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10 May 2018
Last Stand, by Michael Punke
A reader of this blog recently recommended Michael Punke’s Last Stand. I thoroughly enjoyed his novel The Revenant, and so last week I started the audiobook version of the nonfictional Last Stand (2007). Last Stand is subtitled “George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West.” Prior to reading it, I knew little of Grinnell, save that he was a conservationist, and that he …
3 November 2017
Friday fold: More kinks from Glacier National Park
This Friday, let’s return to Glacier National Park. Here are some folds in Helena Formation limestone: Can’t see them? Fair enough – the point of maximum inflection appears to be hidden behind a snow-filled gully: But in addition to that big fold, there are several kink bands in there, too. Let’s zoom in: Here they are: Zooming in further, on the right-most of these kink bands: …And here, with the …
20 October 2017
Friday fold: Kink folds in Glacier National Park, part II
Over the summer, I treated you to a great big kink fold in the sedimentary rocks of Glacier National Park. Here’s another set: Did you see both of them in that first picture? – one bigger down below, one smaller up above. Both kink bands dip to the left. Let’s zoom in on the upper one: There’s more where this came from – stay tuned for more…. and in the …
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.
28 July 2017
Friday fold: Big kink fold in Grinnell Formation
It’s Friday! How about we celebrate with a beautiful kink fold from a gorgeous national park?
7 April 2016
New GIGAmacro images of rock samples
Another week, another batch of new images produced on my home-based Magnify2 imaging system from GIGAmacro. Leptaena brachiopod in (Mississippian?) limestone from Montana: Link Here’s the flip side of the same sample, with a lot of fenestrate bryozoans to see: Link Fault breccia from the Corona Heights Fault of San Francisco: Link Amygdular metabasalt from the western Sierra Nevada of California: Link Araucaria mirabilis gymnosperm cone fossil, from the Cerro …
31 March 2016
This week’s batch of 3D models
Anorthosite with lovely garnet reaction rims, a spherical hematite concretion, and some sweet breccia. Check them out and explore!
29 March 2016
Four new GIGAmacro images
Here are a few new images I’ve been working on with my home-based Magnify2 imaging system from GIGAmacro. Archean basement complex gneiss from the Gallatin Range of Montana: Link (If this looks familiar, that’s because one of the samples I imaged with the Photoscan 3D modeling technique and published on Sketchfab the week before last.) Banded iron formation from Minnesota with ooids and stromatolites: Link Intrusion breccia: Link Blue Ridge …
24 March 2016
Three new 3D rock sample models
Pahoehoe “ropes” on a basalt, sample site unknown: Archean gneiss from the Gallatin Range of Montana: Tafoni in Malmesbury Group turbidites, South Africa:
25 September 2015
Friday fold: Macro GigaPan of Archean gneiss, Spanish Peaks, Montana
I don’t think I’ve featured this sample here before… It’s a lovely gneiss from near the trailhead for the Spanish Peaks, near Ted Turner’s Ranch in the Gallatin/Madison Range in southern Montana, not too far from Big Sky. Have fun checking it out in this macro GigaPan: link Happy Friday to all.
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.