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You are browsing the archive for May 2011 - Page 3 of 4 - Mountain Beltway.

13 May 2011

Friday fold(s): More kinky phyllite, but this time from the field

Last week, the Friday fold featured a kinked phyllite of unknown provenance that is currently resident in David King Hall 2074 on the campus of George Mason University. However, on Tuesday of last week, I found another kinked phyllite, this one out in the real world, at Thoroughfare Gap, in the Harpers Formation of the Bull Run Mountains. So, a couple things to note: this phyllite is verging on schist, …

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12 May 2011

Deformational fabrics in the Weverton Formation

My student Troy was working on the geologic history of the Thoroughfare Gap regions for his Honors project this semester, and we went out there last week to check out some stuff. One thing I was struck by was how much more deformed these rocks were than I had expected. This was particularly evident in some coarse meta-sandstones and meta-conglomerates of the Weverton Formation, which showed some well-developed deformational fabrics: …

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11 May 2011

Pamukkale 4: Hierapolis

Atop the glorious pile of travertine that is Pamukkale (photos 1, 2, & 3), there is an ancient ruined city called Hierapolis. It was founded by the Romans in the second century BC, and was constructed (not surprisingly) from the most common locally available stone: travertine. A tomb with a view: This last one is a tomb, partially engulfed by laminations of calcite… Time and travertine wait for no man:

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10 May 2011

Four new gigapans from the Billy Goat Trail

Yesterday afternoon, I spent some time in the field with a colleague, a student, and a gigapan. I took four gigapan images, which are of varying quality due to the partly cloudy day, but still you ought to find them interesting to explore. You can see any of them full-screen by clicking on the word “GigaPan” in the lower right corner: Antiform in Mather Gorge Formation, C&O Canal: Folds and …

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9 May 2011

Pamukkale 3

Callan shares a third batch of photos from the stunning travertine terraces at Pamukkale (“cotton castle”) in central Turkey, near the town of Denizli. Travertine structures on numerous scales are shown, adorned with flowers, tourists, and ducks.

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8 May 2011

Plumofare Gap

I already mentioned the “paddle hackle” that I saw on the field trip I took to Thoroughfare Gap in February. Well, this week I went back out to Throughfare Gap twice, once with a student and once with my fianceé and a friend of ours. I saw cool new plumes both times, decorating joint surfaces in the Weverton Formation quartzite. Here’s the best one, seen in one of the building …

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7 May 2011

Pseudoscorpion sighting at Thoroughfare Gap

On the original version of this blog, I showed off a couple of pseudoscorpions that I found under a rock in Montana. On Tuesday, poking around at pollen-ific Thoroughfare Gap with my Honors student Troy, I found another one. Looked like the same thing. See for yourself. I shot a bunch of macro shots with my Canon Elph; here’s the best five, severely cropped. This bugger was small! Cool, eh? …

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Pamukkale 2

Following on from Thursday’s initial suite of Pamukkale photos, here’s some more. More later!

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6 May 2011

Friday fold: Kinky sample

Kink bands in phyllite. Another sample from the GMU teaching collection. Ruler in the background shows blurry mm-scale demarcations. Happy Friday — enjoy your weekend!

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5 May 2011

Pamukkale 1

Callan shares some photos from his time last summer at the massive travertine deposits at Pamukkale, Turkey.

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