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6 June 2011
DCSWA tour
Yesterday, I took about fifteen members of the DC Science Writer’s Association on a walking tour of DC’s geology. I was honored to present the capital city’s epic geologic story to an esteemed crowd of professional science writers from Nature, Science, the National Academies, the National Institutes of Health, the Washington Post, and other institutions. Here are a few photos that Harvey Leifert took on the trip: …Evidently I gesticulate …
22 May 2011
New hallway display: geologic provinces of northern Virginia
Callan shows off a new hallway display in his building at Northern Virginia Community College, showcasing the numerous geologic provinces of northern Virginia (as well as adjacent mid-Atlantic states).
10 May 2011
Four new gigapans from the Billy Goat Trail
Yesterday afternoon, I spent some time in the field with a colleague, a student, and a gigapan. I took four gigapan images, which are of varying quality due to the partly cloudy day, but still you ought to find them interesting to explore. You can see any of them full-screen by clicking on the word “GigaPan” in the lower right corner: Antiform in Mather Gorge Formation, C&O Canal: Folds and …
8 April 2011
Friday fold: a graceful number from the Billy Goat Trail
Spotted this one a week ago today, when I was out exploring north of the Rocky Islands with my GMU Structural Geology students…
18 March 2011
Friday fold: OSF migmatite
Migmatite schist sample from Orange Springs Farm, near Unionville, Virginia, with cm-demarcated pencil for scale. Sample was cut and polished. Here’s what the untreated sample looks like: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDDcLVp_4Ss] Happy Friday. Enjoy your weekend. I’m off to the Northeastern / North-Central joint section meeting of the Geological Society of America today. We’ll see if my time in Pittsburgh gives me enough time to blog or not…
15 March 2011
Sugarloaf III: Tension gashes
Background geology of the Sugarloaf Mountain area. (March 2010) Primary structures in the meta-sandstone of the Sugarloaf Mountain Quartzite. (yesterday) Background on tension gashes. (August 2010)
14 March 2011
Sugarloaf II: Primary structures
You’ll recall that I detailed a trip to Sugarloaf on this blog back in March of last year. Well, on Saturday (March of this year), Lily and I returned to this distinctive knob of quartzite for a five-mile hike. Along the way, we saw plenty of metamorphosed quartz sandstone (now quartzite), which was similar to what we saw on the previous Saturday’s hike, to Buzzard Rock on the northeast tip …
1 March 2011
News from the Billy Goat Trail (3): grab bag
Okay, a final post (for now, anyhow) sharing some images from last Friday’s field trip to the Billy Goat Trail, in Potomac, Maryland. Yesterday we looked at lamprophyre dikes, but there are other dikes on the Billy Goat Trail, too. Like this granite pegmatite: What’s interesting to me about this is that the joint set seems to have contradictory cross-cutting relations with the dike. Did the joints come first? Or …
28 February 2011
News from the Billy Goat Trail (2): lamprophyre dikes
Lamprophyre dikes on the Billy Goat Trail (Potomac, Maryland): are they offset because of a fault? Or not? Inquiring minds want to know!
27 February 2011
News from the Billy Goat Trail (1): Graded beds
I took my structural geology students out the Billy Goat Trail (upstream half of the “A” loop, near Potomac, Maryland) last Friday, and had them gather data for a project to assess whether or not Mather Gorge is controlled by a fault. I got this idea from Aaron Martin, the structural geologist at the University of Maryland, and I think it’s a nice project for structure students early on in …
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.