White Sand Beaches
I got a question from Jane who, while reading Marker Bed, became intrigued by the reference to quartz sand on page 29 of the print versions. (By the way, if you have not yet...
Category: Earth Materials
Reflection v. Refraction
It was late afternoon on Christmas and I was driving west into the setting sun. It had been wet most of the day, but the rain machine had turned off for a bit, the...
Paleontology: How the Earth Makes a Fossil
We’ve spent a couple recent posts discussing geologic time and the two methods earth scientists use to describe and measure it. We started with a general introduction to earthtime and absolute age dating (Intro...
Intro to Geologic Time
One thing about time is that it keeps moving—always into the future and always in polar opposite, yet mutually supportive rhythms: relative and absolute. Relative time is agreeably flexible and adapts itself to the...
Yes, Virginia, Lead IS Toxic
This is a follow-up to earlier posts regarding the toxicity of lead, and is in response to an 8 July 2025 article on the Associated Press website titled “A Kindergarten in China Added Lead...
Minerals and Economic Warfare, Part 2
Click here for Minerals and Economic Warfare, Part 1 It was early in the 1980s and Central Africa was again in turmoil. Very little of what transpired made it into the homes of the...
Lead and Silver Mining
Too full of a day, so this one will be a very short follow-up to an earlier post about lead in water pipes and cognitive decline. The basis of the earlier post had to...
Minerals and Economic Warfare, Part 1
The opening round… Busy day (4 December 2024) and this one will be real short — look upon it as a teaser of a more detailed post as this developing story continues to spiral...
The Magic of Density
Before we get started, we need to agree on a couple bits of background information gleaned from the realm of physics (sorry, but it’s gotta be done). First, all matter is composed of tiny...
What happened to my water?
One of the hot button topics again splashing across the media is the looming global water crisis. The article that prompted this post was gleaned from the CNN website on 25 February 2024, but...
