tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-183213802012-01-26T10:01:58.657-06:00If you aren't moving at a snail's pace, you aren't moving at all. -Iris MurdochMKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.comBlogger4001100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-77905366235856906902012-01-26T08:50:00.000-06:002012-01-26T08:52:13.229-06:00

Here's a preview of a larger project that's in the works. I plan on bashing my way through Bowen's Reaction Series, but I thought I'd post one of the shots to get some feedback. Mainly, is the depth of field sufficient? I'm limited in how small I can make the camera's aperture and still get decent results, so I can't get more depth of field without buying more lights. And the pair of 500W

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-52847326880644363222012-01-26T08:04:00.005-06:002012-01-26T08:42:40.217-06:00

At standard atmospheric pressure, water boils at 212°F (100°C). But at lower atmospheric pressures, water boils at lower temperatures. Here's a short clip of some boiling water:Some of you might remember the formula for converting temperature: [Temp(F)] = (9/5) * [Temp(C)] + 32This isn't all that easy to remember - there are some odd fractions in there and to be honest - it's time consuming to

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-64383719407771835372012-01-25T20:12:00.002-06:002012-01-25T20:17:21.614-06:00

The result of two days of mineral cleaving...

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-73912234167476314512012-01-25T15:35:00.001-06:002012-01-25T15:36:29.217-06:00

Less "mashing" and more of a "love tap" on a crystal of halite:

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-27289658695252090432012-01-24T21:16:00.002-06:002012-01-24T21:19:13.535-06:00

Okay, let's try something that shows cleavage in some non-orthogonal orientations. Calcite is a good one:

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-74860637633411142542012-01-24T17:26:00.004-06:002012-01-24T17:29:19.537-06:00

This one turned out pretty nicely. I shot it at 10,000 frames per second, so the resolution is a little reduced. But the tendency of galena to break into tiny cubic cleavage fragments is pretty clear. And I just love the glitter effect, too.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-933417020215272992012-01-24T16:10:00.002-06:002012-01-24T16:13:51.983-06:00

I've been busy. Classes have started again, which means lectures and syllabi and course stuff. Since we have this fancy camera, I'm going to try and integrate some of the mineral footage into the rocks and minerals part of the class. Don't know how much mineral mashing I'm going to do "in-class," but I figure the high speed video will help show off the difference between cleavage and fracture.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-84173017023894842902012-01-23T22:19:00.002-06:002012-01-23T22:25:18.093-06:00

Fluorite is also cool. WIth the added characteristic of cleaving along specific planes of weakness within the crystal:

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-10608178320877495332012-01-23T22:08:00.003-06:002012-01-23T22:11:07.658-06:00

Just smack some iron pyrite with a hammer:

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-34312387530285729232012-01-21T17:53:00.001-06:002012-01-21T17:54:36.311-06:00

The reason water forms wonderful droplets? Because it is "wet." But not too wet...

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-16411278133876379352012-01-21T15:59:00.002-06:002012-01-21T16:02:00.399-06:00

I threw together a "demo reel" to highlight some of the things we can do with our department's new high speed camera.It's not perfect, but it gives people an idea of what we can do. I also think I've used up all the decent royalty-free music that comes with iMovie...

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-1165512450311643822012-01-20T14:55:00.001-06:002012-01-20T15:14:51.904-06:00

Smacking a mineral with a hammer. Simple enough. I've got some pyroxene lying around that I'm going to have to try next...

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-42000968553196711792012-01-19T12:46:00.003-06:002012-01-19T12:53:05.939-06:00

Today's demo: P and S-wave propagation using a slinky. When talking about earthquakes, it's often hard for students to "see" the relative motion of energy through rocks. We often use a slinky or a large spring to demonstrate the behavior of waves moving through a solid material. Trouble is, the movement of the wave is so fast, it's sometimes hard to see. What better way to slow things down than

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-72627537897524540462012-01-18T10:07:00.002-06:002012-01-18T10:10:33.146-06:00

Something else that demonstrates an interesting conceptual overlap - the design of battleships and fluid forces exerted on an object. Geology in Motion has a fun little tale about how the "Froude Number" (another wonderful word) came to be.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-35688363574825443762012-01-18T10:03:00.002-06:002012-01-18T10:06:18.976-06:00

I've always been a fan of the Muppets. More so the muppets under the direction of Jim Henson than most of the newer offerings. Well, if one were to draw a Venn diagram of "things that interest me" you would notice a new spot where two fields overlapped. It seems that Jim Henson wrote a screenplay called "A Tale of Sand" that is getting some renewed attention.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-11317811245473644422012-01-16T09:23:00.003-06:002012-01-16T09:35:48.233-06:00

NOVA is touting a new special, the "3D Spies of WWII." While the actual technique they used is still amazing, calling it "3D" is kind of silly. The technique places two pictures taken from slightly different angles next to each other. When viewed close up, the brain interprets the image from one picture (going to one eye) and the image from the other picture as a sort of three dimensional image.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-64463632587903281702012-01-12T10:17:00.001-06:002012-01-12T10:17:31.810-06:00

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-9093116005121664362012-01-09T18:24:00.002-06:002012-01-09T18:26:22.135-06:00

I don't know how many of you have ever dunked a tuning fork in water, but the results are definitely worth a wet tuning fork.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-18734151363718934352012-01-07T01:14:00.004-06:002012-01-07T01:34:15.539-06:00

Today was the kind of day where you do lots of cool stuff and the time just seems to fly by. My colleague and pal, Todd and I were trying our hands at high speed filming of popping water balloons. Todd also blogs about his physics teaching here. It was also a little strange in that my computer (a MacBook) spent most of the day booted in Windows 7, because that's what the video processing software

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-10941217281355041612012-01-06T10:49:00.003-06:002012-01-06T10:51:29.756-06:00

The high speed camera just doesn't get old. It's an amazing piece of equipment. One of our department goals with the camera is to produce a library of videos that can become part of a laboratory activity or lecture demo (and available to anyone).Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some water balloons to break...

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-22637388847085558802012-01-05T13:19:00.006-06:002012-01-05T13:47:00.236-06:00

Although I mainly teach introductory geology, I have taught other upper-level geology courses. One of my favorite topics is bedding structures (ripples graded beds, mudcracks, etc). The differences in those bedding structures formed by moving water compared to those formed on land by moving air are particularly helpful when interpreting the environment of formation of a particular unit of

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-88087982899982867262012-01-04T19:37:00.002-06:002012-01-04T19:41:42.854-06:00

Here's a fun little demonstration of inertia you can try next time you're at a bar or otherwise might find yourself with a stack of quarters. I used dollar coins in this version, but it works the same with quarters. My limit is about 20 coins - any more and they start getting pulled away as I rotate my arm and my hand doesn't catch them.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-57290866152389858842012-01-03T09:22:00.002-06:002012-01-03T11:19:15.239-06:00

Wow, it's already the 3rd and I hadn't gotten a new post up yet? Crazy. Testing of the camera continues - I'm still working on how to balance the needs of light for the sensor - it's easy enough to dump 1000W of lights into a studio setup, but another question when outside. Here's some footage of me juggling to entertain you for the time being:

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-44443546628625037242011-12-31T22:58:00.003-06:002011-12-31T23:24:35.296-06:00

I hope to keep up some of the momentum gained from this year. Here are some of my bloggy resolutions for the new year:More horizontal pixels for the main body textMore photographsMOAR CatsMore squidMore snailsMore rocksGoat Pants?More frac sand postsMore High Speed videoUnscented deodorantSomething wickedMore invented wordsEnhanced links and keywordsMore plantsSomething about skeletonsSomething

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-70793609908260664352011-12-31T07:14:00.003-06:002011-12-31T07:19:24.668-06:00

I'm going to be an uncle in a few months. My sister's first kid is due on March 1st and true to form, she didn't want to have a traditional "Shower," so we got together for a non-shower baby party for her and her husband (who is also a college professor, BTW). I drew up a card to congratulate them:That's the cutest cephalopod I've ever drawn if I do say so myself...

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-51847542265486786202011-12-31T06:17:00.003-06:002011-12-31T06:53:38.219-06:00

So I do this thing where by day I'm a geology professor, but at night and on weekends I take pictures. Last night we trekked over to Stillwater, MN where Paul and Lorraine were playing. I brought my camera and managed to get some okay shots of them playing (I usually haul some photo gear around because, you know, pictures happen). Kind of wish I could have gotten the folks at the front table out

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-46301629803345496222011-12-29T10:27:00.002-06:002011-12-29T10:29:13.942-06:00

My ongoing capillary rise experiments have crossed the 1000 hour mark! And the data still looks pretty.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-56010477202735024092011-12-29T10:01:00.003-06:002011-12-29T10:11:59.159-06:00

An astute reader noticed that my geology photo from a few weeks ago was probably misidentified. I was looking at a top-down satellite image of the Big Island of Hawai'i and trying to extrapolate which peaks I was looking at in this picture:I had originally identified them as Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, and Kohala. However, one reader questioned my original ID. And after looking more carefully (and not

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-54782264314917390012011-12-28T18:00:00.003-06:002011-12-28T18:22:56.338-06:00

While I've always known that getting good video footage or great photographs often requires some setup, high speed video demands another level of pre-planning. That's one of the reasons for shooting so many test clips early on - the more I know what is going to be needed for capturing high speed video, the quicker it will go in the future. So here's a bunch of "meteorites" impacting some alien

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-16138030210948928512011-12-24T09:39:00.002-06:002011-12-24T09:41:09.736-06:00

Based on my readership stats, I suspect many of my readers are heading off to, or celebrating Christmas/Yuletide traditions with their families. I have one last high speed video to share with you before my wife and I head off to meet with one of several holiday gatherings over the next week - blogging will probably be light for me then.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-55019565162409457852011-12-23T07:24:00.004-06:002011-12-23T08:22:22.965-06:00

Have you ever dropped a slinky? If you've never looked closely at a free falling slinky, well you've come to the right place. But dropping a stretched slinky doesn't do what you might think. Take a look at the high speed:Rhett Allain went so far as to build a computer model of a falling slinky to illustrate why the bottom of the slinky doesn't move until the top catches up. (Down?)

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-72922285127053207252011-12-22T13:31:00.001-06:002011-12-22T13:33:03.175-06:00

New technology is fascinating. I've spent the day setting up a new camera that just arrived. Here's a little demonstration:

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-31296212219449218082011-12-20T18:42:00.004-06:002011-12-20T18:46:04.061-06:00

While many places to the south are getting a lot of ice and snow, some hoarfrost depositing (directly from vapor to a solid) on the lawn on campus was about the only white stuff on the ground around here.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-7893478366552192082011-12-20T11:39:00.004-06:002011-12-20T11:46:10.680-06:00

I'm grading my Soil Mechanics finals right now. I have a questions about Apatosaurus. Being a large dinosaur with a weight of about 28 tons, if we assume each of its four feet was 3 feet in diameter, how much stress does this dinosaur apply to the soil beneath its feet?Students should be able to determine the total area that the dinosaur is in contact with the ground (4 x (1.52 x 3.14159) = or

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-79260518018100553002011-12-19T10:08:00.006-06:002011-12-19T17:18:25.471-06:00

So, according to the comic, the creator of the always entertaining XKCD comic never learned a good mnemonic for the geologic periods. That's too bad. Perhaps we can help him. Here are the ones I use:Can Oscar See Down My Pants Pockets? Two Jasons Can Pick Noses.CambrianOrdovicianSilurianDevonianMississippianPennsylvanianPermianTriassicJurassicCretaceousPaleogeneNeogeneAnd for those of you who

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-64926852536653986722011-12-19T08:21:00.004-06:002011-12-19T09:05:18.059-06:00

It looks like Evelyn is going strong with the geophotos and now has a regular theme for mondays. Lockwood and several others went the extra mile and posted additional photos during the weekend, too (via Twitter).My monday entry is something a little different. Less of a geology photo and more of a photograph taken by a geologist. While the lamp post and the White Witch are standing on an

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-22674958285371488882011-12-16T14:18:00.005-06:002011-12-16T14:51:11.469-06:00

Following up with the quick video from yesterday, I decided to try and draw with the laser pointer. The fading glow of the BBs would give me a guide so that I could draw a second picture a little different from the first. And so on... stacking a whole bunch of still pictures together, I made a short stop-animation movie as a result. Nothing terribly complex yet, I'm still getting the hang of the

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-84063316587959658602011-12-16T06:44:00.006-06:002011-12-16T07:29:13.693-06:00

Today's picture is from south-central Utah near the town of Sevier. I'm not sure what the name of the conglomerate the students are running around on, but it's approximately correlative to the Indianola or Price River formations (Late Cretaceous). This is stuff that was tumbling down the mountains being uplifted during the Sevier orogeny.I was shooting pictures with a tilt-shift lens, so I made

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-20862002071724420342011-12-15T21:48:00.003-06:002011-12-15T21:51:07.639-06:00

Things are winding down and many of us are getting set to shuffle off to grade finals, meet with family and recuperate from the year. One of my resolutions for 2012 is to redo the "reactor" demo so that it has a little bit more "oomph."But, I still hope everyone has a wonderful holiday full of cheer and happiness. And only a little fission.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-87320528291741195182011-12-15T16:21:00.001-06:002011-12-15T16:42:26.998-06:00

I think I need to add more BBs and lasers.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-32954709947528482922011-12-15T14:07:00.002-06:002011-12-15T14:20:56.153-06:00

Whew! Another semester is almost finished. Just a couple of final exams and #gradingjail to go now. Here's a demo that isn't exactly quick - to really see the results you need to let the thing go for about 1000 hours...The height above some free water surface (such as the water table) that surface tension can "pull" a column of water is proportional to the size of the pores between the soil

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-9221513806226124992011-12-15T07:33:00.003-06:002011-12-15T07:38:17.544-06:00

Whoa, Ron and Evelyn both beat me to the pictures this morning.On our return from Glacier National Park last summer, my wife and I stopped at Teddy Roosevelt NP to take in a few quick sights. I thought the warning sign was a reasonable statement at several time scales.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-16926712149812187532011-12-14T20:47:00.004-06:002011-12-14T20:56:13.612-06:00

Following Rhett Alain's example, I shined a blue laser through some household items to see what would happen.White wine - interesting, but not amazing.Window cleaner - neat, but still blue.GOO GONE. Now we're talking!

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-18711594106274621622011-12-14T06:02:00.004-06:002011-12-14T06:47:31.610-06:00

Evelyn's got a really cool picture of a coral "boulder." But when they're that sized, do they really qualify as boulders? And what if it's cemented to the material beneath it? Is it just a pinnacle? Although since we're all travelers on a little blue pebble, perhaps one needs to acknowledge the context and worry less about specific descriptors of scale...Today's picture is of some quartz sand.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-57843499195641733282011-12-13T10:04:00.004-06:002011-12-13T10:17:17.703-06:00

I think Ed Rybicki needs to take a look at this article. Well written and very good at explaining why implicit bias, male privilege, and the equal treatment of others are part of a larger issue that needs some serious discussion. Like "womanspace" (gawds, who let that title through the editing process in the first place?)

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-61758265391704250952011-12-13T08:57:00.004-06:002011-12-13T09:06:08.510-06:00

Evelyn's continuing the geology photos, and I can't think of a reason not to follow suit."Hey, since when is Pismo Beach in a cave?"I blogged about this image before - some critter was doing a little bioturbation. If this burrow fills in with sediment and we were to then view this filled burrow in a soil profile, we might use the term "krotovina," which is a Russian word for a filled-in animal

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-54956243793920743532011-12-12T06:56:00.006-06:002011-12-29T10:18:58.337-06:00

Evelyn, over at Geornys has a wonderful idea (and a good GeoMeme for the week of 12/12). Many of us are putting our heads down and trying to make it through to the end of the semester, leaving little time for serious blogging. I may have time to toss some thoughts out into the ether, but I love the idea of sharing photos.This morning's photo is of some very sizable shield volcanoes that make up

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-77486783030251258012011-12-10T20:10:00.002-06:002011-12-10T20:18:26.931-06:00

I love the full moon. In part because it shows up right at sunset, and sticks up through the night, disappearing at dawn. It's really cool how the geometry of something as large as the solar system can become so apparent. Sometimes, if you're lucky, atmospheric conditions refract the sun's light just enough so you can see the tiniest bit of sunrise just as the moon is slipping past the western

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-56919158934853335322011-12-10T08:35:00.003-06:002011-12-10T10:24:03.225-06:00

This morning's eclipse wasn't fully visible here in western Wisconsin, but the moon started to move into the earth's shadow as it set over the western horizon. The moon ducked behind a low bank of clouds, so I wasn't able to see if the sunrise could catch up.It was about zero degrees outside - much too cold to make it truly enjoyable, but it was worth it - especially since there's not going to be

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-40480810421949092742011-12-09T22:16:00.002-06:002011-12-09T22:19:47.590-06:00

Go over and read the review Kelly's book got over at SF Reviews. It's thorough, thoughtful, and, as Kelly said, the reviewer "gets it."Did I mention I drew the maps? I probably did at some point.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-47969876885567319282011-12-09T18:18:00.000-06:002011-12-09T18:29:19.214-06:00

My lab in the aftermath of the "Sand Castle Lab"The plastic media used by LRRD for their Emriver stream tables is an excellent teaching tool for soil mechanics.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-1832241409071227262011-12-09T07:21:00.002-06:002011-12-09T07:27:21.375-06:00

I've been thinking about refraction and how one of the professors I would TA for pointed out a major problem for the invisible man. If he was truly invisible, light would pass right through his eyes - and he wouldn't be able to refract light with his corneas to form an image.Then I started wondering about fish - what's the index of refraction in fish? Is it different in freshwater fish versus

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-77230542369210060282011-12-08T19:34:00.006-06:002011-12-09T22:08:33.514-06:00

I've got a few demos cooking (or boiling up), but here's a quickie with the index of refraction. I used a ring stand and a few clams to hold some laser pointers above an aquarium.Using Photoshop to measure the incident and refracted angles. Based on a reference I found online, the measured index of refraction compared to the expected values were off by less than 1%. Not bad for a quick and dirty

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-37137718396567359372011-12-06T22:10:00.003-06:002011-12-06T22:13:18.471-06:00

Thurs-demos have been on pause as the mad rush towards the end of the semester takes its toll. I ought to be able to toss one up this week though. Here's some stuff that I've been checking into for the future...Yes, that's a blue laser... so cool.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-10932631143829658962011-11-30T10:13:00.010-06:002011-11-30T10:52:57.249-06:00

Today's topic: the city of Tien. Tien is the capital city in the Kingdom of Zhan - a whirling nest of high court intrigue, magic, assassins, and the occasional undead. You can read about it in the amazing Kelly McCullough's new book, which I blogged about mapping yesterday, too.I want to point out my process for making the city map. My goal was less about topography and more about neighborhoods.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-85377955956855448512011-11-29T10:18:00.009-06:002011-11-29T13:40:06.676-06:00

Guess what? Today is the release date for Broken Blade, a new fantasy series written by my good pal Kelly McCullough. Having read the beta versions, I can say that if you enjoy fantasy novels and film noir, you'll enjoy these books.Beyond reading the beta copy, I drew the maps used in the book. It's partly an homage to the maps in Tolkein's Hobbit and LOTR, but it's also done from the perspective

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-37792910472223909642011-11-28T07:35:00.002-06:002011-11-28T07:36:27.759-06:00

Are you going to get yours?

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-1809900064609557552011-11-27T19:40:00.002-06:002011-11-27T19:42:07.156-06:00

I put up some holiday decorations today. Although I may have gotten things turned around a little bit.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-5398781095811485472011-11-24T09:45:00.003-06:002011-11-24T10:00:40.258-06:00

Got a blogger in your life? Want to get them something new and fancy? Are you a blogger? Looking to see if the shiny iPad 2 does everything you need?I don't have one, but my mom ended up getting one, so I spent some time yesterday checking out how easy it would be to use it as a Thurs-Demo tool. I did two tests. The first was pulling a full-size HD movie off my Canon 7D and processing it with the

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-3541574587719534152011-11-20T13:33:00.002-06:002011-11-20T13:37:18.003-06:00

Looks like folks are talking about sand dunes and eolian transport on the geoblogs this week.Here's some video I shot of blowing sand - you can see at least two distinct modes of movement - large grains are either tumbling individually, or avalanching down the slip face. Smaller grains, however, are picked up by the wind and bouncing (saltating) as they are transported.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-86379792332475686462011-11-17T13:34:00.007-06:002011-11-18T08:34:16.926-06:00

Wow, Nature's editors really served up a turd of a fiction article this time.From what I've been able to tell, it's some kind of "story" about how women are from venus and men are the only ones who can observe the real world. I'm not going to dissect the piece. There are plenty of people that have done so with more wit and honesty than I could hope to achieve. Suffice to say, I found the "

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-54997550834723314592011-11-13T13:54:00.004-06:002011-11-13T18:55:47.655-06:00

This week's demo has been a little late in coming - but I've got a few moments to get this up. Video is still processing though...The plastic media that comes with the Emriver stream table is made of ground-up plastic. The stream model's physical behavior is largely determined by the relative difference between the density of flowing water and the sediment (there's also the viscosity of water,

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-40902451625335789432011-11-07T07:43:00.002-06:002011-11-07T08:12:52.474-06:00

Anne Jefferson issued a challenge last week. She has some writing that needs to be done and to keep things motivated, she asked fellow geobloggers to join in and share their progress - and it seems that 41 folks joined in. The logo comes from Anne's fellow Allochthonian, Chris Rowan. I have two papers I'd like to finish this month, so I figure this will be a good kick in the pants.What did I get

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-12706655689435433412011-11-03T14:42:00.003-05:002011-11-03T21:02:59.467-05:00

Part of my research deals with the history of rivers. Well, a few rivers in particular, but they are an example of how the landforms associated with rivers and streams can tell us about past changes to the river system. Terraces are one of my favorite. Terraces reflect periods of transition for the river system. Periods when something happened - whether it be tectonics, climate, or changes in the

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-49744834902404328182011-10-31T19:50:00.003-05:002011-10-31T20:07:41.090-05:00

Today's stream table run was an adventure in basin geometry. I've been wanting to find a way to keep the stream from getting hung up on the sides of the table.I have a bunch of rubber sheeting left over from a roofing project. Yes, I saved several square feet of sheet rubber. Because I'm an experimentalist. And I used it to created coved corners at the base of the table. I built up curved sides

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-47636866520926761912011-10-31T16:17:00.002-05:002011-10-31T16:23:20.347-05:00

Okay, so you want to see something? Come closer. Now click on this link. See that: that's one of the things reminding me to grow my own vegetables. Drink water from the tap instead of bottles. Consume less. Not because I hate all things related to consumer culture. Not because all corporations are evil. But because if everyone of those 7 Billion wants to live/eat/consume like we do in the "

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-23019489308741069872011-10-31T10:15:00.002-05:002011-10-31T10:18:15.007-05:00

I like Halloween. Not so much for the costumes and tropes of ghouls and goblins but more for my own personal reasons. Today is my birthday. And today, I get to share this planet with the 7,000,000,000th person. When I was born, there were about 4.1 Billion people. We've added almost 3 billion since I got here. There's a story about exponential growth here somewhere, but it eludes me at the moment.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-39058659544415535342011-10-31T10:10:00.002-05:002011-10-31T10:11:16.077-05:00

What's cooking for the Accretionary Wedge? So far we've got this:

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-91572941966611111052011-10-30T11:37:00.003-05:002011-10-30T12:07:26.724-05:00

Mythbusters is a fascinating show in many ways. That most of the episodes are streaming on Netflix is an added bonus. Plus, you can see how the show has changed structurally over the years. Aside from the obvious changes in the appearance of the hosts (aging, pregnancy, hairstyles, etc.) I've noticed three big changes in the general narrative style.The first is that newer episodes don't go into

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-2800700327068425632011-10-29T18:12:00.000-05:002011-10-29T18:13:51.940-05:00

...who's ready for some Calvinball??

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-12275311648127079722011-10-28T15:00:00.005-05:002011-10-28T15:13:05.891-05:00

Got the students to do some groundwater stuff in lab today. One of the steps was to estimate the permeability of a column of sand. I used the falling-head permeameter rig that I had videotaped and demo'd earlier.But instead of a third column of sand, I tossed some of the plastic media that comes with the Emriver setup. If you've seen these stream tables in action, you know that groundwater flow

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-26056336583632096262011-10-27T14:56:00.002-05:002011-10-27T15:03:35.389-05:00

Have some ping pong balls? Have some liquid nitrogen (LN2)? You've got yourself a party! Poke two holes in a ping pong ball - angle the holes so they kind of slant sideways. They should point the same direction relative to some axis (think of a hero engine here). Now, dunk the punctured ball in the LN2. Then remove the ball (with tongs, folks - this is super-cold stuff) and as it warms up, it

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-9094390991607987632011-10-26T11:19:00.002-05:002011-10-26T11:21:16.487-05:00

Okay, the wacky spam hasn't shown up as often lately, so I'm backing off on comment moderation (only comments on older posts will be moderated). We'll see how that goes - I've been wondering if the delay on comments has been dissuading people from adding their 2¢.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-64995833989125679532011-10-26T08:33:00.001-05:002011-10-26T08:35:11.961-05:00

They say the world's population is going to reach seven billion on October 31st. That's a lot of people.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-77377536820100669662011-10-25T11:15:00.000-05:002011-10-25T12:08:19.045-05:00

Sometimes there comes a product or concept that completely transforms the way you see things. This has happened to me recently when my lab got its Emriver stream table.Why am I so jazzed about this thing? Well for one, it's a stream table. There's no easier way to teach and learn about stream processes than by watching a stream move sediment around. Secondly, it's the way in which Steve has

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-5762031916090736512011-10-21T09:48:00.002-05:002011-10-21T09:51:18.526-05:00

I let the stream table run for over 2 hours straight yesterday. I would have an even longer video, but the flash card on my camera filled up. I really like how you can see small perturbations cancel each other out in some places and become amplified in others. In the words of Spock, "Fascinating."

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-39408526094220928562011-10-20T11:47:00.005-05:002011-10-25T12:07:52.536-05:00

There's a new addition to the Dirt Lab's inventory. We're the proud owners of a shiny Em2 stream table, manufactured by the folks at Little River Research & Design. Overall, I'm more than thrilled with the design and performance. I've spent the past week putting it through its paces and testing out some ideas for labs/demos for teaching and some research possibilities. I'll be adding more to this

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-18162213409331690722011-10-17T17:03:00.004-05:002011-10-17T17:59:49.282-05:00

I ended up experimenting with making meanders today. I found that if you add just a little bit of extra "sand" to the lateral accretion areas (e.g. point bars) you end up producing very strong meanders. Particularly if you reduce the slope of the table.Here's a shot of a few oxbow lakes being formed mid-run.Here's a quick time-lapse video that demonstrates how adding extra material to the point

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-17775111192928642172011-10-16T19:02:00.004-05:002011-10-16T19:10:40.999-05:00

Before and after shots of the new stream table that arrived this week. If you look at the clock in the background, you can see that it only took me about an hour to set up. I'll have to provide more detail about setup and running the stream table.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-76649772273487963642011-10-14T10:22:00.002-05:002011-10-14T10:34:51.152-05:00

Yay of yays. The stream table has arrived.Oh the things you can think when you've got a new piece of equipment. I'm going to be shooing my colleagues out of my lab on a daily basis now...

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-69107270234248999212011-10-13T11:07:00.000-05:002011-10-12T23:47:49.469-05:00

While at GSA in Minneapolis, the Little River Research & Design folks had a capacity crowd for the duration of the exhibitor hall hours. One of their demo runs included a lovely demonstration of levee failure:

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-45090646946353650102011-10-13T09:24:00.000-05:002011-10-12T21:35:28.615-05:00

I'm helping with a field trip today, so I'm posting this to (hopefully) automatically appear in about 12 hours...The other week, I mentioned the interesting behavior of the flume/pump system I had set up. Changes in one direction did not follow the same pattern as changes in the other direction. I stated (and still think this may be the case) that this could be an example of hysteresis.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-12310635242930305272011-10-12T10:33:00.003-05:002011-10-12T10:34:55.396-05:00

Here's a little Dikelocephalus cephalon (trilobite head & "nose") for your viewing pleasure.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-64063619622078092922011-10-12T08:46:00.002-05:002011-10-12T08:51:53.624-05:00

While I was at GSA, the most popular booth appeared to be Steve Gough and the folks at Little River Research & Design. Their stream table setups were among the busiest spots on the entire floor of the exhibitor hall. Steve posted a short time lapse video of the crowds (you may recognize some of the people in the film...)Hopefully I'll get around to a more thorough recap - including meeting the

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-56631293281820516912011-10-12T08:36:00.002-05:002011-10-12T08:39:25.853-05:00

Back from GSA. Or rather, I'm done going to the conference - I've got students to teach today. But I'm going to be talking about some geology tomorrow and Saturday for the field trip associated with the session at GSA. For those of you that were at the meeting, what did you think of the escalator setup?I, for one, got stuck in a recursive loop for a time:

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-10084546171567427662011-10-07T16:36:00.007-05:002011-10-07T23:16:25.153-05:00

Earlier I posted about some interesting data that I got from setting up a simple flume/channel. At first I was rather excited - maybe there was some aspect of fluid dynamics that I was seeing (flow separation, turbulence, etc.). But this is SCIENCE!, so I have to be able to do a few more things before I can do anything more than speculate.I hooked up another accelerometer to the pump's outlet (

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-58670395771305388382011-10-07T09:25:00.005-05:002011-10-07T10:41:20.416-05:00

Brian Romans had a really neat post about "listening" to rivers a few weeks ago.I had set up a demo to show some possible ways that we could "listen" to streams and arrive at some method of estimating bedload transport in streams. My set up was very simple. I had a short length of rain gutter stretched between two bins (one for water to flow into), an aquarium type pump, and some tubing to

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-17383698194820610622011-10-01T12:00:00.001-05:002011-10-01T21:25:50.786-05:00

Anne Jefferson over at Highly Allochthonous (you know you're a geology geek if you can spell their blog correctly on the first try without checking) wants to know about geoscience education and careers. (Updated: thanks to Ron and Matt for pointing out an amusing error)If you are a professor… what do you wish your students would ask? What do you think they should know, regardless of whether it is

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-80590576246311462962011-09-30T15:19:00.003-05:002011-09-30T15:23:07.300-05:00

For Kelly:I am apparently displeased with your lack of progress.What's that you say?I am here to put you back on schedule.Oh noes.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-40014848039399974982011-09-28T20:08:00.003-05:002011-09-28T20:16:40.738-05:00

There's a new blog, Geokittehs. Eponymous blog is eponymous.Birke cat approves, but says it needs more string.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-39067775337771175862011-09-28T18:32:00.009-05:002011-09-29T11:17:45.975-05:00

It's Thursday. That means another demo. This week, I've been stricken with one of the various plagues that burns through college campuses at the start of the semester. All these viruses with thousands of brand new vectors. It's like some kind of frickin' holiday for them, or something. But since I was producing almost as much mucous as a netted hagfish, I didn't create a new demo this week. But,

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-88797787674221987422011-09-23T13:30:00.002-05:002011-09-23T13:33:06.579-05:00

I've been grappling with fluvial theories for the last few months. I think I have an idea for what my field area is doing, but it's not simple. It's very complex. It might be more complex than I imagine. Or maybe there's a simple answer staring me in the face. This is one reason why I like the web and conferences. It's a chance to bounce ideas off others and see what sticks.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-82814737672214221752011-09-22T14:32:00.002-05:002011-09-22T14:51:46.060-05:00

Okay, today's demo is just an illustration of what you can do with a handful of plasma globes and a couple of mirrors. Nothing fancy, just something to set the mood before we blow stuff up...Plasma from Matt Kuchta on Vimeo.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-53346708719059871522011-09-21T20:15:00.003-05:002011-09-21T20:17:45.721-05:00

A recent search term that found my blog said the term was the ninth on the list. Only nine? I guess I'll have to write up some more stuff about snails...

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-1474846022064827302011-09-19T17:27:00.001-05:002011-09-19T17:28:54.869-05:00

It may not be what you think it is. Greg Laden has a great example of how we are all bound by the same rules of assumption when it comes to "science-you-don't-like" and daily life.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-70219586151138112402011-09-19T08:12:00.005-05:002011-09-19T10:54:25.628-05:00

This weekend, I was planning on helping out with a photo-shoot. My pal Kelly McCullough was to reprise his role as Mr. Tumnus and the amazing photographer Kyle Cassidy was going to take some pictures. You can tell these are pretty hip cats, since their names are also URLs. Since Kyle was flying in for the shoot, he didn't have a whole studio's worth of lighting with him, so I had some of my

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-9996149391978365102011-09-19T07:54:00.003-05:002011-09-19T07:58:53.710-05:00

So, my scurvy readers. This be "Talk Like A Pirate Day" and all hands should be scampering above decks, belching forth speech that'd make yer mum faint.Here be some data to fuel yer privateering.The barometric pressure were well high and mighty over the weekend, but today the pressure has dropped like a berk off the plank. Me eyeballs are popping out of their sockets like a right load of

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-16741939604590305072011-09-15T15:23:00.004-05:002011-09-15T15:25:46.222-05:00

Callan Bentley asked me for my image of an isotropic mineral in crossed polars:Oh the funny, it hurts.

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-69463198934099778882011-09-15T10:49:00.004-05:002011-09-15T10:53:34.977-05:00

Our department is getting a high-speed video camera. This alone is way-cool. However, while testing out some of the capabilities, it occurred to me that I might be able to use it to demonstrate how some minerals fracture along specific planes of weakness within the crystal. So, to try it out, I took a small calcite crystal and squished it with a pair of pliers.Mineral Cleavage Test from Matt

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18321380.post-80835944925677636122011-09-14T17:43:00.003-05:002011-09-14T20:57:32.663-05:00

I've been working on my presentation for GSA - which is part of my developing research into the fluvial geomorphology of the Red Cedar River in western Wisconsin. The picture below represents some of what's occupying my mind right now. The dots represent the elevation of stream terrace surfaces along the river valley. The y-axis is elevation in feet above sea level and the x-axis is horizontal

MKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18168846490598155683noreply@blogger.com0