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 I have abbreviated the content of this page to remove course-specific rubbish and content getting increasingly out of date.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