Our geologically inclined friends need a little love this time of year. Looking at rocks is always a challenge. Stop to examine a roadcut and you've got traffic, broken beer bottles, poison ivy, barking dogs and the occasional shotgun toting yahoo to deal with. Come winter and the challenges multiply with snowbanks, short days, ice and cold. It's enough to drive one to chemistry or physics!
So this post is my holiday gift to those suffering rock withdrawal syndrome. I've compiled links to geology themed videos, blogs and websites. Not much but it will have to do until climate change turns our pastime into a year around thing. And yes, you may hold your rock hammer while viewing these but no swinging allowed.
Let's start with a couple of short video visits to a pair of New York State Geoparks, one east and one west of Saratoga Springs. Starks Knob displays submarine pillow basalt near Schuylerville and Lester Park is all about stromatolites near the Milton/Greenfield town line.
Bordering Saratoga Lake is another interesting site. Snake Hill has been purchased by Saratoga PLAN with the property's management currently being determined. Here is info from PLAN's website and here is more detail on why it is geologically significant.
Snake Hill is the most westerly remnant of the Taconic klippe. The hills and mountains of this range loom large along New York's border with neighboring New England states. Geologist William Kelly gives a good overview of the region in an August 2020 webinar from the Rensselaer Plateau Alliance's speaker videos. You may have to scroll down thru a number of interesting talks to find Geology of the Rensselaer Plateau. Be advised that it's a little over an hour long but if you're interested in the Taconics it's an hour well spent.
Mike Huggins grew up in Argyle before a career as a professional geologist took him west (and around the world). Fortunately, he always has his camera with him and he still comes back to the good old hills of home often. He has a flickr page where you can see geology photos from Washington County, Moreau Park, Crown Point and locations far beyond. Makes me itchy to get out there every time I visit his page.
UAlbany formerly had a vibrant geology department. It doesn't exist anymore but there is a website where you can see some of the maps and thesis's that former students produced. Because of proximity many students chose to map sections of the Taconic Allochthon in Washington County and adjoining areas. These are the most detailed bedrock maps of the county that I'm aware of. Here's a link to the page where you can click on whatever map you're interested in.
Other websites that will get you thru the winter and ready for next year's field trips include: New York Geological Association, New England Intercollegiate Geologic Conference, Geological Society of America and Vermont Geological Survey.
Short overviews of a dozen interesting geologic sites across the state can be seen on the New York State Museum website. One is in Washington County. Photos, maps and brief description. The DEC has a similar page of Unique Geologic Features listed by county. Road trip, anyone?
Written in Stone is a geology blog by Dr. Jack Share. These are amazingly detailed posts on sites ranging from the far corners of the Earth to as close as the Adirondacks and Taconics. Inexplicably, new posts ceased in 2021 but there is enough archived content to satiate the geologically hungry over a very long winter.
Finally, time to fly on out of here with an aerial tour of southern Lake Champlain. Not strictly geology but a good way to get a sense of the landforms in the northern Washington County towns of Dresden and Putnam as well as southeastern Essex County and adjacent Vermont. Up, up and away with Ed McNeil.
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