Author: Jessica Johnson

Hello BackYard Geology readers!!! A little over a week ago I embarked on an incredible outdoor journey and the landscape I observed inspired this week’s post! Allow me to explain; on Nov. 6th I ran my first ultramarathon in northern New Mexico along a portion of the continental divide trail! It was a roughly 35…

Hello BackYardGeology readers! This week we decided to talk about something that is a world wide issue and impacts millions of people! This is a somewhat complicated topic as there are many different components that can interact, but it is an important topic. The topic of discussion this week is land subsidence. What is Subsidence?…

This week we decided to go out of this world with a post that will take you back in time to the origins of our solar system. Let’s hop in our magic school bus and visit the building blocks of the planets in our solar system and some of the first materials created, well before…

Hello Backyard Geology readers! This week’s featured rock likely does not exist in many of your backyards, but it is a very important rock that allows geologists a chance to better understand what happens when two plates collide and form what we call a subduction zone. Let’s take a deep dive into the red and…

Hello Backyard Geology friends! Thanks so much for the love on our first Vlog post last week, we appreciate your support! Have you ever picked up a rock and wondered what that rock is made up of? As geologists we definitely do this, especially if the minerals are far too small to see with the…

We here at Backyard Geology have been enjoying the geology pun life, so we decided to keep that going with this week’s post about more fabulous metamorphic rocks! In last week’s post, Kristen discussed slate and phyllite; two types of metamorphic rocks that form at lower temperatures and pressures. This week I decided to tackle…

Have you ever wandered into a countertop store and checked out the ‘granite’ selection? Well, if you are a geologist you likely have (because shiny, polished rocks!) and I can guarantee that many of the options they have shown as granite aren’t technically granite (some may not even be in the granite family). In this…

From giant crystals in a cave to the walls of your home, gypsum is an incredibly common and wondrous mineral. This post will explore the usefulness of gypsum in geology and in your home. What is Gypsum? The word gypsum is derived from the Greek ‘gypsos’ meaning plaster1. Gypsum is a common mineral that belongs…

Every year during the early summer months, parks in the West-Southwest United States, famous for their unique geologic wonders, will be teeming with geology students traipsing around examining rocks and interpreting their history. Why is that you might ask? These students are in Field Camp! This week we have decided to do a slightly different…

If you look at the first image you may ask yourself, “what is the deal with all of these holes and why are they only in one part of the rock wall”? That is a completely valid question as these features are a unique geological feature. These holes or cavities in our rock wall are…