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5 March 2011
Pink and blue: Accretionary Wedge #32
Ann’s Musings on Geology is hosting this month’s Accretionary wedge, and she’s looking for a little color for Carnivale:
The theme will be “Throw me your ‘favorite geologic picture’ mister”Lets have the floats (submissions) ready on March 4th so it can roll on March 8. Carnival time is all about having a good time and having some fun so lets get some colorful, fun pictures submitted. Laissez les bons temp rouler!! (Let the good times roll!)
20 February 2011
A tour of deskcrops
The weather in Buffalo this weekend has gone from warm and rainy to windy and snowy to tolerably cold and sunny, with potential for more ickiness tomorrow, but for someone who likes to be warm and comfy on the weekends this doesn’t make for fantastic hiking conditions. So I decided to photograph some extremely local outcrops (otherwise known as “the ones inside the apartment, where there is heat”). None of these are actually on my desk, but I think they count as “deskcrops” (outcrops that are no longer in-situ and have often experienced extreme geographical displacement).
8 January 2011
First field trip of the year: York River, Virginia
As part of a quick trip to visit my Alma Mater earlier this week, I took an afternoon to go exploring on the shores of the York River. The river forms the northern border for the peninsula on which Williamsburg and its environs are located, and the York River (along with the James River to the south) is an excellent place to take a look at some Coastal Plain geology.
27 November 2010
Out with the old, in with the new?
This is a phrase that comes up every winter, when people start thinking about resolutions for the New Year. (Or geolutions, as the case may be.) But it popped into my head the other day as I was touring the Buffalo Museum of Science.
23 November 2010
Chimney Bluffs State Park: Drumlin hunting
Earlier this year, I took a (long) drive away from Buffalo to go visit some of the glacial features that “upstate” New York has to offer. Chimney Bluffs State Park is located on the shore of Lake Ontario in Sodus Bay (about halfway between Rochester and Oswego), and it’s an excellent place to see a truncated drumlin.
20 September 2010
Distinguishing deposits from andesitic eruptions
Telling apart different kinds of deposits associated with volcanic eruptions isn’t always easy. There are a lot of factors that can affect their appearance: the location and type of eruption, the magma/lava type, where they’re emplaced, etc. On Montserrat, volcanologists are lucky to have both ancient and modern deposits; they can look at what’s currently being erupted and compare it to the older volcanics on the island. We did quite …
15 November 2009
Little Rock City
Long time, no writing! I hate dropping the ball, but schoolwork has to come first. Anyway, I spent part of this weekend exploring the geology of Western New York – specifically, south of Buffalo in Cattaraugus County. Cattaraugus County moves away from the carbonate sequences that you see around Buffalo and into Late Devonian sandstones and shales. On the map to the left, they’re shown in a sort of pistachio …
31 October 2009
Accretionary Wedge #21: Earth Science Outreach
Happy Halloween! I hope you all are having a fun day of candy-and-costume-filled spookiness. And speaking of playing different roles, Earth scientists wear one hat in particular that’s very important: the Outreach Hat! That’s why the subject of this month’s Accretionary Wedge was Earth Science Outreach. This October has been a big month for Earth science: we’ve had Earth Science Week (a yearly event), a national Geological Society of America …
26 October 2009
The “Breached Dam Overlook” Field Trip at GSA: perspectives from a participant
Apparently my post on the Steve Austin field trip at GSA caught the attention of quite a few people, although it was already an issue that had come to the attention of the GSA field trip organizers. I chose not to go on the trip myself (for monetary and scheduling reasons, mostly) but have heard from one geoblogger who did (Pascal of Research at a Snail’s Pace). He has kindly …
5 July 2009
A geology geek to the core (Accretionary Wedge #18)
Sitting here in Zion National Park, one of the last spots I visited on my first geology field course, I feel like I’m coming full circle to some of the reasons that I’m still doing geology. (I also feel like I could receive wifi through my teeth. Twenty plus wifi points? Really?) Anyway, it’s a perfect chance for me to answer Volcanista’s question: So July’s topic is about your inspiration …
Jessica Ball is a volcanologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, researching volcanic hydrothermal systems and stability, and doing science communication for the California Volcano Observatory. She previously worked at the Geological Society of America's Washington DC Policy Office, learning about the intersection of Earth science and legislative affairs. Her Mendenhall postdoc and PhD focused on how water affects the stability of volcanoes, and involved both field investigations and numerical modeling applications. Her blogging covers a range of topics, from her experiences in academic geosciences to science outreach and communication to her field and lab work in volcanology.