💧🌏 Greg CocksJan 24, 2025
Deep Beneath California's Sierra Nevada, Earth's Lithosphere May Be Peeling Away
--
https://phys.org/news/2025-01-deep-beneath-california-sierra-nevada.html <-- shared technical article
--
https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL111290 <-- shared paper
--
#GIS #spatial #mapping #geology #lithosphere #California #SierraNevada #continentalcrust #crust #mantle #foundering #remotesensing #geophysics #geophysical #earthquake #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #structuralgeology #earthquake #seismic #seismology #Moho #platetectonics #tectonics #shearzone #faults #faulting #seismicity #model #modeling #3dmodel
Deep beneath California's Sierra Nevada, Earth's lithosphere may be peeling away

The processes that form continental crust from the denser basaltic rocks of the upper mantle may make the lower lithosphere denser than the underlying mantle. One theory holds that the lower lithosphere splits away and sinks into the mantle in a process called foundering. Conclusive evidence of foundering, however, has been hard to come by.

Phys.org
Sisyphus with a HatDec 14, 2022

This is a very interesting photo. Take on the beach at Ballyliffin, Donegal, it shows the contact between the Termon Formation in the foreground and the Slieve Tooey quartzite Formation on the background. The Termon consists of pellitic schists, and the contact between the 2 is define by a fault, with the top of the older Slieve Tooey being sheered as well.

Both formations are part of the Argyll Group, the middle group of the Neoproterozoic Dalradian.

And to crown it off, very near the actual contact, in the center of the photo, we have a Rock pipit posing.

#geology #rocks #shearzone #fault #neoproterozoic #proterozoic #quartzite #pellite #birds #birding #birdwatching #birdphotography #pipit #rockpipit #irishbirds #birdsofireland #irishgeology