Dipurrgent Boundary

A post from Dana at last! Poor Evelyn's been doing all the work lately. I get so wrapped up in ETEV and Rosetta Stones and life that I neglect the geokittehs, which is a terrible thing for me to do. However, thanks to my wonderful ETEV readers, I have a little something for ye!

You can see the Empty Pillow Plate is firmly attached to the Kitteh Pillow Plate.

I posted some pics of Misha, and asked my readers what geological concepts they thought she was illustrating. Anthony K chimed in first with the purrfect one: a dipurrgent boundary!

The Kitteh Pillow Plate begins to rift away from the Empty Pillow Plate. I believe we're seeing a mid-ocean ridge, or possibly an incipient volcanic island, form here.

I love that! And it's a really fun concept, because divergent boundaries, where two or more plates are pulling away from each other, are fascinating to me. Almost as much as subduction zones. On land, you see the boundary as a rift valley. In the ocean, it's a mid-ocean ridge.

Miles doesn't concur. He thinks we've got a volcanic bomb. And I'll admit, this is a very explosive kitteh, so it's quite possible.

Susannah classifies her as an immovable rock, which she certainly is: that pillow is her pillow, and she will not be removed from it on pain of pain. Not even the evil vacuum cleaner chased her away.

Karen sees her as "representing all those problems that we Don’t Have Enough Data For." And I must say, that's quite plausible, considering that so many geokitologists have such varying opinions.

Chezjake summed her right up, though: "With that frigid stare, she’s got to be a glacial erratic." Oh, yes. She's quite cold when she disapproves of an action you're engaged in. Rather molten when she's angry, though, so she must be an igneous erratic.

What do you think?

Kittens #1

Do you know what we don't have nearly enough of here on Geokittehs?

Kittens!

Fotunately, Megan regularly fosters kittens and has been kind enough to provide some pictures. Megan sent through many pictures, so I'll share them over a couple of posts. Here's the first batch:

A kitten, subducted  obducted on top of a loving hand.

Laccolith kitten.

I don't have a geological caption for this one, but it's ADORABLE.

Thanks for sharing your kitten pictures, Megan. If anyone else has kitten pictures, please feel free to contribute to Geokittehs! 

Geokittehs in the Geology Student Room

Geokittehs are always good for stress relief.

The above picture showing a print-out of the classic Geokittehs post Under Pressure was sent in by Ric a couple of weeks ago. He explains:

A week before finals, a geokitteh reminds students what happens when stress pulls them in opposite directions.This picture was spotted in the Salem State University geology students' room--"The Morgue".

Thanks for sharing this picture, Ric. I hope finals went well for the geology students at Salem State!

Cat and Baby in a Matrix

Here's another post courtesy of fellow geoblogger Callan Bentley:

Two clasts in a comfy matrix.

Two clasts in a comfy matrix, annotated by Callan.

Callan explains what's going on in the above picture:

The well-rounded clast ("B") has clearly travelled farther, and is thus likely to be older. It does have one lone angular point poking off it, so that calls that interpretation into question somewhat, but I'm sticking with it. The more elongate clast ("A") is rougher on the exterior, and thus is probably the younger of the two. Clast A is also larger, which implies it takes more energy to move it (and really, to manage it in general). The two clasts are surrounded by a very comfortable looking matrix which is keeping them from moving any farther.

It seems that very clever Geokitteh Lola has recruited baby Baxter to assist with her Geokitteh research-- most excellent!  

Lola Shows Soft-Sediment Deformation

Fellow geoblogger Callan Bentley's cat Lola demonstrates how ball and pillow structures form in sediment-cat-ary strata:

Lola takes a nap demonstrates geology.

Lola's demonstration, annotated by Callan.

Laccolith Kitteh #2

Another laccatlith?

Alane and Eric's cat Mr. Squirmy seems interested in forming catrusions. Like fellow Geokitteh Tiger, Mr. Squirmy seems particularly interested in laccoliths.

Laser Ablation Kitteh #2

My friend Kathy's cat Bramble also has laser ablation eyes:

Bramble likes to ablate minerals for Argon-Argon dating.

I think the "laser ablation eyes" phenomenon explains why so many geokittehs gravitate towards geochemistry and geochronology research.