Geobulletin alpha

Join Me on the Alsek River in the Yukon Territory and Southeast Alaska on a Geology-Themed Raft Trip, August 2017 

View of the Fairweather Range from the lower Alsek River  Join me as we float the mighty Alsek River, located in the heart of North America's largest wilderness in the Yukon Territory and southeast Alaska, for 11 days in August, 2017. I will accompany this trip that begins in Haines Alaska, with an overland excursion to the put-in located in the Yukon Territory in Canada. We will float 142 river miles from the interior to the Pacific at Dry Bay. It is a spectacular journey that includes a [...]

Pele is a Capricious Goddess...Part One (A Return to the Realm of Fire) 

Note to my Geology 190 Students: this IS NOT a picture from my current visit. Lava is NOT flowing this way right now. I offer NO GUARANTEES that anything we see on our trip in two weeks will be anything like this. The reasons are described below.... That's a much younger version of myself, from 2002 For everyone else: I wish you could join us! We are headed to the Hawaiian Islands in a

4-5th and 18-19th June - Field Geology in Pembrokeshire (Part 2) 

Lifelong Learning 4 day course Field Geology in Pembrokeshire (Part  2)  Two weekends in June: 4th, 5th, 18th, 19th10.00 am – 5.00 pm each day. The Pembrokeshire landscape differs from much of Wales in that it is largely unmountainous, with extensive areas forming plateaux lying below 183m (600 ft). This course will visit a number of key coastal locations in the south of the county, examining rocks formed during Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous times. The course is divided [...]

Saturday 27th February 

Saturday 27th FebruaryBrown's Folly, near Monkton Farleigh and BathfordEither - walk around the geological trail with Elizabeth Devon, Bath Geological SocietyOr - join us in our annual conservation of the sites Come along with gardening tools or just take the opportunity to visit the sites and talk about geology.Meet at 10.30 a.m. at Brown's Folly Car Park (G.R. ST 798663). Please note that the car park has been cleared of trees and is now available. Strong boots, waterproofs, [...]

Simple metrics in a complex world: Matt’s pessimistic take on the LWM 

[Note: Mike asked me to scrape a couple of comments on his last post – this one and this one – and turn them into a post of their own. I’ve edited them lightly to hopefully improve the flow, but I’ve tried not to tinker with the guts.] This is the fourth in a series

Milt Kahl flips 

Andreas Deja has been posting some great sequences from Milt Kahl. I felt compelled to flip through them, and so laid them out for digital flipping. Check Andreas’ site out for great inspiration. (Note: timing here is only intended to be like flipping.)

7th January - New Dinosaur discoveries 

New Dinosaur discoveriesBen Garrod7 January 2016, 7.30pm—9pmFree – donations welcomeNew and astounding dinosaur fossils continue to be discovered across the globe, shedding ever more light on what dinosaurs were and how they lived.Ben Garrod will discuss some of these new findings about animals which were dominant on land for about 135 million years from  the Triassic, through the Jurassic and into the Cretaceous geological periods. He will talk in particular about a recent titanosaur [...]

Additional Teaching Assistant Positions for Spring 2016 

The Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development is currently accepting applications for spring 2016 Teaching Assistant positions. Please note: Applicants must be current full-time CU students enrolled in a degree granting program. Applications will only be accepted by graduate students only. The Teaching Assistants will support the following courses: SDEV W2300 Challenges of Sustainable Development SDEV... read

The Great Valley Museum at Modesto Junior College is Seeking a Director 

This is a reposting of my note from last month. The deadline for applying is Friday, Dec. 4! From personal experience, I can say that Modesto Junior College is a pretty nice place for a career. The Science Community Center at Modesto Junior College is a monument to the importance of science education, with state-of-the-art labs and classrooms for biology, astronomy, chemistry, physics,

Teaching Assistant Positions for Spring 2016 

The Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development is currently accepting applications for spring 2016 Teaching Assistant positions. Please note: Applicants must be current full-time CU students enrolled in a degree granting program. Applications will only be accepted by graduate students and undergraduate juniors or seniors. The Teaching Assistants will support the following courses:  SDEV W1900 Intro... read

NOAA Issues Long Range Winter Outlook 

Long range forecasts tend to often turn out badly, but with the very strong El Nino this year there is higher confidence than usual. That said, take this with a grain of salt! I’ll be posting more about this in coming days (and sharing some opinions from others as well). One note here, and that’s how to interpret the maps below. It’s better to look at it in Yoda fashion,

Richard Butler: offer to host SVPCA 2017, and a plan for the future 

We’re delighted to host this guest-blog on behalf of Richard Butler, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, and guru of basal ornithischians. (Note that Matt and I don’t necessarily endorse or agree with everything Richard says; but we’re pleased to provide a forum for discussion.) Dear friends and colleagues within the SVPCA community; I am

California's Endemic: Yellow-billed Magpie on the West Campus, Back from the Brink, Maybe? (from Geotripper's CA Birds) 

Note: Occasionally the subject matter of posts that I put on Geotripper's California Birds spills over into areas that may be of interest to those interested in the geology I cover at Geotripper. This is one of them, so I've re-posted it here: California has precious few endemic species of birds. In one sense, this fact seems odd, given the many ecological "islands" in California,

Field Geology in Pembrokeshire (Part 1) 

Lifelong Learning 4 day course Field Geology in Pembrokeshire (Part 1)  Two weekends in October: 10th, 11th and 24th, 25th10.00 am – 5.00 pm each dayThe Pembrokeshire landscape differs from much of Wales in that it is largely unmountainous, with extensive areas forming plateaux lying below 183m (600 ft). This course will visit a number of key locations, mostly coastal and in the north of the county, examining rocks formed during Precambrian, Cambrian and Ordovician times.The course is [...]

Leptaena rhomboidalis brachiopod from the Kalkberg formation of New York 

When you compare the previous brachiopod I posted about, Rhytistrophia beckii, to today's fossil, Leptaena rhomboidalis there are some key differences. Both are large shells that are semiellipical (half moon shaped) to subquadrate (nearly square) with straight hinge lines. The valves of both shells are nearly flat but the margin of the shell in L. rhomboidalis is turned 90 degrees from the regular shell surface all along the edge. Another distinguishing feature is the somewhat regular, [...]

Orthis? sp. brachiopods from the Kalkberg formation of New York 

I'm really torn on how to classify these next fossils from the Kalkberg formation. To my eye they look like Rhipidomella sp., which is very common in middle Devonian aged rocks, but I cannot find any literature that lists that genus as being found in the Kalkberg formation. What I have been able to find lists shells that look similar to these as belonging to the genus Orthis. Doing a little research on the Fossilworks.org website indicates that both Rhipidomella and Orthis are part of the same [...]

Carbonate Essentials Short Course 

Just a note to let everyone know that I will be teaching my new 1-day short course on Carbonate Essentials (CE) for the first time on June 15 at the China University of Petroleum in Qingdao.  General outline: Geology Rock Physics Wireline Seismic 101 Horizons Attributes Many thanks to the Chinese American Petroleum Association (CAPA) for arranging and facilitating this course. It culminates over 10 years of working on carbonates at Saudi Aramco, the [...]

Carbonate Geophysics Short Course 

Just a note to let everyone know that I will be teaching my new 1-day short course on Carbonate Geophysics (CG) for the first time on June 16 at the China University of Petroleum in Qingdao. Many thanks to the Chinese American Petroleum Association (CAPA) for arranging and facilitating this course. It culminates over 10 years of working on carbonates at Saudi Aramco, the University of Houston and now at the University of Arkansas. After my SEG President term winds down in Fall 2015, I will be [...]

Upload your 2015 General Assembly presentation 

This year it is once again possible to upload your oral presentations, PICO presentations and posters from EGU 2015 for online publication alongside your abstract, giving all participants a chance to revisit your contribution – hurrah for open science! Files can be in either PowerPoint or PDF format. Note that presentations will be distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence. Uploading your presentation is free of charge and is not followed by a review process. The [...]

Cape Horn, Wulaia Bay and Punta Arenas Chile 

Better late than never, right! Here a re few pictures from my latest Smithsonian Journey's trip which included a 4-day cruise from Cape Horn to Punta Arenas.Full moon setting over Cape HornA view of Cape Horn - the southernmost piece of land in the America's (note that this view shows land that protrudes to the east - there is actually other land around the corner that is a bit farther south).Part of the Wollaston Archipelago which includes Cape Horn IslandThis is a view of Wulaia Bay and the [...]