Plate tectonics 101—what happens when plates move away from each other?
It's winter in the midst of a pandemic, and travel is restricted. So it seems a good time to go back to some geologic basics, the knowledge of which are sometimes assumed in these blog posts. The next four posts will explore the essentials of plate tectonics—the underpinning of our modern geologic understanding. Plate tectonics refers to the processes that...
The geology of Yellowstone National Park, and its precursors in Oregon and Idaho
Yellowstone has the distinction of being the first national park in the U.S., and probably in the world. President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill to protect more than one million acres—mostly in Wyoming—in 1872. Yellowstone was set aside because of its hydrothermal displays—the park contains more than 10,000 features, including the world’s greatest concentration of geysers, hot springs, mud...
Lassen Volcanic National Park—the southernmost Cascade Range volcano
The Cascadia Subduction zone extends along the entire coast of Washington and Oregon, but also along the northern coast of California. South of Mendocino, California, the plates change from converging with each other (the ocean plate loses and slides beneath the continental plate in the subduction zone) to sliding past each other along the San Andreas fault (a transform-type plate...
About the Blogger
Karen (here with Mt. Shasta in background) is a geology professor emerita who aims to provide a "pocket geologist" for world travelers. Follow the blog to explore the landscapes of our planet and figure out what causes them to look the way they do.