Geokittehs in the New York Times!

Geokittehs featured in the Science section of the New York Times!

For those of you who don’t know, in addition to Georneys I also have a blog about geology and cats (yes, cats) called Geokittehs. In this somewhat silly blog I share pictures of cats and think up geological principles that are being illustrated by the cats. The primary purpose of the blog is to share adorable cat pictures. If I teach a little geology along the way, that’s great, too! I write Geokittehs along with my dear friend Dana Hunter, who is a fellow cat-lover and also blogs about geology for Scientific American.

I am very excited to share that Geokittehs was recently featured in the Science section of the New York Times (see the paragraph titled “Gneiss Kitty”), both online and in print. Dana and I are quite shocked that Geokittehs was featured in the New York Times, but of course we’re thrilled! Dana has already blogged about the feature here and here.

I haven’t seen a copy of the Geokittehs write-up in the New York Times yet. I had trouble finding a copy of the paper here in South Africa, but fortunately a couple of American friends have promised to save the paper for me. However, Dana and her geokitteh Misha managed to track down a copy of the paper. Here they are posing with it:

Dana, Misha, and Geokittehs in the New York Times!

To celebrate Geokittehs being in the New York Times, I thought I would share ten of my favorite Geokittehs posts here on Georneys. In no particular order, they are:

1. Under Pressure

2. Catinental Drift

3. Cat Ichnology: The Marks of Misha

4. Catrusions

5. The Progression of a Night of Thesis Writing

6. Steep-Angle Subduction Kitteh

7. Stalacatite

8. A-cat-ionary Wedge

9. Physicatal Weathering

10. Angular Uncomformkitty

Geokittehs also has a Schrödinger’s cat series. So, wander over to Geokittehs and enjoy the cat pictures…. with a side of science!

Accretionary Wedge #57: Seeing Geology Everywhere

Pandora_annotated copy — Pandora the cat illustrating a normal fault. Taken from Geokittehs here: http://geokittehs.blogspot.com/2011/10/under-pressure.html.

I’m hosting this month’s Accretionary Wedge. For those of you who don’t know, the Accretionary Wedge is a monthly geoblog carnival which is hosted by various geology bloggers. The host proposes a topic and everyone– from amateur to professional geologist, from brand-new to seasoned blogger– is encouraged to post on the topic. If you have a blog, write a post on this month’s topic and then put a link to the post in a comment below. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to email me your entry (georneysblog AT gmail). Please send your entries through by June 20th. I apologise for the short deadline, but I’d like to compile the posts before I leave for fieldwork in Alaska on June 24th.

Here’s the call for posts:

This month’s Accretionary Wedge topic is “Seeing Geology Everywhere.” Like many geologists, I often see geology in places where there are no rocks. I see landslides and orogenies in messy piles of papers on my desk; I see stratigraphy in my desserts and chemical diffusion in my accompanying cups of tea; I see interference colors in paintings in modern art museums.

My geology vision, so to speak, is heightened when I am especially excited about a geological subject– and when I am working long hours on a geology project. For example, back in 2007 I participated in a 50 day long research cruise along the Ninetyeast Ridge in the Indian Ocean. I worked long shifts describing the rock samples that were dredged up from the ridge. One evening after a particularly long shift, I was brushing my teeth before bed and found myself estimating phenocryst percentages in the speckled linoleum tiles on the bathroom floor.

One (in)famous example of geology vision is Geokittehs, a blog about geology and cats that I started with my friend Dana Hunter two years ago. Yes, for two years I have regularly written a blog about geology as shown through cats in various poses. If that doesn’t qualify as “Seeing Geology Everywhere” I don’t know what does!

Now it’s your turn: Do you see geology in unexpected places? Do you often find yourself viewing the world through geology-tinted glasses? Do you have any adorable cat pictures that could be used to illustrate geology?

Please participate in this month’s Accretionary Wedge! I look forward to reading your entries.

Finally, I think we need some volunteers for future Accretionary Wedge hosts. If you’d like to host, please leave a comment below, and we’ll make the necessary arrangements within the geoblogosphere community.

GeoLOLCats

Dana Hunter, Callan Bentley, and Lockwood DeWitt have started a new geoblog meme– GeoLOLCats! Seems that many geobloggers have adorable kittehs, and we’re LOLing pictures of cats that have geology themes.

If you’re unfamiliar with LOLCats, see here. For the GeoLOLCats, you can see entries here and here, including some LOLs starring my two beautiful cats Samira (calico) and Zayna (black-and-white with a funny mustache). Like cats and geology? Feel free to join us in this meme!

Just this evening, my cat Samira– who is very fluffy– provided me with another great LOLCats pose. Below are the original picture and my LOLed version.

By the way, the booklet Samira is lying on is a “Rocks and Minerals Unit” report that I put together back in 3rd or 4th grade at my Montessori School. I will be featuring some material from this report in future “Blast from the Past” posts. There’s even a (rhyming!) poem about the rock cycle. I was such a nerd, even back in elementary school.

Samira the fluffy, original photo. Woods Hole, MA, May 2011.


Samira the fluffy, LOLed. Woods Hole, MA, May 2011.