The Catskill Geologist

Remember the ladies -June 3 papers

Robert Titus — Mon, 24 May 2010 22:13:28 +0000

Kaaterskill Clove, Harriet Cany Peale, 1858

Site where painting was done, 2010

Drainage problems at the Comeau

Robert Titus — Tue, 04 May 2010 16:20:29 +0000

: Slump blocks along the Saw Kill – see trees tipping over.

: Tall grass and spongy wet soils at Middle Meadow, next to the soccer field.

The top of the Comeau Hill is remarkaby wet and spongy. Tall grasses thrive. This, long ago, required the installation of a complex drainage system. Just south of the soccer field, where the waters drain, can be seen swampy land where trees have been “drowning” and dying (see below). Farther downhill, along the Saw Kill the water emerge and there slump blocks of soggy earth have been forming and sliding into the creek (above and above, right). Tilted trees give evidence of this instability. All this may be related to drainage system problems.

Summer 2010 – Visit to a drumlin field

Robert Titus — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 01:18:06 +0000

: Looking north at three drumlins

Just north of

: Looking north at drumlin from Rt. 20, ice moved right to left

: East end of drumlin, see symmetry.

Route 20 is a fine drumlin field.

Drumlins are Ice Age hills, deposited and shaped by moving glaciers. There are never just one of them; there are always many. Hundreds of them stretch east to west along Rt. 20. Read the summer issue of Kaatskill Life and then go out and visit this field.

May 6, 2010 – Glacial Lake Conesville

Robert Titus — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 01:00:29 +0000

: Bottom of Lake Conesville, looking west

: The old Richtmyer Tavern in the Manor Kill Valley

Conesville, in the Manor Kill Valley is an out of the way rural retreat, but it hides an Ice Age past. The broad flat valley marks the floor of an Ice Age lake. Learn about this and how it came to form in the May 6th issues of the Hudson-Catskill newspapers.

April 29, 2010 – The killer trees

Robert Titus — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:54:38 +0000

: Black shales on Rt. 209

The evolution of the trees got underway for real during the middle Devonian time, about 380 million years ago. Many of the earliest forests grew right here in the Catskills region. But the evolution of the trees was not an unblemished positive. Trees helped create deep soils which, when they eroded, provided excessive nutrients to the nearby seas. The result may have been an oxygen-depleted “poison sea.”

Read about it in the April 29th issues of the Hudson-Catskill newspapers.

April 22, 2010 – Top of the falls, bottom of the stream

Robert Titus — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:02:36 +0000

We are standing at the top of Kaaterskill Falls. The breath-taking scenery here has been attracting visiters for almost 200 years.

But there is another story here, one hidden in the rocks. Take a good look at the ledge at the top of the falls. It speaks to us of an ancient time. Learn about this hidden story in the Hudson Catskill papers on April 15th.

Thurs, April 8, 2010

Robert Titus — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:47:25 +0000

Take a good look at this outcropping of stratified rock. It is just the sort of rock exposure that all of us drive past every day.

But what stories lurk in these rocks, what can we learn when we turn a trained eye upon them? find out in the april 8th issues of the Hudson Catskill newspaper chain.

February, 2010 – The Wall of Manitou

Robert Titus — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:13:35 +0000

Earthquake at Port-Au-Prince, left – Earthquake faults of Caribbean, right

Robert Titus — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:49:07 +0000

Fossil” river channel along Rt. 145 in East Durham-Hudson Valley papers, Jan 14.

Robert Titus — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:46:49 +0000

“fossil” river channel as seen just on Rt. 145 just east of Hogans Motel in East Durham