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15 March 2019
Friday folds: two more from Oman and Chuck Bailey
Friday is that special day of the week where we take a break from our hurried lives and gaze longingly at great photos of folded rocks in exotic corners of the world. Today, we return to Oman, and we say, “Oh, man!”
1 February 2019
Friday fold: Two spectacular folds from Oman
The William & Mary “Rock Music” class has returned from Oman, bearing cultural insights and Friday fold photos!
23 May 2013
Gaining Ground, by Forrest Pritchard
Last week, I got a great new book from Amazon. I had pre-ordered it months ago, so when it finally arrived, I was delighted, and dove right in. Within 24 hours, I had finished it. It’s the story of how my friend Forrest Pritchard re-made his family’s farm into a sustainable enterprise by going organic. The book is called Gaining Ground, and it’s less academic than something like The Omnivore’s …
21 February 2013
Strained stylolites in Elkton East
Whoa – look at all that GREEN. You can tell this Virginia picture wasn’t taken recently. In fact, it’s another image from the field review I participated in for the Elkton East quadrangle back in May of last year. Somehow I start blogging these things, but run out of steam (or really more accurately: I get distracted by other stuff) before I finish. Today’s (I think, final) tidbit: sheared stylolites …
9 May 2012
Overturned bedding in the Weverton (?) Formation
On Monday, I was out in the field at the Blue Ridge / Valley & Ridge transition (“boundary”?) in the Elkton East quadrangle, where Chuck Bailey and students (from the College of William & Mary) were leading a field review of their new geologic map. A field review is a form of field-based peer review, wherein the authors of a new geologic map take peers and interested others out into …
11 November 2011
Friday (center)fold
At last weekend’s gala banquet to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the William & Mary geology department, I was tickled to see that the centerpiece for each table was a rock of some sort. I spotted Gore Mountain Amphibolite, Baker Mountain Kyanite, brachiopod fossils in limestone, a fossil whale vertebra, a chunk of Aquia Creek sandstone, pegmatite, and peridotite-xenolith-bearing basalt. …And on one table, there was a fold: Here’s a …
9 November 2011
William & Mary geology: 50th anniversary
The geology program at the College of William & Mary turned 50 years old this year, and last weekend they held a party to celebrate. Of the 800 or so geology majors the department has produced in 50 years, about 100 came to this event – that’s a pretty great ratio, I think: 1 out of every 8 alumni made the trek back to Williamsburg to pay tribute to this …
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.