We turn a quarter-century! Episode Twenty, the season two finale, is all from you, the inquisitive listener with your curious questions. We talk a little Advection Fog in our Triple Junction segment. Question: What do bee larvae, Mars’ Ionosphere, Phosphorus, and Iceland all have in common? NewNews, that’s what. In our main discussion, we first try to iron out the Flat Earth conspiracy and discuss the reason behind the idiocrocy. Hint – it has a lot to do with the fact that the Earth is not...

Where to even begin?  Dr. Greta Bowling joins the podcast for Episode 24, which is action-packed from start to finish. It is our longest episode to date that you won't want to miss a second of. It is chalk full of knowledges, tangents (Is Ryan Gosling Hot or Not?), poems, corrections, rants, Freudian slips, and flat-out derailments. Some NewNews quick hits: the naked mole rat strikes again seizing the moment, we learn about the weird feeding habits of the cone snail, and the Amazon Rain...

Episode 23 (S2E8) - This episode segues nicely from last episode's discussion about estuaries and the interface between freshwater and the open  seas. Our main topics dive deep into MarMars and all things Beaches, Lagoons, and Barrier Islands. There is another poem, a few tangents, and we forget how to say our words. We end our talk with a bit or nerdiness and close out the episode with our first round bands chosen.  Remember to Be Cool, Stay Tuned, and Keep It On The Rocks!

Episode 22 (S2E7)  Better late than never!  Dr. Angela Osen joins us again to conclude our conversation we started last week. It may have ended a bit abruptly but we decided it would be good to break up the discussion into two parts so here we are. This episode includes talks about the Characteristics of Coastal Waters as it feeds into the larger Estuarine discussion. We then mix things up as we stumble our way through Estuaries. Dr. Osen killed it, JtG and BB not so much. In between the...

Episode 21: Season 2 - Episode 6 This begins our two part series with Dr. Angela Osen to discuss Coastal Processes and Estuaries. Seas the Day starts off with the Texas Snow Shut Down followed by NewNews. The meat and potatoes of the episode focuses on Coastal Settings, Coastal Processes, Depositional vs. Erosional Coast Lines, and how scientist can use science to do science when monitoring the erosion of the coastal regions. Enjoy the twists and turns with tangents from here and there. And...

Episode 20 is the second part to us closing out the siliclastics. Our discussion here talks about that fancy word - Diagenesis. While we have talked about the deposition of sediments and the corresponding sedimentary rocks, this discussions dives deep into the processes that occur during deposition in subsiding basins regards to the physical and chemical responses in response to pressure and temperatures changes and how the sediments reacts to changes in pore-water composition. We close...

Episode 19 is the first part of our final discussion concerning the siliciclastics. We dive deep into conglomerates and shale closing out this chapter in our Sedimentary Basin Journey. We continue with our time honored traditions of Intros and Hellos, New News, Triple Junction, and Mineral Minute. Part two is to come... Sorry for the delays but weather is a son of a bitch. Remember To Be Cool, Stay Tuned, And Keep It On The Rocks!

Episode 18 begins with the Intros and Hellos and we test out our new segment called 'the Triple Junction.' This is where we get a chance to talk about Fanfare, Feedback and Follow-Ups. New News never disappoints and includes Venomous Primates, Dialects of the Naked Mole Rat, Panda Kinks, and Wombat's Cubed Dooks.  The main discussion continues along with our broader conversation that we have been having over the past few episodes over sedimentary basins, depsotional environments, and...

As we come out Covid Protocol, we bring to you another episode of Geology on the Rocks! This episode continues our discussion of Sedimentary Basins and we dive deep into all things Depositional Environments and Sedimentary Facies. When we talk about depositional environments, we are referring to a specific type of place in which sediments are deposited and these layers of sediment that accumulate in each of these depositional environments have their own set of distinctive characteristics...

Episode 16 Kick off the New Year the right way by listening to another Season of Geology on the Rocks! Season 2 will follow Bryan Baggins along with his Provenance Study and will focus on all things Basins. In this episode we will discuss all things basins, what they are, how they form, and how we study them. Between the bars we continue with another Mineral Minute; This week’s mineral is brought to you by the Potassium Magnesium Iron Silicate fluoride mineral, Fluorotetraferriphlogopite. We...

'Twas a few nights before Xmas and Our Season Finale premieres! Just in time to enjoy to enjoy the show between your Ears! As the holidays approach, your podcast gives to you, one final episode before season two!  James the Geologist and Bryan Baggins Spiders in Space in New News and talk Christmas goings-ons, while giving a little geologic context behind some of the most well known traditions. A little less known is what causes the seasons. Pssst... It's due to the Earth's tilt and nothing...

Salty Brine and Rock Licker are back at it again. Episode Fourteen is a continuation of last week's discussion and examine two other vital resources used in the making of Lithium-Ion Batteries, Cobalt and Nickel. We kick things off with Stories by James about the mythical creatures that protect the magical mountain treasures by killing miners who dare to take them. However, with the advent of Geology and Geology on the Rocks, we discuss the geologic context of the elements 27 and 28 and...

Another episode for everyone's earballs to enjoy!! This week's topic was brought to us by one of our wonderful listeners, jo.z.mae, and she wanted to know about the impacts of lithium ore mining vs. fossil fuels. While there is no denying that we need to look towards renewable energy sources and shy away from fossil fuels, we took the opportunity to discuss all things Lithium and more importantly what the implications for using the end product are; such as lithium ion batteries used in...

Happy Turkey Day from us here at Geology on the Rocks!  Episode 12 was another fun episode with special guest, Jason Young. Jason runs day to day operations at an engineering firm in DFW and has experience in all things mud and studied paleodebris flows in West Texas. This episode begins with some new news about the first dinosaur bones discovered in Ireland, Genetic Advancements of the Platypus, 6,000 Year Old Arrows, Mars Meteorites, and the December 21st Double Planet. We wrap up loose...

Bryan Baggins Begins with his adventure to the diamond mines in Arkansas and we try out a new segment, New News. We discuss Calcite Coated Leaf-Cutter Ants, Moon Rock Missions, and did you know there are more trees on planet Earth than there are stars in the Milky Way Galaxy? Say?! What?! Conversation this week covers the basic Geologic Principles and Unconformities. Things were cut short after Mineral Minute as we had special guest join us for an extended 'That Freaking Rocks.' Our buddy,...

Live and in the flesh - James the Geologist and Bryan Baggins decided to celebrate their 10th episode by doing a live but socially distanced recording. The giggling intensifies.  This special episode starts at the Permo-Triassic boundary and begins with the 'Great Dying'. The stage is set by discussing the geology that was occurring  during the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. Our mineral minute was brought to you by Tugtupite, the reindeer blood mineral from Greenland. Most of the...

Where to even begin? This week is a very musically inspired episode. From the very start JtG finds old music he wrote as heard in the Intro and is quickly followed up by unnecessary wanking. JtG and BB finally debut the much awaited 'That Freaking Rocks' theme song and JtG embarrasses himself making the intro to the newest of new segments, Mineral Minute.  This week's conversation is pulled by the Moon's gravitational force and covers what causes the tides, how do tides vary during monthly...

While Bryan Baggins and James the Geologist both had busy weeks, that doesn't stop them from talking a little geology. This episode is a journey that begins with the wonderful world of pegmatites. Minerals grow larger than life and while a few things may start off cloudy, at the center, it becomes crystal clear. The trek deflects to the right (in the northern hemisphere, anyways) when the story shifts towards the Coriolis effect. Sadly, the force alone is not enough to cause toilets to flow...

What do the rain forests of the amazon, the GDP, urban pressure, agriculture, the great lakes, blood-brain barriers, ozone depletion, carbon sequestration, and the moon all have in common? I guess you will just have to listen to find out. This week we have fun tackling a broad spectrum of questions from our listeners and offer some semblance of a holistic answer; perhaps stepping outside of our comfort zone. Fear not, because we close the episode out with another fantastic segment of TFR and...

This episode would be described as a magma with low viscosity, while maintaining a high silica content because this episode is explosive with the editing out 21 minutes of worth of plosives.  James the Geologist stumbles out of the gate and Bryan Baggins takes his GIT. The discussion ropes in and out as much as the texture of a pahoehoe lava flow, but is short and to the point like aa flows. Who knows? Even when things got a bit muddy, it still hits hard like a lahar. The knowledge was...

Dr. Angela Osen, Professor of Geology, helps JtG and BB, the two Geologist on the Rocks, navigate the wondrous world of marine sediments. The journey begins with adventures from the Arlington Archosaur Site and prepping fossils at a museum. In this episode we break down what sediments are; much like weathering did to the sources of lithogenous sediments. Ooids and Manganese nodules battle for weirdest sediment. There were a few twists, such as the demise of the dinosaurs (minus birds) at the...

Minerals - This episode winds down the path of gentle musings from JtG and BB who took their geology on the rocks; one more than the other. Can you guess who it is? There is talk about what is a mineral and what a mineral is not - a healing tool. The talk quickly dives deep into the Bowen's Reaction Series. Things get a little in depth while trying to navigate the many different rabbit holes that get brought up. Highlights include Bryan Baggins getting derailed when Marl is casually brought...

We continue our conversation with Dale with stories from FOUND, how he approaches science to answer questions in his research, gives insight on the tools he uses to analyze basalt, and close it out with some THAT FREAKING ROCKS and talk about the music scene in Rapa Nui.  Have you ever seen the rain?

This week we dive deep into the first unifying theory in Geology - Plate Tectonics. It shows how science evolves and improves upon itself by the continued work and dedication by the people doing the research. Our guest, Dr. Dale Simpson, Jr. exemplifies this fact. He is an American Anthropological Archeologist who has dedicated his life's work researching the ancient interactions of the people of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, by using geology and documenting the movement of basalt from...

This episode includes an introduction to who we are, James the Geologist and Bryan Baggins, what we do, and how we came to talk about geology. We discuss our lives in the age of Covid-19, our favorite minerals, and how we go about rocking out on stage.