Random Geology Facts

So, how's it going everybody?
This semester, I've tried to take my studies back to something a little more solid (no pun intended) than art and animation. Make no mistake, this site will still be posting, and I'm working on making it more regular than just once a month, but I'm still looking for that sweet spot that's too open for a specific science while to focused for general art. If that means I have to draw dinosaurs and take pictures of rocks for the rest of my life, then so be it.

Just know what you're getting yourself in for.

Anyways, as part of my geology course, we'll be visiting a lot of different places to study the formations there. Our first was this week, where we visited an extinct volcano called Menon Butte. It's a popular local hiking attraction in eastern Idaho which, as we learned, is actually an intricate patchwork of lava flows from different volcanic fissures. All of them were created by the same hot spot that currently sits under Yellowstone National Park, some ten million years ago. Even so, most of the material ejected from this particular mountain's last eruption wasn't laid down gently by a slow lava deposit but ejected violently when the magma reached a water reservoir under the valley it resides in. As such, most of the hike up the mountain wasn't over broad, smooth stretches of basalt, but over loose, almost sandy grains of tuff with scattered ejecta here and there, the most exciting of which are displayed below.

These are just some things I found fascinating about the area. Let me know if you enjoy more of the educational side of my work. In the meantime, I'll try to get something a little more fantastic in your feed.