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Author Archives: gymnosperm
Serpentine and the Primordial Subduction
Serpentine is the California State Rock. The effluent of toxic mud volcanos might seem a strange choice for a state rock, but the related higher grade blue and greenschist metamorphism has produced eerily beautiful rocks with sinuous veining from which … Continue reading
Posted in Geology, Plate Tectonics, Serpentine
Tagged Earthquake, Mud volcano, Subduction
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Yellowstone Hot Spot, Or Not
Besides the ocean spreading ridges there are several mysterious “hot spots” evident in seamount chains where volatile components of the mantle emerge at a point as a more or less continuous volcano. The most famous of these is the Hawaiian/Emperor … Continue reading
Circumnavigating Mount Whitney
In five decades of mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, the wilderness has changed from a wild west dominated by cowboys and pack trains to a highly regulated theme park with lotteries for permits to visit the most desirable locations. With … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology, Geography, Geology, Mount Whitney, Wilderness
Tagged Hiking, John Muir, Mount Whitney, Mount Whitney Trail, Whitney Portal, Whitney Portal California
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Late Cretaceous Orogenic North American Continental Margin
A huge problem with geological maps is that their daunting psychedelic maze of colors makes it very difficult to bear down on specific features. We recently discovered a GIS series of State scale maps from USGS where it is possible to … Continue reading
Posted in Geography, Geology, Gravity Anomalies, Paleogeography, Plate Tectonics
Tagged Continental margin, Cretaceous, Paleogeography
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YGBFkiddinme, Low Emissions Grass?
From Nature Magazine this pearl of pulchritude: “The solution, says Michael Peters, an agronomist at CIAT and leader of the team that has developed the low-emissions grass, is to encourage ammonium to persist in the soil for longer, by suppressing microbial … Continue reading
Gravity Signals of Extensional Sialic Crustal Regimes
I have always loved the poorly named Great Basin of the Western United States. Yes, its maze of lowlands held a lot of glacial meltwater during the last glacial maximum before letting it percolate out to the Columbia and the Sea … Continue reading
The Hawaiian/Emperor Seamounts and How Island Arcs are Formed
Ever wonder why offshore island arcs should form at random spots in the oceans? No? Don’t worry, its a far fig newton. We offer here the suggestion that the locations are not random, that island arc trenches and probably spreading ridges and … Continue reading
Granite Rafts
Continents are granite rafts. We believe that granite is formed when thoroughly hydrated ocean floor sinks at a subduction zone or trench, often at the edge of a continent. When it sinks deep enough it gets cooked at very high … Continue reading
Posted in Geography, Geology, Gravity Anomalies
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Dude, It’s Not About Carbon Dioxide
We know a lot about Carbon dioxide in a jar. We know the wavelengths it prefers to absorb and emit photons. We know it tends to mix efficiently with other gasses. We know it has a nearly magical affinity for … Continue reading
