I have retired, and so this course is no longer taught by me. I have abbreviated the content of this page to remove course-specific rubbish and content getting increasingly out of date. If you find any of the things here useful, that’s good.
SVG vector graphics files for figures I use in this course (native Inkscape).
Assorted field trip images
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Off the main trail, looking toward the summit.
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Boulder cave exit, again.
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Looking at Clough Quartzite, Cragg Mountain trail, Northfield, MA.
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Summit of Mt. Jo.
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Large metamorphic garnets in an amphibolite.
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Ferrosyentie dike cutting leuconorite, summit of Mt. Jo.
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Approaching the summit region.
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View from the summit to the south, toward Bald Rock (left) and the halfway house site (right).
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Looking at a quartz-pebble conglomerate in the Cheshire Quartzite, about half way up the trail to Pine Cobble, Williamstown.
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Graded quartzite bed, stratigraphic top to the upper right.
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A new friend.
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Nice red garnets. The schists contain red garnets up to 2 cm across.
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Off the trail looking at complex isoclinal folds and graded quartzite beds.
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Coming down from the summit. It’s actually not as steep as it looks.
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Looking down on Heart Lake, adjacent to the Adirondack Loj campground.
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Brian pops out of the boulder cave.
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Hornblende needles in muscovite-biotite-chlorite-garnet schist.
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Coarse-grained, intensely folded graphite- and diopside-bearing marble on the shores of the Hudson River, Warrensburg, NY.
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Normal-size samples are sufficient for normal people.
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More folded quartzite beds. Wind is gusting to 50 mph.
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Large tourmaline crystals in a quartz vein. Largest crystal is ~5 cm long.
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The “Billings Fold”, a large isoclinal syncline just below and southwest of the Monadnock summit.
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Late quartz vein with 25 cm wide tourmalinized zone around the vein.
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Graded quartzite beds in Littleton Formation schist. Person is standing on the axial surface of an isoclinal fold that repeats the bed, upside down in front and right side up behind.
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Coarse-grained marble on the shores of the Hudson River.
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Halfway house site, with andalump schist and pegmatite.
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Summit of Monadnock.
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Largest plagioclase megacryst in anorthosite, Mt. Jo.
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Hornblende-diopside-plagioclase-calcite vein in an amphibolite ‘xenolith’ in the deformed marble, banks of the Hudson River.
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Metamorphosed tonalitic intrusives of the Taconian arc complex, Shelburne Falls, MA.
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Layer truncations against a thick quartzite. Possible pre-metamorphic sedimentary structures, or a fault surface.
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Crossing Roaring Brook on the way to some outcrops, Giant Mountain, Adirondacks.
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Early risers in Petrology, 2004.
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Large twinned plagioclase, summit of Mt. Jo, in an anorthosite block within the leuconorite.
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Nick eating the finest peanut butter sandwich in New Hampshire.
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Boulder cave exit.
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Summit of Monadnock.
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Woodchuck on Jurassic red bed sediments, Turners Falls, MA.
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Looking southwest from the top of Roaring Brook falls, Giant Mountain, Adirondacks.
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Sarah and Sarah walking up to Bald Rock.
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Big garnet outcrop, Warrensburg, NY.
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Well, it beats PB and J again.
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Group photo on Crag Mountain, Erving, Massachusetts, view to northeast.
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Checking out an especially large muscovite crystal in a pegmatite dike.
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View to the southwest, overlooking Monta Rosa.
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Deformed xenolith breccia in gabbroic rocks, as part of the older plutonic complex in the roots of the Taconian island arc. Shelburne Falls.
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Portrait of an unhappy snake.
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Black Precipice for lunch.
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Summit of Monta Rosa, with tourmaline veins, garnets, andalumps, and sillimanite fibers.
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View to the east from the summit. Boston was not visible today.
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Large tourmaline crystals in a quartz vein. Longest crystal is ~4 cm.
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Cambrian Cheshire quartzite on Pine Cobble, Williamstown, Massachusetts.
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More lunch on Black Precipice.
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Lunch on Black Precipice, sitting on the “Seven Sisters” quartzite beds.
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Bill, hanging up.
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Praying for divine guidance: what is that soft, flakey, metallic mineral in this marble?
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Petrology, 2000. Sarah, Nick, Mike, Bill, Sarah, Jeremy on the summit.
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Mylonite zone cutting gabbroic anorthosite, Keene Valley.
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Paying homage to partially recrystallized (Whiteface Mtn. type) anorthosite.
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Exposures of the Roaring Brook intrusion breccia, Giant Mountain, Adirondacks.
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“Billings Fold” near the Monadnock summit.
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Deformed marble with numerous ‘xenolith’ blocks and folded layers, Paradox.
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Searching for blue calcite, cascade slide.
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Contact between a granitic gneiss (light colored center and right) and a garnet amphibolite (lower left).
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Looking back from the location above to the Billings Fold itself.
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The Fairy at Fairy Spring, on the Fairy Spring trail to Monta Rosa.
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Samples of magnetite-garnet sand, Schroon River.
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Charnockite gneiss near Schroon Lake.
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Folded calc-silicate layer in marble, banks of the Hudson River.
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The whole hiking crew.
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Rainwater pool off the main trail, looking southeast toward Bald Rock.
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Patrick pops out of the boulder cave.
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Looking for graphite in marble, Warrensburg, NY.
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Boulder cave entrance.
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Trying to get out to the outcrop in the middle of the river, Jay.
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Snoozing on the flysch and chips outcrop, eastern Berkshires, Massachusetts.
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Labradorite showing labradorescence. It is caused by a diffraction effect from closely-spaced exsolution lamellae.
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Folded marble, West Stockbridge Formation, Natural Bridge Park, North Adams, Massachusetts. Photo donated by Ralf Schauer.
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End of the trip on the summit of Crag Mountain, on Silurian Clough quartzite which is made out of deformed quartz pebbles and cobbles.
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Reaching the top of Mt. Jo, high peaks in the distance.
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Nick and Bill hanging out.
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Large quartz mass in the neck between two large amphibolite boudins in marble, Paradox.
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Tonalitic gneisses and amphibolites at the Shelburne Falls, Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.
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Group photo from Pine Cobble, Williamstown, Massachusetts. Stop 4 at 9:00 AM.
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And snacks, too!
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The two notches in the outcrop are weathered out alkali basalt (camptonite?) dikes cutting leuconorite, near the summit of Mt. Jo.
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Small fault with calcite infilling, cutting calc-silicate block in marble, Paradox.
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Intrusion breccias and other intrusive features in the roots of the Taconic island arc, Shelburn Falls, Massachusetts.
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Large garnets in melt pockets in an amphibolite.
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Metamorphosed limestone of the West Stockbridge Formation, North Adams, Massachusetts.
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Salamander rushes off at top speed.
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Lunch on Black Precipice. Garnet- and tourmaline-bearing granite dikes and sills visible in the schist.
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Looking at metamorphosed quartz pebble conglomerate in the Cheshire Quartzite, Pine Cobble Trail, Williamstown, MA.
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Part of the class.
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Highly deformed marble on the shores of the Hudson River.
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Same as above, with Mike and Bill for scale.
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Blue calcite!
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Large plagioclase crystal in a block of anorthosite within the leuconorite, summit of Mt. Jo.
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Isoclinally folded quartzite beds.
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Looking at metamorphosed quartz pebble conglomerate in the Cheshire Quartzite, Pine Cobble Trail, Williamstown, MA.
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Large sillimanite pseudomorph after andalusite, ~35 cm long.
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Lunch on Black Precipice, looking south at the landscape.
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Eroded lamprophyre dike, near the summit of Mt. Jo.
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Even more lunch.
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Coticule layer near the Billings Fold.
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Another group photo at Pine Cobble, Williamstown, Massachusetts. Stop 4 at 9:00 AM. Photo donated by Ralf Schauer.
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The largest plagioclase crystal found in this trip, larger than a size 12 boot.
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The true breakfast, lunch, and dinner of champions.
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If you are going to take a snooze, it might as well be in a nice spot!
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Searching for mega-samples, as usual.
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Marble-matrix breccia near Paradox.
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Magnetite ore body and mine west of Ticonderoga, NY.
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Summit of Monadnock.
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Chicken track pattern of andalumps on a foliation surface.
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Jeremy on Littleton Schist, with large sillimanite pseudomorphs after andalusite on the rock surface to the right.
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Natural Bridge, in Natural Bridge State Park, North Adams, MA.
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Metamorphosed tonalitic intrusives of the Taconian arc complex, Shelburne Falls, MA.
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Large xenolith choking the interior of a thin tourmaline granite sill.
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Bill reading the paper.
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Infold of marble and calc-silicate layers into a partially separated amphibolite boudin neck, banks of the Hudson River.
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David pops out of the boulder cave.
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Salamander escapes from tent caterpillar.
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Folded quartzite beds.
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More isoclinally folded quartzite beds.
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Pre-hike lunch making. Nothing better than peanut butter and jelly!
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Anna pops out of the boulder cave.
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Looking at leuconorite, cut by numerous ferrosyenite dikes that form an extremely block-rich intrusion breccia.
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Eroded lamprophyre dike, near the summit of Mt. Jo.
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Eroded lamprophyre dike, near the summit of Mt. Jo.
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Alkali basalt dike cutting leuconorite, on the long trail down from the summit of Mt. Jo.
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Sarah, done with her sandwich. Not sure if it was the finest.
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Walloomsac metamorphosed calcareous sandstone, Rt. 8, North Adams, MA.
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Feeling for fault movement indicators on a slickensided surface, Waloomsac Formation, Rt. 8, North Adams, Massachusetts.
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Large plagioclase crystal in Mt. Marcy-type anorthosite, Mt. Jo, short trail up.
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Metamorphosed Cambro-Ordovician volcaniclastic sediments on the east side of the Berkshires. Abundant quartz veins and glacial striations.
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Nice graded quartzite bed. Top is to the upper left.
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On the hike down we found another part of the Billings Fold, ~200 m along the axial surface.
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Looking at a thin ferrogabbro dike crosscutting anorthosite.
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Large plagioclase megacryst in anorthosite, Mt. Jo.
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Looking back toward the summit from Bald Rock, on the way to the graphite mine and the boulder cave.
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Silurian Clough quartzite, Crag Mountain, just west of the Connecticut River valley.
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Summit of Mt. Jo.
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Late fault offsetting quartzite layer.
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“Billings Fold” just below the summit.
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Fold hinge in one of the isoclinally folded quartzite beds.
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Summit of Mt. Jo.
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Looking closely at the corona textures and the green plagioclase flow foliation in a corona gabbro, near Schroon Lake.
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Outcrop of Clough Quartzite on Crag Mountain, Erving, Massachusetts. View to south-southeast toward the Northfield Mountain pumped storage reservoir in the Pelham Dome.