Mike Strickler Geologist

West coast tectonics

I had an interesting question come across my GeoMania website a while back: “If Mt. St. Helens and the whole west coast is a convergent plate boundary with subduction, how come there are no...

The three basic types of rock

All rocks can be put into one of three (3) fundamentally different types. This should always be the first determination attempted whenever a new rock is encountered. In most cases, it’s not all that...

Hot AND Humid

One of our nephews recently relocated to the southeast, just in time for the June 2022 heat wave (timing is everything). His rental didn’t offer any air conditioning (no surprise), but when he looked...

Why study the earth?

In my forty years in front of a classroom, probably the most common question I get at the beginning of a new term is something along the lines of “Why do I even care...