I want to thank the ones who helped me AW#36

I just want to thank On-the-rocks, Meg and Cujo359 for your comments to my blog post here; about being able to download slides to the computer.  Your suggestions have really come in handy and I really, really appreciate them a whole lot.  Words can not begin to describe how thankful I am to all of you.

As soon as I read On-the-rocks comment  this weekend, I went out to Best Buy and Radio Shack to see what they have.  I was able to pick up a Ion Film 2SD for about $70 (Tiger direct had them for $64 but this way I got it right away and I didn't have to pay shipping and handling. Plus they were able to show me how it work to make sure it was exactly what I wanted.)  Then have spent the rest of the weekend going down memory lane.  It may not be the best one out there, but it is so much better than nothing at all.  I went with this one because I could transfer the stuff to SD-cards which I later plan on storing in a lock box or a safe because they are so small and can store so much data.  The SD-card also lets me download it to the computer.

Some of the pictures have turned out great, and some not so great.  A lot has to do with the slides themselves.  I couldn't get over how some of the slides had faded or turn yellow so much.  I could tell different slide material - Kodak verse Fuji made a difference.  And some I know I took to professional photo shops to get developed while other times I took it to Wal-greens.  In the end you get what you paid for.  Being a poor college student at the time, I always went the cheapest route.  But I have gotten years and years of enjoyment out of them so I've always been grateful to have them.  Some of the ones that I have shown a lot - (I guess the bright light of the hot bulbs caused it) have really faded while others in that series that weren't shown as much have not. 
   Well I can't show you all of them but I can show you a few of what I'm talking about.

Here's one that turn out well, but I never had it printed up because the strobe for the flash was off and it didn't take the full shot - this is what I was thinking about when I wrote you never knew what type of photo you would get.  Unlike digital nowadays were you would just simply reshoot the shot.  Or photo edit it.  Which I did. 

 Can you guess who this is? - I'll give you a clue - he has had stuff in the geoblogsphere. ( Here's what I can do with it now-a-days with editing - does this help any more?.)

How about this one does that give you a better guess?

Here's a shot that I did have made into a photo and you can see the difference in the two.   I must admit because I was getting so many things developed at that time I did go the cheapest way possible with everything.  You  can see it yellowed a lot and the blues have faded but there is over 30 years of fading with the slide.  But like I said its better than nothing at all.  I did keep the photo in an album in a controlled environment, while the slides were stored in an attic that could have also led to some fading due to the storage conditions it was subjected to.

The shot was taken on July 4, 1977 while we were having a break during field camp.  We made an excursion over to Lake Tahoe, CA.  I thought that lake was the prettiest thing I had ever seen, this was after weeks and weeks in the desert with very little rain.  All that wonderful cold water.

Some of them aren't the best but they still bring back the memories.
 Like I'll never forget learning to repel at Clifton Rocks Ohio so that I could go rock climbing. Knowing those techniques were sure handy when we climbed to the top of Seneca Rocks in West Virginia.

Clifton Rocks, Ohio Oct 78

Clifton rocks Ohio, Oct 78

rock climbing at Clifton Rock, Ohio Oct 78

 

 Here I am  climbing up.  Someone else was using my camera and didn't know how to adjust the lenses for being in the shadows. So it was always dark to see, thus no prints made.

I was so proud to make it to the top of Seneca rocks and to add my name in that band-aid tin box that had peoples names had who made it up there.  There were not as many as I thought there would be.

Seneca Rocks, West Virginia at sunset.  May 1977

Or I'll never for get silly things people did on field trips.
Like this one where we were looking at an oolite (forgot to write down where the oolite was located just labeled the slide oolite.  Now I can't remember anything about it except it was somewhere near the east coast, in the mountains.)

Or my friends getting bored and decided to horse around on a log while we were studying the erosion process of the Chargin River, Ohio.

Or the geomorphology professor's field trip, where I'll never for get him showing us erosional features. With him going into his own world, not paying attention to any of the dangers,  but so excited about showing us things, and getting us just as interested as he was. Then to top it off we got a flat tire and the silliness that ensued with that..

 This was some feature associated with glaciers.   I think it may have been an end moraine, but I really can't remember exactly what it was.

Erosion on a river in Ohio

Here he is walking over this overhang not caring that there was about a 20 foot drop to the river below.  There was no way I was going to go over there and check out what he was so excited about. I could see the effects of river erosion very well just where I was.  Besides I didn't think that ledge could hold all of us.

 Then the flat tired happened and the field trip came to a complete stand still. We all just sat around and watched, well not all of us watched some did other more constructive things. There were just so many people that could help change a tire.  We made jokes about how many geologist does it take to change a tire and things along that line.

And then there are some pictures that seem to get better with age like this one of the sunrise over the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

or this sunset in Nevada on Highway 50.

Highway 50, Eureka Co, Nevada  July 1977

And finally here's the one image I wanted to share and got all the help with again thank you for getting a good image of Eureka, Nevada on July 19, 1977.

Oh the memories how wonderful they are, especially the ones of my loved ones that have moved on to other places.  Again Thanks for making this all possible.

Now I'm musing what photo editing program I should try to get these more back to their original colors.  When I get that figure out there probably will be more stuff to come.

Accretionary Wedge #36 - Whad do you regret leaving behind at a geologic locality?

 On the Rocks over at Geosciblog - Science has put out this call.

Call for Posts, AW #36

July 9, 2011 by lockwooddewitt

“What do you regret leaving behind at a geological locality?” In other words, what samples, specimens, or even photographs do you regret “not getting enough of”?
Read the full description at Geosciblog- Science; deadline is ~July 16.

In case you haven't noticed I love looking at other peoples pictures and taking pictures for myself.  The thing I regret most is not taking more pictures when I could have at any place I visited on a field trip but most especially at my field camp and my thesis location. There were a number of reasons why I never got enough photos.  The main one was not taking my camera to certain spots because I didn't want to get it ruined or it was too heavy. (below is shot of the different cases I used to use to carry my cameras.)

( Old case verses new case, quite a size different and load.  The older I get the less I want to carry in and out of the field.)

Or not owning a good camera sooner than I did.
  When I first got into geology, I realized having a good camera was a must for me.  I wanted to have keepsakes of all the wonderful field trips I was taking.  Now I just want to have a camera that works-- anything is better than nothing at all.  The smaller and lighter it is the more I like it- the more photos to be had.  Here's the different cameras - old verses new.

  Back in the 1970's, there were very few photos in the text books I was reading.  To really understand what the books were trying to teach you, you just had to go out in the field and see for yourself.  I saw some absolutely amazing examples of  geology such as anticlines with s & z micro folding in them demonstrating some structural geologic concepts. Or seeing some thrust faulting verses normal faulting.   Or going and seeing the clues that glaciation was a major reforming feature of the region.  These things were explained in the book, and I understood what they were getting at but once you saw it in person, you never would forget it.  I'm a visual learner and that is how I learn by seeing and feeling things.  Words usually go in one ear and out the other and if I'm really lucky some may stay stuck inbetween the two ears, while a pictures with it's beautiful colors and patterns just say with me for a long long time.  I just plan learn better seeing things and that was why I loved going on field trips so much and taking pictures.
    So in the 70's I got a very nice Olympus camera from a friend that was updating and getting a more advanced camera for himself. Not only did he sell me the camera it also came with all the darkroom equipment I needed to develop the films and pictures that I took.  I quickly learned that darkroom projects and I were not compatible.  To work in the darkroom first you had to have a very dark room (preferably no windows or a very small window that you can tape aluminum over to block the sunlight and light) and running water.  I found a room in my house in our attic that fit that bill and it became my study area (very hot in summer no a/c, poor ventilation,  trouble was it was also a working bathroom.)  But to do dark room work you needed long blocks of time- minimum of 2 hrs -where no one will open the door or let light in,  with it being a working bathroom it was hard to keep people out, so if I did work in it I had to wait until the other members of my family had gone to bed. I missed my sleep too much to stay up late developing photos.  The other draw back with darkroom work was you could only take black and white photos.
   Here's an example of my darkroom work.  A picture of an ammonite I did a research paper on.

Epicenites loeblichi

  I would do darkroom work in black and white if I had to but I preferred working with color.  To do photos in color at that time cost an absolute fortune in equipment and chemicals.  No, dark room work just wasn't for me, so that left doing things commercially.
  
   At the time there were two ways of getting photos commercially.  One was to buy regular film, get it developed and then have photos printed up from the negatives.  The other way was to take slides and then print from the slides.  Different paper was needed for each way.  From negatives you needed reverse negative paper, because the colors on the negative were the reverse from the printed colors.  With slides you used positive paper, which meant that the colors on the slide were the same color of the prints.
   It was cheaper to get slides than it was to go with prints from negatives.  It broke down like this you had to buy the film type you wanted.  The more sensitive the film the higher the cost, but general outdoor film ran about $3.00 for 24 shots (keep in mind this was in the 70's and minimum wage was $1.65/ hr i.e. two hours of work for me to buy a roll of film.).  If you were lucky you could find 36 shots for that price.  This cost was the same whether you got slides or prints.  The most frustrating thing was planning ahead and having the right type of film in the camera for the type of pictures you wanted so you never wasted the film.  Taking pictures indoors required different film than taking them outdoors.  If you used outdoor - indoors you had to have a very good flash to use with the camera.  Most of the time I would use outdoor film.  I always felt I was limited by the number of shots I could take because I had to buy rolls of film in 36 or 24 quantity and the expense.    Because of that I never took as many photos as I wanted to. 

   You had to get the film developed.  This too ran about $3.00 and was the same whether you got slides or if you got prints from negatives. Even if the whole roll of film was ruined you still had to pay this amount to see what pictures you had gotten or not.   It was cheaper to go with slides because now you were done and could use the slides.  So I went with slides much to my regret.  At the time I did it, it was because I was a poor college student.
  Each slide ran you about 25 cents (which is about spending 1.25 today). So each roll of film ran you $6.  If you really liked the picture a lot you could always take it in and get a print made of it for about 75 cents (3.75) for an additional expense.  Needless to say I did not get very many prints made from my slides because it used to be so expensive too.  Much to my regret. 
  The other benefit of having slides was if you ever had to give a talk you could use them in slide projectors.  It seemed like every classroom I was in had slide projectors, plus you could check them out from the libraries. I never thought of the day when you couldn't find or use a slide projector.  I always thought they would be around forever.  

  Now getting back to printed pictures, you still had to pay the same for slides plus you had to pay for the actual printed picture.  That usually ran between 15 cents per print  for 3 week delivery or it could get even higher the faster you wanted it done - $.25 for 3 day and $1.00 for an hour.  I always went with the cheapest of .15 per print.  Again because it cost so much I never took as many as I wanted to.
   I also remember always hoping that the picture would turn out.  I would hold my breath when I would get the package back and say please let there be some good ones on this roll of film.  You had no way to know if they would turn out or not, not like today where you can see instantly on a digital camera.  The opportunity to take another photo would be long gone.  You had to be happy with what you got.  Frequently they could be blurry, or the lighting bad so they would be too dark or washed out.  You just never would know until you got them back or did your own developing.  I remember one time the film had been exposed to an x-ray machine and nothing turned up on the film.  Another time the film got jammed in the camera and all the photos were on the one spot.  Because you never knew how they would be I had a tendency to take very sparingly so I wouldn't be wasting money on things that were no good.  I knew some people who would only get the negatives developed and then get the prints made, but the trouble with that it was a lot more expensive like it was to get prints made from slides.  That's why I went with slides. 

  Now it is many years later and I have all of these wonderful slides but no way to view them easily.
  I always told myself one day I will have these slides made into prints, the trouble was when I had the time I didn't have the money.  And when I had the money I didn't have the time to do it.  I finally got to the point where I had the time and the money to do it but the store that used to do that has gone out of business. Now I'm just stuck with the slides at least they are better than nothing at all. I have hundreds of slides like this.

Here's what I'm talking about - one page of many, many pages:

 A page full of slides from my field camp days in Eureka, Nevada. 

Two photos from that page, One of Lone Mountain as seen from Highway 50 (I'm just glad Silver Fox over at Looking for Detachment has shared some of her photos of  Lone Mountain - Thank you Silver Fox!!!!), the other of the town of Eureka on 7-19-77.  Even though I could get another picture of Eureka, Nevada it will never be quite the same as when I was there back then in 1977.    And here's a closer look of that slide trying to scan it into my computer.  Not much detail.

 I've tried using different lighting for the same picture but it still is hard to get a good clean image of it but there is more detail than the one above but still not as nice as when you can properly view it.  Here's two more attempts. 
 

My thesis material has this same problem as my field camp photos they are mostly on slides.  I did have a couple of  slides printed up of the people who were helping me at the time.  I did that so they could have a keep sake and to show my thanks to them. I'm glad I have at least those few prints and can view them easily now in photo albums. 

This has been my biggest regret all these wonderful geology pictures that I can't share with others on my blog. 
If I could have done it over again I would have had some prints made to go along with the slides. If I had a digital camera back then I definitely would have taken a whole lot more photos.  It just boggles my mind that on one little camera I've taken over 600 photos on a SD card that costs less than $9 to buy and nothing to down load to my computer.

Now I'm musing about:  Be this as a warning to others to make sure you have backups and more than one way to access your images, because technology is changing so much, and what you once thought would last doesn't always.

PS -7-18 Here's more on the slides issue.

Accretionary Wedge #35 -favorite Geology words

Evelyn over at  Geojouneys is hosting this months Accretionary Wedge # 35.
Her theme is favorite Geology words 
   I have a lot of favorite geologic words and its hard to choose just one but today I'm going to go with one that I had trouble remembering and saying.  I had fun coming up with a way to remember it. Sometimes this word takes a few tries for me to spill it out. Because it took more than one try to get it right it helped me with its meaning.

Bi
 Buy fur
    Buy fur cake
       Bifurcate

 That's it Bifurcating streams.

                    BIFURCATING STREAMS

        I learned that terminology to describe streams.   Bifurcate means: to be forked or split or be Y-shaped.  I had a hard time remembering that when describing dendritic drainage patterns (another favorite geologic phrase I memorized). Dendritic drainage occurs when the underlying rock is uniform in resistance and the tributaries flow down to a main stream, like a tree with its branches and trunk (Principles of Geology 3rd ed. by Gilluly, Waters & Woodford 1968 pgs 239-40).  You get bifurcation when you go both up stream and down stream when the water empties into a lake or ocean.
  And while I'm at it since I'm talking about favorite words associated with streams and rivers I have to add Alluvial fans (pg 236-7) and Thalweg (pg 231).  I just love the sounds of those words as I say them.
  Alluvial fans form when the sediments are deposited from a stream that comes from steeper slopes onto a more gentle sloped area.  The water splits (bifurcates) as it spreads out over a wider area. (Evelyn already has used Alluvial so I don't feel right using it again).  I did get a couple of good picture of bifurcation when I went hot air ballooning in Arizona.

Deadman wash, Biscuit Flat, near Carefree hwy Arizona, showing bifurcation

I like this one because the trees line where the water would normally flow and the channels really stand out in green against the tan of the dessert sands. It makes it very easy to see where the channels split.

New River, Biscuit flat near Carefree Hwy, Arizona

And I liked this one because you can see where the water would flow to the top of the photo and the two branches come together forming the Y-shape.

Thalweg  is the line following in the deepest part of a river channel.  Sorry no pictures here.

So I guess my favorite geologic word is BIFURCATE.

Accretionary Wedge #34 - What is really weird in geology

Dana over at En Tequila Es Verdad  (you know the place were they discover the truth by drinking Tequila) Put out this call to find out what really is weird in geology.

 

01 May, 2011

Accretionary Wedge #34: Call for Posts

And this time, it's gonna get weird.

Not just because I'm hosting, although that's weird enough.  But we're talking about Weird Geology.

Let's face facts, people.  Geology can be strange.  Outrageous.  Bizarre.  I'm sure you've all run into formations and landscapes and concepts that have left you scratching your head.  Maybe they got less weird later.  Maybe they stayed strange.  But however transient or permanent that weirdness was, it got weird.

So tell us about it.  Hit us with the strangest stuff you've got.

And then throw me a link in comments here, or at the main Accretionary Wedge site.  Let's say, oh, by May 27th, so that I can have us all weirded out by the 29th.
 

 *********************************************************************

  This was such a hard one to decide upon.  I could come up with a number of different ones. But which one should I write about?  That is the question?  Then it came to me which one it should be, because it is one of the main reasons I got interested in geology. 

   ____________________


     I grew up in NE Ohio and when I was a child I used to like to help my mom with her flower garden.  The boys in my family were responsible for the vegetable garden, and I was told I wasn't to play in that, but it was okay for me to be in the flower garden. I was a tomboy at heart and I loved digging in the dirt with the flower garden being a perfect place to do that. I spent many an hour digging in that garden. I did it to because I found watching flowers grow to be so fascinating.  But I also did it because my mom loved her flower garden and I liked helping her with it since it gave her so much pleasure. 

   One spring, I was helping get the soil ready so we could plant some seeds in it.  I must have been about 8 or 9 years old at the time.  I was old enough to have worked in the garden some but not so old to not want to do the work. I was also old enough where I had done this enough to know what to do without supervision.  I just remember digging in the clayey soil and having fun when all of a sudden my trawl hit something hard.  At first I thought it might be one of my sibling toys or something like that left there from last summer.  I wanted to dig it up and get my siblings into trouble for not putting away their things.  But it was in the ground too deep for it to have been a toy left out over the winter. So I kept digging trying figure out what it could be and to get it out.  While I was digging my imagination started to kick in and I thought maybe it was a buried treasure.  That gave me all the more incentive to get it out.  What was really weird to me was the fact that I had dug in this area many times before and had never found this object.  I began to wonder how I could have missed something this big? Surely someone brought it there, but who and when could they have done it?   I moved some more dirt around and as I got the soil off of it I was finally able to see what it was.  I got really excited when I started to see some sparkly things, giving  me all the more will power to keep on digging it out. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I was able to free it from the ground.  It was a small boulder (or very large cobble) about the size of a football.  In fact it was rounded and shaped like a ball, except for this one spot where there was a crack in it and I could see the sparkly stuff.  I thought I was rich because I found a huge rock with diamonds in it. I was so excited about it. 

  I could hardly lift it but I took it to the sidewalk close to the water spout and started to wash it off.  Those sparkly things fascinated me.  I could see them coming from inside the rock. I got a stick and was able to scrub all the soil off it.  I began to be in a quandary over what to do with it.  I didn't want to leave it outside because I knew it was worth a lot of money, yet I knew I would get in trouble for bringing  a rock inside.  While I was trying to figure out what to do my best friend and neighbor came over to play. 

   He was just as amazed by the rock as I was.  He asked where did it come from and I said the garden.  He didn't believe me and called me a liar because he had dug in that garden with me before in that area and it hadn't been there before. He thought I brought it from some other place but when I tried to get him to carry it, he agreed it was too heavy to carry far. He insisted someone must have brought it and left it.  But who? because it was so big and not easy to carry.  To pacify him I told him maybe the fairies brought it and buried it and it really was a magical rock to protect the house. We couldn't agree on how the rock got there and had an active discussion about how it came to that location, to settle thing we asked my mom. My mom thought that the previous owner must have put it there, but thought that was a weird place to put a rock like that in that location and why would they let it get buried like that since it was so pretty.

   My mom did let us bring it into the house because I told her that it had magical properties and it would protect the house.  She liked it too and placed in a spot of honor in front of the fireplace. My dad joked about the only way it would protect the house was if he would to throw it at someone trying to break into the house, but who would want to break into our house when all they could get is kids. He didn't object to it being there either and so it stayed there for the longest time until the house was sold. (I can't believe I actually found a picture from 1972 with it in it and was able to scan it into the computer and here it is:

Glacial erratic from our garden

  To bad I didn't get the angle where you could see the crystals in it.)

  That rock fascinated me and I wanted to learn as much about it as I could. So on my own I started to get books from the library about rocks and crystals. I figured out that the rock was not made up of diamonds but very clear quartz crystals that gave it its sparkle due to their rhombohedral terminations.  I wanted to break the rock open to see what was inside but knew if I did it would be destroyed so it was left as it was found.  I finally decided it had to be a geode of some sort. For the longest time I couldn't figure out where it could have come from since it did not look like any of the shales that out cropped in our area. (I thought geods were weird at first but then when I realized they were a vug being filled in by minerals in solution I didn't think they were too weird to write about.)

   When I started to study geology, I realize that it must have been a glacial erratic that was probably brought in from the Canadian shield granites.  Because of its size I figured it had to be the ice that brought it and not water. I could tell the ice action smoothed the corners, and there is no telling how big the initial rock started off as or how far it has traveled.
 Glacial erratics are weird stuff in their own right - it took a while for people to figure how the erratics got to be where they were. But that wasn't what was the weirdest part to me.

    The weird geology part of it of it to me. - How can a large rock be moved upward through the soil?  You would think it should stay were it is or get deeper in the soil with time and not come to the surface. This is an actually example of pedoturbation(1) or cryoturbation (2) or frost heave/weathering (3) or creep (4) at work (I'm not too sure what the exact terminology to use with this). Namely that rock was buried  in the ground but due to the freezing and thawing nature of the soil where I lived the rock was able to migrate upwards and finally made it to the surface after being buried for a long long time in glacial debris. (NB the gutter system on the back of our house drained into the garden, giving it a source of water for the freezing action. Also there was a lilac tree in the garden and an elm tree to the side - so it could be the result of some bioturbation too.)  Once I became aware of this rock I saw a lot of other examples of rocks most of which were pebbles or small cobbles in size exposed at the surface where there used to not have been anything at all.  I know with cutting grass in the early spring this can be a problem because the mower can throw these pebbles quite a distance and they do break things or hurt if you get hit by one.. 


I always mused on what else would turn up in that garden. Also even though I now know how the rock turned up in the garden, I still like to reflect upon the fact that the rock did have and still does have magical powers to me. This rock and my trip out west when I was ten where some of the many reasons I got into geology - trying to figure out how these rocks came to be the way they are.  They have created a fascination in me about geologic processes that has stayed with me my entire life- pretty powerful stuff.

References:
(1) "Soil Genesis and Classification" by S.W. Buol, F.D. Hole & R.J. McCraken (1973), fig 6.1 pg 89.
(2)  "Geomorphology From Earth" by Karl W. Butzer (1976) pg 340.
(3) "Principles of Geology 3rd ed" by J. Gilluly, A.C. Waters & A.O. Woodford (1968) pg 188-89.
(4) "Essentials of Geology, 3rd ed" by S. Marshak (2009), pg 363, 
see also Wikipedia for these terms.

Accretionary Wedge #33- geologic Feng Shui

John at  Geological Musings in the Taconic Mountains.

Put out this call: 

Open Call for Accretionary Wedge #33 - Geologic Feng Shui?

I've always wondered how crazy other geologists have gone with incorporating geology into their homes, offices, gardens, etc. I know we all have a mini rock collection on the shelf, or a rock holding open a door but I'm thinking bigger. For example, I haven't done it yet but when I build the next house, all the window sills will be made out of slate. Share your stories, descriptions, photos of your current or past geology-related embellishments and I'll summarize. So here.

The deadline for this is April 17th, I'll summarize on the 18th. Please post your contributions in the comment section, thanks!
Cross posted from Geological Musings in the Taconic Mountains.


Here's my AW-33.
I have two things that I have done to have geology in my home.
  The first was with some coffee table tops.  When my son was about two he wanted to show me how strong he was.  He picked up the top to one of the coffee tables.  I wasn't quick enough to catch him before he had dropped it on the other one.  Both tops were shattered to pieces and ruined. We had inherited the furniture and they had sentimental value for us.  We didn't want to get rid of them so the solution was to get new tops.  I went to a monument place and found some scrap verde granite to made into the tops.  I love them because I knew they were not verde green granite but really serpentine.  I got both tops made to fit for only 75 dollars since I found the material in the scrap pile, and the pieces were so small (18" x18").

Serpentine coffee table top

In the back ground you can see the other thing I have done which was to put in a slate floor for one of my rooms.  There is a story behind this slate too.  We lived in another house.  We were about to remodel a porch.  We were still in the designing phase when a client of my husband offered him the slate. It was left over from a construction project that just had been completed and they just wanted to get it off the site.  He knew I would be thrilled to death to get it and said yes to it if there was enough for our spot. He thought it would make a perfect porch floor.  He hurried home and measured it. There was enough to do the porch and so we bought it.  They practically gave it to us, because they just wanted it gone.
   We were about to put a lot of money into that house, and we decided we better make sure this was the house we wanted to be in for the next 50 years.  A couple of weeks later when we were driving down the street my husband had always dreamed about living on when we saw a house for sale by owner on the bayou.  We asked to see it and it was everything we dreamed about.  It was old and needed a lot of work which was great for us  because we were able to negotiate them down to a price we could afford.
  We got the house but then had the problem of what to do with the slate we had.  We measured the rooms and there was only one room where it would fit and look good in.  It was the room we were going to use as the dining room.
  We hired an installer and he realized that there wasn't going to be enough to install since some of the slate had been damage in all of the shipping around of it.  He knew the quarry from which it came from and ordered some more.  When the new stuff arrived, it was a lot smoother and greener than the other stuff.  I had the delima of where to put it.  Should I have it all together, or should I have the new pieces randomly place through out the floor.  Should I put it along the edges of the room where furniture may cover it?  I chose to keep it together in the center of the room since I figured the dining room table would be over it.  I liked the first stuff more since there was so much more texture and interesting features to it.  I wanted to see as much of that as possible. At the time we were just going to have extra chairs along the wall so I thought the new stuff would be more noticeable there.
Here are a couple more pictures of the slate floor. 

Slate floor where  you can see the two tones in the slate.

From a distance the two tones are not that noticeable.  They stand out more when the floor is wet, as in these two pictures. I seem to be the only one that is aware of the differences.  Can you figure out where the six new pieces are? (in the first picture the right chair leg is on one of the new pieces.)

  The room stayed the dinning room for a couple of years, but when I started to work out of the house I decided I needed an office a whole lot more than I did a dining room.  The room was converted over to the office/computer room. It is now the one of the rooms I spend most of my time. I love being able to muse upon my slate floor and the view I have of the back yard from my desk.
  Here's a spring view of the backyard.

Two cypress trees in my back yard.  I muse upon why one is green and the other is not.

My next project is to redo the kitchen counter tops with real granite, only I prefer granodiorite to granite.

My hosting Accretionary Wedge #32 - favorite geological pictures.

 This was formerly over at Ann's Musing on Geology and other things.  That blog no longer exists so its been moved here.

WELCOME TO THE KREWE OF ACCRETIONARY WEDGE #32
It's carnival time in the south and since the Accretionary Wedge is suppose to be a carnival of blogs and information I feel it is only fitting that we should have a parade of favorite geologic pictures to post. I've posted them in the order in which they were received.
Thank you all for participating and making it such a wonderful parade.

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We will start this parade with some parade music to get into the spirit while you look at the wonderful pictures.
Here's '76 Trombones Led the Big Parade' from the movie 'The Music Man'

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First of is Dana with the float from   En Tequila Es Verdad

Dana had a hard time picking on a favorite photo, so instead she picked a favorite geologic place to go to.  Can't you imaging yourself going there for some peace and quiet?  Isn't it a fantastic place to visit?

Here's a little of what she wrote:  ....... we'll do this.  We'll cut to the chase and play a favorite - a favorite place, one of my favorite places in the world.  We'll take a trek through the desert and come upon an oasis.

Montezuma Well, ambush shot by Cujo

Down around Camp Verde in Arizona, you'll come across a picture-perfect karst terrain.  The old beds of lake-deposited limestone lay flat, dry and hot under the sun, carved into gullies and hills by wetter times.  In some places, sinkholes pit the scenery.  They're lovely examples of the power of water and gravity together to sculpt the scenery.

Camp Verde got its name because a river runs through it, causing a line of green to conga through the hot, scrubby hills.  It was enough of a shock that explorers named it the Verde River, because it was very nearly the only green thing they'd seen for absolute miles.

You will have to go to her blog to read more about this delightful place.

The old Sinagua canal

She ended with and I agree:
Now that you've had a nice rest at the water's edge, on with the parade! 

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Jim has two pictured of the fascinating Gooseneck of the San Juan River for his float at

The Geology P.A.G,E.

Well since I have done this for a previous AW, I will switch up the picture I used and this time give you a couple of glimpses into the Gooseneck of the San Juan River.
 

Gooseneck of the San Juan River 

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Matt's float is here at Research at a Snails Pace    
with a breath taking view of the island of Maui, Hawaii.
(I'm having trouble with this link so here's it is
http://pascals-puppy.blogspot.com/2011/03/aw-32.html )

He writes:
So here's one of my favorite pictures - Haleakala crater. Technically, this isn't the actual crater, it's the eroded summit, widened by erosion. The smaller hills are cinder cones that erupted after most of the shield volcano was eroded away.

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 Here's the float from Jessica at  Magma Cum Laude with this beautiful picture.  She writes:
One of my favorite geologic photos is plenty colorful – and it’s also from my first field course, a month-long tour of the Colorado Plateau. The contrast between the sand and sky at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park in Utah is truly striking, and it was one of my favorite stops on the trip – because it’s also an excellent place for a game of frisbee!

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 From Evelyn we have a first time entry for the AW.  Welcome aboard Evelyn!!!  Here's her  float from Georneys

She writes:
One of my favorite geology pictures (I have several- so difficult to chose!) is a picture of my favorite campsite ever. The picture below shows a makeshift campsite just off a road in northern Oman. The beautiful mountain in the background is Jebel Misht, one of several exotic limestones in the middle of the Samail Ophiolite. I was lucky enough to spend a few nights at this campsite in 2009 and 2010 as part of my PhD thesis fieldwork. One of my field sites, located near the small village of Al-Bana and close to the Misht campsite, has been named "Jebel Misht Travertine" by my research group.


Jebel Misht is a popular climbing destination. Making your way up the tall southeast cliff is not an easy task.  When a French team of climbers accomplished the first successful ascent of Jebel Misht in 1979, the Sultan of Oman arranged to have the climbers picked up by helicopter from the top of the mountain and whisked off to the palace for a celebration. Jebel Misht means "Comb Mountain" in Arabic. Indeed, the mountain's majestic cliff resembles a gigantic comb resting peacefully amidst the seafloor rocks of the ophiolite.


I am glad she came up with something and has joined the parade!!

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From the float at  Mountain Beltway  Callan has these interesting things to say:

He writes..... While it’s not my favorite, it’s definitely a favorite, more by virtue of the geology it shows than the aesthetic qualities of the image:
That is an outcrop of the French Thrust, one of many imbricate thrust faults exposed in Sun River Canyon, Montana, just west of Augusta. The light colored rock at right is limestone and dolostone of Mississippian age, and the dark rock at the lower left is shale of Cretaceous age (deposited in the Western Interior Seaway). Beyond that, to the very far left, you can see some lighter-colored, poorly-sorted material. That’s Pleistocene glacial till, and both the shale and the till are capped by a sloping layer of colluvium, tumbling down from higher elevations. The contact between the shale and the dolostone is a thrust fault. Half a mile downstream there is another. Half a mile upstream there is another. There are a lot of them exposed in Sun River Canyon, and the Canyon cuts across strike of all of them. Note the syncline in the Mississippian carbonates, and the differential weathering of the carbonate (tough, proud) as compared to the shale (weak, depressed). Here’s an annotated version of the photo:

The Sun River Canyon is an unparalleled location in my experience for gorgeous scenery, great weather, a minimum of people, a healthy population of great gray owls, and exceptional exposures of an imbricate stack of thrust sheets. Check out this old post I put up at Pathological Geomorphology for more details about the area.

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Helena' float at   Liberty, Equality & Geology   has this wonderful  panorama for her float.


It’s always hard to pick a favorite geology picture, but this wintery Crater Lake panorama tops my list right now. Crater Lake is one of my favorite places, and it was exciting to visit in the winter! The perfect mirroring effect was particularly stunning. In person, the sky and water were the same color, making the caldera look like an arch in the sky.

 

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Julia has a very intriguing float from  Stages of Succession  .  You need to make sure you get a good look at what you are seeing.  Please go to her blog to figure out if you are right or not.

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Gareth's float at  Science 2.0    is very interesting to see because it has a volcanic bomb in it.  This is one of the few bombs I care to see.  In fact I wouldn't ming going to Satorini to check it out for myself.





Despite my relatively short career as a geologist, it was a hard choice.  There was a spectacular fault outcrop in Arkitsa, Greece; some impossible-looking resistant beds sticking straight out of the forest near Benés in the Catalan Pyrenees; and the classic 'ripples on a vertical surface' to illustrate tectonic forces, also in the Catalan Pyrenees.  However, I decided on this photo in the end, mainly because now I am a proper volcanologist I felt I should choose a volcano-related picture.

The photo is from Santorini, and shows a volcanic bomb.  The layer it has impacted into is about 2m thick.  While this is far from the largest bomb on the island, the way it is exposed here really does emphasise the power released when a volcano decides to blow.

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Now we are going to go to On-The-Rocks float at  Geosciblog - Science
He wrote:


The Eagle Mts. (an Oligocene caldera) were the site of my originally-intended Master's Thesis work, during the summer of 1978. The photo here was taken from the East Mill area, where we camped, for several weeks, while we mapped the southeastern portion of the mountains. In the near foreground is a portion of Wyche Ridge, composed of Cretaceous sedimentary rocks, forming part of the margin of the caldera.
Please go to his blog to read the rest of what he has to say about this area.

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 Here's more music for a half time break 'I Love a Parade' by Lawrence Welk

 

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John's float at  Geologic Musing in the Tactonic Mountains   has this wonderful text book example of an angular unconformity.  (I am having trouble with his link so here it is
http://gmcgeology.blogspot.com/2011/03/accretionaly-wedge-32-uncertain.html )

This what John has to say about his picture:
Last summer I drove out to Bozeman, Wyoming for a GIS conference and took a rather circuitous route both outward from and back into Vermont. We decided to camp at Buffalo Bill State Park along the reservoir and then return to Cody after setting everything up. On our way back into Cody, just before the famous rodeo stadium, the setting sun illuminated this fantastic angular unconformity exposed in the Shoshone River. Based solely on the descriptions found in Torres and Gingerich (1983) I think the lower reddish unit is the Eocene Wildwood Formation overlain by the volcaniclastic Aycross Formation. I haven't done any work at all, so this is solely based on reading geologic descriptions, hope I'm close.

View Angular Unconformity in a larger map
And here is a closer view of the contact; again I 'think' my interpretation is correct but please advise if I'm off base here!

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Ian at Hypo Theses  has another fascinating picture of distant shores for his float.


Ian wrote:......It shows the foreshore at West Angle Bay, Pembrokeshire, Wales. The view looks westwards towards Milford Haven and shows the Lower Carboniferous Limestone contorted by a series of Variscan thrust related folds. One of the thrust planes is seen in the left of the image, over-steepened by the folding. To the centre of the image are a pair of whaleback periclinal anticlines. The beds then steepen again to vertical on the right via a tight syncline.
But the beauty of a gigapan image is that one can dive in and view the detail like the slickenside lineations on the thrust plane or the writing on the buoy.

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Garry float at Geotripper  is still spectacular even though it is at a place that's been photographed many a time.  (I'm having trouble with his link so here it is  http://geotripper.blogspot.com/2011/03/my-favorite-geologic-picture-oh-so-many.html  )


Long before I had a digital camera, I used a particular slide from a trip in the 1980s to introduce my students to the idea of the fascination of geology. It was taken next to one of the most famous photography spots in our national park system, but it is not a picture of the iconic feature. It's the trail leading to it. Delicate Arch of the "Real" Jurassic Park lies just around the corner, and a crowd is often found there, especially at sunset. But I see fewer people stop and consider this scene....


I got into geology in part because of the wonderful journey of imagination that it is; a geologist is a world traveler, and a time traveler. The trail in this picture is formed on a natural break in the rock. Why is the break there?


In Jurassic time 180 and 140 million years ago, tidal flats and coastal sand dunes spread across this part of Utah. The surfaces of the dunes were pathways for all kinds of creatures, from insects to giant lumbering dinosaurs. The walked and crawled on these sands, and later the surfaces were preserved by subsequent layers of windblown sand. The surface later hardened a bit more than the others, and millions of years later, erosion exposed the old sands. A fracture developed along the surface, and the trail-builders of a few decades ago found it a great deal easier to just remove the overlying rock than to carve a new flat surface at great expense. And so it is that during our brief sojourn on the planet, we walk on the same surface, and perceive the significance of that fact. We use our minds to explore strange alien worlds, and yet these are the worlds that existed before ours and which became the raw materials for our own.
Again, practically everyone walks up to Delicate Arch, but there is another arch just a few steps off the trail that provides a stunning view the distant La Sal Mountains, the laccolithic cores of 25 million year old volcanoes. This picture, taken just a few yards from the one above, contains the four elements of ancient human thought: water, earth, fire and sky (the water is in the sky and in the creek below). The essence of earth science...

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Reynardo's float at  The Musings of the Midnight Fox   has a very interesting one with this to be said about it....



This one is from New Zealand. The Nile River Caves (as featured in WOGE #263) are on the north-west side of South Island, New Zealand, and as well as the expected beautiful limestone features, have some wonderful glow-worms and some rather interesting strata.

This one in particular is a mixture of mudstone and limestone. By the time this layer emerges at the coast at Punukaki, it's more clearly layered and makes the Pancake Rocks.

Yes, I have amazing glacier and volcano shots. But this one is the one that says "Geology" to me the loudest.

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The float Elli has submitted at  Life in Plane Light  has this amusing tale to tell...


For my PhD research, I ended up working in the Swiss Alps.   Day one out was long, long, long (and it was magically also my birthday).   By the time we reached the col that was going to actually become my field area it was rather late in the day and we were still 1000 m above the closest road.   Bridget (my field assistant) and I were wearing every item of clothing that we had in our packs due to the cold (there was still snow on the ground & it was July).   Before we could call it a day, we decided to collect four samples (we had a number of other rocks from earlier at other sites to the south of the col).   Three popped out without an issue in reasonable sizes (enough for thin sections, tomography, and bulk chemistry), but the fourth was stubborn.   It came off in a huge sheet:

the large slab (behind the hammer) that eventually became 04AD15; Tom Foster in blue, Hannes Hunziker in the middle, and Lukas Baumgartner in pink

while Bridge and I proceeded to shiver, these three male geologists tried to get 04AD15 down to a reasonable size.   They used the sledge.   They used a hammer with a chisel.   They hopped up & down on the slab.   They wedged another rock underneath the slab and tried everything again.   Eventually, pieces started to fall of the edges.   In the end, 04AD15 is still my largest sample.   But its also my best sample of the bunch (including what I got a year later!), so all that work was worth it.   But whenever I look at anything related to the sample, I have to imagine three senior geologists trying like crazy to break the slab

04AD15 post-cutting

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 Michael with Through the Sandglass   has apiece of art as his geologic float

Accretionary Wedge # 32

The March edition of the Accretionary Wedge geoblog carnival is at Ann’s Musings, and the theme is a deceptively simple summons: “Throw me your ‘favorite geologic picture’ mister.”  This is nigh-on impossible and has led to some considerable introspection, not to mention scrabbling around to see what candidates I have with me on my laptop. But the scrabbling stopped as soon as I reminded myself of the image above. At first glance, perhaps it’s not strictly geological – but then again, yes it is. And, because of the very personal impact, it’s one of my favourite pictures – ever.  
It’s from a location in the remote south-western corner of Egypt, a Louvre of rock-art. This is just a small exhibit in a cave shelter covered in human expressions. The setting is geological, the canvas is geological, and the materials are geological, and all combine in the message of the connection between humans and geology. But of course it’s even more than that – we have no idea really who the artists were, exactly when they lived, what the function of this place was in their society, or why they expressed themselves so exuberantly. But the emotional  resonance, sitting there gazing at this, has become deeply ingrained; there is an immediate, intensely human, connection with two unknown people who chose to record their hands reaching out to each other.
It’s not even a picture of sand – but it is probably my favourite geological photo. And, in today’s world, perhaps it has an important message.

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 Here's the  History of Geology    interesting float by David.
( I'm having trouble with this link so here it is http://historyofgeology.blogspot.com/2011/03/accretionary-wedge-32-favourite-image.html )

In a first moment I couldn't decide what image to take, the classic outcrop or the marvellous landscape? - but there is an elder picture of 2007 I really like, at a first glimpse it's geological context is not obvious, but this is also a reason that I like this particular picture.

The photo shows a species of club moss emerging from a pile of rubble. The club moss Huperzia selago is one of the two species of this genus present in the Alps; this species in particular can be found in high altitude and in glacier forelands, acting as pioneer species.
This specimen was emerging from gneiss and schist debris covering an active rock glacier; I like the contrast of the green plant to the cold grey of the rocks forming a sort of picture frame, the impression that the club moss overcomes every obstacle, even "breaks" the rocks apart to emerge from the underground.
For plants creeping debris and permafrost represent an ulterior challenge for colonization and growth in an already nasty environment, with long snow cover, low temperatures and deadly UV-radiation. I think the picture depicts well the struggle of existence in a harsh environment - but as the the rocks act as obstacle they at the same time also provide shelter, moisture and nutrients.

For the geologist also the recognition of even the smallest clue can be helpful, I find it fascinating how many different methods can be adopted to understand the development of a geomorphologic feature or a landscape - in combination with classic geological methods for example the vegetation cover or diversity can give indications of the recent activity of rock glaciers, or help to reconstruct the temporal development when other indicators are absent.

And finally the image remembers me as a sort of metaphor what the German geoscientist Gerd Lüttig argued in 1971:

"Earth history can be described as a permanent interaction between the geosphere (lithos) and life processes (bios). To investigate these processes is the mission of Lithobiontics, a new research discipline between Geology and Biology."

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Here's Philips float at   Geology Blues  is not only spectacular to look at but is special to for the memories it hold for him.  (I'm having trouble with this link so here it is
http://geologyblues.blogspot.com/2011/03/favorite-geology-picture-aw32.html  )

In a post about Multnomah Falls and Columnar Jointing, I posted this picture taken of Sam at Devil's Tower a few years ago. It remains one of my favorite pictures of geology (and Sam) as it provides such a great image to show several geologic principles at ones. Aside from the geologic signficance of the tower itself, the promionant geologic feature is the massive hexagonal piece that 7-year old Sam (for scale) is leaning against. Behind it, you can see the joints extending up the tower with clear hexagonal blocking roofs, allowing one to recognize the block as having weathered and fallen off the tower.


The picture also has trees and shrubs growing in the fractures below the main part of the tower. These fractures are not the columnar jointing of above, and so demonstrate a different condition of cooling for the base of the tower. The fractures below also have trees and shrubs growing amids the fractures illustrating yet another form of mechanical weathering.  

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  The float at  Geology Happens  has this wonderful panorama view.
(I'm having trouble with this link.   http://geologyhappens.blogspot.com/2011/03/aw-32-favorite-images-anticline.html )

This was taken from the appropriately named "Anticline Overlook" of the Canyon Rims Recreation Area in eastern Utah. The anticline is obvious, you can see the upward curve of the rock units. I love the part where the river cuts through the anticline making a natural road cut.

The river cuts through the Permian age Cutler formation, the left overs from the formation of the Ancestral Rockies. The upward arching of these rocks is from the squishing (a very technical term) of a buried salt layer. Far below the Cutler lies the Pennsylvanian Paradox formation, a mile thick layer of salt that has a tendency to move about creating some fun landscapes in the desert southwest. The buildings and ponds you see in the picture are a potash mine. Water is pumped underground into the Paradox layer, dissolves the salts and the brine is pumped back to the surface into the blue evaporation ponds in the background. The water evaporates away leaving the salts for transport.

The fun part of this area are the roads. They are barely visible in the picture but they travel hundreds of miles through the red rock desert . A mountain biking heaven!

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 Cain at  Point Source  has added this last entry to the parade of picture floats.
(I'm having trouble with this link so here it is  http://cbdawson.com/blog/2011/03/aw32-arachnoids-on-venus-2/  )
In the midst of reorganizing, I recently unearthed some deeply buried personal geologic records from past research projects.  One discovery was an image that previously adorned my wall:  a MagellanVenus. radar image of arachnoids on

Magellan radar image of arachnoids on Venus. (Image courtesy of NASA/JPL)

I think this image is a perfect fit for Accretionary Wedge #32 “favorite geologic picture.” It’s not the most colorful or dramatic image, but it holds an important place in my professional experience in the geosciences.
Arachnoids are geological features on Venus. They are characterized by a combination of radar-bright, concentric rings (like a bull’s eye) and radiating lineations (line-like features) and were named “arachnoids” because of their spider and web-like appearance.
Although these features had been identified on earlier Soviet Venera mission data, the NASA Magellan mission provided sufficiently high resolution radar imagery and elevation data to investigate them more closely.
These features were one of my first forays into geology research as an undergraduate student. What were they? Did all features catalogued as arachnoids based on the radar images have similar topographic features? What caused them? Where they all the same age? Where were they located? Was there a terrestrial geology analog? I had many questions, a patient research advisor, and a short summer.
The personal outcome was clear, though: I was hooked. Geology was fascinating, no matter where in the solar system. There were so many questions, and we didn’t have all the answers!  This was a far cry from the textbook science of packaged information and rote facts to memorize. The science was alive, the questions infinite, and the data plentiful.
Whenever I see these data images, they represent all of this in one snapshot: the excitement and mystery of geology.
He has more but you just have to go to his blog to read the rest of it.

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And finally here's the Captains float -
The Red River at sunrise, seen from a balloon about 1000 feet up in the air.

The Red River

The beads are thrown and are now on the wire connecting to the internet web. I hope you had a good time.

Now all good things must come to an end.  The parade is over and it is time to go home.  Thank you one and all for submitting something for this Accretionary Wedge - 32.   
If you had something and didn't get it in  or if I missed it please leave a comment and I will add it later.



 Post script:
Here's a little bit about Mardi Gras for those who don't celebrate it like we do in Louisiana. 

 For those of you who don't know its officially Carnival time or Mardi Gras season  (Twelfth night to Fat Tuesday i.e. Jan 6 to March 8 this year).  Twelfth night is also know as the feast of the Epiphany and is celebrated by Christians as the day the three wise men came to visit the baby Jesus and is 12 days after Christmas.  Fat Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday.  Ash Wednesday is the first day of lent, a  time where you are suppose to make sacrifices and give up things, in preparation of Easter which is 40 days later. Because people may give up drinking, certain foods etc for the forty days during lent they like to have a big blow out where they consume the food that they will be giving up.  They usually do this the day before and thus the reason it is called Fat Tuesday or as the French call it Mardi Gras.

  To celebrate together different groups of people with like interests get together and form Krewes.  Most Krewes have a theme by which they go by. For example, in my area of LA there is a Krewe of doctors call Aesculapius and another one for Lawyers called Justinian and one of cat and dog lovers called Barcus and Meow.  I am a member of the Krewe:  Les Femmes Mystique.  If you haven't guessed it - its a group of women who are concerned about the community.  Although we enjoy our parties we also like to give something back to the community.  Every month we have a project to work on.  This keeps the Krewe together during the year when the parties are not going on.  Every month there is a different project, such as working at the food bank, help run the Susan G Coleman race for cancer, the march of dimes walk, gathering school supplies for children, getting and wrapping toys for the Toy's for Tots program, etc. It varies from year to year what all we do. 
  But the thing that most people know the Krewes by are by their parades.  My Krewe is not big enough to have a parade of their own so we augment other parades in the area by joining in on other floats in the parades.  When you are on a float, you provide all of your own throws - the things you toss to people.  People love to come and watch these parades because of the gaudy decorations and the stuff that gets tossed to them.  Beads are the most common thing, but there are also other things tossed to like stuff animals, wrapped candies/food, plastic cups and fake coins called doubloons (which can become a collectors item).  It's whatever you want to buy and spend, but you are restricted to things that can't hurt if tossed, also it can't be offensive to the public in general. 
  If you ever go to a Mardi Gras parade there are certain things you should know.  Namely they can't throw anything if the float is not moving, so don't try to stop a float to get something from it.  Also if it lands on the ground put your foot on it and then after the float has gone by then reach down and pick it up.  If you try to reach down and grab it expect someone to stomp on your hand.  Also when the float goes by everyone says 'Throw me something Mister'.  The reason they do that is because the people on the floats are usually in costumes, with their faces covered.  They cover their faces so they can remain anonymous. 

 Elaborate costumes are common with the Carnival.  Most Krewes have a King, and a Queen and a Captain the rest of the float leaders are called Dukes and Duchess. Because they are royalty they like to dress up to the part, thus the elaborate costumes.  These people hold their offices for one year, and then switch off at coronation Bals. There is also another bal that is thrown during the Carnival time where the other royalties come together to enjoy the hospitably of the different Krewes. The Captain of the Krewe organizes the bals and parade and is the person who is in contact with the other Krewes.  The King and Queen are the official representatives of the Krewe for that year and are expected to attend most events.  The King and Queen are very rarely married to each other.  The spouse or significant other of the Royalty person is officially named their consort.

Mardi Gras is all about having fun and celebrating life.  It is also about giving back to the community in which they live as a ways for friends and neighbors to get together so they can get to know each other better. For more about Mardi Gras here Wikipedia Mardi Gras.

Post Script:
I do want to thank everyone.  I did have some technical difficulties with this but eventually figured things out.  I do want to thank Callan for helpful suggestions, while I tried to get it done.  I must admit I agreed to be a host more for my own benefit than yours.  I've very inept with computers and doing things like this teaches me so much. I also do it so I can see all the amazing things that have developed in the geology field since I was last active in it. I enjoyed putting this blog together and it wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for all the contributions I got.  Again THANK YOU.