Hello Oblate-spheroid!
This post will serve as my coming out party. I've been lurking around the geoblogosphere for a good 20 or so months now, commenting on posts here and there, just enjoying all the great content everyone produces. The thought of creating my own blog to share my experiences never really crossed my mind until a short time ago. These past few months have seen a huge influx of new geoblogs and I finally decided to give it a go with my new blog entitled Shear Zone.
I am a structural geology grad student based in Virginia. The projects I've worked on have ranged from brittle faulting in the upper crust to "ductile" thrusts (mylonites) in the middle crust. I also have some training in industrial applications. My personal (biased and partially unfounded) philosophy is that I've seen most of the crust "in action." However, I still feel woefully under-trained in my own discipline. There is just so much to learn!! Part of my learning process will involve distilling my science into layman's terms for mass consumption.
In this space, I hope to share some of the principles of my research, the random thoughts that keep me from my research (shhh, don't tell my advisor), stories from the field, cool photos, and anything else I can come up with. My focus will be on structural geology and tectonics, mostly fault related however. The scale of my material will encompass many orders of magnitude, from the microscope to the mountain belt. I also wish to get a chance to interact more lively with the entirety of the geoblogosphere, most specifically with my structurally related brethren Callan Bentley and Chris Rowan.
Before I sign off for the first time, I'd really like to say thanks to everyone in the geoblogosphere. The great daily content has shaped my "geological-self". I deeply appreciate all the work that has done the past 2ish years and hope that I can be half as stimulating.
My next post will be from the lithospheric mantle.
