Sexy Geology: The Accretionary Wedge #37

That’s my first contribution to the Accretionary Wedge, and I have to say that I’m very happy to participate because geology seems one of the most difficult science to divulgate because people usually has a wrong idea about what geologist do and what geology means.

We also have a blog carnival about geology in spanish called “Carnaval de Geología”, but there are only a few active blogs about geology in spanish, so if anyone is interested in it the participation is open for everyone.

The subject of this #37 Accretionary Wedge is Sexy Geology, in other words, what geological things (rocks, outcrops, etc…) we may have seen or not made our hearts race very fast.

I’m going to show two of my favourite outcrops I have seen in the field. Maybe they are my first and second favourite outcrops for it’s beauty and their didactics. Bot are located in Granada Basin (Spain) and represent the past and present tectonics in Miocene Sandstones and in Quaternary lacustrine sediments.

My favourite outcrop of all time is this faulted Miocene sandstone formation of Granada Basin:

Faulted Miocene sandstones in Granada Basin

The first time I saw it my jaw dropped and my eyes popped out from my head. I was driving and I thought it was one of the best examples of normal faulting I ever saw. All the outcrop is full of inactive normal faulting. And even you can see some fold geometry completely disturbed by faulting. It was one of the worst days of my life, but watching twice the same day this beauty had a charming effect on me.

My second-favourite outcrop is an active set of Quaternary faults affecting Pleistocene lacustrine sediments. Also is a good example of normal faulting because the layers have distinctive colours and that makes a good example for students. I think the colour contrast between the layers make it really beautiful.

Faulted Quaternary lacustrine sediments in Granada Basin

It was a very good luck that both of the outcrops were also affected by a highway construction, so we could stop at least in one of the sides of the highway to look them at.

P.D.: I know my english is not very good…Sorry!