Mi(ni)Geo

Necrópolis (ventanillas) de Otuzco, en Cajamarca. (Taken with instagram)

Spaghetti Rock (by subarcticmike)

Aphebian-aged marble exercising its ductility.

There wasn’t much color photography in Darwin’s day, so all the photos we have of him are in black and white (or sepia). Here’s a site with some skillful retouching of old photos to add color…and a new version of a familiar image. (vía Pharyngula)

Researcher Noah Planavsky, in quest of samples, hangs tight on a black shale exposure in China. Credit: Chu Research Group, Chinese Academy of Sciences. (via NSF)

This handout photo provided by Darryl Pitt of the Macovich Collection shows an external view of a Martian meteorite recovered in December 2011 near Foumzgit, Morocco following a meteorite shower believed to have occurred in July 2011. Scientists are confirming a recent and rare invasion from Mars _ meteorite chunks that fell from the red planet over Morocco last summer. Meteorites from Mars are more than 1 million times rarer than gold. And this is only the fifth time experts have chemically confirmed fresh Martian rocks fell to Earth. The last time was in 1962. Scientists believe this meteorite fell last July because there were sightings of it. Credit: Darryl Pitt, Macovich Collection (vía The Associated Press)

3D animation - Mediterranean isolation and desiccation during the Messinian Salinity Crisis (by daniggcc)

Geography of the Gibraltar Arc during the early stages of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (the period of restricted connection between the Mediterranean and the Altlantic). The interpretation by Garcia-Castellanos & Villaseñor (2011, Nature) proposes that, at a depth of about 100 km, a piece of dense lithosphere detached from Iberia and sunk in the Earth’s mantle. As a result, southern Iberia uplifted and the seaways that connected both seas emerged, This uplift had to compete with the erosion produced by the inflow of Atlantic water into the Med, allowing a long-lived inflow that explains the enormous amount of salt precipitated in the bottom of the Mediterranean. The lack of oceanic water supply and the arid climate of the Mediterranean sea both lead to a drawdown of its level. This video visualizes the interpretation of a research published in Nature in Dec. 2011, but not all of its contents is part yet of a consensus among specialists. More outreach info in this blog post.

This striking photograph from the International Space Station features two examples of circular landscape features—labeled as craters—that were produced by very different geological processes. (vía NASA Earth Observatory)

Southwest No 72 (vía adolfo_isassi)

The American Southwest. Copyright: Adolfo Isassi.

Gullies in Bloom (by Lunar and Planetary Institute)

This observation shows mid-latitude-type gullies and dark and light materials. There are dunes in this crater as well (east of the gully aprons). One of the more stunning features is the gully formation right outside the center swath of the full image. ASU-IPF-3254

Gold ore (Callion/Australia). Native gold in association with colloform goethite indicates contemporaneous precipitation. Width of micro-photo corresponds to approx. 250 microns. (via Geneva Ore Deposits Group)

just-breezy:

Poas Volcano -Costa Rica (by dvaires)

Fig. 11 in M. Mángano & L. Buatois, Palaeontologia Electronica, 14, 2, 9A (2011): Thalassinoides isp., early to middle Arenigian Acoite Formation, Azul Pampa, Jujuy Province. Specimenhoused at Instituto Miguel Lillo, University of Tucuman, PIL 12578. Coin is 1.8 cm wide.

A double magma bubble, about 1 ½ feet across at its base, emerges from the vent that scientists named Hades at the West Mata volcano. (vía University of Washington)

Uummannaq Island seen from the east in the evening. (via Jason Box)

Dune Migration 2 (by afmik)

SUNY Genseo Dept. of Geological Science