Geology Photo of the Week 1 - Aug 26-Sept 1, 2012

Hi everyone,

Every so often I come across some really cool stuff and like every other geo-blogger out there I immediately take a photo and then share it. When I first started blogging I started a geology photo of the week theme in which I would write a description of the picture. Unfortunately, I let this lapse for the past year and a half so it would be nice to re-start it. Obviously this initiative is nothing unusual as many other geo-blogs already post a "Photo of the Week" sort of feature.  However, I hope that I can also contribute to the growing body of geology photos on the web by also posting every photo on ImageGeo the open access geology photo repository that the European Geosciences Union operates. 

Sometimes the photo will be a picture of a mineral or fossil. Sometimes it will be scenic and sometimes it will be something in the lab. So stay tuned since who knows what it will be? All photos will also be accompanied by a brief description explaining the geological significance and/or the location of the photo. 

To begin....

(Photo: Matt Herod)

This photo was taken in May 2009 by me on a field trip to Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta. It is a dinosaur bone, likely belonging to a hadrosaur, in soft sediment that has been exposed by erosion and will soon fall out of the small hoodoo that it resides in. You can see that half of it has already done so. Forgive the absence of scale, but the fossil was too high up for me to get a knife/pen/coin up there.

Dinosaur Provincial Park is one of the most incredible geological places that I have ever been. I don't want to write a super long post here but it is known around the world as one world's richest dinosaur bone sites. This was due to its fortuitous location and climate conditions during the Cretaceous period. It was a sub-tropical paradise full of rivers that deposited thick sand beds in which the bones are found today. Then, 10,000 years ago the continental glaciers covering Canada receded, exposing the sandy area to erosion, leading the formation of the beautifully carved badlands.  

The badlands. (Photo: Matt Herod)

Hope you enjoyed the first "photo of the week" and will come back for more down the road.

Matt