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Metageologist
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- May 19, 2013
- 03:48 PM
- 22 views
A deeper look at the geology of diamonds
by Metageologist in Metageologist
The geology of diamonds is fascinating in itself, but they also give insights into wider geological processes and history. Up until 1725, diamonds were only known from India. That all changed when Brazilians panning river sediments for gold, instead found diamonds. Recent … Continue reading →... Read more »
Harte, B., & Richardson, S. (2012) Mineral inclusions in diamonds track the evolution of a Mesozoic subducted slab beneath West Gondwanaland. Gondwana Research, 21(1), 236-245. DOI: 10.1016/j.gr.2011.07.001
Harte, B., & Cayzer, N. (2007) Decompression and unmixing of crystals included in diamonds from the mantle transition zone. Physics and Chemistry of Minerals, 34(9), 647-656. DOI: 10.1007/s00269-007-0178-2
- May 12, 2013
- 12:43 PM
- 4 views
Some facets of the Geology of Diamonds
by Metageologist in Metageologist
Originally published on the Scientific American guest blog. Geoscientists can’t say if diamonds are forever, but they can say that some are already billions of years old. They form in a place we’ll never reach: the deep earth, hundreds of … Continue reading →... Read more »
Shirey, S., Cartigny, P., Frost, D., Keshav, S., Nestola, F., Nimis, P., Pearson, D., Sobolev, N., & Walter, M. (2013) Diamonds and the Geology of Mantle Carbon. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, 75(1), 355-421. DOI: 10.2138/rmg.2013.75.12
Schulze, D., Harte, B., , ., Page, F., Valley, J., Channer, D., & Jaques, A. (2013) Anticorrelation between low 13C of eclogitic diamonds and high 18O of their coesite and garnet inclusions requires a subduction origin. Geology, 41(4), 455-458. DOI: 10.1130/G33839.1
- May 9, 2013
- 01:01 PM
- 40 views
A harder look at the geology of diamonds
by Metageologist in Metageologist
My recent post about diamonds was a rapid romp through some of the most marvellous things earth scientists have discovered about them. In the interests of keeping the casual reader engaged I left out many things. If this left you with … Continue reading →... Read more »
Schulze, D., Harte, B., , ., Page, F., Valley, J., Channer, D., & Jaques, A. (2013) Anticorrelation between low 13C of eclogitic diamonds and high 18O of their coesite and garnet inclusions requires a subduction origin. Geology, 41(4), 455-458. DOI: 10.1130/G33839.1
- April 1, 2013
- 10:44 AM
- 99 views
Structural Geology by the Deformation numbers
by Metageologist in Metageologist
Structural geologists seek to understand how rocks have changed shape, in order to better understand wider processes such as how mountains are formed. Sometimes they use a terminology called ‘Deformation-numbers’ which I will now explain via a series of pretty … Continue reading →... Read more »
Argles, T., Prince, C., Foster, G., & Vance, D. (1999) New garnets for old? Cautionary tales from young mountain belts. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 172(3-4), 301-309. DOI: 10.1016/S0012-821X(99)00209-5
Tanner, P., & Shackleton, R. (1979) Structure and stratigraphy of the Dalradian rocks of the Bennabeola area, Connemara, Eire. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 8(1), 243-256. DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.1979.008.01.25
- March 20, 2013
- 07:56 AM
- 118 views
The Grampian / Taconic orogeny in Ireland – when arcs attack
by Metageologist in Metageologist
Ever since the plate tectonic paradigm-shift of the 1960s, geologists have strived to understand ancient rocks in terms of the movements of plates. The geology of north-western Ireland can be explained by what happened when a subduction zone ran out … Continue reading →... Read more »
RYAN, P., & DEWEY, J. (1991) A geological and tectonic cross-section of the Caledonides of western Ireland. Journal of the Geological Society, 148(1), 173-180. DOI: 10.1144/gsjgs.148.1.0173
Hollis, S., Roberts, S., Cooper, M., Earls, G., Herrington, R., Condon, D., Cooper, M., Archibald, S., & Piercey, S. (2012) Episodic arc-ophiolite emplacement and the growth of continental margins: Late accretion in the Northern Irish sector of the Grampian-Taconic orogeny. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 124(11-12), 1702-1723. DOI: 10.1130/B30619.1
Bird, A., Thirlwall, M., Strachan, R., & Manning, C. (2013) Lu-Hf and Sm-Nd dating of metamorphic garnet: evidence for multiple accretion events during the Caledonian orogeny in Scotland. Journal of the Geological Society, 170(2), 301-317. DOI: 10.1144/jgs2012-083
- March 2, 2013
- 04:16 PM
- 161 views
Scandinavian crust now in Alaska!
by Metageologist in Metageologist
The face of the earth is ever changing. Plate tectonics is slowly but surely rearranging the locations and inter-connections of continents. However knowing this in the abstract doesn’t prepare you for the awed surprise of discovering that a section of … Continue reading →... Read more »
Colpron, M., & Nelson, J. (2009) A Palaeozoic Northwest Passage: incursion of Caledonian, Baltican and Siberian terranes into eastern Panthalassa, and the early evolution of the North American Cordillera. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 318(1), 273-307. DOI: 10.1144/SP318.10
Beranek, L., van Staal, C., McClelland, W., Israel, S., & Mihalynuk, M. (2013) Baltican crustal provenance for Cambrian-Ordovician sandstones of the Alexander terrane, North American Cordillera: evidence from detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology and Hf isotope geochemistry. Journal of the Geological Society, 170(1), 7-18. DOI: 10.1144/jgs2012-028
- February 28, 2013
- 04:51 PM
- 181 views
When continents rotate
by Metageologist in Metageologist
The earth’s surface is not fixed. Oceans come and go and continents are constantly moving, breaking up and reforming like blobs of oil on the surface of a stock-pot. Since tectonic plates are not flat (they collectively form the surface … Continue reading →... Read more »
Steffen G. Bergh, Fernando Corfu, Per Inge Myhre, Kåre Kullerud, Paul E.B. Armitage, Klaas B. Zwaan, Erling K. Ravna, Robert E. Holdsworth, & Anupam Chattopadhya. (2012) Was the Precambrian Basement of Western Troms and Lofoten-Vesterålen in Northern Norway Linked to the Lewisian of Scotland? A Comparison of Crustal Components, Tectonic Evolution and Amalgamation History. Tectonics - Recent Advances, Prof. Evgenii Sharkov (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-51-0675-3. DOI: 10.5772/48257
Cocks, L., & Torsvik, T. (2006) European geography in a global context from the Vendian to the end of the Palaeozoic. Geological Society, London, Memoirs, 32(1), 83-95. DOI: 10.1144/GSL.MEM.2006.032.01.05
- February 12, 2013
- 04:04 PM
- 120 views
Mexican silver in Tudor England
by Metageologist in Metageologist
Geology and history have much in common. Both seek to understand the past by objective analysis of the traces it has left in the present. Both arose from the application of hand and mind to the study of particular things … Continue reading →... Read more »
Desaulty, A., & Albarede, F. (2012) Copper, lead, and silver isotopes solve a major economic conundrum of Tudor and early Stuart Europe. Geology, 41(2), 135-138. DOI: 10.1130/G33555.1
- February 4, 2013
- 07:25 AM
- 114 views
Dalradian – a Celtic Supergroup
by Metageologist in Metageologist
Geology is such a great thing to study because it involves making so many connections through time and space, switching scales from the cosmic to the atomic. This means that challenge for this series of posts about the geology of … Continue reading →... Read more »
L. Robin M. Cocks, & Trond H. Torsvik. (2005) Baltica from the late Precambrian to mid-Palaeozoic times: The gain and loss of a terrane’s identity. Earth-Science Reviews. DOI: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2005.04.001
D.H.W. Hutton, & G.I. Alsop. (2004) Dalradian Supergroup of NW Ireland Evidence for a major Neoproterozoic orogenic unconformity within the Dalradian Supergroup of NW Ireland . Journal of the Geological Society. DOI: 10.1144/0016-764903-094
David Stephenson,, John R. Mendum, Douglas J. Fettes, & A. Graham Leslie. (2013) The Dalradian rocks of Scotland: an introduction. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. DOI: 10.1016/j.pgeola.2012.06.002
- December 19, 2012
- 07:46 AM
- 229 views
Cratons – old and strong
by Metageologist in Metageologist
Cratons are pieces of continents that have been stable for a over a billion years. As earth’s plates drift along, mountains periodically rise and fall, plate boundaries appear and disappear. But cratons are like great-grandmothers at family gatherings, while younger … Continue reading →... Read more »
PEARSON, D., & WITTIG, N. (2008) Formation of Archaean continental lithosphere and its diamonds: the root of the problem. Journal of the Geological Society, 165(5), 895-914. DOI: 10.1144/0016-76492008-003
Lee, C., Luffi, P., & Chin, E. (2011) Building and Destroying Continental Mantle. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 39(1), 59-90. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-earth-040610-133505
- December 9, 2012
- 06:16 AM
- 177 views
Erosion makes mountains beautiful
by Metageologist in Metageologist
The thing that makes mountains so beautiful and fascinating,is not so much their height as their steepness. Climbers and trekkers flock to the High Himalaya, not to get altitude sickness but for the grandeur of the landscape, the experience of … Continue reading →... Read more »
Larsen, I., & Montgomery, D. (2012) Landslide erosion coupled to tectonics and river incision. Nature Geoscience, 5(7), 468-473. DOI: 10.1038/NGEO1479
Roering, J. (2012) Tectonic geomorphology: Landslides limit mountain relief. Nature Geoscience, 5(7), 446-447. DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1511
Spotila, J. (2012) Influence of drainage divide structure on the distribution of mountain peaks. Geology, 40(9), 855-858. DOI: 10.1130/G33338.1
- November 12, 2012
- 07:30 AM
- 165 views
Mantle support of topography – a swell idea
by Metageologist in Metageologist
Why are some bits of the earth higher than others? Finding mountains near plate boundaries is easy to explain – various forms of plate collision cause the crust to thicken and the surface to rise. What about Southern Africa? Reaching … Continue reading →... Read more »
Jones, S., Lovell, B., & Crosby, A. (2012) Comparison of modern and geological observations of dynamic support from mantle convection. Journal of the Geological Society, 169(6), 745-758. DOI: 10.1144/jgs2011-118
Lovell, B. (2010) A pulse in the planet: regional control of high-frequency changes in relative sea level by mantle convection. Journal of the Geological Society, 167(4), 637-648. DOI: 10.1144/0016-76492009-127
- October 24, 2012
- 08:30 AM
- 152 views
Eclogites: back to the surface
by Metageologist in Metageologist
Eclogites are beautiful rocks that form deep within subduction zones. The vast majority of subducted oceanic crust becomes more dense than the surrounding mantle rocks and travels to the strange world of the deep earth. Lucky for us, small volumes … Continue reading →... Read more »
Angiboust, S., & Agard, P. (2010) Initial water budget: The key to detaching large volumes of eclogitized oceanic crust along the subduction channel?. Lithos, 120(3-4), 453-474. DOI: 10.1016/j.lithos.2010.09.007
Angiboust, S.,, Agard, P.,, Raimbourg, H.,, Yamato, P.,, & Huet, B. (2011) Subduction interface processes recorded by eclogite-facies shear zones (Monviso, W. Alps). Lithos. DOI: dx.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2011.09.004
Silvana Martin, Gisella Rebay, Jean-Robert Kienast, & Catherine Mével. (2008) AN ECLOGITISED OCEANIC PALAEO-HYDROTHERMAL FIELD FROM THE ST. MARCEL VALLEY (ITALIAN WESTERN ALPS. Ofioliti. info:/doi:10.4454/ofioliti.v33i1.359
MESSIGA, ., KIENAST, ., REBAY, ., RICCARDI, ., & TRIBUZIO, . (2001) Cr-rich magnesiochloritoid eclogites from the Monviso ophiolites (Western Alps, Italy. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 17(3), 287-299. DOI: 10.1046/j.1525-1314.1999.00198.x
- October 16, 2012
- 07:11 AM
- 239 views
Sherlock Holmes and the case of the detrital zircon
by Metageologist in Metageologist
The October copy of the journal Geology contains a paper that made me think of Sherlock Holmes. That doesn’t happen very often. One of the fictional detective’s many skills was the ability to get important insights from the sediment found on … Continue reading →... Read more »
Cawood, P., Hawkesworth, C., & Dhuime, B. (2012) Detrital zircon record and tectonic setting. Geology, 40(10), 875-878. DOI: 10.1130/G32945.1
- September 25, 2012
- 12:47 PM
- 230 views
Oceanic crust – down to the core
by Metageologist in Metageologist
Almost all of what I write about in this blog concerns only 1% of the earth’s volume. All crust, all sedimentary rocks, the glories of mountain building, all occupy an insignificant portion of the earth. It’s the only bit we … Continue reading →... Read more »
Q. Williams, & J. Revenaugh. (2004) Ancient subduction, mantle eclogite, and the 300 km seismic discontinuity. Geology. DOI: 10.1130/G20968.1
W. M. White. (2010) Oceanic Island Basalts and Mantle Plumes: The Geochemical Perspective. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-earth-040809-152450
B. Steinberger, T. H. Torsvik, & T. W. Becker. (2012) Subduction to the lower mantle – a comparison between geodynamic and tomographic models. Solid Earth Discuss. DOI: 10.5194/sed-4-851-2012
- August 15, 2012
- 04:25 PM
- 277 views
Eclogite: mysterious visitor from the deep
by Metageologist in Metageologist
Fifty kilometres is not far. World-class marathon runners run 42km in a little over 2 hours. They only move along the earth’s surface though. Getting to 50 kilometres below your feet is a different thing entirely. It’s a place of … Continue reading →... Read more »
S. Angiboust, P. Agard, P. Yamato, & H. Raimbourg. (2012) Eclogite breccias in a subducted ophiolite: A record of intermediate-depth earthquakes?. Geology. DOI: 10.1130/G32925.1
- August 9, 2012
- 02:50 PM
- 235 views
How old is plate tectonics?
by Metageologist in Metageologist
Plate tectonics is the process that underpins much of our understanding of the Earth. It explains manymany aspects of the Earth, from magnetic patterns in oceanic rocks to the distribution of plants and animals. How unusual is it? Well, it … Continue reading →... Read more »
Cawood, P.A., Kröner, A., & Pisarevsky, S. (2006) Precambrian plate tectonics: criteria and evidence. GSA Today. DOI: 10.1130/GSAT01607.1
- June 29, 2012
- 12:43 PM
- 281 views
Cycling in the Pennines – 300 million years ago
by Metageologist in Metageologist
The north of England is dominated by rocks of Carboniferous age, which give it a distinctive scenery and history, where local coal fuelled the world’s first industrial landscape. The geology is extremely well known, because of the importance of the coal … Continue reading →... Read more »
Colin N. Waters, & Daniel J. Condon. (2012) Nature and timing of Late Mississippian to Mid-Pennsylvanian glacio-eustatic sea-level changes of the Pennine Basin, UK. Journal of the Geological Society. DOI: 10.1144/0016-76492011-047
- June 20, 2012
- 03:26 PM
- 302 views
The biggest pile of sand the world has ever seen
by Metageologist in Metageologist
The Moine, a set of sedimentary rocks found in furthest north-west Scotland have enjoyed at least three cycles of metamorphism and deformation. My only sample from here is a migmatitic gneiss, so when I heard about people studying sedimentology in … Continue reading →... Read more »
H. C. Bonsor, R. A. Strachan, A. R. Prave, & M. Krabbendam. (2012) Sedimentology of the early Neoproterozoic Morar Group in northern Scotland: implications for basin models and tectonic setting. Journal of the Geological Society. DOI: 10.1144/0016-76492011-039
H.C. Bonsor, R.A. Strachan, A.R. Prave, & M. Krabbendam. (2010) Fluvial braidplain to shallow marine transition in the early Neoproterozoic Morar Group, Fannich Mountains, northern Scotland. Precambrian Research. DOI: 10.1016/j.precamres.2010.09.007
MAARTEN KRABBENDAM, TONY PRAVE, & DAVID CHEER. (2008) A fluvial origin for the Neoproterozoic Morar Group, NW Scotland; implications for Torridon–Morar Group correlation and the Grenville Orogen foreland basin. Journal of the Geological Society. DOI: 10.1144/0016-76492007-076
- June 10, 2012
- 09:17 AM
- 469 views
The Geology of Mount Everest
by Metageologist in Metageologist
Growing up, I was mildly obsessed with Mount Everest. Even now I marvel at its wonderful geology. Looking at that, who can blame me? My youthful obsession was fuelled by books of British expeditions in the 1970s climbing it by … Continue reading →... Read more »
SEARLE, M., SIMPSON, R., LAW, R., PARRISH, R., & WATERS, D. (2003) The structural geometry, metamorphic and magmatic evolution of the Everest massif, High Himalaya of Nepal-South Tibet. Journal of the Geological Society, 160(3), 345-366. DOI: 10.1144/0016-764902-126
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