Could magma be moving deep below the surface on the border of Germany and the Czech Republic? And if so, what is the significance? Recently installed seismometers in the Vogtland region captured a swarm of earthquakes, suggesting a “complex seismic situation” could be developing. Live Science explains. https://flip.it/xMLNt9 #Science#Earthquakes#Germany#CzechRepublic#Geology
Opals form in cavities within rocks. If a cavity has formed because a shell was buried in sand or clay that later became rock, and conditions are right for opal formation, then it forms a fossil replica of the original object.
Take a walk-around look at a mineral specimen I call the Tugboat. It’s a doubly-terminated smoky quartz with milky quartz frosting. The crystal sporys a mass of very purple lepidolite out of which grew several gem tourmaline. Possibly 3 kg, this floater comes from the Oceanview Mine Kahuna pocket zone - probably the most colorful pocket area they’ve ever mined. #geology#pegmatites#quartz#tourmaline
Could snow trigger earthquakes? A new study in the journal Science Advances says thousands of quakes on Japan’s Noto Peninsula since 2020 could be linked to the region’s heavy snowfall, pointing to the weather correlating with “earthquake swarms.” While the study doesn’t say that climate directly causes the earthquakes, it suggests the rate of the seismic events could fluctuate depending on the weight of water on the surface and the movement of water below. Read more from NBC News.
North Britain Palaeogene Dyke Suite (Arran Tertiary Dyke Swarm) (66 - 23.03 mya) cutting through Auchenhew Mudstone Formation (252.2 - 237 mya). On the horizon, Ailsa Craig - an igneous pluton also dating from the Palaeogene period.
When Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai erupted in January 2022, the underwater volcano in the South Pacific unleashed the most intense lightning storm ever recorded and set off a mega-tsunami that was hundreds of feet high. Research indicated the eruption was fueled by two merging magma chambers. Now, scientists are looking at another potential trigger. Live Science has more: https://flip.it/ZAjd2N #Science#Geology#Volcano#Eruption#Tonga
All The Science Bubbling Beneath California’s Most Volcanic Park
At Lassen Volcanic National Park, learn all about how magma turns to mountains—then hike to the top of them. Visit California February 5, 2024
"...Lassen Peak towers over the park. It’s over 10,000 feet tall, and an example of a plug dome, or lava dome, volcano. These volcanoes are defined by their thick, viscous lava, which piles up and creates a steep dome-like shape. Lassen last erupted over a period of three years, just over 100 years ago: 1914 to 1917. In May of 1915, an explosive eruption caused a mud flow: the hot rocks erupting from the volcano mixed with snow, creating an avalanche-like flow of mud that destroyed a patch of surrounding land. This is now called the Devastated Area, which includes a gentle trail, a few enormous rocks that were once expelled from the nearby peak, and signs that tell you the story of the 1915 explosion..."
May 5, 1818, birthday of German philosopher Karl #Marx. His thoughts on #economy & #society may be well known, but Marx was actually also interested in #geology & copied some geological drawings for personal use - like the basalt cliffs of Staffa, Scotland ⚒️☭
From a 1929 book on Child's Geography:
"But the World still kept on cooling and cooling, and as it cooled it shrank and shriveled and wrinkled and crinkled and puckered like the outside of a prune. You know a prune was once smooth and round when it was a plum. These little wrinkles and crinkles rose up out of the ocean and were the continents and mountains, so you see how big the wrinkles and crinkles really are."
Two fossil imprints of the shells of Trigonia dug up today near the top of a hill in #Bath#Somerset#UK. These molluscs lived in the Jurassic Period at a time when even the hills in Bath were under water. The rock is (I think) Inferior Oolite. #Fossils#Mollusc#Fossil#Nature#Geology#Jurassic
Ranger Sarah views the Grand Canyon. The story of the formation of the Grand Canyon begins almost two billion years ago with the formation of the igneous and metamorphic rocks of the inner gorge. Above these old rocks lie layer upon layer of sedimentary rock, each telling a unique part of the environmental history of the Grand Canyon region.