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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 …
15 October 2012
Midnight Rising, by Tony Horwitz
A couple of weeks ago, I was killing time down in Front Royal, and I spent a pleasant hour in the Royal Oak Bookshop. I saw a used paperback copy of Tony Horwitz’s classic Confederates in the Attic there, and bought it, thinking I could give it away to a friend or visitor who didn’t know anything about Civil War history. As I was checking out, the proprietress pointed out …
Monday macrobug: Grass spiders with hatchlings
We’ve got plenty of spiders out here in the Fort Valley. Here’s a look at one common species: a sweet momma grass spider striding along, carrying dozens of infant spiderlings on her abdomen: How many children can you count? A week or so later, I saw another one, with a similar load:
12 October 2012
Friday fold: a dome in plane view
The Friday fold is a structural dome in Wyoming, as seen out an airplane window.
10 October 2012
Wo(G)E #357
Callan hosts the 357th installment of the popular satellite imagery / geologic search game “Where on (Google) Earth?”
Dinosaur eggs from Devil’s Coulee, on display at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller
Each one is the size (and shape) of a nice sourdough boule – Because they were in a glass case, I couldn’t get a good sense of scale in the same focal plane.
9 October 2012
AW50: The tweaked pinkie
My AGU Blogosphere neighbor Evelyn of Georneys fame is hosting this month’s Accretionary Wedge. Her topic? “Field camp memories”… I never attended a bona fide field camp myself, but I attended a lovely “regional field geology” course that my undergraduate alma mater, the College of William & Mary, put on each summer in the Colorado Plateau. Most of my field course experience has actually been in the past four summers, …
8 October 2012
Monday macrobugs: Wasp trio
Last week, we featured an insect that got into the house. This week, three insects that found their way into our screened-in porch. Wasps have an uncanny ability to get in there and get stuck. We inadvertently nab at least one per day that way. Pencil eraser for scale.