2 November 2017
Weathering in komatiite
Posted by Callan Bentley
This morning on Twitter I was reminded of komatiites, those “extinct” ultramafic lavas that were relatively common eruptions during the Archean. I’ve actually got a good number of komatiite photos to share from my time last year in South Africa’s Barberton Greenstone Belt.
But since time is short this morning, I’ll start with a short photo set of three images, all showing different aspects of how these ultramafic rocks weather in the relatively dry climate of the South African mountains:
Students: what weathering patterns do you notice in these images? I’ll come back to this post later and tell you what I see, but first, let’s hear your observations and interpretations.
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.