I wasn't aware of this one, so I'm trying to spread the word.

Happy 4 yr anniversary of me discovering my hatred for measuring sections of carbonates! But boundstones get a pass as who doesn't like stromatolites?

150 cm long Jacob staff w/ 20 cm increments and 10 cm at the top. Cretaceous age Glen Rose Limestone.

These incredible creatures are a type of Nudibranch known as the Blue glaucus. These deadly assassins  feed on other pelagic creatures including the venomous cnidarian, . Because the sea slug stores stinging nematocysts from the cnidarian within its own tissues, a human picking up the sea slug may receive a very painful sting.

multi colored calcite

Pardon the intrusion I'm just a dyke.

Caves in Sedona,AZ [OC] [3016x 4021] - Author: One_Sabez on Reddit

We have 30 days until the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) laws are rescinded. This is the 50-year bedrock of American conservation. Normally, these actions take years but the administration has provided 30 days for public comment gutting clean water and clean air. Drop what you’re doing, before you make any more calls or read any more social media posts, please populate the Federal Register with dissent.

A. Go to https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/02/25/2025-03014/removal-of-national-environmental-policy-act-implementing-regulations

B. Click on the green rectangle in the upper right corner ("SUBMIT A PUBLIC COMMENT") .

C. Fill in your comment, and info at the bottom, and SUBMIT COMMENT.

I just did that (2/27/2025), and the message on that website said:

The comment period ends March 27, not March 30!!!

I strongly suggest (in your own words) couching your dissent in Trump's (and followers') own rhetoric. Here's what I said:

Removing these regulations will make America sick again, cause neurological and intellectual impairment in children (due to less regulation of lead), and raise the level of preventable cancers in adults (due to less regulation of known carcinogens),thus reducing American productivity and greatness.

Done! It took me two seconds.

Ooids in thin section.

Ooids are spherical bodies of calcium carbonate with an internal structure of concentric layers. Its nucleus can be a fragment of other carbonate material or clastic sediment.

Looking through the database report for a site and got so excited seeing a well marker, except it's several paces away on the neighboring property. It's probably just a pvc pipe with a pump but that perked up my hydrologist brain like a cat hearing treats rattle. It means there's accessible and usable groundwater in the area! The report just says it's good quality. Not sure if it's good for drinking or agriculture/ranching, but it's definitely safe for use.

The water table is also some 40 to 60 inches (1-1.5 m) below the surface, based on the soil type (late pliocene to early pleistocene aged loamy fluviomarine deposits i write that a lot around here). That's quite an easy dig. Always have to control myself in the geology section of an ESA.

Damn that’s crazy, when I see wells in the wild I go oh shit contamination! Because they’re all monitoring wells put in to map the extent of groundwater pollution 💀

rip to all the “fuckyeah___” blogs that carried our society at one point </3

we are in the midst of a true Real One

Dude the fact a COELACANTH blog is the one that survived when the rest died off……..

One of the lesser Vasquez rocks against a distant backdrop of the San Gabriel Mountains. The shiny spots under the lip of the rock appear to be differently colored rocks, and not graffiti as I always think when I get up here.

DOGE just froze funding to vital Federal and Indigenous conservation programs devoted to supporting the very delicate and tenuous existence of the black-footed ferret.

I fell in love with these animals as a kid traveling to our National Parks. Their rarity and ferocity made me sharply aware, even as a child, of just how much of a responsibility we have toward our environment. I can't bear the thought of them being a fucking casualty of Trump and Musk.

Look at them! They do war dances.

Okay I don't want to end this on doom and gloom, so I'm also going to add that the Buffalo Nations Grasslands Alliance was one of the indigenous-lead organizations who were supposed to receive a $1.1 million dollar grant that has since been frozen. But they do have a website and they do accept donations.

Agate Agate Creek, Etheridge Shire, Queensland, Australia

Recently got back from Death Valley, my fifth visit in the last 12 months (I think I like going there…). Not much new stuff on this visit, but I did get to see my first chuckwalla (a large lizard)! Not much as far as wildflowers go this year, they didn’t have as wet of an autumn/winter as in other recent years.

My friend the chuckwalla (Sauromalus ater):

He’s about 30 cm/1 ft long!

My friends the zebra-tailed lizards (Callisaurus draconoides):

On the left is a juvenile. Adult, on right, is about 9 cm/4 inches long excluding tail.

Here’s some geology:

Natural Bridge, the 2nd tallest but widest-spanning natural bridge in the park:

(See wife at center for scale!)

Brine pool out on the salt flats:

About 1.5 meters/5 feet wide

The ever-classic Mosaic Canyon:

Here, Precambrian Noonday Dolomite (white/yellow) metamorphosed into marble and stretched by intense pressure during mountain uplift. Later, that rock was carved into a slot canyon and filled with debris. That happened long enough ago that those debris flow deposits solidified into rock (gray, mosaic-like rock). Then, it was uplifted again and the canyon was re-carved through both the marble and the breccia!

Chalcedony, manganese oxides, Lakeshore Traps, Michigan, photo by Larry Maltby