Facebook, night times and Iceland volcanoes

The Northern Rivers Geology blog has nearly a hundred thousand page views! I’m very excited about how much of a success this blog has been. I do want to continue to reach out to a large audience so I’ve taken a reluctant step into social media. I have set up a Facebook Page for the blog which contains links to the latest blog updates as well as other interesting geologically related matters. Let's see how it goes. If you are a Facebook user please follow me. Followers on Facebook can post their own interesting information or even ask questions. Of course readers can continue to comment as usual on this blog.

A picture of sandstone with rock hammer marks at night: doesn't really work.

On another matter, I was travelling into Queensland earlier this week via the Mount Lindesay Highway. It is a scenic but winding road (I was going to use the adjective ‘windy’ but since the weather that day was windy it could have got confusing - crazy English language). I noticed many interesting road cuttings including what appeared to be a coal seam. But, I could not stop because time was against me. I returned back the same way that night so I thought I’d try and do something I’ve never done night-time geology. It was not very successful. Trying to identify the larger scale features in a cutting by torch and car light is not an easy task. Even trying to look at sand grains was beyond me. My assessment of night time geology, don’t bother!

On yet another matter, I want to draw readers attention to this weeks volcanic activity in Iceland. Some interesting things are occurring under glacial cover. The only way that geologists can have an idea of what is going on is by measuring earthquakes. The number of earthquakes around two important concealed volcanoes has been in the many thousands this week. This has made processing the data time-consuming but presently the seismic records indicate some strange "goings on". In particular it appears that magma from the volcano Bardarbunga has made its way into fissures that are part of another volcano, Grimsvotn. This is quite unusual and with the added background these volcanoes have a very turbulent history and have taken many lives, all the more complicated. Volcano café has a good summary of the situation.