Category Archives: Geology

All the Answers are in Bowen’s Reaction Series

On the first day of my introductory geology class, I advise my students to memorize this thing called Bowen’s Reaction Series (BRS). I tell them that knowing it will help them out tremendously throughout the class and the rest of their lives.

A great deal of history of a rock can be told by merely recognizing the minerals that are in it. Bowen’s Reaction Series provides the basic relationships of some of the most common rock-forming minerals on Earth. Not only does BRS show which minerals will be found with which other minerals, it also provides a scheme of stability and chemical composition of those minerals.Continue reading “All the Answers are in Bowen’s Reaction Series”

Show and Tell – Old Skool

Today’s Kickin’ it Old Skool Blog-a-thon we’re challenged to do a little show-and-tell, a’la kindergarten.

I wasn’t sure what to post about, then I remembered that I need to write a (separate) blog post about Bowen’s Reaction Series, which is a geology thing that explains which minerals will be found together in igneous rocks. I’ll write the post later.

But what it means is that I need to take some pictures of minerals…

So, let me show you pictures of the most common minerals on Earth! If you know these few minerals, you’ll know a lot about petrology (the study of rocks and their components). Continue reading “Show and Tell – Old Skool”

Misconception – Continents Are the Same As Tectonic Plates

There are many misconceptions about geological concepts. There is a list here, developed by Kent Kirby of the University of Minnesota. This post is to debunk one of those misconceptions. There will be others. Find them here.

Misconception: The edge of a continent is the same thing as a plate boundary.Continue reading “Misconception – Continents Are the Same As Tectonic Plates”

Your Holiday Dinosaur

Most vertebrate paleontologists agree that modern birds evolved from dinosaurs. Many, including me, refer to birds as dinosaurs. Sometimes, we add the term ‘avian’ or ‘non-avian’ to the front of dinosaur, to distinguish between modern, flying birds and their relatives, and the big scary ones that went extinct 65 million years ago.

The interesting outcome is that what this means is that, at least in the United States, we traditionally have a huge family meal on the fourth Thursday of November, in which we consume vast quantities of roasted dinosaur meat.Continue reading “Your Holiday Dinosaur”

Cupcakeia and Apparent Polar Wander

Sometimes, we as professorial-types, come up with some goofy things to teach some fundamental lessons. Thus was born the continent of Cupcakeia, and its accreted terrane of Frosteringia.

A sketch of the hypothetical continenent of Cupcakeia. The northern part of the continent is marked by a chain of formerly volcanic mountains, Frosteringine Mountains.
A sketch of the hypothetical continenent of Cupcakeia. The northern part of the continent is marked by a chain of formerly volcanic mountains, Frosteringine Mountains.

Continue reading “Cupcakeia and Apparent Polar Wander”

What Does it Mean to See Porphyry?

In teaching, one often learns where the great misunderstandings are. Geology has its own set of problems, most of which I face each Fall when I teach my introduction to the geological sciences course.

Sometimes it’s not apparent, even after teaching a course for years, that certain things are never explained properly.

It’s  been pointed out to me that there’s come confusion about the term ‘porphyry.’ First of all, this word seems to lack an appropriate number of vowels, but the y’s stand in for missing vowels.Continue reading “What Does it Mean to See Porphyry?”