You are browsing the archive for basalt Archives - Page 2 of 6 - Mountain Beltway.
15 September 2016
Pillow basalts from eastern Washington: a 3D model
Since I showed off some Icelandic pillow basalts yesterday, today I thought I would showcase a new 3D model of big pillows in Columbia River basalt of eastern Washington, taken from a photo set I made when I was out there in May:
14 September 2016
Pillows in Icelandic basalts
Time is short these days, but I know you hanker for amazing geology. How about some pillow basalts from the Snæfellsnes* Peninsula, far western Iceland? Note the cm-demarcated pencil for scale. See if you can find it in the GigaPan version below: Link Handheld GigaPan by Callan Bentley, stitched with Microsoft ICE _________________________ * “Snay full snooze”
25 June 2016
A virtual field trip to the Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland
Some of planet Earth’s best examples of basaltic cooling columns are found at the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. In this post, explore four different kinds of interactive digital media as a way of experiencing the Causeway virtually, from the comfort of your computer.
19 June 2016
3D model of onion-skin weathering
I collected a photo set at the Giant’s Causeway to show the “textbook” examples of spheroidal (“onion skin”) weathering exposed on the road down to the causeway. My student Marissa Dudek used the photo set and Agisoft Photoscan to make a great 3D model of the site. She posted it on Sketchfab yesterday evening. Check it out! Photoscan model by Marissa Dudek Great work, Marissa!
18 June 2016
Two virtual weathered-out dikes in a fjord in eastern Iceland
Two 3D models for you today, both produced by my student Marissa Dudek, using photo sets I gathered in Iceland: Photoscan model by Marissa Dudek (That one has paleomag holes drilled into it!) Photoscan model by Marissa Dudek (That one I’m particularly pleased with. Given the circumstances of image acquisition, this is a very good result!)
17 June 2016
Friday fold: isoclinal flow structures in Icelandic lava
While soaking at some fine outdoor hot springs in southern Iceland (near Höfn) last week, I spied a Friday fold on the rock wall above the hot pots: Iceland is not a place where we would expect to find ductile folds in already-lithified rocks, so I’m guessing that these are folds related to flow in the lavas as they erupted at the surface. Happy Friday!
16 June 2016
Dimmuborgir, Lake Mývatn, Iceland
Last week, I was in Iceland, driving around the country’s Ring Road and checking out its amazing geology with my family. We had a great time in particular exploring in the Lake Mývatn region, on the country’s subaerial expression of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Lake Mývatn itself is in a rift basin, peppered with a great variety of volcanic and hydrothermal features. One spot we enjoyed a short stroll was in …
2 June 2016
Flood deposits of Glacial Lake Missoula outburst floods
Two weeks ago, I went on an awesome, informal field trip to eastern Washington State to visit the Channeled Scablands for the first time. My collegue Bill Richards of North Idaho College picked me up in Spokane and drove me halfway across Washington and back to Moscow, Idaho, over the course of a day. This is a region of the country where a glacier-dammed valley filled up with water (Glacial …
31 May 2016
A baked horizon in the Columbia River flood basalts
How did this bold orange layer develop? It’s seen in an outcrop near Wilson Creek, Washington, in the Columbia River basalts.
18 May 2016
Pillow basalt exposures in the Columbia River basalts
Pillow basalts form when mafic lava erupts underwater. Here are several examples from the Miocene Columbia River flood basalts, a large igneous province in eastern Washington state.
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.