10 January 2011

Call for posts: AW#30, the Bake Sale

Posted by Callan Bentley

Recent discussion of the geologically incorrect cake t-shirt at Threadless (earlier take-down here) and the actual baked equivalent have inspired me to issue a call for Accretionary Wedge #30: Let’s have a Bake Sale!

I hereby challenge my fellow geobloggers (and any newbies who want to participate) to explore the interconnections between geology and food. This can take any form you want, but I’m really hoping for some edible, geologically accurate models. Yummy stuff that illustrates and informs about earth science? Yes, it is possible!

Here’s an example from my own kitchen, several years ago:

A delicious analogy for the Blue Ridge Thrust Fault. I baked a chocolate & peanut butter cake last week. Yesterday, I baked a carrot cake. The carrot cake is younger; the chocolate cake is older. Then I shoved the older cake on top of the younger cake by pushing sideways (A). Traveling along a layer of icing, the older chocolate cake moved up and over the younger carrot cake. The surface of contact between the two is analogous to the Blue Ridge Thrust Fault, shown as a dotted line (B). Arrows show relative motions of the two cakes. This thrust-faulted cake was served at the NOVA-Annandale end-of-semester party for the Mathematics, Science and Engineering Department, May 2006. [From here]

What have you got, geobloggers? If it’s not baked goods specifically, I’m good with that. But something food related would be great. I’m lickerish for something delectably illustrative. Let your taste buds guide you on a geologic journey! Let’s plan on submitting our dishes to the Bake Sale by January 28, 2011, (by leaving a comment here including a link to your post) and I’ll lay out the smorgasbord over that weekend, so we can get this thing online by the last day of the month.

In the meantime, if you have a clever idea for the next Accretionary Wedge, or the one after that, leave a message in the lengthy chain of comments at “Who’s Hosting the Next Accretionary Wedge?” We’re a bit behind the game here with January’s announcement, but hopefully we can remedy that with enthusiastic participation in the planning of future Wedges. …Perhaps if everyone resolved to host a Wedge this year, and to submit suggestions a bit in advance? Thanks!