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Glacially eroded outcrop of jaspilite banded iron formation in the Precambrian of Minnesota.
The Soudan Iron-Formation is a Neoarchean-aged banded iron formation (BIF) unit in the Vermilion Greenstone Belt of northeastern Minnesota, USA. Stratigraphically, the Soudan is considered to be the middle member of the Ely Greenstone. Metamorphosed pillow basalt successions occur above and below the iron-rich interval:
- upper member of the Ely Greenstone
- Soudan Iron-Formation member
- lower member of the Ely Greenstone
Radiometric dating of Ely Greenstone rocks (see Jahn & Murthy, 1975 and Jirsa et al., 2010) indicates that the Soudan Iron-Formation is about 2.722 billion years old.
The Soudan Iron-Formation was deposited in a deep-water environment and is closely associated with several types of volcanic rocks formed in an ancient island arc setting. As such, the unit is classified as an Algoma-type iron-formation. Superior-type iron-formations were deposited in relatively shallow water, continental shelf settings.
The Soudan Iron-Formation is exposed in & around the town of Soudan, Minnesota at roadcuts, glacially-eroded outcrop knobs, surface mines, and underground mines. The best exposures are at Soudan Underground Mine State Park. The Soudan Mine targeted high-grade iron ore (specularite) for many decades and closed in the early 1960s. The site is now accessible to the public and underground tours are offered.
Observed iron-rich lithologies in the Soudan Iron-Formation include specularite, jaspilite BIF, and magnetite BIF.
This photo shows part of a glaciated knob of jaspilite BIF in Soudan Mine Park. The outcrop is glacially smoothed and striated. The rocks here are faulted and complexly folded. Folding occurred in two phases - some of it occurred during soft-sediment deformation events and subsequent structural folding occurred after the rocks were lithified. The light-colored layers are chert (= microcrystalline to cryptocrystalline quartzose sedimentary rock), the red layers are "jasper" (= hematite-rich chert), and the silvery-gray layers are magnetite-chert. A detailed description of this outcrop occurs in Huda et al. (2008).
Stratigraphy: Soudan Iron-Formation member, Ely Greenstone, Vermilion Greenstone Belt, Neoarchean, ~2.722 Ga
Locality: glaciated outcrop knob adjacent to Stuntz Bay Road in Soudan Underground State Park, Soudan, northern St. Louis County, northeastern Minnesota, USA (47° 49' 14.82" North latitude, 92° 14' 11.84" West longitude)
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References cited:
Huda et al. (2008) - Field Guide to the Volcanology, Structure, Alteration, and Mineralization of Archean Greenstone Belts in the Vicinities of Sturgeon Lake and Rainy River, Ontario and Lake Vermilion, Minnesota, October 5-12, 2008, Field Trip Guidebook. 209 pp.
Jahn & Murthy (1975) - Rb-Sr ages of the Archean rocks from the Vermilion District, northeastern Minnesota. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 39: 1679-1689.
Jirsa et al. (2010) - Geologic map of Minnesota, Precambrian bedrock geology, description of map units. Minnesota Geological Survey State Map Series S-22.
Taken at the location cited in Part 3 of this set.
My previous photos of the Ely pillow-lava boulder were taken in 2003 and 2008, but I also led a tour here in 2004, as the image above indicates.
This shot shows the upper western side of the big rock, and the pillows at right are particularly well-defined. At least some of them seem to have a flatter side and a somewhat more domed side—theoretically, the latter should have been the original top of each blob of extruded lava. But from what I can see here, it's difficult to draw any firm conclusion about the original orientation from the ways the different domed sides point.
For more on the geologic origin of the Ely Greenstone pillows and the glacial-erratic boulder that contains them, see Part 3 of this set.
You'll find the other photos and descriptions of this series in my Exploring the Northwoods Country album.
Our hike on day 3 went from East Chickenbone to Rock Harbor, with most of the day on the Greenstone Trail. We ascended several "mountains" and high points. This scene shows part of the ascent on the way to Mount Franklin, 1,080 feet (330 meters).
You can read more about the park in my story in the NPT:
www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2019/06/park-different-isle...
Queenstown.
It is situated on Lake Wakatipu which was created by glacial activity. It is roughly Z shaped surrounded by high alpine peaks and ranges - The Remarkables Ranges, Cecil Peak, Walter Peak etc. Queenstown has a population of about 13,000 people and it is one of the major tourist areas of NZ and the third largest city of Otago province. The first white person to see Lake Wakatipu was Nathaneal Chalmers in 1853. He was led here by local Maori people who caught eels and fish in the lake. Maoris probably visited this area on trips to the west coast to collect greenstone for their carvings. In 1848 the Crown purchased the land from the local Maori people. William Rees was the first white man to settle in this region which he did in 1860 when he established his high country sheep station. It was a truly isolated area but the discovery of gold on the nearby Shotover River in 1862 created an influx of white people to the region and Rees converted his woolshed into a hotel!( Other gold finds in western Otago included those at Cromwell and Clyde.) Without the gold rush Queenstown would have been a long time developing. A few historical buildings remain from the gold rush era namely the William’s Cottage, the original Courthouse and the Anglican Church. Nearby Arrowtown is another gold rush township of this part of the Southern Alps. Queenstown was officially declared in 1863 and named Queenstown in honour of Queen Victoria and after Queenstown in Ireland. (Queenstown in County Cork is now known as Cobh.)
Heritage Listed buildings in this snow and water skiing, bungy jumping tourist city.
•Courthouse (45 Ballarat St) and Library (44 Stanley St.) The Courthouse was completed in 1876 and the Library in 1877 and both were designed by Invercargill architect F Burnell. The buildings are at right angles to each other and made of local schist stone. They are shaded by giant Wellingtonia Pine Trees – Sequoia giganteum of California. The Courthouse is still operational. In the 1960s the local Council intended to demolish the library but listened to the public outcry about that and retained it. Both buildings have half rounded windows in the Romanesque style.
•Lake County Council Chambers, 50 Ballarat Street, built 1880 in Romanesque style of local schist. Sold by the council in 1999. The local council was formed in 1876. Now run as Speights Ale House. Architect was F Burnell who built many of the fine structures in central Invercargill in the 1870s and 1880s.
•Forresters Lodge, also 50 Ballarat Street. Classical style with triangular pediment and 2 windows and central door. Only a façade these days. Appears to date from the 1880s. Part of Speights Ale House complex.
• The Ballarat Street stone bridge. It was built across Horne Creek in 1882 as a single arch bridge in local schist.
•St Peter’s Anglican Church, 2 Church Street. This fine Anglican Church with a square tower and witches hat spire was built of local stone in 1932. The stone came from the edges of Lake Wakatipu. The original wooden church in Gothic style was erected in 1863. Its erection was assisted with support from William Rees who had the original sheep station of the Queenstown district. When this 1932 church was built the old 1863 wooden church was donated to the town of Omakau in Central Otago where it is still in use. The wooden Anglican Church hall and Parish office was built in 1905. Associated with the Anglican precinct is the former Vicarage adjacent to the church which was built in the 19th century with a gable and small bay window. Bay windows were very popular in the 1880s.
•Hullert, 68 Ballarat St. It is a steep walk to Hullert. This is one of the few grand houses of the 19th century left in Queenstown. Hullert was built in 1889 for Horatio Firth who was Receiver of Gold Revenue and Mining Registrar for Queenstown in the 1880s. Firth was a public servant but a family inheritance gave him money to acquire land overlooking Lake Wakatipu and to have an architect design Hullert for him in 1888. Firth was imprisoned for embezzlement in 1901 and his wife ran the house as a boarding house until she departed for Wellington in 1909. After the departure of Firth the house was renamed to Tutuila and had various owners and uses including girls’ school, maternity hospital, holiday rental, backpackers and bed and breakfast. The house was restored in the 1980s and is made of New Zealand Red Beech with bay windows, verandas and marble fireplaces inside. Hullert is up the hill but the views are fantastic and worth the street climb.
•St Joseph’s Catholic church, 41 Melbourne St. A Catholic Church was first built in Queenstown in 1863 near the Anglican Church in Church Street. A presbytery was built in 1877 in Melbourne St and converted to a convent in 1882 as the Covent School opened in 1883. The church and land was sold in Church Street in 1883 and services were held at the Catholic School until this grand stone church was erected in 1898.The architect of this modest church was Francis Petre the Dunedin architect who also designed Dunedin’s Catholic Cathedral, Wellington’s Catholic Cathedral, the grand Catholic Cathedral in Christchurch which is now facing demolition, and that wonderful Catholic Basilica in Oamaru.
•William’s cottage, 21 Marine Parade. This was not William Rees cottage but the cottage of an early settler who purchased this land in 1866. John Williams built the cottage about that time. It is believed to be the oldest house/structure in Queenstown. Williams ran a boat service across Lake Wakatipu. He transported gold under escort to the train at Kingston for the NZ government. Williams died in the cottage in 1881. It became vacant in the 1980s and was purchased by the NZ Historic Places Trust. It is run as a small museum.
•Masonic Lodge building, 13 Marine Parade. This simple structure now known as Lake Lodge of Ophir was built in 1863 the year gold was discovered. It is probably the oldest stone building in Queenstown. William Rees is believed to have donated the land to the Masons for this building. Its name comes from the Bible as Ophir was the region of gold. (Remember one of the first gold finds in NSW in 1852 was near Bathurst at a place which was named Ophir.)
•Coronation Bath House, 28 Marine Parade. The wooden bath house appears to date from around 1900 at a time when few houses had washing or bathing facilities.It is now a café, tapas bar and restaurant.
a brief history of the Westover Dairy:
"Back in the early 1920's W.W. Manley, a plumber by trade, operated the Sanitary Dairy and the Wishmore Dairy in Lynchburg. Proving he was a better plumber than a dairyman, Mr. Manley soon ran into financial difficulty; and the two dairies merged into one, the Sanitary Dairy, and moved to 8th and Harrison in 1930. In 1940, two years after Barney Kroger's death, the Sanitary Dairy was incorporated and the name changed to the Lynchburg Dairy, Inc.. Mr. C. L. Fleshman, who later became president of Westover Dairy, was hired as Manager of the Lynchburg Dairy.
"Shortly after W.W. Manley started in the dairy business, another dairy was opened in Westover Heights by Mr. R. E. Jones and Mr. Norman B. Lee. This dairy was called the "Westover" Dairy.
The stage was set for the merger of the Westover and Lynchburg dairies, to form the Lynchburg Westover Dairy in 1946. Soon the Memorial Avenue facilities of the Lynchburg Westover Dairy were just too small for the business, and a new and modern dairy was designed and built on its present site at 2801 Fort Avenue. This fine plant began operations in February, 1960 and soon after acquired another old line Lynchburg Dairy, the Quality Dairy located on Oakley Avenue.
"In 1973 the Westover Dairy was sold to Dairymen's, Inc. and operated as Flav-O-Rich until June 1979, when it was purchased by the Kroger Co. and restored to the Westover Dairy name."
(courtesy Mike Dooley, Human Resources Manager at the Westover Dairy)
a highlight of the dairy's main entrance seen here is its decorative, Lynchburg-mined greenstone.
A little side trip to New Zealand. I have always admired the traditional 'fish hook' pendants of the Maori. These are my versions. (Except for the bottom right--a practice piece that is a direct copy of a jade piece carved by a New Zealand artist--will post his name when I find it again.) These remind me very much of Helen Breil, whose book I have yet to read, but I suspect I will feel right at home in it.
Our first view of a Rock Wallaby in this area. Image 158 on one of the camera traps set up by Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service staff. This was an exciting moment. From evidence of scat and from recent skeleton I collected, we knew that there was a population in this area, never recorded before. From this camera and others we now know there is a breeding population here. We do not know which of the species it is: threatened Petrogale penicillata (Brushtail Rock Wallaby) or more common Petrogale herbertii (Herberts Rock Wallaby). More research and monitoring and protection to be done!!
On another image of a female with a juvenile beside her, it was clear that the juvenile had a very bushy tail.... but is that common to both species when juvenile?
Photographed the Herzog HZGX 175 (GP38M) working the Canadian National Railway tracks in Longlac Ontario a community of Greenstone alng the Trans-Canada Highway 11 corridor in Northern Ontario Canada.
HZGX 175 is a modified rebuilt GP38M as per Herzog specifications.
©Copyright Notice
This photograph and all those within my photostream are protected by copyright. They may not be reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without my written permission.
Taken at the location cited in Part 3 of this set.
Now home to a thriving ecosystem of foliose and crustose lichens, the Ely pillow-lava boulder may be very weathered and colonized, but it still provides excellent examples of basaltic lava that erupted into seawater 2.7 Ga ago, during the Neoarchean era.
From this picture alone, I'd guess that this large chunk of glacially transported Ely Greenstone came to rest partly flipped over from the orientation of the pillows when they first formed.
The best supporting evidence of this is the pillow at lower left, just above the visible section of chain-link fence. Its current bottom side is very distinctly convex, while its current upper side is straighter to a little concave. Because pillows often bulge upward with domed tops and have flatter or inwardly curved undersides, it appears this one is rotated about 140 degrees from its original position.
However, using that domed-upward criterion, at least one of the pillows on the other side (see the preceding photo in this set) seems to be sitting right side up, more or less. The problem is that each pillow, like each human being, has its own variation on a standard shape.
You'll find the other photos and descriptions of this series in my Exploring the Northwoods Country album.
White Sands National Park, NM
I came across this emerald mystery while hiking in the dunefield of White Sands. It appears to be some sort of glass but not a marble as it isn't totally round. Perhaps some debris from missile launches at the White Sands Missile Range adjacent to the park? For safety they do shutdown traffic in the park and on the nearby highway while launches are in progress. Silly me, in my adherence to "Take only pics...", I did not pick it up and inspect it more closely. Kinda wish I did now. Input from viewers welcome.
London '23
The British Museum
Babylon, c 2100 BC
Owner Led to Kiung by Two Goddesses
"Ur-Nammu, strong man, king of Ur: Hash-hamer, governor of the city of Ishkun-Sin, is your servant"
Photographed the Herzog HZGX 175 (GP38M) working the Canadian National Railway tracks in Longlac Ontario a community of Greenstone alng the Trans-Canada Highway 11 corridor in Northern Ontario Canada.
HZGX 175 is a modified rebuilt GP38M as per Herzog specifications.
©Copyright Notice
This photograph and all those within my photostream are protected by copyright. They may not be reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without my written permission.
The Grade I Listed Bolingbroke Castle, built by Ranulf around 1220 in Bolingbroke, East Lindsey, Lincolnshire.
Most of the castle is built of Spilsby greenstone, as are several nearby churches. The local greenstone is a limestone that proved to be porous, prone to rapid deterioration when exposed to weather and a substandard building material. The castle was constructed as an irregular polygonal enclosure. The castle is one of the earliest examples of a uniform castle designed and built without a keep. It originally was surrounded by a large water-filled moat 31 metres wide.
Like another castle built by Ranulf during the same period at Beeston in Cheshire, Bolingroke had no inner defensive keep. The castle relied instead on thick walls and the five D shaped defensive corner towers.
The area was first fortified by the Saxons in the 6th or 7th century. In the 12th century the Normans built a Motte-and-bailey on a nearby hill above the settlement of Bolingbroke. The present structure was founded by Ranulf, Earl of Chester, in 1220 shortly after he returned from the Fifth Crusade.
Ranulf died in 1232 without a male heir, and his titles, lands and castles passed to his sisters. Following the death of Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster in 1361 Bolingbroke passed through marriage into the ownership of John of Gaunt. His wife Blanche of Lancaster, daughter of Henry of Grosmont, was born at the Castle in 1345. John and Blanche's son, Henry, was also born at Bolingbroke Castle in 1367 and consequentially was known as "Henry Bolingbroke" before he became king in 1399.
By the 15th and 16th century, the castle had fallen into disrepair although repairs were carried out during the Tudor period. In 1636 a survey found that all the towers were effectively beyond repair.
At the start of the First English Civil War, Bolingbroke was again used as a military fortification garrisoned by Royalist forces. In 1643 it was badly damaged in a siege during the Battle of Winceby. The following year, the castle was recaptured from the Parliamentarians but due to defeats elsewhere was relinquished again. In 1652 the castle was slighted to prevent any further use. The towers and walls were torn down and dumped into the moat.
Information Source:
The view east from the Mt. Ojibway fire tower on Isle Royale. This is the Greenstone Ridge -- the backbone of the island, and the edge of one of the biggest lava flows on earth. The Greenstone drops under Lake Superior and reappears as the Cliffs back on the Keweenaw.
Taken on the second day of our Isle Royale backpacking trip.
Pillow basalt and two subhorizontal shears along the Parkfield-Coalinga Road, Parkfield, Monterey County, California. Pillow basalt in this image now are greenstone and part of the Franciscan Complex (Jurassic to Cretaceous).
Garnetite from the Precambrian of Wyoming, USA.
This dense rock appears to be a garnetite, a scarce, crystalline-textured, garnet-dominated metamorphic rock. The flip side is a garnet amphibolite.
Geologic unit & age: Elmers Rock Greenstone Belt, Archean, 2.54+ Ga.
Locality: loose piece from near small abandoned quarry (= locality of Harris, 2003, p. 9), ~0.5 miles north of Tunnel Road & west of Squaw Mountain & south-southeast of Government Peak, eastern flanks of the Laramie Range, far-eastern Albany County, west-southwest of Wheatland, southeastern Wyoming, USA
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Reference cited:
Harris (2003) - Decorative stones of southern Wyoming. Wyoming State Geological Survey Public Information Circular 42.
More essays in Maori greenstone hei matau--the one on the left was claimed by my son. Will have to string it up.
I wore it so much the string needed to be replaced. I had a go at whipping it and think it turned out OK. Not traditional I know but.
The Grade I Listed Bolingbroke Castle, built by Ranulf around 1220 in Bolingbroke, East Lindsey, Lincolnshire.
Most of the castle is built of Spilsby greenstone, as are several nearby churches. The local greenstone is a limestone that proved to be porous, prone to rapid deterioration when exposed to weather and a substandard building material. The castle was constructed as an irregular polygonal enclosure. The castle is one of the earliest examples of a uniform castle designed and built without a keep. It originally was surrounded by a large water-filled moat 31 metres (102 ft) wide. The curtain wall was up to 5 metres (16 ft) feet thick and defended by five D-shaped towers and a twin-towered gate house.
Similar to another castle built by Ranulf during the same period at Beeston in Cheshire, Bolingroke had no inner defensive keep. The castle relied instead on thick walls and the five D shaped defensive corner towers. Some design similarities are noted with the contemporary castle at Boulogne-sur-Mer, France that was also constructed without a central donjon.
The area was first fortified by the Saxons in the 6th or 7th century. In the 12th century the Normans built a Motte-and-bailey on a nearby hill above the settlement of Bolingbroke. The present structure was founded by Ranulf, Earl of Chester, in 1220 shortly after he returned from the Fifth Crusade.
Ranulf died in 1232 without a male heir, and his titles, lands and castles passed to his sisters. Following the death of Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster in 1361 Bolingbroke passed through marriage into the ownership of John of Gaunt. His wife Blanche of Lancaster, daughter of Henry of Grosmont, was born at the Castle in 1345. John and Blanche's son, Henry, was also born at Bolingbroke Castle in 1367 and consequentially was known as "Henry Bolingbroke" before he became king in 1399.
By the 15th and 16th century, the castle had fallen into disrepair although repairs were carried out during the Tudor period. In 1636 a survey found that all of the towers were effectively beyond repair.
At the start of the First English Civil War, Bolingbroke was again put to use as a military fortification garrisoned by Royalist forces. In 1643 it was badly damaged in a siege during the Battle of Winceby. The following year, the castle was recaptured from the Parliamentarians but due to defeats elsewhere was relinquished again. In 1652 the castle was slighted to prevent any further use. The towers and walls were torn down and dumped into the moat.
The last major structure collapsed in 1815.
The castle, which is now a national monument, was excavated in the 1960s and 1970s. It was maintained by English Heritage up until 1995 when Heritage Lincolnshire took ownership. Much of the lower walls are still visible as are the ground floors of the towers. In the summertime, the castle is home to numerous events including performances of Shakespeare.
Glacially eroded outcrop of jaspilite banded iron formation in the Precambrian of Minnesota.
The Soudan Iron-Formation is a Neoarchean-aged banded iron formation (BIF) unit in the Vermilion Greenstone Belt of northeastern Minnesota, USA. Stratigraphically, the Soudan is considered to be the middle member of the Ely Greenstone. Metamorphosed pillow basalt successions occur above and below the iron-rich interval:
- upper member of the Ely Greenstone
- Soudan Iron-Formation member
- lower member of the Ely Greenstone
Radiometric dating of Ely Greenstone rocks (see Jahn & Murthy, 1975 and Jirsa et al., 2010) indicates that the Soudan Iron-Formation is about 2.722 billion years old.
The Soudan Iron-Formation was deposited in a deep-water environment and is closely associated with several types of volcanic rocks formed in an ancient island arc setting. As such, the unit is classified as an Algoma-type iron-formation. Superior-type iron-formations were deposited in relatively shallow water, continental shelf settings.
The Soudan Iron-Formation is exposed in & around the town of Soudan, Minnesota at roadcuts, glacially-eroded outcrop knobs, surface mines, and underground mines. The best exposures are at Soudan Underground Mine State Park. The Soudan Mine targeted high-grade iron ore (specularite) for many decades and closed in the early 1960s. The site is now accessible to the public and underground tours are offered.
Observed iron-rich lithologies in the Soudan Iron-Formation include specularite, jaspilite BIF, and magnetite BIF.
The above photo is part of a glaciated knob of jaspilite BIF in Soudan Mine Park. The outcrop is glacially smoothed and striated. The rocks here are faulted and complexly folded. Folding occurred in two phases - some of it occurred during soft-sediment deformation events and subsequent structural folding occurred after the rocks were lithified. The light-colored layers are chert (= microcrystalline to cryptocrystalline quartzose sedimentary rock), the red layers are "jasper" (= hematite-rich chert), and the silvery-gray layers are magnetite-chert. A detailed description of this outcrop occurs in Huda et al. (2008).
Stratigraphy: Soudan Iron-Formation member, Ely Greenstone, Vermilion Greenstone Belt, Neoarchean, ~2.722 Ga
Locality: glaciated outcrop knob adjacent to Stuntz Bay Road in Soudan Underground State Park, Soudan, northern St. Louis County, northeastern Minnesota, USA (47° 49' 14.82" North, 92° 14' 11.84" West)
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References cited:
Huda et al. (2008) - Field Guide to the Volcanology, Structure, Alteration, and Mineralization of Archean Greenstone Belts in the Vicinities of Sturgeon Lake and Rainy River, Ontario and Lake Vermilion, Minnesota, October 5-12, 2008, Field Trip Guidebook. 209 pp.
Jahn & Murthy (1975) - Rb-Sr ages of the Archean rocks from the Vermilion District, northeastern Minnesota. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 39: 1679-1689.
Jirsa et al. (2010) - Geologic map of Minnesota, Precambrian bedrock geology, description of map units. Minnesota Geological Survey State Map Series S-22.
The Greenstone Church was completed in 1882 and is in the center of the Pullman Historic District. The church was designed to be used by a range of Christian denominations. The church is currently occupied by the Greenstone United Methodist Church.
Taken at the location cited in Part 3 of this set.
Peering through this famous geologic site's protective chain-link fence, we get a much better view of the magnificent ellipsoidal structure of some of the boulder's pillows.
The parent basaltic lava of this big chunk of Ely Greenstone first took on this mega-lumpy form when it was extruded into the cold water of a now long-vanished seafloor about 2.7 Ma ago, during the Neoarchean era. At that point, one of the major building blocks of ancient North America, the Superior Craton (or Superior Province), was being built up by a series of terrane collisions and mountain-building events.
The oceanic crust that was the Ely Greenstone's original setting has over a vast span of time found itself locked in the heart of a great continent. For what it's worth, geologists classify this rock unit as part of the Vermilion Greenstone Belt of the Superior Craton's Wawa Subprovince.
You'll find the other photos and descriptions of this series in my Exploring the Northwoods Country album.
The lovely Greenstone Church, located on the southeast corner of St. Lawrence (Watt) Avenue and 112th Street.
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Pullman is believed to be the first planned model industrial town. In 1896, it was presented an award for the "Worlds Most Perfect Town." The Pullman neighborhood survives today as a historic neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, and I decided to hop the Metra Electric Line and check it out. It's a seriously charming place, though unfortunately some major buildings were lost to fire in the '90s. Most of the original housing is wonderfully preserved...the streets are lined with beautiful old red brick mansions and rowhouses.
Most of the town of Pullman was built between 1880-84, by architect Solon Beman and landscape architect Nathan Barrett. It was designed as a sort of utopian community for workers who built Pullman Palace rail cars. As described by a writer at tallskinny.com: "The center of town was the railroad car business. A clock tower dominated the large industrial complex. The housing was well constructed with many modern conveniences for 1880's standards such as indoor plumbing, sewage, and a gas works. The parks and streets were pleasantly landscaped. The town would not be complete without public facilities such as stores and office buildings. The Arcade building and Market hall filled this need with spaces rented to private business (not company stores as is commonly assumed). A bank, library, theatre, post office, church, parks and recreational facilities were provide as part of the town."
If you decide to go check out Pullman, there are a couple things you should know before venturing out. First, there are no restaurants, bars or coffee shops in the historic district; in fact, there are almost no businesses there. Also, right now some key attractions are closed for remodeling or ongoing fire damage repair. I wish I could have explored the old factory complex, but there was no way I was going to get in undetected in the middle of the afternoon. The Hotel Florence was likewise fenced off, though I believe there are guided tours now and then that allow visitors to see the interior.
When Continents Collide
Prints, cards and more are available via the website: shiny.photo/photo/Everything--Edzell--All-At-Once-2d44a2e...
Around 480-390 million years ago, the continent of Laurentia collided with, and was subducted under, that of Avalonia, causing the closure of the Iapetus ocean.
Some of that crust was scraped-off into an accretionary prism, the mountain-building event known as the Caledonian Orogeny.
And now, when you take the easy "Blue Door" walk at Edzell, this rock face is to be seen immediately adjacent to the main path at the Rocks of Solitude.
The area itself is not designated an ophiolite as such - possibly because it's lacking the gabbro part of the sequence - but over the course of 200yd or so, the bedrock changes from metabasalt to metachert to metabasalt and then to slaty pelite - lots of oceanic stuff there.
And so we come to this small scene. In the ~8in width of the frame are phyllites, chlorite greenstone and serpentinites separated by a streak of gritty orange clay-like fault gouge and interspersed with epidote hydrothermal veins.
Up close, many tiny white sub-parallel streaks are slickenlines, indicating relative motion in the off-vertical direction.
Within the central dark patch are tiny lenses of kyanite - a dull blue-green colour (the mineral sharing its etymology with "cyan") - crystals stretched under extreme shear forces and now regularly used as a way to trace metamorphic shear zones.
By the time I finished talking with fellow walkers along the path and had found this outcrop again, the light faded and night fell. So I broke out the LED lights and illuminated the scene with a warm orange light to the left and cooler brighter light to the right. In the process, I spotted some of the rocks reflecting the light with quite a specular highlight, which I attribute to phyllite lustre.
This image is a focus-stack of many images, each 3s in duration.
...and they just leave this miracle lying around?!
A bit smelly and bruised, but happy we committed to taking our time, finished the loop and enjoyed it very much! :-)
Fuchsitic quartzite from the Precambrian of Wyoming, USA. (6.8 centimeters across at its widest)
This is a piece of quartzite richly infused with greenish fuchsite (= chromian muscovite mica). It comes from a small abandoned quarry where flaggy rocks were excavated for use as decorative stones (see Harris, 2003, p. 9).
Geologic unit & age: Elmers Rock Greenstone Belt, Archean, 2.54+ Ga.
Locality: small abandoned quarry ~0.5 miles north of Tunnel Road, west of Squaw Mountain & south-southeast of Government Peak, eastern flanks of the Laramie Range, far-eastern Albany County, WSW of the town of Wheatland, southeastern Wyoming, USA (vicinity of 41° 55' 00.40" North latitude, 105° 17' 48.53" West longitude)
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Reference cited:
Harris (2003) - Decorative stones of southern Wyoming. Wyoming State Geological Survey Public Information Circular 42.
Serpentinite from the Precambrian of Wyoming, USA. (public display, University of Wyoming Geological Museum, Laramie, Wyoming, USA)
Serpentinite forms by metamorphism of olivine-rich peridotites (dunites - ultramafic, phaneritic, intrusive igneous rocks). Metamorphism of olivine in the presence of water results in the formation of the mineral serpentine (Mg3Si2O5(OH)4). A metamorphic rock composed principally of serpentine is thus a serpentinite.
Serpentinite has a mottled greenish color, often has the look & feel of hard candle wax, and ranges in texture from crystalline to “foliated”. Many serpentinites have a foliated look to them, but it’s really not due to an planar alignment of crystals. The appearance of “foliated” serpentinites is really the result of extensive development of slickenlined surfaces.
Serpentinite can have a small component of magnetite that is usually significant enough to feel a slight tug when a magnet is placed next to the rock. Some serpentinites (see above) have "veins" of white asbestos (= chrysotile serpentine).
Many Precambrian greenstone belts have significant occurrences of serpentinites. Slices of dunitic mantle caught up in orogenic belts by obduction (= ophiolites) are often serpentinized. Sometimes, mantle peridotite masses that were caught up in rising magmas have been serpentinized (for example, in kimberlites & lamproites).
The sample seen here is from a Precambrian greenstone belt in Wyoming. The rock is from Casper Mountain, where Precambrian basement rocks are exposed. The area was uplifted during the Laramide Orogeny (late Mesozoic to early Cenozoic). Tens of millions of years of weathering and erosion has since removed the Phanerozoic sedimentary cover.
Serpentinite at Casper Mountain is composed of antigorite serpentine, clinochrysotile, and lizardite serpentine. Other components include magnetite, chromite, hematite, relict pyroxene, relict olivine, biotite mica, talc, and clinochlore.
Locality: unrecorded/undisclosed site on Casper Mountain, south of the town of Casper, southeastern Natrona County, eastern Wyoming, USA
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Site-specific info. from:
Gable et al. (1988) - The Precambrian geology of Casper Mountain, Natrona County, Wyoming. United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 1460. 50 pp.
The Lovely Sarah on the Greenstone Ridge, looking out over Rock Harbor. This was on the second day of our 2016 Isle Royale backpacking trip. We had already hiked up the front of the Greenstone (steep!), and the ridge was about to kick our butts again.
The Grade I Listed Bolingbroke Castle, built by Ranulf around 1220 in Bolingbroke, East Lindsey, Lincolnshire.
Most of the castle is built of Spilsby greenstone, as are several nearby churches. The local greenstone is a limestone that proved to be porous, prone to rapid deterioration when exposed to weather and a substandard building material. The castle was constructed as an irregular polygonal enclosure. The castle is one of the earliest examples of a uniform castle designed and built without a keep. It originally was surrounded by a large water-filled moat 31 metres wide.
Like another castle built by Ranulf during the same period at Beeston in Cheshire, Bolingroke had no inner defensive keep. The castle relied instead on thick walls and the five D shaped defensive corner towers.
The area was first fortified by the Saxons in the 6th or 7th century. In the 12th century the Normans built a Motte-and-bailey on a nearby hill above the settlement of Bolingbroke. The present structure was founded by Ranulf, Earl of Chester, in 1220 shortly after he returned from the Fifth Crusade.
Ranulf died in 1232 without a male heir, and his titles, lands and castles passed to his sisters. Following the death of Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster in 1361 Bolingbroke passed through marriage into the ownership of John of Gaunt. His wife Blanche of Lancaster, daughter of Henry of Grosmont, was born at the Castle in 1345. John and Blanche's son, Henry, was also born at Bolingbroke Castle in 1367 and consequentially was known as "Henry Bolingbroke" before he became king in 1399.
By the 15th and 16th century, the castle had fallen into disrepair although repairs were carried out during the Tudor period. In 1636 a survey found that all the towers were effectively beyond repair.
At the start of the First English Civil War, Bolingbroke was again used as a military fortification garrisoned by Royalist forces. In 1643 it was badly damaged in a siege during the Battle of Winceby. The following year, the castle was recaptured from the Parliamentarians but due to defeats elsewhere was relinquished again. In 1652 the castle was slighted to prevent any further use. The towers and walls were torn down and dumped into the moat.
Information Source:
A respectful tribute to Maori Art in Aotearoa New Zealand. The spiritual way they form the Pounamu (Jade or Greenstone) and the Paua shell (Abalone). Kiaora.
[This series on the Allied Arts Building in Lynchburg, Virginia consists of 10 images] This is a creative commons image, which you may freely use by linking to this page. Please respect the photographer and his work.
The premier Art Deco structure in Central Virginia is the Allied Arts Building in Lynchburg, finished in 1931. Designed by two Lynchburg architects, Stanhope S. Johnson and Addison Staples, it is a landmark 17-story skyscraper for Lynchburg, the tallest structure in the city until 1974. A steel-frame structure, it’s clad in yellow brick and greenstone, which was quarried in the vicinity. Only 40’ wide at the entrance on Church Street, it extends 132’ back into the hillside separating Church and Court Streets. The facing materials create the visual divisions of base, office shaft, and capital. The first three stories (the base) are faced in greenstone. The main entrance is 2-stories high and has double doors [image 6] with a burnished metal grill above with Art Deco motifs [images 7, 8, and 9]. Between the grill and the door the words Allied Arts Building are carved into the stone [image 6]. To either side of the entrance are shops; on the second level oriel windows of metal and glass are on either side [image 10]. The third floor contains decorative stonework, vertical horizontal lines carved into greenstone topped with stylized lions’ heads [image 3]. Yellow brick becomes the building material from floors 4 through 15 where the emphasis is on the vertical, emphasized by alternating broad and narrow piers [image 1]. The space between the windows is of unadorned greenstone, offering a color contrast of the brick and the stone [image 1]. The final two floors (the capital) are recessed, the greenstone panels are once again decorated, and the piers assume a buttress form [image 2]. An “attic” of greenstone is above the 17th floor. The rear portion of the building only extends upward 13 floors, offering another visual contrast. I’m not certain where the eagles in image 4 are located on the structure. Image 5 is a recessed side door and shows carved diagonal lines at the top.
The Allied Arts Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places December 19, 1985 with reference number 85003203.
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