Tectonics and Structural Geology

TS Must-Read – Wilson (1965) A New Class of Faults and their Bearing on Continental Drift

The Must-read team September 15, 2020

In 1965, JT Wilson published “A New Class of Faults and their Bearing on Continental Drift” (https://doi.org/10.1038/207343a0). This is one of the papers that led to a paradigm shift in Earth Sciences and would become one of the bases of plate tectonics. The concept of the transform fault, introduced in this paper in a very smart way, is fundamental in tectonics textbooks nowadays. Indeed many of ...[Read More]

TS Must-Read – Dietz (1961) Continent and ocean basin evolution by spreading of the sea floor

The Must-read team September 2, 2020

Dietz 1961 “Continent and Ocean Basin Evolution by Spreading of the Sea Floor” paper was ground-breaking for plate tectonics. Almost literally, as it discussed the sea-floor spreading theory. Certainly away from the consensus at the time, this article is a classic in divergent tectonic settings and it may be an interesting piece of work for ECS working in tectonics and, more particularly, in conti ...[Read More]

Marguerite Thomas Williams: The US’ first black person to obtain a doctorate in Geology

Anouk Beniest August 26, 2020

An artists illustration of Marguerite Thomas Williams (credit: Annique van der Boon)

On the day of Christmas Eve, five years before the turn of the century, Marguerite Thomas Williams (December 1895 – August 1991) was born. She was the youngest of her five siblings born to her parents Henry and Clara Thomas. We don’t know much about her early life. Perhaps her older brothers and sisters would take her by the hand when walking to school, maybe the family would g ...[Read More]

TS Must-Read – Hubbert and Rubey (1959)

The Must-read team August 13, 2020

“The Role of Fluid Pressure in Mechanics of Overthrust Faulting” by Hubbert and Rubey is a “groundbreaking” article from the end of the 1950s. It’s a remarkable piece of research, written in an old-fashioned way, for modern standards. Many ECS that may not have read the original paper yet are certainly familiar with its textbook content. Let’s go quickly through it! The article, as a key po ...[Read More]

Features From the Field: Pencil Cleavage

Sandra McLaren August 7, 2020

A selection of the author’s pencil shale collection, appropriately with a pencil for scale! Neoproterozoic Tapley Hill Formation from South Australia, Ordovician Liptrap Formation, Victoria, Balcanoona Formation shales from Mount Fitton, South Australia and a sample from an unknown location rescued from a departmental clean out (source: Sandra McLaren)

This edition of ‘Features from the field’ is brought to you by Sandra McLaren, a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne. She will be talking about type of rock formation called “Pencil Cleavage” so called because it looks like pencils. Sandra even has a small collection of pencil/crayon shale which is the cover image of this post. I have seen quite a range of differ ...[Read More]

100 years of Marie Tharp – The woman who mapped the ocean floor and laid the foundations of modern geology

Derya Gürer July 30, 2020

An artists illustration of Marie Tharp (credit: Annique van der Boon)

Marie Tharp (July 30, 1920 – August 23, 2006) would have turned 100 on this very day and she continues to live through her legacy of having mapped the world’s oceans. Similar to famous painters, some of whom only gain appreciation after their death, Marie Tharp is one of the most underappreciated scientists in the history of the earth sciences. Marie was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Due to h ...[Read More]

Istanbul: The city across two continents

Derya Gürer July 13, 2020

Fig 1. A view of Istanbul from Anadolu Kavağı, the northern tip of the Bosphorus Strait. Credit: Durmuş Cebeci.

Istanbul – an economic, cultural, and historic centre. Its unique geography, natural resources and beauty have drawn the attention of not only geoscientists but also poets, merchants, painters, sculptors, architects, kings and emperors for centuries. Throughout its history, the city has witnessed the rise and fall of some of the world’s greatest empires. Owing to its geopolitically important ...[Read More]

Mind your head: The Imposter Syndrome

Anne Pluymakers July 3, 2020

Credit: Bich Tran. Distributed via Pexels

This Mind Your Head blog post is a follow-up from one of the talks during the online short course on mental health that aired during the last EGU General Assembly. Imposter syndrome is about the feeling of being afraid to be found to be an imposter. Note that I do not claim to be an expert; in the following, I simply list a few tricks that help me, and people I have talked to, to find their way i ...[Read More]

Patience Anne Cowie (1964 – 2020): A Geology Superhero

Anouk Beniest June 23, 2020

An artists illustration of Patience Cowie (credit: Annique van der Boon)

Welcome to the first post in a new series being hosted on the TS blog! This series “Influential women of Tectonics and Structural Geology” is aimed at highlighting women who have had a key contribution to the field of tectonics and/or structural geology. Patience’s contribution to the field of faults changed the way geologists looked at faults. Her work continues to be used to an ...[Read More]

The Makran accretionary wedge: an ideal natural laboratory to study accretionary processes.

Jonas Ruh June 16, 2020

Lower Miocene turbiditic (layered shale and sandstone) sequences of the Makran acretionary wedge. Credits: Jonas Ruh.

How does an accretionary wedge form? For this edition of Minds over Methods, we have invited Jonas Ruh, lecturer in the Structural Geology and Tectonics group of the Geological Institute at the Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zürich, to tell us about the Makran accretionary wedge, one of the largest on Earth. He explains how the use of field observations and numerical modelling helped him to bet ...[Read More]