Upsection

This is just a teaser from some rocks in Africa that I cut today. Clasts are an ultramylonite.

Since I don't have any posts planned until next week, here's a quick one to get us to the end of the week. I recorded the above video while on a grad trip exploring the diverse geology of Newfoundland. This was at Seal Cove (21U 543540.42 m E, 5531775.12 m N), near Bay Verte. We got to see an iceberg calve, then this one flipped. I started filming about half way through. The geometries of the underside are fascinating, not what I would have expected at all. It was an incredible experience to watch it rotate to a new equilibrium. And when sunset came... Sunset at Seal Cove, Newfoundland Sunset at Seal Cove, Newfoundland

I held off on posting this so that I didn't have too many LaTeX posts in quick succession. Grab an effective LaTeX template , or learn why you should start using LaTeX. So you've started using LaTeX, but you're stuck trying to put your data into a table. Tables in LaTeX are THE most un-intuitive, poorly designed part of the otherwise slick and clean document prep software. When I first tried putting tables into docs, I did everything I could to avoid making tables. Eventually, importing snipped word/excell tables into LaTeX as images just wouldn't cut it. I had to make a table. So let's get started. Open up a new LaTeX doc, I'm using my custom template that you can grab HERE . Get rid of the table of contents and the second section code. We're going to begin by setting the bounding code that will tell our table how to look: begin{table}[ht]         begin{center}                   begin{tabular}{| c | l | l |}    ...

It's been two weeks since Anne at Highly Allochthonous  posed her writing challenge. Last week I posted a backwards calendar for what I need to get done before the AGU Fall meeting: December 4th, 8am:  Fly out to San Francisco for AGU. December 3rd, 5pm:  Department Christmas party. Definitely no work is getting done after this. Must be packed for AGU, and cook a dish for the party. Manuscript should be done and off my desk. December 1st:  Abstract done. Off my desk for revision. November 25th:  Poster deadline for AGU print services. Poster must be completed, reviewed, completed again. Includes all new data, figures, ect. This is the BIG ONE. November 14th:  Discussion will be written. After this I'm going into 100% poster mode to get my figures done. November 12th:  Results and Interpretation will be re-written to incorporate new data. So how did I do? I didn't quite have my results and interpretation finished by the 12th. As for ...

Figure 1: Aerial radar of Charlevoix impact crater. Special thanks to field trip leaders Alain Tremblay and Francine Robert Last month the Canadian Tectonics Group (CTG) held their annual meeting at Charlevoix, Quebec, the site of a Devonian [Lemiux et al. 2003] impact structure. The field trip portion of the meeting centered around learning about and seeing impact structures in outcrop. This post feature some impact structures we observed while cutting a transect (Figure 2) from the center of the impact crater (mylolisthenite) to the crater rim (normal fault with backthrusting). Figure 2: Locations of impact structures. White dots outline approximate crater rim. Setting and  background The impact structure, 54Km in diameter ["Charlevoix"], is approximately half-exposed. The other half is under the St. Laurent River (Figure 1,2,3). The crater straddles the cystalline Grenville province, the Cambrian-Ordovician sediments, and accreted Appalachian Orogen. Supra-crustal fau...

I wanted to get some more blog post done before AGU, but that just ain't gonna happen. This'll be my last post until the conference. Enjoy! First some recap, if you're familiar with the Simon Winchester-Earthquake fearmongering debacle, skip this section. Back in March Simon Winchester, a popular science novelist, wrote an article published in Newsweek Magazine threatening that the next "Big One" earthquake was due to strike San Francisco. His article caused quite an uproar in the geologic and scientific communities. Simon cited several "facts" that he contrived to support his ideas, mainly that there had been three damaging earthquakes: Christchurch (2/22/2011), Chilean (2/27/2010), and the Japan quake (3/11/2011) in three corners of the Pacific Plate, "...leaving just one corner unaffected--the Northeast." He goes on to state that strains in the San Andreas Fault beneath San Francisco have built up to "barely tolerable levels." He...

I'm making this post because I recently ran into this problem when making some last minute changes to a poster. When I went to save my .ai document as .pdf, Illustrator would hang/freeze and then crash. Some googling on the topic eventually led me to the solution. The trouble lies in corrupt preferences settings. Not sure how this file got damaged, but the fix is simple. First, locate your Adobe Illustrator settings. For me (windows machine) I found it in my *hidden* AppData folder. C:UsersThorAppDataRoamingAdobe Make sure Illustrator is closed and locate the folder "Adobe Illustrator CS4 Settings" and delete it. I made a back up copy just in case something went horribly wrong, but deleting this should be fine. Then hold down Ctrl+Alt+Shift when you open Illustrator. A dialog may pop-up saying something about the preferences. Now that Illustrator is up and running, open your document and try saving to .pdf. Problem should be solved!

Figure 1: twitter hashtag... So a week has gone by since Anne at Highly Allochthonous issued a writing challenge to meet a deadline before the annual AGU conference in San Francisco. Many people have joined the challenge and have been tweeting updates of their accomplishments on twitter with the hashtag #Sciwrite. Anne   posted an update today , which reminded me that I needed to post mine! In Anne's update she also includes a "backwards calendar" listing the deadlines she needs to accomplish before AGU.  I'm going to set this up and share it to make myself more accountable. How's it going? This week I've been working to collect more microstructure data. This consists of circling grains in images of thin sections. It's dreary work, and very easy to brush aside with a "I'll do that later." To make myself get it done, I made a bet with my officemates. If I did not have all my data collected by November 7th I would spearhead getting us a coat ...

[Updated: 18/11/2011, see bottom] This resource popped up on my twitter feed thanks to @tracey_holloway via @HighlyAnne. It's an email list that allows employers to post earth sci job openings. This could be a very useful resource for those about to graduate (with BS, MSc, probably even PhD), or those who've been out on the job market for a while. I just joined, so I have yet to evaluate the service. Link:  http://mailman.acd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/es_jobs_net [Update] So after a week or so of subscribing to this list, I've noticed that the jobs being posted tend to be upper level, typically looking for lecturers and tenure track positions. There are however, some calls for PhD and MSc students here and there. I still think it is worth subscribing to. If anything, let's you keep a pulse on the EarthSci job market. This other job site has many postings of all levels. They are typically environmental jobs.

This is pretty cool. The Royal Society, the world's first peer-reviewed journal has opened their archives to the public . Approximately 60,000 articles are dating back as far as the 1600s are available via a searchable archive . Included in this archive is early geological work from Charles Darwin which features incredible sketches and maps. via Royal Society via Royal Society The text is 47 pages long, but thankfully there is a short(ish) abstract also available . The paper details Darwin's study of lineaments, referred to as "roads" along Glen Roy and Lochaber. Previous authors concluded that the lineaments are lacustrine deposits from a time when lake levels were higher (Darwin 1837). Darwin goes on to put forth his theory for the lineaments: marine deposits made by uplift of the land, with a subsiding sea, subject to tides carving the valleys (Darwin 1837). Charles Darwin Observations on the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy, and of other Parts of Lochaber, with an Atte...