy the code directly into this page, so the image below opens up in a new page:

A Day With "Streetcar to Subduction"

2010-12-20T19:51:00.013-05:00

View of Golden Gate Bridge from Fort Mason

It seems that Callan Bentley of Mountain Beltway and I had similar intentions while attending the fall AGU meeting in San Francisco last week. We both went on our own separate geologic excursions using Doris Sloan's "Geology of the San Francisco Bay Region" and Clyde Wahrhaftig's "A Streetcar to Subduction" guidebook. I've wanted to make use of this guide since hearing about in my graduate level igneous petrology course. Luckily it seems Callan and I decided to explore different sections of the city (with some overlap) and I think he had better luck with the weather!

View of Crissy Field Looking Towards Downtown San Francisco

I decided to walk down to Fort Mason, along the eastern coast via Crissy Field, under the Golden Gate Bridge on-ramp, through the Presidio (confusing!) and then down the Coastal Trail to Marshall and Baker Beach. The weather cooperate only in that it didn't rain on me while I was walking and I had about 40 minutes of sun right before sunset. I was a little underwhelmed by the Fort Mason sandstone exposures, they are relatively small and not as interesting as other localities in Wharfhaftig's book (I should have paid better attention to the descriptions). However, the walk along Crissy Field was quite scenic (even with the fog) and I even encountered a friendly Blue Heron!

The following slideshow contains photos associated with Trips #2 and #3 in A Streetcar to Subduction, which focus on Fort Mason on the eastern side of the city and the Coastal Cliff Trail along the the western edge. This tour visit sandstone within the Alcatraz Terrane, exposures of serpentinite, chert and both Marshall's and Baker Beach. My favorite 'finds' were an excellent exposure of ribbon chert and a serpentine boulder with a highly fractured surface likely caused by the differential weathering of chrysotile, both near Marshall's Beach. This is a simplified geologic map of the Coastal Trail area from Stoffer and Gordon (2001) that provides a nice overview of the geologic relations and geography within this area:

For more information on the images in the slideshow, click on full screen and then Show Info in the upper left hand corner. Enjoy!

Bookcrop #4: Illustrations of the geology of Yorkshire

2010-12-17T18:08:00.013-05:00

This is an e-bookcrop as I don't have a desk copy of this fantastically illustrated book, however it is on my list I bring to bookstores and flea markets! You can get your own copy here if you wish.

This book was written in 1829 by the geologist John Phillips, who was raised by and traveled with Williams Smith - and incidentally married Smith's sister - thus the significance of the dedication to Smith in his Yorkshire text. My primary interest in this text lies in the fabulous sketches of both landscapes and fossils. Phillips provides a wonderfully colored (coloured) and sketched geologic map and I've included four example cross sections - my personal favorite is the last, which includes a stratigraphic column.

Finally, just two example plates of fossils he included in the text; I really enjoy the wonderful attention to detail and illustration:

I spend a lot of time looking through the e-collections on archive.org for old illustrations like this; maybe you'll find something you've been looking for too!?

Geology and the iPad Remixed

2010-12-17T15:06:00.010-05:00

I think enough time has passed to update the progress made towards interacting with geology and GIS data within the iPad interface.

I had an amazing opportunity to sail on the JOIDES Resolution as part of the 2010 School of Rock (SOR) supported through the Consortium of Ocean Leadership. This was the best professional development experience I've had to date, which was entirely a function of the amazing people who also participated. The primary goal of Expedition 328 was to install an Advance Circulation Obviation Retrofit Kit (ACORK) observatory, which will eventually tie into the existing NEPTUNE network. This network is SO cool, they essentially have 5 sites punching into sediment and bedrock within the Juan de Fuca plate off the coast of Vancouver/Victoria. These observatories are cabled together and transmit real-time data back to shore - including seafloor webcams! If this sounds exciting, you too can join in the fun of exploring this data through the NEPTUNE iPad app. Enjoy!

Not necessarily geology specific, but EMD PTE is a free and useful Periodic Table of Elements app. Hopefully we'll get to see the PTE for Earth Scientists ported over to a digital app soon? This app provides a general overview of each element, the history, discover, a photo of the element, and a summary of products used for analytical testing. A lot of information for free.

Image from here

I'm excited to see how the new Earth Observer app will run on the iPad - it is essentially a mobile version of GeoMapApp. So there's a lot of data behind this interface and I'm wondering how quickly it will be able to respond, however the site suggests there will be local caching available so that should speed things up. The website indicates it will be released on November 20th, so if you use GeoMapApp go check it out.

And just a few other fun and useful apps:

1. Jurassic - a virtual field trip interface of England's Jurassic Coast.
2. GeolCompass - a digital field compass that measures strike/dip and inclination.
3. Lambert - another digital compass, this one has a nicer interface and more options
4. Geologists Little Helper USA - useful for Oil Zone Analysis, Gas Zone Analysis, Leak Off Test, Formation Temperature and a Corrected D Exponent calculation
5. Virtual Microscope - a very cool little app that only has 4 samples right now but allows you to look at gabbro, schist, limestone, and a meteorite collected in Antarctica.

There are a lot of other apps out there that are related but aren't quite polished at this point in my opinion. I still haven't seen a 'game changer' in the world of geology yet. Will continue to update as new apps become available!

Three ROCKIN' Scenic Geology Roadways

2010-12-08T16:55:00.007-05:00

This summer I had the great pleasure of driving the Needles Highway (South Dakota Highway 87), the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway and the Beartooth All American Road (US Highway 212) for the first time on a trip to Bozeman, MT. I had heard and read great things about these routes and they certainly delivered stunning vistas and fantastic geology (even thought it was raining and incredibly windy in some locations). I've driven across the country a dozen or so times and taken various routes, but I would have to agree that these three highways provide some of the best geology 'watching' in the country!

The Needles Highway was a bit congested since Sturgis was in full swing but luckily the views looking up weren't impeded by the traffic. However, the day was cut short by a hail-producing thunderstorm.

I also stopped at Dead Indian Hill Pass (see my Gigpan of this location here). This stretch of the road is full of switchbacks and quite steep (stay in low gear!):

This is one of my favorite vantage points on the Beartooth - it isn't as 'scenic' as some other photos I took, but I really like the sense of scale, isolation, serenity, and rugged nature of this landscape:

And these are a view other views driving the Beartooth, I think the partly cloudy drizzle really adds a nice effect to this landscape:

The paternoster lake system you can see in the photos from the Beartooth Highway are spectacular, I personally haven't seen such an easily accessible view of this stunning an alpine landscape. I've always enjoyed paternosters, as much for their morphology as the etymology of the word - it roughly translates from Latin as "Lords Prayer" and the fact that they look like a chain of rosary beads. None of the photos or Photosynths do the drives justice, if you like driving and you like geology, then put these on your list of must-do drives in the western United States!

Bookcrop #3: Geologic History of Yosemite Valley

2010-12-08T11:19:00.012-05:00

Most of my bookcrops are unique, funny, sometimes bizarre or in this case a pioneering study in geology. I was given this book by a colleague with the Geological Survey of Canada when he was downsizing his collection. It is a canceled copy of Francois E. Matthes "Geologic History of the Yosemite Valley" published in 1930 as a USGS Professional Paper #160. You can view an online version here complete with all the plates and illustrations at the bottom of the page. Not all the plates are scanned full size but they are at least viewable.

Matthes's paper was the first comprehensive report of the geology and glacial history of the region and really championed the idea that Yosemite's landscape was a direct result of glacial activity. His descriptions and photographs were, and still are, compelling evidence to support this argument, which was first articulate by John Muir in "Studies in the Sierra." The historical link between Muir and Matthes is an interesting juxtopostion between a naturalist and an engineer - both with a love of mountains and glaciers. I think the most beautiful plate in the book is the "Map of Ancient Glaciers of the Yosemite Region."

Not only is the map beautifully drawn and colored but it offers a relatively good reconstruction of the extent of Wisconsin (or Tioga) glaciers. For a more recent account of the effects of glaciation in Yosemite you can read N. King Huber's "Geologic Story of Yosemite Valley" or Jeffrey Schaffer's "The Geomorphic Evolution of the Yosemite Valley and Sierra Nevada Landscapes."

One of my other favorite images is of the Dana Glacier taken by G.K. Gilbert - a pioneer in his own right. You can compare Gilbert's image (below left) with an earlier photograph taken my I.C. Russell (below right) in 1883 and get a sense of the amount of ice mass lost over the intervening decades. Similarly, if you compare it with a modern day image provided by Basagic (2004).

When you compare these two images with the one taken in 2004 by Basagic, the amount of ice volume lost since the late 1880s is dramatic! If you need further convincing that global ice volume is rapidly decreasing, visit Extreme Ice Survey for even more compelling images. Luckily you don't need to go out and by this book if you primarily want to look at the images - you can just explore the USGS online edition and really get a feel for the type of fieldwork and challenges Matthes must have faced writing this paper.

Dead Indian Hill Pass, Wyoming

2010-11-19T19:12:00.003-05:00

This is a panorama I took on a very windy, cloudy day - the clouds just wouldn't cooperate, thus the various shadows and dark areas in an otherwise spectacular region. If you haven't made the drive from Cody into Montana via the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway and up over the Beartooths, you should! It is one of the most spectacular 'geologic' drives I've done. I think we need to lobby for Scenic Geology Drives throughout the country, I have another set of photos I'll share from the Needles Drive in Custer State Park that I also think deserves a special geologic designation.

View Larger Map

Badlands National Park Photosynths

2010-11-16T15:50:00.008-05:00

In addition to taking Gigapan panoramas, I also frequently take a quick sequence of shots to upload as Photosynths because it takes a lot less time but still provides a rough visual of panoramaic views. Occasionally I somehow miss a few shots and they aren't complete panoramas.... The following are a series of images taken while traveling through the badlands over the course of three days:

Gigapan # 9: Badlands National Park, SD

2010-11-11T22:12:00.003-05:00

So, I've neglected my blogging once again and got a gentle nudge this evening at the Fine International Gigapan Conference to return to the cause. It only makes sense that my 'return' should be Gigapan related... I have a number of Gigapan images from a trip out west I have stitched but haven't yet uploaded, so here's on the west side of Rt. 240 shortly after the Yellow Mounds overlook turnout. I was a bit disappointed with the original results of stitching from GigaPan Stith so I've re-uploaded and stitched the images together using AutoPano, a really useful and feature rich software package. This panorama offers a fantastic view of the typical Badlands landscape. If you're interested in the specific formations and geologic history of the region, the USGS provides this excellent summary.

Gigapan #8 - Indian River Slate - Granville, NY

2010-07-22T21:17:00.003-05:00

This is a gorgeous quarry on Tanner Hill Road in Granville, NY. The quarry exposes the Indian River Slate and various items utilized to 'expand' the quarry through drilling and explosives. The quarry trends north south and there really isn't a good way to get a direct shot from the east; this is the best I could do with the waning sun at 6:30PM. I've included a Photosynth that I quickly shot to provide an overall sense of the quarry and then focused in on the 'interesting' section of the quarry - however the lower red slate isn't well lighted.

Gigapan #7 - Highway Outcrop Adventures!

2010-07-16T12:55:00.009-05:00

This a combination Photosynth & Gigapan of a road cut I drive by fairly regularly and finally had the time to visit it very early in the morning (it faces directly east). Although it isn't incredibly interesting geology, it is a really well-exposed section of the Dunham Dolomite - a buff/gray siliceous dolomite. This photo required crossing a few busy lanes of traffic and standing in the middle of a traffic island exposed to frequent horns and belligerent comments lobbed from passing cars... I've never understand the point of harassing a stranger while driving past them at 60mph but I reaped plenty this morning.

Sólheimajökull Glacier - Iceland

2010-07-13T13:35:00.009-05:00

This is a composite of photos I took on a trip to Iceland in July 2006 of the Sólheimajökull Glacier - a receding outlet glacier from the Mýrdalsjökull Ice Cap in southeastern Iceland. There are numerous glacial and fluvioglacial features present surounding the toe of the receding snout: polished and striated clasts, a subglacial river, eposed moulins, longitudinal and transverse crevasses, ice/basal till contact exposed, and a beautiful example of a sandur.

Wandering around the edge of the glacier provided excellent examples of in situ glacial processes. The most interesting was having the opportunity to explore the 'ice cave' at the snout of the glacier that had melted into a longitudinal crevasse exposing the subglacial stream and the ice/till contact. I've included a photosynth (again, resolution is a little low but all panoramas I take with new photos will be a Gigapan), a slideshow of photos from exploring the area, and a short movie taken inside the ice cave.

Gigapan #6: Abandonded Slate Quarry - West Pawlet, VT

2010-07-07T22:44:00.006-05:00

I decided it was a good idea to head out on an incredibly hot and humid day to take a few photos... I'm including both a GigaPan and a hand-held Photosynth of the same location. This is one of my favorite quarries because it provides an excellent view of the east dipping orientation associated with many of the formations in the Taconic Mountains. The 'drowned' quarry also exhibits a characteristic blue most often associated with alpine lakes because of the high clay content.

View Abandonded Quarry in a larger map

Photosynth + Geology

2010-06-29T16:44:00.005-05:00

I'm currently updating an older post that includes geology panoramas but I just love this photo so much I had to post it again - actually this is a second post about GRBA as I've posted a static image before. This is a fantastic view of Wheeler Peak and the relict rock glacier nestled in Lehman Cirque.

Gigapan #5: St Catherine Formation, Vermont

2010-06-25T15:50:00.006-05:00

Driving along Route 4 from Whitehall, NY into Rutland, VT you pass a lot of exposed road cuts and this is one of my favorite. There is another that exposes some really nice isoclinal folding but it isn't really suitable for a Gigapan. Most of the exposures are the Cambrian St Catherine Formation - see the Gigapan for a more detailed description.

Geology Panoramas

2010-06-24T15:43:00.022-05:00

Ok, so these aren't Gigapan photos, but I realized I'd taken a lot of panoramas and never finished stitching them together. I used Microsfot ICE to stitch them and will continue to update the descriptions when I find the right field notebooks!

UPDATE (6/29/2010):
I'm going to begin adding these panoramas as Photosynths; it means I have to re-stitch all the originals again so I will update gradually:

Erdpyramiden = very cool geology

2010-06-21T20:53:00.001-05:00

I realized I started this post but never got beyond creating a title and saving a draft - so this has been waited two years for completion! During my three month visit to the Südtirol of northern Italy, I visited the Erdpyramiden of Ritten (Renon) located approximately 3500 feet to the north of Longomoso in the map below; you can see evidence of erosion on the east side of highway SP73. There are a number of locations for these pyramids, including one directly to the west of Brunnenburg Castle where we were living. These particular pyramids form in dense glacial till when small rills expand into gullies and isolate fins from one another. These fins are often protected by boulders in the till so the surrounding till preferentially erodes away, leaving the pyramids. Click on the slide show below for more information.

View Larger Map

Gigapan #4: Quarry Stick, Poultney, Vermont

2010-06-21T16:17:00.006-05:00

This was a difficult shot to take since the only vantage point is a north-facing view, towards the sun and lots of white clouds, which interfered with the stitching of the guy wires. The purpose and technical names for the various components are included with the Gigapan, just click to explore. These sticks used to be commonplace, but this is the last one standing in the Slate Valley region of New York and Vermont. The postcard at the end of this post is a view of the Eureka and Johnson Quarries when mining was in full swing - pretty astounding really.

Gigapan #3: Eureka Quarry, Poultney, Vermont

2010-06-20T18:42:00.004-05:00

It took a few tries but this is my third Gigapan photo of a slate quarry in Poultney, Vermont visible on the map below:

View Larger Map

The Gigapan was taken from the soutwest looking northeast across the quarry. This area is dotted with slag piles and drowned quarry pits but this particular area represents the earliest slate mining in the town and continues to be productive in today's competitive market. This particular quarry also contains the only remaining quarry stick still standing - a feature for a future Gigapan.

From One Slate Valley To Another

2010-06-14T16:48:00.008-05:00

There aren't any wineries in the Slate Valley of Vermont but a friend of mine passed along a bottle of Clean Slate, a Riesling from Mosel, Germany. I found the artwork simple and clever - the Mosel River meandering through blue-green slate. However, I followed the path of the Mosel and the artwork doesn't match up with any actual meanders, kind of a disappointment. I did a little digging to see if I could determine the origin of the "steep slate hills" and I think the slate in question is part of the Hunsrück Slate formation; I found references to a Mosel and Moselle Slate but I think they were common names not formations. Apparently the Hunsrück preserves a pretty spectacular fossil record and is an important Konservat-Lagerstätten.

I wasn't able to find a great geologic map or any articles describing other slate formations - clearly my weak German is at fault here - help out if you know of other resources! I did find the following map, which should help contextualize the location and geology a little bit:

So it appears lithology is where the similarities end between the Slate Valley of Vermont and Mosel Valley of Germany - they are different ages (Cambrian versus Devonian), one preserves fossils another preserves nothing, and the steep valley walls of the Mosel offer stark contrast to the rolling hills of Vermont. However, the wine was pretty decent!

Summer Fieldwork Photos

2010-06-14T16:03:00.005-05:00

I just wanted to post a few photos from my summer fieldwork thus far in Dover, VT. The surficial geology isn't incredibly surprising but the landscape is beautiful and there are some nice examples of thin glacial till, kame deposits, and a well-preserved striated knob in the northeast corner of the town.

Gigapan #1 and #2: West Castleton Syncline

2010-06-04T21:04:00.006-05:00

Well I finally purchased an Epic 100 and figured out all the minutia of the GigaPan + camera settings and took my first two pictures. They are of the same location could have a little more detail in places but I took them at a slight angle and the sun wasn't cooperating. This is a repeat of an image Ron Schott has already taken, but since I live so close to the outcrop I'll likely keep going back until I get a really nice one! I'll update this post as I take new ones and keep a running 'tally.' I have a long list of local and regional outcrops I want to GigaPan and will hopefully take a few more this weekend and into next week.

Bookcrop #2: Geology of Thacher Park

2010-06-04T14:38:00.004-05:00

Cover Page

I feel as though I've been dipping into the Helderberg geology well fairly frequently but given the state of affairs in New York State right now I couldn't help but highlight one of my favorite little books in this latest bookcrop entry. A "Guide to the Geology of John Boyd Thacher Park (Indian Ladder Region) and Vicinity" was written by Winifred Goldring and published in 1933. Winifred is herself is worthy of an entire entry but at the moment I will do her an injustice and point you to a great summary by Aldrich et al. 2005. As I've stated before, I grew up on Thompson's Lake a few miles from Thacher Park but I didn't discover this gem of a guide until I was in graduate school. I described the Helderberg section in my sedimentology and stratigraphy course but failed to find this as a reference until much later.

To see Goldring's map of the area, click on the above image. The red square is roughly where my parent's house is located and the steep escarpment to the east is the Helderberg escarpment. You can see the primary lithologies surrounding Thompson's Lake are the New Scotland Beds and the Esopus Shale, however the house my father built incorporated a lot of Manlius Limestone riddled with brachiopods, ostracods, and tentaculites - promoting my early interest in geology.

Goldring provides numerous plates depicting classic Helderberg geology, typical fossils and locations to key outcrops; some of which I still have to visit! If you're planning a trip to the park, I recommend this book to help guide the way and make sure you don't miss out on the horn corals, Phacops, tentaculties, or Favosites helderbergiae!

Geology, the iPad and Education

2010-06-03T18:55:00.006-05:00

I've been trying to gather myself together after the semester to write up these thoughts - I pre-ordered a 3G iPad and it arrived at the time of the year when chaos reigns and time for thoughtful posts is unthinkable. Since then I've been exploring the various obvious applications and a few not so obvious that I think are useful in the context of education. I want to make it very clear that: (1) this is not an exhaustive list of available apps and (2) I don't believe the iPad is going to be very useful as a field unit - one mishap and you will have this experience on your hands (skip to 3:18 if you want to avoid the annoying part). However, in the face of cloud computing and emerging apps I do believe it could serve a very useful pedagogical tool, oh and a nerdy expensive calculator.

Obvious Applications:

I'm not big on buying expensive apps so I'm only going to include the free and relatively inexpensive ones I've installed.

1. First up is the Dinosaur Handbook; what self respecting geologist won't want this on their iPad?! This app houses 1400+ dinosaur images complete with descriptions and background. Even if you don't like dinosaurs (what?!), this will likely calm any 7 year old and keep them busy for HOURS. This version is designed for the iPhone so the resolution is a little low on some of the images and you can only view the text and information in portrait mode. It took me a few minutes to figure that out!

2. There are lots of applications that provide earthquake updates and most cost lest than a dollar. However I've been quite happy using a combination of iQuakeLite, iHurricane and MKA Alerts. The first is solely for earthquakes, the second tracks and maps hurricanes and the latter covers a variety of natural disasters; all three are free and provide decent visuals with sufficient summaries to go explore an event if it seems worth your while. MKA alerts and iHurricane were designed for the iPhone so they too suffers from a reduced resolution when you zoom in on the map.

3. What geo-iPad would be complete without a geologic time scale! The GeoTimeScale app is a simplistic interface that provides a basic timescale with dates (although heed a previous reviewers caution about the dates not matching the official GSA timescale dates) and simple historical geology. This app could be an amazing resource for teachers but it needs to be updated to provide both US and UK chronologies and more extensive documentation/images about the "Age of Reptiles" or the "Permian Extinction." This is a free application so I'm not too surprised at the bare-bones nature but it "could" be so much more. This developer also created a Pangaea app that provides a decent visual illustrating the breakup of Pangaea but it is also relatively simplistic and lacking the background information that could really make this app worth purchasing. It is also one of the larger applications approaching 70MB - I uninstalled it after exploring it for just a few minutes. Another related visual is the Iapetus app, which provides a simple interface for exploring continent configuration since the late Precambrian. It is simple but does a nice job of illustrating historical tectonics and if you pay attention you can even 'catch' the Wilson Cycle.

4. What better way to spend the day than reviewing how many NEOs have skimmed by Earth? Asteroid Alert is an app that allows you just this luxury - it will make you the star of the next doomsday or Libertarian self-reliance party you attend. I have to admit this little app provides startling information you can quickly share with students; in the last two days 3 asteroids with an average size of 150m have missed Earth by an average of 15km. I will likely use this in my Natural Disasters class to try and illustrate just how much shrapnel barely misses us each year!

5. If you have a 3G version or will be using an iPad where you always get wireless you could also make use of PocketMinDat, which isn't really an app, just a website formatted to fit into an iPhone interface. So when you view it on the iPad it is a little small but functional. It provides a great database that appears to be frequently updated and nice photos (again, reduced resolution on the iPad).

6. My favorite application int his list is iSeismometer - I guarantee you will play with this for awhile. Beyond being fun, this will be an excellent way to illustrate the behavior of seismic waves through different materials. It's an inexpensive alternative to a real seismometer but it sill illustrates the same principles. See it in action below:

Less Obvious Applications?:

Most of the above applications are fun and moderately useful as educational tools. I found two applications that I think could serve a more educational purpose and two that fall more in the mapping arena.

7. I downloaded the Clinometer HD app because I thought it would be 'neat' to see how well it compared with traditional level tools - calibration is a true sign of anal-retentive nerdiness. And while it was likely designed to help level furniture or pictures, it occurred to me that this could be a really nice visual to depict how we measure dip. There are two was to measure an angle using this app - using a bubble interface and an inclinometer level (see screenshots). Either of these two could be used at an outcrop or in class to better visually demonstrate dip using both interfaces to help reinforce the concept. What about strike you ask?

8. The same developer also created CompassHD + Magnetometer, which provides numerous visuals related to magnetism - in this case Earth's magnetism. Not only does this provide a nice compass visual (which is sketchy at times) but it also provides information on the strength of magnetic fields and a really nice visual of declination for discussion related to paleomagnetism. Combining the clinometer and compass apps seems like a really nice way to help students visualize these concepts. I won't get to practice for a year, sabbatical awaits so hopefully someone else gives it a try!

9. In addition to geologizing I also spend a lot of time 'doing' GIS. In fact I think I do more GIS-related work and research than geology lately. As I mentioned, I won't ever use the iPad for a field-computer but on the rare occasion I have to GPS something and I find myself without a the Trimble, I think that both the TerraPad and Motion X GPS HD applications will serve the purpose. I prefer TerraPad as it is free and you can export as KML, however GPS HD has a really nice interface and lots of map layers to download. However, if I really want to 'do' GIS on the iPad I will likely use my GISCloud account and not purchase iGIS (very pricey). I can't speak to the latter's features but my GISCloud account is free for the time being and works nicely on a 3G connection, it's a little slow on an Edge connection.

A couple of closing thoughts: although the iPad doesn't have a camera for downloading field photos at the end of the day, I'm guessing there will be an update to the EyeFie Manager software so that you can wirelessly download your photos from a camera using the EyeFi pro card (which works flawlessly so far on my laptop). There's an app to upload photos from an iPhone but that has a built in camera, so we just have to wait awhile.

I've also dabbled with trying to sketch using a few apps like Penultimate and Paperdesk, which thoroughly convinced me to keep sketching in my notebook - at least until I find a decent stylus. I hope some of these thoughts are helpful in narrowing down the search for both fun and educational apps. If I missed something obvious, please let me know!

Geology + Paintings: The Works of Levi Wells Prentice

2010-05-21T14:26:00.003-05:00

Deciding on ONE photo for the latest Accretionary Wedge hosted by Highly Allochthonous, which seeks to "amass a gallery of all of our favorite geologically themed pictures" was incredibly difficult. There are so many iconic images in the form of aerial photographs, field photos, thin section and satellite imagery. I chose to dip back into my library of geology-related art books and chose one that is stunning both artistically, geologically and a magnificent place to visit: Letchworth State Park in Castille, NY.

The painting is fantastic from a visual standpoint but there is an incredible amount of 'geology' recorded in the image: differential weathering, jointing, physical and chemical weathering, a number of sedimentary features, the edge of a glacial pothole, and of course the concepts of entropy and geologic time. There is a lot captured here providing a lot of talking points without the necessity of a textbook or a lecture. Letchworth is 'worth' the visit if you're ever in the area! I scanned the image from this book, which is a great addition to any library especially if you are familiar with New York geology, with a really strong emphasis on the Adirondacks. Enjoy!

More Geology Humor...

2010-05-20T16:01:00.005-05:00

I love the diversity on the xkcd site, if you haven't visited and lost 2 hours of your day, you should. Here are two recent geology-related cartoons, both of which are hilarious but the recreation of battling Heimaey in the kitchen is my favorite! Enjoy.

Bookcrop #1 - The Boy Geologist

2010-05-07T07:11:00.009-05:00

I'm building off the "deskcrop" idea that Ron Schott has been sharing with the geoblogosphere this year. I thought it would be interesting to share the unique, rare, and bizarre geology books I've collected over the years - I'm sure we all have some doozies.

Cover of flea market find

My first Bookcrop is "The Boy Geologist" by E.J. Houston - you can view on online version here. I wandered across this at a flea market in upstate New York and paid 50 cents for a decent first edition. I don't think the market for first edition geology-themed books is blossoming so for now I'll just be happy that I enjoyed the book. The story follows a group of young boys at a suburban boarding school who become fascinated with geology and ask questions comparable to many undergraduates. Once you look past the obvious racism and the not so subtle chauvinism, it's an enjoyable glimpse into the science of geology circa 1907. In the chapter titled "Some Experiments In Explosive Volcanic Eruptions" the boys explore a chemical origin for volcanoes:

"I was reading a book," said Fred, "on the chemical theory of volcanoes. Instead of explaining volcanoes as caused by a heated mass that fills all the interior of an earth that was originally melted throughout, and has not yet completely cooled, it claims that the earth has completely cooled from the center to the outside, and that only here and there, at short distances below its surface are masses of rock that have become fused by heat caused by chemical action"

Fred could have been reading any number of books, but I found an 1869 reference to this chemical origin for volcanoes written by Menteath. Chapter 10 of Sally Newcomb's "The World In A Crucible: Laboratory Practice and Geological Theory At the Beginning of Geology" also provides an interesting and thorough description of these early attempts to quantify and explain volcanism.

In the chapter titled "The Great San Francisco Earthquake" Mr. Johnson (the geology teacher) ask the boys to "give the class some of the facts that particularly impressed you" to which one of the boys provides this humorous analogy:

"I have read," said one of the boys, "that the crackling noises heard in a stove pipe when a fire is lighted are of the same nature as earthquakes, such sounds being caused by the unequal expansion of the different parts of the pipe." To which Mr. Johnson replies, "Yes, these might properly be called miniature earthquakes."

The discussions that occur throughout the book are driven by the same events that continue to get students excited about geological phenomena - in this case the San Francisco and Lisbon earthquakes and the eruptions of Vesuvius and Krakatoa. We continue to be impressed by these historical and dramatic events and the media has only helped fuel modern interest in geohazards. We can only hope that the hyperbole surrounding 'the end of the world' mentality often associated with media descriptions help incite similar interests and questions in boys and girls alike to help spawn more future geologists. I'm clearly looking for the silver lining in an otherwise annoying representation of our science.

I have a number of other 'interesting' books I'll share in the future, if you don't want to go looking for a copy, there is a link at the beginning of the post to an online version you can peruse.

Lous Agassiz + Tracy Strauss = Irrefutable Evidence For Glaciation

2010-04-21T10:10:00.017-05:00

A New (Old?) Heroes Theme Song

So it has been awhile - too long actually - but I couldn't resist a contribution to the latest edition of The 'Heroic' Accretionary Wedge. I'm a fan of both the show Heroes and geologists who turned up their nose at dogmatic scientific ideals; those who suffered from the Galileo Syndrome if you will. There are a number to choose from but I've always held an affection for Louis Agassiz ever since I discovered he visited and studied the Helderberg Escarpment in John Boyd Thatcher Park in Upstate New York during my undergraduate work at the University of Albany. As I've mentioned before, the house I grew up in had an exposed bedding plane of the Manlius Formation as the basement 'floor' and so I have an affinity with the Helderbergs for a number of reasons. My interest in learning more about Agassiz was heightened during graduate school and I managed to find Carozzi's translation of "Etudes sur les glaciers" complete with amazing plates overlain with annotated mylar sheets. You can download a scan of the original here, although I haven't been able to find the plates or mylar sheets scanned online (perhaps a future project).

Plate 17: Roches Polies Du Landeron (Carozzi, 1967)

The plates and his interpretations of the physical phenomena he observed prompted me to obtain a Second Edition copy of the two volume set titled "Louis Agassiz - His Life and Correspondence" by his wife Elizabeth Carey Agassiz (1885). You can download an e-version of the book from here, however you will miss out on the frontispieces and figures.

Vol 1. and Vol. 2 Frontispieces (Agassiz, 1885)

I found (and find) it incredibly impressive that at the age of 29 he made the leap from alpine glaciation to continental glaciation:

"Agassiz was among those who received this hypothesis as improbably and untenable. Still, he was anxious to see the facts in place, and Charpentier was glad to be his guide. He therefore passed his vacation, during the summer of 1836, at the pretty town of Bex, in the valley of the Rhone. Here spent a number of weeks in explorations, which served at the time as a relaxation from from his more sedentary work. He went expecting to confirm his own doubts, and to disabuse his friend Charpentier of his errors. But after visiting with him in the glaciers of the Diablerets, those of the valley of Chamounix, and the moraines of the great valley of the Rhone and its principle lateral valley, he came away satisfied that a too narrow interpretation of the phenomena was Charpentier's only mistake' (Agassiz, 1885)

Within a single summer Agassiz challenged his own beliefs and began postulating that physical phenomena observed within isolated alpine environments were similar to those at work at the continental scale! This is an astounding feet for someone who was encouraged to 'focus on one discipline and not spread his intellectual gifts to thin' and since the idea was so controversial at the time. I also find his morphological and landscape scale descriptions in "Geologic Sketches" poetic and incredibly astute. His methods were rooted in Baconian-based observations - a true field geologist who embodied the idiom that "seeing is believing." I just can't help but imagine what a marvelous and convincing team "Old Lou" and Tracy Strauss would have made if they could have worked together... Imagine his absolute glee at being able to ask Tracy to morph into a body of water, then ice and then illustrate the physical processes he envisioned at the scale that so many questioned. They would have made a heroic team for sure (perhaps even a historical Wonder Twins if you will!).

While I was initially impressed by his moxie to challenge peers initially considered outside his discipline (there are numerous examples of Humboldt chastising Agassiz for straying from zoology in their correspondences), as I began my teaching career I was later impressed by descriptions of his teaching style. Cooper (1917) authored "Louis Agassiz As A Teacher - Illustrative Extracts on His Method of Instruction" that I found humorous, incredibly engaging and humbling. Chapter titles include "How Agassiz Taught Professor Wilder" and "The Death of Agassiz - His Personality" - all of the chapters contain fascinating passages but the most telling is the opening note. Lane states:

When the question was put to Agassiz, 'What do you regard as your greatest work?' he replied: 'I have taught men to observe.' And in the preamble to his will he described himself in three words as 'Louis Agassiz, Teacher.'

It astounds me that after establishing himself as a renown scientist, researcher, and astute field geologist, he identified himself as an educator. His achievements counter the common misconception that you can't be an excellent teacher and a strong scholar. His scholarship informed his scientific principles and beliefs and they informed his teaching. Cooper also states:

Teaching was a passion with him, and his power over his pupils might be measured by his own enthusiasm... Agassiz's general faith in the susceptibility of the popular intelligence, however untrained, to the highest truths of nature, was contagious, and he created or developed that in which he believe...

There are numerous other passages with similar glowing descriptions of Agassiz's magnetic personality and ability to instill wonder about the natural world. Given these descriptions I find myself yearning to sit at a dinner table and hear his stories, interpret a landscape together, or climb a remote peak just to 'observe.' I know there are a lot of educators in the geoblogosphere and I'll leave you with the opening poem in Cooper's text - something I think we might all hope remotely pertains to us someday:

The beauty of his better self lives on
In minds he touched with fire, in many an eye
He trained to Truth’s exact severity;
He was a Teacher: why be grieved for him
Whose living word still stimulates the air?
In endless file shall loving scholars come
The glow of his transmitted touch to share
Lowell, Agassiz

Field Camp House of Horrors

2008-08-04T18:14:00.005-05:00

This is my submission for last month's Accretionary Wedge hosted by Ron Schott. My posting is late, so hopefully I'll sneak in under the wire - which is related my field camp story...

I was that student that took all my classes backwards. I took structure before mineralogy, field camp before structure, and the capstone historical geology course after taking Intro and a course called mass extinctions. I had two notebooks for each class, the one where I wrote all the class notes and the other is where I listed all the words I had to look up because I had NO clue what they meant. Somehow it all managed to work out, advising aside, and themes and relationships coalesced. I was lucky that most of my fellow classmates were supportive and taught me what they knew and I repaid my debt to other students when I eventually took mineralogy, igmetpet, structure, geochem, etc. I also had some great instructors who weren't going to hold anyone's hand and just pointed me to the raised bar...

My field camp was located on the NY/VT border in Castleton, VT and Whitehall, NY (well that's where most of our mapping was located). If you've ever been to the Taconics, you know that the rocks are pretty straightforward but the structure can be pretty ridiculous. My field partner was John Moss and his field camp experience was truly horrific. He was lucky enough to contract poison ivy in week one, rolled around in his sleeping bag and kept it for the ENTIRE duration. Yikes! John and I also shredded ourselves hiking one particular power line infested with blackberry brambles... they were so amazingly tasty, but we definitely paid for that day in blood. But those are the fun stories...

We managed to map 90% of field area without anyone getting upset or angry, although we were asked numerous times if we were looking for oil or gold and if we found any that we couldn't keep it. Fair enough, but we told them not to hold their breath. However, we met one interesting ol' Vermonter who was adamant that we not traverse his property. He was mean, swore at us, threatened us and was downright un-neighborly. So we did what any two young geologists would do given the predicament of not being able to walk the middle of the field map (yes, it was smack in the middle of our map) - we waited until Sunday morning service and pouring rain and walked his property. We were psyched to collect the data until... we found the reason why he didn't want us on his property. He had two huge fields filled with 50-gallon drums of "something," there were 18-wheeler bodies filled with "stuff," and what looked like huge (12-18 inch) oil pipeline shut off valves, 90's, 45's and t's. John and I also thought, in our infinite 20 year old wisdom, that it would be a good idea to trespass wearing a bright orange gore-tex jacket and a bright yellow rain parka... So we ran. And ran. And ran. We were scared out of our mind, envisioning Mr. Happy firing away at us from across the field. Needless to say, we survived but learned a wonderful life lesson - scattered outcrop isn't worth dying over...

But the real story, for me, of field camp occurred on the day I refer to as "penance." For what I'm not sure, but I paid for all my trespassing sins on August 9th, 1997. It started out with a hot drizzly, humid morning and we were mapping on a farm in Whitehall. There is nothing more enjoyable than field mapping scattered outcrop between cow piles, your compass takes on a wonderful odor after contact with the ground enough times. As we were traversing a sloped wooded area, I slipped on some wet leaves and managed to butt slide all the way to the bottom into a barbed wire fence. Sweet. I tore up my pants and both legs and even a bit of my arm. So I cursed out the leaves, and the rain, and the slope and told John I was done for the day and that we were going to the rope swing. THE rope swing I should say, because it was the most amazing rope swing I had ever experienced in New England. Someone had climbed a towering pine tree at the edge of the Mettowee River in Granville, NY and installed a 3" braided rope. You grabbed the roped and walked away from the river, upslope for ~30-40 feet where you found a tree with a tree stand ~10 feet high. So you climbed the tree stand, jumped out holding onto the rope, enjoyed a few seconds of free fall and then you were whipped down the slope out over the river and you could let go at your leisure (as long as you didn't slam into the opposite bank, which is how someone died a few years ago and so the pine tree was cut down).

However, on this day my hands were either sweaty, I was tired, or just not paying attention and when I jumped out of the tree stand, my hands slid down the rope, giving me a rope burn on both hands (I did hold on though so I didn't fly into the ground). Sweet action #2. So now I'm sliced and diced by the barbwire and have matching blisters the size of half dollars on each hand. Wow, what an awful day you say? It's not over...

Now I'm really in a bad mood, John drives us back to our campground at Bomoseen State Park, and he offers to make dinner. So I wander into the group camping area and my TA Nick Hayman, now at the Institute for Geophysics at the Jackson School, has a friend visiting from Albany. His friend has a chow. I love dogs and had spent the last 3 weeks approaching strange dogs in the process of mapping strangers property. Yet, here I am in "my" campsite, offer my hand to a wagging, tongue-lolling chow and, yup, CHOMP. 10 puncture wounds in my right hand. Sweet action #3. This is the point when it just became funny, and John and I laughed until our sides hurt (not right away though, I was definitely in pain).

I learned a lot of lessons during field camp, many were geology related but most were "life" related. I've heard so many amazing "field camp was awesome" stories over the last 14 years and I had an amazing time teaching field camp in graduate school, but the amazing time I had during my field camp was definitely altered by that one day.

There are also a few stories about a lost rock hammer, riding horses without saddles, feeding bulls gorp, and trying to trick Nick with furnace slag... but I'll save those for another time. Looking forward to reading others stories!!!

p.s. - I need to track down John so he can substantiate this story, I know it sounds crazy!

Future Geologist?

2008-06-23T18:10:00.003-05:00

You have to feel sorry for this poor kid, BUT I imagine this prompted him to ask "why" is that one deeper than the others! It also may have scarred him for life and he'll never explore another mud puddle, sandbox, or swiftly moving river again! But seriously, that's a deep hole with no real evidence explaining why... I've seen potholes like that before, but not puddles! I'm guessing man made (like when I tried to dig to China), but maybe you have some other ideas!

Accretionary Wedge #10: Geology in Art

2008-06-17T13:57:00.006-05:00

Johan Christian Claussen Dahl: Outbreak of the Vesuvius (1826)

Well, depending on your geographic location, you have may have been experiencing similar thunderstorms as those blanketing Vermont - so I've stayed away from the computer until it seemed safe again! We had a great turnout and I'm thrilled to write up this summary.

I think a lot of scientists live with the dogma that they aren't necessarily artistic or creative (i.e. - the whole left versus right brain argument). But geology is a science driven in many cases solely by imagination and creativity, which then leads to an artistic representation or recreation of a time we'll never visit, a place we'll never see with our own eyes, or an organism that was only partially preserved. Not only do I believe our science riddled with aesthetic values, but as your submissions indicate, many geologists also yearn to see our science within 'traditional' art, literature, music, etc.

Within the genre of paintings/sketches, Hypocentre offers an abstract representation of the Law of Cross-Cutting relationships from Glen Tilt painted by John Clerk for James Hutton, David over at Cryology and Co. provides a link to a fascinating sequence of glacial landscapes and a discussion on the climatic inferences one can make from historical paintings, Silver Fox describes a beautiful McLure's Magazine cover meant to illicit and capture the life of early prospecting in Montana, Tuff Cookie posted both paintings and photos while discussing the early expedition into Yellowstone and the significance of Thomas Moran's work in preserving this region (for past and future field camp visits?), Kim offers up a double dose of art with a Chinese painting and poem, one which I think all of us can identify with, EffJot posted a beautiful cross-section, complete with historical context, which is housed in the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Resources - I wish I had the pleasure of walking by that one every day, and Dr. Ralph Harrington writes with exceptional talent describing Sir William Hamilton's "Campi Phlegraei: Observations on the Volcanos of the Two Sicilies" and provides a few beautiful examples from this monograph. If I remember correctly, Hamilton is the guy who carried all sorts of materials and objects up Vesuvius to throw into the lava streams just to see "what would happen" - but I might be mistaken. And finally, albeit belatedly, Chris reminds us all that geologic maps are not only informative and fun to make, but art themselves. My undergraduate structure professor once told me that when making your map, if you're confused about the geology in an area to "color it beautifully" to make up for that fact... This was tongue in cheek of course, but a reference to the aesthetics one should consider in mapping!

Within the genre of geologic materials, Andrew asks us to keep an eye out for anthropomorphic features in outcrop - clearly a fan of The Old Man in the Mountain, Coconino explores the link between geology and architecture in Los Angeles - and made me jealous with her choice in countertops, similarly the Lost Geologist gives us an e-walking-tour exploring Berlin's building/carving stone origins - this seems to be a topic that is ripe for exploration in almost any city, perhaps the online geocommunity needs to provide such a service for the world? An online repository of virtual building/carving stone tours?

Within the genre of the written, the read, and the sung - Geotripper revels us with a short rendition of Landslide (anyone else care to "chime" in on their favorite geo-song), Harmonic Tremors describes a fascinating relationship between geologic processes, culture, and Javanese music, goodSchist posts a beautifully chilling Maori legend surrounding Mount Taranaki (and manages to sneak the word Emo into the post) and also provides a link to a recent discussion that might be of interest, and finally Brian posts yet another geo-relevant song - Rift by Phish - which conjures up images of topography and should metaphorically elicit a response from any geologist!

It's a small n I know, but it seems as though geologists are still drawn to the visual - the paintings and sketches that we can interpret through 'scientific' eyes. The paintings of Moran, Cole, Turner, Brueghel, Friedrich, Church, etc., are easily appreciated and interpreted by our well-trained eyes. It was a real treat to see where people took this Wedge and I look forward to future posts on the topic, whether individual or whether we choose to tackle a more specific genre (e.g. - geology in music). Finally, there are some wonderful books out there that provide more information on this alternative perspective of our science: Romantic Rocks, Aesthetic Geology, Bedrock: Writers on the Wonder of Geology, and a new release I just saw in GSAToday is Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape. Thanks, this was a blast and very informative!

Volcano Tour of Italy...

2008-06-11T10:43:00.007-05:00

I wanted to share a few photos from a trip I took in April visiting all of the "major" volcanoes in southern Italy. I took a train from Meran to Milan and then flew EasyJet to Catania, a relatively painless traveling day. Saturday morning I awoke in the 'Sea and Volcano Room' at the Catania City Center B&B to a fabulous view of Etna.

I then took a trip up Etna with Etna Excursions, but by the time we arrived on the mountain, it was windy and snowy, so I didn't get to see much of the volcano. We traveled across various aged lava flows and poked around a little lava tube but it was fairly anticlimactic given the photos I've seen of Etna...

I traveled north to Messina via TrenItalia and caught an UsticaLines ferry to Vulcano. I can tell you that off-season on Vulcano is quiet... It took quite some time to find a room, not because it was crowded, but because so many of the pensions were closed! I headed up the main street, Vicolo Vulcano, and then up a well-worn path to the rim of Vulcano. Luckily I passed a sign that was clearly put there for geologists (I was informed by a National Park Service employee in Hawaii how crazy we all are) warning about the fumerols.

The wind was incredibly strong and blowing the nasty air away from me, otherwise I wouldn't have wandered so close (ok, maybe)... I took a few movies, none of which capture the true nature of standing on the rim of this mellowly belching volcano.

Honestly, with the wind, there was little danger of inhaling much of anything, in fact this was the front of a scirrocco that blew up from Africa, the next day I could see dust veils carried to the west. This fresh sulfur will likely make its way down to Vulcano and sold to tourists throughout the summer, a renewable source of income!

I continued on to Stromboli, the 'jewel' of my trip... You have to summit Stromboli with a guide, as far as I could tell there are only two, but perhaps more during the summer months. I summited with Mario Pruiti, a guide working for MagmaTrek. The hike took about 3.5 hours with a large group, it's probably 2 hours if you could just hike up on your own. The sun started to set as we reached the summit, so we were offered a beautiful sunset and an amazing light show. Mario informed us that this was as active as Stromboli had been in 3 weeks. I've been close to lava before in Hawaii National Park, but that was flowing lava not erupting pyroclastics. Watching the cinder cone develop as debris fell was fascinating... so was listening to and feeling the volcano beneath you. A living and breathing system indeed...

Just a smattering of the photos I took along the way, eventually I'll build a more comprehensive flash gallery of the rest, including a few photos from Pompeii and Vesuvius... I was underwhelmed at Pompeii to be honest, mainly because of the 1000's of people clogging the streets in April, I'm scared to think of what it's like in August!!! If you're planning a trip to any of these volcanoes, shoot me an email and I'll see if I can offer any help to make it run more smoothly!

Seeking Submissions for Accretionary Wedge #10: Aesthetic Geology - Geology in Art

2008-06-05T17:52:00.007-05:00

Kilauea on Oil by Ernst William Christmas, 1816-1818

The joys of a dead laptop in a foreign country! Sorry I've been away so long again, I returned from Italy and I'm now officially requesting submissions for geology in art (e.g. - paintings, poetry, literature, sculpture, buildings, etc). This possibilities are ENDLESS and I'm really excited to see what you've discovered over the years! I'm bummed that I missed out on Wedge #9 - Significant Geologic Events, although I'm wondering if in a group of this many scientists, did anyone ask how we were defining "significant?" Sorry, flashback to graduate school...

The deadline for submission is June 15 (even though it says June 8th on the Accretionary Wedge schedule) and my only request is that we try to dig up as much background as possible on the origin of the work and possible influences on the artist. Please add a link to your submission in the comments section or shoot me an email.

Let the mafic creativity flow!!!

I never thought I'd see the day...

2008-04-02T17:37:00.003-05:00

If only I could convince friends and family that hunting relict permafrost was so exciting and dangerous...

Geologic Dogma...

2008-03-29T15:30:00.011-05:00

Mikhail Lomonosov from here

You would think I wouldn't be surprised at myself, at my shock and awe, of having a seemingly "late-stage" epiphany regarding the dogmatic content and slanted perception of Western geology education... But yesterday I was slapped in the face with yet another example of how little is taught regarding the historical evolution of geology as a science (i.e. - most geology programs). I recently read somewhere (on another geology blog, I've searched for it but I can't find it), someone else pondering how Hutton, Lyell, Smith, and Wegner are mentioned, but not fully explored. We teach Historical Geology, where we might also mention Werner, Steno, Agassiz, Bretz, etc., but we don't teach a course devoted to the History of Geology. Granted, most programs are already strapped to cover the traditional disciplines - I mean, when I took mineralogy it was already optical and physical balled up into one course (I still feel gypped)... OH, and I had to learn about Dana in graduate school on my own? I digress.

My thoughts are driven by a few articles I read in Geo-Alp, a yearly journal published by the University of Innsbruck and the Natural History Museum of South Tyrol in Bozen, Italy. I wish I could read and speak German, however the journal publishes some articles in both English and German, much to my personal frustration (I chose the option of learning Visual Basic, some Action Script, and CSS instead of a foreign language). My first introduction to the idea that geology existed outside the confines of the traditional players occurred while I was a TA for Historical Geology and Stephen Rowland mentioned a name I'd never heard of: Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov. Huh? Wegner wasn't the only person toying with the idea of Continental Drift? Why hadn't anyone mentioned that before? And thus, my interest in the history of geology as a science began. So, as I started, I shouldn't have been surprised to read about Otto Ampferer (1875-1947) or Giovanni Arduino (1714-1795).

Herr Otto also contemplated the modern concepts of Continental Drift and Sea Floor Spreading while mapping the Northern Calcareous Alps. In addition to describing overthrusting and nappes, he envisions something he called aufsteigende Unterströmung - or rising currents that "break through the continental masses and drives them apart" (Krainer and Hauser, 2007). And he penned an article titled "Thoughts About the Geodynamics of the Atlantic Space" in 1941. So Otto was post-Wegner, but he described the possibility of a mechanism that we now generally credit to much later workers. I'd never heard of him... After rummaging around online, I found some references to more recent texts (Şengör, 2003 and Foulgar, 2005), and I have to admit I'm not likely to pick either of these up for pleasure reading.

I had at least heard of Arduino before because I purchased The Origins of Geology in Italy prior to leaving for the semester (still working my way through it). I hadn't read Vaccari's article though, so I hadn't seen Arduino's lithostratigraphic theory, which I'm assuming was influenced by Werner's Vonden äusserlichen Kennzeichen der Fossilien (On the External Characters of Fossils, or of Minerals) in 1774, who was influenced by Johann Gottlob Lehmann (1719-1767). Yet, when I visited the Kansas Geological Survey, they claim Arduino first proposed the idea of Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary. I wish I had a scanner so I could share a simplified version of Arduino's classificiation, but it's very similar to Werner's. Here's a complicated hard to read one from here:

So I guess the point in my rambling, the question I've been asking myself, is how many Lomonosov's and Ampferer's don't I (we?) know about because of the Western bias in our education system? Were there no Romanian, Chilean, Japanese, etc., geologists that pre-dated the "known suspsects?" I guess we know of lots of these folks, they are showing up in specialized textbooks and special bulletins, but I'm guessing most of us don't have the spare time to explore all the other areas we probably enjoyed as undergraduates, but didn't happen to specialize in (e.g. - I'm really intrigued by ophiolites but I'm probably not going to pick up a special paper on them!). To soothe my intellectual fumbling, I just ordered "Thinking about Earth: A History of Ideas in Geology" - but even 1996 feels outdated. Perhaps a sabbatical project?

Postscript: As I was looking around for information on Otto Ampferer, I stumbled across this image in Şengör,'s book:

There is a high-resolution version here. If you know where I can order a poster of this beautiful piece of artwork let me know. Thanks!

Aesthetic Geology....

2008-03-25T16:06:00.009-05:00

Frederick Edwin Church - The Natural Bridge, Virgina: 1852

I've been mentally developing (and actively collecting material) for a course I'd like to teach titled "Aesthetic Geology" modeled after a this wonderful book (although far to clunky to use as a textbook). I'm a fan of both the literary and graphic representation of geology in a variety of mediums - especially historical photography. Most geologists are familiar with the standard McPhee, Lopez, and Abbey possibilities, etc., but there are many other literary possibilities (e.g. - Muir, Voltaire, Perry, Cook, etc) a plethora of possible paintings to interpret (e.g. - Cole, Church, Durand, etc.) and numerous possibilities with respect to photography... So, when I stumbled across some interesting woodcuts from a Hungarian? mineralogy text and cross sections from a French mineralogy text, I wanted to share. Not only are they "attractive" but the geologic depictions are of course interesting... I'm always amazed at the detail and care taken in early scientific woodcuts/illustrations - in comparison to my geologic and petrologic sketches (regardless of how many hours I spent staring down a scope, my sketches were NEVER artistic!). Enjoy, and if you have a favorite poem or painting, let me know! Another possible Accretionary Wedge?

Accretionary Wedge: Geology in Film

2008-03-17T15:53:00.011-05:00

I relish the thought of being able to fully partake in this particular "wedge" but sadly I don't have all my notes from a course I've taught a few times titled 'Geology in Film.' It's just a 1-credit fun course that looks at the reality of science in Hollywood depictions of geology, geologists, and geologic events (I think this type of course is catching favor these day)... As we all know, the science is pathetic but the entertainment is fantastic!

So here are a few of my favorites per Tuff Cookie's request. Although I thoroughly enjoy the traditional classics (i.e. - Earthquake, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Volcano, Dante's Peak, etc), I'm drawn to the esoteric (or what I believe to be esoteric).

One of the best (I mean worst, I mean best...) films that offer a horrific view into the geology behind volcanic eruptions is "When Time Ran Out (1980)" - even though Paul Newman is in it and provides gloriously awkward dialog. Again, without my notes, what I remember best is a "lava level" diagram depicting subsurface magma levels, traditional Hollywood volcanic eruptions (i.e. - ridiculous explosions), and the view of LAVA (Jello?) from a poorly constructed wood bridge. You would think by the time Hollywood made Volcano/Dante's Peak they would have found someone to differentiate between felsic and mafic eruptions AND create a realistic volcanic eruption (OK, DP wasn't that bad)...

Another older favorite is "The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)" - a tragic story of nuclear weapons and orbital chaos... meaning a Cold War nuclear race between the US and USSSR causes Earth's orbit to shift hurtling us towards the sun. Not classical geology (maybe someone would even argue solely astronomy, but I've used it in class and watch it with glee nevertheless).

Some of my other favorites include At the Earth's Core (1976), Krakatao: East of Java (1969), and When Worlds Collide (1959). The eruption scene in Krakato is unbelievably long and fabulously innacurate! When Worlds Collide (similar to The Day the Earth Caught Fire) is riddled with Cold War references of course appalling geology. I strongly recommend watching them just for the sheer thrill of poor cinematography, dialog, plot, and of course even worse scientific accuracy... I apologize for not being to pull out "all the stops" on this one, but I think I'll repost once I get back to the US and add in my observations. I'm looking forward to seeing if anyone has any new ones I can add to my collection...

My Collection in no particular order:

All of the above, Meteor, Armageddon, Earthquake, Tremors, A View to A Kill, 10.5, Magma: Volcanic Disaster, Twister, Aftershock: Earthquake in New York, Deep Impact, Asteroid, One Million BC, The Lost Volcano, The Big One, Earthquake in NY, Killer Flood: The Day the Dam Broke, and probably a few more I can't remember right now... It grows each time they put out another bit of ridiculousness...

Brunnenburg Semester Program

2008-03-06T13:29:00.010-05:00

Its been too long, I know that because I just looked at the last post I made last fall AND I received a nice reminder from Ron... Good to know that someone out there actually reads this stuff! I took a "break" as I was preparing for a semester abroad teaching at Brunnenburg Castle in the South Tirol of northern Italy. The castle overlooks the city of Meran near the village of Tirol (a.k.a. - Dorf Tirol).

View Larger Map

It is an amazing intersection of German/Italian and mountain/valley cultures framed by some incredibly geology and influenced by a remarkable history. As I was preparing for a discussion on the regional geology, I realized just HOW intimately linked this region is in the development of the science of geology and the geologic time scale... The Jura Mountains lie to the northwest, and although the link to the Jurassic Period is clear, the evolution of Agassiz's hypotheses regarding continental scale glaciation also blossomed in these mountains! I was lucky enough to find a reprint of his 1840 "Études sur les glaciers, Neuchâtel" - complete with woodcuts and transparent sketches- on Ebay a few years ago. For a really nice interdisciplinary analysis of the quest to understand "ice" - I recommend The Ice Finders, in which Bolles weaves the lives of Agassiz, Kane (one of my favorite explorers), and Lyell into a fascinating story!

Sections from the Jesse Earl Hydge Collection

Lithograph from Etudes sur les glaciers, 1840

Similarly, we are close to a number of localities (e.g. - Tuscany, Florence, Appenine Mountains, etc) visited by Nicholas Steno (1669) - (including many Wunderkammer - or cabinets of wonder or curiosity). One of the most famous is Ole Worm's Wunderkammer depicted below. Most importantly, this is the region that helped shaped his thoughts on superposition/stratigraphy and dogma surrounding the age of the Earth (also where he wrote the Prodromus).

Ole Worm's Wunderkammer.
For an excellent discussion of the relationship between Steno and the Wunderkammer I recommend Rosenburg's 2006 article in Geology.

Brunnenburg also isn't "too far" from Frieberg, Germany where Abraham Gottlob Werner (1787) was trained, taught, developed his concept of Neptunism, that is rocks crystallizing out of early oceans, and his classification scheme for rocks (Primitive, Secondary, Transition, Tertiary, and Volcanic) - which our modern geology time scale still borrows from (e.g. - Tertiary/Quaternary).

Comparison of Hutton and Werner - from here

And one can't live in Italy without thinking of Gubbio... Made famous (geologically) by Alvarez et al. 1980 after publishing: "Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction" after finding high concentrations of Iridium. This was groundbreaking work given the general acceptance of Uniformitarianism and difficulty Gene Shoemaker had in convincing the scientific community that catastrophic impacts played an important role within this accepted philosophy. Almost any 101 geology student can identify the K-T boundary as the point where dinosaurs exist and then cease to exist, but being able to touch that boundary (littered with extraterrestrial material) would be truly amazing... (Hint, hint... hoping to visit).

Field photo in Gubbio from here

There are obviously more geologic links to this region and I'll be posting more frequently now, updating with photos and trip descriptions... Look for an upcoming post on Erdpyramiden, and Mt Etna! Until then, here's a view looking northeast from Tirol towards the Passeital Mountains through a vineyard (the proper way to admire mountains here).

Scientific Method?

2007-11-12T16:59:00.000-05:00

I followed Chris's link to the Blog Readability Test and found that I too had somehow (good lord, read my posts, how is this possible), achieved genius status... and I thought, clearly the algorithm is faulty!

So I decided to test the algorithm through a series of rigorous and scientifically sound methods (e.g. - copy and paste). So here are the results:

1. MoronLife : Elementary School

I wanted to see if I could force the issue so this was not a random choice. It didn't fail to fulfill my expectations.

2. CashAdvance1500: Junior High School

I'm not sure if anyone else saw the extra code added to the blog readability results, but I thought I would test the site they are promoting...

3. Republican National Committee: College (Undergrad)

Then I thought, why not compare similar organizations that everyone is familiar with... I'm not making a political statement, just presenting the hard cold "data" that I collected during my strenuous testing efforts.

4. The Democratic Party: Genius

Maybe that's why they struggled to regain control, the Democrats are speaking over all our heads, and we really don't understand what they're saying?

5. The National Academy of Science: Genius

Well, this was good news...

6. NASA: High School

Not sure if it's good news or not? Does that mean I can be an astronaut?

7. National Public Radio: High School

I think this IS good, they're reaching all their viewers, not just those elite, liberal, lefty, hippies. Wait a a second....

8. C-Span: Unable to check URL

WOW, even computer algorithms are bored by C-Span...

9. FOXNews: High School

I'm seeing a trend in our news that I actually like, presenting information that everyone can access. Kudos for us!

10. BBC: Elementary School
11. CBC: Genius

I wouldn't have guess that, I assumed we would see genius for both of those sources... I have yet to crack the code...

12. Drudge Report: Elementary School

There's good news...

13. Michael Moore: Elementary School

Propaganda does have to be accessible to the masses...

14. Ann Coulter: Genius

Just what she needs, something more to swell her ego!

15. Rosie O'Donnell: High School

I just thought, with all the hoopla she's been garnering over the last few months, maybe she was saying something important...

16. Rush Limbaugh: High School

I think he needs lessons from Michael Moore

17. Apple: College (Undergrad)
18. Microsoft: College (Undergrad)

Didn't Steve Jobs drop out of college, like 6 times? I'm pretty sure Bill didn't graduate... Just ironic, I'm not passing judgment.

19. Yahoo: Junior High School
20. AOL: Junior High School
21. Google: Genius

I'm sure everyone has been to Google... so you KNOW how sparse it is! This one blew my mind, especially since Yahoo and AOL (cluttered, cluttered, cluttered) fall in the Jr. High ranking... I'm confused.

22. Wikipedia: Genius

I guess this is good since this is where everyone turns to for all their information, at least we have the perception that it's a reliable online "genius."

23. NFL.com: Elementary School
24. NHL.com: Elementary School
25. NBA.com: High School
26. USSoccer.com: High School
27. Tennis.com: Junior High School
28. PGA.com: Junior High School

Again, I'm not passing judgment, I LOVE sports. But an interesting trend nevertheless.

Finally, I wanted to see how our geologic societies measure up (for the geologists in the crowd):

1. Geological Society of America: Genius
2. American Geophysical Union: College (undergrad)
3. United States Geological Survey: Genius
4. American Petroleum Institute: College (undergrad)
5. The Geological Society: Genius
6. American Association of Petroleum Geologists: Genius
7. American Institute of Professional Geologists: Genius
8. The American Geological Institute: College (post grad)
9. The Paleontological Society: College (post grad)
10. British Society for Geomorphology: Genius

I'm sure some of your favorite links or societies you're a member are missing... sorry. Looks like we're doing a good job of talking to ourselves though, I guess that's why they exist, professional development, sharing of science, etc., etc. But I agree with Chris, NO ONE else is probably visiting or enjoying those sites. :) However, I'm not as distraught as Chris that my blog was ranked in the genius category, not until they explain how this algorithm works, until then it will just be utter rubbish! I mean the algorithm, not my blog... I think.

Paleontological B.F.F

2007-11-07T18:36:00.001-05:00

I'm currently working on a suite of bumper stickers, mugs, t-shirts, etc., displaying my warped (plastically deformed) sense of geologic humor... I won't be ready to go 'public' for awhile, but I thought I'd post a preview of the fun to come. If you've taken Historical Geology, Sed/Strat, or Paleontology, you've probably heard of Cope and Marsh (if not, Romer (1964) provides a great summary of their relationship). Or you can pick up Bonehunters Revenge, also a fun read. Enjoy!

Yardangs... Of The Mega Persuasion

2007-11-07T17:41:00.001-05:00

I really love landforms and the fact that both similar and varied processes can create a suite of similar landforms (e.g. - diamictons represent a wonderful challenge). I just finished reading Goudie, A.S., 2007, Mega-Yardangs: A Global Analsysis. I couldn't find an online PDF version and I'm pretty sure if I post the PDF I can go to Yardang jail... or I might get a nasty email. Regardless of my law abiding behavior, the article provided some wonderful literary enjoyment (not something typical in a peer-reviewed science journal). I'll probably get harassed for that comment.

Goudie essentially provides a global perspective on the distribution, morhphology, and historical documentation of yardangs. I have a particular interest in understanding where our geologic jargon is derived and his explanation of the origin is that yar- is a Turkestani word that translates to ridge or steep bank, without explaining the -dang. DANG. However, I found a very interesting discussion of this word (believe it or not, people other than geologists find this word intriguing enough to research its origins too). The interpretation on that site suggests -dang (or dan) translates to "fall from a steep cliff" and that the original spelling was jardang. Goudie also provides an Iranian? term to describe these regionally extensive ridge and swale landforms - kaluts and two additional French terms - crêtes and couloirs (Fr. = to slide or flow, to strain). That isn't how I use the word couloir... No wonder our students get frustrated with yargon (I mean jargon).

Goudie also provides some wonderful excerpts from Hedin (1903). I'll only quote part of his quote - "They assumed the shapes of lions in ambush, recumbent dragons, inscrutable sphinxes and sleeping dogs." and Bagnold (1939) described yardangs in Egypt as "mud lions." Although I recognize the importance of well-established terminology and descriptive sciences, you have to admit it would incredible fun to write a peer-reviewed journal article that included prose like that! I may have to add a dragon yardang to my list of potential cartoons.

I'll leave you with a nice historical photo of a possible yardang in China, you should know by now how much I like these kind of photos.

EDIT: Thanks to Chris for posting a working link to a full version of Goudie's article.

Geologic Humor...

2007-10-31T16:05:00.001-05:00

I've scoured the internet looking for geology humor and it's hard to find... there are some funny Far Sides, but nothing specifically geared towards geology. So I thought I would start creating some, here's my first episode. I have about 50 ideas written down, many of them are far more subtle and 'geologically dorky' than this one. And most of them are less juvenile, but I couldn't help myself... I'll bet we either see some of our students or even ourselves in this episode or future episodes. I'm working on the second episode, not as colorful or as long, but hopefully funny. Comments are welcome, and if you have concepts for a cartoon you'd like to see come to fruition, let me know. Be sure to click the image for a higher resolution version.

Where on (Google) Earth #68?

2007-10-31T15:47:00.000-05:00

I found Ron's volcano hiding on Papua New Guinea so I get the honor of posting the next installment of WoGE. In keeping with the recent oblique views, I'm posting what I think is a beautiful oblique landscape (vertical exaggeration = 1.5). Hopefully it will bring hours of viewing pleasure, although I think we're all surprised at how adept folks are at finding our best attempts to 'stump the geologist.' I did select this particular vantage point to provide a few clues and to challenge all at the same time. For first-timers, see Ron's post on how he 'tracks' geology in the wild!

The Schott rule is in effect, meaning that any previous winner has to wait one hour for every WoGE they've identified. Have fun and good luck! (Post Time = 5:00PM EST)

Field Camp Reflections...

2007-10-26T09:17:00.000-05:00

In the process of backing up my computer before reformatting and installing Gutsy, I came across a few photos from a field camp I TA'd for in graduate school. We were in the Grouse Creek Mountains (camping at the base of Twin Peaks) in NW Utah. It was a pretty fantastic location, both for camping and geology! Just wanted to share a few of the field photos...

This is a wave-scoured Bonneville age shoreline, just south of the Grouse Creeks. Fantastic polish and terraces cut into the quartzite! It's possible to find these remnant shorelines in Google Earth if you're persistent, I failed to find this exact one though...

I remember the actual day in structural geology when Bill Kid described boudinage. "It's French, for sausage." For some reason this was really funny at the time, but fascinating nevertheless. I have photos of boudinage from all over the place now, excellent indicators of a shear zone in an extensional regime.

A really nice fold in Paleozoic Quartzite of Clark's Basin, this was one of my favorite units during field camp.

Another incredible fold in the Ordovician Pogonip Group (named after Pogonip Ridge in White Pine County, NV). You can see a 'glimmer' of the landscape in the background, truly a wonderful field site.

I don't remember the mountain now, but I remember it was on the way to the local general store, I hope they're still going! Couldn't help myself, an active Utah volcano, it's so rare. :)

Gorgeous stretched pebble conglomerate, I have quite a few samples of this outcrop to illustrate ductile deformation. Always nice to reflect on previous field sites, thought someone might enjoy the images.

Gutsy Gibbon Running!

2007-10-22T19:29:00.000-05:00

I had Gutsy up and running a few days ago, but it took a few days to find the time to tweak it so I'm making the most of Compiz... I'm running Kiba-Dock, Screenlets, and making full use of the eye candy. Anyway, attached a few screenshots for your drooling pleasure. :) The trash can is accessible on the Dock and the pot in the lower left corner is my 'widget' plant. No 'geological' desktop yet , I really enjoyed this carton.

Kansas Geology - Off the Beaten Path

2007-10-22T10:49:00.000-05:00

I told Ron I'd post a few of my Kansas photos, so there they are! The last time I drove cross country I visited a few 'out of the way' places in Kansas (who says there isn't cool geology there?!). Well, I have to admit I was a little disappointed at Mushroom Rock State Park, for some reason I thought it was going to be bigger with more landforms. However, an excellent example of differential weathering, sandstone concretions, and well-preserved cross bedding in the Dakota Formation. The first image is a nice historical photo circa 1867 that I extracted from Charlton, J., 2001, Views and Reports of the Dakota Sandstone Formation, Mushroom Rock, 1867-2001.

And these are a few of my photos - again, take note of the differences in field apparel... As nostalgic as it looks, I don't see myself dressing up for fieldwork.

My second trip took me to Monument Rocks (a.k.a - Chalk Pyramids)... this was a really cool spot with a fantastic drive up through fields of grazing Angus (well, technically NOT through the field, the road was adjacent to the fields)... These features are remnants of the Niobrara Chalk Formation that formed during the time of the Great Interior Seaway. Some of these monuments are 70-80' high. Charlton and Merriam (2003) offer an interesting look at the changing landscape of this very unique location. Interestingly enough, I couldn't find the true origin of the word Niobrara - the Lexicon of Geologic Names of United States states "Named for exposures along Missouri River near mouth of Niobrara River, Knox, Co., Nebraska." And apparently Niobrara River was name after Fort Niobrara, but no clue as to where that name came from? However, to no one's surprise, Marsh named this formation (1875) ...

I really enjoyed tracking down the articles and historical photos for these two locations, I wish I had the time to explore ALL the facinating outcrops I've visited... Retirement?

Where on (Google) Earth # 64

2007-10-19T23:55:00.000-05:00

I finally found one! After 3 attempts to keep up with everyone, I found the Pavlof Volcanoes that Brian posted for WoGE #63. I don't have any intimate knowledge of the location I'm posting here, there is just a LOT of cool geology going on in this image... For some reason my north arrow didn't save with the image, but north IS the top of the image.

The Schott rule is in effect, meaning that any previous winner has to wait one hour for every WoGE they've identified. Have fun and good luck!

EDIT: Posting time is actually October 20, 9:30AM EST. Blogger apparently posted my initial draft time.

Geology Desktop Images...

2007-10-19T11:50:00.000-05:00

This is my current desktop - I love the interpretation and exaggeration imposed by the artist (here's another by the same artist). I really like exploring the 'geology' paintings and drawings, I've been toying with the idea of teaching a Geology of Literature and Art course, tons of prep as it's a bit out of my field (i.e. - art appreciation) but very exciting to think about. There are some great sites out there with fantastic desktop opportunities, this is one of my favorites. Just wondering what other geology folks have for their desktop images? I rotate through every few months, sometimes field photos and sometimes painting, and sometimes silly cartoons like this. I guess those are supposed to be mud volcanoes? Explore the BlueBison site, there are some great cartoons on there illustrating karst, fluvial, coastal and eolian geomorphology! :) This is my next desktop (already selected)...

Speaking of desktop opportunities, I'm dual-booting my desktop today (upgraded the laptop tonight) with the latest release of Kubunto. Now if only ESRI would release a linux based ArcGIS!!! :) WINE just doesn't cut it with that beast!

Geological Attire...

2007-10-17T20:11:00.000-05:00

I think I could identify a geologist based solely on their typical attire (e.g. - look around at GSA this year)... However, this photo really heralds back to an age when either:

1. Geologists dressed up for field work
2. Field assistants dressed up for field work
3. Geologists explored outcrops before church
4. Geologists invited lawyers to stand in their photos for scale

Either way this is a fantastic photo, both because of the very cool geologic context and the fancy smancy clothes. The image is from the Jesse Early Hyde Lantern Collection at Case Western University. From time to time I think I'll head into the archives and pull out an interesting photo...

Note: the caption on this slide is:
Concretions in Ohio shale, near Columbus

Discovering the 'rock' gene?

2007-10-17T19:41:00.000-05:00

Our library just received a copy of Geo Families, a 'geology documentary' - how cool is that!? I haven't watched it yet, probably tomorrow night, but here's the trailer and I'll update this post with a review:

UPDATED 10/29/07:

First, let me state that I enjoyed the movie - a documentary about geologists is a long time coming. I enjoyed the relationships highlighted between these families and the facility they all had with geologic jargon, what a treat! The sense of community, respect, and awe that is instilled in most geologists really shined throughout the movie. There was a real passion displayed by the families that participated in this movie and I think that's typical regardless of discipline. My only complaint is that is that it focuses solely on petroleum/gas geologists. I don't have anything against that discipline, it just perpetuates the myth that 'geologists' seek out and extract resources. A process that is certainly necessary, but not one that fully describes the wide breadth of the science of geology.

Not that I'm offering, but maybe a future documentary could explore the history/evolution of some well-known geologists in their respective fields (Alvarez, Easterbrook, Moores, Atwater, etc. - make your own list) to explore the full spectrum of our field. It would be nice if the general public thought geology involved more than 'looking at rocks' and exploring for oil. :)

Blog Action Day?

2007-10-15T09:05:00.000-05:00

I'm usually not a fan of one day attempts at saving the earth... you know, things like the now famous "don't buy gas for a day" chain letters that were floating around for awhile (even though most of the profits are made on the upstream end of production). It also seems like a bad message to send - as if one day of effort can actually alter our consumerism ways, halt climate change, etc, etc. For the non-environmentalist, this may seem like a good idea and their inroad to doing 'their part' for the movement. "Hey I'm an environmentalist too, I didn't buy gas on May 15!"

Or the idea that celebrities should somehow be the voice of what I'm going to call the Environmental Movement 2.0. And I don't mean the movement reinvigorated by the internet (as is the case for Blog Action Day), rather I mean round two at convincing the world that humans aren't almighty beings that have the right to do and take what they wish without regard for the ecological impacts these behaviors might cause. This version of the movement is utilizing technology and modern communications in a fascinating way - but we're still using resources to spread the message. I'm less concerned with blogs, YouTube videos, RSS feeds, etc., informing the folks that want to be informed, I AM concerned that version 2.0 lacks a David Brower and that instead of having a leader, we have intelligent and passionate individuals embracing politicians and celebrities... It's wonderful that many of them want to 'join in the fun' - but they should play for real. I think it's fantastic that Al Gore can afford to purchase carbon offsets for his mansion (resources consumption = energy consumption), but that's not a reality for most of the world. I think we need to re-think this approach for version 2.1.0.0,. I'll even take an unstable beta, anything...

Anyway, I digress... today is apparently bog action day. I didn't know it was blog action day until I received an email informing me that today was so special (thanks Monique Couture). Here's their video as background:

So I read through some of the blogs this morning (e.g. - 50 ways to help the environment), and here's my conclusion: I spent too much time reading online and not enough time enjoying the foliage, the smell of leaves, and the sounds of geese fleeing the north... So here's my suggestion for those of you blogging and reading, go outside and appreciate a little slice of your own backyard!

Sustainability of Higher Education?

2007-10-11T09:34:00.000-05:00

Anyone in Higher Ed should be concerned with this graph! I'll come back to this post, but the rate of increase is shocking and if we project into the future, even tenured faculty should be concerned...

Geologic Propaganda?

2007-10-10T16:22:00.001-05:00

I recently received a bundle of information from the Petition Project, an organization out of California who's mission is to break the myth of Global Warming. They appear to be trying to accomplish this goal by sending scientists a letter containing a photocopy from an editorial posted in The Wall Street Journal and a printed article published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (JAPS). The title of the journal article is: "Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide" by Arthur Robinson, Noah Robinson, and Willie Soon (all with the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine). Although I can't find Willie Soon anywhere on the site (I think he's at the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory). Anyway, these are SMART guys, no doubt about it - but I question why their article was published in the JAPS rather than Science or Nature (I'm sure we'd hear things like "those journals are controlled by the liberal-minded academics who believe in global warming). Regardless, JAPS isn't a respected journal (I couldn't find it listed on the Science Citation Impact List!) nor is an editorial in the Wall Street Journal going to counterbalance the IPCC report or NUMEROUS other scientific journal articles published on the topic of climate change (one of the best I've read is Crutzen and Lelieveld, 2001. If you're REALLY interested in seeing my climate change bibliography, just shoot me an email and I'll post a condensed version (too irate right now). But here is a nice summary of the biased reporting associated with the JAPS.

I don't want to dive into the specifics of their argument, other folks are already picking it apart and that kind of critique isn't palatable for the masses (it's like when geneticists start talking about all their gene sites labeled with numbers and letters - yikes). I just want to look at their petition (read it here in full), which states:

"There is no convincing evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate."

Let's assume that statement is true - ok, NOR is there convincing evidence to the contrary! I know that many folks don't adhere to the precautionary principle, but these are DOCTORS, aren't they trained to err on the side of caution? So even if we throw out ALL the data that even remotely suggests the contrary to their thesis, isn't it in our best interest to be a little skeptical and concerned? Again, I don't want to debate the science (I'm just thinking logically here), I'll let the folks over at RealClimate.Org fight the good fight...

"Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth."

HUH? Seriously, these are doctors telling us that there too much of something can't potentially be dangerous or 'unhealthy.' Isn't there mantra, "everything in moderation?" Anyway, the American Academy of Family Physicians has a creed (read it here in full), which states:

"You and your family deserve high quality, affordable health care including treatment, prevention and health promotion... The specialty of family medicine trains me to care for the whole person."

It may be a little hokey, but I read between the lines here and wonder where our physicians turned climate experts have woven the concept of prevention into their beliefs and how they are focusing on the "whole earth" in context of climate change. I mean, do they have access to same supercomputing power that James Lovelock has access to? Are they REALLY experts on this topic? Don't they think an Earth Scientist might check up on a few of these details?

Sarcasm aside, I do wonder what they hoped to achieve. I imagine they will receive scathing criticism from earth scientists around the country and very little support for their cause - they do have an impressive number of folks signing on, however I did a small (n = 15) survey of a few of the names on their website and almost all of them are doctors... huh.

Sorry to rant, I prefer goofy comics and cool geology pics, but I just couldn't help myself. :)

Oh So True...

2007-10-10T10:42:00.000-05:00

Volcanism on my mind...

2007-10-02T18:15:00.001-05:00

Sorry, one last post... couldn't help myself, this video was just too amazing! Amateur video of an eruption of Villaricca, Chile. Enjoy!

Visit FlashEarth for a fantastic satellite photo!

Eruptions at Sea...

2007-10-02T17:41:00.000-05:00

Geologists are always happy when they are able to observe a geologic event, regardless of the magnitude (i.e. - I get excited when I watch sand grains saltating in rivers). However, we always get called out as 'happy' when a volcano erupts or an earthquake ruptures... we're not bad people, we just love our science. :) So when I heard a volcano had erupted off the coast of Yemen of course I was excited (but obviously hoping everyone was safely evacuated).

The island of Jabal al-Tair is to the west of Yemen and apparently began erupting Sunday, September 30. The island lies within a divergent boundary between the African and Arabian Plates. A fantastic example of rift-associated volcanism - an excellent North American corollary is the Rio Grande or the Mississippi River Valley, which is a failed rift. Check out FlashEarth for a close-up, zoom-enabled map of this region.

View Larger Map

Observational Sciences...

2007-10-02T17:12:00.001-05:00

Cartoons don't have to be elaborate or created by Pixar to be funny and engaging... The author of this site has an incredible sense of humor - but it's humor that makes you think. I found this one appropriate and meaningful given the current (continued...) debate of science versus religion.

In 1991 Stephen J. Gould published an article titled "Fall in the House of Ussher" in which he defended Ussher's age of the earth because he didn't believe in "the notion that progress in knowledge arises from victory in battle between science and religion, with religion defined as unthinking allegiance to dogma and obedience to authority, and science as objective searching for truth." The two videos below represent the continued debate between 'science and religion' within the field of geology. Both videos illustrate the dogmatic views held by each side (yes, I agree geologists can also be dogmatic) and neither presentation style is conducive to coming to some means of co-existing without sarcasm or muckraking.

The End of Summer...

2007-09-10T09:23:00.000-05:00

My motivation to sit down in front of a computer was a little low this summer... so it has been awhile since I've posted any thoughts or images, but I expect that since I'll be spending more time in the office that I'll be updating more frequently...

Earlier this summer I lead a field trip out west to explore the geology of western national parks (e.g. - Bryce, Zion, Capitol Reef, Tetons, Yellowstone and Great Basin). Eventually I'll add a page to my photo gallery, but for now I just wanted to share one of my favorite photos from the trip. It's not a beautiful flower, mountain or "nerdy" geologic formation, but rather the Robinson Copper Mine in Ruth, Nevada owned and operated by Quadra Mining Ltd. (zoom in and pan around to see a nice aerial view on Google maps).

View Larger Map

View of Robinson Mine from Public Access Overlook

Part of my "geologist" brain finds the forces behind this scene incredibly intriguing and downright magical (see my post on the San Andreas). It's the purpose of the mine and its inherent link with our economy and how we interact with our landscape. Many perceive this as a scar, a blight and unnecessary. Yet the same people (I place myself in this vague sea of culprits) that argue for "less" and expound upon possible alternatives, are still buying cars, cell phones, digital cameras, wide-screen television, etc. For example, I'm typing this on a computer that contains steel, copper, aluminum, gold, nickel, tantalum, tungsten, silica, platinum, palladium, rhodium, zinc, lead, etc. The information is being sent over Cat5 ethernet cables (copper), stored on a network server containing all the same metals in a typical computer, and then viewed on your computer, PDA, iPhone, etc. (again, same metals). So this photo is a reminder of my hypocrisy, and one of the reasons we didn't renegotiate our relationship with nature in the 1970's - it's hard to give up our stuff. It's much easier to talk about what we should do and how we should live, than to realize our own idealism.

If you need other reminders, or are just really intrigued by open pit mining, here are some great photos of the Diavik Mine in Russia and the Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah. I'm not chastising anyone, nor have climbed up on my soapbox, I'm just confessing to my role in helping to make these huge holes in the ground deeper AND that I really do enjoy the geology associated with them and respect the engineering required to create them.

Caution: Wet Road Ahead...

2007-04-25T16:27:00.000-05:00

This is a pretty fantastic example of why this phenomena is called a 'flash flood'. This video was taken near Merriwa, Australia, and although I'm a fan of access to such footage, these folks were a little closer to the action than I would encourage anyone else to seek out. Although very muddy and silty, Kellick Creek is still exhibiting properties of a Newtonian fluid (no yield stress, so viscosity doesn't change with respect to the rate of flow) while the second video is just a fun example of a non-Newtonian fluid (viscosity changes with respect to the shear force or flow). Just a little "fun with fluids."

Kryptonite is Real? COOL!!!!

2007-04-24T10:36:00.000-05:00

Who knew kryptonite would finally 'surface' in 2007 after first being described in 1935! Well, now its existence has been confirmed (however it's not extraterrestrial) after a mineral bearing similar chemical characteristics was discovered in Russia! The only major difference between the two chemical formulas is that the 'real' kryptonite doesn't contain flourine and it's not green, however according to the comic, it exists in a variety of colors depending on the source. Who knows, maybe we'll find the green, red, blue and yellow variations shortly! :)

Source: http://accordionguy.blogware.com/Photos/2005/05/kryptonite_handbook.jpg

Tsunami Caught in Action!

2007-04-24T08:46:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday there was a 6.2 magnitude earthquake near Aysen Fjord in Southern Chile. The article describes the impacts of the earthquake, however someone also caught tsunami with 26 foot high waves on film! The tsunami wasn't caused by disturbances in the water column in response to shifting ocean floor (i.e. - see animation below for the cause of the Indonesian tsunami in 2004) but rather produced by a sub-aerial landslide terminating into the fjord! By sub-aerial I just mean it wasn't an submarine slide, which is also very common (i.e. - a famous example is the 1994 Skagway, Alaska tsunami).

The following video was downloaded and converted to flash (for faster loading) from here.

One of the most famous examples of a landslide induced tsunami is the 1958 Lituya Bay tsunami in Alaska. The wave produced by this landslide was 1,720 feet high! These stories "should" be of interest to residents of the Eastern United States given the potential (a, b, c) for landslides in the Canary Islands creating a 'mega-tsunami' (Ward and Day, 2001 & Wynn and Masson, 2003). Although controversial, the potential at least exists for a East Coast mega-tsunami... Not everyone will have time, but if you have 45 minutes to spare, you can watch video below summarizing the potential for East Coast mega-tsunamis. Some of the data presented has been argued as controversial so don't swallow the idea whole, but recognize the key word is "potential."

Keep your eyes on Nevado del Huila?

2007-04-18T20:10:00.000-05:00

The AP just reported the Nevado del Huila volcano in Columbia erupted twice today. I'm a disaster nerd and tracked down a few links of interest (in case you're interested). Apparently this region most recently dealt with non-volcanic geohazards associated with an earthquake in 1994 (e.g. - landslides, lahars, and flooding). I also found a link to INGEOMINAS (Columbian Institute of Geology and Mineral Studies) that summarizes the geology of the Nevado del Huila region. They have a real-time seismograph "cam" and a nice photo gallery. If you're a fan of GoogleEarth, you can explore the region using this link. I'll update this post as new information is published. (April 18, 2007 -9:34 Eastern Time)

Photo Gallery In Progress...

2007-04-17T18:23:00.000-05:00

Just a short post to provide a link to a photo gallery that's still "in progress." I have many more galleries and photos to add. It's taken forever just to get this up! Still updating and adding, but hopefully someone will actually look at a few of them.

Geologywood Strikes Again...

2007-04-04T09:31:00.000-05:00

Before I begin ranting, I need to be clear that I thoroughly enjoy watching (and indeed own many) "bad" geology movies. My collection includes Hollywood and Made-For-TV specials (and they certainly ARE special aren't they?!) that cause geologists to experience laughter, frustration, anger, and sadness simultaneously. I'm a sucker for bad plots, awkward dialog, horrible/awesome special effects, and even picking apart the pathetic science. I admit it's FUN, but it also creates and propogates scientific myths and beliefs that drive me absolutely bonkers (e.g. - California will NEVER fall in the ocean, no matter how many times Hollywood thinks it's a good idea).

The latest gem from the SciFi Channel is Magma: Volcanic Disaster - you can read a summary of the plot (ahem...) here. And yes, I own it. Essentially it's a smorgasborg of previous geologic-themed movies; a dash of Journey to the Center of the Earth, Armageddon, Supervolcano, and The Core (all of which are doozies in their own right). Eventually I'll post a full analysis of the movie, but for now I wanted everyone to enjoy the scene that either has or will make every geologist gasp. It's VERY clear the writers of this script didn't make use of a science adviser much less a geologist...

Just to clarify, the gasp-inducing quote is: "Looks like an Ammonite, which would place this site at the Mesozoic at least if not the Devonian." Paleontologists will take issue with the fact that Ammmonites first appeared in the late Silurian (possibly trivial) and that they didn't go extinct until 65 million years (MA = millions of years) ago at the end of the Cretaceous (the K-T extinction Event). Volcanologists will take issue with the concept that a Devonian-aged volcano is preserved in Iceland considering the age of the Atlantic is on the order of 180-200 MA (Jurassic). SO, there are two questions that arise: (1) How do we preserve Devonian age (~400 MA) rocks in a landmass that didn't exist until ~200 MA? and (2) These 400 MA rocks appear to be closer to the summit of the volcano - why aren't they at the base covered by younger lava flows and pyroclastic debris? Even these two blatant inaccuracies are not what caused me to drool over myself because I lost control of my jaw... Ask any 5th grader and I think they would tell you that fossils are not found in volcanic rocks (at least those that cooled from magma). We find fossils in volcanic ash and we find molds and depressions found in cooled lava (e.g. - tree molds); we have found microscopic fossils in lava, but NEVER an organism even closely resembling an Ammonite... SIGH.

I do encourage you to rent the movie though if you want a good laugh, enjoy really bad special effects, awful music, and feel like critiquing some science...

Virtual Landscapes - Great Basin NP, Nevada

2007-03-22T10:46:00.001-05:00

I finally found time to create a little panorama of my dissertation field site in Great Basin National Park. The landform in the middle of the largest cirque (Lehman Cirque) is a rock glacier - similar to a glacier except there is a greater percentage of rock fragments (i.e. - talus and frost shattered bedrock) than ice that make up this type of landform. On the far left slope you can see solifluction lobes defined by snow and at the mouth of Lehman Cirque you can see a well-preserved lateral moraine. Please note, if you click on the image below a Quicktime movie will open, which is not static and allow you to "explore" this fantastic landscape.

Visit the San Andreas Fault!!!

2007-03-08T19:11:00.000-05:00

If you've never been to California and always dreamed of visiting or touching the San Andreas Fault (SAF), here's your cyber-opportunity. Thanks to the folks at geology.com and Google Earth, you can now zoom in on the fault and actually "travel" along its linear trace to explore how it affects the landscape. NOTE: If you start at the southern tip and pan up to the northern tip, you'll notice than many drainages and mountains are actually offset (to the right of whichever side of the fault you're looking at). That's because the SAF is a right-lateral strike-slip fault - essentially pulling western California to the northwest and "ripping" western North America apart.

I'm a big fan of the SAF... not because I enjoy the devastating effects of earthquakes or tapping into some deep-rooted psychological fear of "unknown forces" having control over our environment. Nope, it's because the modern landscape of the Western United States owes a lot to this geological feature. The initiation of the SAF, and subsequent extension, lead to the exposure of the Sierra Nevada, Quaternary volcanism, and the development of the Basin and Range Physiograpic Province - characterized by undulating mountains, valleys, mountains, valley, etc.

We have the SAF to thank for these landscapes. It's easy to recognize the negative impact of geologic faults (especially those that misbehave such as the SAF) - it's harder to embrace and appreciate their impact on landscapes dominated by "aesthetic geology." It's harder to embrace the SAF as a benevolent geologic feature because humans face the tension between geologic time and have to embrace 30 million years of geologic unrest versus an instantaneous event that has immediate consequences. I don't think anyone is going to be thankful for the majesty of the Yosemite when they discover their personal belongings are part of the rubble responsible for a new "urban mountain" landscape in downtown San Francisco! However, it is important to keep in the back of our minds that many of the geologic forces labeled "destructive" or responsible for "disasters" are often the same forces responsible for incredibly beautiful and diverse environments.

"It's not the light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake."
Frederick Douglas

Global Warming versus the Supereruption...

2007-02-08T14:53:00.000-05:00

I recently read an article that quoted Al Gore as saying: "Never before has all of civilization been threatened" - in reference to Global Climate Change. The geologist in me replied, HUH... Because Rampino and Ambrose (2000) published an article in the Geological Society of America Bulletin titled: Volcanic Winter in the Garden of Eden: The Toba supereruption and the late Pleistocene human population crash. In this article, Rampino and Ambrose make the claim that after the Toba Supereruption ~71,000 years ago, the human population bottlenecked to ~10,000 individuals. So I take issue with the claim that never before has "all" of civilization been threatened... Could we changes lenses and claim that all of civilization became "threatened" with the advent of government, religion, money, medicine, etc? Isn't global climate change the end cause rather than the root cause of this "threat" to societies? More questions than answers, but I just wanted to clarify that all of civilization has indeed been threatened before...

The "original" geyser

2007-02-08T12:00:00.000-05:00

This past summer I spent a few days traveling (and getting married) in Iceland. After Kate and I were married we continued traveling to the town of Geyser - the source of the name for all geysers. This is a movie of the smaller geyser (named Strokkur - meaning "The Churn"), however the larger one is no longer erupting because visitors threw too much "trash" into the mouth of the geyser (much like we throw pennies into wishing wells) and essentially clogged the plumbing. I'm sure no one wished the geyser would stop erupting...

Introduction and Blog Goals...

2007-02-07T23:41:00.000-05:00

After watching the blog scene 'blow up' in the last few years, I've finally succumbed to the self-absorbed behavior that allows one to pontificate without restriction on any topic to no one in particular. My hope is that 'no one in particular' becomes my students or any students interested in geology and/or environmental studies. I have no intention of teaching, but rather wish to share my views and thoughts on current / historical geologic issues, ideas, topics, debates, etc. My hope is to frequently post pictures because I believe geology is a visual science strongly dependent on observation and tedious descriptions. I will also attempt to interject my silly sense of humor within the context of a topic I take very seriously as often as possible.

I guess my first post should be bland and non-controversial, but who's going to read this anyway right? The first article I would like to discuss tackles Tom Vail's book titled: Grand Canyon: A Different View. That link provides a wonderful summary of the controversy regarding this book and I won't re-state the obvious. The key point for me is briefly mentioned by Ronald Bailey, which is that the hypothesis that the Grand Canyon was carved during 'Noah's Flodd' is not a viable hypothesis because it isn't falsifiable. You can't develop a series of tests to disprove this hypothesis, which makes it a non-scientific debate... Too many people believe that scientists "prove" their hypotheses, when in fact good hypotheses are designed to be disproven. If you can't disprove a hypothesis over the course of numerous experiments, you can accept that until it is disproven the contrary to the hypothesis is a valid claim... The fact that this is so poorly understood drives me bonkers. Science isn't designed to prove, but rather disprove... That's the distinction in the Creation versus Evolution debate...