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April 29, 2019
Monday Geology Picture: Pillow Basalt Decor
This week I’m sharing a picture of a lovely pillow basalt decorative slab that is part of the decor in the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia. In this slab, you can see pillow shapes outlined by lovely glass rinds, which formed when the basaltic lava rapidly cooled because it was erupted underwater. I just love this decorative slab — who wouldn’t want …
January 22, 2018
Monday Geology Picture: Pele’s Hair
For this week’s post, here’s a picture showing a lovely example of Pele’s Hair, which is a type of volcanic glass that consists of fibers or thin strands. Although I’ve visited many volcanoes (including a few active ones) over the years, I’ve never seen Pele’s Hair in the field. So, I was quite happy to see this excellent example in the volcano museum on Réunion Island. I visited the museum during …
October 30, 2017
Monday Geology Picture: Pretty Pahoehoe
For this week’s picture, here’s another lovely shot of pahoehoe basalt that I took during a March 2017 vacation to Réunion Island. I previously shared a picture of some Réunion pahoehoe here.
October 23, 2017
Monday Geology Picture: Basaltic Weathering
For this week’s picture, here’s an image of a relatively young basaltic surface weathering. You can see yellow-green olivine crystals weathering out of the dark matrix. Olivine is one of the first minerals to weather out of rocks, so you can tell that these basalts must be young. Older basalts generally don’t contain fresh olivine, at least not any crystals that you can easily identify with the naked eye. I …
October 9, 2017
Monday Geology Picture: Sani Pass, Lesotho
For this week’s geology picture, here’s a shot that I took last year when I visited Sani Pass, which is one of the ways to enter Lesotho. The country of Lesotho is located high up in basaltic mountains, entirely above 1,000 m. You can see basaltic cliffs on either side of this picture. The basalts erupted approximately 180 million years ago and are part of the Karoo Large Igneous Province. I’ll …
October 2, 2017
Monday Geology Picture: Posing with Pahoehoe
First of all, for this week’s “Monday Geology Picture” enjoy this fantastic picture of me sitting on some pahoehoe lava earlier this year, when I visited Réunion Island back in March. Second of all, let me provide a little explanation about why I have been terribly negligent of this blog over the past few months, despite my best intentions at the beginning of the year. In January I fully intended to read one science …
May 15, 2017
Monday Geology Picture: Pahoehoe Lava Flow
For this week’s “Monday Geology Picture” here’s a stunning example of a pahoehoe lava flow. I took this picture back in March when I visited Piton de la Fournaise volcano on Réunion Island. I’ll be sharing more pictures from Réunion soon – stay tuned!
September 13, 2014
Chamarel Waterfall, Mauritius
Today I’m continuing with sharing some pictures from my March 2014 trip to the volcanic island of Mauritius. You can see some of my previous posts on Mauritius here, here, and here. Mauritius is a tropical island, so in many places the lava rocks, particularly the older ones, are covered by thick green vegetation. However, there are some places where you can see the lavas well. One of those places is …
September 8, 2014
The Young Volcanic Landscape of Mauritius
For the next little while, I will be blogging about my recent (March 2014) vacation to Mauritius, a young volcanic island in the Indian Ocean. I recently shared a couple of pictures of volcanic basalt in Mauritius for my “Monday Geology Picture” posts here and here. In future posts, I’ll write a little more about the volcanic history of Mauritius. In brief, Mauritius is believed to have been formed by a …
Monday Geology Picture(s): Vesicular Basalt Boulder, Mauritius
Continuing with some pictures from my trip to Mauritius back in March, for this week’s “Monday Geology Picture” post I am sharing some pictures of a large boulder of vesicular basalt. This particular boulder is located in the town of Grand Gaube in northern Mauritius and is used as a decorative stone on which a plaque has been mounted. Vesicular basalt is a dark-colored volcanic rock that contains many small holes, …
