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!

Monday Geology Picture: A Geological View at DisneySea, Japan

Geology_DisneySeaJapan — Some fake geology at DisneySea, Japan. Photo courtesy of Jimmy Elsenbeck.

This week’s Monday Geology Picture is courtesy of my friends Jimmy and Vera, who recently visited Japan. In addition to seeing some real volcanoes, they also saw a fake volcano and some fake geology at DisneySea, a marine themed Disney park in Tokyo. The scenery includes some spectacular– if fake– columnar jointing.

Monday Geology Picture(s): Views from the World’s Tallest Building, Dubai

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — The Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building. It's difficult to fit the building into one picture!

I’m continuing this week with sharing pictures from my January 2012 trip to visit my friend Karima in the United Arab Emirates. I mostly stayed with Karima and her family in Abu Dhabi, but one day we took a drive over to Dubai. While there, we visited the impressive Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building in the world. Here on Georneys I often like to post Plane Views or images of the Earth as viewed from an airplane. Well, some of the photographs that I took from the observation deck near the top of the Burj Khalifa certainly resemble plane views! I took some shots of the city of Dubai far below. I certainly found the views very impressive! I wish that I could have a Burj Khalifa– or an airplane, I suppose– that I could take with me anywhere in the world for such fantastic aerial views of the Earth’s landscape.

Proposed Geomeme: Signposts!

CIMG3713 — Me posing with many signposts on Martha's Vineyard in 2008.

This weekend I’m spending some time scheduling some things to autopost here on Georneys while I’m in the field. Due to some delays, I’m not exactly sure when I’ll be leaving. However, sometime in the next couple of weeks I’ll be departing for Alaska for approximately 2 months. I may not have much time for blogging while I’m in the field, but I’ll try to schedule enough things to autopost that my blog readers won’t completely forget me. The “Monday Geology Picture” posts will certainly appear as always.

While I was browsing through some pictures for my weekly picture posts, I ran across a few pictures such as the one above. That is, I ran across pictures of me posing with posts covered with signs indicating the directions and distances to various notable locations. Not always perfectly accurate, these features are mostly tourist attractions, I think. I’m not sure what these features are called– does anyone know if they have a name? Lacking another name, I’ll refer to them as “signposts”.

I always enjoy posing with signposts and make a point of doing so. I think they make for fun pictures. Does anyone else have signpost pictures to share? Let’s make a geomeme of it!

Monday Geology Picture(s): Gold Vending Machine, Dubai

This week I’m continuing with sharing some pictures from my January 2012 trip to visit my friend Karima in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. One day we drove over to Dubai for some sightseeing. We drove around, did some shopping, and visited the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. When we were at the Burj Khalifa, I noticed a strange vending machine: one that sells gold! Specifically, the vending machine sells small souvenir gold bars with a picture of the Burj Khalifa on them. Those are some expensive souvenirs! I’m afraid I couldn’t afford one… although I did try out the golden dessert at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi.

Monday Geology Picture(s): A Geologist’s Dream Bathroom, Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi

This week I’m continuing with sharing some pictures from my January 2012 trip to visit my friend Karima in Abu Dhabi. During our fancy lunch at the Emirates Palace Hotel, we went to the women’s bathroom, which I immediately referred to as “a geologist’s dream bathroom” because of all of the beautiful decorative stones.

Geologists, what types of stones would you put in your dream bathroom?

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.

Monday Geology Picture(s): Golden Dessert at the Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi

For this week’s “Monday Geology Picture” post, I’m continuing with sharing some pictures from my trip to the United Arab Emirates in January 2012. I’ve already shared some pictures of kayaking in Abu Dhabi and of the stunning decorative stones of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

One day while I was in Abu Dhabi, my friend Karima and I went to the impressive and opulent Emirates Palace Hotel. According to Wikipedia, this elaborate hotel cost 3.9 BILLION British Pounds to build, making it the second most expensive hotel ever built. The most expensive hotel ever built is apparently the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. One of the reasons that the Emirates Palace Hotel was so expensive to build is the fact that it is covered in stunning (and likely quite expensive!) decorative building stones. The stonework isn’t as elaborate as the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, but there is certainly much gorgeous stonework at the hotel.

Karima and I didn’t stay at the hotel– we couldn’t afford it, most likely! Rather, we went for a fancy lunch, which was fairly expensive but a fun treat for a girls’ day out. We started with a mixture of savory snacks: Western style tea sandwiches and Middle Eastern style pita bread, hummus, and falafel. Then, we ordered a chocolate treat to share. To our delight and amazement, the chocolate treat was sprinkled with gold leaf.

The gold leaf was very pretty on the dessert. However, if you think about it, eating gold leaf is absurd: it’s very expensive, and it has no taste. Eating gold (at least the purified gold used for food items) won’t hurt you, but it doesn’t have any nutritional value. Nevertheless, considering that we were enjoying lunch at the world’s second most expensive hotel, eating a gold leaf decorated chocolate dessert seemed appropriate. Although the gold leaf didn’t contribute to the flavor, the dessert tasted heavenly; it was one of the best desserts I’ve ever eaten. Kudos to the bakers and chefs.

After lunch, Karima and I walked around the parts of the hotel where visitors are allowed. I’ll share some more pictures from the hotel, including many pictures of some of the beautiful decorative stones, in future blog posts.

GoldenDessert1 — Karima and I, posing with our golden dessert.

Decorative Stones of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi – Part II

After putting up my recent blog post Decorative Stones of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque – Part I, I decided to write to the mosque to inquire about the lithologies and origins of the various decorative stones. I promptly received this reply from Michelle Sabti, the Chief Tour Guide for the mosque:

Greetings to you Evelyn from the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Center!

Thank you for your email, we are glad that your tour and experience with us was such a positive and memorable one!

I can provide you with the list of many of the marbles and semi-precious stones that were used in the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque construction. I trust this assists you.

The different types of major marble supplied on site:

–              SIVEC Supplier FHL Country of Origin Greece/Macedonia

–              LASA Supplier Lasa Quarry Country of Origin Italy

–              MAKARANA Supplier Country of Origin India

–              AQUABIANCA Country of Origin Italy

–              BIANCO P Supplier Carrara Country of Origin Italy

–              MING GREEN Supplier UMGG Country of Origin China

–              EAST WHITE Supplier UMGG Country of Origin China

In the external columns the stones used are:

–              1)     Dark Lapis lazuli

–              2)     Light Lapis lazuli

–              3)     Red Agate

–              4)     Dark Amethyst

–              5)     Light Amethyst

–              6)     Dark Green Adventure

–              7)     Light Green Adventure

–              8)     Moss Agate

–              9)     Pink Adventure

–              10)   Dark Red Adventure

–              11)   Light Red Adventure

–              12)   Abalone Shell

–              13)   White Mother of Pearl

–              14)   Fancy Jasper

–              15)   Sodalite

–              16)   Haqiq Red

–              17)   All Veins in Leaves: White Jambu

–              18)   Mehndi Pfizer

Have a great day!

I am very grateful to Michelle for providing this information about the decorative stones.

I recognize many of the stone types such as:

I’m not sure about the lithology of the “adventure” (or the “white jambu” or “mehndi pfizer”) stones. I presume that these are names for decorative stones provided by a particular supplier– or possibly “adventure” could be referring to adventurine. I think that the “haqiq red” stone may be carnelian. I also noticed some green serpentine rocks around the mosque. Likely the green marble contains plenty of serpentine!

It is important to bear in mind that often decorative building stones are given names that are different from the actual lithologies. For example, a variety of rocks are sold as “granite” without actually being real granite! That’s because everyone wants granite countertops– even when other types of stones are just as good as (and often rarer and more beautiful than!) granite. Thus, some of the decorative stones used in the mosque could possibly have rock names that differ from the true (i.e. scientifically accurate) rock names.

Perhaps next time I visit Abu Dhabi (which I hope to do before too long!) I can inquire further about the decorative stones used in the mosque. I’d certainly love to learn even more about these beautiful building stones!

Mosque4 — Detail of one of the stone flowers.

Again, I highly recommend visiting the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque if you ever find yourself in Abu Dhabi. I was very impressed with my (free!) tour and also impressed with the mosque’s quick reply to my inquiry email about the decorative stones. Above and beyond that, the mosque is the most stunning building that I have ever visited — it is a truly awe-inspiring place.

Decorative Stones of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi – Part I

UPDATE: See Part II for some more information on the decorative stones used in the mosque.

After sharing my mangrove kayaking pictures for this week’s “Monday Geology Picture” post, I thought I would share some more pictures from my January 2012 trip to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The day after kayaking, my friend Karima and I visited the stunningly beautiful and elaborate Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. This impressive mosque was built for an estimated $545 million USD, is the size of 5 football fields, and can accommodate 40,000 worshipers. The mosque was built over many years and opened in 2007. The mosque welcomes tourists as well as Islamic worshipers. For our visit to the mosque, Karima and I donned conservative, respectful clothing (long skirts, long sleeves, and headscarves) and joined a tour group. The mosque is breath-taking– it was hard to believe, sometimes, that it was real. At times, I felt as if we had stepped into a magical world. I greatly enjoyed my visit to the mosque and highly recommend the tour to anyone visiting Abu Dhabi.

During the tour, I spent much of my time admiring the decorative building stones, which come in all colors, shapes, and lithologies and were likely sourced from all over the world. The primary building stone used in the mosque is a stunning white marble. I tried to identify the other decorative stones when I could. How many stones can you identify? Where do you think the stones might be from? Leave a comment below!