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You are browsing the archive for May 2011 - Mountain Beltway.

31 May 2011

Another weekend, another batch of macro bugs

This weekend, we went backpacking with our friends Seth and Anne, at Dolly Sods in West Virginia. As usual, I took pictures. Not so much of rocks this time, but there were lots of springtime buggies crawling about, and you know how I like to shoot macro photos of small critters… So here you go: Mating dragonflies: Grasshopper nymph (juvenile): Moth (on my fingertip): A very large ant hill: Weevil …

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27 May 2011

Friday fold(s): the Outdoor Lab

Today’s Friday fold takes me back 25 years, to when I visited the Outdoor Lab with my science class in Arlington County Public Schools. I revisited this exemplary outdoor education facility on Tuesday, at the invitation of its director, Neil Heinekamp. Neil wanted a geology “expert” to take a look at their rocks, and I wanted a chance to check out their rocks as part of my expanding examination of …

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26 May 2011

Tumbling Run: New Market/Lincolnshire contact

Here’s a gigapan I shot yesterday, looking north at the contact between the New Market and Lincolnshire Formations at the classic “Tumbling Run” outcrop south of Strasburg, Virginia: See if you can find the E. coli plush toy I included, or the cm-scale pencil! As usual, you can see it full screen, by clicking on the word “Gigapan” in the lower right.

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The view from Signal Knob

Here’s a gigapan I shot last Saturday, looking north from Signal Knob, Virginia: As usual, you can see it full screen, by clicking on the word “Gigapan” in the lower right.

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Fault in Massanutten Sandstone

Here’s a gigapan I shot last yesterday, looking west from “Blue Hole” towards a cliff of Massanutten Formation sandstone, south of Waterlick, Virginia. A prominent fault zone can be seen in the center of the image. Unfortunately, the auto-stitch deformed my face. I look like Quasimodo. Oh well. As usual, you can see it full screen, by clicking on the word “Gigapan” in the lower right. There, you can find …

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25 May 2011

Weekend macro bugs

“Did somebody say bugs?”   …Yes, Mr. Lizard, it’s time for a photo gallery of the macro bugs I saw this past weekend. We got some caterpillars for you, some millipedes, and also a very cool moth. Feast your eyes! Unidentified caterpillar 1: Underwing caterpillar (?): Unidentified caterpillar 2: Millipedes: (See also here, if you haven’t already) Sigmoria trimaculata millipede: (At least that’s what I think it is.) Luna moth: …

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24 May 2011

Three other interesting gravestones

While exploring the Rock Creek Cemetery last week, I noticed a couple of other interesting graves. This one, made of limestone, shows nice “reverse” cross-bedding: Here; I dialed up the contrast a bit to highlight these cool primary structures: It’s “reverse” because the tilting direction of the cross-beds switches from left (at the bottom) to right (for the bulk of the section). Ergo, the current started off flowing towards the …

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23 May 2011

Geology LOLcats 3

This morning, my cat Lola (a.k.a. “LOLa”) had squirmed herself in between the sheets, and it reminded me of something: If this pose inspires you to another LOLcat caption, you can click through for the original image file, unadorned. Modify it as you like, and give us a link to your creation in the comments on this post! Have fun.

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A tidy little quartz crystal

A doubly-terminated quartz crystal (or “Herkimer diamond”) is found on a hike in the Silurian sandstones of Virginia’s Valley & Ridge province.

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22 May 2011

New hallway display: geologic provinces of northern Virginia

Callan shows off a new hallway display in his building at Northern Virginia Community College, showcasing the numerous geologic provinces of northern Virginia (as well as adjacent mid-Atlantic states).

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