This formed next to a tree during a hurricane.

Grass disappeared completely. Replaced with a 2" silt layer that has a hard compacted bottom.

It was level and full of grass prior.

It is a high point in the yard.

The earthen profile is 18" of soil with a clay bed than goes on forever. Never came across silt like this in area in the past 25 years.

I posted this in r/weather as well.

I am not a geologist but have great interest and have been researching various geology topics (Sociology graduate who loves research).

Wondering about Petrified Wood because I keep finding small to large chunks in my yard.

For context, I live in north Alabama and have 1.3 acres. The area is densely wooded, never farmed. Indian burial mound about a mile east of me (for context on history of land).

The land behind my house is no-perk, and can't build on it. We moved here almost 20 years ago and it's always been that way. The area north of us is known for their extremely high water table (the neighborhood is referred to as Mush Island). Our water table has risen quite a bit over 20 years. Figured maybe this is why I'm seeing more petrified wood showing up?

In all of my research I'm still left with these questions and was hoping a group of knowledgeable people could possibly help me understand more. We also have an abundance of agate and other stones. I live next to Limestone County (named that for a reason, obviously).

Thoughts? I appreciate any feedback you may have. Thanks in advance!

Hi,

I was looking at batagaika creater where you have 55m walls exposing old geological layer, allowing scientist to find old animals.

But how where they buried? where does all this earth that come on top of them came from?

is it dust from the air that come down with the rain over millions of years? space dust that makes the planet grow? dead threes/animals/insect and poop that accumulates and becomes earth?

Is the planet growing (if it's space dust)? or is it existing matter covering stuff? but then some other places should be loosing matter.

Thanks.

Taken not too far from Cromer, Norfolk, UK.

I worked as a geochemist in Northern Ireland for something called the Tellus Project in 2005. We took soil samples from all over the country. Whilst we were taking them, we had to describe the cores we removed. One day, I took a sample on the edge of this forest and the sample was absolutely filled with spent bullet casings.

My description went something like this- 'clay, silt matrix with ~40%, well sorted, bronze colored 7-8cm bullet casings showing no alignment.'

They were rifle bullets, absolutely HUNDREDS of them in the soil.

No idea how they got there, but I was in Northern Ireland so...

Anyway, just remembered this story, thought you'd like it.

Does anyone know the geological origin of The Alligator? The Alligator is a linear ridge a few miles long and maybe 100 feet high just south of I-10 near Desert Center. There are no volcanoes nearby so I assume it can't be a dike. It's perpendicular to the general northwest-to-southeast trend of most of the mountains in Southern California south of the Transverse Ranges. I drive by it often and it's driving me crazy because I can't find anything about it online.

My mind was blown today when a renowned geologist, Robert Hazen presented the idea that minerals have evolved over the millennia; just like living creatures

Here is a link to the 3 minute interview https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=9gv21AYFFJzPVmBF&v=VQNAEec9W38&feature=youtu.be

It may seem ludicrous but once you listen to him; it makes a bit of sense since we started out with 4000 minerals and that soon became 5200 and soon on and so forth.

If this theory is true; what kinds of minerals might "evolve" in the distant future?

Not sure if this is the correct place for this but my fiancé bought a geode at a mineral and rock show today. Upon cutting it open they found 2 more geodes inside of our large one. We were just curious on how rare or common this was.

Anyone have any examples of Frying pan gulch or Block Mountain cross sections from Montana?

So I recently decided that I want to get into the geology field but I don't remember anything from highschool. So I was wondering if anyone in this sub knew of any online classes that would be helpful before studying geology.

No way right? I thought diamonds were formed with pressure?

I’m starting to get into mineralogy and I wanna start a collection but I’m worried about possibly buying fake samples because I have no idea what to look for. What is the best way to know if a mineral or crystal is fake?

I have about 60lbs worth of rock I’m flying cross country to a mineral separation lab in a few days, due to some mishaps with shipping. Just curious if anyone has any experience with this, I’m concerned about TSA being jerks like they infamously are, and the samples being tossed around in the luggage bag tearing the sample bags they are in, and knocking around, and possibly getting contaminated with zircons/apatites from other rocks (don’t even know if that’s a real concern, first time doing apatite and zircon dating). I want to pad them but then I’m concerned TSA will be inclined to unwrap them to verify what they are.

Does anyone know where I can access 3D files (either shp for GIS, or obj, or any other 3D dataset) of the Siberian Traps?

I'm looking for a subsurface volumetric 3D file, not just the surface layer. It doesn't need to be extremely precise.

My understanding is that soil is formed by weathering of rock which makes complete sense to me but what about in areas that are pretty much completely limestone? I live on Hispaniola in an area dominated almost complete by carst limestone. The soil that is present can grow plants so I know that it contains a variety of minerals but where did those minerals come from? I'm also pretty much at the top of a mountain so it didn't just wash down from higher up.

In places like the Himalayas, Rockies, Andes, which plate does the rock of those mountains come from? Are they part of the Indian continent or the mainland? Or a little of both? Where is the plate boundary? Directly under the mountains or in front of them, behind them?

Why is the location in quemont canada or in the circle popular for its gold mining.

In terms of my current knowledge:

I would understand words like precambrian, palezoic, archaen, magma chamber, hydrothermal water, hydrothermal vent, hot spring, volcanic sulphide deposit (VMS) rocks such as felsic and mafic, precipitate, subduction zones (but there are not subduction zones in the area, however maybe there is gold because it historically has been?), greenstone belt and magmetide/sulphide/gold/pyrite/quartz combination.

However I do not understand how gold is found in greenstone belts or magmetide(shown as red when oxifized)/pyrite/sulphide/gold/quartz combinations.

Also do not really understand how VMS is formed other than maybe the different vms deposits are formed from different distances away from the subduction zones or age such as precambrian?

Been preparing for Mineralogy Olympiad and learning a lot of minerals. It's super helpful and interesting when mineral has a distinct diagnostical feature or features. I would like to know as much of those as possible, thus, I will start. Recently, I liked the fact chrysocolla gets a bit sticky in contact with saliva.

Thinking of subduction zones, were the plates able to "slide" easier when the layers were warmer making the "shock" less? And will Earthquakes get stronger as the planet slowly cool over time?

I hope I'm asking this question right. If the plate is "deeper" because it's "colder" and then more "dense" will more of the mass shake making the quake stronger?

Got taken down from Askreddit

Just a snowboarder that's curious