Accretinary Wedge #59 What Geo field guides do you recomend

Mika over at GeoMika
has put out the Accretionary wedge #59 call for post ( here  )

And here is the actual call she put out:

August Accretionary Wedge

Posted on 10 July 2013 by Mika

The Accretionary Wedge is an ongoing geoblogosphere carnival, a month of thematic posts on any topic that strikes the collective fancy. After watching geotweeps compliment a particular field guide, I ask: what do you think of the field guides for your region? Do you use USGS books, part of the “Roadside Geology of…” series, conference proceedings, a homegrown booklet produced by your local college, or something entirely different?
To get things started, I have a few archive posts on Vancouver field-trips for AAAS attendees, and a book review of Vancouver: City on the Edge.
Submissions are due by September 1: just post a link in the comments or via Twitter (@mikamckinnon). I’ll post a list of all the reviews, for future advice when picking books to guide our rock-seeking travels.

I've been out of geology for a long long time, and because of that I've lost a lot of my networking contacts especially ones connected to the Universities in the area I live so I didn't have access to their guides.   Another big factor was I did not get my geology degrees in the area - I had to rely on other sources to get my field guides for the area I lived in.  Usually it was through some field trip connected with a  seminar that I had to pay money for and the guides were copy-write protected and mostly dealt with the oil and gas industry and were not in the public domain.  Since I stopped working in the oil and gas industry 20 years ago my ability to go to those seminars also came to a standstill  and thus my access to those types of guides--- so all that left me with is the Roadside Geology of ..... series.

     I live in the Ark-LA-Tex area.  As far as I know there is no Roadside Geology of Arkansas available.  I have come across a couple of rock and crystal/ gem collecting books for Arkansas but they are area specific and the the geology is not very strong. Nothing I would like to recommend.  The state has a lot to offer and its been a big disappointment to me that there isn't anything better to go by.  If anyone knows of anything that I've missed please leave a comment.

     I do have the Roadside Geology of Louisiana by Darwin Spearing (2nd ed -2007) - it's been awhile since I've looked at it so I could be wrong but when I got done with it I was hoping there would be more to it..  It could simply be the nature of the state - the land just spreading outward into the gulf coast over millions and millions of years.  At least it was better than nothing and it did give you a starting point to look into some other areas of interest because it does have an extensive reference list.  And it's a whole lot better than when I got here and there was nothing like that around to go by and look at.  I do like the way he wrote it so most non geologist type people could understand it.
    Through that book I've come across some geologic maps and stuff that was put out by the geology dept of LSU in Baton Rouge and also the AAPG (American Association of Petroleum Geologist)- their Geologic Highway Map of the Southeastern Region.  I have found those to be helpful too.
   But I must admit that when I go to an area I don't like to do too much research at first, so I can look at an area and figure things out for myself.  Then after I get home that's when I like to start to do the research to see if what is out there is in agreement with what I was seeing and observing. 

    The one guide that I just love is the Roadside Geology of Texas by Darwin Spearing (1991).  I have found this to be an extremely helpful book and have looked at it often after I have gotten back from Texas.  But I must admit I have not used it for the western part of the state and am not too sure how it is for that region.  Again  I like the way Spearing writes for the non geologist so anyone can pick it up and read it and get an idea of what is going on geologically in the region that they are in.  Texas is a big state and it has just about anything you can imagine geologically (except glaciers) in it.  There is a lot of material to be covered and I know Spearing couldn't cover it all but does a good job with exposing you to most of it without getting too technical about it at the same time. One of the things about Texas--  there is more geologist living in that state than anywhere else in the world so the state has been studied more extensively than anywhere else in the world too due to the Oil and Gas industry and all of the money associated with oil and gas exploration.   Also because of the O&G industry its subsurface has been extensively mapped too, giving some incites into some regions that may not be apparent from just surface outcrops, especially when it came to the faulting in the coastal regions. Like the Louisiana book it does have a good reference section.  It also tells you how to reach some regional geologic societies to get their guide books for specific areas of interest.

Accretionary Wedge #58 - favorite Geo Sign

Evelyn over at Georneys has put out a call ( accretionary-wedge-58-signs/  ) for our favorite geo sign.

Years and years ago my mom went to St Moritz Switzerland and she said it was one of the most beautiful places she had ever seen in her life.  I've always wanted to go there after hearing her talk about it but never dreamed I would.  Well that dream finally came through and I got to take a cable car up one of the mountains (I think it is Piz Vadret- or it may have been Muragl since we were at the Muottas Muragl restaurant)  and the Swiss were so nice as to have signs showing what you were looking at.  I just wish I could have studied them longer and remember what I saw.   I tried taking a picture of it but it wouldn't fit on one shot - it too three and I have limited abilities with the computer and don't know how to splice them together so I have included all 3. It is indeed one of the prettiest places I have ever seen.

Getting caught up with Accretionary Wedge #55 (Geo injuries) & 56 (Geo Photography)

I used to participate in the Accretionary Wedge on a regular basis but since the beginning of the year I've been sidetracked with other things and really haven't paid much attention to it.  So with this post I hope to catch up on a few of them.

#55 – February 2013: Maitri at Maitri’s VatulBlog – Geo-Injuries

March 2013 – No Accretionary Wedge
#56 – April 2013: Andrew Alden at About: Geology – Geo Photography
May 2013 – No Accretionary Wedge
#57 – June 2013: Evelyn at Georneys – “Seeing Geology Everywhere”


I guess I stopped with Accretionary wedge #55 With Maitri Vatul blog  Accretionary Wedge #55 Geo Injuries.

 The reason I never participated was because I've always had a healthy respect for the environment in which I was operating and tried to avoid injuries at all costs.  If it looked dangerous I would normally back out and not try to go somewhere where I felt I shouldn't be.
     With that being said  the most I've even done was twist my ankle on a field trip.  We were at a rest stop taking a break and some of us were throwing a Frisbee back and forth.  I ran to catch it and my foot found a hole that was just its size and it went into it about 6 inches.  It was just enough to cause me to fall down,  twisting my ankle as I went down.    Everyone else thought I was joking since they couldn't believe that little hole could do that to me.  The next day when I went to put on my boot it had swollen so much I couldn't wear it and had to stick to my tennis shoes.  Everyone including myself was surprised at how much it had swollen since it really didn't bother me much the day it happened.  We were heading home and I was glad I didn't have to use it much that day since most of the day was spent in the car.  By the time I went out into the field again it was totally healed.

I see we had no hosts for March - lucky me since I couldn't do it anyway.  

Now on to  Accretionary Wegde 56 - Andrew Alden About Geology accretionary-wedge-56-the-geologist-as-photographer.htm

When I take a photo I classify it into two types.  Point and shot - something like getting a special moment of a family member - I try to capture them as they really are not some posed thing.  I do take posed photos too, but prefer the more natural ones.

   And the other is usually trying to capture some geologic feature that is of interest to me.  When I go for these shots I'm usually looking for something to have as a scale so I can judge how big it is latter on or when I show it to others.   More often than not, its a coin when I take an image up close and when its far away I try to have something rather common in it, like a car, common tree or plant.   I guess that is why sometimes my shots are different than people who are doing it for the  esthetics - they usually don't want to have things like that in their photos.
       But I must admit that when I do take shots I do try to get them as pleasing as possible.  Sometimes it's calls for kneeling down and shooting upwards or going for a different angle.  Now that there are digital camera's I find that I'll take multiple ones that are slightly different where I'll change the lighting settings or try different settings on my camera.  Its so nice now because the ones you don't like or that are blurry you just delete.  And I like being able to look at the image right away.  In the past you had to wait days to find out if they turned out or not - and frequently you just couldn't get back to that location again to re-shoot it and had to settle on whatever you got hoping it didn't need editing also. Once I have the different images I then toggle back and forth until I can decide which one is the better image.  I always feel Napoleons quote 'a picture is worth a thousand words'  is so true and I keep that in mind when I share photo's too.
  Now I'm trying to decide which image I should include since it is all about the photo's.

This is a photo from Hot Springs.  I used the stairs so you could get an idea of how steeply the beds were dipping and the stairs were a good scale too so you could see how big this outcrop was.  I seriously doubt most people would be taking pictures of the back exit way  to the parking lot of a beautiful hotel - they would be taking pictures of the front and the insides.

 This one I took because I was blown away with the size of this quartz crystal.  You can see a penny sitting on it - It must have been four feet long and close to two feet in diameter.  If the penny wasn't there I don't think people could appreciate how huge this crystal was.

Most people also don't take pictures of boulders- to them its just a big rock.  But this one was so fascinating to see.  You could see the multi-directional fracturing that was there and then the voids that were created and latter filled in.  And you could see how there could be such large crystals grown insitu with fracturing like this and how porous the zones are.  Again there is a dime near one of the voids for scale. 


Again there was no Accretionary Wedge for may and I've already done Accretionary Wedge 57 with my sidewalk geology post.
Now I feel like I'm all caught up. 

Accretionary Wedge #57- Seeing Geology everywhere

Accretionary Wedge #57 - Seeing Geology Everywhere

Evelyn at Georneys has put out a call for post here accretionary-wedge-57-seeing-geology-everywhere/

I like to walk. No; that's not right - I love to walk.  If I don't do any other form of exercise for the day I always try to get a walk in.  Most of the time I like to walk a set course that is a little less than 3 miles.   I follow the sidewalks in my neighborhood.  And as I walk I like to meditate on things or just think about things in general.  Most of the time I brood about my family and the things that are going on within it.  But other times I like to clear my mind and just think about things in general.  One of my favorite general things to think about is geology.  I love it because I see it everywhere.  And as I walk I can see all sorts of geological things going on in the sidewalks that I walk on.

So now  Evelyn has put out this call and as I was walking I was trying to figure what I was going to write about.   I was getting thirsty on this walk.  Ta -da - something popped into my head - I know I can write about Slurpees and how when you suck on the straw too fast you break the capillary action and don't get anything out of it, but if you suck on it really slowly and steadily you can get so much more out of it.  I used to use this explanation all the time in discussing how to produce an oil field.  For awhile I was a developmental geologist and it was my job to help design how a discovered oil field could be produced to obtain its maximum production.  Most of the time when I would start talking about why drawing the oil out too fast wasn't good for the field, I would hit resistance - they wanted get as much out as fast as they could.  But if I got a slurpee and had them see how it draws down they could understand that.
    So that was what I was thinking about as I was walking.  And the more I was walking the more I was thinking about getting that slurpee when I was done.   Boy would it be good, especially since the weather was already in the nineties.
    But then gosh darn it wouldn't you know I would see something and the geology just popped out at me.  This is what I saw:

 Here Evelyn wanted cat stuff and in the side walk was these cat paw impressions, and also these molds being infilled with sandy material. 

All I could think about were those paleontology courses and how rare it is to get a land animal imprints and what would someone a million years from now think about this stuff if they discovered it while doing an excavation of the area.
    It also got me thinking about how when I see wet concrete there is just something in me that wants to leave an imprint. These people had the same impulse that I had and put their imprints for the rest of us to see for a long, long  time.  It also got me thing about years ago we did some remodeling and had to pour some concrete and we did something very similar.  When I got home I checked to see if I could still find it and I could get to a part of it but the rest was covered over. 

So I continued to walk and thought about the geology I was seeing.  And trying to decide what I should be writing about.  Then I came upon this weathered stain.

It reminded me so much of a field trip I was on where I saw something similar. If I recalled these red spots were from iron oxide weathering out from siderite.

Decisions, decisions- the more I thought about it I should just stick with the sidewalk stuff and see what I could come up with.
     It wasn't long before I came upon stuff like this to make up my mind.

When you first look at this you think oh- more iron oxide staining but then when I looked closer I realized there had been an magnolia petal that had deteriorated there.  This stain wouldn't last long but the other will stay for a long time.
Then there were other things like this which finally made up my mind for me and made me want to do sidewalk geology instead.

 Here was a vug where at one time there had been some organic matter that had gotten into the cement and had deteriorated leaving this hole.  Now its being filled in with other debris.

 I wondered if this hole had been created the same way? But when I looked at it more I decided it may have been an air pocket that collapsed when the cement hardened or else there could have been a pebble that was slightly higher and had popped out. 

Then I saw this crack that really showed the cement cracking out of it and creating holes that way.  It's so interesting to see how the cement cracks and weathers. 

Look at this radial cracking.  It looked like something may have impacted this sidewalk at one time.  Or Maybe a car drove on it.

Look at this crack.  To me it is a good example of normal faulting with the hanging wall to the top and the footwall to the bottom.   Here's another example of faulting with the tree roots being the cause for the uplift of the hanging wall.

 I then like to see the layering of sediments on top of the concrete.  And how in the lows the water has a tendency to accumulate the muds and such which then can harden.  I also like looking at how the redish sands are heavier and settle out then with the less heavy dark organic material on top.
    Some times you can see imprints in the mud/ graywacke material.

 Which reminded me also of these photo where there were dog prints in the sidewalk.  My dog was kind enough to provide a scale for those dog imprints. He's about 10 lbs.

Another imprint that I liked seeing was  these: 

I thought they were really neat to see.  I saw this section of concrete as it was being poured.  It started to rain really heavy as they were finishing up.  The striations across were done with the broom but the round circular marks are from the rain drops.
    On 6-18-13 which was after I did this post we got some very heavy rain.  As I walked after the rain I couldn't help but to notice the rain drop imprints on some sidewalks.   When the stuff is still damp that's when you really notice it.  
This 1st one isn't very in focus but you can get an idea as to how big the raindrops were - there is a dime for scale.
  This was almost all organic debris from the rain. 

Different side walk with more of a sandy underneath and less organic material.

raindrop imprints on a sidewalk

But I thought it was also interesting to see after it had dried in some places too and the matrix was more sandy than organic material (which also lead to its drying faster).  I always think of 'The present is the key to the past' and if you can see things in the present you know what you maybe seeing when you look at past rocks.  

raindrop imprints on a sidewalk

      Here's another interesting one. 

I like to think of this as an igneous dike cutting into the sidewalk and driveway.  It fun trying to figure out the sequence of events.  First there was the driveway to the NW corner.  Then came the sidewalk to the SE.  The there was fill in in the SE corner and the last was the W central driveway material added to make a circular driveway.

Some times the side walks act as conduits for water.  This to me looked like a natural spring but in reality it was a hose that had been left on to water a plant. 

 A channel is being formed.  There is so much that can be said about  water and water features that I'm going to skip them. 

 And sometimes you can see ripple marks in the street concrete. 

 And sometimes you can see graded bedding going on,  with the courser grains on the bottom and the finer ones near the top. 

I could go on and on about the rocks in the concrete but there isn't enough room to write about all of that.

One of the things I was not expecting to see but was just too cute not to take its picture was this baby blue jay.

baby blue jay on sidewalk

 I couldn't tell if its wing was damage or what but it sure did favor the wing over the other as it was hopping/ flying trying to get away. 

baby bluejay

I was just glad this bird wasn't at my house because here's what I have staying by my front door all the time.

And here's Evelyn's cat picture.
I always thought he was trying to do a good job demonstrating  stalagmites (rising from the cave floor) and stalactites (hanging from the cave's ceiling).

Now I wish I could have that Slurpee I was thinking about earlier.

Accretionary Wedge #54 - Geo Brews and Geo cocktails

Its the end of the month and I haven't done the Accretionary Wedge for the the month of January.  Ryan over at Glacial Till is the host (Accretionary Wedge #54- On The Rocks: Geo-brews and Geo-cocktails .  I know he wants people to be creative but right now I'm not up to being that way and from the looks of things I missed the deadline.  But I do like doing the AW so here's mine anyway

 I'm not much of a drinker.  When I do drink its usually wine or beer.  Being a geologist I naturally gravitated towards beer when I was in college.  To me there was nothing better after a day out in the field than to come back to an ice cold brew.

    One of the reason's I didn't drink much was because I was so broke all the time.  I simply couldn't afford to go out and spend a lot of money on drinks.  One of the cheaper beers I discovered was Rolling Rock and that quickly become one of my favorites.  At the time it was being produced in Western Pennsylvania ( here's what Wikipedia has to say about Rolling_Rock ).  Living in Southeast Ohio it didn't have to be shipped far and I think that kept the costs down for it.   It also said it was made from natural springs which reminded me of some of the natural springs we had were I was growing up.  I also liked that it was a lighter tasting beer. 

Now it is still made from natural springs in Missouri.  The funny thing was when I first moved to Louisiana I couldn't get it here.  But when they started to make it in Missouri about 2006 I could finally start getting it again, yet when I looked for it in NE Ohio recently I couldn't find it.  I must admit I didn't look very hard since there were so many other choices around and I don't drink more than one or two at a time.

So here's my favorite geologic drink.

Now I don't drink much due to health reasons.  But with it being Mardi Gras season its nice to have some brew in the house.

I muse:  Is it time to go and pop the top? 

Accretionary Wedge #53- The end of the world as we don't know it

Lockwood is hosting Its the end of the world as we don't know it as Accretionary Wedge 53.
The call is as follows:
You could make up a tale of geologic and sciency absurdity, describing in the most insanely over-the-top manner how the world/universe will end. Contrarywise, you could report on the world's end as it happens, complete with reporters going out to report "LIVE!" from the apocalypse. Personally, I think the world will go out in sectors, like an orange with 24 sections, as they pass through midnight, but I'm not sure whether it'll be at the beginning or end of the 21st.

Or, you might choose to pick a bit of "respectable" journalism, and pick it to pieces in the most acerbic way you can. (Rick Sanchez, "What's that [10 meters] in English," anyone?) Here are a couple examples of me doing that, the first to point out the myriad mindless errors and misjudgements: Science "Journalism" by Press Release. And the second to show the the original press release totally missed the boat on why this news was important and so very interesting: More On the Gigavolcano.

“Don't wake me for the end of the world unless it has very good special effects.”  ― Roger Zelazny

Or, like I said, you might have another idea. But remember, it's supposed to be a party. No downers allowed- though that might be a topic for another Wedge.



Okay here's my attempt at how I envision the world ending:

A few years ago, around where I lived they used to always say, 'Hell will freeze over before the Saints would win a super bowl championship.'   Well guess what they did win in 2010 and then a few days later we had snow!!  We just knew for sure hell was starting to freeze over.
Here's the pictures to prove it:

2-12-2010 Show on the Bayou

 This was two scenes from my back yard. 

2-12-2010 Snow on the Bayou

In Northwest Louisiana we hardly ever get snow. Every year we have one or two days of freezing but rarely are the conditions right for snow, more often than not if we get anything we get a freezing rain.  About every three years we actually do get some snow but the ground is so warm it never sticks or stays.  Its good for closing schools down and causing havoc with the roads since people don't know how to drive in it but other than that you really don't get to enjoy it.
But once every ten years or so we actually get something that stays and  can be played in. On this day it actually did snow and stayed.



   Now they predict that the world will end on Dec 21, 2012 which is also the first official day of winter.  When I think of winter I think of cold and snow. So that got me thinking about what would happen if hell really did freeze over when winter starts. We would be in a winter state all year long because there wouldn't be any ground heat to melt the snow away. 
    Most people associate heaven with the skies and celestial thing, and the think of hell as the underground.  Hot, fire and brimstone stuff. In other words places within the earth- Hades.  But the key thing here is that its inside the earth-- not some where else.  So now I'm assuming on 12-21-12 the earth is going to have to be cooled down so that hell can freeze over ie it will have to be below 32 degrees Fahrenheit.  That would mean that the upper core of the earth would have to solidify and quit being fluid. We would loose the magnetic field since it was now solid and couldn't move. This would play havoc with our electronic gizmos stuff.
  For the media that still be operating they probably would be report it wrong and blame it on The Penguin, of Batman's fame and enemy. The media will claim The Penquin finally invented a device that absorbs heat and turns it energy, unfortunately everything it touches turns into a frozen solid mass, by compressing the atoms so there is no space in-between the electrons.  Once it starts there is no stopping it, kinda like a chain reaction.  They try to stop it but its gotten totally out of control and just keeps on going, deeper and deeper into the earth.  

   Because the earth would have to get so cold to offset the heat produced by the radioactive decay of materials every thing would freeze.  The media would also be reporting all the fun activities that people would be doing.  The snowbirds would be in bliss they would think they could finally go skiing whenever they wanted too.  They'd just dress warmly.  Not realizing how cold things really would have to be in the end and everything with water in it would be frozen solid - even themselves.
     Since the earth is so cold it would start to shrink forming huge crevasses.  These crevasses would eventually meet up with each other causing huge piece of the earth to break away from itself.  These pieces would go hurtling into space and join the other cosmic debris that is out there. Soon there would be nothing left of the earth. The earth would be no more - fini- gone- kaput.  Thus the end of the world as know it.

    I would really know its the end of the world is as soon as some of this stuff started to happen people would realize whats going on- because the media would be telling me so. People would want to be with their loved ones.  My family & friends would try to contact me and say goodbye.  I would know its really,really, really serious if I ever got a text from a certain friend of mine, thanking me for the help I've given him through the years, and apologizing for being the way he was and realizing what a mistake that was and telling me he was sorry. Without a doubt- I would know its the end because I know the only time that person would every contact me is if he truly thought that -This is it- there is no future to look forward to and this is the the last chance he could make amends.


   Seeing that text would put me is such a state of shock I would have to inhale deeply.  I would inhale so deeply I would cause a barometric drop in pressure.  That and with the global warming that had been occurring plus now the freezing of the earth by The Penguin  would cause all sort of chaos to occur with the weather system.  The result would be one huge gigantic tornado.  This tornado would just keep getting bigger and bigger and wouldn't dissipate like normal tornadoes do.  Finally this system would get out to sea and become a hurricane/cyclone or whatever you would want to call it. Then it will cross the oceans and eventually come back on shore again and will spin off even more tornadoes.  Eventually it would cover the whole world with mass destruction either from the tornado or from the hurricanes. This massive system would help dissipate the heat that's been stored at the surface of the earth and cause it all to be release as one massive destructive force of energy.  .

   But these would be no ordinary weather phenomena since these tornadoes would be the type that come from OZ.  All my loved ones, even my friend that thanked me would be swept up in them and carried to a land of safety in another dimension. Only people with their towels will be saved and since most of my friends and family have read Douglas Adams  -The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (here's the Wikipedia link  ) they will be prepared and have their towels with them.  (Its been so since I read the books, I can't remember the names but I do remember how funny it was and ever since then I've been sure to carry a towel with me all the time in my car.  Most of the time its used for drying off wet kids from practices  and have found it to be some very valuable advice to have.) By having had  my family and friends saved we will all be able to live happily ever after.  - So there isn't a downer.  Plus I'll get to see some people I hadn't seen in a long time since we will all be deposited in the same area of Munchinkinland.
   
So here's how I see the world ending on 12-21-12-  it will simple be frozen solid.



Now I muse:  I wonder if it really will end - am I ready to go?   Should I start to carry my towel with me in my purse along with everything else?

Accretionary Wedge #52- Dream Geology Courses

This month Accrectionary Wedge #52 Call for post is being hosted by  Shawn at Vi-Carius  and is  Dream Geology Courses
The actual call is  here.

And here is the actual call by Shawn
This is the theme of this months Accretionary Wedge. If you are a geology/geophysics student then write about one or a few courses that you wish were offered at your university. They don't have to be traditional lecture type courses, they can be anything that you can imagine (and that are logical). Professors, feel free to do the same, or more specifically, write about courses that you wish you could teach, or that you have taught that were outside of the normal courses (stratigraphy, structure, mineralogy, etc).

For ideas, see my original post here

Now for my stuff:

First off I have not taken a geology course in quite a few years.  More precisely  I got my last degree in geology in 1981 and in 1990 I went into a different field and haven't really had a chance to take any courses in geology since then.  I would have taken some if there were any I could take but unfortunately I had already taken all the courses that were being offered at the local colleges in my area.  

So right now I really am not up to snuff as to whats being offered out there.  I do know my one son elected to take a geology intro course when he went off to college thinking it would be an easy course for him since I had exposed him to so much while he grew up.  He had a rude awaking and only got a B in it and said -dang that was a hard course!! and chose not take any more.   From his intro text book I could tell it was now broken down where more emphasis is place on water and hydrological processes and I was pleasantly pleased to see that.  When I was in school you had to wait until you were in grad school to get that type of exposure.  I always thought there should be more on hydrology since water is so critical to the world and where humans live - its nice to see others feel the same way I do and more emphasis is being place on it. 

    When I first got out into the real world, the one thing I realize I was woefully lacking in was business courses.  My company encouraged all the engineers and geologist to get their MBA's and were willing to pay for it provided you had completed the course with a decent grade ie B or A.  But to be able to get into the MBA program you had to have met their undergraduate requirements which entailed courses like accounting, finance, economics and business law.   I had always wished there was a geology course that could have covered those basics so that when I entered into the work force I felt more prepared for understanding income statements and balance sheets.  Later after I had taken the accounting courses I felt so much more prepare in understanding the way businesses worked and why even though you may have a good  project if it doesn't pay out within a couple of years it just wasn't going to happen until it became economically feasible because it all was based on the price of the commodity you were trying to sell. 
. 
    Now that I'm older and been out in the real world for quite awhile, I think the one course that I would have really like to have had would have been one on how to invest in buying gold, gemstones and other mineral interests. I would have liked to have had more information on this so it could help me with my investing in retirement accounts. I've seen the stock market rise and I've seen it fall drastically and when it crashes like that everyone says 'buy gold'.  Should I buy gold pieces that have numismatic value or is it better to go with companies that mine gold? Should I invest in an oil well - if so what type of interest should I have? What types of gems make good investments and also have nice intrinsic appeal that are affordable for resale if need be?  Should I buy futures and if so what are good future minerals to invest in - salt, sulfur, copper, silver, etc?  

     Also from the practical point of view -  I wished I had a course that taught you how to appraise rocks - gems and minerals.  Something that would help you earn certification through the American Gem Society (here's what Wikipedia has to say  about the  American_Gem_Society ).  When I was working on  my undergraduate degree I thought if nothing else I could work in a jewelry store until I could get a job that I considered more in line with what I wanted to do with my geology training.  I was made aware of how distinctly different jewelers were from geologist when I applied at a local jewelry store and was asked why type of certification I had.  All I could say was I had passed mineralogy and optical mineralogy.  That wasn't good enough for them.  They wanted only trained jewelers and certified gemologist.  That was a whole different line of education than what was being offered at where I was going to school.  I often wondered why the two couldn't be intermingled since we were both using the same type of equipment.
    I do know in later life being a certified gemologist is a good job to have.  My brother-in-law was one for many a year and it made a good second career for him. He always was able to keep busy because it  seemed like there was always a need for an appraisal of  estate jewelry or for insurance reasons by someone. It was good for him because he could work from his home and had flexibility in when he did it so he was freed up to do other things too.  And on the side his wife liked to string beads and make jewelry that he would sometimes sell to stores he was doing business with.

   Finally there is another course I  would have liked to have had too.  Recently I just read a book by David R. Montgomery called 'The Rocks Don't Lie - A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood'.  I really enjoyed reading it and as I read it I thought this would make a great book to teach from.  I liked the way David Montgomery takes you through the history of the way geology evolved and how the church world and the science world split over some very dumb ideas.  He did a good job explaining how both can coexist together and there really doesn't have to be such a big rift between the two as there now exists.



Now I muse:  I wish colleges weren't so expensive now, because I would have been a professional student if I had enough money to keep on going.  I love learning.  I do know when I was in school it seemed like I couldn't get enough geology courses and there was always something being offered that I wished I could have taken but due to scheduling just was not able to. 

I Muse:  I saw were Glacial Till - Ryan Brown was taking a Scanning Electron Microscope course and I was so envious of him. Oh how I wish I could take that course too and am so glad to see it being offered. For my thesis I did some work on one and wished I could have spent more time on it.  At the time SEM were relatively new and not much work had been done because they were so extremely expensive to operate. The thought of a whole course on just that one instrument alone is so encouraging to see.  The possibilities of  the things that will be discovered just boggles my mind.