Accretionary Wedge #35: Favorite Geology Words

As many of you know, I hosted the Accretionary Wedge Geoblog Carnival for June, and I asked What's Your Favorite Geology Word? Turns out, many of you have favorite geology words! Geologists-- like many scientists, I suppose-- are fond of their jargon. Personally, I'm so fond of jargon that I blog about a geology word every week. I love many geology words, but if I had to pick an absolute favorite, it's ophiolite.

Thanks so much to everyone who participated and shared a favorite geology word! The words are listed below, in the order in which they were posted. If I somehow missed your word, please let me know in the comments, and I'll add it.

Geology Word of the Week: A is for Accretionary Wedge

Illustration of a convergent plate boundary. I've added a red arrow pointing out the
location of the accretionary wedge. Illustration from TASA graphics and taken from here.
Click to view larger.

def. Accretionary Wedge (aka Accretionary Prism, Subduction Complex):
A wedge- or prism-shaped mass of sediments and rock fragments which has accumulated where a downgoing oceanic plate meets an overriding plate (either oceanic or continental) at a subduction zone. The sediment is generally marine sediment that has been scraped off of the downgoing plate by the overriding plate. However, sediment from the overriding plate can also contribute to the accretionary wedge. Fragments of rock from the colliding tectonic plates can also accumulate in an accretionary wedge.  The sedimentary rocks which form at accretionary wedges are deformed, faulted, poorly-sorted mixtures which are often referred to as "melange" (which means "mixture" in French).

Accretionary Wedge #35: What's Your Favorite Geology Word?

I'm hosting this month's Accretionary Wedge Geoblog Carnival here at Georneys. Since I write about a geology word every week (see the "Geology Word of the Week" tag on the sidebar or the post "A Geologist's Alphabet"), I thought it would be fitting to host an etymological Accretionary Wedge. This month's Accretionary Wedge is easy-- if you want you can post just a single word!

The theme for this month is:

What's your favorite geology word?

You can post just the word if you want. You can also add anything you want-- a definition, some pictures related to the word, a story about the word, a poem, a drawing. Anything at all!

I must warn you, though: if you post about a good word, I may use the word in a future Geology Word of the Week post!

To join the geoblog carnival, just write a post on your blog and then link to it in a comment below or in a comment over at the Accretionary Wedge site. If you don't have a blog, you should start one. If you don't want to start a blog, just type your word in a comment below. Please submit your entries by the 26th or thereabouts so that I can compile them by the end of the month. Happy blogging!

Finally, be sure to check out last month's Accretionary Wedge #34: Weird Geology.

Jebel Misht: Accretionary Wedge #32

I am participating in my first Accretionary Wedge- yay! For those of you who don't know, the Accretionary Wedge is a monthly "geology blog carnival" where geobloggers of all kinds are invited to blog on a theme.

I contemplated participating in the past two Accretionary Wedges, but I'm very busy with my thesis this winter. Therefore, I didn't quite have enough time and energy to bake something for Accretionary Wedge #30 or to write about something I was surprised to learn for Accretionary Wedge #31.  This month's Accretionary Wedge is easy, though! For Accretionary Wedge #32, I just have to post my favorite geology picture.

One of my favorite geology pictures (I have several- so difficult to chose!) is a picture of my favorite campsite ever. The picture below shows a makeshift campsite just off a road in northern Oman. The beautiful mountain in the background is Jebel Misht, one of several exotic limestones in the middle of the Samail Ophiolite. I was lucky enough to spend a few nights at this campsite in 2009 and 2010 as part of my PhD thesis fieldwork. One of my field sites, located near the small village of Al-Bana and close to the Misht campsite, has been named "Jebel Misht Travertine" by my research group.

Jebel Misht is a popular climbing destination. Making your way up the tall southeast cliff is not an easy task.  When a French team of climbers accomplished the first successful ascent of Jebel Misht in 1979, the Sultan of Oman arranged to have the climbers picked up by helicopter from the top of the mountain and whisked off to the palace for a celebration. Jebel Misht means "Comb Mountain" in Arabic. Indeed, the mountain's majestic cliff resembles a gigantic comb resting peacefully amidst the seafloor rocks of the ophiolite.

Jebel Misht campsite, Oman, January 2009.