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22 July 2015
Oolitic soft sediment deformation in Helena Fm. limestone
Another gem from the Grinnell Glacier cirque: Zooming in on the contact, showing the concentrically-zoned ooids: Near the tip of the flame structure (?), I noted alignment of longer platy / flaky components within the oolitic layer: This looks like a loading structure – soft sediment deformation due to a density inversion – perhaps when some high-energy event (a storm?) dumped a bunch of relatively coarse ooids atop some squishy …
12 June 2015
Friday fold: Flow banding in obsidian, Newberry Volcano National Monument, Oregon
Lockwood Dewitt is the purveyor of this week’s Friday fold ensemble: All these folds are primary (not tectonic) in nature: they are flow banding of the viscous lava that oozed out to make the Big Obsidian Flow at Newberry. And closer in: One more: Awesome stuff! Thanks for sharing, Lockwood! Happy Friday, everyone!
21 May 2015
Soft sediment deformation in sandstone and shale, Bolt Mountain
Two nice new examples of soft sediment deformation structures in Pennsylvanian-aged clastic sedimentary rocks from West Virginia.
28 April 2015
Epidotized tuff, Tucson Mountains, Arizona
I was in Tucson this past weekend for a book project meeting, and my editor and coauthor and I took a hike on Sunday morning in the Tucson Mountains to Wasson Peak. Not far from the summit, we saw an epidotized tuff, where the fiamme and pumice blobs had undergone reactions to produce pods of epidote, giving the rock a look like a sick dalmatian: This is a cool rock …
6 April 2015
Exploring Mahantango Zoophycos traces in GigaPan
Recently, I posted about an excellent road cut in Fort Valley showing well-developed 10 cm+ Zoophycos trace fossils. Presented here are three new GigaPan images (two outcrop; one macro) of Zoophycos from the Devonian-aged Mahantango Formation: link link link These images are part of a new “virtual field trip” that I organized to supplement my historical geology field trip to examine the geologic history of the Massanutten Synclinorium. The link …
24 March 2015
Martinsburg Formation outcrops in Edinburg Gap
A report from the field: new outcrops of Ordovician-aged turbidites featuring geopetal indicators, fossil content, and a structural overprint imparted during Pangaea’s assembly.
20 March 2015
Friday fold: flexed turbidites
Spring is almost here! As you get ready for the equinox, enjoy this gentle fold on a Friday: These are turbidites (graywacke and shale) of the late Ordovician Martinsburg Formation, seen in Edinburg Gap, western Massanutten Range, greater Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. Bedding is flexed very slightly here, from moderately-dipping to more steep, and then back to moderate again. Slickensides on the top of some exposed layers indicate the beds shifted …
10 February 2015
Pisolites in the Tansil Formation, Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico
Pisolites are large primary concretions that develop in backreef or lagoonal settings such as the Permian Tansil Formation of New Mexico, into which is cut the enormous hole called Carlsbad Caverns.
27 January 2015
Miette Group gritstone showing scours, mudchip rip-ups, cross-bedding, and dropstones
The coarser strata of the Neoproterozoic Miette Group in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta record changing water current strength over time, and maybe an iceberg or two.
9 January 2015
Friday fold: a surging rippled whale of Grinnell Formation
The Friday fold is asymmetric, overturned, and chock full of primary sedimentary features. Join us in Glacier National Park’s Mesoproterozoic Belt Supergroup.
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.