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3 September 2016
Viewing the Sea Point migmatite through the lens of GigaPan
It was five years ago when I first visited Sea Point, the outcrop on the coast of the Cape Peninsula where the Cape Granite (~540 Ma) intrudes the (meta-)sedimentary rocks of the Malmesbury Group. The outcrop is (a) beautiful and evocative, and (b) of historical importance, as Charles Darwin visited it while on the voyage of the Beagle, contemplating and confirming Lyell’s assertions of the validity of plutonism as he …
30 August 2016
Northwest Highlands unconformities (3 of 3): Sub-Ardvreck
It’s time to cover the third and final unconformity I observed this summer in the North-West Highlands of Scotland: the unconformity between the Neoproterozoic Torridonian Group below and the Cambrian Ardvreck Group above. Where I saw it, south of Loch Assynt on the mountain called Beinn Garbh (north of Canisp), it actually is displayed alongside the sub-Torridonian unconformity. The mountain hosts a “double unconformity”! Here is a view, looking south: …
22 August 2016
Northwest Highlands unconformities (2 of 3): Sub-Torridonian Group
Let’s now profile the next unconformity in the sequence of pulses of erosion and deposition recorded in the North-West Highlands of Scotland. For a reminder, here’s a cartoon cross-section through the four relevant units: Today, we’ll look at the contact between the Lewisian Gneiss and the Torridonian Group (Diabeg Formation), marked with a “2” on the cartoon above, where it is exposed along the shore of Loch Assynt. There are …
16 August 2016
Northwest Highlands unconformities (1 of 3): Sub-Stoer Group
First in a series profiling the three unconformities to be found in the North-West Highlands of Scotland. Today: the sub-Stoer unconformity as exposed at Clachtoll. Explore a Proterozoic buried topography topped with coarse, angular breccia.
2 August 2016
Oldest fossils in the UK: M.I.S.S. in Stoer Group, Scotland
This is the Split Rock at Clachtoll, on the shore of the North-West Highlands of Scotland. You’re looking out to sea, over the Minch. It’s the site that graces the cover of the excellent book A Geological Excursion Guide to the North-West Highlands of Scotland, by Kathryn Goodenough and Marten Krabbendam. “Clach toll” apparently means “Split rock” — Go figure. The Split Rock is an easy landmark to steer toward …
22 July 2016
Friday fold: The walls of Scalloway Castle
When in Shetland, one of my first stops was the museum in Scalloway, and one of the ancillary benefits of visiting there is the castle next door: Scalloway Castle includes building stones derived from the local limestone – a Neoproterozoic unit that has recently been chemostratigraphically correlated with Snowball Earth cap carbonates elsewhere in the world. But that need not concern us today. Today we are here for the folds! …
6 June 2016
Cleavage refraction in Konnarock Fm. rhythmites – a virtual sample
Here’s a visualization combination that leverages the advantages of the GIGAmacro system with the 3D ‘virtual sample’ perspective of the Sketchfab-hosted model: the same sample presented in both formats. In this case, it’s a lovely example of cleavage refraction going from meta-clay-shale (now ‘slate’) through a graded bed of fine sand and silt. Link GIGAmacro by Callan Bentley Photoscan model by Marissa Dudek The sample is of the Neoproterozoic Konnarock …
20 April 2016
Cooling columns of the Catoctin Formation, Indian Run Overlook, Shenandoah National Park
An inaugural visit to an outcrop in Shenandoah National Park reveals the signature of lava flows ~600 million years old.
27 March 2016
Another trio of 3D models
Here are three more of my Photoscan-generated, Sketchfab-hosted 3D models of rock samples: Mud cracks in Tonoloway Formation tidal flat carbonates, Corridor H, West Virginia: Diorite from the eastern Sierra Nevada of California: Vein cross-cutting foliated & lineated gneiss, Blue Ridge basement complex, Virginia:
12 August 2015
Student guest post: the Belt Supergroup in Glacier National Park
As longtime readers know, late summer is when my Rockies students submit their final projects – web-based explanations of key geologic sites they examined during the trip. Today, I offer you a guest blog post by student John Leaming. You’ll notice that I’m not *completely* absent from the post, however – I make a couple of cameos as “sense of scale.” Enjoy, -CB ______________________________________________________________ Glacier National Park, Belt Supergroup I …
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.