… Mount St. Helens exploded with a fury that surpassed expectations. Things have calmed down considerably since that day. Even the trees are growing back. To quote myself, “This is the view of Mount St. Helens from Elk Rock Viewpoint. In the center left, you’ll see Mount Adams peeking over a ridge. In the center, [...]

Oh, my darlings, will I have treats for you! Lockwood and I are in the midst of our geoextravaganza tour down the Oregon coast and across the Josephine Ophiolite. Lots of hot volcanic action round here, but there’s a huge metamorphic story to be told. There’s going to be a lot to absorb and process [...]

I’m rather a bit in love with a dead woman. I met her in a moment of desperation, when I was running low on Dame Agatha Christie and had finished all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stuff, and still had a yearning for turn-of-the-last-century detective literature. There she was, one of the helpful [...]

You never hear of the other Lyell. Sir Charles, you know quite well: he set the infant science of geology firmly on its feet and inspired Charles Darwin. But there’s another Lyell who was a geologist, and without her, Charles Lyell would have found his work far more difficult, if not impossible. When he married [...]

Taking care of the only habitable planet we’ve got for the foreseeable future seems like an excellent idea. I’m with The Tick: “You can’t destroy the Earth! That’s where I keep all my stuff!” It’s also where a lot of the cool geology is. I mean, yeah, there’s plenty of that on other worlds, but [...]

Here’s a word you don’t often apply to a forest: eroded. We don’t expect live trees to be eroded. The slope they’re standing on, sure: that can erode. Maybe the soft alluvial soil down by the river erodes in a flood, leaving roots exposed and trees more prone to fall in the wind. But would [...]

You know, it’s hard being a self-educated science blogger with a day job. Important geology stuff happens, and by the time I’ve got the research all done and ready, it’s old news. That’s why I don’t stay as on top of current events as I possibly should (but if Mount St. Helens wakes up, I’m [...]

Thanks to my friend and cantina regular RQ, Rosetta Stones finds itself highlighted on the NASA Earth Observatory website. Yowza! Note this tweet from EO’s Rob Simmon: Update to my recent Tolbachik Volcano caption earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards… with info from @dhunterauthor — Rob Simmon (@rsimmon) April 12, 2013 [Update to my recent Tolbachik Volcano caption http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=80861 … with [...]

  Time and Space, Space and Time. Tick: a life form emerges; Tock: a sun explodes; Tick: a galaxy is ripped apart; Tock: a star is formed. Our universe is absolutely amazing. -Sardior Ruby         When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it is tied to everything else [...]

What do you do when the old model no longer works? Our culture used to take it for granted that women would sacrifice their careers to raise the kids, while men sacrifice their family life to build their career. It’s still tilted that way despite decades of effort toward a more egalitarian society. But the [...]