I'm Just Thinkin' | Tag Archive

Tag Archive - Geology

Geology LITE: Queen Conch-servation

May 16, 2012 in Geology with 2 Comments

When I was a little boy we used to visit the beach every summer (we lived in Pennsylvania at the time). I remember one year we brought home a souvenir… a big conch shell. I loved listening to the voice of the ocean that whispered to me from the inside of the conch. I also had a really hard time imagining this critter that occupied the shell… to me it seemed really creepy!

Some say that all good things must come to an end… for many of us, that may be our Conch. If you’ve ever had Conch Salad or Conch Fritters you know what this feeding frenzy is all about. When prepared right, they are quite tasty. So much so, this slug has been nearly eaten to extinction… they’re considered an endangered species here in Florida.

Geology LITE: Spelunking

May 3, 2012 in Geology with 4 Comments

You Go... Spelunking, that is!

Leave it to a geologist to think it’s a really good idea to crawl around in a hole in the ground.

Spelunking, or caving, goes way back… sure enough, to the caveman!

There were a few famous early spelunkers… you know, Flintstone and Rubble… then there are the modern cavemen too… remember the guy for the Geico commercials?

And yes, there are caves and men in the Bible too… King David did a stint in a cave. Remember, David emerged the bigger man, overwhelming King Saul’s anger and jealousy with brotherly love.

Geology LITE: The Highest Tide In The World

April 27, 2012 in Geology with 2 Comments

Fetch, or tidal range, varies throughout the world based on a number of factors, including:

Astro the Dog (this post has nothing else to do with Astro)

Astrological forces. These astrological forces include the tug we feel from the moon and sun, in addition to the earth’s own spin, or rotation. Now I know I mentioned fetch but we’re not talking Astro the Dog again this week silly. Furthermore, this science of astrological forces isn’t that ridiculous daily info. you’ll find about your love life in the newspaper (if you want to read more enlightenment about LOVE, check out yesterday’s post, or read more about Gump).
Earthly geological features or landforms and their size, configuration and depth.
Atmospheric conditions, including variations in barometric pressure and wind.

If you take a look at the Google Earth Image of the Bay of Fundy above you’ll see it’s basically a dead-end. Water from the Atlantic Ocean enters the bay through a funnel-shaped passage, and over the top of a sloping continental shelf that both contribute significantly to the “pushing up” of the water into the bay. The most resounding feature that contributes to the enormous tides in the Bay of Fundy is the tidal period of resonance of water in the bay… 13 hours… very close to the lunar tide of 12 hours 25 minutes in the Atlantic Ocean. When the stars, moon and other factors involved all line up they produce an incredible difference between low and high tide of… get this… 53.38 feet! That’s crazy big and bodacious, considering the average tide across the globe is typically just 2 to 3 feet.

Do you have a favorite place at the beach, or other tidal area? Why’s it your favorite?

Geology LITE: The Marianna Trench… deepest of the deep!

April 18, 2012 in Geology with 9 Comments

National Geographic's video of the DeepSea Challenger

The Marianna Trench is… well… deep.

35,840 feet deep.

It’s a mile deeper than Mt. Everest is tall… yep, that’s deep! Here’s more perspective… this gully is 120 times the size of “the big ditch” … (that would be the Grand Canyon). I’m guessing that the view at the bottom of this trench is nowhere near as spectacular as that from the rim of the Grand Canyon… the bottom of the Marianna Trench is pitch black. If you’re wondering what that would look like, take your iPhone out, block out the lens with your finger and just snap a photo… Voila! You now know what the view of the Marianna Trench would look like.

Why’s it so deep there?

Geology LITE: Rocks on the Rocks: The Ice Age

March 13, 2012 in Geology with 2 Comments

Geology LITE is a post series here at I’m Just Thinkin’… It’s a light-hearted view of just about anything related to the earth. As an Earth Scientist I enjoy learning and sharing about the wonderful creation that God has given us to enjoy during our life here.

This bowl-shaped cirque and associated lake are the erosional remnants of glaciation

We know for sure that it was colder during the ice ages… they’re characterized by the presence of large sheets of ice draped over the continents, and extensive glaciation.

Geologists first figured this out, that there were periods of extensive glaciation, followed intermittently by warmer periods, by observing the presence of erratic boulders… large rocks that seemed to be out-of-place, like they were moved to their current location by some force. Then they decided… observed… that glaciers actually are dynamic solids… they flow and at the same time continually change internally. These great sheets of ice and their thicker equivalents… glaciers… carried small and massive boulders alike… moving them considerable distances to out-of-place locations… a sort of “country rock” with a passport… leaving the landscape out of sorts… co-mingled…

Geology LITE: Punctuated Equilibrium

February 23, 2012 in Geology with 4 Comments

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Punctuated Equilibrium – that scientific theory of evolution stating that change occurs abruptly… in bursts… preceded and followed by long periods of… “stasis” … an extended state of sameness…

This is contrasted with Phyletic Gradualism… once the dogma… the opposite of PE… PG is where change occurs gradually… smoothly… and continuously…

The Punctuated Equilibrium theory is how many scientists attempt to “justify” the missing link… the “how” we are able to believe in evolution of our species… without having to produce the evidence necessary to link Homo Sapiens with their… ancestors… ? This sounds about as zany as someone who… for the sake of comparison… believes in a guy who walked on water, right? Oh, maybe God’s not all that crazy, since there were actually witness to this Jesus dude… His death… the disappearing act… and then on to eternal life…

or, in Chris’ own, personal experience in learning more about believe (yep, that’s my focus word for 2012!)…

We’ve established that Geology Happens…

Stasis just sounds drab to me… I guess if it’s working why fix it, right? Sameness… and then some… ad nauseam… time passes… on and on… ho-hum… it’s all good when it’s working, but when it’s not? Things can get a little… funky!

Then, all of a sudden, ~~something~~… no make that everything changes… Cinderella story… out of nowhere… everything gets… Real… the former greenskeeper wins at Augusta? Wins?

Everything changes… and gets real.

Stephen J. Gould, one of the co-authors of the Punctuated Equilibrium idea, in his 1991 Opus 200 writings…

“As ordinary human beings with egos and arrogances, scientists love to be right. But we would, I think, all say that to be useful is more important, that is, to propose an idea that gets people excited and suggests fruitful strategies for potential confirmation and disproof. The jury is still out on the relative frequency of punctuated equilibrium (twenty years is a short case in biology), but utility has already been proved in the pudding of practice.”

So true… being useful more important than our vanity… and just being right…

Time, Change and Punctuated Equilibrium…

Do you see change as more gradual, like Phyletic Gradualism, or abrupt, as in Punctuated Equilibrium?

Geology LITE: Rocks On The Go… Vroom Vroom!!

January 12, 2012 in Geology with 6 Comments

We all know the earth moves, but these rocks defy logic.

The rocks of Racetrack Playa.

These rocks have legs.

They’ve got some get up and go.

How exactly do they get around?

Here’s the low down:

Racetrack Playa is located in Death Valley National Park in California. The Playa is an extremely flat lakebed that is usually dry. The sediment at the surface of this dry lake bed is uniformly fine… silt and clay sized particles. Following an infrequent rain, when these fine sediments get wet, they become very slick. As the rain evaporates and infiltrates… and when a big wind blows in… the rocks go vroom vroom.

Burn rubber!

Rocks on the go… vroom vroom!!

Have you ever seen rocks on the go… landslide, earthquake, Racetrack Playa?