Advertisement

You are browsing the archive for October 2011 - Page 2 of 3 - Mountain Beltway.

18 October 2011

Pure silliness

Just because I felt like making something silly…

Read More >>

8 Comments/Trackbacks >>


17 October 2011

Words matter

A table from the article “Communicating the Science of Climate Change,” by Richard C. J. Somerville and Susan Joy Hassol, from the October 2011 issue of Physics Today, page 48: There’s a lot to ponder in this table. It strikes me as an important document – a compilation of one of humanity’s most tragic miscommunications. You can click on it to make it bigger – large enough that you could …

Read More >>

108 Comments/Trackbacks >>


Hawk migration in Mexico

Two images that have me scheming to go down to Veracruz, Mexico, next September for a weekend of hawk-watching: …Impressive, no? Better yet, check this out: …Oh. Yeah.

Read More >>

6 Comments/Trackbacks >>


16 October 2011

A graphical dalliance

I read an article in the current issue of Physics Today with interest. It deals with the nature of scientific controversies, as percieved by the public and by specialists in the field in question. The author, Steven Sherwood, compares the origin of the ideas of a heliocentric solar system, general relativity, and human influence on the Earth’s climate. Each of them follows a similar pattern, he argues, with the initial …

Read More >>

6 Comments/Trackbacks >>


15 October 2011

Cross-bedding in Flathead Sandstone, Wind River Canyon

This is a boulder of Cambrian-aged Flathead Sandstone, the unit overlying the Great Unconformity exposed in Wind River Canyon, Wyoming. Click to make it 5000 pixels wide. Swiss Army knife for scale. It shows a lovely example of multiple upside-down cross-beds. It also shows a heavy layer of caliche on what is (now) the upper surface – a phenomenon which typically occurs on the underside of sedimentary clasts. So not …

Read More >>

No Comments/Trackbacks >>


14 October 2011

Friday fold: isoclinal dextral asymmetric granitoid vein

The “Friday fold” is an isoclinal dextrally-asymmetric granitoid vein exposed north of Fort Frances, Ontario. Taken on October 7, 2011, the photo features a centimeter-demarcated pencil for scale. It shows thickened hinges, boudinage of the lower right long limb, and incipient boudinage of the upper left long limb.

Read More >>

5 Comments/Trackbacks >>


13 October 2011

Superior Craton trip, stop 1

The first stop on our pre-GSA field trip to the subprovince boundaries of the Superior Craton was a place just north of Virginia, Minnesota, where the Mesabi Iron Ranges are mined (same Proterozoic banded iron formations that were portrayed as the backdrop of the mining activity depicted in the film North Country). The pull-off is locally known (to geologists) as “Confusion Hill,” but marked on the roadside sign as the …

Read More >>

8 Comments/Trackbacks >>


12 October 2011

The GSA meeting experience, 2011

I’m on the plane home from the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, held this year in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This annual event features a robust smorgasbord of science, with talks and posters detailing the research efforts of thousands of geoscientists from the US and other countries. It’s an amazing experience on many, many levels, and as I fly home now after a week in Minnesota, my feelings are …

Read More >>

5 Comments/Trackbacks >>


7 October 2011

Friday fold: the Devil’s Backbone

The Friday fold is a guest photo by James Edward Bailey, a 5th grade student from Reston, Virginia. It is the anticline shown is known as “the Devil’s Backbone,” located near Marlinton, West Virginia, right on the boundary between the Valley & Ridge province and the Appalachian Plateaus. It clearly shows differential weathering of weaker layers and tougher layers. …Also some lovely fall colors!

Read More >>

2 Comments/Trackbacks >>


6 October 2011

The time we didn’t get stranded by the flood

Last spring, I made two visits, six days apart, to Veach Gap, a small water gap superimposed on the Massanutten Synclinorium. One was with my Field Studies in Geology one-day field course, and the second was with my Structural Geology students from George Mason University. We go there to see some lovely parasitic anticlines that decorate the larger regional synformal structure. Well, on the first trip, it rained. A lot. …

Read More >>

2 Comments/Trackbacks >>