History of the Earth

Episode 397 Carbonatites

Carbonatites are strange igneous rocks made up mostly of carbonates – common minerals like calcite, calcium carbonate. Igneous rocks that solidify from molten magma usual

Episode 396 Turbidity currents

As near as I can tell in the original daily series in 2014, I never addressed the topic of turbidity currents and their sedimentary product, turbidites. But they account

Episode 395 Connections

This episode is about some of the interesting connections that arise in science. We’ll start with me and my first professional job as a mineralogist analyzing kidney sto

Episode 394 The Mangrullo Formation of Uruguay

Today we’re going back about 280 million years, to what is now Uruguay in South America. 280 million years ago puts us in the early part of the Permian Period. Gondwana

Episode 393 The Mountains of the Moon

Today we’re going to the Mountains of the Moon – but not those on the moon itself. We’re going to central Africa. There isn’t really a mountain range specifically named

Episode 392 Ophiolites

Today’s episode focuses on one of those wonderful jargon words geologists love to use: Ophiolites. It’s not a contrived term like cactolith nor some really obscure miner

Episode 391 Valles Marineris

In today's episode we’re going to space. Specifically, Mars. You didn’t really think that earth science is really limited to the earth, did you? Our topic today will be t

Episode 390 Mud Volcanoes

As the name implies, mud volcanoes are eruptions of mud – not molten rock as in igneous volcanoes.  They’re found all around the world, amounting to about a thousand in t

Cretaceous and Cenozoic Vertebrates compilation

Smilodon and dire wolves (drawing by Robert Horsfall, 1913) Running time, 1 hour. File size, 69 megabytes. This is an assembly of the episodes in the original series f

Triassic and Jurassic Vertebrates compilation

Morganucodon, a possible early mammal from the Late Triassic. Length about four inches.Drawing by FunkMonk (Michael B. H.) used under Creative Commons license.  Running

Episode 389 Vanadium

Vanadium is a metal, and by far its greatest use is in steel alloys, where tiny amounts of vanadium improve steel’s hardness, toughness, and wear resistance, especially a

Episode 388 Folds in Algeria

You may have seen some of the spectacular images of the earth in southern Algeria, curves and colors like some Picasso in the opposite of his cubist period. If you haven’

Episode 387 Geology of Beer

It isn’t true that all geologists drink beer. But many do, and I’m one of them. Today I’m going to talk about the intimate connection between geology and beer. Beer is

Paleozoic Vertebrates compilation

Ganoid fish from an old textbook (public domain) Running time, 1 hour. File size, 70 megabytes. This is an assembly of the 15 episodes in the original series from 2014