Category: Monday Geology Picture

Monday Geology Picture: Rite in the Rain Geological Field Book

A trusty Rite in the Rain Geological Field Book.

I’m currently conducting some geological fieldwork, and of course I’ve brought some Rite in the Rain geological field books with me.  The Rite in the Rain field books are fantastic – you can write on their weatherproof paper in pretty much all weather conditions. I’ve used them in both rainy and snowy conditions. There are a number of different styles of field books available. Personally, I prefer No. 540F or the “Geological Field Book”. This excellent field book comes with a scalebar stored in a little plastic pouch inside the back cover. The book also includes a number of useful reference pages in the back, such as a geological timescale, structural geology notation cheat sheets, and diagrams to help you estimate mineral and particle percentages. Hands down, this is my favorite field book. Does anyone else use these books? What field books do you prefer?

Some of the useful information pages in the back of the geology field book.

 

Some more of the useful information pages in the back of the geology field book.

Monday Geology Picture: Dinosaur Stampede Trackways

An incredible collection of dinosaur trackways on display at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane. Part of the display (toward the front of the picture) is real rock and part is a replica (toward the back).

This week I’m sharing a few pictures of an incredible display at the Queensland Museum of a dinosaur stampede – the only known record of a dinosaur stampede. The display shows an area in Queensland, Australia, where there are thousands of dinosaur footprints (more than 3,000) of more than 130 different dinosaurs, all in an area about the size of a tennis court! Recently, there has been some debate about whether or not the footprints actually represent a stampede, but regardless there is a very high density of dinosaur footprints at the site.

The dinosaur footprints – or trackways – were discovered in the 1970s in western Queensland near the town of Winton. Today, you can visit the trackways at a place called Dinosaur Stampede National Monument. In the museum in Brisbane, there is a small section of the actual trackways that was brought to the museum in the 1970s. The rest of the display is a replica.

I hope that I have a chance to visit the monument in person at some point – until then, the museum display is pretty neat to see!

A closer view of the real section of rock.
An informational sign about the trackways display. Click to enlarge.

Monday Geology Picture: Lunar Sampling Bag

A lunar sampling bag on display at the Queensland Museum, July 2019.

This week, I’m sharing a picture of a lunar sampling bag. Bags such as this one were used to collect rocks during the Apollo missions to the moon. This particular bag even went to the moon’s surface in 1971 during the Apollo 15 mission. How neat is that!

Here’s a sign with some additional information on the bag:

Museum information sign. See the information under point #2. 

I took this picture on Sunday when my husband and I visited the NASA – A Human Adventure exhibit at the Queensland Museum here in Brisbane, Australia. This exhibit is on display because this year marks 50 years since the first humans stepped foot on the moon in July 1969.

The exhibit is on display until October. I highly recommend a visit if you find yourself in the Brisbane area! Otherwise, be sure to check out some of the other commemorative exhibits happening around the globe in honor of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing – for example, the touring Destination Moon exhibit.

Monday Geology Picture: Travertine Wall

A decorative travertine stone on a the front of a building in Brisbane, Australia.

Wow, the past couple of months have been busy! I spent most of May and June travelling for work. Life has calmed down now, so it’s time to resume my blogging… and try to stick with it a little better for the rest of the year!

To kick off some blogging, here’s a picture of a beautiful decorative travertine stone on the front of a building. I took this picture earlier today when I was walking around downtown Brisbane, Australia. There are quite a few beautiful decorative stones on various buildings in Brisbane… I’ll have to take some more pictures to share.

In this picture, you can see the various layers that were deposited from natural spring waters over time. The layers have been tilted 90 degrees — they would have originally been flat-lying.

Monday Geology Picture: Pillow Basalt Decor

Lovely pillow basalt, with my hand for scale. The shiny polished surface of the decorative slab made photography a little difficult. Photo taken April 2019.

This week I’m sharing a picture of a lovely pillow basalt decorative slab that is part of the decor in the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia.  In this slab, you can see pillow shapes outlined by lovely glass rinds, which formed when the basaltic lava rapidly cooled because it was erupted underwater.

I just love this decorative slab — who wouldn’t want to decorate with beautiful pillow basalt?!

Monday Geology Picture: Glass House Mountains, Australia

A shot of part of the stunning Glass House Mountains in Queensland, Australia. Photo taken April 2019.

I have been terribly neglecting my blog this year. However, I have a good excuse: over the past few months I have accepted a new job working as a geologist for Anglo American… and  I have moved my family to beautiful Brisbane, Australia. On top of that, I am mother to a young son (18 months old now) and I’m also studying part-time… so, I have my hands very full!

However, now that the chaos of moving is over, I thought I would revive my blog… once again! There is much new geology to see here in our new home country, so I’ll try to share some georneys (geology journeys!) here more regularly!

As a start, here is a picture of the majestic, magical Glass House Mountains in Queensland. These mountains are young (26-27 million year old) volcanic plugs. I’ll blog more about their geology soon! For now, enjoy this teaser shot.

Monday Geology Picture: A Geologist’s Bookshelf

A portion of my bookshelf in my office in Cape Town.

As a geologist, I have quite a few reference books, including some textbooks that I consult fairly regularly. Today I’m sharing a picture showing a portion of my reference bookshelf in my office. You can see here that I have quite a few geochemistry books — actually, these are just some of the ones I have. What does your geologic reference bookshelf look like? Feel free to share a picture.

Monday Geology Picture: Kangaroo Point Cliffs, Brisbane, Australia

A view of Kangaroo Point Cliffs, taken from across the river, December 2018.

Happy New Year! I’m going to try to keep up with my “Monday Geology Picture” posts in 2019. I did okay with these in 2018, although I missed some weeks here and there when I was very busy with work or family life.

To start off a new year of pictures, here is a picture that I took during a recent visit to Brisbane, Australia. This picture shows a place known as Kangaroo Point Cliffs. These cliffs are not completely natural but were rather formed by a combination of river erosion and quarrying for stone that was used to make several buildings throughout the city. The geology of the cliffs is quite interesting — the cliffs are comprised of Brisbane tuff, a welded ignimbrite that is Triassic in age. I’ll blog more about these fascinating rocks in future.

Here’s a little more information from a sign located across the river from the cliffs:

Sign with some information on the Kangaroo Point Cliffs. Click to enlarge.

The first paragraph says:

The rocks in the Kangaroo Point Cliffs are the debris of an ash flow from an exploding volcano 220 million years ago. The cliffs have been slowly carved by the river and from the 1820s stone was quarried from the cliffs to build the new Brisbane Town.

Monday Geology Picture: Botswana Landscape

A lovely Botswana landscape, with some sedimentary rocks in the background.

This week I’m sharing another picture from my recent travels in Botswana. Here’s a lovely landscape view, taken along the road between Gaborone and Jwaneng. There are some beautiful red-colored sedimentary rocks in background. These rocks have weathered to produce the reddish colored soil in the foreground.