You should check this out. Nice images. Two and a half minutes in length.

Thanks to Kevin Mattingly for alerting me to this tidbit.

Labels: california, energy, igneous

Hey there,

Just a quick note to say: (1) I'm in Bozeman, Montana, and (2) I successfully presented and defended my MSSE capstone research. Thanks much to John Graves and Dave Lageson for their counsel and wisdom! Now that I have two master's degrees (one in geology, one in science education), I'm going to take a few semesters off being a student.

Looking forward to the arrival of my NOVA students on Sunday!

CB

Labels: montana, msse

WTF? Really?

Labels: evolution, primates, science and society

It's been busy round these parts. My apologies for the lack of posts this past week.

I leave tomorrow for Montana, and I'll have limited e-mail access while out there. I'll do my best to post when I can, but it will likely be more on the ~weekly timescale rather than ~daily.

On the agenda: (1) Bahama Montana, (2) present and defend my MSSE capstone project, and (3) lead my Regional Field Geology of the Northern Rockies class for NOVA.

More later...

Labels: blogs, montana, msse, nova, travel

A funny coincidence transpired a couple of weeks ago. I posted about "Amygdules!" and so did Andrew. We were both so excited by these cool primary igneous structures that we added an exclamation point to our post titles. Over the weekend, I found some more. These are in Dark Hollow, in Shenandoah National Park, above the falls. Pretty sweet, eh?



I hereby give them two exclamation points. Let's see if anyone else can come up with two-exclamation-point-worthy examples of amygdules...

Labels: basalt, blogs, blue ridge, falls, igneous, primary structures, proterozoic, shenandoah

Two cool courses taught by my esteemed colleagues... If you're local and love rocks, you should enroll in both of these!

Birth of the Appalachians. GOL 135-003A. Saturday, June 20. A one-credit field course to investigate the paleogeography of Virginia, prior to the initial uplift associated with the Appalchian Orogeny. We will be specifically looking at rock outcrops representing the pre- and post-uplift topography and environments, based on evidence in the present Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Light hiking and roadside geology. Contact Victor Zabielski for more information: vzabielski@nvcc.edu

Mid-Atlantic Field Geology (for educators and interested others). GOL 295-050N. A coherent series of one-day regional field trips, plus on/off-campus lectures and labs on Thursdays (2 - 8:20 PM) during second summer session (also two Saturdays: 7/18, and 8/1). This is an introductory-level, four-credit lecture/lab/field hybrid course, tailored to educators and interested others. It considers local outcroppings of the mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain, Piedmont, Blue Ridge, and Valley and Ridge, as natural classrooms for the demonstration of geologic principles, the study of earth history, and the collection of demonstrative hand-samples. Specific meeting places/times and preparation will be sent via student VCCS email addresses & Blackboard. Class # 12594. If more information is necessary, feel free to email: krasmussen@nvcc.edu

Labels: field trips, geology, nova, virginia

Yesterday, I took a little tour out along old Route 55 through West Virginia, the road that was replaced by new Route 55, also a source of cool outcrops. My host was Maitland S., a retired gentleman who occasionally takes geology classes at NOVA. We saw a bunch of cool stuff out there, and I'll share it all with you.

First, check out these lovely pyrolusite dendrites:





Pyrolusite is MnO2, and often grows in these beautiful branching forms. It's totally an inorganic process, but the visual similarity to botanical branching makes pyrolusite dendrites a particularly insidious form of pseudofossil. Here, it's growing on limestone, presumably the Devonian Helderberg Group -- though I'll have to check on that to be sure.

Labels: field trips, fossils, minerals, valley and ridge