Geology - Blog Posts

Around 6 million years ago, the African and Eurasian plates moved together, cutting the Mediterranean Sea off from the Atlantic. Without an influx of water from the Atlantic, evaporation began removing more water from the Mediterranean than rivers could replace. The sea dried out almost completely over the course of a couple thousand years.

About 5.3 million years ago, the Straits of Gibraltar reopened, creating a massive flood into the Mediterranean known as the Zanclean Flood. Water rushed down the straits and into the Mediterranean at speeds as high as 40 m/s (90 mph). At its peak, the Zanclean Flood is estimated to have reached rates 1000 times greater than the volumetric flow rate of the Amazon River. 

A similar breach flood occurred in the Black Sea within the past 10,000 years when the Bosporus became unblocked. That flood likely had a devastating impact on Neolithic societies in the area and may be the inspiration for the floods described in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible. (Image credit: BBC, source)

Hashigui-iwa

Since the news took us back to Kushimoto, it's worth looking at another of the town's attractions, besides the southernmost point of Honshû and the nearby lighthouse. Up the coast is a remarkable rock formation known as Hashigui-iwa, which one could translate as "bridge column rocks", as if a viaduct used to settle on top of them.

These aren't standing stones in the archaeological sense of the term like Stonehenge (a popular spot for the winter solstice that also just happened), they weren't moved into a line and raised. Instead, they were originally an incrustation of magma in an otherwise less hard soil. The magma cooled off before becoming lava, and the ocean eroded the sediment around it. This would have created a wall of igneous rock, up to 15 m high and nearly a kilometre long. The wall was then smashed by a tsunami, leaving these tall rocks behind, and a beach of debris.

In the background of this photo, we see the bridge between the Shionomisaki peninsula and the island of Ôshima, where another lighthouse and monument to Japanese-Turkish friendship is located. There's a story behind that (the wreck of the Ertugrul), and I wish that was a segue, but I didn't visit Ôshima. On a hot day, energy isn't limitless so I had to choose...

This is exactly the kind of person i aspire to be

Me thinks there's something under the Rockies

Temperatures at a depth of 10 km beneath the contiguous United States

Natural volcanic glass

Locality:

Rother Kopf, Roth, Gerolstein, Eifel, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Sample of a almost white sandstone xenolith with a gemmy piece of natural blue volcanic glass. Very unique color for natural glass.

Volker Betz’s Photo

We’ll get back to Mary Anning later. 

Is Kelis’ milkshake song a gift to humanity, or what?

Danxia Landforms, China

These colorful rock formations are the result of red sandstone and mineral deposits laid down over millions of years. Wind and rain then carved amazing shapes into the rock, forming natural pillars, towers, ravines, valleys, and waterfalls.

Erythrite

Locality:

Clara Mine, Rankach valley, Oberwolfach, Wolfach, Black Forest, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Photo & collection Chollet Pascal

Cuprite, Chrysocolla

Locality:

Clara Mine, Rankach valley, Oberwolfach, Wolfach, Black Forest, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Cuprite is commonly found as an oxidation product of copper sulphides in the upper zones of veins, often associated with Native Copper, Malachite,Azurite, Limonite and Chalcocite. A fibrous form of Cuprite is known as Chalcotrichite

 Photo: Michael Förch

Amber Ibarreche

As a chemist, this entire conversation is triggering my lab safety nerves. Have you geologists heard of PPE?

we do need to lick the rocks to identify them though. i appreciate your concern but...we actually do need to lick the rocks.

Sounds fake but okay

@ultrainfinitequest

In his classic tale Journey to the Center of the Earth, author Jules Verne dreamed of reaching the center of our planet through volcanic tubes. In the 1960s, scientists took up that challenge and tried to drill down into the earth’s mantle, but abandoned the project due to a lack of funding. Now, a team of scientists aboard the research vessel JOIDES Resolution is working to bore a hole deep into the Atlantis Bank in the Indian Ocean to collect samples of the crust and eventually break through into the mantle. Geologist Henry Dick, co-chief scientist of the expedition, joins Ira for an update on the progress of the project and explains what these samples could reveal about the formation of the planet.

The Fantastically Strange Origin of Most Coal on Earth

The absence of the tiniest creature can shape the world in the biggest way.

Ever wonder how coal formed?

The Blue Lava of Kawah Ijen Volcano. The ‘blue lavas’ are a rare phenomenon, only visible on the Kawah Ijen Volcano, in Indonesia. It may look like the volcano is spewing blue lava, but in fact, the shocking blue fire occurs when the volcanic sulphuric gases combust. Emerging from cracks in the volcano’s side, these gases ignite when coming into contact with air. It’s not actual blue lava, but blue flames. (video)

Archbishop Ussher’s chronology was taken as gospel in the Western world. Until we turned to another book to find the age of the earth, the one that was written in the rocks themselves.

algeria, near niger

go to this random coordinates generator and say in the tags how you would fare if you were dropped where it generates without warning. i’ll go first i’d be dropped in the middle of the fucking south atlantic ocean and perish