You are browsing the archive for glacial landforms Archives - Page 4 of 5 - Mountain Beltway.
26 October 2011
Strained Timiskaming-type metaconglomerates from Ontario
Why are these geologists all over these rocks? Because, gentle readers, these are some seriously cool rocks. The geologists are all participants on a pre-GSA-annual-meeting field trip to the Superior Craton, a chunk of ancient crust at the “nucleus” of the North American continent. The rocks are syn-tectonic volcaniclastic conglomerates of the Seine Group. They are Archean sediments very similar to modern day conglomerates – full of cobbles and pebbles …
24 September 2011
Pilot Peak: a classic horn
Along the Beartooth Highway, east of Cooke City, Montana, you will see this striking mountain: Click through to make it really big. That’s Pilot Peak. It’s a horn in Wyoming. My Rockies students get really jazzed when they see it. Glaciers carved away the rest of the mountain, leaving only this pyramidal spire. Awesome.
19 August 2011
Glaciofluvial outcrop annotated
Callan’s answer to the riddle of the mystery outcrop is revealed. Spoiler: the glacier did it.
8 August 2011
Climbing Darton Peak
Callan embarks on an exhausting climb of a major summit in the Wyoming Bighorn mountains, a peak named in tribute of one of his geological heroes. Come join the trek to the top of Darton Peak!
25 July 2011
Gigapan of Cascade Canyon
To follow up to my Cascade Canyon post, here’s a gigapan of the scene:
6 April 2011
Mount Washington 5: glacial features & views
Busy days here in DC and northern Virginia… Blogging time has been limited. A few more shots from this past summer’s time at Mount Washington, to fill the void… Prius atop mountain: The Great Gulf: Hikers in relatively warm weather: Another look down the Great Gulf: Glacial cobble of diorite, exotic to the top of the Presidential Range, and therefore icily transported there from a distant source. Mount Jefferson, as …
28 March 2011
A glacial delta complex in western Pennsylvania
A week ago Saturday, my three Honors students and I went on a field trip led by Gary Fleeger of the Pennsylvania Geological Survey, to examine some cool glacial features in western Pennsylvania. The trip was associated with the joint meeting of the northeastern & north-central sections of the Geological Society of America, held in Pittsburgh. My favorite part of the trip was examining a glacial delta complex near Jacksville, …
22 March 2011
Glacial cobble
Saw this beauty on a field trip Saturday, examining the glacial geology of western Pennsylvania. Note the faceted surfaces and profusion of scratches of multiple sizes in multiple orientations.
17 October 2010
Birthing a litter of drumlins
Quite appropriately, Glacial Till won the new the latest edition of “Where on (Google) Earth?”, hosted here yesterday. The location I picked is the subject of a new paper by Mark Johnson and colleagues appears in the current issue of Geology (October 2010). It shows a place in Iceland where a piedmont-style outlet glacier called Múlajökull is pooching out to the southeast from the Hofsjökull ice cap. Here’s a more …
20 August 2010
The Purgatory Conglomerate
After my thesis defense at the University of Maryland, my mentor and friend E-an Zen asked me if I had ever heard of the Purgatory Conglomerate. I had not. Over the years, E-an has been a great source of new ideas and information to me, and so when he raises a notion, I pay attention. In my thesis, I had done some strain analysis on volcanic clasts in a meta-ignimbrite …
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.