New at Erratics: What’s up with Cu?

Our goal in starting Earth Science Erratics was to promote and encourage new voices to take there first steps into the geoblogosphere. But we also want to make sure that people who have taken those first steps already, but have perhaps flown a little under the internet radar, are given the attention they deserve. Erratics’ newest contributor, Nina Fitzgerald, gave up her previous career to go back to college and study geology, and currently works seasonally as a ranger with the National Park Service. Last year, she began recording her adventures in Utah, and the geological musings that they inspired, at Watch for Rocks. Her latest investigation, which she is cross-posting at Erratics, is into the formation of copper ores.

I had wondered why copper shows up where it does. I had wondered how copper gets to where it gets. I had found that copper could mineralize in rocks in certain areas of what is called skarn.

I pondered the following:

What the heck is skarn?

We think that Nina’s informative and enthusiastic writing deserves a wider audience, so hopefully after you have learnt about about skarns and where they form at Erratics, you’ll check out her own blog as well.