Geology Answers
I'm a structural geologist in California with a passion for sharing my love of rocks. I'm here to te
This is such a great example of how different maps cause different types of distortion. Any time you try to put a 3D sphere onto a 2D plane it has to distort something. Think about how you peel an orange and try to lay it flat on a table.
I really dislike the mercator projection, which is the most common map we see because it makes the land toward the poles huge, so Greenland looks the size of Africa, but it’s ~14.5 times bigger.
19/03/2022
This is the floor at the front doors of Saint Peter’s Basilica, in Rome. The two keys (red) are a different stone than the rest of the floor (green). You can see from the reflection of the light that the red stone is a little higher than the green stone. It didn’t start that way!
This renaissance age Cathedral was built from 1506-1626, the floor was flat when it was built, through years of people walking over the threshold they wore down the stone. This is a from of erosion, where rock is removed usually by weather, not priests and church goers.
The red stone is stronger and more resistant so as people remove just a little bit of rock as they walk over it, the softer green wears away more, and sinks lower than the red stays higher that is worn away less.
I’ve noticed this erosion happening at a lot of historic places, the Parthenon 🏛 steps sweep down (like a smile) from the centuries of being tired upon. The Acropolis is polished smooth like slippery glass from a similar process.
It’s amazing to see geologic processes effected by people and the connection between geology and human history.
Fisher is the Name, Faults are my game
I started this page to answer questions about geology and share what I know. I started posting observations about faults and earthquakes after the first Ridgecrest earthquake July 4th and found that a lot of people would like to learn more. This new public page is to share what I know as a geologist, seismologist and tectonisist. You like rocks?