June 18, 2012

Monday Geology Picture: Tilted Rocks Along the River Dee, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Posted by Evelyn Mervine

Tilted rocks along the River Dee, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, June 2012.

For this week’s geology picture, I thought I would share a photograph from my recent trip to Scotland. I recently spent four days staying in the village of Ballater, Scotland with  Dr. Ken Glennie, a well-known petroleum geologist (he worked 33 years for Shell and is now an Honorary Professor at the Univeristy of Aberdeen) who is now retired but still spends several hours every day thinking and writing about geology. I greatly enjoyed the four days I spent with Ken, and I learned a great amount about the geology of Oman, Scotland, and elsewhere. I plan to write up several articles about my visit, so stay tuned for more! The picture above was taken when Ken and I took an afternoon trip to Balmoral Castle and some other sites of interest in Royal Deeside.

At the moment, I am enjoying being home in Cape Town, South Africa after 3 1/2 months away. Yesterday evening I arrived at the Cape Town airport after flying from Aberdeen to London to Johannesburg to Cape Town. I’m exhausted from the flight and also from the past 3 1/2 months. There have been many events and changes in my life over the past 3 1/2 months. I successfully defended my PhD, for one. I also visited Florida and Scotland, spent some time with my family in New Hampshire, took my husband to my 10-year high school reunion, had a wedding/graduation celebration with friends and family in New Hampshire, and attended my MIT PhD hooding and graduation.

I’m pretty tired, and chances are I may be starting a job in the near future, so posting may be a bit quiet on here for awhile longer as I rest and recover. Never fear, though! The Monday Geology Picture shall appear like clockwork, and I will be catching up on a few outstanding posts. Eventually, perhaps, the Geology Word of the Week may also make a reappearance, but probably only after I’ve had a bit of rest and relaxation.