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14 June 2019
Friday fold: kinked cleavage at Harpers Ferry
Last weekend was the annual meeting of the eastern section of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers. On Friday afternoon, we visited Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and my colleague Beth Doyle led a great field trip to examine the rocks exposed there. This was my favorite outcrop we saw: Here is a close up of this outcrop, which is framed by (anthropogenic) rock wall: Dipping shallowly from upper left to …
21 November 2018
Brittle overprinting ductile in the South Mountains metamorphic core complex, Phoenix, Arizona
Today, we take a look at the structural geology that reveals the deformation evolution (first ductile, then brittle) of the South Mountains metamorphic core complex, south of Phoenix, Arizona. Expect lots of photos of smeared-out rocks, broken by faults.
22 August 2018
Q&A, episode 5
A reader asks: “What is foliation and what makes it so important to the structure of rock?”
Callan answers with a lot of images of beautifully foliated rocks.
13 February 2018
S-C fabric in limestone, Camerino, Italy
Some scaly Italian limestone shows off two foliations (S and C) which reveal the kinematic motions that built the Apennines.
9 August 2017
A suite of new 3D models
A showcase of five new 3D digital models of awesome rock samples and outcrops, produced using Agisoft Photoscan.
21 July 2017
Friday fold: Sardinia
My friend Ander Sundell at the College of Western Idaho is the source of today’s Friday fold. It’s from somewhere in Sardinia, and I think you’ll find it visually striking: Ander says: The rocks here are Silurian phyllites generated from mudstones that were deposited on the floor of the rheic ocean basin. The color and grain size variation do an excellent job highlighting compositional layering. They were deformed during the …
3 February 2017
Friday fold: Squaw Creek Schist, Idaho
The edge of ancestral North America can be found in the canyon of the Salmon River in western Idaho. Folds exposed the Squaw Creek Schist near Riggins record the stresses of adding terranes on during North America’s westward movement since the breakup of Pangaea. The Friday fold crinkled up during the accretion of a terrane to the growing North American continent.
25 November 2016
Friday fold: intrafolial folds in Eriboll mylonite
At the birthplace of the term “mylonite,” we can find Friday folds hidden in the foliation.
22 September 2016
Eyes on some augens in a nice gneiss
Take a look at these gorgeous exposures of augen gneiss in eastern “mainland” Shetland, U.K. Includes 3 GigaPans of the site.
12 September 2014
Friday fold: Quartz vein in Catoctin Formation, Point of Rocks, Maryland
I took this image in 2005, when I was working up a geologic history of the C&O Canal National Historical Park. It’s a vein of quartz, gracefully folded within the Catoctin Formation. The exposure is along the railroad tracks at Point of Rocks, Maryland, easternmost extent of the Blue Ridge province on the north shore of the Potomac River. The Culpeper Basin begins about 100 meters to the east of …
Callan Bentley is an assistant professor of geology at Northern Virginia Community College. He is a fellow of the Geological Society of America and the 2018 National Association of Geoscience Teachers' James Shea Awardee. 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. Callan served as a contributing editor at EARTH magazine for many years. He is Past President of the Geological Society of Washington and the Geo2YC division of NAGT. He lives in the Fort Valley of Virginia.