Accretionary Wedge #45- Geological Pilgrimage

Aprils Accrectionary Wedge  45 is here at  Life as a Geologist ( http://lifeasageologist.wordpress.com/ ) or Twitter @denisetang.  The theme is "Geological Pilgrimage – the sacred geological place that you must visit at least once in your lifetime"


 I've always wanted to go see an active large glacier.  So to me the logical place to go was Antarctica.  I don't know why but Antarctica has always fascinated me.  Maybe because its so far away or maybe because its so cold.  But most likely its because its so pristine and there is so much to explore there.  I've always dreamed about going to a remote area that no one has ever been to and to be the first to study the geology there.  But because of its extreme distance and harsh conditions I don't feel like I have "IT" in me anymore to make that trip so now the place I want to make my pilgrimage to is Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park ( Here's Wikipedia's info ) or in the United States Glacier National Park (there's more about it in Wikipedia here ).  It's still remote for me and it will be difficult for me to get there so it should fit the theme.

    When I was in college at Ohio U the department chairman was really, really, really into glaciers.  I mean that is all he seemed to ever talk about.  Every field trip we took seemed to involve some aspect of glaciation that we would look at.  And boy did he know his stuff.  He was always showing us things that I never noticed before and how it could have been related to either glaciation or the run off from glaciation.  Needless to say he was able to hook a couple of other people into loving it as much as he did.  These people would go on to do there masters thesis on glaciation
   One of these guys happened to be a friend I had made in field camp. He was just as fascinating to talk to when he'd started talking about his research on glaciation too.  He was able to go to Antarctica and study the glaciers there.  Ever since then I've been intrigued by glaciers and if I hadn't already had an area of interest that I was already doing my thesis research on I definitely would have considered switching over to that line of study.
    The funny thing was when I did field camp with that guy we did get exposed to some glaciation in the Ruby Mountains of Nevada, but I really didn't appreciate it as much as I did studying the other rocks and structural geology that was present there. The fact was there was just too much to see and learn and too little time to do it all well and glaciation really wasn't our instructors area of interest. Yet they did expose us to some glaciation features because that was in the courses curriculum and they had to teach it. (That's why I feel every geology major should take a summer of field camp study - to get exposed to things you may not be able to in any other place.)  I do remember seeing the U shaped valley and finally understanding how glaciers formed the U verses the V of normal river erosion. I also liked resting by the glacial formed lake.   I know I would have gotten more into the glaciation features if we would have had more time to study things there. Nonetheless,  I truly didn't grow to appreciate glaciation until after I had field camp when I took a geomorphology class where our main text book was called 'Glacial and Quaternary Geology' by Richard Foster Flint (1971).  If I just would have had that class first I'm sure I would have gotten so much more out of that section of my field camp.

   So now I would like to go and see an active glacier again.  The most logical place for me to do so would be Glacial National Park.  About the same time I was taking that geomorphology class my older brother visited Glacial National Park and said I would go crazy over all of the stuff I would see there - he did and he wasn't even a science major - just business. I think the reason I rather go there than say to Alaska to see one is because of its location.  It's on the Continental Divide and that has always interested me.  To think all the water on one side of the Lewis Mountain range goes to the Gulf Coast while the other goes to the Pacific Ocean.  Then there is also the man made divide of two countries Canada and United States peacefully sharing this wilderness area for all to enjoy.
   I would love to see the rocks of the 'Belt Supergroup' that where thrust up with the Lewis thrust. Its hard to imagine this Belt Supergroup could be so old (Precambrian) and yet show so little metamorphism.  There's even igneous sills and lavas there if the other geological features weren't enough.
   But the main thing I would like to see is all the glacial features - the actual glaciers and the sediments they are caring.   The glacial erosion features  such as  cirque lakes,  glacial till, arete, col, horn, U-valleys, hanging valleys and waterfalls, rock basin lakes, ice caves, moraines, glacial outwash planes and glacial scouring & grooves.   I'm sure there are a lot more features but I can't think of them right now but I know I will know them by the time I do get there.
   If all of this geology wasn't enough I think one of the things that has always struck me about this place is this quote by the naturalist John Muir "the best care-killing scenery on the continent".  When I think of all the places that man probably has seen and then for him to say that about this location must make it breathtaking beautiful (and that's according to my brother too). To me this just has to be a sacred place to visit at least once in my lifetime. What also makes this a sacred place verses a glacier in Antarctica or Alaska  is the fact that it was one of  my deceased brothers favorite places that he's ever been. He spent hours and hours talking about it more than once in his life.  I feel like I just can't help but to be close to him when I get there to see it for myself.  I can just imagine me hearing him laughing at me and saying 'I told you so' as I would be staring at everything in wonder.  

I Muse-  I got to get this trip planned soon because the glaciers are retreating so much.  When reading the Wikipedia info - they project  that by the year 2020 the glaciers may be gone due to global warming.  If that isn't a reason for concern I don't know what is.    .


Here's some books I've looked at to help me make this choice:
'Geology of National Parks' 6th ed by Ann G. Harris, Ester Tuttle & Sherwood D. Tuttle (2004) pgs 357-383.

National Geographic 'Guide to the National Parks of the United States 6th ed. pgs 338-345.

'Tenting To-night a Chronicle of Sport & Adventures in Glacier Park & the Cascade Mountains' by Mary Roberts Rinehart (1918).

Wikipedia 'Glacial National Park U S' 

Accretionary Wedge #44 Most important teacher

Metageoloist  has put out the   call-for-posts-accretionary-wedge-44-most-important-teacher/  .   

 I've decided to go with someone that is not a geology teacher.  The reason being I went to universities  that had relatively small geology departments when I was there.  Because you could have a teacher more than once when getting your degree and the all the field trips we went on  together it made us all a tight nit group.  To pick one geology teacher as more important than the others is impossible for me because they all had such a great influence on me.
   I've mused about it a lot.  One minute its So&So and then next it's got to be Dr X but oh no This Guy did this for me and surely that's counts for something too. .  Now I'm to the point I just can't pick one of them and say this person is the most important one.  Lets just say they were all the Most Important Teacher at the time I had them.

  However there is one teacher that does stand out in my mind. She was my sixth grade teacher - Miss Relic (and yes her name really was relic and oh the teasing we did about her being a relic & why she was still a miss.)  Despite her name she truly was a great teacher because she genuinely loved teaching and it came across to us with everything she did.  
   Back when I was in 6th grade I went to a catholic school. The first thing we did every morning was go to the religion class that was taught by a nun or a priest.  Then after that class we would go to our regular classroom.   We had the same teacher for the rest of the day.  There were no rotations and the teachers were expected to teach you everything:  English, Reading, Math, Science, Geography, and History.  Up until the end of 6th grade all my classes had been that way. At the end of sixth grade they started to rotate us so we would be ready for seventh grade where we would have 3 different teachers.  You could usually tell that there were some subjects the teacher liked better than others.  But not so with Miss Relic she seemed to enjoy them all.  I was impressed with the way she could teach them all so well too.  She really knew her material.  When the rotation came I was surprised to see she was to be the English and Reading teacher.  I thought her as being more science and geography oriented.

   The one thing I remembered most about Miss Relic was she was always saying 'there are no dumb questions.' and she encouraged us to question everything.  If we were not asking questions then she'd be throwing questions to us.  It was a lot easier to come up with our own questions than to answer hers. She taught us how to search out the answers using the resources we had available. We quickly figured out the more questions we asked the faster the day went for us.  She really opened my mind to new ideas.

     The other thing she did for me was she got me into my first book club.  It met after school and was called ' The Great Books club'.  They read the classics and discussed a book once a week for about a month. Most of the time you had to buy the book and that kept some people not wanting to be in it.  Also you had to be an 'A' student to be invited into this elite group.  I wasn't an 'A' student but my older brother had been and had been in the club. She knew my brother had been in the club and knew we had the books in our house thus she encouraged me to read them to improve my reading skills.  Up until then I had been a poor reader & student, (and if you can't tell I always struggled with writing and spelling). But once she got me interested in the books, I became an avid reader. I discovered you don't have to be good at English to be able to read and enjoy them.  Because she took such a special interest in me I didn't want to disappoint her, I did as she wanted me too and read and discussed the books with her.  When she realized I was not having any problems with reading them, she broke the rules and pushed to get me into that club.  That book club started my love of reading that has lasted me my whole life time.  It taught me how to truly read a book and get the most out of it.
    It was the first time I felt like I really belonged to a group.  I made friends with all the 'smart kids'.  By hanging out with the smart kids they would help me with my school work whenever I had problems with it.  My grades started to improve.  It was such an ego booster to be known as one of those in that group.  I didn't want to disappoint them and started to learn more and more on my own.  It made me realize I could do this stuff if I just set my mind to learning it. Miss Relic pushed me like no other teacher ever did until I got into college.   She always had faith in me that I could do it and I always tried to give her my best.
   The next year we went into rotations and I really missed her a lot.  I missed the way she pushed me.  The new teachers didn't and I quickly fell back into my old bad habits of just getting by. I liked the just getting by mode because now I was spending all my time with my face in a book.  I loved reading so much and escaping into all those wonderful different worlds. 
   After that every once in a while I would have a teacher for a single subject  that would motivate me but I never had one like I did in her, until I got into college and could finally pick the courses I wanted to take.  Then I finally found teachers that truly motivated me to learn what they had to teach, and that is why I can't pick one geology instructor over another.

Accrectionary Wedge #43 favorite geologic illustrations

Hollis @ 'In the Company of Plants and Rocks' has put out the call-for-posts-accretionary-wedge-43-my.html.  At first  I've thought about it and was going to use one that I've used before but since the call has come out I changed my mind yesterday.
This is the one I want to use instead.

Hammond (1992) World Map

  The reason I've decided to go with this one is because it is the picture that I have hanging over my son's bed.  Every day my son gets to look at this diagram of the world while he lays in his bed.  You wouldn't think doing something like that would make a difference but it does.  He's won his school geography bee and he's pasted the states test and is now going to compete for the states top honor. We got the letter that tells us he's going yesterday.
   I've copied the announcement  that was at the schools web site which is located here @ http://www.middlemagnet.com/  .  

Good Luck Venkat and Matthew!

The Alliance for Education’s Regional Spelling Bee is Saturday, March 3rd at 10 a.m. at LSUS.  Venkat Sivaraman, an eighth grader, will represent CMM.  The competition will broadcast live on CW21 so tune-in to check out all the action!  Good luck Venkat!

Matthew Willis has qualified to represent CMM and participate at the state level of the National Geographic Bee, sponsored by Google and Plum Creek.  The state bee will be held on Friday, March 30th at Bishop Robert E. Tracy Center in Baton Rouge.  Good luck Matthew!

    His brother that is 8 1/2 years older had the same map hanging over his bed when he was younger and made it to the state Geography bee too. Mark lost in the third round of competition at the state.  Ever since Mark won his medal Matt has been determined to get one too.  Now they both have the National Geographic medals hanging proudly in our kitchen along with all the other medals they and their other brother have won over the years.

 You never know what a child will learn or how they will learn but being exposed a variety of different things  does make a difference. That's why I liked having the world map so readily available for my children as they were growing up.  If they had a question about a country they could quickly look and find where it was located in the world and wonder if where it was located helped them with their question.
    Another map that may have done the trick is this map that is in our hallway to their bedrooms.  This map also they got to look at every day.  They used to like to look at this one when we would have a trip planned and see what was a good way to get where we were going to go.

National Geographic Society map of the United States (Sept 1987)

But those two illustrations were not the one I had originally thought of.
The illustration I was going to use was this map of the United States, from 'Field Guide to Landforms in The United States' by John A. Shimer (1972) on the book jacket.

John A Shimer's"'Field Guide to Landforms in the United States"(1972) book cover

   I had used it once before when I hosted  Accretionary Wedge # 29 .  I have always loved maps of the United States. I especially liked this one because it showed the Geologic Provinces.  Whenever I would travel I would like to look at this map and read the accompanying book to get an idea of the geology I would be traveling through.
  The other reason I like this one so much is that through the years I've used it so may time to get the two letter zip codes abbreviation for states I don't write to regularly. I had written them in, because in my geomorph class we were going to have a quiz on it and was threaten with if we didn't get a hundred on this quiz there was no way we would ever be able to pass his class.  I got my hundred but since then I've always had a hard time remembering that Arkansas is AR and not AK which is Alaska and AR is not used for Arizona which is AZ and Alaska is not Al or AA or AS but Alabama is AL and not AB which is what I want to use.  I also would mess up with Virginia - I want to write VI and not VA and why it isn't baffles me since Hawii is HI or why Georgia is GA and not GE or what I used to like to write GEO.
   Needless to say through the years that book has been looked at a lot and is one of my favorites and is a great reference to keep handy.
    So now for Accretionary Wedge 43, I just have to say I just like looking at any map illustration of the United States. 

Accretionary Wedge #42

Volcanoclast has put out the call for Accretionary Wedge 42 here .

   Normally I am the type of person that can make up her mind when it comes to decorating without any problems.  I've remodeled homes and such before and have had no problem with the choices I've made as far as color schemes and furniture, etc it all seems to come together.  Most contractors like me because I know what I want before I ever start and have everything picked out and all they have to do is just do the job.
  Our kitchen was built  back in the late sixties and looks it.  Through the years I've had to replace most of the appliances in it due to them deteriorating so bad.  Now I need a new stove and oven.  My spouse is to the point of lets just go ahead and remodel the whole thing while we are at it because the counter top is an old Formica one that has not aged well.
  At first I was all excited about that, until it came time to try to decide what counter top to use.  We both agreed we wanted granite, but which one to use?  I wanted them ALL.  I couldn't decide on which one to go with they were all so interesting.   We left the place with the idea we would think upon it and that's what we did.  I thought about it and thought about it and never could make up my mind.
    At one point I jokingly said, 'I wish I could have a sample of all of them and then make that into the counter top.'   My husband was dead set against that idea because he had grown up in a home that had had tile for the counter top and it seemed he spent his whole life cleaning the grout in that kitchen. He wanted a smooth top with as few seams as possible to clean.   Another idea that came to mind was to go with concrete and then add in rock samples that I have collected over the years.  That idea got nixed due to the fact that if I ever moved I wouldn't be able to take the counter with me.  Also it would probably be a nightmare to keep clean too.  So now I'm back to the problem of  which one to go with.
   I decide to go in reverse order.  Which one would I would not go with, but even that I had problems with them.  All I know is that there is one I would definitely not use and that is the type that they call 'Black Granite' or I should say ' Gabbro'.  Since my feelings about that one is so strong I'm going to write a little about why I won't use 'black Granite'. 
    The reason is my brother and his wife chose 'black granite'  for their counter top.  From the very moment I saw that one I fell in love with it and was very envious of it.  At one point we had decided if we ever remodel our kitchen we would use that also.
   Then in 2009 my brother died, suddenly.  My sister-in-law asked me to be with her when she made plans for the funeral and the burial spot.  They had all these wonderful monument samples to choose from again.  She was having problems choosing again until she saw the 'black granite' which just looked just like counter top in their kitchen.  Instantly we both knew that was the one my brother would have chosen.  She almost didn't get it because it was one of the more expensive ones there.  I told her to go for it and not worry about it since whats a couple of hundred dollars in the long scheme of things.  If that's what makes her happy then that's what she should go with.  I was glad she decided to do that and it did turn out wonderful.

Now whenever I see 'black granite' I think of him.  It brings too much heart ache to me. I could never use it as a counter top.
I also muse upon the fact that I would like to have 'black granite' as my tombstone too, because I'll be under it and not having to worry about looking at it.

Accretionary Wedge #41 Most memorable geologic experience I've witnessed?

Ron has put out the call for AW #41 here.
What is the most memorable geologic experience I have witnessed?????   I have a couple in mind and am thinking about which one to choose.  I know if you live long enough you will experience quite a few of them like I have.  I think the first that effected me the most was when Mount St Helen's blew her top.  My dear friend Lockwood had just moved out there to Oregon and I was worried sick that he was affected by it.  I was never so relieved as I was when he sent me a long letter telling me how wonderful the geology of Oregon was and this was before he decided to make geology his major.  It's no wonder he decided to switch over after experiencing what he did.  But to me that is his story to tell and not mine.  So now I have to decide on something else.
  I've felt two earthquakes, where I knew they were earthquakes but they were pretty minor events in the long run of things..

I've seen the Mississippi flooding and that is pretty impressive too and also scary when the place you are trying to get to is on the other side of the bridge.

I-20 bridge from Louisiana to Mississippi heading east.

Mississippi River over its banks near I-20

actually crossing the river looking first north and then south

Heading from east to west

 The best photo of the extent of the flooding did not download.

Here's a different crossing of the Mississippi, taken a couple of months later where you can still see the effects of flooding in the area. I was heading west.

 In this one we are traveling west about to cross the I155 bridge between  Tennessee and Missouri.

  I did see a tornado form and didn't even realize it at the time.  I was shooting a video of a rainbow and the sunset and did a panoramic view and didn't even realize I had captured this.  My husband was watching TV and called me to it.  He said remember that storm we drove through on our way to Galveston?  Well it spun off a tornado and here's the video of it on the weather channel. It touched down in Arcadia Louisiana.  I decided to look at my video too and was shocked at what was on it.

  But the most haunting by far was seeing the devastation of Katrina. I didn't actually get to see the area affected until it was a couple of years later.  As we were traveling to New Orleans and were on the road to it I was so mesmerized by the total destruction of the area I was totally speechless. I thought I knew what to expect based on the news reports and such.  I had read "The Control of Nature" by John McPhee and thought he had explained it so well.  I had seen the aftermath of a tornado and the band of total destruction where nothing was left but toothpicks.  I had even seen the aftermath of other hurricanes but nothing I had previously experience had prepared me for what I saw. I had never seen anything like that. It was mile after mile of nothingness - everything was gone.  All I could think of at the time was this is how it must look after an atomic bomb has exploded.  There was nothing green growing and there was a covering of dust/dirt over all of it. It was all totally destroyed. It also helped that I had driven the area numerous times and was familiar with a lot of the land marks that were now gone. It was so mind numbing I failed to take any pictures of it.   Now I wished I had but at the time all I could do was stare out the window trying to process it all.  At the time I thought there's nothing to even try to take of a picture of because it was all gone.  Why take a picture of nothing? It all became a blur because I started to cry since it was so devastating to me.  I was just so glad when we got to the French quarter and at least there was some things that still looked familiar. I realized then that the French quarter was built where it was for a reason. It was the highest ground around in that area. No wonder it has lasted all these centuries.
   After that year we went back to the area each year.  For a couple of years afterward it was still the same and it would still blow my mind to see it. One time I tried to take pictures but they did not turn out because of the speeds we were traveling.  The stuff I wanted to get was all a blur.  Each time I went after that I failed to take pictures because I was usually in the area for business reasons and didn't think to bring my camera.  Then about the fifth year after Katrina the area started to look like it was coming back.  Finally this past year it started to look like it used to but there were still areas where you could still see the destruction from it.  Now I'm amazed at how rapidly it is recovering.  Mother nature always amazes me.

  Here's Wikipedia  link on  Huricaine_Katrina . 
  Now here's my impressions of that time when it actually did occur ( August 20 & September 2005).    I live in the Northwest corner of  Louisiana.   The area is the third largest in the state as far as population goes.  Naturally we were the place where a lot of the victims were evacuated to since the hurricane never made it that far.  (In fact when Katrina did finally come through to us in the NW corner it was a nice gusty breeze - no rain which we did need at the time).  Through out the city there were evacuation spots set up.  In the past there had been other hurricanes where people had to evacuate and we thought we were ready for this one. We had practiced our drills and thought we knew how to set up and be prepared such an event.  Boy were we naive.  Within hours all the available spots were filled. They were scrambling to find other locations.  Overnight our city had doubled in size.
   They started to call for donations.  They wanted anything you could spare- food, water, clothing, cleaning supplies, bedding.  I remember having just cleaned out my kids closets so we could have room for their new school cloths. (at that time I had a 18, 14 and 6 year old; non of which ever wore the same cloths, one was slim, one regular and the other was 8 years behind and I didn't like storing cloths for that long.)   I had a huge pile all set to go to goodwill but as soon as I heard the call I decided to take it to the designated drop off center instead.  I also decided I would do volunteer work there since I am a stay at home mom and that's what I do best  - Volunteer my time with various organizations when I'm not helping with my husbands/ family business.
  I'll never for get driving up to the Hirsh Coliseum  and being stopped by security.  They asked me what I wanted.  I said I wanted to volunteer helping with the evacuees.  They asked me to show them my Red Cross training card.  I did not have one, they were only having properly train people help volunteer with the evacuees at that time.  I was very surprised by this since I had helped at other shelters before and that Red Cross training was never required.  They were going to turn me away, when I told them that I had a trunkful of kids cloths - that they wanted.  They told me to take it over to a certain drop off location but warned me not to interreact with the evacuees.  I thought that such an odd request, but agreed to it.
   I went to the place to drop off the clothes.  As we were unloading the boxes I had put them in, a bus pulled up filled with brand new evacuees.  What I saw still stays with me to this day.  They unloaded the people.  The first thing I noticed was that none of them had shoes on. Their shoes had been taken from them because they all had been in the water and the water was filled with all sorts of contaminants.  Most of them were also not properly dressed.  I tried not to look or stare out of respect for them.  But some of them you couldn't help but to notice the look of total hopelessness on their faces, faces I'll never forget.  I had never seen faces like that before, the anguish and despair just tore my heart open.  I wanted to help them but felt totally helpless.  Now I knew why they only wanted trained volunteers.  The big thing was knowing what to say to them and in most cases it was just keeping your mouth shut and let them do the talking. At that time there was no way they would let anyone take a picture- pictures would have derogated them, this way they still had their dignity..  Even though no pictures were taken the memory has never left me and will always haunt me.
    Later in the week they started to let non train people help serve food and do routine things for them.  Different places would have areas set up where there was free food to be had.  I helped serve food at the church I was attending at the time. They were all so grateful for everything that was being done for them.  They would just thank you over and over and I felt embarrassed because I was just doing what was the right thing to do and know they would have done the same for me if the roles were reversed. I felt like I wasn't doing enough but I didn't know what else I could do?
    Most of them left to stay with other family members as soon as they found a place where they could go.  The ones that didn't went looking for housing, withing weeks most of the shelters were closed down.
    I remembered at the time we were trying to sell a house.  It had been rent property and the tenants had just moved out.  We were tired of renting it and put it on the market.  As fate would have it, we had no offers for it so it sat there vacant.  Our best friends ended up having his family come live with them.  Having 9 extra people in their small house was driving them crazy. (Imagine all of your in-laws moving in on you unexpectedly with no date when they could move out.) To help them out we let his family live in that rent house for over 6 months, rent free, until they were finally able to move back to their homes in the New Orleans area. For some reason the house never sold  with them in it - no one wanted to evict the hurricane evacuees.  It was a hardship on us but it was one we could afford and bear and was nothing compared to what they had gone through. At least I finally felt like I was helping out in a small way. 
   I remembered having the family over for dinner a couple of times and then they inviting us to eat with them.  We would listen to their story of their ordeal.  They would tell it over and over but it was always fascinating to hear because there was always some other perspective that they remembered but at first thought was unimportant compared to the magnitude of the other stuff..  Maybe some day I'll write it down but right now its too long to tell.
   I do remember the frustration they had with getting federal help.  When they got up to their family in our town all they had with them was the cloths that they had on that day.  They lost everything. My friends momma only had a pair of slippers to wear for days.   How do you prove you have what you have and  insurance and all that other stuff if all of your papers and pictures are destroyed?  They were just so grateful that they got out alive because at one point they almost got trapped by the water.  And that's what struck me the most was how grateful they were, and how thankful they made us feel for having what we had and being able to share it with them.  I just wished I could have done more for others, but at least I knew we did what we could at that time.

    Right now I saw in the paper the other day that the federal government was suing some people that got paid too much money from the disaster relief fund due to their incompetency.   I can't tell you how angry that makes me.  Those people needed every single cent they got.  They had to start over with everything.  I can't believe the government is trying to get it back.  It was their mistake and they can afford to loose it more than those poor victims. 3-4,000 is nothing to government but it is everything to those victims.  If it was up to me I would have it docked from the idiots pay that made those mistakes.  They never had to suffer like those people did that lost everything.

Now I muse upon when and where the next disaster will fall. Will I be prepared?  I'm just grateful that Louisiana made it through another hurricane season without a major one hitting its shores. I'm grateful I live where I do and don't have to worry as much about the hurricanes as much as the southern part of my state does.  I just wonder where the next one will hit.

Accretionary Wedge #40- Geo Pumpkins

Michael Klaas put out a call  for Geo-Pumpkins  here. And here's the finished Accretionarly Wedge #40.
To be honest I really wasn't in the mood to carve a pumpkin since I've been around them for a month, selling them to give the proceeds to local charities.  I was in charge of the discovery center and for a week I talked about pumpkins to 3 - 5 year olds.  I had about 2500 students come by.  Its lots of fun to see their reactions and I find it very rewarding. 
   I decided to do something very simple.  I had a little baseball pumpkin that I decided to use.  He had been tossed around and I was surprised he had not cracked open.  I thought of him being as hard as a geode.  It just made sense to turn him into a geode.

Geode Pumpkin

   (I am having a lot of trouble down loading images. Geode pumpkin took more than one try and two different images, I had moved on to another image when it up this one up, of the baseball pumpkin next to a geode.)

 

 I did show the pumpkin patch here with one of the unusual pumpkins.

 This was the sign I used to show how a pumpkin grows.  It also showed some of the world record pumpkins.  The largest was 1810.5 lbs grow by Chris Stevens of New Richmond WI on 10-9-2010,  and also the world record largest pumpkin pie 3,699 lbs baked in New Bremen Ohio.

I'm going to include some of the pumpkins I had the kids see and touch.  I thought that they were all pretty interesting. 
So here are my pumpkin friends that I would show.
The first one got called Casper the ghost since he was all white. Geode pumpkin is right next to him, before he metamorphosis into geode pumpkin. He could be considered to be chalk since he is so white.

 I called this one dendritic I mean trellis because of the way the color was channeled on him reminding of that type of drainage. Here's more views of it.

trellis drainage looking pumpkin

The next ones are shale in color so I called them that.

shale pumpkin

This was shale pumpkin since it looked like shale.  Here's another view of it.

 
 The next one looked Metamorphic to me.

This one I called serpentine since it was mostly green.  also it had that zone where it looked like it had been metamorphized into the color it was. This pumpkin had definitely undergone some usual processes for it to end up the way it did.

( This is really frustrating its not downloading what I want it to and is taking repeated attempts to get anything and when I do get it its not in the order I want it.)

Lava pumpkin

And this pumpkin would get the most reaction with a oh yeak!! I didn't know what to call it.  Maybe this should be my conglomerate pumpkin.

pumpkin floating in water

 Here's my square pumpkin I used when I would read about Spookley the Square pumpkin.

Now I muse upon what pumpkins I'll have next year.  Because they are always so different and varied.

Accretionary Wedge #39- dress Barbies as geologist

The AW call has been made by Evelyn  Geonery's .  She wants us to dress our Barbies or Ken's as geologist.
I'm having trouble down loading images with Blogger right now so I don't know if I'll be able to post my image or not.  But thinking about Barbie's has brought back some memories that I'm going to first share instead.

    When I started kindergarten in the fall of 1960 all of my new friends seemed to have Barbie Dolls.  They had recently come out and were very popular.  I started to want one.  So for Christmas I asked Santa for a Barbie Doll along with a couple of other things.  I got a Baby Doll instead.  I came from a large family and Santa only brought us one gift and my parents would give us cloths.  I knew that was all I was getting for Christmas.
   I had to wait for my birthday.  My birthday came in September and I didn't speak up and say what I wanted.  Again I knew I would only get one gift.  We had had a fire in our house that year and my bed was destroyed in the fire.  I got a new bed for my birthday gift - it wasn't exactly what I wanted, but I knew it was all my parents could give me.  It was more important for me to have a good bed to sleep in than it was to have toys.  I had to swallow my tears and accept things for the way they were. I would wait for Christmas.
   I decided I would ask Santa again for a Barbie.  Instead I got a stuffed, pink,  musical Teddy Bear that I called Hunter because of the hunter green cloths she had on when I got her.  She played 'Rock a by a baby in a tree top,'  I loved that Teddy more than anything else and had her for many a year. She finally disintegrated away from being loved raw because she was held so much.  She was a lot better gift than a Barbie doll because I could snuggle and sleep with her, she was my best friend and constant companion.  I figured Santa really knew that teddy bear was a better toy for me.  My parents did surprise me and gave me a toy sewing basket instead of cloths. (I didn't play with that sewing basket much until I finally did get my Barbie.  I would spend hours sewing cloths for her and that started a love of sewing that has lasted to this day.)
   I had to wait for my birthday to try again for a Barbie.  I figured out that I probably wouldn't get one from my parents but had better luck if I got one from a friend.  I had gone to a couple of my friends parties and the most popular gift given was a Barbie doll.  So I asked for a birthday party instead of a present.  My mom was reluctant at first but then gave in and I had my birthday party.  I had about 8 friends show up.  I got Barbie outfits but no Barbie.  Everyone there had assumed I had already gotten a Barbie since most of them were already owning more than one Barbie by that time.  What they wanted most now was the cloths for her, so they gave me what they wanted to get not what I wanted.  I didn't mind so much because I could bring the cloths to my friends houses and I could still play dress up with their Barbies.  But it just wasn't the same as having my own Barbie to play with.  I wanted a Barbie more than anything else. 
  By then I was becoming more and more of a tomboy since I enjoyed playing outside so much.  Since I had so few toys, I discovered the wonders of nature.  I found there were things outside that could keep me entertained for hours and hours.  There was always something new and exciting to see.  I started to pick up rocks and see how different they could be.  But I still was a child and wanted toys to play with too.  So I had to wait for Christmas to try again.
   This Christmas it was going to be different.  I decided since Santa only gave me one toy I would make sure he knew I just wanted a Barbie and nothing else.  That was all that I put on my list - 'BARBIE'.  That was all I asked for.  I thought surely he would understand since I had just the said the one thing that was what I wanted.  Instead I got a Madame Alexander doll - 'Beth' from the Little Womens' series.  Beth was beautiful and a whole lot more expensive than a Barbie doll, but she just wasn't a Barbie.  I took her and put her in my toy drawer and basically only pulled her out when I couldn't go outside to play. (I found out years and years later, the reason my mom gave me that doll was because she had always wanted one.  Since I didn't play very often with dolls unlike my sisters, she knew I would keep it in good condition. I still have her and my other Little Women dolls I had gotten as I got older, they sit in a box in the closet - nothing much has changed.)
  Getting back to Barbie, by then I figured out that no one was ever going to give me a Barbie.  The only way I was ever going to get one was I would have to go out and buy one.  I had gotten a dollar from my grandmother for Christmas. I went to the store to get one and found out that they cost $2.99. I was seven years old and realize if I just waited for Christmas and birthday money it would be years before I would have enough  money saved up to get one. I had to figure out a way to get the money sooner.  I asked how I could get money and was told I could earn it. 
  Back then in our neighborhood you could recycle glass bottles.  You could get 1 to 5 cents for them depending on their size.  Most were about 3 cents. I remember taking our families red wagon to my neighbors houses and asking them for their glass bottles.  No one was willing to give me any until one elderly neighbor asked me why he should give me his bottles when they were worth money to him too.  I was very disappointed and started walking away until he called me back.  He told me he would work out a deal with me.  If I took the bottles to the store for him he would let me keep one cent for every bottle I took.  One cent was so much better than nothing and I readily agreed to do it.  I found that solution worked well with some of the other elderly neighbors as well.  It took about about a year for me to get the money together since they would only let me come by every couple of weeks, but eventually I did get the money together.
  It was one of my happiest days of my childhood when I was finally able to go to the store to buy my Barbie.  I had the 2.99 saved up, only problem was no one had ever told me about taxes.  She really wasn't $2.99 but $3.03.  I was not able to get her at that time. It really tore me up as I had to put her back on the shelf since the sales lady wouldn't budge on the taxes and my mom just wouldn't give in and cover it.  I had to go and earn the four cents more.
  Finally I was able to get one.  At the time, I had blond hair and blue eyes.  I wanted  the one that looked like me that I had picked out earlier.  She was no longer there.  I had to settle on one that was a brunette and blue eyes, like my sisters. She just didn't grab my heart like the first one.  I got her home and played with her all day.  But after a couple of days playing with her, she was boring and not near as much fun as I had envisioned her to be.  I like my outside nature 'toys' so much better.  I would only play with her when the weather was bad.  Most of my playing with her consisted of me sewing clothes for her.
   Most of the time she just sat in my toy drawer.  Then one day my  younger sister was home sick and decided to play with her.  She cut her hair to make her look like her.  She was ruined to me and I gave her to my sister since it was so obvious she wanted her. I was hardly ever playing with her by then and it made no sense to me to keep her.  My sister loved playing with dolls and was doing it all the time, she was overjoyed to get her. She treasured her so much more than I ever did and it made me feel good to know that she was with a better mama than I was ever going to be with her.  I never played with or had any other interest in Barbies again.  I ended up having three sons and never had a reason to get another one.
    Now this Accretionary Wedge is to dress a Barbie up as a geologist.  Needless to say I had to go out and buy one.  I was amazed that after 50 years I could get one for $5.47 at Walmart.  I thought for sure they would be more expensive than that.  Well I wasn't so totally off by that -- there were some collector ones that were in the 75 dollar range and there were some fancy ones in the 25 range,  yet I was still able to get one like I had always dreamed of getting for just $5.47.  She came with just the basic swim wear stuff just like my first one.

   Now I muse upon the fact that even though I never played much with Barbies she did teach me so many  things. She started me in the habit of recycling items my whole life. She made me aware of the environment and  how fragile it is.   She taught me how to work and earn some money. She taught me how to save my money so that I can get the things that I want. She taught me about taxes, a lesson I never forgot after that. She made me realize Santa wasn't real.  She created a love for sewing in me. She taught me the joy in giving things to others.
   Barbie, also made me realize that growing up in middle class America I should be satisfied with all that that I did have.  All I really needed was the basics to live  - food on the table, a relatively safe shelter over my head, a few cloths to wear and a warm bed to sleep in.  Anything more than that was a blessing and should be something to be valued, treasured and appreciated to its fullest and not taken for granted.  For the record I never considered my family poor.  I grew up in the suburbs of middle class America, with hard working parents that paid their taxes and made sure our basic needs were met. There was very little money left over for other things like toys.  I was grateful for all that they could give me. My family was very typical of those in my neighborhood and we all considered ourselves very fortunate to live where we did. (I love the USA). To me that was being middle class. Besides what could be more middle class than that - to own a Barbie, which I did?
  I'm sure there are other things she taught me too but right now I can't think of them. 

Now  for her  Accretionary Wedge debut.
Miss AW-39 from LA.
Gold Digger Barbie

 She can't tell the difference from galena which she is resting on top or or copper which she is leaning against.  All she did find was fools gold, just like me.
Now that she's all pooped out - here she is doing what geologist seem to do best.

Hold a beer!  Look how revived she looks.


PS here is what she looked liked before the rock hounding hit her.

 (addendum 1-27-12 I went home for Christmas and brought back some old family photo's that I've been scanning into the computer for my family and guess what I found? A picture of me playing with my sewing material and me making cloths for my doll from that Christmas.)