Monday Geology Picture: Travertine Wall

A decorative travertine stone on a the front of a building in Brisbane, Australia.

Wow, the past couple of months have been busy! I spent most of May and June travelling for work. Life has calmed down now, so it’s time to resume my blogging… and try to stick with it a little better for the rest of the year!

To kick off some blogging, here’s a picture of a beautiful decorative travertine stone on the front of a building. I took this picture earlier today when I was walking around downtown Brisbane, Australia. There are quite a few beautiful decorative stones on various buildings in Brisbane… I’ll have to take some more pictures to share.

In this picture, you can see the various layers that were deposited from natural spring waters over time. The layers have been tilted 90 degrees — they would have originally been flat-lying.

Monday Geology Picture: Pillow Basalt Decor

Lovely pillow basalt, with my hand for scale. The shiny polished surface of the decorative slab made photography a little difficult. Photo taken April 2019.

This week I’m sharing a picture of a lovely pillow basalt decorative slab that is part of the decor in the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia. In this slab, you can see pillow shapes outlined by lovely glass rinds, which formed when the basaltic lava rapidly cooled because it was erupted underwater.

I just love this decorative slab — who wouldn’t want to decorate with beautiful pillow basalt?!

Monday Geology Picture: More Airport Geology

A set of decorative stones adorning a column, with airport signage shown in the reflection.

I’m traveling again this week (4 weeks of travel in a row!), so today I’m sharing another picture of some “airport geology”. Specifically, this is a picture of some gorgeous decorative stones adorning a column at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa. I took this picture yesterday when I was passing through the airport. I particularly like the way the block of rock was split and the set up in a symmetrical fashion to enhance the effect of the natural patterns in the rock. There are quite a few similar sets of decorative stones around the airport — they adorn many support columns throughout the airport.

O.R. Tambo is full of gorgeous decorative stones. Last week I shared a shot of part of the floor.

Monday Geology Picture: Airport Geology

Lovely decorative stones adorning the airport floor, with my feet for scale.

I travel a lot for my job, and I often find myself traveling through O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa. The terminal buildings contain some lovely decorative stones, which I often admire as I’m navigating my way through the airport. For example, while I was waiting for my luggage today I admired, as I have before, some of the lovely decorative stones that make up part of the floor in the domestic baggage claim area. These stones really are gorgeous, as you can see in the above picture. Check out all of the different hues: pink granitic rocks, gray gneiss rocks, dark black rocks (gabbro, perhaps?), and lovely yellow rocks (another type of igneous rock) — a rock rainbow of sorts! What rock types do you spot?

Monday Geology Picture: Green Countertop

A pretty green decorative rock forms the countertop in my hotel room bathroom. Click to enlarge. Apologies for the poor cell phone camera picture with flash!

I’m traveling for business at the moment and living out of hotel rooms for a week or so. My current hotel room has a pretty green rock for the bathroom countertop. It’s most likely a green soapstone of some sort. Can anyone identify those interesting black minerals?

Monday Geology Picture: Rocks on a Shelf

Like many geologists, I like to decorate with rocks. This week’s “Monday Geology Picture” features some rocks on a shelf in my living room. There’s many more rocks on this shelf — this picture just shows a few of them. What do you spot in this picture? Among other things, I see an orthoceras fossil, some volcanic pumice, a botryoidal carbonate rock, a rock with a vein of gabbro, sandstone concretions, and some chert.

Monday Geology Picture(s): Decorative Stones in the O.R. Tambo International Airport

Kempton Park-20111115-00024 — Some of the gorgeous decorative stones at O.R. Tambo International Airport.

Today I am going to share some pictures of decorative stones adorning the O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa. I’ve flown through O.R. Tambo a dozen times or more, and I always appreciate the beautiful decorative stones that are found throughout the airport. I took the pictures in this post from the area around the security check-in for the international terminal. I apologize that the quality of these pictures isn’t fantastic. I took these photos somewhat slyly with my Blackberry phone, and I didn’t pause for too long to examine the decorative stones. The security guards look at you suspiciously when you start investigating the walls of the terminal too carefully.

I don’t know much about these decorative stones or where they came from– can anyone provide me with more information on them? All I know is that they are GORGEOUS and make my layovers in the airport much more enjoyable.