You are browsing the archive for November 2012 - Mountain Beltway.
30 November 2012
Friday folds: Google Earth screenshots
Found these lovely places over the past few weeks while searching (unsuccessfully) for Where On (Google) Earth? scenes… Click on any of them to make them bigger.
29 November 2012
Living in the Appalachian Forest, by Chris Bolgiano
Last week, I finished reading Living in the Appalachian Forest: True Tales of Sustainable Forestry, by Chris Bolgiano. It’s a grab-bag of stories from the forested mountains of the south-central Appalachians, ranging from Pennsylvania down to Kentucky and maybe Georgia, too. West Virginia and Virginia get the most attention. The driving question behind the book is: How should I manage my land? Since this is a key question in my …
28 November 2012
AW 52: Dream geology courses
Shawn at the blog Vi-carius is hosting this month’s Accretionary Wedge. He asks for a geoblogosphere-wide brainstorm on “dream geology courses” – an inspirational topic! I have a few ideas: A travel course dedicated to exploring the roots of geological thinking and the geological timescale. It would clearly need to be based in the U.K. and Scotland in particular, with forays into Ireland, France, and the foothills of the Alps. …
27 November 2012
Good lighting on invertebrate fossils
Good lighting on these fossils at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, eh? You’ve got a batch of brachiopods mixed with crinoid columnals and little cornucopia-shaped rugose corals. Maybe some sponge spicules in there, too… This is a great rock because (a) it’s full of well-preserved fossils in a fine-grained matrix, and (b) it’s been weathered so that the fossils poke out in high relief. But the way the …
26 November 2012
Monday macrobug: Wheel bug
This is a wheel bug, so called because of that protuberance on its back… Here’s another one – but this “wheel” has a flat tire…
24 November 2012
Rock Cycle III: Igneous → Sedimentary
The Boulder Batholith outside of Butte, Montana, is actively weathering, and shedding off grus. In the third installment of the Transitions of the Rock Cycle series, we watch an igneous rock turn to sediment.
23 November 2012
Friday fold: Chert chunk
Picked this one up the summer before last and took its portrait without recording too much else about it. There’s a small fault in there towards the bottom too. Sorry I forgot to mention it. My fault… Happy Friday! A light rock for “black Friday,” eh? Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving.
22 November 2012
Rock Cycle II: Metamorphic → Igneous
Migmatite is a special rock that is partly metamorphic and partly igneous. Let’s take a look at it in Part 2 of Callan’s “Transitions of the Rock Cycle” series.
21 November 2012
Rock Cycle I: Sedimentary → Metamorphic
An outcrop of the Ordovician-aged Martinsburg Formation is used to illustrate the development of slaty cleavage, and hence a major transition in the Rock Cycle.
20 November 2012
Digital images of the “Digital Geology Speed Dating” session at GSA
Justin Samuel at GSA sent me these images from the annual meeting in Charlotte. They show me demonstrating GigaPan technology at the Pardee Symposium called “Digital Geology Speed Dating”. With my colleagues Ron Schott and Jen Piatek, I suggested that GigaPans are a cool medium with readily obvious geologic usage for research, outreach, and education. I’m grateful to the session’s organizers, Declan De Paor, Steve Whitmeyer, and John Bailey, for …
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.