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17 March 2008
If “xenolith” means “foreign rock”, my dunites could be Irish
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! In the spirit of the holiday (green), I’m posting some photos of my favorite field samples – dunites! (Looks like Ron has a few of these in his Deskcrop Geopuzzle – I was a little too slow to guess this time around!) I collected these from the Vulcan’s Throne cinder cone on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on my first “big” (meaning month-long) field …
14 January 2008
Hot, gooey fillings
My least favorite geological misconception would have to be one that I come across a lot as an aspiring volcanologist: The Earth’s mantle is a molten sea of liquid, and the crust “floats” on it. Now, I suppose this is a perfectly good way to provide a simple explanation to young children who are too young to understand the rheology of rock in the mantle, or the fact that it …