Geobulletin alpha

Scenes from a Strawberry Solstice on the Tuolumne River 

Tonight was a unique astronomical event, a Strawberry Moon on a summer solstice, the first since I was a child back in 1967. There's nothing significant in this other than human number-keeping, but it seemed as good an excuse as any to head out to our new river park on the Tuolumne and enjoy the sunset. It was an unusually clear evening, and we had a nice view of the Sierra Nevada crest

Consensus, Cooperation, and Conversation 

This is one of my periodic mea culpas for a lack of posts. In this case, I have an excuse and I think it's a worthy one. I'm one of a group of people editing a new book on collection storage, due for publication late this year. Or early next year. It's a 650 page monster with 35 chapters and 60 authors and while I've never given birth, I suspect producing this thing will give me some sense of what that's like. When it comes out, buy it. We managed to assemble a fantastic group of authors [...]

Happy Darwin Day! 

Today is Darwin’s birthday, and ‘A global celebration of science and reason‘. Of course, here in the Geology Castle, every day is a global celebration of science and reason, but we’re happy for any excuse to celebrate the great man. (And … Continue reading

After a busy summer, we have returned to the blogosphere… 

Well, it has been a while since either of us has produced a GeologyJenga post, so first of all apologies on this front. We both have the same excuse – finishing our PhD theses! Our mutual deadline was 30 September 2014, and thankfully we both made it. The last few months were challenging at times

The Sierra Nevada Underground: How does a newly discovered pristine cave look? Finding out at Black Chasm 

There are caves and there are caves. Many of them were discovered long ago, and the easily accessible ones suffered grievous damage. In earlier days, cave decorations (speleothems) were broken off as souvenirs in the sadly mistaken belief that they would grow back quickly. Today's cave vandals have no such excuse. They break and destroy for sheer maliciousness. It's sad either way because

CREC, the Basin and Range, and Sunsets: On the Lower Colorado River 

Although there is some geological discussion going on here, this series of photos is really an excuse to share an extraordinary sunset that I enjoyed yesterday evening. Sometimes a sunset is spectacular in its own right, no matter where one might be (my home in the Great Valley being a rare example). Sometimes, though, the landscape and the geological forces that produced it become part of

Iconography of Disaster 

The July Accretionary Wedge on geologic and geographic signs gave me the excuse to finally share my collection of warning signs. I have a soft spot for the iconography of disaster, and the difficulty of sharing vital information in a … Continue reading

Out in America's Never Never: The Mojave, a Vast Unknown Treasure 

My students are reading this and saying "We didn't stop here". That's true. But I love the picture and any excuse to show it. The first morning on the road into America's Never Never found us at Hole in the Wall in the middle of the Mojave National Preserve. The Mojave is a vast region in eastern California that is both well-known, and completely unknown to the residents and visitors to

The Diamantinasaurus in the cave: definitely unfamiliar this time 

This post is just an excuse for me to show off Brian Engh’s entry for the All Yesterdays contest (book here, contest–now closed–here). The title is a reference to this post, by virtue of which I fancy myself at least a spear-carrier in what I will grandly refer to as the All Yesterdays Movement. Oddly

Big Plumes, Small Plumes in South America 

2012 has been a fairly volcanically-quiet year (but that isn’t any excuse not to go and vote by 12/28 for the 2012 Pliny for Volcanic Event of the Year!) Case in point, many of us are so volcanically deprived that

Upcoming Gallery 

So this alert is a bit overdue (I have a good excuse... I was kind of getting married).In case you missed the results of our last poll the Carboniferous won. Meaning... This July 1st, anything and everything from the Carboniferous period is fair game for its own work of art!If you're new to the site, we accept any and all artwork submitted that is themed around any of our gallery topics. Just send your submission(s), along with any accompanying text you'd like with them, and the link to your [...]

Beach erratic in Des Moines 

Would anyone care to investigate a sizable boulder on the beach north of the Des Moines marina? Probably an erratic. There is a report that this may be Jackass conglomerate. If you go, please provide me with photos (with scale) and directions to get there: A good excuse for an outing to the beach! Take

We shall call it ‘Mini-hallux’ 

And it didn’t even cost me one million dollars either. This post is little more than an excuse to show of Tyrannosaurus feet again but it does give me the chance to talk about the hallux a little more. This has had a bit of a mention in the past with the issue of it’s

“Taste” Versus “Science” 

My recent discussion on the value of “originalism” has led to some interesting comments from respondents Mickey Mortimer and Mike Taylor. As I respect both of them, but disagree, I will post their comments in full below and respond to them in more detail rather than in comments. This gives me an excuse for yet

The Saturday Musings of an Easily Distracted (Geo)Blogger... 

The visual evidence of why my "beer" belly doesn't go away... A fear of carnivores??You may think that the life of a geoblogger is fascinating and exciting, given their tales of derring-do and exotic travels, but the truth in my case is far more mundane. I still have to do the yard work and take out the garbage; "but honey, I had 300 page hits yesterday..." doesn't cut it as an excuse to sit

Say “Happy Holidays!” With a Dinosaur 

I have never been particularly good at sending out Christmas cards. By the time I get into the holiday spirit and remember, it is usually December 24th. This year, however, the Etsy member FrankNBones has given me a good excuse to do things right with a unique set of dinosaur holiday cards! Featuring the dinosaur

Scientific American on Bryozoans 

The Scientific American web site has posted an entry about bryozoans entitled, "Excuse me, Sir. There's a Moss-animal in my Lake" by Jennifer Frazer.   Great article describing a find of a fresh water bryozoan in the state of Virginia.  She later covers bryozoan anatomy and fossil history.  Like the line in the article, "Bryozoans are like the whales of the coral world".  Also nice reference link to the image of the Archimedes bryozoan!Hederella bryozoan on [...]

Another California Earthquake Simulation 

Article Wow, do you know they burn the midnight supercomputer oil just to run these things?  The big basins stay red the longest, and you do notice some directivity.  I can't help feel that they are overshooting the actual knowledge of basic physics, to spend so much time on these.  What do they really learn?  Is it just an excuse to have supercomputers that beat the

More from the department of Something Must be Done 

Not to be outdone by the UK's ban on toner cartridges, Japan Post has upped the ante with a ban on sending all parcels weighing over a pound. Unfortunately, this only applies to parcels being sent airmail to the USA, so we can't use it as an excuse for not being able to send any Christmas presents back to the UK. A few thousand USA expats must be heaving a sigh of relief though :-)The

Brief plant update 

I’ve been inundated with new material over the last few weeks. In addition to our extensive Ordovician collecting, I’ve made two trips to Beckley to collect plant material, and DB and I are planning another trip there this Thursday (all while trying to prepare for my next Carmel Church excavation that starts next week). While Boxley has generously set aside a huge quantity of fossiliferous shale for our purposes, they will eventually have to move it out of their way. Moreover, Beckley [...]