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4 January 2011
Diamictite close-ups
Here’s three shots of the Konnarock Formation diamictite, taken with my Nikon microscope. Field of view is about 1 cm in each shot.
30 December 2010
A whopper of a mystery rock from the Golden State
When I was out in California in October 2009, about the same time that Garry Hayes passed me on the highway heading up to Yosemite while I was headed down towards the Modesto Airport, I pulled over to check out some rock exposures on the side of the road. This was near the Don Pedro Reservoir (right about here). While standing there, my attention was caught by a strange looking …
9 December 2010
Animated laminae
More of the new scientific medium* I showed you on Wednesday: animated GIFs of super-small stuff, to give a sense of depth. This time, I included a 1 mm scale bar: These are laminations of silt and clay in the rhythmites of the lower Konnarock Formation. If the above image moves too fast for your eye to keep up with, here’s another version of it, which is set to a …
8 December 2010
Focusing on S-C fabrics
An animated image showing changing focus on a microscope camera aimed at a sample of S-C fabric is shared. Readers are encouraged to brainstorm uses for animated GIF images in the geosciences.
28 September 2010
Speleothem microscopy: soot & aragonite
My friend Dave Auldridge, formerly a structural geology student of mine at George Mason University, is now in grad school at the University of Alabama. Dave is working on an interesting project with speleothems: those drippy looking CaCO3 growths that you find in caves, like stalactites and stalagmites. He’s looking at these speleothems in order to determine paleo-climate with oxygen and carbon isotopes. The carbon soot that’s trapped in the …
Callan Bentley teaches 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.