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17 October 2012
Convection in a dirty dish
Saw this in a greasy / soapy baking pan in my kitchen sink the other day: Do you see those lobe-shaped light areas, separated by dark septae? I think that’s the semi-gelled signature of gravitational instability, perhaps thermally driven. I’m speaking of convection: upwelling in the round light areas, and sinking of denser material in the dark seams in between. A closer look at the structure of the suspension, and …
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.