PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast

Latest Episodes:

The Longest Cave System in the World Jun 06, 2024

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This is the first episode in a series of 3 on the world's longest cave system - Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. In this episode, Chris and Jesse talk a little about Mammoth and some of its impressive statistics. The focus however, is more about the necessary ingredients for cave development in general. We talk about the 4 general ingredients: suitable rock type, a solvent, hydraulic gradient, and time. We also go into some detail on what each of these really mean. We hope you enjoy. In the next episode in this series, we'll talk about Mammoth specifics.

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The Uniqueness of Iceland May 30, 2024

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In this episode, Jesse and Chris talk about the geology of Iceland - although we keep it at a high level. We're going to come back to this - Iceland - later after Chris returns from his trip. Then, we'll get into some of detail that makes Iceland so unique. Here, we discuss how Iceland might be a prototype for the formation of continents and also talk a bit about the diversity of igneous rocks that make up the Island. The diversity of rocks speaks to the diversity of volcanic activity. We finish up the episode with a short discussion about what Chris is most looking forward to and how the planning is going. We hope you enjoy.

Tough Soil - The Geology of Hardpan May 23, 2024

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Hardpan! Where did this idea for an episode come from? Chris has been doing a ton of yard work lately and it’s not uncommon come across a layer when digging a hole that is next to impossible to penetrate. He has to bust out my pick axe to get through it. It's Called Hardpan.

Really dense layer that often occurs below the topsoil.
Problems:
- Roots can’t penetrate into the hardpan (Hayden Valley in YNP). Trees are easily blown over if they can even grow here.
- Water can’t penetrate so the soil layer above is easily saturated.
- Safe to say that farmers and gardeners generally don’t like it.
- Can even cause drainfield failure - creates an impervious layer
- These are just a couple of problems - there are more.
In this episode, Chris and Jesse do a deep dive into the geology of hardpan. We hope you enjoy.

Some Rocks You SHOULD Know - Metamorphism and Plate Tectonics May 16, 2024

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When Continents Became Stable May 09, 2024

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Today we really go into the weeds.
Jesse and a colleague just published a paper in the journal Nature that proposes a new model for how continents became stable. Stable continents have all the granite at the surface, which contains all the heat producing elements like U and Th and K - elements that decay away.
Today, we discuss that paper in detail, and along the way learn a bit about the early Earth, what we know and don't know!
Here is a link to the paper, which is open access and can be downloaded by anyone without paying.

Earth's Oldest Stuff May 02, 2024

Show notes

Today, Chris and Jesse get into a discussion about Earth’s oldest material. Earth is 4.568 Billion years old. First of all, that’s amazing the geochronologists have refined this down to 3 decimal places. How do we know this? The oldest grains ever found are 4.38 billion years old. If that’s the case, then how do we know the Earth is significantly older than that? Join us as we answer that and many other important questions about Earth’s oldest stuff.

Geo-Tripping - A How-To Guide Apr 25, 2024

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In this episode, we tackle a listener question regarding planning a geology trip for students. Both Chris and Jesse have quite a bit of experience in planning and executing field excursions for students. We believe that seeing geology in the field is one of the most powerful learning opportunities for students of all levels. In our discussion, we talk about the difficulties in convincing the higher-ups that this is actually a good idea. We also get into some of the struggles in finding excellent teacher resources. In the end, we get a little philosophical on the importance of getting comfortable with not having all of the answers. We think that sometimes it's important for students to know that instructors don't know it all and together we can perhaps think about things different and come to new conclusions. We hope you enjoy.

The Rocks You Need to Know Apr 18, 2024

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Cutting the Grand Canyon - Dr. John Douglass Apr 11, 2024

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Join us as we have the honor of interviewing Dr. John Douglas. Jesse and Chris have been following his research on how the Grand Canyon was actually formed for some time. We have recently finished our audio-visual book on the Grand Canyon (Link above) and we have a chapter dedicated to the actual cutting of the Canyon. The answer to this question has been elusive, but there are a few leading theories. John has been leading the way on the Spillover Theory as a mechanism for carving the young Canyon. It's a great geologic discussion and we hope you enjoy.

Uranium and the Start of the Earth? - How Geochronology Works Apr 04, 2024

Show notes

The idea for this episode came from the comment section of a social media post. It has it's roots in one of the biggest misconceptions in Geology and also Geochronology. The comment was about radio-carbon dating and how it's been "proven" to be unreliable. In this episode, Jesse and Chris have a discussion about the "toolbox" for geochronoligists and we also spend a lot of time talking about Uranium to Lead decay. We hope you enjoy.

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