Academic Dress Parade!

Several days ago, I shared some pictures of me in my PhD regalia, and I asked people to share with me pictures of academic dress so that I could host an academic dress parade here on Georneys.

For those of you who are not familiar, academic dress consists of fancy robes and hats and such that used to be worn daily or regularly by students and professors but which are now generally only worn for formal ceremonies such as graduations. Academic dress is very diverse. Countries, schools, and even departments have their own individual styles of academic dress, and the dress also varies to indicate the level of degree earned by an individual (PhDs and DScs usually wear doctoral hoods, for instance). Since academic dress is so diverse, I thought it would be fun to share some pictures here. I’m still looking for more pictures of academic dress (particularly some of the more elaborate dress styles with fur and lace and really crazy hats), so please continue to send pictures to georneysblog AT gmail. I can always host a second parade!

I think it’s wonderful to celebrate academic dress. In these days when students and professors are more likely to wear jeans than a tie, I find the academic dress a fascinating throwback to times when dress was much more elaborate. Today, academic dress looks delightfully ridiculous… as if all the students and professors are dressed up for a Harry Potter movie, perhaps.

I recently attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduation ceremony (I received my PhD in Marine Geology), and the graduation speaker this year was an MIT alum named Salman Khan. During his speech, Khan compared MIT to Hogwarts:

As long as I could remember, to anyone who would listen to me, I’ve told people that MIT is the closest thing on this planet Earth to Hogwarts, to Harry Potter’s wizarding school. That the – the ideas and research and the science that percolate behind these walls — that’s the closest thing to magic in the real world, and frankly, to people outside this campus it looks like magic. The faculty we have these are the leading wizards of our time, the Dumbledores and McGonagalls (I guess, President Hockfield, you would be McGonagall). The halls here they have secret passages and tunnels, and around every corner there are strange and bizarre magical objects and creatures, some of whom may finish their thesis this decade. Maybe a few in the audience.

I’d argue that Khan’s remarks apply not only to MIT but also to many other research universities. While a bit ridiculous, perhaps Harry Potter style robes are appropriate attire for the “leading wizards of our time.”

Without further ado, here’s the dress parade!

I’ll start off the parade in my academic dress for my PhD in Marine Geology from the Joint Program in Oceanography / Applied Ocean Science & Engineering between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution:

I describe the dress as well as my doctoral hooding and graduation ceremonies in detail in this post.

In similar attire, here is my friend Einat Lev, who graduated with a PhD from the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at MIT:

Hooded — Einat, showing off her doctoral hood.

You’ll notice that Einat’s hood has red and gray colors (MIT’s school colors) while my hood has red, gray, and blue colors. The extra blue is to represent the joint program with WHOI. Here’s another photo of Einat, eager to remove the very hot robes!

It is sooo hot in this gawn!!! — The MIT PhD robes are rather warm for June weather in Cambridge!

Continuing the parade, here is Matthew Francis in his academic dress for his PhD in Physics and Astronomy from Rutgers University:

Here is Jenny Holden, decked out in her undergraduate and PhD academic dress:

SOAS_BA — Jenny in her undergraduate robes.

PHD_hat — Jenny in her stylish PhD regalia.

PhD Presentation July 110001 (2) — Jenny at her PhD graduation.

Jenny provided some detailed information about her academic dress and graduation ceremonies:

I got my undergrad and PhD from the University of London but different colleges (SOAS and King’s). I chose to have a University of London PhD and academic dress over the King’s robes as although the latter were designed by Vivienne Westwood— they don’t have a detachable hood, which you can wear when singing in certain church choirs and preaching in some places (an option I may want to take up). There are nine pages describing University of London academic dress more interesting pictures.

The gowns are fairly heavy and warm (good in Winter not so much in July), but my supervisor’s (who got his PhD at Cornell) seemed warmer and velvet like!

I hired all mine but can buy the hood at a later date if I wish. We don’t have any robing ceremony, you are dressed by the gown hire people and don’t wear hats [see hat picture above] for ceremonies.
My PhD ceremony in July last year was with undergraduates so we had our degree titles and names read out as we walked across the stage as opposed to just our names (which undergrads get). We had
a couple of honorary doctorates awarded at my ceremony including Terry Pratchett!

My undergrad ceremony is memorable as I graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies, so the music before, during and after reflected this (Shone funeral music, Sephardic singing, Chinese strings and a Japanese Buddhist nose flute where the player wears a basket over their head!), after 3 years at SOAS the graduands are used to it but our parents not so much.

All undergrads in the UK have black gowns, with the colours on the hood denoting different subjects in groupings such as Science, Arts, LLB (or law) etc. The Masters gowns have different colour ribbons but are still black. In Scotland (where I work now) the PhD students where a different kind of cap called the John Knox cap.

I have to say the most striking PhD gown was worn in the academic procession for my PhD and we think it came from a Scandinavian university and looked like a knight’s outfit.

Note: If you know of anyone who owns Scandanavian knight academic dress, please tell them to email me a picture for our next dress parade!

Moving along, here are some pictures of my fellow geoblogger Chris Rowan in his academic dress during his PhD graduation from the University of Southampton in 2007:

ChrisJpeg2 — Chris in his doctoral robes and with his diploma. He looks very happy in this picture!

ChrisJpeg1 — The back of the Southampton doctoral regalia.

ChrisJpeg3 — Chris with his PhD supervisor Andy Roberts.

Here’s a picture of Tannis McCartney, another fellow geoblogger, in her MSc robes for her recent graduation from the Department of Geoscience at the University of Calgary:

Here are some pictures from Anna Pertuu, yet another geoblogger, decked out in her undergraduate academic dress from Western Washington University and her MSc academic dress from the University of Alaska Fairbanks:

WWU_BS — Anna in her undergraduate academic dress... posing with an interesting sculpture!

uaf_MS — Anna in her MSc academic dress.

uaf_sea — A sea of students in academic dress.

Anna wrote a little explanation of her academic dress:

I have two photos for you! the first is my undergrad and second is my masters!

WWU: I got a BS in Geology and as part of the College of Sciences and Technologies we had a yellow tassel. Just the tassel and the black rope, that was it.

UAF: I got a MS in Geophysics and for this one the black gown had different sleeves for the masters candidates (I contemplated putting a book in one to read….) and I think everyone had the same tassels in the schools colors. The cape thing was colored for colleges and mine was yellow for College of Natural Science and Mathematics.

You can also see that I got very pale living in Alaska! 🙂 I am exited to see all the photos! Oh and I am sneaking in a photo of me against a see of other grads! It’s just too fun!

Here are some pictures of my high school friend Taylor in academic dress during her graduation from the University of Arizona with an MSc degree in library science:

grad 2 — A view of Taylor's academic dress from the front.

Here’s a picture of Aimee, another high school friend of mine, in her doctoral regalia. Aimee is a real medical doctor! She recently obtained her degree in medicine from the University of Washington:

DSCN5720 — My friend Aimee is on the right in this picture. Looking good, Aimee!

Moving along with the dress parade, here are pictures of Scott, another friend of mine. These pictures show Scott graduating with his degrees in BSEE (Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering) and MSEE (Master of Science in Electrical Engineering) from Tufts University. These pictures were taken back in the 1980s.

Last, but definitely not least, here are some pictures of Cholisina in her academic dress for her graduation from Brawijaya University in East Java, Indonesia:

academic dress 1 — A view of the Brawijaya University academic dress, with some helpful annotations by Cholisina.

di mipa — Cholisina with other graduating students in her department.

Cholisina wrote some explanation of the academic dress at Brawijaya (note: I’ve corrected the English very slightly):

I’ve attached some phothos of my graduation day.
Actually, we have little bit different in toga’s [robe’s] collar to determine whre he/she graduate from. If me, because I gradute from Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, it will be blue colour in my toga’s collar (the other that I remember is Green for graduate from Medical Faculty and red for gradute from Law Faculty).
If he/she graduate in Undergraduate level, it will be square shape in the back, but for master and PhD have triangle shape one.

That’s all the pictures I have for this academic dress parade! Thanks to everyone who sent me pictures. Please let me know if I’ve forgotten to include any pictures or if you have additional pictures you’d like to share. Again, I’d be happy to host a second academic dress parade in the future!

Doctoral Regalia: MIT/WHOI Style

047 — All decked out in my doctoral regalia.

Almost three weeks ago I participated in the doctoral hooding and commencement ceremonies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). During these ceremonies, I received my doctoral hood and my diploma, which I earned for my PhD in Marine Geology, a degree which was jointly awarded by MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). During the course of planning for and participating in these ceremonies, I found myself fascinated by the traditions associated with these ceremonies. I found myself particularly fascinated by the doctoral regalia and other forms of academic dress, which are the fancy robes worn by the faculty members and graduates in the ceremonies.

I think I found myself fascinated by the academic dress because the standard dress for students and professors– at least in the geology departments at MIT and WHOI– is fairly casual. Personally, I generally wore shorts, t-shirts, and sandals in the summertime and jeans, t-shirts, sweaters, and sneakers in the wintertime during my time at MIT and WHOI. This sort of clothing is more-or-less what most people in the departments wear. At both institutions, it was not uncommon for me to encounter people in exercise clothes or field clothes or old painting clothes, recently covered in dirt and mud from some rock or core sampling project. Occasionally, I wore fancier clothes. I wore slightly nicer attire (perhaps a skirt or just nicer shoes and a nicer shirt with jeans) for classroom presentations, and I wore full-out “dress attire” (a simple suit or a dress with a nice sweater or jacket) for my qualifying exams, committee meetings, presentations to the trustees, and for my PhD defense. Given the fairly casual attire worn around the geology (and many other) departments, I found it delightful and somewhat humorous to see my classmates and faculty members decked out in elaborate doctoral regalia, complete with fancy velvet and tassles and bright colors.

A few weeks ago, I thought I might do a little research on academic dress and then write up a post on such dress, perhaps with a focus on doctoral regalia. However, after a few minutes of google searching, I found myself overwhelmed with information about academic dress. Academic dress comes in all shapes and sizes and colors, and each country– even each institution– seems to have its own particular set of rules for academic dress. Thus, I think I’ll abandon my pursuit to write a detailed post about academic dress. Instead, I’ll just provide a little bit of basic information about the dress and then will focus this post on the doctoral regalia which I recently wore.

I’d also like to present a call for pictures. I think it would be great to compile a bunch of pictures of people in their academic dress, so if you have a photo of you in your dress, please email it to georneysblog AT gmail with a little bit of information about the dress (perhaps provide the name of the school and the degree and any information about what various parts of the attire might represent). I’ll compile the pictures, and we’ll have an academic dress parade here on Georneys. If you prefer, you’re welcome to post pictures of your academic dress on your own website or blog, and I can just link to your post.

I’ll start the academic dress parade with some pictures of my MIT /WHOI doctoral regalia and a description of the ceremonies in which I participated. MIT has a great webpage here which gives a little bit of history about academic dress in America and then describes the MIT academic dress. My academic dress journey started when I had to make a decision about whether I wanted to buy or rent the doctoral robes. Purchasing the doctoral robes from the official MIT store costs over $700. Renting the doctoral robes from the MIT store is still fairly expensive– about $170– although you are allowed to keep the fancy gray hat with the tassle. You also are allowed to keep your doctoral hood, which is presented to you at the hooding ceremony. Various knock-off MIT doctoral regalia can be purchased or rented for less money. A word of advice about that: DO NOT purchase or rent the knock-offs… or at least make sure you inspect the quality of the knock-offs prior to the ceremony. I saw some terrible looking knock-off robes during the hooding and commencement ceremonies. Some of the cheap knock-off robes started to fall apart during the ceremony– the stripes on the sleeves were actually peeling off in some cases. Although expensive, the official MIT gowns definitely look MUCH better than the knock-offs. Of course, for awhile I contemplated purchasing this $20 Harry Potter costume, which could probably pass as doctoral regalia… and could also be worn with a stylish wand, I suppose.

I contemplating renting verses buying for a few days and then decided to rent my doctoral regalia. While academic dress used to be worn daily (back in the 1700s and 1800s, anyway), these days academic dress is pretty much only worn at fancy ceremonies such as commencement. So, the only time that I might wear my fancy academic regalia in the future would be as a university faculty member participating in graduation and other ceremonies. Several months ago, I decided to leave academia and spend some time working in industry. One day, I may return to academia. However, I don’t see any need for my doctoral regalia in the near future, so I decided to rent the regalia.

I first donned my rented regalia on the morning of Thursday, June 7th. My husband Jackie and I woke up very early– about 5:30 am– so that we could drive from my parents’ house in New Hampshire to the Alewife T-station (subway station) in Boston. We parked the car at Alewife then took the T to the Alewife/Kendall stop, where we visited the MIT COOP to pick up my doctoral regalia. I was worried it might take a long time to pick up the regalia, but the process actually went fairly quickly. We soon headed across campus to the gym, where the doctoral hooding ceremony was going to be held.

As we were walking around outside the gym, a Chinese couple came up to us, and the man said to me, “You are very beautiful. I take a picture?” I was a bit flabbergasted, but I agreed. I ended up taking several pictures with the Chinese man and his wife, who told me (in very broken English) that they were tourists from China and were very excited to be visiting MIT. I’ve encountered many Chinese and other Asian tourists during my years at MIT. Often, the tour groups at MIT are full of Asian tourists. I guess my doctoral robes and I will be shown in some vacation picture slideshows over in China! Being asked to take pictures with the two Chinese tourists reminded me just how special– how beautiful, really– it was to be graduating from MIT. I am very lucky to have had the opportunity to study– and graduate from!– such a world-renowned institution.

Eventually, the Chinese tourists left us alone, and I went inside the gym to line-up. Jackie waited outside to meet my parents, who drove down from New Hampshire a little bit later. After some waiting and some processing, the soon-to-be-doctors made their way into the gym and sat down on the plastic chairs that were lined up. At least, most people sat down on plastic chairs. There were supposed to be 13 chairs in each row, so the ceremony staff members counted out 13 people before starting a new row. However, in the row where I sat there were only 12 chairs because one chair had been taken away to make room for a person in a wheelchair. As we were counted out, my classmates and I tried to protest when 13 people were directed to sit in 12 chairs, but our protests were swiftly dismissed by the stern staff member.

Before we knew it, the procession music had ended, and we were trying to figure out how to sit 13 people in 12 chairs. Fortunately, we were seated by degree, so most of the people sitting in my row were my fellow classmates in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program. Therefore, at least we knew the people to whom we were suddenly a bit too close for comfort. The plastic chairs placed out for the ceremony are not very comfortable to begin with, and they are definitely not comfortable when you are sitting on half of one chair and a quarter of another chair. We giggled and elbowed each other a bit, but otherwise we managed to make ourselves look reasonably presentable for the ceremony despite our 13-people-in-12-chairs situation. At one point, we attempted to steal a chair from a partly-empty row behind us. However, we noticed– just in time– that the chairs were tied together. I imagine we would have caused quite a ruckus had we pulled on the one chair and moved the entire row of chairs. In any case, we survived our seating arrangement, and I managed to enjoy the ceremony despite the uncomfortable seating.

The ceremony was fairly simple. There were a few speeches, and then the names of the 400+ doctoral graduates were read. After a person’s name was read, the person went onto the stage, where he or she received a doctoral hood. Each hood was placed over a student’s head by the chancellor, who was assisted by a representative from the student’s department. My hood was thus placed over my head by the chancellor and by Jim Yoder, who is the Dean of the MIT/WHOI Joint Program. I’ve known Jim for several years, and it was nice to have someone I know investing me with my doctoral hood. If you have any interest, you can watch a video of the hooding ceremony here. I receive my doctoral hood towards the end of the video. On that same website, there are also videos of the next day’s commencement ceremony.

Here’s a picture of me receiving my hood:

And here’s a view of the MIT/WHOI doctoral hoods from the back:

Soon-to-be MIT/WHOI graduates lined up, wearing their doctoral hoods. This picture was taken by my husband at commencement.

Doctoral hoods are somewhat funny garments. From what I can tell, doctoral hoods are not really designed to be worn at hoods. At least, I couldn’t figure out how to cover my head with my hood. Rather, doctoral hoods are worn on the back as a sort of decorative embellishment. The MIT doctoral hoods are black on the outside with a blue velvet strip for PhDs and a yellow velvet stripe for DScs. The inside of the hood is lined with the MIT school colors– red and gray. In addition, the hoods of MIT/WHOI doctors are lined with a stripe of “Old Glory” blue, which can be seen at the bottoms of the hoods in the above picture. The hoods contain a pocket which, as the chancellor explained during the hooding ceremony, “Is big enough for a book or perhaps a sandwich but is too small for an iPad.” Graduates were not permitted to carry purses and other bags for either the hooding or commencement ceremonies. The men generally wore pants with pockets and were able to store their wallets, keys, cell phones, etc. in their pants’ pockets. Most of the women, on the other hand, wore dresses or skirts underneath their robes and had difficulty finding places to store their things. Keys and wallets and such were stored in sleeves and blouses and even, in one case, underneath a hat. I know many women were grateful for their hood pocket for the commencement ceremony. Personally, I stored my Kindle, keys, wallet, and cell phone in my hood pocket for the commencement ceremony.

The commencement ceremony on Friday June 8th was held in Killian Court, which is a beautiful courtyard located across the street from the Charles River and adjacent to one of MIT’s classic domed buildings. Like the doctoral hooding ceremony, the commencement ceremony was fairly simple– a long, hot procession (they actually made us walk a lap around the MIT track!) followed by sitting in the courtyard and listening to a few speeches and then about two hours of name reading and diploma receiving. The day was fairly sunny and warm, and the graduates were sitting in the sun. Like many other graduates, I unbuttoned and loosened my doctoral robe, grateful that I was wearing a fairly cool sundress underneath. While name after name was called, I chatted with my classmates and read a book on my Kindle. Eventually, the time came for the MIT/WHOI graduates, and we lined up to approach the stage. My name was finally called, and I received my diploma from MIT president Susan Hockfield and WHOI president Susan Avery.

Here’s a picture of me receiving my diploma:

Here are a few more pictures from the doctoral hooding and commencement ceremonies:

All decked out in my doctoral regalia, before the hooding ceremony.

019 — After the hooding ceremony, with my hood.

018 — With mom and dad in front of a number sculpture.

050 — With Jackie in front of the MIT seal.

057 — Wearing the doctoral regalia on the T.

058 — Another view of the doctoral regalia on the T.

dadat mit — I went to use the restroom, and my dad tried to steal my diploma.

Those are the pictures I have to share. Please share some pictures of you in your own academic dress!

Georneys with Dana- Part IV: The Turtle

Note: I convinced my Geokittehs co-author Dana Hunter to fly from Seattle to New Hampshire to visit me for a few days. I handed in the final version of my PhD thesis on Friday May 4th, and Dana arrived the next day to help me celebrate. This is Part IV of my description of the fun georneys we had together during Dana’s visit.

Before continuing with my description of the fun georneys that Dana and I had during Dana’s recent visit, here’s a biological interlude. During a walk along a dirt road in New Hampshire, we found a turtle making his (or her?) way across the road. We stopped to take a few pictures and also to gently move the turtle off the road and out of harm’s way.

I think this is an Eastern Painted Turtle. Can anyone confirm? Does anyone know more about this turtle?

The turtle retreated into his (or her?) shell when we went to remove him from the road.

Georneys with Dana- Part III: The Chesterfield Gorge

Note: I convinced my Geokittehs co-author Dana Hunter to fly from Seattle to New Hampshire to visit me for a few days. I handed in the final version of my PhD thesis last Friday afternoon, and Dana arrived last Saturday to help me celebrate. This is Part III of my description of the fun georneys we had together during Dana’s visit.

After our visits to the dinosaur footprints and The Rock, Fossil, & Dinosaur Shop, Dana and I headed back to New Hampshire to our secret lakeside geologist lair. On the drive back, we stopped at the Chesterfield Gorge. Although there has recently been some illegal activitiy at the gorge, during our visit Dana and I didn’t encounter anything more dangerous than an overly friendly golden retriever who wanted head scratches. I was happy to see that the gorge is back to being a peaceful natural retreat. I think my mother’s claims of the “danger” of the gorge were perhaps somewhat exaggerated.

GorgeTrailMap — Gorge Trail Map. Image taken from here: http://www.tmclark.com/ChestGorgeimg-Images/CGMap.jpg

Dana and I hiked the 0.7 mile loop trail along the gorge, stopping frequently to investigate the gorge’s intriguing geology. The gorge contains a most unusual looking stream. Most of the time, the bedrock found in streams and rivers is smooth (and often covered in sediment), and the rocks found within streams and rivers are rounded. River and stream rocks are generally worn down and rounded by physical erosion caused by the passage of water over them. However, the rocks at the gorge are not very round. They generally have sharp, square edges that indicate that the stream is fairly young (or just hasn’t been in contact with this bedrock very long) since there has not been enough time for physical smoothing of the rocks.

Sharp, square edges on those gorge rocks.

Dana and I made our way along the trail to the first bridge across the stream:

DSCF1364 — The first bridge. Thou shall pass.

Before crossing the first bridge, we decided to take a closer look at the gorge’s rocks. The rocks are highly-weathered, and many are covered in moss. So, we had to exercise the good science of rock-breaking:

DSCF1370 — A weathered, moss-covered rock with a freshly-broken rock on top. Penny for scale.

Unfortunately, my rock hammers and other rock-breaking supplies are all in South Africa, and Dana packed carry-on for her trip and couldn’t bring her rock hammer. So, we had to improvise a bit with the rock breaking:

Rock breaking by throwing is not as effective as rock breaking by hammer, so we also gathered up some rock samples to break later. The next afternoon, we borrowed a hammer from my dad’s stash of tools and did a little more advanced rock breaking. A word of advice: in the below photos, I set a bad example. Rock breaking should ideally be done with closed-toed shoes and long pants (to prevent injury from stray rock shards), but I did remember the essential eye protection (wrap-around sunglasses, in this case).

Breaking rocks in sandals. Don't try this at home, kids!

Dana, breaking rocks in more sensible rock-breaking attire.

Excited about the rock-breaking results.

Here’s what we saw when we broke the gorge rocks:

So, what type of rock is found in the gorge? Looks like a metamorphic rock (fairly low grade) that perhaps used to be a granite or granodiorite. I managed to find a little more information about the gorge rock type by plotting the location of the Chesterfield Gorge on top of a geologic map of New Hampshire. I found the New Hampshire geologic map on the USGS website here, and I imported the map data into Google Earth. Pretty neat, huh? It’s actually quite easy to do– just download the .kml file, put it into Google Earth, and then you can look at the geologic map as Google Earth layer. Then, you can just click on a geologic formation, and an internet browser window will open with the information for that particular formation.

Below are some maps that I made in Google Earth showing the gorge location. First, here are some regular Google Earth images:

Chesterfield_Gorge_Map_4 — Google Earth image, showing the location of the Chesterfield Gorge in the state of New Hampshire.

Chesterfield_Gorge_Map_5 — A zoom-in of the previous Google Earth image.

Now, let’s take a look with the New Hampshire geologic map added as a Google Earth layer:

Chesterfield_Gorge_Map_1 — The geologic map for New Hampshire as a Google Earth layer. Pretty neat, huh?

Chesterfield_Gorge_Map_2 — A zoom-in on the geologic map, showing the location of the Chesterfield Gorge.

Chesterfield_Gorge_Map_3 — An even closer zoom in. The gorge parking lot area is indicated by the marker.

The marker in the above maps indicates the location of the parking area for the gorge, which is located in the orange formation. If I click on the orange layer in Google Earth, I find that the parking lot is located on the Ammonoosuc Volcanics, which is a Middle Upper Ordovician unit described as,

Part of the Central Maine Composite Terrane (Central Maine Trough) – Variably metamorphosed sedimentary and volcanic rocks of greenschist to granulite facies, locally migmatized. Area includes structural belts between the Monroe fault on the west and the Campbell Hill fault on the east; that is, the Bronson Hill anticlinorium, Piedmont allochthon, Kearsarge-central Maine synclinorium, central New Hampshire anticlinorium, and Rochester-Lebanon (Maine) antiformal synclinorium. Ammonoosuc Volcanics = 461+/-8 U/Pb per J.N. Aleinikoff, oral commun., Feb. 1994.

Since the trail to the gorge leads away from the parking area, I believe that at least part (all?) of the actual gorge is actually located in the pink layer. When I click on the pink layer in Google Earth, I find that the pink layer is Granite/Granodiorite/Tonalite of Late Ordovician Age. The unit is described as,

Part of the Oliverian Plutonic Suite (Late Ordovician) – Pink, weakly to moderately foliated, locally porphyritic biotite granitoids found in mantled gneiss domes. Mafic varieties contain hornblends. Variably metamorphosed up to amphibolite facies. Oliverian Plutonic Suite: Keene and Surry dome intrusive rocks = 444+/-8 U/Pb per NH020. Warwick dome intrusive rocks = 444+/-8 U/Pb per NH020.

So, I believe the rocks that Dana and I saw at the gorge are from the pink formation. The rocks aren’t particularly pink-colored at the gorge, but they do seem to be granites/granodiorites/tonalites (the rocks seem to contain a fair amount of plagioclase and biotite, so my guess is granodiorite although I’d really need to take a closer look, perhaps employing a thin section– any opinions based on the rock pictures?) that have been metamorphosed somewhat. I’m assuming that the ages above (based on U-Pb dating) are in millions of years, so the gorge rocks are nearly half a billion years in age. Such an old age isn’t unusual for bedrock. Nevertheless, I still find myself somewhat in awe that these rocks originally formed nearly half a billion years ago. What history is exposed in the gorge! As a quick aside, when people ask me why I became a geologist, I sometimes say, “Well, I always liked history. And geology is really ultimate history, if you think about it. Geology is the study of the history of our planet– and other planets and planetary bodies.”

So, why do such old rocks host such a young stream? Clearly, the stream hasn’t been in contact with the bedrock very long or else the metamorphic gorge rocks would be worn smooth. I searched and searched for some academic papers on the formation of the Chesterfield Gorge. However, despite spending quite a bit of time using search tools such as GeoRef and Google Scholar, I didn’t find any scientific papers on the gorge. If anyone knows of any publications on the gorge’s geology, I would be most grateful if you would direct me to them. I couldn’t even find the gorge in my Roadside Geology of Vermont and New Hampshire book.

The best information I could find on the gorge’s origin is a PDF of an information pamphlet published by New Hampshire State Parks. The brochure indicates that the gorge is located along a fault (I’d love to bring Callan to the gorge to take a look at the structural geology) and that Wilde Brook (never knew the stream was called that until I read this brochure) is a superimposed stream that originated from glacial meltwater ~12,000 years ago. The sediment and gravel that once covered the metamorphic bedrock have been eroded by the young stream (I presume 12,000 years is fairly young for a stream? Perhaps not?), and now the metamorphic bedrock is slowly being eroded.

There is certainly some evidence that there was once a retreating glacier in the Chesterfield Gorge area. For example, just look at this enormous glacial erratic:

A glacial erratic boulder, just a few feet from Wilde Brook.

After Dana and I spent some time breaking rocks at the first bridge, we made our way down to the second bridge. Along the way, we saw some beautiful scenery:

After a short hike, we found ourselves at the second bridge. When we arrived, we found that we had a slight problem:

DSCF1381 — The second bridge. Thou shall not pass.

Since we are intrepid geologists, we decided to ford the stream rather than backtrack:

Caulking the wagon and floating didn't seem necessary.

DSCF1384 — Dana looked a little nervous before the stream crossing, but she made it just fine.

After fording the stream, we headed back up towards the parking area. On our way out, we had another look at the first bridge:

And we also found some interesting biologically-assisted rock erosion:

DSCF1389 — More tree root style rock erosion.

And we saw some interesting mushrooms:

And we found a tree growing in a neat shape:

Strangely shaped tree, with geologist for scale.

All in all, Dana and I had a good day of geologizing. We saw dinosaur footprints, visited a kitschy rock shop, and explored the geology of a gorge. After this full day, we picked up a pizza and headed back to our lakeside geology lair to watch Dr. Who. Next up: Day 2 of our georneys!

Georneys with Dana- Part II: The Rock, Fossil, & Dinosaur Shop

DinoShopSign — The front of the Rock, Fossil, & Dinosaur Shop, complete with naked (non-feathered) velociraptor.

Note: I convinced my Geokittehs co-author Dana Hunter to fly from Seattle to New Hampshire to visit me for a few days. I handed in the final version of my PhD thesis last Friday afternoon, and Dana arrived last Saturday to help me celebrate. This is Part II of my description of the fun georneys we had together during Dana’s visit.

After our visit to the dinosaur footprints, Dana and I headed to a place called The Rock, Fossil, & Dinosaur Shop in Deerfield, Massachusetts. I have fond memories of visiting this shop as a child. The shop has many interesting minerals, fossils, and other geology-themed items for sale, which are advertised with a general focus on science and with a minimum focus on the crystal healing, energy balancing, totem stone, etc. woo-woo that is sadly promoted at many otherwise excellent rock shops. The shop also offers a number of other cheesy, geology-themed activities. You can “pan for minerals” in a water sluice located out front. The shop attendant tried to sell us on panning, but Dana and I were not very interested in panning bags of sand spiked with amethyst crystals and small ammonite fossils. We told the shopkeeper we liked to pan in real dirt for our geological treasures. However, I do remember enjoying the fake panning as a child. The shop also features a mining adventure and a backyard full of fake dinosaurs.

DSCF1340 — One of the fossils (or maybe a cast?) for sale.

DSCF1342 — Giant ammonites from Morocco.

Dana, about to be eaten by a velociraptor.

Dana and I enjoyed our visit to the shop, but I was very sad to see that the shop is now very poorly maintained compared to my memory of it. At first I wondered if I was just remembering the shop through memories glorified by the glow of childhood delight. However, looking at the shop website pictures— which are clearly dated by several years– it’s apparent that the shop has deteriorated. The paint on the shop sign is cracked and peeling, the shop merchandise quantity and quality are declined (parts of the shop seem half-empty now), and the dinosaurs are in a sorry state of disrepair. Sadly, the shop attendant (who I hope was not the owner) didn’t seem to know even basic geology and mineralogy. I’m not sure what happened to the shop– perhaps it has changed ownership or been hit hard by the economic decline.

A sign of the shop's decline #1: a duct taped dinosaur.

A sign of the shop's decline #2: Willy mammoth bone? Hmmm...

Nevertheless, Dana and I had a good time during our visit. We had great fun taking pictures of the dinosaurs:

I made a triceratops friend:

And Dana found a new boyfriend:

I really hope this doesn't mean the shop is promoting the whole man-with-dinos thing.

While we skipped the panning and the mine tour, Dana did buy a few mineral samples, and I bought three stuffed animal dinosaurs: a velociraptor, a Utahraptor, and a triceratops. The velociraptor and Utahraptor even have a bit of fluff on them– I’m not sure if they’re quite feathery enough, but at least they have some feathers.

EvyDinosaurs — My new dinosaur friends. I think they need to become friends with Paleontologist Barbie.

Stay tuned for more georneys with Dana!

Georneys with Dana- Part I: Dinosaur Footprints Near Holyoke, MA

I convinced my Geokittehs co-author Dana Hunter to fly from Seattle to New Hampshire to visit me for a few days. I handed in the final version of my PhD thesis on Friday afternoon, and Dana arrived last night to help me celebrate. So far, we’ve been having a ball. You can expect several forthcoming posts about Dana’s visit, both here on Georneys and over at Dana’s blogs Rosetta Stones and En Tequila Es Verdad. For now, I thought I would share just a few pictures from the first full day of our adventures.

Today, we visited three geologic sites of interest in Massachusetts and New Hampshire: the dinosaur footprints along the Connecticut River near Holyoke, MA; the Rock, Fossil, & Dinosaur Shop; and finally the Chesterfield Gorge.

In this post, I’ll share some pictures from our visit to the dinosaur footprints, which were quite impressive. In the photos below, I’ve indicated the locations of the dinosaur footprints with green markers (glass beads from the dollar store) since the footprints are sometimes difficult to see.

DinoPrint2 — Dinosaur footprint, with my foot for scale.

DinoPrint3 — A trackway of footprints. If you look closely, you can see the green markers indicating the footprints.

DinoPrint4 — Footprints near ripple marks.

Dana and I aren’t paleontologists, but we think we have some idea how the tracks were made. We think it went something like this:

A scientifically accurate reconstruction of the events leading to track formation (we are joking, obviously 🙂 )

Alternatively, the tracks could have been formed by a Danaraptor:

Or by an Evaraptor:

More seriously, according to the official website for the site,

Researchers believe these prints were left by small groups of two-legged, carnivorous dinosaurs, up to 15’ tall. The entire Connecticut River Valley – which scientists believe was a sub-tropical swamp a “mere” 190 million years ago – has long been recognized for its wealth of prehistoric footprints.

The first dinosaur prints to be scientifically described are still here to be seen, preserved in sandstone* since this valley was a sub-tropical mix of wetlands and shallow lakes, 190 million years ago. The larger Eubrontes prints were likely made by ancestors of the great Tyrannosaurus rex, standing up to 15’ tall and 20’ long. You can see hundreds of fossils not only from the four distinct two-legged dinosaurs, but also stromatolites, fish, plants and other ancient beings. Finally, look for the 20+ dinosaurs trackways, which formed the basis for the novel theory that dinosaurs travelled in packs or groups.

*Note: I’m not convinced the rock is sandstone– it looked more like siltstone or mudstone to me. Can anyone confirm the rock type? When I have the time, I’ll track down some scientific references.

The dinosaur footprints are located along a beautiful section of the Connecticut River. After we had our fun looking at the tracks and doing our “scientific reconstructions,” we went down next to the river edge for awhile.

CTRiver1 — A pretty house along the CT River.

Another view of the tilted rocks along the riverbank.

Monday Geology Picture: Chesterfield Gorge, New Hampshire

This week’s geology picture was taken in the Chesterfield Gorge, which is located just a few minutes from my parents’ house in southern New Hampshire. I would often explore and play at the gorge as a child. I used to like to throw things into the gorge and watch them go over the waterfalls. I once duct-taped a Princess Leia figurine into a plastic toy kayak and watched her go over the falls. Miraculously, Leia made it over the falls, and I retrieved her. She did lose her stick paddle, though. Also, her arm was also falling off a little bit, but I managed to repair her with quick field surgery.

The gorge is an interesting place, geologically. I remember being fascinated when I first read, as a child, that the gorge was created quickly by movement along a fault, not by the slow carving of a stream. You can see the evidence of the fault very clearly in the photograph above. You can see that the tilted, offset layers still have sharp edges; they have not yet been worn away by many years of erosion by water.

I’m headed up to New Hampshire next week after I hand in my thesis revisions. Perhaps I’ll visit the gorge again and share more pictures and geological explanation. Sadly, my mother tells me that these days one must be careful when visiting the gorge. In my childhood, I could play there with my friends and be perfectly safe. Recently, however, the gorge has been the site of some illegal activities and dealings, so one has to be a little bit more careful when visiting, and children definitely shouldn’t play there alone. Nevertheless, the geology is so spectacular that I may bring Dana Hunter there when she visits me next week. I can’t wait for Dana to visit. You can expect some fun posts about her trip in the next few weeks!

Blast from the Past: Meteorite Graduation Gift

EvyPhilRedRocks — Phil and I at Red Rock Canyon (outside Las Vegas), circa January 2006.

I feel very fortunate to have known Phil Plait aka “The Bad Astronomer” for many years, primarily through our involvement with the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). I twice worked as an intern for the JREF, and Phil used to be president of the JREF. Over the years, Phil has been very encouraging and supportive of my scientific studies.

I’m currently packing up my office as I prepare to depart from MIT/WHOI, where I’ve been a student for the past six years. When I was sorting through various office items yesterday, I came across a graduation present from Phil. When I graduated from Dartmouth College back in 2006, Phil sent me a wonderful letter and a meteorite. Best. Graduation. Present. Ever.

I thought I would share Phil’s letter and a picture of the meteorite. By the way, the reason Phil calls me Kitten/Evelyn is because my mom’s name is “Kitty,” and she used to refer to my sister and I as “Kitten 1” and “Kitten 2” on the JREF’s online forum. So, when I joined the JREF forum (back in 2003, I believe), I used “Kitten” as my forum name.

Here’s Phil’s Letter:

Phil_Page1 — Phil's graduation letter, Page 1.

Phil_Page2 — Phil's graduation letter, Page 2.

And here’s the meteorite:

IMG-20120429-00713 — The little meteorite.

Phil, thanks again for the meteorite and, more importantly, for being enthusiastic about science and supportive of my scientific studies. Just so you know, my PhD graduation is in early June… just in case there are any other space rocks you’d like to send me.

Geology Word of the Week: U is for Ulexite

IMG-20120428-00706 — My sample of ulexite aka "TV Rock."

def. Ulexite:
1. Hydrated sodium calcium borate hydroxide (formula: NaCaB5O6(OH)6•5(H2O) ), a silky, brittle, generally white evaporate mineral which often crystallizes in the form of densely-packed fibers that transmit light along the long axis of the mineral.

2. A party trick rock. Have any party guests who think that geology isn’t awesome? Just pull out your fibrous ulexite sample and say, “Hey look, I have a fiber optic rock.” Then watch the fun– the geology fun– begin.

Ulexite really does have remarkable optical properties, as the photos below demonstrate. Personally, I think that the fiber optic images produced by ulexite are even more fun and interesting than the double images caused by refraction in calcite.

IMG-20120428-00699 — Another picture of my ulexite sample, with keys for scale.

IMG-20120428-00701 — The word "Hyundai "through ulexite.

IMG-20120428-00702 — Dinosaur origami box, viewed through ulexite.

Ulexite_ShortAxis — A side (short axis) view of ulexite, showing the fibers but no optical transmission.

I bought my ulexite sample at a rock sale. Does anyone know of good places to collect ulexite in the field?

Monday Geology Picture: K-T Boundary Exposure in Colorado

IMAG0731 — K-T boundary, with a famous astronomer's hand for scale and dramatic effect.

IMAG0732 — The field area where Phil observed the K-T boundary.

This week’s geology picture was sent to me by my friend Phil Plait aka “The Bad Astronomer.” This week’s picture– two pictures, actually– shows the famous K-T Boundary.

Phil explains,

I’ve attached the K/T pic. It was taken in Trinidad Park in southern Colorado, where the boundary is very distinct.

It’s my hand in the 0731 picture. 🙂 0732 puts it in context. The rock above is limestone, and below is coal and other friables. The coal erodes away easily with rain and wind, so it forms that slope, which is murder to climb, like trying to swim uphill. The limestone is much tougher so it forms a cap. As the coal erodes back, eventually the limestone breaks and rolls down the hill. There were big chunks of it lining the base of the slope. All of this used to be underwater a few million years ago.

Thanks for sharing, Phil! I had a busy day with thesis revisions, so I’m posting this week’s Monday picture just in the nick of time… here on the east coast of the USA it’s a few minutes to midnight.