Geology, etc.

Blog of an Oregon Geologist, YouTube creator, photographer, and enthusiast of the esoteric

[bettergeology]

New geology video just dropped!

Death Valley is the lowest altitude and hottest place in North America. What are the conditions that allow for that, and where does all the salt come from?

[aspergilloma]

Mt. St. Helens. May 18, 1980.

[bettergeology]

Photo sequence from Gary Rosenquist at Bear Meadow, NE of the summit, taken over about two minutes. (Mount St. Helens / Lawet’lat’la)

[cerussa]

Everyone should strive to be as strong as the Juan de Fuca Plate. That stubborn plate refuses to die.

[zhabazap]

Inspired by @joemomrgneissguy

Some time ago I was working with an old archive, looking for any geological documents, and found this:

It's a drill log from a geological expedition to Siberia in 1918. I often think about the men who kept it. The log starts in January, the Russian revolution happened just a few months before, probably while they were in the field. The country was in turmoil, the world was changing. And there these people were, in harsh Siberian winter, with a steam powered drill, paving the way for mining operations that are active to this day. Text on the right says they didn't work from 27th of January to 4th of February, because part of the team was Chinese and they were celebrating lunar new year. What was it like? There were no names in this log, but I know these people were out there. And I think that is a connection to the past that history books can't give.

[camblorite]

It's such an interesting document

[xphaiea]

Johann Jakob Scheuchze, subterranean rivers, 1716

[prophecy-pixels]

i love gars. only recently discovered the platinum variety. pixel dailies was fish a few days ago, and she is finally here

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

I made a video about the northern pike :]c

[prophecy-pixels]

trying to get into pixel dailies to get back into the swing of things. this was yesterday's prompt, forest, inspired by playing animal crossing gamecube again <3

[bettergeology]

Watch my new video! You might learn something cool about a scenic and beloved stretch of Oregon’s (USA) rugged coastline.

[bettergeology]

Watch my new video! You might learn something cool about a scenic and beloved stretch of Oregon’s (USA) rugged coastline.

[glitchlight]

The fabled megathrust earthquakegirl... the Big One

[bettergeology]

I have dated (or helped date) more earthquakes than people, just putting that out there.

[plaguedocboi]

I’ve been doing some field work with geologists this winter and I’m kind of amazed by how these dudes can pick up a handful of dirt and talk about it for an hour using terms I’ve never heard of. Like wow you see a whole universe in there that I don’t. The world is truly full of beauty and we only comprehend a fraction of it.

[bettergeology]

Silhouetted. (Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park, Washington, USA)

Flickr

[bettergeology]

Some Highlights From My “Geology” Album

I’ve been collecting my various photos of geologic features into a new album, and wanted to share some of my favorites I’ve come across!

1) Marble with boudinage from high-strain deformation. This was dolomite (a type of limestone) but was metamorphosed into marble at shallow depths as the overlying mountain slid to the northeast over time. Boudinage, the pebble-looking thing on the right, is basically a little bit of rock that got rolled and squeezed as the rock deformed plastically. (Death Valley, California)

2) A miniature cave in the walls of Titus Canyon. The void has been about half-filled with calcite deposited by groundwater. (Death Valley, California)

3) Cross-cutting quartz veins and dike offset by them. The main rock body is diorite, and it was intruded by a thin granodiorite dike extending from lower-left to center-right. Then, the rock fractured and faulted which offset the dike by about 1 cm and the fractures filled with quartz. (Sierra Nevada Mountains, California)

4) More cross-cutting dikes. The main rock body here is a gray granodiorite. It was intruded by a dike of the pinkish granite about 10 cm wide. Then, a fault opened up and offset that dike. The fault was intruded by another pink granite. The whole outcrop has been polished smooth by the abrasive action of glaciers. (Sierra Nevada Mountains, CA)

5) Some large foreset (slanted) beds of sand and gravel deposited by melting glaciers. The ancient water current flowed left to right, in the direction the beds are slanted. (Port Townsend, Washington, USA)

6) Lava drips inside a lava tree mold on a 7,000 year-old lava flow. Lava engulfed a fallen tree and hardened while the tree burned away. The heat was so great that the lava remelted and dripped down the inside of the tree mold. (Newberry Volcano, Oregon, USA)

7) See the weird fan blade-shaped indentations in this rock? Those are trace fossils left behind as a type of worm or similar creature scraped detritus off the ancient sea floor some 25 million years ago. The scrape marks radiate outward from a central burrow. (Short Sands Beach, Oregon, USA)

8) Wood grain on a 43 million-year-old petrified tree. The preservation on this tree is so fine that the cell structure is preserved and can be seen by microscope. (John Day fossil beds, Oregon, USA)

[bettergeology]

Here’s some more of that wonderful paleo-karst calcite

[bettergeology]

Twists and turns through limestone, Titus Canyon, Death Valley, California

[bettergeology]

Some Highlights From My “Geology” Album

I’ve been collecting my various photos of geologic features into a new album, and wanted to share some of my favorites I’ve come across!

1) Marble with boudinage from high-strain deformation. This was dolomite (a type of limestone) but was metamorphosed into marble at shallow depths as the overlying mountain slid to the northeast over time. Boudinage, the pebble-looking thing on the right, is basically a little bit of rock that got rolled and squeezed as the rock deformed plastically. (Death Valley, California)

2) A miniature cave in the walls of Titus Canyon. The void has been about half-filled with calcite deposited by groundwater. (Death Valley, California)

3) Cross-cutting quartz veins and dike offset by them. The main rock body is diorite, and it was intruded by a thin granodiorite dike extending from lower-left to center-right. Then, the rock fractured and faulted which offset the dike by about 1 cm and the fractures filled with quartz. (Sierra Nevada Mountains, California)

4) More cross-cutting dikes. The main rock body here is a gray granodiorite. It was intruded by a dike of the pinkish granite about 10 cm wide. Then, a fault opened up and offset that dike. The fault was intruded by another pink granite. The whole outcrop has been polished smooth by the abrasive action of glaciers. (Sierra Nevada Mountains, CA)

5) Some large foreset (slanted) beds of sand and gravel deposited by melting glaciers. The ancient water current flowed left to right, in the direction the beds are slanted. (Port Townsend, Washington, USA)

6) Lava drips inside a lava tree mold on a 7,000 year-old lava flow. Lava engulfed a fallen tree and hardened while the tree burned away. The heat was so great that the lava remelted and dripped down the inside of the tree mold. (Newberry Volcano, Oregon, USA)

7) See the weird fan blade-shaped indentations in this rock? Those are trace fossils left behind as a type of worm or similar creature scraped detritus off the ancient sea floor some 25 million years ago. The scrape marks radiate outward from a central burrow. (Short Sands Beach, Oregon, USA)

8) Wood grain on a 43 million-year-old petrified tree. The preservation on this tree is so fine that the cell structure is preserved and can be seen by microscope. (John Day fossil beds, Oregon, USA)

[bettergeology]

26 seconds to calm your day.