First a quick word of thanks to Chris Rowan (aka highlyallochthonous) for allowing me to start a blog here at all-geo.org. After having having a little WoGE blog and then contributing to Earth Science Erratics for a bit I felt it was time to have my own space.
Why metageologist? Well, firstly I don’t use meta in the sense of ‘beyond’, which is how some of my Arts educated friends interpreted it. I have no pretensions to transcend or transform geology. Instead I’m referring to the geological usage such as ‘metagabbro’, which refers to something that used to be gabbro but has been changed (by metamorphism) into something else. Appropriately for a blog, I’m talking about myself – once a geologist and now something else.
Here I’ll be sticking to Geology, drawing on my post-grad level education and experience as a publishing academic. I hope the fact I am a metamorphosed geologist will help me bring a different perspective on things too.
My aim is to educate, inform and sometimes amuse. I won’t be topical, I will be eclectic. Also I’m from England, so I will spell things funny and I will say things I don’t really mean for comic effect. I do drink warm beer and my teeth look just fine, thanks.
If you enjoy reading my posts, and get even a fraction of the enjoyment I get from writing them I’ll be a happy blogger.
If you want information on new posts, you can follow me on twitter @metageologist.
Welcome! We’re so glad you’ve graduated to your own blog!
Very nice to have you posting. My initial work as a geologist was all metamorphism and now I am mostly doing dirt as a geomorphologist.
At you original blog website, you posted on UK Chalk. Towards the end, you asked why there aren’t (more) significant chalk formations in the US.
The US does have large chalk formations, as noted within the 4 comments to that blog post. This ancient global map, posted on Ian West’s Geology of Dorset webpage, yields the answer. Another may be found by Google searching on Kansas chalk. Most of the surface outcroppings have been eroded away. The chalk originated from ancient inland seas the bisected the main US craton (a fascinating topic in its own right), and it explains why large limestone formations can be found in the southern and central Great Plains areas.
http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/jpg-Lyme/11LYM-Jurassic-Palaeogeography-General-m.jpg