Callan Bentley

Daisy Castro on fiddle?

yes, really. this is a typical suite of cross-sectional shapes, in my experience

This is what it looks like when fascists successfully take over an institution.

This is the aesthetic of American fascism and state capture all in one.

A ~rectangular block of dark green gray rock with lots of white blocky big minerals (many of which have darker cores). Hand for scale.

Big plagioclase phenocrysts in Catoctin Formation greenstone (meta-basalt). Rip-rap boulder below dam at Walnut Creek Park. ⚒️

Close up of a Brown-headed cowbird, showing its brown (but SHINY) head.

Brown-headed cowbirds are back in town.
#birds 🦉

Evening entertainment

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There is horror and evil and suffering in this world today, but it is beautiful and warm and sunny in central Virginia, and it feels like spring. I enjoyed a hike with my Geology Club and then did some chores. Now enjoying an IPA in the sunshine, and returning to the sad, sick news.

Erika posted in earlier that it was from New Brunswick, Canada.

Wow. That's uniformitarianism for ya!
mountainbeltway.all-geo.org/2014/06/20/f... ⚒️

We have one. It's always empty. No one would want to hang out there.

Me at the beach holding out an ammonite fossil about 7 cm across with septa visible as wavy grey stripes.

Nice septa on show in this ~190 million year old ammonite I found it Whitby, North Yorkshire.

#FossilFriday #Paleontology

I look forward to visiting this summer, and paying thoughtful tribute to him when I am there.

Yes

This unit, the Antietam Formation, is correlative with the "pipe rock" of the Ardvreck Group in NE Scotland: Cambrian passive margin transgression. Also, the Flathead sandstone, and the Tapeats of the western US (Rockies + Colorado Plateau). ⚒️

Yes, they are burrows: Skolithos.
They are darker because the sand around the burrow was more permeable, and hematite depositing fluids percolated more readily through that part of the rock. The color is diagenetic, not primary. ⚒️

Quartz Pebble conglomerate

Rounded cobble of quartz sandstone with hematite highlighted Skolithos trace fossils

Some Chilhowee samples: Weverton at left, and Antietam at right. ⚒️

Probably Castile Formation from the TX/NM state line outcrop? The line in the middle looks more like a stylolite to my eye (rather than a fault). ⚒️

Superb book. I look forward to this film adaptation!! ⚒️

Shiny wet outcrop of foliated rock with subhorizontal dip, brown water in front. A student in a hooded rain jacket gives it two thumbs up.

Big kink folds in phyllite at Totier Creek Reservoir spillway near Scottsville, VA, on yesterday's (rainy) Physical Geology field trip:
#FridayFold
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We do what we can, but if you have gigachipmunks of crushing that you need to accomplish on a tight deadline, this machine's capacity will need to be augmented by a second device.

Questions like, "How many chipmunks can I crush in 1 hour using this machine?"

Close up of a dusty old die-cast machine that says BRAUN CHIPMUNK CRUSHER in raised capital letters.

Found this machine today which seems suitable for most of your chipmunk-crushing needs:

Birding jargon

A small gray owl with a V shaped face squints at the photographer from a hole in a wooden box.

Got an Eastern Screech-Owl (gray morph) today at Ivy Creek Natural Area in Charlottesville - roosting in a Wood Duck box! 🦉 #birds

DC geology - Google My Maps Geological sites in DC

www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...

Happy to help -- "METRO to Metamorphism"?

They all want to go to Alaska now. They asked me to organize a field course up there!

If your geology department needs an excellent guest speaker, see if you can get @julieelliott.bsky.social to talk. She gave a great seminar on various fascinating aspects of Alaskan tectonics today, from a geophysical, seismological, geomorphic, and volcanological point of view. Top notch! ⚒️

Macro photo of a brown stink bug in face view on a leaf, guarding a tightly-clustered bunch of eggs that are shaped and colored exactly like a full tray of dark beer with foam on top.

Finally, the bug is back with a round of the Guinness.