Climbing Geologists

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Messages 1 - 104 of total 104 in this topic
benne91

Trad climber
Seattle
Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 15, 2016 - 09:48pm PT
I know there are many climbers who work as geologists. I am graduating with a BS in environmental geology in December from the University of Washington. I wanted to hear from those of you who have found geology jobs and how you have been able to balance them with climbing since many jobs are remote. Any recommendations or leads are greatly appreciated!

Cheers
Andrew
Mungeclimber

Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
Oct 15, 2016 - 09:49pm PT
I'm not a geo, but seems like Wyoming might be the place to be.
jgill

Boulder climber
The high prairie of southern Colorado
Oct 15, 2016 - 10:11pm PT
BASE104 is an outstanding geologist. Written up in Forbes online magazine.
Jon Beck

Trad climber
Oceanside
Oct 15, 2016 - 11:04pm PT
Greg Stock is the Yosemite geologist, he gets paid to climb. He posts on here as gstock, he might be a good resource.
franky

Trad climber
Madison, WI
Oct 16, 2016 - 05:02am PT
I used to work as a geologist while climbing a bunch in Sacramento. I've been out of the industry for a few years, but sac was an easy place to find environmental consulting type employment and has good climbing in the area. There isn't a lot of climbing within half an hour, but a lifetime within 3 hours. I drove to sac on a whim and found a job that paid will in about two weeks of looking.
johntp

Trad climber
socal
Oct 16, 2016 - 06:55am PT
BASE104 is an outstanding geologist. Written up in Forbes online magazine.

Plus he is a really nice person. His background is petroleum geology but he is very well rounded.
Oldfattradguy2

Trad climber
Here and there
Oct 16, 2016 - 07:02am PT
Climbing (not so much recently) geo here. Mapped the Bonticou area of the gunks for my masters. Lived and worked in a few climbing areas. With an enviro background you may wind up working for a consulting company at 1st and they will try to take advantage of you in terms of hours worked. I logged oil wells out of school, shitty work but great experience, gave me some good time off at points in between wells.

Work for the Feds after 25 years in private, should have done it sooner. Contact me if you want. base104 can also give good advice, he was helpful to me a couple years ago.
AP

Trad climber
Calgary
Oct 16, 2016 - 08:16am PT
There are many climber/geologists in Calgary due to the oil industry plus the CDN Rockies are great for structural geology.
It is very hard to find a job at the present time though.
clinker

Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
Oct 16, 2016 - 08:48am PT
I climb with a geologist and am considerate enough to speak slowly and clearly when the conversation goes beyond the superficial. :-)


CaNewt

Mountain climber
Davis, CA
Oct 16, 2016 - 08:18pm PT
Central Valley Water Board has geologist jobs
StahlBro

Trad climber
San Diego, CA
Oct 16, 2016 - 08:27pm PT
My son is working on his PhD and helping Uber with their autonomous vehicle program. He is using ArcGIS.

WyoRockMan

climber
Grizzlyville, WY
Oct 16, 2016 - 09:42pm PT
I've been a working geo for 25+ years and have found it pretty easy to find a good balance with work/climbing. Certainly as good as any other occupation.

A lot depends on the path you want to head down. Extractive industries offer the best of compensation, often with great schedules (ie. 7 days on/7 days off), but suffer from a "stability" standpoint. Civil type jobs vary, are relatively abundant, but maybe not in the best locales. They may also be pretty repetitive and somewhat yawny after a bit. They also don't pay near as well, but seem to be more stable.

Peruse the usual job boards with "geologist", there is work out there.
http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=geologist&l=
http://www.infomine.com/careers/jobs/category/geology-geosciences/
Phil_B

Social climber
CHC, en zed
Oct 17, 2016 - 08:39am PT
Cleo used to teach engineering geology, but now she's a regulator.

Geophysics was my bag for a long time. I'm a crappy geologist because I couldn't be bothered to memorize minerals when I was an undergrad. Stupid me.

BASE104

Social climber
An Oil Field
Oct 18, 2016 - 10:21am PT
I am always surprised at how little attention climbers give to the rock that they are climbing. At most it is texture and other simple matters, like cracks.

There is no best type of rock, but the rocks themselves are fascinating. They all tell a hell of a story. The hardest routes these days are all in caves, it seems, so that makes limestone the preferred rock. Limestone is incredibly soft, though. It just won't hold up to thousands of ascents without the holds getting slippery.

Why the rock is so good in Eldorado Canyon baffles me, It looks just like the Fountain Formation that I've mapped in the Canon City Embayment. Down there, the grains are poorly cemented, and it is crap rock. Eldo rock seems to have been cooked, and seems slightly metamorphic. I'd have to see a thin section to know for sure, though. Actually, I should just read a paper on it.

The Front range is a great geology lesson. Those beds dive deep beneath the Denver Julesberg Basin to the east. The Front Range has uplifted them, and the resistant beds make nice hogbacks, like the Flatirons.

Igneous geology really isn't my bag.

Just know that the rock you are climbing is almost always older than Cretaceous. 100 million years old or more. The granite in Boulder Canyon is much older than the sedimentary rocks outcropping to the east. As you move west from Boulder to, say, Castle Rock, you are traveling back in time. You could spend your entire life publishing the various characteristics of that assemblage.

Geology is like being a detective. Rocks and their relationships with other, adjacent rocks, tell a story. Teasing out the clues to complete the story is what Geology is all about. It can get pretty involved, but the overall picture is accessible to any lay person with an interest.

I found a number of volcanic ash deposits while going over the collection that I'm now working at the museum. You can radiometric date ash deposits, as well as correlate them to other deposits because each eruption has a chemical signature. I'm going to re-visit the outcrops and figure out if they are part of the paleozoic stratigraphy, or are simply young Quaternary lake deposits.

Igneous rocks are easy to date. Sedimentary rocks are much more difficult. The ash deposits could put actual refined dates down. So I'll be doing a paper on that one over the next 18 months. I've got to find a co-author with access to the goodies at the OU Geology and Geophysics Department. It is a pretty straightforward hypothesis.
jogill

climber
Colorado
Oct 18, 2016 - 10:39am PT
Also, the Verm (John Sherman) is a geologist. He used to work in the oil fields periodically, but I don't know if he still does that.
WyoRockMan

climber
Grizzlyville, WY
Oct 18, 2016 - 10:42am PT
If it's not Precambrian, it's overburden.
AP

Trad climber
Calgary
Oct 18, 2016 - 11:25am PT
There is probably a good relationship between cementation and age as older rocks have more time for diagenesis to occur.
AP

Trad climber
Calgary
Oct 18, 2016 - 04:59pm PT
Don't forget geomechanics has a lot to do with climbability. Look at big granite crack systems.
Here is a question:
Why does Utah sandstone have such great crack systems when the rock seems pretty soft?
Fritz

Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
Oct 18, 2016 - 05:43pm PT
One of my 1970's climbing buddies has enjoyed a 40 + year career as a hard-rock geologist, mostly in Alaska. I enjoyed a 7 day Salmon River float trip with him this summer.

About day 4 of our float through the huge Idaho Batholith, he identified marble boulders in our camp, that had rolled down from a nearby hill. The other mineral-collector in camp and I argued to no avail about the rock that didn't look anything like marble to us, & then accepted his authority.

It is fun to go hiking with two geologists, if you like listening to mild-arguements over stuff that is arcane knowledge to most mortals.
gstock

climber
Yosemite Valley
Oct 18, 2016 - 07:29pm PT
http://www.climbingyosemite.com/portfolio/half-dome-rockfall-2/
thebravecowboy

climber
The Good Places
Oct 18, 2016 - 07:43pm PT
Tetrahydrobenzanthracene, methylbenzonaphtothiophene, dihydrotrimethylphenylindene, trimethyldibenzofuran, mineralized/unmineralized.
Minerals

Social climber
The Deli
Oct 18, 2016 - 08:28pm PT
“Just know that the rock you are climbing is almost always older than Cretaceous. 100 million years old or more.”

What about those who like to climb on that extrusive stuff…??? ; )
ms55401

Trad climber
minneapolis, mn
Oct 18, 2016 - 09:14pm PT
Base, you ever been to Minnesota? Wonder what you'd think of this rock on the banks of Lake Superior:



And yes, there are some STOUT routes here.
Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber
Out Of Bed
Oct 18, 2016 - 10:05pm PT
What kind of stone ? ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Diabase ?


The brave cowboy ;

Tetrahydrobenzanthracene, methylbenzonaphtothiophene, dihydrotrimethylphenylindene, trimethyldibenzofuran, mineralized/unmineralized.

.? Fit the copy paste, got no where closer to knowing
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kpinwalla2

Social climber
WA
Oct 19, 2016 - 05:56am PT
My geological research has allowed me to visit the Himalaya in northern Pakistan (8 times), the Gobi in Mongolia, the Alps in Switzerland, and spend months in the City of Rocks - not complaining.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Oct 19, 2016 - 07:25am PT

If it's not Precambrian, it's overburden.
Ha! Sherman, whoever he was, salutes you!
Lone Quail

Trad climber
Littleton, Colorado
Oct 19, 2016 - 08:31am PT
Look into civil engineering companies, specifically ones with geotechnical capabilities. There's a range of firm sizes from 1-person to big international corporations. Depending on the company, the work is mostly local or occasionally some out-of-town assignments, and it is mostly a standard work week. It helps to have a technical background in addition to geology, especially if you want to move up, but it's not necessary.
clarkolator

climber
Oct 20, 2016 - 05:20pm PT
I have never climbed a geologist.
BASE104

Social climber
An Oil Field
Oct 21, 2016 - 10:58am PT
If it's not Precambrian, it's overburden.

That overburden can tell an incredible story. Igneous rocks, or at least the intrusive ones, tell only a chemical tale. Perhaps a little insight into tectonic conditions when they were formed.

Stacks of sedimentary rocks tell amazing stories. The deep sedimentary basins where oil and gas are found presents a record of what the Earth was like at the time of their deposition. You can tease out all sorts of cool stuff, like when was O2 most abundant? When did land plants show up, and what does the palynology say? Depositional environments are well studied, and we see modern processes taking place in the deep past.

If you have a pretty continuous record, without major unconformities, you can tell what the planet was like in the past. Sedimentary rocks carry huge amounts of information.

A lot of the basics are easy for a lay person to understand. The methods employed are definitely more than a lay person can understand.

So you get the story, but you are a little ignorant as to how that story was told...what the evidence is.

Subsurface geology is the most incredible and intuitive branch of geology. The stories told by any particular strata can fill volumes.

Some people think that all you need to know is that water runs downhill, but that is a bad joke.

Here is a link to a lot of petroleum geology based papers that are available to anyone. They can be a little wild compared to the peer reviewed AAPG Bulletin, but they are fun to read. You don't need to pay for these:

http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/

WyoRockMan

climber
Grizzlyville, WY
Oct 21, 2016 - 11:08am PT
I've spent the last 10 years in petroleum, so am well acquainted with the complexity of the "overburden". Always thought it was a pretty funny joke. :)

My heart is in archean meta-sediments and igneous ultra-mafic intrusions.
AP

Trad climber
Calgary
Oct 21, 2016 - 12:40pm PT
BASE :
My father was a petroleum geologist, I am a petrophysicist.
You are right about the stories. I am doing a lot of work on the Montney which is the oldest Triassic formation, starting right at the great Permian Extinction. You see no evidence of life in the lower Montney cores then as you go higher (younger) you start to see very small burrows and the occasional fish scale. The water is still too acidic to preserve shell material so the calcite gets dissolved the precipitated. Then you hit the Doig, an organic rich lower Triassic formation and you observe ammonites and a few bones (pliosaur?) announcing that life is back in full force.

In the 1960's my father used to argue with the other geologists whether a gamma ray kick on the logs in a particular zone could be correlated over a distance of 40 miles
ontheedgeandscaredtodeath

Social climber
SLO, Ca
Oct 21, 2016 - 03:05pm PT
I'm an environmental attorney in NM and work with geologists all the time. Seems super cool to me and I would have done that major if I could do math. In our neck of the woods there are a lot of jobs with after work cragging in striking distance and southern colorado is an easy weekend trip.
BASE104

Social climber
An Oil Field
Oct 22, 2016 - 12:55pm PT
Nice to know that there are some hot geologists on here. Why don't you guys speak up when the Christians hammer me about the age of the Earth?

In the eyes of non-geologists, they only see the "ground" that we walk on. They don't know the fantastic landscapes and assemblages of life that grew or crawled or walked. All in DEEP time.

That concept of deep time is something that most people don't understand, much less know the volumes of evidence that the rocks tell us.

There was youtube debate between Bill Nye and a guy from the Answers In Genesis website/group.

He said that since nobody was around in the deep past that the science isn't solid. He made a distinction between modern processes that we can see on Google Earth, against the deep past. The incredible story of geologic history. The guy made it clear that it was highly interpretive and wouldn't accept any evidence of an old Earth or a 6 day creation. He was a smart guy, and mentioned other smart people who believe in the creation story of the Bible.

So speak up and give me a hand. I thought I was all alone here.

As for rock ages, I work post Cambrian rocks. Pretty much all Paleozoic. The midcontinent sedimentary basins were being formed at that time (Carboniferous, which we call Pennsylvanian). There are stacked sequences of eustatic cycles, with carbonates on the shallow shelf in SW Kansas, to clastic deltas close to the hinge line, and deep water deposits in the heart of the basin. The source rock for the midcontinent is mainly from the Devonian Woodford Shale. Only basins that are deep enough produce hydrocarbons. The Forest City and Salina Basins are too shallow, and rarely produce. The Woodford wasn't buried deep enough for it to thermally mature.

Most of the production is from Ordovician through Permain rocks. I've worked these cycles for my entire life, and the structural history is fixed in my brain. 30+ years of working an area will do that to you. I know the history better than I know human history.

It is cool to be able to understand what the rocks can tell you.

As for working super old rocks, I've got some Volcanic Ash deposits that I've found. They are either outcropping Paleozoic deposits or Cenozoic lake deposits, lying on the older rocks.

What is the best way to date ash? A paper was done of 30 deposits in Kansas, and the guy who wrote it used chemical fingerprinting to associate the deposits with various eruptions in the recent past, like the Yellowstone Caldera, the Jemez Caldera, and the Long Valley Caldera. The deposits were "recent."

I've been looking at a lot of coal samples in the paleobotany collection that I am dating. Some clay partings are actually tephra that has decomposed into clay minerals. The way to know is to look for glass shards in the clay, and hope upon hope that you can find Zircons. These samples are usually coal balls. Not a core or trench of the entire coal bed (most of them are only a few feet to a few inches thick).

So have any of you dated ash deposits? I've got a paper to write, but I'm not a hard rock geologist. I'm a sedimentary geologist.

I'm going to visit the coal outcrops in NE OK and SE KS and examine clay partings as well. All of these Pennsylvanian sequences don't have an absolute age. Not like you can get from super old Granitic Terranes, where you can see the assembling of present day cratons. You guys have lots of Zircons to play with. In seds, Zircons are detrital, and in no way can they be used to date an old sandstone. Ash deposits are different, of course. They can give you an absolute date. If I can find these clues, it would be exciting.
AP

Trad climber
Calgary
Oct 22, 2016 - 04:44pm PT
Have you done a Book CLiffs geology trip BASE?
I spent 5 days there and it was awesome.
Especially when we went to a cliff and there were 3 fossilized toes sticking out of the rock (late Cretaceous time). Probably Raptor sized.
The nearby coal mines see lots of dinosaur tracks down in the mine
Michael Hjorth

Trad climber
Copenhagen, Denmark
Oct 24, 2016 - 12:55pm PT
I had the good fortune to work a few seasons in Greenland as a climbing geologist, sampling for gold in steep walls in South and North East Greenland.

In NE Greenland we found absolutely zero gold, but the project in South Greenland (in 1993) later opened as the Nalunaq Gold Mine (now closed).

One thing the work taught me then was, that while risk sometimes can be acceptable when you climb for your own pleasure, it can never be acceptable when you climb for money. At one point we saw a possible gold bearing quartz vein some 50 feet above our fixed rope. The rock was reasonably good, so my partner and I just soloed up some 5.5-ish slabs, and took the sample. Down climbing above a 600' steep face, I suddenly realized the stupidity: To the chief geologist down in camp, it was just another rock sample, risk or no risk...!

Michael

Fixing ropes with Kirkespiret (Church Spire) in the background. Climbing area of Tasermiut is the next fjord south:

Sampling for gold:

Heli pickup each day after work:

Visible gold:

Trundling:

Nick Danger

Ice climber
Arvada, CO
Oct 24, 2016 - 02:35pm PT
I'm not sure I can help you with your career as a geologist, as I am in the twilight years of my own career. However, I might suggest that you keep a pair of shoes and a chock bag in your field vehicle at all times, as you just never know.....
I was mapping on the Nevada Test Site, a highly restricted location that you cannot get to unless you have sanctioned work to do there. There were a couple of interesting outcrops that my field partner and I would spend about 20 minutes working at the end of our field day, and we put up a number of 15 - 20 ft problems ranging from 5.8 to 5.10. They will probably never be repeated because of access issues, but what a wonderful way to finish off the day.
cheers, and good luck with your career
Nick Danger

Ice climber
Arvada, CO
Oct 24, 2016 - 02:53pm PT
BASE104,
I feel your pain regarding arguing with creationists about the age of the Earth. I always feel like I am trying to pour tea into a cup that is already full, and just don't see the point in going forward with the argument. That being said, just thinking in terms of Deep Time adds so much dimension to the observable Universe that my general sense of awe is just shifted into hyperdrive. I feel like those folks are trying to put limits on the Infinite and I just don't understand their motivation for doing that. Do they actually feel like the Creator of All-That-Is is as limited as their own feeble perspective????
BASE104

Social climber
An Oil Field
Oct 24, 2016 - 06:00pm PT
Nick, I'm not out to turn religious people into atheists. I'm not a Richard Dawkins. That said, when I see outright lies, and rather simple minded ones, it gets my hackles up.

Great photos and stories above. Hard rock mining is a totally different sphere of study. Geology is a big topic.

Right now, I'm looking at ash beds and clay partings in coals to see if they have a volcanic origin, and if so, any zircons can be used to date the rocks.

It is difficult to date sedimentary rocks directly. A lot of ash beds decompose into Smectite-Kaolinite clay layers, and I'm hoping that I can find unaltered glass shards in the paleozoic coals east of the Rockies. Ash partings are common in Cretaceous and Tertiary coals in the west, but any ash deposit in the much older carboniferous coals is likely to have been totally decomposed. The only way to determine volcanic origin is via exotic REE chemistry and unaltered glass shards. If the glass shards have decomposed, it will be tough, but silica holds up well to diagenesis.

A lot of work has been done in Eurasia on ash in Carboniferous coals there. It hasn't seen nearly the same attention here.

I live fairly close to the subcrops of the common late Carboniferous coals in SE Kansas and NE Oklahoma and SE Oklahoma. I'm going to be going on a lot of field trips this fall to take samples and shallow cores.

Dating mainly comes from biostratigraphy, which is good, but not precise. I am going to look at thin clay partings in the coals. In rocks that are that old, the ashes will have totally decomposed, and missed.

I've seen ash deposits at great depth on well logs, but for the life of me, I can't recall which ones. I look at thousands of logs each year, and I tend to concentrate on zones that are prospective. That said, I've seen ash signatures. One thick one, that I wish I could recall, now that I know what to look for: high gamma ray count and high resistivity where it doesn't belong.
Grippa

Trad climber
Salt Lake City, UT
Oct 24, 2016 - 06:43pm PT
I'm graduating from the University of Utah with my BS in Environmental Geology this spring. Congrats on finishing up dude you've worked hard! Look into taking your ASBOG FG (Fundamentals of Geology) exam after you've finished your geo classes. It is an nice accreditation for working as a consultant, and sometimes required. 4-5 years after entering the work force you'll take the ASBOG PG (Practices of Geology) to officially receive your professional geologist certification.

I just took the FG, and overall it is just as advertised "fundamental". Expect everything from 3 point problems, professional work questions, hard/soft rock, and gamma ray log questions. If you decide to work for the government then these are not required, but could boost your resume. Good luck hombre!
Tricouni

Mountain climber
Vancouver
Oct 24, 2016 - 07:37pm PT
I spent umpteen years with the Geological Survey of Canada, mainly working in the Coast Mountains. I could not imagine a better, more satisfying job. Unlike Base, I work mainly in granitic and high-grade metamorphic rocks ("improved rocks", in the words of one of my old profs.

I don't get involved in the creationism arguments, because it's pointless. I'm never going to change their minds, and the same old arguments just go round and round. Same with age-of-the earth arguments. Like Nick D, I think science, far from diminishing our view of the world, greatly enhances it. Like Nick, I am in awe of how big the universe is, how old it is, and how varied and wonderful life is. But I don't believe in god and I never have. There's no need to invoke god to explain everything, even though we cannot yet (maybe never) explain all.


tuolumne_tradster

Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
Oct 24, 2016 - 10:58pm PT
Base: RE age dating of volcanic ashes, have you checked out this USGS database?
http://mrdata.usgs.gov/geochron/

Andrew: most geologists work for oil companies but that industry is obviously in serious decline right now. If you can find a geology gig where you work on a rotation e.g., 28 days on and 28 days off, you will have blocks of time to climb. There are jobs in the oil and mining industry with this schedule but it usually means you will be spending 28 days in some remote location.

There are jobs for geologists in the groundwater remediation industry but those opportunities are also declining. My suggestion would be to get a graduate degree...at least a Master's degree with a specialization in GIS and geophysical methods for groundwater resource evaluation and exploration. Another field of interest for geologists is evaluation of abandoned oil fields to identify deep repositories for CO2 sequestration. Large scale CO2 sequestration will need serious government subsidies.

WyoRockMan

climber
Grizzlyville, WY
Oct 25, 2016 - 08:03am PT
Michael Hjorth- That’s the good stuff!

BASE, good luck on your hunt for zircons. Ash beds, due to them almost always being altered are a driller’s bane. I dig them though, as the corresponding high gamma signatures serve as guideposts for steering.

My background is in hard rock underground precious metals. Grade Control, is the likely first job in this brand of geology. It can be one of the finest jobs as well. You get a fresh outcrop that no one else has ever seen, you get to map and sample it, interpret the geology, make the call on what’s next… Very few other jobs entail the full spectrum of fundamental geology like grade control does. In that realm, particularly for high grade deposits, you get the opportunity to look at a lot (Spray: I surpassed the 500k feet mark a long time ago) of whole core. The detail you can pull out from simple visual observation is amazing.

I’ve had the opportunity to do a bunch of whole core (collar to TD) into a variety of reservoirs. The petroleum guys were satisfied to just look at the electric logs and were reluctant to actually make it out to the field and look at the physical core. A huge discrepancy we had in a Permian carbonate was the wiggle picker’s insistence on a shale bed marker. It wasn’t shale at all, it was a “shell bed” that was gamma hot, (likely U migrating from the stratigraphically lower Mississippian Madison FM). With a bit of acid to assist the permeability, these beds provided a great recompletion zone. Easy to miss with old legacy logs.

It has been a very satisfying career for me. I’ve been able to work in a wide variety of disciplines in mostly cool locations. There really aren’t many boundaries and for the most part I’ve been intellectually challenged and rarely dreaded going to work.

I’m with Tricouni on creationism arguments, particularly on-line. I work hard to make sure those types are kept off the local school board however.

Grippa, good advice on taking the ASBOG FG soon after school. I did the FG/PG exams 15 years after graduation, gave me a good excuse to "relearn" a bunch.
rmuir

Social climber
From the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
Oct 25, 2016 - 08:24am PT
BITD, many of my climbing partners (and college roommates) were geology majors who went on to get graduate degrees. Jim Hoagland and Dennis Bird come to mind—both attending UCR—were active climbers in 1971-1974ish.

I fondly remember sitting on ledges on El Cap with hammers cracking granite along cleavage planes…

The sport seemed to attract them. …Or they were attracted to the sport.
Fritz

Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
Oct 25, 2016 - 04:33pm PT
Grippa: Great to read that you are nearly a graduate! Congrats for sticking to it.

Also, I've been enjoying reading the posts in this thread.

Here's a little geology humor.

ianv

climber
Bellingham
Oct 25, 2016 - 07:39pm PT
I think it really depends on who you end up working for and what your job description is. I worked as an environmental geologist for 7 years, based out of Seattle, for a very large engineering firm. The work was generally feast or famine, and my companies policy allowed me to take "leave without pay" fairly liberally. I would be involved with a a project for a month or two, sometimes working 16 hour days for the entire time with only a few days off. When I was finished, I would take a few weeks off since I had banked enough hours. If you work for a small firm, you may end up doing a lot of UST removals, phase I's and similar projects that have more 9-5 M-F schedules. Figure out a way to set up a hangboard in hotel rooms if you end up with a job that has you working big projects. I got super weak by the end of most projects.

Oh, and the above suggestion to get a higher level degree is solid. It may be difficult to find a desirable job with a BS. The only path that I would consider going back into geology for would be teaching (at a community college), but those jobs are difficult to find.
eeyonkee

Trad climber
Golden, CO
Oct 25, 2016 - 07:49pm PT
Any of us who have studied as geologists should be grateful. I believe that of all of the sciences, this one grounds you in how conditions really are here on Earth more than any other. I've known plenty of super-smart colleagues who just didn't get the fundamentals because they were not grounded in Geology. If you don't get the fundamentals, it is likely that you will make mistakes going forward.
Michael Hjorth

Trad climber
Copenhagen, Denmark
Oct 26, 2016 - 12:31pm PT
@rmuir:
I'm glad you mention Dennis Bird!
I have worked with him for three seasons in Greenland a few years back - and visited him at Stanford. He hasn't been climbing for years, but if you press him even so slighty, he'll be happy to tell (re-tell, sorry) about his seasons in Yosemite, and an early repeat of West Face, El Cap (3rd?).
Most hilarious (each time!) is his hunger camp story from the eighties, stranded alone on an island off the East Coast of Greenland for 13 days (or was it 16?). Since then Dennis will never leave camp without a healthy lunchpack and doublechecked helicopter return schedule...!

tuolumne_tradster

Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
Oct 26, 2016 - 01:50pm PT

One of my favorite mentors, Bennie Troxel, prolific Death Valley field mapper and Quaternary Tectonics specialist...
tuolumne_tradster

Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
Oct 28, 2016 - 10:21am PT
This TED Talk is what I was talking about up thread RE geophysical exploration for groundwater resources...

[Click to View YouTube Video]
rubberrat

Trad climber
CA
Oct 28, 2016 - 02:13pm PT
Those that can...do. Most of the grads I know got jobs in water or oil.
That is why I teach and don't really consider myself a geologist but rather a geology professor. That being said, the jobs teaching are few and far between. Most universities want PhD's and want you to do research,supervise grad research, publish, be on a tenure track, blah blah blah. There's a glut of geology degrees out there. I don't worry about it and spend as much time as I can climbing and giving clink grief - can't decide which is more fun. They go together so well!
Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Feb 15, 2019 - 03:24pm PT
I've used the measurement tool on Google Earth for some time for long distance travel but I never tested the accuracy for "to the foot" measurements until I measured my house- it's dead on.
These varnished boulders have caught my eye for some time. It's an isolated field of densely packed burgundy rock amongst sparse and nondescript tan granite- let's say somewhere near the Peninsular Range. I always assumeded if I went out to investigate it would turn into a case of the amazing shrinking rock. Anyone have good info on how varnished rock like this forms?
Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Feb 15, 2019 - 03:44pm PT
It's a strange field of rock. The features seem to be more angular and sharp than the granite nearby, along with squared off or sharp cracks. Maybe the varnish reduces erosion There's a dozen or so rocks in the 70 to 100 foot range and hundreds in the 30 to 60 foot range. No bedrock hill tops in sight, more like an isolated talus field.

Anyways, it may be a total mirage- heading out next weekend to find out.
Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Feb 15, 2019 - 04:17pm PT
Funny story! I ran into this tidbit in my desert varnish research.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjQnOup_L7gAhWCCXwKHXIADqMQzPwBegQIARAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.astrobio.net%2Fmars%2Fdesert-varnish-on-mars%2F&psig=AOvVaw1NFgKoFZVBmQ6tO_zA2Wc0&ust=1550362449432120
wilbeer

Mountain climber
Terence Wilson greeneck alleghenys,ny,
Feb 15, 2019 - 04:41pm PT
Those rock pics Contractor remind me of the formations of the Allegheny Plateau near me.
I have studied a bit of sat and photos from airplanes of the AP ,those are similar looking to the erratics on top of hills ,found all over.

I have a degree in Geology and only worked shortly in that field.

Great thread.
ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
Feb 15, 2019 - 04:51pm PT
Here's a couple of old geologists, Ydpl8s and Nick Danger.

Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Feb 15, 2019 - 04:58pm PT
Here's a couple of old geologists
So what's the process of desert varnish forming on old geologists? Seems to be a thing...haha
tuolumne_tradster

Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
Feb 16, 2019 - 08:14am PT
Talk about climbing Geos, check out the sample locations for Roger Putnam's thesis at Univ N Carolina Chapel Hill, UNDERSTANDING PLUTONISM IN THREE DIMENSIONS: FIELD AND GEOCHEMICAL RELATIONS ON THE SOUTHEAST FACE OF EL CAPITAN, YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, CALIFORNIA

ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
Feb 16, 2019 - 09:10am PT
Bringing macro to micro, to understand things we have to look at them at all scales.
PSP also PP

Trad climber
Berkeley
Feb 16, 2019 - 11:38am PT
"Why don't you guys speak up when the Christians hammer me about the age of the Earth?"

Because it is low hanging fruit.

lots of non remote geology jobs.
tuolumne_tradster

Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
Feb 16, 2019 - 03:27pm PT
the other end of the scale...petrographic thin sections of andesitic volcaniclastic sediments of the Miocene Nearly Formation, Altamont Hills, CA...

sharperblue

Mountain climber
San Francisco, California
Feb 16, 2019 - 04:32pm PT
a bit of a tangent, but alpinist/geologist Mike Searle has a fantastic (and fascinating to the layman) book on the geology of the Karakoram & Tibet, "Colliding Continents" - packed full of great graphics and beautiful shots of famous peaks and gorges of those areas. If you've always wondered what the underlying strata of Laila Peak is, now's your chance. Highly recommended
AP

Trad climber
Calgary
Feb 16, 2019 - 06:28pm PT
One of my climbing buddies did his masters in geology doing research in the Makalu region. Jeff is a superb climber and skier and we can discuss the rocks on the way up.
kpinwalla2

Social climber
WA
Feb 16, 2019 - 08:14pm PT
As an academic geologist I made 8 trips to northern Pakistan over 15 years and conducted research for several years in one of my favorite spots on the planet - City of Rocks and Castle Rocks, Idaho.
tuolumne_tradster

Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
Feb 17, 2019 - 08:58am PT
Anticlinal structure Powder River basin, Wyoming...

Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Feb 17, 2019 - 09:18am PT
On the East side of the Peninsular Range, there's this strange flow that looks nothing like the surrounding ridges that drop to the desert floor.This concentration of massive boulders has me curious on how this singular formation is so different than anything nearby.
Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Mar 13, 2019 - 07:07am PT
NERD ALERT!!!

As previously discused, I identified a striking, expansive concentration of massive desert varnish covered rocks. Again, strange because these rocks are massive in size, similar in size and very angular in shape- did I say expansive?Anyways, a disclaimer here- I'm no geologist. Infact, I'm a homebuilder who dropped out of high school. I tend to make random observations by habit which usually leads to some form of temporary obsession; so I'm hoping for input by someone with specific knowledge.

My love of bouldering and natural curiosity lead me and a couple of buddies out to explore.What we found was a desert varnish caused by a fine, light grey clay being blown onto the rock and not the quatzite or mudstone I had hoped for. http://www.abdnha.org/anza-borrego-desert-geology.htm
What really caught our eyes was that this massive talus field had the appearance of a glacial moraine. The rocks were clearly hitchhikers on some form of substate and had been broken by force to similar size and shape, like having been milled in a giant coffee grinder. The possible common denominator to the varnish and the flow aspects of this huge formation was the clay- We were, infact on a massive clay deposit, hence the concentration of varnish. This area is also just a few miles from the San Andreas fault and on the boundary of ancient sea and lake beds. And by the way, these beds were supplied with clay silt from the Colorado River. So my guess is that a massive clay deposit was uplifted into an unstable position and let loose in one cataclysmic event by water and possible seismic activity. Please offer any intel you can- I could find no research on this specific formation, minimal evidence of human activity and certainly no evidence of bouldering. Did I mention the bouldering was amazing with thousands and thousands of 10 to 20 foot boulders and hundreds and hundreds of 20 foot plus boulders. Several boulders were more than 80 feet across. I only made it to one terrace, another expansive terrace lay a few hundred feet up and about a 1/4 mile away.

Ok, back to the clay cataclysm. The other evidence of this is the dozens of vernal lagoons that exist in this specific area. We all know that natural ponds and lakes are virtually nonexistent in Southern California. But here, there were dozens of them, from the size of a living room to an Olympic stadium. What appeared to cause these natural dams was that the leading edge of the slide zones ended up higher in elevation and the center zones settled.

Ok, either I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express or my weed was particularly kicking this day- let me know please.

Note: I did this post on my phone, in a hurry so please excuse the errors.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=web&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwieytytlP_gAhUQoZ4KHbNzB30QzPwBCAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fscience%2F2014%2F11%2Fone-of-worlds-largest-landslide-deposits-discovered-in-utah%2F&psig=AOvVaw2Ld5It0qrZ0PqcHFKrC_r2&ust=1552567923410750

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick_clay

http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/salton/AncientLakeCahuilla.html
Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Mar 13, 2019 - 09:01am PT
So this possible quick clay slide is about 1/2 a mile wide, 4 miles long and several hundred feet thick by my estimation.
Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Mar 13, 2019 - 09:14am PT
Good question, I'll check.

Also, the local tribe of Cahuilla had a history of making earthenware that traces to the tribes near the Colorado River basin. Earthenware is not so common amongst the California tribes West of the mountain ranges. We saw plenty of naturally baked clay in the flats.
Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Mar 13, 2019 - 09:16am PT
Well fuk...there it is! BJ nailed it.
https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/827/chapter/4849954/martinez-mountain-rock-avalanche
Grippa

Trad climber
Salt Lake City, UT
Mar 13, 2019 - 10:40am PT
Geology is the best! I'm a hydrogeologist and and while the petrology stuff is a little over my head granite is still my favorite rock type.

If you guys think that rock avalanche is cool check out the largest mass movement event documented in North America - The Markagunt Gravity Slide (2000^3 Km!!!). I was lucky enough to sit in on a talk by the field geologist Bob Biek who discovered it in the south central Utah.

https://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2014/11/17/markagunt-1/
Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Mar 13, 2019 - 11:03am PT
Wow, thanks for posting! The visual commonality, thanks to Google Earth, is the pillowy cauliflower shape of the leading edge of the flows vs. the "v" or pyramid shapes of the surrounding mountains caused by the more typical interaction of uplift and erosion.
BASE104

Social climber
An Oil Field
Mar 13, 2019 - 12:14pm PT
That anticline above....are you sure that it is in the Powder River Basin? Looks more like the Bighorn Basin, which is heavily folded. I always thought that the Powder River basin looked flatter at the surface. A blind man can see where to drill in those structures. I mainly work stratigraphic traps. You don't have to pay for all of that seismic.

I still dabbled in wellsite geology, so I get to look at real rocks, albeit drill cuttings seen through a microscope. Whoever mentioned getting to look right at the Permian extinction is lucky. That one was much larger than the K-T extinction. Cores are a real luxury in the oil field. There is a huge core library a few miles from my house, so if I want to look at a core of a zone to figure out the depositional environment, I can usually find a nearby core up there.

It is mainly Permian and older in Oklahoma and Kansas, so I get to see a lot of extinct microfossils. There is a helical looking bryozon that I always see in the Marmaton section:Archimedes . The Gulf of Mexico geologists know a lot of paleontology to date the rocks. There aren't well correlated beds to use. Those guys know their forams.

Kansas is like a layer cake. You can trace a ten foot thick bed from its outcrop near Kansas City all the way to the Colorado state line, so you know where you are to within a few feet. I can drillstem test a five foot thick bioherm. In Kansas, the geologist runs the rig. In Oklahoma it is the Engineer.

Kansas has super cool carbonate sequence stratigraphy. The oil and gas reservoirs can be really thin oolitic or skeletal, but with great porosity and permeability. There is no gas after you go a hundred miles or so north of the southern state line, so the rigs don't even have blowout preventers. The rig floors are 4 or 5 feet above ground level and drilling is cheap. Oklahoma is much more expensive.

Anyway, everyone in Kansas uses a real geologist to run the rig. So it pays very well. I'll do it if I get five in a row or so. The drilling only stops if you need a new bit or if you are running a test, so you have to sleep strategically. I did it a lot when I was younger.

It is a lot of fun to see the rocks instead of just getting a mudlog in your email every morning, and of course downhole logs. I've looked at logs for decades, all day long, well after well. I can read them in my sleep. I rarely need to pull out a calculator anymore. I can just see it.

Steering horizontal wells is fun until you get stuck.....and you do get stuck. Scary, with that million dollar tool down the hole.
AP

Trad climber
Calgary
Mar 13, 2019 - 01:13pm PT
Everything is a lot more subtle with unconventional reservoirs.
Logs from conventional reservoirs are (usually) straightforward.
Now that we are playing nanodarcy and microdarcy reservoirs things are trickier and we need more data (MICP, RockEval, Qemscan) to calibrate the logs.


I am the lucky one who gets to look at lower Triassic core, some of which crosses the Permian boundary.

Unfortunately the oil industry is in a real bad way in Calgary now. Calgary now has the highest unemployment rate of any urban area in Canada. Even ahead of St Johns
Splater

climber
Grey Matter
Mar 13, 2019 - 05:30pm PT
more on the martinez mtn slide

page 157-168
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Landslides/-Dr5YqsAeNIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Martinez+Slide+coachella+valley&pg=PA155&printsec=frontcover

https://hyspiri.jpl.nasa.gov/downloads/2015_Workshop/day3/13_hubbard-hyspiri-2015-talk-postable-redacted-version.pdf

general
http://www.abdnha.org/anza-borrego-desert-geology.htm

another slide area near borrego
http://mhart-geoservices.com/Coyote_Mtn_slide_paper.pdf

Nick Danger

Ice climber
Arvada, CO
Mar 14, 2019 - 01:52pm PT
Base,
You pretty much nailed the well site gig pretty good there. I also like your take on the differences between drilling in Kansas and drilling in OK. I have done a bit of well site work over the years, some in southern
and western Kansas, western Nebraska, and various intermontane basins in Colorado and Wyoming. All good stuff. Also got to drill a bunch of volcanic stratigraphy in Nevada for the DOE, as well as some granite batholiths for same. As interesting as drilling is, what I have enjoyed the most are my field mapping projects for the USGS, the DOE, and the USAF. Lord, but I love field geology. Did a bit of mineral exploration back in the day in California, Nevada, and Oregon. This has just been the best career of all for me. I think only fighter pilots and astronomers love their work as much as I have loved mine.
bobinc

Trad climber
Portland, Or
Mar 14, 2019 - 02:00pm PT
Routes and Rocks is tremendous. I have the 1965 edition in original hardcover. From the Preface: 'WE speak to those who wish to savor the many byways of this varied region. The guide is written and designed to be carried in the rucksack...Our tendency to rush the hiker out of canyon forest up to timber-line alp and crag is not necessarily because more rocks are to be found up there, or because we mean to belittle the impressive jungles, but because we so often meet people who think of the North Cascades only in terms of trees. Though we know that evaluation of view or campsite is subjective, we have tried to inspire as well as to direct, to give the flavor of a route as well as useful details. We are alpine pedestrians by hobby as well as by profession, and hopefully we hear the same music as our readers.'

And, a sad note about the wife of one of the book's authors (as well as the author himself):

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/A-Sorrowful-Coincidence-in-Activist-s-Death-2735922.php
Lorenzo

Trad climber
Portland Oregon
Mar 14, 2019 - 03:25pm PT
I had one partner who was a geologist employed in finding oil. Lots of money, time off, and retired early (40-ish)

Another partner was an academic working on earthquakes at the Vancouver (WA) center and on ice dams in the arctic.

A third partner with a geo degree ran a climbing school and died from rockfall.
AP

Trad climber
Calgary
Mar 14, 2019 - 03:27pm PT
The glory days of field geology in the Alberta and BC oilpatch was back in the 50s and 60s when structural geologists spent entire summers in the Rockies mapping structure/faults and correlating. They had lots of pack horses.
Grippa

Trad climber
Salt Lake City, UT
Mar 14, 2019 - 03:48pm PT
A full career of oil well drilling...I bet you've logged miles and miles of cuttings-I'm no where near a mile yet. The geology of Utah is an interesting study in structure, and it's influence on groundwater. The Sevier thrusts overprinted by the Laramide thrusts cross cut by Basin and Range extension make for some fun cross section creation. I'm just the new guy on the team, but am enjoying my time learning from the veterans.
tuolumne_tradster

Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
Mar 15, 2019 - 07:40am PT
BASE104: ^^^ that anticline photo is from a scanned slide taken in
mid-1980s during a structural geology field trip. I thought it was the PRB but you are probably correct that it is Big Horn.

I think we flew out of Casper Wy

EDIT: looked at my notes & the photos are indeed Big Horn basin. Here's another photo from the same flyover...

This is geoporn at its finest ;-)
Fritz

Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
Mar 15, 2019 - 09:03am PT
Thanks folks for the "geologists-speak" posts. It's good for me. An "old" climbing partner of mine has spent his career as a "hard-rock" geologist, mostly based out of Fairbanks.

Rumor has it, he is retiring to about 80 miles away from me this spring. He is not a loquacious fellow, but is an avid hiker. Hopefully I can lure him to some old mountain mining areas of interest to me.

Oplopanax

Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
Mar 15, 2019 - 12:21pm PT
rocks are nice but geomorphology is nicer.



Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Mar 15, 2019 - 01:44pm PT
Again, I'm geologically illiterate so some knowledgeable feedback would be great.

The back country of the Peninsular Ranges have become my vacation home- specifically the Eastern most sections of the ranges from North to South. The abundance of Marble, Quartzite, Schist and other sedimentary rock that has beed baked into the Granite makes for great juggy boulders and some very interesting lines on the bigger faces. It seems the further East you go the more variable the granite becomes. I'd assume this is because of the inland seas that once existed there.
Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Mar 15, 2019 - 02:33pm PT
One more.
Minerals

Social climber
The Deli
Mar 17, 2019 - 06:10pm PT

It seems the further East you go the more variable the granite becomes.

Variable in what way? The surface texture and size/shape of the climbing holds, or the actual granitic rock type, mineral composition, and rock texture? Or do you mean the amount of older metamorphic rock (xenoliths) that are hosted within the granite/granitic rock?

I am not familiar with western SoKal geography. I found your landslide deposit on Google Earth, but am curious as to the location of your most recent photos.
Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Mar 17, 2019 - 06:56pm PT
Hot Springs Mountain, Sants Rosa Mountain and the Eastern boundaries of San Jacinto. This is where I've encountered layers quartzsite within the granite as well as other rock that I can't accurately Identify. These areas are very close to ancient inland sea beds; Palm Desert, Borrego, La Quinta are all just a few feet above sea level.

I mostly climb Mt. Woodson and other areas around San Diego. The granite here seems to have almost no layering of other rock. Disclaimer- I build houses better than I do geology. I also like to find good rocks!
Minerals

Social climber
The Deli
Mar 17, 2019 - 09:57pm PT

Ok, thanks, Contractor.

This is where I've encountered layers quartzsite within the granite as well as other rock that I can't accurately Identify. These areas are very close to ancient inland sea beds...

If I understand your question correctly, I think you are asking if you can correlate the sedimentary material (“inland sea beds”) that you see around the Salton Sea area, with the layered rocks that are hosted within the granites (granite, granodiorite, tonalite, etc.).

Although the rocks may have a very similar ‘sedimentary’ layered appearance, they are different rock types, and are of very different ages. I don’t know the geology of that area specifically, but with a quick online search, it looks like the seds around the Salton Sea are on the order of just a few million years old at most, while the granitic rocks are Mesozoic – mostly Cretaceous (~66-145 million years ago (Ma)). See the geologic time scale link below for more specifics. It also appears that there are Paleozoic (~252-541 Ma) metasedimentary rocks in the area, which are probably the “marble, quartzite, and schist” that you refer to above, that you see within and around the granite. These metamorphic rocks are much older than the granite, and were already there when mamga intruded into the crust, and then cooled to form the granite. The bits of metamorphic rock that have broken away from the main metamorphic masses and are hosted within the granite are referred to as xenoliths (i.e. your last photo of the boulder). Metamorphic xenoliths should not be confused with mafic enclaves, which are blobs of dark-grey diorite (etc.) that formed at roughly the same time as the granite, and may be genetically related to the host granite.

There are probably quite a few different granitic units in the area, of varying age and rock type; each different batch of magma of a given composition, texture, and age is referred to as a pluton. For example, all of the granitic rock in the Sierra Nevada is made up of many different plutons, the whole of which is referred to as a batholith (i.e. Sierra Nevada Batholith). Also keep in mind that the San Andreas Fault and associated faults have displaced everything to the west (of the faults) towards the north, so the metamorphic and granitic rocks in your bouldering area formed at a geographic location to the south of their present location (relative to the North American Plate).


https://www.geosociety.org/documents/gsa/timescale/timescl.pdf


Here is a bit of geologic info on the area. Although the web page focuses mainly on tectonics and faults, the first geologic map (Figure 1) may be helpful:
https://pages.uoregon.edu/rdorsey/CoachellaValley.html
(One thing that is also interesting is that in the upper left of Figure 4, “760-ka Bishop Ash” is listed. This is from Long Valley Caldera on the east side of the Sierra, from the same eruption that produced the Bishop Tuff – Owens River Gorge climbing. That’s cool.)


Wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea


And for a generalized overview...

Interactive basic geologic map of California:
http://maps.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/gmc/
Found here:
https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/maps/california-geological-map


And a book that might interest you, if you are motivated to learn more:
https://www.amazon.com/Roadside-Geology-Southern-California-Sylvester/dp/0878426531


There’s always more info to find online too.

Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Mar 18, 2019 - 06:24am PT
Excellent Minerals- Thank you!

The link below was particularly helpful in identifying, specifically the Late Cretaceous Mylonite concentrations in the Santa Rosa. The map legend showed this rock specifically where I've come across it.
https://pages.uoregon.edu/rdorsey/CoachellaValley.html

The formations are striking...but more importantly, for my purposes, it makes for great bouldering
Oplopanax

Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
Mar 18, 2019 - 01:19pm PT
I wouldn't be surprised if what you call "layered quartzite within the granite" is actually an aplite dike.
Mandobob

Trad climber
CO
Mar 18, 2019 - 01:59pm PT
Contractor

"Again, I'm geologically illiterate so some knowledgeable feedback would be great.

The abundance of Marble, Quartzite, Schist and other sedimentary rock that has beed baked into the Granite makes for great..."

I could be mistaken but I believe the metamorphic rocks you are describing are much older than the Jurassic Age (?) granitic rocks which intruded these existing rocks. There may be some contact metamorphism with some of the sedimentary rocks that these granitic rocks intruded into (skarns)that might be characterized as being "baked" by the granite.

Source: Geology of California (Norris & Webb), John Wiley and Sons, 1976.
Nick Danger

Ice climber
Arvada, CO
Mar 18, 2019 - 02:07pm PT
Contractor, really nice photo of bouldering on that granite outcrop.
I an rather a fan of your photos.
cheers
Nick
tuolumne_tradster

Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
Mar 18, 2019 - 03:03pm PT
A conceptual model of the granitoid rocks in the southern Sierra Nevada by Cal Tech's Jason Salleby...


https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/20486150_Jason_B_Saleeby
Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Mar 18, 2019 - 03:34pm PT
Nick, thank you!

Whatever this rock is, its hard and fine grained. There seems to be a wicking effect as well, so no chalk needed. You can crank on this stuff.

A fascinating Native American and Natural history exists here that ties into the geological activity . There's fossils of animals that existed in the Caribbean at one time- this, I believe links into the age of the sedimentary rock.

There's also Native American, stone fish traps that can be found high on the hillsides above the Coachella Valley. These are remnants of a massive lake formed in recent centuries by shifts in the flow of the Colorado River.

Love this thread!
originalpmac

Mountain climber
Timbers of Fennario
Mar 18, 2019 - 06:14pm PT
I know that loose flake! As per the link gstock posted on the first page of this thread: It mentions a 20'x30' flake still attached with rubble behind it. I am 98% positive that I tiptoed across that flake in 2016. We were moving slow, party of three and ended up climbing through the night. When the sun rose we were nearing the top of the chimneys and decided to bail. Couldn't reverse the traverse on rappel and had to pick our way straight down through the rock scar, leaving gear anchors. I remember feeling that if the 3 of us jumped in unison we could have dislodged that scary mother. Interesting to see it in print, that it is know to be precarious. Although it WAS frighteningly obvious.
Thread drift and I apologize. Good luck to the OP in his search for work in his field. I have personally reached out to ST for advice on career ideas and have received valuable insight. As such I am working on becoming a lineman. Just got a class A CFL learners permit. First step!
tuolumne_tradster

Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
Mar 18, 2019 - 07:22pm PT
DMT: time to consider a periodontist...LOL
Brandon-

climber
The Granite State.
Mar 19, 2019 - 07:25am PT
Most of this thread is way over my head, but if I could re-choose a career it would be geology. I love rocks, probably why I got into climbing. Wyorockmans joke is lost on me. But, this photo is super cool. Very dynamic. Love it.

tuolumne_tradster

Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
Mar 19, 2019 - 09:04am PT

Pinto gneiss...

Reference
Miller, W.J., 1938, Pre-Cambrian and associated rocks near Twenty-nine Palms, California: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 49, p. 417-446.

Aplite dike in monzogranite...

Reference
ftp://ftp.consrv.ca.gov/pub/dmg/pubs/cg/1998/51_05.pdf
Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Mar 19, 2019 - 10:22am PT
Anyone here ever climb Sundance at Suicide to the Sundike finish (3rd pitch)? The second pitch has you moving up this beautiful face via xenolith horns with fun mantles to a blank 12 foot traverse- I thumb press on a tiny xenolith at my waist then 25 feet of 5.6 with no pro to the anchor. Next, veer left and alternate side-pulls up the 1" wide marble dike- its too steep to pull straight up! Classic climb relative to this discussion.
The xenoliths on the steeper part of Dome Rock come to mind as well.This dike laden line was an Erik Eriksson 10d-X route. I was a drooling coward so I dropped a 300 foot TR solo line.
tuolumne_tradster

Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
Mar 19, 2019 - 02:29pm PT
Mafic xenolith chikenheads in granite, Phantom Spires
Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Mar 19, 2019 - 03:00pm PT
Now that's beautiful!
Oplopanax

Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
Mar 19, 2019 - 03:06pm PT
Next, veer left and alternate side-pulls up the 1" wide marble dike- its too steep to pull straight up!

That's not marble. Also looks like aplite.
clode

Trad climber
portland, or
Mar 19, 2019 - 03:38pm PT
Mr. Drool wonders what it's like to climb a geologist. As a R.G. in Oregon I can tell you it's rock hard!
But then that begs the question, "how hard is rock?" Answer: it depends on the rock.
All rock is hard, some rocks are just harder than others.
Climb on.
Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Mar 19, 2019 - 04:59pm PT
I’ve never climbed a geologist, how is it?
How about an aplite dike?
tuolumne_tradster

Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
Mar 19, 2019 - 05:01pm PT
To distinguish Aplite from marble you can use a metal surface (e.g., knife) to scratch
marble but not Aplite, which is almost exclusively quartz (SiO2) and feldspar [K(AlSi3O8)]. Also, marble (CaCO3) will react with hydrochloric acid, whereas Aplite will not. Some high-grade marbles are harder than others.

Check out this pegmatitic dike with quartz interior and feldspar margins...
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