Geology
evolvingthoughts | March 31, 2007
Here is a list of Basic Concept posts in Geology.
Recently Added:
Paleomagnetism by Chris Rowan at Highly Allochthonous
The Composition of the Earth by Chris Rowan at Highly Allochthonous
Chronology and Stratigraphy by Chris Rowan at Highly Allochthonous
Paleomagnetism by Chris Rowan at Highly Allochthonous
chaoticutopia | February 28, 2007
Watch out... we may be in hot water soon. At least, we can hope. It seems one of our most pressing issues is sustainability. We need a source for energy which is clean, renewable, and has very little impact on the surrounding environment. Without it, we will continue to use up limited amounts of fossil fuels, polluting and affecting our ecosystem along the way. So, what if the ideal source rests right under our feet?
Down there? What's down there, you might ask. Dirt, rock, and more rock. Ah, but at some level, we find water permeating the rock. That's it. Oh, yes, and heat too. You can go…
chaoticutopia | February 21, 2007Over the past few days, as I've suffered through home repairs, caring for a sick child, and a bit of writer's block, I've been contemplating the power of one of our most basic resources: water. We tend to take this simple fluid for granted, barely noticing it sitting in a glass on a restaurant table, or flowing out of the bathroom faucet.
Of course, all you need is a corroded washer, and all of a sudden, the water coming out of the faucet is more noticeable. (drip drip drip drip drip...) Soon, a little water becomes a destructive force. I noticed this as a leaky faucet in my bathroom,…
ksharpe | January 17, 2007Few would dispute that the internet is a communication medium of awesome (in the old sense of the word) proportions. Many would recognize the internet's tendency to function as a massive echo chamber. Interesting stories are picked up and relayed from point to point, and blog to blog, at breakneck speeds, often with bloggers relying on other blogs as their primary sources.
Sometimes a little bit is lost in the frenzy of the internet news cycle. For example, the old journalistic impulse to trace information back to its point of origin, and to verify facts for oneself.
In the January 17…
chaoticutopia | January 10, 2007Here's a collection of odd things I've run across in the last week or so. A fireball from space here, maps of the future there, general chaos everywhere, and someone riding the waves... just go with the flow.
First, last week, the skies over our head were glowing in the darkest hour, just before dawn. A chunk of Russian spacecraft, an SL-4 rocket body plummeted to earth, flaring into a giant fireball before crashing into the middle of Wyoming. Fun stuff. My husband happened to be outside at the time, taking a break from his assembly of the daily news clips. Although our view to the north is…
chaoticutopia | November 3, 2006Fractals, like so many sights in nature, can seem both static and dynamic at the same time. A cloud can change its shape right before your eyes, and so can a slice of the Mandelbrot set, with a slight nudge of the bailout values. Try to find the same spot later on, without the same exact values, and you may never see it again. This fractal, in shades of tangerine, is a typical Mandelbrot set, colored with an "alternative" fBm algorithm using 4n linear arrays. (The algorithm was written by David Makin, whose spectacular fractals can be seen here.) The combined effects of the chaotic,…
chaoticutopia | November 1, 2006
...or at least, the end of any simple theory regarding the extinction of our saurian predecessors. A few announcements from the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America last week concerned the simplicity of mass extinctions. For instance, new evidence suggests the Chicxulub meteor impact was not the sole cause of the end-cretaceous extinction:
The Chicxulub impact may, in fact, have been the lesser and earlier of a series of meteors and volcanic eruptions that pounded life on Earth for more than 500,000 years, say Princeton University paleontologist Gerta Keller and her…
chaoticutopia | September 21, 2006Continued from: "Wedding Bells and Wagon Wheels"
The arid, sweeping prairie at the foot of the Rocky Mountains was a challenge to early settlers in Colorado. While most people were drawn to the rugged mountains, captivated by the promise of gold, they brought limited resources. The mountains, while rich in mineral, offered a poor variety of dietary selections. Being raised on home-baked breads, it was easy to grow tired of meals of buffalo steaks and berries. The Front Range needed agriculture.
William N. Byers, who founded the Rocky Mountain News, recognized the need for agriculture. He…
chaoticutopia | September 8, 2006Fractals are like landscapes. From a simple process, be it a formula or continental drift, one area can be strikingly different from another. This is true for my favorite type of fractal, a Julia set, "colored" with a bit of fractal Brownian motion:
Or the ripples on the Great Sand Dunes:
Stone, Steam and Sand: A Geologic Photo Tour of Southwest Colorado, Part III
In the first part of this series, I described the formation of the San Juan Mountains, and then a bit of the more recent history of the lands to the west of the range. The valley east of the San Juans had similar initial…
chaoticutopia | September 6, 2006Hot and Steamy
Ok, I'll admit, the title is a bit gratuitous. But whether you're here seeking hotness, history or geology, you've come to the right place.
The volcanism which formed the San Juan Mountains has settled over the centuries, but, as with the glaciers, signs of a fiery past remain. The layers of hardened tuff have weathered into fertile soils, lending to the thick vegetation covering the area today. Throughout the mountains and in the valley below, some parts of the continental plate are still worn thin. Magma still flows near the surface, heating the groundwater, which bubbles up…
chaoticutopia | September 5, 2006The San Juan Mountains
As we traversed Southern Colorado a few weeks ago, my son declared we were in a rainforest. Seeing as how the region is known for arid canyons, pinon trees and cliff houses, I felt the need to correct him. Still, as we crossed the continental divide at Wolf Creek Pass, it was actually raining, giving the dense forest a damp, lush feel. Nearly every rock and towering cliff was covered in moss. We might not have been in an authentic rain forest, but it was a far cry from the desert.
It was easy to see why developers have been eyeing these lands. In a few weeks, the aspen…
chaoticutopia | August 18, 2006This was actually the first Friday Fractal, originally posted on ChaoticUtopia.com on April 28th of this year. I've found many images in fractals which are reminiscent of forms in nature. Both the precise mathematical displays and the delicate shapes of life have an essence of intricate beauty, provoking strong feelings of awe--especially when they are strikingly similar.
Here is a section taken from the Mandelbrot set:
And its corresponding form in nature:
An ammonite fossil, Discoscaphites conradi, from the upper Cretaceous age, found in the Pierre Shale Formation here in Colorado.
This…
chaoticutopia | July 14, 2006When you peer into a fractal, you're seeing the edge of chaos. If you sift through enough Julia or Mandelbrot sets, you might catch a hint of fractal fever. When you find that point, where order is filtered out of randomness, and glimpse a familiar pattern, you might feel tempted to shout "Eureka!" That triumphant feeling is, of course, much older than the computers that generate fractals. We've been seeking precious patterns for centuries. Compare this fractal image, taken from a section of a Julia set colored with fractal Brownian motion...
...with a much older sorting method:
Panning for…
chaoticutopia | June 17, 2006Endless miles of canyon stretch across the landscape, cutting deeply through cake-like layers of red and gray stone--the San Rafael Swell. I've always felt this hint of anticipation while traveling west along I-70. As the road drops into Green River, Utah, there's a sign that reads: "NO SERVICES NEXT 110 MILES" That sign always seemed like a taunting dare. Are you willing to enter this rugged, barren land, void of your beloved "services"?
I'm not sure if it is the remoteness or the beauty of the Swell which calls me, or the mysteries that lie within, but I find myself returning, year after…
chaoticutopia | June 12, 2006I've been eager to answer my first "Ask a Science Blogger" question:
Assuming that time and money were not obstacles, what area of scientific research, outside of your own discipline, would you most like to explore? Why?
If I could pursue my dream science job, you'd find me off in some remote region, hacking at rocks, looking for transitional fossils. One of the biggest reasons I'd study paleontology is the severe shortage of specialists out there. So many untold stories lie between layers of rock--organisms which lived from thousands to billions of years ago--and relatively few people who…
sb admin | June 9, 2006With a click of your mouse, you find yourself in a chaotic utopia.
That click sent an electrical signal inside your computer,
passing through circuits, joined by a contact made of gold.
The gold, you may find, was mined from a mafic vein,
deep within the Rocky Mountains, surrounded by Precambrian gneiss.
The gneiss, disguised by the mountains for billions of years,
lays exposed to the north in a shaded canyon.
The canyon, still being carved by the creek below,
crumbles with age, loosening a piece of milky quartz.
The quartz, lured by gravity, tumbles from the canyon wall,
and lands with a…
chaoticutopia | June 9, 2006Lately, I've been thinking a lot about what it means to adapt. I made this "adapt fish", which you can see sitting beneath my blogroll. However, aside from the obvious-finding a way to live that isn't so dependant on fossil fuels-I'm not exactly sure what it means. This has dragged out a whole hoard of philosophical questions hidden within the big one: Do we know when we are adapting? Why do we react so badly to change, if change can bring improvement? It seems clear that it isn't a black and white issue... there's a swath of grayness, where our dependence on technology clashes with our…
illconsidered | March 25, 2006This is just one of dozens of responses to common climate change denial arguments, which can all be found at How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic.
Objection:
If you look back over the last 600 million years you see that there really is not much correlation between temperatures and CO2 levels. Clearly CO2 is not a climate driver.
Answer:
While there are indeed poorly understood ancient climates and rather controversial climate changes in Earth's long geological history, there are no clear contradictions to greenhouse theory to be found. What we do have is an unfortunate lack of comprehensive and…