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17 May 2019
Friday fold: Found folds
This week, for Friday folds, I offer up some random folds that have passed my perceptual transom this week. First up: In the new Netflix series Our Planet, in episode 7 (Fresh Water), an anticline/syncline pair makes a brief appearance as David Attenborough discusses glaciers as a reservoir for fresh water. Here is a screenshot: I’m not sure where this is in the world: Greenland? Antarctica? Let me know in …
23 November 2016
A conversation with Zack Labe
Yesterday, I mentioned climate change visualizer extraordinaire Zack Labe. As delineated then, he’s a PhD student at U.C. – Irvine in the Earth Systems Science department. He’s producing some really excellent #dataviz on climate change. Today, I’d like to share a short exchange I had with Zack about his work. 1) Please give Mountain Beltway readers a sense of your background, leading up to what you’re working on …
22 November 2016
We are in unprecedented territory with global sea ice
The amount of sea ice on planet Earth is much, much lower than ever recorded at this time of year. Will this anomaly turn out to be a relatively minor “weather” event? Or is this what a sea ice tipping point looks like?
26 May 2016
Glaciotectonic thrust at Waubonsee Community College
Glaciers can cause thrust faults! Explore an example from a trench south of Chicago.
19 June 2015
Friday fold: subglacial drag fold (Pleistocene) in Cretaceous sediments, Alberta
Howard Allen, a retired petroleum geologist from Calgary, and longtime reader of this blog, contributed this week’s Friday fold: Subglacial drag fold (Pleistocene) in Upper Cretaceous Horseshoe Canyon Fm. bedrock (sandstone, shale). The locality is SE of Drumheller, AB at UTM 12U 394247 5692469 (WGS84). Did you hear that right? Yes, you did: This is Cretaceous aged sedimentary rock, folded by a Pleistocene glacier, tens of millions of years after …
27 February 2014
It’s not all fun & games on Corridor H
Over the past 2 weeks, I’ve been sharing some images here from a field trip the previous week to Corridor H in eastern West Virginia. I love this road, but I guess it’s fair for me to point out that sometimes in the middle of winter, this is what the outcrops look like: …Yep. Next road-cut, please.
3 February 2014
Ice seeps along Passage Creek
This past week, there’s been a beautiful sight along the stretch of the Fort Valley Road that goes past the Blue Hole section of Passage Creek. Click to enlarge Ice has been forming beautiful forms as groundwater seeps out along bedding planes in the Massanutten Sandstone (a Silurian-aged quartz arenite, folded during late Paleozoic Alleghanian deformation). At this site, the bedding dips moderately to the south. This is close to …
29 January 2014
Frosty morning
It’s another cold morning in the Fort Valley. To celebrate winter’s continuing grip, please enjoy these images from last Friday morning, on my way to work… Frost on plants: Frost on barbed wire: Finally, here’s a time-lapse video (5 times actual speed) of the first 6 miles of my commute (walking, then driving): [vimeo=http://vimeo.com/85285064]
7 January 2014
Ice in the ‘hood
Some ice seen this morning, the coldest we’ve yet experienced at our home in the Fort Valley… 4° F when we got up this morning, with windchill around -15° F. Frost nucleated on a “petal” from a tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera): Frost on grass (note the different habit of the ice crystals here): Frost on some netting: Frost on some plant stems near a little creek on our land: Ice …
31 December 2013
Pipkrakes in the yard
Asbestiform ice is growing in our yard this week, with individual ice needles several inches long… Note the substantial pebbles that have been lifted up by the growth of these things – they’re powerful little crystals.
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.