You are browsing the archive for January 2016 - Mountain Beltway.
29 January 2016
Friday fold: Catalina Island #1
My friend Sarah Penniston-Dorland, of the University of Maryland, supplied this week’s Friday fold. it comes from Catalina Island, California, where Sarah just wrapped up some field work with two of her students. All three of them have given me permission to post the images here: The Catalina Schist is a suite of subduction-related metamorphic rocks. These rocks are amphibolite facies gneisses, but part of the Catalina Schist. The metamorphic …
27 January 2016
Remarkable Creatures, by Tracy Chevalier
I’ve been doing some reading lately to get some foundational ideas established in my mind for my upcoming summer trip to Europe. This trip has three goals: (1) to gather key digital imagery (GigaPans, 360° photospheres, video) for curriculum to teach geoscience concepts and give students everywhere with particularly instructive geology in Iceland, Ireland, the UK, France, and Spain, (2) to scout out locations and logistics for a Summer 2017 …
20 January 2016
Six new GIGAmacro images of sedimentary rocks
Here are some new “virtual samples” for you to check out: Dessication cracks in Tonoloway Formation (Silurian): Link Image by Callan Bentley Random conglomerate (unknown age and formation): Link Image by Robin Rohrback Skolithos trace fossils (tops) in Hampshire Formation (Devonian): Link Image by Callan Bentley Crinoid calyx fossil (unknown age and formation): Link Image by Callan Bentley Iron oxide staining in Tuscarora Formation quartzite (Silurian): Link Image by Callan …
15 January 2016
Friday fold: Harpers Ferry
The geology east of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, is cool. It’s Blue Ridge rocks, from basement to the cover sequence, tilted to the west and broken and repeated by the Short Hill Fault. Here’s a look at a detail of the Geology of the Harpers Ferry quadrangle by Southworth and Brezinski (1996). So there’s a fault! Good – but the title of this post isn’t “Friday fault” – Where’s the …
14 January 2016
Everland, by Rebecca Hunt
There’s something about Arctic and Antarctic adventure that stirs my interest. The merciless but fascinating environment, the odd fauna, the endurance, The Endurance, the way human frailties pop out against the stark backdrop. Evidently novelist Rebecca Hunt is subject to the same entrancement. She was one of 18 artists and writers who participated in the Arctic Circle residency in 2011, and I think it follows that the novel Everland resulted …
8 January 2016
Friday fold: Cho La Pass, Himalayas
Today’s Friday fold comes from Martin Schmidt, who has shared a few previous folds with Mountain Beltway readers. It shows a folded ptygmatic vein from the Himalayas. Pretty sweet, amiright? Thanks, Martin. Happy Friday, all!
6 January 2016
Slumped boulder on Marshall’s Beach, San Francisco
The week before the AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco experienced heavy rain and strong coastal wave action. These two phenomena liberated a big boulder of serpentinite on Marshall’s Beach. As it moved downhill, it opened up a scarp with views into the colluvial soil horizons.
1 January 2016
Friday fold: Folded Mountains Ale
My friend Eric Pyle drew my attention to this ale earlier in the week – I reckon that will do for this week’s Friday fold. Cheers! And Happy New Year!
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.