Welcome to my tectonics blog. I'm a geologist that has mapped and researched Appalachian tectonics and groundwater resources for over three decades.  I am blogging about my observations and interpretations of natural phenomenon that I marvel at and interpret with respect to the structural geological setting. Sometimes these interpretations differ from currently accepted tectonic theory.

We are in a formative stage of understanding most tectonic processes on terrestrial planets. At the coincident onset of the digital age and my career, we didn't have the perspectives that the subsequent technological bloom has afforded us. Modern computing methods and remote sensing innovations now provide the tools to solve old problems in new ways.  But the pace of technological growth and data procurement is outpacing the rate at which our scientific paradigms evolve. A major hurdle facing modern breakthroughs in understanding hidden tectonic processes is the leap to include punctuated, extraterrestrial and catastrophic agents into tectonic theory, now guided solely by uniformitarianism. I suppose periodic bombardment of Earth by bolides is a somewhat uniform temporal process, but the tectonic strain responses stemming from them are variable and subject to tectonic inheritance.

This blog exploits the global connectivity that we currently have with the internet to point out some major aspects of plate-tectonics on both Earth and Mars stemming from catastrophic events that are missing in current plate-tectonic theory.  I try hard to be inclusive by referencing earlier efforts that I am aware of along similar lines. There will be mistakes, but I hope you enjoy and benefit from the content.

COMING SOON

The Early Miocene Nazca bolide-impact event and the Eastern Pacific swell

The Early Cretaceous Xingu bolide impact in the Brazilian Amazon basin

Prince William Sound, Alaska Late Miocene impact tectonics