3 October 2011
Lichens on Morrison sandstone
Posted by Callan Bentley
Picking up from Saturday’s post about ripple marks and cross-bedding in Morrison sandstone from north of Shell, Wyoming, let’s scoot away from the purely geological content for a moment, so that we can appreciate some beautiful orange/yellow radial lichens growing on one rippled sandstone slab:
You can make that one bigger by clicking on it, or you can look at these close-up lichen portraits below:
I love the delicate fading from orange to yellow, and their delicate dendritic branching pattern, and their micro-topography so well-highlighted by the low-angle light in these photos.
Callan Bentley is Associate Professor of Geology at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. For his work on this blog, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers recognized him with the James Shea Award. He has also won the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia, and the Biggs Award for Excellence in Geoscience Teaching from the Geoscience Education Division of the Geological Society of America. In previous years, Callan served as a contributing editor at EARTH magazine, President of the Geological Society of Washington and President the Geo2YC division of NAGT.
[…] so I was out photographing ripples and admiring lichens, and then I saw […]