Monthly Archives: May 2013

A Journey Inside the Volcano

ICELAND – You may remember that Team Iceland is trying to determine the origin of interesting columnar-jointed features exposed in the interior of a subglacial pillow ridge. We have several hypotheses, one of which is that they could be related … Continue reading

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Exploring Reykjavik, Iceland

ICELAND – Team Iceland had a chance to explore Iceland’s capital city of Reykjavik today. Here are the photo highlights of their day:  

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A visit to the Natural History Museum of Utah

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH–On the last full day of our Utah trip, we toured the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City. It is in a spectacular place against the red rocks of the Wasatch Mountains and looking … Continue reading

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Fantastic Weather Makes Productive Field Days

ICELAND – Team Iceland made the most of the beautiful weather over the last two days. After spending all day in the field yesterday, we went back after dinner;  the lighting was just right to take GigaPan images of the … Continue reading

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Ancient islands

LOGAN, UTAH–Today we explored the area around Promontory, in northern Utah. Among the many beautiful sites were these rocky, faceted hills that several thousand years ago. This particular hill was intriguing although inaccessible. (It is on a vast tract of … Continue reading

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Mission Possible: Mapping the Quarry Walls

ICELAND – We spent Sunday morning discussing all of the features that we’ve seen during our reconnaissance investigations. After comparing notes, we defined several lithofacies, or mappable units with specific lithologic features. Our coherent lithofacies include pillow lavas, dikes, and … Continue reading

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The Lodgepole Limestone Formation

LOGAN, UTAH–Today we hiked up part of Logan Canyon along the south side of the Logan River. Towering above us on either side were massive limestone cliffs, as shown above. The thickest unit is the Lodgepole Limestone Formation (Lower Carboniferous, … Continue reading

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Theory to Practice (Classroom in the Quarry)

ICELAND – Team Iceland is investigating the formation of subglacial pillow lavas on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland. Quarries along the ridge expose the internal structure of the subglacial deposits, revealing complex sequences of pillow lavas, intrusions, and fragmental … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Mackerel shark teeth from the Eocene of the Atlas Mountains, Morocco

This week we highlight another gift to the Wooster Geology Department from George Chambers (’79). Among the many fossils that arrived in three delightful boxes were these shark teeth. They are from the extinct Mackerel Shark Otodus obliquus Agassiz, 1843. … Continue reading

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Pizza on the Pillows

ICELAND – Team Iceland has arrived! We have been joined by our collaborators from Dickinson College and now number 9 strong. The Dickinson crew arrived early on Friday morning, so we spent much of the day recovering from our overseas … Continue reading

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