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 t…

We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the basics of geoscience with our CampGeo content, purchase a visual audiobook on the Geology of Yellowstone National Park, and listen to past PlanetGeo episodes! Download now at this link Like, Subscribe, and leave us a Rating! —————————————————— Instagram: @planetgeocast T…

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 h…

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 a…

In charge of the Nations Rock Collection. That's a pretty sweet job description. Join us as we have the honor of interviewing Dr. Mike Ackerson. In this episode, we certainly get into some detail about igneous petrology. Mike and Jesse are good friends and have spent some time discussing things that introductory geology classes take for granted. Fo…

Today, Jesse and Chris discuss the geology of Nickel - The Devil’s Metal. Surprisingly, Earth’s core has a high percentage of Nickel - 10 to 20% of the core is nickel. We allow ourselves the luxury of getting into the details on nickel and why the core has so much. Of all the metals we’ve discussed on the podcast, the geology of nickel is the most …

Today, we have the another great interview - Dr. Anji Shah. She works for the USGS and has done a lot of work on heavy-mineral sands and critical elements. In this discussion, we talk about the paleo-environment that could concentrate critical minerals in heavy sands. Dr. Shah also tells us how "airborn geophysics" is important in looking for miner…

We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the basics of geoscience with our CampGeo content, purchase a visual audiobook on the Geology of Yellowstone National Park, and listen to past PlanetGeo episodes! Download now at this link Like, Subscribe, and leave us a Rating! —————————————————— Instagram: @planetgeocast T…

In this episode, Jesse and Chris discuss the geology of asbestos. Really, we cover all things related - history, past uses (some of which are mind boggling), health issues, and of course the mineralogy. If you want the datail, this episode is for you. Jesse goes off the deep end a little as he nerds out on some geochemistry. We hope you enjoy. We n…

Dr. Adam Simon joins PlanetGeo to discuss many topics. One of the most interesting topics of discussion is the copper dilemma facing the world. If we want to transition to green energy like Electric Vehicles, we will face a shortage of copper. Dr. Simon describes Copper as the artery of a green transition. However, he's done the math and it doesn't…

Today, Chris and Jesse once again revisit the topic of Bowen's Reaction Series. We've never approached the topic in such a before. The heart of our discussion centers around 1- What is Bowen's Reaction Series? and 2- How do we approach this highly idealized concept in an introductory class. How rocks really crystallize in a geologic setting is far …

Today is our latest episode in our series on climate. Jesse and Chris discuss the meaning of "Hard Water". Chris and Jesse both have hard water at our houses and we talk about how that happens. We wrap up this episode by talking about how the topic of hard water fits into our series and climate. We hope you enjoy! We now have a live Mobile App for …

Join us as we interview Dr. Steph Mrozek. Steph is an economic geologist with interests in interests in skarn and porphyry deposits and geochemistry applied to mineral exploration. In our interview, the discussion turns to degrees in geoscience and educational pursuits. We’ve received a number of questions from listeners about what degree to pursue…

Join Chris and Jesse as we tackle questions about the Grand Canyon. A 4th grade class, Bronx Little School, reached out in a letter with a list of fantastic questions. We knew right away we wanted to make an episode about this. These questions, and our responses, provide a great introduction to the geology of The Grand Canyon. Below are the questio…

Today, we re-visit one our earliest episodes that we recorded when this whole thing began. We've decided to do a small series on Earth's climate and feel that this is the best kickoff point for that topic. We begin by discussing the forgotten history of climate science. This is important because we have known the physics of greenhouse gases for ove…

We are on a break, but you can join us now on a virtual Summer Science Institute trip! Follow the virtual Mr. Bolhuis as we go on a geo-tour of many of the premier National Parks in the US. We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the basics of geoscience with our CampGeo content, purchase a visual audiobook on the…

We are happy to announce the release of our new Geology of the Grand Canyon book on the CampGeo mobile app - Download now to start listening! We are on a break, but you can join us now on a virtual Summer Science Institute trip! Follow the virtual Mr. Bolhuis as we go on a geo-tour of many of the premier National Parks in the US. We now have a live…

We are on a break, but you can join us now on a virtual Summer Science Institute trip! Follow the virtual Mr. Bolhuis as we go on a geo-tour of many of the premier National Parks in the US. We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the basics of geoscience with our CampGeo content, purchase a visual audiobook on the…

We are on a break, but you can join us now on a virtual Summer Science Institute trip! Follow the virtual Mr. Bolhuis as we go on a geo-tour of many of the premier National Parks in the US. We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the basics of geoscience with our CampGeo content, purchase a visual audiobook on the…

We are on a break, but you can join us now on a virtual Summer Science Institute trip! Follow the virtual Mr. Bolhuis as we go on a geo-tour of many of the premier National Parks in the US. We are also excited to announce that we have just released a new audiobook on our CampGeo mobile app on Earth's Climate. It's a five-part series with all the im…

We are on a break, but you can join us now on a virtual Summer Science Institute trip! Follow the virtual Mr. Bolhuis as we go on a geo-tour of many of the premier National Parks in the US. We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the basics of geoscience with our CampGeo content, purchase a visual audiobook on the…

We are on a break, but you can join us now on a virtual Summer Science Institute trip! Follow the virtual Mr. Bolhuis as we go on a geo-tour of many of the premier National Parks in the US. We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the basics of geoscience with our CampGeo content, purchase a visual audiobook on the…

We are on a break, but you can join us now on a virtual Summer Science Institute trip! Follow the virtual Mr. Bolhuis as we go on a geo-tour of many of the premier National Parks in the US. We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the basics of geoscience with our CampGeo content, purchase a visual audiobook on the…

Today, Jesse and Chris tackle the topic of the Slow Carbon Cycle. We've been talking about this for a while now. This is a very complicate cycle that involves many variables. In this episode, we work through some scenarios such as the Himalayan uplift and plug them into the Carbon Cycle. It's a little bit of mental gymnastics. The ingredients for t…

In this episode, we tackle the issue of infiltration capacity. The idea came to us in the form of a listener question due to recent events. Infiltration capacity is simply a way of describing the ability of soil and regolith to soak up water during storm events that drop a lot of rain in a short period of time. There are several variables that must…

We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the basics of geoscience with our CampGeo content, purchase a visual audiobook on the Geology of Yellowstone National Park, and listen to past PlanetGeo episodes! Download now at this link Like, Subscribe, and leave us a Rating! —————————————————— Instagram: @planetgeocast T…

We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the basics of geoscience with our CampGeo content, purchase a visual audiobook on the Geology of Yellowstone National Park, and listen to past PlanetGeo episodes! Download now at this link Like, Subscribe, and leave us a Rating! —————————————————— Instagram: @planetgeocast T…

We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the basics of geoscience with our CampGeo content, purchase a visual audiobook on the Geology of Yellowstone National Park, and listen to past PlanetGeo episodes! Download now at this link Like, Subscribe, and leave us a Rating! —————————————————— Instagram: @planetgeocast T…

Today we talk about Copper! The metal that is essential to all our lives, but goes largely underrated. Here is a link to the article Chris references in the podcast talking about the sources of copper deposits. We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the basics of geoscience with our CampGeo content, purchase a vi…

We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the basics of geoscience with our CampGeo content, purchase a visual audiobook on the Geology of Yellowstone National Park, and listen to past PlanetGeo episodes! Download now at this link Like, Subscribe, and leave us a Rating! —————————————————— Instagram: @planetgeocast T…

This week, we are asking you to do us a favor. We are really exited because we just launched our brand new campGeo mobile app. So, we would really appreciate if you clicked on This Link, downloaded the campGeo mobile app, and left us a rating and review on there. This week we talk about the origin of this concept, why we are excited about this mobi…

Today, Jesse and Chris discuss the distinction between sinkholes and karst topography. There is a surprisingly large portion of the U.S. that has potential to be affected by karst. It is also extremely important as a source of drinking water. We also discuss the distinction between the technical definition of karst and what is called pseudokarst. B…

We get a bit reflective today and discuss the importance of Geoscience to society - and how it has changed in the last three years. Jesse recently went to a conference on economic mining and came away newly excited. If the world is going to make the energy transition, certain elements are critical in allowing us to meet that demand. Today, we talk …

Today, we each give our take on disappearing streams. When the idea was first pitched, we were thinking about 2 different things. The result - we talked about each. Join us as we continue our series on water. We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the basics of geoscience with our CampGeo content, purchase a visu…

Today we have the great pleasure to interview a close friend of the podcast - Andrew Dewitt. Andrew has had a long career in the environmental consulting industry and provides insights into what it take to be a geoscientist working in this field and gives lots of excellent advice. This is a must-listen episode for any aspiring young geoscientist. W…

Today, we are talking about the process of making petrified wood. Basically, wood has to be quickly buried in a wet setting where the water is also saturated in certain minerals - usually silica. Also, there must be little oxygen present or oxidation reactions have to occur to use up all of the available oxygen. This prevents the wood from getting …

Today, we talk about all things soil creep. Have you ever been on a steep slope and seen bent or curved trees, slanted fence posts, slanted headstones or signs? Look closely and you can often see the surface has a rippled appearance. Soil Creep is a form of what we call Mass Wasting in Geology. Mud flows, avalanche, and rockfall are also examples o…

Just as in so many aspects of the way the world works, geology determines the drainage patterns (or watershed) of rivers. Today, we discuss the major types of drainage patterns - they're not random and we also get into how the geology at the surface determines this shape. This is a continuation of our series on water. We now have a live Mobile App …

Today, we cover something very interesting - a new initiative by the United States Geological Survey to map Earth's resources at a new level. Geology is newly relevant to society and. some people argue we are entering a new 'golden age' of geology - how exciting! We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the basics …

The Profs are back, and this time with a very special and very much in-demand guest. R Alan Siler is the Co-host of the Modern Musicology Podcast, owner and author at kOZMIC Press, and host of The Doctor Who A-Z Podcast. We invited him on to talk all things rock and metal in the 1980s. In this freeform episode, we asked Alan to ponder and discuss t…

Today, we cover one of our favorite past times - RockHounding! It's a totally fun, engaging activity that gets you outside and learning about nature. And, who knows, you might find something spectacular along the way! We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the basics of geoscience with our CampGeo content, purcha…

In this episode we start a looong conversation about how to identify rocks. We begin by outlining a few simple rules to go by, and how to start to think about identifying rocks when you find them out in the world! We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the basics of geoscience with our CampGeo content, purchase a…

Listen to Yellowstone's rock music here! Today we talk about the fun exercise of turning seismic activity recorded live from Yellowstone National Park, turning it into musical notes, and playing it for a live audience! As usual, we get into the geology behind the story! We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the …

Today, we talk about Uranium! Uranium is a really interesting element and today we talk about how it's used, a bit about nuclear reactors, then dive into the geology. Uranium has two major oxidation states, 4+ and 6+ and the chemical differences between these really drive how Uranium deposits form! We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android.…

In PlanetGeo today, we discuss one aspect of Yellowstone National Park Geology that goes under-appreciated - the Absaroka Volcanics. They are a geological curiosity, but a massive one at that - the volume of volcanic rocks produced by the Absaroka volcanoes dwarfs the Yellowstone hotspot. We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you…

Today we are extremely honored to get the opportunity to discuss all things geoscience and National Defense with Dr. Stefanie Tompkins, the Director of DARPA! Dr. Tompkins is the first Presidential Appointee we have ever had on our podcast and in this interview she clearly shows why she has achieved such an incredible level of success in her career…

Today we talk all about Levees! They are a very important and under-appreciated aspect of our society, infrastructure, and river systems! Here is a link to the excellent article that we mention in the podcast. Please let us know if you have questions! Levee Link We now have a live Mobile App for iOS and Android. There you can learn all the basics o…

Today, Jesse and Chris discuss a headline that's been making a splash lately. There was a paper recently published that looked into why some areas of New York City appear to be sinking. We took this as an opportunity to discuss an important geologic concept - Isostasy or Isostic Adjustment. Our conversation spanned glaciers, mountains, and cities. …

The Profs are back after a long hiatus. Matt traveled Italy in search of a great rock and metal store, but to no avail. Apparently, Italians LOVE Jazz! Court visited Chicago, and saw Mr. Speed in Chattanooga, a fantastic KISS tribute act. Now, the profs are chomping at the bit. We tackle the Sunset Strip: the Talented, the Determined, and the Delud…

Today, Jesse and Chris take on a couple of listener questions. One is regarding a passion for geoscience and would like to know our opinion on returning to school for a trajectory change. The other question is more for Jesse. It regards recent changes in mass spectrometry so we re-visit this important topic. We hope you enjoy. We now have a live Mo…