12 October 2012
Posted by Callan Bentley
Saw that out my window in March, somewhere over what is probably Wyoming. This was on my way from Reno to Minneapolis.
The structure in question is a “blister” in the strata, doming them upwards. If we were to add some strike and dip symbols to this scene, they would wrap around with the dip “tick”s all pointing outwards, like the spines on a sea urchin…
Happy Friday!
Callan Bentley is Associate Professor of Geology at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. For his work on this blog, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers recognized him with the James Shea Award. He has also won the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia, and the Biggs Award for Excellence in Geoscience Teaching from the Geoscience Education Division of the Geological Society of America. In previous years, Callan served as a contributing editor at EARTH magazine, President of the Geological Society of Washington and President the Geo2YC division of NAGT.
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I think that is the Pine dome (Pine Mtn) southeast of the small town of Powder RIver in Wyoming. Pine dome, Cottonwood Creek anticline to the north, and Oil anticline to the south form a trend of folds which connect the Laramie Mtns northwest to the Bighorn Mtns. Pine Mtn in the mid-section of the feature is on sediments that are nearly flat. The dips on the west side can get up to near vertical and I’ve read they are overturned in one local with a small reverse fault of a couple of thousand feet.
Excellent! Thanks for the I.D.
Here’s a link to the location in Flash Earth, if anyone wants to check it out in a more dynamic fashion.