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You are browsing the archive for October 2013 - Mountain Beltway.

29 October 2013

Sailing Alone Around the World, by Joshua Slocum

One thing I got out of reading (listening to) Atlantic, by Simon Winchester, was a recommendation to read a classic story of adventure: Joshua Slocum’s Sailing Alone Around the World. As you might suspect, it’s an account of Slocum’s solo trip sailing his small boat, the Spray, around the world. He was the first person to accomplish this feat. The book, I was delighted to find, is in the public …

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28 October 2013

GSA – Halfway through the annual meeting

These annual meetings of the Geological Society of America seem to fly by faster and faster. I’ve found that, through the years and as my career has developed, that I have less and less time for attending talks or contemplating research presented on posters. Instead, I spend my time sharing my own work, supporting students, networking and catching up with colleagues, and attending meetings for various groups and projects. Less …

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Monday macrobug: baby stinkbugs

Here’s a recently hatched clutch of stinkbug eggs seen in September on a houseplant that we let live out on the porch for several months: The cute little bugs there are juvenile brown marmorated stinkbugs.

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26 October 2013

Off to GSA

This morning I’m on a flight to Denver, for the 125th anniversary annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. The annual GSA meeting is a special time of year for me, and for many geology professionals across the country. It’s an intense half-week of talks, sharing, learning, networking, hanging out with old friends, meeting new friends, getting inspired, and hopefully inspiring others. It’s a time to mentor our best …

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24 October 2013

Exploring Wind River Canyon’s Great Unconformity in outcrop and hand sample (via GigaPan)

Over the summer, I shot these two GigaPans of the “Great Unconformity” in Wind River Canyon (Owl Creek Mountains), Wyoming: link link This week, Team M.A.G.I.C. (by which I mean my student Robin Rohrback-Schiavone) finished up a series of three macro GigaPans of rock samples from the site (made with our one-of-nine-in-the-world GIGAmacro rig by Four Chambers Studio): link link link In combination, these five images could be used to …

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23 October 2013

The business end of the limb

Last week, we had two wildlife deaths at Fort Bentley. The first was a mole (cause of death unknown), and the second was a screech owl (hit by a car). Here’s the mole: A look aft, at the digging apparatus: What astonishing “paddles” it possesses! There forelimbs are easily five times the size of the hind limbs, and equipped with such extraordinary claws… Here’s an iPad (i.e. low quality) photo …

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22 October 2013

Atlantic, by Simon Winchester

I finished Simon Winchester’s book Atlantic the other day. I consumed the audiobook version (this is one major positive aspect to my long commute: plenty of listening time), which was pleasantly read by Winchester himself. He’s got a good accent and a nice way of speaking – I recommend that medium. Atlantic is a book about the Atlantic Ocean. It’s set up to cover the vast sweep of Atlantic history, …

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21 October 2013

Monday macrobug: a gorgeous pair of mating moths

I found one of these moths last week while moving some logs around out in the woods. It was a female (based on its antennae), and had a gorgeous color scheme of black and white with a wide yellow ^ on each of its wings, and lovely orange knees. I brought it back to the house to show my son, and then I put it on a low rock wall …

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19 October 2013

Halite casts from Tonoloway Formation under the GIGAmacro lens

The work of team M.A.G.I.C. continues. This is a lovely sample quartet of salt cast samples from Silurian-aged Tonoloway Formation limestone. I collected these samples on Corridor H’s newly-opened section west of Moorefield, West Virginia, last spring. The big one at the bottom was collected by my friend Leigh Henry, who graciously loaned it to M.A.G.I.C. for imaging purposes.  link This GigaPan turned out well in some regards, and poorly …

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18 October 2013

Friday fold: Sliced BIF from Joburg

The Friday fold is a trio of hand samples of folded banded iron formation from South Africa. Collected in 2012 as float from the “contorted bed” outcrop in downtown Johannesburg, these samples are only now being cut and polished in the lab at NOVA.

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