Let’s face it, geology is my jackpot, a scientific windfall of sorts. Anything remotely linked to earth science wakes me from the deepest of slumbers and captures my full attention for hours. Also an avid pattern recognizer, I enjoy discovering similarities between geological concepts and other phenomena. As the streets of New Orleans buckle and bulge in the summertime, they are likened to orogeny. The crud that floats at the top of boiling milk is contrasted with lava cooling at the surface of Hawaii. Analogies abound, and I make sure to point them all out and very loudly to non-geologically-inclined D if he is with me. He, in turn, lovingly refers to this condition as my Geology Tourette’s.
This morning’s Eureka! moment came with a simple tub of cold cream. As I prepared to stick my finger in the chilly whiteness of the colloid, I noticed that a portion of it had cleaved and another, and another. The material was still creamy, but it appeared as if tiny, wafer-thin slivers of cream had been dislodged in the tub. In fact, it looked a lot like this:
It was a miniature rift system in cold cream! Excited, I ran to D and said, “Look! Faults!”
D’s eyes grew big and round as he exclaimed, “Release the pigeons!”
Such insensitivity to my geekitude.
Geeks are very lovable. And that was a very cool analogy.
The patterns are the similar, as the principles are same. Don’t ask me why I know all this.
I ran into your weblog through sepia mutiny. I used to know a lot of Shell people from NO. But I think they all have left.
I know Louisiana pretty well too.
I used to work on rifting and faulting from thermal contraction would be similar as you would see in an ice cream.
I have worked in oil companies in past (ARCO, ONGC, contractors) but never Shell. 99% of my school buddies are in oil patch.
I have lived in Baton Rouge and Lafayette but never NO.
Do you know:
John Londono, and Erik Scott (Shell, Egypt)
Clara Chan (She used to be graduate student at UW, and then moved to U. Berkeley)
I once shared lunch table with Basil at a meeting.
Kush
Yeah, I know John Londono – he was at my birthday party earlier this year. Erik Scott – the name sounds familiar, but I can’t put a face to it.
Of course, I know Clara! She is engaged/married to Scott Brown, who is from the same part of Ohio as most of my extended family.
Saw Basil this May at an alumni event, and will see him again this fall.
Looks like you worked on tectonics at LSU.
Maitri,
Yes, I did work on tectonics at LSU, and before that at Cornell, and since then half a dozen other places. That was all ages ago. Say my hi to John Londono (we show up on same website). Clara’s mom (and dad too) is a professor at LSU. She is married to Scott now.
Regarding India’s (and other colonials too) contribution to WWs, there are some beautiful books (fiction and non-fiction). In fiction, there is story by Guleri “Usne Kha tha”. It is one of the finest short story ever written in Hindi (I am going to blog about it soon).
If a British officer would showed them some dignity (spoke some Urdu), they would die and be cannon fodder with a smile on their face, all willingly. In the Battle of El-Alamein, one of the battalions which took most punishment against Field Marshal Erwin Rommel were Indians (18th Lancers). Again, I am going to blog about all this too one day (this is just a preview). Do visit my blog sometimes.
Nice meeting you.
Cheers,
Kush
Nice to meet you, too, Kush. And I did stop by your website, which has some wonderful thoughts and pictures, and how I found out about your tectonics work.
Clara’s married to Scott – yay! One more score for Ohio-Louisiana connectivity!
Thanks for the book references. It’s so touching that Indian soldiers would have given their lives for acknowledgment from their superior officers. We, as a people, are such a strange mixture of dignity and sentimentality.
See you around.