Outside The Interzone: Apr 20, 2014

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Saturd80's: Post-Punk Edition

I have no idea what reminded me of this song, which was a staple of summer '83 (for my room mates and me, at least), but found it quickly. And what a pleasant surprise! What I'd recalled was the clever lyrics. What I hadn't recalled was the catchy tune, and in particular, I don't think I even noticed at the time how tight and accomplished the instruments were. Fun song! Human Sexual Response, Jackie Onassis:

Classic post-punk: Soft Boys, I Wanna Destroy You:

Violent Femmes (I need to do a devoted edition for this group sometime), Gone, Daddy, Gone:

Geo 730: April 26, Day 482: Faulty Pillows?

A final shot of the pillows at Depoe Bay, to the right of yesterday's photo. There's some overlap; a few of the pillows on the left of this picture are easily matched to the same ones in yesterday's. The distinctive aspect of this photo is what appears to be a minor fault running roughly vertically through the middle. This is a spot that's not practical to get at in person. We're looking down at it from maybe 10-15 feet away, so one can't get a good look at the fracture to say for sure it's a fault- you'd want to see clear offset or slickensides, which I can't say for certain that I do. However, there's a pillow right near the bottom that seems to be broken. Still, it's not clear enough to me to say with any real confidence that this is a fault rather than a joint. Either way, it's expression has been enhanced by wave erosion.

Photo unmodified. July 10, 2012. FlashEarth location.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Geo 730: April 25, Day 481: Pile O' Pillows

Looking almost straight down onto the pillow basalt beyond the sea wall (which can be seen along the lower margin of the photo) at Depoe Bay, it looks as if the clastic sedimentary component is, for practical purposes, non-existent at this location. I noted on Wednesday that the sediment seemed to be becoming a smaller portion of the mix, and if you go back over earlier days, you can see that there is an apparent trend, from south to north, for an increasing ratio of basalt to sandstone. This is another instance of a pattern I've noticed from photos, not on the spot, so it really ought to be "ground-truthed." That is, it's an excuse to get back to this town and see if the trend I've noticed from afar is reflected in reality.

Photo unmodified. July 10, 2012. FlashEarth location.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Geo 730: April 24, Day 480: Depoe Sequence

Looking roughly north-northwest from the center of town, across Depoe Bay, we see the Basalt of Depoe Bay, a flow of Columbia River Basalt, in the foreground. Toward the end of the point is another basalt flow, that of Cape Fowlweather- another CRB flow. Between the two is the Sandstone of Whale Cove. It's a simple sequence, but gives rise to a spectacular land and seascape.

Photo unmodified. July 10, 2012. FlashEarth location.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Geo 730: April 23, Day 479: Transition

We're looking at a rugged, but more or less flat-lying, marine terrace here. The sedimentary component seems to be becoming more sparse, and the basaltic component- both pillows and breccia- more dominant, as compared to earlier exposures farther south along the sidewalk.

Photo unmodified. July 10, 2012. FlashEarth location.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Geo 730: April 22, Day 478: Puzzling Pillows

This is perhaps one of the nicest exposures along the waterfront sidewalk in Depoe Bay. There's a cleft in the rock, coming right up to the sea wall, near the crosswalk in the middle of town. Looking down onto the rock, you can see individual pillows and clumps of them suspended in a mixture of sandstone and breccia. I presume the latter formed by spalling off the pillows as they formed. Glassy breccia of this sort is pretty standard with pillow basalt, and can be seen in a post from last January's Geo 365 series. The sandstone, though, is a little puzzling to me. In the lower middle, there's a lighter-colored lobe with less fragmental basalt. This may represent a spot into which the pillows didn't push, or perhaps a diapir-like "intrusion," where the sand rose in one place in response to being pushed down by the denser basalts elsewhere.

Photo unmodified. July 10, 2012. FlashEarth location.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Geo 730: April 21, Day 477: Muddled Mix

Some sections of the basalt/sedimentary mixture at Depoe Bay seem at least somewhat stratified- not organized, per se, but not exactly chaotic either. The above shows a disorganized muddle of pillows, breccia and sediment. It's hard to tell the finer breccia material from the sediment at this distance, so I don't have a good sense of how much there really is of the latter here, and how much is purely volcanic in origin.

Photo unmodified. July 10, 2012. FlashEarth location.