Index Fossils, Index Minerals
Saturday September 29, 2012
Here's a pair of indexes to finish your week. Index fossils are the kind of fossils you look for the hardest, because they more than others will tell you exactly ... Read More
Gravel on Mars: A River Ran Through It
Friday September 28, 2012
A new set of images from the ground of Mars has been a sensation: they show an outcrop of gravelly mudstone, that is, conglomerate. This is really not a surprise; ... Read More
Life in the Bakken Boom
Monday September 24, 2012
Earth magazine has an interesting article by a young geologist in North Dakota, where he's putting in some well-paid time in the booming oil and gas fields of the Bakken ... Read More
This Week's Geo-Quiz: Geo-Extremes
Sunday September 23, 2012
If minerals and rocks and continents and other geological features were Olympic contestants, which would be the gold medalists? That's the premise of this week's "Who Wants To Be a ... Read More
The Blue (and Bluish) Minerals
Saturday September 22, 2012
Blue, purple, violet, lilac and lavender-colored minerals are naturally eye-catching. Any rock show or rock shop you visit will have a nice selection. But out in the field, the blues ... Read More
A Reader's Chert
Thursday September 20, 2012
Readers of this site live all over the place, giving them access to rocks of a splendor I can never experience. One of them caught sight of a new roadcut ... Read More
This Week's Geo-Quiz: Water
Sunday September 16, 2012
Water is a subject dear to civilization, so the questions in the Water Geo-Whiz Quiz should be easy for a civilized person to answer, right?
Don't bet on it. This ... Read More
The Metallic Minerals
Saturday September 15, 2012
Another category of mineral color, metallic colors, is actually classified as a type of luster. It makes the metallic minerals stand apart, and they're not hard to learn. There are ... Read More
And Now: Red and Pink Minerals
Friday September 14, 2012
After putting together the guide to black minerals yesterday, I moved on to the red minerals, throwing in pink for good measure. It surprised me a little that there are ... Read More
Eruption in Guatemala's Volcán Fuego
Thursday September 13, 2012
Volcán Fuego has begun its sixth eruption of the year, and thousands of nearby residents are being evacuated as the Guatemalan volcano shoots up clouds of ash. The website of ... Read More
Black Minerals: The Guide
Wednesday September 12, 2012
Color is not a consistent feature of many minerals, but for an important handful their black color is as reliable an attribute as the color of Henry Ford's Model T ... Read More
This Week's Geo-Quiz: Volcanoes
Sunday September 9, 2012
Volcanoes are a favorite of kids, along with large-toothed dinosaurs of course. Most of us move on to gentler things, but a hardy few persist and become volcanologists. Those people ... Read More
Geothermal Gets Creative in Glasgow
Sunday September 9, 2012
Geothermal energy, the sexy kind, involves drilling in volcanic areas and running natural superheated steam through a power plant. But a lot of potential lies in low-temperature situations in unexpected ... Read More
School Retrofits: Now It's Oregon's Turn
Friday September 7, 2012
Schools have a prominent place in the history of earthquake preparedness for good reason. Children are our most precious citizens, and the buildings in which they spend their days must ... Read More
Updated: Science Answers from the Presidential Candidates
Tuesday September 4, 2012
Update: Both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have now provided their answers to the Sciencedebate.org questionnaire. See them here. They didn't choose to answer my question (see below).
Here's what I ... Read More
Geo-Quiz of the Week: General Geology III
Monday September 3, 2012
Because it's a long holiday weekend in the United States, I'm a bit late with the weekly Geo-Whiz Quiz. But it's another no-holds-barred, mixed-martial-arts General Geology Quiz that only the ... Read More
Save Siccar Point
Monday September 3, 2012
To those of you who are geologists, it's enough to say that Siccar Point is threatened by a proposed sewage pipeline and direct you to savesiccarpoint.co.uk.
Siccar Point is one of ... Read More
Alaskan Geologists' Field Ordeal
Sunday September 2, 2012
I've seen Alaska close up, and part of this story doesn't surprise me at all. Last month two geologists working for the state Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys were ... Read More