has put out the Accretionary wedge #59 call for post ( here )
And here is the actual call she put out:
August Accretionary Wedge
The Accretionary Wedge is an ongoing geoblogosphere carnival, a month of thematic posts on any topic that strikes the collective fancy. After watching geotweeps compliment a particular field guide, I ask: what do you think of the field guides for your region? Do you use USGS books, part of the “Roadside Geology of…” series, conference proceedings, a homegrown booklet produced by your local college, or something entirely different?
To get things started, I have a few archive posts on Vancouver field-trips for AAAS attendees, and a book review of Vancouver: City on the Edge.
Submissions are due by September 1: just post a link in the comments or via Twitter (@mikamckinnon). I’ll post a list of all the reviews, for future advice when picking books to guide our rock-seeking travels.
I've been out of geology for a long long time, and because of that I've lost a lot of my networking contacts especially ones connected to the Universities in the area I live so I didn't have access to their guides. Another big factor was I did not get my geology degrees in the area - I had to rely on other sources to get my field guides for the area I lived in. Usually it was through some field trip connected with a seminar that I had to pay money for and the guides were copy-write protected and mostly dealt with the oil and gas industry and were not in the public domain. Since I stopped working in the oil and gas industry 20 years ago my ability to go to those seminars also came to a standstill and thus my access to those types of guides--- so all that left me with is the Roadside Geology of ..... series.
I live in the Ark-LA-Tex area. As far as I know there is no Roadside Geology of Arkansas available. I have come across a couple of rock and crystal/ gem collecting books for Arkansas but they are area specific and the the geology is not very strong. Nothing I would like to recommend. The state has a lot to offer and its been a big disappointment to me that there isn't anything better to go by. If anyone knows of anything that I've missed please leave a comment.
I do have the Roadside Geology of Louisiana by Darwin Spearing (2nd ed -2007) - it's been awhile since I've looked at it so I could be wrong but when I got done with it I was hoping there would be more to it.. It could simply be the nature of the state - the land just spreading outward into the gulf coast over millions and millions of years. At least it was better than nothing and it did give you a starting point to look into some other areas of interest because it does have an extensive reference list. And it's a whole lot better than when I got here and there was nothing like that around to go by and look at. I do like the way he wrote it so most non geologist type people could understand it.
Through that book I've come across some geologic maps and stuff that was put out by the geology dept of LSU in Baton Rouge and also the AAPG (American Association of Petroleum Geologist)- their Geologic Highway Map of the Southeastern Region. I have found those to be helpful too.
But I must admit that when I go to an area I don't like to do too much research at first, so I can look at an area and figure things out for myself. Then after I get home that's when I like to start to do the research to see if what is out there is in agreement with what I was seeing and observing.
The one guide that I just love is the Roadside Geology of Texas by Darwin Spearing (1991). I have found this to be an extremely helpful book and have looked at it often after I have gotten back from Texas. But I must admit I have not used it for the western part of the state and am not too sure how it is for that region. Again I like the way Spearing writes for the non geologist so anyone can pick it up and read it and get an idea of what is going on geologically in the region that they are in. Texas is a big state and it has just about anything you can imagine geologically (except glaciers) in it. There is a lot of material to be covered and I know Spearing couldn't cover it all but does a good job with exposing you to most of it without getting too technical about it at the same time. One of the things about Texas-- there is more geologist living in that state than anywhere else in the world so the state has been studied more extensively than anywhere else in the world too due to the Oil and Gas industry and all of the money associated with oil and gas exploration. Also because of the O&G industry its subsurface has been extensively mapped too, giving some incites into some regions that may not be apparent from just surface outcrops, especially when it came to the faulting in the coastal regions. Like the Louisiana book it does have a good reference section. It also tells you how to reach some regional geologic societies to get their guide books for specific areas of interest.
