Geobulletin alpha

Virtual field trip to Siccar Point, Scotland 

Time for another virtual field trip on the Geologist’s Grand Tour of the United Kingdom: the most famous outcrop in the world. Today, we visit Siccar Point, Scotland. You’ve probably already seen photos of this place – they usually look something like this: To those who aren’t familiar, here’s what going on: There are two sets of strata here – and the contact between them is an ancient erosional surface.

[jules' pics] Let's Topiary 

Working from home, one no longer has to sit in front of the computer waiting for the end of the day. The disadvantage is neglecting to play with photos, including neglecting to blog them. But the advantage is that instead one can go cycling, or swimming, or shopping, or do some gardening, or even watch other people doing gardening. When it is not raining in these parts, it is important

Imaggeo on Mondays: The British Winter Storms 

This week’s imaggeo on Monday’s photography is Godrevy Lighthouse in North Cornwall (UK) experiencing the full force of the 2013/14 British Winter Storms which caused damage across the south west of the country. During mid-December 2013 to mid-February 2014 the UK was hit by six major storms bringing record precipitation, strong winds, huge waves and generating overall hazardous conditions. Despite the overall consensus being that these winter months were very wet, the question arose: did [...]

Arizona meteor explosion caught on seismic monitors 

The explosion of the meteor that flashed across central Arizona at about 4 a.m. this morning was recorded on our earthquake seismic network.  The seismic record is from the Payson-Strawberry station. The American Meteor Society, a non-profit organization, is asking for anyone who witnessed the meteor or has photos or videos, to contact them -

Imaggeo on Mondays: Storm on the Rock 

This is a photograph of Uluru, in the Northern Territory of Australia, on a hot and humid summer afternoon. As lightning flashed about, torrential rains swept across the landscape and silver rivulets of water began to rush down the sides of the mountain. Uluru is made of red-coloured Proterozoic arkosic sandstones, a coarse grained lithology rich in quartz and feldspars. However, on rare days such as this, the storm clouds and moisture in the atmosphere filter out much of the red end of the [...]

Spheroidal weathering in Columbia River basalt 

I’m in Idaho for the Rocky Mountain section meeting of the Geological Society of America. Yesterday, I was delighted to tour around in eastern Washington’s Channeled Scablands with my colleague Bill Richards (North Idaho College). I took a lot of photos, but here are two to start – lovely examples of “onion skin” style weathering in fractured basalt, producing “kernstones” of increasingly spherical shape: This is a particularly well expressed

Magnetic Earth and Toilet roll of time 

We have added a suggestion to our Magnetic Earth activity. This idea uses a sponge ball globe instead of Plasticine. Click here to see the original Earthlearningidea. We have also added some photos to the photo gallery on the website of students in Slovakia trying out the 'Toilet roll of

Imaggeo on Mondays: Half dome at sunset 

Yosemite’s Half Dome stands, majestic, over a granite dominated terrain in the Yosemite Valley area;  one of the most beautiful landscapes in northern America, and arguably, the world – it is also an Earth scientist’ playground. Stamped into the west slope of the Sierra Nevada range, the Yosemite Valley is a collection of lush forests, deep valleys, meandering rivers and streams, all punctuated by huge domes and cliffs of ancient volcanic origin. Come and explore this part of the [...]

Mark Your Calendars for these events happening at HMNS 5/16-5/22 

Last week’s featured #HMNSBlockParty creation is by Charlie Bartley (age 8):  Want to get your engineering handwork featured? Drop by our Block Party interactive play area and try your own hand building a gravity-defying masterpiece. Tag your photos with #HMNSBlockParty. … Continue reading

Where my rocks go to die 

For many years I saved and collected rocks. This was especially true during my years at About.com, when I put together a large set of photos and explanations to help people learn about rocks. When About.com dropped my contract in 2014, I’d reached “peak rocks.” My office had rocks everywhere, and my closet had still

Saltford RIGS and Geology Trail 

Saltford RIGS and Geology Trail : – Exposures Exposing Work Continues in 2016 Progress Report -- & Advertising of the Exposing Work to Continue to its ‘Cotham Marble Conclusion’, and the further great enjoyable opportunity to be a part of the work: later in the year …. Watch this space! …..As we local keen geo folk : Dig for Marble ! About a month back, - earliest Spring (just about!?) -, a very good and keen team spirited group of a few (human! , not JCB) diggers, [...]

Mark Your Calendars for these events happening at HMNS 5/9-5/15 

Last week’s featured #HMNSBlockParty creation is by Charlie Bartley (age 8):  Want to get your engineering handwork featured? Drop by our Block Party interactive play area and try your own hand building a gravity-defying masterpiece. Tag your photos with #HMNSBlockParty. … Continue reading

Announcing the winners of the EGU Photo Contest 2016! 

The selection committee received over 200 photos for this year’s EGU Photo Contest, covering fields across the geosciences. Participants at the 2016 General Assembly have been voting for their favourites throughout the week  of the conference and there are three clear winners. Congratulations to 2016’s fantastic photographers! In addition, this year, to celebrate the theme of the EGU 2016 General Assembly, Active Planet, the photo that best captured the theme of the conference was selected [...]

Firsthand reports from Canoa, Ecuador after the quake 

Callan's mother-in-law lives in one of the most strongly-shaken regions of Ecuador. Here, she and her boyfriend recount the experience of the earthquake Saturday night and its aftermath. Includes 8 photos from the

Sea Story #3 = The other rescue 

This story comes from Cornelis Van Gelder, one of our crane operators.  He gave me a video to watch, but no photos to post (the one photo here is just of a construction ship he used to work on). read

Spectacular Images of Mount St. Helens's Eruption 

The 1980 eruptive sequence completely changed the landscape around Mount St. Helens. Geologists flocked there to measure and investigate, taking thousands of photos in the process. I'm gathering some... -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Timberville 

Join Callan for a virtual field trip, as he shares dozens of photos from a recent 'field review' of a new geological map in Virginia's Valley & Ridge province. Highlights: graptolites, trace fossils, geopetal structures, folds and

Imaggeo on Mondays: Moonland 

The moon-like landscapes surrounding the Himalayan village of Lamayuru attract tourists seeking off-the-beaten track adventures. The village is enchanting, not only for the striking geological formations that frame it, but also for the presence of an 11th Century Buddhist monastery. The rock formations are known as “Moonland”, says Arjun Datta, author of this week’s imaggeo on Mondays featured photograph. “The surreal moon-like rock formations at Lamayuru are nestled in the Greater [...]

Beautiful Antarctica 

We’ve been moving right along with our sampling. Our original schedule was to sample five locations, with two additional sites that we could sample if we had time. We’re so far ahead of schedule that we’ve already sampled six of those sites, and we’re on our way to the seventh. Since we’re doing so well, we asked permission to sample sites even further south, so that’s where we’ll be headed next!One of the fun things about this field season is that we get to sample at so many [...]

Scott Kelly is Home- He Deserves A Pulitzer Prize 

  ..and that’s just to start. Scott Kelly landed inKazakhstan, after 340 days in space early Wednesday. He deserves the thanks of the nation and of the World for taking us along. His photos of our fragile planet have inspired and awed us. I think they deserve a Pulitzer Prize and am hoping that an art museum will put a collection of them on display. On the day when someone