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 I have abbreviated the content of this page to remove course-specific rubbish and content getting increasingly out of date.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