Monday Geology Picture: A Day in Pompeii

Pompeii_Travis_1 — A plaster cast of the void left by a body that was buried in volcanic ash during the 79 AD eruption of Pompeii. From an exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science, January 2012. Photo courtesy of Travis Roy.

Today’s geology picture is courtesy of my friend Travis, who visited the “A Day in Pompeii” exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science this past weekend. This exhibit looks great and runs through February 12th. If you’re in the Boston area, you should check it out! Unfortunately, I’m going to miss the exhibit since I won’t be back in the Boston area until March. I’m very sad that I’m missing the exhibit. One of these days, I’ll have to take a georney to actual Pompeii. Pompeii is definitely high on my list of geological sites I want to visit.

Here are a couple more pictures from the Boston Museum of Science exhibit, courtesy of Travis:

Pompeii_Travis_2 — Another plaster cast of a void left by a buried body. From an exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science, January 2012. Photo courtesy of Travis Roy.

Pompeii_Travis_3 — A pile of bones. From an exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science, January 2012. Photo courtesy of Travis Roy.

A Year of Travel: 2010

I am relatively new to the geoblogging scene, but several geobloggers– such as Callan Bentley over at Mountain Beltway and Jessica Ball over at Magma Cum Laude— have posted a summary of their year of travel. I love travel, so I think I will continue their year-end tradition here at Georneys. Thanks to other geobloggers for the idea!

I am very fortunate to have the ability and opportunity to travel often, both for my work and for my personal life. Below is a summary of my 2010 travels. I’ve blogged about a few of these most recent travels. Perhaps I will blog about some of the others in the coming year, particularly since I plan to spend most of my time in lab and then writing up my thesis so that I can graduate!

December 2009 – January 2010: South Africa & Oman
My fiance Jackie lives in his native South Africa, so we commute between Cape Cod and Cape Town to see each other. My advisors are fortunately wonderful about letting me periodically work on my thesis from South Africa. I traveled to South Africa in December 2009 to spend the holidays with Jackie and his family. At the end of December, Jackie and I flew to Oman for a month of fieldwork for my thesis research. Jackie came along as my field assistant. We then flew back to South Africa, where I spent another week before returning to Cape Cod.

Jackie, an elephant, and I, Knysna, South Africa, December 2009.


Overly excited about the village of Beer Jam, Oman, January 2010.

Early morning camel trek, Oman, January 2010.

May 2010: New York City & Wyoming
Jackie came to visit me in May for two weeks. I had to work, but one of the things I needed to do was drive down to Columbia University to pick up some Oman rocks and visit with colleagues. Jackie joined me on this trip, and we spent a long weekend in New York City. After Jackie left, I flew out to Laramie, Wyoming to spend a week visiting one of my advisors, who is now a scientist at the University of Wyoming.

The incredibly American photo, New York City, May 2010.

Dinosaur statue outside of the University of Wyoming Geology Museum. Image taken from here.

June 2010: Switzerland, Italy, and Tennessee
In early June, I went on a 10-day geology field trip to The Alps (Switzerland & Italy) as part of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Geodynamics course. Directly after this field trip, I went to present my research at the Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference in Knoxville, Tennessee.

A snowy hike to the rocks, The Alps, June 2010.

Knoxville Convention Center. Image taken from here.

July 2010: Las Vegas
In July I took a quick weekend trip out to Las Vegas, Nevada for The Amaz!ng Meeting 8.

The Amazing One and I, Las Vegas, July 2010.

September 2010: South Africa
I spent the month of September writing my thesis from South Africa. We mostly stayed in Cape Town, but my fiance and I did take a brief trip up to the gorgeous Cederberg Mountains.

Cederberg Mountains, South Africa, September 2010.

October 2010: Falls Church
On my way back from South Africa, I flew home via Washington, DC so that I could attend the 82nd birthday party of an incredible person- my dear friend and mentor James “The Amazing” Randi. Randi survived a cancer scare this year, so the party was a special one. The small, elegant birthday party- held in Falls Church, Viriginia- was wonderful!

Randi, my mom, and I, Falls Church, VA, October 2010.

November 2010: Costa Rica
As I blogged about here, in November I attended the wedding of two good friends at the Arenal Volcano Observatory Lodge in Costa Rica.

Arenal volcano, Costa Rica, November 2010.

December 2010: San Francisco
Finally, in December I attended the American Geophysical Union Fall Conference in San Francisco, California as I blogged about here and here.

Chinatown, San Francisco, December 2010.

Phew! That’s a fair amount of travel for one year, even if several of the trips were just weekend or extended weekend trips. This next year, I anticipate traveling more to Wyoming and South Africa and perhaps also to San Francisco again for AGU. Otherwise, I will be in Woods Hole working on my thesis…

Happy New Year to you all!

Field Animal Favorites

If I were not a geologist, I think I would be a zoologist or would go to graduate school to study animal behavior. I really like animals. I limit myself to two housecats because I like to travel and animals require you to stay home and take care of them. However, a part of me wants a whole zoo… in my one bedroom apartment. I think this runs in the family. My grandmother has six cats, three dogs, fifteen horses, several cows, peacocks, and some goats. She used to have a three-legged goat that lived in her house with her. My sister has two ferrets, many lizards, and fish. My sister also breeds (yes, breeds) tarantulas. Yes, my sister is cool and bad-ass. My parents currently only have two cats and a dog, but when I was growing up we also had nine guinea pigs and myriad hermit crabs and fish.

Fortunately, in my geological wanderings I often come across field animals… so I will probably continue to limit myself to the two cats. This weekend I am mired in histograms and models and putting together my AGU (American Geophysical Union, a big annual geology conference) poster. I like analyzing data, but it can be a bit tiring sometimes. So, to take a quick break from data analysis and poster-making, here are some of my favorite field animals I’ve run across on geology trips. From camels to coatis to streetcats, they all make me happy.

Bison, Sheep, Goats, and Camels… Oh My!